[IN PROGRESS/OPEN]
WHO: Alucard/toothsomehound, Usopp/longnosedliar, Sam Vimes/stonyfaced, Jessica Sanders/DIVIDEDSANITY, Otacon/justlikeoneofmy, Lauren Reed/dancewithadevil, Ken/artiglio, Zoro/resolute_edge, AND - anyone else who would like to be trapped is welcome to join!
WHAT: BOOM.
WHERE: Guilty Pleasures.
WHEN: Evening.
( I've seen Diamonds cut through harder men. )
WHAT: BOOM.
WHERE: Guilty Pleasures.
WHEN: Evening.
( I've seen Diamonds cut through harder men. )
His embarrassment had been so intense when he first realized what he'd brought Usopp to that he fled to the bathroom for ten minutes. After hyperventilating three times in his stall, almost spilling water on himself from the sinks in a very awkward spot, and realizing he needed to brush his hair really badly, Otacon had staggered back to the table. It was time to be- be manly. And men owned up to their mistakes. So he picked up his menu, gritted his teeth, looked Usopp firmly in the eye,
and dove under the table as some kind of explosion sounded from above.
There was a roar as things seemed to just- fall down- and then Otacon was facing a roomful of darkness and dust. He could hear Usopp whimpering and felt instantly guilty. "Usopp? Usopp! Are you all right?" He pulled the BOCKS from his pocket and flipped it to illuminate Usopp. The younger man.... looked okay. Phew, thank goodness. "Oh Usopp, I'm so sorry. I wish I had done better research..."
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"Ummmm." He paused as the cacophany of screams filled the air which was not a good thing and really really scary. "You're okay too, aren't you?" He said, a note of worry entering his quivering voice. He didn't want to get out from underneath the table. Out there there were probably dangerous people. People who lit explosions. People who fought. People who did all the scary things Usopp was now involved with. It was enough to make his heart want to leap out of his chest and die. Despite the immense cowardice that seized him, another scream alerted them that people were getting crushed.
"We should--" he swallowed, continued, "--check to see if anybody's still uh. Alive." Sticking his head from out underneath the table, he kept a hand on his gun and looked around.
"Is anybody there?"
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"I'm okay, Usopp. We're both okay, right?" He was trembling, teeth chattering in fear, but his voice sounded okay and that was fine. It was just like that time when Snake had been on the elevator with those guys in the stealth suits. Somebody else was in danger, and he was going to help them. Right. He could do this. Snake would expect him to. "We should use the BOCKS to find anybody that's still alive." He was already trying to make a mental image of what parts of the building had collapsed, trying to ignore the broken wails of agony all around him.
He pulled Usopp back under the table. "W- wait. Let BOCKS scan first, to- to see if it's safe." He pulled the little thing- suddenly macabre in its cuteness- from his pocket. "Scan for live civilians," he told it. He was terrified and trembling and a coward. But he would help anyways. Otacon knew Usopp would, too. "How are we going to help the people that are alive?"
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Brr. He didn't even want to think about it. It was just too frightening, and thinking about it would do nothing but make him even more scared. After realizing that he hadn't spoken in a good while, he managed to ask, "BOCKS can do that?" It was a stupid question. Otacon told it to, of course it could do it. Just... talking about anything made him feel better, made him feel like the walls weren't crashing all around him.
After a lengthy pause, he caught his breath and struggling not to let his voice tremble (it didn't, but it's careful composition was even more obvious), he said, "I'm pretty sure that this was on purpose. Buildings don't just explode. We..." He fell silent, thumbing his gun. He wanted to help people, sure, but what if the people they tried to help were the very ones who did this? Fiercely, he told himself not to cry, not to tremble underneath pressure, not to hide. He shook anyways.
Gulping down a breath of air, he said, "We make sure that they're not too badly injured and then--then--then we try to get us all out of here."
