[color=gray][CENTER][COLOR=#AC0D01][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/COLOR][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5504477][img]https://i.imgur.com/7BWn8qb.jpeg[/img][/url][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=#E64C09][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]Southern Plateau[/I] - [I]Dundas Island, Pacific Ocean[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=#E64C09][b]Hope In Hell #2012:[/b][/COLOR] [I]My Demons, They Know How to Swim[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][COLOR=#AC0D01][SUP][sub]____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/SUP][/COLOR][INDENT][sub][color=#E64C09][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I][@Melissa] - Aurora Mitchell, [@Qia] - Harper Baxter[/i][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=#E64C09][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]Buddy System[/I][/right][/SUP]
[indent]Everything was rapidly unravelling. 

Lorcán looked around the narrow corridor at his gathered team. Harper was frozen, Calliope was succumbing to a panic attack, Rory had somehow slipped into either denial or obliviousness, Katja was apparently hurt and Amma had gone rogue.

Before Lorcán could even begin to process the fact he was now living in a reality with not one, but two of both Calliope and Katja, the room began to change. His eyes were plunged into total darkness, the scraping of stone and metal drowning out the screams and protests of his team members. 

Just as suddenly as the darkness came, the dim light returned. Stopping himself from creating a torch, Lorcán took a look around the new room he found himself in alongside  Aurora and Harper.

Something was awe-inspiring about being this far underwater. Lorcán was used to riding the surface of the ocean, he had never truly thought about taking up diving. However, after this experience, he couldn’t see himself going all-in on the hobby. 

[color=#8ecdb7]“That glass isn’t going to hold forever… we have to find a way out of here.”[/color] Aurora declared breaking the silence between the three as Lorcán’s molton gaze fixated on the slowly spreading crack.

[color=#8ecdb7]“There has to be a set of controls on the other side, a way to deactivate the fail-safe.”[/color]

As Aurora turned to Harper, Lorcán realized that Aurora was still firmly holding his hand. His cheeks flushed before he reminded himself they weren’t exactly on a romantic picnic. Plus Harper was kind of involuntarily chaperoning, not exactly Lorcán’s idea of a first date.

 [color=#8ecdb7]“I’ll teleport and unlock the door.”[/color] 

[color=#8a9a5b]"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Just...be careful.”[/color] Harper replied, clearly still trapped in her head. Her voice was hesitant, her eyes distant as they rolled from the door, back to the ominous wall of glass slowly succumbing to the pressure of the ocean. 

Lorcán’s eyes followed Harper’s gaze before he gave Aurora a look, his eyes continuing to dart between the glass windows and the single sealed blast door.

[color=#fe650d]"It'd be a grom move to just try without at least testing for an EBI field."[/color] He reluctantly admitted, taking a few steps forward before raising his hand. Taking a deep breath, Lorcán placed it on the blast door and exhaled a small sigh of relief. There was no overwhelming sense of nausea this time, the wall that stood between them and their escape was part of the trial.

There was still no telling what else it was about to throw at them.

[color=#fe650d]"I still am not stoked about this."[/color]

[color=#8ecdb7]“We don’t have a ton of options here, Lorcán. I’ve got to try.”[/color] Aurora asserted, squeezing his hand before letting go and not giving him another opportunity to detest. Lorcán felt his cheeks redden again, hoping that Harper was still too lost in her head to notice. A familiar sense of envy clawed at his chest while Lorcán watched the ease at which Aurora moved from one place to another. 

[color=#8ecdb7]“I found the panel! Give me a minute, I-”[/color]

Aurora’s excitement was cut short by a dark laugh. Before she had time to react, her face was slammed against the viewport in the door. Lorcán was forced to watch helplessly as her body crumbled and slid out of view.

[color=#fe650d]“[b]NO![/b]”[/color] His anguish cry echoed through the room before Lorcán jetted forward, pounding his fists against the blast door. Igniting his hands with plasma, he pummeled them against the door, the heavy metal showing little more than minor scorch marks from his onslaught. 

Slamming his hands against the door once more in frustration, Lorcán tried to compose himself. Feelings he had kept suppressed for years were clawing at his throat, rage, fury, and fear all trying to get out and consume him.

