anyway, it's probably a great idea that sqx throws that arm because immediately a nasty clawed hand shoots out and grabs it, dragging it into the vents. there's the sound of disgusting, messy eating. hm.
when endorsi takes the umbrella, she feels like it's very important to someone.
but that passes quickly, because both her and medb zoom down the hallway. this door... is not locked, or jammed! in fact, it opens automatically as they approach. it opens to a large, mostly empty room, with a huge screen. the screen flickers on as they move into the room, showing a video of... well, the two of them approaching the pedestal in the middle of the room. it seems like a live feed, judging by the fact that they can see the other two girls in the background too.]
once the hand vanishes into the vents, sqx puts the vent cover back in place and then turns to aoi]
Come on, we have to move—
[she'll try to help her toward the door endorsi and medb are nyooming to! she's dizzy and concussed, though, so like. how much help can she really be.]
[Yikes!! Hurrying even faster into the room, though she's also Very Slow. The screen catches her attention, but once she sees it's a live feed, she's glancing around the rest of the room. Anything notable?
Messy eating bad. The live feed is bad. Who the fuck is watching them?
She watches to make sure SQX and Aoi make it through the door and for whatever happens to be in the vents, ready to book it back to run interference if whatever worse than furby monster comes out before the other two can make it into this empty room. ]
Hurry!
[ She knows that's easier said than done, though. ]
[up they go! off after endorsi and medb. it's fine. the eating noises are still going for now, but who knows how long that'll last.
the room is a big, white, empty room. their voices echo a little when they step in. a look over it is mostly just the screen, the pedestal, and a button on the wall next to the door.
there is a tag hanging from the pedastal. if endorsi gets close enough to it, she'll see it's a touch screen that reads RECALIBRATE? with two options, yes and no underneath. underneath that are four handprint indicators.]
[if they get far enough away from the door will it shut behind them?? god sqx hopes so.
anyway, she and aoi stagger into that big white empty room. she casts a glance around it, her head spinning, and her eyes land on the button on the wall by the door. she'll head there first? is it labeled? please let her lock the door.]
We don't know what that something is supposed to be.
[ DO THEY KNOW NO CAUTION? They need more information, even if she doesn't know how to get it. Medb is also sorely tempted to just go through with it, though.
Her eyes are on the live screen, waiting for that monster to come out. ]
[the door does not shut automatically. the button has no label!
down the hallway, the vent practically explodes as the monster kicks the vent across the hallway. it shatters, and the alien slithers out, low to the ground. its tail flicks back and forth like a cat's as it turns to look at the four of them. its beak is covered in blood and gore, and the one eye that endorsi had hit earlier is just missing entirely, leaving only half of a furby eye pair.
it shrieks, and starts to gallop down the hallway towards them.
i'm glad aoi and endorsi have no sense of self preservation whatsoever here. they put their hands on the panel, and they feel - dizzy. like earlier, in the conference room.
for a moment, they feel that exhaustion again. it doesn't matter. nothing matters. just sleep through the rest of this, just forget. you want to go home, and this, you think, is how it'll happen? you just have to make this choice. yes, or no. yes or no, and you might get to go home again. it's such a big decision. maybe you should think about it, maybe you should put it off.
she slams her good hand down on the button and then heads over to join medb as quickly as she can manage with her dizziness, provided she doesn't blow up on the spot or something. if medb puts her hand on the panel, she'll join her in doing so; if not, she'll try to get ready to fight the alien.]
[she brings her injured hand onto the pedestal to hold herself up, closing her eyes in pain as that contact jostles the space where her fingers used to be.
it's just yes or no, isn't it? she doesn't know why this is so hard, or why she's so tired suddenly, so exhausted at the prospect of having to make this choice. she looks at the two buttons, but she doesn't push one yet.]
[ Once again, it's and Aoi and Endorsi who suffer that exhaustion and dizziness first. If that's how they progressed in the conference room, is that what they should do here?
Medb looks from the monster to the panel and sighs. ]
I guess we ride or die!
[ Her hand goes onto the panel.
