{ LAIR } The Dungeons (p. 20!)

[its me debz]

Well, that was a bad sign. Clerise fell to her knees, ignoring the pang of pain she felt as bone smacked against stone.

"Come on, prodigy," she murmured, reaching out to gently lay a hand on his shoulder. "You okay there, dude?"

Poor baby, what did they do to you? she thought.

{[ He's been here a while, love. If they can give ALL of us one hallucination, imagine what they can do for a small number, yeah? ]}

She shook him by the shoulder a little.

"Anything broken?"  

[Bittiface]

Otto stayed inside his safe little ball. He felt the tentative hand on his shoulder, but other than a small flinch, little reaction came of it. Any outside sources couldn't be trusted. Only his own mind, and Tenya's. He'd play along as much as he was able.

Otto shook his head against his knees in response to her question. Both questions. He wasn't okay, but nothing was broken. Nothing physically. Other than a bit of dirt, he was pretty much without a scratch on him.  

[revenant aria]

By the time Saya woke up, she was hugging her sheathed weapon form, her bracelet, as close to her heart as possible. She had missed Prompto's voice, with an intensity she had yet to realize. She heard the voices of many trainees around her, reluctantly deciding to get up.

If the illusion had been so effective, Saya wasn't sure she wanted to be in another one. At all.

lividpeas

 

[its me debz]

"This silence is kind of wigging me out, little man," she murmured, crawling closer to him, pressing the back of her hand to his grubby little forehead.

"You're not feverish, at least, but..."

Seriously. This listless-- no, lifeless behaviour was just...it was worrying. So worrying. Clerise settled against the wall, staying near him, her hand resting between his shoulder blades.

{[ The one in the illusion-- he was fake, like Sasha was. Do you think...? ]}

I don't know if I want to know what his was, if he's like this.

"I'm real, you know," she offered, after a moment of silence. "You went on my promotion mission with me, and the kraken kicked our a**. I taught you how to do an aerial handspring. I know that you gave Eva a billion plushies," the former acrobat kept quietly listing off facts, her voice low but steady.  

[Bittiface]

Otto couldn't manage a response. He could hear her, but nothing bubbled up inside, no drive to respond. It would be so nice to believe all this contact he was receiving was real, that it would not lead up to something horrific. Heck, his first visions were all about his own past. It was as if his own mind had turned against him.

Maybe that's how Medea did it, simply flicked a switch and let his mind destroy itself.

Clerise, like the others, kept insisting she was real, rattling off facts that were meant to coax him out of his bubble. However, her last factoid made the boy lift his head up straight, his expression stiff and cheeks dusted pink.

The plushies...

How did she know that----oh wait. This was all in his head. Of course she knew that, because he did, right? Right?

Clerise was at least spared a look, one that said Are you shitting me?  

[its me debz]

"What! After...Reine's mission. I just...got worried." She shrugged. "I ended up checking on Eva a lot. I worry about her."

At Otto's look, the redhead's lips curved upwards. You know," she said, slyly. "I got to keep one of them. Don't be too offended, eh?"

She pulled out her phone, inspecting it. No service, and the thing was damn near dead. But...at least her gallery was working. Looking at her collection of images nearly made Clerise want to invest in a proper camera, when they got freed. There was just something about capturing a split second of a moment to keep forever that really resonated with her.

Right now, she had a less noble purpose. Flicking to one in particular, the trainee showed the dim screen to Otto.

"Red cat. It was precious-- AND the ******** in Clarice's room right now, living the life. Comfy bed and everything."

Another picture; on a beach. "There's one with Dakota as the only guy, getting pummelled by a Wilson with double Ds."

Another, in the snow, a snowgirl with a rainbow scarf. "That's Antarctica. It's...That's Julie's scarf. Clarice made her."  

[Bittiface]

Oh.. so she was friends with Eva. Well, he supposed she had many other friends besides him. She was a rather bubbly girl, very social and friendly.

Otto tilted his head slightly as she warned him not to be offended. Wait, Eva gave one away? Ugh! Those things were for her! Damn that girl. His eyes trailed off to the screen he was being shown, watching the pictures morph from one scene to the next. Comfy bed... what he wouldn't give for a hot shower and warm bed. How long had he been here on this cold damp floor?
He cringed at the Dakota picture. gh.. the boob-pandemic. He did not miss that.
Julie..? She'd been quite the character. Rainbows now reminded him forever of the cookie-tainting lunatic.

His brows furrowed. "Why are you showing me all this?" He finally asked, quietly.  

[its me debz]

"He speaks," Clerise announced, completely deadpan.

"Honestly, I was starting to wonder if they, like...cut your tongue off or something." She reached over to pull Otto to her, crushing him in a hug, pressing her face to his shoulder.

"And, I was so worried about you guys," she said. "I saw them take you, and Sasha--"

She laughed, a little hysterical. "I straight up went to H, just to ask if you guys were dead. If he knew. He didn't. No one did, just that every sensor was dead, and no one knew, and."

