Martin Stiles's Story

"Don't be afraid to die."

That's what their homeroom teacher said, a week into the school year. The class had written words on little bits of paper, and the stationary crumpled as she spoke. Crumpled into nothing. Gone. Like magic. "As long as we wish it, you cannot leave."

Her eyes raked over her twenty-something students. Swirls of ink appeared on their skin, manifesting as strange symbols on the children's bodies. Good. It seemed the rite was proceeding safely. Not much more time left until the eclipse. She opened her mouth to continue her 'explanation'. A true explanation, of course, would be given to the students who survived.

Martin listened as the teacher spoke calmly of death. Of floating islands and curses and using words to fight said curses. God's Blight, she called it. This had to be a joke. A reality scare cam, or something. Right? Right??

Then the island blocked out the sun, just like she said it would. A shadow fell over the school campus.

'Oh, shit.' He almost puked from the immediate sensation of wrongness. Like reality had just flipped right over on it's fucking head. It was that feeling of stepping through a stair that was never there in the first place, that feeling when his parents told him his aunt had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

Martin's chest rose and fell, each panicked inhale serving as a cold dose of actuality. Was this even the same classroom?

All the desks, all his classmates still sat in the same spots. But the colors were off. Darker, and smearing at the edges like a still life painted by sad and angry artist. One that didn't like to pay a lot of attention to people. Martin's wide red eyes trailed to Annabelle sitting next to him, and her face was just a little harder to make out than usual. Blurry and pale.

The teacher sighed under her breath, coolly inspecting her nails. "First one is always monsters. No surprise there." She glanced up at the petrified classroom. "What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."

---

That's what their homeroom teacher said, a week into the school year. That's also how Martin found himself sprinting towards the library like the little bitch seventeen year-old he was. Not like he was alone. As soon as she had spoken, basically the entire class made a fucking break for it. Monsters? Monsters!?

'Please be LSD, please be LSD,' he chanted in his mind. Martin ducked into a side hallway, away from the thundering mass of hysterical students. 'Or any hallucinogenic, really, I'm not picky. A bad cocaine trip would be--'

The soles of his school-standard leather oxfords caught on something wet and slippery. The blond teenager's feet skidded on the ground one moment, and in the next he found himself ass-backwards on the hardwood floor. Damn. What a stupid move. Martin pressed his hand to the wall to help haul himself up, shuddering at the distinct sensation of the liquid soaking into his pants.

A coppery, metallic stench filled his nose and mouth. His palms left red smears on the wall and... yeah. Martin looked down. Yeah. It was blood. He just fell in a puddle of blood. Another person's bodily fluids.

There was that urge to throw up, again.

Fucking... fucking gross!! His stomach seized. 'Oh my god.' Martin stiffened, glancing about in disgust before numbly wiping his trembling hands on the front of his shirt. 'So... I hope I'm not going to die today.' His mouth twisted into a tight, panicked sort of smile. Nope. Probably going to die. Whole school was a deathtrap from the very beginning.

Of course, blood must come from somewhere. The source of the ichor, sprawled a few feet away, made Martin's fixated eyes prick with horrified, unshed tears.

No. Oh fuck no.

The dude's face had been cut clean in half.

Sliced horizontally, right at the jaw. Distantly, Martin's ears detected screams of terror echoing down the hallways of the building, but by then his entire body had clamped up. The bodies of animals, smashed to paste, that he'd sometimes glimpsed on the asphalt of the highways did not compare to this.

His spine. You could see it, sticking bone white out of the gory stump of a neck. Worst of all, worst of fucking all, was the tongue. With the upper half of the jaw entirely severed, the whole tongue just flopped limply out of what was left of the corpse's mouth.

The shrieks nearest to Martin escalated into full-blown wailing before snuffing out altogether.

Wait... that wasn't right. He could still hear the screaming, but only faintly. Like someone had clapped hand over the person's mouth, or shoved their face into a pillow. The teenager's mind was silent. Completely devoid of an internal dialogue as his head turned to the right, to look further down the corridor.

