[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

[parttimesoldier]

[Suzuha awakes on the floor with a start, breathing panicked, hands grasping at her throat. And she may be taking a swing at anyone who is unlucky enough to be close enough to startle her further. Sorry!

It takes her a moment to realize she is no longer being squeezed to death by those strings and... no longer just alone with the rest of her team. She shakily gets herself to her feet, staring dazed around the room. Remnants of the string are caught up in her air, her body is littered with thin cuts. Both arms have the worst of it, sliced up and bloody, the left at least wrapped in makeshift bandages from the missing sleeve of her yellow track uniform jacket. On that wrist is a tattoo of blackthorn flowers, curling around it. That sure as hell wasn't there before!]

What the hell is even happening...

[Maybe that dude was right, this is all some kind of dream thing. Or, well, nightmare.]

[selfportraiture]

[Oh, another cute girl.

However, I am obligated to take the worst possible option, so.

Suzuha takes a swing! Ena is not an athlete by any means, so the swing catches her in the shoulder and she tumbles backwards with a yelp.

(And even in that brief contact, there are her feelings transferred, if only glancingly: fear, horror, exhaustion, desperation, relief).]

H-hey--!

[parttimesoldier]

[help, poor ena,

A lot of Suzuha's initial panic starts to turn into confusion at that brush with feelings outside her own—even if they largely mirror what she herself is feeling, it still feels incredibly weird.]

What the—

[The other girl's indignant shout at least shakes some sense into her, and she takes in the sight of her—definitely unfamiliar, but definitely not a threat, tone it down Suzuha!!]

Shit, sorry, sorry!

[selfportraiture]

Jeeze...

[Ena huffs that out with a scowl, rubbing her shoulder, though she can't really be too pissed off. After all...

If that ghost had gotten them, too, she would've also panicked.]

It's fine, relax. I shouldn't have gotten in your space.

[parttimesoldier]

[Relax? Suzuha doesn't know the meaning of that word.

But she does at least force some of the tension out of her shoulders, even if her expression remains somewhat strained.]

Guess I'm a little jumpy, after...

[Man, even just thinking about it has got a feeling of dread building in her chest.] Did you guys see it too? That freaky thing outside?

[inexorableiron]

Lady dude? You in one piece?

[He's glancing sharply back and forth at all these people and the spiders skittering through the droplets of blood on the floor]

[parttimesoldier]

[She nearly jumps as she turns back to look at him, catching sight of a doll standing past him in a distant part of the gym. It's gone after a blink.]

I, uh...

[She did see that, right? Is she losing her mind? ...Whatever, doesn't matter right now. She shakes her head, trying to rein it in.]

Yeah, yeah. Scratched up, but okay. How about you, big guy?

[inexorableiron]

Same. Just a little fucked up around the edges.

[parttimesoldier]

Good. [She breathes out a shaky sigh of relief.] Thought we were goners for a second there.

[gamboler]

[ He really hates being right sometimes. Though even then...given their injuries he has his doubts that that was any kind of dream he's familiar with.

Anyway, he's nearby pushing himself up onto his knees, checking the bleeding from his wounds. His makeshift tourniquet seems secure, at least. ]

...Hey. You okay?

[ You know. In the most basic sense possible, because yeah, what the hell was that. ]

[parttimesoldier]

[She's doing a quick scan of her own wounds. Torn up, but most of it's superficial outside of that wrapped up arm of hers. Small blessings.]

Yeah. Yeah, I'll manage.

[She lets out a shaky breath.]

For sure thought we were dead.

[gamboler]

[ He exhales sharply through his nose. Usually he keeps such vulnerable sentiments close to his chest, but — ]

As did I. If this were a dreamscape, that would have been enough to wake us fully.

[ So...there's that theory out the window. ]

[parttimesoldier]

Sooo, crossing out theory number one, then.

[Like, they couldn't have actually died, or they wouldn't still be here talking, right? So maybe it's still technically possible, but Suzuha's even less willing to entertain the testing of it at this point.]

[faultlieswith]

I wish I knew.

[ But she doesn't, and that's infuriating. ]

How are you holding up? Need anything?

[parttimesoldier]

Some answers would be nice.

[She shakes her head, but tries to summon a very fleeing smile. Yeah, they could all probably use some answers right about now.]

But I'm alright. Still in one piece, that counts for something.

[faultlieswith]

[ Ishmael returns the smile, although it's more wry than anything. ]

That's the one thing I don't have. Which pisses me off.

[ An obvious statement, but a true one. ]

I'm glad we made it out of there, despite everything.

[parttimesoldier]

Yeah. That was way too close for comfort.

[She can practically still feel all those strings wrapping around her. Ugh.]

Guess we're on step two now, which is figure out where the hell we are.

[If they don't have any answers, they'll just have to go out there and find 'em themselves!!]

[bowtiedbones]

You all got hurt?

[hurrying over once she spots the yellow uniform. despite the alarm over all the injuries, there's some relief— that's everyone accounted for]

[parttimesoldier]

[Suzuha out here doing a double-take at the sight of blonde hair over that matching yellow uniform. She hardly registers the question once recognition and surprise take over.]

Woah, you're okay! What happened??

[bowtiedbones]

I don't know! I just woke up here.

[parttimesoldier]

You didn't see that creepy thing coming after us or anything?

[Wow, the luck... maybe she stole it from their supposedly-lucky teammate.]

[tiebroken]

[ Suzuha sure takes a swing at Mizi, and because she's not expecting it, it lands pretty squarely! She recoils, stumbling back a step and clutching where Suzuha had hit her, eyes wide and clearly on the defensive. Her hackles aren't up like they were in the classroom — now, her instinct is to deescalate, even if it means pretending not to be upset this girl just smacked her. ]

I'm sorry, I'll go... I didn't mean to...

[parttimesoldier]

[Tally up another 'whoopsie' for Suzuha. She's planting her feet in a defensive stance when she feels her hand connect with something solid—and then freezes in place when she realizes it's just another girl, not a terrifying fucked up ghost thing coming in for round two.

She drops the defensive stance, raising both hands up placatingly.]

Wait! Wait, sorry, I thought— [Her cheeks flush a little.] I thought that thing was still after me.

[tiebroken]

[ So it was a mistake, not her lashing out in anger. Well, that's a relief. She knows these things are hard to control, sometimes... with her explanation and the earnestness of her apology, Mizi shakes her head, half lifting a hand. ]

It's alright — I thought you might just want some space, that's all...

[ But since she's not telling her to go away, she guesses it's fine for her to linger? even if she's doing so a little tentatively. ]

I still feel that way, too.

[ That there's something after them. ]

[parttimesoldier]

[Suzuha's a mess of different feelings right now. Freaked out after what just happened, high-strung because there's no way they're truly out of danger yet, guilty for smacking this nice-seeming girl out of a knee-jerk reaction...

She's pretty sure she doesn't want to be alone though, even if every person here is no more than a stranger to her. She lets her hands fall back to her sides, but she can't quite shake the tension from her shoulders.]

...Yeah. That was some seriously messed up stuff going on in that room. Feel like it could come back at any moment.