[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

[londonstar]

I think it's imperative that we know as much information as possible.

[ waver is clearly not doing well, but he can force himself to act composed for a reasonable amount of time. ]

We're awfully close to destroying the villain faction, and I'd rather not have that happen. So we need to find the means to achieving that good end. [ a pause ] You were the one that wrote to Beast, yes?

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[doublecrows]

[?????? YES NATSUO THAT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW!!!]

What's your new title? Is it still Goldilocks?

[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]

[ 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.

[randori]

Um. Snow White.

[ Because of Sandalphon giving him the extra chance at life, but that doesn't need to be said out loud. ]

[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".

[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]

[randori]

[ Natsuo looks more relieved about this than anything. ]

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

[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.

[doublecrows]

[SNOW WHITE!!]

. . . so we have one less villain and on more hero than advertised by that list.

[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]

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]

Yeah, but if you guys could maybe not tell people, that'd be awesome. Everybody's looking out for the villains, right? So if I can be a little selfish...

[ Heroes have targets at the back of his head, and he sort of wants to cling onto what he can for now. ]

[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.

[londonstar]

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

[disclosures]

[What part of that is a problem?]

Where's your list, Akechi?