She's Just A Girl And She's In Water

The sun did not go out. The plug did not get pulled. The end came for no one.

Despite everything, this charade was going to keep going.

So despite everything, he had to get up in the morning.

Well ok, he didn’t. He could always tuck himself away in the room forever. He had rations, he could last for a while now there was a toilet. The suit was an option too; very few people would needle him if he chose that route, and perhaps there might even be an agreement to pretend that little meltdown had never happened.

But, no. Both options weren’t real options. The first was wishful thinking, and the second? No, Piney’s ship sailed when Yuji’d taken the suit off. One didn’t break character like that and return from it; the magic was broken. Disbelief, unsuspended. Piney was done with now. No…not done. On vacation. Fuck, completely escaped. If he’d always been such a hopeful figure, why not send him off with some hope too? That’d work.

The knock on the door sent him jumping up into the air and yipping like a tiny kicked chiuauau. Oh come one, it’s just the door. No one was going to try anything so soon after trial, Matsumoto, get a grip!

….Matsumoto. Right. He was Yuji Matsumoto again. Keycard was even coded to male bathing rooms now. Himself with. All these. People.

……..Oh boy.

He was shoving the door open before he could double think it and oh, oh look who it was but the girl who’d been so excited to see the Fighting Pine she’d squealed and hugged him. Oh no. Oh boy.

She was speaking, asking him how he was (was that Spanish?) with kind searching eyes. Searching eyes regardless, and it was everything he could do to keep nodding to show he was listening. (And he WAS, cause woe betide him if he let his thoughts run hamster wheel on it’s own. Augh. What all was she SEEING when she looked at him? Gah.) His own eyes were everywhere, the wall, her shirt, AWAY from her shirt when he realized how bad an idea that was, to her hair WORSE idea that’s next to her FACE, an interesting corner of the floor….oh man this was painful to watch. Like a mouse about to drop dead from heart failure.

Oh no, she was asking a quesiton, oh no. No she was asking an OPINION. Oh god. He was in cold sweat as he gingerly took Bob Ross’s smiling face from her hands. Staring down at it, like it’s leafy visual illusion and gentle face would somehow answer Holly’s question for her. Quick, quick she needed a response!

He cleared his throat once, and the voice that came out of him was a far cry from the high chipper lilt of Piney; something kind of quavery, gruff as his stubble and breaking every so often like somehow puberty didn’t already finish for him.

“…Yeah, this is…this is good. I’m, good with–this stuff. It. Uh. I’m. Thanking. Uh, shoot–shit. Thanks, H–Fuentes-san.”

….That sounded dismissive he thinks. He coughed again, a clearer throat. 

And closed it. 

And blinked at the older person in front of her, tilting her head to the side in thought.

“Yuji...It’s Yuji, right? Or - ah, wait, here I’m supposed to say ‘Matsumoto-kun’, right? But I think I’m just going to call you, hmm....Yujioh! Like from the card game show. Are you...okay with that?”

Her eyes narrowed slightly upon asking the question, as if she was trying to see something in his face that would answer everything. Suddenly, she slings her backpack over her shoulder and pulls out the other hoodie, holding it up for him to see.

“Or, hey, do you prefer this one? Which one do you like more?”

She wasn’t being forceful, but her voice did sound oddly insistent, as if she was trying to coax some kind of information out of him.

“You don’t have to choose one. I’m just curious, okay? Anyways -” The athlete smiled brightly, looking sympathetic. “Like I said, I kind of know what it feels like, getting used to being yourself again. But you’re not gonna be able to do it all cooped up in your room, you know? So, how about this. I’m gonna bring you some sweatpants, and we’re going to go have lunch, and we can talk about literally whatever. Okay?”

It really was a marvel how she managed to talk and sound so soft and and polite and like she was totally willing to take no for an answer...and still make it perfectly clear that she was going to be firm and get her way one way or another. Maybe it came with being a captain. She smiled sweetly, like the sun, up at his face.

“I’ll be right back, unless you want to go with me. And, just so you know, I think the others in the class figured you might not have that many clothes for, you know, yourself, so they might have some pants for you too. But for now, I’ll go get some of mine. I have big long legs, so they shouldn’t be THAT small on you. Wait here.”

And with that, she’d run off again - leaving her backpack and the two hoodies on his doorstep.

To say that Holly felt guilty for ditching Telos’s resident arboreal cosplayer at the end of the last trial would be a massive understatement. In fact, as soon as she’d stopped crying (which was an embarrassingly long time later) she’d wanted to go to him and apologize - because what right did she have to freak out like that when it was him who almost died, whose friend had just been executed gruesomely in front of him about, uh, four dozen times?

