As Tamamo slips the orange keycard into the reader, the door opens blessedly silently.
Inside the Medical Cell, the overhead light flickers more unsteadily, and there seems to be a faint, weak snarling from deeper within... just quiet enough not to be audible from outside.
The lights go out. On the left hand side, a light flickers briefly on again; there is a medical table with streaks of old blood. The light goes out, then flickers on again, along with one on the right hand side which illuminates a table coated in black goo.
Both lights die. The snarling continues. It sounds... a little familiar? Not similar to the creature outside, though.
[ that snarling... dick's eyes narrow. hopefully they both get the same idea he does, since they don't have time to pass on the message, and so dick goes into his pockets-- he hands one of them a lighter (whoever wants it.) and takes out the flashlight for himself. he'll step inside, lighting the floor as he goes towards the table with the black goo, looking around to the best of his ability in the darkness. ]
[of all the times for her knife to be on loan, huh.
Yeah, she is familiar with the sound. And that won't stop her from entering when the stakes are this high. Dick is already going for the table with the black goo, and hoping that his flashlight will give enough light to keep the room... not pitch black, she will slide over to the left hand side and try to examine the medical table from top to bottom.
It's probably too dark to really see but she'll still try to look on top and under, just in case.
The entire time she keeps her scalpel out and her ears peeled]
[kagachi will take the lighter with his free hand, keeping it on with whatever little light it brings, while maintaining his other grip tight around his scythe. since dick and tamamo are investigating, he remains alert to deal with any threat.]
[Well, once they step inside, it won't be a problem anymore!
The lights in the room all flicker on as they enter, and they can see the source of the noise.
On a third table at the back of the room is a demon, its limbs spread and tightly bound. Its fangs and many teeth glow much more faintly than the ones they've seen, and it struggles weakly as it sees them, but it's unable to break its bonds; there's a scalpel lodged in its chest, and something else glinting in the same area of its body.
Now that it's sure they're there, though? The snarling gets a little louder.]
[ COOL THANKS DRAMATIC LIGHTING. is there anything near the goo table at all? dick's going to look around/on/under it to make sure before gesturing at the other two and making a heart with his hands before pointing at the demon and putting a finger to his mouth before gesturing shrugging all ????
how the fuck how are they going to do it quietly. now that dick's wasted time miming though he writes a quick message on a note-- ive only now realized he has to do it in japanese so thank god he's like that:
"if the key for the other door isn't here, it's in the security office. necessary for exit?"
Because the doors don't unlock unless you've done everything needed in a room from dick's experience, which means... they need to be ready to run if they can't figure out how to get the heart out of here quietly. He goes over the clues in his head again, and I'm giving him until next turn for my theory so I can see whats around this room ๐ ]
[Tamamo likewise is going to give the bloody table one last look over, the top and under it, before she goes to join the others, JUST IN CASE. Gotta make sure they don't miss an important clue before they open a goddamn demon on the table.
And her mouth thins at what Dick writes down but y'know, given what she knows of bullshit quests, that sounds about right. She'll nod to indicate she understands what he means and then gestures to the demon. She's not really one to wait and honestly she doubts they can keep the demon quiet unless one of them has something to shove into its mouth... Is there some kind of sheet around they can use as a gag?
Which, y'know, if anyone wants to get near those teeth]
it's why he steps back and hangs around the entrance, so that he can keep an eye on what's going on inside but maintain a lookout outside as well. it would probably be very bad if they were all trapped in this cell when the creature comes to hunt them down?]
[They don't find anything else on or around the tables! They're just medical tables, covered in old blood and demon goo. Gross. These tables don't really have sheets, either... they're more operating-table style.
The demon is still making noise and struggling against its bonds while they're in here deciding what to do, so, that's a thing.
Since Kagachi is near the entrance, though, he'll be able to hear an echoing sound from the northern hallway... that quickly fades. More quickly than it has before.]
[ that thing is too loud. that thing is too loud, and they have to make a decision now. he takes out the hint tamamo gave him as well as the watch he got that tells him the current day to double check because i'm paranoid.
dick writes, quick.
