Elapsam Semel Occasionem Non Ipse Potest Iuppiter Reprehendere

[Pippi]

((Mia Rose continued from I've Swallowed Half An Hourglass))

A 9am wakeup call was fairly standard for Mia. Hell, if anything, it gave her a bit of a lie in. Most Saturdays, and even some Sundays when she was feeling especially pumped, she would get up for an early morning jog. She always ended up passing by her dad a few times whenever she did so, which was a nice added bonus.

So when the screeching sound of the announcements coming to life roused Mia from her slumber, she was far more alert and lucid than she had any right to be. Since leaving Candice and the cliffs behind, she had intended to just keep on walking and not stop, doing a full circuit of the island if needs must, letting the silence and the cool sea air cleanse her mind. That plan had been a bust though. Her thoughts and self-doubts kept on churning inside of her head, the crashing of waves against the rocks and the steady tapping of her footsteps as she crossed the bridge and headed into the built up residential area sounding like a timpani accompaniment. Eventually, she couldn't take any more of it. She had headed into the nearest building, frustrated and exhausted, on the verge of hating herself as much as she had back on the cliffs. She had had just enough energy left in her to flop onto one of the sofas and take her jacket off to use as a makeshift blanket, before her mental wear and tear finally took its toll, and she had passed out.

It was more of a curse than a blessing to be so awake now, however. There was no hazy period of unawareness, some time to stay rested, half-asleep and comfortable, before reality finally sunk in again. As soon as Tracen's voice echoed throughout the library, Mia sat bolt upright, jacket sliding off her knees and onto the floor, the same feeling of horror building up inside her, crawling over her, trying to smother her.

Sleep had achieved what walking had been unable to, however, and Mia's mind was clear enough to cut through that fear momentarily. She shifted herself off of the sofa, and as Tracen began his introductory speech, she pulled the first book that came to hand off of the shelf; a book called Umbrella, if the title was to be trusted. She wasn't exactly a fan of reading at the best of times, and the book was nigh-incomprehensible to her, but she, trying to distract herself with the prose and her confusion at such. Whenever a name punctured her concentration, she would grip the page and rip it out, trying her best to direct her emotions at a source that wasn't internal. Oskar's name sent pages 2/3 flying. Jerry's caused a whole swathe of paper to be thrown into the air.

At Danny's name, stupid, useless, jerkass Danny, Mia sliced her finger on the page in her haste to tear it out, droplets of blood combining with tears to soak page 17 as it was torn from the book.

The announcements faded away. The sound of shredding paper continued for a few more seconds. Then the book, now half as light as before, thudded against the far wall, and Mia was left in silence again, staring down at her feet. Her plan had worked, to an extent. She was still breathing heavily. She had still cried. But not as much. She felt anger, instead of sorrow, the sort of feeling she got after a workout session at the end of a shitty day.

A grim smile made its way onto Mia's face. Then she leaned back on the sofa, and looked up at the ceiling, trying to think as slowly as possible.

[D/N]

(Kaitlyn Greene continued fromRobber Barons)

This. Grh.

Yeah, Kaitlyn was more grumpy following the Day 3 announcements than she'd been following the first ones.

Partly Kimiko Kao. Dumb freak. She hadn't broken Kaitlyn's nose with that kick yesterday, but it'd been enough to bust out some blood and a day later it still felt a little tender. It was bad enough they'd ended up with dick-all, but to have someone like Kimiko leave her bloody? Fucking insult to injury... or the other way around.

Since then, she and Alan moved north, hadn't come across any situations that were to their liking, and had discussed their awesome plan in brief snippets that made her (and she was sure as shellfish Alan too) grinningly aware of where this was all going.

It wasn't disappointing, necessarily. As the announcements broke for the third day, it's not like she'd had some totally unrealistic expectations of where she'd be at. No, what was eating away at Kaitlyn was that sense of missed opportunity. And it was only slightly made up for by that feeling of tension, that jolt she got when she and Alan snuck some glares at each other and turned away.

But not enough. She was just feeling... dull here. Like some of the energy had been sucked right out of her. So when she and Alan saw the cluster of buildings and Alan suggested taking a peek, she was right there with him.

"Yeah. Let's head inside for a bit."

There were a few of them. Eenie-meenie-miney-moe. That was pretty good. Who's behind door number one? Yeah. There it was again. She felt a surge. She felt better.

