disingenuous | ace catchall

[ they all need some fresh air after being trapped for a night. it doesn't matter they were made unconscious. ]

No, not much at all. The team part doesn't matter as much as the part that this is happening, expected or not.

[ everything from her expression to her voice is placid more than anything else. ]

Yeah. [ yeah, a little sighed out because maybe part of him was kind of hoping it would magically not happen. but it did and life sucks. ] But last time, I can't say I was ever thrilled when I'd been asleep next to someone and woke up to them dead.

[ it's different when you are in the room where they were ... or funnier the room where they died ]

I can't say I'm thrilled, but I can't say that I'm heartbroken either.

[ she'll be honest enough about that even if it doesn't make her look great. ]

I wasn't attached.

[ a quick shake of his head ]

I didn't think you were. [ because she'd already said they didn't talk, but he doesn't know how to explain himself more than that so moving on: ] You didn't hear anything at all last night, right?

It means you have a more caring heart. [ that he'd feel that way. [ It would make this all easier if I did hear something.

[ she shakes her head. ]

Perhaps someone else did by some miracle, but other than that location hint, I don't know anything more.

I wouldn't go that far.

[ at the caring heart thing. just. looking unsure. anyway ]

Location hint?

[ he missed it... ]

No? I don't think you have a bleeding heart, but I think you care enough.

[ at least more than she does.

.... ]

They helpfully gave us where Essek departed from in the message. On his ticket? [ is it a real ticket? she doesn't know. ] I assume that might be where he died.

[ ignoring being accused of caring because he does but feels a little bad about just being glad he didn't know essek that well and it wasn't some other people on this team that died

so he's opening his phone to look at the announcement and reading like :o ]

Is that what that's supposed to be? A ticket? [ he doesn't know. how planes work. ] The hallways... At least that's something to go off of.

[ that makes him caring... even if he is glad that it wasn't someone else. ]

Or some kind of mimic of it because we're in an airport. We have a starting point tomorrow. It's only a matter if we can get to the finishing point.

Lucky there's not a lot of places that could be right now, then. It's kind of a small airport.

[ the hallways are a big maze but that's fine how long could one investigation take? 8 hours? ]

The one fortunate thing to this whole experience, hm? We don't have to search high and low for every clue.

[ imagine that's an achievement. who would make that happen to us? ]

[ the mods. the mods would ]

For now anyway. They usually unlock more places, don't they?

[ i'd ask to be knocked out mid-investigation. ]

That does seem to be the pattern, but it's been mentioned by some others that people usually like flocking to the new places, too.

I guess that's true. Someone even broke into an unopened store to do it back on Oceanside... It was completely empty in there.

[ ? ]

If they wanted something new and unexpected, that does meet both, but if there was nothing in there... that's wasted effort.

It left a lot of space to crush a body.

[ what a day that was. ]

[ well. okay. ]

That seems a bit brutal. I want to say I hope there was a good reason for that, but it doesn't seem right to.

... You know, I never found out?

[ ... ]

Would you be insulted if I said I'm somehow not surprised?

Hey, hey, in my defense, by the time we figured out he did it, it'd been weeks already. And he'd killed so many other people it felt sort of pointless to ask why?

A serial killer? I don't know if I've heard of one of those yet. Did you at least ask why he was killing so many?

He was twelve and not all there. I think he thought he was doing people a favor.

[ think because. who knows why this child did anything. ]

Twelve years old....

[ she doesn't think age stops some from doing things, and this 12 year old obviously did a lot of things. ]

It sounds like he needed some help. Maybe long before he met any of you.

[ honestly he also doesn't think age stops people from doing things but he was not the official child babysitter and that's why the kid murdered (no) ]

Yeah. People thought so too. And I think they were trying to steer him the right way... but that meant they were trying to protect him too.

And he was kind of a ghost. [ that muddled things. ]

Sometimes, protecting someone makes them worse.

[ she tilts her head. ghost does complicate it a little. ]

I don't know enough about ghosts to know if they can be changed or grow or if they're stuck as how they are when they died.

(no subject)

selfimmolation - 2025-06-09 04:47 (UTC) - Expand