[He leans in very close to her face, pushing that sword into her knowing that it will hurt like hell but won't hit anything vital. At least not yet. He's testing just how long she will keep that mouth covered.]
Remember this..I'm not the one who lied to him. I may have hid who I was but I never gave a false name. Never lied about where I have been or who I knew. All the stories I told were truth. Whereas you told the biggest lie of all. Lying about your sight just to stay by his side.
[He wants to make sure she realizes that she is just as much to blame as anyone else. That her sins are also on the table.]
"i won't need her final scene iconing," i said, like a fool
[ Her fingers tighten against her cheeks, digging into the skin as the scream she'd been about to make chokes off into a whimper as the sword scrapes against her ribcage. Bile rises in her throat at the sensation. She squirms, trying to pull away, pull herself off the blade without moving her hands, but she can't get purchase.
He's wrong. He's wrong, he's wrong. ]
I just wanted-- [ I just wanted to be with him, she wants to say, behind her hands. Hadn't Daozhang told her to leave once she'd told the truth? Pity was all she'd had as leverage. She hadn't hurt anyone, she... She wants to snap back, defend herself, accuse him, remind him of his deeds as though enough repetitions would make him realise what he's done. He's wrong. She hates him, and he's going to kill her for his stupid obsession with a man who was too good for the both of them.
And with a sword, there's nothing she can do to--
The sword, she realises with sudden clarity, that is inside her, and lunges forward, panicked mind barely registering the tearing within her chest. Her hands come away from her face, stiffening into claws, as she goes for his face, his eyes, his mouth. ]
[He smirks as she plunges herself forward, essentially sealing her death. But instead of just allowing her to enjoy it quickly, he pulls back the blade. Stepping away from those claws and ripping the sword from her chest to allow the blood to flow freely. There is that opportunity he had been waiting for. The hands now going for him instead of covering the mouth. The sword now free of her body.
In that instant, the sword goes where it has always been intended for. A motion, a flick of a wrist..a skill that he has honed over years of making humans into walking corpses. The person never sees it coming until its too late. And she will no longer need that tongue when she is dead.]
You wanted to take advantage of his kindness. So how does that make you any better then me?
[All he wanted was to be by his side. Of course that's not how it started. In the beginning he was driven by revenge, by knocking Xingchen down to his level. But over time that changed. Years of peace had been between them. If only she hadn't lead Song Xichen there..]
[ Blood fills her mouth, pours from her lips as she coughs wetly. It's rushing up from her throat and out from the stump of her tongue both, dripping onto the nicest piece of clothing she's ever owned, and she rasps a word, another, insensible to the pain.
You're a murderer, she tries to say, and you're rotten. Not he'd never have been happy with you once he knew, but he could have forgiven me, and we'll never know now; she doesn't have the coherence left to think it consciously.
She purses her mouth closed, head swimming and limbs growing cold, and then spits as much of the welling blood towards him as she can. ]
[He's not scared of a little blood. Doesn't care how it will stain the front of that red sweatshirt. He did his duty during the event and he could easily afford a new wardrobe now. The blood on his sweatshirt a symbol of his chance to have a sweet moment of revenge.
Calling him rotten or a murderer is hardly enough to get a rise out of him. Those are words he already knows and accepts about himself. He's killed hundreds at this point, one more is barely another hashmark on the long list. But she can't say those words aloud, so all he can do is assume the names she is calling him.]
I would gladly kill you over and over again. Maybe if we meet again, I'll just go ahead and pluck out those eyes of yours. Since you chose to pretend you can't see..we should just make it so next time. Let you taste what it is like to be in Xingchen's shoes instead of just lying about it.
Holidays were exhausting. Through all the highs and lows of their time on the island, that was the conclusion A-Qing had come to. The hot springs had been wonderful, camping fun and the beach even more so. The weird cave...
Well, she didn't want to think about most of that. And, in fact, had come up with an excellent way to avoid it: namely, clinging to the memory of Wester's Monster World game.
