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Abeline thought she should have felt groggy. Her senses came back to her too quickly, too sharply however and she slowly stood up, eyes flickering open with a measure of confusion. Not that it took much, Abeline wasn't the brightest tool in the box.

The ballet dancer shifted and stood, her eyes darting a little anxiously around the room. she couldn't remember how she got here. Not at all. That, in and of itself, should have worried her the most. But in truth, she was more anxious about the loudspeaker in the middle of the room. Just that, and nothing more.

She padded closer to the device, moving in a dancer's circle around it.

The loudspeaker crackled again, and a voice sounded. "Please save all questions and commentary for the end of our program. Everything will be made clear in time." The voice was female, and incredibly dispersonal, as if they were reading off a sheet with no idea what use their voice would be put to in the future.

There was another moment of peace, allowing the pair to take in their surroundings. Then, without the voice to yet again issue a final warning, a chiming sound came from the speaker, and two things happened simultaneously. The buttons in front of Viridiana lit up, and a hole about a foot and a half wide suddenly appeared in the wall of Abeline. This would seem auspicious, however, until the water started to slowly spill into the room.

If she were to look into the hole, the blue-haired student would notice that it seems to lead to nowhere but a chute, at the end of which is a door that is letting in the cold, bone-chilling watery doom. The pillar that serves as the loudspeaker might prove some harbor from the wet chill for some time, but how long precisely? As if by premonition, that oh-so flat voice came again. "Do not worry, Miss Viridiana Lombardi will now be in charge of making sure the door is closed on the water once more. It would be best to hope that she does so in time. You may speak to her through the pillar. Good luck." Dead silence. The voice would not come again for Abeline.

Back where Viridiana was, the voice came again, and a display showed the inside of Abeline's room directly above the now-glowing buttons. "Please be aware that you have only twenty minutes to stop the water, Viridiana. You will be able to hear anything said by Miss Abeline Froust, but she will not hear a single thing you might try to tell her. Please note the buttons in front of you. For the simple-minded, we have these instructions. The L button will open the left door, the R button the right. Pressing either button will lock the opposite door, disallowing passage. It would be wise to consider your choice carefully, or Miss Froust may slowly drown. I will hopefully speak to you on the other side."



(( If anything is unclear please PM me and I will gladly answer. ))

Well that was real helpful. Everything would make sense in due time? What was that supposed to mean?! This dull, sullen b***h who needed to die a horrible fiery death wasn't really helping anything at all. She wouldn't even say how the hell Viridiana had ended up here. It was really starting to echo some kind of gods-awful nightmare. Put into a decaying place with no explanation and two buttons with two doors wasn't really something that Viridiana liked.

...It was especially the no explanation part that grated her. How did she get here? Why was she here? What was with the two buttons that were now lighting up? And the doors, what were those for? Were those escape pods? Perhaps one unleashed monsters. Or maybe it was like those experiments where one rat would get shocked if they touched the wrong door, and it would come again and again if it continued. Or maybe--

The dull voice of a b***h who needed to die came again to interrupt her thoughts. At least she got this much of an answer, though this wasn't satisfying her. So the buttons were to save someone else, not her. That still explained nothing of the doors! Why were there two doors? Did they release something? Perhaps this Miss Froust, or maybe the water, or maybe some monsters...

Viridiana was curious about everything, and in a situation where she had no information her mind went flying, bouncing off the wall in every direction while groping for something--anything!--that might explain what exactly was going on. Miss Froust--an odd bluenette from what Viridiana knew of her infinite circle of acquaintances--water, two buttons that could potentially save her, and two doors didn't really offer much in the way of explanation.

...Unfortunately for Miss Froust, there was no end to Viridiana's questioning, and even a view into her room prompted yet more questions. Where was she? Was she above her? Below her? To the left, to the right? On the other side of the door? Where was that water coming from anyway? Eventually, Viridiana shouted, "Okay, ma'am, I see the situation, but where exactly is Miss Froust and what purpose does drowning her serve?! Where do these doors lead to?! Is this some kind of mouse-experiment?"

And the person on the other side got the pleasure of seeing Viridiana at worst form.

Abeline shivered, still holding onto her shoes as she frowned at the loudspeaker. It was just really cold, and she could tell that there was more where that water had come from. it was gushing out like a swimming-pool refilling.

"This is obviously your attempts to get even with me because you are jealous, Lombardi. You hairless weasel." She barely even knew Viridiana, but Abeline didn't need to know someone to make a comparison to an animal in some fashion or another. Abeline's voice was steady, despite the flutterings of fear that beat desperately against her stomach. She tossed her hair over one shoulder. "But I forgive you," which wasn't hard because she barely knew the other girl, "just cut out these silly little games, okay?"

Of course, there wasn't going to be an answer because Abeline's input was one-way. She didn't know that yet, and still figured that there was some reasoning with this psycho-girl. Who had somehow taken her from her room, found an air-tight chamber and a lot of water all on her own or soemthing? Yeah, even Abeline knew that didn't sound quite right.

Curiosity killed the cat, and in this case, it was going to absolutely slaughter in frozen water poor Miss Abeline Froust. Her beautiful, heart-touching little speech had apparently done nothing to touch her could-be savior, and time was ticking away. It was almost as if the blue-haired ballerina could hear the grate opening slowly, hear each drop as it cascaded over the edge of the hole and into the rapidly filling room. The water was at her waist now, and lapping upwards greedily. There was no more than six or seven feet above Abeline's head, and it wouldn't take long to fill.

