[ch. 4] tuesday evening, w/ dazai, evan & souji

[asswipe]

[Presumably after all of them have taken a power nap—

Veronica brings the book and the booze to Dazai and Evan's room. Specifically, she brings two bottles of wine as well as four cups because, well. Sometimes, you gotta be a little buzzed to be able to deal with this shit.

Once everyone is in the room and the book is laid out in front of them, she's going to gently........ cradle her face in her hands.]

Oh, god. What have we done?

[MISTAKES. THAT'S WHAT.]

Comments

[thesettingsun]

Mistakes.

[Dazai's face is bandaged, but that's not keeping him from immediately pouring himself a glass of wine.]

If this book doesn't have anything useful in it I might cry.

[sanguinairy]

[Souji will also pour himself a glass once Dazai is done, though it takes him a second since he can no longer efficiently use his ghost hand. GOD. He'll start pouring two more too for their other comrades.]

I think I might, too. [His lifespan........ whittled away... Though before they actually touch the book and get cursed, he'll look at his fellow comrades in suffering arms. Very sincerely:]

I'm glad that you're all okay.

[Too bad Veronica missed them all fighting to see who'd die first.]

[selfinserting]

[Evan looks like he's considering refusing the wine even while Souji starts pouring some for him, but. He's made enough poor decisions today, what's one more!!

Anyways, he's just kind of... staring at the book, for now. The fear that they'll open it to find nothing at all is Real.]

...I'm glad you're all okay, too.

[His expression makes it clear that he really wants to apologize, but he's pretty sure that none of them want another one of those from him.]

But, um, should we open it...?

[asswipe]

[Wine is always a good decision, gosh!! She reaches for her own cup, muttering a quiet thank you at Souji before taking a small sip. The knowledge that they stole Tiger's book is enough to make her levels of stress skyrocket — and that's without taking into consideration the freaky shit that's been happening since the others returned from Tiger's room.

Hearing a heartbeat whenever she opens a door is Bad. But, well. It's not like she wasn't losing her shit already.]

We already fucked ourselves over, so why not? [There's a tinge of hysteria here.] Let's flip this puppy open.

[Of course, she carefully opens it up to reveal this. Whoa. Amazing. It's








a well documented mental breakdown? Hm.]

[thesettingsun]

...It could be more useless, but I was really hoping it would all be legible, at least.

[sanguinairy]

[THIS CREW IS IN TATTERS but at least they have wine. Anyway, Souji will lean over and while they're flipping through these torn and smudge-y pages he's just

looking

more and more concerned.

...Hm.

This isn't as helpful as he'd hoped!! Where's the note saying "here's how you end the game tomorrow and also save everyone"! Also, it is in fact hella concerning and he is still Concerned.]

...Do you think this is hers? She seemed... very much like she wanted it back.

[selfinserting]

[He leans over to read it along with everyone else, and just. Pauses, before slowly taking a sip of wine.

That's. Hm.]

If it's not hers, who else might have written it? And if it was her, what, what happened to her, exactly...?

[It seems like something Not Great.]

[asswipe]

[Unlike the others, Veronica is... oddly silent as she scans through the book. Her expression is unreadable, and it's not until Evan speaks that she shakes her head and puts down her cup of wine.

She needs to be sober for this.]

I think, if this belongs to Tiger... I know what happened to make her so upset.

[It's a guess based off information she has gotten from someone else, but...]

... Beauty stabbed Tiger through the heart with a dagger. That's... why Beauty and the Beast were banished to the Other Side.

[thesettingsun]

She had a scar on her chest.

[Information that Veronica doesn't have, because she got out of there like a smart person.]

Maybe it's from that?

[sanguinairy]

[THE ONE SMART PERSON.

Anyway that's. HM. MANY CONCERN. Souji's brow furrows a little and he looks back through the papers, reaching out to flip a page and thus cursing himself too. God.]

Do you think it has anything to do with the dagger on her shelf? The one you didn't like.

[Glancing toward Veronica. CURSED DAGGER.]

[selfinserting]

...If that's the case, then would that make Beauty, um, the Dragon?

[That's... troubling, to say the least.]

