#ds2 ic

The white noise of the laundry room was good and well, but Nightfall couldn't see the point of just hanging out in public spaces in a time like this. It was a little dangerous, especially for a room with only one door.

[♫♫♫]

It was inevitable that someone would die. Reese might have been one of the more soft-hearted people here, but he was no fool. In the end, it was someone here or someone else's loved ones.

Someone else or his twin sister.

Someone else or him.

It was disgusting to think in such a cynical manner. Equally disgusting to feel a sense of relief when it wasn't Paradigm or Chimera. But no one else had to know, right? Only Reese and his loved ones had to know how selfish he could be.

It was fine. Just a bit longer, and they could get through this.

It was fine. He wouldn't get complacent again.

It was fine. It was... it was...

...his ElectroID went off again.

And Reese Bellamy took off, running at full tilt. He didn't stop until... until...

It was a lie, he told himself. It was a lie, his electroID couldn't- Paradigm... Michiko wasn't- there was no way that- it had to be a lie, it had to be a lie, it had to be-

-the cold, hard, truth, laid out for him in stark relief, soon as he arrived in the lab, holding out just until her reached her body, and his legs folded under him yet again.

The tears flowed freely this time, without so much as a token attempt at taping back his emotions from the puppeteer. Reese let them. What did it matter anymore? Nothing mattered, in light of this simple reality:

The motive had been cleared. Reese was still here. Lilian was still here. But Michiko, the Princess Hoshi, was gone. And a bit of Reese went with her.

This wasn't a children's show. Reese couldn't cry Michiko back to life. He had to act. He had to be useful. 

But Reese was a total marshmallow. He'd told Michiko as much on his first day here. He'd never been cut out for anything like this. He'd never honed the ability to be truly cynical or resilient. The motive had already ground any attempts at tamping down his emotions into a fine paste. Maybe this was the inevitable conclusion.

In the course of his investigations with Maestro, Selene, and Tomahawk, Labrat finds himself on White Level, outside of the Laboratory... when a strange odor coming from the hall to his left catches his attention. He looks that way, down towards the Dark Room.

"Um...I don't think this is the clue room..." 

He looks towards Selene and everyone else, then nervously shuffled towards the dark room. He covers his face with part of his robe as he approaches As he heads down the hall, Seidou sees there are what look like... singe and scorch marks along the floor of it. The closer he gets to the Dark Room the stronger the smell of... burnt hair and flesh is.

As he gets closer to the room, tears begin to form in the corners of his eyes. It was partially the smell getting to him, but mostly it was the idea of seeing a dead body. Please not a fourth, please not a fourth.

"I....I don't want to go in first. I'm sorry...I really am....I-I'll follow behind...it's just...a lot."

Selene presses their lips into a thin, worried line, then nods. "Alright." They don't hesitate in the movement towards where the smell seems to be coming from.

"I dont care for this at all." Maestro says coming up alongside the other two with Tomahawk. There is some more discussion, but ultimately Selene is the one to step forward, and opens the door to the Dark Room as Maestro, Labrat, and Tomahawk crowd up behind them. They draw the curtain aside to look into the room.

The Dark Room looks undisturbed although it is crowded with equipment the way dark rooms are, but more importantly, in the red glow of the dim lighting it’s possible to see...

Paradigm has been laid out on the floor with her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes are closed. Her glasses are folded and set to the right of her head. Her hair has been burnt and some of it has broken off into dust around her head like a black halo. The only thing covering her head is the hair that hasn’t burned or broken off and third degree burns. Despite this her face is mostly intact.

Her face has been mostly covered by a singed lab coat. It covers the rest of her body down to her calves which are bare along with her feet.

The line of succession is broken. The princess is dead.

---

Johan had been searching for Tama, he wasn't at his room, and Johan has had no luck searching him out on any other floors. He wanted so badly to kiss Tama on the face again, memories of their earlier encounter still swirling in his head and providing a small comfort to the realities of the game. A reality that all too quickly was crushed beneath him. Johan opened the door to the laboratory on black level, perhaps wondering if Tama had been working, only to scream immediately after opening the door and running in.

Laid out on the floor of the Black Level Laboratory is the body of Operative Cog, Tama Fukumura, looking very much like the center of a crime scene. Blood has seeped through the thick shirt over his stomach, where one hand clutches, as though trying to keep it in even now, when it is far too late. Cog may have been reclusive and abrasive, but he was the youngest among you, and there’s something that feels especially unfair about seeing his life cut so short. Or perhaps it feels simply routine by now.

