doublesmall | week 5, graveyard, monday (eleanor, chuuya, & caren)

[thanks for not calling them out yet, eleanor.]

A lot of shit happened. We've been working with Monika and her allies to try to get rid of the remaining Reapers, but-- well, you can see how that ended for us. I at least wanted to take Kurusu with me...

[What the hell, Eleanor? Don't look so suspicious.

Or do, because Caren is looking her dead in the eyes. She understands; someone here is at least a little more observant than Chuuya is.]

It might be easier to begin from the opposite end: What have you witnessed? It's difficult to tell where you were for obvious reasons.

Truthfully.. not much. I ah— have not crossed paths with you all very frequently.

[ Moving along! ]

The past few weeks have been a strange experience, it was much less lively before you all got here. Aside from Lion I.. did not have much to occupy my time. I don't think I witnessed anything you wouldn't have seen. Though—

[ There is one thing, she supposes. ]

When you found me.. can you tell me what it was like?

--depends on how you mean that. Physically, or...?

[chuuya isn't squeamish, he'll tell her if she wants to know how it looked, but-- he isn't going to just lay all that on eleanor if it isn't what she actually wanted to know.]

Or if you want the short answer: it fucking sucked.

[Caren doesn't have that level of tact.]

The building was still on fire when we woke up. That girl was still screaming inside.

Undine helped put the fire out while Magnus and his friend from television, along with a few others, went inside. Assassin and I were looking for water, so I didn't get there until so much later.

I could still tell that it was you.

Edited 2018-04-10 02:00 (UTC)

[ She visibly recoils. Not because she is at all squeamish about what became of her.

But because she'd hoped she would be indecipherable, scattered ash by the time they found her. ]

I couldn't feel any of it.

[ She knows they know. But she finds the need to say it regardless. ]

Junko lured me there— she was frantic, said she'd gotten a threatening message and that Noctis was gone. I was a fool and had followed her without even considering the circumstances.

[ The worst part had been the smell— it doesn't feel real even now. ]

I broke free from my bindings, though it mattered little— I think she found it more satisfying that I even got a chance to lay my hands on her. Something grabbed me when I came in and tied me to the chair.. I'm still not quite sure what it was.

...we know it didn't hurt. You did well, though.

[she's one of the few chuuya will say things like this to-- but at the mention of something grabbing her, chuuya scowls, fingers clenching into a fist reflexively.]

And was it something you couldn't see?

Kurusu. We learned he's a Reaper-- he was invisible and watching while Undine fought me, too. I managed to provoke him into answering me to prove it.

Eleanor, you ran a well-fought race, regardless of those who may think you were secretly some inactive victim.

[She looks from Eleanor to Chuuya and back again, digesting this information with her chin on her knee in thought.]

Assassin and I were so close to taking care of him. We should have acted sooner. Someone who despises murder so but will watch it regularly with fetishistic fascination really should learn about it from someone trained in the skill.

[ The realization dulls every single one of her senses, briefly. It's like having cold water dumped all over you— at first everything is numb, and then you're jolted awake with startling clarity.

Anger follows in its wake. ]

It was him, it had to have been him— he had to have been there.

[ She rolls up the sleeves of Shinssin's jacket, a little frantic in her movements. The scars from the rope are still there, dulled but dark on her skin all the same. ]

My hands— something else bound my hands, Junko bound my feet—

[ The anger makes it hard to speak. She sputters wordlessly for a moment. ]

He watched— he saw everything. When she tried to split my face open, when she fondled me of all things before she tortured me! He stood there, he watched— he did nothing. He didn't even make an attempt at making it merciful! He.. I could have—

[ And true to who she is, she's crying before she can even finish her sentence. ]

She tried to make me beg, and he did nothing. She tried to threaten all I held dear and he watched!

Then it's a good thing he told me he wasn't asking for mercy or forgiveness, huh? Because he's sure as hell not getting it.

-Eleanor.

[chuuya isn't the type to wipe away her tears, not when that should be the job of someone who isn't even here to do it for her... but he does reach out to grip one of her hands, fingertips brushing those dulled scars as he does.]

It's like Caren mentioned-- Assassin knows, too. Not everyone who wants that guy dead is stuck down here.

