Once Emily told most of the others about the breakfast going on in the dining room, she began heading back, but as she walked she stared down at her E-handbook looking through it and getting to know everyone's names as she strolled slowly to make sure she wouldn't walk into a wall or down the stairs, she read each of the infinites' abilities and skills, she was surprised that there was a Politician in the hospital and among them, then she saw one called a streamer, she didn't really know what streaming was but if it was about making streams and rivers she would be surprised someone like her dressed like that would be digging rivers or streams, she made a mental note to question Mary about what a streamer is.

Then she came across one of the infinites that had the skill of being a trap of some sorts, Ellie cocked an eyebrow wondering if the handbook had a glitch or was broken, but after right swiping a couple times she noticed that it wasn't broken and went back to Caora, she stared at the handbook and questioned what a trap could be. She thought to herself if they were just good at making traps like hunters would, but after looking at the girl in the handbook she didn't look exactly like a hunter and nothing gave Ellie the idea she was.

The Caretaker swiped right and looked at the others before coming across Alice who was titled Recon, again Ellie thought about the word for a moment wondering what recon really was and soon recognized that it was something that soldiers do, she didn't know what it was, but she knew soldiers would do it, but she didn't think that someone here would be a soldier. She swiped again, then came across Felix who was the professional Free runner, she didn't think that running would be useful in this situation really, she then noticed that he was young, not as young as Thomas and just a year older than Rika.

Thinking about Rika, Ellie wondered if she was okay without her bandages on, she was kinda like Isaiah but worst off, but also better off; she hoped that both of them were okay and that Isaiah found what he needed when he left. Ellie then remembered the doctor that asked about her body and thought of it as insensitive to ask of such a thing in a public place, hospital or not, someone could've walked up to them as she asked about her breast. Emily sighed before putting away her E-handbook and speaking aloud to herself."What a horrible predicament we are in." Before sighing and remembering Mason and Quill in a brief flashback, then the thought of another person came to her mind and she shook her blue ponytail from side to side to forget about it, beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as her breathing grew heavy, she then remembered the scream that Quill had during her execution, it was strangely deep for a woman's screams, but Ellie remembered it as Quill's.

Once she returned to the dining hall she had built up a sweat and was constantly wiping it from her forehead as she tried to calm down, she felt the back of her pants for her journal, once it met her hands Ellie calmed down a little and put into her pocket looking at the others trying her best to not draw too much attention to herself or look like she was going through something. Emily remembered Mason's body again, this time his body was caked with dirt and ash, somehow she knew how he screamed and it echoed through her mind, she held the bridge of her nose putting the thought of his death behind her." Nobody else should die." she mumbled to herself.

While it would have been much more preferable to head out in front leading the group, Aleecia ended up walking along in between Rika and Calvin a step or two behind, not knowing exactly where to go. Nariko had disappeared at one point, and while that made Aleecia feel sad, it probably would just make everyone else feel uncomfortable to have her around for now. The robot didn't seem to want to cause harm, but she didn't really have a choice, so there wasn't much of a chance of anyone else trusting her besides the Infinite Dice Master.

As they walked, Calvin was nice enough to explain what was in hospital wing on the second floor, but didn't get as far as to say the resort half before they came upon the Diner. His voice trailed off and Aleecia could hear voices coming from inside. Stepping forward, Aleecia felt for the door and pushed it open. There seemed to be a group of Infinites talking in one direction, but she could tell there were other people eating quietly in the room.

With the thought of this, Aleecia remembered her complete lack of socializing over her time stuck in this game. After what had happened with Shona, the blind girl had become completely dejected. What had really happened? There had been so many sounds and cries, and while Aleecia had gone out to save Calvin, that night had come with the realization that she couldn't do anything. She had only been able to stand there, not even able to watch in horror. Her insides had chilled and her heart hurt. Instead of mourning with the others, she mourned in her room.

If there was any silver lining to staying away from everyone, it was that her relationship with Ice grew. He'd come to check on her every once in a while, admitting that he wasn't exactly ready to face the others either. Ice had shared companionable silence with her and they had helped each other out if one of them felt nauseous or sick. So Aleecia's friend count had gone up a notch, which kept her loneliness from resurfacing.

The trial had taken everything out of her. She did her best to follow along with what everyone was saying, and had even added in important theories every now and again, but she was strained and in pain. Something was hurting in her head much worse than any pain she had felt in years. She had barely kept herself from trembling and grabbing at her head, but after the trial, she just couldn't take it anymore. Everything else had been a blur. The sound of Ice's worried exclamations, suddenly waking up in a pod to hear Krista and some other girl she didn't know. The two had frightened her, but luckily Ice had been there to calm her down. It was nice to know that the people she had met before still wanted anything to do with her... But what about the supposed new people?

Sure, Aleecia had taken glances at them during at the Court of Carnage, and they must have taken notice of her, but she had interacted with them. And after finding out that one of the newer Infinites had been the first blackened.

Aleecia broke out into a cold sweat, but slowly put one foot in front of the other. The voices of the group sounded familiar, was that Mary? But she was also... She sounded like she was crying. Would it be okay to intervene? Aleecia held her hand out until she felt a chair and took a seat. Just take a second, a minute, an hour. Get your head around your problems and push them away.

---

Ice had never been the social chardonai. He was always working or... pretty much anything and everything except making friends and having a social life. His time at the hospital was normally spent reading books he had checked out from the nearby public library, but only now did Ice wish he had bought a few so that they would have arrived in this game along with his other belongings. His time spent with others had gone up exponentially and... Now they all knew more about him then anyone bloody should. Honestly, all this yammering and trying had left the poor Blood Donor exhausted.

Which was why he was grateful to be by himself as he arrived at the ER. No one really went to the hospital wing on the first floor except for Calvin to go to the crematorium. With the knowledge that he wouldn't be running into anyone, Ice went searching for some kind of sling. After a bit of time, the Blood Donor found what he was looking for, but there wasn't much that could be done about a cast. Ice would have to venture around the hospital facilities later on, maybe even have to wait for a new floor to open before he could get proper medical treatment.

But to open a new floor... Was Ice even in any condition to try and fight another Carnage Sister Chassis? With this busted hand of his, he'd be much slower in a fight, when he was already so much slower than the sisters normally. How could he help, how could he not be some bloodied burden?

Ice walked out into the hospital hallway and tried to stop the tremors flowing through his body, the back of his skull hurt from resisting his memories. Now was not the time to go off the deep end, and he sure as hell wasn't going to. Ice breathed heavily as he leaned against the ER's wall for what felt like hours. Think of Aleecia, Krista, god even Rika, anyone to keep him from thinking of his siblings or that retched snake.

With a strained sigh, Ice brushed the bangs out of his eyes and started moving to exit the resort, when he spied another door. One that he had never wanted to venture into. There hadn't been much time to fully examine it before, but what about now? It would surely distract him and if she came... Then he wouldn't have to play nicecites like he had to with everyone else. His face quirked in a small sarcastic grin. So what would she do?

Ice had never gotten around to checking out the different facilities in the Hospital Wing, so he took his time to look through the different rooms on the first floor. Partly because he wanted to double check if there was anything of use to him, but mostly because his earlier resolve was slightly fading. The post had stationary, which would be good maybe good in the future, but even better was the intercom. Ice had completely forgotten about how Caora had used it before and would take it into consideration. It was certainly a great instrument to create the perfect alibi.

The Physiology Ward looked like it would interest anyone that did anything athletic like maybe Felix, but Ice couldn’t find anything he could use it for. There were weights, that could be used as weapon, but some had too much rubber to be used in Calvin’s forge. Besides the crematorium, the offices were probably the most snoop worthy, but Ice would have to get back to that room at a later date, his brain was already exhausted and he didn’t need to stare at small text for a long period of time. Plus, in reality, Ice was terrible with computers.

There wasn’t anything else to peruse, so Ice heading over to the crematorium. A sign was placed on the front labeled “KEEP OUT SICKIES” in a cutsie font that was far too out of place here, so much so that Ice shivered. The complete white of the room was getting to him, spilled blood here would be an ugly mess.

Hardening his resolve, the Blood Donor came up to the door and tried the handle. It was locked, obviously. This was of course why Calvin had needed her E-Handbook, in order to get inside. Ice knew that he was going to lose any element of surprise and sighed, before his earlier mood struck him. How about having a little heart-to-heart with a robot’s metallic pithy core?

Ice gave a sturdy knock with the back of his hand, leaning against the doorway.

Ice's rhythmic knocking filled the quiet air with an echo, if only briefly. Ice hadn't noticed it until now, but it was deathly quiet. He could actually hear the sound of blood running through the vessels around his ears. It was a high pitched buzzing sound, and it made him uneasy. Most people would have stopped to wonder what they were doing off on their own. Lonely people made ideal victims after all. But Ice caught something in the corner of his eye. When the blood donor turned around, he could see Alexandria standing there with her spear, unmoving. If it weren't for her glowing blue eyes, he might of thought she was powered off.

“So... Uh, Salutations.” Had Ice thought this through? No way. Was he going to keep going? Oak postal. He brought his right hand up to scratch at his suddenly, oh so itchy neck. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to open up the crematorium for me? Oh wait, scratch that. Can I see your room? I just wanted to check something, and um...” Again, the silence screamed out in between them, “Calvin says you really spruced up the place with your decorations.”

The robot giggled and placed a hand on it's stomach. Alexandria was moving again. Perhaps not as smooth as a human, but more than she previously was. “You're so adorable when you try to fib! I can see and hear and smell you from the hidden cameras.” The sister stopped herself. “Waaah, Okay, maybe not smell. That's a blessing though. I don't think I'd enjoy booping people if I could smell them. Ugh!” she giggled again. “But the point still stands, Ice cream. You either lied or my memory got wiped out, and we're too far along for an amnesia sub plot!”

A chill ran through him. His flattery had gotten him nowhere except even more at the mercy of the robotic girl. Ice had thought that if he could sweet talk her with Calvin, maybe he could push past, and yet... It was all for not. “I see.” He wiped the worried look off his face while brushing his bangs out of his eyes. “I guess I’d better stop my tongue from spinning lies then, you’re too smart for them to work anyway.” He stepped off of the wall so that he wasn’t leaning anymore, “But my request still stands, I’d like to check out the room.” Ice would have rather crossed his arms, but he couldn’t really do that as he was now. “I’d love to take a snippet of your time to ask a few questions as well.” A bead of sweat slipped down the back of his neck.

“I'm sorry ice cream, but I'm not the kind of robot that's willing to let any girl into her room. I have standards! Besides, I know you can't make-” Her eyes started to cross. “M-m-m-make-” Her eyes were rolling around so fast and in so many different directions, no human could possibly do it. “M-m-mm-m-u-u-u-u-UPGRADES!” Her hand flew over her mouth. “I'm sorry ice cream, that was a very indecent thing for your nurse say. But you were fooling around with Rika earlier, so I guess it's okay.” She twirled her spear before resting it on her shoulders. “But I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.”

Ice was going to have to ignore the name calling if he wanted to stay calm and collected. It seemed as though the robot gave everyone a nickname, and he was no different. When she started getting out of control, it was a good thing that Ice had his feet planted. Alexandria was far too unpredictable and that terrified him. It was funny, the way that she made his veins run ice cold but not in the same way he came upon his standard nickname.

All of a sudden, the Blood Donor remembered what had happened earlier and his face turned a deep maroon, “T-That- That was... I didn’t me-” He couldn’t help flashing back to that moment and his face went an even darker red. He tried to cover it, so that his enemy couldn’t see his overwhelming embarrassment. It was too bad he wouldn’t be able to peer inside the crematorium, maybe he would really have to ask Calvin, if he could do so without them getting into a shouting match.

With a sigh, the man walked over to one of the seats in the waiting area and put held his head up with his arm against the headrest. “Well, not to put you in the hot seat or anything but... Both Monokuma and you sisters can see everything through hidden cameras at all times? Or rather, do you have to check in someplace?”

“Unless the night of carnage is going, we can more or less see everything.” She shrugged. “Though we aren't supposed to interfere too much. We could have saved Mondatta, but then there wouldn't have been a case. Which goes against our rules. ” Alexandria pointed at Ice's hand. “By the way, do you need help with that? It looks like a pretty big ouchy, and I am a nurse.”

So they could see everything that happened, and they could probably see everything too. That meant no surprise attacks, which Ice pretty much knew already. And they couldn’t intervene during a murder, that was a strong point to remember too. When the robot motioned to his hand, he stiffened. That was quite the question. Should Ice go ahead and let them look at his hand, when they were the reason all of this had happened? Would it look weak to accept her help? But he didn’t want to offend her by not letting her do her job either...

“Could you? I wouldn’t think you sisters would help unless it was life-threatening.” Obviously Ice wasn’t the type to ask for help directly, but he sure as hell needed it. Plus, if he could be in the fight against the next chassis, he was all for it.

The robot folded her spear in half and tucked it inside her nurse's outfit. “Alright, Let's take a look at that boo-boo.” Alexandria approached Ice and took his hand in her own. She felt pretty cold, but it wasn't any more unpleasant than leaving his hand like that. “Yea, that's a pretty bad ouchie, I'll take care of it. ” Alexandria pulled out some sturdy tongue depressors and placed them along the back of Ice's fingers. She then started to wrap each finger individually in bandages. “So why did you really want to go into my room huh?”

Sharp pangs and tremors of pain ran through Ice’s hand as she did so. Not because she wasn’t gentle, only because of how damaged the hand had gotten. Ice watched her wordlessly, handing over the sling he had found as well so she could tie it. The Blood Donor didn’t have the three hands needed to fix it, let alone two working ones.

Ice tried his best not to look shaken by the robot’s question. “I wanted to know the inner workings of the crematorium and how Calvin is able to use it as a forge. Plus...” It seemed he couldn’t hold himself back, “What does monokuma do with the cadavers after the trial and execution?” He sounded both desperate and calm, angry and pitiful, a weird range of emotion all bundled up into one glance.

While Alexandria was always smiling, Ice could feel like his question really made her day. “Oh, you don't need to know that. It's all kinds of yucky!” The nurse had finished wrapping his fingers, and was now wrapping his entire hand. It was starting to look like a giant snowball. “But I definitely wouldn't want any sickies in my room, save Calvy poo. But you don't have to worry about that. It's probably best if you don't think about it. Corpses are actually kinda gross.” Alexandria cut the bandage at his hand and started to wrap it around his arm and torso. She seemed to be making a cloth sling.

Ice stared at the space in between him and the robot, trying to come to terms with this. He wanted- he needed closure. So how the hell was he going to get it with that? All this made him want to curse at Monokuma or, better yet, Davis. That Quack needed to pay for not letting him kill the snake before he could give himself such a quick ending. “What... Do you like about him so much? His face?” Ice was being a little blunter, then he probably should’ve been, but he was trying to tear his mind away from last night.

“He's a metalworker! Who else would be friends with a bunch of robots?” she giggled.

Ice couldn’t help but remember this morning when he had witnessed Aleecia in Nariko’s lap. “You mean you like his upgrades, right?” It didn’t seem like Calvin and Alexandria had anything like what Nariko and Aleecia had. Well, there was also the relationship only being one-sided at best.

“I like h-h-his?” Steam shot out of the robot's ears. “H-he has okay looking upgrades, sure.” Alexandria stepped away from ice. “For you to come out and say it like that though, I didn't know you were that, um, direct?” Alexandria turned around. “A-anyway, I suppose he's a nice boy too. He doesn't look under a woman's clothes or ask them who's upgrades they like best. Hmph!” Alexandria started to quickly tiptoe away. Her outfit clung too tightly to her legs for her to walk normally. “So indecent, so indecent!” she repeated like a mantra as she walked away from ice.

That wasn’t exactly the reaction Ice was expecting to get. There had been something weird when she had brought it up in the first place, but was ‘upgrades’ some kind of euphemism or something? Whatever it was, Ice had lost his chance to ask more questions and he couldn’t help cursing under his breath. Operation honeypot hadn’t worked at all, and not even because he was awkward and not good at socializing.
It was that walkman Ruella’s fault, all of it! He could have explained away the euphemism, but after the stunt Rika pulled... Ice sat there with his face in his hand for a while. How was he supposed to get information and pray tell how was he supposed to keep everyone safe?! This screw loose, metal pinata was head over popsicles for Calvin, and that could not end well. Her happy-go-lucky personality made him feel like he was trying to maneuver a maze of spikes.

The best thing to do would be to keep an eye on the metalworker. Nariko would hopefully do something to protect Allie and that Ruella would surely help. His headache blurred his vision for a second and he punched the armrest. Blimey, he needed to get one of those candies he’d gotten from Calvin. Grab a sweet and then go find the boy, that was the Blood Donor’s plan.

Now that he had thought about it, Zach did not necessarily need to start with Calvin. In truth, to some extent he did owe the entirety of the group save Cyrus an apology of some kind. Calvin was one of the more obvious ones, but there was also poor Krista whom was attacked by Jezebel on his behalf.

