Week 5.

[trustharder]

WEEK 5 Three more have joined the deceased this past week. Taichi Yagami was punished for breaking a rule, Megumi Sakura was killed, and Norman Bates... well, the less said about Norman, the better. A third of you are dead now; your losses are becoming more and more evident with each passing week. 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 fifth floor. Go ahead and explore as much as you like; you'll probably need the distraction after the last trial. SURVIVORS REMAINING: 18 SURVIVORS REMAINING: 17

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[OOC: Welcome to week five 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 doesn't know if 'friends' is the best term to use here. Not that King wasn't close, of course, but just... Bruce never really thought about it. He doesn't really do the interpersonal relationships thing, for many reasons.]

...I felt responsible for him. [He was just a defenseless little thing thrust into this entire situation and Bruce simply felt like he should make sure to try and keep King safe. But he couldn't even accomplish that...

God.

Bruce lets out a sharp exhale and mindlessly thumps another bit of clay on the surface of table in front of him.]

[sleepingkogoro]

[Poor Bruce, Mouri pities him A part of Mouri tells him he should stop and leave Bruce alone, but another part tells him to keep going]

You aren't the only one who felt responsible for him. I think it was widely known Your Majesty needed more help than anyone else, and many of us had tried to keep an eye on him.

I don't know if he ever confided to anyone how he felt. It is hard to reach out towards somebody who refuses to let people get close to him. Emotionally.

[That is partly directed towards Bruce too. Come on, buddy, your emotional constipation is chronic and it won't get better until you try]

[amygdalae]

[YEAH WELL... good luck trying to get Bruce to open up, Mouri. Haha.]

...he said a few things to me. Before. [Most of them were really vague and could easily be written off, but Bruce could understand in some fashion. And of course, he never pried, because... why would he.

Another sharp exhale.]

I'm not angry over his decision. [Just in case Mouri was wondering--and really, Bruce being angry at people choosing to die would be... incredibly hypocritical of him.] I just wish I could have done something better to help.

[Because just the night before...god, Bruce doesn't know. He's too trapped in his own situation to really be able to think what he could have done.]

[sleepingkogoro]

[At your actual level of Understanding you won't be able to progress any further!

It is impossible for Mouri to get Bruce to ever open up and to be frank he knows it, but like hell he is going to just stand aside]

Nothing will get better by wishing to have done something better. It is not easy to accept it, but Your Majesty is gone.

There are people who could use your support, I bet. Since there's nothing to be done for those who are gone why not to focus on those who are still alive?

[And set yourself for some serious heartache once they potentially die, but who doesn't cherish pain in a murdergame]

[amygdalae]

[Bruce has accepted that King is gone, really - there is nothing bad in death, nothing about it to fear - its just... everything that led up to it.]

...I'm sure everyone here can manage themselves. [If anything you all have been trying to look out for him since the thing he did not too long ago, which... he appreciates a bit, but honestly he also knows that ultimately a lot of the problem just stems from himself.]

[sleepingkogoro]

...

[Mouri throws his hands up in mild exasperation and enters the storage. He takes a sketchbook where he had several drawings already finished, and started making a new one. Since he thinks it would be kind of rude to break the bricks right now drawing seems like another way to deal with the frustration]

...we can deal with ourselves. That is true.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything. To give you an example...I wasn't feeling well last Thursday. I had thought I could deal with everything that could happen here, but I found myself breaking down under...pressure. [He is trying his hardest not to think for too long about the exact cause] A few people came to talk to me, and...that was enough. They listened and I felt better after a few hours. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Just being concerned enough to try to find out what is wrong could be enough. You don't have to do anything big.

[Shrug]

I suppose I'll change topic, just in case.

What is your world like?

[amygdalae]

[Bruce is silent as Mouri speaks, hands barely working on the brick that he's halfway in making. Talking helps - Bruce knows that, yes, and he even suggested that to others with their own problems, but. His problems? His issues? Talking is the last thing that will actually help.

...and yes, he knows how incredibly hypocritical it is for him to be thinking that, but its not like he's actually a good person in any sense of the word.]

I'll keep that in mind.

[That is at least a concession he'll make, if anything.

At the question about his world, Bruce just gives a slight shrug.]

The same like most other people from Earth. There's nothing special about it.

[sleepingkogoro]

Really? No magic, no aliens, no people turning into, I don't know, cyborgs when it is full moon?

[Finally, somebody else coming from a sane world like Mouri's?]

[amygdalae]

[...]

Not usually.

[...well.]

[sleepingkogoro]

...thought so. Looks like I really am the only one from a mundane world. If you didn't come from one then nobody else could have.

[Mouri sounds so resigned]

It was the cyborgs part, I bet. Now it's going to be revealed you are a cyborg.

[amygdalae]

[......]

I'm not a cyborg.

[Yes, this is the important part.]

And no, there aren't any cyborgs.

[Unless you count Iron Man... which probably doesn't fit as well, anyway.]

[sleepingkogoro]

That is too bad.

It is strange how this Vault has everything. Robots, aliens, vampires, Sakura-san's world had undead people...I think all that is left now is for somebody to be a werewolf.

[Wait, he is forgetting something]

Ghosts are missing too. I had thought Mettaton-kun was something possessing a robot body. I even told that to his face. I did deduce correctly he is not a robot - he is a vessel for a soul, apparently - but he said he is alive and still a monster.

What is made of memories and can possess a robot body while not being dead and apparently not being a ghost?

[...somehow Mouri thinks Bruce could give some new insight to that. Yeah, the detective is still stuck on what Mettaton is, even though he stumbled dangerously close onto the real answer]

[amygdalae]

[...when Mouri puts it like that - yeah, they're... certainly a bunch of something.

As for Mettaton...]

...I'm not an expert in this. [Why are you even asking him, Mouri.] My main assumption is that he simply transferred his mind - his 'soul' - into the body that he's now in.

[He did say before that his 'soul' and the motherboard was different, so...]

[sleepingkogoro]

[Ÿou doctor, therefore you smart. That was literally his reasoning for asking Bruce]

That is what I said, he is a vessel. [And since Bruce got to the same conclusion then it is the correct one. Confidence goes up]

...

I had never been interested in stuff like robots or monsters before. I think the Vault has changed me in some ways. It wouldn't be such a bad place to be if it weren't for the whole murder part. The people would have made it interesting enough.

[amygdalae]

[He's probably a bit more than 'just' a vessel, but you know what? We can go with that.

Moving on now, Bruce nods to Mouri's next words.]

It's not something most would think about - at least until it happens, anyway.

[The... robot and monsters part he means. Not murder.]