(tracking endless variations of numbers, easier. sequences and area codes. some strange and foreign. some discovered and decoded. some seemingly improbable and impossible, though he had written them nonetheless. he had scratched out all that flooded in. a longer list of empty numbers - and now taken ones - voices connecting upon the other end. sometimes machine, sometimes human. sometimes desperate for conversation - though he dodged them all with quick and polite excuses. claims of wrong numbers. mistakes.)
and there had been an influx of calls. of questions. (and grumblings from rooms over, as they were hung-up upon. again and again. only to be copied down later. only to be written out later. recorded in logs and notebooks. when he was alone. when he knew it easiest to take upon research - particularly for this one - when alone.)
and so, when this number came to be next - he called it. habitually marking patterns. finding clues. prying information from what he assumed likely - to make this community more avoidable. more readily avoidable.
to allow him to (with much more ease) focus upon the end. ]
[ Yuri basically never got phone calls from anyone besides Guild or SSS members, so when she answered, she didn't bother stating her name or anything. She just assumed it was someone she knew. ]
[ much to his general misfortune this evening, there seemed to be a rash of actual answers. of actual voices. (no prerecordings. no requests to submit personal information. no empty dial tones. no confused menus in languages he barely began to understand.) and it is, without trying, a newer pattern. something else that emerges. (and though there is no clear placement of it, not yet, he can only assume that --)
but, the way this call is greeted stalls him. no "hello", no questions. no inquiries. no requests to know his name and know why it is he's called. (and for a long moment, he says nothing. for a long moment, he might only think to say nothing. words lodged and words stumbled. words hidden away in the sudden derailing of predictability. and for a longer moment, he thinks of some answer - and the way it is delivered seems mismatched to his voice. strangely young. boyish. ) ]
[ Yuri's first thought was to immediately call out "bullshit" just based on the number of phones in this world. They were all possessed by the SSS or Guild unless they were school staff phones. The school staff were NPCs, they weren't programmed to get wrong numbers. ]
All of the phones there aren't any non-school phone numbers in this world except for this and Guild's. Who is this?
[ "Guild"? There's a small note of thought in that, but it is only jotted down without much ado. If nothing else, this was another piece of information that could prove connective. ]
The community called from here. [ It's a non-answer. An answer. And there's a small pause, but: ] I called it back.
[Looks like this is some time after the logic error, after she had attempted to save him, to stall for him, and she succeeded at that at least. Still... she had gotten hurt for him.
She left so quickly after everything happened too...]
[ Yuri glanced up at her laptop on her desk from her bed. On top of everything that was going on and seeing Battler and Beatrice... as they were, she didn't want to deal with this right now. For all she knew this was a "we need to talk" sort of speech. Even then she still perked up a little when her laptop screen brightened up the room, dark from night. She was already basically in her pajamas. Having another one of those sleepless nights.
Yuri got up and headed over to the laptop. She didn't switch it to video like she normally would though. ]
[He didn't know how to start talking about things here... she probably thought the worst of everything right now. She had left so fast, he didn't get a chance to talk to her and thank her for what she's done so...
Might as well start now.]
I just wanted to.... call you to thank you for everything. I shouldn't have asked you to stall like that, it killed me to bring that up even... but I was desperate at that point. Thanks for doing that much for me. [and then it was Beato that had come and saved the day at least.]
You've always been there for me, you know? I'm really lucky to have you. And also..... I got out of the wedding with Erika, and right after that... Beato asked about a proposal as well.
[ This really, really wasn't making her feel any better. Even after hearing that, she'd still go do something stupid like that. ]
Mhm. I figured I would get out of there before anything got more complicated. Wasn't wrong about that.
[ She didn't have a place there, she wasn't supposed to be there. When she saw Battler and Beatrice, it was obvious. Yuri wasn't remotely needed there and it hurt because she wanted to be able to do just one thing and she'd just done exactly what everyone had said would happen. ]
I don't care if you delete this but at least listen to me. It's about Ange.
[Her tone is very serious, quiet, almost sad.]
Talk to Battler-kun. I've said what I wanted to him but I doubt it'll go through. Ange--she wants this whole thing to end. If she wants it to stop then we should respect her decision. You probably won't agree with me either but listen to her.
This is hurting Ange, both you and Battler can see that, right? If you can't then you're blind and a pair of idiots. Tell Battler than he should respect her wishes. If he can't do that... then he's far crueler than even me.
Of course I can see that. She told me what Bernkastel showed her, but.. I trust Battler too. This whole game isn't about beating Bernkastel or winning for the sake of winning or even trying to figure out the truth anymore. It's about saving his family-- about saving Ange. There are things I know that I'm already not allowed to tell her and wouldn't because they're not going to play out the way he thinks, but... if he thinks there's still a way to save Ange-- a way to make her happy, even when she can't see it herself, then I'm going to at least give him a chance.
I would rather Ange grasp at a single chance for happiness than die miserable. It's not any fun. If Battler really can't do anything, then I won't say anything, but he deserves a chance to try. Ange isn't the only one who lost everything that day and I think you know that better than anyone.
