week 5

[reapertoire]

[ this is a normal day where normal things are happening!

except for the part where max approaches lenka instead of vice-versa. Suspicious. ]

Comments

[concertmaster]

Oh.

[honestly he hadn't expected that, but he probably should have, considering where the game is at.]

I mean, I guess not? Up to you.

[soylentprotag]

[Maybe he just likes making things harder on himself. It's a character flaw. He can't help but ask the questions no one wants to hear.

Things have been... a mess, since the weekend, like a stack of Jenga blocks ever so slowly tilting and tottering with each new aftershock. If he were the type particularly given to gallows humor, Lenka would be laughing right now. If he were still himself, all of him, he would have refused (almost) immediately -- he'd like to think, found his own way. It's been weeks, though, of this, a slow wearing away.

He knows what his own cowardice looks like, finally, even if he hasn't named it yet. It's interesting, being the most powerless Aragami in the world.]

I know. Can you tell me who died for this?

[Again with the questions no one wants the answer to.]

[concertmaster]

[i mean. he made the mistake of asking.]

For yours? Sure. Jacopo.

[soylentprotag]

[Jacopo. Reaper. Sunday.

Lenka draws in a breath, doesn't quite breathe out his doubts. His choice is made, though. Survive. Protect what you can. Carry the dead, no matter how many, or how heavy, or how long. He doesn't, in fact, know how long this will work. For now:]

Okay. I accept the hint.

On one condition: pass a message to the murderer for me.

[concertmaster]

... Sure, why not?

[he shrugs]

Your hint is "strawberry". That's it. So, what's the message?

for the record I was eating strawberries and almost choked

[soylentprotag]

[He doesn't reply right away, because he's kind of stopped breathing altogether at this point.

That's not... It's not...

Lenka closes his eyes.

It was impossible weeks ago. Maybe even days ago. But they've learned a lot since then. About Reapers, about the Game, about too many things that still hurt his head to try and sort out. His thoughts won't move. When he finally gets them to reach his mouth, his voice is shaking.]

Tell them... Tell them I won't accept this kind of hint again.

[He can at least get that much out. It takes a moment or two before he can go on.]

Max. Can you tell me what kind of Reaper this is?

LDSMGKDSGS

[concertmaster]

Sure. But for the record, I doubt they'd try for it again.

[there's a long pause at that question.]

You know, you guys are always asking me that question. I've answered every week with the same thing. A Reaper's a Reaper, as far as Players are concerned.

[... but?]

But you know what no one ever asks me? Why that is.

[soylentprotag]

Why... a Reaper is a Reaper?

[Of course they'd ask.

Many of them (not all of them, apparently) are only just starting to grasp that a Reaper might not be just a Reaper. Max's strange leading question just gets a bewildered sort of look.]

[concertmaster]

[... he has a moment where he is dying inside]

No. Jesus christ. If one side is meant to hunt the other, why are both sets of Reapers the same for you guys?

[soylentprotag]

[Look, you just sort of broke his brain a little (more), he is completely entitled to a potato brain moment.]

Sorry. I...

[Well, he hadn't thought about it, because he'd only just learned about this shit and there are enough things to think about that he could take up Hachiko's mantle in Shibuya for the next 10 years and still be pondering.]

Setz said something about the Reapers forming an alliance.

[concertmaster]

Now? Sure. They're considering it. That wasn't so much the case at the start.

[soylentprotag]

[He digs back in his memories a little more. The letters. The trial. It's hard, because the hint is still clanging around his head like a five-alarm fire, knocking his thoughts everywhere.]

'If the number of Players is below the number of Reapers, the Reapers win.'

Does it matter what kind of Reapers?

[concertmaster]

Close, but no dice. It matters. You guys would have been in trouble way early on if that wasn't the case.

[soylentprotag]

Then, the outcome is the same, if either group of Reapers wins. Meaning there are three endings to this Game.

[It's still a guess, but he's also thinking of something else at the moment. Time limits. The Reapers joining up, even though he's not sure how that alliance is supposed to work. Setz's continuing and almost grating insistence that everything is for the good of the Erased, and everyone.

He wants to trust that.]

... Is the eight-week time limit the hardest ending to reach? It seems that way.

[concertmaster]

That was dependent on people's actions, more than anything. [the endings.] But yeah, I'd say reaching the time limit was a stretch from the start. It required... work.

[soylentprotag]

You sound like you don't think we can do it.

[concertmaster]

I had zero faith in anything involved in this Game. [ well. That was blunt. But... Past tense? ]

[soylentprotag]

Had.

[Callin' you out.]

[concertmaster]

I still don't think eight weeks is reasonable. But ... You guys have made a lot of progress in the right direction.

[soylentprotag]

That's... good to know.

[Even if he still isn't sure he's along for this ride, or that he's really contributed anything beyond a handful of ripcoins and a fourth of a Noise.]

What would you have thought was reasonable?

[concertmaster]

Oh, I didn't want this shit to go at all in the first place.

[ ... This isn't new ]

My answer to this entire bullshit was to talk things out or flip a fucking coin, not run a Game.

[soylentprotag]

... I think we would have liked that better, too.

[Why does the 10-year-old have more common sense than two metaphysically powerful entities.]

Was there a reason they decided to make it a Game, instead?

[concertmaster]

Yeah. It wasn't just for tradition's sake. I can't tell you the exact reasons, though.

[soylentprotag]

Is it going to be important for us right now? The reason.

[concertmaster]

This bullshit both had everything and nothing to do with you guys.

[ that's cryptic. ]

Let me ask you something. What do you think is worse? A Game like this, with how fucking batshit it can be, where you have a chance at life again, or just... plain old dying?

[soylentprotag]

[That's seriously cryptic. Lenka's head tilts slightly in bewilderment before he stops moving at the questions.

The thing is...

The thing is, when he arrived, or maybe even a week ago, he would have answered: the Game. Unhesitatingly, almost unflinchingly. He's a creature that shouldn't exist, a soul that's already been lost. He'd never let himself think too long or too hard about something as convenient as an afterlife for something like him.

And of course, the afterlife isn't convenient at all. But he isn't the only one here. He isn't the only one to come through. So...]

I don't know. But I know which one I would fight for.

[It's always about the fighting with him. That's just how he works.]

[concertmaster]

Then you've got a lot more in common with everyone else around here than you might think.

[soylentprotag]

I...

[It takes him aback, that statement. He's not really sure what to do with it, but... Maybe, for now, he can take it at face value. That coming together might not be as impossible as it seems at first glance.]

Thank you.

[That was oddly encouraging??]

[concertmaster]

Don't mention it. [a beat] Seriously, I will choke you out after denying every word of it.

[which is basically a +1 on the fact that it was meant to be encouraging. jfc]

[soylentprotag]

[... That is cute, Max. He is kind of touched.]

Uh, got it.

[Is he starting to figure out Maxese. Maybe.]