Sayonara is Japanese for go die.

[NoLife42069]

(Ángel Alcántara continued from Peep The Horror)

Sleep. For the first time in... 2 days? Give or take. Ángel was hardened, he could run with little sleep for a few days. But no sleep? The most he ever did was 36 continuous hours of uninterrupted consciousness. So saying this was both new and taking a toll would be an understatement. But against all odds, Ángel slept. Taking shifts with Yu-Mi and Cee had given them all a few hours of virtual sleep. (He wasn't quite sure how it worked, but it worked.)

So, why then, does The Ángel Alcántara look like he is a wet sock away from either killing everyone around him, then himself or killing himself in the most violent, traumatizing way possible? Well, Ángel awoke to his senses being taken over, and a once friend and classmate talking about how he was disappointed that the murders were low. Also, Ángel had his number now, 26 remaining students. Ángel sleep-addled mind could roughly guess that there were at least a little over 30 of them. When the game began at least. New rule! What fun. A murder had to happen every 12 hours, not accidents, not suicide, murder. Blood is needed to paint hands.

He... He wasn't quite that surprised. For having such a short time limit things were...Surprisingly peaceful. Well, relatively peaceful considering the circumstances. To up the stakes only makes sense.

Regardless, Lactose lactose-intolerant girl was named Gillian, Gillian Kruger. Apparently, she was... Gibbed? Telefragged? The cartoonish censor stopped him from really understanding what happened but it was clearly bad.

No, what really fucked Ángel up was the next person. Patrick, V... Ángel never got to see him. Before he was gone. It was with horrified grief that he laughed dryly as Patrick No-Clipped into the earth and disappeared.

Madness and grief pushed him forward. He NEEDED to find his team. Before anyone else died.

Which led to now. Floating in front of Andrea Patson's (rotting?) corpse. Her brain and blood had become slightly discolored over time. Ángel swam over and added a crowbar and a tablet with blood splatter on it to his arsenal. "What do you want to bet that this is a Half-Life reference? Surprised they didn't make it red and have 'Property of Morgan Freeman" emblazoned on it."

Ángel wiped the blood off the tablet and set on figuring it out.

[apocalypseyuri]

“Ughhh.” Yu-Mi floated a few paces back from Ángel, looking pale–-paler than usual, that is. Ever since this morning(ish? assuming?), she had been assaulted with nothing but death, death, and more death. Obviously she had seen plenty of death prior to this, but recently there had been a barrage with absolutely no breaks. First came the announcement, and that stupid smug grin of her so-called classmate. What sort of demon could derive such pleasure from watching kids die? Then came the slideshow of slaughter: whatever horrific thing had happened to Boston and Gillian, Patrick’s accident, and Zorin’s murder. She didn’t know any of them very well, but they were still faces she had seen many times before, and knowing they were dead made her feel sick.

Yu-Mi bit her fingernail, eyes flitting between Cee and Ángel, trying her hardest not to look at the body. Andrea Patson was rotting there–did they code in rotting? Even if she wasn’t, she looked…saying she looked worse for wear was a gross understatement. What was happening to her body outside of CR? Did they slot her in next to Sunny at the morgue?

That’ll be you too, inevitably. SHUT UP

“I dunno." Maybe this was all a Half-Life 3 reference, in that they were never coming out. "Don’t take too long, okay? This place is making me nauseous.” Yu-Mi cast a furtive glance up at the ceiling. “I used to love the planetarium–well, not love, but really like. It was my second favorite place in the whole school, behind the greenhouse. Yeah yeah, I know it’s dumb to have places you like in a school, but…” She shrugged. “In any case, I won’t be able to see this place the same ever again.” A thought occurred to her. “What do you think’ll happen after this? You think they’re just gonna…scrap this whole place? Gone, poof, kaput?”

She didn’t want to say it, but the words lingered at the tip of her tongue nonetheless. We better pick up the pace to find Daniel before our twelve hours are up. Not even a day ago she was vehemently against the thought of killing anyone at all. What had happened to her? No, no, it wasn’t her fault. It was…the circumstances. The situation. Like how the survivors of Flight 571 weren’t munching on flesh like jerky in their daily life, Yu-Mi wasn’t some murderer. Hell, Daniel had killed first–-he’d killed fucking Sunny.