"Think I have an idea for the code. Take care of the heart."
and distract the other thing while he's at it, ha ha. he's not really leaving them much choice as he starts to move, where i assume kagachi warns him about the northern hallway because he darts out the opposite side around to the security office. the good news is he can run extremely quietly! the bad news is if he manages to get to near the center hallway without crossing the thing, he grabs the fork (why has he had it this long) he's got in his belt and throws it so it bounces off a few walls as loud as possible, hopefully landing somewhere near cell 3, before continuing on his path.
if he crosses path with the thing then he's going to see how far his ninja skills take him ha ha ]
Right, so. Dick is gone. They need the heart. And while she trusts Dick enough to distract the monster as much as possible, that might not be relevant if this demon screams and kills their chances of escape.
...
She's going to shoot Kagachi an extremely apologetic glance before she takes the scalpel he loaned her and just, takes the blade to the topmost tail she has, literally reaching over and sawing it off -- and with an efficiency as if she's done this before. Because she has. Eight times before this.
There's probably blood trickling down her chin as she bites down on her tongue to keep from screaming, but she doesn't make a sound and takes the tail and literally shoves as much of it as she can in the demon's mouth?? Hopefully without it biting through her fuckin hand.
kagachi is... not exactly surprised that dick would do that either, though now he has multiple places to be worried about! thanks! but honestly if there's anyone who can wrestle a demon and cut out its heart, it's probably tamamo? also, like, if she's in danger, it will probably get noisy and he'll hear them anyway.
so unless the demon's about to break its bonds and eat tamamo right this moment, he leaves the cell entirely, heading down to the junction between the righthand hallway and the central hallway—mainly to try and keep an eye out if the creature heads down the (vertical) central hallway.]
[Good news: Dick can still hear the echoing sound as he yeets a fork into the hallway, but he does not cross the monster! The sounds get faster afterward, though. Good thing he's continuing on instead of waiting to find out what happens.
Kagachi's excursion... well. He hears the same thing. He can't see shit in the central vertical hallway right now, but the echoing shuffling sound is clearly faster. Nothing in view right now, though.
Meanwhile, Tamamo's fucking hardcore decision does, in fact, result in the demon being gagged. Its sounds are muffled by the fur of the tail crammed down its throat.
Now that she's close to it, she can see a little better that... this demon was already opened up. The scalpel lodged in its chest is holding it open, it was just hard to tell because its body is all inky blackness.
It's possible to tell now because that glinting thing is, in fact, the demon's exposed heart. Despite being made of some sort of glass or crystal, it somehow beats. There's nothing else visible inside the demon's body.]
[ WELL I GUESS DICK MAKES IT TO THE SECURITY OFFICE THEN? because that is where he's going. and he doesn't run into the beast. god i hate that he's a ninja.
anyway once he's there he's. going to try a code! 391150-- for the days they've been here, the days left, and the day they have to perform the ritual. can't wait until it beeps loudly that he's mistaken and kills me instantly ]
[Despite the stupid amount of pain she's in and that her beautiful tail is being thrashed to bits in a demon's mouth, the moment Tamamo sees that heart, she lets out a triumphant grin.
And because she still has a bloodied scalpel in her hand, gonna use it to remove as much goo resistance from around the heart before she yoinks it the fuck out.
Assuming she succeeds, she then shove the heart deep into her kimono sleeve before tying the whole thing shut. Once again, her poor kimono is gonna get stained from both her own blood and demon blood but sometimes a bitch just gotta do what a bitch just gotta do.
Time to run then... Or in this case, she'll poke her head out of the room and glance right, where Kagachi is lurking at the intersection of cell 6 and the med cell. There is absolutely no way she can take a monster when she's busy convincing her body not to go into shock, so uh. She'll slide up behind him assuming said monster doesn't eat her face off immediately, and give him a thumbs up. Heart acquired.]
[they should probably deal with tamamo's injury with actual bandages but also probably not right now.
he gives a nod at the heart, and thinks for a moment. well, since they need to regroup with dick anyway, no point in waiting around here (unless to, uh, be bait).
provided they have not run into the monster right now, he beckons for tamamo to follow and moves as swiftly—and silently—as he can down the righthand hallway and across the bottom hallway to the security office.]
[As she removes the heart, the demon convulses, attempting to scream-- it's heavily muffled thanks to the tail, but it still makes some noise in the creature's death throes. Fortunately, it's very short-lived, and it quickly dissolves into black goo that is definitely getting on Tamamo's poor kimono. The heart tied into her sleeve is still pulsing.
