+ It's All About Balance +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Mansion + Grounds
When: May 11-14
Rating: Will likely have violence and death; use content warnings at your discretion.
Summary: Someone or something is looking for Infinity Stones in Wonderland.
The Story:

This will be your main log for fighting aliens, reacting to the Snap, and any fall out. The top level for days 1 & 2 are up now, and the top levels for the Snap and the aftermath will go up late on the 12th. Hopefully, the reason for this will make sense once they’re posted!

Feel free to refer to the plotting post for more details!

Comments

Kokichi Oma | OTA

[shslliar]

[How. Dare. Her.

He doesn't know what's worse. Losing Louis to the walker infection or losing Wendy to the snap. Even worse was the person who ultimately pulled the plug...

Kokichi is going to be somewhat distant after all is said and done. He's hurting... Angry, even. But he knows there's no way in hell he could take the queen's crown under these conditions. Unless...

Well. He has all the time in the world to prep, at least. He just needs to figure out how to kill the beast... And this time, get others in on the plot.

He spends much of the morning at Angel Investigations rooting through the archives, looking for any information about the Jabberwock he can get his hands on. He figures the kids who run the place were taken by the snap, so he doesn't expect anyone to walk in on him copying notes.

As he heads back to his room with the info, he's suprised to find something peculiar was left in front of his mirror while he was out.

A bento box. With a note.

Kokichi picks up the note and reads:] "Oma-kun, I'm apologizing on behalf of the mirrors for this. I had no idea she was a monster..." Tch. [He glares at the glass.] If you really want to help, go check on Alice-chan for me! She's on your side!

[He takes the bento and doesn't wait for any sort of response. He spends the rest of the day holed up in his room, writing out supply lists, resources, things to ask the network...

He did leave his door ajar... Maybe it wasn't on accident.]

[teamfun]

[It's early in the morning of the fourth day when Louis finally comes to find Kokichi. He woke up after the snap the day before- terrified and confused on the ballroom floor. He stuck with Clementine as she filled him in what she knew- and his heart sunk ever the more. Everything is so horrendously broken, and he doesn't know how to make anyone feel okay again. He doesn't even know how to make himself feel okay.

He knows it's early, but he's not going to be sleeping any time soon, and he doubts Kokichi would, either. And god he needs to see his friend. He needs to check in and make sure the brush with the horrors of his own world hasn't made Kokichi's shitty life any shittier. Normally, Kokichi's door ajar would be enough for him to just burst in obnoxiously (actually, he'd do that if Kokichi's door was closed shut, too) but he hovers by it nervously, before knocking on the door-jam. ]

...Ko? You in there?

[shslliar]

[Louis will hear the sound of paper being dropped.

...

Then footsteps...

... Then Kokichi himself peeks out from behind the door.]

Louis-chan...? Is that you?

[teamfun]

[It's so good to see his friend here and alive and unhurt. Terrifying too- in almost equal measure. Because Kokichi experienced shit he should never have to go through. Horrors that should only exist in his own god awful world. He offers a smile that doesn't quite look convincing enough. ]

Hey. Yeah. I'm uh...back.

[shslliar]

[...

Kokichi swings open the door and practically lunges at Louis. Wrapping his arms around his friend and burying his face in his friend's chest... If only to try muffling out the emotions spilling from him.

Yeah, that's right, Kokichi's seen too much death and despair for someone his age... But Wonderland has one advantage he finally got to experience: Sometimes, departed friends come back.

... Sniffle.]

[teamfun]

[Louis lets out a small 'oof' as Kokichi launches himself at him. He quickly returns the hug, though, squeezing him tight- so very very fucking glad that someone else who means the world to him got out of this bullshit alive. There's a depressingly small number of those people left.

His natural instinct is to ask Kokichi if he's okay, but of course, he isn't. Anyone who would be after that would have much bigger things to be worried about. He rubs Kokichi's back soothingly, the raw emotion of everything threatens to bubble out of him again, but he presses it down. He needs to focus on the people that got left behind now- he can deal with his own shit later. ]

It's okay, Buddy [it's not, it's categorically not] I'm here.

1/2

[shslliar]

[Kokichi furrows his brow at that. He knows his friend's lying, but... But...

But he digs his nails into his friend's clothes and the emotions feel like they're stuck in his throat...]

2/2

[shslliar]

-- Guh! [He forces himself to abruptly pull away for a second so he can breathe.]

... Yeah! Great! Really missed you...

[Come on, think. Words. You're not trying to scare him off.]

... You mind coming inside for a sec? We need to talk.

[teamfun]

[He'd say he missed Kokichi too, but he wasn't awake for any of it. He was gone, and his friends had to deal with the thing that hijacked his body when he was dead. It's not a comfortable thought at all. He tries to offer Kokichi a smile, but it doesn't get anywhere near normal enough to be convincing. ]

Yeah...sure.

[He puts his hands in his coat, frowning as his thumb brushes one of the many, many new tears in it. Wonderland fixed his body, but his beloved coat has seen far better days at this point. He follows Kokichi in, nudging the door closed behind them.]

Are you- I mean, shit you're obviously not okay but- Clem told me that you found me.

[shslliar]

[Look, pal. Maybe he'll patch it up for you when they're done talking. Here, he'll move his notes out of the way so you can sit on the bed here.]

No, wrong. I found your body. Were the aliens carrying a zombie virus, or what?

