PC: ACE 💀

[resumed]

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[selfimmolation]

[ that's fine ace forgets to use his phone half the time. he's just sitting somewhere looking at the stars. or the sky if it's not that late. i don't know what timezone this game runs on. his mood seems a bit of a mystery, but he shrugs with a weird smile when he sees nico ]

... I don't know. [ his mood might be just that: weird ] Can't exactly ask her what the fuck she was thinking when she's dead.

[ it's hard to be properly mad at argalia when he's busy being ?! at chiemi probably killing norma still. ]

[resumed]

[ whatever, he's just going to sit down next to him then. fuck it!! that part is still bad!! ]

Hard to say. I...hope it had nothing to do with what we brought up Thursday. That was kind of supposed to prevent this from happening. [ ... ] I'd thought that maybe she wasn't in full control of herself. But now I'm not sure what to believe.

[selfimmolation]

... I don't know. I didn't know her that well at all, I guess. [ and he sounds a little mad, because he, well. he is mad. but he's got nowhere to direct it and he doesn't know the reasons and shotgun to the chest kind of isn't an accident, and it's... ] Why Norma?

[resumed]

[ ...he has like. enough common sense not to answer immediately. ]

Is that a rhetorical question, or do you want a possible answer?

[selfimmolation]

Both? [ he's fake amused ] It's not like there's one that won't piss me off.

[resumed]

Yes, but despite popular belief I don't actually like making people more miserable than they already are, Ace.

[selfimmolation]

[ ... hm. ]

If you don't want to say it, don't. It's not like a reason would change anything now.

[resumed]

The only thing it'd do is maybe help us understand, but it's not like I can ask to confirm either. [ which is frustrating as always, but he's not voicing that. ]

...it's entirely possible it's because Norma was more willing to trust her and give Chiemi an advantage.

[selfimmolation]

[ ... yeah that is frustrating, and he's had the same thought himself. ]

Yeah. Maybe. But then it could've been any one of us. [ except maybe norma would be the easiest to kill for her based on her known powers and skills, and that's--just as bad. ]

[resumed]

[ realistically speaking, the girls (and nimona) are all the closest in size to each other, and he figures rita was an unknown factor and nimona was feral and norma seemed like the safer choice if you're going to purposefully find someone to kill.

he does not say this. it won't help. none of this will help, and instead he stares out straight ahead for a bit. ]

...it just means the rest of us have to figure out what to do next. [ he does not say that maybe there's a way to bring them back because the laws of death work differently here. he thinks. he also does not say maybe they'll get to speak with them later because again. laws of death. ] Even if that's not right this minute.

[selfimmolation]

[ he is aware of all of that, he is just choosing to ignore it. because he hates this. ]

...Yeah. We've still got tomorrow's "execution" to deal with. [ last week was a fucking sports festival so he doesn't know what to expect except if it's a music concert he is leaving ] Hopefully that guy doesn't try to strike another monologue for everyone to be forced to listen to.

[resumed]

I think he may have gotten it out of his system earlier today. [ ... ] I went to see him earlier, actually. Just to see if he'd say anything useful about why Chiemi was his choice.

[selfimmolation]

... Did he actually have anything worthwhile to say?

[ ace very clearly doubts it!!! ]

[resumed]

Not in the slightest. I was mostly curious if he had another motive beyond wanting to see what would happen. [ which was frustrating. ]

Although he did say Chiemi fought back.

[selfimmolation]

... Whatever reason she had, I doubt she ever meant to die from it. [ which is maybe worse on the scale of letting someone else take the fall for her potentially, but on the scale of killing someone else-- it'd be adding insult to injury, if she'd just lied down after taking norma's life. ] I don't know who wrote that note or what they knew, but I don't think any of the people we know were out that night did it.

[resumed]

That's been bothering me, too. It didn't fit either of them, so...what? It's still entirely possible there was another person out there that knew about some of these things and didn't think to stop somebody from getting killed?

[ that's somehow even more frustrating. ]

[selfimmolation]

I don't know. No one's powers seems like it should be giving them visions, but that's the only way it makes sense. If they were around to see Norma use the medal, someone else would've spotted them. And yet they managed to put that note in before anyone woke up, without knowing the whole picture.

[ because if they had they'd know chiemi was dead and the medal maybe didn't matter? the whole thing is baffling and he doesn't get how it happened ]

[resumed]

[ something about "powers" seems to jog his brain a little in a way it hadn't in trial. ]

...maybe a team power? Everybody has those, right? If someone somehow activated theirs and saw something it could be like that.

[selfimmolation]

[ ... frowns ]

I don't know. Goat doesn't have anything that useful.

[ this may be a personal bias ]

[resumed]

[ ace. ]

Are you saying that because you hate yours, or because you know all of the ones they have to offer and they don't suit you?

[selfimmolation]

Kinda the latter.

[ nyehs at being called out ]

[resumed]

[ just gently gazing... ]

Okay, well. Unfortunate but that doesn't discount there might be something else from another team. Or even a wonderball, since apparently those can be whatever they feel like being.

[ he is still baffled there are digital balls. ]

[selfimmolation]

Right. Those things. I can't believe there's some that only show up on the phone itself instead. There's really no telling what kind of luck you'll get, or the range of them...

[ unless they just keep! buying!!! more!!!! ]

[resumed]

That's probably the point. It's a whole...thing. [ he doesn't quite know the term gacha but he knows the concept. ] We got tokens and stuff at the beginning of the week, so we're probably meant to keep buying them. I bought my first one Monday, and I'll probably set aside a few tokens at a time to buy a few more.

[selfimmolation]

Yeah, we got tokens too. I don't know if it's for that or just to keep buying stuff. I only bought two Wonderballs so far, but both of them weren't great. [ the dragon usb ... the empty dragon usb ] I guess I can try my luck again just to know what else is on there.