They picked the one on the right. The door was heavy, but it didn't seem to have any locks on it. Kaitlyn rapped it with her fist until it opened a crack.

"Knock-knock. It's Kaitlyn and Alan."

She stuck her head in and saw Mia Rose there. Hmm.

"We're friendly!"

Was Kaitlyn disappointed again? Maybe a bit.

[Pippi]

Mia wanted to survive.

That was the end goal. Admittedly, that was also incredibly obvious, but it was somehow still comforting getting that fact secured in her mind. It made her feel like she actually had a plan of action now, a goal to aim for, rather than just wandering in circles and merely existing. The next question was how she was going to achieve this goal.

The obvious answer was staring her in the face. Or, rather, lying on the ground a few feet away from her. If she wanted to make it to the end, and make it off the island as the last person alive, she would have to kill someone. Point that gun at them, pull the trigger, watch the life fade out of them.

The thought didn't tempt her for even a second. Even if she could have stomached the idea of doing something like that, of murdering someone for whatever reason, she wanted to reunite with Candice. If she could help it, she wanted to find more of her friends. Al hadn't worked out. He hadn't killed anyone, but there was still clearly something up with him. Maybe he had been feeling the same way as Mia had. Maybe he just needed some space. Whatever. That didn't matter now. Talking to him hadn't worked out. That didn't mean all of her friends were suddenly going to turn and run whenever they caught sight of her.

So, murder wasn't going to be an option. Obviously, there were exceptions; if someone charged at her with a spear, or started firing at her first, she wasn't just going to lie down and die. But if it could be helped, she didn't want to harm anybody. So. If that was the case, how was she going to survive.

Mia never got a chance to ponder that any further. A knock at the door stopped her thoughts dead in their tracks, and she hastily scrambled to her feet. For a moment, she was on edge, panic stations at the ready, but she quickly composed herself and realised she was being stupid. It wasn't like Kimiko or Nancy or Isabel was gonna politely knock on the door before murdering her, was it?

She didn't have to wait too long to find out, as the person – or rather, people – at the door announced themselves and walked in, and Mia couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see not just a friendly face again, but a friendly face who actively seemed to want to talk to her. Alan was cool, although due to the gender divide in sports teams she had never been able to play soccer with him before he quit the team, but she occasionally got to chat about pro matches with him. She was much more friendly with Kaitlyn, however; despite their very different temperaments, they had spent time together on the softball team, and they were both of a sporty mindset. Roller derby was one sport that Mia hadn't quite broken into yet. She gave them both a small wave, then put her hands on her hips. Here she was, in the middle of a library.

Surrounded by torn pages littering the floor.

Standing a couple of metres away from an upturned bookshelf.

She probably looked a state, didn't she?

"Hey guys!" Mia replied brightly. "Uh... would you believe me if I said this place was like this when I got here?"

[Zetsu]

"Yes, actually."

Alan said it reflexively. What did it say about him that the first thing to say off the top of his head was something witty? Cuz that was totally witty. Definitely.

"But, uh, seriously, did anything eventful happen here? Or, uh...anywhere else if yuknowutimean"

He trailed off, mumbled. Well. That was...new. Unusual. Exotic, novel? Not quite. Hey, it's not like you can fault Alan for losing some confidence. Couldn't even take down a little girl. A little girl who'd killed someone without the giant sword she was now carrying, true. And who had now gone on to kill, uh, Bradley. But still. His...male pride? Fuck, since when was that a thing? But yeah, his--let's do an exaggerated eye-roll here--male pride had been hurt.

She'd fucking deserved it, too, seeing as she'd gone on to kill...well. Y'know. Show of hands, how many people actually mourned Bradley? Like, trollface all you want if that's what you are, but could he not be an ass about it? Alan wasn't an ass about it. Right? Damn fucking right. But even if it was--if this kept up Alan's eyes were  gonna roll right out of his head--just Bradley, she was a repeat murderer now. That made it all a little easier to walk away from that mess, knowing they'd gone and done the right thing. Or, well, tried. Trying don't count for anything, but hey! No more hesitation from now on. You're not supposed to angst about your past decisions. No. You put a bullet in their head, because fuck them, they're the fucking bad guy and if they weren't they wouldn't be dealing with you, and then you spit out a shitty post-mortem one-liner and the audience is all like "YEEEEEAAAAHH!" Sunglasses. Breeze in your hair. Sweet.

