The seconds ticked by as if there were lead weights attached to their feet. Daimyon spent the remaining time in a passionate debate with himself, trying to steel his resolve that he did the right thing by voting...for himself. He had his reasons, and they were strong reasons. He had nothing to be ashamed of. He could not...or rather, did not want to influence others in any way. Even if their votes brought out a clear ‘winner’, his did not count against them. And if the sacrifice was to be him...then so be it. An ever-increasing part of him wished the allotted time to just end, so he could be done with his inner struggles...

...but when it did end, that part was beat back into the deepest corners of his mind and heavily scolded to not wish for something it could not predict ever again. Because once the time was up...all hell broke loose.

Monokuma's increasingly grating voice was interrupted by a different tone: that of Felix, from outside the barrier. Daimyon turned in surprise: what interesting timing! The surprise swiftly turned into amazement—just as swiftly as Felix scaling up the spikes and looking to make it inside. The athletic wonder caught the attention of a Carnage Sister who aimed to shoot the bird out of the sky...only to have its arms hacked open by Shona! Ever the opportunist, the knight exploited the moment perfectly to launch her assault on the robotic oppressors. Within moments, the quiet hospital area erupted into open warfare. Daimyon had no idea what to do with himself in the chaos when suddenly more spikes sprung up from beneath him and trapped him in a small cell. The same fate befell most of the other Infinites, but Felix and Shona—the saviours!—kept up their valiant fight.

As the poet watched the scene unfold, inspiration struck. Of course, what else was more inspiring than being trapped in a warzone and seeing blood...well, metal parts and various fluids fly? He felt a sudden rush of determination: this occasion called for real-time chronicling!

“Woe were us, gloom befell and all was sour!” he began out loud, though how much he was heard was another matter—the scene was buzzing with the noise of everyone else. “When like a divine light, appeared the runner!”



His exclamation in the third line was actually him trying to warn the Infinite of a shooting-up spike. It fit in wondrously however—ah, the magic of poetry!



His energy grew with every said word, in the end he was practically shouting. A similar spirit enveloped others—those not too petrified to even breathe—and the group cheered their two heroes who seemed unbeatable. Indeed, the battle would be over soon...just not in the way they imagined.



He cried out when seeing Felix collapse after being pierced in the shoulder, but with everyone locked up in their respective cages, there was no one to attend to his injuries. Meanwhile, Shona was locked in a desperate struggle against Monokuma...when suddenly the wall of spikes parted on one side and gave way to...



His mind's rolling flow was cut short by his own shocked gasp. All his creativity shut down as the new, terrifying robot rammed its long spear straight through Shona's chest and pinned her to the wall. The brutal assault caught the knight—and everyone else—completely unprepared and a dreadful silence set in once again. Daimyon saw the bizarre beauty in the scene: everyone heard the heroic Shona's last words as she breathed her last, knowing that she would be remembered forever for her sacrifice. A knight's way of life...a knight's way of death.

Once the spike cages lowered around everyone, the poet made a few uncertain, then more resolute steps towards the fallen Shona, crouching down to her. There was no doubt here: she no longer emanated the permeating sense of life. Stinging death took its place. Daimyon closed his eyes and cleared his almost-hoarse throat.

The past minute played itself over and over in Calvin’s head. Felix entering the fray. Shona cleaving her way through the carnage sisters. Felix tackling Calvin. A spear appearing inches from his head, and going through Felix’s shoulder, just as Calvin was getting ready to stand up to join the fray. Felix collapsed, pinning Calvin underneath the dead weight of the muscled free-runner, and for a while he could only listen.

From his position on the ground, he only saw Shona for a brief second as she faced off Monokuma. Then, Alexandria charged, and for a moment, he could see nothing, hearing only the final ring of a sword against the creature’s spear. He knew it wasn’t enough, just by his craftsmanship.

He lay there as the votes were announced. Normally, he would have been furious about the votes against him, but he had no time to think. The centaur came to Calvin, pushing off Felix and setting him free. He stood slowly, shaking as he looked at the group. Most of their faces were white, and he finally turned to face the corpse of the Infinite Knight, slumped against the wall with a smile on her face. He ran to her as some of the infinites were shuffled out, but he didn’t care.

He knelt in front of the body, shivering. Daimyon was there, delivering some sort of poem that made Calvin want to tear his hair out. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He never should have made her a sword in the first place. “I told you.” He muttered, looking at the sword that was covered in blood and damaged dramatically thanks to the Carnage Sister’s onslaught. Breathing in deeply, he picked up the sword. “I fucking told you!” His voice rang in the hall. He took a few seconds, breathing heavily and trying to calm down. After a few moments, he turned to the rest of the group, his face a grimace and the damaged sword dangling from his hand. "What the fuck happened?" It wasn't a real question. He just wanted to somehow understand how to respond to what had just occurred. He wasn't sure if he could.

@BrokenPromise @Mateotis

The suspense in the air as the Infinite's waited for the seconds to tick down was palpable. The nervous looks, the anxious shuffling of feet, the muffled sobs of the Trap stood clutched close to the thin, pale, and strangely tall, Web Developer. He kept an eye on the others and Nariko; occasionally glancing back to Geina, Calvin, and Monokuma. He seemed... Awfully observant, for someone who had come across as so shy.

Shaun's eyes flicked to Shona as she began her defiance. A slight part of him felt guilt for voting for her, but he tried to push it aside as watched. The sound of footsteps made him perk up slightly, and the same effect seemed to stretch to Caora; who also looked up to see what was making the sound.

Calvin entered with his joyous expression and took to climbing the spikes like a monkey to a tree, and quickly made his way to the top; for some reason to Shaun's surprise. He hadn't expected the Infinite Free-runner to have made it up such a surface, but that was what he got for underestimating his competitors.

An expression of worry crossed both males faces as they turned to Geina, who was about ready to fire upon the man. Except she didn't. They hadn't even seen Shona move until she had sliced a hole into the machine; its fake, robotic substitute for blood spilling out along the floor and dripping from her blade. Where had she gotten a sharp blade like that from? Surely Monokuma wouldn't have let her keep such an instrument...

His eyes glanced to the floor just as more spikes began to breach their confinement from underneath them. He grabbed Caora, who had begun to drift away slightly, and pulled him into a firm grasp - almost knocking the wind out of him from the force - to stop the spikes impaling him. Chances were the Doctor wouldn't have allowed for that to happen, but he couldn't have been sure without risk of death.

Daimyon had been producing line after line of poetry for every second of the mayhem; since it had started. As much Shaun enjoyed poetry, it was frustrating to him that he could spout his literary nonsense at such a time, rather than doing anything. Not that he could judge, since they were all confined. And it was just his way of preserving hope. There was nothing wrong with that.

Nariko's body collapsed into pieces around a flying cannonball; spraying hydraulic fluid across the ground as the parts scattered into piles, and he sword clattered to the ground with a metallic ring. Willow soon fell too; crushed under the weight of her horse after Shona had cleaved into it. Felix, however, wasn't so fortunate. Taking a spike through the shoulder, which forced him to collapse onto their damsel Calvin.

Caora had been watching intently, cheering Shona on as she carved her way through the drones of their captor - shouting words of encouragement that made... Marginal sense to everyone around him. They just weren't smart enough to understand! That... Did mean that neither was Shona, or the boy stood next to him, but it was the truth!

Except his shouting soon stopped. His cheery expression pealed away. Shaun's eyes widened at the sight, and involuntarily grabbed Caora by the hand and pulled him into a hug to shield his eyes from... It. He had no idea why he had done so, but he had done. He'd always hated children, and despite Caora being of age, he still reminded him of one.

And he felt partly responsible for what had just happened.

He glanced back up to confirm what he already knew to be true. The idea that... That something like this could ever have happened... News stories about tragic events were rife, but the impersonal nature of them distanced the viewer. You, as a person, were never there to witness what had happened. Not there to see the carnage. The Despair.

But now, he was there. Caora was trembling in his arms, as though he too couldn't believe the shocking reality that had been presented to them by their captors. Shaun could only guess that the other Infinites felt somewhat the same way. A lingering, overbearing sense of dread that accompanied such an event. There would be trauma to come that none of them would forget...

Shona's lifeless corpse lay sunken against the bare white wall of the room. Her chest painted red, with a sizeable hole ripped through, may as well have been the gate to Hades. The darkness inside it, dripping blood that oozed along her body, painted her clothes crimson, and spread out from the fabric to pool on the floor. he could almost swear he saw ribs, doused in gore, broken and cracked by the impact of the spear that had left a hole on the wall; which, too, dripped blood down its length from where the poor girl had been suspended...

But she was smiling... Somehow, in death, she was smiling... as a night nothing more was to be expected. There was honour in death. And she had gone down swinging. Nothing more could have been expected of her. Nothing should have been expected of her... He could do nothing but watch powerlessly, contemplating if his vote had caused this...

Caora was silent. His small, fragile frame seemed more like a thin sheet of ice than it had ever done before. He was trembling; he could feel the slight vibrations off his body through his clothes and on his skin. The spike cage lowered slowly, and Caora sunk to his knees. As much as he could hate himself for voting, he had another to look after. Nobody like the Infinite Trap should have had to witness such an abhorrent act.

He cast a glare at the accursed bear as he explained what had happened, and what the behemoth that had killed their friend was. She was more than just their friend... She was their leader, their beacon... Their hope, to a degree... Defiance and strength rolled up into a package unafraid to battle her way to freedom...

And there that beacon was. Cold, lifeless, slumped in a heap against an equally cold wall. The fires of their hope had been doused... Chances were, things... Would fall into carnage soon enough.

The results of the vote appeared an he grimaced. He was the only person to vote for Shona... Looking down, he felt Caora start to stand. His eyes drifted up to the monitor, where the list was located. His eyes went wide.

"Wh-what the?!" the shock in his voice was alarming, "Wh-why is my name there!? I-I didn't vote!" his little legs carried him automatically. The E-Handbook he had so carelessly thrown lay in a puddle of hydraulic fluid, and he ran over to scoop it out with his left hand.

Upon seeing it, Caora's eyes even further. For a second, all that came out of his mouth was a croak.
"N-no..! Th-thats wrong! I didn't vote! I didn't! I-it must have been when it hit the wall! I-I DIDN'T VOTE! YOU BIG MEANIE BEAR! I DIDN'T VOTE!" whether it was a combination of the shock of Shona's death and the adrenaline of the situation, Shaun... Couldn't tell. But the boy kept shouting and shouting at their host until Shaun walked up and placed his hand on his shoulder, and gently shushed him.

"St-stop, Caora... There's no use..." he said as Monokuma began his scan of the three Infinites chosen in the draw. Caora let out a cry once he realised no one had been chosen, and Shaun, somehow, managed to let out a slight smile.

"Th-thank God..." he whispered, and gave Caora a small hug. His eyes couldn't help but drift to Shona's body, and he tried to push it out of his head. It was done... There was nothing that could be done for her now. Even if they could have stopped the blood loss, the spear had broken ribs and probably punctured a lung or two. She would have asphyxiated in minutes, no matter what was done. He would just have to zone out...

But he couldn't. Not as the other Infinites conversed with Monokuma. He could do nothing but hug the Infinite Trap, and listen in on their conversation. Which turned the situation even more despair inducing that it already had been.

"Y-you bastard..." was all Shaun could muster upon the revelation. The event had been designed... To kill of Shona. All from the beginning. They had... Planned... Her death to snuff out their hope... To feed the despair that had already been building. No words could express the emotions he felt. Nothing could accurately describe the intense hatred that was boiling in his veins aimed towards the person in charge of everything.

He just wanted to go home... To see his girlfriend, to play some games that didn't involve first degree murder... He barely even registered as Bliss Buckly entered, but turned his head as she spoke. So there were more of them, all through Axis Mundi. Fighting for their lives as well as the lives of others. A tower of Infinite Despair. And, if the previous events were anything to go off of...

A Tower of Carnage.

In the aftermath of what could truly have been called a Night of Carnage, Mary finally understood the true horror of what it meant to stay in this game. She simply gazed at Felix with her hands covering her mouth; it was like she was watching an action movie, with Felix taking on a literal killer robot with nothing but his attitude. In a way, she was impressed with the courage he showed. She managed to stand back up, only to fall on her butt as spikes shot up and separated the already imprisoned group. She was terrified out of her mind, not sure what to do; she saw with a glance that Mondatta actually attempted to escape by bending the spikes; they actually did bend under his inhuman strength.

Then, she saw a chivalrous figure take to the fight, and her heart was filled with hope for his fellow Infinites.
"Shona!" Mary stood up once more holding the spikes around her, and cheered Shona on.
Yeah, go Sho-Shoooo!" She was so happy to see how Shona was victorious against the creepy marionette. She was filled with hope of escape, and she believed Shona would pull through.

