unknownseas | WEEK 7

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week 7

WEEK 7

Another Saturday gone and just like that you wake on Sunday, down five of your number. The largest dent taken out of you at once so far - it's surely noticeable, the head count being cut by a third. Almost enough to make you wonder how many of you will even be left by the next motive or two. Surely this isn't a sustainable rate for body counts to increase... right?

There's a new and, it looks like, final wing of the building to explore, bringing everything full circle. Maybe you'll get some more answers to some of the questions and mysteries of this place there - or at least, you can certainly hope for them. Time to turn your investigative eyes towards one last batch of rooms, who knows what you might find?

Angel remains around at night, her appearances much more common now that... well, she's certainly seen a downtick in necessary surveillance work, hasn't she? The app giving you a line to The Professor remains open, and well... whatever's going on with that ouija in the library continues to happen! You're not suffering from a shortage of leads, at least, even as things get more bizarre.

Something's going to have to give here, eventually. Right?

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to your last player case week! AC is over here, regains as always are over here, and... well, enjoy! After this we get to take our big turn towards the Serious. ]

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It was an adjustment. I'm not going to say it didn't scare me half to death when I saw Brian in the hallway the first time but he and I suppose we'd count Alice were much different than the ones I'm used to dealing with. [She furrows her brow at the water, trying to will it to freeze. Still nothing.]

Paralysis, sleep, a few hexes, some disorienting spells. I try not to use the more intense spells unless I really have to.

Yeesh... I can understand why you'd avoid that. [ She edges a bit closer, trying to peeeeeer at the water. ] It's still not...going?

They can get intense, even if I'm using them against shambling corpses. [She huffs in annoyance and pulls her hand away, waving it carelessly in Della's direction.] I try only use them if I really have to.

[And, as if on cue, a dark purple glow emanates from her hand as she unwittingly tosses a spell at Della.]

[ Oh, well! This is happening!!

The spell settles and Della blinks and shakes her head, momentarily disoriented. ] Ah! Oh, jeez, uh... [ She brings a hand up to rub at her eyes, and when she pulls it away she's faced with herself, staring back at her in the water. That causes a bit more of a yelp, but it's...strange, it's like she can't move. She can't...it's like she's surrounded by molasses, and the other Della blinks back, out of sync. ]

I'm... Okay. Hasn't done that...before...

[ She's more muttering than anything. Because in actuality, she's stunned still as she experiences her own waking nightmare. ]

Della? [Zerinda furrows worriedly and she lowers her hand slowly.] Do you need to sit down, are you alright?

Hhmmm. Huh. Yeeeeno. I...

[ Who's talking to her? It's...herself, talking to her. Is anyone else here? There's no one else here. She's...alone, that's what she's been. Just herself. Staring back at her.

Are you alright? Have you ever been alright?

She wants to smack the water but she can't bring herself to move. ]

Fine. I'm fine.

[ No, you're not. You're going to die here. ]

No, I'm--

[ You're never going to see your family again. You're. All. Alone. ]

No. No--

[ She tries to look around her, but it's empty. Was that water? No, it's not water, it's a huge mirror. A mirror, the only spot that's not the rocky, shaky surface of the moon.

What? Is she still there?

...Has she ever left? ]

No. N-nnnno, I got out. I got off it, I got- I got home--

[ She's stopped registering Zerinda's there. She's stopped registering anything else. ]

[Oh no, okay. Stop and assess. Della is having some kind of episode, one that she doesn't think she's seen before, and panicking like she's in a...

A nightmare. Shit.]

Della? [Zerinda reaches out carefully and touches Della's arm. She doesn't know if tactile sensations will work or if it'll just have to run its course like with Therion but she has to try.] Della, I need you to listen. Whatever it happening, it's not real. Can you hear me?

[She could try dispel but she's never been very good at it and the risk of it backfiring and possibly doing something like electrocuting her is too much.]

[ A feeling on her arm. What? What is it? The moon mite. She ~~soothed it by giving its young food~~ has been fighting it for years, and it's back, to finally take her down. No. Not on her watch. ]

Away- get back- I'm not dying here-

[ Della flinches away from Zerinda's touch, actually...moving, just a bit. It only serves to make her pull away, though, and closer to the water. ]

[She pulls her hand away when Della flinches, taking a few steps back.

Movement is good, probably? But no, she's moving toward the pool- can Della swim? She's a duck, so must be able to...but she's also never seen her swim and even so being paralyzed by terror isn't very conductive to swimming. If she can grab her and get her away from it though...

She takes a careful, cautious step toward her again.]

I'm not going to hurt you. You're not dying here, I promise.

