text; un: aragaki

[petsthedog]

[Alright. He didn't want to be the first one to bring this up, but now that there's already been some Nonsense™ involving (attempted?) murder, he might as well.]

so how sure are any of us that we're actually alive here anyway
i dunno bout anyone else but i was definitely about to bite the big one before i woke up on that train
and if people don't actually remember it if they try to kill someone or when they're about to die here maybe it's because we're already dead and this is some kind of fucked up afterlife

Comments

[petsthedog]

don't worry about it
i knew what i was doin

guess that's fair enough though

[Shinjiro could possibly consider a few ways this guy might still be dead, but he's not here to give u a breakdown sir. It's just. Weird. He's having a weird time being alive after everything that happened. He was supposed to be done.]

still makes it even more weird if they went through the effort to save my ass before dumping me in this place

[coolerjunpei]

oh, i know that one.

[He's intimately familiar with the "I'll just die, this is a fine choice to make right here and now" line of thinking, not that he suspects this person was also stuck in a Saw trap with loved ones as context-- still. Maybe this guy didn't have people to scold him out of his bullshit on time...

But that would be Prying, so instead,]

why? there are so many of us, it could just be random bad luck.

[petsthedog]

just seems impractical doesn't it
why kidnap someone you gotta patch up that much when there's plenty of others to pick from

[There's nothing particularly special about him, save for the Potential, and there's at least a small handful of others with it who wouldn't be dying even without the bullet wounds.]

[coolerjunpei]

search me. this is my third time, so i'm at least broadly desirable. you amateurs are a mystery.

when i got here i ran into a guy with uh [One hand, and who talked about dying, hmm,] a pretty bad injury, so maybe it's a ratio they're going for.

[petsthedog]

huh
that's new
you ever find out why the other places kidnapped you? maybe it's a clue to number three

[He has not at all been motivated to figure out what's going on with this place or how to go back, but despite himself he maybe cares a bit about other people getting to go home if they want? Enough not to ignore this, anyway.]

but yeah i woke up on the train with some kind of medic myself
think it's some kind of twisted bonding exercise?

[coolerjunpei]

yeah i did. it's not related to this place. plus it's been like a month already and no mastermind has shown their hand, so...

well, it's different from the times before.

if they're trying to get us to bond... [Then he's a sucker and he fell for the Friendship Trap, because there are already a handful of people here who he would really hate to see in danger, beyond an empathy-for-strangers way. Damn it!!] i dunno. did it work for you?

[petsthedog]

maybe they're playin it lowkey this time

[Do masterminds do that? It sounds so movie villain, compared to his experience with shitty people who would kidnap others and such.

...As for that last bit. There's a significant pause in his replies. Then:]

nah
he was just a nice guy
ain't like we're friends or shit now

[Let's ignore the part where Kitsuragi has been checking in on him to make sure he's still alive and Shinjiro likes him enough to humor this instead of disappearing like a cryptid. There's no friendship here. He certainly wouldn't go out of his way for him if he was ever asked, or anything.]

[coolerjunpei]

not the ones i've met. these are different lowkey assholes, for sure. trust me.

and that's bonding step 1, you know. even if you're not making friends, this bullshit will get harder without any help.

[petsthedog]

sure if you say so
anyway look i'm sure he just didn't want some dead kid on his conscience, that doesn't mean anything

[coolerjunpei]

maybe, maybe not. but i mean it about this shit getting worse if you're alone. it doesn't have to mean something. it's just practical.

[Great news, Junpei also doesn't want a dead kid on his conscience?? Brood with the group, kid.]

[petsthedog]

eh
i can take care of myself, it's fine

[He says, as though he is going to be able to help himself the first time anybody else is in trouble in his vicinity. Don't make him acknowledge the clown shoes just sitting in his closet waiting for him.]

that situation was just different

[coolerjunpei]

wow, real lone wolf of you. we're not babysitters, we're working together.

