EMERGENCY BROADCAST (text)

[justribbing]

(All active cellphones sound an alarm briefly during the delivery of this message.)

To: All Users
From: sans.
Subject: (SUBJECT HERE)
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URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT: The following is an automated message.

Nature of Emergency: cagey queen left us hanging


PRESS 1 if outside the vicinity of: home If it is safe to do so, follow the prompts to take and send an image of your surroundings to the administrator.

Users in the vicinity of: home are requested to congregate in the: mess hall immediately for: probably a good idea to come save us


Additional Notes:

* sup.
* not much, not much, just hangin' with about 3 new and old friends in this cage dangling precariously above the water.
* can't say i like the conditions either, but the cold and damp doesn't get under my skin. i think i see other cages, tho and, uh, i can't say much for them yet.
* six other occupied cages, with about three in each. hey, it's like those math problems you used to get in school.
* startin' to get a real sinking feeling so if there's anybody out there who ain't locked up, it'd mean a lot to me and over 20 other people if you bailed us out.
* see ya. sans.

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Comments

[oldschoolghostbuster]

[For all that he acts the fool, Nikkari has spent a long, long time observing people. Often, they say as much in silence as if they had given him a paragraph worth of words.

Certainly, he can't tell exactly what the worry is, but with the state of things, it shouldn't be that hard to take a stab at guessing, right?]

The people here sure are amazing, huh? Keeping it together under all this pressure for this long in spite of their own issues...

[His smile becomes sad.]

...I hope they can continue to last. She's getting more vicious, isn't she? It always happens when they feel more threatened.

[wanderedoff]

[ She's not exactly difficult to read, especially not right now. And it so happened that he had hit the nail on the head. She nods once more in response.

For all that her mother was definitely losing this battle, she still had enough power to make things truly horrible for the people here. ]

[oldschoolghostbuster]

...I'm not really good for much of anything. There's a lot I don't know how to do yet. I can only hope that what I can do is enough to help everyone.

Times like this are frustrating, you know?

[He closes his eyes and nods to himself.]

You feel the same, don't you?

[wanderedoff]

[ This time a small, soft 'mm' sound of agreement comes from her. She felt helpless, despite being possibly the only one of them who had a chance of getting in to see her mother, to try and get through to her ... however impossible that might have been.

She thought she wasn't doing enough. She was being too safe. ]

[oldschoolghostbuster]

Ne, when everyone is safe, do you want me to teach you how to wield a sword?

[He continues with a bit of humor and more than a little mischief in his general manner: ]

Haha, I'm sure someone will be mad about this! But our princess deserves the chance to take some action, don't you think?

["This way, maybe you can protect someone precious too." It goes unvoiced, but it's plain as day in the sword's mismatched eyes, the red one for once visible beneath his hair.]

[wanderedoff]

[ Their Princess?? Yorda hadn't considered herself to really be a princess in a long time, so it was really strange to hear it from Nikkari. Still, she appreciated what he was offering. It was a good idea, for her to learn ... then she could help fight, too. Ico wouldn't have to do everything for her. Everyone else wouldn't feel like they had to protect her so much. Maybe.

She nodded in response to Nikkari. Yes, that would be good. Her physical strength still wasn't so great, but that would improve as she continued practice with a sword, wouldn't it? ]

[oldschoolghostbuster]

[Indeed, practicing with this sword would help with her strength. Besides, the style Nikkari was best suited for was more about speed than strength, which would likely serve Yorda better.

He grins brightly at her response. This was why he thought of her as a princess. Not because it was her title - with a queendom like this, that would be a hollow title indeed - but because of who she is. Because she dares to recognize that she's been powerless, and dares to try and change that.

Because in that frail body, he's sure there's an iron will that's slowly awakening.]

Great! Glad to have you as my first student, Yorda.