[physical education 101]

[sevenhorrorsmods]

Who: transfer students
When: July 1̷̝̤̳̙̫̭̻̝͓̄̇̾̀̕͝9̸̙̱̹͍̮̈́́̀̅͛̐̔̋ 20
Where: the. . . gymnasium?
What: an ice breaker
Warnings: moderate physical injury (not debilitating), psychological horror (absolutely debilitating)

[The school is empty. The school is quiet. The only sound that cuts through the silence is the soft ticking of the hallway clocks that mark the passing of each second.]

[. . .]

[At least. . . until a stiff breeze whips through the classrooms, scattering dirty papers and jerking the curtains aside. The clock strikes 6:00 a.m.]

[The school bell chimes.]

[ Team rooms | Endgame | Rewards ]

Comments

[ratiocinations]

[He is bloodied and wobbling over to the bleachers to sit—his body demands it, even if the rest of him only wants to gather more information—and finds he must... walk around this young woman on the ground, winged as she is.

She's trembling, though.

He finds he cannot be callous enough to simply keep moving. Pauses, then-]

Let me help you up.

[cupidsammo]

[ She looks up, blinking blankly. ]

... O- oh. I'm sorry—please excuse me...

[ But she will lift a hand. ]

[ratiocinations]

[He takes it, hoisting her up, not releasing until he can see that she might stand on her own.]

We've more failures than successes, it would seem.

[He can say that because he failed, too.]

[cupidsammo]

[ She's steady, at least; just stinging all over. ]

... Did anyone find their keys?

[ratiocinations]

[He will lead her, slowly, over to the bleachers.]

The ones who have stars on their clothing that declare as much. Apparently, it was... in the podium. The most obvious solution that I foolishly overlooked.

[cupidsammo]

[ And she follows, wearily sitting down once there; she still slumps over some once settled, wings hanging loosely from her back. ]

... I didn't think about it either. The others did more of the searching than I did.

[ratiocinations]

[Yes, but he’s the detective, he thinks. The failure was spectacular on his part.]

Easy to lose oneself in the impossibility of this entire ordeal. I’ve seen much in this single day that can outweigh all the strangeness experienced in a decade.

[cupidsammo]

[ Same here, she thinks, but given his (estimated) age, he's likely seen far more in life than she has. Probably done more, too. ]

This... is nowhere near normal, is it. I've never heard of anything like this happening before.

[ratiocinations]

[She's probably right about his estimated age, he's just a normie.]

I suppose that depends on what your definition of "normal" may be. Given those wings of yours, I suspect they're quite different than mine.

[And yet this is still wild and crazy to so many of them. There is, indeed, an exalted level of evil they're dealing with, here.]

[cupidsammo]

—Oh.

[ Well. Uh. ]

M- maybe not really. Um. I mean, average... [ uhhhh (x2) ] I'd say average people—human stuff? That's pretty normal to me.

[ratiocinations]

[As ever, not bothering to circle around his actual question-]

Are you not human?

[cupidsammo]

... No, sir—I'm a cupid.

[ratiocinations]

[??]

A cupid? Spearing hearts with arrows? That sort of cupid?

[cupidsammo]

[ a beat, then a nod ]

Yes, that's right. I help people fall in love.

[ratiocinations]

[Swallows down a humorless laugh, which just has him going hmph! in his throat.]

All sorts here. [There is so much to take in. But he has a tiefling on his team, so this might as well happen.] So even a purely angelic type, whose domain presides over something as sweeping as love, can be kidnapped and forced into torturous standardized education. My, my, what are we dealing with.

[cupidsammo]

It... it's kind of surprising. Honestly, I would take algebra class over this, though.

[ratiocinations]

More surprising than the fact that there exists a force that can force an angelic sort here? Or does that not surprise you at all?

[Just what are they talking about here, when it comes to cupids?]

[cupidsammo]

Um.

[ She has to take a moment to think about this, and still doesn’t answer with confidence once she does: ]

I— I don’t know. I don’t feel like that makes me any more special than anyone else…

[ratiocinations]

[Arches a brow.]

More special than a normal human like myself, surely.

[cupidsammo]

[ With a small shake of her head: ]

I wouldn't say that...

[ratiocinations]

[Is he embarrassing her, he wonders?]

But you can do things that I cannot, as you have stated.

[cupidsammo]

There’s… probably something you can do that I can’t.

[ratiocinations]

[Well. Fair.]

Perhaps. But it is nothing that cannot be learned by anyone else.

[cupidsammo]

[ another pause follows before she exhales, tiredly. ]

... I'm sorry, I know I'm not helping.

[ratiocinations]

[Makes a 'mmph' noise.]

You are doing just fine, my dear. [He is just. Running his mouth. Trying to expel the excess of his mind. Usual Sherlock Holmes things.]