[color=#fe650d]“Baxter.”[/color]

[color=#fe650d]“Baxter!”[/color] Lorcán called trying to get Harper in the moment. [color=#fe650d]“Baxter, brah, whatever is going through your mind, ignore it, let the sea have it. We need you, and we need that big brain of yours.”[/color] 

[color=#04cf3a]“Boo!”[/color] The voice belonging to the laugh suddenly appeared in the viewport, smiling eyes and dark hair accentuating the familiar face.

[color=#04cf3a]“Bro, take a chill pull, Borealis is fine,”[/color] It sounded like Rory, it mostly looked like Rory but Lorcán knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not Rory on the other side of that door.

[color=#04cf3a]“Well, mostly fine.” [/color]He cackled, looking down at the redheaded woman crumbled at his feet. The ambient temperature of the room rapidly began rise while Lorcán paced back and forth in front of the blast door. His molten eyes were unblinking as they watched the man on the other side.

[color=#04cf3a]“I’ll be with you in one second, Hothead.”[/color] Rory smiled before kneeling out of sight. [color=#04cf3a]“Since you’re not using these, baby cakes”[/color] He stated, touching Aurora’s unconscious form, [color=#04cf3a]“I think I’ll borrow them,”[/color] He added before teleporting into the room with Harper and Lorcán. 

Hurling a blast of lightning towards the doppelgänger, Lorcán gritted his teeth in frustration as the Not-Quite-Rory easily teleported out of harm’s way before reappearing on the other side of the room.

[color=#04cf3a]“Damn, bro, I still can’t believe you haven’t hit that.” [/color]Rory taunted, teleporting again before Lorcán could strike. [color=#04cf3a]“If I spent a night in a tent with Red I’d have been all up in her,” [/color]

He dodged another attack.

[color=#04cf3a]“[i]Multiple[/i] times.” [/color]Laughed echoed around the small room as Rory vanished again, drowning out another crack as a second fracture appeared in the window.

[color=#04cf3a]“Though, I guess I kind of already did,” [/color]Rory smiled before imitating striking himself in the back of the head with a dark chuckle. Lorcán hesitated before throwing another strike, he was wasting strength and HZEs at this point. If they were going to beat Rory, he needed to be smarter.

The only question was; what was going to go first, Rory’s duplicated powers, or the structural integrity of the window?

[color=#04cf3a]“Is it because of your little thing for Amma? ‘Cause, bro, you can totally just have both. Just like don’t be stupid about it, hell, I bet if you play your cards right you and Harper here can scratch each other’s itch. Y’know before you die virgins.”[/color]

Rory’s eyes darted between the trapped pair and the window.

[color=#04cf3a]“‘Cause you are gonna totally die in here.”[/color] 

Lorcán watched the clone carefully, slowly taking a couple steps towards Harper, before whispering as Rory continued to play mind games with the pair 

[color=#04cf3a]“Oh, Harps, don’t look at me like that, we both know you’re not a virgin, just trying to make Rothy feel better about being the only one in the room.”[/color] Rory mocked while hanging upside down from the ceiling.

[color=#fe650d]“That blast door,”[/color] Lorcán muttered out of the side of his mouth, trying to subtlety communicate with Harper, [color=#fe650d]“Should have a manual override. The access port likely isn’t obvious to the average pair of eyes, but to you…”[/color]

The incessant chatter of the doppelgänger increased in volume, drowning out Lorcán’s whispers.

 [color=#04cf3a]“Don’t worry, I won’t ruin the surprise for Gil, I’m evil, not a monster, Si told me it was kind of a secret for you.”[/color]

[color=#fb0207]“Heya, Sis,”[/color] Sierra’s voice suddenly called from the other side of the door as she held Aurora up by her neck.[color=#fb0207] “Your friend isn’t looking so good, I was hoping she’d be awake to watch her loverboy, well you know-”[/color] She taunted before miming drowning noises. 

The sound of water suddenly coming through the crack felt deafening to Lorcán as he watched the two fractures suddenly meet. 

[color=#fe650d]“Go!”[/color] He ordered Harper, flaring up again as he superheated the air in front of his fist and launched a barrage at Rory.

[color=#fe650d]“I’ll cover you!”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]