Entry tags:
- !event,
- attack on titan: erwin smith,
- attack on titan: falco grice,
- attack on titan: levi ackerman,
- ddlc: monika,
- ddlc: sayori,
- fate/grand order: kiara sessyoin,
- gundam: angelo sauper,
- kipo: kipo oak,
- the gifted: lorna dane,
- undertale: papyrus,
- undertale: sans,
- world of warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- world of warcraft: wrathion
FEBRUARY 2021 EVENT: PART TWO
CHAPTER TWO, PART 2: THE LIVING ISLAND
Everything you never wanted to see.
YOU CAN’T DO A LITTLE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T DO ENOUGH | JUST A DREAM FROM YESTERDAY | DARKNESS HELD ITS BREATH | YOUR FRIENDS WHEN THINGS GET ROUGH | COME AND PLAY WITH ME
YOU CAN'T DO A LITTLE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DO ENOUGH

Until February 13.
In the afternoon, a strange, unsigned message goes live on the network. What is the meaning of “Living Island”? Does it have anything to do with what’s going on? There’s no elaboration… until midnight, when every neighbor’s television set turns on at full volume, hissing static and garbled noise as the dials turn and adjust. Several disjointed clips follow, ending on a mural that depicts the same words from the post.
“Living Island.”
The following morning, you’ll find that stranger things are beginning to happen. Some of you will be woken up to the blankets and sheets being yanked off your sleeping bodies by a powerful force. Others will find that when they step out of their morning shower, a message has been written in the steam on their medicine cabinet's mirror. Depending on how quickly you shower, you may only be able to see part of the message — but running the hot water longer and allowing the steam to fill the room will reveal it in its entirety:
“LIVING ISLAND.”
As time passes, you’ll find that the same message shows up every time the bathroom steams up, whether you’re in the shower or not. The same force that turned your TV on seems to insist that you pay attention to what it’s trying to show you, and its behavior escalates the longer you refuse. Characters will find that books go flying off of bookshelves, drawers are yanked out of dressers and desks, and breakable objects are smashed. Trying to prevent the spirit from destruction won’t go your way: If you try to catch or grab something that’s about to be thrown, you’ll find it ripped out of your hands anew and smashed anyways. If you tried to take all of your chairs down from where they’ve been stacked on top of the dining room table, you’ll find they’re back atop it the instant you look away.
All that’s to say nothing of the rumbling. It doesn’t start until the end of the first day, but from time to time you’ll feel the house beginning to shake on its foundations, a dull groan as it struggles to keep itself from collapsing in under its own weight. As time goes on, this will get louder and louder until the house seems to roar of its own accord, an unyielding shriek that can’t be stopped until the force causing it backs down.
Attempts to make contact with the spirit will never go well. It does not seem to be able or willing to communicate with you beyond its own tantrums, and characters who try may find that the attempt rapidly goes out of control. Candles flare up and burn wildly, Ouija boards are ripped into pieces and planchettes go flying, offerings of food are knocked over or thrown, and the lights flicker manically in turns. While you may be able to get some sleep at night if you’re lucky, the only thing that will reduce the poltergeist activity is to pay attention to the message it’s sending you and figure out what it means.
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JUST A DREAM FROM YESTERDAY
Living Island. If ever there were a first step to stopping this madness, it’s figuring out what those words mean. But starting is always the hardest part, and with nothing else to go by than two seemingly unrelated, nonsensical words left behind by a force you can’t see much less communicate with, an already arduous task seems even more impossible. This is furthered by the reactions you get when you hit the street and start asking people if they know anything about Living Island. Most of them can only look back at you blankly, as if waiting for a punchline that never comes. Others actually take you seriously enough to consider the question, and to their credit, they do take their time racking their brains to remember where they’ve heard that name before, why it sounds so familiar. But the most you’ll get back from them is a sheepish shrug of the shoulders and a reply that it sounds like something from TV. It gets to the point where their answers blend together, each one more unremarkable than the last. Save for the one you get from the last person you haven’t asked. Living Island.
