cradleproject | WEEK 11

[Judar already has his barrier up when Jason makes his announcement...and it's entirely useless thanks to being nerfed. The bullet shatters the barrier easily.

It's his speed that saves him; for all that he's incredibly physically slow, he's fast as hell in the air and he's been raised to be a weapon from birth. The second he sees that gun come up, he's already several feet up, which is why the bullet hits him in the chest instead of the head. Still eats a nice chunk of flesh away thanks to the acid.

And then, thanks to pain and sheer instinct, he does something incredibly stupid.]

Thalg al-salos!

[And a group of incredibly sharp icicles plunge into Fiona's torso at rapid speed.]

[ fiona's crouched down on her knees when the spears fly at her — whatever's come over her isn't intelligent or quick enough to react to magical ice, so each spear manages to pierce its target.

however, its apparent lack of intelligence also comes with a dulled sense of pain. it lets out a grunt, whining and as it writhes around, but it is still capable enough to raise the gun and fire its last bullet — this one's red. it flies right for the glass casings on the wall containing the formaldehyde drenched fetuses.

for any participant that's been in a chemistry class before, they can probably assume what will happen next. flames spurt from the holes in the wall, singing the floor as the formaldehyde floods out. the fire begins to spread gradually, snaking its way towards the group of people. fiona tries to escape, but merely falls to the floor below the table she was on — she's not going anywhere.

you probably should, though. ]

[Turns out formaldehyde's combustible. Who knew?

The room bursts into flames. Anyone by the lab table where the formaldehyde was stored is going to have severe burns unless they were protected.]

[ yuno's hyper focus kicks in the second she sees the hilt of the lightsaber and her own grip turns behind her. her hand wraps around it, the wooden handle of a kitchen knife, and her eyes narrow, a growl tears through her--

and then it's judar that's attacked, and she sees shards of glass... no, ice, it's ice, it glitters too perfectly. it's his magic. he's fighting back so yuno steels herself and waits for the life in fiona's eyes to drain, to dissipate to nothingness.

then she moves.

she grabs the body, pulling it out of the biolab, she hauls it into a hallway away from the fire, but she doesn't care where. as soon as her skin doesn't feel the heat, she stops and drops fiona. ]

You fucking whore! You HURT JUDAR!!

[ she doesn't care if people see. yuno's mind and eyes lock onto fiona's body and with surprising, nearly inhuman speed, she raises the blade and it renders neck from shoulders, cutting through the flesh there as if she were merely slicing off a pat of butter. the head rolls away from the body. yuno pays it no attention.

and she smiles despite the disturbing amount of strength she has to extend to pull this off, she smiles serenely and sweetly and her voice, with an ecstatic tone, echoes out among the crackle of the fire. ]

I'll get it! I'm going to get it! Revenge for Dave, for Judar, for Elizabeth! I'm going to...

[ the sweetness melts. it slips away, gone, replaced with vicious anger, a deep tone that resonates. it demands attention, is too hard to ignore. ]

I'm going to fucking kill you!!! Ahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha...!!!!

[ yuno she's already dead

with the head gone from the body, yuno yanks the knife out of the floor, and she places the tip at fiona's stomach. it's pressed in, tearing through again, and again and again and then she pulls it up, shredding through fiona's corpse to the neck. again, her strength is undeniable, because the movement is so quick and smooth that it's no longer something to be ignored: yuno is a survivor in the killing game. "knife skills" truly is not there for no reason.

and her laughter, crazed, high pitched -- it rings out, mingling with the roar of the fire.

the knife is discarded. she drops it, leaving it to clatter noisily to the floor. next, she raises her hands and it's flesh that she digs into, ribcage that she swings open like a pair of cabinet doors with an organic crunch.

she laughs. rib bones fall to the ground.

and then it's through her organs that yuno digs, pulling them out and searching frantically. ]

I'll get you, I'll get you, I'll get you, I'll get you... You can't hide from me!!!

[ blood is leaking, spilling, pouring in deep red streaks like rivers of their own. her hands are coated in fluids, and the end of a large intestine slips through her fingers but yuno doesn't give a shit. she picks it up and pulls it out, and it makes a sickening noise, like water splattering to the floor.

and then everything stops.

she breathes, ragged, but laughter doesn't come. ]

...Huh.

...No... not here...

[ soft, sweet yuno returns, her eyes suddenly full of life and thought again. she leans back on her heels before standing. ]

...Gone. It's gone from inside her... The thing that used Dave isn't here at all.

[There's a lot happening here. There's a whole fucking lot happening here, and Clover is a tangle of desperate panic and fury too lost in the sight of the bullet flying and the blood and the icicles and what it's all going to mean to do anything, and then the fire starts and—well, what's a life or death game without the threat of immolation? This time, she runs towards it.]

Judar!

