chiseler | Dying, everyone's reminded, hearts are washed in misery drenched in gasoline [Wed Week 10]

[Usually, Clover spends everyone else's normal people waking hours as her chance to sleep; mornings and afternoons locked away means the twelve hours she's made to spend out of her room can be used before everyone's woken up and after they've all gone to bed as much as possible. Sleep won't come, though, hasn't come since early this morning, and won't come for a while yet, she thinks.

So she hears Luke on the other side of the door and, after the few seconds it takes for her to muster the energy to drag herself over there and down the ladder, the door opens up and here's Clover, only slightly more tired and disheveled than usual.]

Um. [Eloquent as always. She's looking over the notebook and the sandwiches and trying to figure out why they're here.] What's up?

[If he's bothered by this, he doesn't say so and only tilts his head in reply. As suspected she looks roughly as he would have imagined but it does nothing to deter him. Her question renders a slight grin and a shrug.]

Got bored mostly. I know you're not really up for seeing people but...kinda wanted to drop in and say hi. [He'll talk about "I have questions for you" and "please eat a sandwich Clover" in a moment. He's mostly testing to see how this goes first.]

Oh. ...Well, hi. [She's said hi back we're done here—but no, she told Luke about her usual hideaways for a reason, even if this isn't the best time for him to visit. When she steps back towards the ladder, she holds her hand out, too, for the notebook or the sandwich or whatever.] Did you wanna come in? Want me to take something?

[Take the sandwiches, Clover, that'll make his job a lot easier since he'll refuse to take them back.]

I actually wanted to talk to you about something if you've got a minute. [He knows she has no plans, but he can at least pretend.] It's not that important but…it's something I've been wondering about for a while. [A beat.] Plus I could eat those by myself but I'd rather not. Saves you a trip somewhere else, too

[She fills in the empty space of something with every worst-case scenario and everything she doesn't want to have to talk to about, thinks of games and the rhizome and her brother and her stomach churns. She takes the sandwich, but the offer seems entirely unappealing.]

Oh. [Eloquent, again, as always. But she still leads Luke up the ladder, unable to deny him. Her voice comes thin, though.] So what is it?

[He follows her up the ladder, balancing the notebook and eventually settling at her desk chair. The notebook stays in his lap and he leans back, pink scrunchie peeking out from his sleeve as his thumb taps against it. Eventually though, he slips a hand in his pocket and holds up two pieces of paper.]

Maybe it's luck that I ended up being in charge of your room searches. Figured you wouldn't want these to fall into the wrong hands. But...considering. I didn't want to hold onto them without letting you know.

[Sorry he still trusts you a lot, Clover.]

[It takes her a moment once she's set the sandwich down and turned to him; her eyes go wide seeing POINTLESS scrawled across one when she remembers writing it, and it's been so long since she's thought of the other without burying that feeling with so many others. Gasping, she lunges to snatch them away and stumbles back again, carelessly letting them crumple in her hands, and—and what is she supposed to say?]

I—I'm glad it was you. [Anyone else would have questioned her, wrote them up in the evidence files and made her explain these to everyone, wouldn't they?

He wants to know, she's sure, but he'll have to ask.]

[Belatedly, Luke realizes this was probably a stupid idea to confront her when she has multiple weapons and she's so deeply unhappy, but whatever. He doesn't do anything to fight back, lets her take the papers right from his hands and he stays seated. Still, he's watching her quietly to read her expression.

For once, Luke is still. He's making no sudden movements and he's content to stay where he's at and let her have her space.]

Clover, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but you aren't the only one with a lot of secrets. [A pointed look. He would never out her to everyone because he would be furious if someone did the same to him. He owes her that much, he thinks. That bit of respect and his own weird brand of kindness.] You mind telling me what that's all about?

[He wants to know about both, but he's giving her a choice to explain the first, the second, or neither.]

[She won't attack Luke, she'd never—he wouldn't hurt her, he doesn't mean anything malicious by this; anyone else she might be angry with but even if Clover's trust is never easily earned, it is total. The scythe is propped up against the frame of the bunk beds and the meat cleaver sits on the floor by the doorway, but she answered the door without them.

She collapses back to sit on the bottom bed, one hand clawing into her hair.]

It was some—some stupid game we were playing. [All forty one players listed, C's and L's all next to numbers.] We thought we knew what we were doing. That we shouldn't take things too seriously this time.

[And where did it get them? He's dead, and she's alone. Light, she notes, is winning, before she rips the paper apart.]

