Hitori Kakurenbo

[animusmods]

[This is the only thing the Network will allow you to access on the 29th.

Characters who are participating in the game may make new threads. Characters who are not participating may only reply to threads, not make new ones. There are no filters present. The cell phones the participating characters have are capable of voice, video, and text communication.

The cell phones have a disturbing tendency to film things on their own, from a character talking to themselves while hiding to a character's messy death.]

Comments

[cantstopme]

[Eventually as the scene calmed down and quieted, the hall Link was in did as well - the echoes of his hero's cries slowly fading. He couldn't get himself to move.
His legs felt glued to the spot - like they were merely sandbags, slapped down to stop an inevitable flood. Like he was in a room filled with ReDeads, and no way to protect to himself.

Link started to shake a bit and let out a gasped breath, not knowing he had held it in, tears starting to finally flow down his face as he lets out a choked cry - before letting it all out, wailing sadly.
His closest friends in the tower, the people he loved... he just watched them die. Gruesomely.

This is a terrible, terrible place.]

[morphballin]

[Behind Link, Samus stood, watching the feed over his shoulder - and like him, she remained horrified up to a point. While the child went to weeping, however, Samus' teeth clenched, holding in anger - there was sadness as well, but mostly anger.

Anger that despite all she could do, it was worth nothing. She couldn't prevent this. This, on top of what this damned place had caused her to do just couple of weeks prior...

She can be angry about it later, though. Samus reaches down, putting a comforting hand on Link's shoulder. Poor kid shouldn't have had to see this...]

[cantstopme]

[He doesn't even jump at the hand on his shoulder - he'd known she was there, anyway - but instead turns around to face her for a split second, before wrapping his little arms around her legs.

He can't even say anything. All he wanted was for them to be okay.]

[childhero]

[Those sounds --

Link was just walking through the hall on his way elsewhere, but that cry -- Sea?! Without hesitation, Link breaks out into a run. And those other sounds -- who -- Zelda?! What's --

He draws his sword and shield. He doesn't see anything but Sea and a tall blonde woman standing behind him, but he has to be ready for anything, with those sounds, those awful sounds -- Zelda -- and who else is that -- ?]

Sea!

[The noise is all over now, but he's staying armed until he knows what's going on.]

[cantstopme]

[Sorry, Samus - but the voice of the younger Link is a lot more close to home right now, and thus a lot more comforting. And sorry to you, Link, because Sea here is going to peel himself off of Samus's legs and nearly launch himself at his friend, clinging to the other's tunic and starting to cry all over again.]

F-Forest, I... T-they...!
T-this place i... is...!

[It's hard for him to speak between choke sobs, really.]

[morphballin]

[There's a small nagging thought in the back of Samus' head, wondering just how many of these blonde sword kids in green there are wandering the tower, but it's very quickly quashed given the situation.

As the weeping one joins the new arrival, Samus reaches over to shut the computer off - that's quite enough of that, really.]

This place needs to be stopped.

[childhero]

[Samus turns it off before Link can get a good look at the screen. Now he realizes that whatever else he heard was from the network, which he always forgets about. Zelda and that other person... What happened to them?

What's going on?

Link can't really sheathe his sword and shield comfortably with Sea attached to him, so he just settles his shield-arm around the younger one. When he speaks, he addresses mainly the woman.]

What happened?

[cantstopme]

[He's alright with the others speaking over him; at this point, he wouldn't be able to explain it calmly. His voice is too broken for that right now.]

[morphballin]

This place is...was, playing a horrible game with some of the others here.

[How do you explain this...what's too clinical, what's not clinical enough? How innocent is this child? Should she disregard attempts to let them down easy even if they aren't very innocent in regards to things like this?

Dealing with children is hard.]

A twist on hide and seek, that appears to be...rather fatal for those who are found.

[childhero]

[The boy may look to be ten, eleven, maybe twelve, but his eyes speak of a deeper maturity than those years could know.

That... How could... Why? Life isn't a game. You don't play with other people like that. The fact that this place would toy with them like this, to go out of its way to try to kill them -- Link's hands clench.

But that doesn't exactly explain why Sea is so upset, or what they were doing until he approached.]

Why are you here...? [But he trails off as he thinks. Why... This place, he doesn't understand it at all.]

So very late.

[morphballin]

[That look of maturity beyond one's years is a sight Samus is familiar with - she sees it all too often in the mirror.]

I was passing by when I found him - [Samus motions to the hugging boy.] - watching the monitor.