holding my pride tight until your tears dry;

[recrypt]

Comments

MONDAY, w3 fuck if i know when;

[recrypt]

[ you said stables? i guess they're at the stables now. she's just going to be wandering around in the rain in a poncho with her umbrella, i guess.

which is when she runs into zenitsu! hi zenitsu, how are you doing after uhhh, last week. ]

... Are you fond of animals?

time is an illusion

[swordflash]

[ he, too, is in a poncho. fortunately, the indoor stables provide shelter from the rain. the sound of water pelting the wooden roof is almost therapeutic as he watches a horse behind one of the stables.

then 45 appears, and his attention goes to her.

please, do not speak of last week. ]

I like them just fine. Are you?

[recrypt]

I don't deal with them that much, so I don't feel that any opinion I have would be of much value...

[ in future earth there are android birds, robotic cats, all sorts of things that blend in with the remaining fauna there, but... ]

Still, it's a long way from any of the other buildings to here. If you went through the rain for it it must mean at least a little to you.

[swordflash]

I was just walking around.

[ and ducking into a lot of cabins and buildings along the way. it's a miserable outing, but the horses are pleasant. ]

Anyway, even if you don't have a lot of experience, your opinion still matters!

[recrypt]

... huh.

[ in the pouring rain? didn't he get struck by lightning? isn't the saying something like 'once burned, twice shy?'

apparently not. ]

Why would it? Shouldn't the opinions of people familiar with something naturally hold more weight?

[swordflash]

[ getting struck by lightning hasn't stopped him from climbing trees again, either. this one learns the hard way. ]

That doesn't mean yours are unimportant.

So? What are your thoughts on animals?

[recrypt]

They're nice, I suppose. Stray cats aren't so bad, for one, whether they're android or organic.

[ and you find a fair couple of those while slumming it on the shadier side of life, anyway. ]

[swordflash]

Android? Does that mean they're like you?

[ he doesn't fully understand what 45 is nor how she works, but he pictures luna in his head whenever he gives either some thought. ]

[recrypt]

Yes. There's a number of android animals out in the world, by my time...

[ maybe it's how she lets her thoughts stray briefly that allows the weekly effect of the camp this week to take hold, a memory etching itself into zenitsu's mind. ]

[ you're on a covered rooftop balcony. the doll hanging upside down in front of you was stupid indeed, to have come back after attempting to leave you in cyberspace, but despite yourself you wait for her to wake up anyway.

"uuu..."

"ah, you're awake?"

"...45? why are you standing on the ceiling...?" reina seems slow to get her bearings. well, apparently electronic warfare really isn't something most dolls can handle after all. "where is this place... am i still in cyberspace?"

your tone is light and mild. "no, you are most definitely in the real world now." let's see how long it takes for her to react.

it takes a long moment for it to sink in. "...eh?" says reina. "why am i... i'm dangling from the ceiling?! wait, no- you... how did you escape from the highest-level lockdown?"

oh, that's almost funny if you still weren't entirely unimpressed with the doll in front of you. "highest-level lockdown? who were you expecting to trap with petty tricks like that? it was just the firewall of a civilian server. however good it was, it couldn't last beyond a single hit. it didn't even meet the expectations of it i had when i scanned the server."

"huh? you mean... you took down the entire server?"

"what do you think?" she's the one who asked you to do so, wasn't she? of course you knew she'd been planning to run, but if you'd been anyone else you might almost feel a little insulted. civilian dolls really don't know what even defective tactical dolls are capable of, hm? "i found the lockdown logic on my first-pass scan and it gave me a rough idea on how they were restricting their dolls. i was prepared to destroy the logic and prevent them from committing any new crimes using the same methods... but you ran faster than i expected. you slipped away before i had the chance to do anything."

"so... you knew what i was planning from the start?"

you level her a flat, meaningless smile. "it's true that i guessed you'd bolt the moment anything happened. what i didn't expect was that you'd log back into the server again after."

it seems the more you say, the more confused reina gets. "then everything i did... did it just make me look like a fool?"

"yes, just like a fool." you shift your weight and cross your legs primly where you're seated. "and as punishment for running away, i strung you up before you regained consciousness so i could better savor the stupid-looking spectacle that you are."

reina makes another faint, shamed noise as her situation presumably sinks in. "i'm sorry... ah, but... why would you go this far for me? even among humans, they'd only pay a price that ought not to be paid for things like family."

"i don't care about any price or whatever," you respond, bluntly, flatly. "i helped you simply because i couldn't tolerate people like that controlling dolls in that way. it reminded me of some bad memories, and i'd hate for them to happen to others."

