YOU HAVE SEVEN DAYS
Woo next chapter yeaaah party hard
I found my copy of the soundtrack for TWEWY and my god. It's bringing back all the happy memories, and it's really getting me into the mindset for this fic. God I love this game's music.
this chapter got super long, go me. about 19 pages not counting the ANs.
So I'm going to put more details in this chapter. If you're confused, this is the chapter you want. If after reading this you are STILL confused, don't worry. Just send me a review (or even a PM, if you're shy) telling me what you don't get. Ditto if there is something you think I could work on. I esp. need feedback to know what those of you who haven't even heard of TWEWY aren't getting, because I have obviously played it and, as any writer knows, it's incredibly easy to forget what your reader doesn't know.
The hit counter keeps going up and up... Though my parody I posted while on expired cough medicine has more than this fic. ;D Maybe I should write this while on expired cough medicine...
OoOoOoOoO
CHAPTER THREE. Satellite Mind.
When I'm bored
I send vibrations
In your direction
From the satellite mind
When your voice
Became vibrations
From the satellite mind
It sounded like mine
OoOoOoOoO
"Okay, so... Here's what we know for sure..." says Blaine, looking at the back of a flyer for someone's missing dog.
He and Kurt are sitting in the park, in the grassy area right next to the playground equipment. They had, strangely enough, come-to in this spot about half an hour ago with no definite knowledge of how they got here, when they 'fell asleep' (there was no other way to put it, really), or even how long they'd been out. They had agreed to take this occurrence at face value as one of the quirks of the Game.
Upon checking their phones, they found that it was the next day. Their second day of the Game.
Blaine had decided he would feel better if they made a list of what they knew in regards to the Game. He had yanked the flyer off a light pole without much thought to the poor missing dog, and had been extremely lucky in finding a barely working, dirty ball-point pen in the gravel nearby.
"First. We are definitely dead," Blaine reads, nodding once.
Duh, Kurt mouths. Blaine isn't looking at him so he doesn't see it.
"Second. We are supposed to finish missions which usually entail fighting horrible demon creatures called Noise, which are made of all my childhood nightmares all at once."
Kurt scoffs and rolls his eyes. He guesses he may as well get used to doing that if Blaine is going to be this dramatic about everything.
"Third. We fight Noise using Psychs, which are like crazy Harry Potter magic in those pins people usually get at Hot Topic or whatever with obscure band names on them. Or like my Warblers pin," Blaine says offhandedly, looking down at his blazer, which is folded up on the ground beside him. He looks at Kurt, who is twirling a piece of wild wheat in his fingers. "Hey Kurt, do you think my Warblers pin might have a Psych?"
Kurt glares dryly at Blaine, who immediately backs down and starts blushing furiously.
"Yeah..." Blaine says quietly, "yeah that was stupid. Sorry. A-anyway... um... Where was I?" He looks at his paper as a pretense to hiding his face.
Kurt side-eyes Blaine as he ties the end of the wild wheat in a knot absent-mindedly. Kurt doesn't really get Blaine; one minute he's fine, the next he's falling apart. It's like, as soon as he has to argue his point on something, or do anything on his own, Blaine gets flustered and can't do anything but panic. Kurt is starting to wish he hadn't partnered up with someone as flaky as him, even if he is really cute.
What else is on your list? Kurt asks, and remembers Blaine can't hear him. It's really taking its toll on Kurt's patience, having to do something to get the other boy's attention every time he needs to say something, especially when he sometimes has to repeat himself because Blaine apparently sucks at reading lips. Blaine has gotten better at it, though.
Kurt swats gently at Blaine with the wheat, and Blaine looks up. What else?
Blaine frowns. "What else? 'What else' what?"
Kurt struggles to hold in his agitation. Blaine had been so excited about making this list before they got their mission for the day, after all. That list! What else!
"Oh, right..." Blaine looks back at his paper. "Let's see... Um... Fourth, right?" Kurt nods at him impatiently. "R-right, fourth. We, um... know we have to finish one m-mission a day... for seven days... If we don't finish, we're erased." Blaine swallows thickly.
Kurt now feels really bad for getting impatient, because Blaine looks pretty upset. Kurt is just about to reach out to grab Blaine by the shoulder and smile apologetically at him, maybe say 'sorry' as best as he can, when his damn phone goes off in tandem with Blaine's.
"BEEP-BEEP"
Kurt sighs and drops his hand, which had been halfway to Blaine's shoulder. Blaine looks shaken as he takes out his phone to check the mission. "I really don't want to open this message," he says quietly. His voice is shaking almost as bad as his hands. Kurt feels like shit. He does reach over this time, but he grabs Blaine's phone instead of his shoulder.
Let me open this one, then, Kurt says once they have eye contact. He tries to put as much of an apology in his eyes as he can before getting his own cell phone out and opening the message. Blaine just stares back, his expression carefully blank. Kurt doesn't want to dwell on it, so he opens the new message on his phone.
FREE FRANKLIN STREET FROM THE NOISE.
YOU HAVE 300 MINUTES. FAIL, AND FACE ERASURE.
-THE REAPERS
Kurt hears Blaine cry out in pain as the timer starts; he feels it himself but is unable to make a sound in protest. Instead, he flings his phone away as though the device has burned him, purely by instinct. When the pain has passed enough to think coherently, Kurt looks over to Blaine.
Blaine is holding his right hand against his chest with his left, his eyes are shut tight, and his shoulders are starting to shake.
Kurt, shocked, grabs him by the upper arms, gripping tightly. Oh no, Kurt says, don't cry! Please don't cry! We have to finish the mission before anyone has a meltdown!
Blaine takes a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm down. He doesn't look back at Kurt, though, clearly ashamed. "...sorry, um... I don't know what that was all about, but... sorry." Blaine looks up now, his eyes rather red and his face still red from blushing. Though he's looking up, his eyes dart from here to there, avoiding eye contact with Kurt. They land on Kurt's lips when Kurt begins to say something.
We'll. Be. Fine. Kurt says slowly, Deep breaths. He then mimes taking a very exaggerated deep breath, and Blaine follows suit. After a few of those, the blush on his face has faded and he doesn't look so overcome with shame and terror. He nods and Kurt grabs his dropped phone, then backs away.
"Ugh, okay..." Blaine says stiffly, his voice a bit nasally from the near-crying, "Let's get this over with."
OoOoOoOoO
Using their found (stolen) bike, Kurt and Blaine make their way to Franklin Street, once again with Blaine behind the helm.
He can remember when riding a bike around this town had been soothing and calming. He would get in a terrible argument with his father, which would nearly always end with the man yelling at Blaine to 'just get out', which meant to take a walk or something for an hour or so until they had both calmed down. Blaine knows his father isn't a bad person, but he does have anger issues. So when they would fight, and Blaine had to get out, he would get on his bright red mountain bike and get out.
Now it has none of its old charm. Even the feeling of speeding down the hill on Jackson Street does nothing for him, because he's worried about Kurt falling off the pegs on the back of this slightly rusted blue and white trash heap.
"We're on Jackson now," Blaine says to Kurt, who he now knows likes to be kept updated. "Franklin isn't too far from here. It's more of an alley than a street, I usually take it on my way home from school. Shouldn't take long."
