[Heart Game - Ed, Maya, Roxy]

[carptricks]

[It's dark. You're trying to move forward, but it feels like your limbs are weighed down by chains and shackles. Still, you push. You push and you pull and those chains are pulled taut and strained until suddenly--]

[Something snaps]

[You tumble forward, wind blowing past your face, until you lose awareness of anything around you. . .]

((another run ran concurrent to this one here))

Comments

[fuhrinkaed]

Okay, sure. Just let me know what to do, and I'll help as best I can.

[carptricks]

[Kaito lifts a hand a hand and snaps his fingers, the noise echoing across the empty theater. A creaking noise responds from above, and should you look up, you’ll find something descending from the ceiling]

[It seems to be. . . a pair of clocktower hands, secured by rope, and they’re being lowered to the stage by some unseen force. thankfully, the hands don’t seem to be any bigger than two. . . two-and-a-half feet long. Kaito’s impressively grouchy expression softens]

The layout of this place has changed a lot since the last time you guys were here.

[waves. a hand]

Growth and change, you know? But there's a clocktower outside that isn't quite finished being built just yet.

Would you mind returning these to the clocktower for me?

[fuhrinkaed]

Mm... okay. I'll go ahead and put these back on the face. [Grabbing the clock hands, and stowing them away somewhere under his cloak.]

Do you have a time preference, or should I just play that one by ear?

1/2

[carptricks]

[ha. he pulls up a lopsided smile]

I'm pretty partial to midnight, but it doesn't really ma--

[soulping]

[. . . but before Kaito can finish his sentence, and before you can lift the clock hands from the ropes to store them in your cloak, the lights in the theater are suddenly extinguished. there’s a yell, the sound of something crashing against the ground, triumphant laughter, and then--]

[the lights flicker back on. at the back of the theater, a dark figure with ABSOLUTELY NO discernible features stands right next to a brightly lit open door that definitely wasn’t there before. and. . . oh dear]

[the figure has the clocktower hands]

[that's about all you have time to process before it escapes through the doorway and Kaito yells]

What the-- who the hell is that-- hey!

[fuhrinkaed]

[...]

I'm going to go beat him up and take those back.

Any objections?

[He's only giving Kaito time enough for maybe a word before he flies off after the figure.]

[carptricks]

[SO MUCH ALARM ALL OF A SUDDEN??]

Why the heck would I object?! Get those back! They're important!

[you slip out of the theater and enter. . .]