week 1; wednesday w/ veronica

[alchemenace]

[ so after they find out natsuo is alive (THANK GOD), there is a certain scroll that deserves their attention, which means Varian is sharing A Look (of the non-panicking kind) with Veronica before dragging her away to a secluded place and opening the scroll again for them both to look at ]

Okay, now that we're out and-- and everyone is mostly fine [ they'll live it's fine it's fine? it's fine ] -- let's talk about this.

[ because it's problematic. ]

Comments

[asswipe]

[Good news: They're not going to murder yeti jail.

Bad news: The scroll is troubling as heck, and just vague enough that they have no way of knowing if those "special roles" are a good thing or a bad thing.]

Okay, yeah. That's... That's a good idea.

[She's still shaken up over Natsuo, even if he's Technically Fine. Sniffling, in a bad attempt to ignore the rotten egg smell, she leans to take a look at the scroll again. With her index finger, she points at the second sentence.]

Let's start from the most obvious part. Some narrators have a "special role" in addition to their title. That wasn't in the rules we received when the suites opened up.

[Which, you know, bodes well.]

[alchemenace]

[ someone should probably point out that rotten eggs are usually gas leaks. it's too bad varian is too busy pouring over this scroll with veronica! ha ha! oops !! ]

It wasn't. Based on that, I think we can safely say that, that outside of whoever those people with "special roles" are, we're the only ones with this information right now, because whatever they are? They're probably meant to be kept secret.

[ which isn't ... great ]

[asswipe]

[too bad veronica is Not Genre Savvy and doesn't know shit. time for varian to maybe blow up in the future.]

Question is... Are they a secret because the special roles themselves are being coerced to keep it a secret? Or because anyone else who knows needs to, uh, die? Because one of those options is way worse for us than the other.

[alchemenace]

Oh that. That is. Um. That is a really good question?

[ hm. yikes. ]

I, um, I wasn't too keen on sharing this already [ special?? roles?? ] but we should ... probably keep it to ourselves just in case.

[asswipe]

Neither was I. No matter how you look at it, we're being forced to kill each other. I really don't want to give someone an even bigger reason to target me.

[yikes, indeed.]

Even this part— [and she's tapping on the last line, about titles.] That's not the kind of information you'd want in someone else's hands, if it's meant to be your trump card.

[alchemenace]

Do you think that includes titles that are already... "retired"? We can learn what those do if we ask, so if someone wanted to trade with something they felt was worth it...

[asswipe]

Maybe? Or maybe not. It sounds so convenient, picking from the titles you already know about.

[alchemenace]

That depends on what it takes to switch titles. If we're assuming it's not role related, and the way this scroll is written, it shouldn't be... You might need to do something to impress the Crafters to be able to do it.

[asswipe]

Like... doing something big to gain their favor, you mean?

[like murder???]

[alchemenace]

Right. They wouldn't-- if anyone wants to change their title, it's because they don't like it, right? So they want something better. That's already asking for a lot. But if we're right and titles are part of what decides your, your side in this war, then changing that is also changing sides, isn't it?

They wouldn't give that for nothing. And the one thing they seem to want more than anything right now is... participation.

[ so. yea. like murder ]

[asswipe]

[... hm.]

Tiger and Dragon... Do you think they each represent one side of the war? I don't doubt that doing, uh, "extracurriculars" [murder] would let you change your side in this war, but wouldn't that make you a traitor? Or would they just— I don't know, not give a damn?

[alchemenace]

I don't know. The way they've put it makes it seem... pretty straightforward, right? Heroes and villains. And, and it's not like someone just designating themselves the, the bad guy is all that weird, I'm sure it's happened before, but... they said they were trying to prove a point, right?

What could they be proving by making us kill each other? Maybe that's what we need to do to impress them. Whatever it is they're fighting about. It might not be as... simple as just an extracurricular. Or. It might be an extracurricular plus?

[ okay this is too much ]

Extracurricular still stands for, um, for murder, right?

[asswipe]

It does. [Pauses. Squints. This is too much.] ... We should probably stick to calling it murder it gets too confusing, huh.

[Anyway—]

So... What I'm getting here is, there's backstory we're obviously lacking. Backstory we need if we want have a more educated guess than, uh, it's good versus evil. [Which, you know, is bullshit.] The special roles have to be related to the point they're trying to make, too. They'd be superfluous if they weren't.

[alchemenace]

Exactly. So all we have to do is figure out what this entire "narrative" [ get it. Cause. Stories. Anyway ] is actually about, and we should be one step closer to knowing what those roles are for. Easy.

[ it really isn't. ]

[asswipe]

Easier said than done, maybe. But, sure. Optimism is good.

[save them.]

[alchemenace]

Optimism and a scroll is about everything we have right now.

[ rip!! ]

[asswipe]

Better than feeling depressed and having no scroll?

[alchemenace]

A little.

[ at least they didn't get stabbed! ]