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#fuck. shit. post be upon ye
syn0vial · 7 months
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YES. YES. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
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widevibratobitch · 7 months
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i hate them with a passion
#this may turn into one of my long ass posts with hundreds of screenshots of quotes from the books#but i dont have the energy for that just now#anyway. this moment makes me wanna throw shit at the walls. their relationship is my favourite thing from the very beginning#but dumas went really went out of his way to make it even more insane in the last book#and dont hit me with a 'aww they have such a big/little brother energy its so cute uwu' please im begging you stop saying that#nothing irks me more than hearing their relationship described as something that innocent. its so much more complex and intense come on#there is pure visceral hate there. jealousy. bile. cruelty. some fucked up form of codependency even? maybe? from d'artagnan's side?#there's nothing more horrible and cruel than the fact that THEY are the only two left alive in the end (not for long but yknow)#they would NEVER be friends if not for athos (and they would never hate each other so much if not for him too)#they hate each other so so much. but remember that d'artagnan starts out being absolutely bedazzled by aramis and looking up to him#his first impression of aramis is just. hearteyes and 'wow i wish that were me'. he doesnt do that even with athos at first.#he grows to adore athos yes but upon first meeting him he doesnt think much of him. unlike with aramis.#and then it changes instantly. does a 180° flip when aramis is a bitch to him.#and it stays that way for the entirety of the trilogy. until this moment. this one short moment when d'artagnan#who. mind you. is not innocent himself and was also manipulating the hell out of porthos and talking shit about aramis behind his back.#but he makes that step. he reaches out. 'i fucking hate you let me help you you dumb evil cunt' and aramis says 'no <3'#you know i have this thing where i am OBSESSED with finding the one moment where a character condemns themselves for good.#the one moment when they figuratively sign the contract for their perdition. that up to that moment they could still be saved somehow.#for rodrigo it is when he tries to kill eboli (in the play). for don giovanni it is when he refuses elvira's plea to change#(NOT when he accepts il commendatore's invite mind you)#and i feel like THIS is that moment for aramis.#the fact that it comes from d'artagnan is so just so fucking agsjssgsgsh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course he says no.#there is no version of this where he lets himself be helped. he has to say no he will always say no.#but boy oh boy is this making me bang my head against the wall.#the three musketeers#les trois mousquetaires#vicomte de bragelonne#alexandre dumas
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the-uncanny-dag · 5 months
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Believe it or not, a lot of people running Tumblr blogs in their free time are adults with degrees, jobs & taxes who learn and process information about horrifying & disturbing current events of world importance in a list of ways that doesn't include posting about said events on Tumblr during their rare hour of respite & relaxation, hope this helps <3
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tacit-semantics · 6 months
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Ok that said trying to talk about filet WIPs when I’m still on the net is like impossible because there’s nothing to say sjsdjdjj. Made some squares guys :) made some more squares guys :) you’re not gonna believe this but I made some squares guys :)
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thefandomcassandra · 5 months
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Schrödinger's Cat Chapter 2: Dreamland Clocktower (ft. ANRI) — Matthias Harlow
Content Warnings for This Chapter: panic attacks, vomit mention, anesthesia, descriptions of corpses
Like Junpei figured, the kitchen let out on the other side of the metal grate in the B-deck hallway by the cabins. He pulled the map out of the file folder and tried to find where they were. Grand staircase...2nd class cabins...kitchen. "Here!"
Lotus, Santa, and June leaned over the map and looked where he was pointing.
"We don't have a lot of options, do we?" Lotus mused.
Junpei nodded in agreement and gestured along a line. "Here's where we came from, where we went. Here's where the group in door 5 went. And here's where we probably have to go." He tapped the staircase.
"Probably?" Lotus looked unimpressed with his vague statement. "Why not here?" She pointed to an L-shaped room down the hallway.
"The doors are locked. Both sets." Santa huffed, irritated. He had tried only moments before and the sound of rattling was only drowned out by him hissing in pain. His hand hadn't quite recovered from his stove touching incident, it seemed.
"Plus," Junpei pointed to the staircase down the hall, "Do you see anything interesting about this?"
They all looked at the unimpeded staircase, pondering what he meant. Then June let out a soft noise.
"Oh. The gate!"
"Exactly!" There had been a gate across the staircase, cutting off access from it. They'd seen it before they went into the kitchen. Now there wasn't. "I'll bet that the others opened it and are looking around upstairs or wherever."
"So should we go up or down?" June tilted her head at the stairs.
"Isn't 'down' flooded?" Santa asked.
"We are on B-deck," Lotus pointed out. June's eyes widened in realization. "There's at least one un-submerged deck between us and D-deck. Does the stairwell even go up?"
Everyone looked at the curving stairwell, its carpeted steps, its polished railings. No stairs went up. Just down in a lazy curve. Asked and answered.
"Alright, downstairs it is then." Junpei folded the map up and shoved it back in the folder, which he tucked under his arm again. No one objected so they all jogged down the stairs to C-deck. The floor they found themselves on was similar to the one they had just left, a hallway branching to either side, a hallway in front of them, polished floors, dark wood accents, and the emptiness of a haunted house.
Junpei looked down one of the hallways at a near impossibly long series of doors. Right, the doors. The REDs.
It was almost nauseating to get used to remembering—or predicting—things that hadn't happened. What even was going on with him? It wasn't just that he knew what was happening. It was something...more. Worse. If it was memories, remembering, and if he remembered entire conversations, then what did that mean about his death? That moment he coughed like water was in his lungs...was that because it had been? Or would be?
Junpei swallowed heavily and exhaled, long and slow. No bad thoughts, no worries about what was and what will be. Just what is here and now. Here and now.
While he was having a Certified Moment, Santa and Lotus had poked their heads down a floor and seen what the deal was down there. June had stayed with him and was hovering about, almost worried to touch him but still wanting to offer him comfort. Her presence was...it was nice. Comforting, like she wanted it to be.
"No good," Lotus worried at her hair decoration as she looked back at the stairs, "D-deck is still flooded."
"I don't know why we bothered," Santa huffed, "It's not like the water would drain."
"Maybe the ship had sealable bulkheads?" Lotus shrugged at him. "Was worth a shot, anyway, because it let us know the water level didn't rise."
"That way is all doors, I don't know if anything useful is there." Junpei pointed at the hallway to their right with the doors. "The other way looks like it has something bigger?"
June nodded at that then pointed to the left of where they were standing. "There's double doors that way so it's probably a larger area? A conference room?"
"It's not like we can take the elevators." Everyone looked at them with Junpei. They were the same as the floor above, and likely just as locked, though the symbol on the card reader looked a little different from the Saturn one. Mercury, was it? It didn't matter, it's not as if anyone else looked close at it.
"Do you think those go below D-deck?" June asked. She gently drew the Mercury symbol on the floor with water from her shoe. Never mind. June had seen it.
"Doubtful." Santa looked down the hallway June had pointed out. "Anyway, you wanna check out that way?"
"It's not like we have any choice, unless you want to take a dive?" Lotus thumbed the stairs. Nobody volunteered so she started her way towards the double doors. Everyone else followed her. When they finally reached them—a short walk, all things considered—she stopped, unsure. Even though he couldn't see her face, Junpei could read the tension in her back and shoulders. She was worried, scared even.
Ah well, he couldn't die just yet. Junpei opened the double doors to the surprise of everyone.
Was he the only one who knew they weren't locked? Probably.
A large room filled with metal cots stretched out before them. The other double door was there, along the wall to the right, and on the far side were four large metal doors. Three of them were numbered—3, 7, and 8—and the fourth—the one between numbers 3 and 7—was blank. Iron plated sealed windows, the bolts facing inwards like snarling teeth. They were trapped. They were trapped. They were trapped.
Junpei took a deep breath and exhaled. Sighed. They were trapped but he didn't need to dwell on it. They could escape. It's fine. His nightmare about drowning, about being stabbed and falling into the water, wasn't anything more than that. It wasn't premonition. It wasn't something that had happened or would happen, it was a dream.
They were safe right now. Snake was safe, alive. Nobody was dead.
(Except the ninth man.)
"What the hell is this place?" Santa cupped a hand over his eyes and peered at the multitude of beds.
"More numbered doors?" Lotus was more upset about the doors than the eerie haunted hospital vibe of the area or the fact that they were trapped still. Junpei couldn't really blame her. If—when—they got out of here, seeing a door with a number on it—red paint or otherwise—was going to haunt his waking hours.
"Well, it's not a conference room." June mused. "Maybe a hospital room?"
Santa wrinkled his nose, his eyebrows pinching in some vague, unhappy emotion. "Smells like one."
The stench of antiseptic was dry and clinical, bitter and permeating. It made Junpei think about blood and other less...pleasant things. Elevators that went to hell. Electrodes against skin. Fists against red-hot iron, begging to be let out. A snarling lion, claws cutting skin. Scalpels. Eyes watching hungrily. Death.
The four of them looked at the various cabinets around and beds, trying to find something of use. When nothing immediately came to mind—save Junpei finding a few vials of some kind of clear liquid with worn paper labels—Santa and Lotus turned their attention to the numbered doors with grim determination. June was sitting by them on one of the cots by the doors, her face set and pale but not flushed.
"Three, seven, and eight, huh?" Santa looked at the 3 door, barely disguising his sneer. "Lucky us, we get choices."
"It's not like we could open one of these without leaving someone behind anyway," Lotus pointed out. June seemed to startle at this, eyes going wide.
Junpei did some quick math. If it was him, Santa, and Lotus, that made a digital root of seven if you excluded June. June, Santa, and Lotus made eight without him. June, Lotus, and himself was the only combination that didn't produce a proper digital root.
"We're not leaving anyone behind." Junpei had never heard June sound so stern. No, not stern, sure? Firm? Or something tinged with desperation and heat?
"Calm your tits," Santa waved a hand at her, still staring at the door like he was trying to think of the best way to make Zero eat it, "I wouldn't stay alone in this haunted-ass hospital room if you paid me a king's ransom. Plus they're broken."
"What?" Junpei watched with mild confusion as Lotus closed the distance between her and the number 3 door. She slapped her hand against the RED and swore when there wasn't a beep or an asterisk. "Son of a bitch!"
"They're broken?" June asked. Junpei, too, had closed distance with the numbered doors, sticking close to June in case she started getting feverish again. She pressed her hand against the RED and, when nothing happened, frowned.
"Really? Can't even be assed to keep up the hardware?" Santa kicked the wall next to the 3 door and winced as he obviously hurt himself. He leaned against the door to keep his weight off his injured foot, idly shaking the hand he put on the grill.
Maybe, Junpei thought to himself as Santa started poking at the door frame in an attempt to busy himself, you'd be less mad if you didn't injure yourself every three minutes.
While Santa was trying to see if the numbered doors could be taken off at the hinges, Lotus sat down on one of the hospital beds and sighed, the weight of the Nonary Game settling on her shoulders. She suddenly seemed much older than she looked, her shoulders bowing under the pressure. Everything seemed like it was finally catching up to her. Junpei could understand the feeling. He also felt like he was being run through a pasta press.
June eventually started poking at the RED by door 3 with scrutiny. She ran her hand over the RED and frowned, then turned to Junpei and waved at him. "Here." Junpei walked close and she gestured at the bottom of the RED. "Put your hand here, on the back of it, toward the bottom." He fumbled around for what she might be talking about. When his fingers brushed the right spot he looked at her in surprise.
"That's such a small piece!" It couldn't be any bigger than a credit card, about as thick as a leaflet. "And all the REDs are missing them?"
"Probably." June pulled back and let Seven and Lotus near the RED so Junpei could show them what she had found. "I don't know why though."
"Lazy," Santa hissed.
"Do you really think Zero would have removed that part without a reason to?" Lotus asked.
"Well what reason would they have to gut the REDs?" June wondered. It was a fair question.
Santa rolled his eyes. "To waste our time, of course!"
In all honesty, he was probably right. At the best, this was a way to buy time for Zero. At the worst, it was a way to make them panic. The longer they couldn't progress, the more likely it was tensions were going to rise and the more likely it was someone was going to do something rash.
Not as if Junpei didn't trust the people he was trapped on this murder puzzle ship with. He did, for the most part. But, like the sword of damocles, there was this heavy hanging reminder that death was an imminent possibility at all times. The ninth man had a knife he had threatened Clover with. They all had bombs in their guts that would splatter them across the walls if they didn't play nice. Never mind the constant threat of the ship capsizing—which was especially dangerous because a sinking ship displaced enough water that any life raft or fleeing person close enough to the mass of it would be sucked into the event horizon to be smashed to bits by the water—they could drown just as easily.
Just before the conversation could devolve into another argument between Lotus and Santa—as entertaining as watching her get her energy back by yelling Santa into submission might be—one of the two sets of doors behind them opened. Everyone startled and whipped back to see who it was.
It was Ace, Seven, Snake, and Clover!
They looked confused and surprised to see everyone standing there by more numbered doors. Clover was the first to speak.
"What are you doing here?!" She didn't sound glad to see them, but she didn't sound surprised either.
"Oh, uh, both of our doors lead out to the same general hallway." Junpei began fumbling in his file folder to pull out the map of B-Deck. "We found the gate by the stairs open—"
"That was our doing," Ace interjected.
Junpei nodded and put the map on one of the beds, pointing out what he meant as he continued. "So we came down the stairs to here. The hallway with all the doors looked like a wash."
"It was." This time Clover did sound mad. Snake put a hand on her shoulder and she sighed. "We only looked at one door apiece but they were just...empty. Nothing for the Nonary Game, anyway."
"Why haven't any of you gone into the doors?" Seven waved a large hand at the numbered doors.
"We weren't going to leave anyone behind." Again, June's tone was harsh and strangely stony. Again, Junpei watched her closely.
Ace looked down at the map, fingers brushing the paper as he double-checked Junpei's story. He frowned, brows pulling his face into something that looked strangely harsh. "Well it's good that you decided to wait then."
"Not like we could've gone anyway. Zero ripped parts out of the REDs. They're all broken."
Snake's head turned so he was facing Santa directly, almost staring at him. "Are you certain?"
"You wanna check this yourself?" Santa snapped back.
"We're certain," June intervened. "It's a small card, probably, that's inserted in the bottom of the hardware. Whatever it is might act as a primary power source for the RED, or even the wireless transmitter?"
"Maybe it's like a wireless monitor," Lotus mused.
Junpei looked at everyone as they talked. Seven was by the doors, staring at the numbers as if he was having some kind of epiphany. While June had been talking about the possible nature of the missing pieces, Snake had gone to investigate the REDs himself and seemed to agree with her. Ace had walked off to investigate one of the cabinets as if they had the pieces they needed. Clover was busy glaring at the doors. Lotus was sitting down on one of the beds as she talked, one leg crossed over the other. And June was standing between the numbered doors and the doors to the hallway, hands folded as she thought out loud.
"Anyway, why the hell is this some kind of hospital room in the first place? Many people get their asses kicked on a cruise ship?" Junpei had long lost track of whatever they had been saying, deep in thought, but Santa's loud, bitter snark was a lighthouse beacon that drew him away and out from his mental fog.
"Oh, that's 'coz this is a hospital ship." Everyone stared at Seven. He wilted under their gazes. "What?"
"What do you mean 'this is a hospital ship'?" It would be easy to read Lotus' shrill questioning as furious but she was terrified and confused. Stressed. They all were, really.
"Well, uh, I mean...I think this is the Gigantic?" Seven flinched away from Lotus, logically a little scared of her.
The Gigantic...the Gigantic...why did that sound—? Junpei winced and nearly bit his tongue as pain lanced across the back of his eyes. Right, right. Ow. Don't press that thought apparently.
"What the hell is the Gigantic?"
