bladeisme | Week 4, post execution

Week 4, post execution - All Reaper Meeting

[Today...

Had been a hell of a thing. He hadn't expected to get an extra execution and go down a member in the same day, but -

It was almost a blessing. Now, they could go all out - and not worry about what would happen next, or leaks from people they worked with. Now, everything was set - and they only had three more weeks to go.

The time for hiding and trying to kill each other had passed. Now? If they wanted the dead to come back, there was only one option available to them.

To work together, and lead the players to the conclusion the Composer wanted.

Ichigo tells everyone to meet up in the Bookstore, a few hours after the execution and everything has settled down. He's sitting on the couch in there, reading - or trying to read and failing - as everyone shuffles in, looking up whenever someone arrives. And when they're all there?

He takes a breath,and closes his book.]

...So.

Let's talk.

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['Brat' is a lot nicer than Undine had been expecting when Ichigo had mentioned this meeting at first, so she'll take that.

Then again, she also expected Jacopo and Izaya to be at this meeting when Ichigo had first mentioned it too. Those were the two she had been expecting to give her a hard time. But she would still take that hard time over them being dead, if she had the choice.

For now, she manages to smile.]

It wasn't entirely a lie, no. There really are some gaps in there.

[But those gaps were related to the magical girl stuff, not her being alone, so.]

But yeah, sorry for fibbing. It was my entry fee the first time around, so it was easy to pretend. I'm not actually that good of a liar, if you can believe that?

[ immediately: ] I can. Actually.

[ well, Alex can't talk. she basically just completely stopped pretending about her entrance fee this week. to everyone. especially Undine. ]

... Huh. [ still wrapping her head around this. ]

Yeah, it's...been a time.

[She drops off there, standing there a bit awkwardly. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop.]

Um...are you mad? That I didn't tell you, I mean.

[ Alex pats the space next to her. ]

No. I'm not mad. It's not like I told you, either.

To be fair, we weren't supposed to tell any Players anyway. And since I thought you were a player and you thought I was one, we were just following the rules.

['Don't reveal your role to players, or be erased' and all that jazz.

But once Alex indicates, Undine will go ahead and sit down next to her. Even though she's wearing her black outfit, which includes pants, she's still sitting tall and near the edge of the seat as if she's wearing a shorter skirt. Old habits die hard.]

But now the conversation is - how to break them?

[ God it's a good thing it's Undine. pretty much anyone else and Alex would have just been sitting silently, brooding and sulking this whole meeting. almost anyone else and Alex would have still been a little bit okay with Erasing them if worst came to worst. ]

[Honestly? It's the same for Undine. There's very few people who could have been on the other end of this that Undine would have trusted implicitly, without even questioning if they were about to betray her. Alex is one of those few.]

Yeah. Or bend them enough to save as many people as possible. Unfortunately, there's some pretty tight rules on what we- [Akira and herself, she means. -can do in the first place.

Ichigo had been talking about having some of us switch sides to keep the scales balanced - as far as the Reaper to Player ratio goes.

I've been thinking, the conditions for ending the game are for you to eliminate Players, or for Players to eliminate both of our groups. But there isn't really anything that happens if our team is gone and your team is still standing. So if that's the case, should it be all of our team joining yours?

If that's even a thing we can do?

[ but, uh, also ]

Problem being... If that's the wrong move, all that's doing is tying more of us into those tight rules.

Well...I suppose we could ask Max? He seems to want to break this game too, he might give us a straight answer.

I would rather you three join us and have us be one team as well. I...don't want the three of you do have to kill anyone, Akira and I can keep handling that, but having backup in case something happens to both of us would be nice.

[Yeah they did a murder this week. Of course they did, or else they both wouldn't be there.]

He's also on the side of the Players, which... I mean, we're trying to be, too?

Mostly I'm just worried that it's not the right move. And then we're stuck with it.

If that's the case, then we could have you and Mary switch sides, and I could stay as a detective. Akira and I are linked anyway, so...It doesn't really matter what side I'm on.

I really just want to make sure it's the right thing to do before we do anything. I don't like gambling like this.

At the very least, since we all know each other, we can agree to not make moves against each other? Until we find out more answers.

Well, yeah.

[ not like the detectives were really making moves anyway, aside from solving trials. ]

[BITCH YOU THOUGHT-

Okay no she'll be polite while she says it. Because Alex probably didn't know.]

Chuuya was hunting us down. He knew Ranpo was a reaper, and killed him. He knew Akira was a reaper, and would have killed him if I hadn't intervened. Someone was telling him who we were.

Setz mentioned... That Jacopo may have leaked information. Maybe it was him...?

But I don't know.

It might be. I figured it wouldn't be you or Mary, and I knew for sure it wouldn't be Ichigo.

[Because partners, and she's 99% sure those two are hella gay for each other.]

But...Chuuya was my friend, and...

[She's looking away, and her hands tighten into fists against her knees.]

It was just...hard. To do.

[ yeah. at least that was Alex's blessing. the person she got to kill - got to kill - was someone she wanted to. ]

Sorry, Undine.

It's...alright. I chose to do it, in the end.

[Well, it was that or 'get killed by Chuuya in a murderous rage before he goes on to possibly kill Akira too', but. Still a choice technically.]

But mystery solved, for that? It counted for our 'reaper kill' this week at least. We didn't have anything to do with what happened to Jacopo or...or Jonas.

[ Alex swallows. it's kind of hard to talk about. ]

Yeah. I didn't suspect Jonas as being any of you. Not after we'd talked to Akira.

Edited (icon) 2018-04-09 02:47 (UTC)

[Alex...

Undine unclenches a hand and flips it over, offering it to Alex.]

I...couldn't be cruel to anyone either. If someone has to kill, then it should at least be quick and painless.

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...Sounds good to me. We can also try covering for each other, like how I mislead evidence for Undine.

[Though he really thinks he won't get another chance to do something like that again. It'd be way too suspicious.]

Yeah. That was quick thinking on your part, by the way. The stuff with the wig.

[She never would have thought of that. She was so sure she was going to be revealed in the hair check for Jonas' murder.]

I almost didn't remember they were a thing until Caren was pressing me.

[Really, he very nearly gave her up there until he made the connection.]

Weird what you can think of in times of stress, huh?

Yeah. Though now I guess I'll have to be very careful with my hair. If anyone sees it get cut, they'll know what happened.

Maybe I should get braids.

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