#amnesia ice

He was free from it. He was finally, finally, free from it. The body announcement echoed in his head along with the liberating click of the bracelet that may as well have been a chain on his arm. Rolling his wrist and feeling actual energy, not disgusting poison, slosh through his veins brought a smile against Tatsuya’s lips.

A smile that should not have been there. That most would scowl in return for, because, why would he smile at someone’s death? 

Why wouldn’t he? He was free now because of it. The thought both delighted and terrified him all at once as he made his way through the surrounding areas of the cold wonderland they were trapped in. Rather than go near the body, and the people investigating it, Tatsuya took a detour  back to the first area. He wanted to clear his head. He needed to think and enjoy the pain free existence before he would have to deal with the migrane that being around those others tended to instill upon him. Honestly, what was up with them?

A noise as he passed the garden shelter sounded, causing him to stop in his tracks and frown curioiusly. Taking steps backwards, he reached the doorway again and peered in to see just what had caused the strange sound. Another person, probably, unless that cube was trying to garden only to realize that it didn’t have hands.

What he found though was, well, not what he expected.

“...Yukari?” 

The name fell lithely off his lips, as it tried often to do since they had agreed on a first name basis for the time being. He slid into the area and leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head and causing a lock of blue to spiral against his forehead as he frowned.

There were a lot of things to be concerned about, they assumed. The reactions from several of the others in regards to the “punishment” were what stuck out to Kou and the mulled over what it meant during their ride on the ski lift. There was a several pieces of the puzzle completely missing but Kou felt as though the entire thing was gone. Maybe the metaphorical puzzle just never existed to begin with. They made a bit of a face as they crossed their arms, upset about the disappearance of the pieces and the puzzle as a whole.  

Kou had allowed themself a few more moments of reflection before making their way to the Therapy Centre. They weren’t too fond of the way its cheery and welcoming insides didn’t match its ugly exterior. Actually, now that Kou was looking at it, the inside was a little ugly too. 

They decided to ignore the poor decision making that went into how the place was set up to go down the hallway and look for whatever room would correspond to their name. The footsteps pulled their attention away from the doors and to the person approaching them.

“Are you curious as well?” they asked, turning to the person. “Or were you expecting to find a trained professional to help you?” 

After everything that had happened so far today, Ryoka (well, that's what the ID said her name was anyway) was honestly at a loss for words. It wasn't everyday you woke up in some strange facility with no recollection of who you were after all. Although some warmer weather would've been nice... That aside, at this point Ryoka was just happy to have learned the minimal details about herself.

Despite their confusion situation Ryoka already had a goal in mind. While her foggy memory and her inability to... Recall basically anything was certainly a pressing issue, the girl's main concern was that she really needed something warmer to wear. The second Ryoka had stepped outside she soon realized that her current attire wasn't exactly good for the strange winter wonderland they had all found themselves in. Short sleeves weren't exactly the best option when it was snowing and her gloves only covered so much of her arms. Shivering at the harsh weather, she quickly makes her way to a building to at least get out of this cold weather.

While it was struggle to trudge through the snow in heels of all thing, she let out a long sigh of relief as she finally got to the door of... A ski lift cabin it looked like? Well, as far as Ryoka could tell anyway. Quickly entering and closing the door behind her, Ryoka was relieved to finally be out of the snow at long last. Brushing some of the snow out of her hair, she took a look around the cabin and was easily able to spot a couple of parkas and scarves sitting on a shelf. Oh thank goodness, there were coats here. She wastes no time in putting one on and covering up her once bare arms. There we go! Now she should be a lot warmer when she goes outside. Although it certainly looked big on her thanks to her small frame Ryoka certainly wasn't bothered.

Now that she was warm once more, her curiosity got the better of her as she looked around the cabin curiously. Wondering what else she could find, she takes her time looking around the ski cabin for anything of note. She's not quite sure what she's looking for, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to become more acquainted with the area.

Although in the midst of her search a sound catches her attention. Hearing the door open, she couldn't help but quickly turn around in surprise. Though her gaze soon softened as she realized it was one of the people she had woken up with. They were a stranger to her, but that didn't mean she couldn't try to at least make some acquaintances during their stay here.

"Oh, hello there! Aha, my apologies, I must admit you startled me there... Did you come to check out this place as well I presume?"

Tatsuya supposed that he should have felt more at the sight they had all just beheld. 

Rather, he thought that it was odd that he didn’t have a larger reaction to it. 

He had seen Yukari cry. He had heard others gasp in shock. In horror. In worry and fear.  He felt his own body tense up when he remembered the execution and trial but...But. He felt nothing outside of those body movements. Inside of himself was rather unchanged. Rather unimpressed at the whole spectacle that had unfolded. Sure the execution itself was a surprise. He wasn’t looking forward to the idea that more people would have to go like that...but...she did murder, right? It was her fault.

It was a justice system and he felt nothing but neutrality about it. That scared him.