And thank God for that, Blaine thinks. After yesterday, when he nearly keeled over, he doesn't really want to ride so hard for awhile. They've only been on the bike for about twenty minutes and his calf muscles are already burning.
"Turning right, now. Hang on," he says, and Kurt's grip on his shoulders strengthens as they take a corner, turning onto Wood Street.
Blaine takes his right foot off the peddle and looks down at the ground as they turn, watches his foot skim the pavement, making sure there is no sign of them tipping over. Once they've rounded the corner and made it halfway up the street, he hits the breaks hard in shock at what he sees.
The sudden stop causes Kurt to lose his balance; Blaine barely notices the loss of Kurt's hands on his shoulders or even the feeling of Kurt bumping into his back before tumbling off his perch. He doesn't even stop to help Kurt up off the sidewalk, he just lets him pick himself up and dust himself off, because there is something more important demanding his attention. Blaine has been waiting for the moment when he'll either wake up or the situation he's in really sinks in, because he keeps going back and forth between 'this is real, this actually happened' and 'this is just a dream and I'll wake up soon.'
Before him is the proof, however.
He knows this route like the back of his hand; he takes it to and from school nearly every day. While on the way here he was aware of how close his house is, he didn't say anything because neither he nor Kurt know how much time they'll need to complete the mission once they get there. But he knows this street so well that he is honestly a bit ashamed of himself, underneath the ten metric tons of pure shock, that he did not see this coming.
A television crew is just now leaving the next intersection of Wood and North Street, which is easily seen from his vantage point. The van has the local station's logo on the side along with a satellite dish on top. It goes by him, kicking up a breeze and leaving the stench of exhaust behind it. He isn't paying much attention to that, though. There is a section of the sidewalk taped off at the intersection, and some bits of debris. Blaine can see the remains of a smashed iPod in the middle of the street, its innards scattered around it and its screen in tiny fragments glittering in the sunlight. The street must be closed off because there is no traffic, and he knows from experience that North Street is very busy this time of day.
He is torn out of his shocked state by Kurt grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around. WHAT. THE HELL. WAS THAT? Kurt says, looking very unhappy. Blaine thinks he would have been yelling if he had a voice. Kurt then launches into a silent tirade that Blaine really can't follow, because after seeing this place, he can't seem to follow anything. He feels like he's been derailed.
Blaine tries briefly to read Kurt's lips, but he's talking too fast for anything to come of it. Eventually, Kurt gives up, flinging his arms up over his head in extreme exasperation. Blaine just watches as Kurt stomps over and gets the bike off the sidewalk, lifting it up entirely from the ground, and stands it up properly. He forcefully puts down the kickstand then puts his hands on his hips with clear-as-day 'I'm waiting' body language.
"This is where I died," Blaine says weakly, not really knowing how that thought found its way out of his head. He feels like he's on autopilot and that his brain-to-mouth filter is short-circuiting.
Kurt's hands slip off his hips. He looks shocked.
"This is where I died... Right there, in the street." Blaine turns to point at the intersection. He is honest-to-God amazed that his hand is steady, considering he's been more emotional than a pregnant woman lately. "I was late getting home, because of Warblers rehearsal. My dad was going to be really mad at me. I was listening to my iPod. I got hit by a truck."
Blaine doesn't know exactly what he's feeling right now. It's something similar to panic, or dread, or maybe guilt. Maybe all three at once, making some strange new emotion that has his heart pounding and his head swimming and his breath hitching. It's getting harder to draw a breath, it's getting harder to stay standing. He feels like invisible iron bands are closing around his chest, like the ground is tilting below his feet. He feels strange, disconnected from himself.
Kurt comes into his line of vision, looking rather afraid. He's saying something, over-enunciating as he must, but Blaine is far too distracted. "I'm dead," he mutters, "Oh, God. Oh, God." Blaine brings his hands up to cover his face.
Of course he knew before now, but he was still in some lingering sense of denial. Now, seeing the evidence...
The bits of his smashed iPod...
The skid marks...
The yellow crime scene tape...
the dark splatter mark on the concrete...
OoOoOoOoO
Kurt is hesitant to fling their bike around, because it's really their only mode of transportation. But, while Blaine is busy with his (understandable) freak out, Kurt is busy trying to scare away the three Noise that came slinking out from the shadows only moments ago while Blaine was talking about how he died here. Kurt's only ever seen pictures of bobcats in an outdoorsman magazine from 1997 that his dad keeps in the lobby of his car shop, but even with the decay and distorted features, Kurt knows that these are Bobcat Noise.
He has his Psychokinesis pin in hand. He extends the Psych out of the pin that holds it and wraps it around the bike. In the back of his mind, he finds himself comparing it to telekinesis. He also remembers Blaine calling Psychs 'crazy Harry Potter magic'. He chuckles at the silly comparison, but the thought of Blaine, who is probably suffering a goddamn panic attack right now, makes Kurt's stomach drop. Blaine is next to useless against Noise when he's not already upset, so at the moment he is a sitting target, waiting to be struck down. If that happens, Kurt would not only feel absolutely terrible, but he would be dead on the water. So to speak.
The Bobcats are pouncing everywhere, trying to divide his attention. He can't afford to be distracted. He flings the bike as he hops backwards out of the way of sharp, far-too-long claws swiping at his shins.
The bike hits one of the Bobcats, then bounces and clatters loudly to the ground. The Bobcat flinches and hisses, and it's not like a regular cat hiss; it's like the thing has phlegm and gunk and who-knows-what caught in its throat. It is disgusting and Kurt doesn't think he has ever been so terrified or so full of adrenaline.
Kurt sees the second Bobcat prowling up on him and he dodges when it leaps, leading him into grabbing a trash can with his Psych and tossing it at the first while the third runs in a wide circle around and behind him. The trash can misses and rolls away, its contents flying everywhere.
He realizes he's running out of options with this pin, so he decides to try another. He remembers giving Blaine two of his pins yesterday, so he only has two others. He escapes two more claw swipes by a hair's breadth as he pulls them from his pocket; he doesn't spare more than a passing glance at them before clutching a blue one in his hand, desperate for it to work.
This one is harder for him to wrap his mind around, or whatever it is he does to get the Psychs to work. He can feel it, but it seems 'farther away' than the Psychokinesis pin. With a great deal of fight, he manages to activate the Psych and feels the soon-to-be familiar feeling of energy racing up his arm, as though the appendage is connected to a live wire. Only without the electrocution. He remembers how Blaine struggled with finding out how to get the Lightning Bolt pin to work yesterday and hopes he doesn't have such a problem, as he is currently dancing around three angry Bobcats and doesn't have time to flail around like an idiot.
One of the Bobcats leaps and lands just in front of him, and he acts on pure instinct. He makes a sweeping gesture with his arm, as though to scare the cat away. What happens, though, is a rather decent-sized rock, about the size of a basketball, appearing out of nowhere just above him and landing squarely on the Noise, which shrieks in pain and then combusts into static.
As he celebrates internally (and wonders how on Earth a little pin made of tin and plastic can make a freaking meteorite), one of the two remaining Bobcats pounces from behind and slashes his back, shredding his shirt.
He would scream in pain if he had a voice.
