[closed] I'll be home for christmas

[12inches]

CHARACTERS: Sigma (12inches) and Ramir (heavyhitter)
DATE: 12/21 and some time after.
WARNINGS: Language, blood / dismemberment / death, inevitable cat puns.
SUMMARY: Shortly after being invited to ditch it all, Sigma finally discovers what's ringing in the New Year back home.

Comments

[12inches]

[ Whatever this maze's deal is, it's testing them. Cozy-looking bundles of clothes littering the oppressively chilly corridors? Basically as advisable as slamming your fist down on a big blue button labeled DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON. And while the hypothetical urge to do that is about as strong as his urge to burrow into one of those big fluffy coats, he's been around this castle enough times to know a prank when he sees one. Ironically but dispassionately ignoring the entire solution to their problem. ]

[ And so he stays dutifully draped over Ramir as they idle at a crossroads, shivering pathetically with his arms folded between him and her back. He's certainly well-dressed for it, but they've been at it for quite some time now, and that nagging suspicion that something's been following them is pushed down in favor of swiveling his eyes from fork to fork in the road. He's impeccable at remembering his rights and lefts, but for as familiar as this particular fork feels, they can't have turned themselves around already, can they have? This has to be one of those bullshit magical nonsense mazes. Not surprising. Only disappointing. ]

Whose idea was this, again?

[heavyhitter]

[ Ramir eyes first one half of the fork, then the other, skeptical of them both. Then she eyes the innocent looking red scarf draped around the ice in the middle, of which she's the most skeptical of all. ]

Definitely yours. [ That is absolutely untrue. She's rewriting history, happy to pretend that she didn't seize and drag Sigma into the maze twenty minutes ago. After a little more staring and scrutinizing, she tips her head straight back to direct this at Sigma: ] Got a coin?

[12inches]

Yeah, because I willingly throw myself into puzzles on the regular...

[ Muttered mostly to himself. Stop rewriting history, that's his shtick. As she tips her head up, he tips his down to peer at her. ]

No, but I got a good 50/50 chance of either kissing you or headbutting you right now, should we use that? —We don't need a coin to be random, uh, [ He tugs an arm loose from between them, losing all its heat and instantly regretting it, to gesture down one of the paths. ] Let's go left.

[ Based on a wide variety of factors making left the much more likely option, of course. The most obvious being that there's no coat or scarf draped directly across that path in particular, but don't think about that. ]

[heavyhitter]

[ In a mutter: ] I wasn't gonna do it for for randomness.

[ But, honestly, this is probably for the best. She's stopped trusting her own judgment when it failed to get them out of here like three years ago (or whatever, that guess seems right), so Sigma's seems like a better option.

She starts them forward, completely unhampered by Sigma's drape. ]

So, hey, how pissed would they really be if I punched us outta here, do you think? [ Or jumped them out. That's not off the table yet either. ]

[12inches]

Look, sometimes random is what you need to get out of a rut, okay?

[ This is blatantly not true when it comes to mazes. He scuffles along behind her, all 6+ feet of him slumped over her shoulders like an inconveniently huge Yoda. It's an awkward movement, but he's pretty reluctant to pull himself away from all that heat he's built up between them. ]

Sounds pretty rule breaky, so probably very. [ Look, puzzle people really hate it when you go off book. ] Besides, what if it's magic? What if it's just a procedurally generated forever-maze unless you find the right way to get out?

[ He sighs. Did his breath just cloud? It better not have. Why did he let her do this to him. ]

What if we just... kept our hand on the left wall? Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

[heavyhitter]

[ Boy, they are not going anywhere fast like this. Although, if she really lets herself think about it, there's not really a problem in that. A walk out through the snow with Sigma is not the worst thing that's ever happened to her.

Still, though, she pauses for a second and crouches just slightly, that classic climb on pose. (The crouch part is more for the sake of the pose, not because he needs any crouching from her to make it up.) ]

Yeah, I guess. But that just means you'll be out eventually, and I wanna be out soon. There's so much alcohol to drink out there.

