WEEK 1: ALERT

[dropoffs]

WEEK 1 ALERT

UNSTABLE READINGS FOUND

 

ALERT: EMERGENCY IN BRIG. SYSTEM REBOOT LOCKED. LIFE SUPPORT STABLE. CLIMATE CONTROL STABLE.

FUNCTIONALITY WILL RESUME AFTER EMERGENCY ADDRESSED. WARNING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION. UNSTABLE READINGS DETECTED INSIDE.

REQUESTING CALLSIGN:
NYQUIL

SURPLUS AMOUNT OF BODY SIGNATURES DETECTED IN BRIG THAN REQUESTED. INITIATING EJECTION...

This week is a little different from the last. So many of you stayed at the brig with the Senior Crew to take shifts watching over the incarcerated. Everyone is vigilant, this time prepared. Even if this may not work, there's a desire to show resistance and defiance, or maybe it's just a night to bond...

All is calm, peaceful, until dawn breaks.

Emergency alarms blare loudly, waking everyone up and, if that isn't enough, everyone is force-ejected outside the brig and stasis bay, briefly capable of seeing their capsuled dead with Viktor recently added to the number. The senior crew get no special treatment, with the one on duty falling on their ass with the rest of you right by your lockers here. The familiar barrier falls down, preventing anyone from going through... This week, you do not need to crowd around to get a glimpse. The security cameras work now and everyone can watch the cell from their I.R.I.S.

They will be able to perfectly see Eunhyuk and Rosamund.

NAVIGATE
LOCATIONS STATUSES PROFILES AUDIENCES REPORTING PRIVATE CONVOS MURDER SUPPLY SHOP COMMS DOSSIER

Comments

IN THE STASIS BAY . . .

[dropoffs]

[rosebleed]

[She hadn't been back to the brig since last night. Something about it chilled her too coldly to bear. The pods had looked like coffins before there were bodies in them, and the last man who stayed in the cell beyond ripped his own throat out.

When the alarms blare and she's called, personally, to come contend with the problem, her pulse batters against her skin with a battle-ready thrum. She collects her bow, her quiver, and changes to the ragged, stained, ripped gown she's been fighting in since she woke in her tower. She trusts it better than these new zippered and buttoned and crinkling fabrics. And she won't mind if it gets ruined further.

She catches a few eyes on her way in, but doesn't nod, doesn't smile. Rosamund moves silently past the Stasis Bay into the Brig. Her bow is in hand and she draws an arrow loose. Ready for anything.]

Eunhyuk?

[pathematic]

[when Rosamund arrives, she will see... Eunhyuk! Only Eunhyuk, and no one else in the group who'd watched over him, who wanted to understand what could possibly happen and prevent it for not only his sake, but for everyone else's.

He is standing. He's spent that entire night against the farthest wall of the cell, but now he is right up against the glass, hands leaving bloody marks, eyes wide -- pupils blown out. He's hunched over, trying to breathe. inhale, exhale, inhale, inhale, inhale. he can do this, no he can't, he can't he can't he can'thecan't, the tool, viktor's -- does he still have viktor's -- if he could just use it now - now nownownow

at Rosamund's voice, he looks up, and his eyes are completely black. He doesn't even seem to register her at first, eyes darting to the bow in her hand, arrows drawn.]

I have to die. Give me the arrow.

[rosebleed]

[It's not an easy sight to behold. Less monstrous than she'd been expecting, but heart-wrenching in the desperation. Her eyes skate from the bloody marks to his hunched back, to the shadows in his eyes.

Not shadows.

Her grip tightens and she breathes in thin.]

It won't make it quick enough that way. You'll just bleed for longer from a smaller puncture. [And who knows how much time they have. She wets her lips.] Let me do it for you.

[pathematic]

-- No.

[no. because so many people have said they would, and he's given them the way. he's told them how. but no. this is what he wants. he wants it by his own hands... he wants. he... wants...

(what he wants doesn't matter. what he wants is what brought him here. what he wants is what's turning him in the first place.)

he backs away from the glass,]

The controls are just outside.

[and they are, he remembers from going into scien's cell. she can hit the button to let him go! this will be a great idea!]

[rosebleed]

Eunhyuk.

[He wants to take his fate into his own hands. She can understand that. In any other circumstance she might let him. If she had a knife, a sword, or poison to swallow or slick her arrows. But she knows her weapons and she knows what they can and cannot do.

