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thefoundation2020-04-25 03:31 pm
tsunderine) wrote in thefoundation2020-04-25 03:31 pm
Entry tags:
nobody's in the mood for recording 6.9: the post-trial garden tea "party"
- The flowers that bloomed at the end of the trial are ones that only seem to prove, continuously, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Of course, it's only natural that many of the people are full of mixed emotions - grief? sadness? anger? frustration? maybe something else completely different?
But it's there, along with the end of the week.
Miasma still continues to be around, of course - but make use of the fact that this might be the last time it'll be at a low level one before it shoots up again.
Well.
Life continues as usual, disregarding any feelings that any of the house's occupants might be feeling.
So what are you doing these next two days?
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...Yeah. I think we're all a little like that right now.
[...]
Do you...want to play a game with me? It - kind of helps, as weird as it sounds. It does for me, anyway.
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...I'd like that.
[A chance to turn back the clock and pretend they were younger and playing something simple like 'go fish' or whatever.]
[She'll come over and have a seat opposite him at the table.]
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But at that, he does smile - a little more genuinely - and gather up the cards, quickly flipping through the deck.]
Alright...something for 2 players. There's Go fish, old maid...blackjack...Anything in particular you want to play?
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[He flashes a bright grin her way as he finishes his shuffle and sends two cards her way. Rng tells me it's a 10 and a 3.]
So - Hit or stay? ...It's kind of a shame we don't have any snacks to gamble, though. For the real experience!
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[That's what The Book said, if she remembered right.]
It's probably better this way. No chance for hurt feelings afterward.
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I always wanted to go to some place like Monte Carlo... at least once, before I died...
[She trails off, eyes downcast.]
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[He happily plays along with her, losing and winning, until she talks again.]
Yeah? I bet -
[and then she says the last bit.
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'Before....I died...?
What...what does that mean...?
Does she...is she...
Is Aunt Rosa....like me?
Does she remember...all the games so far...?!'
There's a look of genuine fear and shock on his face, his hands frozen in mid shuffle as he stares at her.]
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I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Battler... I shouldn't have mentioned it.
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[Wait, no, that's right - she was talking about now, wasn't she? This whole situation they were in...
He forces himself to breathe, to swallow back the intense panic and sit back, shuffling again with shaky hands.]
Ah, no...it's - Sorry, it's nothing, just...
['...How much...longer can I keep this up?
Keep lying to her face, being worried about what she'll do, without ever letting her onto the truth?
I want to believe in her - I want to believe in my Aunt Rosa!
But...But, I...
....
What if...I....just try to test the waters...Just a little....?'
He swallows, hard.]
...Aunt Rosa...You remember how I said before we got in here that I already knew about Maria...?
[...]
That's....not the only thing...I know ahead of you.
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[Oh Battler. The very instant he speaks Maria's name, it's like the string of a bow being pulled taut. All fun and games gets shoved aside as the tension spiked by about a hundred degrees.]
I... I remember.
[No, she didn't. She had been barely listening and nearly forgotten about it by now. But, she'd act like she did.]
...Go on.
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What the hell was he thinking? But, he couldn't keep lying - it was getting so painful seeing her face, every time, but why did he have to crack open the lid to pandora's box himself -!!
His hands grip so hard on the cards that his knuckles turn white and they begin to distort a little, but he forces himself to keep talking.]
I...remember getting to the island, on the boat...and the typhoon settling in....
[leaving out Rosa and Maria's....whole thing in the garden....
'I can't...tell her.
I can't tell her the games...where she died...!
I have to - no, wait, the second one...!
She lived then, didn't she...?!
So - wait, I can - I can use that one, tell her the truth...but stop at-']
...And then, the next...morning...in the chapel...
[Even now, even after three months after everything, even though he remembers seeing it from a different plane -
Tears still come to his eyes, remembering that horrible scene, and his voice wavers.]
Dad and Kyrie...Aunt Eva, Hideyoshi-san...Uncle Krauss and Aunt Natsuhi....
...They were all...dead...!
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[It's so far from what she expects, she forgets that tension in a second.]
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[Where did she begin...]
First of all, that chapel is taboo. No one goes there. Not even the servants want to have anything to do with it. Why would they all go near it, let alone die inside it...?
[She couldn't laugh off Battler's words completely, but this was odd. ...Maybe it was the equivalent of an SCP bad dream.]
What happened next?