[He lets her take a moment to collect herself, hands hanging between his knees and notebook balanced in his lap as he waits. He raises an eyebrow though because...]

--wait were you guys betting on how long we'd last here? [It's a callous question, but that's a callous game. On the other hand, he sounds slightly amused rather than angry or scandalized.

He also catches the "this time", but that will wait. One question at a time. Patience is something he has to practice here.]

[She leans back, shakes her head, staring up instead of looking at him. It isn't quite shame; she catches his amusement and if anyone could find something silly in this cruelty, it would be Luke; it has been from the start. Even so, she sounds strained, tears in her eyes and the threat of a sob in her throat.]

On who would snap.

[And just like that it's not funny anymore. It's something very, very real. He remembers the names on that list (had studied them since he stole the paper from Light's room) and while he doesn't remember the amounts there are things that stick out to him.]

I see. [Its thoughtful rather than judgmental though he is treading carefully. In a way it was cruel to bet on someone's sanity. Then again, it was equally cruel to target someone's older brother. He's conflicted on that but chooses not to say so.]. I'm...not going to say "it's okay." [Its gray area.] But in a place like this it's understandable. A few of us have been trying to pinpoint who'll be the next to crack, too. Not as rewarding as I thought it'd be.

[He still doesn't quite know what to do with crying girls or girls who're about to cry, so he leans forward just enough to show he's not too perturbed and that he's not leaving.] I was really hoping I was wrong though. About this being a familiar situation to you.

[Sure, on top of everything else let's throw her secret into that. That's fun.] That's the other reason I figured some honesty was in order.

[And that's when the crying starts—she was too obvious and what if he isn't the only one who's figured her out, there's no way to get around talking about the nonary games now, she knows she shouldn't have expected any sort of it's okay but long-rooted pessimism tells her in the wake of everything else that he will hate her for this. Despite everything, she thinks of Alice and she thinks of Junpei and she thinks of what everyone else here expects and assumes of her and—it's this, it's this morning, it's that she is always drowning in her own grief and it's too much. Clover hides her face in her hands and draws up her knees and gets right to work bawling her eyes out in shaky, shrieking sobs, utterly hysterical.

Luke's going to have to wait a minute. Maybe...maybe a couple minutes if she's left to her own wailing devices......]

[And that's when Luke gets up and leaves down the ladder out of her room.

Except no. Clover is still Clover and he's staring for a moment trying to comprehend the fact that he may have just broken Clover Field. It's not what he wanted to do, but here they are. For the first minute he's frozen and listening to the shrieks and hysterics, trying to dredge up some kind of idea how to make it stop. The second minute, he's on his feet and cautiously approaching the bed, sitting on the floor to give her a height advantage (a trick he uses on someone else) and stares up at her for a minute. And by the third minute a hand comes up to rest on her foot as a way to remind her that she's still sobbing and he's still sitting here.]

I'm sorry. That probably wasn't what I should have said. [It's mumbled but at least he can recognize that. So he sits and waits it out still with his hand on her foot. How's the crying going, Clover?]

[BYE

Except no, the crying doesn't stop, but choked hiccups turn into short gasps turn into breaths big enough that she can force herself towards something closer to calm, enough for her to take her hands away from her face to tug at her hair again instead, enough that she can start to speak again, stuttering and struggling with each word.]

I'm sorry. [For the hysteria, mostly, but he's still here in spite of it. He apologizes to her.] I'm sorry, I—I'm—I didn't—we were just—I didn't want—we didn't mean— [No one should have found out and it's worse that anyone has when Light is gone. From the start they needed a way to detach themselves from the stress of the situation, to make it less real when so much between them had already been muddled. Eloquent as always; she can't figure out how to say any of what she means.] I don't know. I don't know.

[This is probably the weirdest experience he's had lately, and he tried to blow himself up with a proximity mine a few days ago. Still, he watches as Clover recomposes herself enough and he doesn't push for explanation, trying to piece things together himself.

He's not entirely sure what she's sorry for other than a pretty fucked up list, but he's already resolved that it stays between the two of them. Even while she's talking and having a hell of a time explaining herself Luke gets up to sit next to her instead now that he's deemed it safe. He doesn't do much beyond that, but he's making progress.]

