15strangers week 1 wednesday

[exequte]

CW: Extreme 999 Spoilers

[Stabbing herself, or the doll of herself, like she had had been exquisitely painful. But at least, right now, her fevers had subsided slightly, and she felt that she was settling into her role, so when her brother asked if he could take her to rest she had acquiesced. She had made her statement already, which in a way was the important part.

She lets him carry her again, half for appearances sake, half because she truly had taxed herself, but when he set her down on her bed she had only looked up at him and waited, still looking as fragile and vulnerable as a bird with a broken wing.

She had to be, here. She didn't have the luxury of being anything else.]

Comments

[exequte]

[There's a long silent pause as she thinks about that, her hand holding tight to the edge of his jacket just like she had when she was small--a jacket, or a sleeve, or the hem of a shirt until she finally squeezes her eyes shut.]

Aoi, what were we doing before the second Nonary game?

[jinglebros]

...is that something you've forgotten?

[ Maybe. Maybe that's a plus? Maybe he should hide it from her. ]

We were trying to live.

[exequte]

[That's.... that's the answer that agrees with what she remembers. It just feels wrong, and it's awful, it's like....

It doesn't make sense. None of it does. She bites her lip and tries not to worry about how little she knows, tries to shove her thoughts down from the whirl they are spinning in.]

[jinglebros]

[ And he can tell it went badly. ]

...

[ He sighs. ]

And there's something else, but I'm not sure how you'd handle it.

[exequte]

[She looks back up at him, and there's a little spark of something like desperation in her eyes, a sad little yearning because there's nothing that makes sense anymore.]

I... I trust you, but....

Aoi, I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

[And that is terrifying, just as saying it out loud is terrifying, because how is she supposed to survive if she doesn't know how? And if she dies, everything else will too soon enough, she has Seen that enough to know it.]

[jinglebros]

You're supposed to survive. Just like always.

[ He exhales, running his hand through his hair. ]

What you're forgetting is that in the last game, Zero was us.

[exequte]

[She makes a mostly breathless little sound that's partway between laughing and sobbing.]

I don't know how. That's the problem.

[One of the problems.

But then he says what he does and she freezes for a moment, then starts trembling. A part of her wants to reject the knowledge, but here she is, readying the field for if she needs to kill.

Again. Kill again.

She lets out a soft sound, "oh", very quietly and then turns her face so she won't cry. Tries not to. She doesn't want to cry when he told her what she needed. It would only hurt him.

She still doesn't remember the actual plan, of course, which makes it harder. Surely, though, there was one. Because if not then the lives of everyone hung in the balance and....

It's irrelevant right now anyway.

But-

Wait.]













Zero knows.

[jinglebros]

Zero knows.

[ He can tell it didn't go over well with her, but he's decided that it's better this way. That she deserves the whole truth. Besides, if she remembered it herself, how would she handle the fact he lied?

It wasn't great, what he'd tried to do. ]

[exequte]

He talked to me. He asked me if I wasn't forgetting the role I'd played in the last Nonary game.

[jinglebros]

And... you were.

He was taunting you.

[exequte]

[She gives him a wounded glare.]

I know that. I knew then. I just thought that... that he was talking about... how I'm dead.

[jinglebros]

I'm sure he was talking about that, too.

[exequte]

[She shakes her head a little, just once, though she still looks at him a little curiously. She had been expecting his usual protests.]

I don't think so. I think it was this.

But that doesn't matter right now, what matters is that means that Zero knew more about me than I knew about myself.

[jinglebros]

Sometimes he slips up, especially now that he has to balance knowing her as he does in her own future.

"So you want me to tell you more? In case he knows it?"

[exequte]

[She sighs, feeling... tired.]

It probably doesn't make very much difference. And I guess there's more important things to worry about, right?