Week 3.

[trustfellowship]

WEEK 3 Grace and Doug are dead. It seems that there isn't anything more to do but mourn your losses and try to move forward. The Transmitter's rules still hang in every room, a reminder of the only means of escaping this place. But surely no one else will give into them, right? Saturday is given to regrouping and rest; the static blares out early on Sunday, but at least there are no bodies to find today - it seems you're safe for now. The night before wasn't necessarily a peaceful one, however; you'll probably feel a bit groggy when you wake up, and it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... Once again, however, it seems your efforts won't go unrewarded; another set of corridors have opened up, much in the same fashion as the other new area did last week. With them come new rooms to explore; maybe some of them will be to your liking. Or perhaps it's better to say that hopefully some of them will; after all, if the Transmitter gets her way, you may be here for a very, very long time. PATIENTS REMAINING: 26

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week three of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Transmitter, you can do so through text or the phone in your room!]

Comments

[imaginex]

[A long, long breath, gently exhaled. Sakura composes herself]

I'm unconscious, or have already passed. Even if I wasn't, I don't think there's a way to wake me up, either.

[A lie. Sakura can think of one immediately, except her mind would be dead.

Best not to dwell on it.]

1/2

[heritrix]

[How would you hurt someone, if you were low on mana?

This is the first question that comes to Rin's mind; a discrepancy that doesn't make sense. Sakura described Rider's attack as separate from hers (and Rider's Noble Phantasm is a bounded field; the one I discovered at school? Sakura, did that plan come from your head, or Shinji's?). They were both attacking, but if Sakura was being drained of mana on top of her Servant drawing so much, she should have been as weak as a kitten.

It's an inconsistency that immediately raises a red flag. Sakura is lying, or at least not telling the whole truth. Rin thinks to accuse her of this, but holds back. This is all buildup. Why Sakura would want to kill herself over this has not been answered, so she waits.

Waits, and wonders what horrible thing Sakura may have done; if she offers because all of their classmates are already dead, and she stupidly thinks one life can repay that. Bring her angry pacing to a stop, like a tiger ready to go in for the kill, she waits—]

[heritrix]

["I'm unconscious, or have already passed."

Every cell in her body is frozen.

"I don't think there's a way to wake me up, either."

In an instant, everything she wanted to say — every hurtful word — turns to ash on her tongue.]

[imaginex]

[... Rin is silent. Sakura doesn't dare look at her face, so she assumes the lack of voice as a blessing. The girl keeps talking]

So it's... best if I'm the victim. Whoever kills me will likely be caught, but it means you and the others will at least have one more week to find an escape.

[heritrix]

[Like an engine turning over, Rin's thoughts kick back into gear. They're racing too quickly, but she works faster to sort them.]

Don't— [Calm down, try again. Rin makes a sweeping hand gesture, like the arc of a blade, and strips the vulnerability from her voice. She starts over, stronger.]

Don't jump to hasty conclusions, Sakura. You're drawing from unreliable memories, so you can't take that as fact.

[imaginex]

[Oh, Sakura is aware of the discrepancies. It's taken all way to convince herself she doesn't care about them. Shirou's (and Rin's) safety plus her own self-inflicted punishment must come first.]

But it's true. [For all the softness of her voice, a crack makes it shudder] I turned my magecraft against me. I tried to kill my own mind to keep from hurting Senpai.

... I don't even know if I was successful or not.

[heritrix]

Well let's try and figure this out. I've gotten memories out of order, so I might remember something further than you do. What was the date?

[imaginex]

The... the 8th, I'm sure.

[heritrix]

Then there you have it.

[She remembers hearing a couple chatting in her memory, after spending the night in the park. The date came up in their simple banter.]

I received a memory last week that took place on February 11th, and Emiya-kun was perfectly fine.

[...okay, so he wasn't fine, but Sakura doesn't need to know that. Shirou had a serious injury; she remembers herself in the memory berating him for coming after her for it, with such a wound.

But how he got it, she can't remember. Was it Sakura...?]

[imaginex]

[Slowly, some of the life seeps back into her eyes.]

He's okay...

[Then her shoulders slump like she's taken a blow, and her head drops forward]

Good... I'm so glad.

