What A WONDERFUL World

[Key Wielder]

Allegra listened to his story in silence, feeling immensely sad for him. Adagio always seemed pretty upbeat and calm, although she supposed it was easy to say that when she'd only heard his voice and didn't have a facial expression to pair it with. It made her think of her own disability for the millionth time, and she suddenly realized that they truly were in the same boat. He had lost his art; her sight meant that her music and writing would be beyond her reach. There were ways around it, but they would take years to learn and she would probably give up despairingly before she even got that far. Why is this happening to us, anyway?

Prodding him awkwardly until she found what felt like his forearm, Allegra gave it a quick squeeze. "Don't worry. When we win this game, I'll bet everything will go back to normal. I'll get my eyes back and you'll be the next Picasso." Or we'll both be dead and then at least we won't have to worry about things like that anymore. It wasn't the most positive thought, so Allegra decided not to voice it.

Before anything else could be said on the matter, both their cell phones went off: the mission for the day. Instinctively, her hand reached into her pocket, but her fingers went limp before she could pull out her phone. Really, what was the point?

"Well, this one is certainly more vague than the last. 'Pawns advance upon R5,2...' Directions... albeit directions masked in cryptic chess metaphors. And what does he mean by 'tormented prisoners?' Got any ideas Allegra?"

Frowning, she shrugged slightly. I guess this just gets more difficult as we go along.

"Well... 'Tormented prisoners' probably has something to do with the Noise, so I guess we'll have to fight some." Goody. "R5,2... R5,2... You're right, it's a location. I'm not really a chess person, but there's no row for R on a chess board, right?" She frowned in thought. Riddles weren't her thing, and this was making her feel rather stupid. Why couldn't they just tell us where to go like yesterday? "Maybe it means something else, like 'road' or something."

 

[qster]

Roucher wondered what it was that kept Sana so optimistic all of the time, like all of the bad things were just phasing through her or it just never happened. Looking into her eyes as she explained how she lost all of her musical talents was exactly the moment when he found out what kept her going: it was something she was willing to fight for. As she played a sour chord that struck his ear drum with the power of a new pencil being shoved into your ears, then quickly muted after placing her hand over the string. There was just one problem for him: What was it that he should be fighting for?

After she had finished her speech, the familiar, ear grating tone of a cell phone ringing emitted from Roucher's hoodie pocket. Roucher flipped open the phone, a text message being displayed on the small, pixelated screen with a baffling message sprawled across the LED display. It read the following:

Mission 2,
All pawns advance upon R5,2; free the tormented prisoners en suite.
Time is set at 1:20.
Fail, and be erased.
--The Reapers
Have a nice day.

"Have a nice day my a-- OW!" Roucher responded, a sharp pain from his left palm causing him to drop his phone on the pavement.

Engraved in Roucher's small palm was a series of numbers, blinking as if it was some kind of watch. Worse, the numbers were lowering like a time bomb, until it would reach zero, and then... what? Roucher quickly assumed the worst and knew that was when their erasure would take place... unless they didn't last that long. He looked up instinctively as if some projector would be above and it would just be some prank by a friend, but Roucher didn't see anything except the blue, slightly overcast sky as he looked above, then looking back at his blinking palm.

After the rather dumbfounded feeling swept through him, Roucher picked his phone up from where it laid, analyzing the message. It was nothing like it was yesterday, instead being a puzzle in itself in contrast to the meet and greet that took place yesterday at 104. There were many words speaking out to him, like being called pawns and the destination dubbed R5-2. Was this just a game of chess?

"Hey Sana, you know of any way we could grab a hold of a map? I think I know what is going on with this mission. You see, I think this R5-2 is like a chess coordinate on a game board. If we can find out where this space is, then we can rush there and do whatever it is that they want us to do. First, we need a map of some sort." Roucher attempted to explain to Sana, praying that he was correct in his judgement and that Sana wouldn't bother arguing with him.