[ch. 7] post-investigation, w/ steph

[asswipe]

[HEY, STEPH.

First thing Veronica is going to say to her once the body announcements are done and people have dispersed—]

Jesus Christ, I'm so happy you're alive.

Comments

[vigilantics]

And I'm glad no one was an idiot and went after you.

[ both because she doesn't want veronica to die in general, and also because holy crap that would have been stupid. ]

Someone tried killing Ion.

[asswipe]

[Opens her mouth to say something funny about villain death.

Closes it.

Opens again.

Softly yells.]

Holy shit. Is he okay? What happened?

[vigilantics]

Um. I went into the laboratory, and there was a gold statue of Ion? And then after I touched it, it... turned into him.

[ it sounds as weird as it sounds. ]

... I think someone might have made a wish to protect him if someone tried killing him.

[asswipe]

[yeah, that's some midas touch shit right there.]

Fuck— Whoever they are, remind me to get them a flower arrangement or something.

[vigilantics]

We should probably keep an eye on him. That's... a lot to sit through. He doesn't remember who attack him, but it seems like no one told him beforehand?

[ which is a little messed up. ]

[asswipe]

... I don't think anyone told this week's victims what was going to happen to them. Rebecca looked like she might have fought back when I found her.

[You'd think people would have manners considering they're on the home stretch, but. :/]

[vigilantics]

... I'm gonna be honest, I feel like a lot of people here would still fight back even if they knew.

[asswipe]

Not... everyone. Rebecca volunteered to me last week. All she wanted was to be let known in advance, so that's why... I don't know.

[itp: veronica wishes she could have swapped with one of the heroes. god.]

This sucks. Tomorrow is going to suck. Do we even know what's going to happen once we get down to nine?

[vigilantics]

I... i have no idea.

[ that's a good question. ]

Does it end as soon as we hit nine, or...

[asswipe]

You haven't heard anything new from the Crafters?

[kicks leggies info dump me francy]

[vigilantics]

... a few things. I know their backstory? More or less, anyway. Dragon's name was Aya, and apparently her dad was the original Dragon. I guess a long, long time ago, everything was peaceful, but then Tiger came in and stole ink and that's how the war started. She doesn't remember what her name was, and we're... actually not entirely sure if she was the original Tiger or if it was her mom. It's uncertain because of the whole memory thing.

Anyway, basically what Tiger wants is to rewrite her entire history so that she wouldn't have lost her loved ones. But doing that takes a ton of ink. There wouldn't be a lot left over for us to use, which is why her option wouldn't work. In theory, the dead could get revived, but we have no idea if it would be enough to revive everyone, or if we would be able to go home after.

[asswipe]

[... LORD. That is so much. Veronica rubs at her face, thinking.]

Okay... Okay, okay. So even if we did want to help Tiger with her issues or whatever— [Because, god. She still feels bad for her.] We wouldn't be able to without screwing ourselves over. We definitely haven't finished enough objectives for anything other than saving our own asses.

[vigilantics]

Pretty much. And I'm pretty sure that if we try to do Dragon's end, there's a big chance Tiger is going to try to kill her? So, uh, we're going to try to write them new stories with our leftover ink. I'm going to talk to Dragon tonight to try to come up with an idea of what she might want that isn't the sweet release of death.

[asswipe]

... Of course she would. [TIGER WHY.] Keep me updated, please. If— If there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it. I'm not letting anyone screw this up for us, Narrator or Crafter.

[Hm.]

By the way, I found a note on Rebecca's body addressed to— someone's family? Not in Rebecca's handwriting. It... kept saying that they were in a place of terror, and that the writer wishes they could do something for them but that they were bound by the rules. [...] There was a vial along with it, but I was so caught up on Rebecca that I didn't think to check. Talking about Tiger reminded me of it, so... Does it right any bells?

[vigilantics]

[ she frowns. ]

It's... kind of hard to say. We probably won't solve that mystery until trial.

[asswipe]

... Thought so. Let's see if we have enough time for it during the trial. I'm worried about Eichi pulling something.

[vigilantics]

...

Oh god. Eichi.

[asswipe]

I know.

[vigilantics]

Okay, well... that's just something we'll have to deal with if it comes up.

[ she sure hopes that they warned him beforehand.

although steph isn't sure if that would have gone any better, knowing him. ]

[asswipe]

Hopefully without bloodshed.

[well. it was fine.

so thank god.]

[vigilantics]

We managed to not kill anyone during trials before at least.

[ i mean. people definitely die midtrial now though. ]