...as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with intent. It's when you act on it that things get a little messier. Neither of you ever pushed somebody toward snapping, did you? [A light shrug, but his gaze is fairly firm.] No one was supposed to see that list. I found it when Arumat and I searched Light's room. I dunno, maybe I thought it was safer with me just in case they ever tried to search your stuff again. Same reason I took the other one, too. [And there you go, Clover. That's just as much of an admission that he'd purposefully made the situation work to where he'd be the one to do her room search. He's quiet then.]

This is a really stupid question, but are you okay? [Like. From crying, not in general. He's still fumbling through that part.]

Never. [That answer comes strained and wheezy, but it's immediate. The crying doesn't let up, though, not enough for her to thank him for looking out for her and keeping this secret and sitting with her and the reassurance; she can't clear her mind enough to find the words, something in her screams equations and runs through sets of digital roots and all she can think is that she should never have been found out but there's no way out of it now.

But he asks if she's okay and it's the stupidest question she ever hears. Are you okay, how are you, how have you been doing, and every single time she'll shrug and force things along, but—generally, the crying, whatever he means, and she wipes at her eyes and shakes her head hard.]

[...well. He sits there for a moment and he's trying to think of what he's supposed to do in this case, and the answer's obvious based on how he used to deal with a certain girl back home. So while Clover's still pulling it together he's moving to loop an arm around her to press her into his side instead. It's not quite a hug, but it's close enough.]

Probably should have clarified that was a rhetorical question. I can pretend I know better than that by now, can't I? [Whether he means the question about making people snap or if she's okay, he doesn't clarify. He'll ask about the other list in a bit. He hadn't anticipated this.]

[Close enough to a hug that it startles her, only because she's never entirely expecting affection, she's never sure what to do with reassurance, and she presses her face against his shoulder and cries and cries. Hope Luke likes having tears and boogers all over his shirt.........

It doesn't take her nearly as long to start settling now, though, even if the tears aren't stopping anytime soon. Still, sniffles and hiccups are a major comparative improvement. She lifts her head enough to speak but she's not at all shifting out of this half-hug at all.]

I'm sorry. [Again, for just totally losing her shit and the fact that it keeps happening.] I'm sorry, I—I just—I didn't...

[Where does she start? She sniffs and takes a slow breath that almost doesn't shake.]

What do you want to know?

[Let's be real it's kind of gross but he can deal with it. He's probably dealt with this with Annabeth enough times he's not too bothered, especially given how he shifts just so to make them a little more comfortable and doesn't do much to pull away. That's fine, Clover, stay there. He doesn't object.]

It's fine. [The hysterics, he means. That also doesn't bother him much. Still, he's waiting for her to calm enough and when she asks the question, he hums in contemplation.] I think I want to know a lot of things. You don't have to answer them if you don't want to. [Maybe he should be a little more forceful with her, but it's Clover and that's not happening. This is what bias looks like.]

This isn't your first game, is it? For you or for Light. You've both been trapped like this before?

[Forcing answers from her would never work; she can only talk to Luke about this because he makes no demands and because the only reason he asks is curiosity and, still in spite of everything, concern. She leans against him when he shifts, flinches when he mentions Light, but a slow nod comes before she adds:] You can't tell anyone.

[But she doesn't seek or wait for an answer, because he's kept every last one of her secrets without being asked already. Sniffles and short sobs punctuate everything she says.]

...Twice. Kind of like this. And I played a third.

Edited (icon, mobile is suffering ) 2016-08-13 03:13 (UTC)

[He nods at least. He would never tell anybody any of what she's telling him simply for the fact it's not their business. He wants to be a better person than that. Despite the fact she's on the older side of "teenager", she's still a teenager. He has to try and be good enough for her to rely on for now.

However, it doesn't stop him from frowning heavily and staring down at the top of her head, arm tightening a bit around her shoulders because what the fuck. What the fuck, who decides it's a great idea...but then he remembers the world information he found in the terminal. It makes sense then.]

...how did that happen? Why did they choose you guys?

The first nonary game was an experiment. [There's a certain emphasis on the last word; what does the word "experiment" mean to you? and that would have been the key to find the others when the chance was ever given to her. Any of them would have known.]

The morphogenetic field... It isn't really telepathy, but it lets some people called espers do something really close to it. [And she is one of them, of course; that goes unsaid if for no other reason than because it's been listed on her profile card all this time. For these few moments, her voice steadies as much as it can, because this is so ingrained in her as her normal. But as much as things have gotten easier, the experiment has always been the worst, and she is only one half of her own story.] But...to access the morphogenetic field, if you aren't trained, you need two things. The first is epiphany. It's that "aha" moment you get when you solve a really tough math problem, or...or a puzzle. And the second is danger. But it...it has to be life-or-death danger.

