ACE

[ballies]

(pirate noises)

Comments

[selfimmolation]

[ he is at the beach! just generally looking out at it with a sense of Longing and Anxious, and then that's distracted by surprise hugs!!!

no like genuinely there's the !! emotion and then fondness and then embarrassment and awkwardness and anxiety even though he looks normal emotionshare week is a nightmare ]

Hiya. [ DON'T JUST HIYA HER ]

[ballies]

[ the beach! it's been full of depression for a very long time actually. this is a nice change even if his emotions are just anxious rabbit all over the place.


tama just whacks his shoulder with the most pathetically loose fist known to man. it's all exasperation and fondness here anyway. ]

Idiot. Welcome back.

[selfimmolation]

[ SOMETIMES YOU DROWN YOURSELF IN PUBLIC AND THEN SPENT A FEW WEEKS WALLOWING IN A CLOSED BUILDING AND IT MAKES YOUR BRAINWORMS COME BACK

which is to say he's still a little anxious but there's amusement at the hit and fondness again and kind of relief ]

Immediately with the insults? Come on.

[ballies]

[ SMACKS THE BRAINWORMS AWAY. ]

Please, I've been saving them up. It's been pretty quiet in the dorms recently.

[selfimmolation]

[ he needs too much therapy for that. anyway he kind of laughs ]

I bet. Albedo's a pain, getting himself killed after all that. [ he says this like lillium didn't do it for numbers. it's fine he's allowed to complain ] Sorry we left you hanging.

[ballies]

[ in the land of no therapy ]

Yeah, you all suck. I think your room is Nimona’s now. I don’t make the rules.

[ they are allowed to complain. tama especially is allowed to complain. ]

… It’s fine. No one let me be alone anyway.

[selfimmolation]

I did kind of tell her she should move in more than once.

[ casual. but there's relief when she says that and he grins a little ]

... Good. We couldn't exactly see everything from there, and...

[ he shrugs with the vibes going back to just. awkward a little. it was not always easy to just be stuck watching but that sounds like a baby complaint so he won't ]

[ballies]

Well, she knows now she’s welcome, even when you weren’t around. [ so. success.



and also, please. if there’s anyone here who knows what it’s like to be stuck unable to physically DO anything— ]

— and there’s a special kind of helplessness when all you can do is watch. [ she gets it, she really, really does. ]

It’s probably not a bad thing you couldn’t see everything. But let me guess, the trials and executions were always visible.

[selfimmolation]

[ there's just. kind of exhaustion there ]

Yep. Couldn't get away from them. Kinda glad the last one ended like it did, though.

[ even if it shOULDNT HAVE BEEN TELEVISED ]

[ballies]

[ pats his shoulder. ]

… Yeah. I don’t to know what would’ve happened if—

[ genuinely? the thought makes her shiver. that’s a kind of mental wound you don’t come back from. ]

[selfimmolation]

[ the emotional equivalent of mental screaming ]

Let's not think about that. [ anyway :) ] I should probably warn you, pretty much every kill that wasn't found out was Hanako. Except for Reigen.

[ballies]

[ LMAO. YEAH. What a mood.

and then just the record scratch of the her emotions going from AAAAAA to just a very complicated twist of sad, and a little empty. ]

Mm. I talked to Vane.

… And Ryuki made him come and apologise to me for Satan. [ not that she has any idea how to feel about that, she’s not the one he crushed to death. ]

[selfimmolation]

Yeah... kid's kind of been on a spree. I need to check if he ever told Nico and Will why he tried to get Will dead during trial.

[ there's a sentiment there that's truly like if his answer is bad he might strangle a twelve year old ]

Anyway, Reigen was Danny. I don't know if Nimona told you.

[ballies]

[ she is morally obliged to not let him throttle a preteen, but


It Has Been A Day and she is so tired. ]

No, she felt it wasn’t her place to out Reigen’s killer to me but— between the newspaper articles and what happened, it really wasn’t hard to figure out. [ she wasn’t bothered by it. investigating is her job after all. ]

… [ just. complicated emotions all the way down. given what happened that week. ]

[selfimmolation]

Don't let Reigen hear you say that. He was pretty intent on not outing the kid.