OoOoOoOoO
He feels rooted to the spot, like he's watching a horror movie. He realizes that maybe he is watching a horror movie, only he's one of the characters.
Blaine wants to go inspect the site of his death, filled with morbid fascination. That's his blood splattered on the road. That's his iPod laying in pieces, the earbuds nowhere to be seen. The skid marks are from that truck, the one that hit him, the one that killed him.
He's never been very squeamish; not much more than any normal person, anyway. His friend Jeff likes to skateboard, and Blaine would sometimes watch him at the skate park, when he wasn't expected at home before five o'clock. But Blaine remembers one time when Jeff took a bad fall and skinned his arm. There was blood running from it, dripping onto Jeff's shirt, and Blaine had marveled at Jeff's ability to not freak out and start crying or something, all while trying not to freak out himself. Instead, Jeff merely huffed unhappily because it meant they would have to leave to get some hydrogen peroxide on it.
Right now, Blaine just wants to go over there and see where he died up close, to see if there is any other evidence. More than just a bloodstain on the road. Like, maybe a few teeth got knocked out or something. He subconsciously runs his tongue around in his mouth, finding all teeth present and accounted for. It means nothing to him, of course, because he's sure that whatever wounds caused by being hit by a truck would be substantial and lasting, more than just a scrape and a bump on the head. Especially with that much blood. But he had taken inventory the other day and found himself to be as fit as he had been before the truck hit him. All he really wants to do is look, maybe see if someone has put one of those plywood crosses up yet, as is customary in these parts when someone dies near a road. He wonders if Kurt would mind if he went to look.
Thinking of Kurt, Blaine turns around to see where his partner went to. He is immediately shocked out of his stupor by the sight of Kurt trying to fight off two Bobcat Noise, the back of his shirt ripped with speckles of blood coming through.
"Kurt!" Blaine shouts, and Kurt looks over at him. Blaine can see the fright on his paler-than-usual face, and knows he needs to help. But he can't do it, Kurt is good at Psychs and Blaine peddles the bike. That's how this works.
HELP, Kurt says, right before leaping back awkwardly from one of the Bobcats, nearly losing his balance and stumbling. The Bobcat continues its ruthless pursuit and Kurt is wearing out. And no way Blaine can just stand here while Kurt is taken down, even if he is a total coward and can't do anything right. He pushes away those dark thoughts and tries to find some semblance of sanity, trying to find his footing after seeing what he just saw. He is afraid, but he has to push through it. He knows he doesn't have a choice.
Blaine instantly reaches into his pocket and takes out his handful of pins. He looks them over frantically, trying to forget how hard it had been to activate the Lightning Bolt pin yesterday. His eyes keep going back to one with a simple flame design on it, one he hadn't considered since he got it. When he picks it out of the palm of his hand, it throbs once in his fingers like a heartbeat.
Kurt runs over to him, limping a bit. He grabs onto Blaine to keep himself upright, but only stands there panting. Blaine has no idea what to do, other than try to keep Kurt from falling over; the Bobcats are stalking closer, clearly confident in their inevitable win.
Kurt looks up at Blaine from his hunched-over position. He's panting and pale-faced. Can't do anymore. Please.
And that's it, because Kurt loses his grip on Blaine's arms and slides to the ground, his eyes unfocused.
Blaine gapes down at Kurt, then looks up at the Bobcats. They are both sitting, their rotting tails curled around their hideous feet, their long ears twitching, and their slanted cat eyes are squinting slightly. Blaine is familiar with the look, because he's had a cat before, and they tend do that when they leave a squeak toy in your path and you step on it, or when they barf on your bed. Kind of like 'Gotcha, dipshit.'
He doesn't look back at Kurt, because he knows that if he does, he'll use his partner's injuries as a pretense to not fight these horrible things. He knows he'll have to do this eventually. He can't keep putting off fighting and using Psychs. Kurt is depending on him. They're partners and they need to work together and help each other.
Blaine grips the pin tightly. He hadn't even had time to look on the back of it, where most pins have the name of their Psych seemingly scratched in.
He feels a surge of power ignite from the pin, race up his arm and stop somewhere near his collar bone. His whole right arm is tingling and hot like it's on fire but not being burned. He doesn't waste any time to try and figure it out.
One of the Bobcats seems to notice the activation of the Psych and stands. It prowls closer to Blaine, its lifeless eyes laughing at him in some strange way that scares him.
"Get back!" Blaine barks, surprised at his tone. He stands in front of Kurt to protect him. "Get back or so help me God." He raises his right fist.
The Bobcats don't appear to be listening; instead, the second twitches its tail and stands as well.
Blaine bites his lip. He can feel the build-up of energy, just like yesterday. But he doesn't even know what this one does. He could try taking a swing at the Noise again but something tells him that had been pure luck.
He feels a tug on his slacks and looks down at Kurt. Kurt is staring up at him, looking pitiful. You can do it, he says. I know you can.
Blaine swallows thickly and turns back to the Noise, who are much closer. Not much time left for introspecting or trying to figure this out. He is filled with a sensation of being frozen in terror. He remembers feeling like this the first time he had a solo in front of an audience with the Warblers. The lights blinding him, barely able to see the faces of the people in the auditorium, his friends behind him, waiting for him to start so they could join in with the a cappella arrangement.
What had he done to combat the stage fright then? The classic 'imagine they're in their underwear' hadn't helped then, because he couldn't see the audience very well, and it certainly wouldn't help now. Taking a deep, calming breath might work. He tries that, but even the lung full of air seems inadequate and he wants to try again but knows somewhere that this will lead to him eventually hyperventilating again so he gives up on the deep breathing.
The Bobcat closest to him leaps claws-first, aiming for a fatal blow to the neck.
Blaine reacts immediately; he stumbles back. The Noise misses his jugular but snags his blazer, right on his shoulder; all it gets with its claws is fabric. The thing's claws must be razor-sharp because instead of a jagged rip, the Noise's claw runs clean through the thick fabric of his blazer like freshly-sharpened scissors.
He manages to get away as the Noise lands and hisses and shrieks in anger at the miss. Blaine realizes he's left Kurt open; while one Bobcat comes after him, seething, the second starts walking up to Kurt almost lazily.
There is a sudden pang in his hand; he is afraid it might be the pin malfunctioning. He cautiously opens his hand to look down at his palm, where the pin is sitting, glowing like a briquette of charcoal. Underneath it is Blaine's timer, which has just ticked past an hour.
It only just then occurs to Blaine that they are on a time limit here, and that they only have just less than three and a half hours to finish the mission. That he was the one that stopped here, that this is all his fault.
Kurt got hurt because of him.
He's in this situation, fighting these Noise, he's scared to death, he feels like he may just pass out from the stress and the terror in his heart, and it's his own fault.
The guilt and shame flare up inside him, but below it is some kind of determination to make things right that he must have forgotten about until now. He latches onto that one little ember of hope and is desperate for this to freaking work.
A bright red flame bursts to life at Blaine's feet, leaping happily like a little campfire. Blaine doesn't have time to stand here and marvel at it; still struggling to hold on to the something in his psyche that is making this work, he directs the flame toward the Noise creeping toward Kurt, who is nearly unconscious by this point.
