are we actually living? or are we being kept alive?

[finalring]

After the execution, the survivors are dismissed to rest in preparation for the next week. The miasma curls and turns into each room, letting fall a cold and oppressive atmosphere that fills every corner of the place.

And yet, even in a place that has caused so much grief, life must go on. Thirteen has always been considered to be an unlucky number, but that is the number of people that are left--what will you do, in this false calm?

Comments

[finalring]

Well. He's dead, so he is yours.

[ just like when rin died and sho came to try and poke in his insecurities, romani looks up at rin with a look that borders on cold. ]

For now.

[tsunderine]

[pointedly ignores his cold expression to instead smile at him, but it does not meet his eyes.

in fact -- her voice doesn't seem the slightest bit chipper.]

It's forever, doctor.

Unless you have reason to think otherwise? I'd so like to hear it.

[finalring]

[ romani shakes his head, a small smile on his lips.

she doesn't need to know what he knows. she doesn't need to know what gilgamesh told him--what he saw in that distant future, twenty years later. it's the final flame of hope in romani's heart, that which doesn't allow him to give up entirely. ]

I have no reason. Just have a feeling. Nothing is meant to last forever, after all...your rule included.

[tsunderine]

[that's

when

she

laughs]

You shouldn't quit your day job, doctor.

I wouldn't want to see you as a clown for making a stupid joke like that. Because we will continue to exist here.

[finalring]

Ahaha, we'll see who the clown is in the end.

[ he can laugh too! it has no joy behind it, and the smile doesn't reach his eyes. ] I didn't know you very well, Rin, but I'm guessing you must be a sore loser. So I'm sorry in advance.

[tsunderine]

[it's okay, she can echo chamber the whole 'empty laugh' thing because honestly she is not in the best of moods right now and it shows.

but he's right about one thing--

she is a sore loser.

however,]

You can't be a sore loser if there's nothing left to lose.

[finalring]

I suppose that's true, too.

[ he shrugs. ]

So even though Battler will probably join you, you still consider it a loss...? [ he smiles sadly. ]

I'm sorry for your loss, then.

[tsunderine]

Naturally.

After all... I said it before to you, didn't I? He was my prey. I wanted to be the one to do him in.

[finalring]

...I suppose that's one way to show your love for him. It's probably the only way that you have left.

[ ... ]

What will you do when Hikage joins you?

[tsunderine]

That's for me to know. . . and for you to never find out, okay?

[finalring]

...

[ well, that just earns a shrug from him. ]

I'd say that torturing him would be giving him what he wants, but you won't pay attention to me, now will you?

[tsunderine]

There are ways to torture someone without giving them what they want, doctor.

[a lack of torture can be its own torture for someone who is into torture]

[finalring]

[ ....

he taps the table a couple times, thinking. ]

I suppose there are.

[ he sighs, closing his eyes. the sight of date shooting hikage comes to mind, like an unwanted playback. a part of him toys with the idea of vengeance, about how easy it would be to fall back into that anger that is growing within him.

but... ]

Just being the way you are must be torture enough for all of you. None of you deserve that.

[tsunderine]

[immediate:]

That's a lie.

[she says no more than that... at first, anyway.]

Maybe Battler-kun didn't deserve it.

But I certainly did.

[finalring]

Because of what happened to your sister?

[ he shakes his head. ]

You were already suffering and repenting because of it. This is just...too much. It's a never-ending hell for you and everyone else.

1 / ?

[tsunderine]

Repenting...?

2 / ?

[tsunderine]

[she folds her arms and keeps herself in, lowering her head as if she's guilty about something...

her shoulders seem to shake-]

3 / ?

[tsunderine]

[-and for a moment, her breathing stops before it catches in her throat-]

4 / 4, done

[tsunderine]

[--but then, she just stops.

stops talking altogether.

for a good minute, maybe two, maybe three, she's utterly silent. allowing Romani to react, to bask in that silence until-

she

laughs.

it's a broken, stilted laugh. a huge contrast to something cruel.]

Ha... I told you to stop joking, didn't I?

I have never, not once, fully repented for my sins. Don't you think life's unfair? Sakura's just outright dead, but at least now I finally have the chance at being able to talk to Battler-kun again.

[finalring]

[ at first, romani’s somewhat disturbed. for the first minute, at least. he doesn’t know what to say to the way that her shoulders shake and her expression twists...

but when she finally starts laughing, broken and wrong, he...doesn’t seem to be too shaken by it. ]

And what difference does that make? You were torn in half and Battler nearly drowned in his own blood and you’ll have to suffer through that pain for as long as this curse continues.

[ he frowns. ]

That’s far worse than simply dying.

[tsunderine]

It's what I deserve, doctor.

So... it's fine.

[finalring]

No, it's not.

[ he takes one of the pieces in his hand--a pawn--looking at it in what might even be deep consideration. ]

But there's nothing that we can do about it for now. [ aside from holding out for a miracle in the next twenty years. ]

[tsunderine]

Stop saying that.

[her words come off as a growl; frustrated, balled into tight fists by her side as her eyes gaze at the pawn in his hand]

It's not true, anyway. [it's not, it's not, it's not-] And of course there isn't.

Nobody could stop the train that we're on. There are no miracles in this world.

[finalring]

...

[ he'll settle the piece back down on the chessboard, silently looking away from rin. if you want him to stop saying that, then he will.

consider it his weak, pathetic act of defiance. ]

[tsunderine]

[and she, too says nothing more, unbothered as she just stares at him, watches him]