Fucking yolo. Even though they haven't picked an option yet. ]
[the door closes! or starts to, anyway. it's slow going, and the alien is fast as fuck. it skitters down the hallway, and throws itself through the door just in time for the door to shut on it. the thing makes that obnoxious battery dying sound again wriggling like crazy to try and get out of the door trap that it's in.
it isn't going to be very long before the thing gets out. it's thrashing like crazy, the metal doors squealing and squawking.
four out of four - they're all hit with that exhaustion, with a decision to make. the problem is, they don't have any information. they don't know what's coming next. it's foreign, this feeling, it's someone else standing here in indecision, thinking about leaving it for the others to decide. someone else can do it, right?
[because i'm an asshole, i've decided that the handprint fits the hand from sqx's broken arm, so she's just having to use her good arm to grip her wrist and keep it there. it's fine.
anyway, the dice have decided that despite the haze of indecision, she grits her teeth and grinds out - ]
Recalibrate it! Pick "yes"!
[...before that alien wriggles free and eats them hopefully]
[After a moment of hesitation - unless Medb moves to stop her, Endorsi moves to touch the option on the touchscreen that says yes, keeping her other hand on the handprint panel.]
all at once, you are changing. a horn bursts from your forehead, sharp and twisted. two more, on either side, curl out and then crumble to dust, grow again, and again. a tail winds around your ankle, the spade cutting into your skin; your back aches as bones crack and expand out from your shoulder blades, fluttering weakly. they twist, turn crystalline, and then holographic, rainbow, and then white, fluffy, angelic. your skin splits along your arms as pink and green eyes blink into existence, and you feel every one keenly. fire roars around your feet, burning and angry, extinguished immediately by freezing spiderweb veins that gather up and down your body. a splitting headache causes glittering black tears to drip down your face as a thorned, bony crown grows like vines from your skull. you bring your hands up as if to stop it from happening, only to find claws, your hands ruined, and --
it's so much. you didn't know what you were agreeing to, and you just have to suffer through, but that's not important - that isn't the point.
time unfreezes.
all four of them find themselves in that same room, as the monster shrieks and finally wriggles free of the doors.
their bodies are normal, not transformed. the alien drops to the floor, and slowly slinks over to them.
it's also the worst? it's absolutely the worst. shi qingxuan grits her teeth and struggles to stay upright, and as that alien slinks closer to them and purrs, she turns her head toward it with a horrified look on her face.
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aoi is uh... gonna scoot away from the vent a little. no thanks to whatever is in there. sorry arm. ]
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Let’s go, okay?
[Towards the door.]
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She grabs some of the supplies just in case she has to throw something. ]
It might be jammed, too, but it's better to look.
[ She runs over. Is it jammed like every other door in this place? ]
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anyway, it's probably a great idea that sqx throws that arm because immediately a nasty clawed hand shoots out and grabs it, dragging it into the vents. there's the sound of disgusting, messy eating. hm.
when endorsi takes the umbrella, she feels like it's very important to someone.
but that passes quickly, because both her and medb zoom down the hallway. this door... is not locked, or jammed! in fact, it opens automatically as they approach. it opens to a large, mostly empty room, with a huge screen. the screen flickers on as they move into the room, showing a video of... well, the two of them approaching the pedestal in the middle of the room. it seems like a live feed, judging by the fact that they can see the other two girls in the background too.]
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once the hand vanishes into the vents, sqx puts the vent cover back in place and then turns to aoi]
Come on, we have to move—
[she'll try to help her toward the door endorsi and medb are nyooming to! she's dizzy and concussed, though, so like. how much help can she really be.]
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[ eugh. aoi takes the help and makes her way to the door, too. they are mutually help?ing? each other. ]
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She'll approach the pedestal either way.]
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Messy eating bad. The live feed is bad. Who the fuck is watching them?
She watches to make sure SQX and Aoi make it through the door and for whatever happens to be in the vents, ready to book it back to run interference if whatever worse than furby monster comes out before the other two can make it into this empty room. ]
Hurry!
[ She knows that's easier said than done, though. ]
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the room is a big, white, empty room. their voices echo a little when they step in. a look over it is mostly just the screen, the pedestal, and a button on the wall next to the door.
there is a tag hanging from the pedastal. if endorsi gets close enough to it, she'll see it's a touch screen that reads RECALIBRATE? with two options, yes and no underneath. underneath that are four handprint indicators.]
