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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...]

I wouldn't ask you to look to anyone else for it. No one else would understand, anyway, and... I'll bet there's more than a few people who gladly pushed that button, who honestly were celebrating his death at the gatherings we usually have, because he was nothing but a traitor to them, someone who worked with the Kingmaker to get us all killed one way or another.

[The thought occurred to her last night and stuck with her all morning, though. That he didn't have to confess to being a kill switch. That he could've just blamed someone else or waited until they were all tired and made their "best guess". But he did, because he's Mettaton, because he likes a show and... because, maybe, he didn't want them to die, yeah.]

There might have been. [And he wants nothing to do with those people, frankly.]

But somebody told me that if the people here let my past negate all the time we spent together and all the kindness I showed them, then we weren't really friends in the first place. ...Think it's similar, now.

[Sigrun has a surprised laugh at that, because isn't that just the worst, to have your words thrown back at you like that?]

Guess so. But for all they know, he was just being... You know. The way he was.

[When he wasn't around certain people. She knows he didn't perform for her, and honestly? That hurts a lot now, as much as she loves him for it, it makes this whole thing as worse as it is comforting.]

He wasn't that way all the time. Even if they don't know that, I know.

[Maybe nothing he said meant anything to Mettaton. Maybe that's true.

But Cherryblod has heard his voice too often like that. That was him when he's trying his hardest to put on an act. This time, for Cherryblod's sake.]

[Definitely putting up an act for Cherryblod. Sigrun's been able to tell that for a long time now, both from being able to read people (how it was at first) and knowing the different sides she does of him now.

Her grip'll tighten.]

Yeah, he wasn't. I almost wish he had been, because maybe it'd be easier just to hate him.

[That'd be a different kind of pain. Not this solid ache she's feeling, but a burning ball that would sear her to doing something outside of this.]

Is it bad I can't hate him? Even now? Just because he never pretended with me, not even in the end when he could've and it would've been easier. I feel so stupid like this. I've been a captain for so long, I've had people die before, I've never been able to stop them either but--

[she's just going to go on if someone doesn't stop her, honestly, even if her tightening throat is doing it pretty well. Trying to stay strong in front of the one person she doesn't have to when to comes to this is too difficult for her, she's exhausted.]

[Will hugging her interrupt her, because he's just going to do that. Again.]

It's not bad. He meant so much to you, and you were important to him - it's hard to hate people like that.

[He understands, a little. The way Yosuke told him he just couldn't hate him, despite everything Cherryblod had done, even when he was conflicted after Misa's trial.]

You're a person before you're a captain. That's just how it is.

[The hug certainly will interrupt her, and Cherry was right in telling Bruce that she's probably worse off than him from everything she's said.

It's a very small comfort. Both the hug and the words, and as much as Cherryblod is one of the last people she wants to be around he is the only one who could understand even an inch of what she's feeling, so he's getting the tightest hug back. Ever.]

I wish I wasn't a person. It's made these past weeks so hard. I didn't even get to spoil him for being honest or thank him for not calling me a failure or-- anything like that.

[... As long as Cherryblod doesn't comment on his shoulder getting wet, she won't hide the fact she's kind of crying again. This is the most she's done it since she lost her first few squadrons and felt more helpless than a newborn kitten.]

I don't want to be the leader anymore, Cherry, there's so many more people fit for it than me. Like you. Really, you, because you still pushed for the truth when I just wanted to cover it up and pretend like it was someone else.

[Don't worry. He's definitely not going to comment on the wet shoulder, and just hold her tightly in return.]

...I don't agree with that. I think I'm better as your right hand than as a leader myself. I can support you when you need it - and everyone needs it, sometimes, there's nothing to be ashamed of there - but you're still the best we have.

[He doesn't doubt it, even after all this.]

I don't see how you can say that.

[She sounds as exhausted as she feels now, no point in hiding it. She's been marking up a list in her mind of people who'd make a better leader than her and Cherry's at the top.]

I really, really don't.

[...He understands why.]

Won't try to convince you, then.

[He gives her another squeeze.]

I hate this. This whole thing. This shouldn't have happened.

"This whole thing" is us being here, right? Kidnapped or saved or whatever the hell anyone wants to call it.

[A kind of hollowish chuckle.]

I didn't mind it as long as I had my feet on the ground. I was thankful, even, because I'd gotten to meet people and... [Her voice goes soft, almost like she's afraid of anyone else hearing.] I got to meet Mettaton. [It'll rise in strength again.] I thanked that bastard for it too, once, and this morning I took it back. I took everything I've ever said to him back. And as much as anyone might want to kill him first, I already declared his life mine.

