noonedecidesmyfate | Just outside the dorms, Tuesday morning

Belle usually made good choices. She went to her classes. She avoided Five for the most part. Things like that. But sometimes Belle got it into her head that she needed to do something heroic, or exciting, or just that she was tired of being cooped up in the dorms and wanted to go out and attempt to be useful.

That more experienced minds than hers had been working on this hole issue for weeks now and come up with nothing didn’t seem to faze her. That traditional modes of research had also turned up nothing hadn’t slowed her down. Belle wanted to go out and investigate for herself. Perhaps something had been missed! She might prove useful.

That was why Belle, having made a poor choice, was now exiting the dorms armed with nothing more than a bag containing a notebook, some pens, and a book that had seemed useful at first glance but had ultimately not provided any insight into the current situation. But it might be useful later!

Belle was going hole-hunting. Surely nothing could go wrong here.

[Expecting one at some point but I'm not the boss of any of you!]

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From:

apocalypsehow

Five had dropped off coffee and a danish for his brother like the caring sibling that he was before heading back to the dorms. The holes were easy enough to avoid, after all.

For him. Easy for him.

Which was why he paused, halfway into the front door to squint out at a figure of someone dumb enough to be out there. "Are you kidding me?" he asked no one in particular.

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

Excuse you, Belle was not dumb! She was just making some very ill-advised choices at the moment. Like continuing to walk outside, where holes tended to eat people these days.

That wasn't dumb. It was foolish. There was a difference!

And all she was doing was walking right now. That was fine!

From:

apocalypsehow

It was ridiculously dumb.

Five stared up at the sky, sighing like this all was meant as a test for him specifically before teleporting off to stop her. "What is with all of you and trying to fall down a hole?"

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

RUDE.

But maybe it was meant to test him, specifically. Who could say, really?

"I'm not trying to fall down anything," Belle said. "I'm simply taking a walk!" Hoping to find a hole to observe.

From:

apocalypsehow

Five looked very much like he didn't even have the words necessary to correct her on that and was almost having a blue screen of death happen in his brain over it.

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"You look ridiculous," Belle informed him.

"Is there something you needed?"

From:

apocalypsehow

"People to stop being idiots," Five hissed. "But, I guess that's just too much to ask of humanity as a whole!"

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"Who is being an idiot?" Belle asked while being an idiot.

Was that a hole eating a rock over there?

From:

apocalypsehow

It definitely was. Look, that rock had it coming, though.

"You? My brother?" Need he go on?

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"Did your brother stop being a cat?"

That was an important question. Definitely worth asking while standing outside being menaced by a hole.

From:

apocalypsehow

"Of course he is," Five said like that should have been obvious. He wouldn't handcuff a cat to a radiator, you know.

If only there was some kind of ominous music for that lurking hole. Like the Jaws theme.

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

da-da, da-da...

"I don't spend my time keeping track of your siblings," Belle said, rolling her eyes.

She also didn't keep track of the holes she'd come out to look for because oops, there went some landscaping.

From:

apocalypsehow

Five had the paranoia of... well... Five. Which was why he was immediately looking around because something was missing. "You need to go back to the dorms."

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"I just came out of the dorms," Belle said. "Fresh air is important."

Of course, so was not getting eaten by a hole.

"And why would I listen to you?"

Look, just because he'd been right that time with the troll cave...

From:

apocalypsehow

"Because I'm right! I'm always right." Wow, Five. Wow.

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"You're delusional. Even you can't really believe that."

Just because he was right about the trolls and now about the hole that was definitely both larger and closer now.

From:

apocalypsehow

And the apocalypse!

Five made a face as it got too close for comfort, grabbing her arm for a nice, disorienting teleport out of danger. Hopefully you enjoyed the sensation, Belle!

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

Well, Belle didn't know he was right about the apocalypse!

"Ugh! Doesn't it bother you doing that so often?"

It was so disconcerting.

From:

apocalypsehow

"What? No. Why would it?" He mostly just assumed people were being babies at getting queasy over it.

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

"It's very disorienting!"

You weirdo.

From:

apocalypsehow

Did Five teleport them again because he was a dick or because there was a hole? It was hard to say.

"You're just being a baby."

From:

noonedecidesmyfate

That was just aggressive, Five.

"I am not," Belle protested. "It's like having all my insides shaken!"

From:

apocalypsehow

"It's merely stepping through the molecules that surround you," Five said, squinting over at where a hole was circling around a tree like it was looking for them.