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anyway, she and aoi stagger into that big white empty room. she casts a glance around it, her head spinning, and her eyes land on the button on the wall by the door. she'll head there first? is it labeled? please let her lock the door.]
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The last task was to recalibrate something, right? I think this is how we do it.
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[ DO THEY KNOW NO CAUTION? They need more information, even if she doesn't know how to get it. Medb is also sorely tempted to just go through with it, though.
Her eyes are on the live screen, waiting for that monster to come out. ]
Do you know what that button does, Qingxuan?
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down the hallway, the vent practically explodes as the monster kicks the vent across the hallway. it shatters, and the alien slithers out, low to the ground. its tail flicks back and forth like a cat's as it turns to look at the four of them. its beak is covered in blood and gore, and the one eye that endorsi had hit earlier is just missing entirely, leaving only half of a furby eye pair.
it shrieks, and starts to gallop down the hallway towards them.
i'm glad aoi and endorsi have no sense of self preservation whatsoever here. they put their hands on the panel, and they feel - dizzy. like earlier, in the conference room.
for a moment, they feel that exhaustion again. it doesn't matter. nothing matters. just sleep through the rest of this, just forget. you want to go home, and this, you think, is how it'll happen? you just have to make this choice. yes, or no. yes or no, and you might get to go home again. it's such a big decision. maybe you should think about it, maybe you should put it off.
it'll change everything.]
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[AAAAA, THAT FUCKING ALIEN
she slams her good hand down on the button and then heads over to join medb as quickly as she can manage with her dizziness, provided she doesn't blow up on the spot or something. if medb puts her hand on the panel, she'll join her in doing so; if not, she'll try to get ready to fight the alien.]
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uhhh good luck, us! ]
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it's just yes or no, isn't it? she doesn't know why this is so hard, or why she's so tired suddenly, so exhausted at the prospect of having to make this choice. she looks at the two buttons, but she doesn't push one yet.]
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Medb looks from the monster to the panel and sighs. ]
I guess we ride or die!
[ Her hand goes onto the panel.
Fucking yolo. Even though they haven't picked an option yet. ]
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it isn't going to be very long before the thing gets out. it's thrashing like crazy, the metal doors squealing and squawking.
four out of four - they're all hit with that exhaustion, with a decision to make. the problem is, they don't have any information. they don't know what's coming next. it's foreign, this feeling, it's someone else standing here in indecision, thinking about leaving it for the others to decide. someone else can do it, right?
yes, or no? recalibrate? is that what they want?]
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anyway, the dice have decided that despite the haze of indecision, she grits her teeth and grinds out - ]
Recalibrate it! Pick "yes"!
[...before that alien wriggles free and eats them hopefully]
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Please let this be the option for all of them being half-dead. ]
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time freezes.
and the pain is excruciating.
all at once, you are changing. a horn bursts from your forehead, sharp and twisted. two more, on either side, curl out and then crumble to dust, grow again, and again. a tail winds around your ankle, the spade cutting into your skin; your back aches as bones crack and expand out from your shoulder blades, fluttering weakly. they twist, turn crystalline, and then holographic, rainbow, and then white, fluffy, angelic. your skin splits along your arms as pink and green eyes blink into existence, and you feel every one keenly. fire roars around your feet, burning and angry, extinguished immediately by freezing spiderweb veins that gather up and down your body. a splitting headache causes glittering black tears to drip down your face as a thorned, bony crown grows like vines from your skull. you bring your hands up as if to stop it from happening, only to find claws, your hands ruined, and --
it's so much. you didn't know what you were agreeing to, and you just have to suffer through, but that's not important - that isn't the point.
time unfreezes.
all four of them find themselves in that same room, as the monster shrieks and finally wriggles free of the doors.
their bodies are normal, not transformed. the alien drops to the floor, and slowly slinks over to them.
it's... purring? it's purring.]
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this is unpleasantly familiar.
it's also the worst? it's absolutely the worst. shi qingxuan grits her teeth and struggles to stay upright, and as that alien slinks closer to them and purrs, she turns her head toward it with a horrified look on her face.
if it gets close enough she kicks at it.]
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