[asswipe]

... A scar would make sense. [Hm.] And touching the dagger made me feel all kinds of shitty, so... you could be right, Souji. I hate to say it was cursed, but it was definitely cursed.

[Beauty, why did you have to go and stab Caesar? You ruined a perfectly good NPC. Gave her anxiety!! When Evan adds his own theory, though, she shakes her head.]

No. I'm really sure Beauty isn't Dragon, and... that they're on the Other Side. Have any of you noticed the designs on the foyer tapestries?

[thesettingsun]

I haven't, aside from the tiger and dragon themes everything here has.

[He'll have to check those out later when everything sucks less.]

[sanguinairy]

Ah... Well, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Apparently cursed items and curses in general are just fckin everywhere in this castle, though he looks Tired by the idea of it.

As far as talks of Beauty and Beast and Dragon and Tiger, though--]

I have. ...It's mentioned in that book too, isn't it? The leather one in the library. They were tasked with something they hated and so Beauty rebelled... The other Narrators were returned to their worlds but those two were left on the Other Side, even though Beast didn't know about Beauty's plan.

[Hm.]

I wonder if they're still there.

[selfinserting]

I wish there was... a way to talk to them. They must know so much more about all of this than we do. Do you think the Other Side that's written about in the book is - where the others have gone when they died?

[A frown.]

[asswipe]

... I think so. I think it is.

[Hm.]

Do you guys remember what Ion, Natsuo and Belph talked about in the last trial? Ion, the one that's your partner, Souji— He got a letter from Beast. And Natsuo got a letter from one of the dead, from what I understood? It's a little confusing, but... I think they're all trapped in the same place. In this "Other Side." If that's the case, maybe we could try writing a letter back to them.

[thesettingsun]

It's worth a try. Should one of us be in charge of putting together all our questions?

[...Scooting closer to Evan because he really wants to get cuddly with his partner now and he deserves this.]

[sanguinairy]

[Live your best life, Dazai.

In any case, he'll nod, since he'd seen Stabby Ion's letter even if he didn't understand a SINGLE THING ON IT.]

Mm, I'd like to give it a try, too. If they're there with Beauty and Beast - or at least Beast - then I'm sure they already know more about this than we do. Maybe we could each ask one question?

[Because he didn't see Sandalphon's letter but he already assumes life isn't as easy as "just ask the dead for answers and get them". SURELY SOMETHING WILL GET IN THE WAY.]

[selfinserting]

[It seems like Evan either doesn't notice Dazai coming closer just yet or he doesn't mind much, because he continues on.]

Are we sure it's a good idea to write a letter to the person who tried to kill Tiger after we broke into her room and stole her things...?

[A beat.]

The last time I wrote a letter to someone, it didn't exactly, um, end well.

[asswipe]

... We're already in hot water. Can it really get any worse for us by trying?

[She's ascended to a new plane of existence. Everything is fine. She's dying but that's fine. Also—]

Wait. What happened the last time you wrote a letter to someone?

[thesettingsun]

[Scoot... scoot... leaning against Evan's shoulder...]

I'd rather not be the one to write the letter, it doesn't usually end well for me either.

[sanguinairy]

[WHY Y'ALL OUT HERE WRITING TO THE DEAD.]

You've both tried to write them already?

[Good thing Souji didn't know it was a possibility until right now or he'd have probably tried to flood them from Thursday on.]

[selfinserting]

Oh, it wasn't to someone on the Other Side, it was to... Oh.

[He pauses for a moment as Dazai leans against him, but he doesn't seem to mind too much, only pausing for a moment before he continues.]

It was to, um, someone back home. I got something back, but - before I had a chance to read any of it, it kind of, um, burst into flames in my hands?

[So, you know.]

[asswipe]

Oh, holy shit. Are your hands okay?

[She's so alarmed she's not. Even going to notice them getting comfy with each other. It's fine. This is fine.]

Who did you write to, Dazai? Because it sure would be nice if writing to the dead didn't end in fire.

[thesettingsun]

Is that why you've been wearing gloves? I thought it was just because of what the well gave you...

[Concern increases, and Dazai wraps an arm around Evan to tug him closer.]

I haven't written a letter to the dead. Or to home. Just, historically speaking, my more important letters don't end well.

[On the bright side, this one probably wouldn't be thirteen feet long.]