The brunette groaned as she stared up at the castle. God, she fucking hated this place. What a creepshow. Call her a city mouse, sure, but at least the city had ELECTRICITY. She tried not to shudder as she glanced at a cobweb in the corner, internally kicking herself when she failed. Come ON. You beat up people twice your size for a living, and you’re scared of a dusty old building?

She jumped as she heard a scuffing noise, before scowling. Just her own shoes. Ugh. She couldn’t hustle to Pin….uh, shit. What was his name? Yuji? Whoever he was, she couldn’t get to his room fast enough. She could only hope he’d be there, because she didn’t have his number, and asking him would be…rude, right? Or was it ruder to just show up outside his room?

Well, only one way to find out.

“Hi, um, you!”

She chirped brightly when he answered the door, stomping down every negative feeling she had for the time being. If she could be nothing else useful to the class, she could be somebody’s friend, or…maybe just an annoying ray of sunshine. Her expression softened a bit as she paused, before softly adding,

“You okay, abeto?" 

She spread her hands in a show of peace.

"Don’t worry. I’m not here to, like, harass you, or anything. We don’t even have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Mostly, I just came ‘cause…well, um.”

She looks…strangely uncomfortable.

“Well….whenever I’m on a team, I always represent them. And I have my own, you know, stuff going on, and all, but it’s always in that kind of context, right? Which gets kind of overwhelming sometimes. And I feel like, maybe it’s the same for you, on uh, a way other level. So….um, if you aren’t going to wear the Piney costumes anymore, I was kind of, you know, I just wanted to…”

She’s…turning red. Whether because she’s not breathing or because she’s embarrassed, it isn’t clear.

“I-I’m sure you don’t have any problem, um, with your individuality outside of your costume. I don’t want to act like I know you that well, anyways, but I know it can be kind of hard to go from representing someone 24/7 to being…yourself. So, I brought you a hoodie. It…I mean, it should fit, right? It’s my brother’s, so it would probably…”

She stopped, abruptly hiding her face in said hoodie, her voice muffled when she starts rapidly talking again.

“I actually brought you two hoodies but I didn’t know if you would want one that had to do with trees, but it’s funny so I - anyways I didn’t know and I’m sure I’m bothering you and nothing I’m saying is making any sense but I was -”

She peeked up at Yuji over the cloth of the jacket in her hands.

“…I was just really worried about you. I’m sorry. If you don’t want the tree one, you can have the other one, or - or neither, obviously.”

She hesitated, before holding out the gray hoodie she had in her hands, the other apparently in her backpack.

Holly had a headache, but what else was new?

She’d had a headache since week 1. A headache, she remembered with a pang of guilt that physically hurt her heart, was the reason Takeshi Mori was dead. She’d had a continuous migraine since the day they first woke up on the ground, and it hadn’t let up since - but some days it was worse, so Holly winced as she slid her sunglasses over her eyes and ran along the streets of the city.

…Lightly jogged. She might be an exercise aficionado, but that kind of impact would really, majorly suck right about now.

Despite her internal grumblings, the athlete lit up upon shouldering open the door to the greenhouse and bouncing over to a familiar face. It was strange, to see her smiling so dazzlingly again - something had happened not long after the classes had merged that had caused the incessant light in her eyes to dim, almost to nonexistence. Thank God, then, for people like Ryan Roe.

…A rare sentence.

“Limón!”

The captain cried, the last remaining traces of her now ever-present tension melting away to be replaced by sheer, honest delight at the sight of her friend. Without missing a beat, she slides the backpack off of her shoulders, drops it to the ground nearby, and rushes forward the last few feet until she’s wrapped them in her arms like a big, non-lethal bear.

Man, she missed hugs. Nobody liked hugs here anymore.

When she finally let the poor kid go, she moved her sunglasses up to rest on top of her head, shoving her messy bangs out of the way in the process and raising her eyebrow at the fabricator.

“So,” she began, bending over and grabbing two peach sodas from her bag and tossing them one before opening her own. “Should I even ask what kind of weird ass business you’re up to in here? Let me guess. You’re trying to grow dragons by sowing human teeth. Or you’re planning on growing a clone of yourself out of vines and - ooh. Uh, that…was a poor choice of words. But anyway…that wouldn’t even surprise me.”

She rolled her eyes. Clones? Robots? Virtual reality? What was next, talking bears?

Oh, wait.

“You look different,”

Holly noted, tugging on the end of one of her braids self consciously.

“Are you…doing okay, piragua?”

cw: suicide mention

Holly breathed a sigh of relief when Monobear finally appeared again, wryly noting that it was the first time she had EVER had such a thought. She was just walking over to Michiko to touch her hand and gently suggest they help Piney back to his room now when -

Oh.