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After hours, the school is desolate and still. The wind, the occasional slap of a naked branch against a window, and the squeak of your footsteps on the shiny, clean floors are the only sounds you’ll hear as you navigate the empty hallways. Most of the classrooms are locked, and the ones that aren’t don’t have anything any more unique or worthwhile to them than the occasional lunchbox left behind by a student or the classroom frog croaking in its tank. In a way, this is a good thing — it doesn’t leave that many places to investigate and makes your path that much more linear as you finally, inevitably and silently make your way downstairs into the bowels of the school.
The long corridor that awaits you in the basement is, in theory, not very different from the hallways upstairs. There are lockers lining both sides, dented and darkened with age and dust. The tiles are cracked, dirt and pieces of stone kicked up from exposed areas of the floor. Seemingly, this appears to lead to a dead end. But look closely at the wall and you’ll see the impression of a door, painted to match the walls. The lock is flimsy — in fact, depending on when you find it, someone may have already broken it. All that’s left is to enter and descend down the tiny room’s only feature: a ladder under a rusty steel hatch door, stretching down into darkness.
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DARKNESS HELD ITS BREATH
CW: gore, surgery

As you continue through the labyrinthine warren, you’ll begin to find signs of human presence — some of the trashed rooms may be fitted with tables and supplies one might expect to find in a laboratory, meticulously labeled with typewritten strips. Several of these boxes appear to be old, covered in grimy layers of dust, while others are fresh and clean. All of them contain medical supplies. Eagle-eyed investigators might note that the untouched supplies tend to be the type contained in first-aid kits — acetaminophen, antibiotic ointment, simple adhesive bandages — while the ones that have been opened are for heavy duty surgical work — coiled IV lines and tubing, empty syringes, surgical gloves. One room in particular seems to have been fitted out for someone’s personal use, boasting a stripped-down bed, a chair and desk, and a comfortable recliner.
The trickle of water can be heard in the depths of the shelter, and as you emerge from one corridor that filters into a large chamber, it becomes immediately obvious where you are: This is an operating theater, with a table stationed beneath all manner of lights that can be adjusted and moved. A faucet drips monotonously in the back of the room, over a sink stained with blood with bits of grey, pulpy matter stuck in the drain. A bucket filled with blood and viscera ferments on the ground beside it. There are smears of blood, both dried and fresh, on the cloudy tiles, and a cabinet full of surgical instruments is slightly ajar. Looking at the instruments, characters will find that a couple of scalpels and a pair of tongs have dotted blotches where the metal was cleaned with water; whoever used these tools last didn’t dry them before putting them away. A small table near the operating area has a turntable sitting atop it, with a record already set under the needle: a single of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” There are a few other records sitting in the cabinet beneath it, including Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” Frank Sinatra’s “Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely,” and James Brown and the Famous Flames’ “Think!”
In a separate area of this room, an oversized desk is piled with books and empty food containers that look as though they’ve been repurposed for one reason or another. These books are chiefly on anatomy and the medical sciences, though there are a number of books on psychology and how the brain functions. Though some of these books are water-spotted and dog-eared, there aren’t any notes written in the margins, nor are there any papers to be found. You can turn this area as much as you'd like, but all you’ll find is a couple empty cigarette boxes and some broken and bitten pens; the trash can next to the desk, filled with soggy ashes, seems to suggest that any papers that might have given you a lead were destroyed before you got here.
But the lab, with all its instruments, isn’t what you came here to find. There’s still at least one more room to be found…
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YOUR FRIENDS WHEN THINGS GET ROUGH
CW: gore, surgical trauma, amputation, lobotomy, brainwashing and interrogation, mouth trauma, eye trauma, ear trauma, body horror

With no clocks or watches available to tell the time, you may not be able to tell how long you’ve been here. You sleep and wake, sometimes to a bowl of what looks like sticky rice lying in your cage that wasn’t there before. Sometimes, an overpowering smell will fill the room, faint at first; by the time you register it, it’s already overwhelmed you and sent you into a deep sleep. And when you wake, one cage will be empty. The inhabitant will be returned the next time you go to sleep and wake up, but not quite the same as they were before. They seem heavily drugged, discombobulated — or perhaps there's something visibly different about them. Whoever has taken you is doing a lot of work in their lab — and from the smell of things, meat work — and before long almost all of you will be sporting dressings of some type or other, fresh red seeping through the sterile cloth within a matter of hours.