Now, she could have asked Wester. And, okay, she was planning on raising it, eventually. But with the cave so fresh in her mind, it was more than she could deal with. So, instead, there had to be someone who'd know about a game that popular, or even one like it, and she set out to ask about it. She needed people who frequented the games carriage, was the conclusion she came to.
The ambush was set. When the door slid open, she perked up from where she'd dragged a beanbag chair over to the nearest section of floor.
"Excuse me!" Best to be polite, she figured, "Do you know how to play any 'tabletop dice games'?"
In truth Uta wasn't someone who particularly played games like those in the game carriage, but time was long here, and there was only so much he could m, I'vedraw. He'd started doing puzzles when he found himself a bit too bored. He'd really wished that there was a shogi or a go set in the game room and he could play against someone, but he hadn't found that person yet.
He froze at the voice, looking to the owner. He'd seen her around but he couldn't say that he had ever talked to her before, so he was a little surprised she addressed him.
"Ah, uh." He paused and straightened up as he considered the question. "Tabletop role playing games?" Another pause. "I had a friend of a friend who played them. I've heard some things about them. Is there something you want to know?"
She'd thought about how to ask, so she nodded at his first question, and launched into an answer eagerly, leaning forward from where she was nested cross-legged in the centre of the beanbag like a baby bird.
"I'd never heard of them, but on the island, I saw a memory, and it was of a role playing game. I want to play, but you need a storyteller... Mister, do you know anyone who can do that?"
Uta rubbed the back of his neck as he considered it. He didn't have a particular soft spot for teenagers, but if he could get a gaggle of the kids to like him it would probably be useful. Besides, this was something that would probably kill quite a bit of time on the train and it could end up being fun, maybe. Or it would just irritate the piss out of him. Only one way to find out.
He slipped both of his hands into his pants pockets. "I don't know if there is anyone on the train who has experience, but I would be willing to give it a try. You will need to find some more people to play with, though. I don't think it would work well if it's just you and me."
A-Qing was, on the balance of probabilities, reasonably sure he was humouring her. He didn't seem particularly excited; his eyes didn't light up the way Wester's did when she mentioned the games. But maybe that'd be better, for a training game? She had the feeling that if she ruined Wester's game they might actually cry. This guy didn't seem too bothered. The important thing was, he was agreeing to it. The rest she could work with.
"Leave that to me," she assured him. "I know some people. Do you need anything for it? I saw a lot of paper and books in the memory, but I can't really help with that."
Having secured a storyteller, the next step was-- well, finding dice, for sure, but she suspected that might take a while, and she wanted to wait until there were less people in the Games carriage before she started ransacking boxes.
So, the next step was finding other people to play. A-Qing could recognise most people by sight, and had a good map of who to avoid and who to approach when she needed something, but finding people who'd want to play a story game, and people she'd want to play a story game with...
Her first choices were the girls she'd met who'd seemed to at least enjoy watching movies. But not just blindly enjoyed them! The ones who'd had commentary. A bit of asking around later, and she appeared in the dining car calling Alice's name, and the luggage car, where she scrambled into Buttercup's secret base.
She was indeed in her fort. She wasn't avoiding Mami. That was definitely not what she was doing. She was just... Thinking. Not reading or writing or even playing one of the small solo games she had found in the games carriage. Just lying on her back thinking.
Holidays were stupid, that was her conclusion of the whole mess.
She sat up though when she heard footsteps and a moment later, there was A-Qing.
"We do be being?"
She sounds genuinely confused. It had been weird enough with Peter but this girl. Sure they had made a secret base on the island and it had been nice to sleep next to someone in a tent for a few days. They watched movies together as well and that was fun and Qing was funny.
But were they friends? It's not a question she has an answer to.
As long as A-Qing could definitely not be avoiding at least three people, then Buttercup could be not avoiding Mami, and she wouldn't breathe a word about it.
Sometimes you just wanted to live in your pokey little bag castle and hate the world, right?
