Week 4.

[trustharder]

WEEK 4 And as the third week in the Vault comes to a close and the fourth week begins, the Survivors are once again down by two. Mion Sonozaki died on her own terms, and Yato died fulfilling his duty as God of Fortune in the best way that he knew how; the shrine built in the game room on Saturday stands in their memory. 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 fourth floor. Go ahead and explore as much as you like; even if the Kingmaker sounded a bit unhappy with you last weekend, the fact remains that you're still doing what you seem to have been brought here to do. SURVIVORS REMAINING: 21 SURVIVORS REMAINING: 20

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week two 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!]

Comments

[amygdalae]

[Bruce would have been perfectly fine if Mettaton didn't want to talk about it - god knows Bruce himself is hardly the pinnacle of stable emotions in general. But considering everything, and as much as Bruce would like to not talk about it he probably owes Mettaton this much at the very least. So he'll try. As much as he can.]

It's... well, I appreciate it.

[It's hard to say if its better or worse - in a way it feels like both, the thought that people actually think that he matters. Pragmatically he can see why, but in terms of emotions--its hard to really make a coherent thought right now.]

Every week when this happens... [He trails off and stares up at the makeshift shrine again.] Every time I see what happens its so hard to not count the lives already lost.

[The people they had to lose in order to keep going. Bruce knows he can probably never forget no matter how hard he tries to.]

[ratingspoint]

...It's predictable to say that dying won't bring them back. It's also boring, cliché and...more than a little twee? So I'm not going to waste our time by trying to follow that line of dialogue, if you don't mind. We both already know it, anyway.

[He hesitates for a moment at that, though.]

It's easier, though. To think that maybe if you do something like that, it'll stop. That you'll put an end to it and you'll keep everyone safe.

I'm familiar with it, darling. Believe me.

[amygdalae]

[Both of them do know it, and it would be wasting time just going through that anyway, so Bruce does appreciate Mettaton skipping over it - Bruce isn't sure how well he would have taken that, anyway.

But that aside--]

I should know better than that. [He says quietly, and in a way almost tiredly, too.] And I do know. Its just...

[Bruce trails off and sighs, sharp and sudden, and shakes his head.]

Its frustrating, not being able to stop it no matter what any of us tries to do.

[ratingspoint]

But what we offered to do would have been something, right?

[If there's any bitterness involved, it isn't aimed at Bruce; it's a bit difficult to tell exactly where it's aimed, but there's not enough proper bite for it to be a cheap shot like that.]

[amygdalae]

...yeah.

[Just that one word, quiet and soft and so very tired. He's just so tired everywhere and it shows now more than ever.

But Mettaton is right - what they did... it certainly would have been something. Not a very good something, but a something nonetheless.]

[ratingspoint]

[He studies the shrine for a moment; it's easier to focus his attention there rather than look Bruce in the face.]

...I don't think there's anything wrong with what we did.

[And that's...probably fucked up, but it's true.]

I really don't think it would be better for me to die than anyone else - I think I'm the most important person in the world. It's just that sometimes you need to give up important things for what you want, and I want to protect the people I care about, even if it's only buying them some time.

So there were different reasons behind it, but what it comes down to is we know what we want, and we're willing to give up whatever we need to in order to achieve it.

Determination, right?

[amygdalae]

[Bruce himself is in no position to really say what's okay and what is not okay, honestly; Mettaton has his points but at the same time its easy to see the other side of the story... other sides, rather. Everyone all have their reasons as Mettaton says but sometimes it doesn't make anything less right or wrong. Sometimes things simply... are.]

Determination. [He echoes back, the word almost foreign to him. There's a pause after that, and then a wry smile crosses his face.] That's one way to put it.

[All of them are sure as hell determined to get out of this place and end this... somehow.]

[ratingspoint]

[And that just gets a noncommittal humming noise out of him; the word has strange connotations for him too, and there's an irony to it here, really, in this particular circumstance.]

They say it can save everyone, where I'm from. I don't know about that, but...it's a thought, anyway.

[amygdalae]

[Determination... the power to save everyone? Bruce isn't sure how those two can relate and he guesses there's a story behind that, but now isn't the time and place for that. Maybe another day, perhaps.

Another day.

It's hard to dwell on that, somehow.]

I suppose--holding on, moving on, everything most of us are trying to do now--that's determination, in its own way.

[The strength to move forward, to keep going, to never give up. Bruce certainly wishes he could have that.]

[ratingspoint]

Exactly.

[And that's all he really was getting at; he's aware that determination can be a horrifically fucked up thing, even if all of his knowledge is secondhand, and he isn't terribly interested in discussing it otherwise.

The point, however, is that we're going to be moving forward whether we really like it or not. Might as well do so willingly.]

Give up if you want, darling. I'm not going to stop you. But I have better things to do, and besides, there's someone that's too important to me to do that - someone who would never forgive me if I died here.

Tell me if you need anything.

[And that, for the time being, is all; he'll take his leave.]