Cute sword-wielding heroines always do, right?

But as it turned out, there was no semblance of justice or righteousness, as Mary came to realize when Shona was killed. At first she kept cheering her on. "Come on, you can do it Sho-Sho! Don't give up!" But her words came upon deaf ears, and her lips trembled. Her leg trembled. Her entire body shook. She felt like the sky was going to fall on her, like she was pulled into a dark abyss.

It was despair.

"Sh...Shona..." The streamer stumbled with loose gait once they were released, trying to step closer to Shona's corpse, but falling once again, only to be caught by Mondatta. "We never shared that bottle, huh? I...I..." She tried to hold back her tears, but it was impossible; she cried loudly, her nose running as she held her face. "SHOOONAAAA! WHYYYYY!"
The monk could do nothing more than sigh. "I was too late..." He recited a buddhist prayer to the Infinite Knight, and added:

"May you rest in peace."

And thus they fell into a trap. The trap that had been so obvious to Cyrus, but apparently his hint had not been enough. He cursed under his breath as Felix came running to help. Why could nobody see that they would’ve had a much higher chance of successfully escaping this predicament alive if they had just followed the bear’s instructions? Part of him wanted to act, but something kept him in place. If he acted here, he’d place his own life in peril. The politician wasn’t that much of a daredevil or a martyr despite his earlier acts.

Momentarily Cyrus was filled with hope as Felix and Shona seemed to do rather well, but that all quickly faded as everything went south very quick. Felix getting stabbed by a spike was bad, but that was nothing compared to what happened after. Cyrus let out a low groan as Shona breathed her last. The appearance of the centaur-like Alexandria seemed to just be the last nail in the coffin if this situation of despair. Cyrus could feel the anger from his own helplessness welling up. ”what in the...” was all that escaped his lips as he started to nervously fiddle with his glasses, an old habit of his when things got too heated.

Cyrus saw no beauty or sacrifice, he saw someone who had thrown her life away for nothing. Monokuma even said so himself; his entire game couldn’t work because of that one rule. Shona had fallen for a ruse, and paid the ultimate price. The only comfort was that she died in ignorance of the fact. He could only look and stare at the death in front of him. Everyone’s reactions overwhelmed his senses. His fiddling intensified until his glasses finally…

Snapped.

”Oh for the love of…” Cyrus exclaimed, his voice had changed notably. He looked angry, almost unreasonably so. His voice sounded slightly different from usual. His entire demeanour shifted within a second. ”Yep, I’m done. What happened…”he turned to Calvin. ”What happened is that some people here can’t even see through an incredibly obvious trap. Follow the fucking rules and there couldn’t have been a sacrifice. What kind of pig brain do you need to have to not understand that!?” He said and spat on the ground. ”Nice fucking job on that, by the way, getting your ass captured.” He glared, then turned around. He wasn’t angry at Calvin specifically, this entire situation had gotten him angry.

”I’m done with you whiny asswipes for now. Good night.” He said as he walked off, back to his room, leaving only the remains of his broken glasses on the floor.



Last from the elevator was another young woman. Unlike the somewhat striking dress of the nanny, Noel was dressed far more casually. ”Different day, different killing game.” She said with a yawn before opening her eyes to the scene in front of her. ”… oh” She said as she approached. Within a few seconds she had taken at least fifteen pictures. Of Shona’s body, of monokuma, of the participants, everything. ”ooohhhhh” She continued for a bit before turning to the group. ”My deepest condolences for your loss. I’m Noel Hawthorne, infinite reporter!”

The reporter then turned her attention to Monokuma. And you, how dare you! She snarled at the bear. Rotating me in just so I can see a celeb like Quill Kennedy leave! Think of all the scoops I’m going to miss because of you! She pouted, then put up a smile. ”At least you’ve dropped me into a game with some other big names this time, so I won’t complain too much. She threw a glance at Mary and the back of Cyrus, whose outrage she had just barely missed.

Davis's eyes tracked Cyrus as he left the room. His sudden shift in personality was unexpected, but he wasn't entirely wrong. That didn't mean he was entirely right either. Perfection wasn't sure how safe everyone would have been if they all did exactly what Monokuma said. While not very lenient, he seemed to be okay having his rules bent the large degrees. No, the bear was trying to send a simple message: If you won't kill each other, I'll kill you. This was going to end with death regardless how things turned out. Still, regardless of how things turned out, this was on him. Perfection's actions were what lead to this whole mess.

“Okay, so, since the night of carnage is over, everyone can go back to cleaning.” Monokuma mimicked a scrubbing motion with his paw. “We're going to close off this area shortly to do that, so I'd appreciate it if you all went back to your rooms. By tomorrow morning, it'll be like tonight never happened.” He seemed to be completely ignoring the reporter.

Davis approached Shona's body. This was the second time his power of conquest failed, and again a woman had to die for it. Still gripping the k-bar tightly in his hand, he knelled down beside the knight's body. He expected to smell blood, but the heat escaping her fatal injury was even more nauseating. Even with such a painful wound, Shona's smile persisted even after death. Perfection didn't know much about Norse myths, but the heroes often died with smiles on their faces. Was Shona's sacrifice something that could be taken simply at face value? Davis reached under the knight's armor and took out her E-handbook and slid it into his shirt sleeve. Following this, he closed her eyelids and stood back up. “Dr. Killgood.” Davis did not look directly at the bear. “I want you to know something.”

“Hmmm?” the bear tipped his head like a confused dog.

“You have made a VERY powerful enemy!” Davis growled like a lion. “You've angered someone who's very talent is winning. If you think that you can host a game with me in it and expect to come out victorious, you are sorely mistaken.”

“Very poetic, now could you go to your room now?” Davis took one last look at the monitor that displayed all the votes before stomping off. “Oh, and the three of you newly arrived. Your E-handbooks are now set up to work with your new rooms in this killing game. We got everything moved out of your old room and into your new one while you were napping.” Monokuma scratched his head. “Wait, Lucas, did you have an old room?”

Bliss. “You don't remember?”

The bear groaned. “W-well everyone has a room now! Scram!”

And that was how the first day of this infinite killing game came to a close.

---

---

So we here at infinity initiative changed the Monokuma theater from being a nightly format to a chapter based one. I know the boys and girls of the world are going to be upset about this choice, but it was out of my hands. Hell, I'd give you theater therapy every second of every day if it was possible. But when you've made it as big as me, the tendency is to hire managers to make those choices for you. Don't make my mistake kids, be your own man!

So if the infinite killing game was made into some form of entertainment, what do you think it would be? I'm not the headmaster of hope's peak anymore, but this question does have a correct answer. Really think about it before reading onward. You don't want to look the fool now, do you? That's right. Think, then read on.

It's definitely not a game. Games are designed to be challenging, yet beatable. In this game everybody feels despair, and so everyone wins. It's not a TV show. While videogames was the wrong answer, there is a level of participation involved. An interactive element. This is also why it's not radio or a poster.

The correct answer is a play. Yup, a theater play. If you've never been to one it's a bit hard to explain. There is a story, and the audience gets to participate in that story, even if it's just bit parts. It's not a play unless one of the actors breaks the fourth wall and interacts with a member of the audience. Like if a pretty girl asks you to help her off the stage, you have some choices. You could help her off stage, or you could do something more creative. Like you could pull her into your tight embrace, or yank her off stage so that she falls on her face. Problem with using creativity is that security will come and bust you every time.

There's clearly a high cost for creative freedom. I think Shona understood that.

---

Davis didn't get much sleep, but he didn't need much sleep. The morning announcement hadn't even sounded and perfection was already out of his room. Just like Monokuma promised, the main room was spotless. There was no evidence that the previous night ever happened. The broken dolls, the broken knight, the fluid, the blood, all gone. Even the hole in the wall where Alexandria attacked Shona had been repaired. The whole thing was nothing but memory now. Conquest growled and walked into the break room. He was sure he was going to be the first one there, but he was second place today. Bliss Buckly was sitting at the end of the table. Still wearing her peculiar red dress, still looking a bit concerned. Davis did not greet her or attempt to make small talk. He peeked inside the mini fridge to see if anything had been provided for breakfast. When Davis looked inside, all he could see were empty shelves.

“I guess the nurse staff thinks everyone can actually sleep after an ordeal like that.”

The back of the fridge slid out of the way, revealing the large eyes of a certain carnage sister. Alexandria placed a variety of breakfast sandwiches in the lower half of the mini fridge, while placing a bag of ice on the top shelf. “I noticed Shona's beverage wouldn't fit in the fridge, so I thought you might want to cool it with some ice.” Davis just stared into the doll's eyes without saying anything. “Well, what do we say?”

Davis pulled the ice out of the fridge and wordlessly slammed the door. He then proceeded to follow Alexandria's suggestion and added the ice to the drink.

“So, Davis right? I'm Bliss Buckly.” Bliss was squeezing her hands together. “There was an unusual video playing in the elevator. I don't remember all the names, but you were infinite conquest right?” Davis went back to the mini fridge to grab a sandwich. He was glad there wasn't another face waiting for him in the fridge today. The sandwich would need to be heated up though. It was a sausage patty with eggs and American cheese. Even though a toaster oven was available, Davis used the microwave. “Were you very close to Shona?” He watched his sandwich cook until it was done. Perfection dropped the sandwich onto a paper plate and walked to the table with it. The plate was slowly becoming transparent with grease. “Has this group made any interesting discoveries?”

As soon as he sat down, Davis picked up his sandwich. Even now, he made no attempt to make eye contact with Bliss. “How about you tell me what happened during your last game?”

“No.”

Perfection looked up. “Excuse me?”

“I said no.” Bliss folded her arms. “You're being a jerk.”

Davis dropped his sandwich back onto his plate. It splashed in its own grease. “Do you think it's smart to act like that given your situation? We all know each other, and you're one of the new faces brought into this killing game.”

“The fact that your 'friends' know you is exactly what I’m counting on. You're acting like a child, and as the infinite nanny, that gives me the advantage in this situation.”

What was with this woman's attitude? It didn't matter, Davis was in no mood to argue. Not this early in the day. “You are correct, I am Davis. I go by Perfection, but I haven't had much luck getting the folks around here to call me that. Shona...” Davis nodded. “We were not close, but we did wake up in the same elevator together. She had a lot of potential, and seeing her die like that was very disheartening.” Davis picked his sandwich back up. “As for what we've discovered, you sound like you've seen a lot more than we have, coming from another game and everything.”

“Dr. Killgood exaggerated that a bit. I woke up in a game with a dead body right outside the elevator doors, just like this time. There were five of us, we came out of the elevator at the same time. Apparently someone was trying to get out of the game by killing all of the other patients. So there was only one delirious patient left. She was not expecting more people to show up, or the trial afterwords.”

“She?” Davis looked at the regulations in his E-handbook. “Yea, there are some rules in here about the trial. I guess they were hidden from her. It's pretty evident that the murderers have to be discovered by someone. All the extra killing serves to do is create more evidence.”

“Her execution. She was the infinite miner. They put her on top of a mining drill that burrowed its way deep into the earth. Then they blew up some dynamite to get molten gold to pour into the hole. After that, they had a crane operated by a black and white bear that pulled her out. She was a gold statue at that point, perfectly carved and everything. I know it sounds funny, and it was ironic, but it was true despite being so surreal.”

Davis took a deep breath. “Im not in a position to doubt you. I don't think anyone outside this game is going to believe this happened to us.” He looked at Bliss. “So, the floor plan, was it pretty much the same as this?”

Bliss looked at the map on her E-handbook. “Um, the patients quarters were identical. The other rooms were the same, but their shape was different? From what I can remember anyway. I didn't have much time to go site seeing.”

“How did you get here before me?”

“Honestly?” Bliss hugged herself. “I had just woke up, and I didn't want to go to sleep with everyone else, especially after seeing that. So I've been hanging out here instead of sleeping in my room. I did get some sleep, but then I discovered the coffee machine.” With shrug, Bliss lowered her arms onto the table.

Perfection raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to be okay?”

“It's good for children to nap in the middle of the day, so I'm pretty accustom to taking naps around the same time. What's your job, Davis? I would think you'd be good at a whole slew of things.”

Conquest had plans today, things that he needed to get to the bottom of. He needed to get the full story out of Calvin. He got captured, and it wasn't too much of a stretch to assume that was linked to the appearance of Shona's metal sword. He also had to inspect the infinite knight's room at some point, see how everyone was holding up after last night. And after running a few quick errands... plot his revenge. But for now, he would continue to entertain the infinite nanny.

"Mnhh..."
A soft voice wafted into the cold, steely air of the remarkably tiny room. A lone figure lay crumpled up against the wall of one of the many steely elevators (this, in particular, was elevator number 12) possessed by the alien building in which she would find herself. Marianne's eyes quietly flickered open, her gaze directed upwards towards the equally steely ceiling. It made her blink, and then with a wordless sigh, nuzzle her chin into her shoulder and try to fall asleep again.

