AimeChambers

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope

It seemed as though everyone had gotten their PDA, so the Ultimate Tutor soon came out to acquire his as well. He swiped through the list of profiles before landing on the profile of the girl from earlier- an Ayu Usui. As far as Hibiki could tell they were all Ultimate students the same age, but her Ultimate came up blank. If he was in the helpful mood later it would probably do well to help her find out what her talent may be.

The rules seemed like they would be quite the hassle, did he absolutely have to nap inside of the residential cabins or was anywhere an option during the day. At some point he would have to take the two-toned bear aside and ask these quintessential questions. The murdering and what not was kind of upsetting, but would high school students really have enough motive to murder even in this situation? That didn't seem the most plausible. It would be more likely that other new motives or conflicts would arise in such a competing and harrowing environment, but for the moment they seemed safe. It wouldn't do for anyone to kill in a crowd and the bear would probably give them time to take in this new information and decompress.

Movement from where Hibiki had thought he had seen a disturbance earlier revealed a tall girl that seemed to be the leader archetype, quite similar to the boisterous man earlier. She certainly had the 'north' conflict style and took matters into her own hands, she valued her own life above all the others. Hibiki quickly scanned over her profile and identified her as Snow Iclyn.

Her words were firm and to the point, calculated as one could be in this situation. Staying in groups would allow Hibiki to use his talent to his upmost ability, but also sounded a bit crowded. How was he supposed to get in his daily shut-eye with at least two other people? But with Snow in the lead, escape routes were sure to be scoured asap so hopefully it wouldn't take too much time.

And competing interests immediately appeared. A boy with purple hair and a guitar quickly objected- an Ando Yamagata and he didn't seem at all willing to negotiate. Pointing out Alice Parker was not the move Hibiki would have ever taken, but then again, he usually didn't do anything drastic and that would impede his cuddly companion time. Calling out the Ultimate Assassin wouldn't do anything to worsen your chance of dying by her hand, but would theoretically dramatically piss her off.

While Alice's reaction was quite expected, the other girl coming over to her in the middle of the other two Ultimates' argument seemed out of place in the situation around them. What came out of the small device she held was even more incomprehensive. Lilly Hart seemed like a wild card that looked opposite of what she acted. If she hadn't said something so uncharacteristic of his expectations, Hibiki might have dismissed her as one of the crowd altogether. As Ando started to get more heated, the blue haired Ultimate walked closer, thinking that soon someone would have to butt in and clear up the mess of an argument they were starting...

And it ended before it could get any worse. At the very least it didn't seem like Hibiki would have to raise his voice to be overheard, he was not one to do so normally in the first place. But with the weird scratchy feeling at the back of his throat he was worried how his voice would come out. Something about what Alice said made the boy think she was full of empty words and wouldn't end up following through with the murder for some strange reason. She definitely had plenty of motive though.

'Oh, shit' It was when Hibiki was scanning through the rest of the crowd that he noticed Davis advancing on the musician, and not too happily either. With an Ultimate like Conquest, even the Tutor had heard something about him... And his reputation preceded him, he certainly hated being ignored. It wasn't like Hibiki to move fast so he hesitantly followed behind from a distance, not wanting to get to close before a shitstorm started.

The boy cringed as Davis went to town on Ando, especially the hair remark. If he thought Ando's hair was feminine, what would he think of Hibiki's? But that wasn't the most pressing topic at hand. Hibiki walked closer and closer 'til he stood a bit behind Ando, trying to find a good time to cut in, but before he could, the Davis was already done with the Guitarist. Since it seemed as though Alice could take care of herself, he turned to the two Ultimates next to him.

To the girl, he gave her translator a quick glance before given a small smile he usually gave to his younger students, "Killing is a bit much for a punishment, I hope you two can come to a proper agreement." The girl looked rather small for her age and he didn't want anyone thinking of her as a 'blackened' or whatever they were called. She'd have a better chance of survival with her not going around looking for a hit man. "I bet Snow Iclyn might be able to help you out if you annoy her about it enough though."

With that, Hibiki pivoted with strange precision of someone with a slow demeanor and patted Ando on the shoulder. "Look, we're all under some pressure here so it might be good to get some water and cool down a while. How about we head over to those cabins over there?" He motioned in the direction away from the amphitheater.

It wasn't that he had any real ulterior motives, but a drink would definitely help him keep focused and boost his mood.

@Ammokkx@Vocab

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

Well shit. Thanks to the little argument she had with Ice and Calvin, Alice ended up embarrassing herself infront of the other infinites. Shooting a quick unamused look at the other two, she went back to silently listening to the rest of the court's discussion.