Oh, God.

“ANDREW! NO!”

Her scream ripped from her throat as she ran towards him - she didn’t know what she was doing, she couldn’t save him at this point, the chain was around his throat (and she couldn’t lie and say she liked him or particularly prioritized his safety) - but he’s gone, and Holly is frozen in place watching his execution, and it takes a second after it ends for her to gather herself.

Before she turns, quick as a whip, horrified expression on her place not leaving anytime soon. She runs back to Michiko, hesitating when she sees Yuji….and then grabs her girlfriend’s hand and pulls her along, confident that Piney was beloved enough that someone else would get him out of here.

“We’re leaving. Right now. Tadashi will bring Ebull -” she said as she passed said pair, the look in her eyes leaving no room for argument. “But I only have two hands, and -”

And the second was occupied grabbing Masashi’s wrist and dragging him along as well. Maybe it’s irrational for Holly to be so scared. After all, it wasn’t like she didn’t know Monobear could execute people who attacked the chaperones. However, considering she had tried very hard to do so, twice, and was barely stopped in time…

It was a very pale brunette who stood in the elevator, shaking like a leaf as she clutched the two people she cared about most to her.

He didn’t deserve to die. Her fear of death was staring her in the face again.

But….

He wanted to. So badly he’d attacked a chaperone, with the express intent of dying.

Holly dropped her head onto Masashi’s shoulder and cried, holding onto Michiko’s hand for dear life.

Because as much as her fear of death was affecting her right now, moreso was the knowledge that she’d done the exact same thing only two weeks ago, and had only survived thanks to the intervention of her best friend. The only reason she was still standing was because of Masashi, and Michiko by extension - and she hadn’t been sure ever since whether she was grateful to them for saving her, or resentful.

She still wasn’t sure.

She turned her head further into Masashi’s shoulder and cried.

Silently, the water polo player watched the execution. All of it. All of it that she could bear, because she would bite back the fear and the awful roiling feeling in the pit of her stomach for him, because he deserved someone to bear witness to him, because he - and then the gunshots, so many of them, startling her into dropping her keycard, into staring, in shock, at where it used to be for a long time. Long enough for dozens of the notifications to crash her Vine app, not that she noticed. Long enough for Veronica to try the doors.

She closed her eyes and bit back the scared tears that she could feel welling up. Not tears for Ryouji. She didn’t want to cry for him.

But god, all of those gunshots….

It was a very scared, sick to her stomach little girl who stood there praying for her brother, even if when she opened her eyes a few moments later from when they’d been squeezed shut she was back to being the endlessly positive, energetic teenager she was supposed to be.

One day I’ll see you again, she promised, and even she wasn’t sure if she was speaking to Rafe or Ryouji - or both.

Upon realizing they were now locked in the courtroom, Holly abandoned the brief splash of panic she had to glance, worried, at someone else in the courtroom she was sure was less than delighted at this new development…and had to stifle a giggle at the look on his face. Jeez. Poor guy. And here she thought MASASHI was miserable this go around. Speaking of him, the athlete walked the few steps back to her podium (she hadn’t gone far, after all) and hopped on top of it again, this time opting to sit casually with her legs dangling off the edge as she ruffled the specialist’s hair.

“Hey, buddy. Long week, huh? Man, you’re gonna be pissed you didn’t get to see all this. I wish I’d recorded it for you. It sure would have given you a kick.”

Her fond tone only lasted as long as she was speaking to him, it seems, because a moment later she was looking up and listening to everyone else talk for a while. Hm. They were all sure in some kind of mess, weren’t they? Idly picking up her phone and shutting off the notifications, after a pang of heartache went through her at seeing that her…friend, kind of, was still suffering, she tried to decide on what she wanted to say…especially since Yuka was taking an active role in this discussion. Holly glanced at her and immediately flinched, apparently regretting her decision to do so. Oh boy. 

“Ah, Kagome…san.” She quietly asked, shifting uncomfortably, eyes downcast. “What did the humming sound like? The humming from the audio file…?”

Pausing, uncertain, Holly let out a quiet sigh and pulled a water bottle out of her bag - did she ever run out of those…? - and walked to give it to Yuka, stopping just far enough away to hand it to her. If she doesn’t take it, the athlete merely shrugs, looking vaguely distressed and unhappy either way, and regardless of the outcome walks back to her podium and puts a comforting hand on Masashi’s back again for a moment before moving closer to Ebull’s little…squad.

