imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: ya boi + FiN + AlcheME + whoever wants to hit him... up. hit him up, yes
Where: public chat + specified locations in toplevels
When: Day 70, all day...

Joker: just so there's no confusion: this is Boss
Joker: i'm making the decision to start going by a name that i had back home
Joker: which can be confirmed by a few people in this place
Joker: if anyone has any questions, let me know
Joker: but for various reasons, I'll be introducing myself as and answering to Joker going forward
Joker: thanks

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Opening the door and letting him in]

Re-making your identity?

Re-claiming my identity.

[sup. it's past 24 hours. holding up a bottle with some potion in it.]

Interesting timing choice since you’ve had that identity for a while.

[Cool let’s move this into the lab. Let’s not make a scene in the common room]

I had the name. The sense of self was a bit muddled.

[that is the closest he'll get to saying "so you were right about that, shut up". following along, anyway.]

[Closing the door behind him with bullshit FiN powers. By the way, lab is soundproof]

Changing your name isn’t going to fucking fix that.

[siiiighs, moving to lean against the table.]

No shit. It's more a display of my resolve to fix that shit. Which is going to take some time, but I already have a game plan for it.

Is that what you came to share today?

No.

... I wanted to see if I can't clear up some misconceptions that keeps you calling me a liar at best and an active party trying to sabotage you and your efforts at worst.

[holds up the potion again]

So I figure I take this, you run whatever gauntlet interrogation you want, and if that doesn't work, then we're just going to have to keep working at things from our own angles. But like I keep saying, I'd rather work in tandem with than against you.

Fine then. Take your silly little potion and put on a fucking show. If that’s what you want.

[Taking a seat in the room’s floating chair]

At the very least, this will be entertaining.

[rolls his eyes and makes a show of giving a showman's bow]

Might as well go all-in on the Joker motif when it comes to entertainment, then.

[but fine. gonna uncork and drink the stupid potion. makes a point to hold it upside down when he's done to show it's empty.]

Yeah. We’ll see how long this fucking version of your “self” lasts.

Do I get to start asking questions now?

Yep.

[makes a gesture like Come At Me, Bro]

As a judge, did you know about the secondary punishment that was a part of the trial? Not your poorly conceived death aesthetics. The other one.

[welp. that's one way to start.

he definitely looks sickened.]

... no.

Secondary punishment?

Oh good. Then this doesn’t have to get extremely uncomfortable for you, only mildly.

So tell me, what were you thinking when you summoned dear old Asmodeus? What exactly were you expecting to hapoen?

"I'm going to stab you in the face, you fucking bastard, so answer me."

--is what I was thinking exactly.

And I was expecting... something worse than what actually happened when I did meet with him--for me, I mean. He said I had to do the work if I wanted things to stop, and I was willing to do it.

... I was willing to do it because everyone who's been involved with trying to figure this place out was affected. Because everyone I knew and cared about was affected. And I wasn't. And for all I knew, it really was the end of the world and the end of everything. We wouldn't get out, no one would be saved, I'd be... alone, forgotten, maybe doomed to the same thing.

So I... acted.

But I didn't think Bad End would get dragged into it.

So you went to play maytyr against someone you had absolutely no fucking leverage over. And then you have the gall to be surprised when he used what you cared about against you. Even if you caring about people is what brought you there in the first place.

That’s not a wildcard. That’s being a predictable idiot.

I wasn't finished.

... the one thing about your plan of climbing the ladder in this place that wasn't ever going to pan out well is that in order to climb the ladder, you need to have someone who is willing to deal with the demon princes.

That's what all this is about, right? The demon princes throw a fit because they're not getting any deals, no one jumping or chomping at the bit to sign up with one side or the other. So they put the pressure on us by reminding us that our livelihoods are dependent on their whims--how much do they want to enforce things or not.

Why did this all happen, triggered by you buying a couch, of all things? Was it just the audience's perspective and Hell's environmental influence? Or was it because they wanted people to go jumping to sign up with one side or the other?

If it's the latter... then that can also work out to your advantage if things go well enough that we're returned to a state of normalcy and the demon princes are appeased enough to want to keep their stupid game going and go back to not caring about whatever the fuck we're doing.

Exael's message said that what they wanted were villains and heroes--so if having too many heroes is part of the problem, then someone who can play the role of the villain needs to step up.

That was also... a factor. To maintain the status quo, maybe get a foot in the door with the devils running this place...

There's always a chance that it can backfire, but when the stakes are this high...

I can play that role.

That's what I told myself when I agreed to do what was needed to get everything to stop.

And let's be real--who would you think Asmodeus, one of the two supposedly involved in this particular game in Hell, would even consider or look at if it weren't some predictable idiot who went in with the intent to try to kill him in order to save his friends? He's the fucking demon prince of Revengers of Wickedness and he's obnoxiously particular about that.

And you bitch at me for making a lot of dangerous assumptions.

There's no fucking way I'm going to believe that my unit was targeted over a fucking couch - especially considering all the other more grievous violations that were occurring at the same time. That was a statement to me and mine.

And there's no way I think that the demon princes are fucking appeased by you and Heart Soldier Senshi's little stunt. Not unless there are actually repercussions to it. They're just too fucking lazy to grab another set of idols, so they'll knock us around until we become too troublesome to keep around.

[Rubs the bridge of his nose, frustrated]

And do you think - after that shit you pulled - that you're still the right person to deal with a fucking demon prince? You said it yourself. You're only interested because the stakes are high. So basically, you only act by the time it's too fucking late in a fucking panic.

You asked me what I was thinking, not if it was reasonable.

Anyway, we're high stakes all the time. This whole place is high stakes all the time, twenty-four-seven. That I reacted in this case was definitely because you and your crew were taken out, primarily. If that wasn't the case, I dunno, maybe there wouldn't have been a panic-response.

And maybe then I wouldn't have had all of my friends and unit angry with me because I didn't talk to them about it first.

That's not what happened, though, and I reacted, and things got fixed one way or another so you can resume your way of doing things or not. I gave you all I have and even offered more. So if you're not seeing an advantage here, I'm not the problem here.

You gave up information because you'll know I get it through to the appropriate channels. Don't fucking act like you're not getting anything out of this.

And my problem, Joker, is that you always make rash decisions. That's not an advantage, and this is not an isolated incident. How the fuck am I supposed to expect you to make the right choice under pressure?

Are you saying I made the wrong choice this time around?

I'm saying you made your choice for the wrong reasons.

... the ultimate goal for me is still us getting out of here in as few of pieces as possible. That can't happen if we lose you and your crew. And it can't happen for me, personally, if I lose everyone I care about to this hell hole.

Maybe that's too emotional of a reason for you, and maybe it was rash to just rush in with all those kinds of ideas, but it still bought us some time. And you didn't even have to get dragged into dealing with demons to get much needed intel on them--yet.

And what if they hadn't let your unit or Heart Soldier Senshi go after the fact? What if those effects had been permanent?

Would it have still been worth it then?