It wasn't common for Marianne to experience unreal dreams such as this since she had been admitted to Axis and was administered anaesthesia preceding her surgery. A lot of the time, she would phase in and out of being conscious in her ward room. Her family would often be around her, sometimes friends, mostly nurses. She was almost tired of seeing the same pristine white walls, same pristine white uniforms and same pristine white teeth under the same pristine smiles that were stapled onto everyone's face at the infirmary. But of course, if it was somewhere for 'the best,' they definitely had to live up to their name.

She lay like that, motionless but breathing softly, for five minutes, still quite awake and unable to go back to sleep. There was something very peculiar about the steely air of the room - or, she would call it coppery. It tickled her nose and wasn't unfamiliar, but still registered as alien to her. The scene didn't seem to go away after that much time, either.

The static of a little television across from her in the elevator brought her attention to the world of the waking, and she found herself drowsily staring blankly at the screen, featuring a talking monochromatic bear with a single red eye. Monokuma Killgood, and a...doctor. Somehow, Marianne had a little trouble believing it.
The bear was replaced with images that quickly flashed across the screen of many other people, with the still half-awake Marianne being only just able to catch snippets of the voice-over behind their determined faces. She had to admit, they were all impressive-looking. Some stood out, like a man in a metal suit and the bandaged duo, but each character was precise and unique, such as the fancy formal-wear of three peculiar gentlemen and the enchanting outfits of three other women - two small girls, and one woman with an incredibly beautiful face. The others came and went to her mind, from a toned blonde boy to a brunette with gentle eyes, to someone wrapped up in a uncomfortable scarf, to what looked like a relative of theirs, except much more awake and with much less material to hide behind. The others that registered were some more young women, sparky, dignified and easygoing, respectively, and also one who had particularly distant, vacant eyes, that seemed to stare right through Marianne from her position on the screen.

There were too many people, and it was most definitely making a groggy Marianne dizzy. Still, if the bear was going to continue blathering on, and not let her sleep, she'd be forced to wake up eventually.
She tried to move, and immediately felt a dull throbbing sting at her torso. Luckily the elevator had a rail running along the four walls, that the young woman had to cling onto and drag herself up with. She appraised the odd situation quietly, trying to collect her thoughts.

"I am in what appears to be an elevator. There are no buttons."
"There is a screen with a talking bear and several other people. Why are they relevant to me and this place?"
"They are all infinites. Why are there so many in one place? Is it that I am still at Axis? It doesn't seem that way. The elevators had buttons, last I remember."
"Is there a way out of this thing?"
"...what is that smell?"

She staggered and put her hand against the wall she had had her back to this entire time, trying to steady her body and numb legs only just coming back to life. Her hand didn't meet cold steel like she expected, though, but a much different texture. Dried and flaky, and still runny in some places. She brought her fingers to her face to carefully try to identify the substance. It was coppery and a peculiar colour, and though the cogs took a while to turn, it finally came to her.

Her body stiffening, Marianne took a couple of steps forward, her back still to the sealed elevator door with the unknown substance, and her body almost crouching over the small television screen, as if it would save her. With bated breath, she counted to three and turned around eerily slowly.

The letters entered her vision piece by piece, until she was fully turned around and backed up against the opposite wall. The colour and way it reflected the dim light (or didn't, rather) was more a tell than anything else.

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.

"...!"

And as the elevator doors slowly, mechanically gurgled and ground open, a bloodcurdling, shrill scream filled the entire small room, and also the area almost seventy-five metres within earshot. A defeated, dulled 'thump' sound followed not too long after.

What an eventful, despairful morning this was turning out to be.

In his dream, Daimyon was free falling. How did he get here? Did he try to fly again? What prevented him? He wanted out of this, out of the bottomless depth he was falling into, but there was nothing to grasp onto, only a silk-smooth cliffside facing him.

Oh wait!

Suddenly, he spotted a long ledge. He reached out for it and grabbed the stone with as much strength as he could muster. He was surprisingly light and felt no pain at all. As he raised his head up, he saw the reason for his salvation: the white swallow, standing on the ledge and looking out into infinity with majesty. Daimyon smiled.

“Show the way, my friend.”
He pulled himself up and the swallow flew up the cliff. What he previously saw as a smooth surface was now littered with ridges and cracks. So he began climbing, tracking his movements higher and higher on the endless mountain. In his eyes, the swallow; in his heart, determination.

---

The first few moments after waking up were joyous, they always were. A new day was beginning, filled with inspiration to harness. A few minutes later however, the poet was sitting on the edge of his bed, head hanging down. He was clutching his notebook, trying to write something to help him through the massive wave of sadness that came over him, but his mind was silent. The last entry on the papers was his ‘chronicling’ of yesterday's tragic events, though he did not remember when he wrote it down. In fact, from that moment, everything was but a shaky, horrible blur. He had a sinking feeling in his gut—there must have been some importance of it. He did recall some bits and pieces about Monokuma's big announcements and that there was lots of movement as well: some people leaving the hospital, others just arriving... How could have he even fallen asleep in such circumstances?

It must have been the sheer shock and mental exhaustion, he told himself, but the explanation only made him more frightened. He was not known to be emotionally frail at all, quite the opposite! His ability to bounce back from rough patches and let go of fears and worries was one of the defining traits that made him into who he was.

Though he had never witnessed a murder before, either.

He stood up.
Shona died trying to free them from the manic bear's tyranny. Though escaping has been the goal from the moment he had first woken up in the elevator, it only became more resolute in his mind now. He had faith in his fellows: faith that the first tragedy would not lead to more, but instead bring them closer together and unite them in this goal. What one knight could not do, a dozen Infinites might just be able to.

It was with this faith that he went through something resembling the morning routine and stepped out of his room. When picking up the e-handbook to open the door, he first swiped through the tabs aimlessly and noticed—as he thought before—new names and new faces in the list of ‘patients’. He hoped he would get to meet all of them today. One last glance at his notebook also reminded him that he had promised Mary to help her write a love poem for Caora.

All in all, there were things to do...thankfully.

---

The hallway was largely empty when he walked it, though he was unsure if it was because he was early or because he was late. He headed for the break room where he would no doubt find at least a few of his peers to talk to, perhaps cheer up. He was almost to the large open area when he suddenly spotted something...out of place. Very out of place.

The elevator just next to, in a fit of dark irony, the late Shona's room was open...and not only open, but occupied! There was a woman inside—dark skin, dark hair, wearing a white dress. She was slouched against the wall and she looked dead ahead with teal eyes, almost soullessly. From a first glance, it was not obvious whether she was even conscious.

Daimyon froze for a moment. In the next one, he thought of the worst and in the next one, he hurried to the woman's aid.

“Oh no...” he muttered as he crouched down next to her. “Hello? Are you...all right?”
He asked, almost fearful of—or the absence of—the answer.

Calvin hadn’t slept last night. His first thought had been to return to the forge, continue his work, but the thought of seeing Alexandria or any other carnage sister made him feel sick. Instead, he had spent the night locked in his room, sobbing over Shona’s damaged blade, an indication of his failure. By the time the morning announcement played, his eyes were red and bloodshot.

At some point in his grief, a letter had been slipped under the door. He hadn’t bothered to look at it, and had almost forgotten it, until he noticed a flicker of movement by his door once more. A second letter had been slid under. Calvin stood slowly, and walked over, picking up the first. He immediately recognized Alexandria’s handwriting.

HI HI ^-^

I think we need to talk about last night. I made you waffles with ice cream for breakfast. Come to my room. Hurry before it melts!

XOXOXOXO,
Alexandria

Bile rose in his throat. Cursing loudly, he tore the letter in half, and paced around his room. It took him about 20 minutes to muster the courage to check the second letter, which he knew came from the same robot.

Ohz Nohz! 0-o

When the icecream started to melt, I was worried that it would get the waffle all soggy, so I set the waffle in the furnace. It melted the ice cream and burned the waffle up! Q-Q Until I learn your schedule, you'll have to make due with a breakfast sandwich. It's almost as good though!

XOXOXOXO,
Alexandria

It was like nothing had happened. Calvin had appreciated Alexandria’s ultimately fruitless attempts to protect him the night previous. Almost had felt a hint of respect for the robot, even though she creeped the hell out of him. But now, all he could see was Shona’s corpse, smiling as blood oozed out of it. All he wanted to do was get out of this game, get away from the robots and other Infinites. There was only one way to do that though. And Calvin wasn't sure if he was ready.

------------------------------------------------

Stepping out of his room, Calvin looked around. The group had made an agreement to meet every morning, and for a moment, Calvin had half a mind to ignore it. He wasn’t in the mood to talk with people, but then again, he wanted answers. And he knew people would have questions of him. He began to walk to the break room, when he saw Daimyon crouched in front of one of the elevators. He began to walk, when he saw a woman laying down in front of the Infinite Poet.

Rushing over, Calvin examined the girl. There were no outward signs of injury, and he did his best to calm his rapidly-beating heart. He looked at Daimyon. “Did you find her like this?” He asked. His first instinct was that she was another infinite, but new ones had already been rotated in last night. Why was she late?

Pulling out his e-handbook (he had left Alexandria’s in his room), he opened the list of patients. In addition to Lucas Carsen, Bliss Buckly and Noel Hawthorne, who had all wisely given Calvin space in the aftermath of last night, there was a new face and name added to the list.

“Marianne? Hel-“ Calvin had knelt next to Daimyon, and saw on the girl’s hand a small coat of what appeared to be dried blood. He looked up, and saw that it lined the walls of the room. “Jesus.” Was all he muster, as he looked in open-mouthed awe. It didn’t scare him, for some part of him knew the girl was alright, but he suddenly became aware of the scent, which was cloying and overwhelming in this moment. He took a step back, looking at Daimyon, curious if he was involved in this in some way.

@MyCatGinger @Mateotis

Daimyon, uncharacteristically, did not give much heed to Calvin’s arrival. He kept his attention on the woman—who the latter identified as Marianne—, though he had no idea how to exactly advance the situation. He was about to turn and ask the smith for further details when she suddenly spoke up, giving the poet a minor startle.

“There was...blood.” Marianne gurgled on her own saliva gathering in her throat. She spoke to nobody in particular of the two men who had come to her aid, but had her gaze fixed directly ahead, where the now-open elevator doors stood. “...there was blood.”

Stunned, she finally looked up into the puzzled pairs of eyes, both green and blue, and she flinched, beginning to panic. Her gaze fell to her hand, traces of red still on her fingertips, and she swivelled her neck around to notice the wall behind her, her own bloody fingerprints staring back at her.
“There was blood o-on the doors…” she whimpered, staring horrified at her hand. “I swear, there was. You have to believe me, there's...there's blood all over those doors!”
Her teal eyes went glassy, staring horrified into the gentlemen’s, like a doe caught in the headlights.

Calvin kept his distance, while still trying to calm her down. “Hey, hey, we don’t think that. We’re in the same-”

“...who are you? Where am I? Why are you here?” she retorted before the smith could so much as speak, and almost swatted away any hands that would try to reach her to comfort her, pulling up her knees to her chest defensively.

Inevitably, her torso stung, and Marianne couldn't help but wince as she backed up further against the elevator wall.

“Merely to hel—”
Daimyon tried to sound reassuring, but it had little effect.

“Tell me where I am, right now, or I'm going to call the poli-” she interrupted flatly. Her voice faltered, hand emptily grasping at air where she'd normally kept her phone - on the bedside table of the ward bed she was given.
“...where's my phone? What's...what's going on?”

“Jesus fuck.” Calvin muttered, looking at Daimyon.

“...long story, this.” The poet looked at Calvin, then back to Marianne. “Filled with...unpleasant details.”

Still like a frightened animal, she backed up further against the wall, her hand clutching at her dress hem leaving dried red hand prints on the white fabric. Somehow, she looked defeated as she whimpered again.
“...why am I here? No, why are we here?”

“...and this we also wish to know. Or rather, we do know it, it just isn’t entirely...satisfactory.”
The words, which usually came like a river flowing gently in its stream or a leaf falling at the height of autumn, sputtered out of Daimyon in a stiff manner. He swore he could hear the gears grinding and making horrible clattering noises in his brain. Once again his eyes found Calvin, who unfortunately did not look to be faring much better than him.

“We. Er. ” Calvin was stumbling, but it was clear Daimyon didn’t have much more to say. “You saw the video?” Marianne nodded, an eyebrow raising slightly, waiting for him to continue.

“We’re stuck here. For a while, it looks like. A group of us woke up in elevators like this yesterday.There’s a bunch of us here, and we’re all just as confused as you, but.” His tongue felt heavy. He didn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t know what to tell himself.

