week 7

[airlockedmods]

[For the first time in several weeks there is no new memorial in the garden. No new body in the morgue, no bloody mess for the roombas to clean. Choromatsu is still in need of time to heal and constant vigilance but he's alive. They're all alive for once on a Sunday and, even with the terrible realizations their returning memories may bring, there's a sense of hope for the first time in a long time.

There is no new floor this week.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 6, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[serrata]

[ Yuuri says nothing, for a long moment. She says nothing because she can't say anything -- she's afraid that if she opens her mouth she may well just start screaming and throwing things.

All those memorials in the garden. The ashes in the bottle in the garden. Junpei's arm.

Her hands, when she finally responds, are clenched tightly in her lap and shaking. ]

So, instead, you're saying we play nice with him. If I'm hearing you right?

[desperateprayer]

...At the very least, I can get us more information. Again, I won't force anyone to play nice. I won't make anyone do that. I... Understand why people hate him. I understand why they fear him. I guess... I can just understand it a little. Lashing out in anger. Hurting people because I was hurt. I... Never expected him to take me up on my offer. But now that he has... I don't know.

[serrata]

... "Her existence is none of my concern".

[ She's sure she doesn't have to remind anyone just who said that and when. ]

Just how hurt was he, do you think, when he told us that?

[desperateprayer]

............I... Wished for an entire village to be tormented, to burn in agony for what they did to me. I just didn't voice it. And... If not for Mikaela... I probably wouldn't have cared when they did during the Green Hunting.

[ ...Probably not the answer you wanted, Yuuri. ]

[serrata]

You're avoiding the question.

I didn't ask about you, Clarith-san. I asked what you thought about him. When he looked at Mai-chan -- a girl who had done nothing wrong except exist and wish she could hate herself less. When he decided that she deserved to die. For an accident. For something no one blamed her for.

When he told us that her life -- her existence -- meant nothing to him. What had Mai-chan done, exactly, to hurt him?

[desperateprayer]

No. I gave you the exact answer you wanted. My village... Do you really think I knew everyone? Do you think everyone actually participated in my abuse? And I... Wanted them all to die horribly. Even those who had done nothing to me for fear of retaliation from others.

[ Like Ayn... ]

...People... Do horrible things... When they're very hurt. When they're used and tossed aside. The only reason I never acted on those thoughts myself... Is because I was powerless. So a part of me sees myself in PAL. Because I can't say I wouldn't have hurt people who'd never done anything to me.

[serrata]

PAL isn't a person.

[ It's not cold, or sharp. Just a simple statement of fact. ]

He's programmed to do this to us. To be entertained by doing this to us. And even if you're right and he's doing this because he's hurt... what does that change, exactly? If anything, that just makes him more dangerous. It means he's lashing out at innocent people because they happen to be there.

You can forgive him, if you like, Clarith-san. I won't stop you. But I'll think you a fool for being to eager to believe in him.

[desperateprayer]

Then we're all fools.

[ SINCE. ARDYN HAS SPOKEN UP. ]

[serrata]

I don't recall saying we weren't.