It was built like a spider, with fleshy skin and many human arms in the place of arachnid legs. Long fingered hands pressed to the floor, walls, and ceiling to keep the creature suspended in place. More hands, still, pinned a student to the wall. It busily stitched up her lips with a needle and black thread; the girl's eyes were already sewn completely shut.

The giant, sick-looking set of scissors grasped by a set of fingers did not escape Martin's attention.

If the world was now a painting, then the thing had a face like a portrait. It didn't move. Only bored into the young man with penetrating eyes in the way that certain portraits do. Its hands continued to tie off the thread at the girl's mouth almost absently, as an unoccupied arm bent at the elbow. Her muffled cries choked and died down further.

The monster pressed a bony forefinger to its expressionless portrait mouth. 'Shhh.'

"Write one word. The word should match how you will fight in the upcoming battle. Only one word that you believe you will... need."

That is what their teacher had asked them. There was a piece of paper in front of every one of them. Everyone had picked their word and Daisy had picked hers.

Onomatophobia

Not really taking the request seriously Daisy picked a word which literally meant a fear of words. It was erudite yet contrarian, just the way she liked it. Little did she realize the gravity of her decision was far greater than initially perceived as the papers they wrote upon crumpled up before vanishing on their own accord. It was that which first brought to mind the concern that she might of been way in over her head.

Strange symbols formed on the skins of every student, herself included. She didn't notice of course since she was wearing clothes, obscuring what was going on on her body. She probably wasn't going to notice for a while unless someone pointed it out.


"Don't be afraid to die."

Okay?

"As long as we wish it, you cannot leave."

Okay?

As the teacher described the curse and that they were fight things called Blights with the words they chose Daisy's internal objections grew. Still, the disappearance of the paper they wrote on stuck with her. Her mind was quite open to mystery but she was being dropped in the deep end quite quickly for her liking.

Then the shadow descended. Like a cloak the darkness draped itself across the land, enveloping the school. The feeling swept over her no less than the shadow did, completely filling her with a supernatural dread. The colors seemed less lustrous, the people around her slightly out of focus like objects outside the center of a camera lens. Overall everything amounted to something Daisy would describe as Definitely like Silent Hill.

"First one is always monsters. No surprise there." The teacher seemed rather callous given the topic she spoke of.
"What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."


Like so everyone began straight up panicking. While everyone else seemed to flee the classroom Daisy was one of the few who calmly stood up, quite unamused by the teacher's attitude, and walked out from the classroom.

She looked about the hall, everyone else having had a head start on her. The sounds of panic disseminated through the halls. Her tired eyes looked back and forth as she dwelt on what was going on.

"Words to fight the monsters... How the hell is Onomatophobia-" She was quietly talking to herself but was quickly cut off as a strange viscous feeling filled her mouth all of a sudden. She opened her mouth to cough from the sudden surprise of having something in her mouth and instead a black liquid escaped her lips, spilling out onto the front of her uniform and the floor. It looked like ink and while she didn't know what ink tasted like it certainly didn't taste like a carbonated beverage.

She coughed and hacked, the last dredges of the substance leaving her mouth. The amount she seemed to have spat up only amounted to a small puddle around her shoes and a number of ink black stains on her vest. Her eyes were wide with shock at the sudden intrusive element as she struggled to purge every last bit of this unknown fluid from her mouth.


What the hell!? Was the main thought to come across her mind as this happened. At this point the mild phenomena had escalated into a full blown paranormal eruption. She panted, regaining her breath after having it cut off by the sudden conjuring of fluids within her mouth. Bracing herself against the wall as her breath quickened she started coming to terms with what just happened.

I... I spoke the word and it just started coming out. Now with a moment she was able to start thinking. The word... A word is... A series of symbols etched in... In ink. It clicked in her head just what exactly the black substance was. I spoke the word and... It literally left my lips. Dear god what the fuck is happening!?


