If there was time, and I had come to all of you and said that I was asked to kill someone, would your morals have allowed that in such a short amount of time? We don't see eye-to-eye, but I'm not cruel enough to make you cover for someone's death, even if it was necessary.
Because I'm not going to have you grilling Sora, who has gone above and beyond to help us this entire time.
[ She can be petty, because Hua Cheng? Will be petty back. ]
Wednesday was when I was asked, Thursday was when it was done. You think that's much time? And even if I had wanted to tell you, come Thursday, I couldn't. So now you know in advance - when Swan's team has to do it again, I've already volunteered for it and told them not to ask any of you.
[ it sounds exactly like something Dunban would do, and that only makes her feel worse. the anger dies out quickly. ]
But you shouldn't have to do this, either, Hua Cheng. I can't let you get forced into this twice... It's all wrong. Are we supposed to vote for you after, too, just for the nova?
[ He laughs, a little darkly, but still not unkind. ]
Fiora, it's not forcing me into anything. I volunteered to be the one to do it again, because this isn't the first time I've killed someone, and it won't be the last.
We can decide on how to vote when Swan comes to us again with the request. If voting for me will secure us the nova we need, it's fine - I'm already a ghost, going to that place in limbo where the removed are won't bother me.
You think I'm not frustrated, too? We have been at this for weeks and it turns out, yes, we're supposed to be killing people whose nova splinters, but we're also supposed to be condemning those that kill them.
[ SIGH ]
Swan's only condition for me was that I come back, because they don't want to lose anyone else. They asked me on Wednesday. That's not enough time to sit down and talk about what needs to be done.
Now, we have time to prepare. To come to an agreement with each other on what to do.
Look, I don’t know how true it is, but I don’t think we’re really dying dying. Speaking as someone who’s died before, there’s a difference between permanently shuffling off this plane and into the next and sort of taking a temporary vacation.
They can send notes, they can communicate, they’re trying to tell us how to make this “bridge,” so I’d say they probably aren’t, uh. For realsies dead. And if I’m reading the note I got right, they remember things over there. So it is curing them, in a way.
It isn't, really. [ Do you see why he is SO TIRED. ] But we can at least sit down on Wednesday, when we find out. Formulate alibis and match stories.
I had enough planned that I could have reasonable excuses for almost everything. That it would be harder to point a finger at me, through evidence. But I didn't have anyone to account for certain things, like getting stabbed.
If Emet-Selch hadn't asked me, I wouldn't have done the check. I've only done it twice the entire time.
[ He runs it. He has ran it since w1. He has only done the check personally on w0 and w3. ]
... someone that isn't you will have to bandage me back up, I saw how yours were. [ But, fine. He loosens his bracers so he can get his sleeves out, and two layers of his robes are shrugged out of, hanging from the belt around his waist so he can undo his bandages. There's a jagged claw mark - four, deep lines - at his sternum, mid-chest. More into his sweet sweet abs is a deep gash, like he was stabbed at and moved to keep from being shanked in something vital. ]
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Why were you lying to us?! We're supposed to be a team!
[ now she's actually mad instead of just disappointed. ]
What did you think we would do - execute you on the spot? I guess that's how everyone thinks things are supposed to work here?
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[arms crossed.]
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We still had Hikaru's killer, to pinpoint. Not that it did much in the end to narrow it down further.
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[Like Taako has any idea how Zone of Truth even works at all.]
. . . We’ll still need to kill again, right?
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[ Plainly, but not cruelly. ]
If there was time, and I had come to all of you and said that I was asked to kill someone, would your morals have allowed that in such a short amount of time? We don't see eye-to-eye, but I'm not cruel enough to make you cover for someone's death, even if it was necessary.
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[STOP SAYING GEEZ]
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[ STOP SAYING GEEZ. hc doesn't even know what this means! ]
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[ she doesn't seem satisfied by this; she knows her response is petty, but it's out before she can think better of it. ]
If there was time, we could have thought of something. There has to have been something.
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[ She can be petty, because Hua Cheng? Will be petty back. ]
Wednesday was when I was asked, Thursday was when it was done. You think that's much time? And even if I had wanted to tell you, come Thursday, I couldn't. So now you know in advance - when Swan's team has to do it again, I've already volunteered for it and told them not to ask any of you.
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[ A promise to Swan is nothing in the face of that. ]
Shima and Emet-Selch didn't confess until the last stretch of the day. I imagine it's a compulsion of the Realm.
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But you shouldn't have to do this, either, Hua Cheng. I can't let you get forced into this twice... It's all wrong. Are we supposed to vote for you after, too, just for the nova?
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Fiora, it's not forcing me into anything. I volunteered to be the one to do it again, because this isn't the first time I've killed someone, and it won't be the last.
We can decide on how to vote when Swan comes to us again with the request. If voting for me will secure us the nova we need, it's fine - I'm already a ghost, going to that place in limbo where the removed are won't bother me.
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[ SIGH ]
Swan's only condition for me was that I come back, because they don't want to lose anyone else. They asked me on Wednesday. That's not enough time to sit down and talk about what needs to be done.
Now, we have time to prepare. To come to an agreement with each other on what to do.
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[Tugging on his braid.]
Can only really like. Hoard items, I guess.
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Look, I don’t know how true it is, but I don’t think we’re really dying dying. Speaking as someone who’s died before, there’s a difference between permanently shuffling off this plane and into the next and sort of taking a temporary vacation.
They can send notes, they can communicate, they’re trying to tell us how to make this “bridge,” so I’d say they probably aren’t, uh. For realsies dead. And if I’m reading the note I got right, they remember things over there. So it is curing them, in a way.
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I had enough planned that I could have reasonable excuses for almost everything. That it would be harder to point a finger at me, through evidence. But I didn't have anyone to account for certain things, like getting stabbed.
[ ... not happy about that part very much ]
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Not that I can help, I’m not a healer. I just wanna see it if it’s gross and cool looking.
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[ He runs it. He has ran it since w1. He has only done the check personally on w0 and w3. ]
... someone that isn't you will have to bandage me back up, I saw how yours were. [ But, fine. He loosens his bracers so he can get his sleeves out, and two layers of his robes are shrugged out of, hanging from the belt around his waist so he can undo his bandages. There's a jagged claw mark - four, deep lines - at his sternum, mid-chest. More into his sweet sweet abs is a deep gash, like he was stabbed at and moved to keep from being shanked in something vital. ]
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