ZERO;

[crashout]

Comments

[crashout]

That doesn't entirely explain what Intoners are, Zero. Or how they relate to dragons. [He remembers that, but he looks at the flower a little too closely now that she's drawn attention to it.] Let me guess. You don't get a choice?

[fleuris]

[ ... ]

I tried to dig it out, you know. If I killed myself, that would kill the Flower too, right?

I ended up with five sisters, instead.

[crashout]

It spread. [And doesn't that sound familiar.] And because you were the source, you were the one they wanted to get rid of. Something like that?

[fleuris]

[ that pulls a bark of humorless laughter from her. ]

Guess again. The Flower gave them all fake memories - a happy, blissful dream of all of us growing up together that never actually happened. It was so convincing that they all ran off to save the country.

[ and wasn't that the biggest joke of them all. little vessels carrying seeds of destruction, running around trying to be heroes. ]

They wouldn't have been born if I hadn't done what I'd done - that made them my responsibility to deal with. God knows nobody else would have been able to.

[ and it's much easier to clean up after one Intoner than six ]

[crashout]

[Huh. Well that's fucked up, and he faces her with an uncertain frown.]

Well, you're probably right. Doesn't seem like anybody else would've been right for the job. [It explains some things, too.] So...what, there isn't a way to change how things are done? Even if the memories are fake and things are in motion, it's not always a set path, is it?

[fleuris]

[ not this fucking shit again ]

And what, exactly, would you suggest? Should I have let them run around until they were consumed and destroyed everything?

[crashout]

Man, I don't know, Zero. [It's maybe a little snapped because he's not even sure what she's really trying to tell him or expect from him.] Obviously not, but there's such a thing as figuring out how to work with people even when they want to kill you. That's kinda what I meant.

[fleuris]

So I should've asked them nicely to please run themselves on my sword? To stand still so my dragon could eat them?

[ she scoffs ]

No one is that stupid.

[crashout]

Are you being obtuse on purpose? I'm really not sure.

[fleuris]

[ . . . ]

Why would I joke about it? There aren't any other options for me.

[crashout]

Then...that sucks. [Again, what else is he supposed to say?]

...at least here you get a little more leeway deciding what you want to do.

[fleuris]

[ yes it's terrible, boo hoo, she's been there, done that, gotten the commemorative death wish. she's also now officially Over talking about her shit. ]

And what about you? What were you doing before all of this?

[crashout]

[He can recognize a subject change when he sees one, so he settles on a shrug.]

We were sort of doing something exactly like this. Minus the sex part. [Trapped in a building with no easy way out and killing each other. It's fine. Sometimes that happens.] It's almost funny.

[It's not, but whatever.]

[fleuris]

You and Carlos, right?

[ it was. somewhat obvious they knew each other. Carlos having Junpei's arm aside. ]

Did you get trapped without warning there too?

[crashout]

Yeah. That's where I met him, a little before that. [He makes no secret about them knowing each other at least.] We were at a test site and we all walked into a trap without knowing it. Kidnapped a few days later and woke up in a bomb shelter.

[fleuris]

And you said you'd done this whole thing several times before...

[ wow, hobbies, find a better one soon, she can't stress that enough. ]

... Did you at least win the last one? You know, before getting tossed straight into another.

[crashout]

[Good question.]

Carlos says we did, but I haven't personally experienced it yet. Plus there's something else waiting for us now that we escaped. Not another game, but something that'll change the world. Again.

[fleuris]

[ of course it would. ]

Do you know what it is, or is that another thing Carlos experienced that you didn't?

[ she doesn't exactly get it - were they separated or something? - but she won't bother asking. it's probably related to how Junpei ended up with three arms ]

[crashout]

[This time he looks at the ceiling and just. Stares.]

Religious fanatic who's going to start a nuclear war to kill eight billion people. Our job is to find him and stop him before it's too late. Easy stuff.

[It's not easy, but it's fine. He'll take it.]

[fleuris]

... Nuclear?

[ judging from the context, it must be really nasty. not touching the 8 billion thing because she can't. fathom that many people existing. ]

I take it he didn't leave a handy map to his hideout or a clue, did he.

[crashout]

Nope. [Which is frustrating, of course.] We have no leads or anything to follow other than the guy exists and we're working on borrowed time. We're not going with the other guy's solution though, so we're making our own.

[fleuris]

[ ... oh, is that why he was so insistent she look for another way...? ]

And the other solution was...?

[crashout]

[Of course it was.]

Release a virus to bring on the apocalypse and kill six billion people, hoping that the fanatic will die that way. [No thanks.] As you can see, our options were limited.

[fleuris]

[ hm. her first thought is that the odds seem pretty good that the fanatic would end up dead? but again, she can't quite fathom billions of people, so she'll just reduce everything to, oh, 6 out of 8. that's roughly equivalent. and then she'll apply her own situation to it, because that's something she genuinely cares about.

it still seems pretty good, but considering Zero has 5 sisters... what are the odds it would actually kill all of them? not very high, she'd guess. so it probably isn't as worth it as it sounds.

this has been your monthly Statistics and Probabilities with a Mass Murderer! ]

Yeah, if you're trying to kill one person, you shouldn't leave it up to chance. Can't be wrong about him being dead if you're the one stabbing him yourself.

[crashout]

[Congrats on your math, he'll wait for her to work that out before he nods in agreement.]

Exactly. And that's what we're hoping for. Doesn't even have to be a stab. We could shoot him. [Hm.] But to find him, we'll have to work a little backwards. We have some intel to go forward with, but it'll take time.