[redactable] catchall for emet-selch

[dawnblushed]

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w1, sunday

[dawnblushed]

Oh -

[well, yona's heading into the planetarium... she's got an apple in one hand! she doesn't seem to be expecting anyone else to be here, but. here emet is!]

...Emet-Selch, right? Sorry, am I interrupting?

[arkitect]

You may stay.

[no answer on whether she's interrupting, but he at least won't ask her to go, nor does he sound particularly annoyed with her presence.]

Yona, wasn't it? I suppose it is a good thing this was not your week to be chosen.

[dawnblushed]

...if it was me this week, he would have been welcome to try.

[she'd have kicked his ass! hypothetically. jeanne did that pretty well, too.]

I can't really blame him for not wanting to just stand there and take it, but...

[that had definitely been hard to watch.]

[arkitect]

Even if it were his doing after all, it wouldn't have been terribly surprising. Not everyone is willing to simply die, guilty or not.

[it's something inherent to many people, that they either wish to live or just won't go quietly.]

But it certainly almost caused quite the mess.

[dawnblushed]

...that's true.

[yona sighs. heavily.]

I can understand wanting to limit the bloodshed, but I can't understand yelling at someone for being prepared. Who knows how much blood would have been shed if he'd come out of that fighting? Wasn't watching and doing nothing bad enough last week?

w3, saturday

[dawnblushed]

[well! welcome to gay baby jail, emet.

yona would really like to apologize because the fact that they didn't catch sumire's killer and defaulted to him is, quite frankly, aggravating, but. he said he doesn't want apologies! so.

instead, when she comes to see him, she's already got a message typed up on her phs.]

I've been able to send messages to the dead and receive messages back, though I'm sure there are others who can do that too. I'm also the one who put that sign up near the inn to ask people for messages that they wanted to pass on.

I don't think it should have been you who got the majority vote today, but since it was, we need to figure out how best to use this to our advantage. Can I ask you to work with me as best you can from that side, Emet-Selch? There's still a lot going on that I don't understand, but I think with your help, I'll be able to understand more.

[arkitect]

I am no stranger to death-- you may rest assured I will do as much there as I have on this side to ensure our continued progress. The efforts I have made to that effect are precisely why Archer attempted to keep me alive in the first place.

[he exhales a heavy sigh at that, shaking his head.]

Contact me, and I will assist you as well as I can. If you are able to tell me now what you already know, then that will help ensure you receive nothing redundant.

[dawnblushed]

[why have so many people in this murdergame died already, goddamn.

anyway, yona nods, and sets to typing again.]

As far as what I know about the Realm itself so far, it's mostly what Soo-won said after we looked for evidence yesterday.

I can send messages to the dead twice a week, but it doesn't let me write very much, so I have to be careful about what I say. A message that I already got had some letters missing, so I had to try to guess what some of the words were based on context.

The dead said they were alright and doing things on that side, which I assume means there's more going on there. They also reminded me that people needed to stop sharing their teams - I'm not sure if it's just because the Realm becoming unstable affected them, too, or if they were able to see something.

If possible, I'd like to know where you end up, what sorts of things you're doing on that side, and what you can see or hear of what we're doing, if anything. I won't be able to use as many words to ask questions in my messages, either, so maybe we should come up with some kind of a code to save space? Like assigning a number to a certain topic, so we can focus on just the important things.

[arkitect]

I think that would be a reasonable plan, yes. One for the topic of location. Two for specific activities on that side. Three for information learned there, and perhaps four for nova related topic specifically. Only use the first initial for any specific person you wish to ask about, to save space-- first and last initial as needed, which all may apply to both the living and dead. 'U' for 'unknown' to save space in messages going either direction, as no one's name begins with that letter.

[they're going to fucking kill us when the messages are like '1 U'.]

[dawnblushed]

[that will be fucking hilarious.

anyway, yona is make a note of these codes and saving it to her notes app so she won't forget.]

