towerofanimus | Infighting Week One

Infighting Week One

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Urotsuki is standing in the crowd - more or less looking frightened even with her usual blank and calm expression. It's not per se really the changed people, she's seen things like that enough in her dreams, but the thought that someone has to die, one of them.. She doesn't want to die, it's too scary, it's not like dying in her dreams and waking up. This is dying for real, as if forever going to a cold and lonely place.. But at the same time she doesn't want any of the people she's met, people from her team, to die either.

The moment she spots Tara walking by, a familiar person, she lets out a slightly helpless sound. Or rather, a sound that sounds like she's asking for help, even though there's clearly nothing to be helped about all of this. ]

[And Tara hears that sound, that wordless little cry, even through three people. She looks around, spots the girl, and...seems to sag, slightly, looking just as sad and lost.

Because Urotsuki might die, yes. Tara would never vote for her, but someone else might, she's so young, after all, and...it's not permanent, no, but it hurts]

Urotsuki...

[But, at that, Tara moves through the crowds with remarkably swiftness. And, when she's finally in arm's reach, she'll pull Urotsuki into a hug.]

I-It's okay. It's going to be okay...

[ The hug isn't something she really expected, so she lets out a slight noise of surprise, but it's little more than a squeak with the way she's feeling right now, so unsure, so--

.. But the hug itself is very welcome once it's there, so she immediately buries her face against the older girl. The comfort of another person so close by is always wanted for a girl who's lacked it most of the time, but this time it's only needed more, so she wordlessly clings for a few moments before she dares to pull her face back just enough to look up at her. ]

You.. really think it's going to be okay, Tara..?

Y-Yeah.

[And the strange thing, the thing tara realizes with a jolt, is that she does. Or, at the least, she's not entirely without hope. Not yet.]

S-See? We're, um, we're in the lead. It's, it's good if Dax wins. Things, um, s-stay the same, if he does. A-And, and besides...no one's going to vote for you. Nobody has a reason to. I won't. You've, y-you've been great this week.

So we'll go back soon, together, and, a-and it'll all be okay.

I.. won't vote for you either. [ There's no way she ever could. ] I don't want to vote for anyone, not when everyone's been so nice.. they shouldn't let one of those nice people die, right? That's not right.. But.. [ her voice softens a little. ] I don't want to die either..

S.. so.. if I'll just try extra hard next week, it'll be okay, right..?

You, y-you won't die, Urotsuki. Even if we lose again. But... [She's right. None of them should have to die. None of them deserve to die. No one made a fuss, everyone behaved themselves, the fact that they didn't have anything to endure shouldn't be held against them, but...]

...just, um, just try extra hard, next week. Whatever they want us to do, as long as you work really hard at it, w-we'll be okay. That way, um, Dax can win, a-and everyone else will be all right. It's, i-it isn't permanent, dying, so...you don't have to worry about them.

[The "punishment" of Riki and Jason's captives are quite out of their hands.]

.. All we have to do.. is win. [ She's repeating it to herself, maybe to comfort herself a little bit. It helps that she's being told all of this by Tara, really-- it means it's something she's being told by someone older, someone more reliable, so as long as she follows just that, it'll surely be alright. She said it'd be alright, right? So all she has to do is believe in that and do her best.. ]

I'll make sure we'll win. I'll fight the hardest for everyone's sake.. [ she nods a little at herself. ] .. for you too. Since.. we're a team.

...y-yeah. We're a team. [It says something that, due to that fact alone, this past week has done more for Tara's mental health than the last several months, here and at home.]

And, a-and teams don't, um, th-they don't betray their teammates. Doing this to someone, i-if they've don't deserve it, or haven't done anything wrong...th-that wouldn't be right. And, a-and if teams work together, and help each other, then they can win. Th-they can beat the bad guys.

That's, um, h-how it was, all the time, back home. So I, I-I kind of know what I'm talking about here. See?

[A shame that Tara had never really considered herself a part of that team.]

... Hmm.

[ She nods - almost just obediently the way a kid even younger than her might - and does look a little calmer by now, actually. ]

You know what you're talking about, so.. then it will really be alright. I won't betray my teammates, and I'll work extra hard, just like you say. And then we'll beat the bad guys, right?

And then we'll beat the bad guys. [Tara nods, letting herself - just for this moment - believe it.]

See? It's, it's just that easy.

Now, I heard from some of the others. They'll, th-they'll make you go into the voting booth, but you don't have to vote. You, y-you just have to wait a bit, a-and they'll let you out. Okay?

... That's all? [ The fact surprises her a little, since-- ] I thought they were all going to make us vote, but.. we don't have to if we don't want to..? We can just only go in there and not vote?

[Tara shakes her head, nodding towards the voting booths where people are starting to trickle out.] That's w-what they said, but...I, I guess, if you just w-wait long enough...I mean, they, th-they can't really force us, right? Especially the people in Jason's pod.

[What more could he do to them?]

[ The last words seem to strike something in her and she glances back to the crowd. ]

You mean the people who look different..?

...yeah. The...th-the people who, who look different. [Tara can barely stand to look at them, but she forces herself to. What's been done to them is nothing for them to be ashamed of.]

They're all from, um, the same pod.

W-We want to win, Urotsuki...but, I, I think we mostly want him to lose.

[ Those people from another pod, changed to look like that.. It's strange, thinking about how normal everything seems in their own pod. It's like the division between her waking life and her dream life, in a way. After staring at them for a moment she glances back to Tara. ]

.. Him? .. The person who.. did that to them?

Yeah. One of the, um, th-the people who run this place. Like ours'. Like...Dax. [She glances nervously up towards the screen. That was what Ruana had called him, wasn't it?]

They're the worst off. Of all of us.

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Infighting Week One

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