Maybe you should try to keep each others’ spirits up. You don’t know how long you’ll be here, after all.
All of this goes on for a while — days, although it won’t be easy to count them given that there are no windows in the room. But nearly a week later… you wake to find that the front of your cage is unlocked. Unlatched. Open just an inch. Looking around the room, you’ll find that yours is not the only cage to have been opened — all of your cages have been unlocked.
Is it a mistake? Or are you really free?
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COME AND PLAY WITH ME
CW: blood and violence

"Hi!"
Much like the Doppelgangers you encountered in January, these ones look and move like dolls, their limbs connected with ball-joints. However, whereas those ones were near perfect imitations of you and your friends, these ones look like they just fell off the assembly line. Their faces are unnaturally flat and plastic, like all the imperfections have been ironed out of them, but they are unmistakably yours. And when they open their mouths to squeal at you before running with all the unnatural speed not having a pair of lungs affords them, you’ll find that even their voices are perfect imitations — and not necessarily of your own either.
There’s no way to tell how many of these Doppelgangers are down here with you, hiding in the dark. They’re stealthy and sneaky, only coming out to attack when they’re sure you’re alone. Even if you’re not, they’re intelligent enough to come up with ways to separate you from your group, calling to you from another part of the shelter, mimicking a voice from someone they know you’ll listen to. Even if there’s no possible way they could be in Santa Rosita.
"Help me!"
"Is that you...? Oh thank God, I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Please, don't leave me!"
Other times, they’ll take a more aggressive approach, allowing their limbs to pop out of place so they can sprawl on the ground, imitating a heap of discarded doll parts. Once you get close enough or turn your back on them, they’ll pull themselves together and attack, speeding towards you on fours like a crab.
There are two ways out of the shelter. The first one is the hardest: go back the way you came. With the low visibility, the number of Doppelgangers, and the confusing layout of the area, you’re more likely to get turned around and go in circles than you are to find your way back to the ladder — a location made even more difficult to discern since the hatch door has been lowered, blotting out all light from the room above.
The second way is the longest but also the easiest: head deeper into the shelter, past the operating room, through the rooms filled with broken furniture and ruined floors that are very easy to trip on — especially when you’re in the middle of running away. Eventually, you’ll come to another ladder, this one leading to an open hatch that deposits you into a dark passageway. The air up here is more fresh, but not necessarily pleasant smelling. There’s only one way to go — forward.
After what feels like an hour of walking, you’ll see a light at the end of the passage. Follow it and you’ll find yourself exiting a storm drain that drops you into the heart of Old Growth, just outside of West Santa Rosita.
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OOC INFO
Welcome to the second part of February’s event! You can use this entry to top-level for the event, but feel free to utilize the log and network communities as well.
There will be a top-level posted for NPC interaction tied to the second prompt below, wherein you can request to play out your character’s interaction with Harding or Rosemary. If you would like to have your character interact with either one of them, comment to the top-level with the name of the NPC you would like to thread with. You may only thread with one NPC. The mods will respond to NPC tags until February 28th.
Any questions can go in our FAQ thread below. Try to check and see if your question has already been answered on the plotting thread first here.
There will be a top-level posted for NPC interaction tied to the second prompt below, wherein you can request to play out your character’s interaction with Harding or Rosemary. If you would like to have your character interact with either one of them, comment to the top-level with the name of the NPC you would like to thread with. You may only thread with one NPC. The mods will respond to NPC tags until February 28th.
