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Week 4.
Ashley Williams and Asuka Langley Shikinami have joined the ranks of the deceased. Two more deaths, two more people whose absences will be felt by the group; a bit over one-fifth of the Participants are dead. And this week, it seems everyone is feeling it. They say three times can be considered a routine, and the fourth week of the exercise isn't breaking pattern any. Saturday can be given to rest and sleep; on Sunday morning, the clock chimes the hour at seven o'clock. There are no more bodies, no more bloodstains; there's nothing else to be found this morning. Unless, of course, you count whatever you found last night, strange dreams or otherwise. Once again, there's a new floor to explore; after everything that trial decided to be yesterday, you deserve the reward. And for the second time, there are rule changes, effective immediately. You might want to take note of them. |
SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week four of Trustfell! Save your threads for coins and the coming week's activity check; don't forget to check in to this week's activity check and submit your memory regains as well!
The Letters and Switchboard posts are still active, for the sake of contacting the jerk who's keeping you here, to be used at your leisure!]
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[maybe a solid hundred years, or maybe a few months ago, isn't amnesia fun, kids]
But I used to be quite good at it when I was younger--as I recall it was quite a lucrative hobby back then.
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[look at all this handwaved chess because i can't chess to save my life]
It's certainly an interesting game. I've always been fond of it.
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[this little shit. also i don't know how to play chess either ROLL WITH IT]
But I've always quite liked it, myself. It takes a certain intelligence I don't see often.
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[Though imagining tiny Dio conning people out of money is hilarious, thank you for this mental image.]
Indeed, I had very few people I could play with after my father passed. My mother and sister were terrible at it and Reaver... well, I can count the number of times I won against Reaver on one hand.
[He might have acted like a bimbo, but Reaver was really damn good at chess.]
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[tiny Dio may or may not have also gotten his ass kicked for it on several occasions. Crazy, right?]
Oh? He didn't seem the type.
[Which actually sounded like honest surprise rather than any smartass 'ha ha that Reaver, what a moron' cheap shot.]
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He defeated me so quickly in our first game that I spent the next several years focused on defeating him.
[...this is how logan spent his teenage years. trying to defeat reaver at chess. who let this man be king.]
Reaver was always good at anything involving strategy. I was very thankful for his assistance.
[i mean sure, his morality went straight to hell, but sometimes you've got to hurt the country you're trying to save!!]
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I have to confess I'm surprised to hear that. I never got the impression he was the strategic sort--that's quite a shame, really. It's rare I get the chance to meet people intelligent enough to be tolerable.
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[Ah, right, feelings. Let's not get into that.]
At any rate, he was the only one I could play with for quite some time, though I haven't had any free time recently.
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[he'll just casually move a knight and-]
Check.
[going directly for the throat today, in the metaphorical sense.]
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[Not bad. Let's see here-- That should block you for now. It doesn't really matter how many pieces he has to sacrifice in order to win--
...oh. That's a little awkward.]
I haven't had a moment's peace in four years and if these dreams are really memories... Well, I don't expect to have any peace in the future either.
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[...he sees what you're doing there and he kind of respects the metaphor]
But I'm beginning to doubt that my more recent days were anything resembling peaceful, as well.
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[Dio doesn't seem like the sort to be messed up by anything though. Maybe he isn't. Maybe he's like Reaver and he's just really damn good at hiding it. Who knows?]
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[Which...sounded honest enough, or as much as anything Dio said could sound honest.]
Whatever I was doing in that time, it's done and in the past. Regrets are something useless to me--all I need to concern myself with is the present and future.
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Well said. Life certainly would be easier if I could dismiss my regrets as easily.
[He doesn't sound too bothered by that though, just kind of Done.]
...Check.
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[...well son of a bitch that's impressive. Let's just casually sacrifice a pawn in a way that is not remotely symbolic or representative of his usual methods.]
Most people seem to have trouble with adopting such a perspective. Either it's a limitation held exclusively by humans or it reflects upon one's personality. I'm not certain which, to be quite honest.
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I can only speak for myself, of course, but I believe it is a product of my personality. Reaver was human and he never had any regrets.
[...that Logan knew of. But of course he didn't know Reaver as well as he liked to think-- ugh. He's not going to do that right now.]
Besides, any regrets I have are minor ones. There is nothing I could have done differently anyway.
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[Did he regret how the trial had gone? No, upon consideration Dio admitted that he did not. Asuka's life over his own--anyone's life over his own was an easy decision. ...But if he'd known ahead of time what she was going to do, maybe-]
[No. There was no point in such a hypothetical. The two of them were dead, and that was all there was to it now.]
