After her outburst, the entirety of the room was overcome with the kind of stillness and hyper-awareness commonly found in high tension scenarios like bomb diffusions, target extractions and instances where someone accidentally called a teacher mom.
Though he still had his own case to open, Squall waited for a second to see if anyone else's reactions followed suit as he slowly lifted the lid without looking to ensure Rinoa wouldn't walk past him before the detection mechanism fired and accidentally instigated Hyne-mode.
One uneventful moment passed…then another…and another…
Was this an all-clear or were they all simply silent in assessing the damage they'd have to deal with later?
Squall lifted the lid backwards enough to rest it against the closed hallway door. Overthinking about this wasn't going to achieve anything. The soft beep that emanated from the case registered as an after-thought as perused the immediate items he could see.
He slowly exhaled after rummaging through the surface-level of the case; Zell's theorizing from earlier was on the right track. He could live with this.
Digging further down, Squall looked for any USB-like objects similar to what Quistis had in hand. Carefully taking out each item one by one, he quickly realized there were absolutely no electronics in his case. Part of him was not surprised however, his case was nature-based after all. Figuring it wasn't the brightest idea to leave everything strewn about, he went to work on stuffing back the items.
And by the time the suitcases' buckles were closed again, the bathroom door swung wide open. Squall looked in her direction and was shortly rewarded with a thumbs up. The internal screaming in his head dulled a little more.
"…All good?" she asked in a stage whisper.
"Jury's out for the other side of the room." he quietly answered as he got up and picked up his case.
Rinoa raised her own case, decal-side facing him. "Turns out luck really was on my side."
"Good."
They walked towards the beds and waited at the foot of the first one until Zell craned his head up.
"It's safe to come by – my case beeped." he told them as he clicked the case closed and lobbed it on the bed closest to them. The blond got up shortly after and dusted off some invisible dirt off his pants. "Did you guys get any gizmos like the one Q had earlier?"
"I didn't. My case was full of seasonal clothes and one non-Triple Triad playing card." Squall answered. "The three of spades."
Both Zell and Rinoa looked at him.
"Weird, I got one too." the blond piped in. "Mine was the two of diamonds. Did you have one Rin?"
"I don't know but I did have a playing card box I didn't open. It had some weight to it so I wouldn't be surprised if I had both of those things. Let me check."
Rinoa set down her case to open it. After a little bit of digging, she pulled out the box in question. Opening up the lid, she plucked out all of its contents – an ace of clubs playing card, an electronic gizmo, a folded piece of paper and a single die — and placed them on the bed sheets aside from the paper, which she held onto. She started picking at the small smiley face sticker that held the paper's fold in place.
Once it was torn off, she opened it up and started to silently read. By the time her eyes left the page, Quistis finally emerged from the strip of floor on the far side of the window-side bed.
"…I have the four of hearts if it matters any." she chimed in, the card between her fingers. "Can you pass me the gadget?"
Zell quickly grabbed the stick and gingerly gave it to her. She raised her hand and pointed it at the television. Squall was genuinely surprised when Selphie's grin had a chance to materialize on-screen once more; Quistis's open contempt for whatever she found in her case was written all over her face and the expression looked awfully-similar to how it did right before she'd unleash a Laser Eye attack.
"Helloooo! If you're seeing this this means you've all opened up your cases and found your cards. Now the fun part begins." she said, rubbing her hands together. "To get your stuff back, each of you need to be at different checkpoints today with at least the minimum amount of marked items on you and any hotel key cards you have – you can't bring anything else that wasn't in your case. Except for your underpants, you can have those too. But only if you want to, I won't judge. Annnnyway, the minimum number of marked items you need to wear equals your card's number and the mark to look for is its suit. Since I wanted to keep the cases pretty even weight-wise, some have more items than what you need to bring. Unmarked items in your case are clues to where to find out where your checkpoint is. Except for the two pairs of flip flops. That's just for walking. Don't worry though, all the check points are nearby, located in places where you don't need ID, Gil or fancy footwear."
"Gee thanks, Selph. Appreciate the thought." Zell sarcastically grumbled under his breath. This made Rinoa snicker a bit. On-screen Selphie clapped and the timing made it seem like she was passively-aggressively trying to ignore Zell's words.
"Annnnnd since I know I can't please everyone, I'm giving you guys the opportunity to have a one-time chance to swap." she elaborated. "In the playing card box one of you has, there's a slip of paper with four tasks that correspond to a case each. Once two tasks have been completed, the people with those cases will have to show up at their checkpoint with a marked item from each other's cases – so be sure to think it through because it's a mandatory swap at that point. This option will be available until 1pm or when the requirements are met, whichever happens sooner."
"Guess this explains what I was reading earlier." Rinoa interjected, smoothing the paper a little more flat.
"And before I go, there's one last thing. Starting at 1 pm, the checkpoints rotate every two hours. So even if you clear a checkpoint early, it'll still be another two hours before the next one. Pro-tip – use all the extra time to plan ahead! Peace out, dudes!"
When the projection cut out, Quistis unceremoniously tossed the gizmo onto the bed beside her.
