NATALIE

[concasse]

will shitpost later

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[successives]

[She takes a seat, blinking a few times for whatever reason.]

You want to grab the glasses?

[concasse]

Sure, I--

[A sudden, aggravated pause as he stands, like he means to approach her, only to literally slap at his own ... hand? Hm.]

Goddamnit, I'm so sick of this shit.

[successives]

...Where'd you sleep?

[concasse]

Petting zoo. And now my hands thinks everyone's a farm animal!

[He is

trying not to pet her?

That would be very bad]

[successives]

[She's looking at his hands warily, but she'll be nice just this once since it seems like he's having a Time.]

Anyways... What'd you and Dick see? He said Yasusada was there, too, but I haven't talked to him yet.

[concasse]

[The moment he is able to run for the cupboards, he takes his sweet ass time finding glasses for them, since. Effects.]

A whole lotta bullshit.

Got collared, was almost blown up, then got stuck in a hallway with a bunch of dead bodies, and then attacked by some people with a chainsaw and an axe.

[Sighing]

That's not the important shit, though. It's... the journal we found...

[his expression sombers]

How much did Dick tell you? So I can fill in any blanks.

[successives]

...Everyone from our past games is here, right?

[Or that's the biggest takeaway from what he told her, at least. Now that Sanji is back, she's just going to pour some for both of them.]

[concasse]

... That's our working theory.

The journal we looked at made it sound like we've all been in some weird-ass stasis? Of course, from our perspectives, we just got out of our last games... but who knows how long we've been asleep?

And if that shit's the case, we can't assume everyone we left behind was actually left behind.

[successives]

It would check out with the part about how our endings are in jeopardy, too.

[She sighs, blinking.]

[concasse]

Aa. That's the same conclusion we came to.

[...]

Are... you alright?

[successives]

[She waves a hand.]

Curfew effect, no big deal. Keep going.

[concasse]

[STILL LOOKING IN CONCERN but he also knows how it is.]

Our biggest concern right now is how everyone's gonna react once the news starts tricklin' outward. Not that it'll change the nature of the game we're in, but I think a lot of us just assumed we'd left everyone behind and had to get back to them.

[...]

It's a more pressing kind of threat if they can be held hostage right under our noses.

[successives]

I mean... I get how it’s freakier, I guess, but we’ve known for a while they were at risk. Unless we find out that someone’s going to hurt them before the competition is over, it’s not like much has changed.

[She takes a drink.]

Though I guess not everyone will see it that way, you’re right about that.

[concasse]

Heh, you've seen how the group reacted to previous news.

[not terribly overall, but they had their outliers making a huge fuss.]

... If you don't mind me asking, what was your last game like?

[successives]

[She shakes her head to indicate she doesn’t mind, but:]

In what way? The setting, the hosts, the rules...?

[concasse]

I guess I'm wondering what strategy allowed you guys to win... if you managed to win at all.

[gesturing at himself]

It took my castle openly collaborating over who lived and who died to get the results we wanted, even if that meant way more people had to die.

[successives]

[Ah. She looks surprised by the question before she shuts that reaction down, fighting to keep her expression neutral. She takes another drink.]

I’m the wrong person to ask about winning. Everyone died in mine.

[concasse]

-- Ah.

[Well shit.]

I'm... shit.

[He fucked that one up magnificently.]

[successives]

[She waves a hand.]

You didn’t know. Besides, we all came back, so we still had it better than some.

[Looking at you, thots.]

[concasse]

... You--

[There is some obvious confusion in his expression]

If everyone died, how did you all manage to come back?

[successives]

...I think ours was different than most.

[She pauses for a moment, deciding the best way to phrase this.]

Okay, so - Stephanie told me yours was about settling a feud between higher beings or something, right? And once you did that, you could leave. It wasn't like that in ours, there wasn't a higher goal or anything. We were just... serving as entertainment for someone, and when that entertainment was completely over, they let us go.

[concasse]

[hey what the actual fuck.

Sanji looks downright disgusted]

Are you serious? You were entertainment for some random shitheads?

[successives]

Apparently they would have gone around destroying planets if they didn't find something else to do, so.

[She sounds angry, too, but... For her, sounding like she cares too much is like admitting a kind of vulnerability that she doesn't usually like to let show.]

There was a train in the middle of town. We could never figure out what it was for until the last week, when we found out that it was the only way out of town, and it was also where everyone who died was being kept. So... Well, you get the idea.

[concasse]

... You all had to die in order to get out, huh.

Tch. Tiger-sama and Dragon-sama might've dragged us into their game, but at least they acknowledged they were putting us in a shitty position...

[He's just. brimming with hatred for a game he wasn't in. After a moment, he runs a hand through his hair]

So there was no finessing what had to happen in your game, then... yeah, I guess it'd be way too different from the stakes here.

[successives]

...What I can say is that - even if people might panic, it might be better for people to be let in on information sooner rather than later. When people act without knowing the full picture, things usually get worse.

[She takes another sip.]