neverplaysfair | Game 049 [Written/Voice]

Game 049 [Written/Voice]

[ Sometime in the early afternoon, the following question goes out over the journals. The camera is covered, and the handwriting is disguised. ]

Let's have a thought experiment. Say you were dying, and the only possible way to save yourself is to get help from someone very close to you. However, you don't know for sure that this help will indeed save you, and whether or not it does, there's a chance that it will damage the one helping you. Trying to help you might even kill them.

Do you ask for their help anyway? Would you accept their help if they offered it?

[ Later on in the evening, Joshua makes a separate post from the previous, this one voiced and not anonymous. ]

[ Filtered to Neku, 100% ]

Hey Neku, are you busy tomorrow?

[ /Filter ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Upstairs, then?

[ And Joshua starts to head back towards the stairs. ]

Sure. What extra supplies did you find anyway?

[Neku will be following him, then.]

More paint than usual, and a very nice set of brushes. [ He giggles. ] I wonder if they belong to a new feather...

[ Also you totally imagined that click behind you, Neku, Joshua didn't just use a psych to lock the front door at all. ]

[DID HE, JOSH? Okay yeah he's totally dismissing the sound, not even paying attention to it. Also, what Joshua said gives Neku hope for a second maybe Hanekoma came back, but he's not counting on it. He promptly disregards that thought.]

You can put them back later if they are.

[ Joshua knows the sets of brushes Hanekoma works with, and these are much nicer.

Not to mention he'd actually picked these up a while before the new feather cycle began, and he's kept them around for this exact purpose. ]

Hee hee. Or I can not.

[ He leads Neku into his room, where another blank canvas has been set up next to his own. There's a second seat, taken from downstairs, and a disorganized collection of paints lays between the two chairs, topped in scraps meant to be used as pallets. ]

You said you hadn't done much canvas work before?

Yeah. Sorta. I started something before I got sent back home but, er... yeah.

[All that work is gone.]

Edited 2012-01-18 11:49 (UTC)

I see.

Well, now you get another chance! [ And Joshua rummages through a box before pulling out a set of expensive-looking brushes bound together with an elastic. He hands them over to Neku, then picks up an old, paint-stained can from the floor. ]

Feel free to start. I'll get the water.

[...all right then. Not that Neku is complaining or anything. He takes the brushes and wanders over to one of the canvases to study it a moment while Joshua goes and gets some water. He hasn't exactly come up with any ideas on what to paint yet, but he can just go with the flow and see what he comes up with.

Hrm... After staring at the canvas for a while, Neku takes some blue and white paint and mixes a little bit of both to get a blue he likes, then gets started.]

[ Meanwhile Joshua comes back and places the water between them as well. He sits in front of the other canvas, and without any hesitation, selects a brush, squeezes out some red and mixes it with a hint of violet, and begins painting without a word. ]

[Neku only pauses every now and then to switch to different colors, otherwise he gets pretty into what he's working on and paints in silence.]

[ Joshua sneaks glances at Neku's work, but aside from that works in silence as well.

It's a distraction, something to keep his mind and hands occupied while he waits for his body to start betraying him. He's not happy about it, but if he starts thinking about it his hands begin to shake, and that's counterproductive. So he ignores it. For now. ]

[It's probably very hard to tell what Neku is even painting at this point, since it's mostly an outline. There just a lot of lines right now and no noticeable shape yet.

...his painting might take a lot of time, actually. Fff, oh well. Neku continues on for now.]

[ Joshua returns to his painting, and though his own is starting to take shape (a city, always a city, this time the sun setting in the distance above what are currently the preliminary sketches of some buildings), he soon pauses.

High up near his shoulders, two familiar burning sensations have returned. ]

Neku, care to take a break?

...hmm? [It takes him a moment to respond, but when he does he stops painting and looks over at Joshua. But hey were just getting started!] Er, okay?

[ Yes, but do not want to fall in paint.

Joshua stands up and walks over to his bed, then sits, a small, wry smile on his face. ]

Hey, Neku. When I told you that by winning the Game against Megumi you had ensured Shibuya's erasure, how did you feel?

[He... Wait, what? What kind of question is that? It's a terrible question that's what, and Neku looks uncomfortable and uneasy as he's suddenly having to remember that day. And having to remember how it made him feel. He stares at his canvas for a long moment before turning to Joshua, looking a little on the angry side now. How could you ask something like that.]

Why the hell are you asking me that?

[ Joshua simply stares back, expression unchanged. ]

It might matter.

To what?

To Shibuya.

Or maybe to me.

[He doesn't get why or how this question is even relevant right now. It's one of the most jacked up questions he could have been asked and it makes him angry that Joshua is asking him to answer it. Just. Screw you, man. But if you want the damn answer then fine.]

...like a failure. Like I had just helped kill millions of people and I didn't even know it. Like—[Fuck this is hard. Yes, FUCK. Neku's hands clench in his lap and his ducks his head down. He hates you so much right now for asking this.] Like I had let everyone down. Like I had betrayed everyone... just like you betrayed me. [That's it. He can't say anymore.]

[ That's good enough for him.

Joshua's gaze remains level. He'd betrayed Neku once for Shibuya's sake. And he could do it again.

Even though he already knew that was the decision he was making, this helped it sit better with him. ]

Thank y-- [ But the words were cut off as the burning heat suddenly raced straight down his back. Dammit, he thought he had a bit more time than this--! ]

Nngh-ah!

[ He can't hold back his shout as pain races through him. If there was one thing his Ascension had done for him, it had made him more used to pain, so this time around the sudden onslaught was catching him by surprise. He practically crumples where he sits, collapsing forward and supporting his upper body with his arms on his knees, breathing suddenly heavy.

On his back, the decay has resumed bleeding. ]

[The shout of pain gets Neku's attention and he looks up at Joshua in alarm. The anger from a moment ago is quickly gone, now there's just confusion and concern. He hates Joshua for some things, but Neku still considers him a friend, so if something is wrong then anything else can be put on hold.]

Josh?

[ Now that he knew what to listen for, this time he could hear it. His Music was souring, a few notes at a time, and if he left it like this there was no telling how bad it would get before he'd lose himself. ]

Neku... come here.

[ His voice is strained and more than a bit desperate. ]

[Neku is a little unsure here, but he still steps closer to Joshua.]

What's wrong? What can I do?

Come here.

[ His voice breaks with the pain, and it startles him just how fast his Music is falling apart. And the more it does, the harder it is for him to hear it.

Without even thinking he reaches out a hand towards Neku. ]

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