The fire travels like a snake, leaving a trail behind that burns just over the sidewalk. It wiggles and swerves like a living thing, then finds its target and the Bobcat erupts in cherry-red fire. It screams in pain, writhes around, and even bumps into Kurt's slumped over form, but the fire doesn't seem to bother him. The Noise is erased in seconds and the flame dissipates, only to regroup again at Blaine's feet.
He turns to stare down the other Bobcat. It looks much more wary of him now, taking a more defensive stance with its ears flat against its head and its tail curled around its rotted body. He fakes a lunge at it, and the Noise startles and turns tail to run into the shadows.
Once Blaine is sure the Noise is gone and isn't just gathering reinforcements, he lets go of the spark and the Psych he had worked so hard to bring out fizzles and vanishes. He doesn't waste much time lamenting it; as the energy drains from him and the pin goes back to being just a pin, Blaine jogs back to Kurt.
"Kurt!" he cries as he gets close. He kneels next to him and puts an arm around his shoulders to keep him upright. "Kurt, are you okay? Hey," Blaine gives Kurt a careful little shake; Kurt's eyes are closed but his face is tight with pain. "Hey. C'mon. Please tell me you saw that. I actually did it right this time!" Blaine jokes lamely.
Kurt cracks his eyes open and looks up at Blaine. Then he smiles.
I saw it... You were great.
Blaine feels something deep within him well up, just like what he had grabbed onto in desperation when trying to get the Psych to activate. It feels like he had just had a big, hot meal, or like he is all curled up under a warm blanket. It feels warm and cozy.
He smiles widely at Kurt, who grins back with his bright eyes sparkling.
OoOoOoOoO
At the moment, Kurt is lamenting not having any kind of mild pain killer on hand. He sits up, not feeling quite as dizzy but still feeling the sting in his back. The scratches feel too deep to actually call them scratches, but not deep enough to call them cuts. He can already feel the pop of scabbed-over skin breaking as he sits up straight. He looks at Blaine, who makes immediate eye contact, expecting Kurt to say something.
Can you look at it? Kurt asks shyly, pointing his thumb at his back, See how bad it is?
Blaine blinks once. "It's bad?" he says, his voice thin.
Kurt scoffs. No. I don't know. SEE HOW BAD IT IS.
"Oh! You want me to look at it?" Blaine asks.
Kurt nods. He unbuttons his shirt, then tries to shrug out of it. The motion pulls at the scratches and he hisses through his teeth. He can feel a new rivulet of blood trailing down his back and run into the shirt. It feels disgusting. Blaine immediately scrambles behind Kurt and takes the shirt by the collar. "Here," Blaine says quietly, "let me help."
Kurt feels his face burn with blushing as Blaine eases the ruined shirt off of him. He tries not to think about how he is now shirtless in front of a cute boy for the first time in his miserable life and he's horribly disfigured.
Blaine tuts softly. "I don't think it's too bad," he says, "It might hurt a lot, but it's not too deep. We can just wrap it up so you don't bleed everywhere and so it doesn't get dirt in it. Not much we can do about the pain, though." There is sympathy in his voice as he says the last part.
Kurt turns carefully to look at Blaine over his bare shoulder. Bandages?
Blaine looks down at Kurt's shirt, and Kurt sighs in resignation. "Oh, come on," Blaine says with a little laugh, "It's better than nothing! It's already ruined anyway, it's not like you could wear it again. The back is all shredded up. Here, you can have my blazer. It got a little torn up but at least it'll cover you up." Blaine takes his blazer off and sets it next to Kurt, then starts tearing the shirt into strips. Kurt cringes with the sound.
As Blaine works on the makeshift bandages, Kurt pulls the blazer onto his lap. He finds Blaine's Player pin. He'll have to take it off and hand it back to Blaine. Then there's the Warblers pin, right next to an embroidered patch with a fancy-looking 'D' on it. He tries to think of any private school in the area that starts with a 'D', because only a private school would require a uniform. The only one he can think of is Dalton, which is when he remembers that the Warblers are from Dalton. The Warblers that made it to Nationals this year and came in seventeenth place. In Kurt's opinion, that wasn't bad, but he is sure that if the New Directions hadn't been disbanded after losing their first Regionals last year they would have made it to Nationals and taken the whole damn thing. Vocal Adrenaline or not.
Blaine reaches around Kurt's waist with a strip of what was once a nice shirt. "Hold still, okay? I'll try not to wrap it too tight, but if I do just- um, smack me or something." He had clearly wanted to say 'just say so', but obviously Kurt can't. Kurt is finding his entry fee to be quite problematic; he is so used to expressing everything with his voice that he feels like he's at a severe disadvantage. When threatened at school he had always fought back with words. Blaine, he suspects, paid with his confidence. Kurt feels like Blaine got off light but of course can't say so. Not just because he physically can't, but because it isn't Blaine's fault that he values his confidence over any other aspect of his self. Still, as Blaine starts winding the fabric around Kurt's torso, Kurt laments the loss while appreciating the idea behind it. He certainly won't take advantage of his ability to say anything ever again. Even if he may have had times where he hated his higher-than-average voice, right now all he wants to do is be able to vent and talk to someone and be heard, damn it.
While Blaine is wrapping the fabric around him, Kurt is sitting there on the sidewalk trying not to puke up the butterflies in his stomach. Every time Blaine's fingers brush over his bare skin Kurt feels that spot tingle and he has to resist the urge to shiver. He knows this feeling, because he struggled with it with Finn, and had to keep it to himself when that Sam Evans kid moved to McKinley. Knowing his batting record so far, Blaine would be completely straight, just more friendly than most straight guys. Kurt would even be alright with Blaine being bisexual, because Blaine has something that Finn and Sam never could. Kurt can't even put a finger on it; it's something he would never expect from another guy, but something that makes him think of his mother.
His mother... Tenderness. Kindness. Gentle touches. Caring. Warm smiles. Understanding.
Kurt wants to get away from Blaine but not be more than a foot away at the same time. He can't afford this right now, they're in the middle of a literal game of life and death. This is not the ideal setting for romance.
Once Blaine has finished, he gives Kurt a gentle pat on the side. "All done. Feel any better?"
Kurt nods shakily and makes the universal 'a little' gesture by holding up his hand and showing his thumb and finger a millimeter apart. Blaine nods once as he stands and takes the blazer out of Kurt's lap, helps Kurt up, and holds his hand against Kurt's elbow to make sure he's steady. After taking his Player pin off and reattaching it to his dress shirt, Blaine holds the blazer out for Kurt, then helps him into it. Kurt is blushing again, and he doesn't know how to handle all this. Whenever he had minor to moderate injuries from the bullies shoving him into lockers, he'd had to patch himself up. Having someone do it for him, someone so good-looking, who is male, with such gentle touches and such warm hands... Well, he doesn't really know what to think.
Once the battlefield first-aid is done, Kurt glances down at his hand. Less than three hours to go. He looks over to Blaine, wanting to show him the timer as a way to tell him they need to get moving, but Blaine is already walking towards their fallen bike with a definite spring in his step. Kurt suspects Blaine is very proud of himself for having mastered at least one pin.
Kurt follows him, trying to ignore the steady throb of his back clashing with the steady throb of his timer, as well as ignore the thought that he might be falling for his partner.
