EVENT 023

[sticksandbonesmods]

TAKE ME BACK TO NEO EDEN

CHAOS IN PARADISE

The more problems get solved, the more others start to pop up. Sure, some heroes saved the children in the manor — who are no longer children — but those siblings are now comatose, and the manor is on permanent lockdown, black briars blocking every possible entrance and Corrupting anyone who tries to get in. Sure, some sneaky hopefuls hid a magic circle to help maintain the fog barrier (and keep the Forest out) in a secret location, but now the magic in the Grove feels off. Your spells come out more powerful as intended while the world is out of balance, and it seems like they will for some time.

Maybe in your haste to fix all the Grove’s issues, you forgot about a certain skeleton spirit who shows up every April in some attempt to help you cheer up. Perhaps you remembered, and were hoping he’d arrive. Either way, Mr. Bone-Jangles clatters into the Grove in broad daylight, waves hello to those of you lingering in the centre of the Grove, and snaps his phalanges.

Immediately, a magenta-coloured, swirling portal opens up underneath your feet, and your friend’s feet, and that friend’s feet, until most of the centre of the Grove is consumed by it. Those of you on the outside, free of the portal’s reach, may witness it: everyone caught in it gets pulled into the rift, Heimr and Ydalir and Mr. Bone-Jangles included. In the next blink, the portal is closed and they’re gone, leaving behind flowers where each of them fell.

For those of you who got caught in the portal, you’ll find yourself at the entrance of a city, where a sign reads: WELCOME TO NEO EDEN.

4 C0LD W3LC0M3

Trying to turn around and walk outside the city causes your nose to crinkle as you slam facefirst into an invisible barrier. You can see other buildings outside this barrier, natural as a landscape could come, and yet you can’t progress. The skies are a somewhat odd purplish-blue, though you can’t tell if that’s because your eyes are straining against the bright neon of the city lights or not. Underneath the arcing city sign, a police car labelled “NEO EDEN P.D.” passes by, the robotic simulacra of human law enforcement inside giving everyone a friendly wave before it keeps driving, seemingly having come from beyond the barrier and thus warping into the space, as far as your eyes can tell anyway.

Mr. Bone-Jangles helpfully guides you further into the city, past the holograms of normal humans in neon-glowing techwear going about their business. They don’t respond to anything you do or say, seemingly on a set path, living their daily lives. The city is packed enough to be claustrophobic, cars and holograms rushing past, a stark change from the small-town vibes of the Grove. Those of you who fish in your pockets as you wander will find that your magic notebooks have been replaced with cellphones, and all prior notebook correspondences are there, as well as any new ones. The cellphone does nothing other than connect to group chat, but this one is clearly cooler — you can send emojis, stickers, and GIFs without drawing them.

…those on the other side, however, are getting each GIF drawn out frame-by-frame in the notebooks. Please don’t spam GIFs at your friends.

Additionally in your pockets is a small plastic card — a debit card, for those of you who are familiar with them — containing 1,000 Credits, the currency here. You didn’t think your shells would be useful, did you? Simply tapping the card at any facility that takes payment will subtract the necessary amount… but 1,000 Credits isn’t much. It’s enough to buy a thousand candy bars, but unless you’re frugal, it won’t last you the month. Luckily, it looks like every store on the nearby shopping strip is hiring! From restaurants to clothing stores, to empty buildings that you can make your own business out of… surely this capitalistic nightmare will be tenable!

The lack of animals is noticeable as you head further into the city, toward what signage says is called “Mania Square”. The birds, instead of being your typical Grove plantanimals, are robotic. There’s a severe lack of any pests despite the garbage in the alleyway dumpsters — no bugs, no rodents, no raccoons. Mania Square itself contains a fountain big enough to swim in, the centre focal point of the public plaza, but Bone-Jangles hooks a sharp left and leads you to the apartments instead. Up three stories are small studio rooms for each of you, your names written on the door placards in your own handwriting, and the insides are customized to your exact preference already. A notice pinned above your kitchenette tells you rent is due by April 30th… you hope you aren’t here for that long.

4R3N’T Y0U H4V1NG FUN?

Despite the standard day and night cycle, some of you may notice this place still doesn’t feel quite right, a bit outside of time. That shouldn’t stop you from having fun! And should you need to go back to the Grove — or if you’re someone looking to get into Neo Eden in the first place — you need only to gaze into a mirror placed in each of your bedrooms or apartments and wish to go home… which may lead you to fall catastrophically through it to the other side. Try not to hit your chin on the ground.

