McHaggis — Roleplayer Guild

Luca Agnelli
3:00 AM

Amy was missing.

Amy was missing.

Amy was missing, and God, what’s going on?

Luca could hear nothing but her rapid footfalls pacing around the dorm room like a caged wolf. At three o’clock in the morning, she could do nothing but wait, at least according to the student handbook. She’d never been caught before, but that was because she was a good girl – she played by the rules, she stuck to them like glue. 

But some things were more important than rules, more important than life itself, and all of them were scrawled in her little black diary, and all of them revolved around Amy Snow not being dead.

She crept out to the showers feeling every bit like James Bond or some other super spy, if they even existed, but there was nothing to be found there but the faint drip-drip of a tap left running. Luca turned on the spot, pulling her baseball boots on her feet before sliding down the drainpipe to the muddy grass at the bottom.

Amy was missing.

The lake was black as the void as if the midnight sky had spilt into it. Luca had never seen it like this, so dangerous, the trees hanging over it and shedding their leaves onto the surface. She was paralyzed. Her legs were caught in a trap, and that trap was her own imagination. She had to find her roommate – she had to–

A hand stretched out and grabbed at her wrist but she didn’t have it in her to scream. Clawing and scratching, Luca fought back against an assailant that was surprisingly limp and unresisting until a, “Fuck, Agnelli,” resounded in the empty night. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Sorry. Sorry.”

She knew that voice. James Drummond, wasn’t it? Luca could only stare dumbly as the boy tentatively touched his cheek where there were three long, red scratch marks, winced, and then moved up to inspect the damage done to his forehead.

“Amy’s missing,” she ended up saying. Not a huge shock.

James nodded. “I figured it was something like that.” He stopped rubbing at his head (since that was doing nothing but spreading the thin trickle of blood all over) and shrugged off his jacket, putting it over her shoulders. She realised somewhat belatedly that she was still in her pyjamas, and it was cold. “Come on. Nothing you can do out here – let’s get you inside…”

“But she’s gone.” Luca couldn’t help but look up at James as if for some divine guidance, but all she caught was the worried curl at the corner of his lips.

And then he said, “You’ll see her again. We’ll find her, yeah?”

Luca believed him.

Jamie Drummond
6:30 AM

Some things were just never meant to be, and one of those was Jamie getting any sleep whatsoever tonight. Dawn lit up Luca Agnelli and Amy Snow’s dorm room through the dark blinds and even as it did, neither of them moved. The girl was near inconsolable in a way that he couldn’t deal with – the quiet, tearless sort – and his emotions were sucked into hers.

Escaping was futile. Luca was a black hole, an endless pit of primeval motivations and fears wrapped up in confusion. Trying to unpick the labyrinthe was like trying to find the start of a Mobius strip.

Impossible.

At some point in the night, he had slipped back to his room to pick up his uniform, if only because he didn’t trust Luca not to do anything stupid as chaotic as her mind was. A devastating whirl of colour – that was what she was. A girl who hadn’t yet picked a direction, decided on what to do other than save Amy because she’s mine.

So he ran a tired hand through his hair and led the girl up to her feet, handing her a brush and sending her the brightest smile he could muster before waiting outside the door to guide her to breakfast. Not once did he think he was being too nice, too supportive, because she was a human being (maybe?) and she was hurting.

Honestly, Jamie didn’t know how she was functioning. When he tried to steal away some of her pain by assimilating it himself, he had to leave the room before he burst out into sobs or worse tried to break something, knuckles included. The only thing he could liken it to would be what he would feel if these disappearances continued to take–

And that was why he had no chance of sleeping anytime soon, unless it was during classes. He was really waiting for a statement from the Headmistress saying something along the lines of, ‘You’re all going home because it’s dangerous,’ but he was sure that would never happen.

The ones who went missing already – why them? Jamie couldn’t help but wonder about it over his muesli.

Daro'Shuris nar Konesh

"It's fine, nothing I'm not used to," she said over the private comms before clicking out with a tap on her wrist. Daro nodded to the Asari as they moved on towards the fortification Masf'Taalun vas Halazi had given them directions to. So silent was their group that she could only hear her own breathing, truncated by the creaks and groans of Omega's damaged districts. She boosted her shields with a bit of extra power, just in case she was sniped as they stepped into the bright floodlights.

She didn't even have time to muster up some tired offense at the term suit-breather before she looked down at her beeping combat scanner and dropped to the ground. It felt as if she'd barely left cover and now she was back behind it, shooting futilely at the hordes of vorcha.

And then there was the explosion. The shocks alone took out a good portion of Daro's shields – terrible salvage-yard junk – and even though she had the protection of her helmet her head was spinning. When she next looked up as the gate was forced open, their 'savior' was there – a Turian whose removed his helmet in a gesture of good faith, probably. Or maybe it was just because it made her team less likely to shoot him? Omega was built on tricks like that when survival was everything.

It would've been nice if she could do the same, but, well... An envirosuit was different.

Daro found it difficult to trust someone whose profession was entirely centred around blowing people to bits and allowing no hope of recovery. With a bullet-hole – even with some touch-and-go sniper wounds – there was always a chance to get them back on their feet, back to normal over months and years. As talented a doctor as she considered herself to be, often there was nothing she could do for the victims of explosive weaponry, skin bubbled and paper-thin, flesh missing... It would kill a Quarian like her for sure, create too big a suit rupture to survive.

Thus, when Nik asked if they should take the Turian's offer, Daro's first thought was, 'No!' Her second and third were quite similar.

But what she really asked was, "Is it good to have an explosives expert on side?" Well, it was out now, so no need to keep it all to herself. "I mean, there is a concept called collateral damage and I really don't want to have to try and fix up any self-inflicted burns or blown-off limbs..."

The problem with Omega was that everyone seemed to know each other. 'Ardan Parvius' knew Nikusiil Vos and Hazan Volintis knew Ardan Parvius... There was a whole other level above the mugs who got themselves maimed or injured enough to attend her clinic and they were all acquainted. Daro only recognised lowlifes, thugs, and occasionally the lieutenants of the more elegant mercenary gangs who assured her she would be well-paid for please bringing their snitch back from the brink of death. Her opinion wasn't worth much when the decision seemed already made.

"And it brings in the risk of civilian casualties, which–" She shrugged, finally, to interrupt herself from saying, 'is a whole other can of worms I'm not willing to even touch.' Keelah, that sounded too close to an ultimatum. "–would be bad, very bad. For our image alone, if you care about that."

Daro wasn't sure what to go for. Causing a big bang was something her group wanted, right? Still, explosives and explosions didn't sit right with her, not since The Konesh went up in flames. She was probably more than a little biased, if she admitted it to herself. Biased against death and destruction, so it was impossible to feel bad about it. "I abstain – it's not a decision I can fairly take part in. It's up to you, Nik."

With that, she turned to look at her omni-tool, watching the bars denoting the strength of her shields fill back up to full. It was best to be prepared for the next fight.

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