un: c.gorgon 11/1

[radnarok]

[ Early Monday evening, a series of posts go up on the network. ]

@ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell

where are you? i don't understand this letter. if I wasn't supposed to read it yet, im sorry.

[ Twenty minutes later... ]

@ s.meanswell i think you forgot to come back and destroy it. you said you'd do that. hello hello. can you please respond?

...daisies don't even grow at this school steeephanie. i'm not making you a grave. its not funny. im not laughing.

[ Ten minutes later... ]

@ s.meanswell @ s.meanswell im reading the letter again. i don't like it. you need to explain it to me or im not going to shut up! why are you talking about your life like this? one persons life for another...you don't need to save anyone! i'm fine! ishimaru is fine! nene...noah... hiro... blah blah blah i don't care! who cares if everyones murdering eachother. thats not our problem!

i dont want a happy ending. i don't like endings at all. i don't know how to deal with them. so where are you?

Comments

[sportadork]

[there's a very brief moment where the sentence "stephanie talks about you a lot" just scares the absolute shit out of him, but, it passes. clearly, he must live up to whatever sky-high expectations she has set for him, in her well-meaning way. no pressure.

he places his fists on his hips.] I am Sportacus!

... [the grin falters into something a bit apologetic.] I am sorry, but I am a little... [waves hand vaguely] But! That does not matter. I must find Stephanie.

[silentabyss]

[Someone else tell Mr. Sport here about where they are, Noah doesn't have the energy to explain.]

W-we're... looking for Stephanie now. We thought she was in here... she left some really ominous note. [Tugs Crona's sleeve like, show him. Show him the note.]

[radnarok]

You aren't going anywhere. Stephanie was here, and now she's gone, so you have to stay here until we get her back.

[ It's a rare moment when Crona does not sound like a mewling child. They stare at Sportacus with an intensity their frail body seems to shudder to try and contain. He's here, and Steph isn't. They're dumb, but its not hard to figure out. They read that letter loads of times. ]

Are you worth her life, stupid ugly guy? Would she die for you?

[ They look over at where Noah has tugged their sleeve...and pull something folded out of their pocket, but don't show it to Sportacus...yet. Answer their question first. ]

[sportadork]

... [when the voice had called for him in his sleep, he'd thought it was just the crystal. all the children had called for him in the night, at times, though never with... urgency. desperation. like she needed him for something worse than a nightmare.

... this is serious, isn't it.

the grin is gone. when he jumps from his perch, it's with no flourishes. he stands before Crona, and simply puts his hand forward.]

Let me see it. Please. [he can keep calm. serious doesn't mean. it doesn't. it can't.]

[radnarok]

Answer what I asked you, or I'm gonna rip it up.

[ There's a copy on the network, but he doesn't know that.]

[silentabyss]

[Sternly,]

Crona.

[Noah looks sharply to them. Shakes his head; it's not worth it.]

He's distressed, can't you see it? Just let him see the note.

[sportadork]

[a pause. he closes his eyes. takes a deep breath. opens them again.]

She is worth a million of me. [and that he can say with total confidence.

the second question... he wishes he could say no. but he thinks of the girl following at his heels on his patrols, her late nights sewing her own uniform, the mask she kept in her purse, how she mimicked his poses until they became her own...

and he can't. because of all the impossible things Stephanie thinks of him, there's one that's always true. and he cannot lie.]

... I hope she did not. [and that's the best he can do right now. he can only hope that's enough.]

[radnarok]

Shuuut up Noah.

[ Oh so Noah is allowed to be upset and kill people and throw huge tantrums in a clocktower and stab himself a bunch but if Crona is sad and wants to threaten this guy or punch somebody they can't?? Fine!!! They'll be super duper mature!!

They're really mad...and really sad. It's terrible. Why is this happening? They think they hate this guy more then they hated Noah when he killed Hyde, but if this is Stephanies friend, then they can't do anything. They don't know what to do. They don't want to like anyone right now. ]

Haha! Yeah. I agree. [ They hold the note up and out to Sportacus with a smile. ] Here. You can keep it. Welcome to a dumb school that makes you dead. I guess Stephanie is double dead, so you can be only a bit dead? Haha...