"We are," she affirmed, as though saying it would make it true. Technically, Buttercup not immediately denying it was all the proof she needed. She scrunched herself properly into the space. "Hey, tell me. Have you ever heard of 'tabletop games'?"
"Well-- Kind of," she hedged, because her planned script really only had options for 'yes' or 'no' there. "There are dice. Anyway. You sit at a table, and you each make a character, apart from the person who's telling the story the characters are in... and then the storyteller describes the world, and all of the monsters you'll have to fight. And then you describe how your character fights the monsters. And if you win, your character becomes more powerful, and can do whatever they want."
Honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that A-Qing had been calling out her name before saying that, Alice would have been so sure that the girl had been looking for someone else and just mistook her for that person due to blindness.
After all.. Alice? Having friends? Those two things certainly don't go together most of the time except for when said friends are imaginary. And with two of them having disappeared only recently, the word stings a little.
Thankfully - or so she thinks - Alice doesn't have to worry about the momentary hurt look in her eyes as she sips from her tea. Not like the girl can see it.
"You'd consider someone a friend so easily?" Usually there might have been a bit more bite to it, but A-Qing is young. Alice can't fault her for it. It's more just a question than a snappy comeback. "Why are you asking? Do you need help with something?"
See, she'd rather answer requests for help ten times over than having to deal with someone calling her a friend.
"It's been ages, so why not?" she counters, having noted the hurt look and toned herself down accordingly. She doesn't want personal validation, she wants people to play a game with her. She can be hurt in turn about that later - but not much. Friends aren't really something she understands either. It just seemed like a good thing to say.
Yeah.
She shakes herself out of it.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter, I wanted to ask, have you ever heard of 'tabletop games'?"
Well, that's a sudden shift in topic if Alice has ever heard one. But she'd rather discuss anything but the difficulties of friendship or anything of the sort, so she will roll with it.
"I haven't." Her tone is back to normal again as she says it. "Though I can infer its meaning. Why?"
The pitch she prepared for Buttercup won't work here, she's been thinking, so.
"I saw one in a memory, back on that creepy mountain. It's where you have a storyteller, and they tell a story about evil monsters and villains." What had Alice complained of, way back when? Despicable villains, that was it. Okay. "And then the players each make a hero, a powerful warrior or a cunning mage or a virtuous priest, or... I don't know, whatever they want, and they describe how they defeat all the things the storyteller has invented."
She's much better at just rudely yelling out names nowadays, especially when the names belong to other kids. Currently, she's sat almost upright in one of the library beanbag chairs, holding volumes one and four of the Thousand Blades saga, and looking supremely wronged.
He's a little scholar, she knows that much, so it seems appropriate to bother him about a problem involving books.
"Did you know? The books are missing, they're missing!"
"Not ordered?" She repeated it after him, nose scrunching. "Why buy the first and fourth, and none of the others? No, someone must've taken the others..."
But he's right, there are lists they can check for culprits. "Aren't there meant to be officials in charge of this kind of place, to keep everything where it's meant to be? Ah, but we don't have any officials..." Her chatter was enough to last until she'd scrambled to her feet, and oriented herself towards one of the library terminals.
"Sounding like you want the job, ah?" She seemed fundamentally disinterested in librarianship, though she was perfectly happy to discuss it if it'd keep the guy invested. Not that he'd make a good official - too small. "If someone's going to steal, they'll steal whether there's a list or not... whatever, go and look, tell me if the others are here!"
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Fiddlesticks 16 - Xue Yang and A-Qing - CW: Violence, Death, Mutilation
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Remember this..I'm not the one who lied to him. I may have hid who I was but I never gave a false name. Never lied about where I have been or who I knew. All the stories I told were truth. Whereas you told the biggest lie of all. Lying about your sight just to stay by his side.
[He wants to make sure she realizes that she is just as much to blame as anyone else. That her sins are also on the table.]
