We don't notice any time pass, we don't notice anything [W5, Sunday, Post-Execution]

[hydrokinetics]

[It's a few hours after the execution that Percy finds himself wandering back to the hotel. His thoughts are fuzzy and his head's clouded but his feet keep moving. It's what he has to do. The blood from Harry's head has dried on his hands and his clothes from when he tried to wipe off his hands, but that's irrelevant to him. Instead, he enters the hotel and stands in the hall to think of where to go next.

The kitchen? No, found body parts there. The bath house? No, found body parts there, too. His room? It's not somewhere he wants to go now. More than anything, he's realized he doesn't necessarily want to be alone in that space right now...so he turns for the lounge. That seems safe.

It's there he finds Noctis on one of the couches with Sara's sword and his expression twitches into something a little like happiness. It's not, but it's a sign he's better off with Noctis than others. Without a word he slowly enters the room and settles on the couch next to him, curling up a little before resting his forehead on Noctis's shoulder. Hi, friend.]

Remember when weekends used to be fun?

Comments

[hydrokinetics]

[There's a light, humorless laugh.] Plural, huh? Gotta say I'm kind of impressed.

[But...] Annabeth did the same thing with her dagger. She couldn't use it in the stocks, so she made me take it. That should have been my first sign that this place would screw up.

[elemancy]

Not exactly the best thing to advertise around here that I, uh... can use just about any weapon type that exists pretty decently.

[he sighs quietly at what percy has to say, though.] I think the first sign should have been what happened with Ao and Tiara.

[hydrokinetics]

[...huh.] So can Annabeth. It's a gift from her mom. [But anyway.] But I don't blame you for keeping that to yourself given where we are.

Maybe that should have been our first clue, yeah. We knew, Noctis. We knew what happened to them and none of us wanted to believe it, you know? And by the time we figured it out it was too late. We were already playing. How's that fair?

[elemancy]

Guess you can call mine a "gift from royal blood."

[isn't that great? but yeah. noct's just kind of sighing in agreement.]

We were naive. We thought... there was a better way. An easier way. There's not... and it's not fair at all.

[he won't pretend it even could be. the whole thing is bullshit, honestly.]

[hydrokinetics]

[He shifts to turn his head so his cheek is on Noctis's shoulder instead and his words aren't lost in the fabric of his shirt.]

...I don't know. I want to believe there's still another route we just haven't found. This can't be it. [But it feels so hopeless now, doesn't it? His voice sounds small and raw and he's still here instead of sitting upright.] Even with everything we know, we're missing so much. Is that part of the game, too?

[elemancy]

[either way, noct stayed pretty still and unmoving; he's really not bothered by it.]

Probably. There's probably another way, too. It just... may not be easier. It might be harder than the one we already know.

[as much as he is loath to admit that.]

[hydrokinetics]

[Thanks, Noctis. It's comfortable and he may notice that Percy's sort of sagging into his side like exhaustion's seeping into his bones.]

Sometimes the harder way is the better way though. What bothers me about all of this is even knowing what we know it's not a guaranteed win. What if the harder way is?

[elemancy]

[learn from your bro about the art of sleep? come on. sleep. it's a good thing.]

Not sure. It might be too risky, we might not have enough time. We just gotta see what we can find first, make a choice as a group to figure it out.

[hydrokinetics]

I guess. [A beat.] We owe people like Sara and Annabeth and stuff that much for their sacrifices. I think we might even be able to make some agreements as a group when we're not hitting each other.

[It's. Mostly a joke, at least.]

[elemancy]

Maybe. Sometimes we gotta do a little hitting, though. Keeps us from getting too murderous.

[he's also joking, probably? (he is, it's fine.)]

[hydrokinetics]

[It's enough to get a tiny laugh, at least. Good job, Noctis. It's reassuring that someone else understands what he's going through, as always. Hasn't Noctis always been that way? More than most people, Noctis understands quite a lot about him. It's really the only reason he can allow himself some vulnerabilities around him.]

All that extra energy's gotta go somewhere, right? Man, who decided we were the ones in charge of saving everyone? [But.] We will. I just have to wonder if there's really a different reason people were chosen.

[elemancy]

[it's definitely a massive part of why their friendship has worked this entire time—and why they've been able to maintain a sense of trust, even when there have been a lot of secrets between them.]

Probably. Nothing's ever what it seems in this place, but "it was funny" wouldn't surprise me. Making the "bad guys" the ones who want to save everyone most...

[what a mess.]

And giving us a leader who won't kill even though that's how to save us.

[he obviously doesn't fault damian for that (he's ten????), but it doesn't make the conditions of the game any less brutal.]

[hydrokinetics]

Hal did say that we shouldn't really think about the characters filling the roles. That's the weird part of it. "It was funny" makes sense, but with an answer like that it's harder to think there isn't something else.

