towerofanimus | [closed] Karma is a cruel mistress

~~WOW RUDE, BOTH OF YOU.~~

It's not until the last time that Rose slaps him that John finally begins to stir. And by stir, I mean he swats at her arm and mumbles an irritated something that sounds suspiciously like "Trying t' sleep, here..."

Wait...hold on is he sitting up? Why is he sleeping sitting up, that's stupid.

...better question. When did he even fall asleep?

His eyes snap open and he sits bolt upright, head spinning wildly as he determines his surroundings. Library, okay cool, totally not where he remembers being last. And oh hey there's Ro-- DEAR GOD.

"Oh shit..."

He'd heard from Kidou what happens when you die without enough candy. He really, really should have seen this coming...

"He gets plenty of beauty rest. Trust me." One more slap oh, he was already waking up. Sorry about that. "There we go!" Now that the two of them were awake, she was going to step back and away from them. "I thought you two would never wake up."

Unfortunately, Jade had gotten no such memo. Sure, she had seen people get all screwed up looking, but she hadn't quite connected the dots it was from not collecting enough candy, or that had, even happened to Rose at all. Oops.

"Welcome to the world of the living, my ghostly brethren." And she gestured at...nothing, in particular, because they were kind of the only ones here right now.

"So when's brunch?"

Something bad was probably happened? Yeah sure, but that didn't mean she wasn't hungry when she just woke up.

"Jade, now is really not the time..."

His eyes start roving the room, looking for clues as to just what they're dealing with here. If Kidou had been dressed as a vampire and come back as the real deal, then it stood to reason that the same thing would happen to Rose.

Too bad her costume held a slightly more sinister meaning. And here John had spent all week thinking it was cool and secretly being jealous that HE wasn't the one who wound up in the Billy outfit. Though let's face it...it's probably a good thing it was Rose instead of him.

When he fails to see anything resembling a death trap in front of him, he spins around in his chair, the clinking of the chain around his neck drawing his attention upward. He can't help but smirk a little as he catches sight of the box.

"Ah, thought so." He turns to Rose, a slightly bemused expression on his face. "Let me guess, pulley system?"

"Pulley system is exactly right." Her top lips pull back in a smile, even if it probably doesn't look that...cheerful with the wooden bottom jaw. Starting a circle around them, she clasps her wooden hands behind her back. "Would you also like to answer why you're hooked up to said pulley system?" She stops in front of Jade, pointing to an object on the floor by their chairs.

"If you're hungry, you could always dig into that." It looks suspiciously like some sort of explosive, a variety of wires hooking up to it. "Typically you shouldn't be sent into something like this blind, but if you're so eager who am I to stop you?"

"It's always the time for brunch," She says to John despite probably never eating a proper Brunch in her life.

Jade glanced down at the massive assembly of wires (which was as far as she could discern), and immediately jumped up in her seat a bit, retracting her legs away from the...mess.

"You're fucking crazy if you think that's part of any kind of balanced diet."

Still snarking, but it was quickly growing obvious that she was starting to lose her nerve, because she was...pretty sure that Rose wasn't just kidding around...

Jade.

Jade, plz.

Stop and think about what you just said, it can't always be time for brunch. Brunch has to be between breakfast and lunch, otherwise it's just breakfast. Or just lunch. Or maybe even dinner. But there's really no time to get into semantics now, is there?

"Not only that, but why would we eat what is more than likely the key to getting out of this?" John gets out of his seat entirely, crouching down next to the explosive and examining it closer.

"But I will admit, I am curious as to why we are hooked up to this. I mean I like to think I understand the value of my own life, especially after all that's happened over the past few months. Doesn't make me a very good candidate for a Kramer contraption." He looks up over his glasses at Rose. "So the only answer I have is that you're doing this because you thought I would appreciate it. To which I saw: aww, Rose, you really didn't have to, now take the collars off and let's go find someone to help you out with those wooden appendages, huh?"

Yeah, he hasn't quite realized that Rose is completely off her rocker. After all, when he spoke to Kidou, the boy was still mostly in control of himself. He was working towards trying to try and control his vampire urges so that he wouldn't kill anybody else.

