week 10 | wednesday evening

[jackhole]

[ HELLOOOO mystery teens!! hopefully you're together because rhys is... seeking you out, wherever you are! specifically, he's seeking out hinata after sans' request but he does want to grab roxy and faize in the process since he basically wants to talk to them all about the same thing. so, here he is, heading towards where he thinks he might find them (one of their rooms?!) and calling out. ]

Hey, uh... kids? Could I talk to you?

Comments

[jackhole]

[ once again, rhys does agree with roxy and drags a hand over his face as he figures out how to reply to all of this. he'll just go right for it, be direct. ]

Roxy's right. Greed was the one that killed Sisuca. I know this because I... talked to Greed, weeks ago. [ a-ahaha, oops. ] She's unhinged, totally out of her mind psycho and I'm really surprised she hasn't killed more of her own. It wouldn't be very out of character, if you met her. So, Wrath isn't the only one but... who knows? We haven't been told anything, honestly.

[ then he considers faize and hinata's guesswork before shaking his head. ]

I think you're giving the demons too much credit. The mastermind behind all of this is Katerina. All the demons seem to want to do is kill us for power but Katerina's the one with the leashes around their necks. Find Katerina, kill Katerina, stop the demons. That's how this works.

[hopefragment]

Sisuca...

[...Ah, apparently he's still upset about that, if the look on his face is anything to go by. It might have been months, but do you remember? Pepperidge Farm Hajime Hinata remembers.

But wait, hang on, something seems wrong about that. Hinata puts a hand to his chin and shakes his head.]

I... don't know if that's true, though. About Katerina, I mean. Sure, she might act like she's in control, but... she said it herself, in your recording. "Even if I told them to spare you, they wouldn't care"... is what she said, right? That doesn't sound like someone who's in control to me.

[Glances to Faize. Back him up on this, bro. Put that genius-level IQ to work.]

[symbologic]

[Faize looks completely unsurprised about the stuff with Sisuca and Greed. Well, if Rhys was just gonna come out and say it, that spares him the debate on whether or not he should keep sitting on that bit of information...]

And dying at the hands of her own designated sin is most likely why Sisuca is the exception to the half-dead rule. Remember how Lucifer went out of her way to try and ensure that Satan was the one who finished Undyne, as opposed to doing it herself? [Except...Undyne did it for them but HIS POINT STILL STANDS. Pridemom didn't want to kill Undyne] For whatever reason, they don't want to kill those of us they consider "theirs". That said, we cannot say for certain whether or not these deaths are exactly the same as Sisuca's or not. Not unless one of you has spoken with one of the dead recently and can confirm that Hanyuu, Papyrus, and Sans have joined them.

[He looks to each of them. Anybody had any seances recently?? Faize hasn't. Alisha is the only ghost who bothers to visit him. Oh, but wait. Hinata wants backup. Alright. Good thing he glanced at you when he did, man.]

And I have to say that I agree with Hajime. Beyond her words, just listen to her tone during that conversation. That is not the tone of someone who is in complete control of a situation. Perhaps you are right...maybe we are giving the sins too much credit. But you are clearly doing the same to Katerina, Rhys. She is most certainly a key figure in all this and holds quite a bit of power, but...I do not believe the situation is as straightforward as you think it is. To use your analogy: the sins may be collared, but I do not believe that they are leashed. [More like...they're trapped in Katerina's yard behind a tall fence. Just waiting to figure out how to best escape it. That's his guess. If we have to keep using this dog analogy.] Or, if they are, it's likely that Katerina is as well, and that they hold her leash in turn.

[Contracts with beings from hellish dimensions are complicated things!!]

So, if I were you, I would not wholly commit to this "find Katerina, kill Katerina, stop the demons" plan of action just yet. Not without the exact details of the contract between them. Killing her without fully understanding that much could have dire repercussions.

[muties]

[ Thanks, Velma, for being the smart one. ]

It's not too surprisin' when you think about it. They wanted us here for a purpose, and if that purpose could be served by offin' us themselves, they woulda done it weeks ago instead of this whole song and dance with the trials. I think it's a safe bet to say Hanyuu, Pap, and Sans are half-dead, too, even without pesterchummin' the ghost brigade.

[ But also shrug?? ]

I think that neither Kitty or her pet demons are as in control as they think. There's a legit power imbalance here, and I doubt shit is copacetic between them. Whatever contract they have with her, presumin' there is one, which we can reasonably assume tbqh, it's likely more in their favor than in hers. Killing one half of the murdertown equation doesn't solve the problem of the other half, so. [ she agrees?? is that agreement. who is she agreeing with?? ] Well, unless it does, we don't know, it could collapse whatever shit they're up to.

Really, there's no way a knowing what kinda dealie they got goin' and how we can gum it up without them tellin us-- Kitty or the demons. Which. Is unlikely, unless anyone of you are secret bros with one or somethin. But uh, in general I do kinda agree with Rhys on needing some kinda plan of action, if not the plan just straight up stabbing Kitty-- I mean, we can do that too, but.

[ Fiddles with another piece of paper. Vague hand gesture. Shrug? ]

[jackhole]

[ rhys listens to all this and after both faize and roxy are done, he lifts a hand to rub at his forehead with a sigh. his other hand braces against his hip and he looks very tired for a moment. ]

First, yeah. Papyrus and Sans are half-dead like the others. Undyne came and visited... well, as best as a visit can go with Undyne.

[ as in, she threw a lot of stuff and broke break's tea set and yelled a lot, but ghostly. ]

Second, alright. I just hate Katerina. And Miata. It's their fault we're stuck here anyway so even if the demons as wrestling control from Katerina like you suggest, she's still the most at fault here. So, she's going to die. If she doesn't by anyone else's hand, I'll do it myself. I don't care. She will die.

[ rhys, that's a bit dark to say to some teens. don't be shady to people you aren't cool with. ]

Aaaanyway, Roxy's right. I guess the power imbalance isn't really relevant until we know what to do with it? How do we play this to our advantage? I'm thinking the trials are some sort of ritual then, if we're going to consider them important and not just frivolous bullshit. We need to die a certain way to feed power to our designations. Otherwise, why not just kill us once you have us? This still all shows that we're nothing more than a freezer full of meat though and both parties couldn't care less what happens to us.

[hopefragment]

[Hinata just hums quietly, keeping his hand to his chin, clearly taking in what everyone else has to say. There's a part of him that still balks at murder -- how can it not, with everything they've been through? That killing and death just causes pain and doesn't really help anyone in the end. But there's another part of him that agrees with Rhys, that Katerina deserves to get what's coming to her.]

...I think you'd have to contend with Lithuania to get at Miata at least, but... yeah. I won't be standing in your way to get at Katerina, that's for sure.

[Not... that there's much Hinata would be able to do to stop Rhys tbqh. But the weenie sentiment is there.]

For now... I think we have to consider the trials important. Weeks of killings, "motives," all of that seems way too elaborate for just a "game," right? There has to be a purpose behind it. Behind them, and behind our designations. I... have to wonder if that's the key. For lots of trials, the motives... seemed to appeal to people of a particular designation, right? Could there be a pattern behind that? Something we can use to... try to unlock just what they're planning?