Especially when he's told me that he selected Damian for a reason. [He feels Noctis has a right to know.] He said he had his reasons for picking Damian, and that he was the best choice or the game wouldn't work. He also said he thought Damian was the only person capable of basically being able to hide out and win fair and square by setting everything up so the deaths aren't by his hands.

Not that Damian would go for that either, but there you go.

[elemancy]

[he listens to what percy is saying, and he follows it up with a thoughtful sigh.]

We already know the Bounties have a bit of a history of having to keep our heads down—seems like we're all pretty willing to take out enemies if we really need to.

[though:] Circumstantially, at least.

[noct's taken down a metric asston of the imperial soldiers; those soulless magitek soldiers (ha, he still doesn't know how they make those, though) were part of his survival. but he's never made it a habit to attack real, living people otherwise. monsters? sure. daemons? absolutely. but all his fights with humans have been nonlethal to this point.

(except fuck ardyn, he'll kill that fucker when he can.)]

Makes sense that Sara was the Madame, too. She told me a bit about her life before this place... could see how she'd be good what she needed to.

[he sighs again, tilting his head a bit more—and unintentionally bonking it a bit against percy's.]

Probably more than "it was funny," but some of us probably could've been interchangeable. Bet it's for going with what will give the results they want, or something.

[hydrokinetics]

[To be fair, he doesn't mind Noctis knocking their heads together because he's very content. Though the news about Sara gets a noise of intrigue instead. He knows that the Bounty collectively has a history of being noticed and needing to not be. No need to harp on that again.]

Do you think all of the roles are people that have some experience with this kind of stuff then? Or are you guys and Sara coincidence? [Yuna...as the Bartender doesn't make sense, and maybe it never will, but he didn't know her well enough either.]

I don't like the idea of being interchangeable either. But since the Sheriff said you guys are just as likely to be Bandits are everybody else...it's possible.

[elemancy]

I don't think it's totally a coincidence. But... I dunno. Guess we'd have to look at the other roles.

[of course, they don't even know all of them completely, even if they have a lot of it figured out by this point.]

Not totally interchangeable. But, um... [how does he put this?] If there's someone else here who had to keep their head down, they could've been a Bounty too. People who are similar that way, something like that.

[hydrokinetics]

We're only missing two, aren't we? Deputy and Coal Miner? And the first one's our most important one. Maybe after we figure out that, we can decide if the other's really that big of a deal anymore.

[Hmm. That's a fair point though.] I didn't think about it that way, but maybe it's because I'm bad about being subtle. I'd be a terrible Bounty. [A grin.] ...I don't know if that's really so great or not though.

[elemancy]

The other's probably not that much of a big deal. We just have to stay out of their hair.

[by which he means they need to do their jobs—the other roles, that is.] We know what we're after right now anyway, so we just need to keep working at it.

[either way, noct pauses for a moment to think about what percy is saying.] Probably a good thing. Means you can help us without the same guidelines.

[hydrokinetics]

I'm sure it'll be fine. [It's mumbled, but he has to think on that.]

I'm going to keep doing whatever I can to help, but you guys also have to trust me to do some of the more dangerous work around here. Since I don't have a Bounty title, it's easier for me to start scoping things out don't you think?

[elemancy]

...I trust you with it.

[he's not going to say he doesn't—noctis absolutely trusts percy and his capabilities without very much question at all.

but it doesn't stop him from sighing quietly and voicing what he's sure the others think as well.]

I just don't want something crappy to go down when we're not all there to back each other up. [it's something of an inevitability, maybe—but the guilt that's piled on noct over time back home from being so helpless when things happen to people he cares about is only amplified in this situation that exists solely to try and break them.]

[hydrokinetics]

[There's a sigh of relief.] Thank you.

[Trust is important. He feels better knowing Noctis will put that in his hands. However:]

There's enough of us right now that we can all at least stick together in pairs or groups. But I'm also used to working alone. Those are the risks we've gotta start taking.

[elemancy]

It's more dangerous that way though. Don't forget that.

[not because he thinks percy would.

but he worries, of course. they're both capable of handling things alone (at least, at this point, noct thinks he can), but still. the more time alone, he more opportunities for vulnerability, and it concerns him.]

[hydrokinetics]

I know. I think you might be one of the only people to understand that I'm used to dangerous situations by now. But I'm not really looking to die. I'll be more careful now that we sort of have a gameplan.

...both of us have to stay alive. Sara would probably want us to, right?

[elemancy]

Yeah. It's... definitely what she'd want. So we can't be reckless. If either of us die... she'll definitely headbutt us a bunch.

[hydrokinetics]

I feel like that's an even bigger threat than death when it comes to Sara. [A slight grin.] We'll stay alive, Noct. I know that much.

[elemancy]

We have to. We owe it to everyone.