It's the Beginning of the End [CLOSED]

[69problems]

Who| Signless and Justin, later Signless's corpse and the people who wanted to discover it
What| MURDERS, the aftermath of said murders
Where| Fifth floor, in the bioluminescence exhibit
When| Week 4, during the night
Warnings/Notes| Decapitation/dismemberment and everything that goes with

The Signless has wandered away from Kankri and Venus for the moment. He hasn't yet been able to see this exhibit at night when it glows, and he's glad now that he decided to investigate the light. It's strangely comforting -- not really familiar, but quiet and dark and just secluded enough that he doesn't feel like he's in immediate danger.

Of course, this is the arena, and he is 100% wrong.

Comments

[privilegecheck]

Kankri screams and lashes out when he's grabbed up, feeling trapped, he's got to get away-

And then Venus is murmuring in his ear, comforting him. Shooshing him. Any other time he might protest such a blatant advance, but right now he's too messed up to care. He curls his arms around her and starts to sob into her warm skin.

"They cut him apart, they cut him to pieces, Venus," he gasps against her shoulder. His breath is coming too fast; he's going into hysterics. He's never seen someone dead before.

[celebrityskinned]

"We have to get out of here."

This is what she's good at. Pulling people out of wreckage, from burning buildings, holding them until they're camera ready, keeping them safe from paparazzi and distracting the press. Steering those who are too shaken to direct themselves.

She picks Kankri up and, ignoring her limp, ignoring that he's near her size, starts to carry him. She needs to get him away from the scene of the crime, somewhere quiet where he can process something too jagged for his brain to swallow. "I've got you. No one's going to hurt you while I've got you."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri clings, unaware of what she's even doing and not even caring. He just wants to be not here. He wants this not to be his reality.

"Why would someone do that?" he sobs, his voice cracking slightly with his emotional pain. "Isn't it awful enough that we're in this situation at all? How could anyone have, have done that, to his poor body? He'd never hurt anyone!"

He feels overwhelming waves of nausea in addition to the sobs wracking through him. "I think I'm going to be sick," he manages to tell Venus.

[celebrityskinned]

It's not the thought of getting puked on that makes Venus stop - it's the idea that it'll leave a trail, that someone will follow the drips of vomit to wherever she hides them. She worries, too, about Kankri's own comfort (if there's any comfort to be had in this situation at all).

Thankfully, there's some big posterboard about electric eels that she can duck behind, and so she does, setting Kankri down on his knees as the fear starts to hit his stomach. She lets him go and yet she doesn't separate from him entirely, holding a hand to his shoulder as she pops her head above the display to watch for anyone coming for the sound.