She had little time to dwell on the word she was given however. Her heart rate spiked as the adrenaline hit her bloodstream. Her eyes were noticeably dilated now as the fear started to sink in. She could fear a pulsating sense of dread coming from the hall to her left, this concern punctuated by a sharp high pitched cry as a female student was grabbed, the voice suddenly snuffed out as though buried. On that note she ran.

Cold sweat beaded down her forehead as she just picked a direction and kept running. On a number of junctions she'd stop briefly, that same creeping dread emanating from one of the halls. This sense of fear she held was unconsciously guiding her away from the dangers, spiking her feeling of danger whenever she was unknowingly going towards these unknown threats. The downside to this was that the fear was also driving her away from other students in possession of words. She was being guided away from words.


Of course she couldn't evade trouble forever. Just as she was nearing the library she felt a tremendous fear ahead of her. She turned to go off in the opposite direction but got a sense of danger from there too. The only other thing in the hall was a door to the janitor's closet.

She rushed inside before anything could see her, not even bothering to turn on the lights. She wanted it to be dark, she needed to hide. There were all sorts of supplies and janitorial tools in this closet as expected. Fumbling in the dark she managed to worm her way behind some boxes on the bottom shelf. She could almost feel their presence drawing near. Whatever it was she was definitely sure it was right outside the door.


Her breath caught in her chest for that very moment when the door handle turned.

➐ N O
a denial or refusal:
He responded with a definite no.

** shes nakkid
xxxxxxxxxxDɪᴀʟᴏɢᴜᴇ Cᴏʟᴏʀ ◆ #6A287E

XXThings were never going to be the same, were they? Somewhere deep in Natasha's stomach something seemed to tense. Adrenaline, most likely. Her palms seemed to go slick with sweat, the urge to take Annabelle and whomever else the girl wanted to save for the first blight. The urge to protect the girl was all she could hear in her head, before stilling. As the teacher talked, as she finally put the context of what her word meant, she felt an intense sense of realization ripping through her. Holy fuck, was Natasha stupid for not taking this seriously? A 4.0 student, now potentially dying because she was too stupid. It wasn't like she was scared about the situation she had gotten herself into however, no, Natasha was fucking angry at herself for fucking up as badly as she did. Think, what could No be used for?

'Don't be afraid to die.'

Trust Natasha when she said one thing, she wasn't afraid of this.

No, no could be used for refusing entry. You say 'no' when you deny someone something. Natasha's head spun. What about some sort of make-shift shield? No one can get out, no one can get in. It was definitely going to be a long shot, but if she understood anything from the minimal amount of words this teacher was speaking, it was that the way this 'power' came into existence is how you understand and can manipulate the definition itself.

She waited a moment as people began to run, grabbing Annabelle's arm tightly as she tried to seem convincing. "Stay by me, Annabelle. Numbers will be essential to survival." Her grip was almost something resembling desperate, but it wasn't quite there. "I believe I saw Martin head towards the library, we should hurry."

He looked at her, Natasha had caught the glance, and they seemed to have grown familiar over the course of the week. Surely, Annabelle would want more than anything to save him. Next thing they'd have to do? Find weapons, and strengthen their weaknesses.

"Trust me when I say this, Annabelle, but I won't let you go."

But the silver-haired girl wouldn't lie when she came to one potential issue. The amount of screaming filling the hall, and the scent of shit and gore was almost unbearable. Especially when it came down to almost slipping on the amount of fluids on the floor. No, fortunately, Annabelle had them covered, seeing how she made the worst thud of all, right onto sharp bone.

There was not a second to actually worried, though Natasha scrunched up her nose in disgust. That was a lot of blood, and poor Anna seemed terrified. Grimacing, she tried to look forward and run, taking different turns the more she saw the monsters. Finally, finally they had made it to the libraries hallways, and specifically the area in which Martin was residing. Another student was with them seemingly freezing and panicking just like the rest.