"i won't need her final scene iconing," i said, like a fool
He's wrong. He's wrong, he's wrong. ]
I just wanted-- [ I just wanted to be with him, she wants to say, behind her hands. Hadn't Daozhang told her to leave once she'd told the truth? Pity was all she'd had as leverage. She hadn't hurt anyone, she... She wants to snap back, defend herself, accuse him, remind him of his deeds as though enough repetitions would make him realise what he's done. He's wrong. She hates him, and he's going to kill her for his stupid obsession with a man who was too good for the both of them.
And with a sword, there's nothing she can do to--
The sword, she realises with sudden clarity, that is inside her, and lunges forward, panicked mind barely registering the tearing within her chest. Her hands come away from her face, stiffening into claws, as she goes for his face, his eyes, his mouth. ]
LOL You should have knownnnn
In that instant, the sword goes where it has always been intended for. A motion, a flick of a wrist..a skill that he has honed over years of making humans into walking corpses. The person never sees it coming until its too late. And she will no longer need that tongue when she is dead.]
You wanted to take advantage of his kindness. So how does that make you any better then me?
[All he wanted was to be by his side. Of course that's not how it started. In the beginning he was driven by revenge, by knocking Xingchen down to his level. But over time that changed. Years of peace had been between them. If only she hadn't lead Song Xichen there..]
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You're a murderer, she tries to say, and you're rotten. Not he'd never have been happy with you once he knew, but he could have forgiven me, and we'll never know now; she doesn't have the coherence left to think it consciously.
She purses her mouth closed, head swimming and limbs growing cold, and then spits as much of the welling blood towards him as she can. ]
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Calling him rotten or a murderer is hardly enough to get a rise out of him. Those are words he already knows and accepts about himself. He's killed hundreds at this point, one more is barely another hashmark on the long list. But she can't say those words aloud, so all he can do is assume the names she is calling him.]
I would gladly kill you over and over again. Maybe if we meet again, I'll just go ahead and pluck out those eyes of yours. Since you chose to pretend you can't see..we should just make it so next time. Let you taste what it is like to be in Xingchen's shoes instead of just lying about it.
here i made it just for you
Grasshopper 30 - for Uta
Well, she didn't want to think about most of that. And, in fact, had come up with an excellent way to avoid it: namely, clinging to the memory of Wester's Monster World game.
Now, she could have asked Wester. And, okay, she was planning on raising it, eventually. But with the cave so fresh in her mind, it was more than she could deal with. So, instead, there had to be someone who'd know about a game that popular, or even one like it, and she set out to ask about it. She needed people who frequented the games carriage, was the conclusion she came to.
The ambush was set. When the door slid open, she perked up from where she'd dragged a beanbag chair over to the nearest section of floor.
"Excuse me!" Best to be polite, she figured, "Do you know how to play any 'tabletop dice games'?"
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He froze at the voice, looking to the owner. He'd seen her around but he couldn't say that he had ever talked to her before, so he was a little surprised she addressed him.
"Ah, uh." He paused and straightened up as he considered the question. "Tabletop role playing games?" Another pause. "I had a friend of a friend who played them. I've heard some things about them. Is there something you want to know?"
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"I'd never heard of them, but on the island, I saw a memory, and it was of a role playing game. I want to play, but you need a storyteller... Mister, do you know anyone who can do that?"
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Uta rubbed the back of his neck as he considered it. He didn't have a particular soft spot for teenagers, but if he could get a gaggle of the kids to like him it would probably be useful. Besides, this was something that would probably kill quite a bit of time on the train and it could end up being fun, maybe. Or it would just irritate the piss out of him. Only one way to find out.
He slipped both of his hands into his pants pockets. "I don't know if there is anyone on the train who has experience, but I would be willing to give it a try. You will need to find some more people to play with, though. I don't think it would work well if it's just you and me."