So it wasn’t her. She couldn’t be blamed.

[Yonagoda]

"Woah," Cee said, looking at the corpse. "Realistic."

But not gross! Cee wasn't easily grossed out by art like that. Since, you know, the whole thing was fake. And, speaking of Half Life, didn't they have a burnt corpse sprite that's scanned off of a real body?

He didn't know anything else about Half-life. He didn't want to know, either, but it made a little sense to pretend to be interested; feeling left out was never comfortable, unless he wanted to be left out, which he often did, and then that's fuel for his introversion but he wouldn't be truly left out, then, right? Since it was intentional on his end.

"Morgan Freeman? Who?"

Would it be funny to make a joke about the fact that he once thought that Morgan Freeman was that one South African guy...

No, it wouldn't

[almostinhuman]

((Dusk continued from I'm on phone rn I'll link it later))

The southernmost entrance opened. In the darkened planetarium, the silhouette of a new figure could just be made out.

"... Jump."

The figure vanished from the doorway before appearing right in front of Cee, floating just a little above him. In a flash they'd brought their blade straight down, cleaving through the boy's right shoulder with ease and rending him nearly in twain.

[NoLife42069]

"Trust me, I want to get out of here as much as you do." Ángel found himself slowly turning upside down. "I also enjoyed this room. Seeing the stars and planets always activated the good existentialism. Like how small we are in the grand scheme, but how big we can become..." Ángel began to dig in Andera's bag for the manual, adding her supplies to his. Ángel shook his head slowly. "No, it's not dumb. Don't invalidate your feelings. And on the after? Well, there are going to be some big changes to CR as a whole. It killed people, after all, I wouldn't be surprised if big restrictions were made."

Ángel began to skim the manual. "Though if you ask me, to do that would be idiotic. All it would accomplish is that the next time,IF there is a next time, as a whole we will be even less prepared to handle it. But, I figure you are asking about the school..." Ángel looked up as he pondered. "Yes, I do believe they will. Sycamore High will be deleted, this is much too big of a scandal for it to survive. Over 30 students all dying under their watch? The lawsuits alone will kill them. Maybe the data of the school will be saved somewhere but your average student won't touch these halls again." Ángel sighed, honestly the entire thing is sad. Even more than the loss of life, the entire industry is in danger, and knowing the government their reaction will probably be shoving their heads in the sand like birds.

"Cee, this hell is meant to emulate real life as much as possible. Saying what our instructions are the dead and gore are most important. Also, Morgan Freeman is the protagonist and player character of the award-winning game series, Half-Life." Ángel spoke with cold detachment as he finally got the tablet working and was greeted with a wealth of information. "Holy sh-"

Then a door opened, Ángel turned the tablet forgotten as his hand reached for his gun. Ángel saw the figure, saw their mouth move, then they were gone. "Wha-"

And then they were back, floating right in front of Cee.

Time felt like it moved slower, each second punctuated by the beat of his heart. The blade moved, and Ángel's body stood frozen in shock.

Red, No Crimson. Blooming like a flower of death. People will be dying here once again.

[apocalypseyuri]

“I’m not a real big existentialism person.” Yu-Mi had always much preferred to live in the moment and not waste time fretting over anything not physical enough to grab with her own two hands. “But I think the stars and stuff are pretty.” She smiled weakly and shrugged. “If you say so.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured. Maybe they’ll make it a museum.” Worst case scenario, people would make DOOM custom maps of it. Yu-Mi frowned. That wasn’t a very funny thought. “If they use my Avatar like a mannequin they better make me look cute at least.”

“Yeah, Mr. Half-Life himself.” She lifted her head up as Ángel cursed at the tablet. “What–” The sound of the door opening made Yu-Mi turn around, but nobody was there–nobody except her, Ángel, and Cee. “Is–?”

Yu-Mi wasn’t a big horror movie buff, but she watched them sometimes. Her favorites were the cheesy 90s B-movie flicks, with overly graphic to the point of ridiculous kills and charmingly shitty practical effects. They were gory and gross and weren’t very good at all, but they were also impossible to take seriously, and they made Yu-Mi laugh. It was all in good fun. It was all fake.