"P-Please, I don't want to die, do you know what to do?!" The kid cried out. He practically pissed himself - or was that someone else's fluids? In the end, Natasha glanced at the kid, then at Martin as the creature had dropped the female in it's grasp. The scent of metallic was filling her nose as she left it to Annabelle to grab Martin.

Natasha Hansen, was much more hands on with the other student, using all the weight she had in her to force the other boy into the monster's way, not speaking a word as he let out a scream. Hands latched onto it as Natasha barely backed away, her face cold as she looked at Annabelle and Martin with one thing in mind. Get fucking running.

---

C R E D I T △

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The woman that had been introducing them to the school and it's rules was rather.... Boring? Lenox had already received a few sideways glares from the woman for his general aloofness. But he'd caught every word of what she was saying. Today however was decidedly different. "Don't be afraid to die." <Ok? Random.> He didn't think much of it. Little to his knowledge, as she spoke the word 'surprise' was beginning to form on the back of his right forearm. No real way for him to notice it unless he looked down and even then it was below the sleeve of his uniform shirt.

"As long as we wish it, you cannot leave." Now that was an important detail. Lenox lifted his head up, wanting to protest. He had to go back and grab something from his home. When the class room got suddenly darker. Being right by the window, Lenox looked out to see that yes in fact the island above the school was blocking out the son. <Well son of a bitch.... She wasn't kidding.> He could feel the energy in the room suddenly drop, students were getting nervous. Hell, he couldn't deny the small knot in his chest right about now but he mentally shrugged it off. <No reason to fear the unknown.> "First one is always monsters. No surprise there." Hearing that phase, Lenox turned to look at the teacher as if she just monsters were real. "You're shitting me right?" He spoke loudly, ignoring the look the teacher gave him before she addressed the class. "What? If you just sit there, you're going to die, you know. They'll be here soon."

And the mad scramble happened. Lenox watched as damn near everyone took off and booked it out of the class. He just stood there dumbfounded. Glancing outside, he had a general uneasy feeling about all this. He wasn't a lie detector but enough of his meddling had an inclination that she was telling the truth. There was a certain conviction people held when they told the truth and knew every fact behind that truth. So he left. He picked up his bag and walked out of the classroom staring at his teacher. "There isn't going to be a quiz on this tomorrow, right?" Regardless if she answered or not he would leave and walk down the hall, listening. And unfortunately for Lenox, the sounds he was hearing put all the facts into concrete truths. There really were monsters in this school. "Well fuck me...."

He picked up the pace as he walked, deciding to remain as quiet as possible. There was a lot happening he could tell, but nothing that sounded monster like. Just screams, the sounds of crashing items and.... A shockwave? It sounded like a shotgun had gone off in the school. <I'm pretty sure guns are banned here....> He thought as he approached an intersection and paused deciding to wait and think. From what he heard so far, these 'monsters' were silent. Which wasn't good at all, so everyone else was making noise for them. He was going to avoid the source of that shockwave noise. He gazed out the window to see a few students running for their dear lives through the school.

He rounded the corner and immediately felt his stomach contort into a tiny ball. A swath of deep red blood covered the center of the hallway. Up against the wall was the body of a former student, dissected and neatly separated into a cadaver on full display. He approached to the edge of the pool of now coagulating blood looking at the body. He tried to stomach it, but after a few moments he couldn't handle it and walked away. Lenox was beginning to feel sick spitting on the floor as his mouth produced more spit while his body began to prepare for him to vomit. Lenox took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "This is real..... This is real.... This is not a dream. Don't fuck this up." The gravity of the situation had no suddenly sunk in to the thick headed teen. "Now how am I supposed to surprise someth-" It was then that Lenox did vomit on the floor. He felt two distinct feelings. His entire body tensed up and began to shiver uncontrollably. <What- the fuck?> It was then his vision flashed white as a pulse spiked through his brain. The pulses continued, in rhythm with his heart beat. Lenox took deep breaths trying to control himself, when his vision cleared and he saw two orbs floating in front of him. The one on the left seemed to glow a dull pale green and vibrate in place, while the other was yellow and pulse into a brighter light. Lenox reached out towards the yellow orb and felt his pulses become stronger, so he pulled away. He was legitimately terrified to touch either one of these. The sound of a door bursting open stole his attention seeing a figure (Elle) sprinting down the hall from him. "God damnit." Lenox dashed around the corner making the two orbs disappear since he didn't choose. The sensations he was feeling had gone away.... Mostly. Every now and again his hands would touch, and what felt like a blood vein twitched in his head.