Which brings us to another point: what exactly the fuck was he doing here? He'd been having that little internal monologue go on for just a bit long, now. The awkward silence had stretched past awkwardness and was now turning into...something. Shit. C'mon, man, you still got this.

"Hmm. Well then. Who did you lose?"

Yeah, that was good. It was believable that Alan was reeling a little, struggling a little to find the right way to tiptoe around a difficult subject, or still coming to terms with something he'd heard, or something. It was believable because it should've been true. And it was. Kinda. But not as true as it felt like it should've been, though.

He thought about asking her if it was Bradley she missed. Decided against it on grounds of taste. Besides, you never know. Maybe she really did miss Bradley. And he was getting the rush that he got during cross-examination, now-- weighing, analyzing, brain going a million miles a minute as he found the angles, rooted out the weaknesses or made his own, and so what if that meant he was treating this little social interaction as a game? As a competition? Damn right that's what this was. And it's not like he was trying to hurt her, anyways. So we're all good.

Unless someone goes psycho, anyways.

[D/N]

Kaitlyn padded in alongside Alan, depositing her shield on the floor just inside the entryway. Gleh. Every few hours she'd been promising herself she'd get rid of that heavy load, and she kept lugging it around with her. Not that she couldn't handle the weight, but it was just another little frustration she was putting up with.

Of course, she didn't need to worry about defending herself against Mia. They were friendly, played softball, had classes. Kaitlyn wouldn't go so far as calling them friends, but still. And Mia had always been too eager to get along with everyone, even annoying or worthless people. Frankly, Kaitlyn wasn't sure how the other girl could stand it.

Plus Mia was like, apologizing for there being books on the floor. And Kaitlyn could only smile at that.

"Really, Mia? Like believe me, I think we all want to bust stuff here. It's cool."

Yeah. Busting stuff.

That was the plan, hmm?

And Alan seemed to want to know more. Maybe about Mia's stuff-busting abilities, or whether any major battles had just gone down. Oh. Maybe he was checking out Mia's qualifications for their rebel plan.

Yeah.

"Thanks for letting us in though. We've been around outside most of the time. Haven't seen much."

Kaitlyn moved along the side of the room, taking in some of the books on the wall.

She had plans.

[Pippi]

God, it was nice to see friendly people again, talking with no sense of tension or distrust between them.

Mia was still absolutely planning on going back to Candice that evening; she had promised the other girl that much, after all, and even now, there was a tiny pang of worry in the back of her mind, constantly worrying whether leaving Candice had been the right idea. What if she had run into trouble, or she'd managed to injure herself, or something? Her name hadn't been on the announcement, thank God, but she was on the other side of the island right now, and there was no way of knowing what she was currently dealing with.

But Alan and Kaitlyn were both talking to her like they were just as happy as she was to see someone who wouldn't lecture them, or blank them, or outright attack them. Her smile grew broader as the two of them moved further into the room, yet faltered a little as she digested Alan's questions. Within moments, the look on her face had been transformed to one of confusion, as she stared inquisitively at Alan.

"Who did I... lose? I don't, uh, quite get it. Like, I was with Candice up until yesterday afternoon, Candice Banks that is, I dunno if you know her, but the only reason we split up is 'cause I figured I should... Oh..."

The penny had dropped, and Mia instinctively looked down at her shoes, slowly rubbing her left arm with her right hand.

"I... a few people. Jerry... Jerry's the big one..."

Her grip tightened around her arm, and she screwed her eyes shut, forcing the sound of tearing paper into her mind, envisioning pages floating down around her, until she felt sure she wasn't going to start sobbing. Then she looked back up at the other two, and willed the smile back onto her face.

"But, hey, it's nice to see you again, you know? I mean, obviously I wish it was in any other scenario, but... fuck it, y'know what I mean, right? Never was good with words..."

Mia moved back towards her jacket on the floor, speaking as she did so. The library wasn't exactly warm at the best of times, the fireplace looking as though it hadn't served its purpose for years now, and the brief gust of wind that had accompanied Alan and Kaitlyn had sent a chill right up her spine.

"Trust me though, that bookshelf really was like that when I wandered in here. Someone else must have needed to take out some anger issues. I take full credit for the dismantled book, though!"

She picked up her jacket by one arm, and the sudden action caused something to fall out of one of the pockets, bouncing and clattering against the floor. Her heart stopped as she realised just what it was, and for a brief moment, she was terrified it would just go off spontaneously. After what felt like an eternity, it rattled to a stop, and she gingerly picked it up, gun in one hand, jacket in the other.

