WEEK 6

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 6



[Fifteen X-Passes. You've finally done it. You can now go free. However, the price has been steep. Too steep.




True, you can leave. Anyone can, now. But simply leaving may be a bad idea. After all, who knows what else Zero has up its sleeve? Who knows what's outside of the HMHS Gigantic? How will they survive? How will they eat? And those are the easy questions that need to be answered. After all, the mystery of Zero, the mystery of Zack, the mystery of who is the cause of all of this and why-those things are also seemingly impossible to answer without some preparation. There's also the new area that's opened up that may yet yield more for the survivors to mull over.


Rushing is surely a bad idea. It's time to prepare. Take the time to get ready for whatever is outside. Stock up on supplies. Write what needs to be written. Say what needs to be said. Get ready for the possibility that whatever is out there, whatever the answers are-they will not be easy, and they will not be quick.


More than that, but-where are all these cuts coming from on your body? Hm. Maybe you keep bumping into things or scratching too hard. Did everyone save Roland get super clumsy or something all of a sudden?


Well. Maybe the answers to all that are just around the corner. So. Let's get ready. The end is near.


There are 8 9 strangers currently on this ship.



Wait. Nine?]

Comments

[somuchshipping]

[...Hermes... honestly doesn't remember if he said anything about controlling his fireballs. He honestly doesn't. But Hermes DOES notice that Akane sounds... weaker...?

A long moment passes by before Hermes unlocks the door and opens it, looking to make sure Akane is okay.]

[exequte]

H-hi again, Hermes....

[She is flushed slightly, eyes overbright, and she is too warm.]

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes reaches out, but stops and retracts his leg. He fidgets in place for a moment before finally deciding to pick her up and put her on the lowest bed after cleaning the items off from it.]

...

[exequte]

[She shivers weakly and sporatically, but smiles over at him, and that expression is soft and kind as always.]

Thanks for... letting me in here....

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes fidgets in place.]

...

Do you... need anything...?

[Akane's needs come before his own.]

[exequte]

[There's a pause before she answers, and she sounds slightly apologetic, uncomfortable.]

M-maybe some aspirin, I guess? If... if that's not too much trouble....

POWER INVESTIGATION

[somuchshipping]

[Control.

With the conversation Hermes had with Akane yesterday, there's been a lot of thoughts about control on his mind. And his life so far? He's suffered from a massive lack of it. He had learned to sit back and watch the world unfold before him, to play it safe, due to him trying to control the fate of his friend. He grew miserable and paranoid because he felt he had no control over the time of his death, which lead to him nearly killing his friend for good and getting infected wit clockwork...

He felt as if he had no control over his aggressive fits lately...

Control.

...It's upsetting to think about all the bad things that happened to him that he bought on himself because a lack of control. Hermes gets angry... but he also wants control. In the incinerator, he tries to focus on those two things... Fury and control.]

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes silently nods and nyooms off to get some. He returns shortly with the bottle and a glass of water, both of which he hands off to Akane.]

[strangerpeople]

[Unfortunately, for Hubert, all but a few of the books are in the language Pure Gibberish.]

[strangerpeople]

[All right, empty dorm room time!










Well, for the most part, what comes up is just stuff left over by those who have died in the empty rooms. Boooooo.]

[pegasinister]

[Pure Gibberish in the 'this is a language well outside my understanding' or 'clearly nonsense that follows no logical structure or grammar'

Also are there any pictures or diagrams?]

[exequte]

[She gives him a grateful smile and takes the offered medicine before lying back again and teasing gently.]

Nothing terrible even happened when you got this for me....

[strangerpeople]

[Fury, tempered by control. A dangerous combo. Like a lens focusing sunlight into a heat ray.

This resonates very well with the Other on the other end.]

[strangerpeople]

[The former, though whether or not that's a good thing? Who knows.



Actually, most of them have a symbol somewhere on them. In the cover, on a mage, embossed on the spine, etc.]

Training Room

[onychomance]

[Kira has gotten familiar with this place, ever since incorporating it into his routine. He may have cuts on top of cuts, but that doesn't mean he can't at least, like, go in there and touch things. To feel something.

So, is there anything out of place on this fine Tuesday?]

[pegasinister]

[Means with the right translation key he could eventually read it. Also means any magic inside might be easy to accidentally set off.

But the symbol catches his attention right away. Because to him that doesn't read as a symbol at all- the shape, the internal figures, the writing rotating around it- this reads very similar to a Fodlani spell formula. He digs around for some paper and a pen and sets to work delicately copying it, using years of magic study to get as close as humanly possible. His powers might be gone, but he still attempts the same flexing of will he would use when doing so back home.

If nothing else he'll have a copy to show the others]

[somuchshipping]

[Fury and control... fury and control. Hermes tries keeping these two in mind as he flings out a fireball to see what happens.]

[strangerpeople]

[He runs his finger along the sentence, then points to himself. Points to the word "we've."]

[strangerpeople]

[His name is Yoshikage Kira. He's a normal man from Morioh-cho, with a normal life and schedule. He's currently in his sixth week in this place, and has decided, despite his injuries, to go to the training room.

As he prepares to caress one side of the leg press machine, to know that the metal is cold from disuse and thus he is still alive*, he notices something on the wall that, perhaps, missed his gaze-missed everyone's gaze-throughout all of the horrors and revelations that have weighed upon the strangers as of late, during their sojourn here.


Interesting.





*Well, in this narrator's narration, at least, it'd more than likely the narrator is simply making up this part about the leg press, as she, like the Gear, does not know how to handwave things. Maybe he's doing something completely unrelated to the press. Maybe he's sitting in a chair contemplating cleaning his nails off the hospital room floor. Maybe he's picking up a dumbbell. Maybe he's licking the door.



It is a mystery.]

[exequte]

[Well, a part of her expected this.

No further mysterious scraps of paper or anything in any of the rooms, occupied or otherwise? Assuming shes allowed entry to all of them, at least.]

[exequte]

"We"? You're helping them, you mean?

Um... how can we help you, then?

Or... did you mean that we need to weave something?

[strangerpeople]

[Sadly, no. Even Hermes' hoard doesn't seem to yield anything new.]

[exequte]

[onychomance]

[The leg press machine is indeed a thing that he could touch coldly. (Though maybe it really does bother me that all of his nails are still out there... should he collect them up after all?) He would not lick a door unless compelled. But dear god, is that ever a possibility. He worries a little, just a smidge.

In any case, what is this on the wall? He was always too focused on training. Perhaps it is another painting...]

[strangerpeople]