Rosamund's eyes dart to the panel. He may have stepped away, but she needs to be very careful. He could try to grab the arrows from her, and she doubts she'd match him in a grapple, as a man or a monster.]

Stay right where you are, okay? I can make this quick.

[Her footfall is light, nearly soundless as she circles to the panel. Rosamund presses the button with the flat of her hand, eyes firm on him.]

[pathematic]

[Eunhyuk watches, preternaturally still. It feels like no time's passed and so much has by the time Rosamund circles to the panel, presses the button. Her eyes on him. Good.

Are the others watching? If it's like last time, then they won't be able to see what's going on. (eunhyuk having no idea this is live streaming) They should know. They should see what he is.

The glass goes down, and Eunhyuk lunges forward, reaching out to shove Rosamund away from the controls with the same strength he used to yeet a fcking hammer into a ceiling -- the adrenaline burst that comes with rage coursing through him. His intention is to close the distance between them, to make her run.

will she be faster than viktor? she'll have to be.]

[rosebleed]

[She is.

Rosamund ducks as she dodges, evading his reach, jetting down the hall on fleet feet. A rabbit on the run.

Distance. He's too close and this path is too narrow. She breaches into the Stasis Bay.

Advantage. She runs, she jumps, nimble and quick as she takes to hopping the pods. One, two, three, four (sorry Luke), five, six. She spins back around, bow at the ready.

The second she sees him, she looses the first shot at his leg.]

[pathematic]

[they're in the stasis bay proper now, he can see a few people in the distance, he can see their faces.

the arrow lands, straight through his thigh and he stumbles, drops to one knee as he crashes against a stasis pod and presses a bloody hand against it to pull himself up. and then he sees him -- viktor's face, eyes closed in repose. just like how he looked when eunhyuk placed him in the medpod, wild and frenetic and hoping that he could --

enough. he levers himself up. he has nothing on hand and nowhere else to go but forward, still at a limping run, towards Rosamund, towards the barrier beyond. he's not as fast as before but he's still fast, getting closer. a perfect target.]

[rosebleed]

[Predator and prey. The balance is rarely upset in nature itself. This would be a foregone conclusion in another story: locked in, no allies, one of them big and strong, the other fragile and small.

Now he's slower. Now he's desperate. Now he's angled himself just right. She doesn't even register drawing the second arrow. It's already aimed to fire.

She lets go. It jets towards his heart, whistling at a keening note through the stale air between them.]

[pathematic]

[it's a perfect shot. it lands squarely in the middle of his chest, right into his heart, body juddering backwards on impact. he reaches up to touch the shaft, careful not to disturb the fletching.

it has to take. he's shot monsters before. they've only ever lived. he needs fire. he... thinks. eunhyuk wobbles, and the comprehension dawns on him.

...no, he just needs this. rosamund said she could do it, and she has. he grips the arrow more firmly and shoves it deeper in until it punctures his back, and then wrenches it out. the exit wound bloody and jagged, but the arrow still perfectly intact. blood flows, and this time it hurts.

what next? right, the pod. he should... he takes a couple of steps to the nearest empty one, and then drops to the floor.]

[rosebleed]

[There's a third in her hand at once, the last arrow. She's only got three, and she can take no chances.

And neither can he.

Her breath catches in her chest as he grips the shaft and moves it through, completes the puncture, in one end and out the other. The blood is generous as it seeps out, steady rivulets that make a broad eclipse of his front, catching on the mess that already exists.

He tries to move and drops down, and Rosamund is off her perch at once.

She materializes at his side, arrow and bow once again at her back as she hefts him with both hands, grunting with the effort.]

Come on. We can do this.

[pathematic]

[Eunhyuk feels Rosamund's hands, the force behind her grip. She did so well. He shouldn't have doubted her strength. He tries to move too, ever mindful of what he's asking from her. it's his body, so he shouldn't be a burden even at the end.

he tries to crawl, moving towards the pod because he doesn't know where else to go. he wants to be less pathetic about this, less dramatic. he is just a body. and he will die.

he stops moving, leaning against Rosamund instead.]

Sorry. I don't think I can. ...You can -- ask Charles... I think...

[he would move him, if rosamund needs the help. it took him and sheba for scien, she might need another hand.

he blinks slowly, but his eyes remain a pure, even black.]

[rosebleed]

The barrier's still down.