“So the masterminds aren’t…or weren’t working together on the same thing, and they aren’t connected like that. It’s…weird, right? We’re so close to each other, in the same program, it’s just…strange. I can’t imagine how they wouldn’t be collaborating, but, I never was that great at, um, detective stuff. Sorry. And…oh, it was just kind of weird that…I mean, this isn’t really evidence, at all, just a - just a coincidence, but it was weird how one of those…executions had Nomiya-kun swatted like, um, you know. Like a bug.”

Approaching Yuka had apparently thrown her off quite a bit. Her eyes clouded over, as if she was doubting her ability to even contribute. Her entire demeanor seemed to be slumped, compared to the determined optimism she was clearly trying to cling to. Her voice was noticeably softer when she tried to speak again.

“…How are we supposed to discuss this if it isn’t safe for us to share the information we have…? We know we’re being observed. And I figured the masterminds would have to have some kind of higher authority, or backer, or something. No one person - or two people - could do this alone. I still think there might be military influence at work here…but, um, that’s beside the point.”

She coughed, looking chagrined. Best not to draw attention to herself like that. However, her expression grew briefly amused again at Michiko’s annoyed mention of her job description, and shook her head with a snort as she pulled a tube of antiseptic out of her backpack’s side pocket and tossed it in her girlfriend’s direction with a grin.

“Well, if the poor, overworked doctor needs the help of her lovely, brutish assistant, just give me a ring. I sure can’t go too far.”

Her sarcastic, dry tone made her wonder if she was hanging out too much with Tadashi.

“At least one of the masterminds is trying to protect us, then. Or, you know, at the very least, didn’t mean for all of this to happen…the way it did. And maybe regrets it.” She threw an unsure glance at Ebull as if that was going to be helpful right now, but was quickly back to peeking up at her peers. “Since we found the computer in the hotel, a clue to the Praetis class’s mastermind is probably in the castle.”

Holly clenched her teeth and winced, as if she expected to be derided for that.

“That…that was obvious, or - or wrong, totally wrong, probably. I’m sorry. It’s not very helpful. But I want to know, why was, I mean, what was Chou’s motivation? They never said, did they? What kind of purpose is there to…to keeping us here, and…are they studying our interactions, our reactions, our limits? But why would that interest them? She collected insects. I…I’m sorry. I’m probably just stupid. But I don’t…I don’t see the corre…correl…”

Holly frowned, looking vaguely frustrated under the uncertainty and pinching anxiety that had once again started to steal over her face.

“…Connection.” She finally managed, looking embarrassed before moving on. “Someone said they wanted to bring someone back, but how does…if they, I mean, if this is a VR, I guess even REALLY dead people could be here, but does this mean Chou’s motivation was that she wanted to return someone to life?”

The brunette suddenly looked strangely like she could relate to that kind of motivation.

“…I can try to help searching Praetis for clues,” she mumbled, touching Tadashi’s shoulder lightly to get his attention, not leaving it there for long. “I want to help.”

She does, however, noticeably stiffen when the topic of twos and twins is brought up, her expression betraying brief panic again before she managed to coolly get it under control, gritting her teeth. Damn her expressive nature. It really was getting her fucking NOWHERE.

“Two is a theme here, yeah. Even Twelve is a multiple of two. I mean, I don’t know where that asshole went, but I didn’t forget about him. I wonder how Peri, Twelve, Monobear, the…rabbit thing, and the masterminds all fit together. I’m guessing the first two are like, NPCs, right?”

She looked at Michiko with this question, as if the girl wasn’t already incredibly busy. However, it didn’t take long for her to hesitantly touch Tadashi’s shoulder again, trying to make him look at her, trying to convey concern and reassurance. It’s okay, she tried to force him to hear, through mind control, probably. You’re fine.

Holly frowned again, though, as she finally looked away from him.

“Hm. I didn’t talk to the mastermind, yet, but it being Durarara…I don’t know why Sarara would speak like that even in files. And like Kadabra said, the kind of self-deprecation people saw in Chou’s file, you know, it just…doesn’t seem like something she’d write. I don’t know. There’s…evidence towards it being both of them, so I don’t know for sure who it is, but I trust the evidence we have so far, and Kadabra made some pretty good points.”

She gave him another quick smile, as if she was trying to draw her own strength from trying to provide it to other people. It didn’t seem to be working too well. Vaguely, she registered that her hand was still on his shoulder, and she blinked down at it in surprise for a moment before slowly removing it and taking a step back, glancing at him apologetically. Uh, whoops.

Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos. 

If you raise crows, one day, they’ll pluck out your eyes.