OoOoOoOoO
Franklin Street isn't much farther from North Street. Blaine had felt insanely nervous crossing that street again, especially with Kurt hanging onto his shoulders. Even if there isn't any traffic.
He'd had to promise many times not to make them crash again to get Kurt on the bike. Blaine feels so awful about what just happened, he would promise Kurt anything his heart desires to make up for it. His bottom lip hurts from how hard he bit it while tending to Kurt a moment ago, trying to keep his guilt in check. As well as the undeniable thrill of seeing Kurt shirtless, war wound aside. Kurt is remarkably lithe and built like a dancer, and his skin is soft all over. Blaine had to resist the strong urge to just caress it, just once, because that would be super weird.
Upon arriving at one end of Franklin Street, Blaine comes to a careful stop and Kurt hops off the pegs lightly. "Well, here we are," Blaine says as he puts down the kickstand. The two of them then stand at the end of the alley looking in.
Blaine notices that it's darker in the alley than it is out here on the sidewalk. He looks up with a curious frown, expecting to see clouds blocking the sun, but the sky is clear and the sun is just shy of directly overhead. The antique charm of his favorite shortcut is lost in an eerie cloud of tangible darkness that he can't explain, like a cloud of ink in water.
He hears Kurt takes a deep breath, apparently bracing himself. Blaine watches him march into the dark alley with his head held high. He fidgets nervously before following.
As soon as he crosses the threshold of the alley, he feels cold and the darkness presses in. It's like he's walked into a dark building with no windows, or like it's suddenly night time, and the air is all musty and humid, like in a basement that's recently been flooded. He can still kind of see, but after being out in the bright sunshine, it takes his eyes a moment to adjust. Once he can make out distinct shapes, he notices that he can't see more than a few feet in any direction, even as he walks forward, like there is a very dim spotlight following him.
"Kurt?" he calls, unable to see him. Then he remembers that Kurt has no voice and can't call back. "O-okay. Kurt... Listen, just, like... Grab my hand, if you can find it."
Blaine sticks his hand straight out in front of him, his fingers splayed out. Nothing happens; he doesn't even hear footsteps.
"...Kurt?"
OoOoOoOoO
The alley is dark, and it is slightly unnerving. It's a lot creepier than it seemed a few minutes ago.
Kurt's footsteps echo slightly around him. He remembers hearing about how people who are blind rely entirely on their other senses and those senses are therefore much stronger. He wonders if he can tell how far away the walls are just by the echoing of his footsteps.
He lifts his arm up and out to his side, trying to graze his fingertips against the wall as he slowly walks forward. The wall hadn't been that far away when he entered the alley; maybe not within arm's reach, but close. He stops walking so that he can gingerly inch his way to the side, trying to find the wall.
Eventually his fingers touch the brick wall of the attorney's office that makes up this side of the alley. It feels rough, but also very cold.
Kurt frowns and draws his hand back.
Still no sign of any Noise; from his experience, they don't tend to be very stealthy. And they have the advantage in this dark, anyway, so he doesn't really know what the holdup is. It's making him a bit nervous.
It strikes him as odd that he isn't absolutely losing his shit right now. He's been remarkably calm all throughout the Game, and he assumes it's a survival instinct. If he freaks out (like Blaine is prone to do), they don't have a chance. But still, the only time he's lost it was right when he found he was dead. He feels like, at some point, he ought to have the same kind of moment that Blaine had earlier today, where he has to stop and just try to breathe because it's hit him like a ton of freaking bricks. This really is happening. But he supposes that he already had that moment as the oddly familiar woman told him all about this stupid Game of hers.
Kurt sighs unhappily at the thought of Blaine earlier. He really wishes he had a voice so he could've been more helpful to his partner.
At the thought of his partner, Kurt turns around, expecting to see him following behind, possibly terror-stricken at the darkness. But Blaine isn't there at all; just the same kind of unnatural inky blackness.
Something isn't right.
OoOoOoOoO
"Oh my God, Kurt, seriously, this is not even funny, I am freaking out here..."
Blaine is shuffling around in the darkness, afraid of bumping into something. Even though he knows Franklin better than any other street because of how fond he is of it, he doesn't remember where exactly the old wicker chairs are, or where the potted hibiscus is, or where the big pothole is. Knowing his luck, he'd totally twist his ankle in that pothole.
"Kurt..." he whines, his voice going up an octave in fright. The stress of the day is really getting to him. He doesn't know how much of this bullshit he can take without going absolutely insane.
He decides to stand still. That's what he was always told by his mother, when he was a kid; if he got lost, just stay put and she would find him. She lost him in a supermarket once while he was staring wide-eyed at a display of Game Boys, and she found him before he even knew he was lost. He sincerely wishes Kurt would find him, because being here, all alone in the cold dark where Noise could jump out and get him in an instant... It's making him nervous.
He hears something far off, and it reminds him of how he heard music fading away in his right ear when he woke up on the first day. This sound he can hear just fine with both ears, but it still seems far off. It's someone's voice, so he knows it isn't Kurt, and that doesn't help his nerves.
"I'm going to chase it your way! Here it comes!" It sounds like a girl's voice, and it's echoing down from the other side of the alley.
Blaine automatically turns toward the sound of someone else's voice, regardless of how far away it is.
"Got it!" a different female voice barks, and it's so close that it makes Blaine jump about three feet in the air.
He sets his hand against his chest, right over his wildly beating heart. Before he can calm down, or even think to say anything to the girl that is apparently a few feet away, the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, his skin crawls, and he feels like he's being watched.
He looks around, and not to his surprise, he sees countless sets of glowing eyes glaring at him.
OoOoOoOoO
It's been awhile since he last heard that voice. Even so, Kurt is absolutely sure that it's Rachel Berry. He cringes inwardly.
"Wow, this guy's tough! I bet you'd be able to take it out with your Shockwave pin, Quinn, I think it's weak against Positive Psychs... I'm going to chase it your way!"
Kurt feels like he may have lost his sanity, because, first of all, it seems he can't escape Rachel even in the afterlife. Second, he had no idea there was any difference between Psychs, that certain ones worked better against certain Noise, and how is it that Rachel Berry found this out before he did?
"Here it comes!"
The air stirs strangely and suddenly there is a wall of sound. Kurt has to clap his hands over his ears as the sound of a high-pitched shriek, microphone feedback, and nails on a chalkboard slams into him from the left.
He takes his hands away from his ears gingerly, though they're still ringing a bit. He checks his hands for any blood, something he had joked about in Glee club when Rachel would get her inevitable solos. Thankfully there seems to be no lasting damage; if Rachel ruined his pitch-perfect hearing with her screaming he would murder her in her sleep.
"Oh I really don't like this pin. No way my voice sounds like that..." says Rachel's voice. Kurt wishes he could say something. Oh he wants to be snarky, he wants to so bad. "Oh well... I guess I'm stuck with it."
There are more sounds now; growling, hissing, and other angry animal sounds. Kurt looks around for any evidence of Noise but sees nothing. He needs to find Blaine, because no doubt he's gotten himself into trouble.
But just as there's no Noise, there's no Blaine.
OoOoOoOoO
Blaine takes out his Pyrokinesis pin, his new favorite, the one that makes fire. It makes sense in his head and he doesn't have to fight so hard to get it to work. Plus fire makes light so he should be able to find Kurt.