[sportadork]

[... okay actually how do you respond to any of that.]

... Thank you? [so much being pushed into the cobwebby corners of his brain because the Save Stephanie directive is overriding basically everything but remembering to breathe.

okay. note-reading time. "dear everyone," very nice start, very polite, very oh it goes so badly so quickly. oh, stephanie. where has she been... where has he been?

as he reads the note, his eyes dart around the bathroom as if seeing it for the first time, which... isn't he? because he's pretty sure he was a high school student looking to clean up a mess he found five minutes ago, when he was also a grown man sleeping in an airship, except apparently both at once, and oh how two years of exclusively dealing with Children Problems has left him very unprepared for whatever this is.

all of this translates outside of his brain to an absolute struggle of a face journey as he reads through this letter, and he looks up at the children feeling...]

... I believe I am lost. [which isn't a great thing to express to children in a scary situation. but, y'know. the can't lie thing.]

[silentabyss]

...yeah, welcome to purgatory.

[NOAH.]

I don't know how to explain this nicely, so I'm sorry. But this is some sort of purgatory, and we're all... dead. S-so... sorry. That means you and Stephanie, and...

...you know, everyone here. You must have just "woken up", huh.

[sportadork]

... Ah! It does feel like that! Like when you come out of a dream, and you do not know what was the dream and what was real. Very clever...

[taking being dead surprisingly well. does not even blink about it. this is mainly because of a chronic case of labrador retriever brain.]

But, if Stephanie was here, where is she now? She could not be in danger, or I would-- [he places a hand against his chest. then pauses.

ohhhhhhhhhhhh. no. oh that's bad. oh that's so bad. oh he's in so much trouble. this explains so much.

do not let the children see your fear, says the afi-sounding voice in his brain. so, he plasters on the appropriately disarming apologetic smile from before.]

I am very sorry for whatever has happened. I can promise you that I will do whatever it takes to see Stephanie safe again. You have my word as [almost unnoticeable pause] a hero.

[if that's what she needed him to be, that's what he will be.]

[moraloutrage]

[During this whole encounter, Ishimaru has also been doing his best to calm Crona, to little avail. It's a shocking sight, but he sees no reason to doubt this man. And he's sure that he's heard Stephanie speak of him before. Once he has a chance to speak, he steps forward.]

Well... well met, Sportacus-san. I am Kiyotaka Ishimaru. As you may be able to tell... we are all friends that Stephanie-kun has made in this school, and we are very worried about her. We would appreciate any help that you can lend us!

[A 'hero'... Ishimaru hopes that this means that he will be quite helpful!]

Considering that she said she was going to investigate a bathroom, it was quite surprising and puzzling to find you here instead! You do not remember... seeing her here, or anything about this bathroom that might have been out of the ordinary? I suggest that we check this area thoroughly before we move on!

[sportadork]

If only I could remember... [a strained laugh] I don't even remember finding that mop!

[he pauses, idly smoothing the end of his mustache in thought. really wracking that one brain cell for this one.]

I remember... Only her voice. She called to me.

[he decides to not mention the scream. it's probably not important.

... but, what might be important...]

The salt circle was not broken, when I woke up. I did that with the mop. [and just kind of hopes one of these kids knows enough about magic that he doesn't need to go into any more detail and perhaps prompt Questions He Doesn't Really Want Right Now.]

[silentabyss]

[Oh boy this is so exciting. Noah reaches into his bag and hands Sportacus a notebook and pencil.]

I know... next to nothing about magic circles or salt circles or whatever. If you could draw from memory what exactly the circle looked like before you broke it, my friend here [pats sickle-Clamor on the blade] could probably tell us what it would be used for.

[Now, Noah is assuming that the salt circle in question was like, not just a circle, that's how much jack shit he knows. And if it was just a circle with no fancy bits, well, he'll facepalm in a moment.]

[sportadork]

... [he gives him a very patient smile, draws something incredibly quickly, and then hands it back.

yeah it's just a circle. like a particularly poorly-drawn circle? but just a circle.]