...Mineo said the door to the opium den is locked too...
[TOO MANY LOCKED DOORS.]
And Medb found spots of something red near the pool, but she couldn't tell if it was blood or... from the pool itself. ...I think the pool is full of blood, anyway, though.
[ hm, that's a... bad combination of things. he presses the elevator button with the, idk, towel-covered crescent end of his shovel as he turns that over. ]
I'm pretty sure it is full of blood, not that I've touched it to check. But that could mean that there might be evidence in the pool, come Saturday, so we're going to have to have someone willing to go into the pool to check.
[ grumble... he jabs the first floor button and turns to face the doors. ]
The thing you could really do to help is go back into the pod for the rest of the day, but I know you won't. At least humor me and don't go climbing into pools of blood or difficult terrain.
[ There's a beat of silence, as he stares ahead, watching the doors shut - and then he shifts, easing her down to her remaining leg with his arm around her waist. ]
I know you want to help. I know you want to be able to get justice for the people that have died this week, and the past weeks. But you're healing, and you're going to spread yourself too thin - you could burn yourself out.
[She tries to balance on her one leg, but - she's definitely still relying on him to help her stay upright, and she leans into him a little as she settles back down.]
...I'll... try to be careful not to. [...] I just, I feel like if I can help... then I should.
It's fine. You're doing what you can, and you've gotten a lot taken care of today.
[ He simply keeps his arm around her, letting her lean into him, but it does shift down a bit - he's getting ready to pick her up again, whether she notices or not, though it'll at least be nicer than being carried like a sack of potatoes. ]
[ A small, affirmative noise leaves him. He does - He Xuan has spent hundreds of years with her, and now, in this place... he said that he wouldn't get her out of trouble, but he's done nothing but it since they got here. ]
No, it wouldn't. It often doesn't. [ From, you know, experience that she knows now. ] But you're fresh off a trip to... wherever you went, and I imagine that alone got you quite a bit of information to share.
...it got... some. A lot of it, I still don't really understand. [...] Parts of it were...
[She keeps her gaze down on her ... foot. I was going to say feet, but she's only got one.]
Some parts of it were nearly identical to what I saw when I investigated the simulation room, or at least very similar. Others were... just meant to torment us, I think. I'm going to need to talk to the Avatars about it after the trial, once we can talk to them again.
He's quiet, waiting for the elevator to ding on their intended floor, before he ducks down a little and gets his arm underneath her. It lets him heft her up so that she can rest her arms around or on his shoulder, and gives her a perch on his arm as he straightens up.
He isn't a martial god, but he's at least fit enough to carry a woman smaller than him down the hall like this. ]
Let me know what you find out from them. It might tell us more about the situation we're in - we know so very little about those trips, and no one's been willing to spread the information more openly beyond those town halls we had briefly.
[She was honestly expecting to be yote into a pod, but she'll take going to the sleep bay, too.]
We woke in a bedroom on a space station. It was... sort of like this one, but not as elaborate. [It's a little easier to talk about it while being carried by him; it's probably because, for all the awkwardness between them, having him close is still a comfort to her.] We had notes with tasks to do on them. The door was jammed shut, so after we looked around the room, the only way to get out was to go through the vents.
...that's where we were attacked the first time - by a furry, demonic-looking creature with a beak. Endorsi and Medb were at the front, so they fought it off first.
[ He wants information, and she can't talk in a pod. Also, he still remembers her reaction to waking up in one after her execution day with HK-47 - so, you know, he cares. Maybe. Shut up.
WHY IS THIS JUST AN AMONG US CYOA I HATE IT ]
They're combatants, so I suppose that's a small mercy. [ A small adjustment is made, like he's giving her more support. ] But that was only the first time?
[She adjusts her hold on him when he adjusts his on hers, resting her head against his shoulder with a sigh.]
...we made it out of those vents without being attacked again and came out in a... conference room. There were eight bodies slumped over the table - four of them we couldn't see clearly at first, and four of them were people we recognized from here. Yuri, Harrow, White, and Childe.
[She hesitates for a moment, and then - ]
They looked... dead. But we found wires on them, and after we did, there were - wounds, that appeared on the backs of our necks. [Reminds her of the burn on the back of her neck from the sim room, honestly.] We had to put the wires into them, and when we did, their bodies vanished, and we were drained of our energy.
