[ . . . . . dammit. there's the little feeling of guilt and senri winces, and pouts.]
... I'll tell you what I know, but you can't be mad at me. And you have to trust me, too, and not do anything else on your own that'll make me worry. If you're using my information, then I should get to know what you're going to do with it.
[This time, Senri is the one who gets a Look. Wtf. Why does Senri have all this fucking—no, you know what. Sasuke being in the dark is literally his entire character arc. This is IC and apprpriate.]
What?
I have one eye. Are you being a baby or do you actually trust me to cook? I’m not a housewife.
It's a trade... and if I'm talking to you about what I know, then I'll be distracted and might make a mistake on our food on accident. I don't want to eat something bad.
Fine. [For a moment, he looks thoughtful.] Meet me in the east wing later. [He’ll try to make something simple.] Forget dessert. Unless you want it. I don’t... eat dessert.
[He gives Senri two fingers to the forehead?] Later. [And then he draws away to leave.
No Sincerity this time. He has to detour to the kitchen to get food supplies. The pavilion in the east wing already has food in mass assortment, but that isn’t the point. Sasuke agreed to make food, and it was almost enough of a challenge to be considered one this week.
He has to chop most of it into smaller, easily cooked portions which turns out to not be quite as bad as he expected. He finally comes wandering into the camp fifteen or so minutes later, two hands full. One has a cloth sack, the other has a pot and a... grate?] Come on. [He figures Senri is making idle and waiting.
Sasuke takes them to the amphitheater, up close by the fire pit. The grate is used as a grill. The sack he hands to Senri, full of cut meat and a lot of veggies. A bottle of water he uses to fill thr pot and put it on one side of the grate to be heated.
He doesn’t quite get why Senri is so happy about... this. Anyway, the takes the bowls to go see if he can get them filled with rice at least at the pavilion, and then he returns again with two huge helpings.]
Okay - we can bring it back to Ray and Beauty too...
[he seems to have picked up in his mood a little bit? he smiles as he takes his bowl of rice - ]
Thank you for the meal....!
[and as he digs through to get some veggies for the hot pot - ]
I know half of current participant alignments, or something like that. Fifteen out of thirty-one...? I've mostly caught up after all the switches from last week to figure out where everyone's gone.
So far at least three of the Ambition players used Advancement Opportunity last week to make people switch, on top of the results of Dizzy's rule to speak to other gods. But a lot of people are also going back to their original gods after this week, but I'll check in with the numbers to see if that's true.
[Quietly, carefully, he sits by the fire and lets Senri fiddle with the pot and the vegetables. Once they’re mostly started, he spreads a few pieces of the meat out over the grate of the grill to let it fry.]
That explains someone forcing me to defect. [He doesn’t sound—or feel—angry?] It was wasted on me. I was already defecting anyway. It didn’t work.
[He tips his head further back than usual just so he can see Senri.]
One Ambition was unrelated to the others - but I'm wondering if the other cluster of them found each other, and were trying to make everyone scatter. Or if it was just coincidence... It's hard to say. I don't know if we can find out until we figure out who at least some of them are, but I only know one.
[he doesn't like it!]
Anyway, all gods have their specialties - I've learned that from Indulgence. So I went around to ask the other gods all their specialties.
Beauty can keep secrets. Love can undo curses more easily. Ambition can give hints. Disorder can bend the rules. Cunning is breaking and entering. Sincerity's is the answers one I told you. Merriment can see how well a course of action will go. Ruin can give out rewards before a task gets completed. Piety can see into the nature of others. Justice can amend the rules or give pardons.
Fortune's was assigning good luck or bad luck to someone.
I still have four favors - Cheri, Beauty, Bambi, and Dizzy all owe me.
I think I'm getting an extra one from Cheri because of the crossdressing too.
[To Senri, it’s probably a surprise. This isn’t new to Sasuke. A wave of jealousy rolls up in him, but he doesn’t look away while Senri talks. The more Senri says, actually, the worse the jealousy becomes. Not angry. Not at Senri.
It’s so much information. Some of it he had inklings of—the gods having specialties, but some just... extra. So easy was it for Senri to get. Just by talking, being nice. An actor. Playing the game in another way. He’d never be able to do something like that so casually.
Finally, he looks away, trying to commit the specialties to memory. He idly reaches out to flip the meat with his chopsticks, brows draw tight even if doing so stings his healing eye.]
Have you decided yet which god you’re going to convince people to join?