Hmm…

Zachary, having felt he pondered the subject longer than he should, finally decided to escape the break room and move on with the plan. The first phase involved actually meeting up with someone, and since this was also to perhaps become better with people who weren't Jez, this meant he was going to try doubly hard! It was two goals in one! And with the delusional expectation of twice the EXP and GIL, Zachary decided to strike at the heart of a likely enemy stronghold --- The Dining Hall!

With a final pun, Krista excused herself from Felix’s company. With the impromptu plan in mind, Krista felt she needed some time to figure out how to make her idea into a reality. Felix’s help was not going to be enough, but who else could she ask? It felt like she was choosing her teammates for a PE class and being the picker always made her uncomfortable.

Growl.

Like many others, Krista took a plate of delicious looking food from the kitchen before returning to the slowly emptying dining hall. She saw Braden sitting on his own, Cyrus ditching him immediately to talk to Bliss, even Daimyon seemed to be busy going by the way he rushed out of the room. There was still one more person in the room and after realising who he was, Krista made a beeline towards him. Standing next to his table with a plate in her hand, Krista gave him a sheepish smile. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Jitsu wa watashi wa…

"Actually, I was looking for you." Zach replied, a rather serious look to his face. "I wanted to talk to you about the things that happened during the trial, if that's okay."

Perhaps the most convenient scenario had come to be. She had sought him out, while he was looking for her. That surely beats sitting around for god knows how long, twiddling his thumbs. He'd heard through the grapevine that Calvin wasn't the most approachable individual while he was working, and as far as Zach knew, Calvin was probably working right now. Krista was surely easier to speak to, then. Preparation for the bossfight he might have later.

Of course, like many things, these worries weren't likely warranted. Merely the side effect of Zach's rather discreet social anxiety.

That was very convenient indeed. The violinist gave Zach a bright smile, almost from relief as she took a seat at the table. It had been her goal to apologise to a couple people for her behaviour at the trial: namely Zachary and Jezabel. Whilst she may not have used insults like Jezabel or Cyrus, it still ate her up inside knowing she defended Shaun so blindly without even trying to consider Jezabel’s side.

“But before we do… I’d like to apologise to you.” It was so tempting to just avert her eyes and mumble a quick apology, but Krista wanted Zach to know she was sincere. “I… shouldn’t have been so quick to think of you as the blackened.”

"Eh?"

Noticeably off put by Krista's apology, Zachary's rather stoic look shattered and was replaced with a worried expression. He waved his hands somewhat frantically in front of him. "Err, that's not... right. I was supposed to be the one to apologize here." He claimed. "I was acting very immature and at the time it made a lot more sense to suspect me. And I need to also apologize for Jezebel. If I had stood up for myself, she would not have needed to get so... erm, well, 'heated'."

Krista scratched her cheek, awkwardly laughing to herself. “It’s not like we were so innocent either, I mean, Cyrus wasn’t so nice to you. I’m sorry for that too, I never meant for it to go so far.” She then began to play with the food on her plate with her fork, her eyes averting this time. “Besides. Jezabel wanted to help you, I can’t fault her for that. I did the same for Shaun, only that I was wrong to put my trust in him. So really, Jezabel was right with some of the things she said.”

"She could have been a bit more polite about it, though. Resorting to ad hominem isn't something I'm a big fan of." he said. "I think out of the entire 'heated' group, you are probably the last person who needs to give an apology. All you did was trust someone you thought to be a friend. There's nothing wrong with that."

Krista laughed again, though it was out of obvious discomfort this time. Without stopping her game with her breakfast, Krista looked up at Zach. “It… is a little more complicated than that I’m afraid. I… wanted to protect Shaun because I was in his shoes the trial before— except not a blackened but…” Krista stopped, forcefully digging into her pancakes as if they were a distraction. “I don’t know if you haven’t already guessed but I’m never in tune with what’s going on with others. Everyone else here is smart… or strong. I’m just a girl with a violin who thinks she’s funny. It was silly for me to get involved with the trial so much when it was painfully clear I knew nothing. I feel guilty because of it… which is why I wanted to apologise as soon as I could.”

“If anything, to me that sounds more admirable. Almost like something a JRPG hero would do.” Zachary gave a small smile while trying to fight the urge to, when Krista mentioned the line about being ‘in tune with what’s going on’, ask her if that was intentional. She seemed quite serious, but maybe she subconsciously used that particular phrasing? Well, whatever the Violinists’ reasons, he thought for a moment before answering.

“I really wouldn’t say ‘everybody else’, personally, but I do understand how you feel.” losing his smile with a sigh, he continued. “I… am afraid that if I am to be completely serious right now, I too feel inadequate in comparison to the cast, particularly after my performance in that trial. All I’m good for is shooting a bow, which was only useful in that one specific instance. I’m really in no position to give any meaningful words of encouragement.”

“... but even so, I don’t think you need to apologize, least of all to me. Unfortunately, without a gag of some sort, I can’t exactly stop you.”

There was a long silence from Krista before she began to laugh once again. The conversation seemed to be going nowhere and all they could do is apologise and assure the other there was no need to. Maybe they were Canadians in another life? “I think you’re pretty strong. Who else could have a showdown with Geina and come out alive like that? It was silly to get into a shooting competition with a robot... no less a robot that is pretty much itching to kill us all…” Was this another one of her attempts to make him feel better? How? “On a high note however, I still think that’s pretty badass!”

She gave Zach a bright smile. The sudden shift in mood an obvious attempt from the violinist to lighten things up. She looked around the room once again, only to realise something. “Where’s Jezabel? I thought you two would be hanging around today.”

It was nice to see the mood improved between them. Honestly, he wished he was better at lightening the mood than he was. He'd long-since strayed from his character sheet given personality and become something else, but perhaps eventually he'd grow into the OC he was supposed to be? Only time would tell. For now, he gave a soft laugh at the italicized line Krista gave, having caught on.

"I C what you did there. Don't tell anybody, but I'm quite the fan of puns, no matter how awful they are. In fact, were we characters in a novel of some sort, you'd see that I actually made a pun there." Ackerson briefly pondered whether or not he should make archery puns rather than ones related to music. Was that overstepping his bounds? Was there some sort of pun boundary he shouldn't be crossing? Oh well. "I'd like to think that when we all get out of this place, people will continue to believe I did something interesting during that conflict with Geina. It makes me sound a lot cooler than I am."

Upon being asked about Jez, he smiled. "Oh, she told me we needed some time apart. That we should see other people and all of that."

Someone else that has an appreciation for puns? After many days of people barely reacting or reacting poorly to her puns, it was a blessing to find somebody that actually liked them. “Ooh~ You’re sharp! I like it!” She faintly realised she was beginning to reuse some of her old puns again... Maybe it was time for a change. “Let’s be honest with ourselves. People that like puns are totally cooler than those that don’t so by that logic, you’re pretty cool even if nothing had happened with Geina.” She couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows at the wording Zachary used as Zach answered her question about Jez. It was a little disappointing to know that they were keeping some space between them, but why?

Krista then leaned close on her elbows, her chin supported by her open palms. Maybe there was something going on between them? Curious… It made her realise she did not know much about the Archer in front of her. “If you don’t mind me asking… why were you in Axis Mundi anyway? You seem perfectly fine—” Almost realising what she was saying, Krista panicked. “B-but it’s fine if you’re not, we’re in a hospital after all!”

"You know, I can't really find any faults in your statement, so it must be true." Judging from how happy she seemed from his reaction to her pun, Zachary was going to take a wild guess and say that the rest of the cast did not seem to be as appreciative. How unfortunate. What kind of people was he locked up with?!

Upon being asked about his reason for staying in Axis Mundi, Zach's expression... didn't seem as bright as it was a second before. "Ah, it's okay. I wasn't here for myself. I was actually here for my father, who was undergoing a small surgery at the time all of this stuff began." he rubbed his chin. "Though I could ask the same of you, Krista. You don't seem like you belong in a hospital."

Once again the mood shifted and Krista did not know what to do. This was supposed to be light hearted, stop making your conversational partner sad damn it! However, when family was involved… Krista nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry, I hope everything has gone well!” She even clasped her hands together, her utensils laid forgotten on her plate. “Funnily enough, I have a very similar reason actually. My little brother had his appendix taken out and was just recovering from his surgery. Do you have siblings too?”

“...no, I am afraid I do not. But I hope his recovery goes well.” he mustered another smile. “I am sorry, I was just reminded that I don’t know what’s going on with my father, I hope he’s doing well. But, it’s kind of funny. I was worried I was one of the few who wasn’t here because of injuries or something like that.” he took a small pause before continuing. “Felt like an odd one out of the group, but I haven’t exactly asked anybody their situation and have only assumed so far.”

Zachary let out a sigh. “You know, I think we share a trait, you and I. Not just that we enjoy puns, but I feel so far that we’re really good at trading moods. So, in a very blunt and obvious way, let's switch to something that cannot cause us harm.

What’s your favorite kind of food? I like strawberries, personally.”

It was a good idea. No matter how much she loved her brother, talking about him or family in general made her miss him far too much to be a fun partner to converse with. The change in mood from upbeat to down back to upbeat was definitely giving Krista a mental whiplash, and so Krista gave the Archer a grateful smile at the change of topic, even laughing at the silliness.

Until… the laughing stopped. “Did you just say you love strawberries too?” Was this a very… freaky coincidence or did she just find her male twin? “I LOVE strawberries! Oh my gosh! Oranges are just as great too but if strawberries exist, why have anything else?” She pressed her hand against her face excitedly, her green eyes clouding over as she began fantasising over the taste of her favourite desserts. Speaking of favourites...

She shoved her hand into her dress pocket, pulling out her handbook and… some strawberry flavoured gum. Krista slipped a piece into her mouth before offering the package to Zach while chewing thoughtfully. “Have some!”

Almost cautiously, Zachary took a piece of gum and threw it in his mouth. He was a bit surprised by her enthusiastic reply. However, this would prove unnecessary, as the sweet, delicious taste of strawberries was something he could never get tired of, whatever form it took. Another person who appreciated puns and strawberries couldn't be bad, in his book.

"This is great! Very great!" he exclaimed, throwing a wide grin at her. Could she be him from another life? A FemZach? Well, she was missing the talent with a bow... well, actually, technically she was using another bow, was she not? Good enough! No matter what happened, he was now sure this was just his alternate reality self. Perhaps dealing with other people wouldn't be as hard as he'd originally thought!

"Okay, okay, so then... do you have any hobbies, aside from the obvious?"

Krista hummed to herself, an acknowledgement that she was thinking about her answer. “Unfortunately I’ve been too busy to pursue any other hobbies because I have to take care of my brother.” She rubbed her chin, lips pouting. “But, I do like watching nature documentaries! I just love watching animals do their thing! It also gives me some.. somewhat useless facts about animals, but they’re pretty cool nonetheless! Like, did you know that a housefly hums at a specific key? Middle octave, key F?”

“I’ll have to admit that until just now, I did not.” he replied.

Before she could weird out her new friend too much, Krista decided to think of another question. “Do you have any pets?”

Zach couldn’t help but smile. He definitely loved animals, at least the ones he considered family. “I do. I have a big, fluffy dog named Charles. He’s got some kind of lab mixed in with another breed, but I always forget, unfortunately. All I know is he’s got the weirdest habit of licking the air if you scratch on the area above his tail.” noticing he was about to go off on poor Krista about his doggo, he stopped. “Err, well, I think he might be a bit lower functioning as far as dogs go, but he’s adorable. How about you? You must have some kind of pet, yeah?”

She shook her head at his question. Krista was almost disappointed as Zach stopped describing his dog. Their light hearted conversation gave her a semblance of normality in such a strange situation. “Unfortunately no. I’ve never had a pet though… I think if I do have one, I’d have a cat. I might be a dog person but they do seem like a lot of effort. Does this mean you’re a dog person too? Do I have to call you my twin after this?”

Zach put a finger to his chin and thought deeply.

"You know what? You're probably on to something, because I am certainly a dog person. I can't help but smile around them." he was grinning almost like an idiot at this point, clearly enjoying the conversation they were having. "I don't mind cats, but... well, they mind me. I can't pet one with paying a blood toll or something. Dogs are friendly as can be with me though. I wish we had this chat a bit earlier, truthfully. It's very enjoyable to talk to you."

“I like to think animals like me too, but I agree. Cats can be really moody. I guess they’re even catty, without the mean words... but who are we kidding? If it comes out that cats talk bad about us, I wouldn’t be very surprised at all. Dogs on the other hand? Sweethearts.” She returned his grin with one of her own, clearly enjoying herself as well. “Thank you for hearing me out, by the way. It was really enjoyable to talk to you too! I never expected to find my male twin here of all places! That was fun!”

She then grew quiet, pondering for a moment before asking something that was on her mind while trying to keep the lighthearted mood. “I’d like to apologise to Jezabel too, sometime soon.” She told Zach. From what she could tell, they were the closest to each other. “Do you think she’d accept?” Krista did not think Jezabel was the type to hold grudges, but Krista was not sure whether believing her instinct was a good idea anymore.

“I think… that’s a great idea.” he finally said. Zach trusted Jezebel and she trusted him, but he did not want to pretend that he knew her too well, considering they’d only met a little while ago. There were still many things they would need to speak about before he could safely say that, but he could not imagine any reason why Jezebel would really wish to keep an antagonistic attitude between her and Krista, especially when she had obviously realized the importance of having more than one ally down here. “I believe that Jezebel is mature. Much more than I am, so I can’t fathom a reason why she wouldn’t accept smoothing things over between the two of you.”

Krista released a relieved breath, giving Zach another grateful smile for the assurance. She rubbed her chin as began thinking deeper about everything else going on, making a mental checklist of everything she had to do for the day. First, and most importantly, Krista had to apologise to Zach and Jezebel. Half down, half to go. Next: finally go check out Nariko’s room. Thirdly: plan how she’d do the thing with Felix… wait…

“Hey. Random question, but we’ve asked plenty already so what’s one more, right? What sort of music do you like?”

Raising an eyebrow and looking up and to the left as he thought about the question, he answered simply. “I like music in most of its forms. I can listen to rock, metal, country, pop, and pretty much anything that isn’t most rap, really.” he didn’t look Krista in the eyes as he continued, perhaps because he was a bit embarrassed. “Lately… I’ve been listening to a bit of classical pieces, and a lot of soundtracks from games and other stuff I enjoyed. It’s a bit weird, I know, but I tend to prefer instrumental music. Don’t laugh but… to me, there’s more… well, character in the music, even without lyrics.”

A vague answer, but something Krista could identify with. Music, to her, was beautiful in every form, even if she had her own preferences. “My roots in music definitely come from classical. The best violin teacher I’ve ever known made me realise how powerful Bach’s sonatas were back when I was still a wee lass.” Towards the final part of her sentence, Krista used what was supposed to be her attempt at a Scottish accent with an impish grin, despite it being completely irrelevant to the subject. “Do you play an instrument?”

Zach’s expression went blank. “Look, Krista… we’re pretty chill and all, but that’s something you just don’t ask someone you’re not intimate with. I like you, but you need to switch gears, like, right now. Because if I answer truthfully, well, you won’t be known as the best musician in the group anymore.” he seemed dead serious, but then began grinning.

“It’s not a publically-known fact, but I am actually the number 1 Kazoo player in the world.”

Zach’s serious tone at first threw Krista off. Intimate? Her cheeks reddened until… oh. “Is that a challenge, Mister Archer?” She crossed her arms against her chest, leaning on the table while playing along. “If that’s the case, how about we duet?”

“A duet?” he asked, curious. “Unwilling to set unrealistic expectations for the competition, I have not performed in front of an audience before. Haha…”

He was totally not nervous about anything. For sure.

“Alright, sure. You lyre.” Krista giggled, teasing the Archer in front of her. “What about a private duet then? There’s no audience except for… well, me I guess.”

The archer thought about it for a moment, nodding slowly once he had come to a conclusion. “Alright. That seems like something I wouldn’t mind.” he told her. In truth, Krista was perhaps the worst one to have as an audience, if only because her Quirk was being good with an instrument. Zach thought pondered the horrid thought of her judging his skills with a kazoo harshly only momentarily before he realized that it was very unlikely that the Krista he was speaking to was that kind of person.

Hopefully.

“...Of course I have to ask, does this place even have such an obscure and priceless instrument?” Zachary was sure that if anybody were to hear their conversation starting from his last sentence, they were sure to be disappointed when they’d eventually find out he was referring to a damned kazoo of all instruments. Oh well.

Krista pondered Zach’s question for a few moments. A kazoo was definitely a unique instrument, but was it common enough to be found in the music plaza? She faintly remembered finding flutes and all sorts of instruments at the music plaza during her last visit, so surely the Carnage Sisters had stocked a kazoo to appeal to Zach’s musical hobby. “We could look for it in the music plaza.” She finally answered. “It had everything the last time I visited, so I’d suggest we check there first.” It was undoubtedly clear that Krista seemed excited at the opportunity to duet with somebody. Would a kazoo and a violin even sound nice together? Who cares!

“I could go check the music plaza now! Ohh I’m really excited for this!” Krista slid out from her seat.

