Ideal World Endgame

[idolpro]

Who: Beautiful dreamers
Where: The Game Tower
When: Day 271, morning

[When you wake, the folding chairs and divans from before have all been cleared away. You're lying asleep on the floor, healed of all injury.]

[You remember the events of the worlds you've visited as though visions seen in a dream -- though for those of you torn from your perfect existence, there is an ache inside you which will not fade for some days... the pain of something precious that has been lost.]

[Out beyond the windows of the tower, the sky is no longer a perfect blue; the vegetation is no longer as lush and inviting.]

[The view is of Tokyo-F, exactly as it's always been.]

[Near the far wall, there is an open book on a pedestal. The pages are empty. It is titled GUEST BOOK, and a pen waits nearby.]

GUEST BOOK | SOUVENIRS | WINNERS

Comments

[enlightenedatheist]

So you're going to lie to them, and then they'll see your heart in a game like this and doubt you.

They're going to find out anyway—but they'd rather hear it from you than from a stupid game.

[bondsofsuffering]

Who says I'm lying?

[enlightenedatheist]

Lying by omission is still lying.

[bondsofsuffering]

So who have you spilled the beans to, then?

[enlightenedatheist]

[ pause ]

John.

[bondsofsuffering]

[That explains some things, but also.]

What an amazing crowd.

[enlightenedatheist]

He's my unitmate.

[ pointedly ]

[bondsofsuffering]

Yeah. One.

[enlightenedatheist]

I didn't say I'm not working on it myself.

[bondsofsuffering]

...

There's one on my unit who knows more than the rest. He got the rest of it out of that ideal world, so- that should be fine, then.

[enlightenedatheist]

. . .

This isn't a tit-for-tat situation.

[bondsofsuffering]

Isn't there a saying about leading by example?

[enlightenedatheist]

[ . . .

sits down on the piano bench again, taking his phone out as though he's going to start texting ]

You're seriously not going to tell them unless I tell my unitmates?

[bondsofsuffering]

...You're seriously going to explain it to them by text?

[enlightenedatheist]

Why, not good enough for you?

[bondsofsuffering]

It just seems like a lot to break over a chat.

[But he's watching.]

[enlightenedatheist]

[ since he's facing izanagi the other won't be able to see what's on his phone screen, but he does seem to be typing ]

And you will tell your unitmates if I tell mine? Tit-for-tat?

[bondsofsuffering]

Through text, sure. Let me see what you write and when you send it, though.

[enlightenedatheist]

You'd better not use exactly what I said. That's just plagiarism.

[bondsofsuffering]

I don't remember the details of our condition yet, so I want to see how much you're saying about it. Obviously I'm suffering from the symptoms of anemia, but that's not much to go off of.

Plus, the devil stuff is pretty different from your god stuff.

[So.]

[enlightenedatheist]

. . . It is pretty different.

I'm going to talk more about our condition than I am about the other stuff, given it affects me much more here than it does you.

[bondsofsuffering]

[Considering look because idk man that sounds like he just needs to get the health stuff out in the open...]

[enlightenedatheist]

You can't expect we're going to have priorities on the same thing, or that the same things will bother us in equal measure.

Plus, it's easier being god than it is being the devil.

[bondsofsuffering]

Is it?

[enlightenedatheist]

Definitely.