Seven scratched at his head and pulled his beanie off, wringing it in thought before he answered Lotus. "Well, y'see, the Titanic had two sister ships. Both of 'em were supposed to be passenger liners like the Titanic but, y'know, World War II happened. The Gigantic got made into a British hospital ship and served for a while until she ran aground after hittin' a mine in the Aegean Sea. The Aegean Sea is shallow, right? So she didn't take too much water and retrievin' her wasn't hard." Seven put his beanie back on and waved a large hand around at the room they were in. "After that, some guy named Lord Gordain bought her up and that was that. Something 'bout him having been on the Titanic and survived. Trauma response or whatever. Big Titanic fan, in a way."
"And buying the Titanic wouldn't have been feasible because it was at the bottom of the Atlantic." Junpei added. Everyone stared at him but he nodded his chin at Seven, corroborating his story. "Because the Gigantic had been grounded and retrieved, it's the closest thing he could get."
"Exactly. The Gigantic was identical in design to the Titanic. So Lord Gordain bought it up and here we are."
Santa rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, so we're on some hundred year old ship? If so, it's in pretty good shape for something that supposedly sank." He opened his mouth to continue but was cut off.
"Not now, the adults are talking." Lotus waved her hand in front of Santa, her steely gaze locked on Seven. "Where's your proof?"
"My...proof?" Seven blinked at her, obviously confused.
"Proof that this is the Gigantic. Where is it? Or do you only have theories?" Lotus glared at him.
"Uh..." Her pressing left Seven at a loss for words.
Lotus jumped on that opportunity like a hunting dog. "So you have no proof. We just have to take you at your word? Trust your memory?" Okay, that was rude.
Seven winced. "I mean...yeah?"
Lotus snorted and shook her head. "If all you can remember is trivia about boats and rich Englishmen, then we should probably give you more time."
His shoulders slumped and he broke eye-contact with her. The floor became so much more interesting than Lotus. "Yeah...sorry."
Her sharp expression softened and she sighed. Again, it was a noise full of tension and frustration. She hadn't meant to take out her stress on him but, in the end, intentions didn't matter. "It's fine."
Before that conversation could pick up again, the clock in the grand staircase rang out. Junpei—and a few others—counted the bells. "...ten...eleven...twelve..." Silence. Twelve chimes.
"It's midnight." June looked worried. They had already used three of their nine hours.
"We've got six hours left then." The speed at which Clover did the math was impressive. Even though it was incredibly simple, Junpei's first reaction was to tick them off on his fingers, but she did it all in her head.
Seven sighed and looked back at the doors leading to the hallway outside. "We should get moving."
"Moving?" Ace sounded confused. "The REDs are broken, are they not?"
"Well, yeah, but we can try and find the parts, can't we?"
He had a point. "Where though?" Junpei pressed.
"The hallway with all the doors. We already looked at a few of them, so if we split up, dividin' and conquerin' as it were, we can go through the remaining...however many—"
"Forty-eight." Clover supplied.
"Forty-eight rooms. Six each for the eight of us, we should have 'em done in an hour or so." Seven nodded at Clover, glad she had done the math for him.
"So, what, we waste an hour poking around in rooms and then, in the off chance we do find the parts of the RED?" Santa glared at Seven, then the REDs. "What if we don't find them?"
"Well, remember how we were talking about how there's no chance Zero didn't do this on purpose?" Junpei tried to not sound condescending but, really, Santa was proving to be a really dumb guy for all the trivia about gambling and numbers he had rattling 'round in his head.
"Yeah?"
"Oh!" June seemed to have realized what Junpei was trying to say. Her eyes sparkled. "They won't stay broken forever, will they?"
"Probably not," Seven agreed. "Even if we waste time lookin' for the parts, we won't waste any more time than Zero wants. Not by a mile."
"Then let us split up. Six rooms each, you said?" Snake turned to face the area Seven was standing in.
"Yeah. That should cover all of 'em."
"Forty-eight rooms," Lotus groaned.
"Could be worse!" Clover pointed out. Lotus just huffed in response.
"Let us meet up in this room when the clock rings out."
"Call out if anyone finds the parts, okay?" Everyone seemed to agree with Junpei's suggestion and they parted ways to look for the missing RED parts.
As Junpei searched a handful of rooms on the starboard side, he thought about what was going on with him. Not just the Nonary Game—because that was something everyone was dealing with—but the whole...memory issue. Precognition? Deja vu? Whatever.
Thinking about those things, those moments of foresight and understanding, always hurt. It was a pain that burned behind his eyes and dug its claws into the back of his skull, like the worst headache he'd ever had, and yet he couldn't tell when it would strike him. If he could map the pain to a pattern—one that wasn't just 'knowing things he shouldn't'—he could avoid it but...as it was he just had to grin and bear it.
The parts to the RED weren't in his rooms. Strangely enough, upon leaving when the bell rang one, Junpei found Santa, Ace, Clover, June, Seven, and Lotus standing in front of the numbered doors in the hospital room. They were whispering among each other, confused, nervous. The aura of the room was oppressive.
And Junpei was the last person to show up.
Wait— "Where's Snake?"
Clover flinched but remained silent. It was June who answered him. "Jumpy...look." She gestured at door 3's RED.
Oh. It read: VACANT.
"Who found the parts?" Junpei was confused. "Didn't we say we were going to yell out if someone found them, so we could all go through the doors as soon as possible?"
Nobody answered. They all stood there, the air of discomfort and confusion thick and stifling. Nobody knew. Nobody knew who had repaired the REDs or where the parts had been. Like Junpei, they came back to the hospital room and found their path open again. Junpei ran his hand under the bottom of the RED, feeling for the piece that had been missing before. Yep. There it was.
"So nobody knows what the hell happened?" There was no vitriol in his voice, just confusion. He had, after all, been the last one to arrive.
"I got here first, before anyone else. There was nobody here, nor did anyone leave through the other door." Lotus waved at the two sets of doors, her voice flat. "At that point the REDs were fixed. I could see the lights of the VACANT notification. It was...I don't know."
"Yeah," Santa said in agreement. "Ace and Seven got back before me so I saw them looking at the REDs like they personally offended them. So I asked what the deal was and, well, no luck."
"I was the second to last one to arrive," June continued. "So I know about as much as you do."
Nobody knew who had fixed the REDs. Everyone came back to them being repaired and operable. Everyone was in the dark.
Maybe not everyone. Junpei winced as a lash of pain struck him.
Clover, as she had the entire time they had been talking about the REDs mysterious repair, remained silent. Sullen, even. Or, no, not sullen: scared. Scared and angry.
The first question Junpei had when he entered the hospital room resurfaced. "Where's Snake?" Clover flinched.
"No clue," Santa shrugged.
"Everyone else arrived before you did and we didn't see him. Perhaps he repaired the REDs and went back to find Clover to inform her?" Ace posited.
"I didn't—" Clover started to say, then cut herself off.
"He's gotten himself lost if that's the case." Seven stared at the doors leading to the hallway.
"He's blind. Of course he's gotten lost." Santa's callous remark finally got a reaction from Clover. Unadulterated fury contorted her features. Anguish coated the edges, softening the harsh lines of her frustration. It painted her in sharp tones, all directed at him.
"That's not true!" Her raised voice echoed in the large room, cutting off every other possible conversation as everyone looked at her, all wearing looks of concern and confusion. "My brother might be blind, but his hearing is really good! He can get around as easily as any of you! So he couldn't be lost! He - he couldn't..." She trailed off, folding in on herself. Her fury was burning out, leaving behind only hollow fear. As she stood there, fists clenched, drawn to her full height, she shook slightly.
Junpei didn't know what to do, nor did anyone else. They just stood there, eyes flicking between the distraught Clover and the numbered doors, weighing their options. Stay for Snake and waste time or go now and come back for him. Which was the better choice?
Junpei wanted to look for Snake but it would be futile, wouldn't it? There would be no point in looking for him, just fuel on the fire. He wanted to spare Clover the anguish but...some things were fixed events, like June had said.
Realizing nobody would back her up, Clover snarled, angry tears welling up in her eyes. "Well fine! I'll go look for my brother and you assholes can go ahead and leave! I don't care!" She spun towards the doors leading out and dashed off, her heels beating a rapid pattern on the floor.
"Clover, wait!" June tried to stop her but didn't move fast enough. None of them did. She was gone, the doors slamming shut behind her. Only Lotus and Ace didn't react, their faces furrowed in confusion and thought, but not in concern.
Junpei stared at the doors leading out of the hospital room. Then he sighed and moved to leave as well.
"Hey! What're you doin'?" Seven grabbed him by the arm, halting his progress. Junpei winced in surprise but didn't try to tug free. Seven might be keeping his grip loose but the man was an immovable mountain.
What did it look like? "I'm going to find Clover. I'm not leaving her behind."
"If you're doin' that, we need a plan, like before." Seven let go of Junpei, aware of the discomfort he was expressing at being held in place. "We can't just split up like idiots. We gotta' be smart about it."
"Sure, we'll be smart about wasting more goddamn time." Santa snarled and gestured in the general direction of the main stairwell and the clock that marked their limit with every hourly chime. "I say: fuck her. Fuck both of them. If she wants to run off and find her missing brother, that's her prerogative. I don't wanna die 'coz she got upset."
"Santa!" June wheeled about and glared at him, standing on the balls of her feet so she was at his eye-level.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Even for Santa, even with tensions running as high as they were, that was...
"I'm just saying!" He held his hands up defensively. "I don't plan on dying, do you?"
"Her brother is missing!" June continued to press into Santa's personal space. She was radiating fury and indignation. "She's scared, same as you! We can't just—"
"We can," Lotus pointed out, "But you're right. We shouldn't."
"While Seven does have a point about the dangers of splitting up, considering Snake's disappearance, we should do it." Ace offered up a solution. "So long as we communicate with each other as to where we will be and reconvene here, in front of the numbered doors within a time limit, I believe all should be well."
"It shouldn't take that long to find Clover," Lotus pointed out.
"We should use that time to help her look for Snake too." June wasn't taking any suggestions. She wanted to do this more than she wanted to leave. She wanted to reunite the siblings; wanted Clover to hold her brother again. She needed it.
"Okay," Junpei nodded. "That sounds like a plan."
"I'll stay here in case Snake actually got lost or if Clover gives up." Santa leaned against the wall near the unmarked door. He sounded irritable and more than a little bored.
"I'll take B-deck," Lotus offered. "The only places she could go are the kitchen or that big L-shaped room."
"The casino?" Seven asked. Lotus' eyes glittered.
"A casino. Yeah, I'll go there and see if she tries to backtrack to the main hall, not that she could..." That last bit was muttered under her breath. Seven winced for some reason.
"I will look in the hallway with all the doors. Perhaps one or both of them are still searching there." Ace offered. That was a fairly logical choice.
"June and I will search as many places as we can." Junpei looked to June to see if she was okay with that plan. She was still puffing her cheeks out in frustration, her narrowed eyes locked on Santa as if she could set him on fire with her ire alone. "Is that okay, June?" He asked her, calling her name again in order to get her attention. She jumped a little and looked at him, anger slowly fading.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'll go with you, Junpei. That sounds good." She still seemed a little distracted, but she didn't seem like she wasn't willing to search at least.
"Then I'll also do a bit of searching across the ship. I gotta' good eye for things like this." Seven shrugged. "So let's meet up here in, what, thirty? Make a lap and meet up. No wastin' time, alright?" He got nods in response. "Let's go."
Everyone scattered to their respective areas with Santa staying behind, looking irritable but unconcerned. June and Junpei stood in front of the stairs and tried to figure out where they should go. Junpei pulled the map out of the file folder and pressed it against a wall. "So where do you think Clover and Snake might be?"
"Well," June traced the map with one finger, "Lotus is up on B-deck by the casino and the kitchen. Ace is off in the hallway here. Santa is in the hospital room so there's no reason to go back just yet. Maybe up by the 1st class cabins on B-deck, where door 5 went through?"
"You think Seven is going there too?" Junpei asked, folding the map up again to put it into the folder.
"It looked like he was helping Ace search the hallway with all the doors." June tilted her head in that direction. It seemed a logical thought. Junpei nodded at her.
"Then let's go to B-deck and see if Clover might've tried to backtrack." Junpei gestured for June to take the stairs before him and followed her. While his weird premonition headache kept coming and going in waves, the pain latching to his brain like some kind of tick or a furious dog, he was still somehow able to think clearly. His mind was running a million miles a minute, trying to figure out where they could have gone, what could have happened, how everything had gone to shit so fast.
Zero, for all it might be obvious to blame them, couldn't be the problem. The Nonary Game—this whole fucking kidnapping situation—was meant to be a game. It was winnable, albeit dangerous. So far, save for Snake disappearing, the only other human loss was the ninth man, who had done himself in by breaking rules. Snake disappearing was...there was no purpose to it. It was an outlier.
But also...Zero could very well be one of them. There was a possibility, no matter how small, that Zero was a player in the Game in their own right, in some kind of equilibrium or balance. 'It's not fair if only you are putting your lives on the line! I will bet myself on your skills as well, so that I can make a point.' Or something like that.
It was all speculation anyway.
Upon reaching the gate that separated the 2nd and 1st class cabins from each other, Junpei and June caught a flash of bright pink. A sense of relief flooded Junpei's body and they both walked towards her, slowly, leaving space if she wanted to leave. Junpei was reminded of a feral kitten he saw once or maybe even a scared rabbit. He kept his hands up so she could see them. Beside him, he could see June do the same.
"Hey Clover?" Junpei kept his voice even as he could.
"Everyone is looking for you and Snake," June added.
Clover didn't answer—or if she did, it was too quiet for them to hear—and her small frame trembled as she stared at the door leading out of the 1st class cabins. Her shoulders were slumped, hands clasped at her chest, eyes blank and dead. Her cheeks were streaked with tears that ran her makeup. It made her look younger than she already did.
For a moment, Junpei didn't know if he really wanted to talk to her or just leave her be. He caught a glimpse of June's determined expression and that cinched it. He wasn't going to let Clover suffer alone. She didn't deserve to think she wasn't cared for, brother or not.
It would make things harder later if she thought nobody cared.
"Are you alright?" Junpei tried to keep his voice low so as to not startle her.
Clover didn't respond. Her shoulders hunched and she tucked her head down, turning so neither Junpei nor June could see her face.
"Everyone is helping now." It felt...hollow and fake, saying this now. He should have helped earlier. He should have stood up for her. Should should should.
But he didn't and now this girl—Junpei wasn't sure how young she was but she definitely was younger than him—was without her brother. He might be a single child but he wasn't so divorced from reality as to not know the bond between siblings, never-you-mind siblings kidnapped for a puzzle murder game. She was suffering and, while not equivocal, if Junpei found himself without June he might fall apart in a similar way.
"You should...we're going to reconvene in a little bit. You should head back when you've—"
Clover said something. It was inaudible, so quiet he couldn't make it out.
Junpei frowned, as did June, and he asked her, "Huh?"
"—lone..." More of what she said was understandable but it was mostly muffled. She was speaking while facing a wall and all.
"Clover—" June started but she was cut off when Clover whipped around and screamed.
"I said: leave me alone!" She was crying again. While at first glance it might be mistaken for anger, she was genuinely distraught and terrified. She bared her teeth at June and Junpei and waved her hand at them both as if she was going to hit them. "Fuck off! I hate your stupid faces! I don't wanna see you anymore! Go away!"
June flinched but walked back. Junpei did the same, keeping his hands up in a placating gesture.
"Are you ignoring me? I said: fuck off!" Clover continued to yell, stomping her way towards June and Junpei, her finger pointed at them like a knife. Neither of them could bring themselves to speak—June out of confusion, Junpei out of shock—and that seemed to only irritate her further. "If you won't leave then I'll—"
"No, that's alright," Junpei cut in. Clover blinked at him in confusion. "Me 'n June will leave. We just wanted to make sure you were okay and to let you know the plan, alright?"
June nodded. "Yeah. You stay here if you want, okay? We're going to go see what Lotus is up to, right Junpei?"
