[Week 6, Saturday: Lenka]

[purrtagonist]

[. . . and against all odds, they are both still here. Akira now with his swanky Reaper wings (note: not actually swanky) in full view]

[so, what's next?]

Lenka.

Comments

[soylentprotag]

[They are pretty swanky, honestly.

Lenka doesn't know what's next, but he's oddly... almost okay with that. Maybe it's that he's best with the calm before the storm, or the night before the final battle, or something like that. Maybe it's the fond memories of an open door, warm smiles and realizing he'd found a place to belong again -- people to fight for again. Somehow, he always finds himself back here.

He's always surprised.]

Akira... A lot happened today.

[Seriously, a lot. But it still doesn't quite feel like a typical trial. He somehow doesn't feel blindsided by most of it. It might just be down to who he's sharing the revelations with.]

[purrtagonist]

Mmm.

[there's no ignoring the buzz of anxiety in the pit of his stomach, that's for sure. but after everything they uncovered during the trial today? he thinks. . .]

[. . . he thinks they'll be okay]

Are you afraid?

[soylentprotag]

[He's curled up -- they're likely still all crammed together, somewhere in the sewers, because Anthy has strange taste in interior decorating and they've never really conducted official Game business anywhere respectable -- a big sprawl of cat in a small space and scattering everything. Come join him, it's comfortable.]

... No. I think we've done the best we can. I think that... this is the closest we can get.

[Not the closest they can get to their goal -- but the closest they can get to each other. A unanimous vote. An acknowledgment of all Reapers. An acceptance of their role in the Game and of those who will judge them.

In a way, it's a kind of peace. They may not entirely know what's coming tomorrow; but they know who it's coming from and where.]

Are you ready?

[purrtagonist]

[Akira will absolutely join him, just. plopping onto the ground, back pressed up against Lenka's side]

[a beat, before he answers the question, hands linked in his lap]

Yes.

I am.

[he leans his head back, against Lenka's flank]

But regardless of how we're judged tomorrow, I'm going to keep fighting for what I believe in.

[aka, if it's unfavorable, he won't give up]

[soylentprotag]

[He puts his head down next to his paws, tail curled, almost a perfect circle around where Akira is sitting. He's quiet for a moment.]

I'm glad.

[He is -- that Akira and the other Reapers are here with them, fighting together, and maybe even Anthy and Maya and the rest. It feels like the whole Game is... something real, at last.]

I'd like to fight too. If I can. I don't know how the judgment works, in the end.

[It's more thoughtful than apprehensive. He's been here before. But this time, he isn't alone. There are somehow infinitely more possibilities, despite everything.]

[purrtagonist]

I know how it worked for my Game, but I haven't a clue how it'll work here.

[and he doesn't like the uncertainty, that's for sure. but they've all found their way now, haven't they? especially Lenka, who has been so lost since his first week here. Akira can't deny it. . . in a way, he's proud, that his friend has managed to come so far in a short seven weeks]

[isn't that what this Game is supposed to be about?]

So we'll be stepping into the unknown together.

[soylentprotag]

[Everything has changed, somehow, even with the judgment still looming: the Game, the Players, the stakes, everything they thought they believed and everything they thought they could or couldn't change. Maybe that's why Lenka is so calm now. It's been a short, and a long seven weeks.

God Eaters always live fast and furious, like meteors slashing through the night -- light from another world, something different, something better. He has that back now, within his grasp. Something he thought he might lose forever: not the fight, but the capacity for it.

The hope for something beyond it.]

Yes. Like we have been.

[For as much as the Game had tried to tell them what to dread each week, and who to point to, who to turn their back on... slowly, slowly, they'd moved beyond it. Akira and the others leading the way, in their own way, then the rest of the Players. They've all already been challenging the Angels, all the way here.

He does still have some questions left, though. He's looking forward.]

Can you tell me what the judgment was like in your Game, Akira?