"I need to get my shit together and get moving." He moved, softly jogging through the halls focusing on being quiet and paying attention to all of his surroundings. He did his best to avoid stepping in blood, he was not a fan of leaving tracks behind him. <Think... Numbers are probably best. But I don't trust that anyone here will make a smart decision.> That was his key point, doing something stupid. Just as he thought that, he turned a corner to see a student running down a hall and dashed into a door. Only for him to scream and sprint back out as a monster pursuid. The boy rand back the way he came, only to run smack dab into the monster that was originally chasing him. He was no trapped between two monsters, slowly closing in grasping the walls and ceiling as they encroached. <Fucking dumb ass.> Lenox made it a point to briskly walk away as the creatures began to attack their prey. The screams. They were hard to ignore. You would never think the sounds of a trapped human could be that unnerving, but hearing the final breaths of agony of a living person was..... Disturbing. Lenox made his next turn and pressed against the wall not realizing how heavy he was breathing. He covered his own mouth and shut his eyes, trying to push out the screams. It seemed they wanted to keep him alive. <Calm down. You'll be fine. Just think, you'll get out of this. Think. Think.> He had to stand there and reassure himself for about a minute before he could move again, tempted to look down the hall only hearing muffled screams and groans. But fortunately for himself, he didn't and made his way through again stepping around more gore that littered the campus.

At the end of the hall, Lenox recognized a head of silver with two other people behind it heading in a certain direction (Natasha). He didn't quite recognize the other two (Martin and Anna) but it was the first good thing he'd seen all day. Lenox would pursue, but not directly. He kept his distance from the group, being the type to look out for himself not necessarily trusting numbers but also not too proud or dumb to refuse that numbers could help. He would watch from a distance, glancing behind him to see two more people moving in a different direction (Lily and Kirby). He glanced back and forth between both groups not entirely sure on what to do. That was when the sensations of shaking in his body and those painful pulses in his skull came back. The two orbs came back into his view, floating directly in front of him. <Is it.... Do I have to choose? Is this how surprise works?> He looked back and forth between the orbs knowing that he was at a crossroads, in two different senses. Which orb and which group?

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It happened in an instant. As he stood there in the crossroads, the world only cared enough to wait for him for only a few split moments before the world slammed him back to reality. Once again foregoing a decision he heard several sounds of screams, crashing doors and any other startling sounds echoed through the halls. What he did notice now was the sound of actual combat, the students that had enough sense to harness their powers and fight back for their survival. Smart. Lenox turned to the direction he was sure he saw Natasha go and cursed going after her. <Tch. This is one of those dumb moves, I'm probably gonna end up dead because of this.>

He followed and realized that the girl had lead herself into the library. Looking at the front door suspiciously, he looked around seeing that the coast was clear but he heard a few shouts from the inside of the library. If he could hear them from outside the door, then likely the creatures could hear too. <So she's not alone... That could be a good thing. If they were quieter.> Pushing on the doors gently, he found them to be barricaded but didn't press very hard. He'd have to go around. Lenox made his way quickly, finding the place between walking and jogging to find the other exit to the room.

