[ he'd originally come up here first of all to let simba out of their lounge to get some fresh air and also to continue giving himself lung cancer, apparently, since he's already lighting a cigarette by the time he steps outside. he stops a little behind her when she asks that though and he has to think about this. ]
I thought maybe I had a decent idea how this would go. Turns out there are still surprises that can happen for all of us. [ he has a feeling she might not actually answer him, but he asks anyway. ] You okay?
[ he cannot see that she's livid, but he does think anybody would feel a little weird in her position after what boothill said. ]
[ simba will wander freely, but eventually will notice she's there and pad up to her to sit at her feet and look up at her. jonas, meanwhile, watches this for a moment as he thinks on her words. ]
To be fair, I think when we all heard about recreation this wasn't exactly what we thought, right down to the specific ways murders happened. It opens up the potential for a lot of dangerous things if this is how it's gonna be.
[ ... ]
Is what he said true? Chroma was about having a color and using it, or whatever.
[ honestly this is fair. he leans into the pets and jonas is thinking. ]
... an overbalance. Don't use them enough it's not great, but using them too much it'd make things unstable. [ boothill is the enemy no that's correct. ] Can I ask how you guys were sorted?
[ she really does not have to tell him shit, he's just making comparisons. ]
[ he will eventually come around to the bench, and instead of sitting on it he will sit on the ground in front of her where simba is as well. he doesn't want to be presumptuous and crowd her, but he figures he should at least be facing her.
so okay. colors and overbalancing and apparently blowing the fuck up like boothill just did. it sounds a little similar to heaven, but... ]
... it had to be something quantifiable. Like something that can be applied to multiple people, but not every single person. And it had to be something that was a big part of you. So... certain traits, maybe? [ he's thinking out loud here. ] When people were possessed in Heaven, it was always an amplification of the sins that weighed heaviest on them. Their regrets were the things that always came up the strongest in their executions, too.
[ it's physical affection week. she would allow it. in fact, she holds out her hand to him. ]
Close. Traits could be a way to describe it. There were some groups that I thought all the people within them were quite different from each other, but there could have some core traits tying them together.
[ the marines were the ones that took her the longest to pinpoint. ]
Sins in Heaven must be even heavier than normal. They did stress balance in the Prism.
[ this is fair. it just means he'll hold her hand then for a second before he does haul himself up onto the bench next to her. ]
Close enough that your place seemed to think they fit together. [ to be fair, the marines also took a long time to realize what they had in common. ] There are certain pieces of a person that can't be changed, I think, even if on the surface they appear a lot different.
But you're right. With what was happening in Heaven, everyone there was encouraged to think about their regrets and past sins, things they wanted to atone for and things they would like to improve about themselves. It just made it really easy for that entity to prey on those feelings and make them stronger once they were possessed. Balance is... you can't be too afraid to live but you can't be too afraid to die either. I think it's one of those things where you have to learn what your own boundaries are and still try to push past those where you can without overloading.
[ ... ]
Sounds a little stressful though. Not knowing what that balance is until you're brushing up against it.
It sounds like whatever entity was causing all your murders took advantage of why people were there at all. As if they knew more than I would expect.
[ but maybe she is making too many inferences since she doesn't know what heaven is like. ]
I don't know if what happened to Boothill is exactly the same as what I had to witness, but if it was.... it'll be easy to see him overloading.
It wasn't pretty when it got too far.
[ although boothill is emotional in general so it's possible it won't be as easy to pinpoint, but no one can miss turning into a lisa frank creature. ]
You could always ask her yourself. I don't think she thought too far ahead of it outside of just wanting to do it.
[ which is all he says on that for now. ]
The good and bad thing is we'll find out tomorrow. Executions are always pretty hard to watch, but I'm curious which pattern it will follow. But I don't expect anyone else to want to watch or for it to be easy to deal with. [ ... ] I am sorry for the reminder though, for what it's worth.
Oh? I didn't know she was included in that. Was that part of why Childe was there for five minutes?
