DEAD 04

[thecomputer]

[Welcome, Anthy, Sakura and Simon!]

[You regain consciousness in a waiting room of some sort. Something is clearly odd - your entire body is slightly transparent, and everything you were carrying with you aside from your clothes is gone. On the plus side, you seem to be impervious to all harm.]

[There is an end table with two stacks of papers. One is a large area to write in (there is a small assortment of pens next to this), and the other all bear the same message:]

Congratulations! You have died.

Please wait in this area until such time as the exercise is terminated. At that time, you will be transferred to your appropriate afterlife. If you were assigned a Communist role, rest easy knowing that any ultimatum given as part of your motivation was false.

If you have any questions, please shout them into the air, and a representative will get back to you within 5-100,000 business days. If you have any final messages for the living, please write them on form B and submit it into the slot in the south wall. Delivery is not guaranteed.

[Sure enough, there’s a slot. In addition, a hallway connects this room with a much larger room, not unlike a movie theatre. A large screen on the far wall shows various events back in the facility as they unfold in real time. A side alcove provides slightly transparent popcorn and a water cooler, although hunger, thirst and exhaustion don’t seem to exist here.]

Comments

[alchemicals]

Looks like both sides are, really.

[After all, their side wasn't the only one to go after Rin; the communists were the first to do it, after all.]

Matou knows her side's shit at it, by the way - pointing that out just messes with her, so I'd avoid it if I were you. It's in the silent, broody sort of way rather than the fun way.

[ossifragant]

[That makes him laugh. It's quiet, and he shakes his head while doing so.]

Leave the kid alone. Got it.

[.....]

Yomiel admitted it, by the way. At the trial, like an idiot. Screamed at everyone about how he's already dead and some detective who looks like Fulbright did it to him.

When I told you he and I had something in common, and that it was because we were both already dead, I wasn't talking about your betrayal.

[alchemicals]

"Yomiel admitted it, in front of a room full of people, like an idiot" seems to be a running theme.

[......]

Are you going to elaborate, or are you really going to make me ask?

[ossifragant]

You're an alchemist. Are you telling me you didn't put the pieces together by yourself?

[He.... assumed you had.]

[alchemicals]

No, I -

[...]

It really says something about the state of our lives when I can actually say "I had no way to be sure which death you were talking about" in all blunt seriousness, but there you go.

I also had no way to be sure whether I actually directly contributed to the last one or if that was an unintended effect of the resulting mass of confusion.

[ossifragant]

You had nothing to do with it.

[He just sort of implied it because he's a dick.]

Why did you take the skull, then? Did you just realize I couldn't be around it for very long?

[alchemicals]

I had- ...thanks, asshole.

[He's quiet for a moment after that, though he doesn't seem angry, just considering; he goes back to doodling idly while he thinks about it. Hopefully Friend Computer won't care that he's completely ruining Form B for like half the people that might join them down here.]

That guy I ran off with. He knows about Pride.

[It's less of a nonsequitur than it would sound to anyone around, at least.]

Guess he knows a few things about how you work.

[He shrugs.]

He wanted it, I provided. To my knowledge, we weren't going to fuck with it.

[ossifragant]

[That is interesting.]

How much of the homunculus theory are you familiar with? About how we're created.

[Kimbley honestly not knowing wasn't something he expected, and it's a little too personal to come right out and talk about, so he's going to hope he can guide Kimbley to the correct conclusion anyway.]

[alchemicals]

...Greed, do I look like the kind of guy that would fuck with that to you? I didn't have much cause to look into it.

[ossifragant]

[....Okay, that's unexpected.]

What about human transmutation?

[This is about the least subtle hint possible.]

[alchemicals]

...I understand that much and how it relates. I'm not an idiot.

[...okay, look - ]

We aren't on the same page.

[that is probably the understatement of the goddamn year, isn't it, hang on]

...Either we're not on the same page at all, or we're both on the same page exactly and we're managing to pass each other like strangers in fog anyway. I'm not sure which it is.

[ossifragant]

[It would probably help if Greed was the sort to come right out and say it. He's been open about a lot of things because he's an honest person.]

I can relate to Yomiel when it comes to matters of death. That's all.

[alchemicals]

Okay? Thanks, I get it.

[This would have been so much easier if you'd said this five minutes ago.]

...I appreciate the clarification, though. That you weren't talking about the whole Devil's Nest thing.

[ossifragant]

[We had a point here, it just got lost in all of the... talking.]

I'm not interested in making jabs at you anymore.

[He's not even really interested in fighting because it's hard to feel satisfaction from hurting someone when no one is capable of feeling pain.]

[alchemicals]

...And what brought that on?

[ossifragant]

We're both dead. I don't see the point.

I'd rather not hold onto grudges anymore.

[alchemicals]

[And that'll get another shrug out of him, though this one is far easier.]

If you missed me that badly, you could have just said so.

[ossifragant]

Hmph!

[But he's almost smiling.]

You missed a good show. I don't know why Yomiel picked the two of us to go out fighting for but it's funny as hell.

[alchemicals]

Oh, please tell me he didn't yell that out, too.

In front of a room full of people.

Like an idiot.

[ossifragant]

He restrained himself, thankfully. I don't think I could deal with the melodrama if he had.

[...maybe he should mention that Fulbright shot him, but that hadn't been done within the rules so it shouldn't stick, right?

...guess they'll find out if Yomiel shows up here tomorrow. Oops.]

I don't get him. We didn't know him at all.

[alchemicals]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and apparently sudden death makes Yomiel remember a pair of assholes with more fondness than they deserve.

[He doesn't exactly get it, either; it's kind of been grating on him a bit, if he's going to be honest about it, but no one really needs that right now.]

I'm not sure if I should have stayed or not. There was already too much melodrama for my tastes by the time I left.

[ossifragant]

With the kid, you mean.

[He's curious about what the hell that had been about, honestly.]

She's alive for another day at least. But she's next unless they're saving her for last.

[alchemicals]

...Yeah, with the kid.

[He falls quiet again at that, for a bit.]

I don't know. I would've been fine if she'd just agreed that that was what it was - that I had a role and so I needed to die, so she went ahead and did it. Or if she'd tried to put on a brave face and done that stupid little attitude thing she does when she's got the brace off and acted like it was what she'd wanted. Or hell, if it actually was what she'd wanted and she'd been a lying little bitch to my face to try to get me to trust her.

It wouldn't have been better, but at least then I could hate her and get on with it. What she ended up doing was just depressing.

...I'm not making any damn sense, am I.

[ossifragant]

[It takes him a very long time to respond, and when he does, his expression is soft. It's nearly gentle.]

No, you're making perfect sense.

[alchemicals]

[Something about that expression is nearly enough to get him to go all prickly again, and he needs to look away before he lets himself; he doesn't really want to think about it - he hates thinking about shit like this - but there's not much else he can do with himself right now, short of deciding that he doesn't want to deal with it and he should just sink everything and stalk off again.

And doing that just means dealing with everyone else, and he'd really rather not right now.

So instead he just...mulls it over, and he fiddles with that pen between his fingers, and he isn't sure what he thinks of the conclusion he comes to eventually.]

That's what got you so angry with me, isn't it. When you died.

[It's...not really a question.]