Unfortunately she has no intention of doing anything he asks, clacking her tongue in a tsking manner. "I'm sure you both value your lives dearly! But that really has nothing to do with why you're here. And no, it isn't doing something to impress you in anyway." Stepping away from them, she continues.

"No, no, you're here for a much different reason. One that's still important though! You see, I've been thinking a lot lately and I've come to the conclusion that you both clearly don't understand how important your friends are. Or I guess how important it is to stick by them."

"The fuck is a Kramer?"

Priorities!

Quickly redirected back to Rose though, as Jade just brings her leg up to sit more oddly on the chair while John gets up and about.

"Is this some elaborate way to make us watch My Little Pony or play nice with the other kids? Because I'm pretty sure the other kids stole my lunch money."

...

"But seriously, can we lose the lame-o fashion statement? Blah blah we all learned a valuable lesson let's not and say we did."

"...oh what the hell."

This is just too much right here, from both of these girls.

"First off, you," he turns to Jade, "I thought your brother was all about Saw, don't tell me you haven't at LEAST seen the first one." Or else you just can't be his friend anymore, Jade. That's blasphemy right there.

"And you," he turns back to Rose, "I know you did not just say what I think you did. Who spent the past week and a half practically glued to your side to make sure you had enough candy every day? Don't even get me started on the whale thing, Miss I-Thought-It-Would-Be-A-Good-Idea-To-Leave-My-Magic-Book-In-My-Room." He's clearly getting pretty pissed off at this point. Listing all this stuff off isn't helping.

"See Jade, that exact attitude is why you're here." She waves a hand to dismiss John's angry facts, walking around the two again. "Details, details. The fact is, I don't think you've truly learned that yet. You haven't really been faced with the kind of decisions we were at home to test your faith in friendship. So I'm giving you that opportunity now!" Rose stops in front of the two, hands once again behind her back.

"I watched it once on a snow day when I was seven. It sucked monkey balls." The conflict that broke a friendship.

At John's angry recount, Jade quirked an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Wait, is this about that crap with John blowing you guys up back in the medium? I gotta admit it was some fucked up shit--" sorry John-- "but come on, I thought we were over that already. And what the fuck am I here for, I wasn't even in your damn session."

Edited 2012-10-20 07:41 (UTC)

He just gives Jade a look.

Hell.

Naw.

Sis.

"You did not jus-- no. No not getting sidetracked by that right now, you're wrong and we will have a long talk about your taste in movies and how they're wrong once we get out of this."

This is what he takes offense to.

This. Not the fact that what he did back home was screwed up, but that Jade thinks Saw sucks monkey balls. Priorities, let John show you his. Though admittedly, this is mostly because he agrees with her. What he did was beyond messed up, he realizes that now and he's moved past it and is totally a better person now. That's what his shadow was for, right?

He stands up once again, arms folded over his chest. "Oddly enough, I was under that impression myself. What gives, Rose?"

Edited 2012-10-20 07:41 (UTC)

"You're still Jade Strider." That's close enough for her. "And besides, with the way you dismissed the value of friendship like that, you obviously need a lesson." Shrugging, she gestures to the bomb. "Do you guys really want to sit here and give me excuses while that is still functional? I would have assumed you'd rather learn the rules and save yourselves." And then she laughs. "Maybe you don't value your lives as much as I thought!"

"I'm sorry for the loss of your sensibilities," She says with a roll of her eyes. Because there is no way she is accepting Saw as top-notch cinema, sorry bro.

"So what, I'm your replacement goldfish Strider? Nice to feel the love, ya prick." Seriously, was it just her, or were all the purple-folks just acting like pricks at some point in their lives?"

Though she had to admit, Jade wasn't so enthused at the prospect of uh...dying, like this. Seriously ws that really a bomb--

"I'd rather stick my foot up your ass, as long as we're talking preferences. As you can see, we're both certified dumbasses and probably not going to learn any fundamental life lessons, so how 'bout you unhook us or at least give us the option to rip out our eardrums."

