Week 3

[bathymetric]

Good morning, New Rapture. A new day is dawning.

It's a strange sort of feeling, waking up on Sunday. Not the least because, well... you fell asleep on Friday, didn't you? Whether you sleep or not, none of you remember Saturday. Everything, by all accounts, seems to be Sunday. Weird.

It's not all bizarre feelings of lost time that you have to show for your efforts, though - it seems that another wing of New Rapture is ready for you. Perhaps there's more information to be found about your situation there... and maybe more about the history of this place, if that interests you.

There are still 23 of you left... Keep getting to know them. There's regains to get, after all!




SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to the second week of Unknown Seas Round 3! Please make sure to mark any investigation toplevels accordingly, post your ac, and you can reach either Mayor Fontaine or Eleanor for conversations! ]

Comments

[honeyedtea]

[ A tide of misplaced anger swells up in her chest – that Penelope would just lurk there and listen along without giving her the chance to– to turn it off or explain herself, like she was fishing for information or trying to embarrass her, or–

But the anger doesn't last, crashes to shore and turns to something muddier and messier. She sniffs, trying hard not to let Penelope see her face - but at this point, what's one more indignity on top of everything else? ]

It was bad enough to see her last week, but hearing her again... and Emma...

[ The way she says it leaves no room for speculation as to the depths of her heartache. ]

Wh–what could I have ever done to deserve being stuck here and tormented like this...?!

[prompocalypse]

...It's not about deserve, I don't think. [There's a bitter melancholy to her tone. There's a lot of good people here. A lot of people who don't deserve this place.

She goes to pick up a piece of fabric, something she might be able to fasten into a bandage. She took a class on this stuff, a few years ago, back when she thought she might multiclass.

She looks at Mielle.]

Can I have your hand? [Penelope offers her own palm.] You're hurt.

i can't believe i'm busting out the decapitation cw already

[honeyedtea]

Ah–

[ Mielle drops her own eyes down to her hand. She hadn't even noticed what she'd done until Penelope pointed it out but a warm rush of pain flares out from the wound when she sets her eyes on it, as if triggered by her own gaze.

The blood's so red. She wonders if it'd been that same shade of red when the guillotine had come down – she'd never seen an execution before her own. She has no idea how long it takes for a body to stop bleeding.

She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head, trying to place herself back in the present again, then holds her hand out for Penelope to take. ]

... yes. Please. I should know better than to be so clumsy when I have a needle, but...

[prompocalypse]

[Penelope notices it. It's an odd and somewhat unkind thought that pops up in her head, thinking that this girl reminds her the slightest bit of a frightened rabbit. It's a thought that reminds her of Penny Luckstone, and the ways that she constantly looked at Penelope like she might bite her head off the moment she said the wrong word.

She takes hold of the hand, and realizes that this might actually be the first time she's touched someone else like this since she fell. It's so strange, thinking about that. She used to be so loved, too.]

Sweetheart, you can't control the things they taunt you with. It's hardly your fault. [She smiles, trying to be reassuring. She binds Mielle's finger in the fabric, tightening it just enough to stop the bleeding.]

...Mine got to me too, honestly. Similar subject, I think. [Her smile turns a bit wistful before she remembers to let go of Mielle's hand.]

[honeyedtea]

[ It stings, but Mielle fights the urge to pull her hand back long enough for Penelope to patch up her finger. It's embarrassing to be caught being so clumsy – she hasn't pricked her finger on a needle since she was twelve years old – but even more embarrassing to be caught in such a state. Even if (or maybe because) Penelope's being so kind about it. Something about the understanding – or maybe the pity – makes her skin itch. ]

... it just makes me sick. To think that he... knows enough about the things that hurt us to use them against us like this. Bringing people we know last week was bad enough, but this...

[ A little shudder runs through her as her hand falls limply to her side. ]

I don't want to be seen like that by a man like him.

[prompocalypse]

[In contrast to the warmth she is trying to show Mielle, there is something cold and cruel to her tone as she speaks up.]

He won't know anything about us when he's dead. [The adventuring academy is not known for non-lethal methods.]

They like to get inside your head. It makes them feel powerful. And maybe they are, but it doesn't make them any less fucking pathetic.

[She sighs, and the harshness fades from her expression, replaced only with exhaustion.]

I hate this too. So much.

[honeyedtea]

[ Curiously – the harshness is reassuring. More reassuring than it would've been for her to pretend she wasn't thinking as much, at the very least. Penelope might be crude and blunt in a number of ways that would keep her from ever finding footing in society as Mielle knows it back home, but at least she's relatively straightforward. ]

I just wish there was more we could do. For all everyone talks about making plans and fighting back... we're no closer to escaping from here than we were when we arrived. If anything... we're in a far worse position.

[prompocalypse]

Yeah... I get that. And I mean, it's not like we're not running on a timer... the second someone cracks under the pressure and kills, we're all at risk of dying.

[She sighs, like the mere idea of that is exhausting to her. Like she's not already working on picking out her victim and getting ready to take their life and kill Mielle and Mafuyu and Zinda and everyone else here.

It's not Mielle, though. So it's whatever.]

...Do you think someone will go through with it?

[honeyedtea]

[ Mielle twitches in a little in surprise. For some reason, hearing Penelope say that so bluntly makes a little jolt of alarm go through her. It's not like it's strange for that to be on their minds or that it's taboo for them to speculate but it leaves an uncomfortable stirring in her stomach to hear it.

She takes in the Penelope's expression for a moment, as if searching for something in her face – then she looks away a little uncomfortably. ]

... It's not something I want to think about, but... at this point, it's hard to imagine they won't. I mean, after last week...

[ She lets out a thin, bitter laugh. ]

There's no way to guess just who might end up lashing out.