AUDIENCE: TAAKO

[retellers]

Comments

[uhhhmagic]

My hat . . .

[He sees it. He sees the vibrating. He sighs so deeply and looks at the ceiling.]

Go ahead. Just get it over with.

[retellers]

[

this is the quickest hug in the world because they throw their arms around his neck, squeeze, and then teleport away ]

I'm done, I promise.

[uhhhmagic]

Yeah yeah yeah.

[He doesn’t really seem to mind all that much.]

Sooooooooo. Good news bad news. Which do you want first?

[retellers]

... The bad news? That way we can do bad good bad.

[ uh-oh, someone else has news. ]

[uhhhmagic]

Oh boy. Alright.

I know Hua Cheng did a murder, which I guess isn’t necessarily bad news. I mean. We had to do murders . . . or something. Um. But I guess the bad news is we have to do a second murder, right?

Good news is I remembered Lup. So there’s that.

[retellers]

He did. I... asked him to. [ but they're immediately distracted by-- ]

Taako, you did? That's great! [ what about the other bad news. it's too late the twin drama investment ] I'm so glad.

[uhhhmagic]

Yeah, it’s—-

[Wait.]

What about the other bad news, though?

[retellers]

... Well, it ties into yours. It's something I learned. [ ... ] We have until the Friday after this one to secure our second kill. After that, the removed will be stuck where they are.

[uhhhmagic]

[He sighs out.]

Well. That’s actually longer than most of my deadlines, so. That’s fine, I guess.

[ . . .]

Um, I guess here’s my question. Does every team need to meet that requirement? Are there ones that haven’t?

[retellers]

It's for all the teams. And I don't know what everyone else's numbers look like. But if it only counts the ones that happen on Thursdays...

[uhhhmagic]

So not executions. Or, uh, being killed with a sword in the middle of trial.

[ripikachu]

. . . So. We need to kill again. But if we want to bring everyone back, we have to coordinate. We can’t—- It’d be fucking shit to leave people behind because we didn’t get it right.

[retellers]

Right. [ she nods, and. pauses ] I can't promise I'll sense anyone else. Alyssa was the first time in four weeks. So if we have to do this... take this week to coordinate. Between you, Hua Cheng and Sora, you should know a lot of people in the living. Yoshizawa might be able to tell you how many people from which teams have been removed right now, and that should give us an idea who's more in trouble.

[uhhhmagic]

We can’t be open about this, right? Or it’ll— [Bzzt!] noise you, right?

I’m just starting to think, uh, if we’ve only got two weeks, well. That’s a lot of murder left.

[retellers]

We've had a lot of deaths, so... maybe some teams are already done.

[ she shakes her head ]

Taako, we've done all this before. I didn't think the loop thing was true, and I still don't understand how or why it happened... but the last time, we chose to try again, to make sure everyone got out. I think-- I'll be fine if you share the time limit, so long as you don't share how you know.

[uhhhmagic]

I know Wolf is.

[He huffs at that second bit though.]

Did I say Groundhog Day or did I say Groundhog Day! Seriously. Anyway, trust me— I’ve done this one before. Everything here is a fuckin’ sequel. It’ll be fine.

Can I tell people about the two murders per team? I think people are starting to hear that one.

[retellers]

Sure. I heard it from someone else anyway. Kind of glad it was real.

[ sometimes your decisions are closing your eyes and hoping for the best because you have no convenient npc memories to fall back on until after you've decided to try it out ]

[uhhhmagic]

[He nods!]

So, it’ll be fine! It’ll be, uh. Fine.

[Patting her on the head. Wow?]

[retellers]

[ looks? surprised? wow. this is the highest level of affection from taako? ]

We'll handle it. [ there's a pause ] Would you... Would you mind if I took my mask off? I don't want to make it weird.

[uhhhmagic]

[It truly is. You’ve reached Child Detective levels of fondness.]

Oh. Yeah? Honestly I figured you guys kept them on at this point because you liked them.

[retellers]

No, it's because we're supposed to. I've taken them off for a few people, but they asked first. [ she tilts her head ] I don't know. It's like... It's weird to be that personal with someone if they don't care? Even though it's just my face.

[uhhhmagic]

Uh, yeah, I mean — I get that. I guess I’m not exactly down to be open with just anyone either.

But you can take it off. Fuck the rules.

[retellers]

[ in a truly shocking move, swan takes their hood and mask off and grin at taako. sparkly. ] Fuck the rules! [ she can say that, because noelle stevenson said glimmer would say fuck ]

[uhhhmagic]

Fuck the rules!

[PINK. AND GLITTERY. This is




About what he expected.]

I have no idea who you are! I mean. Obviously you’re Swan, and I know you. But still, sometimes you sorta expect to know, in your heart or something? Like a callback.

[retellers]

Right? I don't think I know anyone here, and it's a little disappointing. So many of you came with someone you knew. But I knew a lot didn't, too.

[uhhhmagic]

To be fair, I guess it means your friends are just like. Chilling somewhere. And you can’t forget them and then everyone just yells at you for a week, but you cannot mentally comprehend what they are yelling, and it’s very upsetting?