Dick's distraction was only a fork and he did specifically send it right on the opposite side of the medical cell, so when the initial clatter has failed to produce any new results? Yeah. The limited noise is still enough to catch the monster's attention. Tamamo's plan means they are not Super Dead immediately, but as she and Kagachi move down the right-hand hallway... well, it turns out it wasn't far. It enters the right-hand hallway through the horizontal center hallway... before they've turned the corner into the bottom hall.
Sneaking is unlikely to be an option.
Anyway! Back to Dick!
He inputs 391150 into the keypad, and....
The door silently swings open. (:
Inside is a messy desk with a computer on it, the monitor's screensaver set to the creepy eye gif. It's one of those large office desks, for the record. There is also a closed, rusted locker on the opposite wall.]
[ bingo! but it turns out i can't read maps and killed my companions. that's fine. you win some, you lose some?
anyway dick is going to go through the messy desk as fast as he can! looking at evidence quietly is one of his specialties. i hate bats. he's looking on top of, around and under the desk, going through any drawers as well. also if he touches the mouse what's on the computer screen once the screensaver eye is gone. if there's nothing on there he'd go to the locker but i am assuming there's something so i guess i'll finish the tag there ]
Tamamo shoves at Kagachi's arm to get him going, worried the damn fool will attempt to distract the monster with his own body if it comes to it. She'd rather he not, thanks, and is going to flee down the right-side hallway and take that corner as quickly as possible, sprinting along that bottom corridor.
but he follows her, and honestly since things are very bad now either way, he might as well hiss—]
Away from Dick.
[he'd rather tell her to join up with dick, period (especially since she HAS THE HEART), but he gets the feeling she wouldn't listen to him! for some reason! but it'll be pretty fucking bad if they lead the monster right to the security office and they all die there.
assuming the monster follows them into the bottom hallway, he turns right to go back up the vertical central hallway.]
[All right, well, we're hitting up Dick first! If he touches the mouse, a password entry box pops up. So. Have fun. There's a microphone on top of the desk, plugged in and lit. There are two drawers: in the top one, there are some old sticks of chewing gum, stacks of unused post-it notes (some smeared with blood), and an unlabeled blue key card. In the bottom drawer is a folded page:]
โMade it in. I got a message to the others ...to her. Weโre meeting at the medical cell to get what we came for and get the hell out of here.
God, I hope we can get the hell out of here. I just want to go home.โ
[That's all you get in a single tag round Zia /:
MEANWHILE, IN THE HALLWAY... well. Dick will notice this along with them as well, but the lights all go out, because congratulations.
[The hallway is dark. As Tamamo and Kagachi run, they'll find it hard to tell where exactly the turn to the next hallway is, though they might make it if they work well off of pure memory or hold a hand out to the wall.
Behind them, they can hear the creature chasing them, unhindered by the darkness-- it's already blind. It can follow them perfectly, as long as it can hear them run and breathe. It has the advantage, now, and if they listen, they can hear it quickly gaining on them, the shuffling of many, many limbs growing louder, a harsh snarl echoing off the stone.
Kagachi can feel its heavy breath brush his back.]
[ the lights flickering concern dick but they turn back on and he doesn't hear horrifying screams so? possibly nothing? wow wonder what happened. surely nothing weird
dick looks longingly at hacking the computer but doesn't want to waste too much time guessing a password, since the monster is clearly still around ๐, pocketing both the note and the key card before moving to the locker and see if he can open it to check what's inside. ]
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ALSO TEEJ DID ALL OF THE WRITING MATCH]
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As Tamamo slips the orange keycard into the reader, the door opens blessedly silently.
Inside the Medical Cell, the overhead light flickers more unsteadily, and there seems to be a faint, weak snarling from deeper within... just quiet enough not to be audible from outside.
The lights go out. On the left hand side, a light flickers briefly on again; there is a medical table with streaks of old blood. The light goes out, then flickers on again, along with one on the right hand side which illuminates a table coated in black goo.
Both lights die. The snarling continues. It sounds... a little familiar? Not similar to the creature outside, though.
Do they enter?]
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Yeah, she is familiar with the sound. And that won't stop her from entering when the stakes are this high. Dick is already going for the table with the black goo, and hoping that his flashlight will give enough light to keep the room... not pitch black, she will slide over to the left hand side and try to examine the medical table from top to bottom.