.... that's the other thing - this is what I need to confirm with Piety at some point. I might ask Cheri too, just to be safe. But Cunning told me that it's not just numbers. You need to believe in what the god's world in order for it to come true. So we can't say that we just want to join Indulgence just because of the numbers - it won't work out perfectly if we do that. So it has to be... sincere, and genuine, and I have to be more convincing to make it happen.
[and he sounds frustrated with that - he doesn't understand the jealousy, really. but there's the feeling of his shortcomings, of the fact that senri hasn't been able to win over everyone. it twists in his stomach even as he watches the food.]
If we want to leave behind a good world, I need to make my case - and I need to be both smart and charming about it.
[his mouth presses into a straight line.]
I think Piety's world is the best balanced - but Piety also made a deal with Cunning, and if Cunning wins then Piety will act as an advisor. But... I also like Justice's, and I also like Beauty's. The rest of the worlds have their own merits, but they're not my personal favorites. But if we can convince those gods to tailor theirs to be a little more palatable....
[it's always been a social game to senri, and for once he looks serious as his gaze falls to the food.]
Gods can grow, and learn. That's why I'm trying to get to know all of them - so that no matter who wins, they're at least a little more mature than when they started.
[It matches with some of the things he has been told. There’s no confusion or anger, and his brow rises at the frustration. He gets it, though. Why for Senri, based on their conversation.]
I may defect again to help someone else. He probably asked others as a failsafe. But... [When the meat is finished, he splits them between his rice bowl and Senri’s, and then he adds more so some can be cooking.] Justice’s world is the one I want. I’m not going to leave him at the end. When it’s over... I’ll be with him unless something happens out of my control.
He’s the youngest. He has the opportunity to grow into a good leader. His spirit... [Naruto.] Others can change, but I don’t trust them to not get stuck in old ways. Even with pacts.
Promises are the the worst things they could make.
Let me know if you're going to go somewhere? I just.... don't want Cheri or Beauty to end up without any followers. I don't want any god to end up without any followers, but there's only one of me. And even then I'm on a time crunch as we get closer to the end of the game....
[and he takes a second to at least take a bite of the food - his chopsticks miss initially, as he gets used to the new depth perception, but eventually they find their way to his mouth as he thinks]
... in Cunning's wing, there's some oracle inside the house? I don't know the details, but I heard about it from the people who were in there. There was a riddle. I'll try to remember it but - we know for a fact that there's going to be multiple people dead this weekend again.
[and he pauses]
The other thing I was told is that whoever killed Fortune - their coin is pristine. That was a hint that someone got from Bambi. I'm going to act tomorrow like I don't know that, but keep an eye out for anyone with totally clean coins. We can talk later about who might've done it, if Ray-kun's thing with Luna doesn't work out.
[Sasuke makes a bit of a face when he pushes some of the rice and meat into his mouth. He doesn't have to say anything. Senri gets what he feels: a hot, frustrated and completely disgusted bubble ready to burst.]
He wants me to go to Indulgence. I owe him a favor.
[Clearly, someone does not enjoy the idea of venturing over under Indulgence after the meeting went with the two of them.
The irritation dies away, and Sasuke looks up.] Pristine? [He thinks over the list of specialties. (No wonder Merriment gave him such a scolding, too.)] Is the tarnishing a "curse"? Are they doing tasks for Love to get Love to remove the tarnishing?
Or did they stay with Ruin until required to move? If so, their coin may now be somewhat tarnished depending on when you heard this information.
[senri eats another bite. he also has not bothered to talk to indulgence after that fucking disaster. lmao rip.
anyway - ]
I heard it yesterday. It's new, and I'm only telling you because I know for a fact that your coin isn't perfect. The only person that I'm even thinking of telling this is Shishimaru, because I know he isn't the one who did it. He doesn't have many friends, he wouldn't have killed the sole one he had.
Don't repeat this to anyone.
[ . . . ]
I'm thinking it was accomplices. A Ruin follower and... maybe an Ambition who put the false evidence. But I don't have any proof or leads - just gods. I haven't even figured out where the Ruin follower went... though I heard the inkling somewhere that they might be with Merriment. That isn't for sure either, but.. it makes me nervous.
[Senri doesn't have to worry really. Sasuke..............has no friends; therefore, he has no one to tell any of this to at all. RIP.]
At first, I suspected the killer was with Ambition... I thought they assumed I was with Beauty because of what I said during the trial. Since Beauty had so little followers, they made me defect to try to get Beauty to zero.
If there's accomplices... [He frowns into the bowl of rice without eating any more of it.] I think there's at least one accomplice, too.
I was hoping they wouldn't move to Justice. They could become stronger...