I have the feeling we'll be seeing Kurusu sooner than later, once he finishes the job for us. For you.

I suppose that sort of sight must have been titillating for a man.

For some reason, hypocrisy is truly an offensive behavior for me to witness. If only he'd been willing to let me suffer more, I might have been more considerate.

[Tied to something she lost, she imagines, but Caren doesn't care where it came from as Eleanor tells her story. For her to think, without any complexity, that it's a relief for someone to have felt no pain, reveals the extent of her displeasure. They're going to have to talk with Lion after this.] I hope he enjoys someone else watching the light leave him just as much.

Assassin's been playing up his part of lovesick widower, but even with that, most people know he'd kill for less. He's smart, but I still think he'll want to land the blow for himself.

Eleanor. You felt pain of a different sort. They'll understand that as well as we do sooner or later.

[ Chuuya grips her hand, and Caren offers her comfort— she's reminded all too easily of that day she'd stumbled out of the Livehouse, gaping hole in her stomach and nothing but the object of her near demise keeping her standing.

They'd been there, and truthfully that had surprised her more than the fact that she was still standing. ]

I don't want Shinssin to kill— I don't want him to have any reason to even possibly join us here. But I'm not foolish enough to scold you all for not dissuading him, nor do I wish for him to be a sitting duck.

[ She wipes at her eyes with her free hand, a dry sort of laugh following. ]

Isn't it funny— every single one of their ilk who I've had the misfortune of speaking to, they've been so righteous. They had the audacity to scold me for being upset. They say we should all work together but the thought of it is enough to make me retch.

He's going to have to kill before someone kills him. Sooner or later, they're going to figure out they aren't safe as long as he's around.

[chuuya is fairly sure now, knowing that ranpo told the others about him, that it was kill or be killed for himself too. "I was trying to protect you from the others," she'd said; he must have been a target, if that was the case.

he keeps a hold on eleanor's hand, grip tightening a little at those last comments.]

They were saying shit like that to me, too. Things like how they didn't want to do it, how they were trying to save the erased-- I don't buy into it. It's got to be some kind of play to keep themselves alive, try to get everyone not to kill them while they just keep picking us off.

If that was their goal, they might have made fewer enemies with their erasures.

[Caren knows all too well that the people who died at their hands weren't alone here No, as far as she sees it, the need to kill so that a few others more might live is one of those few transgressions some players inevitably had to make. She'd shouldered it for the sake of ending this game, for the sake of Chuuya's salvation. Foolish word for it. Entering their bubble finally, Caren steps closer to the both of them, arm outstretched.]

If they had this knowledge about saving the erased ahead of the rest of us, then their techniques confuse me even more.

Of them all, the Reapers, Jacopo had been the most openly assertive about moving things toward an end. He pressed your killer up against the wall -- and through it, I'd wager, if he had more time.

[ She lets out a shaky breath, their combined presences grounding her, making the angry haze in her head subside gradually. In their intimate little circle, she feels more whole than she has in weeks.

More like human being than she has in weeks. ]

You both.. you know for sure then, that Shinssin will kill this week?

[ She's very blatantly unhappy about the prospect. But she's not foolish enough to say anything about it. This is the nature of this game and they've all been victims for far too long. ]

He can't be found, he can't end up here. He has to win. He has to—

[ Her grip on Chuuya's hand strengthens, her knuckles are white. ]

We don't know for sure, but I'd be surprised if he didn't act. He's been holding off for long enough-- we were going to go after Kurusu together, actually.

[he shares eleanor's sentiments though, honestly. he wants to see assassin win, if the three of them won't be able to-- wants him to have what he's been missing, wants him to get payback.

it's just unfortunate that it'd mean they'd be here without him for however long this game lasts.

with her grip on his hand strengthening, though, chuuya breathes out a sigh, tugging lightly at her hand to just-- pull her closer.]

That's all up to him now, all right, Eleanor? He's good at what he does. If he doesn't want to get caught, he'll get away with it.

[what he leaves unsaid is this: if assassin joins them, chuuya thinks it'll be his own decision, no matter how it might happen.]

week 5, graveyard, monday (eleanor, chuuya, & caren)

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