ℑ ninth contract
[action ; private]
[Mashiro wakes in her bed with a start. It takes a moment to place where she is, with how hazy her mind is. Something happened, something awful, something...
Just like that, she's bolting down the hall to the bathroom, where she buckles over the toilet bowl and heaves into it. How there's even anything in her stomach for her to throw up is a mystery, but it all comes up. Finally, exhausted, she slumps against the wall. Nearly an hour passes before she rouses herself and rinses her mouth, then drags herself back into her room, where she crawls back into bed and stares at the wall.
She remembers all of it. The Slave. The contracts. And finally, her body fading and dissolving around the blade that had impaled her chest. Strangely, though, her eyes are dry. Should she feel this numb?
What finally jolts her out of her stupor is remembering the others involved. They have names: Natsuki Kruger. Lena Sayers. And because she contracted with them, they shared her death. Otome put their lives on the line to protect their Masters, and a Master puts her life on the line every time her Otome fights...]
[phone ; filtered to Natsuki Kruger and Lena Sayers]
I-is... Are you two...
[She chokes on the words and swallows.]
Meister Kruger, Meister Sayers, if you get this... Respond immediately.
[phone ; filtered from Shizuru Fujino]
We--we have been...indisposed for the past few days.
[A pause. Her shallow breathing is distinctly audible.]
If anything of note has happened, we would like to be informed.
[A click as she hangs up. She can get back to the phone later. For now, she needs to be sure Arika is safe.]
[action]
A. [After her phone calls are made, Mashiro can be seen running through town as fast as she can, breathing laboriously and doing her best to ignore the stitch in her side. If anyone calls out to her or tries to stop her, she doesn't stop, doesn't even look their way. When she reaches 2235 Stevens, she nearly crashes into the door, but catches herself just in time. Mashiro pounds on the door, bangs the door knocker, even tries to open it herself, but it's locked--it's locked--dammit, Arika.]
Arika! Arika! Open up, dammit!
B. [Finally, in the evening, Mashiro is in the park. For all she knows, Shizuru could find her, and she has to get back and check her her messages. But she feels sluggish, her body weighed down as if by lead, and she doesn't want to go back to that house where she died. Instead she sits on the slide, shivering, with her fat, indolent cat nestled in her arms.]
[ooc: Action A is reserved for grannysaid; action B is open.]
[Mashiro wakes in her bed with a start. It takes a moment to place where she is, with how hazy her mind is. Something happened, something awful, something...
Just like that, she's bolting down the hall to the bathroom, where she buckles over the toilet bowl and heaves into it. How there's even anything in her stomach for her to throw up is a mystery, but it all comes up. Finally, exhausted, she slumps against the wall. Nearly an hour passes before she rouses herself and rinses her mouth, then drags herself back into her room, where she crawls back into bed and stares at the wall.
She remembers all of it. The Slave. The contracts. And finally, her body fading and dissolving around the blade that had impaled her chest. Strangely, though, her eyes are dry. Should she feel this numb?
What finally jolts her out of her stupor is remembering the others involved. They have names: Natsuki Kruger. Lena Sayers. And because she contracted with them, they shared her death. Otome put their lives on the line to protect their Masters, and a Master puts her life on the line every time her Otome fights...]
[phone ; filtered to Natsuki Kruger and Lena Sayers]
I-is... Are you two...
[She chokes on the words and swallows.]
Meister Kruger, Meister Sayers, if you get this... Respond immediately.
[phone ; filtered from Shizuru Fujino]
We--we have been...indisposed for the past few days.
[A pause. Her shallow breathing is distinctly audible.]
If anything of note has happened, we would like to be informed.
[A click as she hangs up. She can get back to the phone later. For now, she needs to be sure Arika is safe.]
[action]
A. [After her phone calls are made, Mashiro can be seen running through town as fast as she can, breathing laboriously and doing her best to ignore the stitch in her side. If anyone calls out to her or tries to stop her, she doesn't stop, doesn't even look their way. When she reaches 2235 Stevens, she nearly crashes into the door, but catches herself just in time. Mashiro pounds on the door, bangs the door knocker, even tries to open it herself, but it's locked--it's locked--dammit, Arika.]
Arika! Arika! Open up, dammit!
B. [Finally, in the evening, Mashiro is in the park. For all she knows, Shizuru could find her, and she has to get back and check her her messages. But she feels sluggish, her body weighed down as if by lead, and she doesn't want to go back to that house where she died. Instead she sits on the slide, shivering, with her fat, indolent cat nestled in her arms.]
[ooc: Action A is reserved for grannysaid; action B is open.]