A quick look over in Alice's direction made Ice feel an icy chill up his spine. It wasn't like he wanted to fight with the idiot, stop giving him that look!

Then the badge was brought up. To her, it didn't make sense for the tip to be coated in blood and Mundinol. "T-That doesn't seem right. Thomas compared the puncture to a pencil tip, yet the tip of the badge isn't that thin. I-If it was used to poison her, the wound would've been bigger, wouldn't it?"

Again they were going around in circles, but at least this time they were moving on to another piece of evidence, "Well it also depends on the size of the lead, 2B is a lot different than 2-..." This was not the time to get into those kinds of specifics, so Ice quickly stopped himself. "Anyway, you wanted our alibis, right? Well I've got bupkis so do what you will, I was bandaging my injuries in my room, alone."

"This wild goose chase is getting old..." Alice mumbled to herself before speaking up again. "I went back to my room at 4:30 to rest, b-before I got invited to the concert at 5:30." she explained. "O-Other than that, I've been with him for most of the day, really." The recon added, pointing to the blood donor.

The Infinite Blood Donor in question nodded.

"Still, t-the badge kinda bothers me. I mean, what if the blackened tried to u-use it to frame someone?" Alice asked. "I still don't believe it's the murder weapon, and other than to pin the blame on one of us, Max specifically really, it's basically worthless, isn't it?"

That's when the Infinite Politician suddenly got a lot more heated, "I didn't notice the badge, neither when I was shooting the breeze in the Pharmacy or on Max later, I almost thought it had been taken away or something when he got admitted. Did you see anything?" He glanced over at the Recon.

"No. I-I didn't." Alice shook her head in reply. "At the time, I thought Max still h-had his badge with him."

"You know, with the way he's acting, who'd give him a badge in the first place if he's just going to lose it? Did it slip out of your donut powdered hand, wise guy? Just think for a second for Lucifer's sake, because our neglegence has a body count. Give a man a trophy for doing the 'right thing' and he'll wind up getting greedy. Take all the credit while townfoolery is going down in the back alley. Take all the credit when some drug bust saves innocent lives yet let a murdering pedophile walk free because he wanted to yap loud enough to get his main rival on the chopping block." As he barked out at the Police Officer, sweat dripped down his temple and his eyes started to grow distant. "Take all the credit when all the big bad wolves died in a blood bath because you couldn't get in there without seeing the white lines and shillings!" His knuckles grew white as he held his fists by his side. His last words rang out in the almost completely silent room, nothing else heard but his own hard breathing.

After a few moments, he finally came back to his senses and let his fists open. He stared down at the floor, his body still slightly shaking.

"Can't you keep track of your own things, Officer?"

The recon was left speechless after Ice's outburst, her expression frozen in a mix of fear and shock. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the right words to say.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope

Sticking to Neola's side like a leech, Kara followed the others to the stone structure. Davis and the girl seemed to be talking, but their words were drowned out by the white noise echoing in her ears. When they arrived there weren't many kids around, though they all looked around the same age. It was hard to notice much with the world looking like it was shaking around her, but Kara did what she could to keep her knees from buckling.

A bear was giving out an explanation, even though it was a confusing one at that. Summer, but maybe not summer? Was this a camp set up by Hope's Peak? Was it just some strange Japanese orientation and this was kind of normal for such an eccentric place of study?

"All you have to do is kill somebody!"

There's no way that could be right... right? The whole idea of them being dragged here was far-fetched, but murder. Kara could barely stifle a fit of hysterical giggling. Kara took her PDA without looking at it, now that her head was clearer, she wanted to make sure to see everything. It was just some kind of big game before the semester started! What had been that game online that a few of her friends had gossiped about? Mafia? It must be like that!

The game rules would probably be important now, but Kara wanted to check on her classmates first to see their reactions, did they really think this was real? It must have had a twist if they had to figure out a way off the campsite, some kind of escape room scenario. Did the Ultimate Detective design this?

But that big guy Davis must be getting quite into character to want to add more elements to the game. It had already giving Kara quite the fright and they really needed to stop with the whole 'we're trapped thing', it's not like they would be there that long if the semester was starting soon. First years get to have all the fun at orientation while their upperclassman would already be hitting the books.

That girl with the white hair definitely had a stylish look going on. Finally opening her PDA, the Ultimate Dessert Chef looked at her profile. With the title "Ultimate Hair Stylist" it was no wonder! She was taking the game a little too serious as well and had a bit of a harsh attitude. Hopefully she would start being kinder like miss Neola... Oh! She was still holding onto the taller girl. She quickly detached herself from the other teenager's dress and dipped her head in an apology, muttering a "sorry..."