[12inches]

[ Unless he's gonna start running down these icy corridors to keep himself warm, he's not going anywhere fast. And unfortunately the mood to go romping around in the snow has long since frozen over. Meaning he'll take that invitation to wrap his arms around her neck and legs around her waist, letting her take 100% of his weight as opposed to the previous 80% or so, grip unnecessarily tight for the sake of warmth. ]

Hey, eventually is better than never, right?

[ That takes legitimate physical effort to force out of his mouth after she mentions booze. Even if it was her that got them into this mess away from it in the first place. She can always get out. ]

... Okay, you make a solid point. Take us to the alcohol, Wreck-It Ralph.

[heavyhitter]

[ She has no idea who Wreck-It Ralph is, but it gets a smile nonetheless. She strides forward, moving quicker now that there's no shuffling attachment, and eyes the walls as she passes them. Not that she couldn't bust through them, but, you know. You gotta pick wisely. It's not cool if you take down the wrong wall then have to do ten more just like it. ]

Alright, which one do we wanna bust out of? That's important, if we pick one that's got, like, a frozen waterfall on the other side it'll look super cool, but if it's just a frozen puddle then we slip and die, less cool.

[12inches]

[ Her loss. As they continue down the left path, he keeps an equally discerning eye on the wall beside them, in spite of his significantly lesser experience in the art of busting down walls. ]

Is there really any way to tell from this side?

[ He scowls, craning his neck to survey the top of the barrier. After a minute of wandering, he taps her on the shoulder to signal her to hold up beside a section of wall significantly more bowed in than the rest of it. ]

I'm feelin' this right here.

[heavyhitter]

[ She stops obediently, eyes the wall indicated, and considers it. Nothing too special about it. But that's probably good, if it was too obvious it would definitely not be the right wall, that's how these things work. ]

Alright, let's do it.

[ She turns toward it, gauges the ground underfoot with a little scuffling (not so icy that she doesn't have good traction, that's good), then balances and swings a leg up. She kicks it into the ice on the way down, which immediately cracks like hard, brittle styrofoam. It takes a few more rounds to have busted out a them-shaped hole, and through it she can see...

... another wall. Specifically, the three walls that form a dead end.

She sighs, but there's a laugh lurking somewhere behind it. ]

We're gonna die in here.

[12inches]

[ As she reels back, Sigma tightens his grip around her shoulders, an impressed sort of laugh escaping him between kicks as she manages to bust through the wall while keeping balanced with him hanging off her all the while. Not that he'd expected anything less, it simply never fails to be a bit of a marvel. ]

[ The laugh quickly devolves into a groan, though, once he catches sight of the other side. ]

Yep... [ Total dead end. Sorry for his normally pretty stellar intuition dropping the ball. This is the bad timeline. This is it. ]

[ Sliding back off of her, he circles around her to stick his head through the freshly cracked hole, squinting around. ]

Okay this is some magic bullshit. What's even the point of this?!

[ Throwing up his hands, he glares the dead end of ice down as if it's personally offended him. Which it absolutely has. Eventually he ducks through anyway, striding over to where the path comes to a halt and turning to prop himself up against it, slumping as his heels slide forward in the snow. ]

Well at least it's kind of a cozy place to die.

[heavyhitter]

[ She sticks her head in after him, glances around — then up. A red scarf flutters gently from its snag on an icy outcropping. She hops all the way through, regards it for a few seconds more, then reaches to tug it free. Nothing immediately explodes, so she shrugs and heads over to Sigma's final resting place with it. ]

I mean, yeah, shit could be way worse.

[ Since it's just right there and so conveniently located, she invites herself into his lap, a leg to either side and turned to face him. All the better to sling the scarf around his neck, which she's decided is probably safe. She smiles fondly and gives the ends a tug to fit it snugly. ]

If I die first, you can eat my remains.

[12inches]

[ The little superstitious part of him this place has nurtured trills a little as she picks up the scarf, but the rest of him quickly figures they have nothing left to lose at this point, and only warmth to gain. His arms loop around her waist the moment she settles into his lap like it's their duty, and his smile perks up. ]

You say that like I could even get my teeth through you.