"Right." Junpei noted the way Clover's stance changed, the fight leaving her body. Her anger was posturing and, without that, she was just scared and tired and scared and terrified and scared. She was scared.
Junpei was too.
June and Junpei turned and left the 1st class cabin hallway and hung a right towards where the casino was. Lotus was leaning against a wall, examining her nails and not at all looking for Snake or Clover. Actually, scratch that last one, she probably saw Clover and did the smart thing by not talking to her.
June frowned. "Lotus!"
Lotus looked up at them, unimpressed. "Hm?"
"What are you doing?" June's tone was harsh, like it had been when Santa had suggested they leave Clover. She was angry, not on her own behalf, but on behalf of Clover and Snake. She was good at being angry on others' behalf. "You said you'd look for Clover and—"
"I found her." Lotus gestured towards where Clover was by the 1st class cabins.
"You're still not looking for Snake though!" June argued.
"You don't know that," Lotus countered. June puffed her cheeks in frustration and stomped her foot. That only seemed to amuse Lotus, who rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I have a thought if you're willing to hear me out?"
Were they willing? Junpei glanced over at June, who was still angry. She met his eyes, brows furrowed, and he tilted his head in a silent question. She didn't say anything in agreement but she didn't say anything in refusal either. She was letting him choose.
Junpei looked back at Lotus and nodded. "Shoot."
"We should make an alliance." She gestured between the three of them.
"Huh?" Was she suggesting what he thought she was suggesting?
"The three of us should go through one of the numbered doors."
"Without everyone else?" June was angry again.
Lotus huffed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course. If the last set of doors was any indication, it's very likely that all the numbered doors meet up somewhere. Us going ahead won't ruin anything, it'll just give us an advantage to finding the 9 door."
Junpei did some math. Between the three of them, their digital root was one, which left a group of four with a digital root of seven. The remaining group could go through a door and they wouldn't be able to. That's not even taking into account the 9 door or Snake.
"We physically couldn't go into a door with just the three of us, never mind morally." June pointed that fact out for him. "Our digital root is one. The doors we have access to at the moment are 3, 7, and 8. We'd need one more person, even if we were going to betray everyone and do what you want."
"Betray is such a harsh word," Lotus sighed, "But yes, you're right. We'd have to add Seven to go through the 8 door."
"And leave everyone else. They'd have a remaining digital root of eight, which is the door we'd be occupying. If they find Snake, they'd have a digital root of one. If we go through a door without them, we leave them behind regardless."
"You sound like you're morally opposed to escaping."
"I'm morally opposed to sacrificing people for my own safety!" Why was June so upset about this? It was puzzling to even Junpei, who figured he knew her pretty well. Righteous anger was more his deal than hers, unless things had changed in the past nine years, but she had always had a strong sense of justice. She also was more likely to plan things out for fairness' sake than anything else. Lotus' suggestion was not only unfair, but also more than a little morally ambiguous. Their safety and freedom for everyone else's. But also...
"We couldn't escape even if we did bring in Seven." Lotus and June looked at Junpei so he continued on with his thought. "With Seven, we have a digital root of eight, sure, but that's not nine. If we wanted to escape then, we'd have to sacrifice one more person: you."
Lotus gaped at him but she was smart. She was doing the math, figuring the odds. If she was so willing to sacrifice others, she should take into account that others would sacrifice her too. Really, it was a scare tactic on Junpei's part. He, like June, didn't want to leave anyone behind, but he knew Lotus' fear was manifesting as cold logic with no room for feeling. He, like June, wanted to prove to her it was a bad idea to discard morality like that.
Also, to be fair, it wasn't nice and, yeah, it might be childish, but he wanted to scare Lotus a little.
"Fine." Lotus conceded. "Fine. It wouldn't work. You can't blame a girl for trying."
You very much can, Junpei thought but he wisely kept that to himself.
"Jumpy and I are going to go see if Ace and Seven found Snake and tell them where Clover is." June was still a little angry with Lotus. She probably didn't want to be around her at this time and, frankly, Junpei couldn't blame her. He understood Lotus' thought process but it still felt...bad to say out loud. "Please make sure Clover shows up by the numbered doors in a few minutes." She wasn't asking.
Lotus seemed to know that because she nodded. "Understood."
Junpei and June left the area by the casino and slipped down the stairs, hanging a right into the hallway with all the doors. June was still huffy.
"The nerve of her!" She stomped her foot again. "Suggesting we leave someone behind—multiple someones! And then she backs down when you point out that she'd have to be left behind for the group to open the 9 door!"
"She's scared, just like Clover." Junpei tried to point out.
"Well it doesn't excuse her actions! People aren't pawns in a game. They're living beings!" Something about that seemed...personal. Or, maybe in the nine years between elementary school and now, June had gotten more passionate? Who knows.
"Yeah, but I think she got the point." Junpei acquiesced.
June continued to fume. "Even if we did get out, even if we did get the cops or the authorities or whatever, we have five hours as of now. It's incredibly unlikely that we'd be able to come back and save everyone else."
"True." Junpei hummed in thought. Then something occurred to him. Something horrifying that sent his stomach deep into his feet. "Only five people can actually leave."
"Huh?"
"Only three to five people can go through a numbered door. Even the 9 door is subject to those rules, I'm sure."
June's eyes went wide and she stopped walking. Junpei stopped as well and stared at her, worried he had upset her. When she finally spoke, her voice was thin, as if she was using every ounce of strength she had in her body to not cry or scream. "Even if we all got to door 9, we..."
They would have to leave behind two or more people to escape.
What the hell?
Junpei chose to speak first. "I'm sure there's another way." He was lying, trying to placate June. She probably knew it as well but...can't blame him for trying.
She gave him a thin smile. "Y-yeah. There has to be." She tugged on her hair, eyes downcast. "Let's go find Ace. See if he or Seven managed to find Snake."
Down the hallway, they both saw Ace leave one of the rooms and move down the hall to another. They started jogging forward and waved at him. "Ace!"
He turned back to look at them, brows furrowed, but stopped walking so they could catch up.
Huffing, June and Junpei stopped in front of Ace and took a moment to catch their breath. Ace gave them both a smile. "Hello there. Have you had any luck locating Snake or Clover?"
"We found Clover," June said. She was disguising her prior discomfort and anger with her delight at having actually found Clover. "No luck with Snake though. Lotus hasn't found him either. How about you?"
"I have been looking best as I am able but nothing yet. Seven and I have crossed paths on occasion but if he had found Snake, I would know before anyone else." Ace put his hands in his pants pockets, his coat fluttering out slightly. "I assume Clover knows to meet back in the hospital room?"
"Yeah. She's really worried." June tugged on her hair again, eyes downcast. "She misses her brother."
Something occurred to Junpei in that moment. "Hey, do you think it's weird?" Ace and June both looked at him. They were confused by his sudden non sequitur. "Clover and Snake, I mean. Are they really siblings?"
"They could be half-siblings or step-siblings," June offered as an explanation.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean?" Ace frowned, his face more lined than usual. "They said they are siblings, so they're siblings, are they not?"
"Well, I mean, they look nothing alike." Snake was tall and thin, pale, with dusty brown hair that looked almost ashen. Clover, on the other hand, was shorter and, while her pink hair might be dyed, the odds of her having Snake's hair color naturally was low. They looked so different and acted so differently. How could they be related? Why was Ace so willing to accept that when June had to come up with an explanation.
"Clover also dyes her hair and might even use color contacts." June added to her explanation.
"True."
Something strange and confused passed across Ace's face then was buried under a thoughtful frown. "I suppose...now that you mention it: it certainly is strange."
Now? Now he's confused? Why now? Junpei stared at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.
June, however, had less reservations about Ace's statement. "Yeah! There are loads of siblings who look nothing alike! Plus I think Clover is pretty fashionable. She probably spends a lot of time on her hair and makeup and clothes to stand out. Not sure if Snake always dresses like that but he's a little..." She paused, then waved her hand in a roundabout gesture. "Regal? Like one of those handsome capture targets in dating sims."
Junpei blinked at her in confusion. "Wh—dating sims?"
"What, can't a girl have hobbies?" June giggled.
"I just didn't...expect that." From you.
"Shows what you know." She bounced in place, amused. Her mood had taken an upswing, which was nice. "But, no, they're not my personal favorite. I just know someone who likes them a lot."
Ace seemed almost amused by the whole exchange. "Regardless, we should find him as soon as we can. Even if we do reconvene and enter the numbered doors, being without Snake will leave us disadvantaged."
"Yeah..." Junpei didn't know what else to say. "We're running out of time."
"I will continue to search over here until the specified time. If I see Seven again, I will inform him about Clover." Ace placed his hand on the doorknob of the door he was heading to.
"Thank you, Ace." Junpei turned back to June. "Shall we?"
"Mmhmm," June nodded and started back to the large hospital room while Junpei mulled over his thoughts.
Why was he filled with such unending dread? What about searching for Snake was making him so nervous? Why did he feel like all of this was - was futile? Why was he so certain, deep in his heart, that they weren't going to find Snake? Not yet, anyway...
His head hurt but he pushed through that to clutch at whatever premonition about Snake lay behind the burning blinding pain of it all. Snake was...Snake was...a door. A door and Snake was—
"Are you okay?" June's question startled him out of his deep thoughts. He let out a little squeak of surprise and, while she did stifle a snort, she didn't pull away from him. "You look sick."
"I mean, I did throw up earlier," Junpei admitted, "But also you had a fever. I guess you and I are destined to be sick today."
"I hope not." June broke eye-contact and stared at the doors to the large hospital room. Her shoulders were tense again. Junpei had upset her.
"I'm fine. Don't worry. I'm just...worried." That wasn't a full lie. "Why don't we see how ol' Krampus is doing."
"You think he kidnaps naughty children?" June asked, her eyes glittering with amusement.
"I think he's more mean than Santa Claus has any right to be." That made her laugh so it was worth it. They push open the doors.
Santa was standing by the 3 door. He was frowning so hard Junpei thought he might hurt himself. He didn't even turn when they opened the doors and walked in. He did, however, speak without looking at them. "Hey, you said that Zero wouldn't do something without a reason, right?"
"Hm?"
"Junpei. You said 'there's no chance Zero didn't do this on purpose'." Santa mocked Junpei's tone and way of speaking. He still was staring at door 3.
"...yeah? I did, didn't I?" He wasn't sure if that was exactly what he said and how he said it but...that seemed about right. "What about it?"
"So you think Zero is the one who put the REDs back together?"
Junpei frowned. What was he getting at? "I...guess?"
"You 'guess'? Can't be more sure of yourself?" Santa sneered.
"Look—! It's...it's been a rough day, okay?" He didn't mean to sound defensive but, really, he felt attacked. Or, not attacked, prodded at, like a kid poking at a pillbug or centipede to see what it'll do. Treated like a joke and toyed with. It set his hackles up.
"Sure. Rough day." Santa sounded weary, like he, too, was struggling beneath the weight of memories that burned at the touch. He took a deep, loud breath then exhaled out his nose, almost frustrated. "But really: who do you think put the REDs back together?"
Junpei looked at June to see if she had some kind of thoughts about this line of questioning. Her eyebrows were invisible beneath her bangs, eyes wide like she was the one being put on the spot.
He looked back at Santa. "Well, Zero, obviously?"
Santa snorted. "Yeah? What makes you so sure, hotshot?"
Good question. "Like I said back in the hallway by the 2nd class cabins: if the Nonary Game wasn't fair, we wouldn't be alive. There's a reason, a pattern to this whole deal, right? Not just nines but puzzles in puzzles. Solutions that give keys that solve other puzzles and so on. The kitchen gave us a keycard for the elevators by the grand staircase which means we have to be able to go back there. Something in the door 5 area gave them the key to open the gate to the stairwell in the shared hallway. There are no accidents insofar as the game design is concerned."
Junpei wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about this but he did. The Nonary Game, no matter how fucked up and awful and filled with math it was, was a game. A fair game. No dead ends in a labyrinth, no unsolvable puzzles in a good game.
Undeterred and with nobody stopping him, Junpei continued. "The REDs missing parts is suspicious, sure, but not unheard of or impossible. The REDs near the hallway with all those doors was probably planned. We needed to waste time to force us to...to..." He paused and frowned, a wave of pain licking at the back of his eyes, clawing at the meaty parts of his brain. "To..." He gasped, breaths coming in panicked, weird bursts.
"Junpei?" June asked. He could barely hear her. His ears were full of water. The pain in his back hurt less than the pain in his heart. He couldn't breathe through the iron-and-salt in his mouth.
"So that we..." He tried again. He knew why the RED was broken, didn't he? He knew what the time wasting was for, didn't he? It was to put pressure on them and to obfuscate that—
"Junpei?" Santa this time. Why was he worried? His body was laying on the stairs in a pool of blood with everyone else. Everyone but Junpei. Everyone was dead. Everyone was—
The next thing Junpei could remember—aside from the feeling of a plume of fire venting out from a point in his back and ice water filling his lungs—was the sound of June and Santa holding some kind of muffled conversation. He could feel June's voice reverberate through his body, starting at his skull. What was—?
He stirred and felt a weight lift off his head. The conversation stopped and he tried to make sense of his surroundings.
Junpei was lying on one of the thin hospital beds with his head on June's lap. She had been stroking his hair. She looked like she was going to cry and, for all they might not get along, Santa looked concerned too.
"You said you were feeling better!" June puffed out her cheeks in frustration. By the tears in her eyes she was worried for him. He had made her worry.
"Sorry." Junpei sat up and ran his hand through his hair. There was a dull ache there, physical, like he had bruised something. "I'm sorry, what happened?"
"You spaced out then passed out. Smacked your head on the RED, of all things." Santa—who had been standing by the bed Junpei was laying on—waved a hand at the offending device. "Thankfully you didn't break skin or anything. June screamed loud enough as it was. If you started bleeding I think I might've needed to wear earplugs."
"I was worried!" June chided. She hadn't moved since Junpei sat up, playing with her hair as she watched him—probably for any kind of indication he was in danger of passing out again. "Forgive me for screaming but he collapsed. I didn't know what the problem was since he puked earlier!"
"Maybe he's got brain damage." Santa still seemed like he was unaffected by—or even completely unbothered by—Junpei's accident but...something about his guarded posture made Junpei think otherwise. "Maybe the puking is a concussion thing."
"Aren't you not supposed to let someone with a concussion sleep? Because they might die?" June's eyes widened in horror.
"You're supposed to monitor them. The whole thing about not sleeping is an old wive's tale because they'd conk out with red flag symptoms and not wake up." Junpei rubbed at his eyes to try and chase away the worst of the pain. It didn't work. "Besides: I'm fine."
"You stopped making sense after going on a weird rant about the Nonary Game being fair and then passed out. That's not fucking fine." Santa actually reacted to that.
Junpei blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected him to be so upset. Huh...
"Besides, everyone is on their way back anyway. We've wasted all our extra time." He waved his hand at the doors leading out to the hallway. "I can hear Lotus and Seven fighting from here." They couldn't but the point stood regardless. Junpei passing out had wasted what precious searching time they had left. Good going...
All because of the damn REDs.
Junpei glared at the door 3 RED for a moment, then looked back at Santa. "Hey, uh, about your question?"
"What?" He looked uncomfortable.
"Why did you ask? Not that it matters or anything, I'm just...curious." And he was, though it sure did matter to him. There had to have been a reason why Santa had asked. Everything these days had a fucking reason and he was sick of being in the dark.
"Oh, uh...," Santa looked at the floor, his posture shifting from casual to defensive. His shoulders tensed and he shoved his hands in his pants pockets. "It was about...trust, mostly."
"Trust?" Junpei didn't know what the hell he was on about.