[senri pauses at that and his expression remains neutral - but sasuke will certainly feel the sharp stab of fear at the idea of beauty getting to zero followers. senri is unhappy with the idea of any of the gods suffering that loss, but beauty in particular strikes something unhappy and worried in him]
.... I don't know where they've gone. At least one of them has a perfect coin.
But the other one definitely moved at least once, since they're with Ruin. If I can get them to show me their coins, then we can have a better understanding. Especially since it's the other half of the game that I don't know anything about.
If we put together the new defection knowledge together with what I knew before... we can narrow things down a lot, I think.
[ . . . ]
And if something happens to me - everything I've ever known over the course of the game is in my phone. There's a fingerprint lock, and Shishimaru is the only one who also has access to it. But just so you know....
[Senri gets an immediate, sharp reverb of fear back. As soon as it hits and melts over Sasuke, it's turning around and slamming Senri right in the center of the chest.
Sasuke's brows draw together, and his eye snaps up at Senri's face. Don't say that, is what his face mirrors with the feeling, but he doesn't speak the words aloud. He doesn't have to for Senri to understand them.]
Nothing is going to happen.
[Otherwise, Sasuke Uchiha will probably go turbo at the very beginning of the trial without even waiting for mid-trial murder.]
senri falters at that. it's probably a little odd, how he still manages to be surprised despite everything that they've been through. he's stunned into silence for a second, pausing even in eating.
then there's the same odd feeling of gratitude - thanks for caring at me - that senri can't suppress either. it's such a twisted, selfish feeling that he shouldn't accept when there's someone expressing concern for him but. well, he's always been a little emotionally reckless about that in particular.]
... uh-huh.
[and he'll pause in eating, putting his bowl in the same hand as his chopsticks so he can reach out and place a hand on sasuke's uinjured forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze]
Nothing's going to happen.
... give me a second to try to remember the riddle? I think that's the last of the things that I know that I haven't told you.
[His eye lowers to the hand on his arm, but he doesn't say anything about it or try to knock it away. After a moment, he draws it back simply so he can resume trying to eat even though, by now, he's kind of just picking.
Maybe he'll try some of the vegetables with the rice.]
Does it matter? If we already know there will be more than one or two dead... [His face bunches--he seems righteously angry. As if he should somehow be able to stop it. Maybe not for the people's sake since they go back in the end, but for... Senri's, Yu's, Ray's.] Unless...
[senri resumes eating also - though he nods. he's memorized hundreds of scripts so it's not that hard for him to recall, though when it comes to things regarding this game, it feels a lot more heavy. like he has to get it exactly right or they'll risk messing something else up.]
...
"Facing a trial of limited time, seeking culprits of multiple crimes, finding out things aren't like they seem, and... Inspecting members of our own team."
[ . . . he frowns]
I thought maybe... since it's Cunning's house, that means we might need to look more at people who are on his team. But since someone told me something about the Ruin follower maybe going to Merriment...
[the anxiety twists in his stomach again]
I have no way of knowing yet. And I don't know how to help it.
no subject
... I'll tell you what I know, but you can't be mad at me. And you have to trust me, too, and not do anything else on your own that'll make me worry. If you're using my information, then I should get to know what you're going to do with it.
[exactly how much does senri have,]
And you make dinner tonight.
no subject
What?
I have one eye. Are you being a baby or do you actually trust me to cook? I’m not a housewife.
no subject
[that's why!!]
I'll make a dessert - something not too sweet.
no subject
Fine. [For a moment, he looks thoughtful.] Meet me in the east wing later. [He’ll try to make something simple.] Forget dessert. Unless you want it. I don’t... eat dessert.
no subject
[?????
is sasuke going to sincerity to dress nice again, senri's losing track of why he leaves so often]
no subject
Ten minutes. You’ll talk enough then. Go, and I’ll meet you there.
no subject
... okay....
I'll see you then.
[???]
no subject
No Sincerity this time. He has to detour to the kitchen to get food supplies. The pavilion in the east wing already has food in mass assortment, but that isn’t the point. Sasuke agreed to make food, and it was almost enough of a challenge to be considered one this week.
He has to chop most of it into smaller, easily cooked portions which turns out to not be quite as bad as he expected. He finally comes wandering into the camp fifteen or so minutes later, two hands full. One has a cloth sack, the other has a pot and a... grate?] Come on. [He figures Senri is making idle and waiting.
Sasuke takes them to the amphitheater, up close by the fire pit. The grate is used as a grill. The sack he hands to Senri, full of cut meat and a lot of veggies. A bottle of water he uses to fill thr pot and put it on one side of the grate to be heated.
