theairlock | week 6

Entry tags:

!round 2,
!week 6

week 6

[Even with three deaths two weeks in a row, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to some semblance of normalcy come Sunday morning. The messes are cleaned up, the bodies are safe in the morgue (or in Kip's case, still in a liquor bottle in the garden) and with this new week comes a fresh crop of returning memories.

There is no new floor this week.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 5, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Honestly he should have just kept the door closed. Opening was barely a conscious thought, it was just... going through the motions. Someone knocks. You open the door. Someone wants to talk, you let them.

The problem being that he has to go back to actually manually doing things at the clear invitation for a hug. He's almost kind of frozen up as his mind tries to properly catch up with what's happening. But it does get there.

...This is dumb.

He goes for the hug.]

[Atta boy. When you need to manually do things, you come back to the present a little! He's helping!(?)

Definitely going to be the one doing the majority of the hugging, though, he's sure about that, pulling him in tight and clapping him on the back.]

I'm sorry, man. That was just fucking evil.

[Yeah, this hug is definitely for you to control Church, Heart is just sort of... along for the ride. Only sort of consciously. But "fuck it this might as well happen" mode is better than "let's sit in an empty room and stare at nothing".]

...Evil. Hm. That seems like the right word for it.

[Look at that, actual words even.]

[WORDS! Success.]

Dude, I've definitely seen evil. [Is he talking about Ardyn? (He's actually not. But Ardyn is also super applicable.)] And that motherfucker is it. And this whole situation. Like I normally don't even go for the concepts of good and evil, y'know, since usually it's relative, but no, this? Definitely evil.

I've seen my fair share. [Hell Church knows that. Is... the only one left now, with some idea of the evil Heart has experienced from Banno. So he feels qualified to call it evil as well.] You're not wrong.

[...Heart pulls himself back, though. Can't quite... manage to be so close to someone for the next words out of his mouth.]

But... even so. He was... right about one thing.

[Jesus, he doesn't know he's the last one to know. Maybe don't tell him that. But yes, that's why he feels Heart could agree about the evil thing. It's applicable to the nth degree. He's not disappointed when Heart pulls back; hugs gotta end sometime or they end up stupid awkward.]

Which part?

[He hesitates. Because it's one thing to think this. It's much more uncomfortable to say it out loud.]

...About me. [Jack said a lot of things. The fact that it came from Rhys' body make it stick more than it should, even though he knows he shouldn't let it.] When he called me a failure.

Go fuck yourself. [Wow that sure...was an immediate and vehement reply.] He also thought you weren't a person and didn't deserve to live, so why would you believe a single word out of his mouth?

Because he was right.

[That reply is also immediate.]

He was... wretched and a monster and if I had ever met him when he wasn't possessing my friend's body, I would have gladly ended his life. And I doubt he had any idea how right he was. But he was.

["Shit, you tried, kiddo! Too bad it didn't do a damn thing."]

All I want is to keep my friends save and I just... can't...

You're not the only one, Heart. It's all of us. All of us. We're all trying to save each other, and every single person we lose is just--it's a lot. It's a lot for any one person to take, and that's why we spread the misery around, okay? Because it's not just on your shoulders.

I know. I know. That's... It's worked, so far. But that's not--

[Everything Heart has been saying should sounds... confrontational, defensive, or... something. But somehow, it seems... strangely empty.]

You don't understand.

It's not... just that...

The fuck else could it--

...Back home?

[The fact that Heart just falls silent at that probably says enough, doesn't it? And then he just... nods.]

...It doesn't make you a failure. [But it's sure damn effective at making a guy feel like a failure.]

...Doesn't it?

[It does. It absolutely does to Heart. He can't look at it any other way.]

I was responsible for them. I was going to make a better world... [Everything, every single thing he ever did, all for them.] For them. For... us...

All 109 of us...

Did--all of them?

Are you--?

...It's just me left, it seems.

...How? How does something like that--that--I don't--

Was it him? Your fuckoff creator?

...In part.

We've been... Our number has been getting smaller over time. [He hadn't told anyone the exact number. Because how could he know for sure, with the state of his memories like this?] Slowly, but...

He did help to... finalize things.

[There would be more left if not for Banno. That much is simple. The last few were all him.]

Jesus, Heart. I didn't know things got--that they got that bad.

But if he had a hand in it--listen, if he's...these guys were your friends. Family, even. You would never have let this happen without a fight, tooth and nail.

Neither did I.

[He had... some idea. He knew of some of the terrible things that happened, but not... not that there were so few left. Enough that the remaining few of them could be wiped out in a day.]

Of course I wouldn't have. But it... still wasn't enough. Nothing I did was... [And this is why Heart seems so empty. Because he is. He's lost everyone who mattered to him.] All this time I told myself I'd keep fighting so I could go back to them quickly.

I suppose I shouldn't have bothered.

[What happens when you lose what you've been fighting for your entire life?]

[Well, usually it's either find something else worth fighting for or say fuck it. Church is pretty at a loss, but...he can't just stand there like a moron. He sets a hand on Heart's arm.]

You can come with me when this is done. To my world. There won't be any more of your people there, but...a fresh start could be good.

It's an option. If you want. If you don't mind leaving your rival crush behind.

[For a moment, surprise overwhelms the emptiness and grief. It's not what he expected to hear.]

...That's quite a thing to offer so easily.

[He hadn't even considered that he might go somewhere other than back home. As much... as it could be called that. Now that the offer has been made, he... honestly doesn't know.]

Yeah, well, Junpei and I were talking, and...look, someone's gotta have the least crappy world where also someone's not dead. Yours would be an okay world, except...for you.

Anyway, despite an intergalactic war, I figure my place is as good or better a place as any. No zombies. No daemon plagues. No murdergames that I'm aware of. Only a little tiny bit of time travel if you're unlucky.

Well. I certainly hope it's an okay world other than the obvious problem now, or else even my last fight will have been in vain.

[The memory cut off before he could find out, because of course it did. But it's... rather low on his list of priorities, overall.]

But that... [...] It's... a sound idea. I don't know. I've never imagined being anywhere else. But it's not as if I have any true reason to go back.

week 6

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