week two - friday (lief)

[eisenundblut]

[Whenever Lief decides to either return to their hut or seek out his roommate, he'll find her on her hands and knees, using her cravat as a washcloth to furiously clean the floor with some water from the giant pot. She doesn't seem to notice him come in.

>Approach?]

Comments

[reidentify]

[He doesn't make a move towards her quite yet, as he has no idea how she'll react.]

Prussia... I am so sorry.

[Because he knows what Joshua's death means, and he knows that for all of Austria and Prussia's banter...

This is the one (to-be) death that will hit Prussia harder than any other, he thinks.]

[eisenundblut]

Sorry for what? You got nothing to be sorry for.

[She's still scrubbing anxiously at the floor, long white hair pooling on the floor and getting into the water.]

Nobody liked that Josh kid. Should've figured he'd be the first to go. It's what I'd've done, if it was up to me. 'Course it'd be him. Set him on fire and everything. Good way to destroy evidence. Fuck--

[While scrubbing, one her hands slips in the water, and she bangs her hand off one of the table's legs with another swear.]

[reidentify]

[...]

Do you need help?

[eisenundblut]

Don't have any more washcloths. Should've asked the fuckers for a sponge. It's fine. Fuckin' blood wasn't real anyway. You know? Playing tricks on us. Showed us our own damn bodies. Bullshit!!

[She throws the cravat down on the floor and punches it, uselessly.

...You know what? Punching sounds really good right now. She does it again. And again. Uselessly punching the floor.]

[reidentify]

Prussia—!

[Now, he rushes over in an attempt to stop her.]

Stop this!

[eisenundblut]

It's fine. It's fine!! Haha!! I'm totally fine!!

[She snatches up the cravat and wrings it out over the pot, snapping it a few times.]

I'm not upset at all!! Who cares about that stupid aristocrat! I've been tryin' to get rid of her for years! I don't care about her cake, or her stupid music, or that we've been at each other's throats for centuries! It doesn't matter to me at all!!

[Her voice is shaking. Maybe it's angry, maybe it's sadness. It's genuinely impossible to tell.]

[reidentify]

[It's hard to stay calm, with Prussia's grief bleeding into him, but one of them needs to in this situation.]

... The Chiefs have implied that the dead may not stay dead, once the game is completed. Whether that is the truth or not, I do not know, but—it is not over yet. So...

"Keep fighting. Never surrender."

[eisenundblut]

She wouldn't die for real anyway. She's a god damn cockroach. You know how many times I invaded her? Fuckin' Hungary would swoop in and keep me from finishing her off, every Gottverdammt time. Besides, things that would kill a country? They don't work for real. You'd have to destroy her land, kill all her people, or get them to think they belong to somebody else. It's fine!!

[She punches her trunk, hard enough that the wood splinters a little around her fist.]

I'm not sad at all!! It's not my fault!

[reidentify]

Prussia!

[This time, he tries to grab her hand, even though he's aware this might only get himself hurt in the process.]

Grieve, but know that you could not have prevented Joshua's death, any more than Akira could have prevented Haru's! Or do you think that is his fault?

[eisenundblut]

[She lets him grab her, but if anything, she only yells more loudly.]

I could have!!

[reidentify]

How?

[eisenundblut]

Es ist meine Gottverdammte Rolle!

[She yells, breath coming in hard pants as she glares at him. There's tears in her eyes, frustrated, angry tears.]

It's my god damn role, [she repeats, more quietly, both hands squeezing into fists.]

[reidentify]

[For a moment, he freezes, before he forces himself to calm down—even if the sight of tears in Prussia's eyes causes them to spring up in his as well.]

... I will not press further today if you do not wish for me to, but—do you mean...?

[eisenundblut]

....

[There's a beat where she freezes, as if expecting one of the robots to crash through the window and kill her on the spot. There's just the sound of water dripping from the ends of the cravat and the ragged ends of her hair.]

I can break partnerships, [she says finally, very quietly, voice slightly hoarse.] I can make it so if someone dies, their partner won't be killed. I should have picked them. I should have known!!

[reidentify]

[It's as if someone doused him in cold water, as he comprehends what Prussia's saying, because in that moment—ah. This really is more complicated than the situation with Akira and Haru.

It still isn't Prussia's fault. But... he isn't sure what to say to make her believe that.

First, his voice likewise quiet,]

I swear I will not tell anyone that you have this role.

[...]

Who did you pick this week?

[eisenundblut]

[She sags, as if all her energy was sapped by the confession, and tries to tug her arm back so she can bury her face in it.]

Newt. Dr. Geiszler. I can't... I can't pick the same pair twice in a row. Last week was Erhard Muller.

They're my people. I wanted to protect them.

