PC: YLFA

[frogzoned]

Comments

[honkinbigteeth]

[she's watching him very closely while he backs away from where she's kind of perched on the back of the couch now. she's still got blood all over her face and hair and these really ugly, bad looking claw marks all down her face.]

[frogzoned]

[ yeah that's kind of a hard sight to see, especially considering its reminiscent of how she felt that night after rin died. an animal cowering. he goes to sit somewhere farther away, so she doesn't get scared. ]

Can I get Haru to heal you?

[honkinbigteeth]

[she shakes her head.]

Haru needs to save it, Gerard. Though if he's not feeling up for it, you should still send me instead.

[frogzoned]

[ he isn't sure he can argue that haru needs to save it, because he probably does, but. still. ]

No. You should stay here for tonight. Can I find someone else to heal you?

[honkinbigteeth]

[...

there's something extremely fearful that passes over her face for a second, but then it's gone.]

Yeah, I'll stay here. But I really don't think it's necessary to get healed tonight. I'll ask tomorrow.

[frogzoned]

Alright.

[ awkward. he's sitting there a bit quietly. its not like he wants to force her to talk about it, and he's getting the impression she'd rather be alone and is, in fact, afraid of him right now. ]

I can leave you be for a while if that's what you want. I don't ... really want to. But I can.

[honkinbigteeth]

[an even bigger flash of fear crosses her face. a very, very slight shake of her head.]

[frogzoned]

I won't go.

[ ... ]

Do you want to play cards?

[ dont you have a murder to plan gerard ]

[honkinbigteeth]

[she looks very relieved when he says this. and she will go get her deck of cards and start shuffling them.]

Cards is okay. You understand the rules, right?

[frogzoned]

Yes, I understand the rules.

[ i feel like ylfa has probably tried to teach him like three times and he only sort of absorbs it each time but that's okay. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

[cool. she will pass him his deck of cards. i have tried to learn the rules and i also don't understand, so they can just play in silence for a little bit.]

Um... I think Monika might know about the Arthurs.

[frogzoned]

[ yeah he'll get his ass beat at gin rummy ]

The authors, you mean? What about them?

[honkinbigteeth]

Don't -

[don't say their name? ylfa never cared that much before but she kind of does now.]

Um, anyway, I think Monika's life is maybe pretty bad and we should help her. So can we try? I killed her friend, so she's not going to want to listen to me, but if we can do something...

[frogzoned]

[ he blinks, but. then he nods because sure. he has no objection to helping monika? that's okay with him. ]

I mean, we can try. Were in you in Monika's story?

[honkinbigteeth]

Maybe.

[she is currently wearing a school uniform, sans blazer, that looks a lot like monika's.]

...Gerard, if I tell you something, will you keep it a secret from Haru?

[frogzoned]

I won't tell Haru.

[ this feels like one of those promises thats going to get him in trouble. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

[it probably isn't.]

Rin was there, too. And I left him behind. I tried to go back and get him, I really did, but I couldn't find a way.

[frogzoned]

[ okay it probably isn't. he does look sort of surprised, but he's trying not to have too big of a reaction. ]

You spoke to him? Or just saw him?

[honkinbigteeth]

I spoke to him, and saw him. [she hunches a little, obviously feeling very ashamed right now.] And we were together, but then he started - he had water and poison in his lungs and everything I tried to do, I only made it worse. So I tried something to help him but it wound up working differently than it was supposed to, and he was left behind.

[frogzoned]

... These places, I don't know quite how they work, but-- I don't know how true everything you see there is. It's a version of the story, but ...

[ he knows she thinks she hurt rin, but he doesn't want her to think that. ]

I'm sure you tried very hard. But I think it wants to hurt you.

[honkinbigteeth]

[she listens while he's talking, but her expression is getting more and more frustrated.]

How do you know? How do you know for sure that wasn't the real Rin?

[frogzoned]

I don't.

[ ... ]

It doesn't change the fact we're still working to save him, right? It ... I'm sure it was horrible. I'm sorry.

[honkinbigteeth]

[she looks at him like she's trying to find something in his face or his expression, but whatever she's looking for, she doesn't seem to see it. at least, he can see that she immediately looks withdrawn, a bit wary.]

...Nevermind. It wasn't really that bad, anyway. It was mostly baking.

[frogzoned]

I mean, sure, I suppose you could probably summarize it that way, like mine was mostly a driving lesson.

[ me, struggling to think of how this duck helps. maybe it waddles over, quacks loudly and then looks extremely fucking adorable. how can ylfa possibly not talk about her feelings when there's a really cute duck here. ]

[honkinbigteeth]

[...she does look at the cute little duck. it is adorable. that doesn't help so much. but when she looks back over and looks at him again and seems to see whatever it was she was missing before.

at least, he seems like he cares. he seems like he is actually worried, even when she says it's fine. that he can tell just by looking at her that something bad happened to her, even if she hasn't said it. that's the thing she needed to see.]

I know not everything that happens in there is real, but the same thing is true out here. Most of these people aren't real at all. They're just saying the things they're supposed to say.