Clerise didn't loosen her grip. Otto, you were going to have to deal with the hugging. All of it. All of the redhead's Sasha-and-Otto feels were being distributed, here.  

[Bittiface]

Otto managed a soft glare, but at this point it was more of a pout. It didn't last, seeing as Clerise began to speak more seriously. She'd been worried. Really? There wasn't much of any resistance as she pulled him closer. He was more conflicted and confused than revolted. He never really hated contact. He just liked making a show of not enjoying it. But now, he just didn't have the energy to be himself. Nor the heart.

He'd blown up at Bix and Ofelia earlier. Did he feel bad?

Not in the slightest. Maybe he was the same after all.

The hug was crushing, riddling his overactive nerves into a state of Red Alert. He winced, the pain of sudden contact taking a while to ebb. It made him jumpy, nervous. What to say to her? How to react to her worries? If it was real life, or an illusion. Either way he just.. couldn't find the words.

His mouth opened, but nothing more than a stifled "uuh" sound came out.  

[its me debz]

At Otto's soft utterance, Clerise loosened her grip, but end the embrace. He wasn't getting out that easy.

"Sorry," she murmured, giving the small blond another brief squeeze.

"So. We like...Launched a mission thing?" A shrug. "Clearly, we didn't succeed." Clerise frowned.

And then pulled Otto against her chest, cradling his head. She wished they were home, for his sake, and for Sasha's. That everyone was home-- well, as close as Deus got to home, anyway. With alcohol. And safety. And run of the mill problems like "Caelius is being a b***h" and "H is creepy."

They weren't. But she could wish.

"Allan will do some animes bullshit or something, I'm sure of it."

Apparently, even near death couldn't beat the optimism out of Clerise.

Drifter Jet Enduro

 

[Nio Love]

((entering))

Sure, it took a while to wake up. When he opened his eyes, the first thing Robert noticed was the silence. Not around him - no, everyone was moving, talking, shifting - but the silence in his mind was a tangible presence. She was back where she belonged, but she had nothing to say about it, until -

I was hoping.

Robert was still laying on the ground, blinking up at the ceiling, when he heard Jezebel's voice. His eyes widened just slightly, and he started to push himself up, rubbing his head. He looked around, and surmised that they were in a big ol' pile of s**t.

As usual.

"What were you hoping?" He whispered quietly, legitimately surprised to hear Jezebel's voice. Was this the breakthrough they needed? Was his absence, his close call with death, finally making her see how much she needed him?

I was hoping you were going to stay dead.

Nope.  

[Bilious]

"You said she..." Jerry froze as a voice broke free of the others murmuring around him, like a high note escaping a cacophony- He glanced past Wash toward the source of the sound before suddenly letting go to scramble up to the bars.

"S-sasha?" He breathed.

Was it really her? Another illusion? How could he know? Was it worth guessing?

"I'm sorry," He whispered.

"B-but I found you..." He offered hopefully.

pinchmonster

Ravvlet

 

[naggeela]

With a little smile Tori nodded her head to both Kat and Saya as a way of greeting since Kat had said her name and Ami wanted it to be quite, as it was the only polite things to do even if she started to get a little nervous since she didn't want to do mess things up and make a fool of herself.

Backing up a little more from Ami to give her more space as Tori's little smile vanished from view when she heard the next things Ami said and knew her friend was in bad shape. Ami was most likely in need of a good cup of tea and a book to what Tori was thinking but then she really didn't know what truly happened to her friend, but now Tori wanted to help Ami the best that she could. "Ami, I could never hurt you. You mean too much to me for that to ever happen," Tori said quietly while looking at Ami as she sat on the ground as she growled in her head with her anger rising as she wanted ponies head to be rolling and to be dead as door nails.

Not moving from her spot not to crowd her friend Tori even lowered her head were Ami's head was higher that Tori looked up into her friends face. "Don't be sorry since there is nothing you need to apologize for, Ami. Like what Kat said we are here to protect you now, so don't worry too much," Tori said softly

chimarii

LividPeas

Random Artist

 

[kuropeco]

"Bix," said Gale, relief coursing through him at the sound of the albino's voice. He rested his forehead against the bars of the cage and tried to figure out where he was, but from his position all he could make out was a flash of white hair.

"Are you all right?" he asked, moving back away from the bars with a distraught expression on his face. His eyes flickered back towards Wilson - who he was still half leaning against - and exhaled a slow breath, pressing his lips together.

"I'm fine," he muttered, obviously not fine at all, and reached into his mind for the reassuring presence of Jinhai. He could just barely feel the dragon, shifting and pulsing through his thoughts; a quiet, unobtrusive dusting, and he lifted a hand, rubbing at his forehead tiredly. Glancing briefly over at Madeline, he gave the girl a small nod, not entirely certain he actually wanted to be in the land of the living at this point.

"Hey," he said, in a slightly hoarse voice, and suddenly he really wished he had a glass of water. Swallowing nothing but more dryness, he curled up his knees against his chest and pressed his fingers to his temples again, absently pushing against the pressure building there.

"Who else is here? Is everyone all right?"

iloveyoudie

Syusaki

Kupuritama