"You said Zero repaired the REDs, I was gonna' say it was one of us, maybe Snake. And in that case, they didn't say shit, right?" Santa continued, seemingly not sure of what he was saying after Junpei had collapsed. Like the point didn't matter any more. "I wanted to point out that you can't trust anyone right now, no matter how well you think you know them."
"And I ran my mouth about how I trusted Zero to run a good game, huh?" Foot in mouth. "Man, I'm such a jackass."
"You're not feeling well—!" June tried to argue.
Junpei didn't care. "I'm not saying it to be self-deprecating or anything. I just made a jackass of myself there. Nothing more."
Neither of them said anything as everyone else filed into the hospital room in pairs. Ace and Seven, Lotus and Clover. They all stared at the three standing and sitting near door 3.
Seven spoke up first. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, uh, I just...hit my head is all." Junpei didn't want to worry them. There was no need to worry them. They had more worrying things to deal with than his possible brain injury or precognition or whatever was going on with him. The ghost of ocean water clawed at his lungs and he stifled a cough into his elbow. It brought tears to his eyes. "Sorry."
Nobody said a word for a moment, then Ace spoke up. "In the end, I couldn't find Snake."
"Me neither." Seven wrung his beanie.
"No luck on my end." Lotus didn't sound too put-off but she was tapping her fingers on her leg, a strange tell or self-soothing motion for the woman.
Clover said nothing. What was there for her to say? Her brother was missing and she had to be drowning in despair. The fact that she was walking and, to some extent, talking was a miracle. If someone close to Junpei—if Akane died—he wouldn't be this put together. He would fall apart like a puppet whose strings were cut. Like a doll whose thread was coming undone.
Clover was immeasurably strong in comparison.
A heavy silence blanketed the room again before Lotus cleared her throat and waved a hand at the numbered doors. "So let's stop wasting time, huh? Who's staying behind?"
"What?" Seven bristled. June and Junpei, who had already considered the door options and various digital root breakdowns of the current group, were less surprised. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"We have very few options regarding who goes through which numbered door with our current bracelet combinations. With one, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, we have a total digital root of seven while the doors here have a digital root of nine. There's no way for all of us to go through these doors. Either we leave behind three people or we leave behind four people." Sometime between when June and Junpei had talked with Lotus and now she had given a lot of thought to the doors and who all could enter them. Hearing her logic was interesting, however.
Getting the digital root of the total group and comparing it to the digital root of the doors they had access to was an unorthodox way to quickly calculate how this would work.
If we had Snake, we'd have a digital root of nine, which means nobody would be left behind. Junpei must have made some kind of face because Lotus' eyes narrowed and she nodded towards him.
"Like some of you have realized: without Snake here, we can't all go through the doors. But we can minimize the quote-unquote 'casualties' by choosing to leave one person behind so that the remaining six can split between two of these three doors."
June was, as before, not happy about the idea of leaving anyone behind. "I already said we aren't going to—"
"I don't think we have a choice!" Lotus cut her off, her tone steel-edged. "I've been doing the math and we can't all go through the doors. Either some of us make it or none of us make it. If we leave behind one person, we can open the number 9 door and at least some of us can escape."
Santa pointed at June with an accusatory finger. "You can't keep going on with this righteous tirade every time we try to minimize the damage. I'm not a huge math nerd or anything but the hag is—" Lotus made a sharp noise of protest but Santa continued, refusing to wait for her to get genuinely angry at him, "—and if she says there's no damn way all of us can go through then there's no damn way all of us can go through."
"She's being pragmatic," Ace seconded Santa's point. "If we can minimize the amount of losses—"
"We can all escape! I know we can!" June protested. Junpei wanted to tell her she was right but...
She wasn't and that was the worst of it. He wanted her to be right but the math didn't work out. With Snake dead gone it was pointless to try and save everyone. And it's not as if whoever was staying would even be in any danger anyway.
He winced and swallowed the noise of pain that wanted to escape through his teeth. He had only just gotten back up. Being hurt in any way might make them choose him to stay behind and he couldn't—
As Junpei tried to collect himself again, everyone else was arguing. June was adamant that everyone could make it through a door while Lotus, Ace, and Santa were certain they wouldn't. Seven was quiet, opting to stay out, and Clover was silent like a roiling storm. Junpei was the last vote in this matter to push it to a majority.
"June," she turned to look at him, frustration evident by the way she was pulling on her hair, "Lotus is right. We can't all go but—" he cut her off before she could interrupt him, "—I don't think that we won't see each other again. I'm pretty sure things loop around."
"What do you mean?" Everyone turned to look at him in confusion. Had they not figured it out either?
"The unmarked door?"
"What about it?" Santa looked back and forth between the door and Junpei.
"What do you think it's supposed to be for?"
"Does everything have to have a meaning?" Santa's derision was palpable but beneath that was a weird hint of confusion and curiosity. Maybe he wasn't half as dense as he pretended to be.
"Door 4 and 5 both lead into the same hallway that gave us access to C-deck, right? Why give us elevators to nowhere and doors that can't be opened from either side? The 2nd class cabin doors were bolted shut with plates and yet this door isn't altered in any way. It probably opens from the other side like how the numbered doors only open from our side." Junpei walked to the unmarked door and knocked on it. It rattled and made the same sound as the numbered doors did. "So my theory is that the doors here all dump into the area behind this unmarked door. Inside those numbered doors are keys and keycards for all the places we couldn't access at the start. No dead ends."
"That's an impressive theory," Ace said slowly, "but why does that matter when it comes to who stays here? True, if the doors do loop back around, there's no worry about leaving anyone behind in the long run, but it does mean that one person will be forced to wait out the entirety of the second group of numbered doors. What do they do then?"
Junpei shrugged. "Iunno. Whatever they want. Take a nap even." God knows I could use one.
"I still—" June started but she bit down on the thought. Her jaw worked while she figured out what she really wanted to say. She settled on, "Lotus, what do you think is the best option for who stays?"
Lotus tapped her fingers on her legs as she thought it over. "You, Junpei, or Ace."
So their options were:
June stayed behind; Santa, Junpei, and Clover went through door 3 while Lotus, Seven, and Ace went through door 7 or Ace, Santa, and Lotus went through door 3 while Clover, Junpei, and Seven went through door 7
Junpei stayed behind; Ace, Santa, and Clover went through door 8 while June, Seven, and Lotus went through door 3 or Ace, Santa, and Lotus went through door 3 while Clover, June, and Seven went through door 8
Ace stayed behind; Santa, June, and Seven went through door 7 while Junpei, Clover, and Lotus went through door 8 or Santa, June, and Lotus went through door 8 while Junpei, Clover, and Seven went through door 7
Six total permutations. No matter who decided to stay behind, one of the three numbered doors couldn't be opened. It all depended on who wanted to stay as to where the rest would be going.
"I volunteer." Ace didn't give anyone time to discuss it among themselves. The moment that the option came up, he spoke. No question. Or, rather, no question from anyone aside from June.
"No, I will!"
Ace smiled at June. For a moment, Junpei was filled with a sort of dread that he couldn't name, but it passed as Ace refuted June's offer. "June, I am old and my body is not as used to running around like you might be. Let me be the one to stay back. As Junpei said: I can take a moment of rest."
"Ace—"
Ace's face hardened and his hand moved quickly, something in his grip. Lotus yelped and moved away from him but whatever he had done, he had done to himself. June let out a sharp cry as he sat down on one of the beds, wobbling slightly. His breathing hitched and he placed something on the bed next to him; whatever he had been holding.
An empty syringe and a small glass vial.
"What the hell?" Santa and Seven both put themselves between June and Ace but she shoved past them.
"Ace!" She knelt down beside him, horrified and confused by his actions.
Ace gave a wan smile. "There. Argument solved."
"What the fuck did you do?" Santa snapped the vial up and stared at the label. Then his furious gaze turned back on Ace. "Soporil-Beta?"
"It's a generalized anesthetic. I found some..." Ace gestured at the shelves. "I figured it might have a use. Just not this one."
The idea of Ace carrying around a syringe of what was obviously a rather fast acting intravenous anesthetic made Junpei feel slightly ill.
"So you fucking shoot up and take a nap? What is wrong with you?" Santa remained standing over Ace, even as he yelled. June, still sitting next to him, pulled on her hair, nearly crying in frustration and worry.
"We don't have forever," Ace pointed out. His speaking was slowing, words becoming syrup in his mouth. His blinking stuttered and desynced and he seemed as though he was losing vision, confusion evident. "With myself out of the running, the rest of you can go through the numbered doors. If Junpei is correct, I will simply sleep off the Soporil and you will come back to me bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. If Junpei isn't..."
June was scowling so hard that she looked like she might develop a tension headache. Still, her frustration seemed more worried than angry.
"If I'm wrong," Junpei offered, his voice more sure than he felt, "then we'll make sure to come back for you without our bracelets. I promise."
June moved as if she was going to clutch at Ace's jacket but drew back. Ace gave her a soft smile, his breathing slowing and evening out. "Exactly. I look forward...to seeing you...again." Then he was asleep.
June's breathing hitched too, caught, stuttered, then returned to normal again. She stood up and stared at the numbered doors like they offended her personally. "Fine." She sounded frustrated and, really, Junpei could hardly blame her but...they needed to keep moving. Altruism, heroism, that was all well and good when you had all the time in the world. They didn't, so they had to make difficult decisions and choose selfish options.
"So who's going where?" Santa asked.
"I can only go through door 8 while Seven can only go through door 7," Lotus said. She, like Junpei, had already done the math. Clover and Junpei's digital root was nine as were Santa and June's. One of those pairs had to choose who they wanted to spend that room with. Only one.
"Clover?" Junpei looked at her to see if she had any opinion but she wasn't speaking. She was standing by Ace's sleeping body, looking down on him with an unidentifiable look on her face. After a few moments, he turned to June and Santa instead. "Either of you have a favorite?"
"I'm fine either way." June didn't sound fine but maybe it was more that she was upset about Ace than being forced to pick her poison.
"I've spent enough time with Lotus to know I shouldn't hang out with her again." Santa, however, did have an opinion. "Bad for my health." Lotus glared at him but he flashed her an amused and cheeky grin. "Prove me wrong."
"Junpei?" Lotus chose to, instead of engaging with Santa's nonsense, ask him. "What about you?"
What about him? Door 8 felt...familiar and familiar thus far was good. He could only go through a door with Clover and either Lotus or Seven so it's not as if there was more complicated math to do. It was a binary choice. Door 8 and Lotus or door 7 and Seven.
Junpei...Junpei liked Lotus. She might be loud and easy to anger, she might not take anyone's shit, she might be a little violent at times, but she was honest. She wasn't hiding anything about who she was, what she wanted, and why she didn't want to be here. She didn't lock them into the freezer, despite it being an easy way to eliminate people. She even went so far as to reconsider her stance on leaving people behind—or at least softening her word choice—when June got upset about calling it a 'sacrifice'.
"If it's alright with you, I'll go through door 8 with Lotus. Clover?" He looked over at her for confirmation but she was still standing there, looking at the floor, so tense she looked like she might fall to pieces if he so much as touched her. "Clover?"
"...don't care..." She muttered. Junpei noticed how Lotus frowned but neither of them said a word about it.
"Santa, June, and I are goin' through door 7," Seven recounted, making sure everyone else was in agreement.
"While Junpei, Clover, and I are going through door 8," Lotus finished. Nobody said anything to the contrary. Everyone was fine with the plan.
Santa looked at June, scratched the back of his head, then nodded at Junpei. "Don't die."
"Santa!" June chided but Junpei could only laugh.
"That's the third time someone's said that to me today." It felt silly, all things considered, but it was comforting.
"Well then don't die then, dumbass." He was concerned. Santa was worried and, in his own right, he was showing concern for Junpei.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll try my best. You too, okay?" Junpei watched Santa's face to see if there was any reaction. For a moment—a brief moment so quick that if he wasn't paying close attention, he would have missed it—Santa smiled. It was soft and fleeting, a bit like a baby bird, but it softened his face and made him seem younger.
June nodded at Junpei too, her own expression more serious than usual. "We'll do our best!" Seven nodded in agreement as well.
With that said, Junpei turned to Lotus and Clover, gesturing at the number 8 door. "Ready?"
"Yes." Lotus authenticated her bracelet and stepped aside so Junpei and Clover could.
Clover, still silent and grieving her missing brother, authenticated next. The RED display showed two asterisks. Two numbers. Junpei's was the last. He authenticated and pulled the lever. Door 8 swung open, screaming for them to abandon hope and enter. Junpei caught one last look at June before they would be separated for a while.
Fear, frustration, and hope. Things would be alright, but at a cost. June ducked in her door and Junpei did the same. Door 8 swung closed behind him with a thunderous noise.
"Eighty-one seconds!" Lotus reminded them as she tore down the hall and swung left, disappearing around the corner.
Clover staggered into a run behind her and Junpei followed suit. With every beep of the detonator, Junpei was reminded of the death of the ninth man. The blood. The viscera. The smell. The idea of it happening to one of them now made it hard to breathe. Beep. Beep. Beep. Like a death knell.
Where the hell is the DEAD?
Clover, like Lotus, flew despite her heels. She moved like she was being hunted, like the specter of death was just behind her with its scythe. As the two of them rounded the corner, they saw Lotus standing at the end of the long hallway, placing her hand on the DEAD. The sound of verification was like an angel's choir.
She turned to face them and stepped to the side, waving them to hurry. "Found it!"
Clover managed to get there before Junpei and quickly verified, then Junpei placed his own hand on the scanner panel. The third asterisk appeared, the third electronic noise sounded, and Junpei hurriedly yanked the lever down. The skull on their bracelet display faded, the ominous warning of the detonator fading into the hungry silence of the ship.
Junpei gasped as he tried to catch his breath. Lotus and Clover also panted, though not as audibly.
"That was...such a long run," Junpei griped.
"You didn't have to do it in heels."
He rolled his eyes at Lotus, who was smirking at him. "And you still...got to the DEAD first."
"I've had practice running in them, obviously."
"Obviously."
Clover remained silent, though the veil of grief had not lifted yet. The adrenaline lightened it a little, her expression less despondent and more angry, but she was still mostly unresponsive. While Lotus and Junpei were trading verbal barbs, she didn't speak.
When she did, her voice was barely audible, her words like globs of molten lead falling from her mouth to the floor. "Let's go."
"Uh, right." Junpei swallowed a lump of guilt and sympathy. "Yeah."
Near the DEAD was a set of large double doors labeled 'Laboratory' leading into what was probably the puzzle room. Clover, without waiting for either Lotus or Junpei, stepped into the laboratory beyond the doors. The two left behind exchanged heavy and pointed looks.
"She's—" Junpei didn't know how to explain his feelings on Clover's behavior. She was grieving for her brother, even if they might meet again. She was worried she might be in danger too. She was...angry and had every right to be.
"I know." Lotus' expression was something new to Junpei. He had seen her be angry and defensive and even manipulative. He had seen Lotus exasperated and delighted and prideful. Now she was...she seemed worried, yes, but something more personal. She looked like a mother watching a child suffering, unable to fix it. "We just have to be patient with her. Even if—"
Even if Snake is dead, she didn't say, but Junpei knew. He was thinking about it too.
He swallowed heavily. "Yeah." They were on the same page here; Clover came first. Together, they entered the laboratory.
What awaited them behind the clinical, almost elevator-esque doors, was something even more clinical. A large metal room, a quarter-circle of it partitioned off by glass and metal walls that made some kind of viewing chamber. Outside of the sectioned-off area is filled with old and chunky computer systems as well as sets of lockers. From where Junpei was standing, he could barely see the inside of the viewing room and what he could see seemed to be more clunky machinery.
"It's some kind of...experiment room?" Junpei wondered as he stared at that section of the laboratory. He moved so he could see into the viewing chamber easier and startled at the sight of a human figure lying on an examination table of some sort. He must have made some kind of startled noise because Clover looked at him. Her expression was still dull and sour but she had reacted.
