towerofanimus | Afterparty [closed]

Entry tags:

Afterparty [closed]

Characters: Team Nolo
Setting: Around the dorms - backdated to the day after infiltration
Format: Whatever have you - other members of Team Dead, feel free to set up your own prompts in the comments.
Summary: Wake up after falling down an elevator/getting Jason-shanked/etc, go around and make sure your buddies are okay.
Warnings: what do you think three quarters of them are waking up from dead

[He comes to in bed and it's not so bad - an ache in his neck that's probably just as much psychological as anything. It's when he goes to reach up to rub it and he can't, and he tries again and he can't, and again...

He can't move. He can't move and the pain is coming again or worse they'll take his body from him again no no no

By five minutes he's starting to hyperventilate, his body reacting to the panic and still out of his control. By ten minutes, there's tears starting to build up, the kind born of complete helplessness and fear.

And there's still twenty minutes left.]

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[He'd debated going - it was his fault, after all - but eventually, Dark Pit decides to go check on Asch. He opens the door and peeks in, seeing Asch on the bed. He slips into the room and stands near his bed, before reaching out to gently brush away Asch's tears.]

[He knows that he wouldn't want to be caught like that. He sits down on the ground, back against the bed, and closes his eyes, waiting.]

[Sheba would be lying if she said she didn't feel guilty. She'd asked Asch to jump with her, after all - it was as much her fault as it was Dark Pit's. And having died more than a handful of times here, she knows how unpleasant the sleep paralysis can be. So she's on her way to his room, sparing a moment to cast mind read every now and then and see if anyone's thinking of anything useful -

There's a very familiar panic at the back of her mind as she near's Asch's room. Two and two make four, and she remembers the time they'd been modified, the promise she'd made to him immediately after -

She's running by the time she enters Asch's room, just moments after Dark Pit sits down. She crosses to Asch's bed and kneels at the side of it, sparing a small, grateful smile to Dark Pit for also being here before reaching for one of Asch's hands and closing her eyes. She reaches out to his mind with hers.

Asch. It's okay. I'm here - Dark Pit is, too. You're going to be okay.]

[There's someone there. He can't tell, his eyes still stuck shut - but then there's someone else, and hands in his, and when he recognizes Sheba then relief makes the world spin.

Someone who recognizes, someone who knows. Someone who isn't just going to sit back and leave him alone here.

If it were possible for him to wrap her in a hug, he would. It's written all over his mind and, slowly, his breathing stabilizes.

What happened, after I...?

The thought cut off with the feeling of cable-on-neck and a sharp crack.]

[He looks up at Sheba, not saying anything. He can't read minds, after all.]

[She winces as the thought is cut off and brings her free hand to her neck uneasily. I'm sorry about that...

Dark Pit not being able to read minds is easily fixed. The hand at her neck reaches out for one of his, and much like how she'd used her Psynergy to allow Felix to pick up on the things she was hearing, Dark Pit will be included in their connection. It should work both ways. He should be able to hear when Sheba speaks mentally, and should be able to do the same.

After you... after we jumped, most of us managed to make it out of the elevator shaft. We fell just far enough. We found Jason's labs, and... we found Jason, too.

She isn't sure how to describe what happened after that. It might be easiest to just show him, but she and Dark Pit only knew their side of what happened. And they'd promised not to tell what had happened near the end...]

[It doesn't take a genius to figure out what went down from there. There's a slight hitch at the thought of Jason, and Asch immediately tries moving again - still nothing.

Can't imagine he was very pleased about that. And knowing Jason, he'd taken his anger out on someone... But these two seem relatively okay, at least compared to his constant not-twitching.]

[Dark Pit carefully takes her hand in his, and closes his eyes.]

[Not really. He also didn't like it when we charged him.]

[There's a mental image - of Dark Pit's field of vision, picking Sheba up and putting her on his back and handing her his staff, then charging at Jason.]

[The recollection would make Sheba chuckle if she weren't so worried about Asch; as it is, it just brings a small smile to her face.

He really wasn't happy.

Thinking back on it allows Asch to see it from Sheba's perspective, too - on his shoulders she was a little higher up, and from her vantage point she could the retrieval units that Xion had cast Aero on, helplessly drifting in the air, but she couldn't see Xion, not while she was wearing the Stone Mask. There's Xion's voice - "Everybody go! Run!" - and then the flurry of movement, as Dark Pit runs with her on his back, the footsteps of the rest of the group while Jason is distracted, and their voices - "Where are you going?" "Luke! Let's go!" "...Got it! Right behind you, Ion!" "Smell ya later!" "Better luck next time!" "Odin, go!"