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[Even though he should just recount it - 'It already happened, the game is over with' - his shoulders still shake as those tears begin to fall.]
I don't...know why they were in there, but they were all seated at a table...and their stomachs, they'd been...they'd been...
[Yet, there's still a part of him that isn't crying, even though it's still overwhelmed - trying to get him out of the hole he's dug for himself.
If he stopped there....would she believe him?]
I remember...that you were trying to keep us from looking, but-!! We saw it...we saw it all...!!
And - I swore, that I'd find the bastard who did this, but then....when I opened up my eyes again, I was....
[...]
...here, in front of that machine...I-I don't remember a lot after that, I think...they had to restrain me...
['....I hope - that she believes me.
...Please, Aunt Rosa.
Don't ask anything else....']
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Battler...!
[Her hands reach over, grip soft to take his, trying to coax him to calm down.]
Battler, please don't cry...
[...This was odd, this was really odd. She didn't know what to say.]
Battler, let me ask one thing... you said I had tried to keep you from seeing this... grisly murder scene? Are you sure it was what you think it was? ...Had blood gotten anywhere? Had I gotten blood on my new yellow jacket?
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Still, he grips back - and shakes his head. This...at least, he could tell the truth from this.]
I remember - because I forced my way past you, and...
[His head sinks lower, shoulders shaking.]
Their stomachs....were open, and their guts....there was candy shoved into the open cavities...spilling out onto the floor, and the table...!
[Yet, even now, he still feels that anger he felt, when Beatrice taunted him about not touching their faces so he knew they were dead. It causes him to tighten his grip, but for a moment...but then lessens, as he wipes his face on his shoulder.]
So, I...when you said that, I...remembered that scene, and I....
['I'm lying.
I hate this, so, so much.
Why do I have to lie like this to her?
...No, I know why.
I have to lie...because otherwise, she'd never accept it.
...Aunt Rosa...I'm so sorry.']
...Please...don't say things like that anymore...
1/2
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[She hadn't meant to yell, but he was starting to tread on memories she did not want to relive with him in the room. Her voice became low, even... but obviously forced.]
Well, the important thing is it was all just a dream.
[She put on her 'stern mother' look. Not her 'angry, lost-control-of-herself' look, at least not yet.]
Do you hear me Battler? I am not saying you're crazy. I believe you. I believe you saw those things. Me in my yellow jacket, standing there trying to hold you back from such a gruesome image... that red cravat I had on probably all messed up in the panic. But, I'm telling you, it couldn't possibly have happened.
The chapel is Father's special place. Since I was a child, I was told I was to never go near there. Under pain of pain. There is no way Krauss-nii-san, Natsuhi-nee-san, Eva-nee-san, Hideyoshi-san, Kyrie-nee-san, and your father, would ever have gone there... let alone have had their stomachs full of... that.
Something is having fun with you. Unless Rokkenjima suddenly turned into its own SCP where a ghost could create anything out of thin air, there is, and read my lips as I say it, Battler...
[A pause, to make sure he raised his head to look at her.]
No.
Way.
That.
Would.
Happen.
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...Yellow jacket..? Red cravat? What are you talking about...?
[Still looking at her, he shakes his head.]
You were wearing a black jacket with a white cravat - with the family's crest on it. You were also wearing a maroon skirt...I remember thinking the whole thing looked nice, when I first saw it.
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[Ah, yes. He was biting at the bait... the bait she'd set for him. The bait she'd set up for Battler to trip on and fall over into the cage. The cage where Battler would be stuck in his dreamworld while Rosa sat safely in reality. He'd bit at the bait. He was chewing the bait. He'd swallowed the bait. The bait was sitting in his stomach and digesting as they spoke, at that very second.]
2/2
[Her hands held his, steady.]
Maria's outfit! Describe it!! NOW!!
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Yeah.
I know what this is.
Aaah...I should've just kept my mouth shut, after all...'
He closes his eyes, taking in a breath before responding.]
She was wearing a black and pink outfit, with a pink handbag...and a tiny black crown on her head.
[He would have asked if she'd had that made or found it...if he wasn't sure what her next words were going to be.
She was going to attempt to make him believe she'd worn a different outfit. That it really was just a dream...
...It would be so much easier if it was just a nightmare, right? Or if...he really was just insane.
'Am I....really sure....that I'm not...?']
...Aunt Rosa...why are you asking me this?
1/?
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4/4
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1/2
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1/???
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3/4
done
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