Any questions can go in our FAQ thread below. Try to check and see if your question has already been answered on the plotting thread first here.
Kiara Sessyoin
[A – for the captured]
[Understatement of the year, but this is a miserable way to wake up. On the first day, Kiara will definitely appear distressed, but she seems sure that...]
I'm not sure what's going on, but we'll get out of here. I'm sure. Either on our own or the others will find us.
[But that clearly doesn't happen immediately as they're going to be here for a while. And at some point after that, after she's returned to her cage, she can be found covering her right eye with her hand, it almost looks like she's holding something in.]
It doesn't fit...how cruel.
[She's certainly upset, she even looks a little distressed, but she almost sounds like she's detached from the whole thing. There's not a lot of privacy in these cages either, so it's possible to overhear her muttering something that sounds an awful lot like “the other one.”]
[B – also for the captured]
[As captivity goes on, her situation worsens. Physically, as a couple of times she's in her cell, she'll collapse, having just received a shock from a newly implanted pacemaker. But mentally too, which is at the least just as concerning, if not more so. There's quite a few times that she'll be returned to her cell with a glassy, unfocused look on her face, the aftereffects of another Tranquilized interrogation session. They'll wear off, but until then, her fellow captives will be subjected to some uncharacteristically insipid comments from her.]
Oh, this won't do at all. I have to get home. Papyrus should be home any minute and Louis should've finished school by now. They'll be expecting dinner and someone'll have to clean up afterwards...
[When the effects wear off, she'll just be sitting down in her cell with a dour look on her face, pondering over what she was asked and what she said, and wondering what all the point of that was.]
[C – locked to Daylight]
[Kiara's definitely going to step out once she awakens to find her cage unlocked. She'll be taking things a little slowly, trying to do a good thing and not get zapped a bunch of times on her way out.
And of course, she ends up alone somewhere, which hey, normally that'd be great. She could poke around and do her own sort of investigation, but after repeated surgeries and tranquilizations and interrogations, she's had her fill of being here. Someone else can explore this place, she'll just turn to make her way out of this room and stop when she hears footsteps in the hall.]
...is someone there?
[Probably not the smartest idea to call out, given who knows what the hell could be wandering around in here, but she hasn't learned a ton from this experience. Not if she's being honest about it.]
[D – Open]
[After what felt like entirely too long of a escape, both due to trying to take it slow and honestly how confusing that place was, Kiara's happy to see the sun for the first time in a few days. And seriously, what was the layout of that shelter even, she's not entirely unconvinced there was some sort of magecraft or something involved somewhere to make things that much of a mess.
She certainly looks miserable, how could she not be, there's some blood that's soaked through the front of her clothing (apparently at some point she reopened at least one of the surgical sutures from her pacemaker surgery), she's sporting a new poorly fitted glass eye and just generally looks like she had a shit time. Maybe not as much of a bad time as some of the others as she's capable of standing around under her own power, but still bad.
Ultimately, while she is miserable, she supposes it could've been worse. And having a mindset that can be best expressed as do unto others as they'd do unto you, she can't help but think about maybe returning the favor someday. She doubts it's an uncommon thought among the others, but she's not planning on asking around to be sure. No need to get too excited, especially with that new pacemaker of hers.
Still, she'll take a few moments to collect herself and allow others to check up on her or ask about what happened or anything like that while she waits to find out how they're all getting home from here. She'd rather not walk home if she can help it. Or at least, not by herself.]
D
Instead she approached Kiara with a blanket that she'd brought out of that hell hole in case someone needed one. The blanket is a tad bloody, but that's better than freezing in the cold until they get them all home and can get better. She silently wraps the blanket around her shoulders, without saying a word. ]
...
[ What could you even say in such situations? She most certainly wouldn't ask her what had happened. Not so quickly. She knew she wouldn't want to say anything if that was her who had gone through this all. ]
Can I do anything for you?
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She also would've been forgiving of those stock comments too, that's how people are and she's very understanding of human nature, but she's pleased to not have to hear them nonetheless.