He had actually been quiet when leaving for the newly opened area. Finding a seat in the cafe that had made itself available, Tatsuya found himself harboring a cup of strong, black coffee at a nearby table and gazing on at his own fingertips in steely silence, brows furrowed and grip tight against the burning beverage. He should have had a reaction...He knew, in most cases, this would be bad.

Why didn’t he care?

He looked up at last with a sigh, eyes tired but unsurprised when they spotted a figure looking on at him. He looked back. They could probably tell something was up by the way he was silent. By the way he wasn’t grinning. His head cocked itself to the side, brows furrowing in vague annoyance.

He was quiet as he walked towards the source of the body, heavy boots hitting the ground and reveling in the crunching sound that escaped from under his feet. The miasma of the woods did nothing to ease the tension that permeated the atmosphere as he finally reached the pitfall. As he finally peered in and saw what everyone had been talking and panicking about so much around him lately.

A body, dead in the snow.

He wasn’t sure if the sense of apathy or unsurprised was normal in the given situation. Seeing others react how they did felt...silly to him. He didn’t know why. It felt like numbness, either from repetitive practice or simple disassociation was unclear to him. A dead body somehow didn’t surprise him, but, he would count that as a sort of good thing. Perhaps it was better not to be surprised or angry. What would it change? It wouldn’t get what came next done, something he knew they all had to do but fully loathed starting the process of.

The sound of rustling shrubbery echoed and he peered over to its source as a familiar figure made its way to the area as well. He had pulled out a cigarette by then without thinking about it, chewing it in between his lips as he fished for a lighter but could not find one. Was it in his room? Dammit. Still, he smiled at her.

“Murofushi-chan, hi! What brings out out here so far into the creepy old woods? Ah...”

A pause as he peers over next to him to eye the body and chuckles.

The garden shelter, for lack of a better phrase, was quite beautiful. Tatsuya admired the plants and vegetables growing in neat, organized rows around him as he walked through the area. It smelled like a conglomerate of perfume and soil and everything else that seemed to come with open garden areas. For a while, he eyes the temperature panel curiously. Tatsuya eventually reaches out to try and change the temperature on the panel from Cool to Warm. After he’s had his fun, he goes to examine the various flowers sitting neatly in rows.

He catches the sound of light footsteps nearby, but doesn’t seem to flinch or look up in order to react to them. Rather, he continues to stroke the leaves of the various plants he is admiring before sharply plucking the unfortunate appendage in his fingers off of its home. He smiles and speaks without looking up at the figure now nearby.

“Plants are weird, don’t you think? They just...sit there and grow. You can do whatever you want to them, even kill them, and they just keep trying to do the same thing...Haha. And then they die in the end anyways after they’ve grown all the blooms they can.”

He pauses and looks up.

The hallway was quiet at long last. Tatsuya wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than when others were busy muddling about and sneaking around. Better, he supposed in the end, because that meant that people now no longer attempted to sneak into his room and snoop around without his permission. It was quite annoying, especially after he claimed the room for himself, two beds and all. That was why he stood out in the hallway now, as a matter of fact.

Rummaging through his jean and jacket pockets had revealed several items he didn’t know he had on his person. A couple of them being a lighter and cigarettes, which brought about a nicotine craving he wasn’t aware that he had until he laid eyes on the couple of loose joints before him. Shoving one between his lips, Tatsuya held it with his teeth as he twirled the pocket knife in his hand, another item he had fished from his jean pockets. It was black and smooth, the blade sharpened and well kept. 

It was with that blade he began to carve his name into the front of the door to the room he wanted. If people passed by, they’d realize it was his room now for certain! And being cared in, they couldn’t remove it or claim they didn’t see it. He paused for a moment only to hold the lighter and click it a few time to light the cigarette in his lips, cursing as it didn’t take the first couple of lights. Green eyes glanced upwards down the hall, pausing his actions when he realized there was a form nearby. Huh, strange that they hadn’t finished walking down the hall, or introduced themselves.

Tatsuya removed the cigarette from between his lips so he could greet the other without mumbling, twirling the knife in his hands. From a distance, or even up close, he looked like a terrifying sort of punk.  But, then again, what else was new?

The motive this time was enough to scare anyone, wasn’t it? It still didn’t fully register to Kou that they had poison running through their veins. They felt they should be a little more concerned with that. Actually, they didn’t feel that. The motive was practically pushed to the back of their mind as the glow of the bracelet barely escaped their sleeve. They were currently busy with a notepad a list of names all too familiar to everyone else. There were two columns on the sheet of paper: “HELPED” and “HELPERS.” They stared at it as if it would make more sense to them. While they didn’t concern themselves too much with the others, it would be good to consider where everyone was in concerns to what LISE had told the group.

The only name under “HELPED” so far was Ryuuko. If you looked close enough, it seemed as if another name was erased. The “HELPERS” list had some names: Umehara, Ihara, and Kirikubo. “... Where do I fit?” they asked, not knowing if anyone else was there to answer the question for them. Would someone even know the answer? If they did, that might be pretty suspicious.