Snap, crackle, and pop. The speaker sprung to life with that disembodied voice yet one more time, sounding almost bored with this line of questioning, a gentle sing-song lilt to the feminine voice. "It's not very amusing, watching someone drown. I'm not amused, you're not amused, I doubt this poor soul who is about to die is amused, are you Miss Abeline? Push a button, push the buttons, it is immaterial, Miss Viridiana. Time is ticking." It seemed that the body behind the voice was feeling less charitable this time around, like some demented Cheshire Cat.

Something would happen, whether Viridiana moved or not.

And now she really wasn't getting answers. "What kind of answers are those supposed to be, exactly?!" barked Viridiana into her loudspeaker, as if she expected that this would actually give her some kind of solid response. "I didn't mention anything about the drowning! I wanted to know why this was going on and how exactly pressing both buttons would effect things! Now I can't be scolded for wanting to know the results of my actions, ma'am. I'm sure you wish to predict the future too! Little slimes like you would take much pleasure in knowing exactly how things are going to fall so you can change them with your bare hands with a snide grin from ear to ear as you tear the structure of proper reality apart."

Okay, now Viridiana was just having a rambly, perhaps pointless speech. It certainly wasn't helping Abeline, who was now throwing insults at Viridiana left and right. It took Viridiana a few moments to notice, still concerned with her oration, until she heard the pointed insult of Viridiana obviously not being able to do something. What! While she didn't know what the hell that had to do with being an incompetent chipmunk (What did chipmunks do anyway? Didn't they just eat acorns or something?), Viridiana was annoyed that it was implied that she was incompetent in any form.

When the job needed to get done, she would get it done! She just wanted some answers first, and that damned voice was being nothing but unhelpful. Well, okay, she had managed to get enough information. But it certainly wasn't enough to evaluate her situation with. No word on if she would die or be injured, no word on why, no word on the damned how exactly did they get there anyway shtick... this was getting frustrating.

Well, asking the damned voice was obviously not the way to do it, so Viridiana would figure it out herself. The woman cracked her knuckles and approached the buttons. Time to see what the buttons did! She glanced up to the viewing screen of Abilene, finally, only to find that the woman stripped (she was rather pretty, and Viridiana tilted her head to get a better look but that didn't really help anything anyway; certainly didn't answer questions and soon enough her attention was back on the situation) and she was heading towards the hole.

...Wow, this woman was an idiot.

How would swimming to where the water was coming from help anything?! Wouldn't that just drown her faster?! Clearly, this bluenette was Too Dumb To Live. Maybe she needed a Darwin Award and a good clap on the back for being so ditzy. And yet, Viridiana was still curious.

She just wanted to see what happened, really. Any concern over Abilene's life had now completely disappeared. If anything, she was amused and somewhat frustrated by the younger bluenette, but okay, she would have fun with this. Maybe she could finally get some questions answered.

Left Button, Right Button. Blue, Red. Bluepill, Redpill. The Matrix? By the power of association, Viridiana managed to find herself imagining the world of the Matrix instead of the settings around her. If she was Neo, what would she do? Well, in the Matrix, Neo had plucked up the red pill and made him alert to reality. Perhaps that was what would stop the tides? But yet, whenever she watched the movie, Viridiana always wondered what would happen if Neo had taken both pills. Would it backfire horribly? Or would Neo be aware of everything and yet nothing, going through random bouts of amnesia?

Viridiana's mind traveled to everywhere except the reality in front of her, though it eventually came back. Right, pill time. Now which would she smash? Maybe if she pressed both it would short out the system, or maybe it would turn into a water vacuum of sorts. It was obvious what would happen if she smashed the red pill, duh. And the blue pill couldn't have been useful. It implied oblivion, and plus it was the color of water.

But R meant reverse, and if blue implied water than maybe...

Viridiana, after an extensive bout of questioning running through her mind, decided to smash both buttons and then run back up a pile of the debris, not waiting for the thing to explode in her face. No, she would watch the view screen from a distance. A high-up distance. Too bad she didn't have popcorn.

There was simply too much water. Too much, too fast, and too strong. she fell back; her slim body battered by the sudden onslaught of water as the room filled up with unbearable pressure.

No.


Of course Abeline Froust fought. She fought against the current, her arms and legs pounding as she tried to stay above the waterline. It was a sick parody of a dance. There was no where to run, no where to hide.

No! No! No! She didn't want to die dancing! She didn't even like it!

But the scene unfolded. She was the swan, this was the lake. Only she wasn't a swan, she was just a girl. Graceful, pretty; but just a girl in the end. This wasn't a nightmare, she wasn't waking up. And Abeline couldn't save herself.

Somewhere in the turmoil, her struggles became desperate. Around the time that she could no longer get any air.

She fought. Fought to dive and swim up the chute, but the current was too strong, and even with every ounce of her strength, she couldn't do it. But she tried, because the girl who had cooked her own lunches since she was four wouldn't give up her fate without a fight. She had tried so hard, for other people, to be what her parents had wanted, she wouldn't, never, ever would she accept defeat here, now!

I make my own destiny, damnit! But the thought was pretty, and here, it couldn't help her. For once, she couldn't help herself, and no one else could help her either.

I wanted to... just.... In all that icy water, her lungs burning like white-hot fire, the image of a face she would never see again drifted before her eyes.

Just to see him again... the worst thing about drowning was the wait, she stopped struggling, like a ballerina fighting her dance, she finally let go. Her hair had come free, her limbs so heavy and tired...

Oxygen bubbles trailed around Abeline Froust's body, like tiny fairies, floating infinitely into the cold cocoon of water. Ice pale, her hair floating around her in a blue halo, she died.

The only warm thing left on the Ice Queen were her tears. Hot, salty tears; filled with regret and determination to live, hot, swelling desire to live but even those were wallowed by the water in an instant.

Abeline's body floated in the room, a sick parody of a ballerina curled in tight worshipped in tiny transparent bubbles that left her skin a pale blue.