[ the kid is said a little dismissively, and ace's own emotions are a mess of something a little dark, but it's not... about himself at all so maybe it's complicated too. oh well. ]

Well, that's about all I got for news. Everything else we knew in that building you guys found out about the same time as far as I can tell. [ a pause, and, deadpan: ] I'm never getting a job again.

[ballies]

[ she taps her finger against her mouth. ] I knew and guessed nothing.

[ whatever is happening with danny she is not at the right social link level to unlock. but it’s had an impact on people she cares about so ?????? girl help. she’s doing her best.



okay well. that gets a laugh out of her. a genuinely amused one. ]

I don’t know, I think you missed a trick only writing your first boat building manual now.

[selfimmolation]

[ sheepish ... ]

We got all the letters, but the Dear Addy section is only three per newspaper, so we tried to answer them some other way, but...

[ embarrassed. he thinks reigen writing all these articles is powerful because he just got flustered ]

[ballies]

I figured it was justified frustration at this place opening up right after— [ y’know. ]

So you moved it into the articles as well? Like those album reviews and the horoscopes. [ reigen’s horoscope hour? ]

[selfimmolation]

I did have a lot of that, too.

[ just. zen. he was so mad and now he has beach so he is letting it go. ]

Yeah. Reigen did most of those, honestly. He was kind of on a roll. I'm not even good at writing letters, so I didn't know what to say to a lot of those things. The horoscope was a lot of personal messages to people as best he could do it.

[ a beat ]

The album review was answering Danny being a shithead.

[ RUTHLESS ]

[ballies]

I can imagine. [ there there. the beach is his now. ]

He did good, honestly. It was kinda surprising to see double the length of the regular paper, but it got information to everyone as best as possible. How did he swing that — just grab a computer and tell everyone the paper was going to be longer this week?

[ dfgkjdsgkhd. she just thunks her head on his shoulder. exhaustion. literally and in her emotions too. ]

Was he writing pissy letters or something?? And what was the letter from Gemini, that was so ominous from one perspective?

[selfimmolation]

Everyone could always write as much as they wanted, I think most people just... didn't want to. [ considering the Collection they had in the grave before that. well.

speaking of well. he is so Nyeh in emotions ]

... He was to Reigen. He was apologizing to me as Gemini, but we got that before we could text with you guys, back when he was still pretending... anyway, it published late. If you mean the one from Friday.

[ I Forgo To Redact It but it's truly the mood of ace writing that on like, saturday night and then me forgetting until it's published the week after ]

[ballies]

It was nicer being able to text you guys, even just a little. I’m not mad I held off until we got to talk to you all directly.

[ oof. being a teen sounds so complicated ]

Yeah, that one. It was kinda surprising to read it but if that’s the context it makes sense. [ publishing delay. very funny. ] Nico didn’t seem to worried by it, so I figured it wasn’t something imminently dangerous.

[selfimmolation]

It was a lot better than the newspaper.

[ noooo don't talk about his weird angry messages with nico he's embarrassed... and grumbling ]

Kind of glad he died so I don't have to explain "sorry, publishing delay, but I kind of stand by the sentiment".

[ballies]

[ she just




laughs. she is so tired. honestly i hope for a moment it looks like she’s just given up and started crying until it’s more obvious she’s still just given up but is laughing instead. ]

God, I hate this place so much.

And I mean. You still could but it might be kinda awkward.

[selfimmolation]

[ SHE SOUNDS LIKE SHE'S CRYING SO THERE'S JUST DISTRESS FOR A SECOND but it leaves the second she's laughing. he feels embarrassed and sheepish now ]

It's fine. I--let's talk about what you guys were up to.

[ he doesn't want to complain, and it's complicated to want to let the people more affected handle it, because ace doesn't really care about danny bussing him, he's just. mad on their behalf. ]