finalflight | OPEN POST; [ JAMES SUNDERLAND / SILENT HILL 2 ]

[Ah. His heart twinges a little in sympathy for Ivan as he briefly glances at the book again. He won't bother telling him he's not that man anymore, the one who might sacrifice others for the sake of saving someone precious, because that doesn't change the past. Doesn't change the associations with the past.

But he can at least offer-] ...You don't have to touch it. I can do whatever we need to do with it, and then get out of here as soon as possible.

[ His gaze flicks over to James, finally torn away from the tome, expression on his face unreadable as he tries to figure out what to do with that gesture of kindness.

Once again, he can't help but think this is his trial. He should be the one to deal with it. ]

I— [ Boy, it's sure gotten dark in here all of a sudden. What ground-level windows are left that haven't been covered by plywood are suddenly filled with the looming, silent forms of people crowding around the building.

Or, maybe not people, considering the unnatural way they move, the strangeness to their gait and the crooked ways they stand. They don't make a move for the moment, they simply stand there. As if waiting. Ivan has a sinking feeling they won't be waiting for long. ]

... Alright. Let's see what we need to do.

[ im out of puzzles help me ]

[NO

okay fine

Ah. The shapes crowding the windows can't mean... anything good. They're under pressure to get this done quickly, and James exhales a little breath through his teeth and gestures for Ivan to follow him into one of the side rooms.]

Let's try in here first.

[The side room doesn't have much to it — more boarded-up windows and ruined tables and chairs. Maybe this was a small meeting room of some sort, but it's hard to tell, bereft as it seems to be right now.

But, notably, sitting dead center in the room atop one such table is an old, rusted box. It's locked, of course, and its locking mechanism is a pad of numerical buttons.

There's a note on top.]

[ 🥺

Ivan doesn't like walking away from the book or all those silhouettes closing in, but what choice do they have?

He steps into the room after James, casting a glance around before zeroing in on the box and the note. ]

I didn't know they made keypads that went all the way to fifteen.

[ Anyway, he'll check out that note. What's it say? ]

Neither did I. What's even the point?

[But since when did any of these puzzles make logical sense?

James follows warily, eying the note as Ivan picks it up. It reads, in a messily scribbled hand:

OPEN WITH TWO
LEAVE FOUR]

... Too much to hope we'll be dealing with song lyrics again.

[ He holds the note in such a way so James can see. ]

Thoughts? Or do you suppose we don't have all the information?

[He leans in to read the note, frowning.]

Not much to go off of. Says "two" opens, though...

[James just opts to reach out and press the number 2 on the keypad. It gives a little beep and lights up... But the lock doesn't unlock itself.

However, the 2 remains lit up.]

Okay, not that, then.

Two must be the first number in the combination, then.

[ Hmm. He ponders the note again. ]

"Leave" four. I can't even begin to guess, so we might as well look around a bit. ... Quickly.

[ The shapes outside the windows seem restless, and it's only going to get worse. Ivan can't help but wonder how many of them there are. A silhouette for every death and betrayal? If so, then he and James are sure to be overwhelmed if those shadows become more than just shadows. ]

Maybe. But leave four what? Are there only four numbers that we don't press? That's much too long to be a reasonable combination...

[He sighs, frustrated, making a turn around the room. He doesn't see any notes, no other items that might help them just bust this thing open, and he shakes his head.]

Just try a few more numbers?

[They don't have time to stand here and input endless numbers, but maybe they can gather more info if they just press buttons. James has definitely done that before.......]

[ Open with two... leave four. He gives a little shrug and starts randomly pressing numbers to see if they'll stay lit up. Maybe he'll stumble on the right solution? Of course, when he jams the wrong button and has to start over it starts to get annoying, but that's also when a pattern maybe clicks into place.

Such as hitting the buttons so they light up in the shape of a giant 2, leaving four buttons still untouched. ]

[The lock disengages with a click! Good job!! James raises his brows.]

Oh, clever. It meant it literally.

[Should Ivan inspect the rusted box, it creaks open to reveal a ceremonial knife. A sharp blade with an ebony handle and a skull carved into its base.]

Is that it?

