Bracelets for the soul

Maicy thought back to that time.

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Jim and Josh drank some alcohol to drown their fears, as well as trying to forget everything that happened with Vale. Giaile say to Jim and Josh.

"Once you two pass out, I'm gonna drag you guys upstairs"

"Good idea."
"Good idea."

The needle entered Vale's neck not a moment too soon, as the room they were in had already started to tremble slightly, one of the pictures on the wall falling off and thudding against the floor. The pain from the needle grounded him, giving him something to latch onto as the medicine worked its way through his system. The room stopped trembling and his remaining limbs snapped back to more natural-looking positions. A short, few second scream that had been ringing inside his head for minutes finally was audibly heard before he regaining enough control to stifle it, instead gasping for breath. His left arm slid out of Alraada's hand and clicked back onto place a few seconds later. He used his returned hand to lift up his mask as a large dribble of black spilled out.

After all this, he finally seemed to regain enough composure to register some level of coherent speech. He looked Alraada in the eye, but instead of gratitude he only showed frustration, "Why...did you...bring me back....inside?" He managed to gasp out, still clearly recovering from whatever he'd just been experiencing.

---

Nace was mostly sober after spending an hour in the bathroom lapping up water and pissing out alcohol. He'd ripped off one of his sleeves and made a make-shift bandage around his head once he had the sense to do so. It was already sticky with blood, the wound not fully closed. It was the sound of a shattered window that drew his attention to the outside. He opened the door a smidge to see Aberdeen at the bar. He sneered, but knew better than to start a fight when he had a recently received head injury. He slammed the door shut, content to wait out whatever nonsense was going on.

Not ten minutes later, he saw the slightest of tremors hit the bathroom lights, the glow flickering as they swung. He furrowed his brow at this before taking it upon himself to leave the bathroom, super outside it or not. They were gone however. He noted the twister game still laid out on the floor and scowled. One end had a slit like it'd been sliced up by something. "Still a sore loser," He growled to himself before exiting the scene. The building wasn't shaking, and there wasn't any loud crashing, so perhaps things were fine. Still. It was better for him to check. He stroked the ring on his hand in anticipation before starting to climb up the steps and towards the floor where all the contestant's rooms were.

Vale took a deep breath before pulling himself up and grabbing onto the nearest object--his bed. He was still on his knees, but was looking more natural and less robotic in the way he was positioned. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and glancing at her. "No, this isn't a physical thing. I'm not hurt." He was speaking normally, his breathing back to a reasonable pace. "I didn't think...this would happen." He spoke softly and bitterly, anger seeping into his voice although it wasn't clear where it was directed. "I just...I don't like talking about this." He held his left hand in front of his face and stared at it for a moment, clenching and unclenching it. After a few moments of this, he grabbed the front of his skull and screamed, "God damn it! This is so stupid! I hate it!" His shoulders trembled slightly and he sounded on the verge of either crying or breaking something. 

The shower was turned off, the fighter still sitting against the ceramic tile for a few more moments before finally getting up off the ground and exiting the shower. A feeling of dread weighed down on their shoulders at the thought that death would be constantly looming over them every moment they continued to remain in this experiment. They were already on the hit list of a 'super psychopath' and now nearly got skewered over a children's game. Was 'true love' really worth risking their life over? Aberdeen attempted to shake the thought from their head as they redressed, although proving to be ineffective. 

"There's still 3 months of this...." They whispered to themself, the words getting caught in their throat. Their aura faded into a darkened blue color as they reemerged from the bathroom and promptly laid on their bed, pulling their blankets over themself and curling up into a ball. They gripped at their blankets tightly as the scene played over and over in their head, humming a familiar tune in an attempt to fall asleep or, at the very least, get the traumatic thought out of their head.

---

Amil's eyes popped open as he shot up from the bed, heart racing. He glanced around the room, his panicked motions only followed by the man gripping at his head. The last thing he'd remembered was starting the twister game, so how did he end up here? He knew the answer, but was too terrified to admit it. A sharp pain shot through the man's skull, Amil grimacing as he attempted to pick himself up off the bed.

He searched the room for any signs of his partner, hoping perhaps he had brought him back up to their room. No sign of Nace. Amil shook slightly as he was forced to recognize what he'd let happen. Are the others okay? What did he say? Did he cause any trouble? What kind of information had he gotten? These thoughts fired in rapid succession through his mind, the man stumbling over to the hotel-provided coffee machine. He knew he must have had a decent amount of alcohol to allow Zadinya to take over, so the least he could do is sober up.

"Nace could probably use a cup, too.." He muttered subconsciously, the little outburst catching himself by surprise. While the coffee began to brew, Amil wobbled over to the small fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, cracking it open and downing the bottle. He grabbed another bottle of water and situated himself on the bed, facing the door and awaiting his partner's return.

Vale flinched as the hand was placed on his shoulder. He brought his own hand away from his face and stared at the foreign one with a mixture of concern and confusion. Gently, he slid out from under the hand, pushing himself farther away from Alraada as though she had slapped him rather than tried to comfort him. His breathing hitched for a moment as he went back to that strange in between of wanting to sob or scream before settling on just focusing on the rise and fall of his chest. A few deep breaths and he seemed to be calm enough again to return to speech.