[ she isn't expecting any kind of answer, just looking to see how he responds. ]
It's all right. I should have considered this possibility. That's what's frustrating me more than seeing Boothill talk of colors. If there's a rainbow of colors that erupt from him, that won't be too far outside of expectations.
Yeah, he came by to rescue her because I caught her and had her contained for about a week. Not that I knew it was her at the time.
[ he has kind of given up on being cagey about some things, apparently. ]
The possibility of it happening? Of course it's frustrating. You already did your time the first time, and also? That sounds... like a lot. [ happy pride... wait is this why we found a pride flag. was that a hint to chroma or just general anna and nat bullshit, the world will never know. ]
Considering we're getting a better view of what's coming for us, I don't see a reason not to be forthright when someone asks me a question. [ this is not entirely true. but in this instance, yes. ] She'll likely avoid all of them if you dig too personal, but at the same time she'll likely agree with whatever you tell her your impression is because she doesn't care enough about arguing against it.
[ which is annoying. ]
I'd really like for that not to be the case, but you and I both know just because we want something doesn't mean we'll get it. If this is what's happening, we have... what, eleven places we're all from? That's a lot of options.
[ it was definitely likely for happy pride because gay elves but Listen. ]
Some of them may have similar outcomes or things that happened. Like how the possession came into play, or similar team mechanics. It's one of those things we're going to have to maybe start figuring out to see if we can get ahead of the game a little. If that'll even help us.
It'll at least get us to have an understanding of how all the pieces fit together even if we can't escape it. They say understanding is half the battle.
[ how far that will get them is another question. ]
If it'll get us to solve the murders a little quicker, that's more than nothing.
I was thinking maybe it might help for everyone on our team, at least, to compare notes about where we came from. Things that happened, experiences that might match up, things like that. Like, not quite a team meeting, but sort of?
I can only hope this won't happen again. Chroma elements, I mean. But it can't hurt to know what else we might be missing. Things can show up in little ways without us knowing. Like... the jigsaw puzzle today. That's something we saw a lot of in our trials in Heaven.
They progressively got more helpful, I think. They weren't always puzzles like that though. Sometimes they were word puzzles or other brainteasers? Just an extra hint.
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I thought maybe I had a decent idea how this would go. Turns out there are still surprises that can happen for all of us. [ he has a feeling she might not actually answer him, but he asks anyway. ] You okay?
[ he cannot see that she's livid, but he does think anybody would feel a little weird in her position after what boothill said. ]
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Out of all the ways I thought a murder would be forced, I can't say I expected this one. Even after talking about recreation....
[ she thought she'd be safer being the only one from her game, but maybe it was because she was the only one? ]
It was a surprise.
[ just repeats his words. ]
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To be fair, I think when we all heard about recreation this wasn't exactly what we thought, right down to the specific ways murders happened. It opens up the potential for a lot of dangerous things if this is how it's gonna be.
[ ... ]
Is what he said true? Chroma was about having a color and using it, or whatever.
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she lets out a soft sigh. ]
In a way. But using colors too much was also a problem.
[ she wanted to get out of this without having to talk too much about chroma and the prism. boothill is her enemy (it's not his fault). ]
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... an overbalance. Don't use them enough it's not great, but using them too much it'd make things unstable. [ boothill is the enemy no that's correct. ] Can I ask how you guys were sorted?
[ she really does not have to tell him shit, he's just making comparisons. ]
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Your observations are terribly close. Why don't you take a guess and I'll tell you if you're right?
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so okay. colors and overbalancing and apparently blowing the fuck up like boothill just did. it sounds a little similar to heaven, but... ]
... it had to be something quantifiable. Like something that can be applied to multiple people, but not every single person. And it had to be something that was a big part of you. So... certain traits, maybe? [ he's thinking out loud here. ] When people were possessed in Heaven, it was always an amplification of the sins that weighed heaviest on them. Their regrets were the things that always came up the strongest in their executions, too.