Turning around a corridor, Lenox ran smack into a fight taking place in the school hall. 3 students were battling 2 of the monsters, using their powers with varying success but they were holding their own. "Tch... Shit." Lenox had to sprint forward directly through the fight, getting cursed at by the fellow students for not helping and avoid the monsters as well slashing at him with their claws and scissors. He felt a streak of heat move over his left arm as he ran, pushing on to where he needed to go. <Not my fight. Gotta move on.> Moving past the fight, he tried to control his breathing and how much noise he was making in general. The sound of crashing glass turned him towards a door where more sounds were heard. Something ignited in Lenox to move and he dashed forward towards the door, almost kicking it open. At the last second he had managed to control himself and slowly pry open the door to peak inside, finding this was indeed the library. Lenox let himself in, hearing and feeling the panic of the room. Turning around a book case he found Annabelle lying on the floor. His eyes widened seeing her there, shirtless but more importantly blood was trailing from her body.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lenox spotted those glowing orbs again begging him to grab one of them. Now mostly out of frustration and a need to try and communicate wordlessly Lenox reached out and grasped the pulsing yellow orb to his right. Once grabbed his mind surged with a stinging pain then sudden clarity as if a gust of wind had blown through his mind. He looked to Annabelle and projected his mind to speak with her telepathically. <Anna. Stay calm, I'm right behind you.> He thought he was speaking, but the girl would hear his voice loud and clear within her mind. It would feel as if a small hand had gently grabbed the back of her mind, allowing her to hear his thoughts. The male would rush over and kneel door peering through the books to assess the situation. <Idiots. You never corner yourself. Hold tight.> Wordlessly, Lenox pivoted and hefted Annabelle into his arms and moved back towards the entrance he came through. <I'm not going to leave you here, stay quiet and hide behind this table.> Lenox would tip over a table beside the doorway to give her some cover.

After setting her put, Lenox would dash away to another book shelf and saw Natasha as well as Martin and another girl he didn't recognize (Daisy). His mind reached out to Natasha spekaing telepathically without even knowing it. Anna would feel that small hand grasping her mind let go and transferred to the silver haired girl. <There's another way out, we have to go. Follow me.> Lenox had no interest of fighting, but he knew there was no way this thing wouldn't follow somebody. Hopefully some misdirection would help. Running to the opposite end of the the same book shelf, Lenox rounded a corner and threw a book towards the monster not even looking to see if he hit. The book collided with the monster's shoulder, ricocheting up to hit it's neck drawing it's attention away for a brief moment. Once that happened Lenox grunted and slammed into the shelf to knock it over entirely, if anything to completely distract the monster and give everyone else a window. He stepped off, before he stumbled hearing a sharp ring in his ears and blurring vision. He ignored it and made his way back towards Annabelle and knelt down to pick her up. "You're not gonna die today." He physically spoke to her in a hushed tone. Glancing back he mentally urged Natasha to follow, thinking he was shouting at her but the girl would only hear his words mentally berating her. <Hurry up!>

Lenox would peek outside, knowing enough to not just run out into the open. When he noticed it was clear, he moved forward waiting for the others to leave and shut the door behind him. Whoever was out in the hall with him, Lenox would make the point to place his finger to his mouth in a 'sshh' gesture and turned to lead the way. He crept down the hall and peeked around a corner before moving into it, setting Annabelle down to take off his shirt and put it over her. His eyes darted around in a nervous yet focused fashion, but his face was rather stoic and devoid of utter fear. In all actuality, it was the fear itself that fueled him to behave so boldly. Lenox looked back to his new group of people, seeing who was still tagging along. "If we stay quiet and think smart, we'll make it through this. Now come on." His voice was hushed and purposeful, as he knelt beside his injured friend. There was no time to dwell on things, he had a life to live.

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---

---

BLIGHT COMPLETED.
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The cursed island passed over head, stray slivers of sunlight slipping down in its wake. Class 2A, being farthest from the epicenter of the Blight, was easily the classroom with the highest survival rate. In most other cases, those students who couldn't come to grips with their 'words' were slaughtered. Check out the IC chat to experience the evening after.



xxxxxx- 322 original students
- 166 deaths
-------------------------------
- 156 survivorsRIP Jasper and Winter. ♬

The two of you probably died horribly.

---

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They all knew it was going to happen.