[ The mite's making noises. Chittering at her. Where... She never leaves the rocket without a weapon, without something to defend herself, but there's nothing here. How could she be so careless? Her family's counting on her, her boys need ~~her back~~ to meet their mother--

She jerks, wildly as the mite tries to approach. ]

No! Stay back, or I'll--

[ She'll what? Della doesn't know what she was going to say, nor can she find it, because she's taken another step back, and her metal leg -- the one she has no feeling in, the one that can't feel the slick poolside -- goes off the edge of the pool (of the cliff) and she windmills her arms before falling backward, into the water.

It's not water to her, not mentally. But all she can tell is, she's moving slowly, and she's acutely aware that the taste of chlorine has replaced the psychosomatic ghost of black licorice on her tongue.

She's ~~drowning~~ suffocating. She's failed. ]

Della! [Zerinda screeches so loudly she's surprised no one comes running. But that never happens on Thursdays, does it? There can be so much noise and no one knows, no one comes to help, not until morning, and then Friday starts-

But valuable seconds are trickling by and she forces herself to stop thinking. Zerinda Radeucan is and has never been a thinker. She's a doer and being a doer she does the only thing she can: she leaps into the water, four layers of skirts and boots and all. It might not have frozen but it's cold enough to shock her bare skin, enough to nearly make her yelp in surprise but the rush of chlorinated water up her nose stops that abruptly.

She has to break through the surface, sputtering and gasping and struggling against the weight of her clothing. Help Della, she needs to help Della. She spits out a mouthful of disgusting water, her eyes and nose burning, before taking a deep breath and diving back down with an outstretched arm to try to grab an arm, a sleeve, a metal leg- whatever she can.]

[ Della tries to breathe, and in doing-so sucks in water. It results in her coughing, choking. She's stunned and it's cold and her leg, it's getting water in it--but something (someone) grabs her arm and she

She's too resigned to fight it, is what it is. Her worst nightmare, that the odds--they're too much for her. That she's completely stoppable. That in the end, her ingenuity will just result in failure.

She's 30 pounds of wet duck. Pull away. ]

[30 pounds of wet duck is nothing compared to 8 years of wrestling chickens from the maw of a few hundred pounds of wyvern who thinks he deserves an extra treat.

Zerinda's grip is like iron and, after a moment, it becomes hot iron. Once she's sure she has Della, she pulls her tightly against her chest and starts to kick her way back up. Her feet feel like they're weighed down with stones and her eyes are burning but if she can swim through an undead-infested lake and only come out of it with a few bites and a near miss at getting stabbed, she can save a duck from drowning.

So she swims, one arm holding Della and the other clawing through the water while her legs work overtime. She can do this, she got them into this and she can-

They break the surface and she spits out another mouthful of pool water, thick sections of loose dark hair falling over her face while she chokes and frantically looks to Della to see how she is.]

[ Well, she's inhaled quite a it of water. But, she's also automatically gasping for air, so she's coughing a lot. And, not really fighting being pulled? Despite being soaked. ]

[You know what? She'll take it! Coughing and not fighting is better than silence and not fighting.

She jerks her head, trying and failing to push her hair out of her face, before she adjusts her grip on the duck and starts swimming for the edge of the pool.]

You're okay, Della, you're okay. [Her voice sounds hoarse to her own ears from coughing but talking put loud has always eased her nerves, even when there's no one listening.] Almost there, you're alright.

[When her hand touches the hard edge of the pool she pulls them both forward, half-draping both herself and Della over it. The arm that was supporting her goes to Della's back and Zerinda gives her a firm smack to keep her coughing.] See? Fine! We're-we're both fine.

[ She's choking up water, and when that smack goes, oof, that's quite a bit of water and probably a bit of dinner too. That's funny. There was never anything to throw up, on the moon. The thought follows, where is she?

Not that she can really focus on it well. She's shivering, even though the water was...well, cold but not freezing. It's the shock, maybe? Probably. Shivering and coughing, that's just how things are for her. And...you know, completely leaning against Zerinda. ]

[Heaving Della up out of the water and onto her stomach (carefully avoiding anything that's not water splattered there) on the tile isn't hard. Getting herself out of the pool is what proves to be almost impossible. Her trembling arms take three tries before she can drag herself up and she has to lay flat on her face to regain her breath, one arm immediately wrapping around Della's middle. She's shivering, which is both good and bad, and it takes a long few churns of the hamster wheel that is her brain for her to remember to grab her wool cloak and wrap it around Della. Gregor the Whiny Skull rolls uselessly off and groans.]

You're okay, you're okay. [She speaks softly, voice still a hoarse whisper.] You're- Ancestors, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

[ Della inhales and exhales. She...she can breathe again. She's not dead? She can breathe, and...what is that? What's...?

Her brain's too panicked to process anything, except a distant, rumbling murmur. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

She stays like this for awhile. For...well, for the remaining minutes of the nightmare. ]

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WEEK 7

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cw: unreality

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cw: drowning, asphyxiation mentions

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cw: emetophobia

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