Zachary couldn’t honestly say he had the same enthusiasm as Krista, but if she was this happy at the thought of a duet, who was he to turn her down? Offering a warm smile, he stood up from his seat. “That sounds like the best place to start. Let's head off!” and, perhaps infected by her joy, the archer led the way towards the music plaza.

With a sigh, Alice stepped out of the study to make her way back upstairs. Her visit to Parker hadn't gone so well, but had her thinking. Could she be trusted? It was obvious that Cyrus didn't, more or less the politician despised her slightly, but the recon wasn't sure about Braden. Elias seemed to trust her, but without the puppets, would the ventriloquist say otherwise?

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Alice's atention was turned to something a bit abnormal for her.

Her eyepatch.

Maybe it was from Mary calling her a cyclops, but the recon had to wonder what the others would think if she got rid of it. She really didn't want to be concidered weird, yet it looked like that was a bit too late. So with a deep breath, Alice grabed her eyepatch, and removed it from her face.



Behind it was a light blue eye, contrasting from the pure red others usually see. The recon stuffed the eyepatch into her pocket, before continuing her walk back to the second floor resort.

---

Calvin's eyes were slightly dark as he stood alone outside of the dining hall. Alexandria's latest warning stood out in his mind.

”I'm going to pay super extra attention to you from now on. I'll watch your every move, every interaction, and make sure no one can surpass me in your heart.”

He shook for a moment, but didn't allow it to stay for long. He took deep breaths. Imagined a fire. Felt his throat rise. Imagined his sister. Felt his temperature drop. He was in the middle of this when he noticed Alice approaching. He turned, a bit of colour coming to his cheeks. "Hey! Uh- Good work yesterday. That was..." He stopped for a moment, closing his eyes. "A lot."

"Hm?" Alice looked up to see the metalworker outside the dining hall. "Oh, uh, thank you." The recon replied, scratching the back of her head in subtle embarrassment. She didn't really think she did good in the last trial, so what Calvin said suprised her. "But yeah, that was a lot to take in... Are you alright?" Alice asked.

Calvin nodded a bit too quickly. "I'm fine!" He looked at the Infinite in the eyes, trying to get a read of her. But something was different -- "Holy shit!" He took in her light blue eye. "You took the eyepatch off? I thought maybe something had happened, but..." His anxiety seemed to melt away in light of the new discovery. "Why do you wear that thing, then?"

With an "Eep!", Alice had covered her blue eye back up with her hands, but still answered Calvin's questions. "I-I've always been self-conscious about my Heterochromia. I sometimes get worried about how people would react to it, s-so I wear my eyepatch to cover it up..." The recon replied, averting her eyes.

Something about the answer struck Calvin as genuine. Normally, he would have pursued, but it was clear that Alice was uncomfortable. "Well. I can't speak for the others, but I think we've got bigger shit to worry about than somebody's eyes. No time to worry about how we look in this fucking nightmare." He said, a bit sheepishly. He was aware of his haggard appearance, with bags under his eyes and a bit of a gaunt stare.

"So you don't think I look weird?" Alice asked, crossing her arms.

"No!" Calvin turned away for a moment. "You're a god damn terror. When we were against Alexandria, you were scary. That's what you're known for. Not the colours of your eyes, or whatever else we look like."

The recon's eyes momentarily widened from what the metalworker had said, she didn't know whether to be worried or to be amused, but she knew he had a point. "Y-You're right, sorry..." Alice apologized, averting her eyes again.

"It's alright! Seriously." He felt a bit of blood come to his cheeks, and he tried his best to calm down. "I just -- I don't know what's going to come next. But whatever it is, we're going to have to be at our best. Don't get in your head." He wished he could follow his own advice, and smiled a bit before looking down, his hand reaching to touch the back of his neck.

A smile crept onto Alice's face, as she couldn't help but giggle at Calvin's sheepishness.

---

It hadn't taken long for Ice to head back to his room, his urgency quickened his pace. That Ruella robot was too bananas to not worry and he was determined to stick to Calvin like glue. After having a fairy candy and sticking a few in his pocket, he made sure his chain was safely secured around his waist and started up towards the second floor. It was easy to assume that Calvin was in the Dining Hall, since that seemed to be where everyone would usually head to at one point or another.

It was actually a lot easier for Ice when he spotted the Metalworker talking to... someone outside the Dining Hall entrance. Now it wasn't that Ice didn't know faces, but there was always something that stood out about most people and she didn't- Oh... OH. It was the Infinite Recon, Alice Masson, she just wasn't wearing an eye patch anymore. Sure, it was insensitive of him to not recognize her, but there were many different people in this game and... He didn't have any excuse, at least for himself. Ice just would have to not mention it.

Her Heterochromia Iridium seemed interesting enough, but considering that he was here for Calvin, his mind slipped over to the boy facing away from him. With the memories of the last hour racing through his mind, he quickly walked over and grabbed the back of Calvin's collar, pulling him close.

"You solid?"

"The fuck?" Calvin spun, shoving Ice away and taking a step back himself. There was a moment of silence that passed, and Calvin took a deep breath. "Sorry." He said. His nerves had got the better of him. "I'm doing good." He shrugged lightly. "How are you holding up?"

Ice took a second to look him up and down, "Don't worry about me, worry about yourself. That-" His face grew pained as he remembered everything he said could be heard by monokuma, the sisters, and god knows who else. "Alexandria, I'm worried about her. She's... unpredictable." All this tension was definitely getting to him and it looked like the same was happening to the Metalworker, how the hell were they blasted supposed to talk about this with everyone listening in?!

Calvin's face drained of what little colour it had. "You talked to her?" The space between them closed. "Everyone should be steering clear of these fucking bots." His tone was not harsh, but there was a degree of steel to it that could not be mistaken.

"Wait, why would you even talk to "Ms. Kill For Love" ?" Alice spoke up from behind Calvin, her expression having turned to a more serious yet confused look. Calvin turned back to Alice, nodding vehemently.

It seemed as thought Calvin was at least taking the matter as seriously as Ice was, but still, Ice didn't want a replay of the first Night of Carnage. Ice sighed again and dropped down so that he was resting his hand and bandages on his knee, "Look, I wanted to check out the crematorium so... I knocked." So much for being able to spend the rest of the day with only his own companionship. This was giving him a migraine, seriously. His life was about to get even more stressful then before, especially with Calvin involved.

Alice sighed, as the recon's expression turned into a more concerned look than a confused one. "Well, if Alexandria tries anything stupid, I'll protect you guys." She reasured the other two, giving them a small smile.

'I won't hesitate to snap her neck again.'

"What the fuck do you want with the crematorium?" Calvin looked back at Alice, his voice hitching as he spoke. "I don't want anyone to protect anyone! We need to leave those things alone!"

"I didn't say 'we', nor did I say that we'll bother them. Just if they try to kill anyone, I'll keep you guys safe."

"About that..." He straightened up, bending backwards to stretch his back.

Alice's eyes widened in fear as she looked over to Ice. "If you fucked up something..."

"God damn it..." Calvin muttered, running a hand through his hair and looking at Ice carefully.

"Would you guys stop looking at me like I'm some reckless Donut? I do have some control..." Seriously, if he could just get a word in, everything might be okay. "I wanted to know... where they put the executed cadavers." He held up a hand, "But that's not the point. The point is that I don't want Calvin to get shish kababbed so..." His looked down, almost embarrassed, "I'm sticking to ya like gorilla glue. To hell and back and you can't get rid of me."

Calvin shook his head with a great deal of energy. "Jesus Christ, dude." Calvin was touched by the display, but something about it shook him. "I don't need a fucking chaperone or whatever, no one here does." Calvin crossed his arms "I was there for you before Ice, and I'll be there again. And I know you'll do the same. But I'm not someone who needs protecting. And I won't have anyone getting hurt by that fucking robot. Not again." There was metallic twang to his voice and his gauntlet-wearing hand curled into a fist before uncurling slowly. He looked back to Alice for support.

"Yeah no. You got held at spearpoint. I doubt that you'd be fine protecting yourself,"Alice bluntly stated. "and you cant rely on yourself forever, cause there will be times where you'll need help from others. I had to learn that the hard way..."

Ice gave Calvin a long, stubborn stare. His straight lined mouth hitched up slightly knowing that he had Alice on his side. Then again, since Ice wasn't used to smiling, it probably just looked creepy. With Alice's last line, he glanced over at her with slight concern, but he stopped himself from asking about it. He wasn't sure if he could protect everyone and he didn't want to get attached to anyone as much as Aleecia, Krista, and... Now Calvin. After a second, he started up his stubborn stare again, if not fiercer.

Calvin let out a long sigh, looking at both of the Infinites with dark eyes. "This isn't your call. I'm not fighting a carnage sister again. I'm not fighting anyone-"

"Wait a fucking minute." Before the metalworker can finish what he was saying, Alice had interupted him mid sentences with a mix of an unamused and confused look on her face. "We never said that we're fighting another carnage sister. And even if "we" did, I'm not letting you two risk your lives AGAIN. So let me make this clear." The recon explain, before grabing Calvin by the shoulders and shaking him.

"LET. ME. HANDLE. THE. DAMN. ROBOTS!!"

"Okay?"

Ice turned to look at Alice, touched, but also peeved in the exact same way as Calvin. It wasn't the most mature mood either, "I'm sure as hell fighting them! I don't give a diddly if I'm injured, I'll probably drop dead any minute anyway." He didn't exactly mean to add in a brush of self-deprivation, but Ice didn't care at this point.

"Holy shit. Are any of you fuckers real?" Despite himself, Calving was feeling far better than he had for most of the morning. "You can do what the fuck you want. But I'm telling you that I'm not a part of it, and I'm not making new shit for you." He raised his hands for emphasis. "You're not a hero, stop acting like one. You - We're supposed to be smarter than that!" He let his hands fall. "Heroes die. They talk shit, they do their best, then they're dead." He looked down, not wanting the others to see his face.

"Good, you shouldn't go into the crematorium anyway." He watched Calvin as the younger man went on a tangent about heroes and the like. But that wasn't what Ice was trying to be, "Calvin, I don't want to be a hero and I don't have to be."

"I just have to be a killer. A former killer isn't qualified to become a good person, so I'm not going to try." Ice picked at the bandage over his eye as it stung. It was not the time to feel that right now, but the overall despair of the situation was getting to him.

At that rate, Alice was getting tired of arguing against Calvin. So she slapped the metalworker across the face before releasing him from her grip. "Fine. But if Alexandria tries to bother you, I won't be there to help. You're on your own." the recon coldly stated, before walking away.

Calvin blinked, more surprised than anything. He brought a hand to his face, peeling off a glove and feeling it gently. "Holy. Hell." He looked at Ice for a moment. "I'm... Leave me the fuck alone." He began to walk back towards his room, his hunger forgotten after the series of events.

Ice turned to lean against the wall to the Dining Hall and let out a whistle, "Tough luck," he called after the Metalworker, before slowly following after him.

When learning about a person or people; anecdotes are the paragon of sources. How a person reacts to a situation is the very definition of human behavior; and this game was exactly that, an exercise in human behavior. When one can pinpoint exactly who someone is, that person can become predictable and malleable; quite literally a prisoner of their own making. This doesn’t always have to have malicious intentions; someone who is predictable becomes far less of a threat than someone who is not. If you didn’t kill anyone, then your chances of surviving in this killing game would increase many times. For someone with chances as destitute as Thomas, someone who didn’t inherit any advantages in this killing game besides his talent, creating their own advantages becomes a necessity. And the first step to create this advantage lay in his conversations with the other infinites, in these anecdotes that would unravel their person. In a sense, this was Thomas’s way of coping with the killing game, to remove as many threats as he could with the only method available to him. But if neutralizing a threat required Thomas to get his hands dirty…

The notebook in Thomas’s hand was a good starting point. Right now, his mind was a swarm of clashing ideas, theories, and excitement. Just a like a computer's memory, Thomas had to ‘write to the disk’ before he could think about anything else lest he forget anything. That’s why he initially came to the beach, and why he had just left it.

Although he had liked the idea of working on the beach, it was prudent that Thomas find somewhere he could be undisturbed. After the beach he had planned to return to his room, but one feature of the the first floor caught his attention - that of course being the study. He didn’t have a desk in his room and had planned on writing in the prone position. A desk would be far more pleasant.

And so that was where he ended up. Sitting facing one of the far sides of the study. If someone were to enter the study, they’d be able to look over his shoulder and see parts of what he was writing. Although the bottom of the notebook was obstructed, the top parts were not.

---

Inside the notebook there were pages, about a hundred and twenty eight of which were indexed in a makeshift table of contents that was indiscernible through Thomas’s messy handwriting. Every four pages there was a rough sketch of an individual from the killing game, and on the second page there was notes, seemingly about the individual. In very small handwriting, dotted around the sketches, were also what appeared to be notes that were once again indiscernible without a closer look. Finally, the third and fourth pages in this array were left blank. It was uncertain what exactly Thomas would put in them. His small handwriting left ample room on each page for notes, was he really going to write so much about the other infinities? Finally, an onlooker could see at the top of the pages a denotation of an infinite talent.

Thomas settled down and got to work filling out the pages.

---

After Max had a leisurely conversation with Noel, his rumbling stomach pulled him away from the dojo. He remembered Emily's suggestion, and went on his way towards the diner; the rumbling becoming ever louder as he got closer to the soothing smell of bacon.

Upon opening the doors to the diner, he was greeted with sights both new and old. Looking to one side of the room, he spotted Mary, and she looked like she just confessed to Caora, who was clinging to Bliss as if it was the end of the world. On the other side of the room sat aleecia, but as Emily was already approaching her, Max decided to approach the only person left on their own. Another girl with a cloak wrapped around her. Intent on greeting this new girl, Max took a few steps towards her.

"I see you've already found the vending machine. This facility doesn't offer many kinds of food, but at least the drinks are plentiful." A certain comforting tone under-laid Max's voice as he reached out his hand towards Rika. "I'm Max."

Once Max had turned his attention to Rika, she had sat on the floor next to the vending machine and stared up at his hand, he spoke to her as if she didn't know her way around the place, or was new here, she opened her mouth and played her tape recorder." Hello Rika, my name is Rika, good morning, good evening." The tape spoke for her."Been here before." The tape squeaked, then the words started to sound garbled."Been in the hospital before, know place, know area." She still didn't take his hand to shake it, only looking up at him with her good eye and closing the foggy one.

A mixture of surprise and confusion flew on max's face as Rika started talking through recorder about her being here before. this is certainly the first time he's seen Rika, so did she leave before Max arrived and came back now? or was she always there and just eluded Max all this time. Only one way to find out though.

"So you've been here before? Guess I won't have to explain what's going on then. that's a relief." He gave a short smile before putting on his more usual serious expression and scanning Rika's tape recorder. "So why do you use that tape recorder to talk?" As Max asked this, he spotted Emily closing the distance between her and the sheepish looking girl from the corner his eye.

---

After she wiped some beads of sweat from her forehead and composed herself, Ellie began looking around the dining hall, she noticed someone speaking with Rika and chose not to get in the middle of her conversation, she then noticed the one girl almost staring off into nothing, she had moments where she would close her eyes for long periods of time then open them for a moment, not knowing what could be wrong her, or if anything was actually wrong with her. Ellie slowly approached her and simply asked her." Are you okay?" she then reached her hand out to the young lady but didn't touch her. "Do you need any help or do you need the Infinite doctor?" She continued questioning the girl.

Aleecia turned her head towards the voice, trying to place the voice, but was unable to. "Oh! Um... I'm well, if that's what you're asking?" She gripped the folds of her green sweatshirt. "Is there something you need?" It took the girl a second before she realized she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Aleecia. Aleecia Marvic-" Before she could say another word, she seemed to trip over nothing and started to fall. Oh for heaven's sake!

The young girl turned to Emily, and answered her with a question, she asked Emily if she needed something before introducing herself to her, Ellie cocked her head to the side wondering if something really was wrong with her and as she started to tell the girl who she was." My name is Emi-" The young lady seemed to had tripped over her own two feet, Ellie leaned forwards into her and caught her before she could hit the floor and hurt herself."Careful, are you sure you are okay miss Marvic?" Ellie asked the girl bringing her back up to her feet.

The Dice Master's cheeks were redder than a newly painted firetruck as she tried to regain her balance, "Y-Yes! I'm completely healthy, just clumsy..." After being put back on her feet, Aleecia made sure at least one hand was balanced on the back of the chair she was sitting at earlier. "Let's redo that last bit, I'm Aleecia and you are?" She reached out a hand for a handshake.

Ellie nodded when Aleecia suggested that they re-do the last bit, she took Aleecia's hand with both of her hands and told the dice master." My name is Emily Rishimi, The infinite caretaker." She informed her, then the thoughts of Max asking how she was a caretaker came to the front of her mind and she explained it to her."I'm like Miss Bliss, but I mostly help sick and terminally ill people, but I'm not much of a nurse, so I help people who are disabled."

"Of course, Um... I'm the..." She bit her lip, not wanting to speak of it, "The Infinite Dice Master. Has anything happened since you arrived? I don't remember hearing you at the last trial." She gave the hands wrapped around hers a squeeze before letting them fall.

