ANAIDO

[concasse]

will shitpost here later

Comments

[concasse]

[... What a goddamn mess. A few seconds tick by as Sanji calms down again, expression forced into a mask of neutrality, even if some of that energy means he wishes he could pace back and forth]

Alright, what was your profession? And -- shit, is there anyone you remember? Someone who can help you out once you get back home?

[-- Because they will be going back home. Naturally]

[wowcool]

I'm a brilliant detective.

[A "brilliant" detective with amnesia. Sure sounds brilliant.]

There was another brilliant detective I was working with but...hm. Haven't seen him at all. [A pause - he taps at his chin.] Besides, I don't even know where home is. I was actually planning to go with a man I met on the island to his home...I have the feeling there's not much waiting for me where I'm from, for some reason.

[concasse]

... I see amnesia din't rob you of your confidence.

[FAINTLY AMUSED. Pay no attention to his pokerface]

Alright, "brilliant detective", first things first. On that island of yours, did you have to run trials to catch a murderer?

[wowcool]

Haha. That's what I am, though!

[Is that a little glimmer of amusement in his eyes at that remark? Absolutely.]

Well, this is a bit of an awkward question, since I died early before those happened, but...yes, as far as I saw, we had those.

[concasse]

Damn, you got taken out before you could pull your weight?

[Unacceptable. The chef huffs]

Well, try to stick around a little longer this time. I got no shitty idea how anything's gonna go, but in case we're stuck playing someone else's game, we'll need a detective to help pull us through it.

[wowcool]

It seems so.

[He nods at that - yes, people do need a detective, don't they? But do they need a brilliant detective...? Hm.]

I will help wherever people need me to help. Even with these lack of memories...I'll do my best.

[concasse]

Glad to hear it.

[smilingly brightly as the microwave dings, and Sanji pulls out his food]

Now eat all of this or I'll kick your ass. I hate bastards who waste food.

[It's fine, Sanji's a sane individual who doesn't mean that. maybe.]

[wowcool]

Willlll do!

[He'll finger-gun at him with a wink for that before taking the ramen from him, and nodding to him in thanks.]

By the by, I'm guessing you never found your Nami-chan.

[concasse]

[What a loser.

Sanji kinda likes him.]

No, but y'know... it's probably better this way. If she's not here, it means she's back at the castle with people who'll look after her.

[wowcool]

[He's blowing on the spoonful of ramen to cool it before swallowing it down - and seems like he's mentioning something familiar, again.]

The castle...you said that before. You were in a castle before all of this?

[concasse]

Yeah. Like your desert island. Got whisked away to some castle where we were supposed to balance out three factions.

[And by balance he means "murder"]

[wowcool]

Three factions? We didn't have anything like that...

What kind of factions?

[concasse]

Civilians, Heroes, and Villains.

[Ticking off every faction name with his fingers]

You know anything about fairy tales? We were given gifts and a corresponding name depending on our faction. So like... we had Wicked Witch, Little Red Riding Hood, shit like that...

[Sighing some as he begins searching through the kitchen for some bowls and a pan. Might as well make himself breakfast if he's gonna explain this nonsense]

Anyway, we had two ... jailors, you could say: Tiger-sama and Dragon-sama. Dragon-sama wanted balance, Tiger wanted only one faction to win. Depending on what happened, they'd enact their own happy ending that affected everyone.

[wowcool]

Fairytales...what an interesting theme.

[And a tiger and a dragon, too. It's a very interesting fantastical premise - one that would be good enough for a book, if it didn't involve actual people. Anaido sips on his noodles.]

And what happened? Who won?

[concasse]

Dragon-sama.

[...]

She managed to convince enough of us that the deaths would be worth it in the end. She'd used her, uh, powers to bring everyone back and end the grudge that had trapped her and Tiger-sama for so long.

[wowcool]

That's surprisingly nice of her.

[Huh.]

So altogether a good ending to your fairytale story.

[concasse]

... Yeah. It was.

[Expression softening a bit before he shrugs]

I mean, now I gotta deal with this mess, but that's about what I expect from my luck.

[wowcool]

From what it sounds like, almost everyone had a happy ending...and then it was taken away from us.

Out of the frying pan into the fire, huh? How terrible.

[concasse]

All it means is we got a bunch of veterans on this bus... so if we're forced to kill again, it'll be even worse than last time.

[He's already thinking the long game here, and it sets a frown on his face]

[wowcool]

Well, it might be harder to just up and kill people, since we all know what to expect. But it is also hard to just trust each other, especially since we come from different places.

[They're between a rock and a hard place, here.]

[concasse]

Tch, forget trusting each other -- we're already primed to trust the people we recognize, and that's it.

[They're practically split into factions already.]

[wowcool]

Absolutely true. That's how humans work, after all. We want to stay in our groups, and easily dislike others who aren't in them.

How do you suppose we can band together, then?

[concasse]

Having a common goal helps.

That's the only way my castle got their shit together in the end. We knew the stakes, knew what we had to do, and carried it out.

[wowcool]

Well, I think the common goal was "prevent everyone from murdering each other". That's easy.

[concasse]

No it wasn't. It was "balance the factions".

So people had to die. We just were forced to coordinate who went.