“There are more elevators like this?” the woman voiced her primary concern. It said a lot that the first place her thoughts went was not to the well-being of the other occupants in their current situation.
In her head, if every elevator was exactly the same, there would be blood in each and every one of them. Even if Marianne didn't know what the words would have said, or even if they were a coherent sentence, the mental image came to mind, and gave the woman more resolve. The fact that the blood must have come from somewhere played at her thoughts. But she was alive. Or more alive than not, rather.
Wherever this was, the creators didn't seem to be playing around. That in itself was infinitely more unsettling, and immediately, the identified threat shifted away from the two men with her, and was directed to an outward force. Namely, that bear.
Monokuma.

Calvin looked at Marianne, huddled on the floor. She seemed to be calming down, and he felt a shift in the mood of the group. He had forgotten about the words on the door, and they came to him in a flash. “Abandon hope all ye who enter here…” Calvin muttered, to himself more than to the others. He saw a mouth turned into a peaceful smile. He felt sick.

“...!” The woman's eyes widened as she caught remnant snippets of what the darker haired of the two men murmured to himself. It took her a second, then five, before she straightened out her posture, arm reaching out for the railing to finally haul herself up. Her body was more sore than ever on the cold metal floor.

Daimyon moved to support her and rein in the sudden movements she was making with a hasty resolve. There was a newfound fire blazing in her eyes, but her body was a bit slow to catch up and she still looked like she could be toppled over by a breeze. Whether distracted by her new trail of thought or simply welcoming the help, a formerly startled Marianne did not fight the help she was offered, this time around. Her aqua orbs were focused on Calvin, trying to search out an answer in his uneasy face.

“...what did you just say? Please...please, could you repeat that? I think...I think that might be a clue…!”
She needed him to repeat it to confirm it, but there was no doubt. If she heard what she heard, that was exactly what was written in blood on the elevator doors. Putting two and two together, if that was the case, that's what everyone's elevators would have said. Why was that significant? What did it mean…?

It took Calvin a moment to realize the girl was talking to him. He looked up, with a pained expression. “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” He raised his arms in a pitiful display of welcome. “That was on in all the elevators. Looking at it now, I guess it’s advice.”

“I wonder why...they chose those particular words. Why hope, of all things. I suppose it's a phrase I've heard before, but...something strikes me as odd about it.” Marianne pondered, pulling away from Daimyon’s assistance and standing on her own two feet now. She wobbled a little still, but was definitely much better. “We'll just have to...well, find a way out, I guess. How stuck...could you possibly be, in this…”
She took a careful step, and then another, past the poet and the smith, for the first time getting a proper look at the outside. It seemed eerily familiar, but still alien, all at the same time. “...place. Last I remember, I was in a hospital bed and-”

The woman froze for a second, immediately turning around with an embarrassed expression tinged with guilt. “I'm really sorry. I never even introduced myself properly. My name is Marianne. If we're all infinites here, like the video said, then I believe I'm the Infinite Herbalist. It's nice to meet you.” she breathed at last. It seemed all the words had tumbled out at once.

Calvin slid a gauntlet off of his hand, and offered it in a handshake. His knuckles were blue, as if there was no blood flowing through his hands. “Calvin. Infinite Metalsmith. I…” The sentence trailed off, and Calvin looked down at the ground.

“The pleasure is mine. It's just a shame we could not have met under better circumstances.” Marianne's head cocked to the side at the metalsmith’s curt reply. She reached out to meet his hand for a handshake, only noticing the gauntlets for the first time. True to his profession, she supposed.
As she shook his hand, she couldn't help but notice it was distant. Not as in it wasn't attached to his body, but it very well may have been. Her keen intuition as to what the human body should and should not look and feel like prompted her to subconsciously reach for her cord necklace, a habitual reflex when something seemed out of place. Where there were usually two lipgloss tubes hanging from it, now there was just one: the lighter coloured of the two.
Marianne cursed under her breath.

Not wanting to appear inherently weird for holding Calvin's hand for so long, she pulled away disjointedly and bowed her head politely before sheepishly scratching at her arm, not looking either of the gentlemen in the eye. “...I'm sorry I freaked out at you two earlier. I didn't mean to worry you.”

Calvin slid the gaunlet on, back over his cold hand. She was thinking, and Calvin was half convinced it was something about him. Daimyon spoke up.

“There is nothing to be ashamed of. We all, ah...react differently when unexpected situations arise. Yours was...still quite tempered, I would say.”

As Marianne was steadily regaining her presence of mind, so was Daimyon. With the last tugging remnants of the early morning despair wearing off of him, he started feeling lighter and smoother—a very welcome change which also manifested in his speech.

“At any rate… I am Daimyon, Daimyon Londe. I also work with flowers; mine are just made from letters, words and lines. Infinite Poet, at your service,” he too introduced himself and took a very short bow as he had always.

“Enchanted, Mister Londe.” Marianne mimicked the poshest British accent she could muster, finally smiling a little as she returned his bow. For the first time, she noticed how peculiarly he was dressed. Curiosity killed the cat, she had always heard, but she was tempted to casually enquire about his sexuality. Then she decided against it. There was certainly nothing to be gained from false accusations, especially when you had just made someone's acquaintance.

“Um…” the dark haired woman dusted herself off, not allowing the silence in the atmosphere linger too long. Her hair was a mess from her waist down, and would definitely need a brushing. Somehow, her body clock registered the situation much before she did, and her stomach released a threatening rumble.

“...forgive me, I...what time is it, here? The last thing I remember, I was just about to have lunch, and then, well…” she opened her arms and looked around the corridor, “I got here. I hope I didn't wake anybody. I really hope it's not the middle of the night, and that I frightened you two so much that you awoke and-”
She caught herself rambling, coughing a little as she finally moved away from the elevator. The first thing in her field of vision was a door with a small pixel image on it. She would have to enquire about it later.

Calvin cleared his throat. He raised his hand, pointing to the break room behind him. “It’s about breakfast-time. Everyone’s probably eating in there.” He was in no rush to go, but he knew that Daimyon was likely hungry. Marianne too, if she was asleep as long as she said she was.

“I support that notion.” Daimyon nodded. Now that they were out of the elevator, there really were few other places they could go to. Especially with the unruly stomachs they all possessed.

“Food sounds like a good idea! I'm really hungry.” Marianne admitted with a nervous laugh. “I'd really appreciate if you gentlemen could escort me there.”
She paused for a second, with her finger on her chin in contemplation. “If I remember correctly, of all the Infinites, there was nobody who was able to attend to others medically. Is there anyone who may need medical assistance? I realise we are in a hospital though, as...this looks like Axis Mundi. This is where I last remember being before I woke up in that elevator. Still, it's different.”
Rubbing her arms emphasised how frigid the environment was. It was quiet and eerie, and Marianne was glad for some company. Very glad.

“Lead the way, Calvin, Daimyon. I would like to meet all the other Infinites, too!”
The promise of sustenance was more than enough to return Marianne to her usual self. Maybe it was ignorance that kept her going, having no knowledge of the night prior, but she gave the gentlemen the biggest smile she could muster. Her teal eyes were tired, but from before, were much brighter. If they were paying close attention, they may have noticed her giving the gentlemen a shaky wink. Anything to keep spirits up, after all; making friends before enemies was an inherently good idea.

Calvin stared at her for a moment. What was her game? He needed to meet the other new members, and he still wasn’t fully acquainted with the original group. He looked at Daimyon. He wasn’t close with the Infinite Poet, but dealing with the newcomer, he was glad for any bit of familiarity he could get.

Daimyon, on the other hand, did not have any concerns or if he did, he did not show them. In fact, he seemed very happy that Marianne was a similarly gregarious fellow.

“You have the right idea already. Let us go!”

@BrokenPromise

When the herbalist screamed, Davis got up to peer out of the doorway. He could see the newly arrived, and the two men who appeared to comfort her.

“Shit.”

“What?” Bliss said while rising out of her seat.

“It's ass hole!” Davis shut the door. “A new babe shows up and Calvin the clitoris conqueror appears to scoop it up!”

Bliss's brow twitched in confusion. “You were so mellow just a few minutes ago, what happened?”

Davis knew it, but he didn't want to accept the fact that he was a slave to his emotions. There was no way he could interrogate Calvin while remaining calm. He wasn't sure where the poet stood with him, but they were obviously friends if they were talking to a girl together. Calvin had proven he had dominance over the realm of woman, so bliss and that other new chick would likely take Calvin's side. This just got more complicated when all the other people he couldn't stand jumped in. Davis was not a hero. He had no business trying accusing people of anything. “I'm out.”

The nanny folded her arms. "You're leaving already?"

“I'm out! Don't let Calvin get to you in my absence, he's a snake.” Davis stepped out of the break room and made his way back to his room, unnoticed by the group of infinites.

"But." Bliss looked out the door. "I thought we were having a good time." But no one was listining.

---

Mondatta was awake early in the morning, meditating in his room. He didn't move an inch; not because of fear, apprehension, or any other emotion. In fact, he was without emotion. He had to be, if he wanted his whole being to be one with the natural order. He had slept lightly, yet he kept to his rigorous schedule, so ascetic were his ways. He had seen death before, so many years ago, and he couldn't accept it back then. It shook him to his very soul, and his faith was tested. But he saw the light, a way to continue. For he had a purpose, and he would see it through.

The Infinite Monk sighed, and left his room; he had to tend to the emotional distress that has surely afflicted this group, filled with so much talent; but he couldn't help but think that this group, himself included, were also burdened by talent. Did their success come from their own hard work...Or was it a blessing, granted by a higher power? Before, Mondatta had brushed aside those thoughts. But now, after seeing a talented person depart from this world as if she was one among the ignorant masses, even he had to come face to face with grief.

Still, he resolved to overcome this crisis of faith, and greeted people as he usually did with a sign of peace and a smile. Or, what his mask could construct as one. As he saw the new faces among them, he came to understand the true motive for transferring them back and forth: Monokuma wanted to ensure that a killing would start by resetting some of the bonds already established, and further drive a wedge between them. However, this would not stop Mondatta.

He suddenly decided to hold a quick sermon, without any warning, to anyone who would listen to him; no rituals were held, no quotes from any religious tome, but simply words from his heart. It went longer than he planned for, as he reminisced about Shona and her virtue, but he didn't cut himself short, and simply continued. His speech then ended with a proclamation: "I will deliver you from this cycle of despair, and won't let anyone become a lost soul. My hope will never be extinguished."

After he gave his word, he slowly left; he noticed that a certain someone was once again absent. The monk believed that despite his earlier attitude, he wished to still speak to him; such was his way of estimating a troubled heart. He finally arrived before the Infinite Gambler's room, and knocked on his door. "Mister Gallo, it is I. Could you grant me passage?"

Unlike last time, the door swung open as soon as Mondatta made his request. Davis was also dressed this time, though he looked visibly upset. His cheeks were flushed red. "Uh, Yea." He said with a groan. "You can come in." He gestured for the monk to enter and shut the door behind him. "This is harder than I thought." Davis was about to sit on the edge of his beed, but kept himself upright. "Last night was a fuckin' disaster, but I was feeling better this morning. I don't know what happened to me." He sighed. "Anyway, I did it. I told everyone it was me." It was difficult to tell if Davis was chuckling or sobbing. "I do feel better about that. I'm not hiding it anymore."

The monk's mask shifted to resemble a wide smile, and he held his palms flat together, giving a small bow. "I am very glad that you have done so. Now, your karma has been lifted from your soul as you have accepted yourself. I never lost faith that you would do so." Mondatta then came closer, and opened his arms.
"Let us forget this unfortunate event." He then went in for a hug; unlike a regular hug that would feel warm, his was cold and disconcerting, as if embracing a refrigerator. Davis shifted a bit, but didn't make any agressive motions, instead more or less remaining in place. Nevertheless, Mondatta soon released his grip, and put his arms to his sleeves.

"There, doesn't that feel better? In my many years of providing support, I have learned that a warm hug helps with grief. It also helps that we shift to a new topic. Would there be something you would like to talk about? Don't be shy, you know you can trust me to keep quiet," he said, seemingly happy with himself.

"Yea, that I can." Davis nodded and stuck his hands into his pockets. "We've been talking an aweful lot about me, so I think it's only fair we talk about you a little bit." Davis was clearly in a serious mood, but his face hardened further. This was determination that he was displaying now. "So what do you think about the girls with us right now?" He lifted his hand to his chin. "We outnumbered them, but it seems like their numbers are starting to surpass the men now. Do you have your eye on any of them? What do you think about the new ones?"

Mondatta put a hand to his chin, seemingly perplexed by the question.
"Hmm, some of them may be troublesome, but I have a good feeling about all of them. It was a shame that Shona left us so early; she was truly a virtuous woman..." Mondatta sighed. "But that aside, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with Misses Roche or Buckly. Miss Hawthorne on the other hand...She may require spiritual guidance, if I am correct in my assumptions. Her eyes tell of a troubled woman, burdened by their past. What do you think, Mister Gallo?"