[He makes a face at the word "experiment." That usually doesn't bode well to stories like this, but he's quiet. He doesn't quite understand the idea of the morphogenetic field but he understands telepathy enough to figure it out. There are empathy links back home between some demigods and satyrs. Maybe he'll tell her about them sometime, but now doesn't seem appropriate.

She's calmer now, or at least capable of speaking more clearly and he's putting together answers about as fast as she's giving them.]

...are you trying to tell me that they put you and Light in a puzzle murder game to get your telepathy link to work? Is that really what you're saying? [What the fuck kind of logic is that?]

It...was kind of like that? It wasn't... [But she stops, starting to draw her knees up again. Long-rooted pessimism tells her the worst and of course the situation sounds ridiculous no matter how it's phrased, the words "puzzle murder game" almost sound silly.]

I'm not making it up. It happened. It really did. [Panic and desperation rise in her voice, edging towards hysteria again. All these years and she still almost never speaks of it.] You have to believe me, it did.

Clover, Clover, Clover! [Yikes, wait a minute. He's shifting to grab both of her shoulders and force her to look at him.]

I never said you were making it up. Have you listened to anything I've said since I showed up here? I'm not in a position to disbelieve something like that. All right? I believe it. [A deep breath, but he's also not letting go of her shoulders yet.] What happened then?

[She shuts up as soon as he raises his voice, cutting off with a hiccup and tensing sharply when he touches her. When she talks again, she's gone quiet.]

I'm sorry. I...didn't think...

[But as long as she's turned to face him, she lunges forward to hug him, face buried against his shoulder again. Apparently she doesn't give a shit about her own boogers.

The story goes on, though.]

The game lasted for nine hours. There were nine pairs of siblings but...there was a girl... She died there. [For someone who's dealt with death, almost easily early on, week after week after week, Clover sounds horribly solemn.] But when it was over, the rest of us...we went home. Got back to our parents. Never...never told anyone, just...tried moving on.

[Thanks for being gross, Clover. Nah he doesn't give a shit either seeing how he's immediately reciprocating and pulling her closer. It's...obvious that this isn't normal so if she needs a hug, she's getting a goddamn hug.]

That's...[Really terrible. That's incredibly terrible and the almost-sad sigh says as much.] Nine hours and nine siblings. And they didn't think of maybe doing something less dangerous? What made any of them think that you would escape alive?

[Is he mad? Of course he's mad. He's sick of people dictating the lives of others for their own means.] But that means you and Light...you accessed that field then. What about the second game? [He feels bad asking so much of her when she's buried her face into his shoulder, but you know what he's kind of also an opportunist. Understanding Clover is a very important goal to be sure she doesn't hurt herself and doesn't hurt anybody else. Simple, really.]

[She shakes her head; how is she supposed to know what they were thinking? But she shifts before she goes on, absolutely not pulling out of the hug but turning her face away so she can speak a little more clearly.]

It was nine years later. [have fun doing the math on that one, Luke] And it was the same, nine hours and the exact same rules, but with only nine of us together. ...Light and I weren't the ones who needed to access the field then. [Though she's settled some, between the comfort in the hug and how much less it hurts to think about the second game, she speaks slowly, mindful of each word.] I...still don't think I really understand, but... That girl was saved that way. The one who died. And the men behind the first nonary game were finally punished. That's why...why the second nonary had to happen.

[Honestly Luke would probably die playing a nonary game because math and puzzles are Annabeth's forte, not his. But he's aware that the second nonary game can't have been too long ago for her.]

If you and Light didn't need to access the field then there was no reason to be involved in the same game. [As far as he's concerned, anyway.] But the field...brought her back? Or she never died at all? There's a distinct difference. And if the guys behind the first nonary game were punished then--

[...hold on.] So the second one was a revenge game. Wasn't it?

No, it... [She instinctively sounds defensive, of all things, before she settles.] Only in part. It's... Do you know the Schrodinger's cat paradox?

[As much as the hug means to her, it's becoming increasingly difficult to storytell like this, so she pulls away to settle against Luke's side again, not wanting to leave completely.] The short version is that... Imagine you have a cat in a box with a vial of poison gas. If certain conditions are met within an hour, that vial breaks, and the cat dies. If that condition isn't met, the box opens in an hour and the cat lives. But for that hour, you don't know whether the cat is alive or dead. The theory is that the cat is both alive and dead.