"I've, uh... also got this thing. It's some kinda... semi-automatic gun, I think? I'm not planning on using it unless I absolutely have to, though, don't worry. You can trust me."

[D/N]

Mia was being herself, and Kaitlyn really had no choice but to relax. Cause she liked Mia, bits of annoyance and all. There wasn't any point in her brooding about those lists of the dead that Kaitlyn herself hadn't tried to dwell on, for example. And she shot a self-admittedly pissy look at Alan for bringing that up in the first place.

Cause it was also tugging at something in her.

She turned back to the upright bookshelf and traced her fingers across a few volumes. Nudged some books on the ground with her feet and looked back. Mia was smiling. So was Kaitlyn.

Then Mia pulled out something special and they were right back at the cove with Irene and the others.

Ba-chunk. Feel. Kaitlyn blinked.

"Huh."

Her grin faltered a bit. That was good. Mia'd expect it, what with showing a gun and all. You wouldn't expect someone to keep a big-ass smirk on their face after that.

"No worries."

But it only dropped down to Kaitlyn's half-smile, and she felt that was good as well.

"I mean, I got that thing-- " she motioned to the shield on the floor, "--Alan got a toy sword, so you're up in the draw at least. We ran into Irene the other day, she had this big shotgun. Again, not gonna use it or anything."

Kaitlyn finished her brief tour of the books and dropped into a chair. She set her bag down by her feet.

"But yeah... like it sucks, what you said. Losses. Like you wouldn't expect someone like Mitch... And you know, I think I was one of the only kids at school who could deal with Bradley."

Kaitlyn shook her head. God damnit, she was feeling all wistful here.

[Zetsu]

Oh, fuck yes. Finally someone with a gun that he could bring into the fold. I mean, we're still a ways off from becoming a legit rebellion, but a gun was a start.

But first: Some polite conversation. "Like fuck you were. Not gonna lie, didn't always love the fucker, but still not exactly glad he's dead. Though I guess I feel more bad about not feeling bad than actually feeling bad. Or something."

Pleasantries accounted for. Now to get down to business, sorta. Didn't want to get too business-like, though, seeing as Mia seemed to be using goofiness as a coping mechanism.

"But it'll be okay. I have a plan, if you want in. And then we'll never have to feel bad about not being miserable when our most hated classmates die again. Or feel actually bad when someone like Jerry dies."

Wouldn't do to disrespect the guy, would it?

"And, like, obviously I want you in on the plan since you're the only one here with a gun. Cuz things are gonna get messy, and the rebellion needs soldiers, right? So we can make this all blow up in the faces of the bastards responsible for this. You can keep your gun or whatever, but I lowkey really need you in this right now, or none of this is gonna work. And, like, having this work is gonna be objectively good."

He smirked at the camera. Yeah. Underestimate me. Keep on doing it.

"You in?"

[Pippi]

Maybe friendly faces had been a bit of an overstatement.

Mia could feel her smile vanishing as she slipped her jacket back on and carefully placed the gun back in its holster of a pocket. She had been happier to see Kaitlyn from the start. She was a more familiar face; someone whose intentions and moods were more predictable and understandable. She had faltered, when Mia had accidentally shown her weapon. She had just now been reminiscing over her fallen classmates. Mia wondered if that was how Kaitlyn was viewing her; a girl doing her best to survive and trying to keep her old self whole, no matter what she was battling internally.

Alan was different. Alan, from what she could see, didn't seem to have those same internal issues. It was unfair to think that, maybe, but he was speaking casually, almost too casually perhaps. A cursory referral back to the announcements, a brief acknowledgement of their dead classmates.

Maybe she was just being paranoid. Alan was far from a stranger, but he also wasn't what she would have called a close friend, either. She was a little more on edge now, after her encounter with Al, which surely didn't help matters in the slightest. He hadn't killed anyone, and he wasn't likely to be dealing much damage with a toy sword and giant hulking shield, either.

But he had a plan. And the plan was what really irked Mia. Because the plan was...

The plan consisted of...

... Was there a plan?

All she had got from Alan's spiel was that they were gonna 'make a mess' and that it would be 'objectively good'. That was hardly enough for her to abandon her previous plans, abandon Candice, and go along with this 'plan' without a second thought. She also didn't like the implication that she would have to end up using her gun for something other than self-defence. She had felt for herself just how much these announcements hurt people. She didn't want to be the one causing so much pain.