Once Aleecia let go, Ellie looked at the girl's eyes before telling her."Oh, I was in another game." The memory of Quill and Mason came to the front of her mind."Rika and a couple of the others were there. Sadly someone took the life of another and once we finished the trial we were here." She explained, Quill's execution flashed in her mind, every moment." Nothing really happened to me as I arrived here, everyone here is very friendly, if it were not for the being trapped part and someone dying, this wouldn't really be all to bad."

Aleecia opened her eyes briefly again, thinking back to when she could actually see the face of the person she was talking to. But it was far too bright in the room and she shut them quickly, scrunching at the pain the light brought. "I understand completely..." Sounds replayed in her head of the time of Shona's and lucas's deaths. Honestly, I've been in a coma for a while so I wasn't able to witness the latest trial. A small worry plagued her mind as she remembered she didn't even know who was dead. "So you were in another game with Rika? It's nice to know she had people like you at her side." She heard sounds of a tape recorder at the other end of the room and smiled, knowing that her friend was close.

"It was unfortunate what happened to Mason, Quill tried to pin the murder onto Rika and make us kill her, her reason for doing it was to get ahead or to escape. I don't know why she didn't want to murder Mason, I can't really remember, maybe even to hide something." She stopped speaking abruptly then recomposed herself and tried to change the subject, she noticed that the girl was in pain when she closed her eyes." Are your eyes okay?" She asked." Is there something wrong with your eyes?" She almost reached out to touch the girl's face but stopped herself before she could touch Aleecia's face feeling it to be rude to touch someone's face without permission.

At the sound of her previous acquaintances, Aleecia started to tremble, "M-Mason?" Her complexion grew pale as porcelain and she slowly sank back into the chair. "He's dead...?" Memories sprang from the back of her mind. Mason needing that caffeine fix, him swiping a sandwich from Felix. The time that no one was killing anyone, the time... When everyone had at least a little more trust in each other. Quill was a name she had heard, but never much interacted with. The woman had been known as the Infinite Model, but there's was no way Aleecia could put a face to a name. "That's... Very sad." She gripped hard onto her sweatshirt, trying to keep her eyes from dripping and biting her lip hard.

Shortly after, the Caretaker brought up her eyes, she straightened a little, "My eyes? I've not been able to really see out of them since I was twelve. Something's wrong with my brain, an aneurysm." She pushed a stray hair away from her face. How bad did her hair look today anyway? She had never been able to properly take care of it. Her cheeks heated up again.

Ellie couldn't control herself, once she heard the girl was blind, or had trouble seeing, she pulled Aleecia into a hug and rubbed her head as she hugged her, she almost shed a tear for Aleecia's condition."It's unfair how life can be to people sometimes." She brushed the back of Aleecia's head again feeling upset for the young lady's lack of sight." If you need anything, or have trouble with anything, I will always try to help." She told Aleecia." And don't feel as if you're a burden, because it's my job to help people who have a disability and can't do certain things. Aleecia I will always try to help you."

Aleecia's cheeks became much more red when she was suddenly embraced in a hug. While it was a happy feeling to be embraced by another, she couldn't exactly breathe. For the first few moments, Aleecia was just happy to be hugged, but then instinct kicked in and she started to struggle.



After Felix answered any questions that Lucy asked, he was promptly released from her servitude, and thrown out the door. Still a bit overwhelmed by Lucy's sudden interrogation, he was stumbling through the hallways, aiming to grab a bite and meet more new people; hopefully a bit tamer.

It took longer than it should have taken to reach the diner, but once inside, he already spotted a new face. taking a deep breath of courage, Felix started striding towards the blue haired lady. But upon closer inspection, the woman seemed to be holding someone, Felix couldn't quite make out who it was because she was facing away from him; but a slight surprise took hold of Felix as he got close enough to recognize who the woman was holding. It was Aleecia, and it didn't look like Aleecia was enjoying the hug, in fact she seemed to be trying to escape the woman's grip. Not realizing the mortal peril that Aleecia found herself in, Felix casually walked up to them before asking:

"Uhm, excuse me lady, I think you might be smothering my friend there." A single finger pointed towards Aleecia's struggle.

The moment when Ellie noticed what she was doing, someone pointed it out to her and she quickly brought the blind girl from her chest and fixed her hair." I'm sorry Aleecia, I didn't know that you were in there." She laughed nervously." Like I told you before if you ever need anything just come to me or call for me and I'll do my best to give you a hand." She told the young lady.

The poor girl took a few shaky breaths before looking up at Ellie. "Oh, um, alright, thank you muchly?" She turned her head towards the new voice and tried to identify it. Again, while the girl had been awake, most of her time had been spent in her room, and her memory wasn't the best. He called her his friend... But she couldn't exactly, "F-Felix?" She asked hesitantly, she could very well be wrong.

"In the flesh. I hope I didn't interrupt a touching moment, but it looked like you we're kinda suffocating sooo..." Felix jokingly said before turning towards Ellie. "No offense of course."

" Sorry again." She apologized to Aleecia." It's just when people have horrible things happen to them I just feel compelled to hug them so they can feel better about what happened to them, and it's just unfair what happened to Aleecia." When the Felix fellow mentioned touching moment she didn't really get it." Touching moment?"

"I'm okay with hugs, just maybe not the suffocating kind," she let out a little laugh. "How are you Felix? It's been a while!" She stood up again, feeling bad that she was sitting while the rest of them stood. But she kept her hand on the back rest of the chair again, just in case she tripped over nothing again.

"I'd say I was doing great, but...these last few days have been a rollercoaster. one day we're blowing up a carnage chassis, the next we're fighting for our lives in a trial. It can be...overwhelming." even though the subject material was very sad, Felix managed to stay relatively positive because of something. "But don't you worry Alli-"

Before he could say another word, Aleecia came closer and grasped his hand. "Felix... I know that this may be hard but... who died in the last trial?" Her eyebrows knitted and she gave his hand a little squeeze.

A sudden gloomy feeling grabbed hold of Felix. For Aleecia to act like this out of the blue, it was paralyzing. If Aleecia hadn't asked that question, Felix's cheeks might've turned red, but right now, it was fortunate that Aleecia couldn't see Felix, because his face completely turned pale.

"Wha...well." A knob in Felix's throat prevented him from talking normally, but after swallowing a few times, he imagined that just spouting it out would be easier. "E-Eri-I mean, Shaun...killed Marianne."

She started to sink, still gripping onto Felix's hand, Aleecia pulled him to the floor. "Shaun... But... bu-but that's impossible..." She was trembling uncontrollably, "How could someone so pure and sweet do such a thing, even Caora accepted him?" She wasn't speaking in Felix's direction anymore, but more towards the air. "Quill, Shaun, I-I don't understand it. Why? What is so important that you would snuff out another person's life?" She held onto Felix's hand for dear life as a headache started again.

Seeing Aleecia like that was extremely soul crushing, and Felix began to regret ever telling her. But all he could do was go along with her, down to the floor, and down the road to despair.

"Haha, you said it. If we knew what made them tick, we wouldn't have to go through stuff like this in the first place. Perhaps, people are just...Cruel." he said as he took grip of Aleecia's hand.

Ellie could feel the despair both of them were going through, she knew the feeling they were having and stepped in." Guys, I know the situation looks bleak, with the people we lost and the trust we lost. But we can't keep dwelling on the past, we need to keep moving forwards and learn from our mistakes, what Davis want from us is for us to fall into despair, don't give him what he wants, keep hope within your hearts and live on for the people who died here." She told the both of them, she didn't really know what Davis wanted, but keeping up morale would be for the better here, the last thing the would need is for someone to be like Quill and feel desperate enough to take the life of someone else.

" We need to make sure nobody else dies." She told the two."[color]To make sure that Davis doesn't get what he wants, to make sure that hope will reign true.[/color]" She started to sound a bit cheesy with her words.

Felix felt a bit embarrassed, having someone that he doesn't even know comforting him so much, but maybe that's why it worked. still holding on to Aleecia's hand, he started to get the two of them up while remembering the plan.

"You're totally right, I know it damn hurts, but we have to keep going. It's the least we can do for those who died. And although I'm never killing anyone, we're still getting out of here, right?"

Aleecia came up with Felix, still clutching his hand. A few tears had slipped from her closed eyes and she moved to quickly clear them, "I-I won't let him get what he wants!" She gave a small grimace, hoping it come off as a good enough smile, "Am I doing it right?"

Ellie wiped away a tear from Aleecia's cheek before telling her." Yeah, you're doing it right."

A real smile slipped onto her face, "Good."

---

Once the situation with Emily, Aleecia and Felix met it's end, Rika turned back to Max standing over her, she remembered what he asked her earlier, he asked her what the recorder was for, instead of reversing the tape back to explain it, she decided to let him know the other way. Rika opened her mouth and tried to speak to him, her mouth moved like everyone else's but what came out wasn't, a series of groans and moans slipped from her damaged lips, it was nothing close to words and none of it could be understood, but she knew that by now, he'd understand why she'd use a recorder to talk, nobody would understand zombie tier levels of moans and groans.

While Max was startled by Rika's groans at first, he quickly realized that the poor girl lost her ability to speak, most likely related to the numerous burns on her face.

"I see, that must be rough." Max tried to comfort the girl, before eyeing the recorder once more. "You know, we've got a lot of high-tech speech equipment at the force, surely there are better alternatives to that old tape recorder?"

When Max said it must've been rough, Rika almost glared at him, it was more than rough for somebody like herself, she couldn't go back to the way her life originally was and lost her father, "rough" wasn't a good enough word to describe what happened to her. then the infinite cop decided to tell her that they have high tech speech stuff at the force, and there could be better things she could use instead of the recorder, Rika bit the corner of the recorder before pressing the play button and opening her soda." Force is where?!" A female voice asked."Your police force isn't here to he-" Rika dropped the recorder on the floor and the recording stopped playing before some of the tape peeled back and it almost came apart.

"Careful!" Max instinctively reached out to try and catch the recorder, but it had already reached the floor. Crouching down, Max started scanning the recorder from multiple angles. "Looks like it's still intact, I think." He picked up the recorder and gave it a last glance before giving it back to Rika. "What I meant was; If we have such good speech devices at the old fashioned force, who like to use walkie-talkies and radios to this day, surely an infinite like yourself would have no trouble getting your hands on one."

Rika took back her recorder before drinking some of her soda, she listened to Mac as he told her of the recording devices and radios, Rika didn't really care for the other device and played something on her recorder." Recorder has importance." it played.

"Aah, could've guessed. But if that recorder is so important to you, shouldn't you keep it a bit more safe. It could fall, but also break; we wouldn't want that, would we?"

She pressed the play button and held it up."Already broken." her burned fingers traced the cracks along the plastic body of the device, then showed Max.

"It's not broken, if it was, you couldn't talk to me like you do now. But tell you what-" Max pulled a leather strap out of his pocket and presented it to Rika with that ever serious expression. "This is solid leather, won't tear easily. If we tie the ends of this strap to the recorder, you can hang it around your neck so it won't ever fall. How's that sound?" Having a disability in a situation like this, which was already no place for children, Max felt a need to help the poor girl; because seeing her like this, unable to speak through normal means, was not just.

Rika took the strap and shook it around, she wrapped the leather strap around her neck and held it up above her head slightly choking herself in the process, then stuck out her tongue out, like a cartoon character being choked, then acted as if she was struggling for air before let the strap drop. Max mentioned having it around her neck and claimed it wasn't broken, in her last trial with Quill the thing was broken and is still kinda broken, the idea he had seemed kinda stupid to Rika, having the device around her neck at all times could be a choking hazard, something or someone get a hold of it and it chokes her to death slowly."No." She denied the leather strap from him.

"Aah, that's...I get that you'd fear being choked to death, but I'm not planning on letting that happen to you, to anyone; I am a police officer after all." He spoke with confidence before bowing forward to pick up the leather strap and standing back up. "Well, if you don't want it, I'll hold on to it till you do."

"But people have died already." She played on her recorder, she brought up how someone had already died before she arrived, or after she arrived." Morgue has bodies of people from here." She brought up the corpses of the others who died."Not good."

"No, not good indeed." The way Rika was talking, it seemed as if she had no confidence or hope that everyone would all get out together. While Max knew better then to expect such things, it was still disheartening to hear a child say it. "But please don't give up on us, I know trusting people in this scenario is tough, but I promise you, distrusting everyone is worse."

"No" Rika stood up and dusted off her cloak, she turned away from the infinite cop and walked away from him, not wishing to continue the conversation.

Despite Max's best attempts, it looked like Rika was not going to listen. Perhaps time, was the only cure for her. and she would only have the time to cure, if they found a way out of this tomb.

But first, food was in order.

---

After enjoying Bliss’ cooking, Max set his sights on the study. He had thought to review a bit of intelligence that would help him in this killing game. ‘This is the last time someone turns up dead under my watch’ is what he told himself while strolling towards the study. Upon reaching the doors, he took hold of the doorknob before letting go. For a second he stood there before knocking on the door three times and entering.
After scanning the room, he immediately spotted another kid. How cruel of Davis to have so many kids participate in this game. Intent on introducing himself to the boy, Max walked up to him with an approachable stance.

“Greetings, are you enjoying the literature here?”

Max’s inquiry seemed to have fallen on deaf ears at first. Thomas’s stature remained exactly the same as it was prior to the infinites greeting, hunched over his book and writing. After a short period of inactivity though, Thomas started to move. As his position had the doorway facing his back, he had to turn around to see who his visitor was.

As Thomas shifted his head back to see Max, he raised one arm into the air, the other one pushing back on the others elbow, closing his eyes and yawning in the process. There was a resounding crack as he stretched his arms, he must have been sitting there for a while. His head faced Max completely now, and he started to lower his arms as he opened his eyes.

Once again there was a pause. Thomas’s arms stopped moving and he gazed blankly at Max. After a second though, recognition looked to have dawned on his face. He lowered his arms onto the side of the chair he was sitting in, draping his hands off the armrests so they hung loosely off the edge. His notebook lay in his lap, open to the forty-eighth page.

“Infinite Police Officer. I don’t think we’ve met in person before.” he stated, rather than answering Max. He raised himself out of his seat, sliding his hands up and pushing off out of his chair. The notebook slid down his lap, and was caught by Thomas’s right hand just before it could fall off. He held it to his side, but awkward positioning caused the notebooks cover to face his leg. With his other hand, he extended it towards Max, twisting his shoulder back to reach out a little further, as a gesture of greeting.

“I see you’ve done your homework.” He said as he firmly took hold of Thomas’ hand, maybe squeezing a bit too hard. “So might you be Thomas?” after a few shakes, Max leisurely let go.

Max’s firm grip caught Thomas off guard, and he shook his hand in the air a few times as he returned it to his side. “Herringson. My name’s Thomas Herringson.” Thomas said, diverting his gaze to Max’s eyes, having to tilt his head further upwards in the process. His gaze was inquisitive, as if he were searching for something in the ocean of blue which comprised Max’s eyes.

“Nice to meet you” Said Max as he noticed Thomas’ stare, for being in the situation that they were, the boy was sure calm and absent-minded. Maybe what he was still thinking about what he was reading.

“So what were you reading? Something informative?”
Thomas seemed satisfied with what he saw, and looked away from Max’s eyes and to his notebook.”You could say it’s informative, but it’s not a book, nor was I reading. This is just a collection of thoughts, thoughts of being caught in a strange and frightening situation.” . His voice wavered at the end, giving his words an unconvincing tone.

“So it’s a notebook. That’s-” A sense of curiosity and caution took hold of him as he spotted his own name in the notebook. While Max didn’t believe that Thomas would pose a threat, he knew better then to trust anyone on first sight. “So how strange and frightening am I, according to that?” He pointed towards Thomas’ notebook; despite his attempts to stay comfortable, Max clearly sounded a bit on guard.

Tch! Thomas shot a glance towards his side, where his book was facing outwards. He called himself the Infinite Biomechanic, but he couldn’t even prevent such a rudimentary error. He didn’t want to explain what was in the notebook - he couldn't, not to the Infinite Police Officer - and in fact had planned on diverting these conversation to another topic. Foolish. His mistake had cost him. Although Thomas was mentally berating himself, his outward expression remained every bit as neutral as he has been known to portray. The only hint to his distress was his glance to his side, and even that was more of an acknowledgement than a signal.

He raised his right hand holding the book in front of him and snapped it shut with his fingers, resulting in a resounding crack throughout the study, he took this moment of silence to think about his situation and calm down. There was no issue here, surely someone like him could diffuse this situation into something palatable to his agenda. After all, even if he did make mistakes sometimes, he wasn’t made an infinite for nothing.

“You know, when I spoke to some of the other individuals in this killing game, there was a pretense of coordination. Some degree of unspoken trust between us; the infinites in the same dire predicament.” Thomas took a step towards Max, sliding his notebook into his pocket then clasping his hands together in a single swift motion. His expression was the same, the ever present paragon of neutrality. At this point it was almost eerie how devoid his face was.

“Th- You see, When we conduct simple studies, we call the strays an outlier. There’s all sorts of reasons for them, such as a heavy tailed distribution or malfunctions. The thing is: there is always a reason for the outlier. I don’t think there’s any reason to think that it’s odd for everyone to get along. That’s generally what people in these strange situations do, you know.” Thomas paused for a second, mulling over his next words, then continued speaking.

