Akira "chaotic extra" Kurusu [Jᴏᴋᴇʀ] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
purrtagonist) wrote2018-04-06 09:16 pm
purrtagonist) wrote2018-04-06 09:16 pm
Entry tags:
[Week 4, Friday: Setz]
[truthfully, Akira had wanted to compare notes with Setz ever since Makoto, Miki, Yusuke and Magnus brought home those damp books. but considering the events of today (EVEN IF THERE'S NO BODY ANNOUNCEMENT YET), Akira is. . . uh. putting that on the back burner]
[for good reason]
[wherever Setz is, Akira is going to reach out to gently place a hand on his shoulder]
. . . hey.
[are you all right? no, he can't ask that. of course Setz isn't okay, and he doesn't need someone asking a question to which there is no real response]
[for good reason]
[wherever Setz is, Akira is going to reach out to gently place a hand on his shoulder]
. . . hey.
[are you all right? no, he can't ask that. of course Setz isn't okay, and he doesn't need someone asking a question to which there is no real response]
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[and he starts reciting something from memory]
"To make sure Composers stay on track with their purpose, as well as the continuing well-being of their respective Games, each one is assigned one of our own."
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[second, behind the one in which he was just a Player]
But doesn't that statement kind of suggest there's someone above the Composer? Someone overseeing the Game they built?
I had no idea anyone like that existed.
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He told me I shouldn't think of them as an individual, though he couldn't say more on that. They aren't Reapers, so rankings don't apply to them—that is to say, they aren't necessarily "above" the Composer, as they're in a different category altogether.
They're not directly involved with the progress of this particular Game, but they are tied to why it exists to begin with. Max actually isn't too sure since he wasn't aware of their correspondence with the Composer, but he said there's a very high chance that what they're testing is related to what the Composer's out to prove.
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Not too long ago, the Conductor asked me a pretty poignant question.
They asked if I thought it was crueler for Games like this to exist, or to deny the dead a second chance at living at all.
[a pause]
I couldn't answer them. What would you say, Setz?
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Jacopo wrote me a letter a while back. In it, he said...
[And he recites, as someone who has read these words so many times as to have them memorized:]
"The Reaper's Game is not a bad one — it's another shot, a chance at navigating an inevitable fate. It's a game of love, of faith and hope. Those things cannot exist without death and sorrow respectively. It is the tragedy in our lives that allows us to dream, or even become one with others."
... If someone with as bleak of an outlook as Jacopo could write those words, then...
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[smiling a bit at Jacopo's words. it's genuine, even if there's a touch of ruefulness in it]
And a Reaper's job has-- and always will be-- to guide players towards realizing that. Towards character development, towards achieving further growth, towards becoming better people. We exist as your support, to pull you up when you fall and encourage you to keep going, no matter what.
But growth occurs the most in difficult and adversarial circumstances, which is why Games are hardly ever kind.
[. . .]
What if there was someone out there who believed they could be, though? Who believed they didn't have to be harsh, or cruel, or filled to the brim with death and pain?
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[ah, but this Game is pretty shitty, so. . .]
There was another note that talked about a Game that was "turned around in a manner no one expected." The note surmised that other Games might be just as lucky.
What if. . . depending on the result of that test, these entities in another category were considering canceling the Games altogether? And just. . . completely erasing anyone's second chance at living?
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Games are usually influenced by the location, and the Players are determined by physical proximity. And yet this Game brought in people from different worlds, with an utterly strange set of rules and in a location that isn't quite right.
... Max pointed this out to me. Maybe it's relevant.
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[but he can't think of a reason it might be relevant]
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But you see what I was trying to say, right? You see what I think it is the Composer is trying to prove?
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"Everyone deserves a second chance, and Games do not have to be cruel to achieve that."
[a pause]
That's what the Conductor told me that both they and the Composer believe. If they're trying to prove anything? I believe. . . that's what it is.
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[not yet. but they still have time to figure it out, don't they?]
But remember how you said in your second letter it was the Players's choices that would determine whether the Erased will be revived or not?
Maybe the Composer is banking on the Players turning this cruel Game around in an unprecedented way. . . just like the one mentioned in those notes.
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Yeah. It is.
[but]
It's a question we may find the answer to in the coming weeks. We still have time.
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[even if it's the Players' actions that matter the most in this Game. . . Akira will do his best to survive until he is no longer required to do so. until the Players have their answers]