Infighting Week One

[animusmods]

Characters: any character participating in the Infighting event
Setting: pods, week one of the event
Format: any
Summary: All week one Infighting event threads should go in here, to keep things organized.
Warnings: horror, trauma, experiment results, impossible geometry, cabin fever

[Group Information]
Dax's Pod
Riki's Pod
Jason's Pod
End of Week One

Comments

[mutab1e]

...

[Yeah, he's not particularly Ok with it, either. This reflects in his voice.]

They may have come from the third group, since it wasn't yours and it wasn't mine. Do you recognize any of the mutated ones as part of your pod? If you don't, then it couldn't have been randomized. The groups were not that big.

[restitchtime]

I took a headcount the first day; poor fucker's aren't any of mine. [she crosses her arms, anger rising a little in her voice. the idea of an entire group of people forced to endure whatever had made them that way made her blood boil.]

Christ, what they fuck are they playing at? Do they really think that shit's going to get them anywhere?

[mutab1e]

It's the 'best approach' for managing the Tower. If that group should win, we'll all be subjected to that...

[Even geometric mockery can be acclimated to. But that? No.]

[restitchtime]

[she's silent for a moment, nails digging into her palms as she clenches her fists together. then suddenly Rose turns to Equius, hand outstretched and expression deadly serious.]

Right, promise time. No matter what we have to do, that group doesn't win. I don't care if we have to get everyone else to gang up on those fuckers and bust heads, they don't get close to the finish line.

[mutab1e]

Yes.

[And he takes it, not even shaking or anything.]

you mean that equius wasn't just staring at rose's hand and agreeing?

[restitchtime]

[the shake is firm, and Rose squeezes his hand once before letting go. she's going to trust you, bro. don't let her down.]

Let's hope we can wrap this up pretty quickly.

SSSSHHHH

[mutab1e]

[if it makes you feel any better that's what he'd do with almost anyone else]

[Oh wow yeah that is a... firm grip. Christ. Ouch.]

I would rather finish it correctly.

DO YOU THINK THEY LET A LOWBLOOD SHAKE PEOPLE'S HANDS

[restitchtime]

[but really she's touched in that one tiny corner of her heart that isn't icy and cracked.

damn right it's a firm grip. it's an Angry Strider Kid Grip, after all.]

You make it sound like we can't do both.

OH NO PLEASE, DO NOT MAKE HIM TOUCH YOUR HEMOSPECTRUM-NEUTRAL SKIN, HE IS NOT WORTHY

[mutab1e]

Hm.

Then... I suppose we'll do both.

[This is bizarrely, terribly exciting.]

[...What is this feeling. He doesn't trust it at all.]

SOB I'M TOO TIRED FOR THESE BEAUTIFUL REFERENCES

[restitchtime]

[you feel that, Equius? that is the empowering feeling of flipping destiny the bird.

it's awesome. get used to it.]

Damn straight we will. They won't know what hit them.

SSSSHHHH, ONLY YOUTH REBELLION NOW.

[mutab1e]

[Flipping off... destiny? Destiny? Can you even do that, is that even legal?]

[...Knowing Rose, no. But he's pretty sure that in some places, doing what the administration did to these people was also not legal.]

...We need to find some way to ensure that your team wins, since it seems like you have the best lot out of the three. So I suppose, keep your people, um... doing things.

WORKING PEOPLE OF THE TOWER UNITE! DOWN WITH THE OPPRESSIVE REGIME!!1!

[restitchtime]

[few things that Rose does are legal, but all of them are rooted in an unacknowledged but very passionate moral conscience and sympathy for other people. she doesn't talk about it.

she tilts her head a little at the statement, voice becoming sardonic for a moment.]

Yeah, that was kind of the plan I had already. We're not going to let up on our end, so you're probably better off trying to keep yourselves above Dr. Sociopath and his group over there. Better to just vote for my set during a tiebreaker than risk him jumping over us both, you know?

HUZZAH!!!!

[mutab1e]

Yes, of course.

[He looks over at a cluster of them again, frowning. They were in such bad shape, but assuming Ruana gave them the right information, it seemed as if their team was in the lead... probably because they were being forced to, but...]

Another possibility is that, um, my group will win, though... it wouldn't be bad, per se, but... yours would be better.

I wish there was some way we could view the points exactly.

[restitchtime]

Long as my organs stay on the right side of my skin I can deal with any shit this place throws at me.

[Rose is not going to give the Tower the satisfaction of breaking.]

Maybe somebody'll want to lord their score over everyone else and throw up a comparison. Until then we'll just have to wing it.

[mutab1e]

...Wing it?

[YEAH HE... doesn't really like winging it. Like, at all. There's a pretty pathetic expression on his face right now.]

[restitchtime]

Yes, wing it. [she gives him a long, stern glare down her sunglasses] If you really don't want to end up with a lifetime strapped to the operating table you're going to have to stop freaking the fuck out about spontaneity and put aside your fetish for being oppressed for a little while.

[mutab1e]

[And he promptly withers under her glare. Oh God, he can feel it.]

[...But after a few seconds of this, his only partially catastrophic run-in with the Other Equius rings in his mind. Speak strongly, he had been told. Right. That was what he was going to do. He pulls himself out of the shrinking violet position and takes a breath before speaking.]

Fine.

[restitchtime]

Good. [she reaches out and claps him on the back, that action and the cessation of her OPTIC BLAST the only indication that she's pleased.]

I promise it won't kill you.

[mutab1e]

[Surprisingly, he doesn't flinch when she touches him this time. But it seems Rose doesn't know her own strength -- that, or Equius has gotten even more remarkably WEAK in the time he's been unscrewing his head in the pods, because he kind of staggers when she pushes him. But yeah, he recovers, and returns to looking down at her.]

Um, Rose... everything in this tower kills you.

[restitchtime]

[does she care? not really. Rose actually finds it a littler funny, although she manages to keep that to herself.]

Good thing that this isn't something that originated in the tower then, huh?

[mutab1e]

[Don't worry Rose, laugh your ass off. He's amusing. Instead, he looks around at the common room.]

Does this count as part of the tower?

[restitchtime]

Not enough to kill you.

[this is said firmly. Rose actually doesn't know whether it does for sure, but she has no problem kicking it into submission if she's wrong.]

[mutab1e]

For now.

[Rose, you're great and all, but... yeah, they're not coming out of this alive.]

[restitchtime]

For good, asshole. [well not with that attitude you're not]

[mutab1e]

Sorry! Just... being realistic...

[Apparently Rose is not a fan.]