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

[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.]