Week 4, Saturday

[foundationmods]

[As everyone files into the studio once more, they will be invited up on stage instead of to their audience seats as they normally are. On the far left of the stage is a set of 16 chairs, one for each living contestant, arranged in two rows of 8. On the right is a podium for Dazai to stand at, and in the center is a big board with spaces and numbers on it.

Once everyone gets settled in, it's time for the game.]

Comments

[eldritcheyes]

[You have a softly crying Leo, still curled in a ball. He doesn't even seem to realize where he is or what happened.]

[iblistriggered]

[Well, he was planning to go check on the studio... but it seems like a lot of people have that covered. So he stays here with Leo. Still crouched by his friend, he looks at Karen]

What happened...?

[oceanicbutterfly]

I don't... Alcor-san was doing something, and then...

[boom!]

[iblistriggered]

Wait, did... did Alcor explode?!

[oceanicbutterfly]

Maybe?! I don't know what's happening!

[iblistriggered]

I don't know either... [he shakes his head] But Leo isn't doing well. [he lifts Leo up and places him on the couch, instead of huddling on the floor] I guess everyone ran back to the studio to check it out.

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Oh good thinking thank you.]

We need to... what do we need to do... I can't think...

[iblistriggered]

Karen. Let's just... take a minute to breathe, ok? Are you hurt anywhere?

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Well, Oda's gotten her to sit, at least.]

I'm fine. I... it was other people getting hurt.

[iblistriggered]

[he's going to the kitchen to get some bottled water for the three of them still in the living room] We can't do anything without clear heads.

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Karen shakes her head.]

I can't even do anything with a clear head.

[iblistriggered]

That's not true and you know it. [he frowns] ... I know what it's like to feel helpless, and lost... But none of you gave up on me. So I'm not giving up now, either.

[oceanicbutterfly]

Isn't it?!

[She doesn't mean for her voice to have as much bite as it does.]

I haven't been any help even once! I haven't found any useful information, I haven't protected anyone in these games, I didn't contribute anything to solving Aqua's murder, and the one time I did anything to help prevent someone from being killed, it let this happen. And none of that is even a surprise, because I'm always useless!

[iblistriggered]

[Silver's expressions scroll through several in quick succession. Confusion at being yelled at, angry at being yelled at, concerned for Karen, then finally determined]

You stopped Oda and Moriarty from KILLING each other! If we had to go to trial for that, what do you think would have happened? Do you really think we would have been able to figure it out? And even if we did, do you think the Foundation would have let us NOT execute someone?! Atsushi and Alcor are dead, yes. And Alcor exploded like a friggin' moron. But if you hadn't been with Oda that night, then another innocent person would STILL be dead because this game is rigged! You're NOT useless, besides! You're smart, and kind, and funny, and you have experience with a stupid kind of game like this one!

[oceanicbutterfly]

I have experience dying! That was my contribution last time! I died, because people thought I was a murderer! Because I didn't get along well with someone and I couldn't get people to trust me! Any other Precure could have done that much, even the actual monsters who killed people got that far, but not me!

[failsaw]

[Giriko is......


debating just leaving but.....


ugh]

You can't just cry in the middle of the floor, kid.

[NAILED IT]

[eldritcheyes]

[Sorry, Giriko. He's not in right now. You'll have to leave your name and number after the broken sobbing.]

[failsaw]

[okay.... ugh.

she's just gonna.

carefully reach out and gently(?) grab his right shoulder.]

Come on. You should get away from here.

[eldritcheyes]

[Leo sniffles and nods, not even completely sure what he's agreeing to. He's really out of it, not just from the lingering pain. He stumbles to his feet, swaying.]

[failsaw]

[At least there aren't too many people around to see this (aside from the cameras, but Giriko isn't going to think about them too much).

She braces him as she walks him back to the purple room, which is as good a place as any to take the time he needs to function again.]

That was fucked up. [She's just kind of... talking quietly. Rambling. He won't remember it anyways. It's fine.] You're gonna be okay, kid. That was just some bullshit, don't worry about it.

[eldritcheyes]

He's gone... it's just the two of us....

[Is this how Azura feels, the last person still alive in Green team? It's just him and Giriko now. Even though Atsushi was staying elsewhere, it still hurts to know he's gone.

Atsushi was so brave at the end. Now, more than ever, Leo wonders why he was grouped with three other people with far more guts than he possesses.]

[failsaw]

Yeah.

But he did a good fuckin' job, yeah? He fought back, and he made an impression. That's the best anyone could fuckin' hope for.

[She shouldn't be having this conversation. If he's talking back, that means he's listening, and processing, and Giriko doesn't want to deal with the potential fallout of that.]

[eldritcheyes]

[He doesn't seem to be fully aware of what she's saying, mumbling softly under his breath in a daze.]

Just want it to stop... either kill us all at once or let us go... this is torture....

[It is, isn't it? But that's what people do when they see you as their enemy, as something not even human. It doesn't matter that their hearts beat, that they bleed, that they die just the same.]

[failsaw]

No shit it's torture. It's entertainment. [At least they're back in the room by now and Leo doesn't have to keep leaning on Giriko. She deposits him on a bed (not her bed, but she doesn't really care whose bed it used to be) and just kind of... stands there.

Give her a second to decide if she's going to yell a little bit or just let Leo be or do something else.]

[iblistriggered]

[Silver will remember this]