Holly thought quietly to herself, her hoodie loosely obscuring her face, as she watched this trial devolve into chaos. For once, it hadn’t been something stupid she'd done - so why did she feel that if she opened her mouth, she’d bear the blame as well? Simply for talking, for feeling, for trying -

So she kept quiet, feeling sick to her stomach as she watched everyone she knew lose themselves. If you bothered to look at her - who would? there was nothing to draw your attention, really - you would see she looked depressed, unhappy. She clearly didn’t appreciate what was going on here, but felt powerless to stop it. She felt powerless to stop a lot of things. Ryouji confessing, and having done it in the first place. Ailani being doused with wine - Holly winced, her mother’s amused voice in her head asking if she was going to live her whole life with that silly church metaphor tucked so stubbornly in her heart - and demonstrated to be yet another robot. Ebull and Ai punching and kicking Ryouji…to be fair, she probably could have done something about that. Piney shedding, um, Piney. The weird asshole with the bowtie stripping, for no obvious reason. The weird asshole with the bowtie screaming, and -

Hm. She wasn’t powerless to stop this.

Holly’s eyes narrowed, and all at once, the girl who’d been miserably slumped over her podium for the whole trial was gone, replaced immediately with a more familiar sight: a tall young woman with her head held high. 

Much better.

She jumped on top of her podium with minimal effort, secretly proud she could still do that. She’d skipped, uh, who knows how many fucking leg days.From her vantage point, she crossed her arms, set her jaw, and glared around the room like she dared someone to say something.

“Oh, my fucking, god. ENOUGH.”

Her voice boomed around the courtroom, the product of many years of screaming directions to the other end of an Olympic sized pool. The brunette frowned. 

“You know, I expected this kind of behavior from some of you. Me, for example. We’ve all seen I apparently lack the ability to control myself,” she said drily, looking vaguely annoyed, or maybe…bitter is the right word. “But seriously? Brightest kids of our age, and in the span of an hour everyone’s at everyone else’s throats? I know this is all a simulation - we’ve all known that for a while, probably - but if you actually want to get everyone out of here, stop acting like a bunch of shitty hateful toddlers and start acting like a fucking team. I know I’ve been a pretty useless captain thus far, but there’s more to a team than someone just being in charge, and killing each other and screaming over petty bullshit and hiding things is not what being a team is! I mean, where did you really think that was going to get us, Andrew?”

While her rant is directed at everyone, for at least a moment she chooses to narrow her eyes at the visual novelist. 

“I’m gonna address some reeeeal basic shit first. You have no right to be an ass to people for being startled that you stripped. Hell, I was startled, and my entire fucking job includes me wearing a whole lot less than that. People get uncomfortable with nudity. Why is this a wild concept for you? Out of all the things to be pissy about…”

She shook her head, moving on.

“Calling people ‘brainless shitheads’ for not immediately sharing sensitive information with a bunch of strangers, when said information was obtained, uh, like three days ago? Are you for real?” She spread her hands, placatingly. “Chou Nakahara was one of our classmates. You would know this if you looked at the roster - I assume you have access to who is, or was, in our class, anyways. I wouldn’t know. I don’t use that function of the ID much. But anyways, you could probably have asked that in, you know, an indoor voice, and somebody would have answered you. But instead you had to start screaming, because you’ve decided that my girlfriend and her-”

The athlete paused abruptly, before unconvincingly carrying on.

“Her….friend, are guilty of…what, exactly? Working hard? Figuring things out? Michiko works day and night to get us out of here - a hell of a lot more than you do, I’m sure. She brings people in on her information, but not total strangers, and I don’t know why you’re convinced that makes her the devil. She, and a few of us by extension, have only known who the mastermind is for a few days…and one of those people, I believe, is from your class. Maybe you’re only angry because you’re being left out - but if you’d simply approached any of us, or tried to work with us, you wouldn’t be. As much as I didn’t like you before, I would have sucked it up to work something out so we can all leave, because that’s what being on a team is. You don’t have to trust the people you’re with all the way. You don’t even have to like them - and trust me, I definitely do not like some of you. But this is just out of hand.”

She went back to addressing the whole class, now.

“Look. I know I didn’t say anything this trial. Putting aside that there’s no way I could have gotten a word in, with all this fucking absurdity, there’s the fact that I didn’t want to talk anymore because every time I do, it causes an issue. But you know what? This is too much. It’s way too much. And as fun as it might be to duke it out in this courtroom - and this game - for as long as we want, until we feel better, we really don’t have that kind of time. He’s about to die, and guess what? Pretty soon, someone else will, too. So how about instead of bitching at each other like a bunch of spiteful children, we all hold hands, sing kumbaya, and figure the rest of this shit out before there’s no one left to escape. Everyone will share their information. But you can’t just feel entitled to it - especially since the mastermind we DON’T know is in your class, Andrew, so I don’t know why you think we should all be seeking you out and coddling you in the first place. We have no reason to believe it isn’t  you, and we don’t even know you that well. So no, I don’t know why you think we would have told you before this. Chill the fuck out and stop looking for REASONS to hate two people who are working their asses off so that you can live another day.”