[heritrix]

That's right. Really, why were you worrying in the first place? Saber would never let any harm come to him. The only reason Rider was able to scratch him before that is because he foolishly didn't bring his Servant to school with him.

Well, and because you apparently loaned her to your inept brother. How Emiya-kun was able to survive that long makes greater sense now...

[imaginex]

[...

There isn't a reply. Sakura is too busy staring at Rin with her mouth hung slightly open]

[heritrix]

...What is it? You're gaping at me like a fish.

[imaginex]

... Tohsaka-senpai.

Saber-san is... gone.

[She speaks slowly, not because she thinks her upperclassman can somehow miss the point, but like the words are meant to calm an incoming storm]

Senpai lost her the night before. Not that Nii-san realized it, but that's why I... didn't want him to come for me.

[Among other reasons]

[heritrix]

[Rin blinks, a bit stupidly. Saber was defeated? First, she doesn't want to begin to think what kind of Servant could do such a thing, but more importantly than that, it makes no sense.]

That's impossible. I saw her in my memory. My— [ha] Archer and I approached the church in my memory of February 11th. Caster had stolen Saber from Emiya-kun somehow, and attacked the overseer to boot. Saber was captured and rendered helpless, but she was still alive. I saw that with my own eyes.

[imaginex]

[...]

The night before Nii-san took me to the school, Senpai came home late at night with injuries. I checked his hand -- his Command Spells had vanished.

... When I asked where Saber-san had went, he said she'd gone home.

[Never mind what Sakura thinks she did or didn't see; both girls know the boy is absolutely terrible at lies, and thus his statement was as good as truth.]

[heritrix]

Where were his injuries?

[imaginex]

Just his torso... oh, and his back was also scratched up.

[heritrix]

[...Dammit..]

The Shirou Emiya I saw had no such wounds. And I don't mean injuries that were healing so nicely an idiot like him could ignore them to move; they weren't there at all.

[With Saber healing him, that should be impossible. No, it absolutely is, and Rin knows it.

Why didn't they have this conversation sooner.]

[imaginex]

[If she were a proper mage, trained to utilize her intellect instead of scraping understanding off the occasional book, then Sakura might have more to offer.

Instead her eyebrows knot, confused and uncertain of what to say]

-- Then... we can't both be right, can we?

[heritrix]

No, I think we are.

[Simultaneously more and less tense than she was before, Rin turns on her heel and steps to her bed.]

Sakura, let's sit. This may take time to work through.

[imaginex]

... Alright.

[Against Rin's poise, Sakura feels tension line her back, but she obeys and sits next to the Tohsaka girl]

[heritrix]

[And here Rin gets into Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon.

It's important to discuss, because judging from this conversation, she finds it likely they're from separate dimensions; timelines the slightest bit different. The only thing to confirm is where the split happened.

They start generally and as vaguely as possible at the beginning. What year Sakura was adopted. If the Fuyuki Fire happened or not. Other landmark events and some minor ones for consistency that they would both know, leading up into high school.

It's not until the start of the Fifth Holy Grail War the differences begin to show, though they only have so much to go off of. Rin's memories before she came to this place ended the night of February 2, and she's since regained memories of the 3rd through 5th, and jumping ahead to the 11th. She keeps the details vague, but even then the differences are clear to Sakura's memories up to February 8th.]

That answers that. [Rin remarks as they finish.] Conclusively, I might add...

1/2

[imaginex]

[Sakura's contributions once the verdict have been made are few - because she's sitting numb and staring at the floor between her shoes, speechless. She doesn't understand how Rin sounds so calm--

Of course she would be, Senpai is guaranteed to be alive in her dimension

Everything she'd hoped for until now, all those silent wishes in the dark that were pipe dreams from the start--

Is there even anything between us now? She has no reason to care. Rose-san has more meaning than me

There's no comfort to pull from the events of another dimension; all she'll get to hear is how much better off Senpai is without her influence--]

[imaginex]

I understand.

D-do you... want to retract our alliance?

[She's pathetic, and there's misery in her voice, one of her hands gripped against the opposite elbow. The girl is trying to brace for what she sees as the logical conclusion. They are not from the same dimension, so her use to Rin must be limited.

And if there was ever something shared between them, it's been severed]