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

[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.