FIRE PARTY

[chasseurdebeaute]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: By the Cafeteria
WHEN: Day 6, late morning to noonish

[All across the pasture, sometime in the late morning (to give people a chance to catch up on some rest), everyone will see a freckled blond avatar wearing a blue wide-brimmed fedora pop up next to them--or if you happen to be near Rubato at the time, you'll see him speaking to a whole audience of little avatars representing each resident of the pasture. It seems he has no trouble picturing each face he'd like to contact all at once.]

Bonjour tout le monde ✨!
How has everyone been faring? It seems we have had relatively good success at keeping each flock fed and comfortable this first week, but there is still more work to do ahead, non? Are there areas where you might wish to have more assistance? Strengths you are willing to trade? There's no reason to be shy if such a need is found!

Let us come together for another exchange! There shall be a bonfire by the Cafétéria today--all are welcome to bring some of their own food and supplies and join us in preparing our meals there. Consider it a chance to make more from a little less!

[He'll go ahead and leave the message there. Those who make their way to the Cafeteria today will find a cheerful fire going in a fire pit that has been dug not far away, to supplement the lack of stoves in the kitchen. There are a couple birds roasting over the fire already, as well as various root vegetables being arranged on skewers to go next.]

Comments

[beathollow]

( every action and desire you have is no longer yours...

something in her chest hurts. she remembers a marionette, and the sight of it disgusting her so much it was painful- )

... That... thats just cruel.

( to control others like that, and that he has to be alone when hurt or he spreads it to others- it's not fair. )

[catposting]

A lot of things are.

[ seems like she actually listened this time, so the playfulness is back. ]

Anyway, now that you know, you could cripple Rose if you wanted to.

[beathollow]

I don't want to.

( why is that so hard for people to understand? lyra, zenith, blood fiend himself- )

[catposting]

[ because he came from a wartorn hellscape where survival depended on using others. nice people ended up as dead people. or eternal slaves, if they were strong. ]

Why not? It would make your shepherd happy. You already know how she handles information, so I'm sure she'd love to announce her genius tactics to the entire pasture.

"Guys, if we injure that cat enough, we'll put Rose at a disadvantage and receive extra strength ourselves!"

"Hey, can any of you guys do mind control? We can turn the cat against his own team!"

[ he rolls his eyes. ]

You're really allergic to easy choices, you know that?

[beathollow]

Because I don't want to hurt people. Why is that so hard for anyone to understand? Is it really that easy for you? Because I can't fathom just... ruining someone's life like that at a drop of a word.

[catposting]

... Do you think it was our first time dying?

[beathollow]

That doesn't matter to me.

[catposting]

[ why is she like this. he hadn't even been meaning to address this part — that wasn't his reason for this entire lie — but she has a way of being frustrating. ]

I don't know how much you've heard, but I'm pretty sure our original plan would have caused us the least harm.

We were planning to be the blood sacrifice from the start. It was less troublesome than arguing with the other flocks, if we were all planning to part ways anyway. A few cuts weren't a big deal at all. In the end, the Emperor wanted to find a loophole, but at least we know for sure not to sacrifice the wildlife.

In any case, we might not have died so gruesomely if the whole pasture had just agreed to let us step forward to begin with. That's what's happening right now — except you guys are acting so ashamed about the whole thing. You're even hiding your alliances from us.

You're not the only one that claims to not want to hurt people, but at the end of the day, you'd all act like we're stupid, then kill us.

It's weird.

[beathollow]

It would have, yes. The entire thing was... stupid. No one was on the same page despite trying to talk about it. No one would agree to one thing.

( when she felt overwhelmed she just... went with the flow. and it was stupid of her too. ... wait- )

... What are you talking about? You act as if the entire pasture is against you.

[catposting]

[ ? ]

You didn't deny it earlier.

[ YOU DIDN'T SAY IT EXPLICITLY EARLIER, YAS ]

[beathollow]

Deny what?

( MATH LADY.GIF )

[catposting]

... When I said Daffodil and Lily would follow Lyra.

[ "because she's a liability". ]

Thistle are upfront about protecting their own, so they'll follow.

Bluebell are... Bluebell.

Either way, it's still a majority vote.

[beathollow]

... You legitimately think we're all teaming up against you.





How are you so smart and so stupid?

[catposting]

[ snickering. she finally said words, he's impressed. ]

What's that supposed to mean? Did you just forget all the people screaming "Rose" that day?

[beathollow]

If I recall, it was split down the middle at the end. Which was precisely why I was pulled into it. ... And if it was like that. Someone would have taken advantage of the fact that you changed me to paint you in a worse light by now, don't you think?

[catposting]

"Painting someone in a worse light" is not the same as incapacitating them.

[ sorry Sonata, the whole concept of words mattering is way too alien for him. woes of coming from a battle manhwa. ]

[beathollow]

Not immediately. But it provides... justification. Reasons and excuses. A bad reputation is all someone needs for anyone to be able to treat them worse.

[catposting]

You make it sound like the choice to kill Rose is personal.

I doubt anyone has a vendetta against any of us. As far as I know, nobody has treated us badly; we're just an easy target. One individual having a good or bad reputation wouldn't change that.

[beathollow]

You're the one insisting that we have some 5-flock alliance against you.

[catposting]

Do you know what an easy target is?

Biscuit liked the Emperor. He'd still have sacrificed him in a heartbeat.

[ this is such a weird conversation he's going insane ]

Look, all this guilt over hurting others serves no purpose, if you'd do the same thing over and over anyway. You know why that demon picked you? It's because you couldn't bring yourself to choose by yourself.

If you really want to help end everyone's suffering, then at least take advantage of the information we — as a pasture — gain from dying or from sacrificing others. Move forward. Blaming yourself is pointless if things never change.

— Besides, if you hadn't come to apologize, my power wouldn't have hit you. It picks the weakest target in the area, so it might have hit Stormy if you weren't there.