"No no no no no!" Johan screamed, kneeling next to Tama's corpse and quickly checking his pulse. Not that Johan was a nurse but he knew how to check for a pulse. Tama was dead.

"...That’s for future us to worry about…"

"Alright. But! This is for the future Johan and Tama..."

"Y-you liar…" Johan choked back a sob, but the small dam he had built up to keep himself together broke, and soon he just sat there alternating between screaming and sobbing.

Meanwhile, a certain rat was once again in the vicinity of something heinous, but was blissfully unaware. All Seidou wanted to do was go back to the obstacle course, but the sound of faint screaming soon got his attention. That couldn't be; not another body-

Wait, bodies don't scream. Maybe, just maybe, he had enough time to stop whatever was going on in there! He shakily charged into the laboratory, the idea of finally being able to save someone pushing him despite all of his survival instincts telling him to stay away. There'd be no murder today; not on his watch...

Any bit of confidence he had coming in here was instantly shattered at the sight laid out before him. All he could do was put a hand on Johan's shoulder as he stared in horror at the room. As he stared at the third horror he managed to stumble in on.

---

Starling remembered the last time they'd seen Lilian Bellamy. They'd etched the memory deeply into their mind over the years, playing it over and over in their head. Lilian, red-eyed and vulnerable, begging for understanding and love from the twin she'd been taught to loathe. Reese refusing to acknowledge her change of heart instead unloading years of resentment on her, before-

"If you want to leave so badly, then do it! Fucking go!You never wanted a thing to do with me, so why start now?!"

"Reese, I'm sorry, I... I know we've... I wanted them to...I was afraid they'd treat me like you, if..."

Reese had just turned away. And Lilian had run away to god knows where, and Reese had spent years overcome with guilt, searching for Lilian to no avail, wondering if they were effectively a murderer, hating themselves for the blood that might have been on their hands...

...they would have given anything to see their twin again. But not like this. Not like this.

Reese could laugh at the whole thing if they weren't so numbed by it, they mused as they stared at the woman on the video feed (the hair color had thrown them off for a moment, sure, but you think they wouldn't recognize their own twin?), tears stinging at the corner of their eyes all over again. At least... at least they knew Lilian was alive.

"I'm not a murderer." Then, again, with more conviction. "I'm not a murderer."

They wouldn't... they'd find some other way to protect Lilian without... they...

...realized who was in the third video feed.

It was them. Reese "Starling" Bellamy was one of the people up on the chopping block. The twins were together again in one respect, at least!

And this... this they did manage to laugh at. It was an awful, wooden-sounding peal of laughter. Reese's little nervous head-scratch and nonchalant grimace were no less wooden. All the forced nonchalance in the world couldn't disguise how all the color had left their face and their pupils had dilated at the realization.

"G-gosh... I've gotta get Coby or Shiloh on... isn't right for a puppeteer to be on camera without their puppets."

Chimera had been rather upset to hear motive being announce. Not even that they’d heard the motive yet, but because it meant they couldn’t wait outside the infirmary for Paradigm. They needed to see her, to hold her and promise her that they loved her too. To tell her about how they’ll get their sister to make her a new tongue. Of course Vivi would do that for her, because she wanted Kaz to be happy. She was a good sister, in Kazuko’s biased opinion.

But then the motive came like a punch in the stomach. They’d been good. They hadn’t tried to escape. They accepted their role here, so why was Vivi being threatened? Weren’t they promised she would be okay as long as they didn’t try and attack Onryo? There was no real promise though, just a frightened assumption from Kaz. And now here she was, trapped. Vivi would never be trapped. They went through so much so she could be free.

When the time came to chose, they were quick to react, but not quick enough. The screen went black. Both Vivi and Cue were gone. Someone had… And why would they choose someone who they didn’t know over Cue? Brave, strong, beautiful Cue. Cue who admirably hunted down the worst people. But Vivi was a good person too. So why? Why? Why?

Clack!

Their ID dropped to the ground as Chimera’s hands ran through their hair. They wanted to cry, scream, howl. They wanted to, they wanted to… But they couldn’t. Their gaze flicked around the room. Then, like a puppet with their strings cut, they just dropped to the ground.

As the second kill/save opportunity approaches, Hikaru stares, eagle-eyed, at his ElectroID. He’d set an alarm to make sure that he was actually awake at this time - seriously, whoever decided to announce motives in the morning clearly had some sort of personal vendetta against him, especially when he’d been recovering from anaesthesia most of yesterday. It’s not the sort of news that’s nice to wake up late to.