...the other bodies started to move, then. They were... I didn't recognize the other three, but... one of them was... it was you.
[ As he gets to his and White's room, he fishes out his phone - mostly so he doesn't have to rummage her belt or sleeves for hers - and taps them in, making sure the door slides fully open so they're not jostled as he listens. ]
... that fits a little too well with the experimental holding and life support rooms. [ To have lifeless seeming bodies, carbon copies of the people that you recognize, along with yourself, just - there. Seeing them in an even more foreign place where you are actively trying to survive is a bit much.
But he pauses, when she says one of the others was him. ]
[ he makes a noise as he heads to his part of the room, agreeing. no, he really doesn't like it that much, either.
but he likes this even less. it causes a few... conflicted feelings in him. he's sure that she's questioned whether he's wanted to kill her, in the past, or maybe if that's still in his plans despite what he told her about his goal for this place.
once? yes, absolutely. the thought has occurred to him so many times in the past 500-some years that he might as well have more than shi wudu's blood on his hands. but as he holds her close - sits on the edge of the bed while still holding her, instead of putting her down - he can't say with absolute confidence that it's something he's entertained in a little while now. ]
... you're here, now, so you obviously managed to get away. How?
[It would have been easy for his doppelganger to kill her then - as easy as it would have been for him to kill her over the past few centuries. Easier, perhaps, than it would be for him to kill her now.]
There was a... button, on the back of their necks. Medb came to help briefly, but Aoi was being stabbed, so she went to help her after she told me, and I... managed to hit it. You... the thing that looked like you... stopped moving.
[She reaches up and brushes her fingers very lightly over the back of his neck.]
...from there, we still had to go through the vents again to keep going. There still wasn't a door we could go through.
[ it feels like it was so long ago, now, watching her get thrown around by HK-47. longer, still, from when she was in chains in his prison, watching her brother prostrate before the urns of the dead. no, qingxuan is capable in her own right - but not as a fighter, not against something that only has killing intent.
when, in the hundreds of years, did that killing intent dull? ]
Buttons, the wire ports, your burn... [ too much of this is tying too uncomfortably well together. but he bows his head forward a little, to expose the back of his neck to her fingers, hair of his ponytail sweeping across her knuckles. ]
Did the paths of the vents make sense, or were you aimless and just following them? [ did they feel like they matched anything here, in the base. especially if they encountered a conference room... ]
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[TOO MANY LOCKED DOORS.]
And Medb found spots of something red near the pool, but she couldn't tell if it was blood or... from the pool itself. ...I think the pool is full of blood, anyway, though.
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I'm pretty sure it is full of blood, not that I've touched it to check. But that could mean that there might be evidence in the pool, come Saturday, so we're going to have to have someone willing to go into the pool to check.
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...I've been into it already, so I don't mind checking.
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jostles her, but it may or may not be for adjusting her on his shoulder as he steps into the elevator. who knows! ]
Your leg won't be fully back by the time Saturday's investigations roll around.
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...well, no, probably not, but... I want to help.
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The thing you could really do to help is go back into the pod for the rest of the day, but I know you won't. At least humor me and don't go climbing into pools of blood or difficult terrain.
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[well. okay.]
...sorry, He Xuan.
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I know you want to help. I know you want to be able to get justice for the people that have died this week, and the past weeks. But you're healing, and you're going to spread yourself too thin - you could burn yourself out.
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...I'll... try to be careful not to. [...] I just, I feel like if I can help... then I should.
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[ He simply keeps his arm around her, letting her lean into him, but it does shift down a bit - he's getting ready to pick her up again, whether she notices or not, though it'll at least be nicer than being carried like a sack of potatoes. ]
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[She does not, in fact, notice that he's preparing to pick her up again. She'll realize it when it happens.]
I just hope that "what I can" is... enough. [She looks down at her hands.] It doesn't always feel like it is.
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No, it wouldn't. It often doesn't. [ From, you know, experience that she knows now. ] But you're fresh off a trip to... wherever you went, and I imagine that alone got you quite a bit of information to share.