[teamfun]

[Kokichi is a good friend. Louis sits on the bed with a sigh, staring at the floor. It's small comfort, at least, that Koichi refers to it as he does. That he knows it wasn't an attack on him. Not ever.]

I'm carrying the zombie virus. [His brow furrows.] Everyone in my world is. If we die and our brain isn't destroyed? We come back... like that. We- we don't know why. It just... happens.

[shslliar]

Oooh...

[That's. Not something he was expecting. He made friends with a living land mine.]

I take it all the brain surgeons died out?

[... He shakes his head.] Nevermind. You really should have warned someone about this! Made some sort of plan in case you died or something.

[teamfun]

Pretty much everyone died out, man. Dead outnumber the living a hundred to one, easy.

[Maybe someone, somewhere figured out what caused the plague- but that information sure never got to the school- never got to the places Michonne or Clementine have been to- and they've been all over.

He grimaces.]

We do have a plan...kind of. Me, Michonne and Clem. I was just uh...away from them when it happened.

[Trying, desperately, to seek Clem out, from her hiding spot. Forgetting to keep himself safe in the process. Rookie mistake, it would have ended it completely for him back home. Not so here. He tries to smile, but it's not quite right. It's tired and frayed around the edges. ]

Besides, there's no nice way to broach 'hey if I die could you destroy my brain for me please?' with your friends.

[Wendy knew. But he wouldn't have expected it of her, nor would he have expected it of Kokichi. That's...a heavy fucking burden to bear. He wouldn't wish it on either of them. He doesn't want to wish it on Clem or Michonne, but that's the unspoken rule of their home. That's...different. ]

1/2

[shslliar]

... Good point.

[Of course, it can't be an apocalypse if everyone was alive, can it. Plus, even if that backstory wasn't all true as he suspected it, the whole apocalypse thing he and his classmates uncovered still comes to mind, and it makes him sick.]

... [SIGH] Whelp! Looks like I might need to get better at combat anyway in case Wonderland throws another hostile invasion at us.

[He'll hate it, but if he really has to pull the trigger to prevent zombies...]

Which brings us to something that probably isn't gonna go away with the event.

2/2

[shslliar]

[He looks Louis in the eyes.]

The White Queen's the Jabberwock in disguise.

[teamfun]

If you ever need pointers in that, I can help there, at least.

[It'll give him something to focus on rather than the horrible gaping void inside him that comes with dying. He'd rather ignore that forever.

He squints, confused at this new information. ]

Um. Like- like the dragon thing in the stories?

[shslliar]

[Yeah, just shove that first death in a folder somewhere in case you die again later.]

Yeah, you could call it that. We got a video yesterday from the White Queen's chambers... Those gems we were looking for? She had them, and when she snapped her fingers she turned into this giant flying thing and took off. You can guess what happened to half the mansion...

[Wendy too. Something he doesn't want to talk about.]

I've been doing research all day... On that jabberwock? Apperently it's done something like that before.

[Kokichi shuffles through his notes and hands Louis a notebook to look through.]

[teamfun]

[It's the healthy way to deal with things! A guilty expression crosses his face for a moment. He honestly hadn't been looking for the gems. He'd been looking for Clem- a pinpoint focus that eventually made him sloppy and got him killed. He probably should have looked into ways of stopping everything, but he couldn't. It's always, inevitably, going to be about Clem. ]

Oh. So basically it was a wild goose chase from the start?

[He takes the notebook, flicking through it, brow furrowed. ]

Great. So we have an all-powerful monster who can enter our dreams and we can only kill it with one specific thing- and no one knows where it is? [He taps the book.] What's this vorpal thread?

[shslliar]

Apparently! Thanks for nothing, Wonderland.

[He wants to blame that soldier guy for this, but at the same time Wonderland threw a curveball.]

The Red Queen's supposed to have the vorpal sword, I think? Last time anyone heard about the Vorpal Weapons was after that chess thing where the Queen of Hearts got eaten or something... Oh, and there's also a vorpal shield.

[teamfun]

It's always such a giver. I feel spoiled.

[It wasn't fair. It should have been a regular event and instead, it was an absolute nightmare. ]

So we got a whole Vorpal Collection going on? And are they all needed to kill this thing? Because I swear to go if we have to go on another scavenger hunt...

[And now, inadvertently, he's going to make it worse.]

...Hey, have you seen Wendy? I tried to call her but got nothing. Please tell me she wasn't in the middle of all that.

[Wendy is a fucking badass, but that was a whole new other level of battle.]

[shslliar]

Just the sword, really...

[He would explain more, but you just had to ask about Wendy...]

...

Nnh. [Please, don't make him tell you.]

[teamfun]

[Oh. Oh that is not a good reaction at all. Ice-cold fear drops into the pit of Louis' stomach, his eyes widening. Oh please, please no.]

...Kokichi?

[He doesn't want to hear it- because if he hears it, it makes it true. But he knows he has to hear it. This isn't something he can kick down the road.]

Kokichi, what- wat happened to Wendy?

[shslliar]

[You expect a self-professed liar to tell you the truth he's trying to ignore?

He pulls away from Louis and mumbles...]

She'll be around tomorrow I guess...

[teamfun]

[Yes, yes he does. Louis is pretty damn good at sloughing off what's bothering him too, but he has a line and this is absolutely that line. His concern only grows.]

...What do you mean? Did she? [Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.] What- how? Was it in the fingersnap thing?

[shslliar]

... Yep.

[Damn it Louis. You dragged it out of him.]