After focusing back on the group, she heard some purple-haired guy talk about Alice Parker. Looking at the PDA, she read through her profile. Was in on the game too? Maybe she was secretly one of their upperclassman. With a few swipes, she looked through the profiles and came upon an odd one. Ultimate ???.

This was going to be fun... r-right? It didn't seem like her kind of game, she was never good at mystery puzzles.

Kara didn't like this game. Not one bit.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

Calvin shuddered involuntarily as Emily called him out on his failure to mention that he had seen her. Calvin turned to face her. "Jesus, we're jumping around so much and I'm just trying to wrap my head around any of this ." He turned towards the rest of the Infinites. "I did see Emily, and was going to mention it. Just so we're clear." Calvin breathed out a sigh before he tuned back in to try and keep track of all that was occuring, though he was intensely aware of the glances the other patients threw his way.

Lucy and Noel started pushing for more details from those who had entered the pharmacy, and Calvin nodded along quietly. "Like I said, I was working in the crematorium and I burned my hand. It really fucking hurt, so I went to the pharmacy to grab some ointment or whatever. Mercy was there, doing something with Braden, and then she helped me out with my hand. Wasn't anything crazy, I ran my hand under water for a bit and then she wrapped it up. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to fall off or some shit. Emily did come after me, and I left pretty quickly after. If I had to say, I was gone sometime around 4:30 I didn't notice anything off with Mercy, but I don't notice much." There was a faint grin on his face that quickly fell away as he remembered himself and the situation he was in.

Bollocks.

Everything had gone to slightly disorganized to a full on clown car of a trial. Alibis were thrown everywhere, Faith was already plotting a theory, and the mask was too much of a wild car to even begin to understand on his own. What they needed was someone to order everything out, but it seemed as though both Cyrus and Thomas were trying to get the one up and explain it all. The bandage was already a head turner, some people had noticed it, some not- him included. But why the entire bandage in the first place? The missing badge was another random entity that had to play in somewhere, after all, a manny wasn't going to just drop his identification nugget all willy-nilly. The mask was indeed a bit strange for it had to be used on someone, but the Blood Donor hadn't known the girlie well enough to keep up with her habits.

It might not have been his 'turn' to talk with everyone talking almost over each other, but Ice said what he had to for his alibi, "I got some nasty bruises sparring with Alice, but the main reason I came over with Alice to the pharmacy was to take a look at my hand again, I tried to put weight on it while in the dojo and mucked it up again." He gave an almost comical look at the Infinite Recon, "Even though this Kinza didn't get even red in the face...So I just needed a bit of ointment, some new braces, and good ol' bandages, bit of a bronx that Calvin came after us or Mercy'd have patched us both up with the same stink."

"Hmm..A bit odd that almost no one saw the bandages on Mercy's hand before the party, besides Emily..." Alice thought to herself as she silently listened to the discussion, scratching the back of her head when mentioned in Ice's alibi. Strangely, Monokuma's comparison of an infected infinite to a hitman bothered her, the recon digging her nails into her arms at the thought of one of them unwillingly turning into a hired gun for the blackened.

"Then again, a bandaged hand can easily be ignored without someone pointing it out, so there isn't an accurate time when she first had patched her wound up, considerably...unless..." she looked over to Calvin, a quick look of disbelief appeared on her face, before she shook her head. "No, no...Seriously doubt he'd do something like this, even then, can't truely trust anyone in this damn place..."

Alice groaned in frustration. "I swear, this trial's gonna be the end of me."

Calvin was scanning the room intently, and he didn't miss Alice's pointed glance and shooken head. "Everything fine?" His tone was a bit tense, as if the words were being forced out. He just hoped to defuse the tension before it settled on him. His eyes carried some sort of unspoken message, though whether it related to the trial or something personal it was difficult to tell.

"I-I'm alright. This case is just getting to me, that's all." Alice reasured Calvin, giving the metal worker a nervous smile.

While Ice may or may not have been able to understand heads or tails of what was going on with the main trial, he was keeping a close eye on the two of them. Whatever Alice was cooking up made him on edge, something had definitely happened between Alice and Calvin when they'd spoken at the party, but the Blood Donor had completely forgotten to ask Alice about it. But what they really needed to do with get to the bottom of this, and what with Alice's antsy stare, "You didn't see Mercy in plasters? It'd be kind of hard to miss with her right smack dab in front of you..." Now he sounded worse than the others, blast it all.

