oddsandends | 97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

[It reminds her of Eliot, of the food trucks. If he were here, he would have made her something amazing from scratch and then gruffly said "don't waste that." For a moment, the mask of her keeping it together flickers. Then it's back. The southern accent is slightly less exaggerated, this time, but still there.]

At this point I'd eat slop if it had calories. [She rolls her shoulders, the way Eliot sometimes does.] You cook? If not I think I could throw something together.

[That was Nana's doing. She got... bad, as the Alzheimer's got worse, so Breanna learned how to cook basic things. Then Eliot taught her some more, just in case she ever needed to pretend to be a chef on a job. This really isn't what she thought she'd be doing with the knowledge, but well. Shit's weird, sometimes.]

[Stomping forward and rising on the balls of his feet does not, contrary to his instincts, make him look any bigger, no matter how far up he's getting in Chitoge's grill.]

What's gonna happen? What'll happen, dumbass, is you're gonna piss off the one person who has a fuckin' clue what goes on in a death game like this!

[If she's gonna poke him in the chest, then he'll just grab her by the collar.]

You wanna wind up in a washing machine again, all cut to pieces? Haah? Do you? Show some goddamn respect!

[ The rest of the trial passes in what feels like a blur. They've had trials end in utter chaos before, but nothing quite as wild as this. Maybe it's because they've been getting complacent – they've gotten this far and it's hard to imagine anyone might be able to outsmart them as a group now.

So it's a little unsettling to realize how easy it might actually be to do so.

Not that anyone could get out of being cornered like that. It takes them minutes to settle on who to vote for and though Ryoko still feels they're not getting the full story, what choice do they have?

The execution goes off without a hitch – not that Ryoko pays the slightest bit of attention to it. Her mind is fixed on the young woman at the podium beside hers, still quiet and still not saying a word. It's not until they're all back upstairs, the fussy types all bustling around and making food and getting things in place for one of their grim little afterparties, that Ryoko finally gets a chance to approach. ]

You knew all along. Didn't you? [ She doesn't mean it to sound like an accusation, but it ends up coming out like one. ] When did you figure it out?

Edited 2021-12-04 13:01 (UTC)

[Shannon had been in the thick of every other afterparty; making tea, helping prepare food, sitting down to listen to the woes of the other survivors and offering a sympathetic ear. Which means her absence during the first minutes of this one makes the "party" feel even more off-kilter than usual.

And the atmosphere only gets worse when Sayo finally stumbles in with a third-empty bottle of bourbon in one hand. It may take some survivors a few moments to recognize her—without all her makeup, especially the foundation that hid the dark circles under her (stained red from crying) eyes, she seems like a different person entirely. Swapping the maid uniform for a loose-fitting tee, faded jeans, and some sneakers from the vending machine is also a new look for her. Plus the sudden, conspicuous lack of huge bahonkadonkers may provoke some double-takes.

Perhaps to rub it in, everyone's IDs all ping at the same time, giving them a notification about a profile update:]

Name: Sayo Yasuda | Champion Liar | The Golden and Endless Witch
Age: 19 | Species: Human | Occupation: Author
Likes: Mystery novels, pranks, fantasizing about revenge
Dislikes: Serving the Ushiromiya family, her expectations being betrayed, gold
Traits: Cunning, unstable, creative
Trivia: Hypothetically, her bodycount ranges anywhere from zero people to seventeen, but this Sayo's total kills add up to five.

Kyaaahaha! I really hoped somebody with enough cash to splurge for something as ridiculous as this deranged game would at least have better taste in alcohol, but even Kinzo's bottom-shelf absinthe is better than this, pfffft.

[Still laughing (desperately) to herself, Sayo flops onto one of the couches set up, deliberately sprawling in such a way to make her seem as odious as possible and to keep anyone from sitting down next to her.

Which doesn't keep Ryoko from approaching, of course. On a turn of a dime, her expression changes to something more melancholy and genuine as she traces her index finger around the lip of the bottle.]

...of course I did. Same for most of the other cases, too. [Sayo lets out a derisive snort.] Except for the second one. Having to deal with such bizarre alien physiology threw me for a loop. I almost have to thank our third week's culprit; if she hadn't given herself away in such a ridiculous fashion, I wouldn't have considered Nui disguising herself so perfectly as a possibility.

[And then she's suddenly back to uncannily bright, cheery, and perhaps a tad unhinged.]

Buuuuuuuut, I could hardly ruin the surprise for Battler now, could I?! Seeing him contort his poor little brain into so many delightful knots was downright delicious. Plus if I acted too out of character, why, that'd be giving the entire game away! And I couldn't have that, could I?

