heartofthestar | Labyrinthium Inbox

[What's a little shiv between friends.]

Of course.

[Said as if he hasn't tried to bait the creatures for the least five minutes. Regardless, he comes back into the small room without issue, eyes their situation and the resources at hand.]

I suggest we each take a side of the room and alternate security camera observations, though I assume you've realized as much. The creature is coming closer - as curious as I am, I don't think it will end well for us.

More than one, I think.

[The darkness offers little clue as to what transpires outside, so without hesitation, Venat pushes the button that shines flimsy, flickering light into the hall just outside the window. A thick, furry paw slaps up against the glass the moment she does, thumping against it with far more weight than it looks like it ought to possess. She immediately releases the light button and slaps the other button instead, slamming the thick metal door shut just in time for it to absorb a sudden blow.]

I daresay you've the right of the plan.

This reminds me of a movie I saw once.

[Chipper and bright as he eyes the drastic dip in the energy levels from that single button push. Venat's apt and quick response is reliable - now it's down to resource management, which-

Sucks.

Oh well. He continues on - hand gently pressing against his own door button when rapid footsteps start bolting down the hall. An image he barely catches in the security camera. Issue avoided.]

It was about a haunted convenience store and it warped the people involved in it. Those who shopped there suffered horrific deaths. Everything from being bludgeoned, stabbed, suffocated and more. It turns out the reason everyone was going through such an experience was because the store owner mistreated a contractor.

[Creature gone from his side and cameras clear, he reopens the door.]

The contractor, in his rage, broke tombstones and used it in the store's foundation. Some employees are condemned to haunt the store and continue the vicious cycle for all eternity.

[It's FUN.]

I wonder if that's going to be us. Wouldn't that be interesting?

[After a moment, Venat taps the light again. The coast is, for the moment, clear, and thus she quickly releases the door to ameliorate its drain on power.]

I say, that is certainly an interesting response to mistreatment. I doubt most people would immediately decided that, upon being ill-treated, the proper course of action would be to break gravestones and store them.

[She gathers up the small, rectangular device that shows the sights seen by the cameras, only to immediately frown.]

The curtain in this camera's view is moving.

It must be the ghosts.

[He eyes the curtain - it would be so much easier if they could just move through the facility.]

Just kidding, of course. Stay cautious of it - unless you want to go investigate it firsthand. I wouldn't stop you.

Then I shan't. I would hate to have you regret not stopping me, were something to happen.

[She wonders why he pretends so hard, when she has on several occasions basically written a signed and notarized document testifying that she is On To Him. Perhaps he is self-aware enough to understand that she knows perfectly well what he means, and sees no need to make things clearer?]

[The sound of heavy footsteps clunks around for a moment, as if coming down the hall on his side -- then stops.]

How compassionate of you.

[Footsteps - he presses the light to see-

A creature illuminated right next to the door in flickers and flashes. His hand hovers over the button to shut it and-

Doesn't move. Doesn't press it. He can see its eyes and shadow through the thin window meant to give them vantage.

He could just let it in. Have some fun. See what happens when one of them is caught by the beast, but-

The intrusive thoughts don't win the dice roll. He gives the door a tap just as the shadow moves.]

Oh, that was close.

[Venat doesn't particularly take note of his aggressively-intrusive thoughts, because despite her inability to understand his eternal façade, she does not for a second doubt his commitment to it. Besides, the consequences of giving in to such a thought are far too obvious. What would actually be fun about it?]

[Looking up from the camera view, Venat taps the button for the lights on her side just long enough to verify that nothing is amiss. When she looks back --]

Ah. Something is emerging from the curtains. Yet while I watch, it is unmoving.

There has to be another way to go about this.

[Patience is a virtue. Waiting isn't. Sitting ducks in a center room, surround by enemies on all sides.

Door opens. Light off. Akechi studies the TV and the flaring curtain on it - the different buttons and phone.]

We could attempt to alter this world in a way it doesn't expect. Cognitions are easy to distort with the right motivation, so to speak. The right keys. Are you amenable to trying?

[Whether she is, or isn't, lmao. lol. He's doing it anyway.]

That presumes these devices or creatures do possess something akin to cognition, rather than a simply reactive intellect -- whether they are what modern Eorzea deems 'mammets' or simply devices. Yet such an attempt would help us answer that question, and so thus I endorse it.

[A simple 'yes' would be too good for him.]

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cw: description of a horror movie

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