The flame appears at his feet again, shedding light on the ground. He feels comforted by its presence, like a child with a night light. He looks around; the Noise hiss and try to hide from the light. For the moment he ignores them, hoping they'll stay away for a moment, instead looking for the girl nearby.
He finds her, farther away than he thought. She's barely within the radius of light his Psych is generating. She's one of those girls that was not graced with good looks; mousy hair, chubby, and a big nose. Blaine feels a pang of sympathy for her; he knows how shallow people can be and figures she must have heard every snide remark under the sun at school.
"Hey!" he calls, and the poor girl jumps nearly as bad as Blaine had earlier. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you-"
"I'm a little busy here!" the girl says in a bossy tone. At first Blaine is taken aback by the rudeness, but is then struck with curiosity. He had expected her to be quiet and shy. Shows him for judging by appearances. The girl is currently swiping her arm like she's pretend sword fighting, but a barely-visible flash of light is extending from her closed fist as she swings. Blaine knows a Psych when he sees it by this point.
The Noise she's fighting is still in shadow, but Blaine can see its outline, and there is no mistaking it; a Snake. It's reared up and much, much larger than any snake native to Ohio. Or even the Amazon, now that Blaine thinks about it. The girl is swiping furiously, breaking a sweat and trying to stay light on her feet.
"...Do you want some help?" Blaine offers, trying to be a gentleman.
"Are you stupid or something? !" the girl yells back, sparing him a look. Then she turns right back to the Snake, which lunges at her, catching her by surprise.
Blaine reacts and sends his fire toward the Snake, urging it to move faster. The Snake is caught in it and starts writhing and hissing and thrashing around; its huge tail swings by the girl that had been fighting it. She leaps in the air, surprisingly graceful, jumping the Snake's tail like a jump rope. As she comes down, she strikes with her Psych, hitting the Noise squarely on the head, killing it instantly.
Blaine stands in shock, as this girl pretty much demolished that huge, terrifying Noise without so much as a twitch of her nose. He feels like he ought to congratulate her or something; he's still scared shitless of the Noise.
She is walking over to him, a swagger in her step that is so at odds with her appearance that Blaine wonders what she would be like outside of the Game. She grabs him by the tie and yanks him closer, so their noses are a mere centimeter apart.
"You tried to steal my kill, hobbit."
OoOoOoOoO
The far-away light flickers and wraps itself around what looks like a huge snake. Kurt knows it's Blaine's Psych; it's cherry-red coloration, the way it moves, the way it lights up whatever is close.
He starts running toward the light source, knowing Blaine will be close. He doesn't make it very far, though.
He runs right into what feels like a person, and that person ends up falling right on top of Kurt as he goes down. He is thankfully able to keep from hitting his head, but his back takes the brunt of the fall and his eyes water from the pain erupting from the still-fresh wounds. He can feel them oozing blood again. He is extremely uncomfortable, as well as positive that this person is a female due to her assets now pressing against his chest. "Oh!" the girl says, and he realizes it's Rachel. "Oh my God, wow, are you a Noise? Are you trying to get me?" She giggles, not sounding at all like the Rachel Berry Kurt knew in school. That Rachel was all business, desperate to be a star. The disbanding of the Glee club probably hit her hardest because of all the emotion she had invested in it. This Rachel... She seemed lost in a haze of mild amusement and a sort of innocence. In Kurt's expert opinion, she seems high.
Kurt shoves her off and she scoffs, offended. That's more like Rachel. "Tuh... if you wanted me to get up you could have said so, you don't need to shove me or anything."
He doesn't even try to say something as he keeps shoving at her, trying to get his precious personal space back. She refuses to budge, though.
"Aren't you going to say something? You're being really rude," Rachel says in a monotone, as though Kurt's rudeness doesn't really bother her that much.
As the two of them shove and bicker and carry on, the distant light of Blaine's Psych comes closer, with Blaine himself not far behind.
"Kurt! Kurt...! Where'd you go? There's a crazy girl after me!"
Kurt slaps his hand against his forehead. This is getting ridiculous. He raises a hand in half-hearted, exasperated greeting as Blaine spots him.
"Oh, thank God, there you are- oh, did you find someone too? Is she as crazy as the other one?" His voice cracks at the end.
"I am not crazy, you idiot! I'll high kick you right in the teeth. Not that it would be much of a high kick!"
Blaine, who rolls his eyes at the short joke as if he's heard every variation, is joined by a rather plain girl who has way too much sass. She is regarding Blaine with bored contempt, but quickly switches to Rachel. "Hey, manhands. Did you get those other Snakes or not?"
Rachel is currently picking under nails. The other three are silent as she squints at her pinky nail, clearly disconcerted by whatever has worked its way underneath it.
"Rachel!" the new girl barks, and everyone jumps at her bossy tone. Rachel looks up, seemingly not bothered.
"What?"
"Did you get the rest or not?"
Rachel sighs a little sigh and flattens her olive skirt against her legs. Kurt really thinks she needs to wear something besides these little tiny schoolgirl/librarian skirts, because the effect is making him nauseous. "No, Quinn, I didn't. Okay? They ran off, over there." Rachel points behind her, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
Quinn looks over at Blaine, who looks bemused at the exchange. "You two boys wait here with her. You totally punked my kill, shorty, so if you don't stay put I won't hesitate to chop you in half."
Blaine holds his hands up in surrender, his Psych shrinking down and sputtering away as he tries to form words to make a decent response. Instead of waiting for Blaine to quit stammering, Quinn marches off into the darkness.
Kurt looks up at Blaine as he frowns and starts up his Pyrokinesis pin again, bringing back a bit of light. Blaine looks back and they make eye contact. I went to school with these two, Kurt says, and Blaine's eyebrows shoot up. This one's Rachel.
"Oh, really? Famous Rachel Berry? The one with the annoying YouTube videos, singing into a hairbrush?"
"What about my hairbrush?" Rachel asks. Kurt and Blaine both ignore her. She doesn't seem too bothered about it, going back to half-heartedly picking at her nails.
Right... The other one was Quinn Fabray, apparently, but she didn't look anything like Quinn. It sure sounded like her, though.
"Oh.. Wait. Say the first part again," Blaine says, frowning as he tries to figure out in his head what Kurt is trying to say.
THAT WAS QUINN FABRAY. BUT IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE HER.
Blaine shrugs. "Maybe it wasn't really her, then. Maybe it's a coincidence."
But it was her voice, even! I bet they took her appearance as her entry fee. She was head of the Cheerios and a total snob... She would value her good looks over everything else in her life. She's that shallow. She got pregnant last year and instead of being worried about how it would wreck her life, she was upset about being kicked out of the Cheerios! I mean, hello, PRIORITIES.
Blaine stares back blankly. After a short pause, he says, "All I got out of that was something about Cheerios and pregnancy."
Overcome with frustration, Kurt opens his mouth to scream and yell, but of course there's nothing. He gets on his feet and starts pacing, looking for something to hit, something to take down, something to damage beyond repair. He has to try very hard to keep his eyes off Blaine, who is murmuring the bits of what Kurt had said that he caught, trying to figure it out for himself like the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.
Rachel is looking between the two, trying to follow the conversation. Kurt frowns at her as she stares him down.