It's probably too dark to really see but she'll still try to look on top and under, just in case.
The entire time she keeps her scalpel out and her ears peeled]
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The lights in the room all flicker on as they enter, and they can see the source of the noise.
On a third table at the back of the room is a demon, its limbs spread and tightly bound. Its fangs and many teeth glow much more faintly than the ones they've seen, and it struggles weakly as it sees them, but it's unable to break its bonds; there's a scalpel lodged in its chest, and something else glinting in the same area of its body.
Now that it's sure they're there, though? The snarling gets a little louder.]
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how the fuck how are they going to do it quietly. now that dick's wasted time miming though he writes a quick message on a note-- ive only now realized he has to do it in japanese so thank god he's like that:
"if the key for the other door isn't here, it's in the security office. necessary for exit?"
Because the doors don't unlock unless you've done everything needed in a room from dick's experience, which means... they need to be ready to run if they can't figure out how to get the heart out of here quietly. He goes over the clues in his head again, and I'm giving him until next turn for my theory so I can see whats around this room ๐ ]
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And her mouth thins at what Dick writes down but y'know, given what she knows of bullshit quests, that sounds about right. She'll nod to indicate she understands what he means and then gestures to the demon. She's not really one to wait and honestly she doubts they can keep the demon quiet unless one of them has something to shove into its mouth... Is there some kind of sheet around they can use as a gag?
Which, y'know, if anyone wants to get near those teeth]
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it's why he steps back and hangs around the entrance, so that he can keep an eye on what's going on inside but maintain a lookout outside as well. it would probably be very bad if they were all trapped in this cell when the creature comes to hunt them down?]
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The demon is still making noise and struggling against its bonds while they're in here deciding what to do, so, that's a thing.
Since Kagachi is near the entrance, though, he'll be able to hear an echoing sound from the northern hallway... that quickly fades. More quickly than it has before.]
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dick writes, quick.
"Think I have an idea for the code. Take care of the heart."
and distract the other thing while he's at it, ha ha. he's not really leaving them much choice as he starts to move, where i assume kagachi warns him about the northern hallway because he darts out the opposite side around to the security office. the good news is he can run extremely quietly! the bad news is if he manages to get to near the center hallway without crossing the thing, he grabs the fork (why has he had it this long) he's got in his belt and throws it so it bounces off a few walls as loud as possible, hopefully landing somewhere near cell 3, before continuing on his path.
if he crosses path with the thing then he's going to see how far his ninja skills take him ha ha ]
cw: MUTILATION, I'M SORRY, I FLIPPED TAILS
Right, so. Dick is gone. They need the heart. And while she trusts Dick enough to distract the monster as much as possible, that might not be relevant if this demon screams and kills their chances of escape.
...
She's going to shoot Kagachi an extremely apologetic glance before she takes the scalpel he loaned her and just, takes the blade to the topmost tail she has, literally reaching over and sawing it off -- and with an efficiency as if she's done this before. Because she has. Eight times before this.
There's probably blood trickling down her chin as she bites down on her tongue to keep from screaming, but she doesn't make a sound and takes the tail and literally shoves as much of it as she can in the demon's mouth?? Hopefully without it biting through her fuckin hand.
E F F I C I E N C Y. ]
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kagachi is... not exactly surprised that dick would do that either, though now he has multiple places to be worried about! thanks! but honestly if there's anyone who can wrestle a demon and cut out its heart, it's probably tamamo? also, like, if she's in danger, it will probably get noisy and he'll hear them anyway.
so unless the demon's about to break its bonds and eat tamamo right this moment, he leaves the cell entirely, heading down to the junction between the righthand hallway and the central hallway—mainly to try and keep an eye out if the creature heads down the (vertical) central hallway.]
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Kagachi's excursion... well. He hears the same thing. He can't see shit in the central vertical hallway right now, but the echoing shuffling sound is clearly faster. Nothing in view right now, though.
Meanwhile, Tamamo's fucking hardcore decision does, in fact, result in the demon being gagged. Its sounds are muffled by the fur of the tail crammed down its throat.
Now that she's close to it, she can see a little better that... this demon was already opened up. The scalpel lodged in its chest is holding it open, it was just hard to tell because its body is all inky blackness.
It's possible to tell now because that glinting thing is, in fact, the demon's exposed heart. Despite being made of some sort of glass or crystal, it somehow beats. There's nothing else visible inside the demon's body.]