"...yeah. See the mannequin?" She pointed one finger at the human figure on the examination table. It was, in fact, a mannequin. Its wooden head was riddled with electrodes, the wires leading back to one of the large machines. "It's meant to be like an EEG. They were experimenting on it."
Poor Science Boy.
Where had that thought come from?
"Well, we can't just stand around with our mouths gaping," Lotus clapped her hands once, the sharp noise drawing Junpei and Clover's attention to her. "Split up and start solving."
"Why should I listen to you?" Clover snapped at her. While this was the first time she had expressed any strong emotion since they decided to enter the numbered doors, the vitriol and anger was surprising. Or, no, maybe not. Maybe this was just a long time coming. She had been biting her tongue for almost an hour now. "What did you ever do for me aside from stand in a hallway and clean your nails?"
"I—" Lotus didn't have an answer for her. Of course, she was already aware that she hadn't done much to try and find Snake but it didn't mean she didn't care. Not that Clover knew that, however. To her, Lotus' lack of care in the search was as damning as if she had shoved Snake into a numbered door herself.
"Clover—" Junpei tried to mediate but she was having none of it.
"No, shut the hell up!" Clover turned to snap at him too. She was like an agitated dog, cornered and willing to bite anyone who tried to pity or comfort her. "I don't wanna hear it! She didn't look for Snake, she doesn't care about anyone but herself! I heard you yelling! I know what she wanted to do! If June hadn't told you off you would have taken Seven and—!"
Lotus flinched. Her mouth opened, then closed, as if she was trying to say something but was unable to put it into words. She couldn't refute what Clover was saying. She had wanted to leave everyone behind to leave. She had to be told it wasn't possible on top of being wrong before she dropped it.
And Clover had heard the whole conversation.
"Why the hell should I do anything you say? You probably...and I'll—!" Clover struggled to express herself. Tears gathered in her eyes as she shouted at Lotus. "Stay away from me! If you come near me again I'll—!" Unable to finish her thought, she dashed into the viewing room to put distance between herself and Lotus.
Junpei didn't have time to warn her.
The metal grate slammed down, the portcullis locking her inside the viewing room with Science Boy. She turned on her heel to see what the noise was, fury melting into terror as she realized she was trapped. Finally, she started crying. She slammed herself against the bars and shrieked in horror, choking silent sobs.
"Clover, calm down!" Junpei was the one who moved to comfort her. He reached out to grab her hand through the bars and, as his fingers brushed hers, he could feel how cold they were. She drew back, clutching at her face and hair in fear as she leaned against the wall for support. "Clover. Clover, listen to me, okay? We're going to solve the puzzle here and get you out of there, okay? Just...just calm down. You have to be strong, okay? You're going to get out of there. I promise." He tried to keep his voice from shaking, relying on the weird niggling thought in the back of his head that said it would be okay. He needed to be strong for her. He needed to be calm so she would be calm. If she didn't trust Lotus, she could trust him.
Clover swallowed and nodded, staggering away from the wall to grab Junpei's hand. She was shaking but Junpei squeezed her hand once and held eye contact. He nodded back at her, slowly, and took a breath.
"Can you be our eyes and hands inside there?" He asked. He hoped she couldn't hear how terrified he was, how genuinely not okay he was in this moment. She nodded at him. "Okay. Lotus and I are going to solve the puzzle out here, alright?" She didn't let go of his hand. Her eyes widened and flicked to look at Lotus. She didn't trust Lotus to do anything. Alright. "I'll solve the puzzle out here. Better?" She let go and pulled back. "You can sit down to rest. Don't worry about being too active. I'll call out if I need you to do something. Just...breathe."
Junpei stepped back and looked around their side of the room, heart hammering. Lotus was leaning against a series of lockers, her face pinched with worry. Junpei tilted his head towards what had to be the exit from the room, trying to communicate that he wanted her to go there so they could talk. She picked up what he was saying and made her way over.
Clover wouldn't be able to see them there. Not if she was sitting down on the stairs. They could have a talk while she collected herself.
Lotus radiated guilt. It wasn't too hard to realize that what Clover said had gotten to her. She wasn't wrong, obviously, but it didn't make it easier to hear. Fear made people act selfishly and this place thrived on fear. Lotus had only been more...overt in her selfishness—her fear.
"She doesn't trust me." She kept her voice low so Clover couldn't overhear them.
"She's scared." It wasn't an excuse but—
"I just...are you going to be okay doing everything?" A pivot. She didn't want to talk about it. Understandable.
"Yeah. Not the first time." Junpei didn't want to talk about how, like everything else that had happened today, this room felt eerily familiar. "I'm pretty smart."
"If you get stuck, I'm here." Lotus leaned against the door, obscuring the red light indicating it was locked, and waved her hand at herself. "Just...hurry."
Junpei nodded and walked back towards the center of the room. It was time to solve this puzzle.
None of the machines in the room were responsive. One of the computers—what appeared to be some kind of central control system—needed some kind of key to activate it. That was fine. He could find the key later. The lockers...half of them were locked and the other half contained...some rubbing alcohol?
What the hell could they need rubbing alcohol for?
By the lockers was a computer monitor and keyboard but no computer. When Junpei poked around, he realized the monitor didn't have a cord. Where had he—? Oh! Right. There was a power cord by the central control system. Junpei pocketed the rubbing alcohol and jogged over to grab the power cord. It was a thick, black cord with three prongs which...didn't fit the monitor. "Of course." Junpei sighed and put the cord in another pocket, then moved so he could see Clover sitting down on the stairs. She had stopped crying, her eyes and nose red, and was staring despondently out at Science Boy. Her mouth was pinched and frustrated but a lot of the vitriol was gone. She was tired. They were all tired.
"Hey, Clover?" Even though Junpei tried to be quiet, she jumped. She must have been deep in thought. "Sorry."
She stood up and walked over to the grate. "Yeah?" Her voice was crackly from crying and once again quiet. The fight had left her at last.
"I need you to look around in that room. Can you do that for me?" He didn't want to make her do anything she didn't want to but...if she wanted to escape there—if she wanted to escape the Game—they needed to move. Thankfully, she nodded at him in agreement. "Thank you."
Junpei walked to the viewing window and watched as Clover poked around in the experiment area. She toggled switches on the machinery attached to the electrodes coming out of Science Boy's head but nothing happened. Next to the operating table was a table that had some surgical instruments and something that caught Clover's attention. She peered at it, leaning over the table in a way that made it hard for Junpei to see what she was doing.
"What's up?" Junpei shouted so Clover could hear him.
"There's some kind of...writing? Marker? It's on this table," Clover shouted back. "It's a bit smudged but...I think there's something else written beneath that? Like they covered up something."
"I have some rubbing alcohol if you want to try and remove it?" Junpei held up the bottle so she could see it. "Looks like there's a rag nearby so maybe that's the solution?"
"Yeah...maybe." Clover moved to the grate and Junpei met her there, handing her the bottle of rubbing alcohol. She lingered there for a moment, as if she wanted to ask Junpei something, but chose not to. That was fine. Whenever she was ready. Clover disappeared out of sight and, presumably, scrubbed the table. Then, from somewhere out of sight, she called out, "Do you have something to write with?"
"Yeah, uh, I have a notebook and a pen I found in the third class cabins." Junpei pulled them out of his hoodie pocket and offered them through the grate. Clover took them and disappeared again, then came back with them in her hand. On the paper, she had written down a tic-tac-toe style grid with the numbers one through four in a few grids. "Huh."
"I dunno what that's supposed to mean but..." Clover trailed off.
"Thanks." Junpei gave her a soft smile. "Uh, while you were in there, did you see any power cords? There's a monitor out here but the one I have has the wrong number of prongs."
"Uh...I think one of the machines wasn't plugged in. I can check that?" For all that it was bad they were separated, apparently it was doing wonders for Clover's mood in some ways. She was becoming more talkative, even if it was only in a puzzle solving way.
"Yeah, I'd appreciate it." Junpei followed her this time, walking his way to the viewing window. In his peripheral vision, Lotus was still standing there, concern evident. Junpei gave her a smile to ease her nerves as best he could and tilted his head toward the room, trying to communicate that it was okay. She seemed to pick up on that.
Clover knelt down and struggled with the cord then yelped and fell back on her butt. In her hand was a small black object. When she stood up again and turned to face the viewing window, she brandished the object at Junpei. "It came off!"
"Is it an adapter?" It looked to be the right size.
"Uh...I think so? The one you put things in has three prongs and the one you put into things has two." She frowned at the object.
"Yeah that's what I need." Junpei and Clover met at the grate again and she passed the adapter to him. He slotted it into the prongs of the cable, satisfied that it did its job. "That should let me power up the monitor. Thank you, Clover. You should be good to sit down for a bit. Maybe chat up Science Boy?"
"Science Boy?" Clover blinked at him, put off by what appeared to her as a non sequitur.
"The, uh, mannequin?" Junpei realized he might be blushing. His face felt warm for sure. "I - I named it."
Against all odds, Clover laughed. It wasn't mean-spirited, more startled and delighted. It was nice to hear after...everything.
"Hey!" He couldn't help but feel a little defensive about it. "Don't make fun of Science Boy!"
"I'm not making fun of Science Boy," Clover giggled. He'd take her laughing at him if it meant she was laughing.
"Don't make fun of me either." Junpei huffed, only slightly put off. Hearing her happy, even at his expense, really was wondrous. She deserved happiness. She deserved it all because—
Junpei winced. Clover's laughter trailed off. "Are you—"
"I've been fighting a headache all night," Junpei waved her concern off, not wanting to get into it. "It comes and goes. If I'm lucky, we can leave this room before I hurl. Now go sit down while I mess with this computer. You wanna borrow my notepad?" So you're not bored. She didn't move to sit down so Junpei passed her the notebook and pen after tearing the page Clover wrote on out and stuffing it in his pants pocket. She took it and sat down, immediately scribbling something on the paper, her face screwed in concentration.
Junpei plugged the monitor in and tapped a key on the keyboard. The monitor lit up and a string of numbers and letters scrolled across it in some sort of booting process. From where she was standing behind him, Lotus made a noise of interest. Junpei waved her to come over and she closed distance quickly, leaning over the keyboard to peer at the monitor with a strange intensity.
"You good with computers?" Junpei asked her.
"You could say that." Lotus continued to stare as the characters stopped scrolling and left only a single truncated word and a blinking cursor. "There we go. Password."
"Password?" Junpei stared at the monitor. Computers weren't his forte. All things considered, he was pretty bad with them. But if a computer was asking for a password they didn't have...
"Well the bad news about this is that I don't think we have any way to figure the password out the easy way." Lotus pulled out the chair in front of the monitor and keyboard. "The good news is that I'm here so we don't have to."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Junpei was about to continue asking her what she was on about but suddenly her fingers started flying across the keyboard. The sudden motion startled him into silence. What else was he to say to a woman who could hack. "Ah."
"Like I said," Lotus preened, "You could say I'm good with computers."
"'Good' is an understatement."
"Well it doesn't do anyone any good to brag about this kind of skill." She continued to type as she talked, undeterred by any external stimuli.
"So, what, you're hacking the computer?"
"Close enough. I'm building a program to crack the password. We don't have time to manually try every possible iteration of characters—especially considering we don't know the length of the password—so I'm making the computer do all the work for me. As any good gentleman should for a lady like myself." She was deflecting in a way.
Junpei didn't blame her. He was putting on a brave face too.
Something occurred to him at that moment that he hadn't asked about yet. "Hey, so, this monitor is wireless, right? Same with the keyboard?" Lotus gave him a dry look. "Alright, stupid question. I'll go chat with Clover then. Leave you to it."
"Thank you." It wasn't just for her benefit, really. She wanted him to make sure Clover was alright in the same way that she wanted to crack the password. "I'll call you when it's done."
Junpei walked over to the grate and knocked on it. Clover jumped a little and glared at him, scrubbing away frightened tears. He gave her a moment to collect herself while he listened to Lotus tap away at the keyboard. "How're you doing, Clover?" No response save a flat look. "Fair enough. Lotus is busy cracking the password so I thought I'd come and say hi, since you're all alone."
"It's only been a few minutes." She sniffed.
"Yeah, but still...," Junpei shrugged. "Figured I'd ask since you're in science jail." The withering glare she gave him made him chuckle. "So how have you been spending your time?"
"Math." Probably door math.
"Couldn't be me."
"Yeah, well, it's that or strike up a conversation with Science Boy, which is just sad." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Now you're being mean." Of course, he wasn't upset or anything, but the point remained. "But really: how are you?"
Clover gave it a long period of thought before she answered him. Her expression was rather unreadable, her tone as devoid of emotion as she could make it while sounding conversational. "How do you think?"
Good question. Fair. "I think you're worried about Snake, among other things. You're upset and angry. You have every right to be, of course, but you...trust me for some reason."
"Aren't you some kind of therapist?" She tried to affect bitterness, a sharp edge to her words, but Junpei wasn't buying it.
"I'm just making an educated guess." What else could he do? "I'm scared too, so that's not a reach. If I had a sibling—or if June went missing—I'd be angry too. Angry at Zero, angry at anyone who didn't take my concerns seriously. Worried is a given. I still don't know why you trust me though."
It looked as though Clover was going to answer his question when Lotus let out a triumphant shout. She clammed up immediately and warily looked at where Lotus was sitting. Junpei shook his head in amusement.
"I'll be back. You think you can hold on a little longer?"
Clover snorted and moved back to the stairs. "I'm not nine. I can be patient."
"Alright." With that said, he walked back to Lotus. "Got it?"
She grinned at him and pointed at the monitor, which now displayed a three-by-three grid of squares. "Done and done. Nothing to it."
"If you say so." Junpei peered at the grid. It looked...familiar. More familiar than simple deja vu. Wait, the thing Clover wrote down. He fished the note out of his pants pocket and clicked the squares in the order they were labeled in. One, two, three, four. All nine of them were green. Something to the side clicked.
The other set of lockers—the ones that were lit with red before, indicating they were locked—were now unlocked. Inside were two things: a small metal key marked with the symbol for Earth and a small key for some kind of electronic device. Junpei put the Earth key in his pocket, balled up and tossed the note Clover made, and inserted the second key into the keyhole in the control center. It turned without issue and the monitor on the control center lit up.
"Power restored to experimental device." Junpei read aloud. "Emergency system will activate in the event of abnormal subject behavior." What the hell did 'abnormal subject behavior' even mean? Well, if the control center was on, then that meant the machines in the experiment room should be working. He turned around and rapped his knuckles on the glass of the viewing window. "Clover?"
"What?" Clover stood up quickly and popped into view. She shoved the notebook and pen in her jacket, worried.
"The main control system is on now. Try messing with the machine hooked up to Science Boy again." It felt silly to say that name out loud, where Lotus could hear, but it worked. She moved to the knobs and fiddled with one. Nothing happened.
Her shoulders tensed and she looked back at Junpei through the window. "Nothing! I'm gonna try max voltage!" Before Junpei could warn her against that, she twisted the knob as far as it would go. The electrodes on Science Boy's head sparked dangerously, then caught fire. In fact, all of Science Boy's head caught fire. Clover shrieked.
So did Lotus as the fire alarm in the room shrieked. Through the viewing window, smoke began to obscure everything. Clover ducked down and kept her sleeve in front of her nose and mouth so she didn't inhale too much smoke. Junpei looked at the exits, trying to see if this was considered 'abnormal subject behavior'. Judging by the way the system informed them the emergency system was activated, it was likely.
The lights on the doors—both the one leading out of the room and the one that linked the experiment room to the viewing chamber—were green. Unlocked.
"Clover! The other door!" She looked at him through the glass then her gaze flicked to the door he was talking about. "It's unlocked! Head that way and we'll open it."
Lotus was way ahead of him. She grabbed the doorknob and threw it open, stepping to the side as Clover stumbled out, coughing. It swung closed as Clover got out of the way and Lotus opened the exit, holding the door for her as they filed out one after the other, free to breathe fresh air at last.
