the truth is, everyone wishes to be saved.

[finalring]

The execution has come and passed with the death of two more Agents. However time moves on without cease and so must the living. There are no celebrations, only the silence that grows heavier and heavier with every day and the feeling that something is pleased with what it has done.

There are two more days before the new week arrives: what will you do?

Comments

[eyeforai]

[Oops. Busted for the third time, he's doing great??]

Guess no one thought they were worth the time to actually read. Not like the covers are any good, either...

[kaliedoscopes]

[ Slowly pulling out the book himself and paging through. ]

They're not that bad. [ Busted for the third time but maybe he's escaped judgement??? ]

[eyeforai]

[A...pparently? He would feel gratified, but instead he's just confused.]

...Don't tell me you also read this stuff.

[kaliedoscopes]

[ Hikage snaps the book shut and shoves it back onto the shelf quickly. Any kind of fluster on his face is an illusion because he's been in this murder mansion for nearly four weeks and a bodice ripper isn't what's finally going to break his cool. Probably. ]

No! I don't have the time, and that certainly hasn't changed here. I was just comparing them to shoujo manga, that's all.

[eyeforai]

[Sure Hikage, you tell yourself that. This is the face of someone who totally believes you.]

So you're saying you read shoujo manga instead. [This is 100% what Hikage meant, right.]

[kaliedoscopes]

[ Believing is magic, ain't it? ]

That's not what I—at the other mansion there was an entire collection of shoujo manga that I was forced to listen to a narration of. I didn't want to read it or hear it.

[eyeforai]

[The mansion owner having interesting tastes is the main takeaway here, clearly.]

...Should I ask why, or is that off limits?

[because that's an awfully unique way of torturing someone??]

[kaliedoscopes]

[ It really is, what a weirdo they are. ]

We've already started talking about it, so it's too late. [ Sometimes you just admit you've lost. ]

One night we came across shoujo manga in our exploration of our hideout. Unfortunately the person who found it was hopelessly naive and had never seen it before, and therefore was naturally curious about what was going on in the panels. Before I knew it Karasuba was prancing around the living room describing the scenes in vivid detail, and others were asking him how to eat a girl's ears and whether women like to be dominated.

I would have left, but if I didn't do some type of damage control in the explanations they would jumped on Beniyuri the next morning. More than four men stuck in small quarters with one women do normally, anyway.

[eyeforai]

[He wins even if he doesn't intend to?? Although is this actually winning. Because he stares at Hikage with a pretty flat look in his eyes as the whole explanation proceeds and... yeah that's something alright. He would bless Hikage for putting up with that shit and correcting them, but his knee jerk reaction is--]

...Your friends are really weird, you know that?

[--that.]

[kaliedoscopes]

They're not my friends, they were just the people I was stuck with at the time. [ A beat. ]

That part of the experience has been better this time around, fortunately.

[eyeforai]

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a compliment towards the people here or an insult about the guys you were trapped with.

[Because they certainly have a number of assholes around here, and this is a totally unbiased opinion from Date!!]

[kaliedoscopes]

Can't it be both?

[eyeforai]

If it was, I'd wonder about what made your old acquaintances so bad as to place them above a group with an asshole who tried to blow us all up.

[kaliedoscopes]

...friendly fire does pale in comparison. But a lot of the company here is better, even if there's still not enough women.

[eyeforai]

You're telling me...

[Solidarity on the women front, even if no one will compare to Reika...!]

Makes you wonder why they chose us in the first place, though.

[kaliedoscopes]

[ A small sigh. His thirst does exist it's just tucked behind a million layers of pragmatism and other shiny things. ]

It does, especially late transfers like ourselves. They had enough agents to staff the mission but decided to swap us in at the last minute.

[eyeforai]

[Ah yes, hidden thirst. Something Date knows nothing about because what is subtlety to this man. Can you eat it? Can you entertain yourself with it? No and no, which is why he is well and truly garbage.]

I'd say it's because our skillsets, but... [lol telling them any info]

Although I guess we should be grateful we weren't asked to stay behind outside.

[kaliedoscopes]

[ This meta is here to say that it would argue otherwise and that Date is great ♥. ]

I could see it in my case actually, the Foundation knows I'm capable of reading memories, or at least my direct superior does. They don't know anything about the hamster at all, though? [ Someone could be listening so ig he's just speaking in code about this from now on which isn't ridiculous at all. ]

[eyeforai]

[Wow! Limes are too nice ♥

But oh my god hamster code?? There's a flat look at this though because this is just the life we're living now apparently. Date lets out a small sigh.]

No, they know about the... hamster. [god this sounds so stupid to him] It came up during the initial medical screenings. But they didn't dismantle her either.

[kaliedoscopes]

[ Hikage just nods way too seriously because what else do you want him to call her??? He's technologically challenged and also cautious so this is the end result. ]

That probably would have been uncomfortable for her, so I'm glad they didn't. They really aren't thorough at all, are they? [ Shaking his head with a huff. ]

[eyeforai]

[Honestly he should probably just tell Hikage to call her Aiba but this is funnier to he'll just forget to correct him for the rest of the game.]

Saved me the trouble of explaining, at least. Now if only they actually did something about the amount of information they'd provide us...

[kaliedoscopes]

[ ty Date you're a bro. ]

I'd say they want us to fail, but I'm not sure that's productive for them either.

[eyeforai]

[A sour expression crosses his face at that, and he lets out a short huff.]

I really wanna shoot the hell out of whoever thought of this mission...

[kaliedoscopes]

Isn't that capital punishment? [ From his smile, he doesn't seem to have much a problem with this though. ]