trusthell | WEEK 7.

WEEK 7.

WEEK 7
Two more Survivors have left you; Aqua was killed in cold blood and Mettaton... well, your thoughts on Mettaton probably vary depending on how close you were to him, but either way he chose to end Aqua's life and paid the price for it.

There are so few of you now.

Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; there aren't any bodies to be found on Sunday morning. But that doesn't mean the night was uneventful - it seems something else may have brought you some newfound clarity. Or perhaps not...

Once again, that spiral staircase leads farther than you remember, clear up to a previously inaccessible seventh floor. Go ahead and explore as much as you like; you've done well. You've earned it.

SURVIVORS REMAINING: 12

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week six of Trustfell! Save your threads for coins and the coming week's activity check; don't forget to check in to this week's activity check and submit your memory regains!

The text and calling posts are still active, for the sake of contacting the jerk who's keeping you here, to be used at your leisure!]

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[... Ah. Alright. Bruce, buddy, you're getting Sigrun's patented one-armed hug.]

So that's what you meant. It's not exactly the same, since... Well. Mettaton told me once that he didn't perform in front of me, so every moment and thing he said was true, it wasn't like he was using me or anything. In fact, I'm positive it hurt him more to know that he might have to betray me like that one day.

... But I get what you're feeling. Moving on from that...

[How's she put it. It's easy for her, just keep thinking that it was a job he ended up regretting even a smidge and it's fine.]

... You know, if you don't mind trolls, my world could use a brain like yours. And if you've got nothing left, if there's nothing for you anywhere else, then you should make your own something. Just like Mettaton did here, for better or worse.

When you're faced with things like that, then it's just easier to put it behind you than to deal with it right away. You can pick it up now and again, wonder if it's worth it, if it was worth anything at all, and if there's parts that were worth it you keep them. Even if they abandoned you, even if they used you, there was a way they changed you -- again, for better or worse -- and that's what's made you who you are today. And you're a great man, Bruce. Anyone who'd just drop you off like that is losing out.

[--oh. Hug. Those are really going around, aren't they.

...not that they're bad, though. Bruce tries to return the hug, even as awkward as it is, and its surprising how he does feel a bit better after that. A bit, but its better than nothing.]

I know they're not bad people, its just... [They made bad choices? And Bruce himself wasn't exempt, of course, but he had a line. And he never wanted to cross that, but he was forced to anyway. And now he just... had to pay the price.

Maybe he did deserve to go through all this. But not anybody else.

Then again, it really doesn't matter right now.]

I'm really not that great of a person. [He knows its something he said a lot by now, but he honestly--he really doesn't think he is.] I've done a lot of things that hurt people. I made things that ended up ruining lives. Working with them... I thought it was a chance to fix my mistakes - but all it ended up doing was the exact opposite.

Edited 2016-04-12 20:35 (UTC)

[That's right, you're hugging the second best hugger in the vault! It's good.]

And what do you think about yourself now? About this place, having met the people you know and lived with them for a month and a half. Or so. A month and a half or so. Give it some real thought before you answer.

[Bruce thinks. He thinks long and hard and with a lot of though. And the answer he eventually comes up with is--]

...I don't know.

[Well. He tried.]

[That's fine. Some people can't psyche themselves up on the spot, unlike her.]

You've been nothing but a help here. You set up our meetings, you study the bodies for causes of death, you bring everything together in such a neat and orderly manner I'm sure we would've been lost without you, if you'd been chosen that week.

You're smart and nice, you care about others and as much as you'd like to take on a burden alone so as not to bother everyone else you do open up if asked. At least, as far as I know. You're more than just your brain and usefulness to this group. You're a firm part of it that can't be replaced. I can't think of anyone who thinks badly of you, and... lately, you're definitely my second pick to be leader if something happens to me.

Cherry's first, so it'd be nice if you two worked together.

[...]

Of course, what I say won't make any of your doubts disappear, but I just wanted you to know that the Bruce I know now, the one I've lived near for what feels like longer than it is, is something I respect and admire, someone who I could only call a great man, even if his own thoughts wouldn't like that. Your past makes you, but it doesn't own you. What happened to you then is a lesson, but it's not the only thing in your life. Got it?

[Honestly its a bit overwhelming, hearing all of that. It's just something he's so unused to, being told things like these. Even when he was with the rest of the Avengers in his dreams, the feeling of belonging wasn't fully there.

...it isn't fully here either, but with everything they've experienced--its strange how much more he can begin to trust them with.]

...of course I'd work with him. [Bruce is more than happy to help wherever he can, and helping out Cherryblod is not an issue at all.] And I... I don't know. It's all a bit hard to just take in all at once.

[Because while the past usually doesn't own people as Sigrun said, it certainly owns Bruce, because his mistakes will always literally live with him. Even if right now it doesn't apply, it doesn't change what he's done. People still have died because of him and he can't forget about that.]

So take it bit by bit. Start with the beginning and end up at the end. It doesn't matter how long you take to get there, just as long as you keep going.