[At best, she's half-cognizant of everyone running, of Yuno in the middle of whatever the everloving fuck is happening over there, because her friend is wounded and still in the blaze and she won't—she can't lose anything else to the Soulvaki.]

Judar, let's go, let's go! [WHY IS HE SO HIGH UP WHY IS SHE SO SMALL???? if he doesn't get his ass closer to the ground asap she's jumping up and down until she can grab his hair or something and just drag him away like a shitty balloon i fucking swear to god]

[She won't have any trouble reaching him, because he's collapsed on the ground after firing off the ice spell. Judar might have been in his fair share of fights, but the whole deal about being a mage is that getting shot is definitely not in his repertoire. He has barely enough concentration to create a barrier around Jack and Jason when he sees Fiona aiming towards them - less out of actually caring about them and much more out of sheer spite against the woman who just shot him - but it vanishes once the initial blast of fire is over with.]

Oh fuck. [He stares at where Fiona had been blankly for a few moments - and then he starts to laugh. It's not a gloating or amused sound though; it's just despairing and verging on hysterical, like someone who just realized he's been the butt of a joke.]

Shit shit shit, fuck. Tell me that Hat Lady's still alive.

[Not that he cares about Fiona, but he sure does care about the consequences of her dying directly at his hands!! Thanks asshole.]

[Yeah. Uh. He'll help Clover drag Judar out of the room. Partly out of gratefulness for the barrier. Mostly because, even if Judar might have just killed the Nuwa, Jason's rational enough to not blame him. This was kind of a murder in self defense, wasn't it?

He's grimacing either way, deciding to break the news as quickly as ripping off a band-aid.]

No. We're, uh, pretty damn sure she's dead as a doornail. [Sorry, pal.] But let's worry about that later and deal with that wound on your chest now.

[This is bad, this is really bad, and she's trying desperately to focus—first she has to get him out of here, then they have to take care of the wound. She's got the scythe inconveniently angled under her arm so she can get his arm over her shoulders and her other arm around him so she can get him to his feet so she and Jason can drag him somewhere that isn't on fire. She's only now becoming aware of Dorian's barrier cast around her and the rest of them, but it doesn't slow her down any, because even if they're relatively safe, she does not like fire.]

She— [Thanks for the help, Jason. Her voice breaks like she's about to start crying because she just might, hearing him laugh like that and knowing what's going to come tomorrow and that it isn't his fault.] She was—was still moving when she set the fire, it could have—have—

[But she doesn't sound convinced; it's not his fault, it's not his fault, but the game won't allow for that, will it.]

Jason's right, we have t-to deal with the wound—Jason, what—what do we do, how can I help?

[He laughs shortly again, his grin sharp and twisted. Goddammit, he might have been prepared to die this week, but he thought he'd go down spitting in Alice's face instead of directly playing along with her game.] Yeah. Gotta make sure there's someone left to execute, right? Just do me a favor and kill me right after the trial, I got no interest going through one of Ass Lice's fucked up illusions.

[But the change of subject actually gets him to look down at the wound. It's messy and bleeding heavily, but the acid corrosion's probably the biggest priority here.]

Son of a bitch, what the fuck is that? I thought those bullet whatevers were supposed to just go right through you!

How about we don't? If we kill you right now, we'll be put on trial as well. Not very helpful. [This is really, really bad. He's distracting himself from the fact that the Nuwa is fucked thanks to this halfbaked plan. At least taking care of this occupies him.] We'll talk to the AI. Try to figure something out. I helped kill one of those freaks weeks ago, and I wasn't put on trial. So why should you?

[The body announcement is already up. He doubts Alice will budge on her decision, but. It's worth a try, at least. They should try to talk their way out of this once this mess has been cleaned up.]

It's a chemical burn. Really nasty. We'll— The Medical Bay is too far away. My room's closer. Got a bunch of supplies stashed away there. Let's take him there, and I'll walk you through what to do.

[He doesn't like inviting people over nowadays, but taking Judar to the medical bay seems like a hassle. If it's his room, he can at least kick him out once it'd done, since they live in the same unit.]

You're not getting executed, you're not, you can't... [There's still that strain in her voice from the effort of keeping herself from crying. The body announcement rings out and Clover feels like she might vomit, and she sways just a little but quickly recomposes herself; she has to keep herself together if she's supporting Judar like this, the urgency of the situation and the need to keep Judar safe and alive is all that's keeping her from collapsing.

It's why she can still focus completely on Jason's instructions, too, instead of losing that to the haze of her stress like everything else going on.]

Okay—okay, got it. [Whatever it takes to get this taken care of as fast as they can.]

[Yeah, he definitely has absolutely zero hopes about that judging from the look on his face.]

Screw begging Ass Lice for help, she's the one who put us in this situation in the first place. We don't have time for that or to be locked in that shitty room waiting for a vote we already know. There's gotta be something we can do about the other ship.

