0169: An invisible ladybug whispers, “Choose 2.12.1.11.5.” This place is really starting to mess with your mind…
0169: These numbers are… the letters of the alphabet? Taking the time to decipher them all, you decide to go to Cell no. 2.12.1.11.5 first (although you do wonder at the last cell number; what kind of name is ‘author’???)
You think you’ve figured it out! The numbers in the doors translate to letters, based on their position in the alphabet. When you translate them the sequences in the doors turn into names.
For a moment, you feel quite proud of yourself, until you realise that there is still no order to the names, which means that even if you know what the doors say you’re still kind of stuck wandering randomly until you find something.
All the cells that you’ve looked into so far have been empty, so you decide that the first step should be to find one that has someone inside.
At one point, you’re forced to duck inside one of the empty cells while another one of the mutant orderlies lumbers past. You’re pretty sure that you could take one of them in a straight up fight, but you don’t want to risk falling down even further than you already have.
You stop as you hear a faint sound of movement in one of the cells nearby. You scan your eyes over the nearby nameplates. D.E.C… nope. K.A.T… nope. B.L.A… YES!
Immediately you start fumbling with the keyring, trying to find the right key.
“What are you doing,” Blake says through the door. “I have nothing more to say to you, so just leave me alone!”
“Blake it’s me, Ruby! I’m here to save you!”
“Ruby? I don’t know any…”
“Ruby!” A second voice, identical to the first, speaks up. “Yes, I’m in here. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I had a bit of a fall a second ago but it all worked out.”
You find the right key and open the door. The two figures inside shield their eyes from the light. Both of them have black hair, dark skin, cat ears and amber eyes, but beyond that it’s not hard to tell which one is the human and which the demon.
Blake’s demon side gives of a predatory air. Not a hostile one, but it’s similar to the feeling that you would get when standing next to a panther. Even if it has no intention of making you its lunch, it is no less of a carnivore. Her appearance reflects this, with sharp fingernails that can only be described as claws, slitted eyes, and a tail. (The last of these features is less intimidating than the others, and you kind of wish you could touch it, but you restrain yourself out of politeness.)
In addition to this, you find it hard to keep focus on demon Blake. If you stop looking directly at her, she seems to melt into the shadows, invisible. Even when you do look right at her, it’s still difficult to keep her in view.
However, despite all this, Blake’s demon side looks… jumpy. As if she’s in a constant state of flight or fight. On the other hand, human Blake, though battered and bruised, looks as steady and calm as you have come to expect from her.
Once human Blake grows used to the sudden torchlight, she looks at her twin with surprise.
“Huh… So, you’re real. I thought you were a hallucination.”
“Speaking from experience, the hallucinations would have come later,” demon Blake responds. “Please Ruby, let’s get out of here quickly. I can’t go through it all a second time.”
You frown. “Blake, what the hell did they do to you?”
Demon Blake looks at the ground, unable to answer, but human Blake does so instead.
“At first, they took me because I was a suspect in the kidnapping of Weiss Schnee, the Schnee family heiress. Then they started doing things to me. Weird injections, locking me up in pitch darkness, that kind of thing. From Schnee’s track record I think they’ve decided to use me for… ‘animal testing.’”
“It got worse…” Demon Blake says quietly. “It got so much worse. I’d forgotten all about it, pushed it out of my mind, but now it’s all back.”
You grit your teeth, and your heart fills with a black fury towards Blake’s captors.
“Don’t worry Blake, I’m here now. I’m never going to let you go through any of that ever again.”
“Thank you Ruby… Thank you so much.”
“Forgive the expression, but I’m kind of in the dark here with regards to everything that’s going on.” Says human Blake. “Can you please fill me in?”
“Oh yeah!” You say, remembering how Weiss’ human side had forgotten everything after her death.
You begin giving the two of them a summary of the events in the dream world, and human Blake a summary of her demon life in general, while the three of you continue down the corridor.
Choose the next cell to visit.
Cell number: 1.21.20.8.15.18
AN: I’ve always had the headcanon that Blake is Egyptian, mainly because of their relationship with cats.
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