[closed]

[compendiem]

WHO: Minato Arisato, Clover Geteilt, Angela Aust, Dave Strider, Souji Narukami, Jamie Doh
WHERE: Magatus
WHEN: 4/21- ??? (up to a week at the latest)
WHAT: Heart stone Quest
WARNINGS: none

[ Six people is... a really unwieldy group, Minato realizes as he starts bringing everybody together. He forwards to each person the text he received from Zee (with an extra sorry to Dave for dragging him back to winter hell) and where to meet up, and assumes he'll walk there with Jamie and Angela since they live in the same building, a bit glad to have people with him so he won't be the first person there and have to stand awkwardly by himself.

Would Clover come...? Would Souji? People Minato isn't quite sure where he stands with now, whether he's picked the right ones... But he thinks he did, and thinks it's about time he stops doubting himself.

Because if this is a quest to help fix this part of him that is broken, then he can't go wrong with having hand-picked the people who are closest to his heart. ]

Comments

GROUP TEXTS

[compendiem]

[ for keeping in touch ]

4/21; before everybody gets there

[compendiem]

Car's ready whenever you're all here. I call shotgun.

[servileness]

Shouldn't you be the driver of your own heart quest?

[ literally, figuratively, etc. ]

[compendiem]

I'm learning how to be supported by my friends.

[tarotcards]

Then I call shotguns's shotgun

[compendiem]

Which is? Hanging out the window?

[floret]

Wait, whose car are we taking?

[compendiem]

Mr. Multimillionaire Zee who will lend us a car but will not provide a private jet.
My car wouldn't fit everybody unless somebody wants to be strapped to the roof.

4/??? it's still april, shh

[compendiem]

The three of you not with us-- I don't like this whole being split up thing. Try to make your way through quickly. Text Dave if you need anything.

[ Why Dave? Because Clover types with proper capitalization and punctuation just like he does and they don't have time for that. ]

7-HOUR ROAD TRIP

[compendiem]

[ Minato is a cheater who calls shotgun before anybody else gets the chance, but he's also one of the people who can legally drive, so he'll take his turn at it. He's a one handed driver, a single finger hooked over the bottom of the steering wheel and that's all he uses to steer.

Whoever tags in next gets shotgun and is in charge of the music. This is a rule Elizabeth made up and Minato will adhere to it. ]

[parodeity]

[ dave hates magatus but he likes music. ...piano music rn. ]

Who wants to play a game?

[compendiem]

Let's play I Spy.

[ A seven hour drive...... he needs something to focus on that's not the road. (maybe he should focus on the road) ]

[androidheart]

[Crammed in the corner of the back seat, desperately trying not to elbow anyone, Angela speaks up with a kind of bored, sleepy tone.]

I spy, with my little eye, something...blue.

[tarotcards]

Can we play a different song?

[ do not let souji play a different song ]

[floret]

[ As a suitably narrow fellow traveler, Jamie's taking his turn in the middle seat. :( ]

Hey...
Do any of you remember a thing happening around the end of March where you'd just be going somewhere in the city, and then suddenly you'd find yourself in Pesgare or something? Even though you definitely hadn't spent hours on a ferry?

[compendiem]

[ Sometimes March feels like a fever dream with how So Much had happened but at the same time, an entire week at a time could have blurred together and Minato wouldn't even know because he'd been just sitting in his room for so much of it. ]

Didn't leave the city all last month. Is that what happened to you?

THE 7TH HOUR, END OF THE ROAD

[compendiem]

[ Minato, that is not the way to the village, you are going off the road, do you even know how to drive??

It's not his fault.

When the steering wheel first locked up and Minato found that the doors all locked and the brakes wouldn't work, his first thought was "Cool, now I can sleep." His second, immediate thought was "Not cool. That's a forest up ahead and we're going to slam into a tree." The third, "Zee is a fucking backstabber." ]

Everybody. Seat belts.

[servileness]

[ Clover always has her seat belt on, but that tone and everything else raises so many red flags. ]

Did he tell you this would happen?

[ She could break a window, if she has to. She has the strength for it. She looks at the window next to her, thinking. ]

Do we trust the car, or do we want to leave? It doesn't look like it's heading to a... nice place. [ An understatement. ]

[compendiem]

No, he just said he'd provide a car if not everyone would fit into mine.

[ His car is old and possibly on its way to becoming a deathtrap in its own right, but at least it doesn't do it on purpose. The windows don't roll down, he keeps pumping the brake pedal to no avail, the car handles also won't depress. ]

I don't... think there's anything to gain from killing us here.

[ His neutral assessment of the situation. Zee wouldn't want to kill them, right? Minato knows he's a pain in the ass sometimes, his memories too much and too many and people at Retrospec have to sit through them too, but he could be offed alone without dragging all of his friends into this too. ]

GROUP A: Minato, Dave, Clover

[compendiem]

[ There's no choice but to move forward now; the path backwards is blocked out, as is any deviation from side to side to rejoin the others.

The hallway that they go down... Minato doesn't like this at all. ]

You hear that? The chains? [ Death. The Reaper. He keeps throwing glances over his shoulder. ] We're running. We have to hurry.

[ There's urgency in his voice, and he doesn't want to explain why that sound drives fear into his heart, evident on his face and he hopes it's enough for them to listen and not ask questions. ]

[parodeity]

Go as fast as you can; I'll keep up.

[ daves expression is calm even if his heart isn't, and he keeps pace as promised. he knows he's too fast to just run at his own speed. ]

[servileness]

All right. Let's get out of here as soon as we can.

[ It's all unsettling, from the rattling doors to the increasing darkness. None of those are particular fears of hers, but it's not often Minato displays that much urgency.

She breaks into a sprint, almost supernaturally fast, but slows it down once she realizes her pace. They're not here to kill Minato from running.

She squints in the darkness. ]

I think I see the end!

GROUP B: Souji, Jamie, Angela

[compendiem]

[ It's a mess in here, the ground crumbling and dust kicking up into the air with every step. The glass around the room is smeared with soot, cracked in some places but won't break even with the strongest of finger cannons.

They get a few minutes to look around, before their phones go off—- a group text, to keep in touch with the others.

aka as a lifeline through those quiz questions but they shouldn't be too difficult; lmk when you get to it and I'll toss over questions. ]

[floret]

[ Jamie picks his way through the rubble, feeling antsy 2 the max. The text is kind of comforting insofar as it means everyone's still alive and well, even if they can't be physically reached (and are probably trapped someplace at least as unsettling). ]

This place is so creepy...
Do you think it was destroyed by natural disaster, or the hubris of the people who worked here?

[androidheart]

[Angela pushes herself past Jamie to take point, for she's a little more durable than him, probably.]

It's like a bomb went off.

The idea of people destroying themselves is a little too real.

But that's what means it's probably true. [And looking back at him:]

Are you going to be okay?