Holly sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, before starting up for the last time. 

“So you know what? Ailani, put down your fucking knives, you wannabe gangster, before you hurt somebody. Who’s acting like the primary schooler now? Seriously. Tadashi, chill. Haruna, doing that to Ailani was uncalled for and unnecessary and, frankly, sacrilegious. Ryouji, you should not have fucking KILLED ANYBODY. Ebull, I cannot believe that I’M the one saying this, but punching the culprits isn’t going to help us any, though I understand you’re…going through a lot, okay?” Her gaze softened in her friend’s direction, before clouding over again. “Ai, KICKING the culprits isn’t going to help anything, either. Insulting people who work hard and were just traumatized by a…very bad thing…” She glanced at Yuka, before looking away again. “Isn’t going to help anything. Screaming at each other isn’t gonna do shit to get us out of here. Fighting isn’t gonna do shit to save our friends, and it sure as hell is just gonna ruin all of us still miraculously walking around this hell. You know what’s gonna get us out of here? Teamwork, basic decency, and empathy. So why don’t we all put on our big girl panties, put down the weapons and the attitudes and the hatred and the murdering and grow the FUCK up?”

Somehow, throughout all of this, the captain was strangely calm, not angry, just…very stern. She was acting a lot like what  you could probably assume she did when she was being, well, a captain. Her talent. For the first time, she was trying to step up here. It probably did more harm than good, but, you know.

“Al mal tiempo, buena cara,”

Holly whispered to herself as she jogged down the streets of the Ateitis wards, looking for nothing but the familiar burn that a workout always gave her. Her trademark multicolored hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and she was wearing a tank top and running shorts - miraculously, it seems she’s ditched that scarf she’s taken to wearing so much for at least this situation.

Put a good face to the bad times.

She exhaled and inhaled, annoyed that running always seemed to be able to wind her a bit despite everything. After all, she was a swimmer. Any swimmer will tell you that their natural enemy is land exercise. As a complete and total outlier, Holly had hoped she would be spared by the stamina gods and blessed with the gift of being good at literally everything, ever, but apparently that was too much to ask.

Hey, at least she could handle a good bit more running than most people, she reasoned, directly before running almost literally into just the MOST unexpected person. Blinking for several moments before orienting herself, having managed to stop herself about a half inch away from the stranger’s back, the athlete gently touched his shoulder in an effort to steady herself and withdrew the moment she had.

“Oh, hi,”

she offered, looking - and sounding - surprised.

“You’re the vine guy, right? I love your stuff. I used to watch like, everything you posted. I’d send them to my brother, too - he got such a kick out of them, even though he doesn’t know any Japanese. The ones in English, though, he showed to his whole platoon. He didn’t even show MY vines to his bros, and I’M his fucking SISTER! The nerve, right? Anyways, my point is, nice to meet you. You seem cool.”

She seemed to think for a moment, staring at him in obvious deep scrutiny, before finally taking a deep breath, opening her mouth, and asking-

“So, question - you down to play Dance Dance Revolution? ‘Cause we totally have that here. I know that all you really knew was that shitty castle, but here, we have VIDEO GAMES. And…modern technology. It’s lit.”

There was a lot left to the imagination in this place, Holly thought, quiet for once as she walked with her hands in her pockets towards whatever it was that weird bear wanted with them. They’d had a few days of relative normalcy, so she assumed it was something to intentionally kick them all back into their state of paranoia.

She sighed, and burrowed her nose further into the (completely unnecessary) scarf she wore loosely around her neck. She didn’t want to go back to those times. It was these times, when everyone could be kind and friendly to each other - well, most of them, anyways - that she loved the most. The times when she could treat her friends like her friends and be treated like one in kind, instead of them worrying that she’d stick a knife in their back at first opportunity. Her brows furrowed as she reminded herself she wasn’t the only person who preferred these more normal days, at any rate. In fact, only a few people would enjoy the kind of high stress stakes that came after a motive - and, she thought wryly to herself, at least one of those people wasn’t half bad.

Their group still had a lot of questions actively on their minds. Who was behind all of this? Why? Where were they, really? Was this a virtual reality simulation, or an experiment, or a different dimension, or a real place empty of all people? Has no one noticed that an entire class of the most gifted teenagers in the world went missing? How did the people controlling this game know so much about them?

Holly grit her teeth and pulled the scarf down as she picked up her pace, arriving at the site around the same time most others did. No use reluctantly waiting to see what would assault them next. If you want answers to questions that you don’t even know, waiting isn’t going to do you any good. You just have to go.