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faarkas · 1 year
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they just watched someone put a piece of bad roadkill in the stew
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scattered-winter · 8 months
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chap 4 posted. gonna sleeb now
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zanathan-aisling · 2 years
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people who claim trans men are part of an ‘oppressor class’ to trans women despite facing their own marginalizations are. what the fuck are you talking about. have you ever actually seen the cissexist hierarchies of society outside your little maths of “well trans men are men and trans women are women and men oppress women!!” ever. how much fucking insulation are you smoking to earnestly believe that The Patriarchy is willing on any notably widespread capacity to overlook someones transness for the sake of granting them ~male privilege~ over the *other* filthy transsexuals.
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boygirlctommy · 1 year
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desperately throwing my animatics at my portfolio please let me into your animation program, school
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ollieofthebeholder · 1 year
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Hey, just as an FYI to anyone who might follow such things - I just went through and did a mass replace of a whole bunch of my old tags, primarily to get rid of my deadname (deadnickname?) but also to get rid of some self-deprecating language. In 2023 we're loving ourselves, bitches, and anyone who doesn't want to hear what I have to say, the unfollow button is right there.
So! For anyone who's wondering, my common tags:
#ollie writes = for generic writing (original fiction, poetry, etc.)
#ollie writes fanfic = exactly what it says on the tin.
#ceaseless watcher turn your gaze upon whatever the fuck this is = my generic talk tag (life stories/random thoughts/whatever)
#regardez-moi and weep = my selfie tag
#this should not have been as funny as it was = stuff that makes me laugh
#i swear everyone on this website is on drugs = Tumblr-specific nonsense (may occasionally overlap with the above)
#ollie admits to having opinions = the new poll tag
#music music music = songs, playlists, and other audio posts (in other words, if it's a video, unmute)
#i will never not reblog this = perennial favorites, things I've reblogged at least once before and reblog every time they cross my dash, which may be anything from The God of Arepo to that Star Wars "look at all the fucks I don't give" gifset
#i need a gif tag = gifs/short looping animations
#you may put that in a bowl and I may have some = attractive people (it's an inside joke)
#queue sir do sir = my queue tag
If there's anything you need me to tag for, please drop me a line and let me know! (And please be as specific as you can about what, exactly, you need to tag for. Especially if it's something subjective.)
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One day I will stop looking up triggering things on the internet I promise
#it was jkr this time folksssss#she has got so much louder and more vitriolic#I think my most unpopular opinion is that the whole ‘you should die’ and ‘violence upon ye’ stuff made things worse#not saying she deserved to have her views supported bc holy shit. even that first essay was full of inconsistencies and false info#plus it was pretty infantilising about ftm trans people#who I notice she rarely discusses#the whole thing was a mess but written prettily enough to appeal to some people but that is a topic that’s been covered#anyway my point is that I can see that a natural conclusion to seeing people baying for blood is to run in the other direction#and I just bet all the terms were rubbing their little terf hands together in glee#you know that post about cults and cult adjacent religions and churches?#the one that talked about how these people send new recruits to knock on doors to make them feel othered and alienated#and how that sets them up perfectly to put themselves in the position of protector and comforter etc#yeah I think about that in relation to terfs and jkr A Lot#of course jkr has a fuck ton of privileges due to the whole money thing#but she didn’t always have that and she is pretty clearly not worked through the trauma she’s experienced at the hands of men#so yeah#I may be wrong but I sure do wonder about it#also I hope this doesn’t come off as being a jkr apologist bc Ew.#whether or not it was avoidable doesn’t matter when the reality is that she’s consistently causing harm#having free will means that when you’re being a dick it’s your responsibility#and if it’s your responsibility then you need to work on that and make a genuine apology tour instead of digging your heels in#or blaming it entirely on your circumstances for that matter#if jkr were to get out of the terf cult now and cited the same reasons I think things got this bad she’d still have to make big steps#towards fixing what she broke and apologising for her behaviour#and also she would need to learn to be okay with not being forgiven by everyone#I doubt it’ll happen though. she’s in pretty feckin deep
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widevibratobitch · 2 years
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Polish Witcher fans are just evil fucking people and i hate them so much <3
#this is very random but#yeah. brought to you by: i am stupid and i looked at the comments in a polish wither group under the new cast announcement post#despite knowing full well that im gonna see horrible disgusting far-right cishet boys being absolutely cruel racist fatphobic etc#whether you do or dont like the netflix series is absolutely irrelevant. this is just like. basic human decency.#they're not even shitting on the show anymore. they're insulting and degrading an actress because she's black and fat#because sapkowski described the character (yes there is blatant sexualisation of women in the og witcher books)#as having a figure more beautiful than Yennefer's#and that the statues of nymphs and goddesses would be eaten by jealousy if they saw her naked#(again. sapkowski's words not mine. old creep)#and guess what. the actress they hired is fat. note how sapkowski never once used a word 'thin' or 'skinny'. just 'beautiful'.#there is pure hell in the comments under that post.#pictures of pigs. 'disgusting fat hog' 'those statues would either laugh or throw up if they saw her naked' etc.#people arent even mad about her being black because they're so preoccupied with her not being skinny#i just dont get it. i genuinely dont understand why would anyone be so cruel. what do they get out of this?#like i dont usually wish bad things on people. but this is the exception. i genuinely fucking hope something horrible happens#to every single one of these people <333 not only them. from the bottom of my heart i wish bad things on people who are so disgustingly#racist fatphobic homophobic mysoginistic who are just cruel and take pleasure in other people's pain#having said that. the witcher community here on tumblr is amazing. generally people here are great. not only in this fandom.#and then i come out into the real word and i am forcefully reminded that poeple in general (especially here in this fucking country.#piles upon piles of young edgy boys obssesed with their beloved fascist political party. treating women as objects. insulting everyone#who is different. i am so sick of this. hate upon hate upon hate. like i really genuinely dont understand it. i just dont.#maybe im fucking stupid and naive but i dont want to believe that the majority of people. of men. is bad.#but then i see comments like these and i am just. speechless. i am honestly stunned with how horrible these people are.#anyway. its 3 am and im having a little breakdown over people on the internet being mean lol but i am an oversensitive little bitch so#whatever
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chicnstu · 10 months
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i always give my faves snakebites. i love mine so much i have to give them to every character ever
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roychewtoy · 11 months
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lot of nuance to the things cast of characters if you really pay attention
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onlyswan · 5 months
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summary: in which you drive jungkook mad but you make his heart beat.
idol!jungkook x f!reader, est. relationship / fluff, suggestive, a pinch of angst / word count: 5k
content/warnings: tried sumn different so this is mainly from jungkook’s pov :D !! drummer!oc ur so cool & i’m stealing u from ur bf 🏃— mention of a 10 yr age gap between jk & a guy who likes oc (he’s hella pissed off) ; mentions of (car) s^x ; allusion to a bl^wj^b ; jk just got home from tour & oc is tipsy, needy, & dramatic as hell T_T ; oc /briefly/ touches jk while he’s driving & he /nearly/ loses his shit & crashes the car (he doesn’t) (i’m kidding) + to the anon who wanted to jk’s cheek scar to get a kissy here u go 🥺
> in which masterlist!
note: oc is so shot glass of tears coded especially in this… i’m glad i’m posting this after golden came out just so i could say it 🥰 this takes place after this drabble sooo the end of oct 2018 <3 if u’ve read the prev drabble too, this was when jk said those exact words in the past 🥺 wrote this in the middle of hell week so i was half out of my mind :'] as always feedback & reblogs rrr always appreciated !! 🥺
jungkook loves the sound of rain— the gentle knocks on every surface of the earth has always been a lullaby even during daylight.
tonight is a different story, however. it is defeaning, terrifying even. he can barely see what is infront of him, spare the occasional headlights blazing across the slippery roads. his umbrella is being stolen away by the harsh gusts of wind and the mud stains on his sneakers are well-hidden by the plain black.
and yes, he is tired; and yes, this is hard, but that is the end of it.
you’re exactly where you told him you’d wait, far behind the edge of the roof where the rainwater falls from and splashes on the ground. you stand out in his blue oversized shirt, one that he purposely left behind in your closet so he could have something else to wear when he sleeps over.
you’re too busy typing on your phone to see him crossing the parking lot; he feels his very own vibrate in the pocket of his sweatpants. however, his giddy smile fades when a man exits through the entrance door and approaches you with a red umbrella. his strides become slightly hurried then, as he watches you politely decline it with that heart-fluttering smile of yours everybody adores.
“oh no, really, i’m fine. you might need it later! my boyfriend is already coming to pick me up anyway.”
jungkook acts cool. he tucks his hand in the pocket of his sweatpants, tries to make himself appear bigger because he realizes that he would be inches shorter than the man if not for the platforms of his shoes.
“____, baby!”
upon hearing your name coming from the lips of your lover, your face lights up even brighter.
“jungkook!”
you greet him with an embrace, jumping into his arms before he can properly set down his umbrella on the ground.
“yah, yah-yah! be careful!” he chuckles as he wraps his arms around your waist to catch you, peering down to check how high your boots are for you to be running and jumping around freely.
“hey, i’m going back inside- there’s more customers coming in. make it home safe, alright?”
the stranger tries to catch your attention, and jungkook’s protectiveness swiftly kicks in when he lays a hand on you and slides it down to your lower back. your boyfriend turns you away from the unprompted touch by pulling your body closer to his side, and he is unable to control how his eyebrows knit together in annoyance.
he wasn’t planning on giving much thought to the presence of a man around you. he knows better than that. but he has never heard about this one, which raises the question of who the fuck is he to freely touch you like that?
“oh- alright! thank you, jun!”
“you better take care of ____, man. it’s dangerous around here during this time.”
he receives a rather heavy and condescending pat on the shoulder, and so, with his annoyance bubbling worse, he wears a passive aggressive smile on his face.
“yeah, of course i am,”
jun’s nostrils flare as he witnesses you sneakily slide your hands underneath jungkook’s hoodie in search of warmth.
“i’m here now, so there’s no need to worry about my girlfriend anymore.”
he nods, then forces himself to smile. “that’s good, then.”
“yeah, thanks. we’re leaving.”
“oh, okay. have a nice night!”
“you too,”
he turns on his heel and returns inside the busy establishment— but not before jungkook made sure that he saw the bruises on his knuckles that he got from his boxing sessions.
his jaw clenches as he glares at the door.
is he being petty? sure, to hell with that. he doesn’t care. he’s always been one to trust his gut, and he has a bad feeling.
he is met by a love-drunk smile when his undivided attention is at last given to you, in the form of fond eyes and affectionate strokes of your hair.
“who was that?”
“eh, new bartender,” you shrug with disinterest. “hm, i think he’s 31…? he’s nice but he keeps talking about wrestling.”
he raises an eyebrow at the mention of his age, while your lips form a sad pout.
what the hell? he thought he would be 25 at most.
“the tv has been in the same channel for the past two weeks because of him. it’s all i’ve been seeing! i don’t like it-” you whine in distress, quite frankly, a little traumatized.
an endeared smile is coaxed out of him at your adorableness, how your speech is a little slurred and how you’re looking at him like you’re begging him to do something about it.
“makes me nervous,”
his dominant hand closes into a fist.
if he only he had known. should’ve fucking punched the guy, give him a taste of what he seems to be a huge fan of.
“let’s watch something calming when we get home, how about that?”
you nod your head, eyes that twinkle with eagerness fluttering shut when he leans in for a much awaited kiss. how sweet, he feels a little more alive than before. he can smell it, even taste it— the peach margarita you started sipping on before the band’s first set. concocted by jun, he presumes. he pulls away with a small smile, licking his lips for the traces of you that clung to him.
out of the blue, you burst into a fit of giggles, weak knees buckling as your weight crashes on him.
“i missed you!”
“babe, are you seriously drunk?” he chuckles, holding you with a secure grip around your torso.
“maaaybe tipsy…? i was pretending not to be.” you stand on your tip-toes to nuzzle your face against his neck, mumbling sheepishly. “only trust you.”
“i should’ve accepted the umbrella.” you grunt childishly, body going limp on jungkook’s back, except for the arm holding up the umbrella that shields the both of you from the pouring rain.
“yah!” he scolds you, clearly not pleased with the words that just came from your mouth. “what does that mean?”
“i’m embarrassed! they’re probably feeling bad for you.”
the last sentence comes out as a whisper, pertaining to the side glances you’ve been attracting from strangers as you make your way to your boyfriend’s car.
unfortunately, he had to park somewhere far because the restobar’s parking lot was already full.
you jokingly complained about staining your white boots with dirt and mud, but you instantly regretted it when he bent down, signalling you to ride on his back without an ounce of hesitation.
“our shoulders always get wet when we share an umbrella,” he said. “if i carry you, wouldn’t it be better?”
“embarrassing? some would even say romantic!”
something peculiar happens then— when your lips ghost over his left cheek, planting an affectionate kiss there that lasts for seconds. you pull away with a smacking sound, giggly and bubbly, might be his favorite version of you.
“i love you,” you hum, grasping the umbrella upright before it could tip over.
he doesn’t know if you did it on purpose or not, kissing him precisely where his scar is, but his heart jumps in his chest when he feels it begin to throb.
as if the wound from his childhood has come alive. as if, once again, he is bleeding as he glares at his older brother, and he still wants to play games on the computer oblivious to the fact that it would leave a permanent scar, a brand new landmark on his body.
you mistake his silence for something else.
you frown, warm breath tickling his neck as you quietly ask. “are you still mad at me?”
he sighs, vision landing on the ground as his walking pace slows down. “no? i was wrong. i shouldn’t have questioned your decision in the first place… why would i be mad?”
you started playing the drums for your friend’s band two months ago, just as soon as he left for tour. you volunteered after witnessing how distraught they were when their drummer vanished without a trace. he learned that it used to be a hobby of yours from childhood until early teenage years, playing the drums, but it was robbed from you when your father took his instruments with him when he abandoned your home for another.
he was pleasantly surprised when he learned about it, recounted all the times your hands and fingers were drumming on any sort of surface and his head naturally bopped to the beat, but then again, you never brought it up.
isn’t ____ so cool? he would proudly say when he flaunts you to his friends, even the protocol team, who have never seen him so happy.
three times a week, from nine in the evening until midnight, your phone was propped up on an empty table infront of the stage, and him, on the other side of the globe, excitedly watched you from backstage while he was getting ready for their own show. some other times, he was in his hotel room, or the private jet. his patience has been tested by crappy wifi, nosy and noisy people, and his earphones that stopped working while you looked insanely attractive grooving to ‘why’d you only call me when you’re high?’ as you effortlessly played the drums. he showered you with compliments as you did for him. you’re working hard so he must do the same.
he arrived home from tour the other day, spent the rest of its hours sleeping. yesterday, he waited for you at school and then at work like a lost puppy, slept on your bed (if he’s being honest, the two of you didn’t do much sleeping) then woke up at 9am for work.
and he tried his best, he really did, to get out of the company early enough to catch you playing a song or two. after all, it was your last day at the job.
much as you enjoyed reconnecting with an old flame— loved the overflowing tips that came from those who were amazed by your talent (well, there were also those who were just trying to get into your pants), the moment that the old drummer got down on his knees begging to be taken back by his best friends, just like how you became a part of the band, you voluntarily stepped down.
jungkook didn’t agree with this decision. he didn’t understand why you’d sacrifice something that makes you happy for a person who fucked up and wasted what they had. you went back and forth over it on the phone until you cried, told him that it wasn’t easy for you, and he couldn’t hold you in his arms or kiss your face. he could only apologize, and it even felt insincere doing it through a screen.
maybe he’s only relieved that you no longer need to be around a man an entire decade older than he is, who is obviously interested in you and serves you alcohol drinks. no, that doesn’t sit right with him. he needs jun, or whatever the fuck his true name is, to stay very far away from his baby.