Edited 2021-12-04 18:11 (UTC)

[Oh did you mean his new daughter? You have given Mobius a brand new daughter? Is anyone gonna claim this 14yo time displaced girl or what.

He tries his best to understand her. It's been a while since he's had to pop around 17th century pre-America, but he seems to have a decent enough grasp of the basics without having to grill her about it or thinking that it's odd in any way.

And her self-made chores aren't hurting anyone or anything. There has to be a sense of stability in that, something calming, and then y'know the not usually having time to be in a.........mall for one thing and do anything other than work for another. A lotta new concepts and ideas to throw at her. It's why you don't go forward in time if you get the chance, nor should you bring modern tech back several decades or centuries. Shit freaks people out.

Still, with all the stress of the idea of straight up murder hanging over their heads (she is 14 why is she here), Mobius decides to attempt to get her to relax. Attempt. What's something to get her involved in that isn't too out of her depth, that doesn't take much explaining, and also wouldn't be too weird for a guy his apparent age to also take part in? There's a store with stationary, some more arty crafty things, various keepsakes, cards for all occasions. So. Whatever it is she's doing, he flops down by her and spreads out a couple of coloring books, colored pencils, and crayons. The topics range from pleasing geometric patterns, to animals, to--okay, he's pretty sure Game of Thrones isn't exactly appropriate, but it has dragons and kings and stuff in it, so that might be fine out of context.]

Stress-relief time, kiddo.

[Cool cool cool great cool okay this is awesome. So not only is the timeline funky with all these people from different times and places here to play a weird death game, and not only is he already deciding to be a voice of reason and to try his best to get everyone out of this, but there's also Loki. Who is definitely going to be trouble.

Mobius certainly got a few strange looks and barely-stifled laughs when he declared that Loki was under his protection. Understandable, given...[motions to Loki, motions to Mobius], but he meant it then, means it now. It also means that...everyone else is under his protection from Loki. Just in case.

But there are motives. Sometimes they're a little dumb, testing, poking, prodding, and sometimes they are tantalizing. None have managed to ruffle Mobius' feathers too much yet, but this one certainly have some of their compatriots upset.]

Loki. You good?

IT HURTS AND STINGS, PHYSICAL BODIES ARE THE WORST-!

Fou!

[Apparently having dealt enough damage to avenge the indignity of his stay in the gacha machine, Fou hops up off Hubert's allegedly non-corpsified form and jumps into KP's arms, going for the first familiar face available.]

KP, I'm sorry, leave me here. Be strong for me now that I'm gone.

[Yeah, he's. He's gonna need a second. Or two.]

[The last few motives were childish, easy to ignore. The offer to grant one wish, bring someone back from the dead, great wealth: all easily manipulated to be worse for the one receiving the 'boon.' Loki knew not to take the bait on any of them.

But this one. This one has his shaken.

Undo the mistake, whether yours or someone else's.

He scoffed at first, thinking of his many mistakes and how undoing one would make his life much better in the long run. That was until he opened his envelope. The picture crumpled in his hand as he turned and stormed from the room.

Mobius finds Loki in the library, standing in front of the fire.]

Fine. [His voice is biting, his shoulders rigid.] I simply didn't feel like listening to the prattling this week.

[It's one of those things that he can see worming under Loki's skin. Nobody here (save, of course, the overseers) knows Loki's mistakes like Mobius does. For Mobius, it's no problem. It's one of those basic time travel mistakes people make, plenty of variants and branches in the timeline happening because someone wanted to undo something. There's not a whole lot Mobius has done by mistake that would ever prompt him to tempt fate and the wrath of the TVA by trying to fix in such a way. He knows better.

Knowing better doesn't always matter when faced with hard matters. Loki, to borrow a phrase, has a lot of red in his ledger. But it's not hard for the analyst to figure out exactly the kind of mistake Loki might be tempted to correct.

Mobius keeps a respectable distance, hands in his pockets, watching Loki's flame-lit frame.]

Uh-huh. I can tell, what from the way you sound decidedly not fine and you looking like you're wound up set to snap.

[He doesn't say it to be mean. Not that levity is much better. Just, you know, pointing out. But the topic is a sensitive one, and his tone grows more serious for it.]

There were a lot of factors in play, Loki. You were just one of them.

[Loki looks down at the wrinkled picture in his hand. His mother's lifeless eyes stare back at him from where she lays on the floor, blood pooling under her dress.

He turns to the side, now able to look back at Mobius while still not turning his back on the fire. Too many emotions swirl behind his eyes to peg down just one, but it is clear he's on a knife's edge.]

But I was one of them. And if I were removed, Thor may have gotten to her in time.

And he may not have.

[He is not going to ask if the life of some random person here is worth the chance to bring Frigga back. Of course it would be, to Loki. That's not him being a villain; that's love. To the trickster god.]

