trusthell | we're all living under loaded gun

we're all living under loaded gun

[Every week was bad, but this one? This one most likely has hit them all the hardest.

All well, almost all of them. Bruce certainly can't speak for everyone here... not that there's a lot of them left now.

Anyway.

Working with Speedwagon in the kitchen the two of them whip up a decent, simple fare of food just so that their stomachs won't go empty - Bruce knows that a lot of them won't have much of an appetite at all after what happened, and he can't blame them. He doesn't have much of one himself even after the food is done.

Once everything is set up in the dining hall a couple of hours later after everything that happened downstairs Bruce goes around to slip a notice to every body's room. (Everyone that is still alive, that is.)]

I know what happened was hard to take in. I feel the same as well.
If you wish to be alone I understand, but if you need company, or somebody to talk to... there is food in the dining hall made by Speedwagon and I.

I sincerely hope to see you there.

- B. Banner

[For Sigrun and Cherryblod respectively, he'll have the note along with a plate of some food from the gathering by their door.

As mentioned earlier, there's a small fare of simple, light food and snacks for everyone to eat if they have the stomach for it. For better or for worse there's alcohol too, although Bruce certainly isn't going anywhere near it. But if anybody needs that drink after what happened, he can't blame them for the need for it, either.]

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Hey.

[Stan doesn't mean to corner Bruce in the chapel, except that's sort of exactly what he meant to do.]

Thanks for settin' all that up down there.

[Bruce glances over to Stan when the man approaches him, and he does try to smile, but its obvious how flat it is right now.]

...it's the least I could do, after... [Trailing off here. After what happened, he wants to say, but he supposes he doesn't have to. What happened... he knows how much of a mess it was, how badly it affected everyone. But yet--

It's a hard pill to swallow, honestly.]

Still. You didn't have to.

[He didn't come help this time. Probably should've. That whole thing was just pretty draining.]

I think I had to.

[The best way he can make his apology for what he had to do, honestly. He knows that certain people probably won't be fond of him now after what had transpired.]

...what, are you feelin' bad about what happened in there?

[Not the whole thing with Mettaton - that makes sense to feel bad about. Stan wasn't super close to him, but even he was a bit stung. Feeling responsible, however, is a whole other thing.]

[Bruce is quiet for a moment, looking at Aqua's portrait again as he toys with the charm in his hands. He hadn't really ever looked at it much, feeling like he really didn't deserve her kindness and her gifts and... everything, really. She was far too good of a person.

(Just like Betty.)]

...it was painful to see them. [A beat, and then Bruce elaborates further.] Captain Eide and Cherryblod. They were so desperate to believe otherwise, but I kept pushing anyway. Even though I knew it probably wouldn't end well.

[Even now he remembers Sigrun screaming at him, the pain and disbelief in her voice. It reminds him of... many other things.]

Wouldn'tve ended well if we all died for his sake either.

I ain't sayin' they would've let it get that far... [Though he doesn't sound entirely convinced. He wonders. About Sigrun, at least - she let it go a long while.] I ain't even sure that's what he wanted. You did what you had to do. For everybody.

[It's hard to blame Sigrun, especially now when Bruce is fully aware of how much Mettaton meant to her. He was the reason why she could just... keep going, really. And now he pulled something like this--its hard to imagine. Bruce can, if only because he knows what it's like to be betrayed by somebody you had trusted so much.

It's not a good feeling.]

We were never meant to solve this case. [He just says it, the same as he had said near the end of the trial - they'd die, or die trying to solve what Mettaton had done.] ...and Mettaton never needed to reveal anything to us, either.

[After all it wasn't as if they could have proven anything--it was only after Mettaton revealed himself then did everything fall into place.]

Yeah, he was a better liar than that. If he wanted, he could've pulled it off.

[No one would have thought to check his boots. There's probably no way he predicted he'd get sniffed, but even so nobody could have disproved that story about the ink. If he'd played it off right, he would've had a chance.

...personally, Stan thinks that if Mettaton didn't want to win anyway, he should've just refused to follow his orders and taken the punishment. Dead's dead, no matter how you get there. But now doesn't seem like the night to be saying so.]

He could have. But he didn't.

[Maybe because of Sigrun and Cherryblod? Or something else? They'll never really know now, won't they. Just as with everyone else who's lost their lives here in this place.

There's so little of them now compared to when they began.]

...I liked him too. We tended to talk a lot late at night. [A pause, and then a small laugh that doesn't really sound happy.] He told me I reminded him a lot of his creator.

We talked some about business. He said I was the kinda person he'd hire.

[They also talked a lot about murder for entertainment, but it's not like everyone doesn't know about that now. No need to harp on it.]

I didn't get him in a lotta ways. But he was alright.

...yeah, he was pretty alright.

[Says with a wry smile. Mettaton was a pretty alright person, all things considered. If only he hadn't done this...

Well, too late to reflect on that now.

He turns his gaze to Aqua's portrait again, then to King's, expression quickly turning sad again.]

It's just so strange now, thinking about it. [Back all those weeks ago when Mettaton spoke with him... he gave some words that helped Bruce kept on going. And now things ended up like this--its just hard.]

I used to think it was funny how much he texted the Kingmaker. But hell, I like to bother the guy, too. Never thought it was anything like that.

...wonder what was special about this week. [Is he getting that desperate for murder? It's not like there's been a lack.]

[A small nod. Yeah, Bruce had just thought it was Mettaton being... well, Mettaton. He didn't think it could be... any of this.

Too late to think of that now, too. But that aside--]

He really wanted us dead, for some reason. [Mettaton said as much, again - they'd die here, or just die trying to figure out what happened to Aqua.]

He always wants that.

Maybe he just couldn't think of a good reward this week. [That's such a stupid reason for all of this to have happened. Stan sort of wishes he hadn't floated it at all.]

I suppose it's a good thing, in a way.

[It meant that whatever the Kingmaker threw at them wouldn't have any effect any more. Or at least that's what Bruce hopes.

Certainly he wouldn't have asked Mettaton to step in if he still could find a way to make somebody act.]

Like we're narrowin' down to the people who aren't gonna kill at all? Yeah, maybe.

[Stan feels like everyone has some reason. It all comes down to how well they're handling the situation - if he'd really, truly believed that killing someone was the only way to save his familys' lives that week, he would've had to do it. Wouldn't he?

Whatever. He won't buy into this apocalypse bull.]

You think we can get to that point?

...I certainly hope so.

[Bruce himself knows he could never do it, anyway. He could never value anybody's life more than another's. Which is why this whole thing has taken its toll on him, right from the start - week after week he's forced to deal with somebody dying and then sending another person to die just for that. It would be a lie if he said if he got any better at dealing with that.]

We've already lost so much. I just hope we don't lose even more already.

[Well don't hold your breath, Bruce]

I dunno. I think there's enough folks here who won't turn on each other. Especially the longer we're stuck here. Somethin's gotta give sometime.

There's only so much all of us can take.

[And only so many people here to die.]

If nothing else, I'd rather go down tryin' to fight.

I don't want to give him the satisfaction of letting him have his way.

[Bruce has no qualms about dying and death in general, but letting the Kingmaker win? No, Bruce isn't going to let that happen.]

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we're all living under loaded gun

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