week 2, saturday

[seaclipsed]

[ another trial, another sad meetup after.

a little after the trial, katara is going to be knocking on the door of zuko's hut. luckily, ruby isn't around, what convenient timing. ]

Zuko? It's me.

Comments

[cuedoves]

[I WAS WONDERING AFTER ALL THIS TIME IF YOU'D LIKE TO MEET]

... Katara. Come in.

[He opens the door right away and steps back to allow her inside. He's... unhappy...ier... than usual, but that's about it.]

That trial was a disaster. [To say the least]

[seaclipsed]

[ she's just going to go sit down on a bed. presumably zuko's?? ]

I don't get Austria.

[ what she did there really bothered her, and it had been nagging at her for the rest of the duration of the trial. ]

She didn't even feel a little sorry. How can someone be that selfish?

[ katara knows how, but it still feels unbelievable. ]

[cuedoves]

[he'll pace a little, but then he'll join her]

Some people only care about their own heads. She was angry at us for something those two [halpal, she can probably guess from the extra pissiness in his tone] had done to her. She wanted to take other people down with her.

I can't stand it!

[he feels 0.5 bad about her dying but he's still maaaaaad]

[seaclipsed]

I... understand that what she's doing through is terrifying. She's going to die tomorrow, and any one of us could have been the ones who killed Joshua.

[ it's a horrifying thought, that someone you could have just been talking to earlier that day would do something like that. ]

But I've faced death before, and so have you, and I'm sure so many other people here have as well. I feel sorry for her, but that doesn't excuse what she did to us.

[cuedoves]

Exactly. I'm not happy about her fate, either -- [But it's Zuko, He's Never Happy] but it doesn't justify this. Innocent people could die because of her. Instead of doing her part to prevent more victims in this, she--- just made more.

[he can get her anger, but not why she channeled it into finding the culprit, instead of the.... the dramatics]

[seaclipsed]

We should be trying to help each other. I get that this is a kind of game that's meant to pit everyone against each other, but... I can't only save myself. What's even the point in being alive if you just ignore all the other people around you and let them die, when you have even a small chance of saving them?

[ she couldn't do it. ]

[cuedoves]

Some people only think about themselves, Katara -- and in situations like this, their own survival. Especially when they're desperate. I know. I've been there.

[although, even season 1 Zuko wouldn't have done this....]

But I've changed. And you're right. The only way we get out of this is together -- all of us.

[Plus---] I mean, only Laura and Jacopo were only considering the option for real, and Laura's..... [vague gestures of frustration]

[seaclipsed]

She says that she's already dead, so she doesn't care what happens.

[ which is... seriously super freaky to think about. reanimated corpses? in any other situation, katara would spend more time on that, but they don't have much time at all. ]

Did you hear what Hal said to Yona though? That the last group he did with this won the game, so all of them got to go back home. He revived them from the dead.

[cuedoves]

It doesn't sound possible, but after everything we've seen here, who knows.

[he sort of.. shrugs. He's in the same boat as her] But I don't buy this "I don't care" nonsense. If that were the case, she would have already killed herself, or stopped voting, or something.

[---but that gets his attention]

Wait-- Hal said that? That they were revived? [evidently he missed it]

[seaclipsed]

[ tbh a lot of people probably did since it didn't really get discussed. ]

If we win the game, then everyone who died gets brought back to life, apparently. The problem is that I'm still not entirely sure what "winning" means here. That group killed everyone until there was one person left, but they sound like they were pretty terrible at figuring things out? Hal said he even started going easy on them because he felt bad for them.

[ which sounds like a feat in of itself. ]

[cuedoves]

I can't imagine Hal going "easy" on anyone. Or that him "bringing people back to life" is even true.

[but there have been a ton of unbelievable things so who is he to judge]

I'm guessing "winning" means everyone but one person dying, and that's the only way to tell if he's lying or not.

[seaclipsed]

That's... kind of a major gamble.

[ she's silent for a moment. ]

Hiro told me a theory. He pointed out that... all of these games are probably not exactly the same as the others, since that would probably be "boring" to them. He said that... what if the win conditions are that the killers have to get away with all the murders?

[cuedoves]

It's not something we can really rely on.

I guess it's possible. I can see this "game" being rigged in favour of the killers. But if it's true, we have no guarantee they'll act in everyone's best interest.

[seaclipsed]

And even if it is true, it's not even something we can risk either because if it's wrong, then...

[ then everyone dies for nothing, whoops. ]

[cuedoves]

Exactly. So we keep fighting. We don't work on false hope.

[seaclipsed]

There are way too many lives at stake, for that.

[ don't worry soon there will be less lives to worry about ]

[cuedoves]

And no time to waste.

[there sure are!!!! this group is great]