Say it works. Say your mistake gets fixed and she lives. You wanna know what happens after that? [He spreads his hands.] New branch of the timeline forms. TVA comes to clean things up, prunes it out of existence, waste of time all around. And, say that doesn't happen for some reason--still a new timeline. You don't get the benefit of having her live. Some new you in a new timeline does.

[He knows Mobius' logic is sound. So many things were happening during the attack, it's likely Frigga would have died anyways. And if she didn't there's still the TVA.]

At least then it wouldn't be my fault. [The some of the tension leaves him and he sinks down onto the loveseat next to the fire.]

I could see her, speak with her. Tell her...[The picture crumples again in his fist.]

[It's a harsh truth, but as far as Mobius is concerned, it is the truth. Mobius purses his lips, thinking back to when he had gotten under Loki's skin deliberately, showing him glimpses of his then-but-also-no-longer-future.

(A different Loki--no, don't go there.)

He takes a seat beside.]

Tell her a lot of things that are a lot softer than what you told her before, when you were being spiteful and trying to hurt her. I'm guessing.

[Loki unconsciously shifts to accommodate Mobius on the seat. He did not know the man when they arrived, even though the human clearly knew him. He was suspicious, but something about his demeanor inspired trust. Normally Loki was more wary of it, not wanting to show weakness, especially in a place like this.

But it's just the two of them, and Mobius has not given any of them reason to doubt him so far.

So he relaxes just a bit more.]

She died thinking I hated her. [That was the real mistake, and that was much easier to fix. Well, "easier" is relative in this case. Despite his best effort, he's come to care about several of the people here.]

You don't have to worry. I'm not going to kill any of them.

She didn't think that.

[Does he know that for certain, well, no, not as such. But it seems pretty obvious to him. In a way that, maybe for Loki, being there in that moment, was easier to miss.]

You were her son ever since you were a little ice runt stolen away by Odin. She's one of the only people in your life you feel like ever really loved you, unconditionally. A couple sharp words from you isn't going to make that stop. Think of it this way--and I'm sorry that it's going to sound reductive, but deal with it. It's like her rebellious adopted teenage son yelled 'you're not my real mom' and slammed his bedroom door. [That's...that's really super basically what happened! Minus the door slamming. Emotional door slamming!]

Yeah, even though it stings, I don't think she actually thought you hated her. She raised you; I promise she could see through you.

[ It's like looking at a completely different person. Ryoko had thought at first that maybe the face she'd worn in the trial had been the real thing, peeking out from behind a mask hastily constructed to keep herself alive in a situation as dire as this. But stood here watching Shannon – no, Sayo, isn't it? – cackling to herself like it's all she can do to keep herself from crying...

Ryoko – and all the rest of them – didn't know anything at all, did they? ]

Well, the cat's out of the bag now, it seems. [ Or rather, the box. Not that Ryoko would know. ] Are we supposed to expect more performances like that at future trials?

[ And with evident delight and no apparent sympathy for local A.I. owned by gacha mascot, KP catches Fou in her arms and immediately takes to cuddling him with all the enthusiasm of a kid handed her first puppy. ]

Fou-san...! You're just as fluffy and puffy as I thought you would be!

[ This tooth-rottingly sweet image is undercut somewhat by the aura of tangible wrath Fou is still exuding that KP is apparently immune to. It's a Servant thing. ]

Hubert-san, Hubert-san! It's Master's friend from Chaldea!

[Mordecai's been another frequent visitor to the tea shop, both as an alchemist and a drinker of hot brewed beverages. In the time they've been there, those purposes have only accidentally been crossed once and fortunately the explosion was very locally contained.]

[So he's stepping across the threshold of the shop as Alfyn yells, immediately bounding over towards the distress call.]

Ah, hell-

[He immediately kneels beside Alfyn and the small, crumpled form, checking for any signs of life. His fingers come away wet with green blood.]

Who could- this has to be an accident.

[Honestly, everything about this situation is still nerve-racking for Dylan. He's on cruise ship in the middle of the ocean-what ocean? Your guess is as good as his. There's not a familiar face in sight, and a large number of those faces are humans who somehow understand him, which is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y weird and uncomfortable for him. None of the constellations even look like anything he's seen or studied, and...yeah, he may have had trouble sleeping due to that. And this isn't even going into the whole "kill someone if you want to leave" thing! There's a whole lot of anxious feelings over that thing!

But! BUT! B-U-T!

There is a person here who has been to space! Actually, truly been in space! No jokes about it, WENT TO SPACE! HOW IN THE NAME OF DOG IS HE NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK HER ABOUT IT?!

