Aftergathering 6

[clearasmud]

Rule 17 hits like a gutpunch. The plan she'd talked about, as improbable as it already was, had just become much harder.

But something - someone - digs its heels in inside her, the same way it did prior to their most recent trial. The presence of their latest, insurmountable hurdle, has the odd effect of only making Youko more determined.

They're going to win.

There's hot soup, rice, and tea in the kitchen. We're holding a meeting tomorrow morning in the conference room. I want you to be there.

- Youko

Comments

[blazeit]

Maybe people will calm the fuck down now that most of the easy targets are gone.

[ He says the word "easy" with a metric ton of bitterness behind it.

... He also isn't so sure that people are going to actually calm down. ]

[icysemblance]

...I wish I could believe that they would.

[She fiddles with her teacup.]

I think it just means that if anyone goes after someone else, they'll have a harder time.

[blazeit]

... Yeah, you're probably right about that. Maybe that'll stop some people from trying at all.

[ It's kind of hard to be hopeful about this, now that they're down to almost a third of their original number, though. ]

[icysemblance]

I really hope that you're right. I would like nothing more.

[blazeit]

Yeah, same here. This whole murder thing is getting really tired... We didn't even have a motive this week, just chickens.

[ He's definitely channeling his inner iced coffee hard with that last sentence. ]

[icysemblance]

I don't think the chickens had anything to do with it. Rick snapped, and Tabby...

[...in some strange and foreign way, her heart was in the right place.]

...she at least tried to take the shadow with her.

[blazeit]

... She shouldn't have killed to try and make it happen, but her reasoning wasn't wrong, I don't think.

[ If her plan had worked, then she would've saved more people than she killed, after all. ]

Either way, we can't just wait around. I don't know, maybe it's just irrational, but it feels like Observant is starting to do even weirder stuff.

[ The chickens, for one thing. Rule 17, for another... ]

[icysemblance]

No, she shouldn't have, but I agree. She had her heart in the right place, even if her methods leave something to be desired.

[She nods.]

I can't follow the logic he used for last week. It's completely out of line with every other kind of motive he's given us. I'm starting to wonder if he's losing it, honestly.

[blazeit]

Yeah, I'm honestly wondering that as well. Maybe he's stressed out or something? ... It definitely feels like his plan is going off the rails, after all.

[icysemblance]

It does, and not in a good way. It feels like the 'we're going to hit a wall going a hundred miles an hour because we went off the rails' way.

[blazeit]

Probably, yeah. Things not going too great for Observant probably means things are about to get even shittier for us...

[ Although he's pretty sure things can't get worse than after that last trial. Fingers crossed, at least. ]

[icysemblance]

That's what gets me. He's had things pretty well under control, until what happened with Dio. I wonder if that's what shook him up, realizing he didn't have as much control as he thought.

[blazeit]

I think that's maybe when he realized something or... somebody was fucking up things for him. I mean, if you think about it, though, things already got screwed up from the very beginning, he didn't realize we were all missing memories.

[icysemblance]

No, and he's said he doesn't have control over the ones we get back - I asked over the phone a while back. Either way, whatever this something or someone does, if it's making his life hard, it's going to wind up making our lives hard too.

[blazeit]

Well, I wish whoever or whatever's making things so hard for him would stop messing with us in the process. It's rude as hell.