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[She keeps her gaze down on her ... foot. I was going to say feet, but she's only got one.]
Some parts of it were nearly identical to what I saw when I investigated the simulation room, or at least very similar. Others were... just meant to torment us, I think. I'm going to need to talk to the Avatars about it after the trial, once we can talk to them again.
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He's quiet, waiting for the elevator to ding on their intended floor, before he ducks down a little and gets his arm underneath her. It lets him heft her up so that she can rest her arms around or on his shoulder, and gives her a perch on his arm as he straightens up.
He isn't a martial god, but he's at least fit enough to carry a woman smaller than him down the hall like this. ]
Let me know what you find out from them. It might tell us more about the situation we're in - we know so very little about those trips, and no one's been willing to spread the information more openly beyond those town halls we had briefly.
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...I will.
[...]
Do you... should I wait to tell you what happened until I'm able to learn more about what it meant, or...?
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... what you can tell me, I'll listen to. Maybe we can parse something from it.
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We woke in a bedroom on a space station. It was... sort of like this one, but not as elaborate. [It's a little easier to talk about it while being carried by him; it's probably because, for all the awkwardness between them, having him close is still a comfort to her.] We had notes with tasks to do on them. The door was jammed shut, so after we looked around the room, the only way to get out was to go through the vents.
...that's where we were attacked the first time - by a furry, demonic-looking creature with a beak. Endorsi and Medb were at the front, so they fought it off first.
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WHY IS THIS JUST AN AMONG US CYOA I HATE IT ]
They're combatants, so I suppose that's a small mercy. [ A small adjustment is made, like he's giving her more support. ] But that was only the first time?
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...we made it out of those vents without being attacked again and came out in a... conference room. There were eight bodies slumped over the table - four of them we couldn't see clearly at first, and four of them were people we recognized from here. Yuri, Harrow, White, and Childe.
[She hesitates for a moment, and then - ]
They looked... dead. But we found wires on them, and after we did, there were - wounds, that appeared on the backs of our necks. [Reminds her of the burn on the back of her neck from the sim room, honestly.] We had to put the wires into them, and when we did, their bodies vanished, and we were drained of our energy.
...the other bodies started to move, then. They were... I didn't recognize the other three, but... one of them was... it was you.
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... that fits a little too well with the experimental holding and life support rooms. [ To have lifeless seeming bodies, carbon copies of the people that you recognize, along with yourself, just - there. Seeing them in an even more foreign place where you are actively trying to survive is a bit much.
But he pauses, when she says one of the others was him. ]
Me?
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[A bit much, indeed.
But - more than that being a bit much, what happened next was arguably more, if the way she presses her face into his shoulder is any indication.]
...mmhm. I think - the others each recognized one of them. They were people we knew from home. [...] They tried to, um.
[...]
To kill us.
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but he likes this even less. it causes a few... conflicted feelings in him. he's sure that she's questioned whether he's wanted to kill her, in the past, or maybe if that's still in his plans despite what he told her about his goal for this place.
once? yes, absolutely. the thought has occurred to him so many times in the past 500-some years that he might as well have more than shi wudu's blood on his hands. but as he holds her close - sits on the edge of the bed while still holding her, instead of putting her down - he can't say with absolute confidence that it's something he's entertained in a little while now. ]
... you're here, now, so you obviously managed to get away. How?
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[It would have been easy for his doppelganger to kill her then - as easy as it would have been for him to kill her over the past few centuries. Easier, perhaps, than it would be for him to kill her now.]
There was a... button, on the back of their necks. Medb came to help briefly, but Aoi was being stabbed, so she went to help her after she told me, and I... managed to hit it. You... the thing that looked like you... stopped moving.
[She reaches up and brushes her fingers very lightly over the back of his neck.]
...from there, we still had to go through the vents again to keep going. There still wasn't a door we could go through.
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when, in the hundreds of years, did that killing intent dull? ]
Buttons, the wire ports, your burn... [ too much of this is tying too uncomfortably well together. but he bows his head forward a little, to expose the back of his neck to her fingers, hair of his ponytail sweeping across her knuckles. ]
Did the paths of the vents make sense, or were you aimless and just following them? [ did they feel like they matched anything here, in the base. especially if they encountered a conference room... ]
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