We all ended up splitting up.

There's more flashes of memory - the way the hallways had split off, seeing the others' backs briefly - Xion and Yu, Ion and Luke - before taking the last hallway, jumping off Dark Pit's back and running down the hall, and then the glamour switching off so they're all wireframes again, retrieval units right on their heels, the stairs, and then the library with its shelves of books and blood and gore, jumping and trying to knock the shelves down so the retrieval units can't pursue them -

She shakes her head and stops the flow of memory right there.

The two of us - She glances at Dark Pit here. Managed to make it out with some books from Jason's library. I'll show them to you later, if you want. I don't know what happened to the others yet, though...]

[He watches from their eyes and listens and sees. And -

You two are incredibly lucky.

There's no way they should have been able to escape. He's not so dumb as to ignore the way Sheba's memory is cut off, but he can press on that front later. There's obviously something she's hiding there, and no doubt she hears him thinking so.

If you didn't see the others after getting out, it's probably a safe bet that they're just waking up now, too.

Waking in their beds trapped like this... He would shudder if he could, but mostly manages to cut off the thought before a fresh wave of panic starts. He should send them to go check on the others, should go check once he can move himself, but...

It's entirely selfish, but he's afraid and he wants them to stay. Instead, he pointedly thinks about other things.

What kind of books?]

[I don't know. I can't exactly -

He cuts off the thought, looking - and feeling - a little embarrassed.

- I'm not good at reading, okay?]

[Lucky, right. But that's normal, I think. If I didn't have ridiculous luck, I probably would have died long before coming here.

It's a little morbid to think about, but it's the truth; no infant should have been able to survive the fall to Lalivero, she could have been killed while the soldiers abducted her to Tolbi, Babi could have killed her anytime, she could have died in the Suhalla, Saturos and Menardi could have burned her, she could have died while falling from the Lighthouse, could have died countless other times on her journey... If Asch and Dark Pit focus, they'll see some very brief flashes of some of Sheba's more frightening near-death experiences on Weyard, but she doesn't dwell on them and makes no effort to acknowledge them as anything more than things that happened once upon a time.

We'll go check on them once you can move again, Asch. All three of us can go together.

She remembers four months ago. There's no way she's going to suggest leaving him while he's trapped within his own mind like this, and even if he suggested it, she would most likely insist on staying, stubborn as she is.

One of them, I can't read at all. It's not in any kind of language I recognize. Another talks about nanomachines, and the last one is only partially translated, but from what I can read, it has to do with something called soul surgery. It kind of sounds like what Jason does, which makes sense... considering where I got them.

She hadn't slept much the night before, opting to read instead.

Don't worry about it. She grins at Dark Pit. I'm going to need help looking it over, so we can work on your reading while we're doing that. How's that sound?]

Edited (casually forgets the last bracket) 2013-08-13 05:08 (UTC)

[Nanomachines... Hmm. It's definitely interesting, although the one on soul surgery is moreso.

I'd like to take a look at them as well; it can't hurt, and maybe we'd be able to piece some things together.

For right now, though, he's still pretty stuck; his body is only just starting to respond, his breathing slowing down in the way that says he's intentionally counting his breaths, one two in one two out.

As soon as I can move, we'll go find them. But for right now, it's a silent commentary of "don't leave don't leave don't leave" that doesn't quite reach the surface layer of his thoughts.]

[Ion feels like no time at all has passed when he comes to in his bed. Within seconds, he's remembering the feeling of being dragged to his fate--being dragged on top of the friend he had watched die before the grabbed him by the head and...and...it didn't matter. It was done and he was back in his dorm, staring up at the offensive whiteness of his ceiling. And he can't move. He needs to see his friends.

He needs to apologize, even if he has no reason to apologize--he needs to. Ion needs something familiar, something right to his own private little world...even if that something is belittling himself. At least he knows he can do it. At least it makes him feel like he's doing something useful. As opposed to what?

Even before they had been without Glamour, what had Ion really done to help anyone? He couldn't even use the seventh fonon to heal the ones around him. He hadn't even been strong enough to run away when he had gotten cornered--couldn't even properly be a coward.

