zeuzey

Oh imagine things went differently, LBH wasn't fully awakened by MBJ yet during the fight, but in trying to have Binghe not be hit by an ice blast, SQQ launches and shoves him out of the way, taking the ice through his back out through his lower abdomen, and due to adrenaline, threw Binghe too hard and launched him right into the rift. He's clinging to the edge, can just about see Shizun bleeding while pinned to the ground, hear him screaming "No! Binghe! BINGHE!" as he loses his grip due to the blood on his hands and falls. The system starts alerting in a panic. There's no protocol for Binghe entering the abyss without his seal being broken, it's throwing alerts at SQQ and SQH that LBH's chance of survival is near 0% because the fall is not survivable without his blood mites. It's rapidly scanning through possible scenario pushers to help, before suddenly, it's simply flashing a red ERROR message before crashing. Then they get the message about the power supply for the system (Luo Binghe) being cut off, and thus the system is in hibernation mode. What's actually happened: the stress of thinking SQQ was dying broke the seal mid fall, however the system already lost signal to Binghe mid task of searching through scenario pushers and had a force shutdown, which is what the error message actually was, but SQQ and SQH assume it was because LBH hit the ground and died. SQQ screams his name so loudly that it's the last thing Binghe can hear before the abyss closes, and he can physically feel the agony in his voice. He vows to get back to Shizun no matter what. Back on the surface SQQ drops to the ground, completely catatonic. SQH sits there stunned, his usual scent is now mixed shock, grief, and a new kind of fear, leaving MBJ thinking "Oh I have clearly fucked up somehow, but I don't understand how." He's not used to the smells of other humans, but the scent coming from the still very much alive SQQ reminds him of death.