[KIN'UN]

[detentionroom]

[You needed an escape.

For a moment– however brief, or however not– you longed to get away. Perhaps you envisioned a vacation upon sunny, beachy shores, palm trees at your back and seagulls floating in the air. Perhaps you envisioned nothing at all, and merely accepted that anywhere but here would do. Either way. . .?

You blink. . . and you wake up slouched on a school desk, arms folded with head resting between. You lift your gaze and realize that you've woken up in the middle of a classroom, seated in one of the. . . uh, very few functional desks that remain. The others have been broken into pieces, with legs and splinters of wood scattered across the floor. Deep claw marks decorate the walls, having gouged the sheetrock with jagged, violent gashes. The window curtains are closed, but they too have been torn and ripped to shreds, with holes showing a dark and unidentifiable landscape beyond the four walls which trap you.

And written on the blackboard, in large, white letters that seem to glow in the midst of the dim room lighting, is a warning]

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR NAME.

[. . . you are not alone]

[Each and every new arrival awakens dressed in a high school-issued track uniform. The design is up to the players, but each uniform is already color-coded to match the group at large. Somewhere on your body is a new marking: a mysterious floral design shaded the same color as your track uniform. It is glowing very gently. And in your pocket you feel. . . something warm. Further investigation reveals a tiny little omamri, tucked away in your outfit, for safe keeping. Huh! What a nice gift!]

[For now, the front door to the classroom is locked. No matter how hard you try– with physical prowess or otherwise– the door cannot be opened.]

[But hey! You can poke around the area, if you'd like! Maybe get to know your new classmates. . . ? Try not to panic. For now, everything is. . . calm]

Comments

Re: [FAILURE]

[ratiocinations]

[Stops it just enough for him to lash out and grab her ankle. Barks out all he can do, which is instruct further-]

Search elsewhere!

[Bc that will go well too]

Re: [FAILURE]

[velluminous]

[ flinches at he ankle grab, as though expecting further pain ]

Others have it!

[ you fool. she drops down and digs her fingers beneath the cords looping his neck. ]

Looked like the right icon to me

[ratiocinations]

[She loosens it just enough for him to not feel strangled. He is, by the way, using this short reprieve to SIT STRAIGHT UP and say out of hand-]

This is a fever dream brought on by the cocaine bottle-!

[HOW IS ANY OF THIS POSSIBLE even he has his limits when it comes to rationalizing the impossible, the insane, the evil-

PERCHANCE THIS IS JUST A BAD TRIP and he’s even quit too wtf]

[velluminous]

[ her hands are still beneath the cording—it will simply go back to squeezing if she does not hold it at bay—and he will feel her fingers go somewhat slack at that exclamation.

sorry? ]

You are high right now?

[ratiocinations]

[He claws at that one, too, trying to cinch around his neck, frustrated and baffled and his heart pounding and everything is so red and Toby is squishing spiders—]

No! But what other explanation is there! My mind rebels against me in delusion-!

[velluminous]

This is real! Do you hear me? It's real. [ she grabs at his face and jaw with her other hand. to hold him looking at her, to bring them nearly nose-to-nose, but not quite. ] Look at me. Do you feel me, smell me? This char? This heat? Your mind did not create this. It is real.

[ratiocinations]

[His face is turned and his focus is therefore forced, even if his nails still bite against these blasted restraints.

Every little detail of her face, the smell of fire, the smell of sulfur. Would the depths of his mind conjure up such imagery and sensation, even in its highest point of wild imaginings?

He doesn’t know. But it seems… unlikely. Even the Devil’s Foot was not like… this.

Moreover, perhaps it’s the forwardness of grasping his face in this manner that really draws him back to the moment at hand.]

Then you consign me to the more baleful alternative.

[That this is real and not imagined. Also very not ideal.]

[velluminous]

[ tieflings are ill omens, after all.

dark eyes searching him, searching for his sincerity. she believes she has it. he has resigned himself to the horrors of the real. ]

I do.

[ both hands, then, to try to unwind his throat. ]

But it will be brief one, if we do not find this key.

[ratiocinations]

[There is another red skein clenching hard around his forearm, so hard it hurts, but that is of little concern when one threatens his ability to breathe. Between the two of them, they keep it at bay, and just unwound enough to allow him to turn his neck, finally breaking her gaze.

Yes, she has his sincerity, mainly because he's pushed down the disbelief, alarm, and fear, and has instead focused again on their options. What very small leeway reasoning still has left.]

There are too many places to search and not enough time. No one's panicked glances to reveal hidden-away places to guide us, not a single clue. [He should have searched harder before all of this.] What is left is merely up to instinct, and I believe we should still seek in places that had already existed before.

[velluminous]

We will, we will— [ those dark eyes of hers slide past over his shoulder, and even in the dim red light he'll be able to see the slight tremor to their focus. ] Do not look now.

[ratiocinations]

[Do you know who this is

Of course he turns to look.]

[velluminous]

[ recoiling as he does ]

Hag, it looks like night hag—

[ratiocinations]

[And we are back to reconsidering whether or not any of this is real.

But just for a moment. It is lanced away soon after, because no, he might not ever lay eyes on such a thing even in his nightmares — this must truly be reality.]

Is that what requested our names…?

[velluminous]

Come, away from window!

[ bodily pulling him, a surprising strength to her frame, while the room shakes ]

[ratiocinations]

[Whoop, stumbling backwards, anchored by her strength and the wires looped around him. All now moves too fast to do much else.

SAVE US MR SCHWARZER, HERE WE GO-]