Life goes on regardless. In this city, there’s a lot to do. You could go shopping at the strip mall near Mania Square, where Heimr and Ydalir have set up a temporary shop to continue to provide for everyone’s needs. They’ll still take shells, but there’s nothing much they can do if you run out of Credits — both will gently suggest you find work in Neo Eden. You guys own businesses back at the Grove, it can’t be that bad, can it?

The good news is, Mr. Bone-Jangles and his entourage of skeletons who you swear weren’t originally here 12 hours ago are happy to help you get a job, where the interview process involves simply “showing up and asking your holographic boss if you can be employed”. Starting your own business is more difficult — you’ll need a loan from the bank! — but not impossible. Any hologram humans that come in to buy things will ignore you, get what they want, and leave. The only time you can interact with your fellow neon-coloured humans is when they’re making a purchase, at which point their items will digitize and they’ll leave. All very odd, but at least the customers aren’t rude to you… or your skeletal coworkers who have joined you for back-breaking labour.

After work, perhaps you want to head to the amusement park — Thrill Point is an utterly massive one to the far northeast of the city past the river that cuts through the digital roadways. With drop towers, roller coasters, rides for little babies who hate heights and fun, and tons of food stalls to stop at, you could feasibly spend all night here and almost forget that you have to be at your next shift in the morning! If you seek a different thrill, Arcadia is a nightclub southwest of Mania Square, where the music plays all night, the liquor flows freely, and anyone under 21 who enters gets marked with an X on the back of their hand by a harmless laser beam. Just outside Arcadia is a small photo booth named “The Swap”, and if you enter with a partner, both of you hitting the “TAKE PHOTO” button will bodyswap you for 12 hours. It will also print out a funny photo of you as a keepsake. Enjoy being someone else for a while!

Head to the Rent-a-Ride, where you can rent any vehicle on wheels — electric scooters, cars, motorcycles, hoverbikes — as long as you can pay the expensive fee. Speeding will get you a ticket from your local robopolice; breaking standard civilian laws will get you arrested and thrown into the unmanned city jail. And try not to tailgate or crash your ride — not only will you be on the hook for vehicle damages, but you’ll be shafted with a ludicrous hospital fee. Seriously, people live like this?

But, if a calm walk through nature is more your style, City Park and its digital trees to the north may suit your needs. The fish in the river here can be fished up by hopeful anglers, though all are wiggly, inedible robots. Hm.

WELCOME BACK

By April 30th when your rent is technically due, a text message goes out to everyone’s phones… and consequently the notebooks, too, from two different senders:

REMINDER: YOUR RENT IS DUE TODAY! PLEASE PAY 3,000 CREDITS OR FACE EVICTION.

DONT WORY. I WIL RESKYEW U

The messages from the second sender will get slightly more ominous as the day goes on.

GRAB SUMTHING U WANT 2 TAKE WITH U
I WIL REETORN U HOM

HAS ANY1 SEEN MY WIFE
FOWND MY WIFE :)

R U REDY 2 GO?

By evening, hopefully you’ve grabbed something to take back home — something you can feasibly carry without a struggle — because a portal is yet again opening under your feet. In a split second, you’re back in Aldric’s Grove, holding whatever you came with, your cellphones reverted back to notebooks. Mr. Bone-Jangles is nowhere to be seen, but he reappears a few hours later to hand out personal apology notes to everyone reading: “SORY, TRIYD 2 SAV U :(“ before he and his merry band mope back into the woods. He hopes you had fun while you were away.

Next time anyone heads out into the woods, all seems normal… minus the amount of fungi that have started to sprout in absolute droves across the forest floor, unwilling to be torn up from their roots or killed in a way that matters.

Spark Notes

summary

Chaos in Paradise: Mr. Bone-Jangles is back and here to kidnap you to a new location. This is a cyberpunk-esque city known as Neo Eden. No, he does not ask if he can do this first.
4 C0LD W3LC0M3: Further in Neo Eden are your apartments at Mania Square, where rent is due by the 30th. Your notebooks have been turned into cellphones, and you have a debit card with 1,000 credits on it for your shopping expenses. Seems like you'll be here a while.
4R3N’T Y0U H4V1NG FUN?: If you need to move to and from the Grove, there's a portal accessible in everyone's bedrooms via a mirror. Here, you have the freedom to do whatever you want: Rent a car, ride a roller coaster, get a job, start a business - the city is your oyster!
WELCOME BACK: And then all of a sudden, the neon paradise is ripped away from you as you're transported home. You can take back an item with you to remember your time here, if you want. The forest itself has started to grow mushrooms in droves, ones that can't be pulled up or killed. Hm!