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Close. Traits could be a way to describe it. There were some groups that I thought all the people within them were quite different from each other, but there could have some core traits tying them together.
[ the marines were the ones that took her the longest to pinpoint. ]
Sins in Heaven must be even heavier than normal. They did stress balance in the Prism.
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Close enough that your place seemed to think they fit together. [ to be fair, the marines also took a long time to realize what they had in common. ] There are certain pieces of a person that can't be changed, I think, even if on the surface they appear a lot different.
But you're right. With what was happening in Heaven, everyone there was encouraged to think about their regrets and past sins, things they wanted to atone for and things they would like to improve about themselves. It just made it really easy for that entity to prey on those feelings and make them stronger once they were possessed. Balance is... you can't be too afraid to live but you can't be too afraid to die either. I think it's one of those things where you have to learn what your own boundaries are and still try to push past those where you can without overloading.
[ ... ]
Sounds a little stressful though. Not knowing what that balance is until you're brushing up against it.
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[ but maybe she is making too many inferences since she doesn't know what heaven is like. ]
I don't know if what happened to Boothill is exactly the same as what I had to witness, but if it was.... it'll be easy to see him overloading.
It wasn't pretty when it got too far.
[ although boothill is emotional in general so it's possible it won't be as easy to pinpoint, but no one can miss turning into a lisa frank creature. ]
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You could always ask her yourself. I don't think she thought too far ahead of it outside of just wanting to do it.
[ which is all he says on that for now. ]
The good and bad thing is we'll find out tomorrow. Executions are always pretty hard to watch, but I'm curious which pattern it will follow. But I don't expect anyone else to want to watch or for it to be easy to deal with. [ ... ] I am sorry for the reminder though, for what it's worth.
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[ she isn't expecting any kind of answer, just looking to see how he responds. ]
It's all right. I should have considered this possibility. That's what's frustrating me more than seeing Boothill talk of colors. If there's a rainbow of colors that erupt from him, that won't be too far outside of expectations.
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[ he has kind of given up on being cagey about some things, apparently. ]
The possibility of it happening? Of course it's frustrating. You already did your time the first time, and also? That sounds... like a lot. [ happy pride... wait is this why we found a pride flag. was that a hint to chroma or just general anna and nat bullshit, the world will never know. ]
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[ her voice indicates that she expects alex to avoid most of them. ]
We might all relive what we've gone through in more ways than one. I'd expect to see sins make a reappearance now.
[ oh my god i thought it was for happy pride..... essek is gay but it could be both. ]
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[ which is annoying. ]
I'd really like for that not to be the case, but you and I both know just because we want something doesn't mean we'll get it. If this is what's happening, we have... what, eleven places we're all from? That's a lot of options.
[ it was definitely likely for happy pride because gay elves but Listen. ]
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[ roxana at least acknowledges she's cagey, and then goes, so what? ]
It is a lot, but we don't have enough weeks to cycle through all of them unless they choose to double up. To be iconic?
[ that's not to touch on incentives. and i do think it could be gay pride and chroma both. it'd be inspired. ]
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Some of them may have similar outcomes or things that happened. Like how the possession came into play, or similar team mechanics. It's one of those things we're going to have to maybe start figuring out to see if we can get ahead of the game a little. If that'll even help us.
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[ how far that will get them is another question. ]
If it'll get us to solve the murders a little quicker, that's more than nothing.
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I was thinking maybe it might help for everyone on our team, at least, to compare notes about where we came from. Things that happened, experiences that might match up, things like that. Like, not quite a team meeting, but sort of?
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I can only hope this won't happen again. Chroma elements, I mean. But it can't hurt to know what else we might be missing. Things can show up in little ways without us knowing. Like... the jigsaw puzzle today. That's something we saw a lot of in our trials in Heaven.
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[ she is undecided about how helpful today's puzzle was. ]
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[ not as nice to any murderer who doesn't want to be caught. ]
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[ hm... ]
How long do you think it's going to take for people to start being unwilling to solve cases because they're covering for their friends?
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