Hot! pot!!
He also brought two bowls and chipsticks.]
no subject
he's so happy
sasuke can feel how happy senri is when he takes the sack of food and looks between it and the food and oh god his stomach is growling]
Ahhh, next time we invite Ray-kun and Shishimaru!!
[HOW OFTEN IS HE GOING TO MAKE SASUKE DO THIS]
no subject
He doesn’t quite get why Senri is so happy about... this. Anyway, the takes the bowls to go see if he can get them filled with rice at least at the pavilion, and then he returns again with two huge helpings.]
Take them back some when we’re finished.
no subject
[he seems to have picked up in his mood a little bit? he smiles as he takes his bowl of rice - ]
Thank you for the meal....!
[and as he digs through to get some veggies for the hot pot - ]
I know half of current participant alignments, or something like that. Fifteen out of thirty-one...? I've mostly caught up after all the switches from last week to figure out where everyone's gone.
So far at least three of the Ambition players used Advancement Opportunity last week to make people switch, on top of the results of Dizzy's rule to speak to other gods. But a lot of people are also going back to their original gods after this week, but I'll check in with the numbers to see if that's true.
no subject
That explains someone forcing me to defect. [He doesn’t sound—or feel—angry?] It was wasted on me. I was already defecting anyway. It didn’t work.
[He tips his head further back than usual just so he can see Senri.]
no subject
[ . . . ]
One Ambition was unrelated to the others - but I'm wondering if the other cluster of them found each other, and were trying to make everyone scatter. Or if it was just coincidence... It's hard to say. I don't know if we can find out until we figure out who at least some of them are, but I only know one.
[he doesn't like it!]
Anyway, all gods have their specialties - I've learned that from Indulgence. So I went around to ask the other gods all their specialties.
Beauty can keep secrets. Love can undo curses more easily. Ambition can give hints. Disorder can bend the rules. Cunning is breaking and entering. Sincerity's is the answers one I told you. Merriment can see how well a course of action will go. Ruin can give out rewards before a task gets completed. Piety can see into the nature of others. Justice can amend the rules or give pardons.
Fortune's was assigning good luck or bad luck to someone.
I still have four favors - Cheri, Beauty, Bambi, and Dizzy all owe me.
I think I'm getting an extra one from Cheri because of the crossdressing too.
[BUT HE WANTS HIS PHONE CHARGER]
no subject
It’s so much information. Some of it he had inklings of—the gods having specialties, but some just... extra. So easy was it for Senri to get. Just by talking, being nice. An actor. Playing the game in another way. He’d never be able to do something like that so casually.
Finally, he looks away, trying to commit the specialties to memory. He idly reaches out to flip the meat with his chopsticks, brows draw tight even if doing so stings his healing eye.]
Have you decided yet which god you’re going to convince people to join?
no subject
[and he sounds frustrated with that - he doesn't understand the jealousy, really. but there's the feeling of his shortcomings, of the fact that senri hasn't been able to win over everyone. it twists in his stomach even as he watches the food.]
If we want to leave behind a good world, I need to make my case - and I need to be both smart and charming about it.
[his mouth presses into a straight line.]
I think Piety's world is the best balanced - but Piety also made a deal with Cunning, and if Cunning wins then Piety will act as an advisor. But... I also like Justice's, and I also like Beauty's. The rest of the worlds have their own merits, but they're not my personal favorites. But if we can convince those gods to tailor theirs to be a little more palatable....
[it's always been a social game to senri, and for once he looks serious as his gaze falls to the food.]
Gods can grow, and learn. That's why I'm trying to get to know all of them - so that no matter who wins, they're at least a little more mature than when they started.
no subject
I may defect again to help someone else. He probably asked others as a failsafe. But... [When the meat is finished, he splits them between his rice bowl and Senri’s, and then he adds more so some can be cooking.] Justice’s world is the one I want. I’m not going to leave him at the end. When it’s over... I’ll be with him unless something happens out of my control.
He’s the youngest. He has the opportunity to grow into a good leader. His spirit... [Naruto.] Others can change, but I don’t trust them to not get stuck in old ways. Even with pacts.
Promises are the the worst things they could make.
no subject
Let me know if you're going to go somewhere? I just.... don't want Cheri or Beauty to end up without any followers. I don't want any god to end up without any followers, but there's only one of me. And even then I'm on a time crunch as we get closer to the end of the game....