“I wonder what could make someone so suspicious of a sixteen year old boy, so skittish in a situation that presents no harm to you. Perhaps I did mention your name whilst writing. I may have mentioned several others, or even all of the infinites in Axis Mundi.” Thomas leaned in even closer, until he was right in front of (below), Max’s head. “However, It would be a shame if someone like you were to succumb to the killing game, Infinite Police Officer, so trust me. You don’t have to worry about what’s in here.” Thomas patted his pocket with the notebook, then turned away swiftly and took two steps back from Max. ”I mean, you’ve seen two trials already.” Thomas turned back around so his was facing max, a comfortable distance away. “You’ve seen what happens to outliers here.”

“Are you sure you should be saying such things to others? To a Police officer no less. Whatever it is that you are hiding in that notebook of yours, it’s not worth antagonizing me.” While Max was not exactly intimidated by Thomas attempts, a small evil gnawed in the the back of his mind. Kids like him may look completely harmless, but as Shaun had shown, even they couldn’t be trusted entirely. As Thomas clearly showed, he was very protective of his notebook, going as far as to passively attack him. While young aggressive punks were never a match for Max, the rare sophisticated and tactical among them always gave him cold feet. As Max’s police instincts kicked in, he did not only want to scold this kid, but also ensure that the notebook held no danger to the group.

“Listen kid, if you repel everyone like this, I am going to have trouble keeping you safe from potential murderers, much less those crazy robots. So how about you show that notebook, and I can decide if it holds any interest.” Said Max as he reached out his hand. “If it’s something personal, I vow to keep it a secret...you have nothing to fear.” While his last words were supposed to be comforting, his face showed that he was in fact warning Thomas to take this serious.

Reprimandation. Someone like Max, standing above Thomas, telling him what to do. In that same god damn tone. Who the hell did he think he was? What gave Max the right to speak like that, to demand to see his notebook. He was almost like…

“Shut up!” Thomas nearly screamed at Max. His face contorted and broke his illusion of neutrality, morphing into a expression of animosity and… fear?

Thomas tilted his head down and hunched his shoulders, he was shaking and his hands were now balled into fists. His hair fell over his forehead, hiding his face from Max.

...Then after just a moment of silence, Thomas looked back up. There was no trace of his outburst except for the shade of red that adorned his cheeks. His eyes settled back on Max, and his arms loosened back into the neutral pose he was in prior to clasping his hands together. Even though his face was neutral, his hands continued to shake even after he regained composure.

“My apologies… that was improper.” Thomas relaxed his hands and turned towards the door, away from Max ”I’m sorry; but you’re not going to see what’s in this Notebook, neither should you delude yourself with thoughts of being my guardian. When we meet again, I hope it will be on more pleasant terms.” he stated, beginning to walk away from Max and out of the study.

Troublesome. Thomas completely disregarded Max, but instead of anger, Max felt guilt. He went too far, again. If only Max took a more humane approach, he could have avoided this awkward situation. Now all he could do was watch him leave, and ponder about their next meeting.

“Alright...” There wasn't much for bliss to do at the table with Caora and Mary. She had already eaten, so that was out. It would probably do Caora some good to bond with Mary without the nanny standing there the entire time. There were still others who hadn't shown up to eat, and Bliss wondered if Emily perhaps hit a snag with a few of them. Not everyone was especially sociable, or would enjoy the new woman's company. What Shaun did damaged everyone's ability to trust. “I'll be back later. There's plenty of food out back for everyone.” Bliss bowed before leaving the table, but not before adjusting the placement of the salt and pepper shakers.

---

Bliss hadn't encountered anyone as she wandered down the halls of Axis Mundi. Perhaps she was trying too hard. Not everyone benefited from being around people. Some people really were happier being off by themselves. But before bliss could decide to turn back, she could hear the sound of a piano.

“Hmm?”

Bliss walked down stairs and followed the sound of the music until she reached the door to the theater. As she cracked the door open, The sound of the piano grew louder still. But it wasn't until Bliss stepped inside that she could see who was playing.



While it didn't seem like it, Alice aspired to be as skilled in playing the piano as her younger brother, in the events that something happened to him. After the argument she had with the metalworker and blood donor, the recon had retreated back to the theatre, where she could calm herself down by practicing the piano more.

The song she was playing then seemed to convey rage and stress, yet somehow sorrow, as if something had went wrong.

As Alice finished the song, a dopey grin had crept onto her face. "I-I did it, haha, I actually nailed it!" she exclaimed, squealing out of happiness.

“You nailed...It?” Bliss tipped her head.

Alice's expression quickly shifted into one of fright, as she tensed up, and turned to look at the nanny. "H-how long have you been here?!" the recon asked back, rather nervously.

Bliss's eyes shifted left to right. “Maybe a few seconds, but I could hear you before I actually walked in here.”

"Well, atleast it just you. I don't really play piano with an audience..." Alice explained, standing up from her seat to walk towards Bliss.

“Well, I didn't mean to intrude. You probably could play for an audience if you wanted to. I didn't really meant to intrude.” Bliss scratched the back of her head. “Did you see anyone else? Not everyone is accounted for this morning.”

"N-No, it's okay. I just have a bit of stage fright, unlike my brother." Alice reasured Bliss. "But no, I havent seen anyone else yet. Hell, I havent even introduced myself to the new infinites yet, haha." she answered, scratching the back of her head.

“Oh, I meant anyone, not just the newcomers.” Bliss laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you playing. If you want to be alone, I can leave.”

"Wait, you dont have to go. I just...had an argument with Calvin, and needed to calm down. Alice admitted, running one of her hands through her hair.

Bliss stared at Alice in silence for a moment. “Did you want to talk about it?”

"Nah, I'll just try to find them and apologize..." Alice politely declined, walking to the door.

“Well, alright.” The nanny stepped backwards out of the door. While bliss was curious about what had transpired, she wasn't going to force Alice to talk about it. These types of things were likely to happen in wake of a trial, and hopefully they wouldn't spiral into permanent resentment. “I'll see you later then, Alice.” Bliss started to walk away. “You look very pretty without that eyepatch.”

"T-Thank you, I guess?" Alice chuckled, a light tint of pink on her cheeks, before walking away to the patient's quarters.

---

---

It hadn't been long since Calvin had barricaded himself in his room. Ice had found certain ways to amuse himself. His head bandages had been messed up from the beginning, but with his hand all fudged up, he couldn't do much damage. Bored, Ice had started picking at the strange cloth cast that Alexandria had prepared for him, but suddenly he heard a woman's voice in his head, "Isaiah.." It was that vivacious ruella again. Cringing, Ice had settled with playing with his coat buttons before checking his pockets. Inside he only had one or two butterscotch left. Affirming that Calvin wouldn't leave his room anytime soon, Ice got up and grabbed some more from his room. He then proceeded to sit outside the younger man's door again and started making a tower with the candies.

"Um, h-hey Isa- I mean Ice." It wasnt hard for Alice to find the blood donor, but noting what he said about staying around Calvin, it didnt make sense for him to be seen alone. "Is it okay if I sit here?" she asked Ice, averting her eyes in embarassment.

With the sound of someone's voice, Ice looked up suddenly and his tower of candies fell. He relaxed as he glanced up at the smaller girl, "I'm not against company." He slid over a bit so he was closer to the door, then scooped the candies into his pocket. Remembering that it was abnormal for a grown man to have so many candies, his cheeks went a little pink.

A hint of a smile on the recon's face, Alice quickly sat down besides Ice, hugging her knees close to her. "So, where's Calvin?" she asked, glancing over to the blood donor.

Ice let out a dry laugh before knocking on the door next to him. Alice thought she heard a swear come from inside the room, but that might have just been her intuition. Ice stuffed his hands in his pockets, wishing he had a cigarette, at least he might look cooler that way, "Butterscotch or lemon?"

"I don't mind either one, haha." Alice replied, scratching the back of her head. "If Calvin decides to come out of his room, could you tell him that i'm sorry for yelling at him? And slapping him?" she asked, concerned as to how the metalworker took their argument.

After getting confirmation, Ice slipped Alice's hand into his, opened the hand up, and placed both candies inside. "Can't you tell him yourself?"

"I'm a bit nervous to..." she mumbled as she quickly stuffed the candies into her pocket, a light tint of pink appearing on her cheeks.

"The punk's not gonna eat ya," he opened up a wrapper and slipped another butterscotch in his mouth, who knew how many candies he had actually eaten today?

"I know, but I can't help but worry. Alot." Alice explained, chuckling nervously.

"You just need to cuss at him 'til he gets fired up and then drop the apologize on him." Maybe it wasn't a good idea to follow Ice's advice.

"W-wait, wouldn't that make it worse?!" Alice asked, her expression showing a little more fright than nervousness. "I mean, the only reason why I swore at him was cause he didn 't understand that I can take a few more bullets for him and the others!"

"If you're that worried, slide a note under his door, it's not like anyone's gonna think any less of you." And Ice entirely meant that. Was he good at motivating people? Yes, but not the good kind. The only real way to get advice from Ice would be to read his mind.

"Maybe later then, gotta find the write wording, ya know?" Alice joked, yet still internally cringed at the accidental pun.

Ice stiffened for a second, before frowning slightly, "Did you just...?"

"I know and I am so sorry for that." The recon apologized, eyes widened.

He let out a long sigh, before crossing his legs and starting to make a candy tower again, trying to fill the silence, "So... How's the eye?"

"Hm? Oh, it's been fine. It's actually been fine all this time." Alice explained, one of the hands in her pockets gripping her eyepatch.

Ice gave her a questioning look, not seeming to understand why she did so.

"I...always hid it behind my eyepatch cause I was worried about what others would think of it, if you're wondering. she added, noticing the blood donor's expression. "Self-esteem issues and all."

Ice scratched at the back of his neck, before sighing again and tussling Alice's hair, "You listen here Alice Masson, Infinite Recon. You are a total laucher and if anyone has a problem with how sumbul you are then they have a problem, mainly me." And here Ice was trying not to get attached to anyone else, he was a real softy in denial of his own nature.

Alice's eyes widened for a moment, before a grin appeared on her face, as the recon could help but giggle from Ice's reassurance. "Ya really think so?" she asked, the tint of pink returning to her cheeks.

"You're a grisette Terra Alice, nothing can stop you." He didn't smile much, but it seemed like for a split second his mouth quirked up a little as Ice looked at her.

"...Thanks Isaiah."

Aleecia was feeling a little sheepish after her display of despair. With a huff, she had managed to dry all her tears and ask Ellie if she would kindly help her get some food. Felix was happy to oblige, piling her plate high with eggs and pancakes galore. After finishing what she could, suddenly a thought came to her

“Oh! Since I haven’t been around the second floor, do either of you want to come explore with me? I might want my cane though...” She pondered, her head leaning on her fist.

Ellie jumped up to give Aleecia a hand.”Oh I can help guide you around.” She offered a hand to the Blind girl.” I’ll make sure to walk slowly so you don’t bump into anything or knock anything over.” Ellie put a hand onto Aleecia’s wrist making sure to move slowly and not startle her.

“I’d really rather just use my cane...”

With a mouth full of pancakes that mysteriously disappeared from Aleecia’s plate, Felix looked up to the two in front of them with satisfied eyes, barely able to talk through the pancake. “Gesh wew’ll haf to go and ket it then (Guess we’ll have to go and get it then).”

“Oh you have a cane?” Ellie asked, she then agreed with Felix understanding his full mouth.” Well we should go and get it, if it can help you get around better. Also Felix don’t speak with your mouth full, you can choke that way.”

“You’ll come then?” Aleecia smiled widely, before standing up and humming a little, “What are we waiting for then?”

Felix looked at Ellie with a bit of a blank look before swallowing, and giving her a smile. “Ladies first.” He signaled his arm towards the exit, and smoothly slipped it behind his back to snag another pancake.

Ellie decided to lead the way, hoping that Aleecia wouldn’t get lost or wander off and go the wrong way, she didn’t know if the girl knew of her surroundings and had them perfectly memorized or if anything changed for her during her time away, as she wondered about Aleecia’s experience with the hospital, she didn’t really think about where she was walking.

She should’ve though, as it could have prevented a very uncomfortable situation for the Infinite Biomechanic.



“Wha-” His voice was muffled briefly by Ellie’s collision, and Thomas fell to the ground. Someone of Ellie’s size walking into someone as small as Thomas, he never stood a chance. “Jesus” Thomas stopped and looked up at his assailant, seeing it was Ellie. He stopped himself and took a breath before continuing. “Oh. It’s you.”
Seeing that she knocked down Thomas, Ellie quickly kneeled down to his level trying to give the boy a hand.” Thomas, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to knock you over, it was my fault, I apologize.” She pressed her lips against his forehead.” I’m sorry again, I was was just distracted and I should have been paying attention to where I was walking.” She patted him on the head and tussled his blue hair.

”It’s fine.” Thomas replied, his voice assuming a hint of annoyance. But he wasn’t entirely annoyed. It was comforting to see Ellie, something that was familiar in this new killing game. In fact, Thomas would be far less annoyed and a little more comforted if Ellie could learn to keep her hands to herself.

Thomas scowled, his neutral expression melting away. The way he acted around Ellie was noticeably different than with the other Infinites, especially his countenance. He seemed less like the Infinite Biomechanic and more like a sixteen year old boy. Perhaps it was the charm of Ellie—she was the infinite caretaker—or maybe she reminded Thomas of a parental figure. Whatever it was, it seemed to have been able to calm Thomas down after his outburst with Max.

Thomas raised his right hand to Ellie’s forehead and prevented her from kissing him with a light shove “I said it was fine.” he exclaimed, lowering his right hand and bringing up his left to counteract Ellie’s advances. His face returned to a more characteristic mien, or more accurately lack thereof.

When he rejected her forehead kiss, or tried to, Ellie looked at the young boy and = asked.” What’s wrong Thomas?” She kept her distance from him to give him the space he needed.”Did someone say something to you and upset you?” She questioned him.” Do I need to have a stern talking to with somebody?” She sounded more serious than she usually did and felt a little more defensive of the boy, she could explain why she did, but she wanted to make sure he was okay.

While this ordeal happened, Aleecia bent over since she heard voices on the floor and tilted her head, “Ellie? Did you run into someone?” As always, her need to peek open her eyes slipped over her involuntarily and she took a peek. But the hospital walls were really too bright for the Dice Master’s poor eyes. The boy sounded younger than she was, which automatically made her think of Shaun and she shuddered.

But it would be awfully rude to judge a person because of something like that! With a voice much more peppy than she actually was, Aleecia smiled and put out a hand, “Hi there! I don’t believe we’ve met, at least it doesn’t sound like we have. I’m Aleecia Mavric! A pleasure!” Her hand was turned towards Thomas’s voice, but it was more around the top of his head then near his own hand.

Thomas stopped for a moment to ponder Ellie’s question. Everything was fine, it wasn’t exactly like Max had wronged him in any real way… but his thoughts kept running back to Max’s scolding. His eyes narrowed as he thought, betraying his displeasure, and he settled on the words he would use. “I am fine… ” the pause here was drawn out “but I need you to do me a favour.”

Thomas leaned in next to Ellie’s ear “You know the Infinite Police Officer? Keep an eye on him.” he whispered, crudely enough so that the infinites around him could just barely make out what he was saying.

Thomas turned away from Ellie and towards Aleecia, who he had completely ignored at the point. While she was speaking, he himself was speaking to Ellie about Max, and thus had completely missed what she said. He looked up at her hand and once again paused for a moment, staring up at her hand, before her greeting dawned on him. Although Thomas had seen Aleecia’s cane already, he didn’t quite recognize that she was blind yet. He didn’t even show any outward signs of unamusement, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was just that: unamused.

“You must be the Infinite Dice Master, nice to meet you. I’m Thomas” he said, as courteously as he could be. He reached out to shake her hand, but he had to angle his arm awkwardly so that it was bent in an L shape in order for him to achieve said hand shaking — due to her hands location. While doing this, his eyes resolved her physical features… which were entirely unremarkable to Thomas.

Ellie listened to Thomas’ words closely and didn’t think Max would be rude to Thomas, as he and Aleecia shook hands, Ellie waited for the handshake to be done before picking the boy up off the floor and to his feet, she then brushed off his back for him.

Her eyebrows furrowed a little bit, she really didn’t like anyone bringing up her talent. “Well then, hello Thomas!” Her extra pep continued as she smiled. When hearing the sound of moving, Aleecia took a step back to get out of the way, only for her legs to feel too weak to support her weight coming back up. With a gasp she slipped and fell unceremoniously on her tush. A blush rose to her cheeks as she fumbled with her cane.

Once Thomas was taken care of, Ellie looked over her shoulder and noticed Aleecia fall over, Ellie decided to give Aleecia a hand and pick up the blind girl in her arms and was surprised by how light she was before putting her onto her own two feet.

Aleecia muttered an excuse me and thanked Ellie, her head drooped down to hide her red cheeks. “I’m a bit clumsy, if you can’t tell...” She murmured, giving indication to Thomas that this might happen a lot in the future.