"Speak for yourself, I'm not a dumbass. I can totally solve this puzzle, whatever it is, and get us out of here before that pulley has the chance to go off and hang us both. Or the bomb, for that matter."

And he's back to relatively calm and cool again. After all, so far all being angry has done is get them sidetracked.

"So spill, what's our hint?"

"You simply need to solve that before it goes off." She gestures to the bomb and its mess of wires. "If you two can survive together, you can go. If either of you abandon each other, well...it'll reflect badly upon both of you."

Jade maneuvered awkwardly around the chain to look up at the weird pulley thing which she kind of hadn't realized was a pulley system. When she realized its function and then... gulped quietly to herself and turned her attention back to Rose.

"Whatever. Clearly you haven't come to appreciate the power of a Strider-Lalonde duo. We'll kick your puzzle's stupid ass and ditch this lesson by lunch time."

Ignoring the fact that she had no idea how you were supposed to solve a bomb. Defuse it or some bullshit? She was too busy momentarily flipping her shit and thinking that this was a stupid puzzle.

"Is that all?" John smirks and cracks his knuckles and rolls up his sleeves, squatting down in front of the bomb. "Piece of cake, like Jade said."

Best thing to do is just dive straight in, right? Rose, you really should have known better than to give John a puzzle. He's been preparing for this moment his entire life only not really. He just likes puzzles and is so desensitized to this sort of shit that he's not even fazed right now.

She just smiles, taking a seat a little ways away. "Good luck."

Damnit why was John being so chill about this this wasn't fair--

Alright, no time to lose the rest of whatever cool she had already thrown at the window here, Jade finally hopped up from the chair, walking over next to John and squatting down to look at the bomb.

She had no idea what the fuck she was looking.

"You wouldn't happen to be an ex-member of the Bomb Squad or played an appropriately-educating video game at some point, would you?"

"No, but if it's anything like the movies then we don't actually need to know how to diffuse a bomb, just how to solve a puzzle."

He's not actually touching the bomb yet, just looking it over for any sort of hint as to how the hell it works.

"Hmm..." He scratches his chin. After a minute or so, something seems to click. "Ah! See, this isn't a matter of cutting wires, it's a matter of connecting them. We have to figure out which wires out of this tangled jumble go into which port." He points to four small, round ports at the top of the bomb: one red, one blue, one purple, and one green.

"At least, that's the only way I can see this thing working. I am assuming there's some sort of pattern to it as well, otherwise it's nothing but plugging in wires until something works. And I certainly hope that isn't the case because with three wire thicknesses and eight colors, that gives us over 500 combinations and we have no idea if this thing is on a timer or not..."

Edited 2012-10-23 02:21 (UTC)

Jade peered over the top of her sunglasses to look at the colored points while she listened to John, as if that would actually help her visibility and not just ruin it more.

"Ain't there some kinda hint on the bomb itself or some shit like that? Usually this kinda stuff gives you some kind of starting place. And I don't think it's gonna be easy as connecting the red and the blue..."

She's looking around the bomb itself now, beyond the wires trying to...find, something. Given enough time she was sure John could figure it out on his own, but...fuck did they have a time limit or not?

"You would think, but I haven't noticed anything yet. Though maybe..." He picks the bomb up and looks underneath it, looking for some kind of hint. Not seeing anyhting, he slowly begins rotating it in his hands to get an even closer look that previously.

"Though it could be as easy as matching colors, for all we know. The wire thicknesses could be the key here. Though, more than likely it's a combination of both. Do you see anything I'm missing though?" He holds the bomb out to Jade like it ain't no thang. Here gurl, you want a closer look too?

It was only because John picked up first that Jade realized 'hey picking it up might be a bad idea?' But it didn't immediately explode on contact or anything, so when he offered it to her, she carefully took it from his hands and started turning it over herself. Trying as hard as she could to not accidentally shift something and set it off in their faces.

"Does Rose have any boner for color coordination? Maybe it has to do with fashion sense." Offhandedly wondering if her Rose knew anything about fashion, but this probably wasn't the time.

"Not seeing anything though. She want us to just guess like blind polar bears in a fucking snow storm?"

...Yeah her analogies start to make less sense when shit goes down.

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