"How come you aren't talking, but he is?" she asks, pointing to Blaine.
Kurt gestures harshly to his throat and shakes his head. Blaine jumps in for him, "They took his voice as his entry fee," he says sadly as Kurt returns to his angry pacing. "He gets mad at me like this all the time 'cause I can never understand what he's trying to say."
I don't know how much clearer I can be, damn it! Kurt rages at Blaine, who goes back to his previous defensive stance. I'm sick of talking to you like you... like you speak Russian or something! It takes forever to say anything to you because 'you can't read lips'! Well smart guy, how are we gonna do this if you can't hear me? ! How are we going to do this if I have to stop everything and spell out everything I say? !
Blaine starts to back away. He looks very afraid, but it only makes Kurt angrier. "Okay, look. I get you're upset. Okay? J-just calm down, okay? Getting mad isn't gonna help us."
"Hey," Rachel says, "Look, guys. There's those Snakes I chased away earlier! I bet Quinn brought them back so I could take them out." Rachel looks down at her nails. "But I don't really feel like it... There's a hangnail I've been trying to get for the past two days..." and she starts picking at her cuticle.
Kurt spins around to see a whole horde of Snakes advancing. Quinn is behind them, fighting her way through with what looks like a Shockwave pin. Kurt looks back at Blaine, who stands there wide-eyed.
Come on! We have to clear these Noise out!
As if on cue, there is a sharp pain in his palm, almost as bad as the timer starting; by the way the other three gasp and jerk, they feel it too. Another hour gone.
Now! Kurt snarls at Blaine, not having the patience for coaxing his partner through another battle. He turns and digs for his own pins, taking Apport in hand and firing it up.
OoOoOoOoO
Blaine stands guard by Rachel, who is still sitting on the ground picking at her hangnail. He has ignited his Pyrokinesis pin again and the fire is lapping happily at his feet, but he holds back.
The battle itself isn't like those he's seen in movies, where a hero goes running in and practically dances around, missing enemy blows and taking the bad guys down with unparalleled grace. While Kurt is very graceful, he certainly isn't unscathed. Given his recent injury from the Noise, he isn't as nimble. He is able to dodge most of the attacks, and he has a lot of lucky misses, though.
There are basketball-sized meteorites falling everywhere. They strike against the Snakes and some go down hissing, while others just shake it off. The rocks bounce and hit multiple targets, but against a huge mob of Noise it doesn't seem to do much good.
Blaine can't watch anymore; he grabs Rachel by the arm and yanks her up onto her feet. She whines in protest but he isn't listening.
"Come on! We have to help them!"
Rachel sighs and fixes the hem of her skirt, then gives Blaine a sweet smile. "If you say so."
They run into the battle; Blaine flinging the fire everywhere and hoping it doesn't cause damage to Kurt or the girls. He doesn't hear any human-sounding shrieks of pain, only the inhuman, grating sound of Noise being erased. He finds Kurt being accosted by three Snakes at once, trying to dodge their lightning-quick strikes with their fangs.
"Kurt!" Blaine calls, and Kurt turns unsteadily.
Blaine arrives next to Kurt and starts directing the fire around them. Kurt grabs onto his left arm, and Blaine feels something strange at Kurt's touch. He can't afford to be distracted. He shakes Kurt off and instead wraps his arm around Kurt's waist, keeping him up.
Quinn and Rachel are working in perfect unison. Quinn is grouping the Noise together with her Shockwave pin, and Rachel takes them all out at once with her very loud Psych.
Street Jam, Kurt says, and Blaine just barely sees the lip movement out of the corner of his eye.
"Street Jam? Is that Rachel's Psych?" Kurt nods as he brings more meteorites down.
"More coming in from behind you, Rachel!" Quinn says in her bossy voice, "Take those out and then get over to the other side of the alley, I think that's where they're coming in from!"
"Got it!" Rachel chirps happily, followed by the screech of her Street Jam pin.
Blaine frowns. He wishes that he and Kurt could work together like that, but it really isn't possible to yell across a battlefield when one of them has no voice. He readjusts his grip on Kurt, who is starting to squirm a bit.
Kurt puts a hand against Blaine's chest and starts pushing; Blaine looks over to see his eyes blown wide with fear and he looks behind them. Blaine turns just in time to see three more Snakes behind them, these bigger than the rest. The two of them manage to scramble away just as one of the Snakes snaps its jaws around the space they had just been occupying.
As Blaine regains his sense of balance, he flings his arm out and directs his fire toward the Snakes. Two of the Noise take off in different directions; the third catches fire like a pile of dry, dead leaves. Kurt assaults it with falling rocks, but their combined efforts seem to only make the Snake angry.
Blaine, hoping to keep the panic at bay for as long as possible, looks around briefly, trying to find where the other two went. Not to his surprise, Quinn and Rachel have already cleared out the rest of the Noise and are trying to take out one of the bigger ones. That means there's one that's unaccounted for.
The Snake he and Kurt are fighting shakes the fire off which fades out as Blaine finally starts to panic. Kurt turns quickly to glare at him. What are you doing? he says, and Blaine takes a few big gulps of air before switching out his Pyrokinesis pin for the Lightning Bolt.
He digs deep, like he does with Pyrokinesis, but this one is so much deeper and so much harder to get. It's so annoying and so scary. If this doesn't work he's screwed. He can't keep depending on Kurt like this. Has he to get this right. He grits his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut, determined to get it, because their life depends on it.
He can feel the other three running around him; he can tell when it's Kurt, but the other two girls are harder. They are going this way and that and he's getting distracted, damn it.
"Hobbit!" Blaine looks up at Quinn's voice, only to see the third Snake quickly approaching.
"Holy shit!" he cries, and the Snake is upon him before he can even finish swearing. It rears up, and Blaine tries to figure out what to do. And it strikes, its fangs pearly white and very sharp, and he again reacts on instinct and lashes out with a punch, a quick right hook.
He hits the Snake, but that isn't all that happens; as it recoils, it begins thrashing and twitching as it erupts with electricity, which arcs and chases after the other two Snakes. They attempt to dodge it but they aren't fast enough. Blaine himself has ducked away, muttering at the pain in his hand from hitting something without having it wrapped, which is what he's used to.
Within the space of three seconds or so they're all erased, and Blaine is standing there, shaking his hand out. He looks up, cussing darkly under his breath. He notices Kurt, Quinn and Rachel staring back at him, dumbfounded, as well as the absence of the Noise.
He smiles brightly, slightly out of breath. "Oh, did you guys get them?"
Kurt starts walking over, and Blaine is afraid he may be angry, because as far as Blaine knows he only got one of the big Snakes while the others took out the rest. Instead, Kurt leaps at him and Blaine catches him in a hug on instinct, very shocked.
Kurt pulls away from the hug and grins at Blaine. You did it Blaine! You took down all three at once!
Unable to believe it, Blaine looks over at the girls, who are walking closer. Rachel seems to have gone back to her hangnail problem while Quinn is glaring daggers at Blaine.
"Oh..." Blaine says, allowing his arms to rest around Kurt's waist, "I did?"
Yes! Kurt says with a little soundless laugh, thumping Blaine on the chest playfully. Blaine laughs nervously.