out of character

It's already April! What the heck! We hope everyone enjoys this event; please feel free to make up businesses/buildings/things to do, you aren't constrained to what's been written in the post.

updates

- A small shrine close to the inn has appeared in the Grove. Affogato's spirit is tied there, to a black raven figure carved from smooth stone.
- The spell strengthening the Grove's fog wall is buffed.
- Sinann has been powered up, and therefore can enter its human form and go on land. It will largely still be by the river.
- Suri's creations are now and forever weak to poison.
- Pearl has made a terrible rainstorm back in the Grove.
- In Neo Eden, Add has enhanced the jail and made Jail2, which has far more security measures and functions as an escape room of sorts. Please see Add's toplevel below for further details.
- Jail2 has partly collapsed due to White Lily Cookie.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ April Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Comments

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood grimaces, drawing a crude little image of Add’s face with his tongue sticking out.]

I’d rather not be in a fucking cell again.

[He grumbles, though that’s said more to himself than to Add specifically. He doesn’t like thinking about it, the last time. Not the last time here in Neo Eden, but the last time when he was back home. Back when he barely knew anything, only half aware that all of the experimenting, and injecting, and rewiring of his brain that Chapel had the doctor do to him had fucked him up irrevocably, but had also been the only reason he managed to briefly escape at all.

…that. Gives him an idea, actually.

Wolfwood stops writing, going silent suddenly as he looks back up at the prison bars, past where Add is looking in at him from. He knows they’re electrified…but is there anything out there- tantalizing past the bars, perhaps- that might be of interest?]

[psychokinesia]

Skill issue.

[There isn't much on the other side of the bars, just another cell mirroring his own... but. if he leans over a little, he can see something glinting a little ways down the hallway before the next cell over, hanging innocently on a hook on the wall...

it's a big metal keyring with a single big metal key on it, like the kind you would find in a video game dungeon.

Underneath it is two short strings of characters:]
5441
4E4B

[lupusxylem]

[Yeah give him just a second.

He puts the puzzle down and gets up, going over to look at just that. The characters don’t mean a lot at a glance, but there are two things he’s asking himself:

1) Is it possible for him to reach that key and 2) can he see any kind of designation for his cell or the one next to him, indicating that the key might belong to either one?]

[psychokinesia]

[1) It's too far! Oh no! :(

2) There's no indication which cell it's for, but Add would absolutely make cell-neighbours compete for the same escape tool instead of making this more fair or obvious. don't worry about it. he can read it from here so that's probably intentional.]

[lupusxylem]

[Fuck. Okay.

Wolfwood will pick up the puzzle again and write those characters down in the margins. He’s not sure exactly what they’re for, or what they mean, but he’ll try piecing them together in a bit.

Before he starts slamming his head against this puzzle again…is there anything else in this room at all, or it is just empty with flat tile (sans the one he pulled up)? Other than the bed he woke up on, that is.]

[psychokinesia]

[There is... a toilet!! Add can be merciful sometimes. There are also nine square panels, three on each wall, including the one on the eastern wall that Add already opened (it is the one on the left of that particular wall).

Also a small barred window, but upon closer examination it's just a video screen on the other side. Enjoy a pretty sunset view. Just don't do it too closely, because the bars here are also electrified for no reason.

If he flips over the bed he'll get another free clue. Stitched in red is the number 46495348.]

[lupusxylem]

[UUGH GOD MORE FUCKING NUMBERS okay he’ll write those down too, because yeah he’s flipping over everything and scouring every inch of this room to make sure he hasn’t missed something that could potentially be helpful. Of course, despite having all these pieces, he doesn’t know how they’re supposed to fit together, and it sure is doing a great job of making him look stupid.

He really, REALLY wishes there was a way he could just physically bust his way out of here, but there’s nothing he can find to makeshift that into a reality. He has to keep playing along, for now.

5441, 4E4B, 46495348, and a sudoku puzzle he doesn’t know how to solve. Great!! He’ll sink down into a painful sit on the floor again before he starts back into scribbling, ignoring Add watching him in favor of Struggling. He decides trying to take the numbers and write down the corresponding letter of the alphabet under them. So…

EDDA DEDB DFIECDH.

Is this helpful? Fuck if he knows.]

[psychokinesia]

[There is a faint mechanical buzzing as Add tries to adjust the security camera to get a better view.

