katzepaw | rita

[well this sure was a day!! rita's radiating feelings of exhaustion, guilt, grief, and lingering terror after everything that happened. but seeing caleb, she'll break into a jog to catch up with him.]

Hey, I...

... You knew, right? Yamato and Beau must have said something.

[His emotions are just a determined thrum of calm tension. Not peace, but just ready to try and tackle something. Underneath, though, there's a lot of worry and anger.

He will stop to talk to her; no need to jog.]

. . . Only last night. I got a little too cross with Beauregard for not telling me things.

Yeah, I thought you might be pissed. Honestly, that was one of the reasons I wasn't sure about telling Beau, knowing she'd have to keep it from the people close to her.

[a pause, and a chilling, horrified feeling creeps in...]

Now we know what happens when people say too much.

[Hmm.]

Beauregard and I do not really care if the other is keeping a secret. We can understand that. It is only that it started being quite obviously a dangerous one.

But I'm glad to know. And that Yamato could do it safely.

Yeah. We can safely tell one person per week.

But... if any of those people we share with go on to tell another, we suffer the consequences for breaking the rule. The person who blabs doesn't even know it happened.

You don't have to worry about me. I won't blab. I am good at secrets.

[she's hesitant... but she nods.]

Good.

[there's some relief! and then a thought, that brings back another wave of heavier feelings.]

... Byleth had that protection item, right?

From Dimitri. He won the bid - I don't know who else was part of it.

I think. . . Beauregard intended to kill her, yes? I think it must have triggered the item, broke it.

[she's nodding, accepting this as a fact but boy are her emotions a rollercoaster right now.]

... Not just Beau.

You, too? You and Yamato both are stubborn.

[a nod. yeah, she won't argue 'stubborn.']

We agreed on what had to be done. But Yamato wasn't in any shape to fight, and I'm the one who's been stocking up on magic, so.

[and just when she was starting to get used to the fact that she's not a murderer after all! oh boy.]

Well, we can talk about that. Do you still think it needs doing? Would you kill Otome this week, if she is still alive?

... I don't know.

We know who most of the killers are. Maybe we'll get lucky and find this new one, too. But... then what? What are we supposed to do about them, if not stop them?

I'm not sure of the answer, either. But. . . I don't know if I feel that Byleth's death helped our situation. It might have, but I'm not sure.

Then again, Otome may kill someone again, and it will be harder to feel as though that blood isn't on our hands for failing to stop her.

[nods grimly...] She might not be the enemy... but she's still going to kill every week. Or her allies will.

Could trip them up with more sensory deprivation coupons, but it's not like it's guaranteed to prevent a kill. Especially when they work in pairs, and we don't know which two are going to act on a given night.

I've already looked into whether a more potent incapacitation spell is possible, but that was a no.

Though there's the question of whether the thing they're killing for is something we want to prevent.

[Given the personalities here. . . Rupert, Byleth, Otome. . . whatever they found important enough to murder for.]

[that gives her pause, and there's just. a lot of reluctance here.]

... Yeah. [she hates it!!]

I don't think Otome was lying. And I'd already heard rumors about... ugh. This idea that they need to send people to the "other side" so they can do something.

Yeah. So maybe there is a certain number who will have to die anyway? I don't know what to think.

It's plausible. And if there aren't enough people getting killed in a given week, someone gets chosen to kill.

Was that information from the two of you, that. . . that something like that is what happened to Sieghart?

No. Actually, I'd been wondering about that.

We sent the other ones. That one was... I don't know, like a copycat? I've been trying to figure out who could have sent it. Maybe it even came from the culprit themselves...

It could have.

[Agreement.]

If you were believing a lie that led you to kill someone, and then you woke up from it. . . [There's some emotion there, something horrified. A little like recognition.] It wouldn't be so easy to talk about it, even if you wanted to help.

Yeah... I wouldn't blame them for latching on to some way to explain themselves anonymously.

Still wish I knew what happened to the old man, but... this'll have to be enough for now.

It would be good if they would come forward. Perhaps a note asking them to? It would be good to learn more information about it, so we can get better at identifying it.

I still don't know if that is what happened with Caiman, or if he was simply a ticking time bomb.

I think it was a bit of both. He had... that, something, inside him all this time. But I don't think he went off like that for no reason. Like... something triggered it.

[there's a bit of an uncomfortable feeling... that whole case was pretty miserable, from beginning to finish.]

... I know it's just useless speculation at this point.

The important thing is that we probably can't stop murders from happening. At most, if we really wanted to, we could potentially redirect them. Choose to kill someone so that mysterious forces don't choose someone else to do it. Maybe.

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katzepaw - 2021-07-11 22:49 (UTC) - Expand

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overlimit - 2021-07-12 00:08 (UTC) - Expand