[reidentify]

... I would have done the same in your position, I think. [He's never told Prussia that he's a king back home, but.] There are times when you must choose your people above those you care about.

[Though he knows that won't necessarily make her feel any better.]

It was not only Joshua. There are a few people on this island who have demonstrated difficult behaviour. [...] And even if you had broken Joshua and Austria's partnership, Joshua's murderer would have likely deduced that it was your doing and killed you the following week.

Then, you would be unable to protect anyone, regardless.

[eisenundblut]

[Wow yeah she doesn't know that?? She'd be proud of him if she did.

She grinds her palms into her eyes and takes a shuddering breath.]

I know. I don't give a damn about that aristocrat, but people might be stupid and think we were close. So I didn't want to do anything with her. Figured she was so useless, nobody'd care. Nobody did care about her! Just as I thought!! But--

[She grips the roots of her hair.]

You know how many citizen's she's got? 8.7 million. Sure, it's a tenth of what West's responsible for. But me? I've got two people who aren't even really mine, they're West's. Acht-komma-sieben Million. Who knows what's going to happen to them if they kill her for real?

[reidentify]

[He doesn't believe for a moment that Prussia doesn't care, but he won't address that right now.]

... Then we will save her—and we will save all of her people. Failure is not an option.

But I do not think we should be measuring people's lives like this. Do not compare yourself to her.

[eisenundblut]

How? Even if the stupid partner rule is fake, people're gonna vote for her no matter what. Have her executed 'cause why kill two more people when someone's gonna die anyway??

[She lowers her hand as if she might punch something again, but instead only squeezes her fist shut around the cravat.]

[reidentify]

I know she will die. I mean that when this twisted game is over, one way or another, we will bring her back—along with everyone else who has died.

That is why all of us must continue to fight. Because it is not over until the end.

[eisenundblut]

[She flinches at the first blunt statement, tears welling in the corners of her eyes again. Which she immediately mashes the backs of her hands into, because wtf stop she's not sad?? She doesn't care!!]

People don't come back from the dead. People die every day. You know how many people I've buried in my life?

[reidentify]

Do you think you are the only one to have watched people die?

[...]

Are people—all from different worlds—normally kidnapped to an island with no memory of how, with every bit of their magic disabled, with their captors somehow knowing various details of their lives, and told to murder one another for sport?

[Though that last part, regarding this game, doesn't sound too incredulous, admittedly.]

If that is common to you, then perhaps you are indeed the expert on this situation, in which case I suppose nothing I say will matter.

[eisenundblut]

...

[She's quiet at that, because, well. She might be self-centered and full of herself, but she knows better than most that no one is too young to see death. So she believes him at the unspoken statement that he's familiar with it, too.

And it's logical. It makes sense, what he's saying. More sense than anything she's said all day, she feels like.]

What do we do?

[reidentify]

[... That's the question of the day, isn't it? Of the week, of the month. And he almost feels silly, because for all his bravado, he still can't answer it and thus loses momentum here.]

I do not know yet. I truly do not have a role, and so I know no more about the workings of this game than anyone else here.

... However, we know there is a role with the purpose of ensuring a death each week. Someone else and I have wondered: what happens if all those who have such a role are gone? Will the game end or continue?

I think that is important—to learn what conditions are necessary to bring this game to a close. And, if it is a "game", then how the "victor" is decided.

[eisenundblut]

...Who else has got roles? You must've asked more people.

There's gotta be other ones besides me and the killers. Wouldn't make sense.

[She shakes her head, grip tightening on her hair.]

I get to talk to those fuckers once a week to make my decision. I can try to get some more info from them, I guess. You know as well as I do that they're not any kind've forthcoming. Assholes.

[reidentify]

... I have asked a few people, but they claim to be without one. I imagine that anyone I ask will tell me the same. If they do have a role, then they have no reason to trust me with it.

[No doubt he'd do the same.]

... Indeed. What day do you talk to them on?

[eisenundblut]

Ja, makes sense.

[This is easier. Discussing strategy is what she's good at, not planning for the future.]

Whenever I decide. Haven't tried waiting past Wednesday, though. Don't wanna give them the chance to say it's too late to use it, you know?

[it's oocly vague per the mods]

[reidentify]

[He nods.]

It is best not to risk it. [...] I do not what it would take for them to talk, but it would be greatly appreciated if you could try.

[eisenundblut]

Fuck if I know. Tried asking already how much they can hear. Like if we're talking like we are right now, if they can hear that? Fuckers didn't give me a real answer. "Not a whole lot that escapes our notice," is what they said. Meaning there's gotta be places where they can't see, right?

[She punches the floor again, just once.]

I don't like this game. It's stupid.