Day 178

[sunflowerfields]

[Hinawa immediately threw her complementary mirror on the ground and stomped off back to the carnival upon hearing what the last 'challenge' would be. She doesn't know or care who might be paying attention to the radios, she just wants to yell into the ether more than anything.]

This is barbaric! How can anyone agree to this!? They're going to die!

Comments

[starseedling]

Yeah, but... not forever.

Maybe they won't even remember it.

[sunflowerfields]

That doesn't make it right.

Our lives are not playthings!

[starseedling]

No... But whether it's okay or not, sometimes... it's just what's happening right now? And sometimes people make it so you can't be as good as you want to be... I think.

I don't know what else we can do.

[sunflowerfields]

[It hurts her to hear a child just... resign himself to this.]

It's monstrous. She's monstrous, for putting us all in this situation.

[soft_focus]

They come back.

[....That was cold. But, that aside-] ...Getting them back even if they die... ....that's better than letting other people lose their names.

[sunflowerfields]

It's just as cruel! This Prince is a monster who doesn't care for anyone but himself!

And I'm beginning to think the same of the Ringmaster for that matter.

[soft_focus]

...Do you think they should stay here instead then?

[It's not just as cruel if it's the only option, as far as she can see.]

[chronosynthesis]

It is, but otherwise they will suffer a fate worse than death. [Despite his harsh words, his tone is gentle.] But they will survive. It is not truly a choice of their life.

[sunflowerfields]

They're still dying. They'll still feel pain and suffer, and for what? So that horrible beast can have a spectacle to watch! To see us pitted against each other!

[chronosynthesis]

You are not wrong. [He lets out a sigh.] But if we refuse, then he has a line he can continue to refuse to cross until we give into his terms.

I doubt there is enough kindness in his heart for mercy. We've no choice.

[pullingamiko]

You got a better plan?

[Miko doesn't sound any more enthusiastic about this than anyone else, but... it's kinda looking like they've gotta do what they've gotta do. Even if what they've gotta do basically sucks.]

[sunflowerfields]

Anything is better than this!

[Translation: No]

[pullingamiko]

[That... actually kind of seems to make her buckle down on this. Or maybe she's just annoyed at the confirmation that, no, Hinawa does not have a better plan.]

Oh, what, like leaving them? Would that be better?

[tacosgay]

Okay, listen... I've died, like, almost 20 times now, and let me be real with you here: it's not that bad. I mean, it's literally the worst thing that can possibly happen to you, but, like, at least it only lasts for a second, you know?

[sunflowerfields]

[what the actual heck, taako]

My heart has stopped before. It was the worst feeling I've ever had. No one deserves to live through that pain. And no one should live knowing they've had to strike down a friend.

[tacosgay]

[... and then here's Taako, who has died 19 times total, and who has killed a friend of his and countless non-friends, both directly and entirely on accident. He's quiet for a long beat.]


Uuuuuuhhhhh... mmmm. Okay. Look. Sometimes, you just kind of... have to murder somebody you care about? I mean, to be fair, maybe that's just been my life experience, but still. We're just doing what we've got to do here.

[spaghettimonster]

I don't want to do this. I really don't.

...I just... for all my trying, I haven't thought of a better way. And, and, if the others are in any condition like my brother...

[sunflowerfields]

Then don't. Papyrus, dear, I can't imagine what this is doing to you.

[Don't make her skeleton bro do a violence!!]

[spaghettimonster]

I admit, I... don't really know. It'll hurt in ways, I'm not even imagining?

[And worse, the ways it won't hurt, to the same extent, ever again.]

The same way this kind of awful responsibility... did to my brother. But we'll all live, in the end. If we can't think of something better before then...

[motivenotfound]

Dying isn't what it's made out to be. As long as the will to live is stronger than the fear of living, then the future will always exist.

[sunflowerfields]

[wat]

I'm sorry, what?

[motivenotfound]

[Sigh.]

Souls are pretty strong. The human form is proof of the will to keep on living.

If people were that weak, we wouldn't exist at all.

Dying itself just isn't really an end.

[moonfang]

Have you SEEN the skeleton man? What the Prince does to people is worse than death.

Get over it or stay out of the way.

[sunflowerfields]

Of course I know what happened to him! This is nothing better! We shouldn't be doing this!

[moonfang]

Yeah yeah, I heard it all already. You don't seem to have any better suggestions, so why don't you just butt out, hm?