When Cee was cut nearly in half by an unseen figure, it was a scene so horribly violent it was almost ridiculous. Yu-Mi didn’t feel like laughing, though; she just wanted to scream.

And she did, a little, albeit involuntarily. A brief, wretched noise tore its way from her throat before she silenced it. At the very least, with the other kills she had been forced to watch, there was some degree of separation to them, but she just watched Cee get cut in half right before her eyes like a fucking watermelon same color but like meaty and fucked up and oh god that’s awful why the fuck would you do that at least just stab him like a normal person or something or not at all it should be not at all I’m a normal person and her suddenly sweaty palms were slick against the metal of the gun as she struggled to wield it despite her trembling hands, an unwieldy third limb that had anomalously sprouted. Her head was full of not thought but adrenaline and terror as her finger pressed down on the trigger (thank god for manuals please refer to your Wii Manual if your classmate fucking dies hahahahaugh), but her shaking, the lack of gravity upsetting her balance, and the shock still in command on her body caused the bullet to fly way past the assailant’s (seen that face on the announcements before, sword, Paris?) face.

“Shit,” she hissed, more expelled breath than an actual word. In a desperate move to regain her bearings and not become Yu-Mi sashimi (never eat again after this), she floated over to the wall and braced herself against it, ready to kick off it if she needed to.

(the insides are beginning to float away from the body like bright red streamers happy birthday to me)

[Yonagoda]

"All I knew about half-life is that they had a real corpse as a-"

The pain was not real. None of this was real. The pain was just the phantom sensations, electronically brute-forced into the brain by silicon wafer matrixes and wires. It's not real pain. The feeling of the cold air on his flesh was not real air, and it's not real flesh. Do not look down. Do not dwell on it. Do not think about the tug of your organs out of the body, that strange churning and lurching, because these were not your organs, and this is not your body.

"Wha-". Mesentery shredded, guts stringing loose. Two halves connected by a little flab of flesh, subcutaneous fat, and skin. Was that a... liver? Floating out there?

(No, too small, too round.)

Millions of years of evolution, hard-wired panic triggers, battles rational thought and wins. You are not supposed to see your own guts. The definitions and semantics do not matter when you are reduced to a simple animal creature.

It's so hard to think.

Phantom pains, but not phantom, sparks up his spine- or what remains of it, jagged bone spilling and sloping.

He does not die.

He didn’t die, and he screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

[almostinhuman]

Dusk did not have time to worry about the horrific damage their blade had wrought upon Cee, nor about his chilling shrieks of agony. Two more remained.

Dusk hurled their sword through the air at Ángel, watching it spin rapidly through the air, unburdened by gravity.

[NoLife42069]

Things happened quickly, Yu-Mi cursed, Cee screamed as death came, and a sword came flying towards his face.

From the very start, Ángel knew he and his team had an advantage over their classmates. Everyone at Sycamore High used CR, they all did. But The Cyber Squad spent most of their time immersed in it. Particularly in CyberTag, all of the members (maybe save Amy) had skills in Cybertag. Ángel was no exception.

He called on that, just like at the bridge on the first day, instinct took over—conditioned response from conditioned stimuli. Ángel's body moved, the blade flew gravity and thus friction did not slow it down. Crowbar in hand, Ángel swung it, the curve of metal catching the blade. Ángel spun and slingshotted the blade back at the sender.

However, in a less-than-smart move, he also sent himself flying back into the wall with a loud grunt. "Yu-Mi! Move!" Cee's screams, echoed off the walls like a BGM.

[apocalypseyuri]

Oh my god he’s still alive. Yu-Mi would’ve dropped her gun out of shock if her grip on it wasn’t so cast-iron. Her throat hurt, likely from the way her heart was trying to claw its way up and out of it. She watched as Ángel sent the glinting instrument of death back at Paris (nice parry haha). By instinct alone, her legs kicked off of the wall at Ángel’s command, sending her hurtling away.