Some sat ramrod straight at their desks, others pressed their faces into the windows in anticipation. The teacher of class 2A, of course, supervised the students with a face of stone. Everyone watched on as the floating island ate up the sun, plunging the cursed grounds into darkness.

Pitch black darkness, actually.

Threads of reality bent and snapped around the word-bearing individuals. The floor dropped out from under their feet, all sound and sensation stripped from the students' eyes and skin. That gut-twisting sickness returned. Martin hadn't felt that deep sense of wrongness since the first Blight.

When his sight returned, the blond found himself in an... arena? It was small, about the size of a room. Stone piled around outside of the clearing, higher than he could see. It was he was in the bottom of some deep feeding pit. But, if this was a feeding pit... then what was being fed?

Martin's head ached and throbbed, his arms and shoulders itching and burning. Damnit. He looked up, finally noticing that he was not, in fact, alone. Two other students from his class stood with him in the stone clearing.

T H E.. S C E N E

There is an unreadable symbol on the floor of the stone clearing.

Three circular stone platforms, a decent distance from one another, all have symbols written on them as well. These symbols are readable. Two of the platforms read 'WITNESS', and the last reads 'MURDERER'. These stones are weighted. If someone stands on one, it will sink to the floor level.

An abstract tattoo can be found across the arms and shoulders of each student. If all three students in a group were to hold hands, the tattoo would form a complete centipede. As time passes, segments of the centipede tattoo will disappear from their skin. Blown up, enlarged versions of the vanished centipede segments will appear carved in the stone around them.

For the purposes of the Blight, the pit-like clearing is inescapable.

If you don't recognize the name of a character in your group, then they are a student from another classroom. Their character sheets are pending and I will be accepting them shortly.

Since this is a team based Blight, it will be easier to write replies if you collab with the RPers you got paired up with. This is also a puzzle oriented Blight. Even if the solution is obvious to you OOC, the characters still must work together to come to an answer on their own.

LILY

In preparation for the next Blight, Lily took off her hoodie and wrapped it around her waist like a belt. This way, her muscular arms were unimpeded for whatever this strange school would throw at her. Her speed- which was trained during off-hours- was practiced well enough that she could safely control a minuscule increase in speed.

Once more, the feeling of reality burning through a rippling change coursed through Lily’s body. She imagined most everyone else was thrust into pitch dark and a sudden weightless descent. Her stomach held strong, however, and she found herself around the edge of an arena.

“Witness…” She muttered as she stepped closer to one of the circular platforms she had apparently arrived next to. “I imagine… we gotta watch for something…” she glanced at the other two platforms. The second platform was identical, but the last platform held a new word, “Murderer…?” She scratched her head. She couldn’t make any sense of it so far.

She then noticed that there were two boys with her. She recognized both of them as ones from her class, but she never exactly got a chance to properly introduce herself. “Hey,” she greeted with a wave. When her right arm entered her vision, she flinched when she saw an unusual tattoo scrawled from her hand all the way up her arm. She checked her left, and sure enough the tattoo crossed that arm as well. “You guys got this as well? It’s not exactly fashionable,” she quipped.

KIRBY

“I don’t think I’ll get used to that,” Kirby put a hand to his mouth as he belched. He managed to avoid straight vomiting, however, and stood back up from his hands and knees.

There were three words on the three platforms; Kirby immediately identified those. However, there was one symbol that lay in the middle of the floor. The symbol was not familiar to him, but after calling the word "Knowledge", after four seconds, the same golden letters materialized over top, like some form of translation. “Accomplice,” Kirby caught sight of the strange tattoo that had crawled across his hand, and began to slowly vanish once more. Kirby rolled back his sleeve and examined the tattoo.

“Oh shit,” he said aloud after a thorough examination, “The tattoo is a timer. We gotta do something… before the timer runs out…” He needed more intel. Something… something that had to do with these three platforms…

Something that involves the three of them…

“Guess it’s obvious… we gotta stand on those…” he muttered as he pointed at the three platforms “there’s a catch, though, I just know it…”