[ There's a brief pause before Yuri adds something. ]
You really care about her even if you act like a total bitch, don't you? [ Otherwise she wouldn't have sent this message in the first place. ]
She's set in her ways--I wish it wasn't like that but all that Battler could do is offer her a lie: a pleasant lie but a lie nonetheless. Ange doesn't deserve that. How could that offer any true happiness?
Of course I do. To die surrounded by what you've always wanted but with no way to enjoy it, hated by the world, not having a single person taking your side..how couldn't I understand about what was lost that day?
[There's some anger in that statement but, for once, it's not directed at Yurippe.]
Of course I do. Even a witch like me...I can have things that I regret.
I know Ushiromiyas are stubborn, but you'd be surprised how many times I've broken Battler's stubborn streak. I don't think it's impossible. I think there has to be a way to do it without lying, though. It's not worth anything if it's a lie... the past is already the past, it has to stay that way, and no amount of hiding it or dressing it up to make it seem better can change that. If he lies to her about what happened, I'm not going to side with him. She has to move forward if it's going to be worth anything.
[ Yuri knew that better than anyone.
It sounds like what Evatrice is talking about just meant that what she'd "always wanted" wasn't what she'd really wanted at all, but Yuri decides not to speak on it. It's not really her place, as much as she's usually the first to butt her nose in on Ushiromiya issues. ]
Then give Battler a chance. I'm not saying she'll be perfectly happy when he's done and I'm not saying that I want him to lie to her, but I want to trust him enough that he'll at least give her a reason to try. Death doesn't always mean peace.
[battler walked through the mansion, his cape around him and a hand in his pocket, he was thinking over some things, dreading even more, it was all going to come to a close sooner or later and he was unsure about so many aspects in this game. he wasn't meant to have these kinds of feelings, he was the game master, someone that needed to have everything in perfect order or else the game wouldn't even work out....
but he wanted to ask yuri about some things first.
he walked out into the garden, eventually spotting yuri outside, standing in the rain, and he walked over to her, not concerned about the slight downpour at all. he came up beside her, not saying a word for a moment before he looked down at the roses.]
....Am I doing the right thing? Wanting Ange to live, wanting her to move on.
[ Yuri was never really concerned about the downpour. She missed the sun a lot sometimes-- staying here meant that it was very difficult to enjoy the sunlight anymore, since there pretty much was none. It was always raining. It was honestly a bit depressing, but Yuri took to making sure she went outside anyway. Just because it was raining didn't mean she was going to be cooped up and right now, she'd wanted some time to think. The rush of falling water made enough noise that usually canceled out everything else, enough that she could think clearly just by standing out here.
When Battler took his place next to her, she glanced at him momentarily before turning her gaze back to the roses until he'd spoken. After the words left his mouth, she took a step forward and turned around to face him. ]
Dying is misery is a lot worse than living in it. If she ends up in a place like I had after she dies, she'd be in just as much pain but stuck with it and so much more alone. Even if I didn't want her to live myself, knowing that I'd still say it was the right thing to try to help her move on. Preferably before it's too late for her.
[ Yuri's pretty sure she knows what this is about too. ]
[he did talk to her. it's why he's feeling this way right now.
at least he still has yuri, he can talk to her about these kinds of things just fine, at least... he thinks so. if he told her fully what he was planning he might get in trouble for it, but he knows what ange's like, how stubborn she is, and maybe she really will believe whatever he tells her as well.]
..There are things to live for that aren't simply in 1986, I want her to understand that. [he turns to look at her too.]
I know you said you'll save me, but even so in her world of 1998 I'm still dead. All I want is for her to accept the fact that even if the family is dead, if I'm dead, that we're still behind her in spirit, still with her no matter what so it's okay to live on.
[ There's the briefest of pause before Yuri responds to Battler's words. That her family is still behind her.. that's a huge problem isn't it? Eva-Beatrice might've been a little right about what Battler was planning to do. She wanted to trust him, but with the way things are sounding. ]
How are you planning on doing that without flat-out lying to her? She told me what happened, what Kyrie said about abandoning her.
( phone call. )
(tracking endless variations of numbers, easier. sequences and area codes. some strange and foreign. some discovered and decoded. some seemingly improbable and impossible, though he had written them nonetheless. he had scratched out all that flooded in. a longer list of empty numbers - and now taken ones - voices connecting upon the other end. sometimes machine, sometimes human. sometimes desperate for conversation - though he dodged them all with quick and polite excuses. claims of wrong numbers. mistakes.)
and there had been an influx of calls. of questions. (and grumblings from rooms over, as they were hung-up upon. again and again. only to be copied down later. only to be written out later. recorded in logs and notebooks. when he was alone. when he knew it easiest to take upon research - particularly for this one - when alone.)
and so, when this number came to be next - he called it. habitually marking patterns. finding clues. prying information from what he assumed likely - to make this community more avoidable. more readily avoidable.
to allow him to (with much more ease) focus upon the end. ]
( phone call. )
What's up?