"I only have four marked items in my case." she said in the familiar too-cool tone. "…One of them looks like a bendable replica of a decomposing Malboro tentacle. The rest of the marked items aren't any better."
"What the H-E-double hockey sticks Selphie! That is seriously messed up." Rinoa exclaimed.
"You can say hell you know, Rin." Zell suggested. "Or even fuck. I think this definitely warrants a fuck. —Wait, that came out wrong - ugh, nevermind. This is still so messed up I can't even process it. Between that and my case, I don't even know where the hell she even got the ideas from in the first place."
"…Does it even matter that we don't know where the fuck she got the ideas from in the first place?" Squall pointed out.
"Yeah, it probably doesn't. It's Selphie we're talking about here. Anything is possible." Zell shrugged. "Anyway, my case has a morph suit with tiny peach, pink and beige squares, a ridiculously-huge cactuar cube pillow and a necklace with square jewels. The cactuar pillow is the only thing without a diamond marking somewhere."
"My case has a bunch of magician's clothes." Rinoa chimed in. "A top hat, cape, three piece suit, a small backpack that looks like a white Carbuncle. Everything except for the backpack has a club on it. When I opened that up, it had the flip flops, the playing card box and a brochure for a two hour magic show. The show starts at 1pm in the entertainment complex that connects to this hotel and there's another one at 9 pm."
As Rinoa expanded upon the contents of her case, Squall watched as Quistis's ears gradually reddened by the second.
"My marked items are a Moogle winter hat with ear flaps, swimming shorts and a light blue pool inner-tube." he matter-of-factly filled them in. "The unmarked item is a purple scarf with flowers. I've eaten at a sit-down restaurant with Selphie in the same complex that uses a similar motif for their signage so I think that's my checkpoint."
"That's not bad. Not bad at all." Rinoa commented before she glanced at Quistis for a moment before looking at him dead in the eyes with a familiar mischievous grin that sent a chill down his spine. "What colour trunks?"
Shit.
She noticed the omission.
"…Pink."
"Like…light pink? Cool pink? Dusty pink? Medium pink? Peony pink? Carnation pink? Bubblegum pink? Cerise? Dark pink? Magenta? Fuchsia?"
"…I didn't understand ninety percent of what you just said. I'm not as big a fan of pink as you are, Rinoa."
Her grin instantly disappeared. "Don't even go there Squall."
"I'm not." Squall lied through his teeth. He'd regret this later but it was worth it. "I don't know the name but it's a bright pink and probably the worst colour Selphie could have possibly found on the planet."
Without much fanfare, he opened up his case on the bed and fished out the offending garment. He didn't even have them outside the case before Rinoa reached in and grabbed them for herself, holding them high with her hands on either side of the waistband.
"…Neon pink." she murmured in an incredulous tone before lowering her arms and absentmindedly handing him the shorts. "…I think I just broke my brain trying to imagine you wearing these boyshorts."
"…Not going to lie, that makes me feel a little better." Quistis added from across the room, a little calmer than before.
Zell turned around and the three of them had all eyes on her as she walked back to the windowsill and crouched down. A moment had passed when she re-emerged with a tangle of fabric and netting in her one hand with the tentacle-like thing in the other, a pair of red heart-shaped glasses on her head. She dropped the tentacle on the mattress and all of their eyes were drawn downward. It was as disgusting as she'd described earlier – the garbage-green tentacle had flecks of moldy yellow and brown splotches. Shallow cavities that looked they were beginning to rot in places and off-white pustules of hardened and flaky ooze caked all over the place. At close range, it smelled like gym socks dowsed in too much of the kind of body spray marketed towards pre-teens who didn't shower and wanted the lazy way out.
Squall had so many questions at the level of dedication it took for Selphie to create something frightenly-photorealistic just outside close range on such short notice.
"The rest of the horrors include a fishnet top with pastel pink heart pasties-"
She threw it on top of the tentacle.
"-These parachute pants that have white and black sequins and a light pink velour side cape with a white heart on it."
The pants landed on the fishnet and tentacle with a light rustling noise and whump.
"-And these heart-shaped glasses that are sort of cute." she said, tapping the top of the glasses with her index before crouching back down to pick something else out of her case. "My unmarked item is this piece of blue stationery that says, 'Hearts. Nips detailer. A place. Stage.'"
"…That note makes it seem like we should be hitting up a gentlemen's club but Selphie said we don't need ID." Zell said, scratching his head. "I guess we have time to think about it if Rinoa's checkpoint is first and the order is probably following our card numbers. What time is it anyway?"
"If this nightstand clock is accurate, 8:19 am." Quistis answered. "I think we should take advantage of the free hotel breakfast buffet while it's still being offered to clear our heads a little before we decide who should have an item swapped. Sound ok?"
"Yeah, definitely. I'm starved." Zell concurred. "Plus we could take up some extras for later since we have no money."
"I'm going to throw this out here," Rinoa interjected, looking at Zell and Quistis, "Correct me if I'm wrong but, Selphie was the one who checked us in, right?"
Both nodded.
"We could call for room service if it's her card on file."
"Normally I wouldn't entertain that kind of idea," Quistis admitted, "…but I'm willing to make an exception for today. I don't want to be particularly sober if I have to wear a tentacle."
