pc: ylfa

[squirt]

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[squirt]

[ the way i made myself sus and only you noticed in this entire game. i'm sorry froggystyle specifically. ]

Me too. [ so they have enough ingredients to bake more cookies, god ] I feel kind of bad for making Rang point the finger...

[ like, even if the rest of them had suspicions, he definitely didn't leap forward to make them. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

Fukuzawa helped, too. Actually, I'm not sure anyone really suspected us. Jonas said they knew it wasn't us which...I don't really know why he said that?

[squirt]

[ he frowns. even though he knew it was a risk using poison this trial, it didn't seem to matter. ]

I don't know. It could be that they don't think we're capable of hurting people. Or... at least Buzen specifically. [ unless they have a super cool trial solving power ]

[honkinbigteeth]

To be fair, we weren't...

[squirt]

...Maybe. But that's basically everyone. Almost no one would hurt Buzen.

[ he's still kind of reeling ]

[honkinbigteeth]

...She got a message, like Count D did.

[squirt]

...Yeah, I figured. Since she was the only one who acted.

[ it seems like something that'd happen every week ]

She's been nice, whenever we talked.

[honkinbigteeth]

To me, too.

[she sighs.]

I don't know why it was him. [unless she explains in this pc ive chronologically locked myself into happening first.]

[squirt]

[ he pauses, start-stopping on what he's going to say before he sighs. ]

...Promise not to think I'm awful? Just today.

[ not forever. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

I promise to never think you're awful.

[squirt]

Uh. You shouldn't promise that forever.

[ today is enough? he touches the back of his neck, emotions already primed with guilt and frustration. ]

...I thought Buzen's killer was probably like Count D. Just... trying to survive. But I still wondered if—going after him was strategic. Because it could kill their whole team.

[ he wasn't the only one, but it'd crossed his mind. ]

I just didn't expect to start thinking that way.

[honkinbigteeth]

[she said forever and she meant forever.]

Oh. I don't think you're awful, Haru.

[definitely not for that.]

I think...it's a little like something Gerard said one time. That we become the people we need to be to survive in this world. To survive in this place, it...makes sense to trust people less, and to try to think about the things they might do.

[squirt]

[ help ]

...Yeah. Maybe it's naive not to change.

[ his feelings turn conflicted, troubled. ]

The more we learn, the harder it's gotten to know what to do.

[honkinbigteeth]

I don't know if it's naive or not, I just think it's natural.

But I do think the bad ones aren't here, they're the ones in charge.

[squirt]

...Right.

[ a bubble of very genuine resentment ]

Ruby seemed surprised. Her bosses didn't mention the "world destroying" part.

[honkinbigteeth]

I asked them at first if they liked their boss, and she said so so, not bad.

[so she wasn't sure what to make of that.]

But maybe there's a higher boss?

[squirt]

Like a corporation...?

[ there's middle management out there in this hellscape? somehow, he'd believe it. ]

There might be a hierarchy. Ruby said she'd check if it really affects us. ...Even if it doesn't, that doesn't feel better. [ it just means another game down the line will be affected instead. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

[imagine if its fake and we gave matsui despair for no reason.]

It still means they're horrible. But Ruby isn't horrible.

[squirt]

[ casually ruins matsui's life for fun ]

...She's fine.

[ she's OKAY he GUESSES ]

But she did think there was nothing we could do about it. Not alone.

[honkinbigteeth]

Well, she might might be wrong. I said she was nice, not that she knows everything. But she doesn't even know the wolf, even though he's actually the one in charge of death.

[squirt]

[ he's pretty sure the wolf doesn't exist in his world either but that doesn't seem like a productive conversation... ]

She might know more than us, but not everything.

But she said we couldn't do it by ourselves. That means there's people who must be able to help us.

[honkinbigteeth]

[oh. haru is so smart.]

You're right! They keep mentioning a last game...but Aika didn't know why they were trying to do the same sort of game. It's not for entertainment, or anything.

[squirt]

[ haru's brain: (theme of duck tales on loop) ]

Ruby wouldn't tell me who else we could turn to. But there must be someone. [ whether it's the reapers themselves, or another entity out there. or??? whoever else. ] And the last game... maybe if we learn more about it, we can end this one. Or at least learn what they're trying to do.

[honkinbigteeth]

[he's so smart.]

Yeah! We could make some allies and take down the system.

[squirt]

[ this makes no sense but he nods anyway. he will just make a blind assumption on vibes alone instead of asking for clarification. ]

Okay. Then we should get you a brush. I can learn to braid.

[ that seems like a good thing to do anyway.

also, because i want to establish this happened, ]

By the way. Ylfa. Let me see your arm.