week 0, sunday evening

[disilluded]

[HEY HIJIKATA fancy running into you here! In this place!!

Wherever we are.

I don't know, I'm running on empty for PCs, just roll with it. Sousei's got recognition on his face, at least.]

...Ah. Hijikata Toshizou, correct? Vice-commander of the Shinsengumi.

[They spoke briefly, but really only at the trial where meeting people is not important.]

Comments

[hakodate]

[ I'm running on empty for life, how can I judge. ]

What's left of it, anyway.

[ Ha. Ha. Because black humor is a better coping mechanism than curling up in the corner and crying. He's had a rough few years. ]

Grateful for the stay of execution?

[ Look, for some people this is a legitimate question, it's not entirely stupid. ]

[disilluded]

I cannot imagine anyone who would not be.

[Quite frankly!!]

But... yes. It would have grated to leave a situation like this without having resolved anything at all.

[hakodate]

[ The deeply depressed and passively suicidal. Not that he's been skating along the edge of that particular state of being - ]

It does give us one more thing to take into account.

[ That being - how exactly did they ensure that outcome, and how can they repeat it next time there are partners on the chopping block? ]

[disilluded]

I do not believe we can influence that no matter what we do.

[Unfortunately.]

It is up to whoever has that ability to continue to rescue those whose partners have died.

[hakodate]

I sure love waiting around and hoping someone else keeps their shit together.

[ No, he really doesn't. ]

[disilluded]

That is why we must continue to find a way to derail this game on our own, so we do not have to obey those "rules".

[Yeah, he hates it too.]

Are you interested in doing so?

[hakodate]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[ ...you could just say "yes," Hijikata. Normal people do that. ]