[ Scarved and pulled in close, he leans the last couple inches to give her a kiss. A very bitey one to prove her point and everything. ]

[12inches]

[ If it wasn't for the wildly out of place frame of an opened sliding door set into the wall halfway down the corridor, leading out to what should have definitely been open courtyard given the layout, he might have missed the sound of his own voice drifting somberly down the hall as he returned to his room. He might have missed it to begin with, own voices being what they are, and frankly how stiff with peculiar emotion it sounds, but when coupled with another strange intimate-yet-foreign tone, it pulls him helplessly in to investigate. ]

[ What he finds is an unfamiliar room, a cavernous living space, if it could be called that. More like a collection of recreational furniture and objects jumbled into something arguably resembling a computed approximation of "tasteful". Though far more eye-catching is the pair of figures stood at the far end of the room, speaking in a soft but carrying hush; but what halts and enraptures Sigma at the door most is the fact that the one doing nearly all of the talking is, in fact, Sigma. And his focus in question—the sweatered redhead—looks just about as confused as he feels watching the scene from what feels like not his eyes. It's an expression he's seen many times before. ]

Luna? [ He bites his tongue almost before it squeaks out, but the two don't seem to have heard him. In fact, they seem totally unperturbed by his pretty unignorable presence hanging around blatantly in the doorway. Sigma watches the two in silence for nearly a minute, straining to hear their words without intruding on the encounter before something itchy and anxious pulls him back from the bizarre hole in the wall. Glancing back down the hall, he almost turns before fixing his eyes back on the door, as if looking away for too long would cause it to disappear. ]

[ Eventually, after a good little fidget, he sends a text. ]

hey
can you meet me in the hall like halfway down toward the bedrooms real quick?

[ After another fidgeting minute, he hastily adds, ]

I just found something really fucking weird

[ Because as ugly and personal as this has the potential to get, from the little context he can glean (mostly from the watches on the figures' wrists) it's not... really something he has any sort of desire to face on his own if he can help it. And without any burning lungs or buildings to distract her, he can certainly help it today. ]

[heavyhitter]

[ Ramir has been busy today, busy and distracted. Most of that time has been spent battling the kitchen, trying to find the right supplies and implements for what she needs, while shoving away every attempt the kitchen makes to jump ahead and present her with the final product it thinks she wants. At first she'd been inclined to ignore Sigma's text (okay, not ignore, just — put it off until she can get this fucking batter right), but when he sends the second one a minute later, she knows she can't. This is probably something worth dragging herself away from the kitchen for. Something hopefully reasonably quick.

So after an eloquent and well thought-out response (read: she'd texted back groan and nothing more), she's on her way at a trot.

It doesn't take her long. Just a couple minutes more and she jogs into sight, already looking curious. ]

Hey, what'd you — [ The last word dies unspoken, because she can suddenly see exactly what he'd found. A doorway that wasn't there this morning. She blinks, then frowns. ] Did they just install that?

[12inches]

[ As much as he'd probably appreciate her culinary endeavors more than this, he's appreciative of her willingness to come along. Although maybe not quite so appreciative once his other self brings up the topic of a past girlfriend, maybe this isn't a conversation he should be dragging the current one into. That being said, he's half trying to ignore himself while the other half is straining to remember who all he's dated whose name started with a D. Just say a name, you cryptic fuck. ]

[ Thankfully he's distracted by the sight of Ramir hurrying up to meet him, and he promptly shrugs, her guess as good as his. ]

I donno, but unless they put a gymnasium twenty feet up in the courtyard overnight, this isn't making any sense.

[ Not that it has to. The training rooms are already proof ALASTAIR can do hammerspace, but it makes him feel slightly better about the absurdity it already is. ]

But that's not important, look who's... Just, look.

[ Tugging Ramir by the arm, Sigma pulls her into the doorway with him. Look but maybe don't listen, he amends to himself, but luckily at that moment, the figures seem distracted out of their moment by a third voice, heralding a smaller but much more recognizable young woman that hurries out from a side room to pull their attention. Barely more than a sentence is exchanged before the three of them are off like a shot back the way she'd come. ]

Crap— no, come back—! [ Sigma grapples briefly with the prospect of stepping off into the strange room to follow the sight, but being pretty sure that they can't hear or probably see him by now, he's quick to give in, dragging her along beside him into the dim, tall-ceilinged space in pursuit. ]

[heavyhitter]

[ Upon a better look at this whole new door in the wall situation, Ramir startles to see she actually knows exactly who it is in there. Double knows, because that's Sigma and that's the fucking haircut she hates. Any other inane remarks she could make die unsaid, and just like that she's all in. All in on... whatever the hell this is. It looks like Sigma — her Sigma — doesn't know either, so she won't waste time on questions.