[Explaining thought experiments at weird times is pretty much Clover's forte, this happens a lot, sorry about my canon, so she goes through this easily enough. It's only once she's done that she's slumping again, quiet and cautious.]

That's a really, really basic explanation, but the point is that June was Schrodinger's girl. ...My brother was on that ship. He was there when she died. I grew up knowing she died. But she was still right there during the second nonary game. And the second nonary game let one boy use the morphogenetic field to communicate with June nine years in the past to fulfil the condition then to keep her alive.

[...she looks confused, too. SORRY ABOUT MY CANON]

[Part of him wants to ask why it's a cat specifically and why you would shove a cat into a box with gas because that seems kind of cruel to the cat but he has a feeling that's not the point of the story. He lets Clover move to make herself comfortable and forces his brain to settle on one line of thought. Somehow this immediately lines up with the idea of a prophecy. If certain ideals are met, then the prophecy becomes true. If they aren't met, or they're met in their opposite, then all hell breaks loose.

("A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze.")]

In theory, that makes some sense. You can't know especially if you aren't entirely sure of what all of the conditions are. [A hand comes up to smooth some of her hair back in a placating kind of gesture, but he's very invested in this story suddenly.]

So on top of a maybe-dead maybe-alive girl, there was also some weird form of timetravel that essentially rewrote a bunch of history and solidify that June would be alive. [This is too much, and yet he sort of maybe gets it. (Okay no he looks confused, too.)] How does the story end, Clover?

[It's not even kind of the point of the story, but yeah when she's less distracted she's way more concerned about the poor theoretical cat. For now, she sighs when he smooths her hair and leans her head on his shoulder.]

Something like that. [Her tone carries a sort of "yeah, no, I've got no clue either." But she shifts, shrugs.]

It doesn't. Hasn't. [The second nonary game was not the last, and the story isn't over while she's still here.] But the second nonary game does end. Three men die, one gets jailed for it, and so the men behind the first game get punished. Schrodinger's girl is alive. She runs away with her brother and we don't find them. And the other five of us get to go home. [She almost smiles, thin and shaky, but she's tearing up again, too.] Light and I go home.

I would almost say it sounds like a happy ending. [Almost, because it's not. Almost, because he's aware that Light and Clover shouldn't have been pulled into this. Almost, because only one of them is still here and that's beyond okay.]

But...you mentioned a third game. Without Light?

[Almost, and that's what hurts the worse; that they were so, so close to having eked out their own happiness after the first nonary game haunted them for so long and the Pygmalion wasn't even the first place to take it away from them.

So it takes an extra couple of moments and a slow, shuddering breath before she can continue, voice thin.] Without Light. [And it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair.] A year later, I got kidnapped with my best friend, Alice. [The name almost sounds wrong to say and that isn't fair, either.] It was...different, though, it still had to be life-or-death, but there was a prisoner's dilemma sort of thing to add to it...

[She shakes her head; that isn't the important part.]

If...if they're in the same place, a stronger esper can kind of...absorb a weaker one's power. So I—I had to be there. It was...almost that same weird form of timetravel. I had to be there so someone else could use the boost my powers gave him to go back in time to keep a disaster from happening.

[He's shaking his head pretty much through this whole explanation because that sure is bullshit! Everything in Clover's life so far has been bullshit and he sympathizes more than he should. Being used for someone else's gain doesn't settle well with him, and he wants to ask what a prisoner's dilemma really means but he's more focused on the second part.]

But what happens to you when your powers are drained out? When does the third game end? What if that disaster can't be stopped?

[That's a lot of big questions at once and Clover needs a second just to figure out where to start; she stalls by wiping her eyes and sniffling.]

The third game is over. It—it ended...it felt like hours before we woke up here... But it ended when that man's consciousness traveled back to before the disaster occurred so he could stop it. But...if it can't be stopped...the third nonary game happens.

[what]

...We were in the timeline that failed. The third nonary game happened forty six years after Radical-6 wiped out most of humanity. [what] The—the rhizome base on the moon we were kidnapped to was a...safe place, a shelter, I guess...

[THE MOON

SORRY FOR MY CANON]

[...

...

...]

So. You...were in the future...on the moon. [WHAT THE FUCK. If it were anybody else and in a period that was less serious, he'd laugh but he's genuinely too baffled to do much but blink at her a few times.] Okay I...okay. [Give him a second to just rub at his forehead because this has definitely entered "TOO MUCH!!!" territory.] Does that mean there's another timeline with another Clover that succeeded? How does anyone survive on the moon? [He asks. From inside a spaceship.] But you said the game ended and it couldn't have ended if the disaster couldn't have been stopped. [So...this is confusing, finally.]