God, what is he doing in there? That shit isn't even CLOSE.]

Are you seriously this stumped already? I thought I made it pretty easy, but I guess I should've aimed for a kindergarten skill level...

[lupusxylem]

Shut. The fuck. Up.

[He is 🤏 this close to dismantling the bed and trying to craft some kind of tool he can use to break himself out of here, he swears to fucking God.

He keeps working in dead silence for a while. He goes back to the sudoku because he doesn’t know what to do with any of the codes, and…he is kindof getting it. Not fast, mind, and he already has a few mistakes, but he’s kindof??? Figuring some of it out by sheer trial and error.]

[psychokinesia]

This is just getting embarrassing... ugh.

[Wolfwood is back to ignoring him, so he tries to watch in silence for awhile... but this isn't even fun to watch anymore. This is just painful for both of them. He can SEE those wrong answers from here—]

Three eight nine five seven six four two one! There, now you have one line. Surely you can figure out the rest of the pattern by yourself.

[lupusxylem]

[Trust him, Add, knowing you’re watching and scrutinizing his every move isn’t making him feel much better. He’s near-snapping the pen as-is with how tightly he’s gripping it, and as Add prattles off the first sudoku line, Wolfwood very nearly picks up the tile and throws it at the bars in the direction of the camera watching him.

He manages to deep breath his way away from that (therapy is working), but only just. His fingers are white-knuckled as he writes the numbers down.]

This is fucking stupid. [He grumbles, the pen scratching audibly as he works.] If what you want is for me too admit you’re smarter than me, or whatever, and just let me out of this god damn cell, that would save us both a lot of headache. Would that make you feel better?

[psychokinesia]

As if I'd need proof for that. The point of this is to prove you're worthy of being released back into society, obviously. [but also to make himself feel smart for making all these stupid puzzles, yeah]

But since you're too stupid to even manage that on your own... [he lets out a BIG, beleaguered sigh] Fine. It's not like I'm getting much amusement from your pathetic struggles.

I want to hear you beg sincerely from the bottom of your heart, then I'll open the door for you.

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood’s since put down (well, more like disrespectfully thrown down) the puzzle so he can instead focus Add with his full attention, looking back at him with dark eyes. Despite the repeated insults and condescending attitude Add has had towards him this entire time…Wolfwood stands there, looking for a moment as if he might seriously be about to do it just to get out of here.

…

But instead, he folds his arms across his chest and offers:]

Before I do all’a that. I want you to give me one- [He holds up a finger.] -chance to try to break outta this cell with my own two hands. No puzzles, no tech shit. But you need to give me somethin’ that could feasibly get through the bars.

[He knows they’re electrocuted, but for some reason that doesn’t seem to be factoring in currently. Granted, he doesn’t know about the barrier beyond the bars, but it may not end up mattering either way if he can’t get through them.]

If I can’t do it, then I’ll say anything you want me to, no matter how shitty. Fair’s fair.

[He tilts his head up.]

So, Add. Do you wanna make that bet? Or are you afraid I might break your toy?

[psychokinesia]

... Are you serious right now? What do you think you could possibly use to break my jail cell?

Ignoring the fact that, if this were a real enemy capture scenario, you wouldn't be able to just pluck whatever you want out from the other side of the bars... actually, your current scenario would be completely hopeless. I gave you all the tools you need for escape, and you haven't even tried to do anything with them. If you can't escape with training wheels on, I sincerely doubt you have even a fraction of a percent chance of success here.

And what do you even mean by "no tech shit"? The entire prison is made of tech, I'm not going to just shut off all my security so you can try and twist some bars open. What the fuck would that even prove?? Not that you could even if you tried, this shit's weapons grade! You'd need a fucking railgun to even put a dent in the metal.

Seriously, what do you think you could possibly sneak through the bars that could get you out of this? You're a delusional moron if you think you could pull that off, how dare you insult my work with such an idiotic fucking request?!

[...

so, like. what does he think could do it tho]

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood stands there, stonily silent, as Add shouts at him. He waits until he’s finished speaking, and then replies:]

Are you done?

[He exhales slowly, because yeah, he definitely is insulting Add’s work to a degree by just refusing to interact with it. But this is Wolfwood, how long did he think he was going to seriously play along?]

You gave me all the tools for someone like you to escape, actually. You put these puzzles and shit in front of me, make fun of me for not knowing how to solve it, and then act offended when I wanna try a different way. And when I said “no tech shit” I meant I don’t want you to thrust a computer in my hands and be all like “okay smart guy try to hack into this and turn off the barriers, kukuku”.