It was Perfection's turn to reach for his chin in thought. "Burdened by their past you say? Troubled even?" He nodded to himself. "Sounds like we have something in common." Perfection flashed a confident smile. "I think I know my roll in this now. Thank you Mondatta."

Mondatta's eylight turned crooked. "Hmm, the spirit of youth, huh? How amusing. Now then, will you join us for today's investigation? I believe there are still areas that have yet to be explored."

Perfection shook his head. "Yea, I don't think that' something I should do with the rest of you. Even though I feel responsible for what happened, and everything that will happen, some of the people here really piss me off." Davis ajusted his tie. "Like how the hell did Calvin get captured, and what's up with Shawn voting to kill Shona? She was one of the first people he talked to for crying out loud!" he balled his hands into fists. "I can't trust those people, and I know I'm too unstable to work well with others. My... Conquest really seems to be backfiring in here. I feel more like an infinite loser. You're better off without me corrupting the pack."

The robotic monk simply stared at Gallo for a while, and then chuckled, shaking his head. "Mister Gallo, it is fine. These people won't be corrupted, no. Every one of them is a good person at heart." He poked at Davis' chest.
"Even you as well. And if you give them a chance, I know that you will see that as well." He withdrew his metallic finger, and bowed.
"Thank you for speaking with me, Mister Gallo. Now I know that my efforts have not been in vain. We will surely escape this dreadful situation." He turned around, and stepped towards the door.
"Goodbye, and may conquest favor your good deeds," he gave as his departing words, before once again the hulk of metal disappeared.

---

@Melo

Mary was back to her old habits as she adjusted the camera and took a look at herself, making sure she looked presentable; although her sorrowful look was something she would have never forgiven herself for, in this situation it was all she could bear to even talk. Still, she kept on to what she knew; it provided sanctuary from the madness that surrounded her, and the creeping feeling of death that she experienced right before her eyes.

She reached for the recording button, but instead withdrew her hand. For the first time in many years, she finally felt like she didn't want to record. After all, what was the point? She didn't have access to the internet, so she couldn't upload these videos. And if she did, she doubted that Monokuma would let her; that damn bear really got under her skin. And she felt like she wasn't the only one; she remembered the fit Cyrus made, and it made her legitimately terrified of him. What would happen if he was driven over the limit?

The Infinite Streamer put on her happy mask and joined the others for breakfast, saying hi to Robo-Miyagi on her way. She wanted to introduce herself to the new people that joined them, and first sought out Noel Hawthorne, whom she has heard of in the past. She knew her to be the Infinite Reporter after she made that wild scoop that put her on the world map, yet she never sought Mary out for an interview. Wasn't she famous enough for that, or were internet personalities still considered B-list celebrities? She wanted to rectify that stereotype, and so she greeted her.
"Hii, Nolyyyy! It's me, MaryPie! But you can call me Mary. Doesn't it suck to be stuck in a lame-ass murder game? I mean, what's up with that, right?"

After a short rest in her room, Noel had dragged herself to the break room and helped herself to a nice cup of coffee. It was a shame the infinite barista had been rotated out, she would've died for a taste of his coffee. Why had the bear tormented her so to rotate her into a game when both Quill and Mason left? Such cruelty of the highest order would not be forgiven anytime soon! At the very least, there were several other interesting candidates of high renown in this game. Furthermore, maybe some of the lesser known infinites could make a surprising impact on her. She'd have to wait and see. regardless, she was somewhat stoked to get to know her fellow... patients? Prisoners?

It was a shame that many of them would probably die.

Noel perked up as she was approached by the infinite streamer. The nickname 'Nolyyyy' made her frown a bit internally, but she could appreciate her friendly approach. Within a fraction of a second, Noel took out her camera and took a quick picture of Mary's smile. "Good morning, Mary. The infinite reporter said as she took a final sip of her coffee. "I can't particularly say I enjoy it... but as grim as it might sound, you get used to it after a while." She sighed. "Anyhow, is there anything I can help you with, or did you just want to chat?"

Unlike the time when Davis took her picture, now Mary managed to get a duckface in before she was snapped; her trademark for being photographed. Her smile lingered just a little bit more, but when she took her seat she slightly slumped on it, resting her elbows on the table while supporting her head.
"Uhh, I don't know. I just want someone to talk to; all the other people here are weirdos. I mean, you did see the literal robot, right? Not to mention all the mummies, the pervert with the chest hair, and so on. You're like the first normal person I have seen here." Mary then sighed, and rested her head on the table.
"Well, Shona wasn't that bad. Sure, she was into hardcore roleplaying with her medieval thing, but she was nice. I even offered her some ale so we could have gotten smashed....*Sigh*...But then that had to happen..."

Noel scratched her chin as she went through the pictures she had taken the night before. Most of them were shocked, defeated faces of her fellows. Then there was a picture of angry Cyrus's back and then Shona's dead body. "I don't know... they seem more normal than the average infinites... most of them at least." She chuckled. "Then again... you might've seen more of their oddities than I have... interesting. Please tell me more!" There was a slight shimmer in Noel's eyes, her curious nature piqued. "I don't know what exactly happened to the infinite knight, but I haven't seen any sitation with the carnage chassis end well." Noel shuddered. "However, I am sorry for your loss. She must've been a very nice person."

Mary slowly nodded.
"Yeah..." Then her eyes opened up, and her posture turned better as she lifted her head.
"Wait, you've seen those robots before? Have they killed other people as well?"

Noel nodded solemnly. "The former game I was in... I think it lasted about a week? I am not so sure. There was someone called the infinite brawler. He was overconfident and and egocentrical, but he did truly manage to beat up a few of the carnage sisters... then came the chassis and killed him instantly. The rest of us had been watching him fight from inside our rooms, peeking out from our doors. It was awful." She shook her head. "Monokuma intended to lure us out, I think, but the brawler said that wasn't necessary, that he'd beat them all up during the carnage hour." She looked up at Mary. "Please don't lose hope now. That's what happened last time... After his death the rest all started to kill each other, they wanted out..." The reporter looked in pain simply remembering the events.

"Hrgh!" Mary put a hand to her mouth in reflex, trying to hold her breakfast in. She didn't stand death, even when hearing from it secondhand. But the most terrifying thing came after that; the terrible thoughts turning full reality.
"S-So...It's really true then? That psycho really wants us to turn crazy in here...Uugh..." Mary's gaze dropped to the table, trying to rein in her breath. She realized that their group would also soon be at each other's throats, and she would have front-row seats. She didn't know if she could handle another kill, let alone a constant stream of them. The pun, as bad as it was, caused a giggle to rise out of her throat before she managed to catch it, and she turned flustered.
"I'm sorry, this is just a lot to take in." She looked at Noel, and something came to her mind.
"So, uh, not meaning to pry, but...How did you survive?"

Noel laughed uncomfortably. "A nose for trouble and military training, I guess. She stopped eating her breakfast. "Do you know the observer, my news site? I've gone to warzones for it in the past. So I've received training to make sure I could survive out there.." She paused for a bit. "One person tried for my life once, I managed fend him off and detain him afterwards... the group democratically decided five to three to tie him up in the patient's quarters... just before the carnage hour." She shook her head again. "Can we change subjects, please? I'm sure you have much more interesting stories to tell than this."

"Yeah that's right, you write for that news blog. I read it every week!" Her mood lifted as she got into a familiar topic, raising her spirits, even if just a little bit, as she soon found out.
"Oh, that's fine, hehe..." Mary looked aside, trying to think.
"Well, umm..." A smirk began forming on her lips.
"Well, Noly, here's a question: of all the guys in here, which one do you think is the cutest? I can answer first." She waited for dramatic effect, and then said:
"Isn't Caora the cutest? Such a sweet little cookie...Oh, right, you didn't know it was a he? Well, that just makes him even more adorable! Aaahh, if only I could get out of here, then I could give him lots of chocolate and bring him to my podcasts and stuff..."
Mary's eyes turned unfocused, and then she shook her head.
"Oh, my bad, I was rambling again, wasn't I? Well, anyway, what do you think? Who would you take on a date?"

Noel quickly developped a wide grin as Mary changed to what was possibly one of her most favorite subjects. She had a thing for wanting to know such things. Perhaps she could uncover some hidden feelings of people here? What greater bringer of hope existed than love to begin with? "The infinite trap is a cutie... but I think he's a little too young for me." she smiled uncomfortably. "I'm already twenty-six, I'm getting old... ugh. She sighed, but then took out her camera again to go through the pictures of everyone again. "Well, I'm going off first impressions here... I think the poet looks like quite a charmer..." "Isn't he!" Mary interrupted, blushing. "Oh, sorry, please continue, hehe." Noel giggled a little, then thought for a bit. "Besides him... No, I think that's all, really." She said looking at Mary, blushing slightly as well. "So, are there any other up-and-coming couples or obvious crushes around here?" Noel said with a sparkle in her eyes.

Mary put a finger to her chin.
"Mmm, I think Shona and Calvin had something going on, but I'm not sure. She caused the guy to make a hard rod, though!" She laughed at her joke, not expecting Noel to understand it.
"Haa, I'll explain it later. As for the others...Shaun is suspicious. Whenever I've seen him he's been really shy and anxious. You know what I think?" She quickly glanced aside, and whispered to Noel's ear.
"I think he has a crush on me!" She leaned back with a pout.
"Poor guy. I mean, he' looks fine, and he did make me a super nifty site, but to be honest...he's kind of, how do I put it, too nerdy, y'know? I should just tell him straight up that we could be friends, just so he doesn't live in false hope."

Noel laughed a little. "Awww, be sure to do it nicely though. He looks rather delicate. " she responded, more interested by the second.

Mary paused again, snacking on a sandwich.
"Then there's Mr. Perfect...Blegh. That pervert has been hitting on all the women here, including me. And man, does he suck at it. No semblance of delicacy at all. Though him and the Infinite Nanny, I think it was Bliss Buckly, have been together recently, so don't know if she was hooked." The Infinite Streamer sighed.
"Aside from those, not much has been happening. Monokuma often appears out of nowhere to ruin the mood, so that's not fun either." Mary then stood up.
"Hey, thanks for listening to me. I feel a lot better now after that." Mary's eyes then shone.
"Oh, I know! As thanks I want to invite you to my show! Then you can do a real exclusive interview, live!" Mary took Noel's hand, and rapidly shook it.
"Ohh, it's a win-win! I'll see ya later!" She then ran off, giggling as she did.

"Now that would be a waste." Noel responded. "Surely Buckly could do better than that." She shook Mary's hand with a smile. "Sounds like a good time. I'll take you up on that one." She said before Mary ran off.

If we're still alive by then... she thought.

Neither Shaun nor Caora slept. The Infinite Trap lay awake on his bed, curled up into a ball, with Fang held close in a hug. Constant repeats after repeats after repeats of the event played inside the boys head, over and over; the minutest of details made solid memories he would not soon forget. The warmth of Shaun's body, made hotter by the scarf and jumper he always wore. The sound of bones breaking and the steady, quiet drip of blood from the silent and cold husk of the Infinite Knight. The smash of glass and the slight rending of metal from Cyrus's glasses as they crushed between his fingers, and the subsequent rage and intensity in his otherwise calm voice.

No, he wasn't likely to forget the events that had transpired. Not for the longest of time. Nor would Shaun, who sat on the edge of his bed pondering. He had showered just after he had returned to his room from the Night of Carnage, and donned a new scarf, jumper and tracksuit bottoms identical to his original that had been lined up in his wardrobe. There hadn't been any other changes of clothes - not even a variant of scarf. His expression was relaxed, though his otherwise light eyes were hard and serious. Something about the way gently bit his thumb gave the impression he was thinking of something important, or even entirely preoccupied on a problem; like a difficult equation. He could very well have been programming a website in his head as a coping mechanism to the burning image in his head. One of Shona dead on the floor.

Morning came quickly for the both of them. The announcement sounded, though neither of them got up from their sleepless slumbers. People leaving their rooms, walking along the halls, and talking, sounded around them. Even a scream, at one point, though it seemed quickly taken care of. For a bit, Shaun could swear he heard Mondatta giving an inspirational speech of some kind to the others. For some reason he didn't think it would do much good...

The boy deliberated with himself some more, and then stood. On his cabinet was, of course, his "Advanced HTML" book, and beside that the DVD case "Trinity of Laughs". He had worked out who that was going to go to too late, as Quill had just been cycled out of the game. Further along, against the wall, was a pen pot, with an assortment of pencils and white board markers laid at an angle against the side. He reached over and took one, before popping of the lid which clattered against the floor as it fell. Shaun then flicked it into a pen grip, brought over to the door of the room, and begun to draw onto it.

