Endgame: In This Last of Meeting Places

[animusmods]

Characters: Aria, Zo, open
Setting: floor 001 for now
Format: action brackets
Summary: Aria and Zo reappear quite suddenly.
Warnings: standard animus event warnings

Aria and Zo tumble out of the elevator more than they step out of it. They look worse for wear; Zo's covered in minor scrapes and bruises, and Aria'a left arm hangs at her side uselessly, bloody and mangled. As soon as they're on solid ground, Zo turns and forces the elevator doors shut without touching them, leaving the broken car lodged in place behind it, and Aria slides to the floor, gasping for breath. They're both on high alert even for all their exhaustion.

SPEAK TO ARIA
SPEAK TO ZO
ESCAPE
-FLOOR EIGHT

Comments

[seekinganswers]

[She looks to the left and purses her lips.]

We're going that way.

[...and Sheba points to the right - they probably should try and investigate whatever those sounds are, but right now she's got a kid with her and that means she has to look out for him.] ...unless you want to see what the noises are?

[averytinyparticle]

Uh...

[The look Quark gives Sheba in response is one that's obviously conflicted. On one hand...he doesn't really want to go out of their way to get into danger. But on the other...well, he's never been a particularly careful little boy.]

I-I dunno. Kinda, I guess...

[He looks ashamed.]

But we shouldn't, right?

[seekinganswers]

It'd probably be safer not to, but...

[...yeah, she's morbidly curious. She glances to the left, then to the right, then to the left again.]

...what if it's something important?

[Sheba is the worst babysitter.]

[averytinyparticle]

Yeah! That's a good point!

[And it was, really! There hadn't been any monsters around anywhere for a little while so maybe it wasn't monsters at all. That didn't leave very many possibilities.]

Let's go check it out! If it's something dangerous maybe they won't notice us if we're careful!

[And with that, he grabs her hand and starts to head left. Yeah, he definitely isn't being overeager.]

[seekinganswers]

[Sheba and Quark need an adult.

She nods and starts after him, keeping her hand in his - as they walk, she sets to preparing some of her Djinn for summoning, just in case she needs to break out the big guns quickly, and adjusts her hold on her staff in her other hand.]

We'll be very quiet, [She whispers as they continue on to the left, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for whatever might be making those sounds.]

[animusnpcs]

[As they proceed to the left, the footsteps grow louder. It becomes clearer that they're approaching Quark and Sheba's position.

To the right of them, shrill screams can be heard, though they are further away.]

[averytinyparticle]

[Quark has to put a hand over his mouth to stop from giving a startled shout, himself. Just like Sheba suggested, they should be quiet. Still, he clutches onto her hand tighter as he looks over his shoulder to the right path that they didn't choose. He swallows a knot in his throat, suddenly glad their curiosity got the better of them.]

That sounds pretty bad...

[Out of the two, the footsteps definitely sounded like a better chance to take. But having the company of an adult would still be better.]

[seekinganswers]

[Sheba would do the same, if she had a hand free, but she doesn't, so she just bites down hard on her lip and tightens her grip on Quark's hand. There is a long moment before she nods in agreement.]

...yes.

[Further on the path to the left they go - she's feeling more than a little defensive, but if there's no screaming coming from this way... that's a good thing, right...?]