( phone call. )
but, the way this call is greeted stalls him. no "hello", no questions. no inquiries. no requests to know his name and know why it is he's called. (and for a long moment, he says nothing. for a long moment, he might only think to say nothing. words lodged and words stumbled. words hidden away in the sudden derailing of predictability. and for a longer moment, he thinks of some answer - and the way it is delivered seems mismatched to his voice. strangely young. boyish. ) ]
... Wrong number.
[ ... well, he tried? ]
( phone call. )
All of the phones there aren't any non-school phone numbers in this world except for this and Guild's. Who is this?
( phone call. )
The community called from here. [ It's a non-answer. An answer. And there's a small pause, but: ] I called it back.
[ Close enough. ]
( phone call. )
voice;
She left so quickly after everything happened too...]
Yuri? It's me....
voice;
Yuri got up and headed over to the laptop. She didn't switch it to video like she normally would though. ]
It's me too.
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Might as well start now.]
I just wanted to.... call you to thank you for everything. I shouldn't have asked you to stall like that, it killed me to bring that up even... but I was desperate at that point. Thanks for doing that much for me. [and then it was Beato that had come and saved the day at least.]
You've always been there for me, you know? I'm really lucky to have you. And also..... I got out of the wedding with Erika, and right after that... Beato asked about a proposal as well.
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Mhm. I figured I would get out of there before anything got more complicated. Wasn't wrong about that.
[ She didn't have a place there, she wasn't supposed to be there. When she saw Battler and Beatrice, it was obvious. Yuri wasn't remotely needed there and it hurt because she wanted to be able to do just one thing and she'd just done exactly what everyone had said would happen. ]
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....I turned her down, you know.
[He couldn't help but smile to himself at that.]
She's not the one I love.
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yes this is a real tag
ahgksa
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video;
Oi oi oi! Pick up already!
video;
[ Even though she just did.. ]
video;
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[ Read as: There's nothing left to do here and all of her friends are gone except I-Mon. ]
video;
....So that's why I wanted to ask if you'd come live in my world with me.
video; 1/3
n/a
ok done
...action?
action
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call (post-dated after the event);
[Her tone is very serious, quiet, almost sad.]
Talk to Battler-kun. I've said what I wanted to him but I doubt it'll go through. Ange--she wants this whole thing to end. If she wants it to stop then we should respect her decision. You probably won't agree with me either but listen to her.
This is hurting Ange, both you and Battler can see that, right? If you can't then you're blind and a pair of idiots. Tell Battler than he should respect her wishes. If he can't do that... then he's far crueler than even me.
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I would rather Ange grasp at a single chance for happiness than die miserable. It's not any fun. If Battler really can't do anything, then I won't say anything, but he deserves a chance to try. Ange isn't the only one who lost everything that day and I think you know that better than anyone.
[ There's a brief pause before Yuri adds something. ]
You really care about her even if you act like a total bitch, don't you? [ Otherwise she wouldn't have sent this message in the first place. ]
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Of course I do. To die surrounded by what you've always wanted but with no way to enjoy it, hated by the world, not having a single person taking your side..how couldn't I understand about what was lost that day?
[There's some anger in that statement but, for once, it's not directed at Yurippe.]
Of course I do. Even a witch like me...I can have things that I regret.
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[ Yuri knew that better than anyone.
It sounds like what Evatrice is talking about just meant that what she'd "always wanted" wasn't what she'd really wanted at all, but Yuri decides not to speak on it. It's not really her place, as much as she's usually the first to butt her nose in on Ushiromiya issues. ]
Then give Battler a chance. I'm not saying she'll be perfectly happy when he's done and I'm not saying that I want him to lie to her, but I want to trust him enough that he'll at least give her a reason to try. Death doesn't always mean peace.
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action;
but he wanted to ask yuri about some things first.
he walked out into the garden, eventually spotting yuri outside, standing in the rain, and he walked over to her, not concerned about the slight downpour at all. he came up beside her, not saying a word for a moment before he looked down at the roses.]
....Am I doing the right thing? Wanting Ange to live, wanting her to move on.
action;
When Battler took his place next to her, she glanced at him momentarily before turning her gaze back to the roses until he'd spoken. After the words left his mouth, she took a step forward and turned around to face him. ]
Dying is misery is a lot worse than living in it. If she ends up in a place like I had after she dies, she'd be in just as much pain but stuck with it and so much more alone. Even if I didn't want her to live myself, knowing that I'd still say it was the right thing to try to help her move on. Preferably before it's too late for her.
[ Yuri's pretty sure she knows what this is about too. ]
Did you talk to Eva-Beatrice?
action;
[he did talk to her. it's why he's feeling this way right now.
at least he still has yuri, he can talk to her about these kinds of things just fine, at least... he thinks so. if he told her fully what he was planning he might get in trouble for it, but he knows what ange's like, how stubborn she is, and maybe she really will believe whatever he tells her as well.]
..There are things to live for that aren't simply in 1986, I want her to understand that. [he turns to look at her too.]
I know you said you'll save me, but even so in her world of 1998 I'm still dead. All I want is for her to accept the fact that even if the family is dead, if I'm dead, that we're still behind her in spirit, still with her no matter what so it's okay to live on.
Re: action;
How are you planning on doing that without flat-out lying to her? She told me what happened, what Kyrie said about abandoning her.
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