[Sigrun's been at the fault of people dying more than once, too. It's not like she hasn't lost companies under her command. Had to tell families and explain the mistakes that'd led up to that point, tried to get stronger and more prepared so it couldn't happen again...

... but she's also a different kind of person than Bruce.]

You'll find your way. And I'll be there to help you.

[Will he ever find his way? Bruce doesn't know. He's 45 years old now and he still feels as lost as when he was 10 and terrified, when he was 16 with big dreams that would one day be fulfilled and then shattered. So much has happened to this point, and sometimes Bruce doesn't know who he is now - if he is the same man he always had tried to be or somebody else entirely.

Maybe that's what he had to find out.]

I suppose all I can do is to try.

[Just continuing to move forward, somehow, despite it all. Despite not wanting to do so. He has to, eventually.]

[Sigrun gives him a squeeze and scoots away.]

If it seems too difficult, just know you've got people who want to help you, too. You don't have to do anything you can't alone.

[And now she's a little sheepish, resting on one of her hands.]

... It's still a hard lesson for me to learn. Not that I'm used to being a loner or anything, I trust my team to do their jobs and they trust me to have something in mind, but the kind of support I've found here is something new. You know? A leader's nothing without her team, but... it doesn't meant that she can't rely on them in turn.

[Bruce listens to Sigrun's words and manages a nod after a pause. For her, as well as for him--learning to understand and accept the help from others has been something they had to learn in their own ways. The fact that they didn't have to deal with everything alone, that there were people who could help... it certainly was something.]

Yeah, I know. [He had been trying to shoulder everything alone as well, hadn't he? And... it'll be a while before he can actually make himself stop doing that instinctively, but he can try. As much as he can, anyway.] You are a great person and a leader, Captain--Sigrun. I'm sure anybody under you would be proud to have been led by you.

They were, for the record. I'm pretty much the best person back home, you know? The bestest of the best. There's no one who's above me, except the generals, but even then I'm well on my way to claiming a spot at the high table with my mom and dad.

[It wouldn't be Sigrun if she wasn't talking herself up. But she is genuinely touched a little, since... it still has been something she's struggling with lately, her high expectations of a good leader, and she gives him a hardy punch in the shoulder.]

I'll lead you guys out of here, too! I swear. And then you all can sing my praises to everyone you know, I'll be disappointed if you don't.

I'm not surprised to hear that.

[And as much as she doesn't say it Bruce can seem to tell that she does appreciate it, which Bruce is glad for. He can guess how shaken she must have been after what happened with Mettaton, so if his words can reassure her... then he's glad to be able to do that.

Although he really could do without that punch in the shoulder. Ow.

Bruce may be wincing a little here now, although that doesn't stop the smile from crossing his face.]

When we get out of here I'll do my best to compose a ballad in your name.

[Every time a culprit chooses the KM over her, she feels worse. Mettaton was special in that though. Of all people... and to have the job of doing that whenever--

... She has the idea that she should ask the Kingmaker what made him tell Mettaton to kill someone, though she's not sure if she'd get an answer.]

-- Ah, yeah, thanks. [Sorry for the distractedness, she's back home.] Though I don't take you for a very musical man, doc. That makes it even better!

[It's fine - Bruce does it half the time himself, so he can totally understand.]

I'm not. [Well at least he's honest about that.] But I'll try, for your sake.

[Just a hint of a wry smile here.]

[Awww.]

Thanks, darling, it means a lot to me. I'll look forward to hearing what you've got to say about me in time.

I'll do my best to be as through as possible about each and every one of your strengths.

Of which I have so, so many, I know. You'll be singing for half an hour.

[Clearly. But she gives a glance back at her notebook, taking it back up and laying on the bed again.]

I'll compose songs for all of you, too. You're all just as amazing as I am. Birds of a feather flock together and all that!

Maybe a bit more than half an hour.

[A small smile. Its strange how he does feel better but that's... what you get for talking with people, he supposes. Didn't Tony say as much in one of his dreams?]

But I'll look forward to your songs, too.

[Mettaton,

Today I was honest. It was weird. But I got someone else to be honest too, which was good, and I think my peptalk helped.

Yours,
Sigrun.]

You'd better! They're the best ones in all of Dalsnes, every warrior worth their salt comes to hear me sing! [And she'll wave him off, actually, tapping at her notebook.] When all this is over, doctor, you'll hear the songs I've written. I just hope my lyre lives that long.

With that much praise, I'll certainly have to stick around to hear it, then.

[He's half certain that Sigrun might be boasting a little, but hey, its not like its hurting anybody. And it's good to be able to see her back in good spirits.]

[She's often boasting a lot. And no one can call her out on her shit because, as far as they know, it's true.]

And if you don't, I'll just sing it at your funerary pyre with the rest of them. I'm holding a big one in their honor when I get the chance.

...if you have a song for each person it'll be quite the feat.

[Not composing them, that is. Just playing it straight for god knows how long.]

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WEEK 7.

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