[and he takes a second to at least take a bite of the food - his chopsticks miss initially, as he gets used to the new depth perception, but eventually they find their way to his mouth as he thinks]
... in Cunning's wing, there's some oracle inside the house? I don't know the details, but I heard about it from the people who were in there. There was a riddle. I'll try to remember it but - we know for a fact that there's going to be multiple people dead this weekend again.
[and he pauses]
The other thing I was told is that whoever killed Fortune - their coin is pristine. That was a hint that someone got from Bambi. I'm going to act tomorrow like I don't know that, but keep an eye out for anyone with totally clean coins. We can talk later about who might've done it, if Ray-kun's thing with Luna doesn't work out.
no subject
He wants me to go to Indulgence. I owe him a favor.
[Clearly, someone does not enjoy the idea of venturing over under Indulgence after the meeting went with the two of them.
The irritation dies away, and Sasuke looks up.] Pristine? [He thinks over the list of specialties. (No wonder Merriment gave him such a scolding, too.)] Is the tarnishing a "curse"? Are they doing tasks for Love to get Love to remove the tarnishing?
Or did they stay with Ruin until required to move? If so, their coin may now be somewhat tarnished depending on when you heard this information.
no subject
Good luck.
[senri eats another bite. he also has not bothered to talk to indulgence after that fucking disaster. lmao rip.
anyway - ]
I heard it yesterday. It's new, and I'm only telling you because I know for a fact that your coin isn't perfect. The only person that I'm even thinking of telling this is Shishimaru, because I know he isn't the one who did it. He doesn't have many friends, he wouldn't have killed the sole one he had.
Don't repeat this to anyone.
[ . . . ]
I'm thinking it was accomplices. A Ruin follower and... maybe an Ambition who put the false evidence. But I don't have any proof or leads - just gods. I haven't even figured out where the Ruin follower went... though I heard the inkling somewhere that they might be with Merriment. That isn't for sure either, but.. it makes me nervous.
no subject
At first, I suspected the killer was with Ambition... I thought they assumed I was with Beauty because of what I said during the trial. Since Beauty had so little followers, they made me defect to try to get Beauty to zero.
If there's accomplices... [He frowns into the bowl of rice without eating any more of it.] I think there's at least one accomplice, too.
I was hoping they wouldn't move to Justice. They could become stronger...
no subject
.... I don't know where they've gone. At least one of them has a perfect coin.
But the other one definitely moved at least once, since they're with Ruin. If I can get them to show me their coins, then we can have a better understanding. Especially since it's the other half of the game that I don't know anything about.
If we put together the new defection knowledge together with what I knew before... we can narrow things down a lot, I think.
[ . . . ]
And if something happens to me - everything I've ever known over the course of the game is in my phone. There's a fingerprint lock, and Shishimaru is the only one who also has access to it. But just so you know....
[just in case.]
no subject
Sasuke's brows draw together, and his eye snaps up at Senri's face. Don't say that, is what his face mirrors with the feeling, but he doesn't speak the words aloud. He doesn't have to for Senri to understand them.]
Nothing is going to happen.
[Otherwise, Sasuke Uchiha will probably go turbo at the very beginning of the trial without even waiting for mid-trial murder.]
no subject
senri falters at that. it's probably a little odd, how he still manages to be surprised despite everything that they've been through. he's stunned into silence for a second, pausing even in eating.
then there's the same odd feeling of gratitude - thanks for caring at me - that senri can't suppress either. it's such a twisted, selfish feeling that he shouldn't accept when there's someone expressing concern for him but. well, he's always been a little emotionally reckless about that in particular.]
... uh-huh.
[and he'll pause in eating, putting his bowl in the same hand as his chopsticks so he can reach out and place a hand on sasuke's uinjured forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze]
Nothing's going to happen.
... give me a second to try to remember the riddle? I think that's the last of the things that I know that I haven't told you.
no subject
Maybe he'll try some of the vegetables with the rice.]
Does it matter? If we already know there will be more than one or two dead... [His face bunches--he seems righteously angry. As if he should somehow be able to stop it. Maybe not for the people's sake since they go back in the end, but for... Senri's, Yu's, Ray's.] Unless...
Does the riddle tell us something else?
no subject
...
"Facing a trial of limited time, seeking culprits of multiple crimes, finding out things aren't like they seem, and... Inspecting members of our own team."
[ . . . he frowns]
I thought maybe... since it's Cunning's house, that means we might need to look more at people who are on his team. But since someone told me something about the Ruin follower maybe going to Merriment...
[the anxiety twists in his stomach again]
I have no way of knowing yet. And I don't know how to help it.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)