[SHE KNOWS, MAN, SHE KNOWS. SHE LIVED IT. SHE LIVED THE MOON FUTURE

and she's back to the nervous tic of tugging at her hair, panicking now that Luke's starting to lose his cool, too.] I don't know, I don't know! They—they had me and Alice in cryostasis all that time, ev-everything happened while we were on ice, the outbreak happened on Earth and wiped everything out—Sigma went back in time at the end of the game and we were—all the rest of us were just, just left behind...!

[Without even really thinking about it a hand comes up to wrap around her fingers to pull them away from her hair. He's apparently had practice with this from someone else.]

Cryostasis…Roxy mentioned that when we were snooping around on the top deck earlier this week. I didn't know what she meant at the time but isn't that kinda what happened to us here, too? [Wait.] We better not be left behind because of somebody else screwing around with time, too. We know something happened to the planets and that's why we're here, but…[NO? NO THANKS.] You can't just leave people in a different timeline, that doesn't make sense.

I-I think so... If...if you cryogenically freeze someone, it basically just...stops everything, so you can set them aside and unfreeze them years or decades or...in theory, maybe centuries later and it's like they just...went to sleep for the night. So I'd basically been asleep all that time.

[Like with the cat problem earlier, apparently talking about nerd shit calms her down; she's quiet, but her voice starts to even out and she wraps her arms around herself instead of trying to claw at her hair again. Finding out she'd woken up almost fifty years ahead of when she should have wasn't any fun even before even she got to the Pygmalion, though, and she sounds tired and miserable as she goes on.]

It wouldn't surprise me if that's what happened here, too. But I don't know. ...I...know it doesn't really make sense, but...you have to believe me.

[…he's still sort of stuck on the fact that she was on the moon but okay you know what fuck it, it's not like he hasn't gone weird places before like. You know. The labyrinth! Or the underworld! And Olympus is in the Empire State Building so WHATEVER. SURE. THE MOON IS TOTALLY FINE.

He's fine letting her move into whatever position is comfortable for her and he leans back a little to give her space. The idea that they'd all been frozen doesn't sit well with him, but it's the only thing that makes sense.]

Most of it doesn't make sense, but me being here doesn't really make sense either and that happened. [A lopsided grin.] Besides, if you were lying you'd be able to explain it better so of course I believe it. [It doesn't hurt that he's incredibly Clover-biased.]

…on the other hand, kinda makes you wonder if there're some things we can reverse here, too. If we play and we win, what'll we get out of that? That's what I've always wondered about this place. [Maybe they could bring their dead friends back, too. Alice has apparently had practice.]

[WE'RE ON A SPACESHIP WHY IS THE MOON THAT DIFFICULT

but she's moving to lean against his side again, not especially wanting him to go anywhere. Talking about all this has tired her out horribly; she can't manage the effort it would take to act amused or express her gratitude. But he believes her. Long-rooted pessimism settles and quiets because she's sure, more than anything else now, that she can trust him.]

I don't know. I don't even know what winning is supposed to mean. [She shakes her head.] Maybe there's a way to send us back where we came from.

[Reversing that occurs to her before reversing death does, only because she's already thought so much about the latter and ultimately, she doesn't trust the AI to do it right. Even so, she sounds remarkably unenthusiastic about the idea.]

[Listen. A spaceship is easier to accept than somebody going through to trouble of actually building a base on the moon because who the hell has time for that? Though it puts the notes about her world in perspective and he wonders if Light's notes would be different.

Regardless, he understands how pessimism is and he understands on a base-level how complicated it is to tell people the unbelievable. Telling people he was a demigod as a kid had proven to be more damaging than helpful. People never understood, and he wouldn't be able to stay long anyway due to monster attacks. They're not quite the same, but…well, he'd be a huge dick not to buy it after watching her completely freak out about it. So he's fine letting her lean into him and he's resettling an arm around her even with a thoughtful hum.]

Winning, I think, would be giving us a choice in what we want to happen. Some of us don't exactly have places we want to go back to. So…they can pull us here. Maybe they can put us back other places and other times. The AI is running under somebody else's operation. Maybe those people are more competent than Alice is.

Dying, everyone's reminded, hearts are washed in misery drenched in gasoline [Wed Week 10]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject