Shoulders and neck and my brain. Please don't massage my brain. [But scalp massages are okay, and he more or less trips himself into a chair. This is happening.]
...this is for some kind of bullshit task, isn't it.
What, you don't think I can do a favor for a good friend of my own volition? Junpei, I'm hurt!
[He says, snickering like an asshole.
But he'll set his hands on Junpei's shoulders and get to work from there as soon as he's settled! For having twink arms, he really is good with his hands, and particularly good at working out knots since NO ONE HERE KNOWS A SINGLE DAMN CHILL.]
I'm just saying. [He's taking that as a yes, but...Wei Wuxian starts working on his shoulders and he just lets his chin drop to his chest. The worst part is he was 100% serious, there's a shitload of knots in his shoulders. How the fuck has he been comfortable. Who knows.]
...alright, I'll bite. Remind me what level of secret you're looking for?
[YEAH HE'S IMMEDIATELY MAKING A FACE. He's come to expect this from the idiots on this ship but damn, it gets him every time...]
How do you even manage to move like this, Junpei? Honestly...
[SIGHING!!]
Anyway! That part really isn't for any sort of favor - I've just been thinking about this and that, lately. It made me wonder how people are really doing here, you know? [His gross squishy heart, briefly unveiled... As if to counteract it he reaches up with one hand to gently tug some of Junpei's hair like a cretin.] I'd like to be able to do more for you, but you're unfortunately a bunch of very pigheaded people!
[He just kind of laughs?] I never really thought about it. [He shrugs lightly.] It's just...how things are.
[But he's listening and he feels the hair tug and it gets another grin out of him at least because...yeah. They're a bunch of stubborn fools.] ...I've been trying to check in, too, but a lot of us are still really reluctant to say anything. Creatures of habit or whatever. Anyway doesn't that also make you kind of pigheaded since you're stuck with the rest of us? Maybe that's why we're really here.
[But he'll free Junpei's hair from any more rude tugging and go back to trying to work some of these knots out.
He also just laughs at the rest because GOD he wouldn't expect anything else from this ship of fools... He can't even count himself out because Junpei is entirely correct and they both know it.]
Well! You know how it goes - the best person to deal with someone stubborn is someone who's even more stubborn, right?
[It's fine, please ignore the light sound in his throat when he hits a particularly rough knot. Ow?]
Trust me, I got that. How do you think I've been finding out anything on this ship? [He doesn't sound too bothered though.] It's been a cycle of outwitting each other but somehow we're still doing better than the last group. It makes you wonder what they were really like.
[...] And anyway it's easy when you don't tell people the important things about yourself.
[He does not ease up though because THAT'S NOT HOW YOU GET RID OF KNOTS. Though he does sound genuinely apologetic, at least...]
Can't say I'm not curious about our predecessors, though! We're quite a messy group, ourselves, so it says a bit about them that they didn't fare as decently as we are - presumably, anyway.
[Though that last part has him laughing just a little as he moves his hands to Junpei's shoulder blades, instead.]
How many of us are guilty of that here, I wonder? [A PARTICULARLY UNKIND DIG INTO A KNOT.]
Judging by the recordings there were a ton of secrets flying around between them that ended up screwing them over. It doesn't surprise me. They didn't have as many weeks as we have, from the sounds of it. [He jumps a little at the dig because WHAT THE HELL MAN.]
There's probably a lot of us. [...but okay, okay.] But maybe not on purpose? Found out I forgot to tell Tamamo something really important the other day that kinda changed her entire opinion on me.
[HE'S A RUDE SHIT but he'll kindly massage out the area after, at least. Even if he is still absolutely chuckling about it...]
Hm, hm. Well, it's not like it's unnatural to want to keep secrets in a place like this.
[In fact, he's more inclined to be surprised that their own group managed to get their shit together in just five or so weeks to start working on getting things out in the open... GOD.]
Hm? Goodness, how do you forget to tell someone something that important... What was it, can I ask?
Given the fact we also had the roles and rules to worry about, it's like someone was trying to set us up for failure. [His head's still drooped forward and letting this happen. At least he's relaxing? Until Zerogate apparently, god.]
It never really came up? I thought I'd mentioned it but guess not. [But uh. Hm.] Might've forgotten to tell her I'm an esper and can jump to different histories. It would've made things a lot easier instead of fighting with her about securing her existence.
Mm, well, given what we know I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.
[ZERO IS OUT HERE DYING AND RUINING HIS GOOD WORK, HOT DAMN. At least he can do a decent job for the time being though, Junpei can... temporarily be freed... from stress back hell...
Like an asshole, he's laughing yet again, though.]
Ah, I see, I see... So she thought you - normal, squishy human Junpei - were getting in over your head?
We may as well accept that it is at this rate. [IT'S FINE, EVERYONE IS FINE. But he hears that laughter and there's a slight grin.]
That's pretty much it, yeah. She had no idea...and it's not like she would be the first person I secured into existence. I did the same thing about a year ago.
That makes it easier. It's sort of like that. Telepathy is a form of accessing the field, I guess. But the Morphogenetic Field is like...a different dimension where living things can access information and share it with each other. Not everyone can access it, it's something you can develop with a strong enough connection, but...accessing it requires two things. Epiphany, and danger.
[He pauses, rolling his neck and little and hissing.] ...I did tell you that I've been in a few games like this before, right? [DID HE. HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY REMEMBER.]
[The hilarious part is that if Wei Wuxian wasn't actually taking steps to get him to chill out he wouldn't be talking so congrats.]
Mmhm. We didn't learn how to SHIFT until recently--that's the alternate history jumping part. And Carlos didn't gain access to the field until a few hours before we got pulled here, but I learned last year when I got kidnapped for the Nonary Game.
[...how to be brief.] Guy in a mask broke into my apartment and waited for me to come home to kidnap me. Knocked me out with some white gas. When I woke up, I was on a ship and locked in a room that I had to figure out how to get out of. I had a bracelet strapped to my wrist. When I got up to another deck, I found eight other people who were in the same situation. When the broadcast began, we were told how to play the Nonary Game and what needed to be done to go through the locked numbered rooms. We had nine hours to escape before the ship sank. If we didn't do things a certain way, we'd die.
The Ninth Man was proof of that when he went ahead without us. A bomb inside his stomach detonated. We later learned that the guy, Zero, was among us. Someone hiding in plain sight...but the longer we played the game, we started trusting each other and learning more about each other.
...this girl I know. Name's Clover. She told me about the first Nonary Game that was run nine years before that. Nine pairs of siblings all kidnapped. Nine were put on a ship that was sinking, and nine were put inside a building in the desert. The whole thing was an experiment to try and force telepathy, but...things went wrong. A girl died.
[He pauses here.] We didn't know it then, but we were all there for a reason even if most of us didn't know each other. Clover and her brother, Snake, were there. They had played in the first game. They also knew Santa but I didn't know it at the time. And...then there was Akane. I've known her since I was six. But I hadn't seen her for nine years.
It wasn't until Ace--Hongou--tried to betray us that we understood what we were supposed to be doing. Or, I guess, what I was supposed to be doing. Nine years before, a young girl named Akane Kurashiki was forced into the Nonary Games. She was trapped inside an incinerator, but because she couldn't solve the puzzle to stop it, she burned alive. The thing about it is...Akane is a pretty powerful esper. She was...I don't know. Able to somehow see nine years into the present and see how the Nonary Games would run.
And so some paradoxical version of Akane recreated the Nonary Games, every single detail that she saw, including kidnapping all of us and killing the people responsible for her death. And when the time came...the Akane of the past connected with me. She had walked me through the game the entire time so that when we were locked in the same incinerator, I could help her. I could help her solve the same puzzle and save her in order to make sure she'd exist as she was then.
...we solved it. She was okay after that. But she disappeared for about a year by the time we escaped and realized we were in Building Q instead of the ship.
[SOMETIMES... you accidentally get someone to spill some deets without even meaning to just because you're out here trying to get them to chill for like 5 damn seconds.
He continues to work while Junpei talks, though there are several points where his hands still for a few seconds or a bit longer as he's wrapped up in what's being said and trying to keep up with the NONSENSE that's Junpei's world. Nonary Games? Forced telepathy? Timeline shit?? AND THIS IS THE CONDENSED VERSION???
There's a beat of silence when Junpei finishes, where Wei Wuxian is working over the information in his head the same way he's working over the knots with his thumb. As he starts dragging a hand gently upward for that scalp massage:]
No wonder you jumped off the side of the boat when we could first get out onto the deck. [JUST FIRST AND FOREMOST.] Goodness, though... So you in the present were able to save her in the past thanks to a different version of herself helping you through a series of deadly games on yet another murderous boat - yes? [There is absolutely a small part of him that almost reflexively says "how are you not dead yet???" before remembering whoops, he Has died before.]
You're absolutely one of the top contenders on this ship in the "who needs the longest vacation after we're done here" category, haha.
[Thank you for your service, Gremlin. He's not surprised to hear the silence because it sure is. Something.]
...it was partially that and partially because I saw Dcom. That's where we were before Carlos, Akane and I were kidnapped for the Decision Game. [But he sort of nods as well as he can while this is happening.] The past version of herself was able to see through me and connected with me in the Morphogenetic Field while the present version of her gave me context clues and leads to follow in the game she set up herself, yeah. Really confusing.
But...I wanted to save her, and I love her. [Just to say as much, and maybe Wei Wuxian will remember that Junpei has a ring in his pocket.] We don't exactly get time to relax when we get back either, but maybe someday when it's all over.
It is a bit confusing, but to be honest, almost everything you've told me about where you come from is like that? [HE'S KINDA USED TO IT in that "expect the unexpected" way, except it's just "expect Junpei's world to be wild as fuck".
He sure does remember the ring in his pocket, though - and remembers the name which had been brought up when they were discussing those hit clips. There's something a little soft in his voice when he speaks again, because honestly, he's the kind of gross goober who's fond of other people's fondness.]
Haha, she really sounds like an interesting person - and I'm sure she's wonderful, if she's someone you love. [He wants to MEET HER god imagine that disaster.] Well! No rest for the weary, hm? But all hardships end sooner or later - you'll get the break you deserve, I'm sure.
Believe it or not I used to have a completely normal life before that. [He misses that? So much? And yet this is just how things are now. But the subject of Akane comes up and he just...huffs lightly.]
She's...amazing and frustrating all at once. Pretty sure the main reason I've been able to play this game right is because I know she'd understand and she'd do the same thing. [And probably wouldn't even be surprised Junpei found other people to bond with. The worst part is that Akane definitely goes on tangents about aliens and shit so they'd probably be fine. Still, he doesn't know what WWX's thinking and moves on.]
After we save 8 billion people from a nuclear war? I think we'll take a week off or something.
Hah! Now that's probably the most difficult to believe of all the things you've said yet!
[But it's a gentle tease, at least. Punks gonna be punks...]
Anyway, I think you should probably credit yourself a bit more. I'm sure she's helped! But there's a lot you've done here that only you could do, probably. [...] I also think you could probably take an entire lifetime off after managing a feat like that, but for some reason, I have a hard time envisioning you taking to the retired life well.
[Wow?] Come on! It's not that difficult...I was going to college and everything. [But the smirk says he knows. It's weird.]
...I've never really known how to stop when I start working on stuff, if you really want to know. Even after we saved Akane and she ditched us in the desert I spent the next year doing everything to find her again because losing her wasn't an option. Losing the Decision Game wasn't an option, and...losing here isn't really an option either. It feels familiar in a way I really don't want it to, but...if it helps other people here, maybe it's for the best. You know what they, sleep when you're dead or whatever.
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...this is for some kind of bullshit task, isn't it.
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[He says, snickering like an asshole.
But he'll set his hands on Junpei's shoulders and get to work from there as soon as he's settled! For having twink arms, he really is good with his hands, and particularly good at working out knots since NO ONE HERE KNOWS A SINGLE DAMN CHILL.]
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...alright, I'll bite. Remind me what level of secret you're looking for?
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How do you even manage to move like this, Junpei? Honestly...
[SIGHING!!]
Anyway! That part really isn't for any sort of favor - I've just been thinking about this and that, lately. It made me wonder how people are really doing here, you know? [His gross squishy heart, briefly unveiled... As if to counteract it he reaches up with one hand to gently tug some of Junpei's hair like a cretin.] I'd like to be able to do more for you, but you're unfortunately a bunch of very pigheaded people!
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[But he's listening and he feels the hair tug and it gets another grin out of him at least because...yeah. They're a bunch of stubborn fools.] ...I've been trying to check in, too, but a lot of us are still really reluctant to say anything. Creatures of habit or whatever. Anyway doesn't that also make you kind of pigheaded since you're stuck with the rest of us? Maybe that's why we're really here.
[To out-stubborn each other? Sure.]
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[But he'll free Junpei's hair from any more rude tugging and go back to trying to work some of these knots out.
He also just laughs at the rest because GOD he wouldn't expect anything else from this ship of fools... He can't even count himself out because Junpei is entirely correct and they both know it.]
Well! You know how it goes - the best person to deal with someone stubborn is someone who's even more stubborn, right?
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Trust me, I got that. How do you think I've been finding out anything on this ship? [He doesn't sound too bothered though.] It's been a cycle of outwitting each other but somehow we're still doing better than the last group. It makes you wonder what they were really like.
[...] And anyway it's easy when you don't tell people the important things about yourself.
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[He does not ease up though because THAT'S NOT HOW YOU GET RID OF KNOTS. Though he does sound genuinely apologetic, at least...]
Can't say I'm not curious about our predecessors, though! We're quite a messy group, ourselves, so it says a bit about them that they didn't fare as decently as we are - presumably, anyway.
[Though that last part has him laughing just a little as he moves his hands to Junpei's shoulder blades, instead.]
How many of us are guilty of that here, I wonder? [A PARTICULARLY UNKIND DIG INTO A KNOT.]
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There's probably a lot of us. [...but okay, okay.] But maybe not on purpose? Found out I forgot to tell Tamamo something really important the other day that kinda changed her entire opinion on me.
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Hm, hm. Well, it's not like it's unnatural to want to keep secrets in a place like this.
[In fact, he's more inclined to be surprised that their own group managed to get their shit together in just five or so weeks to start working on getting things out in the open... GOD.]
Hm? Goodness, how do you forget to tell someone something that important... What was it, can I ask?
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It never really came up? I thought I'd mentioned it but guess not. [But uh. Hm.] Might've forgotten to tell her I'm an esper and can jump to different histories. It would've made things a lot easier instead of fighting with her about securing her existence.
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[ZERO IS OUT HERE DYING AND RUINING HIS GOOD WORK, HOT DAMN. At least he can do a decent job for the time being though, Junpei can... temporarily be freed... from stress back hell...
Like an asshole, he's laughing yet again, though.]
Ah, I see, I see... So she thought you - normal, squishy human Junpei - were getting in over your head?
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That's pretty much it, yeah. She had no idea...and it's not like she would be the first person I secured into existence. I did the same thing about a year ago.
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Oh? Tell me about that! How did you manage it? Sounds like a tricky thing, haha.
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[Spirits probably use it to communicate in his world or some shit.]
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[He pauses, rolling his neck and little and hissing.] ...I did tell you that I've been in a few games like this before, right? [DID HE. HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY REMEMBER.]
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You did, yes! And you mentioned some things about SHIFT, too. I'm taking it that's all connected to this field in some way?
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Mmhm. We didn't learn how to SHIFT until recently--that's the alternate history jumping part. And Carlos didn't gain access to the field until a few hours before we got pulled here, but I learned last year when I got kidnapped for the Nonary Game.
[...how to be brief.] Guy in a mask broke into my apartment and waited for me to come home to kidnap me. Knocked me out with some white gas. When I woke up, I was on a ship and locked in a room that I had to figure out how to get out of. I had a bracelet strapped to my wrist. When I got up to another deck, I found eight other people who were in the same situation. When the broadcast began, we were told how to play the Nonary Game and what needed to be done to go through the locked numbered rooms. We had nine hours to escape before the ship sank. If we didn't do things a certain way, we'd die.
The Ninth Man was proof of that when he went ahead without us. A bomb inside his stomach detonated. We later learned that the guy, Zero, was among us. Someone hiding in plain sight...but the longer we played the game, we started trusting each other and learning more about each other.
...this girl I know. Name's Clover. She told me about the first Nonary Game that was run nine years before that. Nine pairs of siblings all kidnapped. Nine were put on a ship that was sinking, and nine were put inside a building in the desert. The whole thing was an experiment to try and force telepathy, but...things went wrong. A girl died.
[He pauses here.] We didn't know it then, but we were all there for a reason even if most of us didn't know each other. Clover and her brother, Snake, were there. They had played in the first game. They also knew Santa but I didn't know it at the time. And...then there was Akane. I've known her since I was six. But I hadn't seen her for nine years.
It wasn't until Ace--Hongou--tried to betray us that we understood what we were supposed to be doing. Or, I guess, what I was supposed to be doing. Nine years before, a young girl named Akane Kurashiki was forced into the Nonary Games. She was trapped inside an incinerator, but because she couldn't solve the puzzle to stop it, she burned alive. The thing about it is...Akane is a pretty powerful esper. She was...I don't know. Able to somehow see nine years into the present and see how the Nonary Games would run.
And so some paradoxical version of Akane recreated the Nonary Games, every single detail that she saw, including kidnapping all of us and killing the people responsible for her death. And when the time came...the Akane of the past connected with me. She had walked me through the game the entire time so that when we were locked in the same incinerator, I could help her. I could help her solve the same puzzle and save her in order to make sure she'd exist as she was then.
...we solved it. She was okay after that. But she disappeared for about a year by the time we escaped and realized we were in Building Q instead of the ship.
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He continues to work while Junpei talks, though there are several points where his hands still for a few seconds or a bit longer as he's wrapped up in what's being said and trying to keep up with the NONSENSE that's Junpei's world. Nonary Games? Forced telepathy? Timeline shit?? AND THIS IS THE CONDENSED VERSION???
There's a beat of silence when Junpei finishes, where Wei Wuxian is working over the information in his head the same way he's working over the knots with his thumb. As he starts dragging a hand gently upward for that scalp massage:]
No wonder you jumped off the side of the boat when we could first get out onto the deck. [JUST FIRST AND FOREMOST.] Goodness, though... So you in the present were able to save her in the past thanks to a different version of herself helping you through a series of deadly games on yet another murderous boat - yes? [There is absolutely a small part of him that almost reflexively says "how are you not dead yet???" before remembering whoops, he Has died before.]
You're absolutely one of the top contenders on this ship in the "who needs the longest vacation after we're done here" category, haha.
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...it was partially that and partially because I saw Dcom. That's where we were before Carlos, Akane and I were kidnapped for the Decision Game. [But he sort of nods as well as he can while this is happening.] The past version of herself was able to see through me and connected with me in the Morphogenetic Field while the present version of her gave me context clues and leads to follow in the game she set up herself, yeah. Really confusing.
But...I wanted to save her, and I love her. [Just to say as much, and maybe Wei Wuxian will remember that Junpei has a ring in his pocket.] We don't exactly get time to relax when we get back either, but maybe someday when it's all over.
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It is a bit confusing, but to be honest, almost everything you've told me about where you come from is like that? [HE'S KINDA USED TO IT in that "expect the unexpected" way, except it's just "expect Junpei's world to be wild as fuck".
He sure does remember the ring in his pocket, though - and remembers the name which had been brought up when they were discussing those hit clips. There's something a little soft in his voice when he speaks again, because honestly, he's the kind of gross goober who's fond of other people's fondness.]
Haha, she really sounds like an interesting person - and I'm sure she's wonderful, if she's someone you love. [He wants to MEET HER god imagine that disaster.] Well! No rest for the weary, hm? But all hardships end sooner or later - you'll get the break you deserve, I'm sure.
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She's...amazing and frustrating all at once. Pretty sure the main reason I've been able to play this game right is because I know she'd understand and she'd do the same thing. [And probably wouldn't even be surprised Junpei found other people to bond with. The worst part is that Akane definitely goes on tangents about aliens and shit so they'd probably be fine. Still, he doesn't know what WWX's thinking and moves on.]
After we save 8 billion people from a nuclear war? I think we'll take a week off or something.
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[But it's a gentle tease, at least. Punks gonna be punks...]
Anyway, I think you should probably credit yourself a bit more. I'm sure she's helped! But there's a lot you've done here that only you could do, probably. [...] I also think you could probably take an entire lifetime off after managing a feat like that, but for some reason, I have a hard time envisioning you taking to the retired life well.
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...I've never really known how to stop when I start working on stuff, if you really want to know. Even after we saved Akane and she ditched us in the desert I spent the next year doing everything to find her again because losing her wasn't an option. Losing the Decision Game wasn't an option, and...losing here isn't really an option either. It feels familiar in a way I really don't want it to, but...if it helps other people here, maybe it's for the best. You know what they, sleep when you're dead or whatever.
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