[Yes, he IS mimicking Add’s stupid laugh as he says that.]

Now stop whining and give me a fuckin’ hammer or a file or something. Otherwise, I’ll just sit here until you either let me out or I die of starvation or whatever. Your pick.

[psychokinesia]

You... a hammer? A file? You think my security system that can withstand an armed tank could be opened up with a fucking file, like some cheap mouse trap?!?

[Oh boy, if he thought Add was mad before he's absolutely fuming on the other side of that screen now. He can actually see sparks lighting up the background.]

You want "brute force"? Fine! Try this on for size, punk!

[He punches a switch on his end, and one of the panels on the west wall starts to whir... then, the metal panel parts, and something emerges from within.

There's a fucking loaded machinegun in the wall. Hope you weren't standing in front of that, Wolfwood, it's coming in hot!!!!!!]

[lupusxylem]

[Why yes, actually, Wolfwood genuinely thought that Add put so much time and energy into the electronics that he’d not bother with the actual structure, because what’s the point if it’s not possible to get past the electrified bits?

So, yeah. He is not expecting a fucking machine gun to come out and whirr to life, and because of that, he does not duck out of the way completely in time. He isn’t shot to death, but a few bullets whiz past his shoulder and clip through his blazer, grazing him with a hissed curse as he drops flat to the floor.]

What the FUCK!?!

[psychokinesia]

[Some of the bullets ricochet off the walls, but none of them manage to hit Wolfwood once he drops to the floor. The stream of bullets puts a sizable dent in the opposite wall, though, in case he thought for a moment that maybe this was a trick of some kind and not an actual death trap. Add cackles madly over the rain of bullets.]

Kekekekekekeke, how's that, huh?! Still not good enough for you?! I've got even more where that came from!!

[The bullets eventually run out, reduced to a rapid click as the barrel continues to spin... but Wolfwood should stay on the floor, because now another panel opens on the back wall to reveal the hissing nozzle of a flamethrower. Within seconds a blast of fire erupts from above his head, licking into the bars and the barrier beyond—it crackles and sparks loudly once the fire hits the electrified metal, turning the room into a hellish lightshow.]

cw: ptsd?? also reference to human experimentation im sorry

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood knows high-grade weaponry when he sees it. Where the hell did Add even get his hands on any of this shit??? He puts his hands over his head, mainly to guard himself from the intense heat of the flames as bullets turn into fire, the bars getting hit dead-on by the blast.

His eyes close to slivers to try to protect himself from being completely blinded by the lights, and for a moment he feels himself completely rooted to the floor in a way that feels all too familiar. Even when he tries to close his eyes to block it out, it just makes it worse. Other than the pain, he remembers the unbearable lights. The sound of electricity, machines humming, pumping him full of drugs to try to find out what might make someone immortal.

It didn’t work on him, obviously. He wasn’t the perfect weapon, he just happened to survive it.

Wolfwood keeps himself where he is as all of this is going on, turning his head down so his forehead presses against the relatively cool tile compared to the heat above, waiting for the deluge to end.]

1/2

[psychokinesia]

[The flamethrower also runs out of fuel after awhile, so now he just has that annoying clicking and Add's cackling to listen to... but did he think it would be over after just two traps?]

Still stuck in there, are you? Kekekekekeke, that's fine, there's still one last trick up my sleeve...! Behold, this is the power of my unbeatable Nasod technology!

[The final panel whirs, the entire east wall rumbling from whatever is hidden behind it as a high-pitched whine starts to build and build and build...]

2/2

[psychokinesia]

[And build...

And build...

And... actually, it seems to be the panel across from the machinegun, so it's already riddled with bullets. The panel vibrates and partially opens to some horrifying blue glow, but uh. It's stuck? Yeah, that thing isn't opening.

But it's still charging up, and it's not long before smoke starts to seep out from the cracks. Hmm!

Add abruptly stops cackling as some loud warning alarms can be heard blaring from his office.]

Khck— what?! What do you mean, severe malfunction?! That's impossible! Those walls can withstand ten, no, a hundred times that many bullets!! [except yknow maybe the thin little panels that are meant to pop open aren't quite as strong as the rest of the walls actually...]

[lupusxylem]

[Well that can’t be fucking good.

Wolfwood has no way to get out of here, as what Add has sealed him into is essentially a glorified death trap. Like, sure, he wants people to not be able to escape, but this kind of thing kills people. It kills people Add!!