Long after Ion's able to move again, he doesn't. He simply curls up on his side and tucks his knees to his chest.

I'm so sorry, everyone, is all he can think.]

[Jonouchi was bounded by the sleep paralysis for sometime. It was never fun, it gave him more time to reflect on the events that occurred, which eventually led him to his death. It all happened so fast, but while it was happening, it had been one of the most painful experiences in his life. Both physically and emotionally.

There were many thoughts and many feelings about the infiltration he started with the others, but his priorities were with Ion because that was the person he was closest too. When the blonde came out his paralysis, he beelined to the Fon Master's room. He wasn't even certain Ion would be there because he blacked out so soon without knowing the fate of his friend. The friend he carried.

When he arrived he did see his friend there, on the bed, disengaged. Jonouchi paced over to the bed and kneeled beside it.]

Ion?

[He called, almost too softly. He had nearly choked on it.]

[The way Ion's body tenses is almost painful. He bites his lip--and while he wants to just turn back over so he can look at his friend, all he can see is the way he had been slumped over the wire, cut in half almost completely, and the way he had slipped down into the darkness of the rest of the shaft.

Still, it isn't fair to Jonouchi. It isn't fair to make him have to deal with emotions that he had had no conscious part in inspiring. He shouldn't have to worry.]

Jonouchi, I...

[Slowly, without looking up, Ion props himself up on his elbow. Slowly, he drags himself into a proper sitting position. And then, slowly, he turns to face his friend. He's smiling--but the smile on his face has never looked so broken, before, in its blatant falsehood.]

...I'm alright, see?

[Jonouchi waited patiently for Ion, as he shifted about before eventually sitting up. The silence between them was probably deafening.

His heart just broke apart when Ion had the gall to try and smile and say he was okay when they both knew that wasn't the case at all. A somber chuckle slipped from his vocals. Jonouchi didn't mean for it to happen, but he doubted Ion was okay.]

Don't lie. You're not--[...] You're not alright!

[No one from their team was alright. The blonde leaned forward and abruptly clung to the other. Holding him tightly, as if he wasn't going to let go.]

You can tell me you're sad. I'm your friend. Ion, you don't have to pretend!

[The statement--the action--it all startles Ion so badly that the smile is wiped clean from his face. For a long moment he just sits there, silent and still, expression stuck at stunned. Nobody had done this before. Nobody but Anise. It wasn't something he expected or really knew how to handle from anyone other than his Guardian.]

I...have to.

[The words form almost by themselves. Ion's body begins to shiver as he forces his tears to keep from falling--he can't let himself cry again, for the second month in a row.]

If I can't even do that much...

[As tense as his body is, it somehow seems to shrink and deflate within the cocoon formed by the blonde's arms.]

...what good am I for, at all?

[Jonouchi was practically in disbelief with what he was hearing. Many times, he's been told about the world where Ion and the others were from and many times he was often fascinated by it. But it wasn't until Ion spoke that Jonouchi felt like he was missing the big picture of the world almost half his team was from.

He was more intent on not letting the other go, not any time soon. He gritted his teeth momentarily before speaking.]

You're good for a lot of things. All the memories I have with you, all of your time spent here. That means something to your friends here. You don't have to carry the weight by yourself anymore. We're here for you. I'm here for you.

Don't you understand? I can't replace you if I lose you.

[Ohh Yuugi!! How was he going to save the friend that changed his life. That empty void with out Yuugi could never be filled. It was physically painful for him to admit that. Jounouchi started to crack, Ion's back would dampen with tears.]

Edited 2013-08-10 09:01 (UTC)

[Can't be replaced.

The words bounce around and echo in his brain and they hurt because it's something he's always wanted to hear and feel but he isn't sure he deserves them. His thoughts spill out like water from a cracked vase and he can't stop them just like he can't stop his tears from falling anymore.]

I don't understand.[This isn't something he want's Jonouchi to know or to hear but he needs to say it. He can't help himself.] I can't because I have so many replacements.

[And he was one, in the end. Just a replacement. No matter how unique he tried to wish himself. He didn't even have his own name. He had never even had a life outside of Daath until he met Luke. And why should this place be any different? They had already replaced his replicated body with something even more inhuman.

That's when Ion realizes that he wasn't the only one crying. Everything slows down as he beings to truly processes the situation he's in.]