Caora wasn't sure how long it had been since the morning announcement sounded, nor since the scream. After it, he had felt a compulsion to get out of bed, but for some reason that was difficult. He still couldn't get the image of Shona, dead, out of his head. Fang was pressed tightly against his chest as he lay in a fetal position on the matress; still in the pyjamas of the last night. It was warm...

But something came over him. A kind of... Urge. He felt lonely, which in turn compelled him to, sluggishly, pull himself out of bed with Fang in tow. Somehow, despite all the laying around, he still looked in great shape - hair included - and so he made his way to the door. His hand pressed down on the handle, and he stepped out into the corridor. Then, he took a right, and stood in front of Shaun's door. Out of all the others, Quill and Daimyon mostly withstanding, the Infinite Web Designer was the person he had spent the most time with. And, therefore, was the person in all the madness that he felt closest to.

A light knocking at his door snapped Shaun out from his writing. He crouched down and picked up the pen lid - placing in back on the nib. His hand lifted and he threw the apparatus through the air; landing it straight in the pot. A smile creased his lips, and he began to brush himself down to remove any creases on his jumper, before opening the door.

"O-oh, hi, C-caora." that same odd stuttery and shy voice emerged from his throat as he looked down at the Trap. He seemed... Deflated, kind of. That usual jovial and cheery aura felt diminished, and it was mirrored on his expression. The smile and emotion behind every action he took wasn't there. Had Shona dying really affected him that much?

"Hi..." he said, a note of sadness in his voice that harshly contrasted the happy-go-lucking boy Shaun had come to know, "I-I needed to see someone..." Fang was hung down by his side, and a concerned look plastered itself onto Shaun's face.

"D-do you want to... U-um, come i-in..?" he asked, trying to find out how badly the events of last night had caused him to feel, but he shook his head.
"I-I... Wanna go to the break room... See the others..."

Even his speech was deflated; very much unlike how he had been just yesterday. The change was sudden, if expected. If there was anyone Shaun hoped Shona's death hadn't affected, it was Caora, though he knew it was a lot to expect... Deep down, he knew that he would be in bad shape.

"Y-yeah, sure..!" he glanced backwards, to his room, then stepped out. His hand found the handle, which pulled it shut, and he quickly took Caora in a hug. His hand found the boys, and they laced fingers, before Shaun began to lead them away to the break room - where the others were to be.

A voice sounded in his head, which sounded faintly robotic, saying "...In my many years of providing support, I have learned that a warm hug helps with grief. It also helps that we shift to a new topic." Huh? Where did that come from?!



It wasn't long before they got there. Calvin and Daimyon were sat, in front of an open elevator - one of many since the last night - and Mondatta was making his way inside one of the rooms with Davis. Another male, whose name neither of the two were familiar with, began to make his way inside, just as they drew near to the entrance. Krista, the Infinite Violinist, was stood outside, seemingly about to head back to her room as she yawned a farewell to her friend.

Shaun opened the door, and saw the man making his entrance. He took a quick scan of the room, just as Mary dashed up from her table. The boy scooted Caora off to the side, just out of Mary's sight, and shuffled him over to a table. From there, he let him sit himself down; available for any and all conversation. Shaun then placed himself down next to him, and the two entered into some idle chatter as the colour returned to the boy, and so did the energy.

Cyrus calmly made his way to the break room, He had made a noble attempt to cover up his lack of sleep, and he had been quite succesfull in his own opinion. He also slept bad when his mood turned... sour, to say the least. But nevertheless, last night's events had made a rather substantial impact on the poltiician. He had appreciated Shona more than the rest of the infinites, who had shown questionable worth at times. Nevertheless, last night was a good way to show him who were his friends... and his enemies. That said, after his outburst, he could imagine he had made a few more of the latter. He'd have a lot to explain today, but not as much as some others.

In the break-room, the dark-haired woman warmly thanked the two gentlemen who had so graciously escorted her there. Once she peered inside, she wasn't witness to a very large crowd, which made her wonder how many people from the video she saw in the elevator were actually present. Two - Calvin and Daimyon. She noticed a third familiar face fairly close to where she stood in the doorway, and was about to approach him to introduce herself, but the man who she would later learn was called Davis (or 'Perfection') slipped out of the break-room in a huff.
Still being left a little confused by the sudden exit, the woman paused in the doorway contemplating going in and introducing herself - the atmosphere was tense. Of course, she had no idea what occurred the night before, but chalked it down to the shock of being stuck in a place like this. She really wasn't alone.

There were a million questions going through Marianne's head. Why was someone in a full-metal suit? Whoever they were, they gave off a peaceful aura. The woman hardly had a chance to introduce herself before they too slipped out of the break-room. Was it always such a come-and-go situation? When she was younger, breakfast was a very important meal that her whole family would make a point to spend together! ...nobody was allowed to leave the table until everyone had finished. Of course, this wasn't her family breakfast table. And these people weren't her family. But in the situation they were stuck in, they were as close as she was going to get.

Following the lead of Lucas Carsen at the espresso machine, Marianne swallowed her apprehensions down and approached the centre of the room. She met his eyes only briefly, and cocked her head at the man with a smile in a silent thanks, though she wasn't quite sure he'd interpret her meaning right away.
"Good...um, morning, everyone!" her voice began a little shaky in the thick air that hung in the break-room. It was like everyone's collective dog had just died.
"My name is Marianne Roche, and I am the infinite herbalist. I really hope we can get along, like Lucas said, too."

Her careful eyes scanned the scene to see two women chatting away at a desk, pink and black haired respectively, and a lonesome face she had not seen on the earlier video. There were definitely more people in this than she originally thought - and though she didn't know about the rotation (in her case, she was freshly thrown in when arriving at Axis Mundi) - she had a feeling there would be many more yet to come.
She had to fight the urge to go console the lonely woman in remarkably pretty, if dated, clothing, not wanting to appear inherently nosy or rude. Fortunately, the arrival of two new individuals lightened the scene. One of them was a little girl!

"Good morning, you two!" the infinite herbalist approached the new duo at their table and gave them a deep bow and a bright smile. They seemed to be out of it, definitely, but Marianne at least hoped she could make the little girl feel better - though something very specific from the video was nagging at her, in the back of her mind, about this person. She couldn't place just what.
"My name is Marianne, and I'm the infinite herbalist. It's really, really nice to meet you."
Her eyes lit up at seeing Caora, and she couldn't help but kneel down so she was below eye-level to the short boy sitting on one of the benches. Forgetting her lacking range of motion, she cringed as her stitches stung, but she would keep it together long enough. Just enough to give everyone some hope. "You're really cute, haha. I...I know it's really hopeless we're all in here, but I promise we'll make it out in one piece. If you, or anyone else needs any patching up, I'm here to help! ...even if we're in a hospital. I can still help! I won't let anyone suffer if I can help it." Her smile was shaky, but in that moment, it beamed wide.

Cyrus would arrive to the meeting room rather late, but still in time to have a sandwich before the meeting would start. He stopped just outside the break room, preparing himself with a healthy dose of relunctance. He fiddled with his new pair of glasses a little. He tried to imagine everyone, and how they would go about the meeting given yesterday's circumstances. He didn't imagine that he would be the main topic - there were bigger questions to be answered. How did yesterday happen? How was Calvin captured? What would they do from here? Was there anything new they needed to investigate? How the hell was he going to explain what had happened to him yesterday? He breathed in deeply, then exhaled and made his way into room.

Being relatively late, he was met with a rather busy room, though there were some notable absences. He wasn't sure if others were simply late, or just didn't want to come. He couldn't blame them either way. He had caught a glimpse of the rotations yesterday, but amongst the crowd was somebody he hadn't seen. It was rather apparent she was making her introductions, and thus he took his chance to do the same once she finished her conversation with Shaun and Caora. "Good morning, I'm Cyrus Brandon, infinite politician. Did you rotate in with the others last night?"

Marianne flinched slightly as she heard a serious, crisp voice from behind her and immediately went to jolt upright. Unfortunately, this still wasn't written as seamlessly into her plans as she had hoped, and she found herself still kneeling on the ground clutching at her torso in the aftermath of exerting herself. Again, she cursed under her breath. "A-ah, one second..." She must have looked evidently distressed. It still hadn't settled in that she needed to limit her movements if the stitches were to even stay shut.

Cyrus was taken aback for half a second as the woman knelt down in pain. "Are you alright?" He asked as he knelt down beside her, tenderly placing a hand on her shoulder and looking at her torso as this seemed to be the source of the problem. He then offered her his other hand to help her back on her feet, since it seemed like she needed it.

"H-huh..." the woman still hadn't fully turned around to locate the source of the voice, and half expecting a stern man in his mid-40s, she was actually taken aback when turning to reassure him that she was fine - when she was met with the charming grey eyes of a very mysterious, very inherently charismatic gentleman.
"I-I'm alright..." she swallowed the words down, a little slow to react as she cautiously put her hand in his, trying to appraise the situation. He was in the video! It definitely didn't do him justice though. The infinite politician had asked her a question, but she seemed far from even being aware as to what it was. "...just a little aftermath of a little surgery, aha...ha."

"Easy now." Cyrus said as he carefully helped Marianne back to her feet. Once she was upright, he made sure to support her weight with his arms. He hadn't had a chance to take a good look at her, but being this close Cyrus could smell a faint but apparent herb scent. "Let's get you seated, shall we?" He said as he started to guide her to the nearest available chair.

"I-" the infinite herbalist began, her eyes never leaving his as if there was something she felt like she should be asking or answering to - but it never came. She didn't even realise how suddenly he had helped her to her feet, though she could feel a light blush bleed through her dark cheeks. Turquoise eyes with lips parted in mid-sentence searched his face for it, for some answer to what it was that she was forgetting. They searched the slope of his jawline, and moved up to the gentle curves of his cheekbones (shamefully lingering at his well-kept lips!) and then up to the hooded gray eyes gazing back at her from behind delicate specta-

...shit!

Trying to take a step forward and having lost all sense of orientation, Marianne's foot accidentally knocked into the infinite politician's, and with the momentum which she eagerly wanted to move forward, she evidently stumbled. With her eyes squeezed shut, she squealed, hands reaching out and grasping for the first available thing and...
...finding her arms bunched up against the strong chest of the man right in front of her. ...the man she had been making a total fool out of herself in front of...this whole time.

Cyrus didn't miss a beat, and tightly clutched the stumbling girl as she appeared to fall.
"Carefull now!" Was all he managed to exclaim before she was promply buried in his chest. Unfortunately, the politician was more concerned about her health than any other implication the scene could have. "Are you sure you're fine?" He asked. "Just take it slow, no need to rush. Just lean on me and we'll sit you down." He told her with a concerned expression, putting an arm around her waist to more easily support her to a seat.

"I-I am! Oh, I'm s-so sorry..." Marianne found herself stuttering, cheeks a much brighter scarlet now in Cyrus' careful arms. Whereas he saw only the practical implications of the scene, our herbalist thought much differently. Her thoughts raced a mile a minute and suddenly every little movement seemed more vivid, more alive than it did a minute ago. She registered every little shuffle, and felt his arm circle around her delicate waist. She wanted to breathe him in from where she was standing like that, but in the flush of the moment, all she could do is stare up at him, eyes wide in surprise, cherry-cheeked and with parted lips.
In any otome game, this would be the part where either the couple would kiss, or there would be some anticlimactic interruption. ...in this case, neither happened. Marianne didn't know, in the edge of her consciousness, whether she was grateful or not for that.
"I'd...th-thank you, Cyrus. M-my name is..." she trailed off, leaning gently into the crook of his arm. It seemed so warm and cozy, she just wanted to nuzzle into this stranger more. Somehow, it took the fright away of being in this strange new place. It would all be okay. Cyrus had that aura about him "...Marianne. I-infinite...herbalist."

Though she didn't seem to feel very good before. Right now the woman seemed to do a lot better. And while she was busy imagining the usual otome game siuations, Cyrus was simply making sure the girl was fine. And thus he was fairly happy the girl was looking more content. Unfortunately for Marianne, they reached the seat rather quickly afterwards and Cyrus carefully helped her to sit down. "Nice to meet you, Marianne." He responded as he took her face to memory, then took a cursory glance at the rest of her to make sure she was fine. "Can I get you something? A glass of water, maybe?" He asked, seeing as he still had to get his sandwich.

"Water sounds good, ac-" she was recovering, interrupted again by the now comical growling of her stomach, empty since lunch the day before. "...actually, if there's anything decent to eat here, I wouldn't mind having breakfast properly. I can't remember the last thing I properly ate yesterday."