[His next move landed in place a little more harshly than necessary, Dio trying to keep a look of outright disgust off his face at the thought.]
...it's useless.
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...Four years ago I carelessly put myself and my soldiers in a dangerous situation. I thought I could handle it. I was wrong. I was the only survivor.
That is my biggest regret, and the only one I would change.
[It isn't exactly an invitation for Dio to talk if he doesn't want to, but Logan will listen if Dio has anything to say.]
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...My brother Jonathan was a selfless and righteous individual his whole life. Quick to anger on occasion, but still carrying the ability to care for even the worst kinds of monsters. Some people--like this mess of hypocrites we find ourselves with--will leap to what they think is moral and condemn those that don't fit into their image of 'right' and 'wrong'. Jojo was different; I think he chose to believe that even the worst people weren't horrendous monsters and held to that idea like a drowning man clings to a floating scrap of wood.
He was that kind of fool for as long as I knew him. I really detested that stubborn idealism.
But I suppose if I were to call any one thing in my recollected life a 'regret', it's that I failed to convince him otherwise. And that at his end, he still felt kindness for those who didn't want or deserve it.
[Punctuating that sentence, he moved another pawn directly into the line of fire.]
Knowing him, he would sympathize with both sides of that disaster of a trial at once.
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"Stubborn idealism", that sums it up perfectly, doesn't it? He thought he had moved past that four years ago.]
...Individuals like that are very rare. They're... interesting, I suppose.
[His sister isn't like that anymore though, is she? Maybe she will would be if he had never--
Not thinking about that either.]
That trial was a disaster.
[Despite the emphasis, Logan doesn't sound angry. He's not sure he even wants to talk about it, but he's just so tired.]
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[Scowling faintly, Dio adjusted the choker hiding the scar around his neck.]
...Perhaps that's why this annoys me so much. They think themselves so much better than she was--shouting the same morality Jonathan loved so dearly, but with none of the sincerity to it. Any of them would have done the same given the right circumstances.
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...Then it turns out that his sister's alive, she overthrew him, killed a ton of his soldiers, and destroyed a good amount of Bowerstone, but hey, at least she's not dead!
Goddammit, sister.]
...While I am still furious at her for what she did, I found all of that horrific. Morty had an excellent point - had she killed Rick would they be spouting that nonsense or would they be mourning her loss?
[He runs a hand back through his hair, agitated.]
The world isn't as black and white as many of them were making it out to be.
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[It's a a crying damn shame, outliving your brother.]
[Isn't it?]
The answer to that is obvious. At this point I'd have thrown her a parade if she killed that alcoholic trash. [...chill, dio.] But because she was pragmatic she's the second coming of the devil himself. I don't give a damn who she killed or why. I can't even say I'm furious at her; frankly, I'm impressed how well she concealed the whole mess.
It's everyone else that disgusts me. They think it's so simple, as though foolish things like friendship really matter in the face of things like this. As though they wouldn't eat each other alive for the right price.
[No one had any place to be so self-righteous as far as Dio was concerned. They weren't Jonathan. He shouldn't have cared, but something about the situation bothered him like the buzzing of a persistent insect. Was it just because it concerned two people he'd actually tolerated, or because everyone else had turned so infuriating so quickly?]
If she'd managed to kill me, half of you probably would have congratulated her.
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...There's also the fact that he places a lot of importance on the friendships he's made here, but that might be because he's afraid of what he'll do if he doesn't value them.]
I believe you're right. A good amount of them would have been pleased had she killed you.
...I cannot say I agree with that, however. You've already said that you won't kill anyone.
[And that's really all there is to it. If the blood transfusions don't restock then he might need to rethink that, but Logan is perfectly fine taking Dio at his word.
...People in Albion don't really lie a lot, okay.]
I don't like the idea that any one person's life means more than another's in here. Yes, there are those among us that are well liked and then there's Rick, but that shouldn't mean that a murderer gets sympathy just because their victim was someone we didn't like. It only seems fair to treat all murderers the same way.
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[There was absolutely no guarantee that it wasn't filled with nails.]
There's no need to say as much; whatever you and the others think of me doesn't matter at this point. And I'm not interested in weighing the value of anyone's life over anyone else's.
[Except his own.]
I didn't care about either of those girls, and to be blunt I'm indifferent to nearly all of you. It's not sympathy that leads me to defend Asuka; sympathy itself isn't in my nature.
[...Then what was it? Dio paused, the piece in his hand hovering over the board before he set it in place.]
...Maybe it's just distaste at seeing murder in the name of survival held in such contempt. One monster to another.
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