idolpro | Tea's Heart

Tea's Heart - Session 2

INFO
❍ Characters are aware that Tea's heart is being threatened by CORRUPTION.

❍ If you're in the same run, you can interact!

❍ Unit abilities are MIGHT BE ON — if, and only if, Tea has seen them work or your character has explicitly told her about them — unless otherwise specified.
Nothing Up My Sleeve can't access locations outside of the heart.

❍ Canon abilities MIGHT BE ON —if, and only if, Tea explicitly knows that they're a thing — unless otherwise specified.

❍ Characters have whatever was on their person at the time, including their cell phone!

❍ Over the course of the heart, characters are very likely to be afflicted with STATUS EFFECTS. This will be OOCly determined by dice roll. You can have more than one status effect at a time, but multiples of the same don't stack.

The top levels that require a roll will have a note.

Each time you move to a different top level thereafter, you can roll 1d10 to see whether the effect lingers (1-6) or fades (7-10).

❍ Injury and death are possible.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You finally make it! You are finally in The Fridge! It is extremely fuckin' cold, and also, at the other end of the room, there's an oddly indiscernable human-looking figure slumped in the middle of an oversized bear trap wrought of blood red crystal. Neat.

The trap's massive jaws are straining to snap shut. Whatever's keeping them open is fighting a losing battle.

[ oh this is the worst RUNS OVER TO HELP!! can he snatch the human figure out of the trap with feathers if he's quick enough ]

Touching the figure Feels Bad.

Irritating.

Frustrating.

Touching the trap, with even the slightest, briefest brush of a feather, feels …

Like you just wanna fuckin

Kill.

They're not listening to you. They're not going to stop. Maybe they've got their own reasons, whatever, but you have tried and tried and tried so hard, you have been so patient, and it's not stopping, they're not stopping, they're never going to stop

So fuck it.

Fuck them.

You're done holding back.

... On the upside, you do manage to whisk the figure out of the bear trap! Downside? Those feelings aren't going away.

[ AAAH BITES HIS LIP klsjglkdfj his feathers like. hover alert in the air around him, ready to be used as weapons, but he is keeping a LOCKDOWN as HARD AS HE CAN for now. thanks training. thanks life ]

[ to the figure: ]

You okay?

They scowl at you, "Oh, sure, I'm fine. No thanks to you."

Despite, literally,

Cool. Bye then.

[ scoops them up by the collar with a feather and just. shoves them into the tunnel out. ]

"Hey! What do you think you're-"

MUFFLED CARRYING ON

What are they saying? You can't hear, they're stuck head-first in the tunnel and their voice is too muffled.

[ he'll deal with that later when he has to leave. for now, investigating this bear trap, because he's PRETTY SURE it shouldn't be here ]

The closer you get to it, and the longer you spend in any kind of direct contact with it, the more intense the feelings become.

There are flashes of … are they memories? desires? they're brief and muddled but graphically visceral

Your tail is yanked— you whip around and go for the throat, you can taste the blood and you want more of it. Someone picks you up, you kick and claw and you make them drop you—

[ ah it's the I Want To Knock A Goat Off A Cliff desire ]

[ A... ATTACKS THE TRAP... ??? ]

You ATTACK THE TRAP and it feels great, it's amazing to give in, nevermind that the trap is straining more and more and more -

Something brushes a feather. Something thin and fine as spider-silk. It seems to whisper, patience, patience

[ HONESTLY IF IT FEELS GOOD THAT'S A REASON TO STOP

FREEZING, then calling his feathers back into his wings ]

What am I supposed to do with it then, though...

MURDER

maybe don't murder, murder is bad, hold yourself back

BUT WHAT IF, MURDER

he hears, very faintly, a thread snap. the bear trap glows brighter

but really what if murder though

[ HUMMING SONGS FROM THE LITTLE MERMAID TO HIMSELF AS HE JUST. QUICKLY TEXTS EVERYONE ELSE FOR A 'FAITH IN HUMANITY' REFRESHER

this would not be nearly as hard to resist if he didn't know it came from how people had treated TEA ]

[ ok several bars of Part of Your World and some octopus emojis and many good pep talks later

just looks at the trap and crosses his arms ]

No.

during the pep talks, the red light ... flickers? and dims very slightly, almost imperceptibly.

MURDE-

wait what do you mean no

excuse you??

there's the whisper-faint sound of a thread knitting back together

I said no. I'm not going to murder people just because they're rude. If anything, the fact it would be so easy is a reason not to. I'm not going to let people's worst opinions be proven right by sinking to their level. I'm better than that and Tea is better than that. Fuck you, bear trap.

Is it really worth it, though?

Why be "better" when you can be safe?

Why give second chances to people who don't deserve it? Why let them take liberties, push you around, ignore your boundaries, treat you like a child, treat you like an incompetent, treat you like a pet, treat you like a thing to play with as they please?

You can put a stop to all of it. You'd be proving them wrong — you'd be proving that you are strong, you are capable, you can take care of yourself. You don't need them. You don't want them. They won't be able to hurt you again if they're dead.

We can't change their minds if they're dead.

Plus, we don't like killing. So why are we letting them make us do something we don't like?

Are you sure? Are you really sure she doesn't like it?

You hear the echo of voices, coming from seemingly nowhere, "wow, it's kind of scary, right?"
"Nah, mate, it's tame, it won't hurt humans, haven't you seen the videos?"
You hear laughter. "Watch, I'm gonna take a selfie with it."

Killing in self-defense isn't the same as killing just because you feel like it.

But it felt good.

It felt good to stop them. To hurt them.

You experience a flash of memory, as if it was your very own - fury that burns bright in your blood as you whip around and bite.

I don't care!! I don't care if it feels good or whatever!! You're a literal corruption beartrap shilling for worst instincts like they're the best thing in the world and I am not going to fall for it!

The light wavers again.

As it does, you notice something - gossamer fine threads of gold and AlcheMe purple, straining to anchor the bear trap open. There's a dozen of them, and half have already snapped.

[ huh

if keeping it open is the thing can he and his feathers just

latch onto the sides and force it open to help, bracing himself for the inevitable mindfuck ]

Besides, she doesn't need to kill people to be safe. I'm here.

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