"In what?"

Mia looked at Alan, confusion etched across her face.

"Sorry, I don't, like... I don't really get what my role in this is gonna be. Like I said, I don't want to fire this gun again unless I don't have any other choice."

She sighed, and shook her head, angling her gaze more towards Kaitlyn now.

"I'd be happy to stay with you two for a while. I'd love some company right now, honestly. But I'm really not feeling this plan of yours..."

[D/N]

Kaitlyn? Oh yeah, as Alan went into his usual spiel she was nonchalant. Hey, she was pretty good at this, she thought. She'd have been great in Vegas.

She settled back into the armchair she'd plopped down in. It was pretty comfortable, actually. She could get used to that after stomping around outdoors for the last two days. Sure, Kaitlyn knew full well it'd get boring as bones after not too long, but for now, it was good. And she glanced her eyes back and forth between the other two.

Yep, and Mia gave the predictable answer. Kaitlyn glanced over at Alan again. Yeah, he was grumpy at that. But really, what did he expect? Kaitlyn had been with the guy long enough now to know what was up. And she wanted to keep that "up" going a while longer. She still liked him, after all. Same with Mia. And she scratched her fingers on the armrest and rolled her thoughts over about that beautiful gun.

Sure, Alan thought he had some secrets.  Well, Kaitlyn had a few of her own she was sure he was still clueless about. One that led to a hell of a pot of gold at the end of this potential rainbow. And best of all, she had the opportunity to do it clean.

She was clicking her teeth together. She willed herself to stop.

"Nah, don't worry," she told Mia. "We'll chill."

One more look at Alan. They locked eyes. Yeah. He knew.

Well. Then.

"..."

Kaitlyn cleared her throat.

"...I'm gonna grab a protein bar."

She zipped open her bag and didn't focus on how her fingers had started trembling. Fuckels. Stop that. Cause it was time. Frankly, she should have used it on Kimiko.

She brushed her fingers against the glass bottle, then plucked a bar out. She looked over at Mia.

"Hey, want one?"

Kaitlyn tossed the bar to Mia underhanded, waited for the other girl to reach for it.

"Grab her, Alan!" she yelled.

Now the motherfucker just needed to react right. Because Kaitlyn was already reaching back into her bag.

[Zetsu]

Alan had plans.

Well, maybe not exactly plans. More like strategies. General objectives, and a good sense of what he should be doing right now to further those objectives.

See, this is why he did Lincoln Douglas. No dumbass partners. Not that he thought other people were stupid or anything, but they tended to fuck things up. Alan liked chaos. He liked things to be fucked up. He just wanted it to be under his control. Only he can protect the chaos or some shit like that.

What, you implying that Alan doesn't have a real plan? You sayin' his plan ain't good enough for you, Mia? Fuck you. Hey, get this-- we are the I-N-S-U-R-G-E-N-T-S. There. Spelled it out for you. Look, if you wanted a serious plan, you should've found a group that wasn't bent on blowing up the system. Because plans are for the system. Or something. And you really really shouldn't ask Alan do to plans. Cuz Alan didn't do plans. Oh, he could do plans. But he couldn't do plans. Make sense? No? Okay okay let Alan clear that up for you. The rebellion had to work without a real plan or it wouldn't be a proper rebellion. You're not cut out for the cause, kid.

Of course, he would've preferred to talk a little more before going all psycho on Mia, try to maybe get her in so they can have her weapon without a fight. Still a shitty thing to do, probably, but eh. At least everybody'd leave with fewer bruises. Yet another reason he didn't like having plans where he had to get people to do something other than fuck things up. Cuz then they fuck things up.

Couldn't exactly blame them, of course. Snap decisions were his style, too. The difference? His snap decisions were the right ones. Always. Because even when they fuck things up he still wound up happier than he would've been if he'd carefully thought things out and optimized something. Plus, they fuck things up in a fun way anyways.

Hey, this was kinda fun, right? Not that Alan liked violence. But conflict. Excitement. Chaos. He was drunk, stoned, tripping, high out of his mind. Never mind that a bunch of those were incongruous.

Mia was strong for her size. Shouldn't have been surprising. He'd even told himself not to be surprised by it, in the split second before he'd tackled her. And yet his body was still caught off guard a little.