Calvin recoiled slightly as Ice began to question him. "Come the fuck on, dude." He said quietly, before raising his voice. "I didn't fucking notice it, big whoop. I didn't know that she was going to die, so why would I be watching out for every little detail?" Calvin raised an arm and blinked slowly. "I'm not the only one who isn't clear about whether or not she was bandaged!"

Ice sighed, scratching at the back of his neck, he didn't mean to sound patronizing, but it may have come off that way. "Calvin, we're participating in a killing game where anything could be lethal and you were getting bandaged by a Quack who hadn't gotten hurt in the last Night of Carnage. It'd be strange not to inquire of why she was hurt. There's no way you could've gotten that close to her and not seen the blood, did you pick up anything else? A smell? Maybe she flinched a little while patching you up?" Calvin might have not been able to pick up on it, but Alice probably could have, the question were more towards himself than the Metalworker, berating himself for not picking up on anything himself. Ultimately they had been in similar situations and Ice had been just as unobservant because of his own silly problems.

"Honestly, I haven't picked up on much since you were my main concern at the time." Alice spoke up, looking over to Ice. "I wonder if she was trying to hide her hand though..."

"She wasn't wearing gloves, she was with 'patients' all day, it should've been obvious! Blimey... " Ice leaned his good hand onto the podium, "Why can't we all just be observant for once?"

"I don't know what to fucking tell you, dude. I- I wouldn't have burned myself if I was operating at a hundred percent!" He tore off his right gauntlet to reveal a bandaged hand. He threw it to the ground, angrily unwrapping as he continued to speak. "I didn't smell shit, I didn't see shit, and I don't know shit. " He finished unwrapping his hand and held it up for the group to see. There was a thin pink line that crossed over his hand, slightly raised.

"C-Calvin, settle down, take it easy!" Alice tried to calm the metal worker down, an expression of nervousness present on her face.

"It takes two words, we're not at a sailor spelling bee, lay off the Grand Theft Auto," There wasn't anything left to argue over and he was starting to wind down, his eyebrow still twitching slightly but at longer intervals, "And for Apollo's sake, get some water and sleep after this, I don't want a body announcement to go off because you keeled over." He gave a rye smile, "Assuming we're not all executed after this."

There was a no shift in intensity from the Infinite metal worker, though his volume lowered enough for others to continue speaking. "I'll be fine." His tone was hardly convincing, though some piece of himself knew it to be true.

The glare Calvin got after that sorry excuse was worse than any look Ice had given him during their argument.

"Enough! I already deal with enough bullshit from these damn trials." Alice raised her voice at the two, resting her head in her hand afterwards. "Arguing will only add to this clusterfuck, and it's not gonna help figure the case out."

While he did his best to ignore the daggers emanating from Ice's eyes, Calvin felt a bitter retort rise in his throat to Alice's statement, but he stopped himself. Alice had just lost one of her closest friends. He was angry and hurt, but he understood what it was like to feel loss amidst the craziness of a trial. "Sounds good." He stood quietly as he did his best to rein himself in.

Breaking from his stare down at the Infinite Metalworker, he glanced over at Alice sheepishly. Well that certainly went well. It was only after a second that Ice piped it, "By the way, I stopped by the pharmacy at around noon while the other three were there, don't exactly want to be lynched for not saying anything."

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

This wasn't exactly Ice's first trial, but it was the first one that the victim mattered something to him (or so he told himself), and more importantly, to Alice. It was important not to get everyone killed after all. Ice slipped his hand under his chin, trying to piece his thoughts together well enough to speak, but it all didn't add up. Instead, he just blurted out the thoughts running laps around his head. "The fair dinkum is, it couldn't have been a fact acting poison, but then again, it's hard to pin it on Mundinol either. I was 'illin with Mercy the around 30 minutes a little after 3 in the pharmacy, but didn't notice a thing. That isn't to say I was joined to her at the hip, but I was in the room with her and probably would have seen a needle or her reaction. There were other people in the room as well and I'm sure they'd have noticed something too."

Leaning against the side of his stand, he continued his evidence outpour, "Also, the Quack was wearing bandages at the time of her death, which I didn't notice earlier today. She must have been meaning to cover it up. The question is why? It would only take a small bandaid to cover up the puncture, but she chose to cover the entire hand." Ice assumed that meant the person who did it was semi-important to her if she saw who did it. There was no way he would say it allowed though, on account of the immediate suspicion towards Alice.