"...your past wasn't a nice place either, was it?"

she'll have to learn that hers is hardly the only sob story around, and you make a derisive noise to demonstrate what you think that that particular sentiment. "speaking of which, what were you hoping to accomplish by going back, anyway? do you even know how to disable a firewall's lockdown?"

"i... um, i don't. but at the time, my gut was telling me that i shouldn't just leave you like that..."

... ugh. you stand, and lower reina gently to the ground. "go. get out of my sight, and never show yourself in front of me again."

she looks bewildered. probably she's going to mention- "you... you don't want my credits? we had a deal..."

"i already checked. the savings you were talking about never existed."

another faint, bewildered noise. "... i don't get it."

"what don't you get?"

"why did you do this? there was nothing in it for you. you weren't going to get paid for it," says reina, outlining things you both already know. "you even knew i was going to betray you and run off by myself. even if you couldn't stand what those humans were doing, it wasn't worth you risking yourself for this!"

you eye her for a moment. "...i simply felt that you were very much like my former self. if someone who'd had the ability to bring it all crumbling down had been by my side back then, perhaps all those things wouldn't have happened."

"what do you mean?" asks reina, hopelessly lost. "i... i still don't understand..."

a small amount of humorless laughter comes to your lips unbidden as you turn to head to the door leading out to the balcony. "it's good that you don't understand. it proves that despite everything, you had a fairly decent life."

"wait," reina says. "where are you going?"

you pause only long enough to offer her some advice as you leave. "i told you, didn't i? the more you know, the more likely you'll be destroyed. there's nothing tying you down anymore. go do whatever you want to do." ]

[ ... hm. so, about that story she told, back in that first week... ]

[swordflash]

[ going from such a basic topic to something far more complicated, zenitsu feels almost overwhelmed coming back from the memory. it's strange how everything 45 said made sense in the memory, only to become a garbled mess again in his own mind. it's not that he's forgotten—there's just so much to parse for someone who's largely unfamiliar with such technology and been given a wealth of knowledge in a single moment.

in the end, he just blinks as he looks at 45 in surprise. he remembers the story, vividly. ]

The traveler was you?

[recrypt]

[ it takes her a moment to go from reliving the memory to taking in the present again, but her eyes focus relatively quickly as she fixes him with ... somewhat of a wry expression? ]

Well. I certainly wasn't the girl.

[swordflash]

[ same old 45. ]

Why didn't you just say that it was you?

[recrypt]

Maybe I wanted you to decide how you felt about them without any preconceived notions involved.

FRIDAY, w3

[swordflash]

[ when 45 arrives at the bonfire, zenitsu is already there. he's seated on a log bench and gazing into the fire with a permanent marker clutched in one hand. ]

[recrypt]

[ she's a little slow to shuffle there anyway, movements stiff and affected, so it's no wonder that anyone else beats her to the bonfire. ]

... You knew them, right?

[swordflash]

[ he looks up, not quite reaching her face and settling instead for her neck. ]

Yeah. Not very well, though.

Are you okay?

[recrypt]

[ she blows out a breath, the heat fogging up the air in front of her. ] Partly frozen. My joints are stiff.

It's not an effect, though, it's what happens when you stay out overnight without keeping active... What about you, though?

[ 'are you okay' is the better question for him in this situation, but. ]

[swordflash]

[ stiff like an elderly person . . . ]

It must've snowed all night. Are you saying that you slept outside?

[ why do cute girls keep sleeping in the cold? please stop.

he scoots over on the log bench to make space for 45. ]

Here, you can sit next to me. The fire's warm.

[recrypt]

We would have almost done so if I didn't manage to drag Minako into the lakeside cabin in time. But it's still not particularly well protected from the cold, so...

[ haha,

but she'll sit down besides him before leaning down to slowly gather snow into a pile. ]

You didn't answer my question though, Zenitsu.

[swordflash]

[ not one, but two girls! that's terrible. ]

Huh?

[ wasn't she asking him if he was bothered by the cold? was she actually returning his question? ]

I'm fine.

[recrypt]

Hm.

[ hmmmm. the snow pile grows. ]

Are you really?

[ even if he hadn't known them well, it must be unsettling, losing others from your own world here. ]

[swordflash]

Well, I'm still here. I don't even have a painful effect this time . . .

[ all things considered, he thinks that he's gotten off very lucky this week. ]

[recrypt]

The absence of pain doesn't quite necessarily equate to being okay ... but, if that's what you say, then who am I to question it?

[ the base of a snowman forms itself. ]

[swordflash]

[ wise and clever words. unfortunately, they're pushed aside as he blinks at the pile of snow that's taken form. ]

D-did you do that?

[recrypt]

[ dflkgjdsfg i meant it more as just her autopiloting through making the pile of snow but ]

I've been making it this entire time...?