[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.
College student Junpei Tenmyouji... How strange, strange indeed!
[But the clear teasing aside, he'll just cheerily add:]
Haha, well, you don't really get to sleep when you're dead either. [REASSURING.] ...Still, I think that sort of thing is invaluable. Sometimes the most important asset a person could have - or any group, really - is the ability to keep going even when the situation is grim. A lot of us refuse to accept when something isn't going in the way we want it to, you know? That's probably not a coincidence, either.
[Maybe because the demons think it's funny to break down stubborn people?? FUCK YOU DEMONS THAT JUST MAKES HIM WANT TO FIGHT MORE.]
Yeah, well. Ex-college student. I dropped out a few months before graduation.
You're crushing my hopes and dreams, man. [Regarding sleeping when he's dead.] But I can't disagree with that either. I don't think we would've gotten nearly as far if most of us just rolled over and quit. We tend to force the issue and make it work in our advantage.
But, admittedly, it makes me worry about what they'll try next when we aren't expecting it.
Ah... Well! To be fair, any sort of life that could be described as "average" doesn't seem suiting to you, anyway.
[That's a compliment, truly it is.
He also just chuckles at the first bit there SORRY SOMETIMES YOU JUST DIE AND REALIZE DEATH IS JUST MORE OF THE SAME. Godspeed, Junpei.]
--Haha, you and I both! I'm sure they know us quite well, after all, and have plenty of time to learn more as we go. Pressing our limits to see when we'll finally reach a point we can't get up from seems like a demonic thing to do, hm? [Though he grins anyway, and there's something to it that's just a little sharper than usual.] On the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time or the last that something inhuman has forced a human's hand and regretted it.
[There's a low hum like "yeah, okay" because haha.]
They did enough research on us to know what'll get reactions, so I'll give them some credit. [Not much though, fuck demons.] ...does that have to do with how you came back from the dead or whatever, or is it something else?
You're not wrong. [On either account, haha. Humans and demons are both problematic on their own.] But isn't being stubborn and making your own choices what being human really means in the first place?
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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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[But the clear teasing aside, he'll just cheerily add:]
Haha, well, you don't really get to sleep when you're dead either. [REASSURING.] ...Still, I think that sort of thing is invaluable. Sometimes the most important asset a person could have - or any group, really - is the ability to keep going even when the situation is grim. A lot of us refuse to accept when something isn't going in the way we want it to, you know? That's probably not a coincidence, either.
[Maybe because the demons think it's funny to break down stubborn people?? FUCK YOU DEMONS THAT JUST MAKES HIM WANT TO FIGHT MORE.]
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You're crushing my hopes and dreams, man. [Regarding sleeping when he's dead.] But I can't disagree with that either. I don't think we would've gotten nearly as far if most of us just rolled over and quit. We tend to force the issue and make it work in our advantage.
But, admittedly, it makes me worry about what they'll try next when we aren't expecting it.
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[That's a compliment, truly it is.
He also just chuckles at the first bit there SORRY SOMETIMES YOU JUST DIE AND REALIZE DEATH IS JUST MORE OF THE SAME. Godspeed, Junpei.]
--Haha, you and I both! I'm sure they know us quite well, after all, and have plenty of time to learn more as we go. Pressing our limits to see when we'll finally reach a point we can't get up from seems like a demonic thing to do, hm? [Though he grins anyway, and there's something to it that's just a little sharper than usual.] On the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time or the last that something inhuman has forced a human's hand and regretted it.
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They did enough research on us to know what'll get reactions, so I'll give them some credit. [Not much though, fuck demons.] ...does that have to do with how you came back from the dead or whatever, or is it something else?
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[THEY'RE ON THE SAME PAGE. As for that, he just huffs out a little laugh and shakes his head.]
Oh, no - more of a general statement. Humans can be quite a handful!
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