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Usopp sounded frightened when he talked. He sounded brave, too, like he was just going to- to- to leap out there and start finding the people that had done this. "Right. I mean, of course buildings don't explode." Well, unless they had hay in storage, or maybe fertilizer, or... uhm, but he doubted that a restaurant would be filled with many industrial-grade explosives after all.
"We can do it, Usopp." He was the older one. He had a responsibility to act like an adult! Usopp had to know that he could rely on Otacon, even if he personally felt like just hiding under the table until somebody came to rescue them. "There's a person trapped half under that table there that BOCKS just located. L- let's go."
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Otacon thought they could do it! Right? Right? Right. No. No. They were going to die and then it'd be all tragic and Usopp would never get to go through training sessions to become a true man and then Usopp would cry except for he wouldn't be able to because he'd be dead. No, Usopp. Stop thinking like that. Brave people did heroic things like save people and run out in really scary places without any personal regard! Usopp settled for shakily clambering out from underneath the table and giving a small shriek as a small chunk of plaster fell out of the ceiling (what? It could have been deadly!).
Peering underneath the table, he saw the figure, clad in black and decidedly ambiguous. Especially from the back. "U-uh..." He reached out a tentative hand to touch the person's shoulder. "Hello? Can you hear me? Are you okay? We're going to get you out!"
Yes! Like somebody heroic! Now he'd use his super strength and lift the table. No? No. Instead he bashed at the side of it with a hammer until it crumpled away from the person. Superstrength it wasn't, but at least it solved the problem.
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"BOCKS, start search and rescue underground protocol." Crouching down, he set the little machine on the floor and watched it reconfigure until it was a happy-dumpling-faced mecha with two drill-like appendages and two more clamp-like grips for feet. It chirruped a few times, then rolled off, moving towards a table that was half-crushed with what looked like iron girders.
Otacon turned around, looking for somebody he, too, could help to rescue. He saw a hand, remembered that BOCKS hadn't found any life signals from this direction, and fought back tears. "Usopp," he called, choking back tears, feeling like the most giant wuss that ever existed, "do you need any help?" Turning, he started towards the boy. Something hit him, hard, on the head as he took a step forwards. He hissed in pain, folded to his knees, and looked dizzily at the little hunk of metal that had fallen on him. Oh. Otacon gritted his teeth and continued over to Usopp, determined not to touch where he'd been hit. If he was hurt, he didn't want to know. That's what Snake would do, and he'd gotten through way worse than being hit on the head after an explosion. "Be careful of falling debris," he cautioned. No use in Usopp getting hurt too.
"Is..." He squinted at the person. Confused, he turned to Usopp. "Is this person okay?" He couldn't see well enough to know what sex they were. Huh? That couldn't be right- oh! His glasses! His glasses had been knocked off! He remembered hearing a small crunch when he'd been hit, but he had just thought that was his skull. Well, Otacon mused fuzzily, he supposed that it was better his glasses than his skull. Haha, how silly of him.
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He dragged the body out and quickly ran his hand over the person's mouth--still breathing. Good. They just had to get out of there. Now, if he could think back to what little first aid he knew--
There was a thunk. Why was there a thunk it was not a good sound oh god oh god oh god was Otacon okay he was dying he was dying he was... standing up. But bleeding. But standing. So everything was okay. "He-she-it's okay," he babbled, "it's unconscious but breathing and everything are you okay?" He noticed a lack of punctuation in his last sentence but chose to ignore it.
He stepped forward to check on Otacon and looked down. "Oh," he said sadly, "your glasses." As if that was the worst thing that happened in the explosion. Okay, Usopp. Otacon's being really, really, really brave even if his head's bleeding, and he made something as brilliant as BOCKS, so you have to do something. Yeah. Yeah. The Great, Brave, Usopp.
Making a small snuffling sound that he tried his very best to stifle, he took out a knife from in his bag full of various useless things such as screwdrivers and bits of pretty coloured string and cut a small square from out of his overalls. "I don't know how clean it is," he said, "but maybe you should press this against your--your head before it gets any worse."
Pausing and looking glumly around, he asked, "You don't--d'you suppose we should try finding a way out?"
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