"This--that--," He placed a hand firmly on the floor and stared at it, "It...it was just a game." The words left his mouth with enough conviction he could almost convince himself of that. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" His hand clenched into a fist and hit the ground with each echo of the word. His other hand reached out to stop the first from continuing to beat the floor. "It was just something for fun, right? People aren't supposed to get this upset about these things." He leaned forward a bit before looking up at his soul mate once more. "I don't care! It was a fucking game! I don't!" His voice was shaking again and it was clear this wasn't the case at all. Perhaps he was trying to repeat it until it was true. He seemed to realize how hollow these words were and went back to staring at his hands. "Someone gets mad and they punch a wall or scream or cry, but I can't." His voice was rising in volume as he got more frustrated with what he was trying to say. "Normal people can just bottle it up! And it's fine! They can hide it and no one is the wiser! But I lose a stupid game and this happens!" As if on cue, the sheets on his bed were ripped off and flung against the wall in one rapid motion. "Stop it!" He yelled at the now motionless sheet, similar to how he had yelled at his arm down in the lounge. He glanced back at Alraada, aware of how insane this must look to an outsider. He clasped his hands together and lowered his head in shame.

"I used to want to be rid of these powers," He spoke softly, his voice barely a whisper, "I wanted them gone because they would hurt people. But then...things happened. And without this aura that has caused others so much pain, I wouldn't even be able to move. And then there really would be no place for me anymore." He closed his eye tightly as tears threatened to form. "All of this...was a mistake."

---

Nace had been outside the door for the entirely of Vale's speech, his hand wrapped around the knob tightly as he stayed frozen in place. He almost opened it when he heard Vale start to shout, the sound of something moving indicating another episode could be about to happened. But it settled down and his intervention wasn't needed. He pulled his hand off, stretching it from the tension that had built up with his iron grip. He rotated his ring slightly, glaring at the door as though his ex might to able to feel his gaze. "People just bottle it up, huh?" He muttered, turning away from the door. "Yeah, because that's real fuckin' healthy." He started to walk away and towards his own room.

Let the girl find out on her own what a huge mess of a man he is. Heh, maybe they're actually meant for each other. The thought almost had him laughing, except for the bitter taste it left in his mouth.

He approached his room and opened the door without knocking, "Oy, I'm home," He said, casually kicking the door closed behind him. He winced as a bit of blood dribbled from his make-shift bandage on his forehead. "Damn thing opened again," he cursed.

Maicy got out of her trance of thought when she saw Aberdeen getting out of the bathroom. She was about to ask if they're doing okay but it seemed they are trying to get some sleep. It's probably for the best, given what happened.

Maicy layed down as she began. After what happened, Aberdeen and Vale shouldn't play games against each other anymore. Ever if they patch things up whenever (or IF-ever I should say.), that could just never happened ever agian. Any other person is fine. Hell, ALTI can handle losing a lot better than Vale. That's pretty bad when Maicy can give Alti some credit over another person. They only other people Maicy can trust around Aberdeen are Galystris, Cheri, and Alraada (if Vale has gone somewhere). Hell, Cyrus and Iksel seems to be pretty trustworthy, even if the former is with Alti. And fuck, Piami is pretty much the most trustworthy person in this experiment and she is pretty the closest this to an actual child in this whole thing. Yeah, she's 19 but she acts like a child. Yet.... she also acts more mature than Vale....

Maicy shook her head as the thoughts are a bit overwhelming and tried to just get some shut eye.. That's when her phone rang. It seems somebody tries to call her. Maicy let out distressed sigh.

"Who could be calling around this time..?"

Regardless, Maicy sat up and grabbed her phone. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Maicy Maincoar?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Do you remember Keylight Woods Middle School?"

Maicy's eyes widen. That's... the middle school she has been to..

"Y-Yeah. I do remember Keylight Woods Middle School." Maicy replied, feeling very uneasy about this phone call. "W-Why are you asking these questions."

"It's me....Deona."

Oh no.......It's....one of Maicy's bullies from that time




((Just to let you know that, while the phone is not on speaker, Deona was pretty fucking loud near the end so you can decide rather or not Aberdeen hear the other line near the end.))

At that point, Maicy hung up her phone, not even intending to continue the call any further than it should have. Just to be safe, Maicy blocked the phone number that was Deona's. I'm not letting that bitch call me again. After that, Maicy's angry expression soften to a more sadden expression. More tears form from her eyes.

I have changed... just....for the worse...

    Cyrus hummed and nodded to Alti as he watched him go off into the bathroom to shower away all the Wisney wonderment. A few moments of silence later and he sat up, sliding his sweatshirt off and tossing it across the room, readjusting his rumpled undershirt. Leaning over towards where Noci was seated, he slid his phone charging cord out from behind the plush, plugging his phone in before collapsing back on the bed, not bothering to adjust his position to something less outlandish or more comfortable for the following couple of minutes.


    As Alti emerged from the bathroom, the scientist took note of the cuter sleepwear he was wearing tonight, blushing a little bit before sitting up at the feeling of weight at the end of the bed. Without waiting for an answer, his partner had already invited himself into the bed, Cyrus chuckling and scooting over to his preferred side. "Guess I have no choice now, eh?" he teased, sitting back and turning down the covers and sheets so that they could slide under them. "Damn, today's really been something," he chuckled and pressed his head back against the pillow, looking over at him.