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

[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.

[sunflowerfields]

[She also takes a moment to respond.]

I'm... I'm so sorry that you've lived through things that make you feel this way.

[WHO HURT YOU, TAAKO]

[tacosgay]

Well, uh... it was his idea, and he did get a shiny new body later on, so it all worked out in the end, huh? No harm, no foul, everybody's cool about it. And as near as I can tell, this is kind of the same deal-- like, yeah, we have to kill people we care about, but that's just kind of how the cookie crumbles, pumpkin. They'll get better later, and we'll get away from this Prince guy, and everything will go back to... as normal as it ever is, anyway.

[sunflowerfields]

No harm! Don't tell me dying has never affected you. Don't tell me that killing someone you care about doesn't make you feel awful.

How can we possibly go back to normal after this?

[tacosgay]

[Taako's quiet for a beat after that; he lets out a sigh.]

... I mean, we kinda don't have a choice this time, you feel me?

[sunflowerfields]

There has to be another way. We're just appeasing that monster in the worst way. It's wrong.

[tacosgay]

Hey, if you can figure something else out, I'm all for it, like. Go team pacifism or whatever. It's just that nobody's really come up with a better plan yet, I guess, and we're not... mmm. The longer we leave everybody in there, the worse it's gonna be for them, as far as I can tell.