As to what Monika can do for her, she can think of a number of things. Though that list is massively cut down by what's actually feasible at the moment.]
That's quite kind to ask, but I'm sure there are others with more urgent answers for that question.
[She's not trying to...okay, yes, she is downplaying her situation a little. She's been through an incredibly traumatic experience, it hurts, she probably should see some sort of doctor about a number of things, yes. But she's also probably got a better idea of what she can tolerate than some of the others, so she's not too concerned about her current state.]
Though at the risk of sounding uncharacteristically vengeful, if you happened to find out who was responsible, I would love to pay them a visit.
[She doesn't actually sound vengeful about it though. Kiara's still quiet and doing her best to keep her tone even. She does wish she could recall any sort of details about her captors, but she can't.]
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She nodded. ]
We'll find them.
[ After that, Monika took something from under her dress and handed it over to Kiara-- A knife, big and sharp enough that it would cut into anyone's flesh effortlessly. She could tell Kiara looked more troubled than she let on, and well... What would Monika want if she was in Kiara's place? A lover's embrace, but that really wasn't a possibility here, was it...? Next thing was comfort, but Monika was hardly good at it. Not when she herself was still emotionally compromised. So next came a mean to get back at those who had done this to her. And what better for this than a weapon? It looked like the sort of knife you'd find in the hands of a butcher. Certainly not the sort of knife you'd find on a proper wife from the sixties.
Monika may have looked cute and innocent on the surface, but she was no idiot. She hadn't dived head-first into the enemy's lair without any weapon on her. She was just fortunate enough not to have needed to use it. ]
... You should keep it close, just in case.
[ There are plenty others where this knife came from, she'll get another for herself. ]
honestly all I can think of is "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!" from Zelda
Hey she'd take that lover's embrace too if she actually had one. Probably for the best that she doesn't though.Whatever she was expecting certainly wasn't that. So she's also learning a bit more about others today too. She's certainly glad Monika came prepared, but what to do with this? It's not that she wouldn't know what to do with it (and honestly, while not her style, probably not the first time she would've done something along those lines with one), it's just that if she were to react honestly...she'd probably start laughing.
It's ridiculous, handing someone like her a knife and having others concerned about her safety. They can't help it of course, and she hasn't done a lot to help them understand, but it's just...funny. But she won't do that, she's done an okay job suppressing her true feelings here, so she can bury that impulse down deep too.]
Thank you, the gesture is appreciated, and I think I understand the sentiment behind it.
[She'll turn the knife around offering it back handle first to Monika, an appreciative look on her face, even if she is in fact, rejecting it.]
But I think I would be more comfortable with you keeping this. I might not look like it, especially not right now, but I'm quite capable of defending myself without such a thing.
[That might be up for debate given her current state, but Kiara also thinks that given that her regained power couldn't stop her from being taken, she doesn't think a knife would've helped much either.]
shhh, it's a secret to everybody
Perhaps she meant something more unnatural? Monika herself had once had such "powers," if they could even be called that. Just messing with the code really. Could Kiara perhaps do something similar? Or were they talking about straight-up magic? She didn't know and it didn't reassure her. More and more likely this place was indeed not real.
Everything she had seen so far seemed to hint at this being true. That was depressing... But perhaps it wouldn't be so bad so long as she was around people like Kiara. People who are themselves real. That mattered more than the world itself, right? ]
... Alright.
[ She tucked back the knife under her dress and gave her a sad smile. ]
You're not going home alone, though. Can you walk or do you need something to help you?
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I should be able to walk on my own, though I agree that heading back alone wouldn't be the best idea.
[She's not worried about herself really, more what she might be heading back to. Her and Papyrus were taken, Louis wasn't a captive with the rest of them, so she's really not sure what to expect. So having someone accompany her would probably be a good idea.]
Though I suppose I should mention that I can't really hurry too much. Not until I get this removed, but as I said, it's not really a pressing concern when others are much worse off.
