Week 9.

[trustharder]

WEEK 9 For the first time since your stay in the Vault began, no one died this week. That doesn't mean there weren't casualties among you, however – namely, trust, interpersonal relationships, and comfort in the group dynamic as a whole. Hopefully no one else pays the price for it. Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; there aren't any bodies to be found on Sunday morning. You're safe for now – unless your dreams have told you otherwise... SURVIVORS REMAINING: 10

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week nine of Trustfell! Save your threads for coins; don't forget to submit your memory regains! There is no activity check this week!

THE FINAL INVESTIGATION BEGINS ON THURSDAY!
THIS IS THE LAST WEEK TO REDEEM COINS!
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!]

Comments

[goodforsomething]

That's not the same thing. Cherry made his own choices. It ain't like you woke up one day and decided you wanted to hurt people.

[He doesn't know the specifics, but that much is clear to him. Ford may have gotten the smart genes, but Stan's the one who knows people.]

...last time someone around here had an killer alter-ego, you said he was a victim, too.

[amygdalae]

He was, for what was done to him before.

[One doesn't quite forget Bates and his... entire thing, certainly.]

But it doesn't justify what he's done, just as it doesn't justify what I've done, too.

[goodforsomething]

It makes a difference. None of it would've happened if someone hadn't screwed you over.

[His feelings on the two aren't quite the same - funny, but it's easier to hold seven murdered women in his mind than the large but vague mass of people killed by Bruce's...whatever.

Stan knows he won't convince Bruce that he's a good person just like that, but by the same token Bruce won't convince him that he's a monster. All he can really do is say what's on his mind.]

Lots of guys would just take that and run with it. It doesn't make everything go away, but it's an easy out, y'know? A bad person sure as hell wouldn't feel the way you do.

cw: suicide ideation i suppose

[amygdalae]

A person like me shouldn't even have existed in the first place.

[Even from young that's what he had been ingrained into him. He wasn't supposed to be here, he was just an accident, something that was never meant to be. And isn't that so much more true now? He's nothing but a monster trying to be a man, pretending that he can have anything when he deserves nothing. He was never meant to be.

Not for the first time, he selfishly wishes that death could have been an escape for him - but he knows better. It's ironic; perhaps in this one place where he could die, even that wasn't going to be able to give him the peace he so desperately wanted.]

I was supposed to die, but I didn't. And now I can't.

[He knows. He tried.]

[goodforsomething]

[Something in that first statement seems to strike Stan; he turns and looks away for a moment, mouth twitching downwards.]

Who told you that?

[The question is quiet, possibly rhetorical. At any rate, he doesn't wait for a response before circling around to sit on the pew instead - not really next to Bruce, there's enough room there to give him a bit of space. He folds his arms over his chest.]

You can't? [Considering the supernatural stuff all around, he honestly isn't sure how literally to interpret that.]

[amygdalae]

[At least Stan isn't expecting an answer to the first one because Bruce sure as hell isn't going to say anything. He stays quiet and takes another small bite of his sandwich, although at least that also means he doesn't quite chase away Stan when the other moves to sit on the pew with him.

There's a long pause in between Stan's question and Bruce's eventual response, which he does give after he's swallowed down his bite of the sandwich.]

I tried.

[...its up to Stan how he wants to interpret that.]

[goodforsomething]

[Oh, honey.

Stan sits still for a moment, then nods silently. He knows how to interpret that.]

Yeah, me too.

[No need to explain further.

He's quiet a moment longer, looking up at the altar in front of the chapel in thought. It's funny - he's never been religious, and this was probably never meant as a temple, but he's spent an awful lot of time in here, hasn't he? All this must bring it out in people.]

You might not wanna hear this, but I'm glad you didn't. [Being happy that someone got to live long enough to get trapped in Murder Bunker. Now he's really done it all.]

[amygdalae]

[No need to explain at all. It certainly does help Bruce understand why Stan is here, though. Even if their circumstances are different, the would be end result would still be the same. And that's enough for them both.

Bruce takes another bite of the sandwich, especially silent at Stan's latter words. Its another long pause before he does eventually respond.]

...I'm glad you're here.

[...its the best he can bring himself to return the sentiment. He doesn't want to think of the fact that so many people have died in here, that all of them have used the lives of others to live on in this place. But despite everything that's happened, all the suffering and betrayal they've gone through... he is glad Stan is around. That nobody decided to kill him. He doesn't deserve that kind of fate.]

[goodforsomething]

...guess I am too.

[Even here, he is. He's sorry that the Vault had to exist at all, that any of this had to happen, but he's not certain he exactly regrets being here. It's one of those experiences that's terrible, but you'd lose something if it had never happened at all. Besides, better him than someone else.

Whatever his intentions were with Bill, better that he survived it.]

Thanks.