“i’m just sad that i never got to watch you perform in person.”
you rest your cheek on his shoulder, heavy eyelids slowly blinking as the headlights of a black van blindsides you.
what the fuck. too bright.
“me too…”
“i’m bored,” you release a dramatic sigh, stealing a glimpse of jungkook at the driver’s seat, just to see if you caught his attention like you intended.
his eyes are trained on the dashboard, however, focused on the navigation guide displayed on his phone. he isn’t very familiar with this part of the city. it took him more than an hour to arrive at the address you sent him, including the time he spent in the middle of traffic.
“forty-eight minutes, then we can do whatever you want.”
“whatever i want?”
he slows down the car, briefly turning his head to find you expectantly looking at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
“of course,” he laughs, taking one hand off the wheel to squish your cheeks together. “just tell me what it is, baby.”
he doesn’t catch the sad look that flashes across your face after you lose his touch.
“then i’ll tell you when i figure out what i want,” you say quietly.
“i thought you already had something in mind?”
“nope,” you answer with yet another sigh.
you choose to stare out the window in silence, body completely slumping into your seat in defeat.
jungkook’s senses are sharp, or he likes to believe so. “are you okay?”
“i’m okay,”
“you sure?”
“hmm,” you hum curtly, and then you close your eyes, so he decides not to press further despite wanting to.
he meets a red traffic light not long after that. and so, he hurriedly grabs the black fleece blanket in the backseat. he envelopes you in it, crossing the distance between you to softly press his lips onto yours for a goodnight kiss. he feels you respond, albeit lazily, and he smirks cockily when you lift yourself up to chase him for one more, please— desperately, to get your fill of goodnight kisses from the many nights that you missed it.
the time seems to tick excruciatingly slow now that you’re quiet. a minute is multiplied by a hundred. the steady rhythm of your breathing keeps him sane throughout dark avenues and encounters with reckless drivers of the midnight scene.
he missed you. he missed you so much, and he knows that you’re tired from university, and tutoring high school students in english, and playing the drums for more than two hours… but he selfishly wishes that you’re awake right now so he can make up for the two months that you were apart.
be careful of what you wish for, they said.
jungkook should know better by now.
“i can’t sleep,” he hears you whisper in a dulcet tone that indirectly tells him you’re in need of some love… but he isn’t given the chance to act upon that request because you’re already all over what it is that you need.
he swallows thickly, glancing down at your hand that has somehow found its way to his inner thigh— zeroing in on your red nails, can feel them faintly grazing his skin.
you’re so pretty. everywhere.
even when naked and bare.
no, especially. it’s all he can think about.
he can draw you from memory.
“____,” he utters your name through gritted teeth, heart beginning to race a thousand miles per second in his chest.
the effect of your teasing touch is instantaneous, slowly inching closer and closer to where his growing erection is. his eyes remain focused on the road, but he fears that he’ll start thinking with his dick soon if you carry on with this act a few seconds longer.
“shit, not now, baby- please- not while i’m driving.”
your bottom lip is caught between your teeth, poorly concealing a self-satisfied smirk, and you pretend not to hear a single word from his plea.
a minx, that’s what you are, always causing trouble and blurring lines in his eyes.
“____, i’m not joking around. don’t make me mad-”
his warning is cut short by-
“fuck… fuck,” he curses, filter flying out the window once he feels you tracing the outline of his hard-on, the feather-light touch of your fingers smoothly gliding across the fabric of his sweatpants, and he completely loses it when your soft palm caresses his cock, so gentle that it feels almost innocent.
okay, so he couldn’t feel it because you weren’t skin-to-skin, but he knows that your hands are soft, can feel his imagination running wilder because he has memorized the way they feel on most parts of his body.
you’re so incredibly nasty and evil for this— squeezing him lightly, taking advantage of how sensitive he’s gotten, making him tremble as pleasure shoots up his spine. his breath stutters in his lungs and he unconsciously pushes harder on the gas.
and although it means fighting every fiber of his being that painfully yearns for more, he seizes your wrist in an iron grip, placing your hand over the gearstick while his sits heavy on top of yours.
“____! behave! you’re going to get us killed!”
he watches you jut out your bottom lip through the rearview mirror, eyes hazy with lust staring down at where your hand used to be, and then his handsome face. he is evidently flushed, honey skin dusted with a rosy pink. all the way to the tips of his ears, down to his neck.
while he’s driving? really?
doesn’t this only happen in wet dreams?
you are not real.
“then pull over,” you plead. “please?”
he releases a shaky breath. you’re always so needy with alcohol in your system, drove him into total insanity while he couldn’t be here to give you what you wanted.
“no, you need to learn how to be patient… told you we can do whatever you want when we get home, right?”
wrong move.
the silence returns, and just when he thought that you went back to your journey to slumber, the sound of your sniffles fill the car.
jungkook’s heart breaks into a million pieces.
also, he wants to slam his head against the steering wheel.
you make it so fucking hard to resist you; you always get what you want. it becomes much harder when he is the subject of your desire and he loves being loved.
“haven’t i been patient enough…? i missed you so much.”
“and i missed you too!” he brings your intertwined hands to his lips, pressing them on your skin. “fuck, you have no idea how much… please, don’t cry.”
“then pull over,” you stubbornly insist, and he is so close to driving this car into a lamp post. “fuck me at the backseat.”
“can’t,” he mumbles, sounding almost pained, and he is. he wants you so bad, it hurts. “we’re going to have to do it without protection.”
“what do you mean?” you exclaim.
you rip your hand away from his, not wasting time in unlocking the glove compartment, and a sound of sheer disappointment escapes from your mouth as you collapse back on your seat.
“jungkook, i hate you!”
“well right now i hate myself too!” he cries out in frustration. “i didn’t have the time to buy more, okay?”
“and there’s not one in your wallet?”
“babe, are you serious?!”
“what?!”
somehow, his hands still expertly swivels the steering wheel as the car meets a curve.
but he feels dizzy. the ghost of your touch is still there, a promise of carnal pleasure unfulfilled.
“stop the car,” you say out of the blue, rather calmly, and that terrifies the shit out of him.
he swallows the lump in his throat, eyes switching between you and the road in panic. “huh?”
“i said stop the car, i’m stepping out.”
“babe, come on,” he moans, ruined and tormented. he reaches for your hand but you scoot further away from him, and he ignores the way his heart drops to his stomach as he kneads your exposed thigh instead. “please, don’t be like this. i just got home.”
“jungkook! if you don’t let me get off this car right now, i swear!”
the urgency embedded in your threatening voice leaves your boyfriend with no choice but to pull over to the side of the street as soon as he gets the chance.
he carries on to unbuckle his seatbelt.
“baby, stop being stu-”
he tries to reach for you, but he is rudely ignored as you hop off the car and slam the door shut on his face.
“…bborn…”
he blinks.
he inhales. he exhales.
and then he buries his face in his hands to scream… as quietly as possible.
“what the fuck was in that margarita?!”
jungkook steps out of the car worried sick about you. now wearing a black bucket hat, his head whips in different directions in search for the familiar shape of your body, your hair, your shirt that is his, anything.
his arm rests on top of the car door, the other on the roof, fingers drumming on it anxiously as he chews on his bottom lip.
there are mostly restaurants here, it seems. some are already closed, some are still lights on. not far away, he hears a karaoke place bursting with music and laughter. he looks up and he finds that the night sky remains barren of stars; there’s no guidance from the heavens that will lead him to you.
except for the sound of your sweet voice calling out his name.
he turns around, and he knows it’s going to sound extremely silly, but damn, you make his life feel like a movie— because you’re jogging towards him, and the universe begins moving in slow motion. perhaps it is to prevent him from falling on his knees in relief, because he genuinely thought that you already went home on your own like the stubborn brat that you are.
“____, where did you go?! you can’t just run off like that! seriously, that was not nice!”
“i forgot my wallet!” you squeal as you halt infront of him, slapping your forehead as a way to scold yourself. “i found a hotteok cart!”
his anger quickly dissipitates. he scans your face, mouth agape in bewilderment.
you, screaming at him to stop the car because there was a sighting of your favorite snack? makes sense.
he dishes out the wallet from his pocket. “wha- i thought you… you didn’t have money?”
you shake your head to answer his question.
“then how are you already eating?”
you take another bite from the hot hotteok you’re holding in a paper cup, and then you shrug.
“i was already eating when i realized it,” you point at yourself, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of your lips. “so he let me run back here. does it look like this face would steal?”
“you’re impossible!” he bursts out laughing, the unique sound of his joy harmonizing with the mundane noises of the city.
he is thoroughly amused and in awe of your undeniable charm never failing to work its magic. if you just gave it a shot, you might be even better at him at his job.
you’re pliant as he captures your wrist, tugging you away with him so he can lock the car.
“i bought three, by the way.” you note as the two of you start walking, with you clinging to his side. “the last three then mister can go home.”
you put the hotteok near his mouth, and he pauses to take a big bite. “have you even had dinner?”
“just the four margaritas- they were yummy! or was it five?”
he clicks his tongue in disappointment, but he doesn’t get to say anything more about it because you’ve reached the hotteok cart, and he’s already handing the vendor the money.
“thank you!” he bows his head politely as he accepts the remaining two you mentioned earlier, handing them over to you.
“no, this is yours.” you speak with tenderness, giving back one of the cups to him. “then we’ll split the third one. it’s really good!”
the vendor secretly watches the interaction with a fond smile as he packs up to finally, finally end his long day working at the busy streets of seoul.
you’re sat together on the hood of jungkook’s car as you share a midnight snack. with caring hands, you rip the hotteok apart in perfect halves, offering the other to your lover. he accepts it in between his teeth.
“do you want drums as your christmas gift?”
“love,” you search for the words to say as you chew the food in your mouth. “i can barely fit in my apartment. where am i going to put a drum set…? not to mention that i can’t even cry without my neighbor hearing it.”
his shoulders drop in dejection, and you rub your boyfriend’s back in an attempt to comfort him.
“you must really want to see me play, don’t you?”
“i’m dying to,” he says in pure jungkook fashion, tone dramatic and thick with an accent that is entirely his. “i can’t believe there were regulars who saw you every night, while i, your boyfriend, didn’t even see you once…! even that fucking bartender… this- this can’t be right! do you think this makes sense? no, right?”
“aw, my baby,” you coo at him, jutting out your bottom lip as you tenderly cup his face.
“i don’t trust him, by the way,” he scoffs. “as much as possible, stay away from him when you visit, alright…? if i see him touching you one more time, i don’t know what i’ll end up doing to him.”
“i don’t like him either,” you giggle. “so that’s easy.”
he stares at your bloodshot eyes. damn it, you haven’t sobered up.
“____, i’m serious. he’s weird. i’m worried about you but i can’t always be here to protect you.”
you blink at him innocently. “i am too! serious!”
“you promise me?”
“i promise!”
he nods, teeth sinking into his bottom lip as he gets lost in the sea of his own thoughts. “i should talk to your friends about this, too. is that okay?”
“if that will ease your mind,” you half-smile, heart fluttering in your chest because you feel so cherished.
comfortable silence follows suit.
the hotteok is still soft and warm and sweet. if your love had to be delivered to his doorstep, it would in the form of your favorite food.
he sighs to gain more of your sympathy, basking in the attention he’s receiving from you. he missed this. he missed you. he sounds like a broken record, but it’s true.
“come ooon, don’t be sad! i’ll make it up to you! but it’s a surprise!”
“surprise?” he eyes you with suspicion. “what surprise?”
“just trust me, alright?”
you poke his cheek where his dimples are, and you witness them pop out as he copies your contagious smile.
“can i make a guess?”
“nope!”
you fit the remaining piece of your hotteok in your mouth, jumping off the hood of the car. you stand before him as you wipe your hands clean with a small paper napkin.
“don’t you dare. if you guess it right then my plans will be ruined!”
you’re back on the passenger seat to travel the remaining twenty-seven minutes to your apartment.
jungkook melts into the tenderness of your touch as he drives. you’re tracing the toned muscles of his arms; stroking his hair, his face, and the smell of the sticky brown sugar from the hotteok still lingers on your skin.
“when are you going to start getting tattoos?” you wonder out loud as he intertwines your fingers together on top of his thigh. “i think you’d look so pretty.”
“i’m planning on it.”
his heart skips a beat at the thought of you remembering that he wants his skin artfully inked as you absentmindedly distracted yourself with it.
he licks his lips, smiling as he looks over at you. “you really think so? pretty?”
“hm, hot, too,” you stick your tongue out playfully, and he snorts out a laugh. “but as long as you’re happy, then nothing else matters.”
“of course- wait, yah! you still need to eat dinner.” he reminds you once he recognizes the path you’re taking.
a grocery store is not more than a kilometer away, if his memory serves him right.
“what do you want? i don’t mind cooking.”
“for you to fuck me, that’s what i want. you won’t mind that, too?”
oh my fucking god.
he wishes you were passed out drunk instead so he wouldn’t have to suffer this battle between self-control and his insatiable appetite for you.
“baby, aren’t you still sore from this morning?”
“a little,” he notices you squeezing your thighs together from his peripheral, and along with it, the bruises on your knees from when you worshipped his body last night. “but i want you.”
your giggles in reaction to him frustratedly running his fingers through his hair seems to only fuel the dirty thoughts in his head. he uncomfortably shifts in his seat to adjust himself.
“can you just bring it up when we get near your house? you’re killing me over here!”
“but why? i’m having fun.” you bring your tangled hands over to your side, peppering the back of his hand with innocent kisses. “i love you. you’re so cute.”
“are you… are you seriously calling me cute after what you just asked me to fuck you?”
his disbelief is challenged by your amusement.
“why not? being one dimensional? boring. being different things all at once? sexy.”
jungkook doesn’t need to see you play the drums to know that you are the only one capable of making his heart beat like this. to feel it pounding, it turns out there’s another way besides performing, he can just be alone with you. a different type of addictive exhilaration. he isn’t at the top of the world; he free falls as it revolves around you.
you always know the right words to say, because right now, he is preening. he’s wearing a big smile, the kind that looks like he’s laughing, but he’s not— almost. the kind that reaches his eyes, shapes them into little crescent moons.
how did he get so lucky?
rehearsals in the morning be damned, he will be fucking you good all night.
you make a noise of confusion when the car swerves into the trees at the side of the road.
“what are we doing here?”
jungkook only spares you a glance. “get in the backseat, baby.”
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porcelana-r0ta · 8 months
Text
let the mourners come
Title: let the mourners come
Ao3 Link: Only available to Ao3 users
Word Count: 3045
Summary:
It started, as most things do with Danny Fenton, as a joke.
It ended, as most things do with Jazz Fenton, with things better than they were before.
xxXxx
When Danny finally gets a Twitter, it’s during Elon Musk’s shit show takeover. He’s able to secure a good Twitter handle thanks to people leaving en masse and fleeing to Tumblr. He knows about things that happen outside of Amity Park (he is terminally online rather than chronically, after all), but he still doesn’t think anything of using @TheJoker as his handle, even knowing about Gotham City’s clown troubles. It’s just going to be a shitpost account, anyway, one that dances in the chaos of Elon’s electronic graveyard. Nothing will come about him using @TheJoker when he’s merely posting things like, “Just grew a new row of teeth!!! very pointy but can’t go to the dentist anymore bc they might turn me in to the giw.”
So Danny honestly never foresaw The Actual Real Joker breaking out of Arkham Asylum all the way in Gotham City, New Jersey, and deciding to get a Twitter account to terrorize people online as well as offline. And he definitely never foresaw The Joker @’ing him on Twitter, demanding that Danny change his Twitter handle. But, well. Here he was. 