Offhandedly he added, "Also, I came in with Alice after getting my arse handed to me in the dojo. Caora came in soon after and Max had been there with Mercy the entire time I was there." He made eye contact with the police officer, "Is that maybe when the badge was passed around for show-and-tell?" While he had already mildly trusted the police officer after their 'talk', that didn't do anything to drag suspicion away from him.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

While Alice didn't mean to fight with Emily, she felt horrible for causing such dismay. Calvin's words only made the feeling of guilt worsen as she left the party, making her way to the first floor resort. Instead of retreating to the theatre, the recon sat down by the fountain and started to hum to herself, as to try and calm herself down.

After finishing up with Faith, Ice headed down to Alice's room, hoping to find her there while his thoughts were preoccupied with his earlier conversation. But when she was no where to be found, he started getting antsy, his hand moving over the chain at his waist to calm himself. The Blood Donor knew she probably wouldn't be anywhere near the party, so he started going through the first floor until he finally arrived at the fountain. She didn't exactly look like she wanted to be disturbed, so he sat a little ways away from her and popped a candy out of his pocket.

"I know you're worried about me." Alice spoke up, looking over to Ice. "Honestly, I'm alright. I just feel bad for yelling at Ms. Rishima." She sighed, "I didn't mean to, but her self-loathing just irritated me, and I couldn't help but argue back."

A small rye smile slipped over his face, "Honestly, what she was saying perturbed me too, I don't know what I'd have done if you didn't say anything." He slipped into silence again, rolling the wrapper in between his fingers, "And I know why you left. We all needed to cool off before things got worse and I'd hate to ruin what Krista started." He shifted so that his body was facing her, still focusing on the wrapping, "The main reason I followed was because of what you said to argue back." At his last word, his eyes moved up to meet the Recon's.

"Look, I couldn't control what I said to her, okay? Just drop it." Alice snapped at the blood donor, a hint of hostility in her voice. Once she had realize what she had said, the recon hid her head in her arms, mumbling a "sorry."

Before Ice could realize what he was doing, he had moved closer, grabbing onto Alice's hands and holding them in his own. "I-..." His momentum slammed to a halt and he looked down at there hands for a few moments, looking lost, then hurriedly let go. He let his hands rest stagnant on his legs as he starred down. "You have nothing to be sorry for, because I've been such an egotistial wanker these last few days, or even just in general, you can take me down a few notches. It's not my place to poke holes at anything when I've been giving you the cold shoulder." He brought a leg up and held onto it, resting his chin against his knee. "So I guess that's the best apology I can squeeze out."

Soon as the blood donor had finished apologizing, Alice had pulled him into a hug. "You didn't need to. I know how it is to isolate yourself from others, used to try my best not to get so attached to others after all, in fear that one day...I may lose them."

Ice slipped his arms back around the recon, with one hand around her waist and the other on the back of her neck and held her tight, "I can't lose you, dammit! I won't let them take you too, so don't you dare become a martyr like she did..." Tears slipped from his eyes silently as he hid his face in Alice's hair. "You, Calvin, and Faith... I won't let any of you die, even over my dead body."

"I..." Alice didn't like seeing her friend in pain. She hugged the blood donor closer and rocked in place. "It's okay, I-I won't leave you..." The recon told Ice, unaware that she had started crying. "I'll protect you, a-and we'll get out of here together, I promise."

They stayed like that for a long time before Ice gently pulled away and rubbed her hair. "Ya gotta stay alive long enough to see your brother, alright? And I've got a mission outside of here too." His hand slipped off and he rubbed his eyes sheepishly. "And look um... I know we just got all emotional and all, but um... The reason I pulled away wasn't because of something serious like that it was more of 'cause... well... I'm ahorridly awkward." He slipped a finger under the Recon's eye to swipe away a tear.

Slipping a hand over her mouth to hide the fact that she was blushing, Alice tried to hold back her giggling, and failed.

A fake hurt look came over Ice's face before he grinned and lightly flicked her forehead, "That's not very nice."

"Sorry, haha, I can't help it!" Alice giggled. "And I thought you couldn't be any cuter-" the recon quickly cover her mouth before she could finish her sentence, her eyes widened.

He had been holding back his own laughter when he heard her response and almost choked on air, "You- Wait what?!" A good amount of his face went red, reaching into his hair to the tips of his ears and he took that chance to look away. "That's lunacy, I-I'm not cute!"

After another moment he blurted, "I'm not about to be the only one embarrassed anyway! Because you see this-" He pointed to the pool of water from the fountain and then towards Alice's reflection once she looked in, "That's cute too."

Once the recon had realized what the blood donor meant, she lightly punched his arm in a blushing mess.

