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Oh. So that's what he meant.

Oh.

He appreciated the gesture and awesome sizzling explosions, but unfortunately innate fear came first.

Mort winced and whimpered and tossed a toy towards the burning enemy as well, happy to slide behind Belladonna and her magical projectile-shooting dress. Any distance helped really.

Please let this be over soon.

Yes Alexander had been there the whole time. But then again, so had the blistering heat of the fire producing overly large clanking metal hulking abomination of a furnace "king". Of course, the heat alone was enough to dredge up terrible memories for the zomboil, memories of falling in lava, his rotting skin melting, his bones charred, his entire body writhing in pain....

Nope. Just all of his nope.

And so he had spent the majority of the battle hiding, burying himself in toys that moved and whimpered and were as creepy as all jacking hell. Still, he could have stayed in his makeshift grave beneath them forever, not needing to breathe as he did, moving to a new area whenever it seemed appropriate to do so.

But then something changed. His cover began to deplete, the toys themselves making pleas to be thrown at the fiery king. The zomboil finally emerged, hands clawing at the air, grasping, pulling himself free from his current buried position, groaning when his eye landed on the furnace king.

A voice nearby caught his attention as he staggered to his feet. Oh dear jack, it was his sister!! How had he forgotten about her?? His nerve suddenly returned to him as instincts to protect took over, and he stumbled towards her, flinging toys at the monstrosity as he approached her with eye wide.

"Sophie!! Sophie, are you all right?"

Her brother's voice had her whirling around, eyes frantically searching for the zomboil's familiar face. When she spied him, Sophie half ran, half stumbled the short distance to him - it was really a few steps but she was distraught, okay? - and wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly. "Alex!" She sobbed a little. "I was so worried about you! The naughty room looked horrible! Are you okay?" For a moment she forgot about the burns on her skin, how tired she was and the sounds of the toys begging for death. Alex appeared to be safe and he was here to keep her safe. A weight had been lifted from her shoulder.

And then another was added as a toy launched itself at her and clung to it. 'Kill me,' it whispered and Sophie shrieked, ripping it from her body and tossing it at the Furnace King. "I'm sick of this! I want to go home!"

Sophie turned back to the boil she had been previously talking to. "Yes, sorry!" She exclaimed. "My name's Sophie." In all the confusion, she had seemed have lost her manners - as well as her previous disposition to not talk without being incredibly awkward. She was just too exhausted. Moving herself to Alex's side, Sophie clung to his arm, rubbing the back of her sleeve over her face to remove soot and sweat and whatever else was smudging her features. "This is my brother, Alex."

Oh unholy hell she was covered in burn marks and her face was smeared with soot and she had been out here fighting the whole time while he had been hiding and...

Her arms wrapped around him and he clung back to her, probably even lifting her several inches off of the ground, with the fullest intent of not letting her go until he could get her safely out of this room. "Shhh, I'm fine! That room wasn't bad at all, just....very boring. But don't worry, I'm here. I'll make sure we get out of here..." It was all well and good to make these promises, but could he even hope to deliver on them? A glance around showed more students who appeared weak and burnt, charred and ready to give up. Toys were scrabbling up his clothes, still pleading with him in pathetic tones, wishing to die, wanting to be put to some use. For now he just ignored them, letting Sophie let him go, his own attention turning towards the boil she was speaking to, one that looked awfully familiar.

Slicing through the air, cutting into other students, wielded by a hunter, biting into the flesh over and over again in his weaponized form....

The zomboil suddenly felt quite nauseous. Had this boil been there? Had he hurt him? He couldn't remember having done so, but maybe he had seen him at some point. Still, he offered him a weak smile, before thrusting one of the toys that had managed to clamber it's way up to his arm into Sophie's free hand. "I don't think we've ever met. I'd offer you my hand but..." But Sophie was still clinging to one, and he was using his others to toss the toys that continued to climb him like some kind of overly tall and lanky jungle gym frame towards the furnace king.

Alex's Willpower: 6
Target:Sophie

The amphisbaena observed that when a student threw a toy to another student, that student became energetic again, how strange it is.

The place was full of requests about "throwing me to the furnace", it was so annoying. AJ didn't understand when they had lives, why didn't they value it and tried their best to survive. He thought of himself, being a wingless amphisbaena, his life wasn't welcomed by the rest. Everyone looked down on them but he tried his best to live, to have his own life. He could be called as a "misfit" like those toys, but he never give up. The boil was rather mad at the pessimistic mindset of the toys. They survived through the burning, and now they just wanted to suicide?!

"Okay, if you say so." He frowned and threw one of the broken toys towards the furnace king. "You are satisfied now?" He stared as the toy burned and asked inaudibly, with a serious look on his face.

Her toys were trying to sacrifice themselves for her.

Tomoko made perhaps the most pathetic noise she possibly could have as she held them even tighter, leaning into Thackery further. "No no no no no." she mewled. This was the opposite of what she wanted, one of the toys in her arms suddenly making a giant Kamikaze leap onto the smouldering remains of the Furnace king.

anndddd Tomoko was crying again.

Muka wasn't much of a fighter and had done more flying about than he had battling the furnace king. He realized it may be a good idea to help really end this. The unnerving comments of the toys didn't bother him but he was slightly puzzled.

The form of West clinging to toys seemed to bother Muka. The red head was usually such a fighter.

He shuffled over and straight up whacked West in the head with a squirming toy. "Get up!" He giggled and offered West his hand.

WILLPOWER: 3