Cyrus laughed a little when her stomach interfered, almost protesting to her earlier statement. "Water and a sandwich for you then." He teased her before walking off towards the fridge. He quickly scored two sandwiches and a glass of water and then returned to take a seat next the awaiting female."Your order, ma'am." He jested as he handed over the items.

Davis felt a lot better after talking with Mondatta. He wasn't 100% on board with his “hope solves everything” philosophy, but perfection did feel better just knowing that there was someone who respected him for telling the truth. He knew he shouldn't feel this good. Shona died not twenty-four hours ago. Maybe it was because Davis was even more sure that there was more to her death that met the eye. He would have to search her room later. But first, it was time to follow the monk's advice. Calvin wasn't going to get Noel, not on his title of Infinite Conquest! Davis stepped out of his room. But he didn't head right into the break room. Instead, he leaned up against the wall and started talking to himself.

“So Noel.” He spoke into the air. “I understand you report things.” He nodded. “You know not a lot of people know about me, Infinite conquest. I'm more than just good looks and a lady killer.” He scratched his chin a bit. “I'm more than just good looks and a hairy chest.” Some more chin scratching. “I'm a lot more interesting than Calvin.” He nodded to himself with a smile. “He's actually a huge creep, he's in libido overdrive all the time.” Davis groaned to himself. “She might be into that...” After a bit more thinking his smile came back. “I'm a fan of your work, like that story you wrote about...” Davis scowled. “I'd like to hear about some of the things you've covered.” Before Davis could further embarrass himself, he could hear it again. The thundering footsteps of the carnage sister's horses. He thought he was prepared for what was to come, He couldn't have been more wrong.

---

Nine mechanical horses were lined up in front of a red sleigh. They had foam antlers glued to their heads, along with jingle bells, red and green ribbons, and the front most one even had a glowing nose. Well, the glowing nose was mostly thanks to a string of lights that passed directly over the horse's face. Back in the sleigh, Monokuma held the reigns and wore a fake beard and a jolly red suit. Behind him were two carnage sisters dressed as elves: Geina and Willow. Though these weren't your regular Christmas elves they were dressed as. These were sexy elves, who's mini skirts ended just above the thighs. Their vests couldn't fully close and needed to be held together with small wreaths.

“Holidays are fuckin' weird!” Geina was looking at her bare arms. “At least the suit doesn't cover my guns.”

Willow chuckled. “In more ways than one.”

“Huh?”

“Anyway!” Willow looked away from her sister. “Those without nobility are fated to live droll lives. They are merely watchers, constantly looking to their monarch for support. So as a leader of the people, you need to give them a reason to celebrate their meaningless existence. Holidays are a great way to do that.” The queen threw her arms into the air. “It's new years! Is all you need to shout to get a bunch of worthless mongrels to drink themselves stupid.”

Geina scoffed. “Yea, pathetic!”

“By the way...” Willow leaned on Geina's shoulder. “Did you know America has a holiday that involves blowing up fireworks?”

“Whoa...” Geina's eyes glowed an intense blue, thanks to the LEDs in her eyes. “This is a wonderful country!”

Monokuma groaned. “Are you kids done jabbering? Are you going to shoot Davis or what? I'm growing a beard over here!”

Willow picked up her cannon. “I'm ready father. I won't let a single one escape!” without much warning, she fired her cannon at Davis. There was a flurry of confetti, and a gift wrapped box struck Perfection square in the chest!



“Quickly sister!” Willow commanded. “Breach the door, we have to go in on foot!”

Geina hopped off the sleigh and opened the door normally for Willow. As soon as she got inside, Geina hooked up a hose to the back of Willow's cannon, and the gifting spree continued. First she fired at Cyrus...



Daimyon barely had time to react, he was a sitting duck...



Shaun had been getting battered by the confetti, but now he was under the brunt of Willow's might...



Mary would be the first female victim. She was in motion, but still unaware of the queenly carnage sister. Easy hit.



Willow dove into the air, and Caora's small stature did not help him hide from her cannon...



Lucas might have stood a chance if he wasn't drinking coffee...



Willow turned her firepower on Mondatta next. However, his suit made it difficult to tell if he had been surprised or not. Lame!



Bliss had assigned herself to the position of “Chief sandwich heater.” and, like Lucas, saw what was going on too late...



Noel thought she was ready for anything. But not this. Nothing could not prepare her for this...



Calvin was too tense to react. even after getting hit by the gift, he just kind of stood there. Ever Calvin, Ever the enemy of fun.



After nailing almost everyone, Willow approached Marianne. She was still recovering and was in too much discomfort to move from her seat. Willow raised her cannon. A point blank shot like this would hurt. It could even be fatal depending on what was in the package. Willow gradually lowered the muzzle of her cannon, and the gift slid out the barrel and landed in her lap, along with a pile of confetti that would have looked more impressive being blasted out.



The break room was a mess. There was multicolored confetti everywhere, even in some of the food. The carnage sisters just snickered like a bunch of punks and left the room. Meanwhile, Krista should have been safe in her room, Dr killgood was able to open the door, and Willow fired into the room without physically entering it. An important detail to keep in mind for the next night of carnage!



Meanwhile, Davis entered the break room. He didn't look surprised, and just shrugged. “I guess it's Christmas?”

The monitor in the break room came alive with the familiar two-toned face of Monokuma. He was still dressed as Santa.

“Merry Christmas everyone! I know some of you are heavy sleepers, so I figured some of you would need a high pitched scream to wake you from your sleep. Phu phu phu!” The bear fell backwards onto its butt. “You didn't leave me out any milk and cookies, so no gift was given to its intended recipient. You guys can sort that out by yourselves. And you know, make friends and stuff. Fun fact, over seventy percent of homicides are committed by people who know the victim.” There was a short pause before the bear spoke up again. “Oh! And I also gave you all something black and white, and it's not snow covered coal! Search your gift boxes carefully...”



Monokuma sighed. “I know that when you lose someone important to you, it feels like having a huge hole ripped out of your heart. You could fill the hole with love, but it has to be someone else's love, and that's in short supply down here.” The bear almost sounded like it was whimpering. “But you can also fill it with vices! Fill it with beer, possessions, and.... gambling!”

The screen switched over to the Mono-stand. Nariko was dressed up like a casino dealer. “Oh no...” She pouted. Her hair waving in that breeze the fan in the back of her head created. “It's not ready yet. I'm sorry everyone. I'm sorry for-”

Dr. Killgood reappeared on the screen. “Anyway, I felt that you guys deserved an extra special reward for being such heroes yesterday. But I also didn't want that sadness to spread to the newer folks in our little group. So I'm opening up a fun little game for everyone to participate in!” Monokuma tore off his Santa suit. Underneath all that, he was dressed in a black and white tux. “A fun little way for you guys to earn some mono coins and get even more gifts! And if you don't like the sound of that...” He pulled a pair of shades out of his vest and put them on. “Deal with it!” The screen went quiet again.

Bliss looked at everyone in the room to gauge their reaction, though her eyes stopped on Davis. “Are you exited for that?”

Davis was smiling, still staring at the black screen. “Uh!” He shook his head, returning to his normal self. “A-anyway, Calvin!” Perfection turned to the blacksmith. He took a deep breath and did his best not to over react. “...Calvin. What the hell happened last night?” As much as he wanted to start talking to Noel, there was no way he would be able to without getting some answers first. And if those answers made Calvin look bad, maybe the black smith would stop being such a chick magnet.

@Aewin @BrokenPromise @Ariamis @Melo @Mateotis @MyCatGinger @Vocab

Calvin sat, watching everyone slowly trickle into the room. Lucas Carsen entered, introducing himself in a slightly formal tone. It was obvious he had spent time with Krista, judging by the way he spoke of her, yet Calvin found a little bit of joy in the fact that she would not be joining the group this morning. Hearing a pun would have made him lose his mind.

Mondatta came in, and offered a speech that spoke of Shona and hope. Something about it left a bitter taste in Calvin’s mouth, but he simply nodded. The monk was old, and Calvin saw little point in arguing with one so set in their ways. Whereas he once would have relished the chance to argue, now it felt stupid.

Mary and Noel were chatting amicably, as were Shaun and Caora, who had become a duo Calvin had not expected. Looking at all the infinites, Calvin realized how little he knew of them. The one he had found to be tolerable was now gone, and he felt a deep sense of isolation that he hadn’t felt for many years. Solitude had always been of comfort to Calvin, who rarely spoke with his forgehands and enjoyed the act of burying himself in his work.

He was awoken from his reverie by the loud entrance of Monokuma and the Carnage sisters. Well, some of them. Both Nariko and Alexandria were missing. Nariko would later be revealed, but he didn’t know where Alexandria could be. Nor did he care. He felt much the same way as a gift box slammed into his chest. He let it fall to the ground, and only after a few moments did he lean down and pick it up. In a normal state, Calvin would have launched into a tirade demanding to know what the hell was happening, but he slowly realized it was a repeat of yesterday, albeit with a greater theme to it.

The token and a chance to gamble was tempting, particularly with the suggestion that there might be alcohol involved. Calvin made a mental note to check it out, but was interrupted from his reverie by Davis looking at him straight in the eyes.

“What the hell happened last night?”

It was a simple question. Calvin wanted to lie, wanted to avoid having this discussion as much as he could, but he realized he needed to come clean. There were too many sets of eyes all staring at him intently.

“I…” A deep breath. “I fucked up.” He related the tale of his being given Alexandria’s handbook, and access to the crematorium, and his realization that it could be used as a sort of makeshift forge. “Shona asked me to help…” He felt himself shudder, and clenched his fists. He wasn’t about to break down in front of these people. “I lost track of time. Alexandria showed up, and I think she was ready to let me go, but – Something else came. A robot. Not like the carnage sisters. It had a giant fucking gun. Was ready to shoot through her, and me.” He was looking at each infinite directly, taking a moment to observe their expressions. “They took me. I don’t know how the sword got to Shona. I wish it hadn’t. Maybe then, she wouldn’t have…”

The veins in his neck were bulging. His face was bone white, all the blood seeming to flow out of it. If anyone touched him, they would have been shocked to realize how cold his skin was. His normally hearty complexion was wan and pale.

“I killed her. That sword wasn’t made right. It was amateur work. And if I hadn't been a fuck-up, she would be here right now.” He looked up at the group, and opened his mouth, as if to say something more. Words failed.

Mondatta wavered once he was hit, and stared at the gift he had just received from the strange parade that quickly moved on. "How peculiar...I do believe it is not December yet." He opened the box. Inside was a box of tea, and one of Mondatta's eyelights turned crooked, as if he lifted an eyebrow. "It's another gift...So they still intend for us to bond." Mondatta chuckled. "Well, if that's the case, then I won't mind at all. But who should I give this to..." He looked around at the other people who received their gifts, and decided on the person he wanted to talk to: Marianne.
"Greetings Miss Roche. I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Tekhartha Mondatta, the Infinite Monk. Would you like to have a cup of some herbal tea? I believe you would be interested as the Infinite Herbalist?"

---

Mary stumbled and fell over from the impact, exposing herself in an embarrassing fashion to the posse of bearded bear and snickering skanks. "Ow! Hey, that wasn't nice!" Once she rose up and saw the sleigh, she had a surprised expression. "What's with the costumes? Don't you have any shame?"
Once they were out of earshot however, she quietly muttered with a pout: "Well, I wish I got to have one, too...I'm sure I could pull it off better than those bumpy tincans..." She sighed. "Anyway, what did they get me this time? If it's another bottle of ale I swear I'll-" She was about to say, but the black suitcase quickly made her quiet. "D-Does this hold what I think it does?" She slowly opened it, and her tensed face turned slack from disappointment. "Oh it's a...podium." She gazed at it for a while as her brains calculated the correct answer. "Hey, I bet I know who would like this!" She bounced right over to the man. "Cyyriooo! I got you a present! Guess what it is!" She held a closed suitcase before him, and then opened it. "Tadaa! It's a podium, for when you make those inspiring speeches of yours!"

The break room was still quiet and only sparsely occupied. The three's arrival caused a bit of noise—though not from them but from Davis who hurriedly left before any of them could have said a word. Daimyon could not place the sudden movement, though from Calvin's sigh he figured it had something to do with the metalsmith. When they all split, the poet first went to introduce himself to the woman Perfection left alone.

“A noble talent, yours,” he said to the Infinite Nanny after they exchanged pleasantries and basic information. “I have to admit I can get caught up in the workings of my own mind. To be capable of dealing with—” He stopped for a moment as he turned to see Mondatta leaving the room shortly after Davis. Have they already been done with their breakfasts? That would be a blissfully simple answer... He might have even believed it were it not for the pervasive gloom still hanging in the air. “—the unbridled imaginations of children is...admirable, really!”