[Kiara'll gesture at the blood on her outfit. She's not going to complain too much about the pacemaker, but it really is inconvenient for her considering she occasionally enjoys getting her adrenaline rushing. Oh well, there are certainly worse things to deal with as, well, like she said, some of the others have a lot worse to deal with than worrying about becoming too excited or agitated.]
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Thankfully, for all her theoretical knowledge, she sucks at the practical aspect of it all. ]
Don't say that.
[ She shook her head. The way Kiara said she shouldn't be prioritized because others had it worse... This reminded her a bit of Sayori. Of course they were obviously very different people and she barely knew anything about Kiara. But this wasn't a healthy way to think. ]
Even if you're more resistant than the others... That doesn't make the intensity of what you went through any lesser.
[ Being more resistant simply meant you could take more before it was too much. But... That was a curse in some aspect. Because you think you're resistant you neglect yourself and before you even realize it, you've taken more than you can handle. She knew something about it. ]
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[The frown on her face isn't terribly sad, thought it could probably be considered wistful. She's thinking of days long past, they almost feel like they happened a lifetime ago or to someone else because in a weird way, they kind of did.]
I've dedicated most of my life to helping others, so it's rather difficult to put myself before or on the same level as those who are suffering.
[That's...not entirely true given the stuff that doesn't feel like a lifetime ago. But it's also not entirely untrue either. She's complicated! But in a screwed up way, she's still helping others and helping herself by kind of...not being as much of herself as she could be.]
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( prompt c! )
there’s no doubt that daylight looks worse for wear: a developing black eye and a nasty splitlip, promises of bruises on his neck and face like someone (or something) went at him. the baseball bat in his hand is now next to useless, bent from the sheer force that he had used against whatever he had been fighting off. not to mention covered in... remains of something. ]
Oh fuck it’s you— [ throwing uncertainty out of the window, daylight gets closer to kiara, limping down the hallway and doing everything he can to not fall flat on his face. ] We need to get out of here, now. Huaisang made a map— I know how we can get out of here— Are you— Are you in need of medical attention? Anything?
no need to ask her if she’s okay or not because she’s both still kicking and she’s also down in this hellhole so.
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But still, she's thrilled to see a familiar, mostly intact face.]
I'm stable, really. Compared to the others, I...
[That sentence really doesn't finish forming to make it out of her mouth. She doesn't want to say she got off lighter than the others because she's definitely still not looking great. While she's trying to think of what to say next, she'll place her hand against her face, it might look contemplative, but she's just trying to make sure that stupid glass eye stays in place because that's the last thing she needs right now.]
I can wait until we get out of here. I'm not in any immediate danger.
[There, that's an okay way of putting it. She wants to disinfect everything, without her Servant abilities, that's something to worry about. And she'd like to be rid of this pacemaker, but for now, she can manage.]
Thank you for coming to save us.
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[ he's been worried sick about them ever since they had vanished. since his messages and calls were unanswered for several days straight. if he wasn't willing to try and personally retrieve one or two of them, daylight wouldn't be able to look himself in the mirror.
when he gets closer to her and thinks he can see the extent of what happened, daylight flinches but doesn't pull away, repulsed, or anything like that. it's... a lot to take in, yeah, but that's for the future them. right now- ]
Let's get closer to the exit. [ that way, when they have to, they can book it and get out of here faster. ] Is it alright if I ask you a few questions? Or would you rather we do that later? I'm game either way.
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I don't mind, I may not have answers, but I can certainly answer what I can.
[She's in just as much of a hurry to get out of here as anyone else most likely, okay maybe not just as much of a hurry given how zappy her pacemaker can get, but still, she would like to be out of here. However, that doesn't mean she can't answer questions on the way out.
Hopefully the noise doesn't attract one of those doppelgangers though, that wouldn't be a problem.]
