TAKSHAKA

[soulping]

[There’s room for seven in this weather-worn hut, with seven chairs around a table long enough for seven people.

The center of the table is adorned with wooden jugs of water and wooden snack bowls. It’s primarily fruits and nuts, although there are a couple brimming with Unidentified Raw Meat.]

Comments

[swordedpast]

[thinking]

All right. You're a grown woman, so I can share my rankings with you.

Wren and Sparrow both score zero hotness because they're cute and that's a different thing. You're a four but you'd be at least a seven if you smiled more.

[experiencepoints]

...

[Hooks her fingers into the corners of her mouth and lifts.]

[swordedpast]

Now you're terrifying. Your ranking is something like an "imaginary number" now, a thing that should not be.

[experiencepoints]

That's better.

[swordedpast]

--listen, you have sense enough in your own way, so I can share this one with you.

I worry that the rest of the team will hurt themselves trying to be heroes.

[experiencepoints]

Really?

I'm surprised you're using future tense there.

[swordedpast]

Yeah, they've gotten hurt enough in the past and that pains me.

But their spirits are intact. They still can smile freely.

I'm worried they'll lose that power.

[experiencepoints]

... You're really not very bright.

[swordedpast]

Jeez, what a helpful thing to say. My worries have totally disappeared now.

[experiencepoints]

They willingly threw themselves to their deaths for people who don't exist and were fine. Then, after that, we proved that we can beat the games that are supposed to kill people.

I'd say their spirits are stronger than ours.

[swordedpast]

Your spirit is probably pretty strong too, even if you're a nuisance who makes me punch myself.

[experiencepoints]

I haven't leveled up past 'nuisance' yet?

[swordedpast]

A necessary nuisance. Takshaka needs a voice of reason, even if it's irritating.

[experiencepoints]

... Do they really?

[swordedpast]

I try to remember to be clever and thoughtful for the rest of them, but it's like you said. I'm an idiot in the end, and Takshaka needs someone smart to watch out for them.

[experiencepoints]

...

I doubt it. They seem fine even if they ignore me.

[swordedpast]

Stupid. That first time you were in Nyssa's second game with us. We only got out of that without dying painfully because you were clever and calmed us down with a good idea.

I respected you after that. You listened to our wish not to hurt anyone, and even though you didn't agree with it, you came up with a plan that respected it.

[experiencepoints]

[She seems a bit thrown off by the line about respect.]

... And in the train game, everything I said got ignored and you still won.

[swordedpast]

Well, you might have to try not arguing against saving people. Even dream people.

--to be honest, I'm troubled by what happened in that game. Is it really all right for real people to suffer for dream people? But we were protecting our ideal...!

Ugh. It's difficult.

[experiencepoints]

They don't exist. The 'ideal' is to protect people, not figments of someone's imagination.

[swordedpast]

That's right, but they cried and they screamed just like real people. Will I need to harden my heart against such things to protect our ideal?

[experiencepoints]

If a parrot cries and screams like a person, that still doesn't make it any more of a person.

[swordedpast]

...you've got a way of putting these things.

But then our deaths were hardly real either, since we came back.

[experiencepoints]

...? Obviously. Why does that make it less real?

[swordedpast]

Obviously?