After a bit of curious questioning on his part about her previous circumstances, he excused himself and went to get something to eat and drink. His throat felt rather sore and only now, when there was a lull in the action and the adrenaline, did he realise how little he had eaten yesterday. While he was trying to choose which sandwich would sate his hunger, a new voice drew the attention of everyone gathered: that of Lucas Carsen, who informed the group that Krista would not be eating with them this morning. Daimyon felt sour that the tragedy affected his friends so deeply, but on the other hand it was completely understandable. The strange behaviour in this case was on his part: has he already moved past Shona's death? He told himself that this was not the case at all—he simply did not allow the crippling despair to take hold of him. And still when Lucas came close by to make himself coffee, the poet's smile and introductory words were a bit more strained than before.

Plate in hand and necessary supplies acquired, Daimyon took another look around the break room. It was quickly filling up with Infinites, each new arrival brought some life and noise with them to lift the tension from the atmosphere. This delighted him, and his mood rose even further when he spotted Shaun and Caora at a table on the side. He made his way towards them.

“My friends! It is good to see you again,” he welcomed the two warmly. “I hope I didn't interrupt anything important.”
He would have launched into a follow-up question right away, but decided against it in the last moment. There was no reason to ask how they were—he could imagine, and it was not entirely pleasant. So instead he sat down, pulled out his notebook and quickly wrote down a few words about the new people he has met today: Marianne, Bliss and Lucas. His e-handbook was with him too, but he chose not to open it up this time. He placed the pen and paper back into his pocket and looked up.
“Oh Shaun, I don't think I had the chance to say it yet: the book you gave me is simply fantastic! I thank you once more. What did you get, might I ask? And what about you, Caora?”

Their discussion went on for a while. And it probably would have gone farther were it not for a sudden, unexpected interruption: the appearance of, ah, Monokuma. Daimyon had to admit that the bear, no matter how much he loathed it and all its allies, had a talent for shocking the entire crew with his every move: this time by coming in riding a sleigh driven by lit-up mechanical horses and wearing the famous red attire and long beard—Santa Claus from a dystopian future. With him were his...assistants, two Carnage Sisters ‘dressed’ as elves.
Daimyon wanted to record the bizarre scene in words but when he was reaching for his notebook, a gift box slammed straight into him. It hurt him more than it should have, though he attributed it to the surprise. He picked up the box and swiftly opened it. Reaching into it, he pulled out...a magazine?

The confused look on his face turned into a chuckle in the next moment when he realised the deal: this was not his gift to receive, but his gift to give. Same as before. And just when he gave praise for Monokuma's originality...

Still! It was a different present this time, to be given to a different person. He barely paid attention to the bear's ramblings and instead skimmed through the magazine. Why, he could not really answer—the content was obvious from the cover. Though, perhaps this was the reason he did it. He liked what he saw, at least: inspiring women on almost every page, in clothing that left little to the imagination. A nice change of pace for the poet. He was done with it at about the same time Monokuma finished his announcement. He looked over the room, meeting the eyes of many Infinites, everyone seeking the person they would bring their gift to.

His eyes stopped on Davis, albeit for a different reason—he did not notice that he had returned. Now that he thought about it though...this magazine was probably aimed for him. The poet thought about giving it to Calvin to lift his spirits, but it did not seem...too appropriate at this point and time. Mondatta and Cyrus, he could not quite imagine with such a—okay, that was a lie, he could, but those images seemed entirely incompatible with reality. Caora would not have gotten much value out of it, he felt. Shaun, he could already see his furious blushing—he did not want to get his friend into such a situation. And Lucas, he simply did not know enough.

Davis was it, then!

He stood up, stating his intentions to the two boys and walked up to Perfection. He stopped just before reaching him though as he saw that he was currently...busy questioning Calvin. Everything turned awkward. Sure, Davis had a point in trying to get the full story, but the poet wished he was not so...accusing, as that was not good for anyone. He could also see the pain and regret in Calvin's eyes, hear it in his voice—there was no need to push him further. Either way neither of them seemed to be in the mood to receive a gift right now, which was a great inconvenience because Daimyon had already planned out what he would say to the former.

He had no choice but to wait it out. And because he felt rather uncomfortable standing in the crossfire, he hurriedly sat down to the table closest to Davis so that he could hand over the magazine as soon as possible. There was someone else sitting opposite to him, a woman with long black hair and a face he could not place...

Right! The last new Infinite!

“Why, hello there,” he said cheerfully when the action next to him died down. Sure he planned to give the gift to Davis once the man was done, but he wanted to get to know this woman first, at least a bit. “I am the Infinite Poet, Daimyon Londe. A pleasure to make your acquaintance!”

@BrokenPromise @ThatCharacter @Ariamis

"...!" the Infinite Herbalist's eyes must have blinked a grand total of five times in succession as they shot up to notice the new commotion in the room. The chewed up morsel of the remaining half of her sandwich stuck in her throat, disabling her from speaking. She was left to quietly watch the chaos, all the way from the metal sled and robo-reindeer, and to two women - no, they were incredibly lifelike but they weren't real - in skimpy Christmas gowns firing presents at people from a massive cannon.

She could have sworn this seemed like a scene out of an animated movie, a story, or a video-game she had once played. Even so, it was almost impossible putting together where she could have seen an image like this - or, more probably, women like this. They bore an uncanny resemblance to something anxiously tugging at the woman's thoughts. Someone, even. But whom...? Even if Marianne had wanted more than anything in the world to zone out at that moment and boggle her mind as to whom they were related to, it was escaping her, even now. That being said, they bore a resemblance that the Herbalist would at least keep in the forefront of her mind - and would attempt to gather more information on these metallic women as time went on.

This institution was increasingly becoming stranger and stranger. Everyone reacted with the same shock factor with which Marianne did, but some still seemed more composed than others. Almost as if they had seen something similar happen before.
Of course, her thoughts were understandable, as according to the fact that she was much later than most - if not all - the other infinites at the location, this would be her first run-in with the carnage sisters. ...they didn't seem all bad for the moment. At the very least, they had the courtesy to slip her her gift politely.

The neatly wrapped box slid out of the canon and into her lap, followed by a flurry of confetti that almost painted the whole white lap of her dress in multicoloured red, green and gold. The only problem with this scene was that it wasn't Christmas. It couldn't have been Christmas. Could it?
The woman had no way to tell the current date and time, except rely on others. Maybe that was for the better or the worse. It was most definitely nowhere near Christmas where she remembered herself last, before waking up in this place. There were no bad Christmas decorations, no couples preparing for the holidays, no carollers around Axis Mundi...

"Just what is going on here?" Marianne found herself thinking out loud, her eyes never being given a moment to relax, taken from the bear's Christmas get-up to a picture of a woman who looked almost identical to the ones firing the gift-cannon. It was for the first time here that Marianne could notice they all had different demeanours and ways in which they conducted themselves. The last of the trio she saw looked sad and distant. The herbalist almost felt the need to go find the robot and comfort it, not knowing that this was her usual state of being.

The bear concluded his little speech talking about vices, gambling and filling holes in hearts of someone lost, and it made the herbalist pause. There was definitely a tense aura in the entire building, but the more time she spent with these people, the less she realised she actually knew. There were ever more secrets in ever more places, and the dark haired, bright eyed woman would want to know them all. If only to construct herself a proper mental picture of what was occurring in that place, in that time.

"...Cyrus." Marianne began, almost defensively shuffling a little closer to the man on the bench. It was before she had so much as opened her gift, but she could overhear something being said by Calvin, one of the two infinites that helped her when she was first in the elevator. It was more like 'caught on to' as he appeared to be making some sort of declaration. Her face was stuck in a look of pondering, as if she was putting pieces together to some puzzle. Gradually, this contorted into light shock. "Who is Alexandria? What is he talking about?" she brought her down to a hissing whisper, gesturing discretely to the dark haired boy.

The man beside her never missed a beat, and in his no-nonsense, fully-practical manner, summarised the entire situation for one Marianne Roche. He told her about the Carnage Sisters, and also about the events that transpired the night before. The herbalist's hand clenched the fabric of her dress tightly when he told her that there was already someone dead. With this background information, everything Calvin was saying suddenly all made a lot more sense.
There was still so much more left to ask, and Marianne wanted to know it all. She would have almost forgotten about the gift in her lap if it wasn't for-

"Ah! Hello...!"

The robotic synth-like voice came from her left, and Marianne looked up just in time to catch the eye - no, eye-socket lights - of the peaceful robot who had quietly earlier made his debut and left. So his name was Mondatta...she had seen him before, yes. But how did everyone in this place know her name? She wasn't even one of the people on the starting video they were all shown. Was there some other trick?
"Just Marianne is fine." the herbalist supplied cautiously, giving Cyrus a gentle, friendly nudge as if in thanks before taking a little breath and getting to her feet. Even standing, with her hands at her sides and her gazing up into the blinking sockets of the robot before her, Mondatta was much taller than the herbalist - and she considered herself on the taller side, where heights were concerned.
Her posture eased when he introduced himself too, and made his intentions clear. It was a fridge with feelings!
"The pleasure is mine, Mister Mondatta." she replied in-turn, using the man's last name courteously. She gave him a little smile that only widened when he mentioned tea. Tea! Marianne loved tea. "Yes, I think that would be wonderful! There is nothing quite like tea to soothe the senses, I think."
She nodded, convinced. Maybe all she needed was to drink more tea and this situation would somehow normalise itself in her eyes. Still a little wary of 'taking gifts from strangers', she reached for her gift-box, as if expecting there to be a present she could give him inside. She gently unwrapped it and carefully set it down, carefully opening up the box to find a beautiful Victorian-era hat nestled inside. Her eyes went from the hat to Mondatta and she bashfully avoided his eye-sockets, with a nervous laugh, too. "...Mister Mondatta, are you a fan of hats? I know this isn't much, but...oh, I wish I had a more fitting present for you! But everybody got different ones to give. Does that mean I need to find who this hat goes to, too? It's like a game of 'Secret Santa'."

The herbalist's eyes scanned the break-room and, lucky for her, it was very easy to find someone who might like the hat. It was the woman dressed in clothes from a similar era - it looked like the two, the woman and this hat, were made for each other, and had unfortunately gotten separated along the way. She made a mental note to go and hand it over right away, but for the mean-time, left the hat carefully tucked into the giftbox where she was sitting by Cyrus. Gently walking a little away from the tables (especially upon noticing a pink-haired ball of energy scurry over to Cyrus with a present of her own) Marianne looked up at Mondatta with a semi-serious expression. "...Mister Mondatta, could you excuse me for a second? Or, if you pleased, I would not mind if you accompanied me."
She gestured to where Davis and Calvin were, and the more she looked, the more agitated either party appeared. "...I need to know more about what the Infinite Metalsmith is saying. Please, I could use your help to calm them down...it appears that the other gentleman is making him uneasy."

Without much more of a word, the remainder of the sandwich stuffed into her mouth, Marianne made her way to where Calvin was. Despite whatever she had heard come out of his mouth (only half of which she really understood in his frenzy) she could not help but feel attached to him, as his was one of the first two faces she saw when she arrived to this place. It pained her seeing his skin stretched so tightly across his muscles, and his eyes fervent. It looked almost like he was a trapped animal with a case of melancholia, and it almost reminded her of her earlier state.

"Sir, please." she gave Davis a curt smile, knowing him only as the man who walked right past her out of the break-room. If he would rile up Calvin, it would not be in Marianne's favour. She needed to know the truth. "...I would appreciate the opportunity to speak to Calvin. Would that be alright?"

She played a little with the ends of her hair, twirling them around her wrist as her eyes shifted from Perfection to Calvin, and back again. "I apologise sincerely for interrupting your discussion. I would be honoured if you would let me join it, however."

Her attention was moved to the metalsmith, and behind her, she gestured gently between the Infinite Monk and Davis. She did not know what exactly would occur, but she hoped that the roboman would have a way to calm the ignited Infinite Conquest down.

"Calvin." she began gently. She gauged the situation before deciding carefully to try and understand the man's point of view as well. She placed one of her hands on top of the heavy gauntlets he wore. Then, careful still, she held the hefty gauntlet in both her hands. She would have almost recoiled at the cold of the metal and how it was so different from the usual feeling of human skin. That being said, if she would have touched his skin at this point, things would not have been much better.
The woman wanted answers.

"...please, be easy. I don't think anyone will hurt you here." she tried to be convincing, but her voice shook as she couldn't account for all the infinites in the room. "I need you to repeat that for me, very slowly."

Deja-vu, she'd already asked him something almost the exact same less than an hour ago.

"I promise I will hold no judgement of you. However I ask you, please...please tell me what is happening. Is someone truly dead?"
She paused.
"...please, Calvin." she urged, her hands holding a little bit tighter to the gauntlet. In any other circumstance this may have been strange, but the woman needed answers. Besides, it was probably the least strange thing since waking up in this place.
"I want to know exactly what's going on."