He just can't believe it.
OoOoOoOoO
The four of them are sitting in the middle of the now restored alley. The darkness has faded back into simple shade and the Noise are gone, as are the timers. After exchanging names, they decided to sit and try and figure out this Game they're playing before they succumb to whatever weird hibernation they go into at the end of the day.
Kurt is sitting with his back to a wall, and Blaine is standing next to him, leaning casually against the same wall. Quinn and Rachel are sitting across from them. Kurt can't stop thinking about Blaine saving all their sorry asses; Quinn was especially upset because she apparently wants 'all the points she can get' or something. Kurt couldn't be more proud, though. The Lightning Bolt attack had been impressive, especially coming from someone as nonconfrontational as Blaine.
Rachel is flipping her Street Jam pin like a coin. "I really don't like this one, Quinn, can't I try a different one?"
"We don't have any others that you can use. Just shut up and deal with it," Quinn says. Kurt feels like this may be an old argument.
"But, Kurt has one that we don't have," Rachel whines, "And so does Blaine. Why can't we trade?"
Quinn throws her arms up in exasperation. Kurt can sympathize. "God, Rachel! If you hate it that much, maybe one of them will switch with you. Just shut up about it!"
Rachel looks over at Kurt and Blaine with big puppy eyes. Kurt knows that, though he'll deny it, Blaine is too polite to not give up the two pins he's nailed down if Rachel asks for them. Kurt really doesn't want him to have to get used to another new one, so he wordlessly offers his Apport pin up to Rachel. He doesn't really like Apport anyway; it's so not his style.
She takes it in her hand, frowns at it, and (Kurt wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it) holds it up to her ear and gives it a little shake, as if trying to determine if there is faulty wiring or a loose piece or something. Considering that a pin has maybe three pieces to it, Kurt isn't really sure why she's doing this.
Eventually she nods and gives Kurt her Street Jam pin in exchange for his Apport pin. He just hopes he didn't make a bad deal by getting a pin that won't even work for him, but it warms up in his hand as soon as he looks down at it. He supposes he'll find out soon enough if it'll work for him. If not, well, he's got a couple other pins he hasn't tried yet.
"You two are lucky, you know," Quinn is saying smugly. "The fact that you haven't been erased yet boggles my mind."
Kurt scoffs. What makes you so sure about that? he says, but she isn't even looking at him. Instead she looks to Blaine, who is tugging on the hem of his shirt. Kurt is tempted to lean over and smack him on the leg to get him to stop, but he feels oddly nervous about it, like Blaine might not want Kurt touching him.
Blaine sighs and says, "It's hard enough to communicate like this, when it's calm, when Kurt hasn't got a voice, let alone when we're fighting Noise." He looks down at Kurt with an apology in his eyes. Kurt stares back for a moment, because he can't remember the last time someone looked at him like that after saying something not necessarily nice about him. But then he just shrugs.
"Well," Rachel chimes in, "why haven't you been using text messages?"
Kurt looks over at her, aghast. He thought he knew a lot about the Game, but Rachel apparently knows more and it is so agitating. Rachel starts twirling a lock of hair around her finger and stares coquettishly at Blaine, who has his phone out and is frowning at it. Kurt feels his heart plummet; of course Rachel would flirt with Blaine, of course Rachel always gets what she wants. Blaine being straight or not makes no difference. Kurt refuses to pass judgment until he has irrefutable proof. Right now, though, it's looking like Blaine is definitely closer to at least bisexual, or he's straight and just likes touching other guys in a manner decidedly more than friendly. Kurt would probably pass out if he saw Finn put his arm around another guy's waist.
His musings are interrupted by his phone vibrating. He is immediately on edge because he thought the mission was done for today, but he notices that the other three just keep talking about fighting Noise. Kurt opens the new message on his phone.
[Wish I had thought of this. Oh well! Now you don't have to repeat everything and we won't fight all the time! :)]
[-Blaine]
Blaine looks over at Kurt and they catch each other's eyes. Kurt smiles, trying to show with one expression how much he appreciates Blaine even trying to open up communication between them.
Blaine smiles back and, after typing out something else, keeps holding onto his phone instead of putting it away, in case Kurt needs to say something. Kurt appreciates the gesture.
His phone buzzes again as Blaine recounts the thrilling tale of how he died. Kurt looks down at the screen.
[Another day down. Five to go. We can do this!]
[-Blaine]
Kurt grins stupidly, sure Blaine isn't watching. That one text message fills Kurt up with so much hope he's surprised he doesn't start to float away.
Upon looking up, though, wanting to listen to the others' conversation, he notices Rachel looking at him with a knowing grin. He doesn't let it bother him, though. Instead he tugs on Blaine's slacks, indicating for him to sit down. Once he does, Kurt scoots closer under the pretense of allowing Blaine to see the screen of his phone, where Kurt types out what he wants to say. This way he can join in the conversation via Blaine.
He doesn't even really listen to the conversation, though. All he does is marvel at how close he is to Blaine, how warm he is. And Blaine doesn't shy away; on the contrary, Blaine adjusts the way he's sitting so Kurt can get closer.
Maybe there's hope, Kurt thinks. Maybe he can get what he wants instead of Rachel Berry getting what she wants.
For the first time in a long time, he feels hopeful. He feels happy. Even in this strange version of the afterlife, he can now look forward to tomorrow, even if it's partly grim determination to win.
OoOoOoOoO
end of chapter three. PREPARE FOR STUPID, ANNOYING, LONG AN. SORRY IN ADVANCE. :(
First of all, I feel obligated to clarify.
Blaine and other characters' dialog is your normal "dialog" deal. Kurt speaks in italics because he's really only mouthing the words; no sound comes out. Italics in brackets [kind of like this] are text messages between Kurt and Blaine. All-CAPS messages in italics LIKE THIS RIGHT HERE are from the Reapers.
Also, for your convenience, here is a list of everyone's Psychs so far.
Kurt: Psychokinesis (allows him to move shit WITH HIS MIND) and Apport (makes a little meteorite hit the target)
Blaine: Lightning Bolt (self-explanitory) and Pyrokenesis (makes fire) Pyrokenesis was always my favorite Psych in the game. :D
Quinn: Shockwave (makes a sort-of sword, one of those super-basic pins in the game)
Rachel: Street Jam (in the game you had to yell into the built-in mic on the DS to make this one work. Was very cathartic to scream at my DS and watch critters die :D It's an attack that is pure sound and was totally my second fav.)
Also also, Quinn is in Lucy form for this fic. :D That's what the bitch gets for trying to be punk rock. Quinn is about as punk rock as the Pope Himself.
Okay second of all, UUUGH.
This chapter's last half was such a little bitch. I should mention that I freaking hate Rachel. Once I got to the part where I had to bring her in, it was just dragging. Oh my God. I was on the backstage crew in drama club when I was in high school and there was always a Rachel amongst the actors. Writing her is like... it's like... it SUCKS okay?
Please do let me know how the action scenes turned out. And if the basic rules make more sense now. Also I'm worried that the narrative isn't up to snuff; if the descriptive stuff or introspection or anything is boring, or doesn't sound right, or just plain sucks, please God tell me. I'm a freaking masochist when it comes to reviews. I promise I won't get mad.