Oh. The girl was blind, at least to some extent. In hindsight, Thomas should have figured it out earlier, but he had other issues on his mind. The makeshift cane should have been a giveaway instantly. Thomas couldn’t keep making misjudgements like this, he couldn’t get tied up on these little things. Perhaps it didn’t matter that it took a minute for him to notice a disability, but in a life or death situation his ignorance could’ve killed him. It already caused a conflict once today.

Her blindness would explain a little bit at least, like her hands awkward positioning, but it actually opened up more questions regarding Aleecia Marvic. For example, how could someone who couldn’t even see be regarded as an infinite talent in a field that was so attuned to visual cues. Well, Thomas has never actually met someone who was blind before. He didn’t really know much about their coping mechanisms or how they handled the complexions of their disabilities. In fact, now that he thought about it, knowing how a blind person handled movement without seeing could be both fascinating and useful.

Thomas took a breath and looked at Aleecia. He looked like he was going to say something, but then didn’t. Although he had believed Aleecia was blind, he was certain she was, there was still the small chance he was wrong about his assumption. So just to be sure, decided to preface one question with another:

“So… your eyes. They don’t work?” Whether it was better than just assuming she was blind, that’s up to interpretation.

“Thomas!” Ellie called his name.” Be a little more sensitive and think before you speak. But yes she is visually impaired.”

Aleecia gave a nervous smile, “Um yeah, I haven’t been able to see since I was 12... So at least I can sort of guess what you look like? I imagine that Ellie here is very attractive at least.” It seemed as though her cheeks would be permanently pink by the way they glowed.

A sense of discovery washed over Thomas, and his eyes lit up like lightbulbs. Although he was very good at learning, his curriculum was a little rushed. Even before he was an infinite his learning was largely streamlined; nor did he come into contact with many different types of people. There must be so many fascinating things about the sightless, and a sightless infinite no less.

“How does it work? Can you tell what’s going on around you at all? Do you always need something or someone around you?” he queried, reaching into his pocket for his notebook while he asked.

Luckily, these were much easier questions to answer then what she had imagined, “I can tell how bright it is in the room, which can sting, but that’s as far as my sight goes. I’d rather have the lights off if anything. For talking to people, I can generally tell the direction they are standing and guess their height based on their voice.” She put switched the cane into her other hand, “The cane helps me figure out what’s in front of me, but usually I like to keep closer to the walls when walking around.” A slightly annoyed expression slipped over her face at the last question, “I don’t need much help, the only real problems I have is when having to use my E-Handbook or something happens with Monokuma and the Carnage Sisters, though Nariko helps with that.” Aleecia’s face brightened a little as she spoke of the robot. “Anything else?”

Thomas flipped his book to the seventy sixth page and began writing. His hand dashed across the page like a sprinter running back and forth on a track while Aleecia spoke. Thomas had expected something a little more.... explanatory , but what Aleecia had told him was still very interesting. He would have loved to stay and ask more questions too, but her last answer reminded him of one of the things he had wanted to finish today.

“Carnage- I just remembered, I have to go meet one of the infinites.” Thomas claimed, clasping his hands together quickly. “Listen, it was a pleasure Dice Master. Let’s continue this another time.” he said, somewhat apologetically. He began to walk away, and as he took the first steps he put the notebook back in his pocket hastily, without closing it. Visible to anyone with sight, just at the top, was four words and two numbers.

“The Infinite Dice Master - 7 - 6”

Ellie thought it was nice of Aleecia to say that she was attractive, she knew that the dice master couldn’t see her, but she thought it was a sweet thing of her to say, after Aleecia told Thomas of her situation and how she became blind, or rather when. Thomas soon started to ask her some questions and Aleecia answered them as he scribbled into his notebook, but almost as quickly as he began, he stopped, he then mentioned he needed to meet one of the others and before he left.

Ellie gave him a hug from behind and whispered to him.” I’ll talk to Max.” Then let go of him. She then turned back to Aleecia.” Now Aleecia what were doing again?” She asked her, she put a finger on her chin trying to remember.” I’m struggling to remember.”

“Going to check out the second floor. I was hoping you could describe the rooms for me and I could get a feel for them.” Aleecia could tell Thomas was doing something with his hands before he left, but she decided not try and reason out what he was doing. She already had a bit of a headache. Aleecia had given a little wave as a goodbye and had turned to where she remembered Ellie’s voice being. “Do you still want to come?”

“ Sure Aleecia.” She smiled.” It’s my job to give people aid, why wouldn’t I Allie?”

“Oh um... Sorry. Let’s go then!” The girl smiled and held out a hand. Taking Ellie’s hand in hers, she started going towards the way they came.

Pleased at meeting her only friend within the new Killing Game, Faith proceeded to look around. The new scenario was much reminiscent of what she had been transposed from, but in a way unbeknownst to her exhumed something of a different aura. Though that wasn't to say it was unexplainable, for she had a good deal of training in examining, determining and identifying various energy signatures; it would merely take some time to set up.

All she could hope was that her Arch-nemesis, Davis, had taken the liberty to learn from his previous mistakes in setting up her room. What he had presented her prior to the transfer was a particularly pitiful effort, as though he had little to no knowledge on her true self. Faith might have thought it strange, but as she strolled along the corridor in the patients quarter, glancing briefly and intermittently at her handbook, towards her room, it was quite clear she didn't; rather, she considered it perfectly within sound judgement.

But as Faith swiped her handbook over the panel to her room, pulled down the handle and burst into the room, a grin lit her otherwise smirking face.
"For an Evil Warlock, Mr Davis, you're so kind oh my MOTHER!" she exclaimed, darting into packed room, containing bookshelves and assorted shelf's of varying materials. Paper, chalk, purifying salts, a sharpened ritual dagger; not exactly the tools her trade, but beyond everything she could have ever hoped for.

What lead the man to alter her decision on her room style she couldn't tell. While Faith wasn't exactly the most powerful of Mage's in the field of Arcane, Druidic and Ancient "Offence" Magic - with the term of offence used very lightly - she was still powerful enough to stand toe to toe with some of the greatest minds in the field.

But, alas, with such great materials, there was many a thing missing. Faith hated to be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the room did lack some components she would have greatly appreciated. First of all being a Philosophers Stone, but she could easily tell that such a thing wasn't going to be handed to her, even if Davis could have sourced one quite easily with his number of captives. No, what she would have desperately desired would have been a certain plant - the Lily of the Valley, primarily. It was a component in one of her most powerful mind alteration spells, used to generate feelings of love between two parties.

How she longed for some kind of Herbalist, if only to prove to Jez it was possible to have her fall in love~!

In her excitement, though, Faith had forgotten the most important thing of the new Game entirely. The one thing that made it bearable, enjoyable almost, and the thing she needed most of all. The people! What kind of a Princess to the Throne of the Love God would she be without taking advantage of such a grand situation? The confinement had people's emotions running high, scared for their lives, what better a time would it be where her spells would be most effective? She poured her own lust and energy into her Tome, but what if she could take that energy from everyone present? She could match them to her hearts content, without worry about anyone's...
"Asexualities getting in the way..!" she coughed aloud, strolling from the room. And where, did she divine, that there would be the greatest congregation of people?

The dining room of course! Her legs picked up pace, practically skipping her way along the corridor towards the Resort, in correspondence with her E-Handbook. What kind of people would she meet?! If Jez was so happy around her, despite the circumstances, they must have been a wonderful bunch, the kind ripe to be shipped off into love at the earliest of conveniences! The thought accelerated her heart beat, driving her along the halls unto her newest of encounters!

---

One shower later and the reporter was back in action. She wanted to forego the shower, afraid to miss the juiciest information available. But what kind of lady would she be if she didn't at least clean herself after a proper workout. Beating cops fair and square was extremely hard work! Not to mention, her stench might've scared the scoops away! Now that would simply be unforgivable. Only victory was on the mind of Noel Hawthorne, and it was going to be a clean victory. To sate her endless need for information for another day her ultimate goal. again and again.

She has a good feeling about today, it followed her as she ascended the stairs. Today was simply made for her to succeed. Victories never came alone, not if you knew where to find them. And if Noel was good at one thing, it would be finding things. But what kind of victory would be next? The juicy kind? The grim kind? Perhaps the kind of victory you'd rather not win? Nay, it was none of these. Because you see, she already saw victory as she arrived on the second floor! Conquest was hers! Wait, that wasn't right. But she won anyway.

"CELEBRITY SPOTTED" Noel shrieked as she leapt over through the hallway, graceful as a feral cat. She landed in front of Faith with the widest grin imaginable. As if a wolf in front of a sheep. But no, she knew better. The woman in front of her was no sheep. She was the fiercest of predators. A dangerous creature, much like her. Noel's eyes shone with fierce light, the light of opportunity. "Faith matching-people-like-socks Lambert! What a pleasant surprise." She said with glee. She very much expected faith to know her. Noel had covered quite a bit of her work, some of the more famous couplings. Regardless, she introduced herself. "Noel Hawthorne, infinite reporter of news both disastrous and lovey!"

In her excitement to reach her destination, the dining hall, as illustrated on her map, no doubt the primmest of locations for social interactions, Faith hadn't directly entertained the idea of being jumped in transit. She had, under false assumptions, believed no one would know her here; circles of Infinites tended to be closed and exclusive at the best of times.

But as she found herself skipping along, cheerily, basking in the tentative feeling of up and coming experiences, something twitched. She didn't know what, not for a second, but things didn't twitch for no reason. It twitched in her head, a premonition, she might have called it, despite having few connections nor experiences with precognition. Maybe it was the new scenario, or perhaps the stress of being displaced into another game that had triggered it, but she braced herself regardless.

And thusly, as she turned the corner into the Resort, she spied the only thing that could have created such a twitch, equally entering the Resort. The moment they locked eyes the other bounded towards her, a predator unleashed. But this wasn't her first time dealing with such predatory creatures, and in her defensive stance, prepared for the inquiries she knew were to happen...

...Faith grabbed the girl in an embrace, as though they were friends.
"Helloooooooooooooooooooooo Noel~!" she exclaimed, recognising her hunter instinctively, hugging her for a few seconds, before releasing her and skipping backwards a short distance, "Who woulda thought you'd be here, huh~!? What are the chances? The stars have blessed this game, we could say, for me to meet so many I have heard of or met before!" in the follow-up, she removed the tome from her outfit, along with a green felt tip, and flipped it open to a seemingly random page, "How about an interview, little miss reporter~?"

Noel hadn't expected such a warm reception, it rather made her giggle a little. "Good fortune comes to those who wait, even in a place like this." She exclaimed.She eyed the matchmaker as she took out her book, curious as to its use. She smirked, taking out her notepad in response. "Who will be interviewing who, I reckon?" She locked eyes with the matchmaker, she felt a certain spark. The spark one could only get when two people lusting for knowledge locked eyes. Of course, they had slightly different reasons for wanting to know. "It's not a reporter's place to be on the front page, you know?"

"Hmm, I wonder, I wonder~" she giggled, placing her hands, book and pen behind her back, clasping them together in the process, "Is it good or bad fortune that I myself am to be interviewed by Noel Hawthorne, only the most respected and dangerous reporter, a harbinger of doom to the masses~?" she flicked the lid off the pen, an audible click resonating strangely loudly as it hit the floor, and she swung her hands forward again, this time actually writing something in within the pages of the ornately decorated Tome, "But I guess either way I get to learn a little bit more about you, riiiight~?"

She gasped in faked shock. "You'd imply I could be bad fortune? How utterly cruel." She pursed her lips. "The masses love me, I'll let you know. At least I think they do. Who else would they wanted to be spoon-fed your latest couplings by? Even if some of your couplings are more interesting to see their inevitable demise." She snickered, throwing back some attitude. "Depends entirely on what you're asking, honey. I'm pretty sure I'm fated to marry my camera." She dismissed the topic. "Of course, you have every bit of information I want... or at least will have. Tell me, oh great maiden of love. Who oh who are to be bound by the shackles of fate?"

Well that was on a completely different level. Faith could feel the pout form in reponse, and she quickly took to pointing the tip of the pen towards her opponent.
"Now lookie here Miss Noel, none of my pairings dies! Love doesn't die! I mean, the people might die, buuuut..." she trailed off, sort of looking into space, before abruptly, "-that's not to say my pairings fail! I'll have you know my power is absolute! Being the Daughter of a God does that - I thought you did your research on me~?"

As quickly as the seeming frustration had formed it dissipated, forming altogether back into her characteristic childish, playful behaviour.
"But if you really wanna know who I've divined to be matched~?" she paused for a couple second for added effect, then winked at her, "You'll have to keep watching and find out~! The Gods don't give unfair knowledge to those who haven't earned it~" In response, she darted forward, so the two were just a short distance away, "But'ya know, having such a talented information gatherer and broker doing favours for me could help... sway my mother into giving you some sneak peaks, if you're interested~"

Oh, the matchmaker had devised many good pairing in the past, but she knew of several that had hit a rough patch. They hadn't necessarily broken up, but she considered it a matter of time. But that was perhaps a story for another time. She didn't look amused being denied the information she so desperately wanted. But it didn't take long for that grin to reform. "Now you are speaking my language. A fair exchange. And I don't have to expose your mother's dirty laundry in the process! Yes, an excellent deal." She teased. "So is there anything specific you're interested in?"

Faith paused for a second, looking at the door she assumed would lead to the Dining Hall. Her eyes betrayed a kind of curiousity to it, but quickly she snapped back to the conversation, flipping a couple of pages forwards into her notebook.
"Weeeeeeell, there is somebody who I could use a bit more info on~" she finger ran across the page, as though reading from something, and at the edge of the page she smiled, "There are a lot of things, actually~! I wanna know about this Game, the crimes, the victims; standard stuff for a new face. Buuuuut, specifically, I wanna know all about Jezebel~!"

Noel's eyes glimmered. "Well, those are easy enough. Most definitely." She wondered why jezebel specifically. But that was a matter she'd ask later.
She gave a quick, but accurate detailing of the past week, but then moved to the meat of the story. "Jezebel. Jezebel. Yes, well the last case was unravelling her predecessor. The former infinite trickster, that was something." She snickered.
"She went rather... far in her defense of one of the suspects, nearly made poor Krista cry, I tell you." She paused for a few seconds, letting Faith wallow in the anticipation for a bit. "If you find him, go have a chat with the infinite archer. Blond, kinda weird, looks like an elf. Jezebel totally has hots for him. They're together all the time." She chuckled.

Those words were all Faith needed to here before the glint in her own eye matched that of Noel's. Her fingers flipped through the pages of the book, settling on one in particular, and began to write down everything her fellow said regarding the Game. She noted certain things, such as needing to fight a Carnage Sister to advance to the next floor; a staple, she assumed, belonging only to their Game in particular.

Then, as Noel began on Jezebel, she flipped through another set of pages, scanning down each one as she spoke, until she finished.
"The Infinite Archer... Zachary Ackerson~?" she took a second to read what was written, thanks to Monokuma's introduction "So you think Jez likes him~? I'll have to find him at some point, it's definitely something worth following. I have a good feeling about this pairing; I think my mother might approve~!"

Faith was about to continue, and indeed she might have done, but remembering their bargain she quickly scanned the page once again.
"As for your payment..." she began, tracing over each word slowly and adding small notes as she went, "I suppose I can let you know that Jez and me are friends from one of the other games, so I have a particular interest in matching her with someone~! I think she dared me to? Hey, hey, is he cute?"

Noel had to think a little on that question. "Guess he's okay. Kinda feminine, not the brightest tool in the shed, needed to be defended by Jezebel last trial because he barely had the balls to speak up. But I guess he looks okay." Noel said bluntly. "I guess he's kinda harmless. You know, not a bad guy." She shrugged. She smiled at Faith. "I trust you'll keep me updated. I think there's some cute couples possible here... All them hormonal youngsters, flirting even in a deathtrap." She laughed.

She moved closer, and whispered in Faith's ear. "Of course, that includes your own prince charming... or princess, I ain't judging." She teased.

Only somewhat good looking? Particularly submissive? Only one of those things could be true for someone Jez liked; she had always sensed the clown had a bit of a dominant streak behind her.
"Hmm~" she watched Noel closely as she spoke, almost creepily if it didn't look so innocent, "Of course I'll keep you updated~! I'd never break a promise!" she exclaimed, beaming a smile that betrayed some hidden idea, that not all information was on the table.

But as Noel herself got closer, the grin sunk into something of a smirk. Faith had everything she wanted out of the conversation.
"Don't forget, though~" she whispered back, intentionally closing the already minuscule distance between them, "That you're on my radar as well~" and just as quickly as she moved in, she danced behind her, skipping off down the corridor ever so slightly, "And you've been in enough war-zones to know they do their best not to miss a target~! See you around, little birdy; you'll be of great help to me~"

Noel let her pass her without as much as a movement. She put a finger on her lips and smiled. "You can try, I suppose." She responded. She said as she saw the distance increase. "And I've been in enough war-zones to know how not to get hit. I wish you good luck, you'll need it. Either way, I imagine this alliance will be of great benefit to us both." She waved. "You have fun now!"