I know the chances of this are low, given that memories are... tricky here. But... maybe five for any previous killers you learn of that need to be removed for everyone's safety.

I don't much like killing, but I'll do it if I have to.

w3, sunday

[dawnblushed]

[haha teej got cucked

anyway like. as far as executions go, that probably could have been a lot worse than it was! the only downside is they don't have eyes and ears in the graveyard now, but.

eh. maybe yona will die next.

anyway, once a sufficient amount of time has passed for emet to get some breathing room from the others who are glad he didn't mcfuckin die, yona comes to find him. when she spots him, she smiles faintly and lifts a hand in a wave.

she still can't talk! but, hi.]

Re: w3, sunday

[arkitect]

-ah, Yona.

[he gives her a nod in return, and pauses where he is; seems like she can join him if she wants to. he's not so tired of people that he's turning her away.]

I suppose our plans will have to wait, but it gives us more opportunity to refine a code, at the least.

[dawnblushed]

[she'll go over to join him, then! (where are they, teej.)

anyway, she types.]

That's true. I shared what we had so far with Archer last night, but we should share anything else we add with him, too. Is there anyone else you think should know about it, just in case?

[arkitect]

[uhhh the forest! they are in the forest now.]

Hansa should know. Possibly Alyssa, as well, but if you do not know her well enough, I should be able to share it.

Relatedly, there should be a way to signify someone should be mistrusted or believed. A simple 'x' or 'o' should suffice following their initials.

[dawnblushed]

We started talking recently, so I don't mind sharing it with her, but if you think she would take it better coming from you, you're welcome to.

[she doesn't seem opposed to either one of those people getting involved, at least!]

Oh, that's a good idea. Why didn't we think about that before?

w4, monday

[dawnblushed]

[Iiiiit's memshare Monday!

Yona is trying so fucking hard to avoid these memory bubbles and with every starter I write the way she pops them gets even stupider. Case in point: this time, as she comes across Emet-Selch in the wild west area, a lizard skitters across her foot and startles her into letting out a cry and stumbling back. She narrowly misses smacking a bubble with her hand, twists at the waist, and then trips over a tumbleweed. It's as she gets back up to her feet that a bubble drifts just over where she's standing up, and she pops it with her head.

A moment later, they find themselves in a castle.

It's very late at night, and they can hear rain coming from outside. It's strange, Yona thinks - watching this not-much-younger version of herself, with much longer hair, panicking over the body of a man in ornate robes who has just been stabbed, looking between him and a person Emet-Selch will recognize as Soo-won. He has blood on his cheek, and he's carrying a blood-stained sword.

"S-Soo-won... Quickly, call a doctor!"
"King Il will not wake again." There's the soft splat of a drop of blood hitting the ground from the tip of his sword, and then: "I killed him."

The Yona of several months ago shakes her head.

"What are you talking about? Y-you aren't someone who could do this..."
"You don't know how I have lived for this day."

(Ignore the opening theme and the little aside with Hak, Yona didn't see that part.)

"Wh-why? My father cared for you since you were a child..."
"You're right. I loved King Il, too."

Soo-won explains, then - how his father, Yona's uncle, had been passed over when their grandfather chose a successor. How people doubted Il, but his father had wanted to protect him. How King Il had, after ascending to the throne -

Killed his own brother.

"No... my uncle died in an accident..."
"That's the official story. But King Il stabbed my father to death with a sword."

The long-haired Yona stares at Soo-won in shock.

"Do you understand? King Il, who was thought to hate weapons and avoid conflict, killed my father with a sword."

She doesn't want to believe it. Then, she didn't want to believe it - and even now, looking back on this memory, she wishes it wasn't true. But it is - Soo-won says it, it's the truth, and watching, Yona murmurs it herself even as the girl she was denies it.

The Yona of the past flinches at her reflection in the steel of Soo-won's sword.

"I have avenged my father, and to honor his final wish, I will become King of Kouka."

