reach the residents

[ximilian]

● ● ● REACH THE RESIDENTS

For any questions you want to ask Viveca or Degar and receive an IC response, please direct them here. Please indicate in the subject line who you are trying to contact.

// VIVECA

Hi, what can I help you with?

// DEGAR

Today was gonna be the day, but they'll never throw it back to you. And by now, you should've somehow realized what you're not to do.

▶ NAV

Comments

[vivecai]

If I had to guess... once you have undone your regret, once you return home, it will stop. Once the deal has been completed, there is nothing else for the orb to demand. I don't believe it'll be forever.

[ believe, though. that is the key. she can't say for certain.

for a moment, then, she is quiet... before she says, with something like sympathy in her voice, ]

It's easy to make a decision... but living with it, that's a lot harder. But Takeshi — if you forget, then the people who love you will remind you, every day if they need to. Don't you believe that they'll do it?

[kovach]

[ he can tell that there's likely even a limit to what she knows, that she's trying as hard as she can for them while they're here, but that there's only so much she can do, only so much she's aware of.

but he isn't looking for her to give him any definitive answers. maybe he just needed someone to say it out loud to, someone who knows precisely what his situation is while he continues to withhold the full truth from everyone else regularly around him. ]

That's ... what I'm afraid of.

[ the fact that he isn't alone. it's all more terrifying than if he had been. ]

I don't want them fighting to save me, to hold on to whatever's left of me. [ he shakes his head with a sigh. ] I never even considered going back. I've got nothing there. But here, I — I have a reason to stay. I didn't ... I didn't want that.

[ a pause, and then, ]

In all your time here, Viv, have you ever seen anyone get a happy ending?

[vivecai]

You're afraid that you have people who care for you?

[ it's not really a question — it's sadness and understanding wrapped together in one. the sympathy persists. ] But fight they will. All you can do in life is control your own actions. Those of others is not a luxury you'll ever have. And if they choose to see you as worthy of their love — it doesn't matter if you don't see it the same way. It's their choice.

[ she, too, pauses, then. ] That depends on your definition of a happy ending.

sorry for the late on this + the existential babbling

[kovach]

[ his lips purse a little at the rhetorical question. having people who care about you sounds like it shouldn't be a problem, but when his future looks like it does — well, he'd hoped he'd be the only one to face the consequences of it.

but as he tries to consider his own idea of a happy ending? ]

I wouldn't know what one looks like.

[ though, in this moment, he can imagine a faint idea, with a certain someone by his side. instead of a comfort, though, it brings about an ache. ]

If I've learned anything here, it's that any involvement with these orbs means we aren't due for one. Make deals for a change, sure, but we aren't — we aren't making deals for things to be better, we're just asking for things to be different. Even if we get what we signed up for —

[ there's always a price. that's the problem. the orb can give, but the bigger issue is that it takes. ]

It's not about us anymore, is it? [ it's the same as when he signed up with the envoys. joined for a chance to fight back, stayed because he knew he had to fight for something bigger. his voice is almost quiet, like the thoughts are coming together gradually. ] How we come out of this doesn't matter because no one ... no one gets a happy ending out of this. That's why we need to get the orbs.

[ to stop the deals entirely. ]

[vivecai]

[ a lot of what he says is something she has either thought of before, or heard others say... and yet, she can't bring herself to simply agree with him. not when he sounds like that. ]

... it's never just about us, or you, is it? The orbs can't be allowed to be out there. You're the best people to get them back.

[ sure, it sounds like she's agreeing. but — ]

But Takeshi, this being bigger than any of you doesn't mean you won't get a happy ending. The orb will do what it has promised. It's just a matter of whether you think the changes it makes are worth whatever you give in return. If they are... isn't that a happy ending?