Once she was as attached to the wall as she could be, Yu-Mi raised her gun. A strange sensation suddenly rushed through her, not of calm, but of emptiness, as if everything inside her had suddenly been erased with a single stroke. A flower, clipped at the bud. She aimed the gun at Paris’ leg and fired. The moment she released the trigger, whatever blockage was inside her also released, and everything came rushing back. Yu-Mi could hear the screams again.

STAGE BGM: my dying classmate! Please turn it off. Please turn it off. Please turn it off. Please

[Yonagoda]

The pained sirens emenating from his mouth died down to a gurgle, one lung filled with blood. Homogenous gore bloomed.

Nobody helped him. There were gunshots, noises, people talking. He collapsed, twitching, whimpering, crying. Shock and adrenaline and a mix of various last-resort panic responses coursed through his system, futily, and were then pumped right out of his broke arteries.

(Except he was asleep in a hospital bed, skin nary broken except for IV tubes inserted into his arms. His parents look above him, oblivious, wondering when their sweet child would-)

Admist the whole mess of everything and everyone, Cee was going to have two more seconds to live.

[almostinhuman]

Ángel batted their blade back at them, sending it on a slow, inelegant tumble through the air. As Dusk caught the weapon by the hilt, a searing pain shot through their right leg. Of course one of them had a gun. Why wouldn't they?

This was bad. Dusk wasn't sure how realistically wounds and bleeding out were being handled here, but they couldn't imagine they had infinite time to deal with it. Yu-Mi and Ángel needed to die now.

"Jump."

Dusk was now pressed against the wall, a ways behind Ángel, hopefully far away from Yu-Mi for the darkness of the room to obscure them a little. They kicked off the wall and sent themselves flying at Ángel from behind, sword in hand and ready to strike.

[NoLife42069]

New BGM!: Pained gurgles as someone chokes on their own blood!

Ángel had long tuned him out, there was a threat in front of him, a threat that needed to be dealt with.

The sword was caught, but that was fine he hadn't intended for it to really do anything mostly because he didn't have a plan for it at all. Yu-Mi fired, and the bullet pierced skin. Ángel's mind ran a mile a minute, plans, actions, strategies, anything to ensure he and Yu-Mi could survive this.

And then they were gone, teleported. Ángel knew they had the ability but didn't know enough about how it worked. "Fuck!" His gun was upholstered as he turned around. "Yu-Mi watc-"

And there they were, weapon poised, legs bent like a spring. And then they were off, flying directly at him. The pistol was raised, finger on the trigger. Blood and pain spread from his arm, and the pain cleared his mind enough to let him change course. A bullet was fired.

Not at his attacker, but at the wall. The force pushed Ángel out of the way faster than if he tried by himself, a lethal stab turned into a painful miss. Ángel tried again, to shoot, but the newfound pain damned him as his grip on the gun broke, allowing it to fly off.

Ángel spared a glance at the new wound. It was like a chunk of him was flayed off, his jacket was ruined, it looked horr- Ángel's attention jumped back, heart thumping, eyes wide, crowbar ready, as his back hit the wall.

[apocalypseyuri]

“Sorry,” she whispered as she heard Cee gurgle. What was she apologizing for? For not saving him somehow? That he had to die at all? That she didn’t kill–

It was a gory scene, but it wasn’t real, but it was real, but in reality they were all lying quietly on hospital beds. The dissonance of it all somehow made her even more nauseous. Yu-Mi had neither the time nor the capacity to even register that her shot had hit Paris. What she did register, though, was the near miss and Ángel’s gun spinning out of control.

Yu-Mi did something that she would definitely regret. “Hey! Over-over here!” She shot in Paris’ direction again, her aim a little more certain. If she gave Ángel enough time to regain his bearings and retrieve his gun… “I’m the one with the gun! Come get me!”

[almostinhuman]

As Ángel's gun flew out of the hand and they were sent hurtling back, Dusk saw opportunity. They threw their blade his way once again, barely even looking to see if it connected, and snatched the Desert Eagle from the air. Just in time, too; Yu-Mi had a bead on them again and had resumed shooting at them, thankfully missing this time.

Dusk aimed loosely in Yu-Mi's direction and fired back, the weapon's violent kick sending a shockwave up their arms.