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A-Qing was, on the balance of probabilities, reasonably sure he was humouring her. He didn't seem particularly excited; his eyes didn't light up the way Wester's did when she mentioned the games. But maybe that'd be better, for a training game? She had the feeling that if she ruined Wester's game they might actually cry. This guy didn't seem too bothered. The important thing was, he was agreeing to it. The rest she could work with.
"Leave that to me," she assured him. "I know some people. Do you need anything for it? I saw a lot of paper and books in the memory, but I can't really help with that."
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Grasshopper 30 - for Alice and Little One (make separate threads!)
So, the next step was finding other people to play. A-Qing could recognise most people by sight, and had a good map of who to avoid and who to approach when she needed something, but finding people who'd want to play a story game, and people she'd want to play a story game with...
Her first choices were the girls she'd met who'd seemed to at least enjoy watching movies. But not just blindly enjoyed them! The ones who'd had commentary. A bit of asking around later, and she appeared in the dining car calling Alice's name, and the luggage car, where she scrambled into Buttercup's secret base.
"We're friends, right?"
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Holidays were stupid, that was her conclusion of the whole mess.
She sat up though when she heard footsteps and a moment later, there was A-Qing.
"We do be being?"
She sounds genuinely confused. It had been weird enough with Peter but this girl. Sure they had made a secret base on the island and it had been nice to sleep next to someone in a tent for a few days. They watched movies together as well and that was fun and Qing was funny.
But were they friends? It's not a question she has an answer to.
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Sometimes you just wanted to live in your pokey little bag castle and hate the world, right?
"We are," she affirmed, as though saying it would make it true. Technically, Buttercup not immediately denying it was all the proof she needed. She scrunched herself properly into the space. "Hey, tell me. Have you ever heard of 'tabletop games'?"
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"Tabletop games? Do they be being like board games?"
After all they were played on a table.
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After all.. Alice? Having friends? Those two things certainly don't go together most of the time except for when said friends are imaginary. And with two of them having disappeared only recently, the word stings a little.
Thankfully - or so she thinks - Alice doesn't have to worry about the momentary hurt look in her eyes as she sips from her tea. Not like the girl can see it.
"You'd consider someone a friend so easily?" Usually there might have been a bit more bite to it, but A-Qing is young. Alice can't fault her for it. It's more just a question than a snappy comeback. "Why are you asking? Do you need help with something?"
See, she'd rather answer requests for help ten times over than having to deal with someone calling her a friend.
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Yeah.
She shakes herself out of it.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter, I wanted to ask, have you ever heard of 'tabletop games'?"
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"I haven't." Her tone is back to normal again as she says it. "Though I can infer its meaning. Why?"
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"I saw one in a memory, back on that creepy mountain. It's where you have a storyteller, and they tell a story about evil monsters and villains." What had Alice complained of, way back when? Despicable villains, that was it. Okay. "And then the players each make a hero, a powerful warrior or a cunning mage or a virtuous priest, or... I don't know, whatever they want, and they describe how they defeat all the things the storyteller has invented."
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Jelly 15 - for Alfredo
She's much better at just rudely yelling out names nowadays, especially when the names belong to other kids. Currently, she's sat almost upright in one of the library beanbag chairs, holding volumes one and four of the Thousand Blades saga, and looking supremely wronged.
He's a little scholar, she knows that much, so it seems appropriate to bother him about a problem involving books.
"Did you know? The books are missing, they're missing!"
Re: Jelly 15 - for Alfredo
Especially when there's books involved.
"Missing... as in checked out? Or - could they not have been ordered?"
Though he'd admit that also raises the question of why.
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But he's right, there are lists they can check for culprits. "Aren't there meant to be officials in charge of this kind of place, to keep everything where it's meant to be? Ah, but we don't have any officials..." Her chatter was enough to last until she'd scrambled to her feet, and oriented herself towards one of the library terminals.
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There was a random books function in the shop, after all. Maybe it hadn't been planned...
Alfredo is definitely following her to that terminal, though he'll let her type the request in.
"I'm not even sure where we'd keep the standing list. On paper? The ICPs?"
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