This time Ice couldn't help but laugh,his stomach almost hurting from how hard he did, having watched her between the moments of confusion and realization. He was still blushing like mad, but at least she had now joined him. He slipped a hand down into the water and watched the ripples, looking mesmerized.

"I'm not cute..." Alice mumbled under her breath, crossing her arms and looking back down at her reflection, as a small smile creeped onto her face.

It was a shame to cut that smile short, but Ice had already made a plan of action and was seeing it through. Once Alice had peered into the water, he flicked his wrist and water sprayed in her direction, mostly getting on her hair.

With a shriek, she quickly took a step back from the fountain, raising her one of her arms up to where the water had hit her. "Oh a wise guy, eh?" She looked over to Ice with a grin, before splashing him back.

A chuckle slipped out as he splashed her harder, making full use of his larger arms to make sure she was soaking wet. Sure, it'd be a pain to deal with later, but for right now, Ice was ready to get a little silly, take the edge off.

In a fit of laughter, Alice used both her arms to splash the blood donor back. "Is that all you've got? Haha!"

Egged on by her words, Ice wrapped his right arm around her waist before depositing her onto her butt into the fountain, before patting her head, "I win?"

The recon nodded, chuckling before pulling him into the fountain too.

After a bit of sputtering, he pushed his bangs to the side and sighed, "You're a poor loser, that you are." His white shirt grew slightly transparent revealing the chain wrapped around his waist and a large scar right below his heart.

Upon seeing the scar, Alice's curiosity was peaked as the recon reached over to touch it.

It wasn't round enough to be a bullet wound and seemed more like something made with a knife, but it also didn't look like it went straight in, had a rib gotten in the way? Before Alice could touch it, Ice caught her hand and stared at her, almost confused at what she was looking at before finally it dawned on him, "Bad fight, hurt like a hellion on crack, no biggie." Ice sombered up right away and pulled Alice out of the water before starting to drain the water out of his shirt. The end of the chain blade clanked against his hip as he did so, looking sharper than before, he must have done some work on it.

"Oh." Alice replied, the blood donor's answer only making her even more curious. Knowing that he wouldn't be comfortable talking about it, she shrugged the feeling off. "So, how'd you get your weapon back?"

"Faith, uh-" He coughed a little before muttering, "Graciously gave me my chain after I asked." His face got a little red when he said that, scratching at the back of his neck.

"'Graciously' huh?" The recon crossed her arms, an eyebrow raised.

His blush ran deeper as he continued, "...She said something about me being a sub and how my tough guy act was 'cute'." He added hand quotations at the last line.

"Wait what?" Alice asked, raising her voice a bit. "What gave her an idea like that?"

He let out another exasperated sigh, "Because of the gay thing. You know, never mind..." He took a seat back on the side of the fountain, pulling his shirt off his chest to air it out.

The recon rolled her eyes from hearing about Faith's speculation again. Trying to find a way to be friends with the matchmaker was a little more difficult than she wanted. Looking back over to Ice, Alice quickly looked away again, blood rushing back to her face as she brought a hand up to her eyes.

Ice gave the shirt a look of disdain before looking up at Alice, "Hey, are you ok-" That's when he heard an anguished male voice yelling from the above. Flinching, Ice hurriedly stood up and grabbed onto Alice's hand. While he didn't exactly want to bring her closer to the danger, he didn't want to leave her unprotected and weaponless either, "Let's go!"

Once she heard it, the recon quickly looked over to where the scream had come from. Starting to regret not having her sword with her, when Ice had grabbed her hand, Alice nodded in reply and sprinted back to the party.

---

When they both made it back, she could've sworn her heart had stopped at what she saw.

"M-Mercy...?"

Next to Felix was Mercy's lifeless corpse, lying on the ground.

Alice collapsed onto her knees, her expression frozen in fear as tears freely fell from her eyes.

As soon as Ice surveyed the scene, he knew she was already gone, especially with Felix's appearance from trying to resuscitate her. He glanced over at Monokuma with his jaw clenched, his hand moving towards his chain, just itching to attack him. He had been the cause of so many dead and Ice hadn't been able to do anything, again. His glare suddenly shifted when he heard the Alice's small voice. Now wasn't the time to think about himself. He quickly dropped to the ground in front of her and pulled her head to his still damp chest, not wanting her to see anything else.

Not hesitating to wrap her arms around him, she couldn't hold her sorrow back any longer, and started to sob.

His grip around her tightened, his left hand aching, but he didn't care. He wanted to say something to reassure her, but there was nothing to say, he wasn't one for nonsense talk either.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." Alice managed to choke out. "Don't leave me too...Please..."

