PC: ACE 💀

[resumed]

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[resumed]

[ ...hm. ]

Hanako finally succeeded?

[selfimmolation]

... No. It was some... cult guy. He made us collect balloons to figure out where he was. [ his head tilts back a little as he hums ] Hung, Lillium's friend and Luffy worked with us. As detectives. But they were higher ranked than us. We ended up finding the cult place at the same time, but they didn't have to do balloons.

[ he makes a face. cop luffy. cop boss luffy. he hates it. ]

[resumed]

[ me knowing this plot and hating it again. ]

Iris. [ he says with certainty because he thinks lillium might only have one friend to begin with. ] It's...really hard to imagine Luffy as a detective but somehow Hung makes more sense.

Anyway. The cult. What'd you find...or where, I guess.

[selfimmolation]

Yeah. [ it was iris. but at the hung thing he just... ] He is one? Isn't he?

[ unsure if real or memories but he shakes his head ]

We went to it during the day and... then again at midnight... they asked us to show up. There was this weird... basement place. [ he's looking at the sabo tamagotchi like it holds the answers to all of the universe's problems ] ... Nimona, Hana and Sigrun had been missing earlier. They were there. Tied up. And there were a bunch of bugs.

[ a pause ]

No, it was-- bombs.

[ that's probably worse. ]

[resumed]

...in theory, yes. [ he doesn't quite get the furry cop thing and he's scared to ask because hung is hung and that's all that matters, but still. ]

...all of this sounds really, really bad, Ace. But you remember it isn't real. Right? None of it. [ just in case. ] Though bombs would explain the explosion, and Lillium's response.

[selfimmolation]

[ he pauses and scrubs at his face again ]

I know. I-- I know. It wasn't real. [ he mostly knows. ] ... The other three showed up. They came by a different way, because they were looking for the girls. And then the cult guy showed up. And he had the detonator. And he said either he blew everything up or we killed-- like I'd do that. He's my brother.

[ he sounds incensed, but then he repeats again: ]

It wasn't. Real.

[resumed]

[ ...he just frowns sympathetically because it's not easy to really know that even when you keep repeating it. ]

It wasn't real, but it's always hard to remind your brain that. It's like...when you have nightmares. You know it isn't really happening to you, usually, but the feelings and fears that come from them are. You can't so easily get rid of those.

[ ... ]

I assume everything blew up then. [ because he also can't imagine any of them killing the people who were there. ]

[selfimmolation]

... Yeah. I tackled the guy, so...

[ ace took the option not available in the game of Choose Violence...But Not Like That ]

[resumed]

And it set off the detonator. [ yikes. ] ...how'd you guys get back here?

[selfimmolation]

... After the place exploded... that wasn't the end of it. Everyone was injured, and Luffy and Iris were trapped under rubble. The place was going to collapse if we didn't get them out. But I...

[ well. he looks at his fucked up hands.

he said it: luffy was trapped. ]

I couldn't just leave him.

[resumed]

Of course not. [ easily said. ] I wouldn't have left Bianca or Hazel behind either. There's always time to try.

[ ...he's scared to ask, but. ]

Did you get him out...?

[selfimmolation]

...

[ he kind of stares at nothing for a long while ]

They gave me his hat.

[resumed]

[ ...ugh. ]

...I'm sorry. It's not the same.

[selfimmolation]

... It wasn't real.

[ he looks at the little sabo tamagotchi ]

I know that.

[resumed]

But it's like being in a dream, I think. You know it wasn't real, but everything you feel while it happens is real. And you can't exactly get rid of those feelings so easily just because you tell yourself it wasn't actually happening. [ a pause. ] That's what it was like on ours, too. When we were gone.

[selfimmolation]

... Yeah. But it feels more like a nightmare.

[ one that is hard to wake up from because of cyoa effects :( ]

[resumed]

They're interchangeable. [ he means that most of his dreams are nightmares, so he didn't think about the wording. ] ...we'll just have to do the same thing for you that you guys have done for those of us who disappeared, too. We can remind you of what is and isn't real.

[selfimmolation]

... Yeah, I guess. Hopefully this fades pretty quick. [ he'd normally argue about the value of dreams or whatever, but he is not... nearly aware enough for that kind of thing right now. it can wait for later*

*it could not ]

[resumed]

...couple of days, most likely. When we got back we had stuff that lasted until Saturday. I saw ghosts sometimes.

[ fun things he didn't tell anybody. ]

But we'll be here and it won't be so bad. Hopefully.

[selfimmolation]

... I don't... remember you talking about that.

[resumed]

Because I didn't. It was only when I looked in mirrors and only sometimes, so I figured it was just me.

[selfimmolation]

[ ... frowning a little. it is weeks too late to scold him, but. he squeezes his hand a bit. ]

... No way to know. I think all three of you are the kind to keep that to yourself, for different reasons.

[ :T ]

[resumed]

[ he just looks away a little at that. ]

...I don't...[ mm. this is about ace and his brain problems, not nico's brain problems. ] First of all, it felt weird to just bring up. And there was a lot happening after that.

[ for instance, reigen staged a furry torture porn murder. ]

[selfimmolation]

[ he frowns like he has to think about it ]

... Right... someone... was doing torture on Whisper. [ a beat and he massages his head ] No, wait. Reigen was-- Reigen did a weird thing. With a cage?

[resumed]

[ it's ok he is patient. ]

Yeah...Reigen cornered Yae Miko into a cage, because she was going to kill him first, and Reigen is full of bad ideas sometimes. [ woof. ] He did what he had to in order to survive, even if it wasn't exactly clean or smooth.

...Whisper was last week. That was Adlet. We caught him. Do you remember that?