doghouse | hero pcs: hanako

You wanna swing by the store quick to grab some on the way, or just skip 'em this time? I think we got some whipped cream still.

[ He thinks about it for half a second, but then shakes his head against Datz's back. ]

There's too many people here, just going about their day like nothing happened. Though, I guess we're pretty much the same.

[ three people just died! and they're going to go drink hot chocolate and then nap!! it's laughable, but what else can they do? ]

...Yeah. Can't do much but keep moving forward and try to learn whatever we can about what's going on here. Even if we feel like crap about it.

I don't want to do nothing, though.

[ just sit around and wait to be killed, or wake up one morning and find himself all alone again. ]

[ ...sighs. ]

Me neither. We're still workin' on figuring things out... it's hard to get enough info outta anyone to even come up with any theories, but we're trying. Sometimes revolutions just take a really long time.

We don't have a long time. We don't have any time!

[ They definitely don't have the time to wait for whatever bogus festival is coming up— the thought of even another week like this makes Hanako dig his nails into Datz's back.

... ]

I know we didn't talk about this as much as you probably wanted to, but I do still want to win. Even if it means playing their game. You'll still be on my side?

[ his shoulders tense just a little at the nails digging in. ]

I'm on your side, buddy, but if you wanna win, we gotta stick it out for— what, five more weeks anyway. And we still don't know what we're actually getting points from. I'm doin' the tasks and the hero things just like I said when we talked before, 'cause I still think those are our best bet. And I'm gonna keep doin' those. Maybe try to get some extra heroics in by havin' Nimona pretend to be a cat we can rescue from a tree or something.

[ He stares down at his hands, looking past them to count the weeks. With how things have been shaking up, two or three people have been dying every week. Five weeks of that, and half of them would be dead.

... ]

How do you think the people of this city see a "villain"? A "hero"?

...Well, not the way they should, that's for sure.

[ ... ]

I'd say they're lookin' at heroes as entertaining celebrities who are obligated to do things to help them. And villains... probably anyone who disrupts the status quo too much or does something they see as doing harm to them personally, either directly or to someone or something they like.

[ the answer makes sense, but that doesn't mean he likes it. You're a hero to one, but a villain to others, that's how it's always been ]

Saving cats and putting out fires isn't going to cut it, then. We need something really really big to prove ourselves again. End-of-the-world big.

[ yeah, it's a shitty answer and he doesn't like it either! buuuut he also doesn't really love that statement. we're not ending any worlds here, my man. ]

Koko, buddy, I respect the ambition, but as far as the competition part of this goes, we don't need to go that extreme... 'specially not as long as we're still up in the lead points-wise.

[ HOW are they still in the lead ]

Yeah, but we don't know how far ahead we are. It could change any week!

[ i TRULY don't know and i'm so sorry if it's cockblocking you from logical murder plans ]

Yeah, it could. But I don't think we need to worry that much about it 'til it actually does change, or we get up near the final week and need to do some big finale to keep that lead.

[ though avoiding getting killed in the time in between may prove to be a real challenge... ]

...I mean, what kinda big thing are you thinkin' here?

[ how I thought we'd be last after losing Mika and Chiemi and Hanako would have been justified in taking out the competition his own way u_u ]

I was thinking about what happened before we all came here, with the moon supposedly falling out of the sky and crushing the city. Do you think we can destroy the moon?

[ i DON'T UNDERSTAND the POINTS... help ]

Oh! I dunno, maybe?

[ somehow this is less offensive than whatever he was picturing, so he perks up. ]

Have you been askin' around about the moon, though, 'cause as far as I'm concerned, there's something real weird up with that thing. I think we need to try investigating it some more before we try that. Figure out what it's actually made of and how far away it really is. [ ... ] I mean, maybe it really IS a moon and it's really out in space and everything, but I kinda wonder if it's a fake that serves as some kinda secret headquarters for someone, or maybe a secret prison or something.

[ this may be a complete crazy conspiracy theory, but who knows ]

I tried to get some of the history of what happened with the whole crashing thing from some of the leaders, but Goldie didn't know anything about it. I got a little more outta Phoenix, but... probably still need to try pickin' Snake and Rabbit's brains for details.

[ i feel like maybe rabbit would be a good option because of the rabbit on the moon but i don't think he would make that connection. ]

[ The moon's sort of fallen to the wayside after Hanako's fixation on mayor murder, but with the guy being in hiding for so long already, maybe he'd be better off switching gears ]

I haven't asked around too much about it either... Never mind that it's impossible for that story to be literal, I just don't feel the same looking at this moon.

[ The moon back home inspired hope and longing; staring up at this one just makes him lonely. ]

That's the thing, I don't think it makes any sense for it to be literal either, 'cause — I mean, first off, a lot more than just this city would've been wrecked by that, right?

But they say it's totally literal, that the moon kept getting bigger 'til it crashed. And if that's true, then what's that one doin' up there in the sky? Those weird phase changes make me think it's a fake, but it's like they never stopped to think about how little sense it makes that they got a moon up in the sky again after it supposedly fell down to earth.

If lookin' at it feels wrong, I think there's good reason for that.

...A "moon" is a natural satellite that orbits around a planet, so it would be understandable to be different from The Moon we're familiar with. But differences in size and orbit wouldn't make the phases jump like that. A fake sky in a fake world...

[ The thought makes him restless, itching to tear apart the world just to see what makes it tick ]

So let's make that our other project for now, huh? We do the hero stuff and try to get our points to keep in first place, and we try to find out the truth they're hidin' about the moon.

And then maybe later we can blow it up!

Or we can just blow it up! If it's the real moon, we wouldn't be able to do it!

Yyyyyeah, but if it's fake like we think and there's actually people in there, they might think that's a villain thing instead of a hero thing, and then we'd lose our chance at winning 'cause we'd be dead.

If it's fake, then they'll bail before the moon gets destroyed, which will prove that it's fake! They'd be the villains because they lied.

[ also they won't be dead, have faith, ]

They can only do that if they know an attack's coming before we hit 'em, and if we make that obvious, they'll try to stop us before we can do it!

So we're playing goody two-shoes heroes to bring their guard down?

[ ugh..... he's not quite sure he can do that. he's not really hero material, always choosing individuals over the masses ]

Yeah, kinda. I know it sucks, but you gotta play the game if you wanna win it!

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hanaban - 2023-10-11 02:42 (UTC) - Expand

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doghouse - 2023-10-11 03:15 (UTC) - Expand