A small pile of candy wrappers had formed next to Ice as he had chatted with Alice. The two of them talked the time away about their siblings, Ice becoming much more animate once he spoke of Jeremy, Abby, and the twins. Stories of Abby's dance recitals or Mary's laughter. It didn't seem like Calvin would be coming out anytime soon, but since Alexandria couldn't come into his room, Ice was fine with that. With Alice keeping him company, Ice was much less bored and his mood was improving exponentially when talking about the "good old days."

"How often do you get in fights with Henry? I was never able to properly quarrel with my little rascals," this was probably the most Ice had smiled for almost a decade.

"Well sometimes we get into these ridiculous debates that usually end in us roughhousing, but one time we accidentally broke our mother's antiquity cabinet, and I had to pick glass shards out of his hair afterwards. Then we tried to put the blame on the dog, saying it ran into it during a game of fetch. It's all in good fun though, hahaha!" Alice told Ice, trying to hold back her laughter.

"I feel like Abby and William did that once, but by the time I got back, Jeremy took the blame. Really, my little brother was always better at taking care of the little ones then I was. It's funny..." He sighed, "Jeremy always said he wanted to be like me when he grew up when he was younger, when I actually wanted to be more like him." A sad smile slipped over his face for a moment, the end of his sentence a little choked up. After a moment, he pinched himself before giving a half-forced chuckle, "Then the squirt had the audacity to say he'd get a job and take care of me!"

"Hahah, he really cared about you, huh?" Alice asked, before the grin on her face faded. She could tell that Ice missed his siblings, so the recon tried her best to reasure the blood donor. "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened to your siblings. If something like that happened to Henry, hell, I'd genocide my way through those that would dare harm him so he could be safe..." she said, before lowering her head and pulling her knees close to her. "I was so worried something worse had happened to him after he broke his leg, must've been my paranoia..."

Ice's forced laugh faded out as he remarked on Alice's apology. The Blood Donor had had plenty of time to dwell on his siblings dire circumstances, but he hadn't gotten many chances to remember the good times. The times when he had provided everything he could for his blood, the small souls that couldn't fend for themselves. Without thinking too much about it, almost by instinct, Ice shifted closer to the smaller girl and slipped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer so that she was leaning on him. He didn't look at her, choosing rather to stare straight ahead. "It's better to think about how to get out of here to see him, rather than worry and stew in your own melting cauldron."

He fell silent for a couple moments before saying, with a slight blush splashed on his cheeks, "And once if we get out... no, never mind." It had been a nice thought at least. He had thought about coming with her to check on Henry, but... There was no way he could impose like that. Plus, the boy would obviously be suspicious of him, Ice's appearance fitted him to a T after all.

While her head was still resting in her arms, blood seemed to rush back to Alice's cheeks, yet she still kept calm. "Yeah, let's survive this hell together." The recon replied, raising her head up to look at Ice, with a grin returning to her face.

As she moved, he glanced down at her and his face went redder than a fire hydrant. Ice quickly moved his hand away, patting her hand as he did, a bit too embarrassed to do anything but inch away... When the intercom came on.

Ice's face drained of color and he bolted up. Gears shifted in his head and while Ice should've taken his own advice, he came up with several horrifying scenarios. He pulled at his tie as he calculated, "There was no body announcement, so do you think this has to do with one of that two-toned scoundrel's 'gifts?'" Ice paced back and forth for a second while waiting for Alice.

"Honestly? I hope not!" Alice answered, springing up from the floor. "Come on, let's go see what's up!" She exclaimed, sprinting ahead to the dining hall.

Ice was right on her heels, spinning faces in his mind. Allie, Buck Wild, Mumsy, doc, even the witch, none of them were dead yet, but there were fates worse than death.

---

Mere moments. It had been mere moments since Faith had spoken wily vixen known as Noel Hawthorne. Despite hardly knowing her personally, she could already feel something of a kinship form between them; especially since both had equal reasons for prying into the personal lives of their fellow competitors. She skipped along, thinking about the encounter as she encroached upon the door to the Diner, anticipating the new and exciting Infinites she would get to meet inside.

But instead, as she made her way to the door, the crackle of the intercom broke her step and caused her to turn.
"A wide range broadcast spell..? Whoever made the catalyst for this is truly skilled, I'll have to find them~" she mused to herself aloud, breaking away from the door for a second to listen to the message. An emergency, the Diner- the Diner? A smile lit her face, and Faith twirled on the spot, pleased with the fanciful fortune that had brought her to the location ahead of time. Had Davis set up some kind of Causal Relay Determination Spell, or was this her Mother's way of helping her out? It it was the former... Things may have been a lot worse than she had originally ascertained. But that was a mystery for another time; for now, she had to meet the new people, as she had originally intended~

Yet right on cue, two of the new people were running to the dining hall as the matchmaker spoke. Heinous thoughts seemed to plague Alice's mind, as the recon wasn't watching where she was going, and accidentally bumped into Faith with an "Oof!!"

Another twitch, that was her indication. Some divine intervention, a blessing, perhaps, the gift of future premonition bestowed upon her by the Gods. Faith had felt it when Noel had bounded from the stairs to interrogate her - just one of the unfortunate events that had befallen her within Davis's machinations, but neither would it be the last, as evidenced by the footfalls she heard, reverberating from the hospital walls, a messenger for the events to come.

Power, too. Faith felt power, and a lot of it, resonating from the newcomer- or newcomers, as the case was. She had only a second to turn her head, and body, to take in the people barrelling towards her - no, towards the Diner - at break neck pace. In the next second, the two collided, sending Faith backwards into the door, which echoed dully its protests to the abuse. She barely had any time to recuperate herself before her body automatically lowered itself to get a better look at her attacker, looking deep into her face and eyes.

"Y-you...I-I can't believe you exist..." she exclaimed abruptly, without any indication of whatever she was talking about.

Honestly supprised that Faith hadn't yelled at her yet for knocking her down, but still confused as to what the matchmaker was talking about, Alice quickly moved to the side and stood her and Faith up again. "Dunno if I should ask this, but who are you refering to?" The recon asked.

Faith barely moved, intently fixed on the face of Alice, almost creepily, though the softness of her face betrayed no malicious intent. Instead, her eyes gleamed something fierce, a curious hunger, not unlike one Noel may have worn in pursuit of the perfect page one scoop. It dripped a wanton desire for knowledge, to test and experiment and understand the deepest and most intrinsic nuances of her chosen subject. Something had taken her interest, but what it could have been she kept obscure.

"Were you born with it or were you cursed?!" she exclaimed, oddly forcefully for her, "I read in the research papers that it's possible to curse - well, I say curse, I'd more so call it an enchantment - but I know there is a way to curse somebody with the Exodus of Time." everything she said was complete nonsense, "Though... I can't sense any artificial alterations in your soul... could it be you were born with it!?" she exclaimed, darting forward to clasp both sides of Alice's face, grasping her cheeks in her hands. inching dangerously close to her face until they could feel each others breathe.

"Um...yeah." the recon was able to answer through the honest discomfort Faith holding her face, shrugging.

Ice had only been a couple of paces behind Alice when she ran into a girl he had never seen before. Her hair was some outrageously white that it made him feel sorry for the hair itself. As Alice plowed into her, Ice was intent on helping her up, but the girl got up easily by herself. It was only after when Faith grabbed her face that Ice went from annoyed to flabbergasted.

The Blood Donor slipped his hands over both of Alice's shoulders and pulled her away from Faith's intruding hands, "Are you always like this when first meeting someone Fairy dust? You should really keep your distance if you know what's good for you."

While Ice had always been at least a little suspicious of other Infinites, he was especially wary of the newcomers. The less intimate interaction with them and the people he cared about, the better.

"Heeeeeeeeeeey!" Faith exclaimed, pouting as her prize was dragged out from beneath her grasp. She couldn't believe what was happening; to have such prime opportunities laid out in front of her, the Exodus of Time stood mere feet away from her, and a random Infinite was stealing her away like some kind of obsessive boyfriend lacking in the self esteem department.

How Faith wished she could express her distaste aloud. But alas, that was improper; she couldn't go about directly and openly insulting the people she met. If she did, she might lose out on valuable relationship material. Where would she be then!? From her pocket she retrieved her book for the Gods knew how many times that day already. She flipped open the pages to find something, then looked up and smiled.
"Listen here mister, my name is Faith Lambert - not Fairy Dust - and the Infinite Matchmaker, and the heiress to the Throne of Love!" she half quipped and half exclaimed her typical introduction, "And that girl right there is a wielder of The Exodus of Time!" as she spoke, she seemed almost ecstatic, "A powerless human li-"

She paused herself, and looked down at her Tome, seemingly caught in thought for a second. With dexterity unbefitting of her, she darted forward, so she and Ice were eye level.
"Hey, hey, lets make a deal, 'kay? I get to talk wiiiiith..." she stopped to think, glancing at her book, "Oh, Alice here, about her Eye, and maybe I can help set you up with the boy of your dreams~! Sound good~?"

The girl definitely had a few screws loose, she yammering about Love and the 'exodus of time'? All Ice could think about was getting this bad influence away from him... and Alice. While she didn't seem to be as much of a threat as Alexandria was to Calvin, she certainly seemed as obsessed as the ruella robot. Her name mostly blew over Ice's head as he took her appearance all in... and the strange glint in her eyes. The book looked suspicious as hell and so did she. Ice's distrustful glare was supposed to burn through her skull, but to no avail.

Faith was suddenly in front of him and Ice moved to pull Alice so that she was behind him. "Matchmaker... You set up Neets with mail order brides or something? Wait- boy?!"

While the recon appreciated the blood donor trying to protect her from Faith, Alice couldn't help but feel more unamused than confused. Yes, the girl was a bit eccentric, but she seemed nice despite. But on the otherhand, Alice didn't want the matchmaker to forcefully pair her up with someone, being one to wait when it comes to romance. "Hold on, why would you think he's gay?" The recon asked Faith, peering out from behind Ice.

Now that was something Faith nearly couldn't forgive. The impotence the boy had expressed at her art left her dumbfounded, almost, and she couldn't help but stare off for a moment.
"I'll have you know, Isaiah - yes, I know your name!" she exclaimed abruptly, her pout becoming more and more pronounced as the situation unfolded, "That I am not some petty and cheap service! Ichor flows through my veins, the veins of a Demigod, and bless me with the ability to match anyone I so wish! I even have my own TV show~!" though her demeanour seemed to switch to being more cheery at the last comment.

"Huh? Whatd'ya mean?" she tilted her head, confused, placing a finger to her lip, "What, you mean he hasn't said that he's gay? But I can feel it; I can read aura's and energy signatures, y'know. From the stars I have divined-" dramatically, she raised her hands, gesturing to the sky, "-and I'm sorry to bring the bad news, Alice - but Isaiah here doesn't exactly pine over the fairer sex~"

Ice stiffened as her heard his name from Faith's mouth, especially since he had never introduced himself. It wasn't like his reputation was widespread enough to reach celebrity ears, only people of the underworld. All this talk of demigods made Ice want to slap her across the face so she could come back to her senses... If she had any senses to begin with.

Again, someone else was using his full first name, it always creeped him out. "If you think you know anything about my love life or which gender I'd rather be boffing, then you have another thing coming. I've never said I was gay because I ain't, end of discussion!" The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. This entire talk was giving him the heebie jeebies.

Faith giggled at Ice's mock display of intimidation, and danced around the two, almost gliding across the hospital floor as she went, attempting to position herself closer to Alice.
"That's nice, Isaiah, buuuuuuuut the stars don't lie~" she chirruped, clasping Alice by the hand and pulling her ever so gently a short distance away from Ice, if she let her, "But that's neither here nor there, we can discuss your preferences when you come asking for dating tips! I'm only really interested in one thing~"

With that, she drew herself to eye level with Alice, and gazed closely into her one red eye.
"You... don't know what the Exodus of Time is, do you, little miss Recon~? I can't believe you don't know - you really must have been born with it~!" she then glanced towards Ice, and flipped several dozen pages into the seemingly endless notebook, "Hey, do you want me to tell you what it is? It might be worthwhile, especially in here~!"

"Sure, I guess?" At this rate Alice was getting annoyed at Faith, her eye twitching slightly, but tried to stay calm and not wring her throat from the madness she spout.

Ice let out a long sigh, it didn't seem like he was going to be able to reason with her. The blood donor cross his arms and watched as the Faith tried to coerce Alice into joining her on her maniacal imaginary hayride. He didn't move to block Alice again, but saw that she was getting annoyed as well, so she could defend herself. Ice reached into his pocket for another candy, only to come up with nothing.

He had eaten them all. Oh goody goody gumdrops, how was he going to last without sugar?

Seeing that she had the go ahead, Faith stood up tall and strong, trying her best to show off that she was telling a story.
"The Exodus of Time is truly a miracle of the Gods. It takes the form of an eye, typically a different colour to its pair, and has an incredibly powerful ability; it shows the user visions of the future~!" she paused for a second, letting the two take in the information, before starting up again, "It shows the future like a hologram, overlaid onto the present~!"

As quickly as she had backed off, though, she darted back in to get a better look at the eye, once again awfully close to Alice's face.
"I can feel its power from here..." and then pondered for a second, before, "Hey, in Monokuma's little video, it showed you with an eyepatch! Could it be you wore it to block out the visions of the future~? Were the things you saw too horrible, that you forced yourself to never see them again? And could it be you removed it in order to view the future again and prevent another murder?!" with every question, she inched ever so slightly closer forward, seemingly engrossed within her own world.

Alice's only answer was an uppercut to Faith's face. "Du gehörst in eine Irrenanstalt, du blöder Mistkerl!" She yelled, having picked up a bit of German from Mercy.

For the third time, Faith felt that twitch. But this time, it was less of a twitch and more of instinct; this girl, Alice, had probably lived all her life, plagued by visions of the future, betraying her endlessly. Faith knew she wouldn't take kindly to such direct and probing questioning, but she had to try, such as the nature of experiments. The twitch more prominent, more violent, more aggressive than the others, reflecting her own thoughts. She could see Alice tense up.

But unlike the other times, she was prepared.

As she tightened her fist, Faith braced. And as said fist swung, she darted forward, taking the girl in an embrace. If anyone had been watching her since arrival, they might have thought she had some kind of fascination with hugging every girl that crossed her path, but she would disagree.
"It's okay, Alice." she whispered, wrapping her arms around her, if briefly, before spinning around her to face Ice, "Now you, Isaiah, lemme know when you wanna tell me about the boy you like~! And you Alice, come to me if you wanna train your eye; if we have to fight a Carnage Sister every time we want a new floor, it could be useful~"

At that point, Alice gave up once again, but this time with Faith. So she walked away from the other two, but instead went back to her room.

Ice stared at this interaction, now more worried that Alice would blow her top before he could. The girl kept talking even more about outlandish things and Ice was hurriedly grabbing for the weapon slipped into his waistband as Faith grew closer to his friend. Before he could do anything though, Alice tried to uppercut the fairy... and missed? Faith had moved to hug the girl which overall would have freaked Ice out. Alice had started walking away and Ice was going to call after her, but was interrupted by the fairy ruella again.

The Blood Donor took a second to process what she said, focusing more on Alice instead. Once she turned the corner, Ice pointed at Faith, "You stay away from me- And Alice! Or I'll come after you." He gave her a glare that made the devil shiver before shivering himself and stomping into the Diner.

Faith stood, letting him go ahead towards the diner, pausing for a moment to take in his comment.
"That wont do, y'know. It's not nice to threaten people, especially not when the person is more powerful than you." she took a step behind him, following him to the door, before placing a hand gently onto his shoulder, one that could easily be shrugged off, "Maaaaayyyyyyybe you didn't notice, but I am trying to help~! Davis is more powerful than all of us, y'know... The Exodus of Time would be a great asset in beating that Warlock when the time comes~" she chirruped, slightly distantly, before following him into the Diner.

"HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO everyone~!" she exclaimed, rather loudly, into the room, clearly announcing her presence to everyone.

Ice did in fact shrug her hand off, looking over his shoulder to meet her eyes, "He may be strong, but if he can die, then I'll kill him." With that, he quickened his pace so he wouldn't be associated with her, the bloody nymph.

---

Flipping a page, max sat at the study, studying some basic science. Still feeling a bit guilty by how he handled Thomas earlier, he was also thinking of a way to apologize to the kid. But those thoughts were cut short by a voice on the speakers. It was Cyrus, and his words carried with them an incredible anxiety. Could someone have died? Was there another hostage situation? With a loud thud, Max’s book hit the floor as he started walking towards the Diner at quite a pace, but while crossing a corner.

”Max!?”

Before he could realize, Max was brought to the ground, hurting his left arm in the process. Next to him lay Felix, who seemed alarmed.

“Hey, you heard Cyrus right? Shit, this is bad. He totally sounded super serious, something bad must’ve happene-“

“Felix! Calm down. We don’t know what Cyrus wants, and you panicking isn’t helping anyone. Let’s just get to the diner.” Said Max, as he got back up to his feet. When he used his left arm to get up though, a pain spike surged through it, causing Max to flinch; it may be bruised pretty bad.