The athlete stood on the front lines of the group, as she almost always did, not speaking but instead choosing to cross her arms and glare at the little black and white monstrosity as it whined about…oh, god knows what. She was actually almost bored after a bit - but very, very quickly stiffened when there was talk about allegedly bringing the dead back to life.

Her throat went dry, and she couldn’t hide her surprise. 

“Wh…What?”

She said in disbelief, getting ready to say more when all of a sudden, there was no ‘alleged’ about it anymore. Someone stood in front of her, someone she kind of a little bit RECOGNIZED from her life before all of this bullshit started, someone who was certainly, most definitely, absolutely dead.

Holly stared at him for a long several moments before the rest of what the bear said registered with her, and her jaw tightened as she collected herself and started to walk away, offering only a few sharp words to anyone who had stuck around to say hi to their new zombie.

“If it’s only the people who died here that can be brought back, I’m not going to kill for this. Please be kind to our new….uh, I guess, old classmate. Try to make him feel at home. He’s got a lot of catching up to do.”

Holly’s dreams of rotten egg smashing do not come to fruition, sadly. Why?

Holly is horrified to learn that every last egg in the grocery store is rotten.

Holly felt like she was lost somewhere in Venus’s version of the deep south. Rolling hills, flowers, trees, and…okay, maybe the deep south didn’t have castles. What did they have? Plantations? Yikes. Castles were better. Um, sort of. Didn’t they have servants and torture dungeons and all that? ….Nevermind. Shit sucked. All of it. The athlete kicked up some grass as she walked, and pouted. She was glad for the slight change of scenery, sure, but man did she miss the city. At least before, Ateitis in some ways RESEMBLED San Jose. This green shit? Trees? Non-polluted air? It was a whole new world, and she didn’t like it one bit. She wanted to go home, and for that reason, she was antsy to get out of Praetis. 

So why was she here in the first place, you ask?

Well, there were many things that Holly could be said to be. Annoying, for one. Poor at boundaries. Loud, invasive, bad at math, emo as fuck. But you couldn’t say she was a quitter, and she was not about to give up the coveted title of ‘embodiment of team spirit and the human capacity for cheer’ without a fucking fight. So here she was, at this Cair Paravel ass castle, knocking on the door of a kid she’d known for maaaaaybe a week tops.

“{Hellooooo, Kadabra!}”

She chirped in English when poor, hapless Tadashi answered, before smiling brightly at him with a slightly softer tone of voice.

“Hey, look, you seemed kind of stressed at that trial. And I’m like, mega sorry if I’m, you know, bothering you or whatever, but Mimi is busy abandoning me for the wonder crew of weather girl and Jim Jams, and Sashi is….doing whatever the hell it is he does when I’m not paying attention to him,and I have got SUCH a need to just watch a movie and chill the fuck out, so, like…”

She paused, finally taking a breath and suddenly looking quite unsure of herself.

“I mean, we have movies at the hotel, and - I brought snacks to bribe you with, but if you don’t want to go you can just have them, I’m not a monster. I just thought it would be fun - and besides, we haven’t gotten to hang out since, uh, shit went down, and it would be, you know, cool, to…I don’t know.”

To tell the truth, unanticipated knocks at Tadashi Matsuo’s door here in Praetis were absolutely unheard of- and so, being the kind of guy that he was, naturally he assumed… well, nothing amazing. 

What the fresh fuck was this?

At least he only had a look of mild confusion on his face upon actually opening the door and being assaulted by Holly’s greeting- alright, the sudden chirp did exaggerate that look a little in surprise, but ultimately harmless. Especially as he had a small smile to offer once Holly herself had softened too… even if that sense of confusion hadn’t really gone away, settling deep in his chest to just kind of nag at him a little. 

This was… pretty new. 

But in the end he came back seemingly completely fine, slipping his hand out from the bag at his side (now weighted down with his camera again) to sheepishly rub the side of his neck. At least he seemed genuinely pleased to see her here even with that; a small, natural smile still on his face.

“Ah, << hello, Holly >>..! Mhm, you weren’t bothering me at all, honestly, no worries- was hardly busy, heh. So you’re… wanting me to come over and watch a movie with you..?”

Fuck. He’d initially started on that last question just to confirm that he actually did have the right idea here - Holly had started to get a little tangled up in explanations and justifications there, after all - but it had only served to let some of that confusion seep through into his previously casual tone. 

(Especially that stressing of ‘me’- fucking hell, Matsuo, way to go in showing yourself as someone people didn’t normally want to spend time with like this!) 

It… probably couldn’t hurt though, right? He was going to try…

(Besides. Holly had been… really good with him too, honestly.) 