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so, choosing his questions carefully while keeping an ear out for any sounds, daylight starts off with: ]
What did they do? To you and the others? [ he sees… the aftermath of what’s happened to her and the others but surely that’s not the only thing that’s been happening to them.
terrible as it is to say, there must have been more to this. especially with how big the group is.
while he waits for a reply, he offers his jacket to kiara if she needs extra warmth or covering. he’s a big guy. literally. he can handle the damp and chill down here. ]
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Aside from what you see, I was subjected to...ah, I suppose you could call it interrogation.
[There's no suppose about it, that's exactly what it was.]
I was forced to answer a number of questions and unable to refuse. Or lie. But it was all focused on me and where I came from, our conversations are still very much a secret.
[She's thankful for that actually. Given the tranquilization, if she'd been asked about any of her conversations with the people here, she would've had no way to not answer truthfully.]
Though I can't recall who was asking the questions. I realize how unhelpful that must be.
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because this is something they can work with: ] Interrogating you for information about yourself and where you’re from? That means they don’t have a lot of info to work with on their own.
We’re still possibly unknowns to them so we might have a few tricks up our sleeves, we might have a surprise or two for them if we play our cards right.
[ the more he talks, the more confident and hopeful he sounds as he lays out his thoughts on what this could mean. they might have an actual advantage then, if the ones behind the situation don’t know them, truly.
—which only begs the question: why were they all targeted? what did they all have in common to get sent here? daylight is trying to think of another question to ask kiara, keeping in mind that she won’t know a lot and she’s already been through hell, when he hears what might be footsteps.
... fuck. ]
Did you hear that?
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[She's keeping her voice quiet, looking in the direction of those footsteps. Daylight said someone made a map, so there's definitely other people involved, but judging from the look of that bat, people aren't the only things down here to worry about.]
Did someone else come this way with you?
[Kiara's pretty sure from his reaction that's not the case, but it can't hurt to ask.]
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( 1/2, gag tag to end all gag tags. )
( 2/2, a real tag oh my god. )
honestly that is the perfect reaction
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D
And among the other escapees, outside, is a familiar figure. A bloodied familiar figure, with obvious signs of injury and mistreatment.
Da Vinci's face twists into a rare horrified look, her voice barely holding back a tremble. Even she can't mask it entirely.]
What... What the hell?!
[In an instant, she's by Kiara's side, torn between offering her support if she needs it and getting in closer to examine what's been done to her.]
What happened? And be careful... you might still be bleeding!
[It's not that she's more concerned for Kiara than the others, exactly. Not even because of the rough shape she seems to be in. It's just... complicated. Like it hits home more with someone who also used to be a Servant.]
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I appreciate the concern, but surely the others...
[She's going to say the others are worse off than her, and she truly does think that. But that doesn't really seem to be a popular argument with people worried about her, so that thought won't be completely voiced.]
...they've gone through similar experiences, and could use proper care as well.
[There, that's close enough to what she'd like to say without trying to downplay her own suffering. If Da Vinci wants to inspect the damage, she won't protest, but she also won't act like she received the worst from their captors.]
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She quickly pulls herself together, not entirely snapping back to the professional facade she's grown accustomed to putting up. But definitely closer to it.]
We'll do our best to help everyone, of course. [There's no one immediately nearby who desperately needs assistance, though, so she's going to indulge her curiosity.] For now, just... tell me what happened. Were you even aware of what they were doing?
[Even as she asks, she examines the obvious signs of surgery, with absolutely zero concern for Kiara's personal space. A replaced eye, bloodied cloth over her chest... was there anything else she was missing?]
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Not entirely. I can recall some of it, but...
[For obvious reasons, she doesn't sound quite happy about this trip down memory lane. It's definitely not about having Da Vinci in her personal space, Kiara doesn't really care if people get in her personal space, though she doesn't try to do the same to others these days.
As far as signs of any procedures, those are the main two that most would notice. On closer inspection, there's some needle marks showing she was injected with something a few times, so there's that as well.]
I woke up in the building along with the others. I have no idea how I was taken, and every so often they would release some sort of...most likely a gas into the room to knock us unconscious. Then we would be taken from our cages and subjected to this sort of thing...