Tears fill her eyes, and she looks down at the corpse in her lap. Soo-won admits he hadn't expected her to be here; she admits she had come to tell her father that she couldn't ever forget Soo-won himself.

And then, from behind here, there's the sound of a door opening. A man in dark robes enters, accompanied by soldiers - "Everything is ready." - and glances briefly at Yona before turning his attention to Soo-won - "Did Princess Yona see you?"

Soo-won doesn't speak, but he doesn't have to for this man to know.

"That will make things quick." A flick of his gaze towards Yona, and: "Kill her, Lord Soo-won. Silence the princess."

Yona stares at him, disbelieving, and whispers his name.

His gaze hardens, and he raises his sword.

She struggles to her feet, tries to back away - falls, and knocks over a lantern. The candle spills out and catches a tapestry on fire, and in the ensuing chaos and rush to put it out before someone notices, Yona flees for the door, dazed and confused and wishing so badly that this wasn't real.

She hears footsteps behind her as she runs, and then -

Then, something wraps itself around her ankle and yanks back. She lands hard on the ground of a courtyard, and soon finds herself surrounded by soldiers with the same sorts of weapons her father was said to abhor. The same sorts of weapons her father was said to have killed her uncle with.

"Prepare yourself, Princess. This is for the Kingdom of Kouka."

She turns her head towards where she had been running from, where Soo-won is now standing, accompanied by more soldiers and that man in dark robes. Her vision blurry with tears, she calls out for him -

"Soo-won!"

...and the soldier raises his sword, taking aim at her neck.

(Memshare ends at timestamp 8:02.)

Haha! Wow that's awful give her a few moments, she hates reliving that.]

[arkitect]

Ah- be cautious with those!

[he tries to step back as she gets dangerously close to that first bubble, but makes the mistake of relaxing when it's missed... and then there's the other one. then there's the memory--

and ah, that puts a conversation or two into perspective. the way he always seemed amused at something, when speaking of royalty, of nobility; emet-selch has noticed, of course, but kept his counsel. having it laid out in such a way is quite helpful...

though how unfortunate that it comes at yona's expense. he's no stranger to such acts, with as many empires as he's been personally involved in, but they are ever unpleasant to watch. ever depressing, to see the things humans do.

he exhales a slow breath, when it ends.]

...that cannot have been pleasant. Are you well enough?

[emet-selch is, at least, tactful enough to ask after her first.]

[dawnblushed]

[unpleasant is putting it mildly.

yona nods, though, even as she tries to catch her breath. this is not a memory she likes to revisit, and quite frankly, if she forgot it wholesale and never had to think of it again, she'd probably be quite happy.

but it's a major part of why she is the person she is today, too.]

...I'm okay.

[arkitect]

Good.

[it still can't be easy to deal with, but he'll take her word for it. she's seemed the type who can handle it.]

...you did mention before that you were once more like some of the others, here. I take it such events were what helped change that?

[dawnblushed]

[she nods.]

...that's right. I didn't know what it was like to have to struggle just to survive, before. Now I do.

[...]

I think if I can do it, anyone can. I was... probably one of the most spoiled, pampered people anyone would ever meet.

w7, friday

[dawnblushed]

[well! they're away from the rush of newly-returned dead people reuniting with the living. nothing seems to be immediately happening, but who knows how long that'll last?

yona breathes out and glances over at emet-selch.]

...how long do you think we'll have to wait before something changes?

[arkitect]

... preferably, not long. I have only so much patience left for dealing with this place, and would quit it as soon as we are able.

[he sighs that out, arms folded. he is Tired.]

[dawnblushed]

I'll miss some of the people I've met here, but... I really need to get back to Kouka.

[she sighs]

But I think we all have things we need to return to.

[arkitect]

Many of us do, yes.

[a slight shake of his head, at that.]

When you do return, however, I hope he shall not trouble you overmuch.

[dawnblushed]

[she thinks about it...]

...it's probably the other way around. My existence is... probably trouble to him.

[to say the least]

But there are things that are more important than that.