imeeji_frontstage | bingo continued 2

Sure.

[Working on the buttons]

W-What...exactly does it mean relationship wise if someone kisses you. . . . .

[B-Blushing...]

Depends.

What was the context? Was it part of a game?

[finishes with the buttons and removes his shirt. Levi will able to see all the scars on his upper body.]

Tadaa.

[he immediately puts his shirt back on and starts doing it up again]

[Those are...a number of scars. Recently, Levi has earned a number of new ones too, after... well, after the gun knife incident, but these...

He's slightly distracted for a moment.]

Did you--

[ . . . He shouldn't ask since Levi doesn't want people to pity him for his own scars. But it looks like he wants to say something.]

[button button]

...Hm?

[ . . . . . . ]

Are those scars from Imeeji?

No, they're all from home. I haven't gotten any scars here.

I have acquired a number of scars since my arrival. Perhaps someday when I have points to spare, I will remove them because they are unpleasant reminders of what happened. I also have scars from home which I would prefer to leave. However--

[How can he say this...]

I was under the impression that most people... fear my unit.

[Cobalt was one of the people to initially explain to him why, after all. And for some people it is justifiable. Though it does make him a little sad, too.]

It is not my intention to mark you as fearful. I do not think of you that way. But I have overheard others warn people to remove their scars explicitly because they do not find our unit to be stable, or that they are in danger due to us if they do not.

[He's suddenly not sure where he is trying to go with this, exactly.]

I guess I... was simply surprised to realize that you have not removed the scars that could cause you bodily damage.

...I considered removing them for aesthetic reasons because... I think... they might make me look frightening? Wednesday straight-up panicked the first time she saw me.

[finishes buttoning up his shirt]

But then John took a look at my scars and he was able to tell me how old some of them were, and the quality of care it looked like they'd received...

Later, I took a memory that showed me how I got most of them. The memory was vague at the end, about how things had turned out. But because I knew that my scars were old, I knew that I survived that event, even though I haven't remembered anything past that point, yet.

[He starts putting on his jacket]

I... I might change my tune if someone winds up using my scars against me, but for now I've decided to keep them in case they can help me put my timeline back together. Hopefully none of my scars are from fatal injuries.

[ Hah.... speaking of Wednesday........ ]

She can be quite excitable, I think. I am sure it was her lack of memories and waking up in a strange place that frightened her most of all. You have never struck me as a frightening person, after all.

[Coming from the guy with a claw for a right hand]

I think I understand now, then. I hope that you will be able to gain a little more insight into the matters that surround them. As for my unit, while I am not sure that anyone will believe me, unless an extreme circumstance were to arise, no one on my unit would do such an action as that again indiscriminately. I... well--- I have spoken to various members on my unit about the incident, and I feel I understand a little more about the situation now, even if I am unsure as to what I would have done had I been confronted with it myself.

It is my hope that this place will not begin to fade or vanish once more. And if it were to, I do not believe a repeated action would stop it from happening all over again.

It wasn't just Wednesday; other people have told me I'm scary-looking, too. I'm glad you don't think so, though. That's nice to hear.

[He finishes buttoning up his jacket and rolls his sleeves back up, the way he always does. Now he's done!]

You talked to your unitmates about that, huh? Did they say why they did it? I'd be interested to hear, if it's something you don't mind sharing.

[walking to the door and holding it open for Leviathan so they can continue talking in the lobby]

[He still...tends to disagree. But Cobalt would clearly know best how people have reacted to him. It's a shame, though. He is one of the most sincere people here.

He nods though, after a moment and follows after.]

Not all of my unit was there at the time it seems, but I'd like to verify a couple of points I was made aware of by them.

First. The trial took place during an unstable time here. Meaning that our world here and the people within it were fading and turning grey. There was the threat that people may have ceased to exist, right?

Second. During the trial, when a former unit member of mine tried a different method to appease the judges, by having a public break down, she was tortured in front of the rest of my team as a result.

These things are facts, or am I mistaken by anything?

Yeah, the trial happened that time everyone started going gray. It was terrifying. Apparently it was caused by us not conforming to our unit aesthetics properly... Two of the units tried something desperate in an attempt to save everyone, but they wound up getting possessed by demons instead, and while they were crazy they hosted the trial. After that, everything went back to "normal." But the gray thing felt like the end times. The sky went gray, people were losing their memories and fading away, reality started flickering between the present and past states of things... really scary stuff.

I can't confirm the thing about the torture because I wasn't there. But wow, that sounds awful.

Then, can I ask you a question?

Most people would prefer to temporarily die, instead of permanently fade away from existence, I think. What would have happened if none of the units had been able to satisfy the twisted pleasure and rules of the producers during that trial?

The trial was a farce.

Before anything had even begun, the judges already decided that four units would live and four would die. The trial was just to decide which ones it would be. It had nothing to do with whether we were guilty or not of unit crimes, or how any of us had conducted ourselves until then, or whether we showed group cohesion or were entertaining enough for the audience.

The trial itself was the conflict that the producers apparently wanted to see. I believe the outcome of the trial, in regards to the gray plague, would have been the same whether we all slaughtered each other, or whether we had all quietly awaited judgement. It didn't matter. Because the condition of "create conflict so we don't all fade" was already being satisfied by the judges themselves.

You don't believe it would have happened at all, then? That people's existence was never truly in danger?

Honestly? I have no idea what would have happened without the trial. Maybe we would have found another way to solve the problem. Maybe our whole world would have collapsed and taken us with it. No clue!

But I'm not convinced that the additional bonus violence that sensitIV visited on the other units actually improved the situation for anyone other than sensitIV... and even that's pretty debatable.

That's not a judgement or anything, by the way. I wasn't there. I have no idea what kind of pressure they were under. I'm sure it was terrifying.

bingo continued 2

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