Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters and their new friends
Location: ???
Date: Morning 354, Morning and Day 355
Summary: A quiet morning and a confusing morning, or maybe they're both, or maybe they're neither.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Four OOC Post
Part Five OOC Post

Comments

A

[sharktrash]

[ And there's... a familiar figure. Squalo might be a little salty still about his perceived lack of help in hunting down the annoying guy, but he can't really stay mad right now. Flynn looks so small, so pathetic, he almost feels a sliver of guilt even if he never properly promised to look out for him. It's like high school all again. ]

[ He stops by the cell's opening, careful not to lean against any walls. Both his arms are bandaged, and the mechanical one looks like it's lost responsiveness. ]

Hey. Get up.

[ Sorry, he's still an asshole when he's showing sympathy. At least his voice's lower than usual, if not quite his equivalent of gentle. ]

[cahooted]

[He feels pathetic, too, horribly so, part of him knowing that he is supposed to pull himself together. Some Librarian he is, on the ground crying to himself just because of some blood and trauma and people biting him and humiliating him and horrifying images burning themselves into his mind, honestly.

But somehow the tears won't stop coming, the shock too recent and his thoughts all over the place.

When Squalo addresses him he looks up, then immediately away again, rubbing at his eyes.]

W-what do you want?

[sharktrash]

[ Okay that does kind of sound bad when listed out like that... but buddy, there's folks missing body parts over there. You're not like most of them, Flynn, as long as you can still think you can be useful, with limbs or not. ]

I want us to get out of here. Come on.

[ He actually doesn't nudge Flynn with a foot this time. Maybe he's letting him come together at his own pace, maybe he just doesn't want to make that extra movement. ]

Can you move?

[cahooted]

I think so.

[He rubs at his eyes again and slowly pushes himself up with his good arm.]

Are they... gone?

[sharktrash]

[ There we go. Now we're getting somewhere. ]

I doubt it. [ ever the optimist, Squalo ] If you mean the ones with the lines, they're back to normal. Ish. Something's messing with their heads.

[ There's a bit of a hiss in that last sentence. Don't mind it. ]

There's an exit. Electronic lock. Any fancy tips for that?

[cahooted]

[Well, that's great, that makes him feel so much better and eager to leave this room.

... Well, okay, in a way it does because he suddenly doesn't want to wait around for them to come back.]

Obviously. I mean, rationally-obviously, something is clearly wrong with them, the question is what and what caused it and-- and if we can do anything about it, I don't know.

A lock? I don't...

[He shakes his head.] I have to see it.

[sharktrash]

Hey. Guess you weren't as far off last time as you thought.

[ Nothing like the smell of justifying STEALING PIECES OF PEOPLE'S SOULS in the morning. ]

So let's see it. Beats you moping around on the goddamn floor.

[ in his own way, he's trying to be supportive! ish ]

[cahooted]

[Flynn's face immediately falls with surprise, then guilt, then shame at how quickly he jumped back into investigative-fixing-mode. Then again, nearly getting torn asunder might do that to you.]

That... doesn't make it right.

[But he follows along, to the lock, because what else is there to do?]

[sharktrash]

[ Good. It's a lot easier to see him out and about than crying on the floor - and it also suggests the injuries might not have been as bad as it looked. Not that it's a relief or anything because he is not invested. ]

No, but sometimes that makes it necessary.

[cahooted]

[They're not; as soon as he finds his footing he's surprisingly stable. His arm is a mess but apart from that it's mainly psychological; the shock he hasn't quite worked through making him a bit frantic and wobbly on his feet.]

They might be unrelated.

[It sounds weak and unconvinced, even to his own ears.]

[sharktrash]

[ JUST GIVING HIM A LOOK. ]

That's bullshit and you know it. Everything's about the marks right now. It has been since they showed up.

[cahooted]

And what am I supposed to do with that? Pat myself on the shoulder? Yell 'I told you so' into the cells so they can rip my limbs from my body the next time!?

[Do you prefer sudden anger to crying on the floor, too, because they're getting there.]

[sharktrash]

[ he definitely prefers it, why are you even asking ]

No. You could stop feeling fucking guilty and focus on the now. Don't tell them more than you have to and don't needlessly antagonize until we know what the fuck happened. [ says the guy who just tried to literally bite someone's throat out like nbd. ]

[cahooted]

I should not antagonize them?

[Angry flailing.]

They started it! I am very antagonized already!

[sharktrash]

Yeah, and I'm personally allowing you to repay the favor as much as you want once we're sure we're not going back on the chain. It's always worse to be tortured by someone who's angry.

[cahooted]

[Okay, that

that is a very good point.

Not that he'll admit it. Maybe implicitly. Maybe via his follow-up question.]

You think it's gonna happen again?

[sharktrash]

[ glad you agree. ]

I think there's a good chance, if we don't get the fuck out of here soon. You feel in a better shape to fight back than before?

[ rethorical question really ]

[cahooted]

[...]

I don't know, do we let crushing despair and rising panic count?

[sharktrash]

Sure, if broken limbs ain't enough for you.

[cahooted]

Great pep talk.

[In a way, it is.]

Fine, where's that door?

[sharktrash]

[ Just gives him a wry smirk. ]

End of hall.

[ And he starts walking, not that one really needs to show the way in a straight line, but he has suspicions Flynn might stop to be horrified at the state of some others in the cells otherwise. ]

[cahooted]

[Good thinking. It might, and probably will, happen but for now he follows along.

Really eager to get out of here. Go figure.]

wrap? idk what else to do with this

[sharktrash]

[ and so they were going to spend however much time studying the door and trying to get/yell it open, probably. fun times. ]

[ still better than moping on the floor though. ]