The time passes, and two screens instantly go dark. No one he knows, which might be a relief, but his eyes narrow. If he could, he’d be frowning, but it couldn’t be seen anyway behind the several layers now on his lower face - not only are there the bandages, but he’s now wrapped a length of black silk on top of them, like a scarf.

A long, drawn-out sigh. (Through his nose, of course.)

Sometimes you just have to put yourself out there.

-

About half an hour later, a slip of paper finds its way beneath the doors of all the occupied dorms. The handwriting is very pretty, but it seems there was a lot of effort into making it legible, and it’s clear the writer prefers shorthand.

Be realistic. Most people can’t survive without water for more than 3 days. Even if your loved one makes it to the end of the five, they’ll end up dead anyway. People are going to die whether you do anything or not.

It’s obvious the best solution is to kill someone else here, and soon. One death against who knows how many.

If you want help with this, I’m willing to hear you out. I know this looks like a trap, but Cue’s safe - I’ve got no personal investment in this.

Knock on my door if you’re interested, or leave a note of your own if I’m out. Don’t try anything clever - I can and will defend myself, and if you end up dead, well, that’s the motive over, I suppose.

[Screen 1] 

It’s hard to tell this woman’s age due to the amount of botox she appears to have had, but she’s likely in her early 50’s. Her hair is a shade of blonde that looks like it’s fake, but more to hide greying hair than any choice of fashion. She’s dressed in a designer skirt suit, paired with a low cut blouse, as well as heels that are a bit age-inappropriate. Gotta look good even when you’re being held hostage, apparently.

-

[Screen 2] 

A young woman with deep red hair in a stylish bob, she’s wearing boots with a sundress and her features bear an instantly recognizable resemblance to Starling. She looks to be the same age, too.

-

[Screen 3] 

This is a marked difference to most of the other screens. Instead of showing a cell, it simply shows… a live feed of Starling. Hi Reese, you’re on candid camera.

-

[Screen 4] 

A stoic faced 6’3 middle aged Indian woman with short greying hair, and a 5’10 heavyset, balding, middle aged Japanese man with noticeable laughter lines.

-

[Screen 5] 

An extremely tall, skinny, middle aged man with chin length, wavy black hair that has started to grey in some places, burly eyebrows, narrow, downturned amber eyes, thick, black glasses, a long, skinny nose and narrow lips. Overall, he looks naturally gentle and sweet, and he has obviously aged well.

-

[Screen 6] 

A young auburn haired boy with an eye patch covering his right eye. His face appears to be heavily scarred, suggesting he may have been the victim of a ruthless attack.

-

[Screen 7] 

A young Indian man, on the short side, his outfit looks appropriate for a hike, and his features have something familiar about them, though it’s hard to place.

-

[Screen 8] 

8 people, all in their mid to late 20’s. They’re all bundled in as One feed; a package deal for murdering! Tap for more details.

[Details]

1: A gorgeous bleach blonde gyaru with tanned skin and her hair in twin buns.

2: A sullen dark skinned man with deep navy hair and an apparent inability to keep a tie tightened correctly.

3: A short man with extremely fluffy bubblegum pink hair and piercing yellow eyes.

4: An exhausted looking person with dark purple cropped hair and glasses.

5: A very tall and athletic looking woman with long blonde hair with orange streaks.

6: An elegant looking woman in yellow with green hair in a bob, her bangs kept out of her eyes with black rose hairpins.

7: A tanned punk with a black and red undercut wearing a black aviator jacket. (To those who remember, their face bears a striking resemblance to the member of Cue’s gang that wrote a message in blood on the wall. Perhaps this is the ‘Akira’ she spoke of...)

8: A pale man with black hair hanging over one eye and wearing a familiar black leather jumpsuit with the words The Breaks embroidered on the back.

-

[Screen 9] 

Two men are shown in this cell, sitting close to one another in an apparent attempt at sharing comfort. One has short, dark hair that is starting to thin, deep set brown eyes, and a pronounced nose. He appears to be of average height and medium build, with some scruff on his chin and cheeks. The other man is much more narrow, with a mop of curly golden hair and piercing blue eyes. There are some hints of red in his hair, and he has a splattering of freckles across his nose, cheeks, and forehead. He wears glasses with rather large, rounded frames.

-

[Screen 10] 

A plump, short latina woman with long straight black hair that has white streaks through it. She wears modest yet beautiful makeup, though who knows how long that will last in captivity.

-

[Screen 11] 

This is a marked difference to most of the other screens. Instead of showing a cell, it simply shows… a live feed of Keisha. Still in her forced neko maid costume, of course.

-

[Screen 12]