No problem. Just hold her down, Kaitlyn'll get the gun, we'll be on our merry way with an apology and a promise to make things up to her later. They'd gone too far to take back his promise now.

Mia squirmed. Nothing personal, kid.

[Pippi]

Alright. It appeared as though some sense of normalcy had been resumed. Alan seemed to have already run out of fuel, considering his complete lack of elaboration of his so called 'plan', and Kaitlyn hardly seemed to have cared either way. Mia felt herself calming down again, an easy smile falling into place. Of course she'd just been paranoid. Hadn't she been in a similar position not so long ago? Desperately searching for some sort of plan but not even having the slightest of outlines for one?

She felt a little awkward just standing there now, and was about to go and sit back on the sofa when Kaitlyn caught her attention.

"Oh, uh, sure! Thanks!"

She wasn't running low on rations or anything, but she hadn't eaten yet today, and it was a nice show of solidarity from the other girl. Mia reached out for the ration bar, eyes focused on it as it spun lazily in the air.

Kaitlyn shouted, and Mia had just enough time to blink before Alan barrelled into her and knocked all the air from her lungs and the words from her throat. The back of her head smashed against the library floor, and her vision blurred and she felt her stomach churn. For a few moments, she couldn't move, feeling like a truck had hit her, the sickness in her stomach slowly fading to be replaced with a lead weight crushing her.

Her vision came back and she realised Alan was still on top of her, pinning her down, stopping her from moving. She was smaller than him, but if she had realised what was happening, she felt as though she could have provided some serious resistance, but she'd had no idea. How could she have? She had trusted Kaitlyn. Trusted both of them.

Alan was pressing down on her arms, stopping her from trying to push him off, but still she struggled against him, attempting to wriggle free, push him off, whatever it took to escape. It was hard to speak. Words of confusion, anger and fear died in her mouth. All her energy was being directed to getting free.

[D/N]

Stop shaking.

And just what were her hands shaking with?

Everything, she guessed.

Kaitlyn pulled out the bottle, drew the syringe out of its package. Okay. She'd seen this before on TV. You just jab the needle through the top -- perfect -- and draw in the stuff. It filled the barrel before her eyes and she was just now trying to figure out how much she was supposed to use here.  Fuck. Not that much, that's for sure. This was horse stuff, right, and horses weren't exactly human-sized, not to mention the whole species difference... but tranquilizers and stuff were all pretty much the same stuff, right? She was sure there were plenty of people out here who'd gotten this whole thing down to a fine art, either like scientifically or recreationally. Funny. Libertarian though Kaitlyn was, she'd never bothered to get too much involved with the 'drugs for all!' scene. Not that Kingman was big or exciting enough to have anything like that. Maybe she was saving it for Vegas.

"Uhhh..."

She glanced up. Mia was bucking violently -- like a horse or something, ha -- and even though Alan had her down tight, yeah, she had no time for this. Half a dose should be good. That sounded right. Horses were about twice as big as people. So as she lurched out of the chair and forward, she was already pressing down on the plunger and spraying an arc of clear liquid halfway across the room.

"Keep on her Alan, I'm coming, and--"

Kaitlyn stuttered out the words as she crossed the room, only to stumble over her own feet halfway there and thud painfully on her knees, scraping one. Well fuck, so much for grace. She cursed, made the last few steps on her knees and dropped down by the two of them on the floor, holding the syringe up and feeling the heat from Mia's struggling form.

Right then. Ignore that 'what the fuck you got THERE' look on Alan's face and get this done. Because what? Was either of them gonna expect Mia to be all understanding after they grabbed the gun from her? Even if the girl didn't do something nutso, that whole... that whole betrayal thing, the reaction she'd have, the things she'd say to them, no. Kaitlyn wasn't dealing with that when she had her secret weapon all ready to go.

"--and yeah! Hold her. Hey. Hey Mia. It's cool, it's just like a sleeping thing. Sedative, yeah. It's just--"

She didn't look at Mia any more than she had to either. Because still, she liked Mia.

"knock you out for a bit. Just-- fuck hold it! -- just for a bit."

She pressed Mia's head sideways to the floor and jabbed the needle into her neck. Pressed the plunger and could feel the absolute opposite flowing through her veins.

"It's cool. Relax."

[Pippi]

She was close to throwing him off. She was sure of it.