Tadashi shrugged, deciding to see if actions might speak louder than words for Holly right now as he made his decision: stepping out of his doorway and shutting it behind him, only briefly turning to lock his door before facing Holly again. A look of light interest came on as opposed to a smile now, but at least he still seemed genuinely open to the idea. 

“The hotel, right? Don’t recall seeing much movie related around there, honestly- though suppose I haven’t really looked. For all I know your class has had three move theatres tucked away this entire time…”

…Where exactly was she expecting them to go? 

Okay. Whatever. For fuck’s sake, Matsuo, you already got on this train. Might as well try. 

Going from mild anxiety as she waited for him to answer, to unabashed surprise and delight when he smiled at her - he smiled at her, and it was a thrill to her heart every time - to relief that he seemed to be up for the idea of spending time with her, to....blatant, visible confusion when he seemed in disbelief that she was interested in hanging out with him...

At that point, Holly’s brow creased and her face fell into a frown.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on why this bothered her so much. This small, inconsequential thing. Maybe it was because she’d felt that way before, too - but it hadn’t been so ingrained into her being as it seemed to be for him. Maybe it was because she was so used to her friendship being taken as a given to so many people that she was having trouble processing that someone wouldn’t fall into step so easily with her. Maybe it was because she just couldn’t understand why someone who had treated her so kindly and who had been so charming and normal and grounding in this absurdist hellscape could possibly be confused that someone wanted to spend time with him.

In seconds, the frown was gone, replaced by her usual bright, easy smile, as if it had never been there at all.

“Of course! You were actually the first non-girlfriend person I thought of. I mean, after all, who better to harass with my fabulous presence than ol’ mister grumpy gills himself, live and in person?”

She teased, but her tone was light as she bumped her shoulder with his playfully, before resuming her normal careful observance of his personal bubble. Her heart hurt, and she couldn’t explain why. It was the kind of loneliness that stole over you in seconds and took hold of you and wouldn’t let go for anything. Her expression didn’t change from its fond smile, though, as she nodded in response to his question and used the hand holding a bag of chips to point towards the direction of the hotel.

“We have a movie theater, but it’s,” a pause. “Weird. All of the lounges on our floors at the hotel have TVs and movies and stuff. It’s pretty nice, I guess. It might sound stupid, but honestly, I would prefer to just be back home - we might not have had cable or anything, but at least, you know, it’s...anyways, maybe if I could steal the hotel’s cable, and have my old apartment back, I would be sooo fucking set. And - what, you think this is for you? No, no, if you don’t think I can’t eat through an entire kitchen like a black hole, we clearly do not know each other and you will never understand me.”

“This is messed up.”

And yet, she continues. Kanon made her way down to the kitchen and prepared herself a treat. What’s a movie night without popcorn? After two burned bags, she was finally ready. Now, we should probably explain things. Kanon had always been curious what the hotel was like compared to the castle. Once she learned that she could get to the upper floors despite not living here, she knew what she had to do. What was life without TV?

Okay, so they didn’t have cable, but they had movies. She was even tempted to put Seinfeld on just to get her fix, memories of the Bee Movie to be damned. However, upon finding that movie, Kanon knew she had little choice. It seemed callus to put it on, but at the same time, it was kind of funny. The acting was just odd to her, after reading the book.

So here she was in the fifth floor lounge, laying on her back and resting her bowl of popcorn on her chest. Battle Royale played softly on the screen, so she could hear anyone enter before they heard the movie. No need to disturb anyone. Just because watching a movie about a murder game was funny to her didn’t mean that it would be to anyone else. As such, when someone entered the lounge, she was quick to pause the movie, which left it off shortly before a gruesome scene.

Suffice to say, Holly could use a break, and some alone time, and her floor’s lounge was the perfect place to...

....

“Hello, Kanon,”

the athlete said after a long pause, frozen in the doorway. If she’d had a fight or flight response left, it would have kicked in, but if Holly had ever had one it had been burned out by the time she’d turned three years old. So, she was left with a much less helpful system: fight or fight.

She walked over to where the weapons enthusiast was sitting and grabbed a handful of popcorn. 

“Nice...movie.”

The brunette tried, she really really tried, to sound amused and genuine, but her voice wavered at the end, and the vague nausea and distress that passed over her face couldn’t be hidden fast enough. So instead, she quickly moved on.

“I can’t believe you guys just straight up didn’t have electricity over there. Like, what?! How did you even manage? I mean, we might only have five or whatever movies, but it’s SOMETHING. And the way the fountain lights up...I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Except, you know, leaving, and all. Um, speaking of which, you don’t have to go anywhere. But if you’re cool with pausing your movie for a few,, we can hang out and talk, I guess.”