Thomas's words barely registered in his head as he tried his best to block out the rest of the world from Alice's view. His head tilted slightly as he heard Faith's unsteady voice and his jaw clenched again. This was supposed to be the safe zone Faith helped create afterall, he vainly hoped this wouldn't mess too much with her psyche. He slid his palm down and flattened Alice's hair before placing his head on top of hers. Even though it looked like Ice was the one comforting the recon, it was working both ways.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

The atmosphere around them seemed to be very different than table three and it was only then that Ice realized Felix and Daimyon were both out on the dance floor. While Ice may have been a stick in the mud, that didn't mean he was some abhorred character as to interrupt their dancing. It was strange to him how they could seem so joyous stuck in this hell and he actually took a second to stop and stare. Ice himself had never really danced, so it wasn't something the Blood Donor knew much about. After a few more moments, Ice scanned his eyes around the room for someone else to ask before landing on Max, still sitting at the almost empty table.

"Past the ballerina stage?" He asked the police officer. He still was a bit wary of his occupation's mortal enemy, especially after their spat at the door, but he'd definitely know the answer to Ice's question.

"I can't afford it; can't keep an eye on everyone when I'm distracted." Max was a bit surprised that Ice chose to interact with him of all people, but was still in a generally good mood just seeing everyone enjoying themselves. "But you don't have to worry about that, raising morale is why we hosted it, so enjoy yourself."

Something about Max's words made Ice want to throw on either an awkward smile or a devilish smile, but both of those were far out of character for him. It must be his thug blood crying out to be defiant or something along those lines. Again, he didn't exactly want to disrupt the harmony, but after the shintock that just happened earlier, it might have been beyond saving. Trying to prolong this moment, he watched the dancers more closely. "Is that noel out with Daimyon? I didn't peg her as a Daniella."

Max eyed Noel for a second before turning to Ice. "Looks can be deceiving."

And with that, Ice ran out of things to say. Honestly, the question had been more to the air than to the police officer and now the Blood Donor was feeling self-conscious. It wasn't like he had ever talked about girls to another guy, and would a proper righteous man of society even do something like that? On the inside, Ice was a wreck of nerves and he stayed silent for a few moments. "How's Daimyon's character? I haven't interacted with him much, but he seems like a wild card..."

His thoughts wandered, mixing in and out of his logic side and imagination, what would Alice dance like? Had she ever danced with the Quack? Why was he even thinking about this in the first place?!

Ice couldn't make it more obvious, social interaction was not his strong suit. Max was actually starting to feel a bit bad for the blood donor; enough to warrant small talk at least.

"He definitely acts kind and mature, but you're right, there's more to him than meets the eye. At least that's what my gut is telling me." Max motioned his hands for Ice to take a seat; although unconvinced that Ice will actually sit down. "clouded thoughts huh?"

Ice's eyes, which had been following the dancer's immediately moved to meet Max's. "You... hold up..." The Blood Donor was blushing like mad, trying his best to compose himself quickly, but it was blatantly obvious what he was thinking about. After a certain amount of agonizing moments, Ice went back to scowling, "...Blunt much?"

Not bothering to take a seat, he stared the Officer down, "The both of you really are buck wild, do you compare notes when you spar?" He motioned over to Noel, still dancing.

Max's gave a short chuckle, it seemed like Ice was starting to find his ground. "It's a great way to start the day, and a lovely lady like Noel only makes it better...Now I was going to respect your privacy, but seeing as we've thrown that in the trash, Who would you spend the morning with?"

If it had seemed like Ice was blushing before this moment, that was entirely wrong. If this had been a cartoon, puffs of smoke would have been blowing out of his ears and his mind immediately went to that traumatizing moment. Ice opened his mouth to say something, only to close it once again. Max had officially gotten the jaw drop reaction he must have been going for. "No comment," he hissed. His image of Max as some justice driven righteous person had been completely thwarted.

"I see." Max already had an idea where the smoke from Ice's ears was coming from. Contrary to popular beliefs, Max was quite aware of Ice and Alice's interactions these past days and it wasn't hard to connect the dots from there. "So when did you first start feeling that way?"

Now Ice was just getting more and more annoyed, "Stop stabbing the dead horse." He dropped his palm onto the table and bent closer to Max, "I have a request."

It seemed like Ice wasn't going to soften up any time soon so maybe it was time to start taking him serious. "Alright, go ahead."

