richie

[rippled]

clowntown

Comments

W0 SECOND FRIDAY

[gutterbound]

[We are at the bar. Everyone is at the bar. It is so packed here.

Richie slips a shot over Saber's way, cupping his own in a weary hand.]

Imagine that. Anything is possible, even when it makes not one lick of sense.

[rippled]

[ they have never had a shot before... they come from when everyone just drink sake... but they take it. ]

What happens when you die after death? It doesn't seem like it would be good to one's being.

[gutterbound]

[They can order sake after this. He's probably had it once or twice LA is a multicultural city but it is still a novelty]

Well. They did say we might go someplace else if we fail. That implies more than one option.

Just maybe not one they were expecting either.

[He is trying very hard not to think about the atheist option of oblivion.]

[rippled]

Did she fail then? But I was under the impression we had weeks for this.

[ a pause, as they try to word how to say this. ]

... she was also very outgoing and friendly, so it's hard to imagine someone like that failing.

[gutterbound]

I don't know. I can't imagine she would. I mean, fuck, like you said. If anyone was going to pass a test for good behaviour, I'd be betting top dollar on her.

[He shakes his head.]

I think it's more that...maybe there was another option they weren't warned about. Or, we're in a state of being we haven't been warned about. Less dead than we imagined, maybe.

[rippled]

... that would make sense. There could just be a period before we assimilate fully to this place where we don't quite belong.

[ they used a specific word for why they can get revived and other people can't in the npc intros, but i am too lazy to go find it. ]

It does make all the chaos everyone was doing more concerning. Just one wrong move...

[gutterbound]

Yeah. [He shakes his head.] Imagine missing your chance on redemption because you slipped and cracked your head on a toilet.

[That would be the joke to end all jokes, wouldn't it?]

...I don't know that we'll hear everything we want to hear either. Whenever they do see fit to fill us in. Whether it's because the angels are also surprised, or...it's a built in feature. Whatever happened to her. How it happened.

[He plucks his thumb against the side of the shot glass.]

Where were you at last night? Was anyone with you?

[rippled]

[ they shake their head at the questions. ]

No, I was by myself. I got trapped on the stairs, so since Charlie started inside there, she would have needed to get past where I was... so the barrier went down at some point?

[ but like. when. ]

[gutterbound]

And she would have had to step over all ten of us to get out of the damn showers first. We got locked in all at once.

[He frowns.]

Yeah, maybe everything opened up after we conked out. Or maybe it didn't. Someone could have opened it for her, maybe? Led her along a little?

[He puts his chin in his hand.]

I mean I don't like that theory, but I don't like any theory I've heard or come up with in the last few hours. I feel like we're spinning in circles. We're trying to write a manuscript with half a box of Scrabble tiles — fucking useless, without more facts.

[rippled]

Mm. If anything, the idea that she just passed naturally seems the least likely, because there were too many other oddities that happened right before.

[ someone dies after they couldn't leave anywhere? definitely not a coincidence. ]

So, was it pre-planned, then?