IMEEJI INBOX

[rollplayinghouse]

Comments

[rollplayinghouse]

[Comes over and sits next to him]

Hey. How are you doing?

[carnivorouscarnival]

Not bad. The pain's pretty much faded by now. And I bought off the scars right away.

[ clearly that is what she was asking about ]

And you?

[rollplayinghouse]

Same.

[leaves it at that, and waits]

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ ... leans back, putting his hands behind his head ]

I just wanted to say thanks for holding everything together yesterday. You were the only thing that kept us all alive.

[rollplayinghouse]

Ah...

[///]

W-Well... I did my best. It wouldn't have worked out if a lot of other people hadn't been willing to help us.

[carnivorouscarnival]

Yeah, everyone was in full work-together-and-believe-in-the-community mode. Now that I can appreciate it, I'm honestly surprised. Haven't seen something like that, since, what... the poison game? Though I guess even then there was us fucking everything up in the background.

[rollplayinghouse]

"Us," in some sense... I may have actually drank the poison you guys sent in that game.

[dry, but she just huffs and shrugs that off]

...I'm pretty surprised about the overall results too, but at least when it came to us, the situation wasn't actually that bad. We ended up counting on Baritones, but I didn't even talk to them directly... Mars and King agreed to hold them to it. Then there was avante, who were happy to help once they got what they needed... even if Nemesis wasn't involved, I know Cardigan and now Griffin, and they've talked about an alliance with us, so I doubt they'd betray us. LiLiS was the only one I really was just taking on faith.

[carnivorouscarnival]

LiliS doesn't have much of an obligation to us, but they seem too soft to pull a dastardly betrayal...

[ wait ]

—What's this about an alliance? First I've heard of it.

[rollplayinghouse]

I'm not really sure either, actually. I know Req was maybe going to talk to them, but Griffin said Cardigan was talking about it like something they'd discussed a long time ago. Like, before I was on the unit.

[carnivorouscarnival]

... Hah...

That news never made it to us, apparently.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Well, it seems like that sort of thing is hard to get everyone's agreement on.

[carnivorouscarnival]

Yeah? If they threw the ball into our court, I bet it'd be accepted without much of a fuss.

[rollplayinghouse]

As you mentioned, there are reasons working with us might be a little more controversial.

[carnivorouscarnival]

Gyahaha. Well, maybe. But the one with the most reason to oppose it is one of the ones suggesting it, sounds like.

[rollplayinghouse]

You mean Cardigan? Why would they oppose it?

[carnivorouscarnival]

We were enemies, back in the day. Though we buried the hatchet a pretty long time ago.

[rollplayinghouse]

Ah, right... They did actually mention you were one of the people they dueled to resolve things. Red and Pharaoh, too.

[carnivorouscarnival]

Mmmm, Pharaoh's case was a little different, I think... That was during the monster game, so it was more of a random match-up than anything personal.

Really, the only one left on ☆ZRAEL who would remember any of our old history is me.

[rollplayinghouse]

I guess that's true. I didn't even know ☆ZRAEL very well back then.

...Is it weird for you too? How much things have changed.

[carnivorouscarnival]

... 'Course it is. All the people I woke up with are gone, after all. Nothing's the same as it was in the beginning. Some of the most pivotal events in our unit's history don't mean anything to the people on it, people who were our enemies are our friends, we've gone from barely holding on to 3 members to 8 strong, and no one else even thinks any of that's unusual—it's just the new "normal." That's the weirdest part.

[rollplayinghouse]

... It's even more strange for me, probably. I woke up with Yasuragi and Shuten and Shu... Shuten's gone, Yasuragi ran a kissing game, and Shu came to visit yesterday to thank me for helping his unit, after we've barely talked to each other for months. Do you know when I met the new girl on Taisho, she asked if I wanted to trade for an outfit...? And Sekhmet started to explain contracts to me when she signed one to not do what she did again, like I wasn't totally aware of exactly what they did and the drawbacks of it. And I've dated Joker and killed part of him and broken up with him...

[a huff]

...Overall, it's better for me, though. At least... now. The things I need now are different than I needed then, I think.

[carnivorouscarnival]

[ leans back a little further in his chair ]

At least that makes one of us.

[rollplayinghouse]

...

Is it that much worse?

[carnivorouscarnival]

Pretty much. Though a good chunk of that's my own fault, so who am I to complain?

[rollplayinghouse]

Why is it your fault?