[There’s also an inscription along the blade, should Ivan be keen-eyed enough to spot it:

sunder a friend’s heart in two
usher in life anew ]

[ A ceremonial what now. It's hard not to spot a fancy knife sitting in the bottom of a rusted box, harder still to ignore the inscription on the blade.

He very, very tentatively reaches in to take it out. ]

"Sunder a friend’s heart in two. Usher in life anew."

[ How do you feel about that, Mr. Sunderland. ]

[hm don't like that

He seems to cotton onto the notion because, a bit deadpan-]

Please don't stab me in the heart, Ivan.

[ Just as deadpan, ]

I wasn't planning on it.

Good. I still need mine to function, believe it or not.

[The (self-deprecating) humor is probably misplaced in a situation like this one, but it feels good to dispel the tension somehow, even if it returns a moment later.]

Whatever you actually need that for, I don’t think we’ll find it in here. Let’s head back, and hope all those figures outside will be nice enough to wait for us.

[ Misplaced or no, it gets something that might be a distant relative of a chuckle out of Ivan. The tension has been successfully broken, if only for a moment. ]

Good to know.

[ He glances around at the windows, what few there are. The figures seem to be a tad less restless now that some kind of progress has been made. ]

Let's try the other doors off the sanctuary, then.

[Ah, they've bought themselves a little bit of extra time, for what it's worth. He tilts a head towards the exit.]

All right. Off we go.

[To the sanctuary! And then... to the opposite door, which opens up easily enough.

Unlike the previous room, this one is filled to the brim. Crowded, even, with a relatively eerie sight: rows upon rows of mannequins, all of them faceless and grungy, yet each and every single one dressed differently. It's a bit surreal, but it's very Silent Hill.]

...Charming.

Christ.

[ Is it weird for a reaper to invoke the name of Jesus? Who knows. They're in a church, so at least the venue is appropriate.

Into the creepy mannequin room he supposes, looking around for something of note. ]

[It's a mood, though. And at least these aren't mannequins with four pairs of legs...

James follows down an "aisle" of mannequins, clearly more on edge than before thanks to his past experiences in this town. Nothing jumps out at them, but he does start slightly when the blade of his chainsaw accidentally bumps into one, sending it listing backward.]

Shit.

[He reaches out to steady it.]

...They're pretty light; it feels like they're hollow on the inside. What did that knife say again?

[ Ivan nearly whips around and summons his weapon right there when the mannequin jostles, but he calms down pretty quickly when he realizes it was just James bumping into one. ]

It says to sunder a friend's heart... so I've got to look for one of these things that looks familiar and stab it, I imagine.

Less of a puzzle and more of this place being... [Rude?] Well, symbolic, I guess.

[He doesn't know exactly how Ivan took lives to fuel his necromancy before—if knives and stabbing were involved at all—but James knows better than to ask so bluntly. He won't.

He'll just walk along, eying the mannequins still.]

See "anyone" familiar?

[They're all dressed in a myriad of ways, all modern clothing, though. How perceptive is Ivan right now?]

Not as of yet.

[ Rattled as he is by the presence of the book in the other room, Ivan's as sharp as ever.

Of course, the downside is that Ivan has met a lot of people in his 600 some odd years, and that includes people in the modern era. So the mannequin will have to be quite distinctive for him to know it's right. Apart from his burgeoning friendship with James, there's really only one other person Ivan might consider himself on friendly terms with. ]

[Well, luckily for the two of them, maybe the term "sunder" wasn't used randomly on the blade's inscription. Because, somewhere in the corner, there is a mannequin dressed in an army green jacket, a slate blue button-up with a belt and jeans. Even the shoes!

Perhaps it grabs Ivan's attention more so because it has a flickering flashlight sending out a weak beam of light, poking out from a jacket pocket.]

[ okay but does it look like it's reached into toilets at any point—?

The light does catch Ivan's attention first, and he glances over, stepping close to get a better look at the source.

Oh.

Looks at the mannequin. Looks at James. ]

The resemblance is uncanny.

[ Hilarious. ]

[NO 😭

He's just a step or two behind, stopping when Ivan finds the mannequin. Looks at it. Looks at Ivan.]

You're hilarious.

[Gestures at the flashlight. First and foremost-]

Hey, hand me that.

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