[Wow, is that Judar actually caring??? No honestly, he just wants to save the Nuwa out of pure spite. If Alice wants to purge them, he wants the exact opposite of that fuck you Aliiiiiice]

What the shit, these things can poison you too?! Ugh, I fucking hate guns! [HE'S GOING TO GO BATMAN ON GUNS but yeah he'll just stagger over to Jason's room in that case, sorry for bleeding all over your floor dude]

[Nice knowing you, buddy. Such a shame they never got to vandalize the ship with crude drawings of dicks. Jason will open his room and let Clover drag Judar in, not minding the blood that's getting dragged in with him. To be fair, his room is already kind of messy. There are old drops of blood leading from the bathroom to the beds, a drawer is obviously missing from the desk, and the desk chair has water stains for some bizarre reason.

He doesn't care about the mess right now, though. He's far too busy trying not to react when Judar brings up the other ship.]

If there's anything to be done about the Nuwa, we'll have to contact their AI first. Assuming River hasn't tattled to her dear friend Sunny already, that is. If she has, everyone over there might be dead by now.

[And wouldn't that be a kick in the pants? He's moving to retrieve some supplies from the bathroom, but not before glancing at Clover and Judar.]

Make him sit down on the bed. Bottom bunk. We need to rinse the wound before we do anything, so start taking off the shirt. ["""Shirt""". And to Clover, in particular:] If he complains about showing his nips, rip it off.

[She doesn't say anything about the Nuwa; if she thinks too hard about what's going to happen to Alice, her Alice on top of everything else then she's going to break and she can't afford that now. Instead, she focuses on the instructions given; the scythe gets dropped onto the floor on the way in so it doesn't get in the way of lowering Judar to sit on the bed, careful as she can.

But god she is so not here for snide remarks this is NOT THE TIME, JASON, and she is too stressed and tired and Everything to look especially exasperated but there's an attempt. It is probably lost on him while he's getting supplies.] Ugh. Do you need help with the shirt? ["""shirt""" listen, she understands, but helping is all she's here for on the off chance she's needed.]

Who the fuck is Sunny? [everything goes over his head all the time except bullets apparently]

[And he just gives Jason an incredulous look at that comment because uh. Have you seen what he wears modesty is not an issue here. Getting his shirt off with the bullet wound in his shoulder, however, might be. Eventually he just gives up and groans.]

Yeah, yeah, just rip it off me. If you got a cool scythe, might as well use it for everything.

[FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

Sorry Adam, Luke's bursting forward and absolutely running through the flames and trying not to get burned to retrieve the rest of the samples. He'll pocket them as best as he can and also have his sword drawn just in case as he grabs Adam by the elbow and pulls him out of the room, also checking back to make sure everybody else is getting the hell out of dodge.]

[ Adam can't react in time to stop Luke from going through the flames, but honestly that's the least dangerous thing right now and they do need the samples. Probably?

He also has his sword out but lets Luke pull him away, grabbing onto him so he can't do anything like run back in or something stupid. ]

Is that... is that it? [ Is it dead? ]

Dunno. [He's checking to make sure they have everything and he looks at Adam carefully.]

You know what's next though. Soon. [That's all he says though before he moves into the hall. They have other things to do first.]

No! Arbok!

[Over in the other direction, opposite from Yuno, Jessie's voice rings out over the crowd as it always does. She'd made the mistake of stepping closer to Fiona back there out of concern for her friend, but Arbok had shoved her out of the way, shielding her from the flames, unaware that his master was being protected by a barrier.

As a result, the snake is panting and wheezing on the ground, his back burned. Luckily, Arbok is a little tougher to hurt than a human, but it doesn't look pleasant in the least. And Jessie looks distressed.

That's when she brings out a marble. It's white and red, but then it expands to the size of a baseball in her hands.]

Arbok! That's more than enough! It's time to return!

[And then, for the first time, the ship can witness as a laser is emitted from the center, striking Arbok. The Pokémon turns red and appears to join the laser before being sucked back into the ball Jessie is holding onto. She cradles it in her hands like it's the most important thing in the world.]

[Well. Shit. This sure went downhill and fast.

Judar barriers him as soon as Fiona aims for the formaldehyde, and that saves him from getting a couple of third degree burns to go along with his missing eye. Too bad the barrier shatters after the initial blast, which leaves Jason scrambling to haul ass and get the heck out of the room, but not without getting some lesser burns on his neck and face. It can be assumed Jack is right behind him.

He'll stop along the way to shove anyone stuck inside the room out, of course, because he's an idiot. Once he's outside, however, he'll be shouting at the ceiling? Or, wherever.]

Alice! Put out the fire in the biological lab now!

As you wish, Jason.

[The sprinklers turn on in the bio lab.]

WEEK 11

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