So after Dylan reads the detail from the profile, Entrapta should hear something that...sounds kind of like yelling? Coming from far away?]

EEEEEEEEENNNNNNNTRAAAAAAAPTAAAAAAAA!

[And then the Dalmatian comes to a skidding stop in front of the purple-haired princess, a smile overtaking his muzzle and tail wagging so quickly it may as well be going at the speed of sound.]

Is it true?! Is it really true?! Please tell me it's true! Please tell me you've been to space! CAN YOU TAKE ME TO SPACE PLEASE?!

[This is the most excited he has been in all his time here, maybe ever. Enjoy it while it lasts.]

[ It's not as though she's not listening. As a matter of fact, she gets what he's saying, loud and clear, even with the fingers wrapped around her collar...though she has to take a moment, to consider the implication of it. The look on her face becomes contemplative, for just a moment...

...Before that, though, she needs to set something straight. Chitoge doesn't move to tug at his wrist. She knows better than that. But it's a smooth motion, the way her palm rests on his elbow and turns counterclockwise, like she's twisting the cap off a bottle of water. Righty tighty, lefty... ]

...Respect is something you earn, dumbass. 'Sides, you pissed me off first.

[ It doesn't make any sense, to give one person an edge over the others like that. All the same, if he's telling the truth, he's just putting a target on his back. Whether people are gonna want to pry information out of him, or something more malicious than that... advertising that you're ahead of the curve might be trouble.

But why the hell should she care? If he gets offed, it's his own damn fault, for being a blabbermouth...

...is how she wants to think. Good grief. ]

But if you're gonna say shit like that, don't say it so loud.

[He stares at the picture at Mobius speaks, the unoccupied hand picking at his lip. Silence hangs between them for a long moment after the agent is done speaking. Loki doesn't know if he fully believes the man. Mobius may know a lot, but he can't know everything about everyone. In his mind it is still likely his mother died with his parting words ringing in her ears, believing them to be something more honest than what the dark wounds in his mind spit out.

But it is a nice fantasy. She never gave up on him, why should that last visit have been the last straw? Had the attack not happened, she likely would have continued to see him, send him gifts, try to connect with the beast that was once her son. His guilt can't let him believe it fully, but that's never stopped him before.]

Most of the time it seemed like she was the only one.

[He pitches the picture into the fire.]

I have not known you for long, Mobius, but I believe Mother would have enjoyed your company.

[A protracted silence doesn't bother him. It's a lot to take in and to mull over, and Loki...also doesn't have much reason to trust or believe him, save that Mobius always seems to be on his side or willing to help him out. An understanding of the history also doesn't hurt, naturally.

He looks away at the comment, like there's clearly something interesting on the floor instead. He's never personally directly interacted with a Frigga variant before, somehow having never needed to in spite of all her powerful potential. Never dangerous enough to warrant his involvement. But he knows enough about her through Loki's eyes and Loki's story. It's...flattering in a way he doesn't think is deserved.

Jane he can understand, Thor's girlfriend, smart as a whip, not afraid but fascinated by the magitech of Asgard. Aside from bopping around time for his job, Mobius is hardly anything special.]

There's a lot in your life that isn't fair, [said in lieu of a thank you or some awkward and mild rebuffing of the sentiment.] Not a whole lot of it was ever really in your control. But at least here, in this space, where we are now, we're as in control as...well, as we're allowed to be, anyway.

[The way he avoids directly addressing Loki's compliment is not lost on the god, but he also finds he doesn't mind. Mobius is humble, he understands how the human wouldn't feel like he could agree, but wouldn't want to disagree and risk insult.]

There's always another puppet master. [He leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs.] Even if we escape this place, what do we go back to? The TVA? Midgard? From what you've said, we wouldn't make it two feet without being erased by those time soldiers.

I... [He frowns, brow furrowed, has to think about it.] I don't actually know. This is...pretty unprecedented as far as I know. And we're all already taken into a new timeline; that doesn't make us the variants, necessarily. The people behind it, sure, but I don't know if that means this whole timeline gets pruned including us, if it gets pruned and we live our normal lives in the sacred timeline, never having met at all this way, if... [He shakes his head. Does not like not knowing, frankly.] I don't know...where we go or what happens after this.

But that doesn't make any of this pointless.

It certainly feels pointless. [Loki runs a hand through his hair, ignoring how it pulls with each snag his fingers hit. He really should start keeping it back in a braid or something if he isn't going to cut it.]

We're ripped from our homes --some for the better, others not-- and brought here to what? Grow just close enough so it is more painful when someone dies?

[His hand fists by his scalp, tugging the locks painfully.]

I'm sick of being someone else's puppet!

97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

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cw: alcohol, bad coping mechanisms, technically underage drinking, full bore spoilers

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