[She trails off, trying to decide what details to tell and which not to. It's not out of a wish to conceal anything, it's just unpleasant to dwell on.]
Perhaps most importantly to you, I was questioned about a number of things. My past, my home, my abilities. I'm sorry, I may have told them things I shouldn't have. I found myself unable to conceal anything from them.
[That's not to imply that Da Vinci doesn't care about the physical damage or anything, but she figures that would be concerning, even if Kiara can't imagine what anyone would do with that info. Or in regards to her powers, why they wouldn't have it already if they're able to suppress them.]
I wasn't conscious for this though. A small kindness, I suppose.
[She'll raise her hand up to the glass eye, using her finger to keep it in place since having it fall out during this conversation is something she'd like to avoid.]
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[That's the first thing she keys in on, while she examines what she can see of Kiara's skin. Especially the needle marks.]
So these aren't from anesthetics or sedatives? If you were interrogated...
[She just lets that trail off, the various possibilities left hanging in the air. She can't imagine what someone who has the power to bring the two of them to this place, in ordinary human bodies, could have to gain by learning more about their pasts and abilities either. But Kiara's right, it is something to be concerned about. Perhaps there are even multiple forces at play here?]
Well... nothing we can do about that now. Just something to be aware of, moving forward.
[She watches Kiara cover her glass eye with her finger, a wave of comparatively more mundane concern crossing Da Vinci's face.]
Do you feel up to walking, at least? You'd probably like to get home and rest, after all of that. I might be able to do something about the eye too, if you give me some time. At least to make it more comfortable...
[There's a genuine pang of regret there that she can't just heal Kiara's injuries, and whatever else might have been done to her, with magecraft.]
I apologize for Kiara being Kiara
[She's not going to say that sucked, but...yeah, it sucked.]
After the last round of it, I found myself like this.
[She'll point at the blood on her chest.]
It's rather cruel really. If I get too worked up, it's like an electric current running through my body. Normally, I could find some delight in that sort of thing, but at the moment...
[A crestfallen look crosses her face because of course it does. Of course this is Kiara's concern that right now she can't enjoy getting shocked by the pacemaker.]
Well, I'll just have to take things slowly from now on. Or slower, as it were.
[So yes, she can walk. Sorry about the weird detour getting to the answer.]
Ah, but do you think that's possible? Here I was expecting to have to manage with this until I were resummoned, but having a less difficult replacement would be nice.
[Because she really has no idea where in town to buy a glass eye that fits.]
she can only hold herself back so much...
[Adrenaline shots are consistent with the location and type of injections she seems to have received. But the concern in her eyes flares up again at the mention of heart attacks. So that... explains the chest surgery too. What did they do, create a problem only to experiment with a crude solution? Or was it all really just to torment Kiara?]
Yes, well... [She pauses, trying not to think too hard on Kiara's logic. She's not here to kinkshame.] Ideally, we could find some solution to the other problems too. Eventually.
But for the eye, assuming the surgical foundation is good enough, all we need is to craft an aesthetically convincing replacement to more exacting measurements. What kind of genius do you take me for, if I can't manage something so simple?
[Granted, she'll need to be careful to make sure it's made with the right materials and tools for use as a medical prosthetic. It's not how she usually does things, but it does play to what skills she still has!]
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[She's honestly not sure on how feasible that would be with 1961 stuff, but she figures if anyone could figure something out, it'd be Da Vinci. The same thing goes with the replacement for this glass eye of hers. She's got some medical training from her volunteer days but it's not like too much she did involved trying to figure out what was medically feasible decades before she was born.]
Still, I'll be in your care. I imagine given some of the others, your talents will be in high demand, so you may be quite busy from now on.
[Kiara can't help but think it must be nice for Da Vinci to be able to put her talents to work here. Not like Kiara who if she does, depending on regains could end up causing some sort of giant mess. Must be nice not having to worry about that kind of thing!]
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