She hurries next to him after that initial drag, trying to take in as much of where as she can of the who. She knows it from description, if nothing else. ]

It's like the village, right? [ Untouchable — maybe not fake, but not part of here and now. Maybe like the training room too, except you can interact with that. She's pretty sure these people would have given sign if they could be distracted by Sigma and Ramir. ] Do you recognize this shit?

[12inches]

[ Maybe. He'd instinctively rounded the furniture in his pursuit of the three for obvious reasons, but this time as they pass one of the couches, he puts out a hand. Sure enough, it phases through without the faintest resistance or sensation. This, whatever this is, had been built for show and nothing else. Somehow the knowledge makes it even more ominous. ]

[ Swiveling his gaze as they go, he makes a distracted and noncommittal but ultimately negative noise. None of this is familiar, but the fact that Phi is with him in whatever this place is stirs something up in the back of his mind. Everything he'd been told they'd be working toward for the rest of his future. It makes something clench up in his gut as he starts quietly putting pieces together in his head, starting with the identical watches on the apparitions' wrists. A dumb hope stirs that they might just be cool secret agent communicators they're using between themselves, but as soon as the conversation between them turns to the prospect of escape... the hope is cruelly dashed against the wall they're plotting to take down. ]

I recognize her, [ Sigma offers, gesturing to the young woman with bleach blond hair that seems to be coolly spearheading the discussion. She always had a knack for that, taking the reins and breaking things down whether they liked it or not. The other woman, though frustratingly reminiscent, remains uncommented on. That would probably require too much explanation over things he's trying to pay attention to. ] And I recognize...

[ It's another one. We walked right into another one. His heart falls about three stories as his mind takes off with the assumption, but he'll point to the little black bracelet strapped around Phi's wrist as she raises a hand as she speaks to her companions. ]

The concept of these.

[ Also, great. She's talking about bombs. And the fact that they have one. ]

[heavyhitter]

[ She's paying close attention to the whos and the whats, but Ramir quietly adds a third item to her list: Sigma himself. She watches him closely as he watches the happenings, reading what she can off him. Then her gaze shifts to Phi's bracelet, and immediately a frown moves in. ]

That's the shit I took off old-you. [ And with a jabbing finger that accuses more than points: ] That was his stupid hair, too.

[ Just, you know, for whatever that's worth. Placement purposes, maybe. ]

[12inches]

[ With his heart as affixed to his sleeve as it normally is, she's got a good novel's worth of reading already. There's a rapid onset of frustration to accompany the confusion already furrowing his brow. Not to mention a line of fear creeping into the tension already stretched across his shoulders. The observation's a welcome distraction; he hadn't taken the time to really inspect his older self beyond acknowledging that it's definitely himself. ]

[ As the party turns to go collect the bomb they're all chatting about, it's easier to get a better view of the man across from him. It softens his expression briefly, as if uncertain how to feel scrutinizing what feels more like a twin than a future self, before it scrunches up for an entirely different reason. ]

Oh man, really? [ He reflexively runs his fingers through the back of his own shaggy hair as if grateful it's all still there. ] Somebody save me from myself...

[ Probably something that would become an anthem for the rest of this show if the way the older him is left on his own to precariously carry the sensitive equipment back to the door they're attempting to blow and set it up. ]

So's this door just been like... here? Open for everyone to just wander in..? [ He sounds absentminded at best, with how much there's been to take in in the past couple of minutes. It's not even something he particularly wants an answer to, words are just coming to him, filling the temporary hush that's fallen over the narrative. ] Because it was just open when I got here. And you came right in. You're not like seeing your own personal nightmare or anything, you're seeing... You're seeing this.