She was strong. She had the stamina to try every single strategy of breaking free she could think of. She had to wait for the right moment though, wait until Alan was distracted, and thank God, it looked as though that moment had arrived. His attention was focused now on whatever Kaitlyn was doing and the shackle-like grip on her wrists loosened by a hair. She squirmed and flailed with even greater intensity, kicking her legs to try and dislodge Alan, trying to wrench her arms free from his grasp.

Then she caught sight of Kaitlyn hurrying towards them, and the implement in her hand, and her harried breath caught in her throat. She wasn't afraid of needles. Hell, she wasn't afraid of much, fire being the obvious exception. But this was different. This was wrong. She could feel her heart pounding. This wasn't 'cool'. This wasn't 'fine'. Seconds ago, they'd been planning on grouping up together. Why was Kaitlyn trying to sedate her? What was she trying to do?

Kaitlyn was going for Mia's neck. She twisted and turned her head, trying to prevent her old friend from getting anywhere near it, all thoughts of scurrying out from underneath Alan vanished without a trace. Then her head was shoved down, pressed sideways to the ground, and her eyes widened and the blood in her veins turned ice cold as she felt the needle pierce her skin, the tranquiliser flowing into her neck.

It took a second. Kaitlyn stepped back. Mia was shaking. She couldn't feel anything yet, didn't feel anything but the pinprick on her neck. It wouldn't take long before she did. Somehow, she managed to find her voice again.

"What was that? What the fuck was... what are you trying to do?"

Her voice had changed. It had morphed into the voice that only came out when she was dealing with her panic attacks. Higher pitched. Shaky. Alone and frightened. Alan was still holding her down, waiting for her to pass out, so she went back to struggling against him again. Whatever their aim was, she couldn't let them win.

"Let me go! Just fucking let me go!"

About half a minute passed of Mia flailing and struggling, trying in vain to escape, before she rested her head on the ground, looked up at the ceiling, and let out a cry of anger. It didn't make sense. It didn't make any fucking sense. They had been friendly. She had let them in here, shared her shelter with them, agreed to join up with them. Mia was so very lost and all she knew was that she had to get away.

She pushed against Alan's grip one more time and nothing happened. Her arm stayed still. She tried again, and the result was the same. She tried to kick out, and her leg gave the weakest of jolts and nothing more. She craned her head to look towards Kaitlyn, and it felt like she was moving a block of stone. She spoke again, and the words came out as if they were wading through tar.

"What was... Why'd you... do this? Why'd..."

And now she missed her panicked breathing and her widened eyes and her pounding heartbeat because her breathing was slowing to a crawl even though she was fucking terrified and she wanted to look straight into Kaitlyn's eyes to show her that but she was struggling to keep them open.

She couldn't move anymore. She couldn't move her head, or her arms, or her legs, or even her fingers. Slowly, her breathing was slowing to a crawl. She couldn't think. She could barely see. Everything in front of her was in slow motion. Eventually, her eyes closed and never opened again.


G021 - Mia Rose: Deceased
85 Students Remain

[Zetsu]

What the fuck, Kaitlyn.

Okay, it's not like either of them had totally trusted each other from the beginning. Stay calm. It's not like an outright betrayal or something. She was just being smart. Being smart was laudable, right? So everything was okay. They got the gun. The revolution would live on.









Oh. Yeah. Then that happened.

"How much did you fucking put in her?!"

He glared at Kaitlyn. Mia's breath had slowed and stopped by then. Not much point in trying to revive her. You can't really CPR an overdose. Could you? Fuck it. Alan was too pissed to care. Yeah, he knew how dumb that sounded. He didn't care about that either.

"If you wanted her down you could've just clocked her in the face or something. Or at least read the fucking manual for the thing. Or, or--"

Okay. Damage control. He was an accomplice to murder. Everything was fucked. His name wouldn't go on the announcements, because what a big fucking comfort that was. He'd--okay, he hadn't really murdered someone, he hadn't even really been an accomplice to murder since this was definitely accidental manslaughter, it

No. Stop trying to avoid responsibility. So what if his motivations were alright? So what if he hadn't meant to, or hadn't been the one to push the plunger? Mia was still dead. And he'd almost always ran on utilitarian frameworks in debates. Cuz deontology was stupid.

Okay. Take a good long look. Take a good long look at Mia. Lock the picture in your memory. Take a good long look at yourself.

Oh. Oh oh oh fuck no.