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anyway once he's there he's. going to try a code! 391150-- for the days they've been here, the days left, and the day they have to perform the ritual. can't wait until it beeps loudly that he's mistaken and kills me instantly ]
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And because she still has a bloodied scalpel in her hand, gonna use it to remove as much goo resistance from around the heart before she yoinks it the fuck out.
Assuming she succeeds, she then shove the heart deep into her kimono sleeve before tying the whole thing shut. Once again, her poor kimono is gonna get stained from both her own blood and demon blood but sometimes a bitch just gotta do what a bitch just gotta do.
Time to run then... Or in this case, she'll poke her head out of the room and glance right, where Kagachi is lurking at the intersection of cell 6 and the med cell. There is absolutely no way she can take a monster when she's busy convincing her body not to go into shock, so uh. She'll slide up behind him assuming said monster doesn't eat her face off immediately, and give him a thumbs up. Heart acquired.]
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he gives a nod at the heart, and thinks for a moment. well, since they need to regroup with dick anyway, no point in waiting around here (unless to, uh, be bait).
provided they have not run into the monster right now, he beckons for tamamo to follow and moves as swiftly—and silently—as he can down the righthand hallway and across the bottom hallway to the security office.]
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Dick's distraction was only a fork and he did specifically send it right on the opposite side of the medical cell, so when the initial clatter has failed to produce any new results? Yeah. The limited noise is still enough to catch the monster's attention. Tamamo's plan means they are not Super Dead immediately, but as she and Kagachi move down the right-hand hallway... well, it turns out it wasn't far. It enters the right-hand hallway through the horizontal center hallway... before they've turned the corner into the bottom hall.
Sneaking is unlikely to be an option.
Anyway! Back to Dick!
He inputs 391150 into the keypad, and....
The door silently swings open. (:
Inside is a messy desk with a computer on it, the monitor's screensaver set to the creepy eye gif. It's one of those large office desks, for the record. There is also a closed, rusted locker on the opposite wall.]
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anyway dick is going to go through the messy desk as fast as he can! looking at evidence quietly is one of his specialties. i hate bats. he's looking on top of, around and under the desk, going through any drawers as well. also if he touches the mouse what's on the computer screen once the screensaver eye is gone. if there's nothing on there he'd go to the locker but i am assuming there's something so i guess i'll finish the tag there ]
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Time to run or time to die, she guesses!
Tamamo shoves at Kagachi's arm to get him going, worried the damn fool will attempt to distract the monster with his own body if it comes to it. She'd rather he not, thanks, and is going to flee down the right-side hallway and take that corner as quickly as possible, sprinting along that bottom corridor.
So glad she's leaking blood for this.]
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but he follows her, and honestly since things are very bad now either way, he might as well hiss—]
Away from Dick.
[he'd rather tell her to join up with dick, period (especially since she HAS THE HEART), but he gets the feeling she wouldn't listen to him! for some reason! but it'll be pretty fucking bad if they lead the monster right to the security office and they all die there.
assuming the monster follows them into the bottom hallway, he turns right to go back up the vertical central hallway.]
1/2
โMade it in. I got a message to
the others...to her. Weโre meeting at the medical cell to get what we came for and get the hell out of here.God, I hope we can get the hell out of here. I just want to go home.โ
[That's all you get in a single tag round Zia /:
MEANWHILE, IN THE HALLWAY... well. Dick will notice this along with them as well, but the lights all go out, because congratulations.
You've hit tag limit.]
2/3 i lied
Behind them, they can hear the creature chasing them, unhindered by the darkness-- it's already blind. It can follow them perfectly, as long as it can hear them run and breathe. It has the advantage, now, and if they listen, they can hear it quickly gaining on them, the shuffling of many, many limbs growing louder, a harsh snarl echoing off the stone.
Kagachi can feel its heavy breath brush his back.]
3/3
...and silence.
The snarling stops. The movement stops.
The lights flicker back on, unsteadily, and if they turn to look behind them...
There's a grotesque salt statue where that creature once stood.
They may continue on.]
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dick looks longingly at hacking the computer but doesn't want to waste too much time guessing a password, since the monster is clearly still around ๐, pocketing both the note and the key card before moving to the locker and see if he can open it to check what's inside. ]
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