The desire to teach Max the meaning of respect drove into Ice's head for a split second, but he knew that wouldn't stand. He took a step back, knowing he would definitely need the extra space. Trying to move on to the more serious topic Ice put his emotionless mask on and gave another glance at the dance floor before saying, "I need my chain back."

As soon as the words left Ice's mouth, Max tensed up. All kinds of thoughts went viral in his head as he considered the implications of Ice's question. from the outside it must have looked like a death glare appeared on Max's face, but soon after changed to a more neutral expression.

"If you want it, you'll have to leave the party. But consider staying a while longer, at least try to have fun."

As expected, the look on Max's face could a many of Ice's former colleagues start confessing, but this was Ice's element. "I'm not planning on staying, wouldn't want to ruin the party." He was leaning his hip against the table, his fingers stretching in and out as it felt the absence of his deadly companion.

"Look I know you don't feel safe without it, but we were very thorough, you have nothing to fear." Max was trying to sound comforting, but his undertone seemed almost like a warning.

If there was such a thing as police dialect, then Max's last line would definitely hit the mark. "There's no such thing as absolute trust in this hell." He stopped his hand from balling into a fist, not wanting to seem too violent or else his weapon really would never be returned.

Max knew of Ice's struggles, the last trial made it very clear. Isaiah Matthews had lost the ability to trust. It was dangerous, but trust goes both ways, so maybe, by giving him the chain, Max could get one step closer to his heart.

"Talk to Faith if you want your weapon back...I just hope it will be worth it."

Ice gave him a questioning look, he had thought that Max would be a lot harder on him and draw it out... It seemed like his Honeypot method had worked! Well, maybe honeypot wasn't the correct term, but in the end, his small talk had paid off! Not knowing what else to say, Ice gave the Officer a quick nod and started for the hallway.

But before he moved out of earshot, he said over his shoulder, "Keep them all safe."

So he's a bit of a Fixer Upper [Silver Fox]

@Silver Fox

Not much but it's something...

So he's a bit of a Fixer Upper [Silver Fox]

The boy happily went to work cutting his pancakes into tiny bite-sized pieces. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day after all! And no one wanted to choke on such fluffy goodness... "Pancakes are one of my favorite foods!" He smiled, slipping a piece into his mouth and giving a gasp of delight.

After taking a sip of milk, he commented back, "Papa never gets up on time, it might be because he's always working, but he goes out of his way to tuck me in whenever he can. ...I didn't hear anything last night, was Papa having bad dreams?"

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

He had just been getting ready to plate when of the newly golden brown pancakes when Ice heard Zach enter. While he had been planning on turning a new leaf and talking more with the other Infinites, he thought it was far too early for any of them to be up and after messing up so badly. Ice took another second to lay the pancake down before turning to see the newcomer, the Blood Donor wasn't a social person in the first place after all.

When he turned to see the Blonde, he was still holding the spatula in his hand with a bit of floor covering his slightly unbuttoned shirt. He must have looked like an angry server who had to multi-task since the chef had called out sick or something, but that didn't matter, what mattered is the barely standing elf-looking Infinite in front of him.

Ice hadn't really properly talked to Zach yet besides yelling out instructions when they had gone after Alexandria's chassis. Honestly. Ice had never thought they had much in common besides combat. Now the Blood Donor could see that the screams he had heard before were because of... his eye. While the sisters may have done something to wrap his injury up, it still looked rather gruesome, with the bandage stained red. It wasn't like the sisters had changed him into a new bandage recently either.

While Zach started to awkwardly talk about peanut butter, Ice walked over to the sink and washed his hands, setting the spatula next to the sink. As Zach was finishing up, he walked through the kitchen door past him, grabbed a chair and brought it so that it was facing him, but not in stuck in the entryway, next to the counter.

"Sit. Now." He gave the Blonde a nudge that wouldn't have done much to someone healthy but pushed him onto the chair soon after. After that, he felt Zach's forehead to check for a fever. It was a bit hotter than healthy, but nothing too worrisome, "You should get your temp checked by the Quack later, gimps slow down the immune system." Ice felt around Zach's head and slipped his fingers over a reasonably large bump. "That's a nasty dinger," he grabbed for some Ice in the freezer and threw it into a towel before handing it over. "Hold."

After that, he slipped the pancakes onto the counter next to him and placed one of his candies next to it. Ice then crossed his arms over his chest and watched him, a slight dip of frustration in his eyebrows and voice, "You should be in bed, no one wants to deal with someone dumb enough to fall over and crack his noggin' open."

He glanced over at Alice and sighed, still feeling bad about upsetting her, "You want some pancakes too? And pass the peanut butter over, though pancakes and peanut butter sounds crawny to me."