Watching as the dark smoke billows out thicker and thicker into the room, the high pitched whine growing in intensity, the only thing Wolfwood can think to do is stagger to his feet, using his good foot to kick the bed over onto its side. It’s not going to protect him much if the room literally blows up, but maybe he’ll be saved from having a limb blasted off if he throws himself behind it.

Only one way to find out!]

[psychokinesia]

[It's hard to tell what Add's doing with all the noise, but the whole room shakes and shudders as the weapon continues to charge up. The bars rattle, the lights flicker, the holoscreen fizzles out, and a horrible grinding noise starts to rise—

And then, with a final cough of black smoke, the thrum of machinery and malfunction congeals into a deafeningly loud boom

The entire wall explodes in a burst of light and sound, shrapnel shooting out in every direction. The toilet is shattered into hundreds of pieces. Tiles everywhere. Huge chunks of "near-indestructible" metal are sheared apart and embedded in the walls, slicing clean through the cell bars like butter. The bed is getting shredded and set on fire. The hole blows clean through to the next cell over, which is thankfully empty, and also sets that bed on fire. The power cuts out only moments later, leaving only the flames to illuminate the destroyed cell as smoke starts pouring into the hallways and through the thin gap above the fake-window which was actually hiding a real-window the entire time.

anyway, it takes a minute for Add to kick down his own door and make it over here to the cells. He just stands there and stares at this mess for a bit, jaw hanging open.]

... my security system...

cw: blood/some gore

[lupusxylem]

[It is a nasty explosion. Like, the kind of explosion that would have killed a normal person instantly. Wolfwood…isn’t a normal person, but that also doesn’t mean he’s immortal either. He can withstand a lot of things that the average joe could not, such as his Punisher literally blowing up in his face, and hey, guess what? He got a cool burn scar from that, so he’ll definitely not be walking away from this one without some kind of scar to remember it by.

What that will be remains to be seen, because Wolfwood is quite literally buried in rubble currently. From the shrapnel, to the tiles, to the chunks of the actual wall that fell over onto him and the bed he was shielding himself with, it’s by sheer luck that he didn’t end up getting any of his limbs lopped off by the blast. HOWEVER…

When Add comes into the cell, once he’s looked past all of the destruction and the fire, the flames licking up the walls and smoldering on various debris piles will light up the pool of slick crimson that’s spreading from the center of the floor outwards near where he’s standing. It’s coming from Wolfwood’s body, laying half underneath the toppled-over bed, his blazer torn open in places by the blast, smoking from the flames in others. Very little of his exposed skin was protected from getting lacerated to some degree, but the worst of all of it is where all of that blood’s coming from: Wolfwood’s side having been quite literally blasted open, a hole punched straight through from front to back. It’s almost poetic, that Add would stab him in the opposite side that Elsword stabbed him all those long months ago, resulting in his first death.

Even more ironic that Add would be the cause of the second, because he sure is not moving. Or breathing.]

[psychokinesia]

[He doesn't mourn his perfect Jail Cell 2.0 for too long, at least, once he makes his way into the blastzone. Dynamo is quick to fly in and survey the damage, pinpointing Wolfwood's location amidst the rubble—

Oh. Ohhhhh fuck.

He starts cursing under his breath, hastily tossing the rubble aside with his drones as he tries to assess the damage—the fire is ALSO not helping, this cell is NOT equipped with a proper fire extinguisher Great fucking El this is a shitshow. He settles for tossing the bed into the neighbouring cell, kneeling down in the pool of blood to get a better look at Wolfwood up close.

It does not look any fucking better up close.]

H...hey! Hey, come on! [reaching out to touch his shoulder, like maybe he might shake him awake from this ???? horribly fatal-looking wound, but common sense wins out enough to not actually start shaking his body. His grip on Wolfwood's shoulder is still tight.] Don't you dare pass out on me like this! If I have to call that idiot... you have any idea how upset he'll be, if he comes and finds you like this?! If I have to tell him I...

[He killed him. He didn't mean to, but who's going to believe that when they see what he's been working on? Ain's going to find out, and he'll hate him for it, and then everyone else here... they'll all turn on him, and then]

Fuck... fuck! Dynamo— [if Wolfwood isn't dead he should probably say something before Add starts trying to like. shock his heart back to life and sear his wounds shut with lasers because he has NO other plan to fall back on here, he is NOT equipped for sane medical treatments only the kind that makes you worse]