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[Image Description: A screenshot of a Twitter reply chain, starting with the real Joker @'ing Danny's Twitter account, which uses TheJoker as his Twitter handle. The Joker, who has a verified account, demands that Danny "change your handle", and Danny replies with a simple "no" followed by red heart emoji. The Joker Tweets, "Kid you don't know who you're fucking with," to which Danny replies, "Ye I do ur some dude w/ poor fashion sense and lame jokes. Maybe try badjokesbyjeff bc originality is ugly on u" followed by a shrugging emoticon. The Joker responds, "Check your DMs." Danny then responds, "Perf [happy emoji surrounded by hearts] I've sent you a time and place. Can't wait to beat the shit out of another disgrace of a clown." Someone with the username "Gregg rulz ok" responds to Danny's last Tweet, "Bro is absolutely RATIOING the joker but the clown keeps responding [three skull emojis] embarrassing frfr too bad he's gonna die for realsies".
End ID]
Danny is quick to respond and then makes even quicker work of roasting The Joker. This soon results in The Joker DMing him his IP Address and a creative threat. Still, Danny isn’t about to cow to a clown with no respect for the art of clowning. He replies to the DM: 
Cool, meet me at the Nasty Burger parking lot in Amity Park IL on tuesday at 2am
The response from The Joker is quick:
Fourteen year olds are too confident these days
Danny rolls his eyes and ignores the influx of notifications from Twitter, and instead makes another Tweet.
Imagine beefing with someone over a Twitter handle lol acc so embarrassing for him
He blackens his screen and stretches in bed, letting his spine pop more than what is humanly possible. He runs his tongue over that second row of teeth, his lips curling into a grin. 
xxXxx
Gothamite Twitter is blowing up over The Joker’s social media beef with a faceless shitposting account. Jason, upon finding out about it, has a series of reactions: first, he looks up the shitposter and follows them. Then, he finds the actual chain between the poster and The Joker, and his vision goes vibrant green when he sees that The Joker’s profile picture is of the second Robin, beaten and swollen in an abandoned building in Ethiopia. 
When his vision clears and he can breathe without wanting to kill, he likes the shitposter’s replies, and he calls the Replacement to see if the other Bats know already.
“We know,” Tim says in lieu of a hello when the ringing cuts out. “We’re working on it.”
“What, you think anything’s gonna come of it?” But even as Jason asks, he already knows the answer. The Joker is unhinged and once he’s threatened something, he’ll follow up unless he comes up with a “funnier” option. 
Tim’s breath hitches, and he says, “I’ve hacked their DMs. Joker knows the kid’s IP address and sent it to him. He knows everything from that address alone.”
He pauses in the middle of suiting up, “Kid?”
He hears Tim swallow, “Yes, kid. He’s fifteen. And he gave The Joker a specific time and place to meet up to fight. In his own hometown.”
“Are— are you fucking kidding me?” 
“No. B is already calling Nightwing. We’re taking the Batwing to Illinois.”
“Jesus fuck. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Hood, I—”
“Shut up, I’m already in my gear.” He hangs up without waiting for a response. 
He refreshes the Twitter feed and barks a laugh at the newest Tweet:
Jason Todd votes, and the Red Hood leaves his safe house. 
xxXxx
A commercial flight to Illinois takes around two and a half hours. In the Batwing, they get there in an hour, and don’t even have to worry about the drive from Chicago to a small speck of a town like Amity Park. They spend the quick flight learning everything they can about Daniel James Fenton, the owner of the Twitter account, and they can all sense the growing tension from (and between) Bruce and Jason.
But, well. Jason doesn’t care. Let them be uncomfortable. It doesn’t compare to being ripped back into life and finding out his dad didn’t even get justice for his death. 
When they reach town, it doesn’t take long to find the Fentons’ home. This is in part because Amity Park is a very navigable town, and because of the giant neon sign proclaiming FentonWorks on the side of the building. 
“Is that a blimp?” Dick asks. “Why don’t we have a blimp?” 
“Where would we keep it?” the Demon Brat counters practically. “Goliath takes up all of the Cave’s extra space.” 
Jason rolls his eyes and knows veins would be popping out of Bruce’s forehead if it weren’t for the cowl. 
“Let’s go,” Bruce says instead, and they all make their way to the house. 
Nightwing, predictably, goes for the front door approach. Jason rolls his eyes as he takes one of the second-story windows and finds his way downstairs.
He gets down at the same time that a redheaded girl answers the door and nearly slams it in Dick’s face. Jason has to suppress snickers at the sight. 
“Wait, wait, wait, are you Jazz Fenton? We need to talk to your brother!” 
“...We?” she asks, then tenses and turns around to see the rest of the Bats in the hall behind her. Dick takes the opportunity to step in completely, closing the door behind him. “Wha— what’s going on?”
“Where are your parents, Jazz?” Bruce makes every question sound like a demand. Jason rolls his eyes from behind his mask—way to put the teenager at ease, B.
“Why do you need to know?” Her voice has a defensive edge to it. “What do you want with Danny?” 
“Hey, it’s okay,” Nightwing comforts. “He didn’t do anything too bad, just said some dumb things online. It’s not his fault.” 
This relaxes her, and her shoulders begin un-hunching. “Oh, s-so what’d he do?”
“He foolishly challenged The Joker to a battle in a ‘Nasty Burger’ parking lot tonight.” 
“You could’ve had some more tact, Robin,” Nightwing scolds. But the Demon Spawn just crosses his arms. 
“He did what?” Jazz shrieks. “Like, The Joker from Gotham? That Joker?”
“Are there others?” Red Hood comments dryly. 
Her face goes through several different emotions—disbelief, rage, fear, and then rage again, “DANIEL JAMES FENTON! GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!” 
There’s a thumping noise, and then frantic footsteps down the stairs. 
“Wha? Who died?” asks the figure of a tiny fifteen-year-old, smaller than even Jason had been when he was alone with The Joker. He’s tiny and lanky. Zero muscle definition. Eye bags to rival the Replacement’s. Something ripples in the Pit, deep and distinct, but he can’t name what causes it.
Oh, this kid is so dead. 
“Danny,” says Jazz calmly while Danny blinks uncomprehendingly at the heroes in their hallway. She is solemn when she says, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you now.” 
“What did I do?” 
She stares at him, “Why have you scheduled a fight with The Joker?” 
“Oh, that.” He rubs the back of his neck, “Is he taking that seriously?”
“Of course he is, Danny! It’s The Joker! That’s what he does! He can’t differentiate between a joke and reality! He would tear off his own face for the bit!” 
“Oof,” is all Danny can muster. He digs his phone out and starts typing before Jazz yanks it out his hand. 
“You’re fucking TWEETING about this?” Jazz asks incredulously, and Hood’s hackles rise. She even reads the Tweet aloud, “‘Just found out @TheJ0ker is being fr about fighting me. Sad but i can take a clown.’”
“I was gonna add ‘i’ve done it b4,’ but like the letter and the number four. But yeah.” 
“You’re grounded forever.” Danny opens his mouth to protest, but the look Jazz cuts at him is so scathing that he shuts his mouth. Hood is reluctantly impressed—she had what could be cultivated into a fantastic Batglare. She pockets the phone, “You’re never getting this phone back. Taunting The Joker to Amity? Have you any brain cells? What if he brings Joker gas with him, huh? Or any of his goons? What if he starts hurting other people? Have you thought any of this through?” 
Danny’s face goes from tired to chastised, his lips drawing into a frown, especially at the mention of other people. 
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I didn’t think that he’d take it so seriously.”
“He sent you your IP Address.”
“I thought that was just a random string of numbers?”
“Oh my god,” Jazz despairs. “Oh my god. Grounded forever. See, I know you're lying to me. I know you're lying because Tucker, the nerdiest tech nerd to have ever been born, is your best friend.”
He rubs the back of his neck, “I tune him out?”
“You’re still lying to me?” Jazz scoffs and turns to Batman, “Do whatever you want with him. I’m not going to defend him from this.” 
“Hey!” complained her brother, but Batman just continued on, “Where are your parents?”
“They’re in Sweden for a science convention,” Jazz answers. “They left this morning.” 
Damn, Jason curses to himself. 
“Jazz, seriously. You’re not gonna let Batman kill me, right?” 
“Do you want to be cremated or buried, Danny?” Jazz asks blasély, and Danny gulps, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. 
“It’s my Twitter handle,” he mutters petulantly, and Jason can’t believe the gall of this kid. Or maybe stupidity. Audacity’s a good one, too. “If he wanted it, he should’ve gotten it first. And he gives clowns a bad name.” 
“Not the clown thing again.” Jazz digs her palms into her eyes, sighs, then turns to the heroes. “He has a whole clown thing ever since Circus Gothica came to town and robbed a bunch of jewelry stores.” 
Danny gestures wildly with his hands, as if demonizing clowns was the real problem and not the egomaniacal mass murderer who wanted to murder him for his Twitter handle, “Clowning is an art form, Jazz, and people like Freakshow and The Joker make a mockery of the very serious societal statements that clowns make!” 
All of the Bats very carefully Did Not look at Nightwing, who has made very similar rants on quiet patrols.
“You are never leaving this house again,” she says serenely. “And I’m unplugging the wifi router.”
“You would punish even yourself?”
“Oh, little brother. I would watch the world burn if it meant knocking sense into your thick skull.” 
“Okay, Christ,” Red Hood finally interrupted the siblings’ melodrama. An unyielding redheaded girl and a mouthy black-haired, blue-eyed boy? They’d fit in a little too well back at the Manor, so Jason needs to cut this shit out before Bruce’s bat-doption instincts start tingling. “Stop. Just… Christ. Stop. Is this how you always interact with each other?”
“Sometimes there’s explosions,” Danny pipes up, a cheeky grin on his face. 
Jazz doesn’t dispute it. 
Fucking hell. God damn it. I can’t. I just can’t. 
Batman doesn’t give anything away, “Robin and Red Robin will be staying here with you until Nightwing, Hood, and I apprehend The Joker. First, we’re going to check the perimeter.” 
“Oooh, I get to give the lab tour!” 
Lab?
“No lab. You’re grounded. You’ll only be in there for cleaning duty now.”
“Wh– hey! No fair!” 
“What’s this lab you two are talking about?” Red Robin asks before Jazz can rip into her brother again. 
She sighs, “Our parents’ lab. I’ll show you, but someone needs to stay with Danny.” 
“You act like I’m gonna run off and start World War III….”
“I wonder why,” she says sarcastically.
Batman nods to Robin, who nods back, and the rest of them follow Jazz out of the living room to a metal reinforced door. She types in a code—Jason catches the numbers 03-14-99. There’s an assenting beep, and she opens the door, flicking on the lights and leading them down into what is apparently a basement lab. 
A stone settles in Red Hood’s stomach, cold and heavy. 
The basement is large, likely the floor size of the entire building. There are several work tables, filled with miscellaneous blueprints and spare parts and weapons and tools. Against the farthest wall is another armored door, but what draws Hood’s—and the entire Batclan’s—attention is the south wall, where a circular hole in the wall was glowing a toxic Pit green. 
The stone shattered in his stomach, splintering into his body. Is it harder or easier to breathe? Jason can’t tell. 
“Wow,” says Nightwing. His voice is cheerful, but Jason can feel the stress beneath it. “Do I even want to know?” 
Wasn’t this supposed to just be typical Joker bullshit?
“Our parents are ectobiologists,” Jazz explains nonchalantly, walking further into the lab. “As in, ghost biologists.” She pauses at one of the work tables, picking up a green and white thermos. Pretty boring, considering the rest of their surroundings. 
“Ghosts.” Red Robin’s voice is carefully neutral. 
“Ghosts,” Jazz reaffirms. “I know. I thought they were crazy at first, too. But I can prove it, if you like.” Then, without waiting for a yes or no, she untwists the thermos, and there’s a bright flash of white, and a whole entire body sprouting out of it. 
“WHOO! I’M FREE!” cries the…being, pale and floating and lanky and entirely too big to have fit into a fucking thermos, of all the fucking things. “....And not in the Realms? Wait.” He stops stretching, descending to rest closer to the ground, but still hovering a few inches from the floor. He’s got green eyes and lifeless (ha) blond hair. He’s wearing a trenchcoat and a green skull necklace. Overall, he looks like the type of thug he’d arrest in the Bowery. 
“Hello, Johnny.” The man’s—ghost’s?—eyes flicker around each person in the room, his gaze becoming more and more confused and panicked as he takes in each Bat, before settling on Jazz Fenton. 
“Why are the fucking Bats here?” 
“The Joker’s coming to Amity,” she says. The ghost’s eyes widen. Jazz tilts her head, “How many ghosts would you say passed away in Gotham, Johnny?” 
As Jason and the Bats tense, this Johnny guy lets out a wicked laugh, “Oh, Doll, you have the best surprises. Why did we break up?” 
“You did try to have my body possessed. That ruins any good relationship.” 
“Man, but Kitty’ll love this. Thanks for letting me out of Soup Time, Doll.” He floats higher, “Any advice?” 
She throws him the phone she’d confiscated from Danny and he catches it easily, “Everything’s on here. Have fun.”
“What exactly are you planning?” Batman scowls. 
Johnny laughs, “Aww, don’t worry, Bats. Peace and love on Planet Earth, or whatever. We’ll make it quick.” Then, as the Bats leap into action as one, Johnny turns invisible, the Batarangs passing harmlessly through where he’d once been floating. 
“Where did he go?” Batman turns his scowl, angrier than ever, to Jazmin Fenton, who stares back unflinchingly. “He’s going to solve the problem.”
“You mean he’s going to kill The Joker.”
She shakes her head, “Oh, no. That’d just be asking for him to come back as a ghost. Could you imagine a Joker with powers like invisibility, intangibility, flight, and more? Johnny can be impulsive, but he’s smart. None of them will kill The Joker.” 
“Then what are they going to do?” Red Robin asks. 
“My parents are ectobiologists,” Jazz repeats from earlier. “But I am more of an anthro-ectopologist. I am concerned with the study of ectoplasmic beings’ societies and cultures. And while it is very ancient, there is protocol in the Infinite Realms—that is, where you go when you die, should you remain after death—to prosecute living criminals who have killed a certain number of Realms citizens. So you don’t have to worry about your moral code, Batman. The Joker will be tried by a much fairer court than Gotham can ever hope to have. No offense.” 
Jason stares at Jazz Fenton, who he’d pegged as the sane sibling. He’s not so sure now, but he can’t say he hates it.
“And how do we know it’s a fair trial?” Nightwing asks. 
She waves her hand, “Oh, as Gotham’s Knights, you’re key witnesses. I’m sure you’ll be summoned to testify. You will see then. And don’t worry about your secret identities—the dead don’t care much for that sort of thing.” 
“So if this is a ‘fair’ trial or whatever, The Joker’s going to be locked up forever?” Jason asks. “I mean, that’s the only option for shit like him.” 
Batman sends him a look, but he ignores it. 
“Well, there are several different punishments that could be deemed appropriate, but he’ll never be able to set foot in the mortal world again, yes.” 
Jason Todd grins, “Oh, I’m glad your brother’s stupid, kid.” 
She sighs, long-suffering, “Well, that makes one of us. Still, there’s more important things we should discuss now that you’re here.”
“More important than The Joker trying to kill your brother over a Twitter handle?” Red Robin asks doubtfully. 
Jazz smiles, sharp and dangerous, and asks, ”Have you ever heard of the Anti-Ecto Acts?” 
xxXxx
Several months later when Danny is finally un-grounded, he Tweets his last three Tweets before Twitter can become the foolishly named X: 
Imagine bullying the Joker so hard that it not only lands the Joker in ghost prison BUT it also leads to major law reform in the US lmao someone make the domino effect meme about this pls
Y’allre replying to me with thanks like i did anything other than be an internet troll. My sister literally manipulated local, federal, and interdimensional law so you should be thanking her. 
i just a babie 🥺🥺🥺
xxXxx
Thanks for reading! This is the whole fic, so pls do not ask for tags! Thank you :)
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