[She hisses as she tries another lift and fails, cursing beneath her breath. She looks around for anything that might help, nerves on fire, but only finds his eyes again. Black as night. Would they make it to the pod? It's a matter of feet but if she has to drag him, then she has to do it with both hands. If he takes a turn for the worse before then she'll be dead.

In spite of what she said earlier, she pulls the third arrow back out and keeps it clutched in a white-knuckled grip. Not yet. He's still lucid, there's a chance enough damage has been done.

Carefully she lets him down, setting him on her legs, tilting his head back to expose his neck. She keeps the arrow ready but doesn't move to strike. Instead she takes the other hand to brush the hair from his face. Wipe the blood from under his nose, the corners of his mouth.]

You deserve so much better than this. You know that, right?

[pathematic]

[Eunhyuk lets himself be moved, though his gaze is on her, unblinking. staring, even as his head tilts back, exposing his neck. He keeps staring, as if he can't hear her. his hands open and close at his sides, tense.]

No.

[viktor, who wanted to live. who was going to. eunhyuk will always believe in the whole over the one, but when it come to his own life... it will always be the one over the other. but this time, he hadn't made that decision.]

...But I know that... they want me to live. [he doesn't say the names, but he thinks of them, fleetingly. but still, he remembers them.

"I wanted to hold your hand... to tell you that it's fine. I want you to look out for yourself instead of someone else."]

Please tell them... that I would have, if...

[his hand jerks, reaching up to grab Rosamund's, the one holding the arrow -- then he lets go.]

I'm sorry. Look after them, Rosamund.

[rosebleed]

[The adrenaline isn't gone. The hold it has on her is just dimming, fighting the bright and blistering pains in her chest, her throat, behind her eyes. How can she help it now?]

Yes. Yes, I will. Of course I will, Eunhyuk. I promise.

[She flinches when he grasps for her, but it's a quickly quelled coup. It's almost as if he's becoming lighter the longer he lays here. Less and less of himself remains.]

I don't know if...if the things I do will affect your world. [One tear drops over her cheek, quickly chased by another. She takes her breath in quiet gasps.] But I hope they do. If what we do works, then...I hope next time, your story will be so much kinder to you.

[He's just a boy. A few years older than she. He should have longer than this. A brilliant man with a broad and boundless future, kind, and quiet, and oh so careful.

She cups his cheek and bends forward. Her lips press to his. Chaste, silent, final. He's not hers, and she's not his, and this is exactly the sort of mistake Scien warned her about making. It's the opposite of everything her path was supposed to be.

If a real life is about making your own choices, then some of them are bound to be bad.

Rosamund pulls back, takes one deep breath and plunges the arrow into his neck.]

[pathematic]

[kinder... does he really need a kinder one, after everything he's seen? after how well he's been treated? the kiss is faint, he's already close to fading when she brushes his lips with hers, but he knows enough that this another kindness bestowed.

and then the arrow goes into his neck. the blackness of his eyes finally recede, leaving behind his open gaze, staring up at the sky, the ceiling, to all those who were kind enough to keep watching, and to maybe those beyond.

Eunhyuk Lee is dead.]

[dropoffs]

[ As Eunhyuk takes his final breath, as Rosamund delivers a merciful kill, the entirety of the Stasis Bay goes silent. An alert appears specifically on Rosamund's I.R.I.S. and reads, as if to alert her of what she already knows: CALLSIGN MIDDLEPART (EUN-HYUK LEE) STASIS POD UNLOCKED. PLEASE SECURE CREWMATE.

A buzz comes over the area then, Adrastea's voice coming in, serious and level regarding: ] ... the system has blocked all attempts to lower the barrier, this time. But the lock on it is releasing now. Du Prix, you can exit when you're ready. Metis and Thebe will be going in to secure the area.

[ After Eunhyuk has been successfully secured in his pod, the barrier releases a soft hiss as the lock releases and it flickers gone. Metis and Thebe both make their way in to tend to the situation, briefly checking in on Rosamund until making their rounds with the area. Everyone else is also free to come, allowing anyone to have another moment with Eunhyuk, but you're free to go afterwards. Everyone's I.R.I.S. will ding with another notification while this happens. ]

[rosebleed]

[She doesn't feel too much like herself anymore.

Rosamund pulls the arrows loose with a grim set face, tearing another strip off her skirt to clean the ends. She accepts the help graciously but with few words, head bowed, thoughts far from the chilly metal carcass of the ship. She'll help get Eunhyuk into the pod, but then, if she's able, will slip away in silence.

She needs some time to think. She needs air to breathe.]