[Week 5, Sunday: Waver, Rebecca, Natsuo]

[doublecrows]

[he knows that Waver is. . . probably not in the best state of mind at the moment. but what Akechi has to share is Important with a capital I. and so, soon after the execution, he gathers up the remaining Historians and ushers them to the library for an information sharing session]

I apologize for the short notice, and the. . . [waves. a hand] Timing of this meeting.

But I've discovered how to reach a "happy ending" for this game. I've also learned about the other extra titles, much like our own, that exist in this war game.

I'd rather not wait until Monday to tell you all.

Comments

[doublecrows]

[there's. . . a pause, because Akechi is bad at sympathy, but he feels like he should give it?? even though in the end, he holds himself back to focus on work]

Yes, I was. To Beauty and the Beast. Beast was the young woman we heard ask someone to dance, as well as the one who screamed in our first shared memory. Beauty was the one who wrote back to me.

[because apparently Beast is PISSED OFF at him??]

Varian-san only shared part of my letter, to preserve my identity. And in exchange for this information, he told me how to reach a happy ending.

At least seven objectives in each faction must be completed. In addition to that. . . at the very end, there may only be three surviving individuals in each faction. No more. . . and no less.

This is the balance that will end the game in everyone's favor.

[randori]

[ What did you do to Beast, Akechi... It's still too soon after the execution for Natsuo, who still looks broken up about everything, just like he does at the end of every week, but this new piece of information.... It's Hope, something he wants so badly to cling onto, even before the insurmountable amount of obstacles become apparent. ]

That's... that's Dragon's idea of how to end the war, right? Did Varian find that from her? Can we trust that?

[disclosures]

[Meanwhile Rebecca is here looking like.... well she looks pretty detached from everything. But it is true that none of the people who died or were executed were people she cares about.]

We're rapidly running out of villains. But there are still too many heroes. Three of them are standing in this room.

How've our objectives been going? I've completed three.

[randori]

Did we have a list of who's what group...? [ There's a gdoc somewhere that I should have bookmarked but didn't bookmark ] I don't really like this. Deciding that the three heroes to live have to be three of us.

I've also done three objectives, but I don't think I'll do the next one if we don't need to.

[disclosures]

We know of some of the people to titles. Akechi's been keeping a record of things.

Mm... It doesn't have to be the three of us. I'd rather not keep doing this.

My next one isn't great either "hide a corpse in water".

[randori]

Holy crap, yeah, let's stop at seven.

[ Between them, hero looks like it's all filled out anyways, which is great. One piece of good news. ]

[disclosures]

I don't have to kill them. Ann's body is still in the morgue.

... No, I really don't want to do this one.

[doublecrows]

Belph-san asked me for a status update as well. As far as I know. . .

For the hero faction, I know of four objectives completed: mine, Bunch's, Evans's, and El Melloi's.

For the civilians, I know of five: Hikage-san's, Sandalphon-san's, two of Miss Cardia's, and Fane-san's. Reyna-san insisted she'd met her own objective too, but since I never found out what it is, I can't be sure.

And for the villain faction, I know of two: Belph-san's, and Natsuo's.

[randori]

[ Here's the list! ]

I'm not a villain anymore. I'm a hero.

[doublecrows]

[wat]

When did your title change?

[randori]

After I "died"?

[ airquotes and all ]

I didn't think it was important, but... I guess it is, now.

[londonstar]

Reyna also said that she had completed her objective. Dazai--

[ a pained expression comes across his face as he remembers the execution, but he quickly forces himself back to something more neutral ]

Dazai did not. Dazai's objective was to tie someone up and give them up to a murderer, or murder them himself.

[randori]

[ Natsuo looks more relieved about this than anything. ]

He wouldn't do it, huh. He told me he wouldn't ever hurt anybody.

[londonstar]

That's why I told him to help others accomplish their tasks. It gave him some peace of mind, at least.

[doublecrows]

[hm. . .]

Then let me make a list of each and every Narrator in this castle-- living and dead-- and we can place a check mark next to their name for each objective we know they've completed. That'll help us keep track.

[londonstar]

That sounds like a fair way to organize things.

[ he nods ]

I believe we need to find a way to work together with Belph in order to figure out how to avoid more villain faction deaths. Or at least alert the others to how to gain this happy ending. Perhaps we should give them some of this information? If we wish to keep our identity secret, then the form of an anonymous letter might work.

[disclosures]

So what are we at fraction wise? Evan doesn't want to do his second one, even though he changed it.

I don't know if Sanji is a villain, civilian or hero, but he doesn't want to do his either.

How many villain titles do we even know about?

[randori]

You can change your objective...?

[ Without dying? Because Natsuo had to die for his to change. ]

[disclosures]

He used his wish token for it.

[doublecrows]

[after a moment of scrawling on a piece of paper, Akechi produces this]

A more streamlined version of my notes, as you can see. This list can be for the sole purpose of tracking factions and completed objectives.

[doublecrows]

[KILLED SOMEONE APPARENTLY???]

I didn't ask Varian-san's source, but he isn't the only one who told me this. Belph-san also confirmed the necessity for seven objectives from each faction to be completed.

[he suspects Belph didn't tell him about the "three survivors from each faction" rule b/c he doesn't trust him, oops]

We'll have our weekly meeting with the Crafters tomorrow. We can ask them about this then.

[randori]

[ OH YEAH. THAT'S... bad. ]

I trust Belph. I wonder if they've told anybody else? If it becomes something lots of people know about, we'll have a dozen people being killed in a week.

[doublecrows]

Correct. And if that happens, then we won't be able to carefully monitor the number of survivors to ensure that three from each faction live.

[which is a problem, right]

[disclosures]

[What part of that is a problem?]

Where's your list, Akechi?

[randori]

Tomorrow, we need to make sure Tiger and Dragon won't kill people on top of who the Blotters target too. We'll tell them we're helping with objectives, then they won't have to! Otherwise that'll mess everything up.