[ There's a why in his tone that hardly needs to be put to voice here. ]

[heavyhitter]

[ Yeah, she's definitely seeing this. No need to verify that. Instead she just watches that other Sigma carry whatever that is he's got going on. Is it the same one she'd met? He's distressingly serious, but that could just be the situation. ]

Maybe it works like a rift. Just waiting for the right person, or whatever. And I hitched a ride.

[ Unless rifts actually are completely random, in which case she's got nothing. She's not done dwelling on thoughts of that other Sigma, though, and it's at least half as much seeking reassurance as it is meant to reassure when she shifts to catch up his hand and twine their fingers together. ]

If it suddenly disappears, you think we'll be stuck in a wall or something back in Oska? [ Because she's getting the unsettled feeling that leaving would be a great idea. ]

[12inches]

Could be. [ Could not be. Doesn't really matter right now, they're just here. ] Maybe it's just... like a painting in the viewing hall we Blues Cluesed into. Maybe they're just chilling.

[ You know. With a bomb. His hand definitely finds hers with an unexpected enthusiasm, gripping tight as he tugs her a little bit closer, as his feet skid back the way they'd come, toward the door. ] I wouldn't put it past this thing to get us stuck somewhere.

[ As curious as he genuinely is about whatever his future might hold, he's also losing the urge to stick around. The whole situation seems a bit more involved than anything the paintings had ever shown, barely more than static scenes, but it's a lot of muttering among themselves and moving equipment. Exciting equipment by default, but Ramir is already radiating a similar desire to backtrack, and he's probably dragged her into this long enough. ]

[ And then back in the main room, one of the televisions near the small bar buzzes to life, and a low, distorted, sinister what kind of nonsense are you trying to pull? drifts across the room from a masked figure on the screen. As if that isn't attention-grabbing enough, Phi has the gall to snarl Zero... in response, and the fingers laced through Ramir's suddenly tense and squeeze as the Sigma beside her draws in a sharp but resigned breath. This just confirms it, everything that's been nagging at him ever since he'd stepped through that door. ]

Okay, [ he mutters, in a tone less certain by the second, free hand running itself roughly through his hair, ] I gotta stay.

[heavyhitter]

[ Yeah, like the viewing hall. Something like that. She's toying idly with that idea, the other half of her mind on the scene around her, but the instant Sigma tenses is when their surroundings get her full attention again. It's weird, really weird, seeing things she'd only heard about before — it makes it all realer. Not that she'd ever doubted the kind of stuff Sigma had been through, but secondhand only does so much.

She presses her shoulder into Sigma, her opposite hand finding his forearm to give it a squeeze. This time it's all reassurance. ]

We'll stay. I can bust us outta a wall, anyway. [ Which is to say, whatever this ends up being, they'll handle it. She watches the scene in front of them warily. ]

[12inches]

[ He revels as best he can in her reassuring touch, because things are happening in rapid succession now. After the masked Zero on the screen, whoever the hell it is this time, reveals that he's placed other sedated players up against the door they'd been attempting to blow open (and that it's their choice to either turn off the bomb or allow them to die to permit their escape), the small team becomes a flurry of movement, the redhead (Diana, apparently) leading the charge to the door they'd just been trying to distance themselves from. And like a dog on a leash, Sigma is dragged forward, pulling Ramir along in his wake. ]

[ At the door, they're quickly curtailed by the loud and violent hiss of some sort of liquid bombarding the decontamination room from a sprinkler system overhead. It's difficult to tell without any feedback from the environment, but whatever it is, it's too hot, too acidic, too something for any human to pass through, and the three of them fall back coughing. ]

[ As the coughs evolve into a hasty argument, Sigma's left to balk at the situation he's being forced (forcing himself) to watch. ]

Some fucking choice this is!

[heavyhitter]

[ The whole thing is sick, even from just what she can gather without any questions asked. (And of course she's not going to interrupt with questions; this isn't quite the time for it.) Her hold on Sigma's hand gets just a little bit tighter, like tight enough and she could yank him away from ever having to deal with anything like this.

One question she'll allow herself, though: ] Wait, you know the guys over there? Behind the door? [ That Sigma clearly knows them, but does this one? ]