[Well, that's the ideal, anyway. Maybe not with the crimes happening around town now... Criminals are grudgingly accepted but on thin ice.]

cw passive suicidality ref

[petsthedog]

i just mean i ain't really lookin to get involved in all this
it'll be better if stay outta the way and do my own thing

[He has nowhere to go and nothing to get back to, after all. Even if by some chance being brought here saved him from dying in that alley, it's not as though he has any business returning to that life. Things ended the way they needed to already. He's just ... in an epilogue of sorts, maybe, waiting for the final curtain to come down.]

[coolerjunpei]

[It takes Junpei an extra minute or two to reply; as, of course, the seasoned veteran when it comes to this bullshit, the refusal to give up and just take it sits at the forefront for him in a way that is probably doesn't for others. Admittedly.

So not looking to get involved, because it would be "better"... jeez. Get this kid a therapist, but also--]

hate to break it to you dude but you're already involved. we all are. you got involved the second you put your name in the crappy phone.

so get with the program.

[petsthedog]

[Oh no, has he found another Aki-type. He finds his own exhausting and they've got like fourteen years of history.]

look
i've got nowhere to get back to, alright
and i sure as hell ain't interested in building some kind of life here
so, thanks but no thanks, and all that
m'just tryin to get by over here as long as i've got to

[coolerjunpei]

you're here asking questions like it matters to you, lone wolf.

look, whatever. if you want to be selfish no one's really going to stop you. i sure as hell don't know how to get it through your thick skull that being alive right now matters more than whatever happened before.

just hope you get lucky and none of your friends from home show up here, i guess. keep your fingers crossed.

[petsthedog]

it'd change some things if we were all dead, wouldn't it

[There'd be no need for group strategy meetings and such, no need to search for answers, no objectives that would need to be fulfilled. It's a different situation when most of his fellow kidnappees have lives and friends and family to get back to.

For the best none of them get invested in a dead man walking.]

tell you what if people from home show up you can have the first i told you so

[Look at him not even denying there are in fact people whose presence would immediately change his tune. Such loner, wow.]

[coolerjunpei]

it wouldn't change jack shit except for maybe how many pointless arguments you guys want to start about what we should do. ohhhh nooo should we just sit on our asses and let the big bad mastermind treat us like science experiments because we're dead in some other place???? or should we do something about it??? the choice is so difficult, i think we need ten hours straight to choose between being tortured or left the hell alone!

[So he has some strong feelings about the concept.]

you have a pulse, right? you're breathing? you're here right now, so you might as well do something about it.

[petsthedog]

[...]

kind of a big jump from 'nothing' to 'torture' don't you think
maybe they're lookin to see what we do when we're left alone

[For instance: how long before the kidnappees start getting violent with each other? Just over a month, apparently.]

[coolerjunpei]

i told you, i've seen this before. you wanna know how long it took the first time for somebody to have a knife to someone's throat? like an hour. don't try to gotcha me with your bullshit.

you're not gonna win any points with anybody for running off by yourself. not with them, not with us.

[petsthedog]

you also said you could tell this was different

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

good thing i ain't lookin for points then

[The opposite, in fact!! Do you know the mortifying ordeal of being known, Junpei?? It's so mortifying.]

[coolerjunpei]

yeah, because there are more people here to start killing each other and posting about it on the goddamn internet, you asshole

[petsthedog]

look i don't know what you want from me, man
i just said it's a pretty steep jump from a creepy abandoned city and a shitty party to being tortured
not like getting in on the holding hands and doin trust falls is gonna stop people from murdering

[coolerjunpei]

it might be nice if it did

[There's an angry-frustrated line of !!!!!!!! and a number of additional swears that would accompany this if Junpei were that kind of texter, but luckily it's just left like that. He's fine. This is fine. He's freaking out on some mouthy kid on the internet and he should Step Back Immediately--

okay.]

never mind. like i said. no one's gonna make you come to the hand holding meeting. do whatever you want.