“Owh, ye-yeah.” Felix followed suit, but from the corner of his eye, he noticed Max’s pain, and his cheeks grew red as he imagined where that pain probably came from.

As the two reached the diner, Felix and Max spotted the few infinites that had arrived, among them being new faces. But introducing themselves was the last thing on their mind.

“Guys! What’s the deal? Is Cyrus inside?” Felix frantically looked around for the politician, but it seems he wasn’t here at all. “You all heard his message right? So where is he?”

“Felix, I told you to calm down. You know Cyrus could only have broadcasted from the post, he’ll be here any minute.” While he tried to appear calm and rational, even Max was clearly on edge.

Lucy was enjoying her own devices when she heard someone knocking on the door to her room. “Hi Lucy, It's me again.” Came Jezebel's familiar voice. “Like, can I come in?”

Lucy peered back towards the door, raising a brow before placing down her E-handbook “Yes come on in.”

If Lucy didn't recognize the voice, she probably remembered Jezebel's outlandish outfit as she walked through the door. The clown was still grinning ear to ear when she closed the door behind herself. “Hm?” While Jezebel was still smiling, she tipped her head sideways. “What's with that look? You didn't like, forget about a Betty like already did you?” she chuckled.

The girl did in fact remember the outfit, blinking a few times to remember that it was in fact real for a moment. “I forgot you for a moment, before I saw you of course..” She commented before standing up from the bed and walking closer “Anyway, what is it you needed? ”

“I totally want your companionship!” Jezebel threw out her arms, but stopped herself “Kidding, kidding!” The clown retracted her arms. “You're just a new person, so like, I figured you'd like someone to talk to. Like You were totally dumped into a killing game after all, so it wouldn't hurt to have some friends. Was I wrong?”

Lucy was clearly about ready to reach out and grab something at the clown as soon as they opened their arms. Of course it was reactionery so it did not go far as they lowered their arms as well. “I see… Well I did get a bunch of useful details out of Felix. Still I guess it would not hurt. Tell me, has anyone gotten away yet? Or in fact has everyone that committed killings been caught?”

“Well, I totally wouldn't be alive right now if even one blackened got away.” Jezebel scratched the back of her head. “I wasn't around for it, but like there was a guy called Davis Gallo? Apparently he got out of the game. But he was calling himself the mastermind, so I'm not sure if that counts. ” She shrugged her shoulders. “So you're like the infinite prodigy and junk? A total jack of all trades? That sounds tripindicular! What kind of things can you currently do?”

The girl hummed at the knowledge that was given to her, something seemed more than a little off. “He called himself the mastermind and walked out of the game? That is.. odd.” She commented offhandedly before focusing back once her talent was mentioned. “Ha! Of course, behold!” With a flick of her wrist, like magic, a playing card showed up with but a flick of her fingers. Of course it was slight of hand but otherwise she found it impressive! “You may marvel whenever.”

Jezebel looked at the girl's outstretched hand, and the card that held in it. “Is... that it?”

Lucy huffed and crossed her arms “”What do you mean IS THAT IT? Did you even see what I did? No? There!... Besides I am young I have much growing to do.” For some reason she peered down to her chest for a moment but then went right back up.

Jezebel let out a “heh” before walking around Lucy. “Like, if you want to do a trick like that, you totally need to show the audience that you have nothing to hide.” Jezebel rolled up her sleeves and let Lucy examine her arms. Jezebel even went as far as removing her hat and gloves before going on. “You also, like, need to show them that you have something to disappear. Anyone can make a card appear, but we totally need to show everyone what we plan on making disappear. Like, the card could have come from anywhere otherwise.” She gently removed the card from Lucy's hand and held it between her ring and pinky fingers. “They so know the card is real, so we can start our trick.” she shook her hand up and down, so fast that it was starting to blur. But when her hand finally stopped moving, the card had vanished. “Now that we've convinced them that the card is gone, we can totally bring it back.” With a flick of her fingers, the card seemed to come out of nowhere and landed in Lucy's waiting hands. “Like, you need to set up your audience to be tricked. Otherwise, they will totally have doubts, and everything about your trick will be brought into question.”

“Hey wait, what are you...” Lucy was more than a little confused as the clown started to roll up her sleeves. However as she did so the girls eyes seem to light up, listening and trying to absorb everything that she may have to offer on the subject. “I didn’t know you knew so much about this?” She questioned but now she had the card back she was more than happy to play with it, following the instructions from before with ease given her past experience.

Jezebel giggled. “I don't think I said this, but I'm the Infinite trickster.” She put her hat and gloves back on. “I don't do card tricks that much anymore, but like, I still find that stuff fascinating. Maybe I can show you some other stuff?” That was when Cyrus's voice came over the loudspeakers. “Why do I think something grody just happened?” she shrugged and looked at Lucy. “Well anyway, we should probably show up with everyone else. Did you want to come with me?”

With a affirmative nod Lucy agreed! “Well I guess i could allow you to teach me such things. Normally people would beg for such an opportunity but while I am here, so be it.” She looked prideful but it was more than clear by her face that she was excited by the prospect, learning new tricks like that would be fun after all. Once she heard the voice over the speakers however she looked a little angry at it. “Interrupting.. Yes, let us go together then.”

Jezebel rolled her eyes, but kept her smile up.“As you wish, your majesty.” The two headed off to see what was going on.

Cyrus rushed from the post to the dining hall. For the moment he had forgotten anything else to direct himself on this one singular issue. It was as if the rest of the killing game had just faded away. All the other matters, all the other issues, all the people squabbling about non-issues. All of that was gone right now. They didn’t matter, of course they didn’t. Right now he was dealing with a true life or death situation. He had to save someone. What other thing could be as important?

A loud bang sounded through the dining hall as Cyrus swung the door open without restraint. He was out of breath from the running, but his eyes were still filled with fury. It wasn’t the type of anger Cyrus had shown in the trials of carnage. It was different. This was the determined intensity of someone with a goddamn job to do. The same kind of ferocity, just without the irate madness.
He took a deep breath and regained his posture. He looked around the room, counting heads. It seemed most people had showed up. The rest was either late or decided to willfully ignore his outcry. Simply useless. But whatever, he had no time to waste thinking about the worthless rabble. The ones that arrived here were the ones he could count on right now.

”Thank you all for coming.” He said, as he moved himself from the door to the middle of the room. He didn’t worry himself with the usual fancy speeches or pretty words, he just decided to cut straight to the point. ”As I told you all in the announcement. We have an emergency. Krista has been captured and detained by Nariko in the morgue.” No doubt this would stir up the room. The hows, the why’s. Cyrus didn’t answer anyone specifically, not yet. He had an announcement to finish. With one hand motion he tried to silence the room, and continued speaking. ”Nariko demands we hand over Aleecia during the next night of carnage, and lock her up with them both forever. The alternative is, when we don’t deliver Aleecia to her… that she will kill Krista and herself.”

”I have called you all here to request cooperation. Any type of help is welcome. Whether you simply contribute ideas or will provide manpower for whatever we undertake.” He looked around the room, his expression determined. His voice still filled with an intense fire. ”I hope I speak for many of you when I say I am sick and tired of the suffering and death.” He paused. ”That is why I am going to try and save her, since we have the opportunity.”

”Who is joining me?”

Aleecia and Ellie had been exploring around the hospital wing of the second floor when the intercom announcement had gone off. Memories flashed forward to the front of the Dice Master's mind of the first night of carnage that chilled the poor girl down to her bones. Without saying a word to Ellie next to her, Aleecia hurried in the direction she remembered the Diner to be, having formed a map of steps in her mind.

She may have run her cane into a few walls, but she hadn't hit her head, barely slowing her down as she raced for the dining hall. When she arrived, it didn't seem as though many people were there. Ice had come up to her immediately to try and calm her down, Aleecia was shaking uncontrollably. Once he had gotten her into a seat. He had asked her to stay put while he went to the door to wait and she had agreed after some argument. The girl fiddled with her jeans, pulling at frays in the hem, her nerves a jumbled mess.

Cyrus finally arrived, making Aleecia freeze. The entrance was loud, making the blind girl want to cover her ears, and they came up to her shoulders instinctually. Cyrus's stomps could be heard quite clearly as he moved towards the middle of the room, not too far from where Aleecia was sitting. As he began his announcement, alarm bells continued to ring off in her head.

Krista was in trouble, Nariko had her. But why? Why would she try to cure her now?

Nariko had explained what 'curing' someone meant and spoke to the blind girl about her anxieties after her past failures. Aleecia had always tried to stop Nariko from thinking that way, but to no avail. The Dice Master knew it was an essential part of her programming and all she could really do was convince Nariko to prolong implementing it.

His next sentence brought Aleecia's thoughts to a standstill, Nariko wanted her? But Monokuma and the carnage sisters already had them all captive, why did she have to go to such lengths?! Why would... Something must have happened to Nariko after she had left this morning, why else would she do something like this? The fact she was going so far for her and Krista left her flabbergasted. Why was she doing this to Krista of all people? Aleecia stood up, and starting walking towards Cyrus, forgetting her cane on the table.

"I need to talk some sense into Nariko. I can reason with her enough to let Krista go. I know Nariko, she would never do something to cause trouble for me. You don't need take another action because if I can't reason with her enough to let both Krista and me go..." Aleecia squeezed her eyes tightly.

"She can just take me."

---

Ice had stayed as far away as Faith as possible after walking into the room. Not too many people had arrived yet, and Ice was worried to see that Aleecia wasn't among them. Where could that clumsy girl be?! Ice grabbed a pancake kitchen and started aggressively tearing it into tiny bits as he waited for Cyrus or Allie to arrive.

Finally she did, followed in by Mumsy. Ice gave a curt nod to the blue-haired woman before hurdling Aleecia towards a chair. The poor girl was shaking from head to toe and Ice was slightly worried he would be stabbed in the foot by her broken cane. Ice muttered reassurances into Aleecia's ear while taking hold of her cane, gently setting it on top of the cane behind her.

When she had finally calmed down, Ice told her he was going to stand by the door to wait for Cyrus and come back as soon as he could. Allie was doubtful and stubborn at first, but after some argument, Ice went to stand by the door.

Which might've been the worst spot for him to be, because he was almost smashed into a pancake like the one he had decimated earlier.

Cyrus came in with a bang and started stomping towards the center of the room. He didn't have the irritated mood that he usually wore like a sleeve during trials, but his face was more set in determination. As soon as he started explaining the situation, Ice's mind went to their interaction this morning. Krista had seemed genuinely worried about his wellbeing and his heart started to beat two times too fast.

It was that blasted blood bag robot that Aleecia was always so fascinated by! Ice cursed at himself for not having disposed of it earlier before such a dangerous situation had occurred. If only he had- Regret enveloped his shaking body.

Now she wanted both of them. Not only poor Allie, but the Violinist as well. Not only was it greedy, it was despicable, abhorrent, disgusting, Ice couldn't think of enough negative adjectives. The thought of another death of someone he cared about made him grab for his collar, wishing to anyone listening for sugar to calm him down enough to take action.

Cyrus asked anyone who could to help, which Ice was about to volunteer when Aleecia stood up and started talking about reasoning with the mechanic monster. Ice moved towards her, fear and protectiveness coursing through his veins. Aleecia was only able to get her last line out before Ice put his able arm around her and pulled her back.

"You. Will. Not. Go to her. That sick devil's spawn needs to go back to the hell dimension she came from. I'm in if it means rescuing Krista and dismantling her. Anything to piss of that hairball whore Davis."

Daimyon Londe wasted little time in seeking out Marianne Roche's room on the second floor. He walked up the stairs with a stride in his step, yet when he was finally standing at her door, his resolve seemed to evaporate. He balled his hands into a fist—was he afraid of the truth? Perhaps he was. Yet he knew he could not live with himself if he did not do everything in his power to seek it out. The late herbalist's e-handbook in hand, he opened up the door and stepped inside.

It was dark inside, the menacing kind of dark. Daimyon breathed a sigh of relief when nothing gruesome met his eyes when he flipped on the lights. In fact, the room was spotless. It did not take long for his eyes to wander to the desk that was rather similar to his own—and the stack of notes quietly sitting on it. Another sigh escaped his lips, this time one of anticipation and, perhaps, trepidation.

He sat down at the table and took the first paper into hand.


---


---


---


---


---


---

Daimyon sank low on the desk as he finished the last note. Saying he did not believe what he had just read would be a massive understatement. His hands were shaking as they desperately clutched the piece of paper, and a million feelings suddenly rose within him, all swirling around Marianne Roche. Denial lasted moments before fiery fury overtook it, that itself to be soon replaced by anguish. Worst of all, his heart was conflicted. Why was it so conflicted? The various emotions threw his mind's ship around like a stormy tide, and in the end he was too paralysed to even do anything.

Then, something caught his eye. Another paper, smaller than the rest and almost hidden away on the large table. He reached for it with a quivering arm—was there more?



No. This, he could not take anymore. He pushed away the letter, raised his hands to his face and began sobbing.

All of a sudden, a voice sounded through the room. It was not Monokuma's.
‘Everyone, this is Cyrus. I want to meet everyone in the dining hall within fifteen minutes. This is an emergency. I repeat: This is an emergency, meet in the dining hall.’

An emergency? Perhaps this was the poet's chance to escape this despair.

With great effort, he pushed himself up from the table, wiping the tears from his cheeks. He could, however, not tear his eyes away from the pile of notes—so he picked and crumpled them all up, throwing them back onto the table. Marianne was dead, he told himself. It was time to leave the past in the past. Yet, betraying himself, he picked up the letter and took it with him, sliding it inbetween the first pages of his notebook.

He walked out of the room, and made sure it was locked. He vowed to never to enter the Infinite Herbalist's room again, and never let anyone else do it either. He would drop her e-handbook back at his own place, then head straight for the break room.

Her story might have been over. But his was not.

After talking with Jezebel, Mercy had decided to go to the dining hall for a late breakfast, having lost track of time. Once she arrived, the plague doctor grabbed a plate of bacon and pancakes, and silently sat down by the window next to the indoor beach. Only till the announcement came on through the intercom did she snapped out of her thoughts. "Emergency? Wonder what happened..." Mercy told herself, as the other infinites slowly fill the room. Yet someone was missing, or atleast it felt like it. Either way, the plague doctor shrugged the feeling off as soon as Cyrus barged into the dining hall.

He explained how Krista had been held captive by Nariko, who requested that they give her Aleecia, or she'll murder both the violinist and herself. Mercy didn't understand why, and if it was out of love, questioned the robot's definition of "Love".

"Don't worry. I'll be there in case anyone gets hurt." Mercy spoke up to Cyrus, taking her mask off and stuffing it into her bag. Then it dawned on her who was missing.

"Damn it, Alice..." she muttered under her breath, quickly walking to the door. "Now I have to go ask Edgeface if she's in this or not."

---

It took a few minutes to search for the recon, till Mercy found herself standing outside Alice's door once more. "Hey Alice? Is something wrong? You weren't at the emergency meeting." She asked, knocking on the door. Silence was the only reply.

"Come on, Edgeface, I'm not doing this again!" She yelled, knocking on the door again.

More silence. At that point, Mercy started to worry.

"Alice...? This isn't funny..."



It was then that the recon finally opened the door. "What is it?" She asked. Mercy's eyes suddenly widened seeing Alice without her eyepatch, and nearly tackled her into a hug. "Oh my god, I can't believe you got rid of that stupid eyepatch!!" The plague doctor exclaimed in joy. "Honestly, you look amazing without it, even if you don't think so!"

Well atleast it wasn't a love and fantasy obsessed stranger.

"I appreciate the compliment, Merc, but what do you want?" Alice asked, patting Mercy's back before gingerly pushing the plague doctor away from her.

"Oh, apparently Nariko is holding Krista captive and if we don't give her Aleecia she's gonna do a murder suicide."

"Wait what?!"

"Yes, I know."

While Alice was glad Mercy was calm at a time like that, she still had doubts ironically plaguing her mind. "Look, you go on ahead and help them when the Night of Carnage comes, okay?"

"Wait, what are you saying?"

"...I'm saying I don't think I can help this time."

Mercy couldn't accept what Alice was saying. "What?! Of course you can help!!" She yelled.

"Look, Evergreen. You got Cyrus, you got Isaiah, you got a shit ton of infinites who can fight and strategize, hell, they even have you, the only sane doctor in this acursed hospital!" Alice explained, pacing around the room. "Then there me. What am I useful for? To finish the job? I'm not needed, I hope you can understand..."

What the recon was saying left Mercy silent. Why would she be doubting herself when the others are preparing for the chance of a battle? Yet somehow, she had a point. "...Fine. Have it your way." She said, walking back to the door.

"But if we get hurt, if we get killed cause you weren't there, it'll be your fault."

Guilt seemed to strike Alice dead in the heart from Mercy's words. What if she was right? "Wait, Merc-!" before she could apologize, the plague doctor already left. She walked up next to the door, before turning around so her back faced the walk, and slowly sat down on the floor. The recon hugged her knees close to her, and lowered her head in thought.

"I can't even talk to someone without arguing..."