[So they can do whatever they want, but she wants to be the one that ends it.]

I'll grant you that. I felt the same way - that even if it was terrible, at least I met people that I cared for who cared for me.

[His voice is soft, and he looks down.]

You have the right. Do whatever you want to him.

I plan to.

[It won't be a quick and painless death like she'd give to anyone else, but she wouldn't drag it out more the necessary either; there's satisfaction to be gained from being hated so much and like hell if she's giving him that.

Sigrun draws away, wiping off her face and steeling her tone.]

Do you want to know everything I learned about him? I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, but I really don't care about if I'm breaking promises or not right now. Might come in useful if someone but me knows.

[Just in case, seeing as she's... the way she is right now and they've had a good streak of girls getting killed.]

[Cherryblod draws back too, hands falling to his sides.]

I don't mind. All I really know that I haven't told people at large is that he thinks he's an Aquarius, and I can't see that coming in handy.

[He lets out a soft 'heh' at that. It'd be something if they solved this puzzle because he bugged the Kingmaker about astrology once.[

A lot of the stuff is what I've told all of you. He's like us, this isn't his world, and he was surrounded by people once. He's got good memories because of that, even if he's not sure how long he's been here himself.

[...]

He had a friend once, apparently. Sounds like someone he thought dearly of. Every time I brought it up to try and see if I could get more out of him about that friend he'd pretty much refuse to answer, and I've gotten him upset more than once prying.

What I do know is that his friend wasn't someone he would've ordinarily befriended, but they became friends through circumstance. He was just as if not more stubborn than the Kingmaker himself, a really driven guy who'd do anything he put his mind to, and... at some point, they weren't friends anymore.

[A shrug.]

He got really upset when I asked if that friend of his died. Have you ever heard him really upset? Because it was kind of freaky, really, he stumbled over his words and couldn't speak. His friend didn't have a title the way we do, either, though I don't know what that could mean. It's just... interesting, I guess, because he doesn't usually get attached to people, but there was that guy he did get attached to, to the point that he actually apologized to me for not being able to answer.

[That was something she remembered really well, just because he doesn't usually apologize.]

They made a pretty good team, apparently.

[look at all that fucking shit she learned about him]

...He apologized to me yesterday too. For the wife thing.

[Twice, actually, if you count 'I'm sorry for your loss' as an apology.]

It's weird when he does that.

[...]

I am not sure how to feel about that, actually. I mean, I know he's only human, and... stuff, because I was treating him like one until just this morning, but...

[Him actually feeling some amount of remorse for stuff like that is weird.]

Neither am I.

...I still hate him, but. It's just strange.

[It was easier to hate him before that conversation. He's tired of everything, now.]

Thank you for telling me all that.

Considering I'm the only one who asked him personal questions and treated him like a person, apparently, it's not knowledge I want to take to my grave.

[And if he feels betrayed by it, well then. Fucking good.]

I actually thought that the locket thing might've been his friend's. Or his. Maybe one of the other people he knew before, but... it's been stuck in my mind. Especially since when I asked him about it he got really irritated.

In our defense, it's easier to hate a faceless captor when you don't bother to get to know them at all.

...He told me some things about Mettaton last night.

[It always comes back to him, doesn't it.]

That he said there were people he would refuse to kill even if he was assigned them. He didn't specify, but the Kingmaker thought you were one.

[... It really does. Mourning sucks, even if she's smiling despite herself. Stupid robot. He still manages to sweet talk her from beyond the grave and make her feel so... special.]

You had to be one too then. What else?

That he talked about the other survivors sometimes, and he talked about you a lot. And me. I didn't ask about specifics.

[It felt just a bit too invasive.]

[Auuuugh she's actually covering her face.]

I knew he talked about me a lot, because who wouldn't, but to that guy?

[Sigrun's oddly pleased for someone who should be feeling mortified. She's also really curious??? Great. Sigrun rubs her face, grinning sheepishly.]

I was a real jerk to him earlier, but do you think he'd tell me what Mettaton said? I'm really, really wondering now.

He might, if he understands it was not the best time for you, and I think he might.

If he was as close to his friend as I was to Mettaton, he probably does.

[She's still gonna kill him and she still hates his guts, but... well. Yeah.

The phone's taken from her side and she fiddles with it a little, wondering if she should do it now while she's still in a curious mood or later when she's still not torn up.]

I just don't know if I want to hear it all now or later. I was satisfied with knowing that nothing was fake and... I made him feel the way he made me feel, [which is, oh my god, the most embarrassing thing once again, as happy as she is,] but now that you've said that, Cherry. You know?

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