Jonouchi...I'm sorry. [He hugs his friend back, finally, guilt filling him up and cutting his self-pity and his disgust short.] I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...to hurt you.

[Jonouchi continued to not believe Ion could simply be replaced if he were to perish. It really wasn't something he wanted to hear and no level of explaining would convince him to believe otherwise. He pulled away from Ion, not to give them distance, but because Ion needs to see his face for what's about to come. The blonde rubbed away his tears with the skin of his forearm before setting his hands on Ion's shoulders.]

Ion, no one can replace you. Replacements can't replace you. All of those memories we have together. They're special to us. All of the memories with your friends are special to you. No replacement can ever relive the feelings and memories you're having right now. Do you hear me, Ion? No one! Not even them!

[Jonouchi removed his hands and turned to the side.]

No other Ion will share the feelings we've had together, and don't think for a second one ever could!

You're not replaceable

[He made eye contact.]

If you say you are I swear I'm going to punch you.

[Ion's expression can only be described as torn--split in half between what he's been taught to believe since his inception and what he wants to believe right now. Those earnest, heartwarming words should make him so happy, and Ion only wishes he was really in a place to be able to communicate to Jonouchi how much they truly mean to him.

The best thing he can do now, although he can't find the strength to agree, or truly accept them, is to bring back his smile. This time, it's not so broken. Ion looks at the empty spaces on his shoulders where his friend's hands were just moments ago and then wipes the tears from his face. He takes in a slow breath, then lets it out shakily.]

...Thank you.

[Regardless of how Ion felt about himself, he had to admit that he was nothing short of blessed to have made such wonderful, kind friends.]

I wasn't the only one to die right?

[He knows that Asch guy did too, and it was such a risky gamble. There had to been more causalities, as much as he wanted to deny it.]

What happened?

[Ion shakes his head. Once again, he seems to deflate thinking about it...but this time it's not out of self-pity.]

Neither you nor Asch were able to make it out of the elevator shaft. [His face twists uncomfortably.] Several of us almost suffered similar fates.

[He can still remember the cord cutting into him, cutting off his breathing. He can still remember everyone's screams as bodies fell and crashed into them. Jonouchi's body.] We were lucky that way.

[Ion pauses before he continues.] We made it into one of the doors along the side of the shaft. After a few moments we were able to regroup but...[His voice falters, hardens.]...that's when we ran into Jason.

Edited 2013-08-14 19:11 (UTC)

And what happened after that?

[He was pissed he ended there, and he was even more upset he couldn't be there with Ion.]

Edited 2013-08-15 01:21 (UTC)

There were three hallways. [Ion sighs.] Sheba and Dark Pit and Xion all worked to cause a diversion...and then we ran. I went with Luke down one of the hallways.

[He manages to smile, though it's a sad smile. One that barely masks the self-loathing in his eyes.]

I'm not very good at running, so I was caught and killed fairly quickly.

Damn it! [That was frustrating to here. After all of that and this is what it comes to! Ion even died. This was not what he wanted here, but he needed to know.]

There has to be another way.

Edited 2013-08-15 07:53 (UTC)

I don't know what happened to the others. [He was worried, and wanted to make sure that there were okay now, as soon as he could. But more than that, he was feeling guilty and ashamed. He agreed with Jonouchi, that there had to have been some other way to better approach this. However...]

I'm weak. [He says it quietly, as if on accident, but firmly. It's not a statement that he intends to have argued.] I wanted to help, but in the end...I didn't. I couldn't even run.

[It was pathetic. And it only served to remind him that, even if what Jonouchi said was true and he wasn't something that could be replaced, that didn't make him any less of a burden.] And despite that, I still want to help. But maybe...I shouldn't. I want less to drag down those that are capable of making a difference.

[Oh goddamn it, he didn't realize how much Ion had actually been hurting inside until now. Usually he wasn't so persistent to pry from people if they didn't want to talk about, but things were different now. They had more to worry about and a lot more to lose. Maybe he should pry from Ion.]

Ion, don't be stupid! [And Jonouchi was quite stern about it.] So maybe you aren't athletic and you can't help in a way others can. It sure as hell doesn't make you a burden!

[The blonde folded his arms over his chest, reading serious vibes.] Just like you're your own person. You can help in ways other people can't. Not once have I ever considered you a burden. Your help is wanted.

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Afterparty [closed]

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Meanwhile in Room 1-16

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