I'm not passive but aggressive, take note it's not impressive [W2 Post-Trial]

[zerotohiro]

[Screw this. Screw this, screw Moron Island, screw the trials, just...screw all of it! It's frustrating that they failed again and he's collected a few sticks and stones before stomping down to the beach, facing the dark water and throwing the objects with all of his might. There's an annoyed sound when he hauls his arm back and realizes he no longer has any rocks though and he turns, moving to go find some others and lightly stomping down across he sand.

This is how he comes across Raven though, practically bumping into her and stopping to stare up at her with a completely unhappy expression.]

Oh. Hey. [But he tries to chill out because it's Raven.] ...I ran out of rocks.

[An attempt was made.]

Comments

[hydrazine]

[Contrary to his manner, she's in... Well, as good of a mood as she can be after that. She's not happy, of course, but she seems like she's calmed down considerably. She takes a step back when Hiro nearly runs into her; even if she's more calm than she was, she can absolutely understand his anger.]

Is it helping?

[It's one way to get his frustrations out, at least.]

[zerotohiro]

Maybe a little, but not really. [At least he's honest.] It does because it's something to do. But it doesn't because it doesn't change anything about what happened in there or how people think.

[hydrazine]

How people think?

[What happened in there is self explanatory, she thinks, so she's more curious about this.]

[zerotohiro]

Didn't you see how many people were still defending Austria's choice up to the end?

[hydrazine]

Those people are idiots.

[Sorry, Newt. But not really.]

[zerotohiro]

Yeah, I know. [Double-sorry, Newt. And Yona, to an extent.] But I think you can see exactly why that kind of thinking is gonna be a problem for us in the future. I mean the Chiefs made it sound like that was a thing they were planning to pull from us anyway, but we also don't know how long we could have had that option. And it's just...stupid, I guess. I can't support someone who admits that what they did was selfish, even if she was lying about it.

[Austria was a very confusing person, okay.]

[hydrazine]

[A frown.]

I can't support someone who fucked us all over because she was bitter we couldn't save her, either. I bet she wouldn't have pulled the same stunt if it was someone else on the chopping block.

I can't believe anyone was in her corner.

[zerotohiro]

She was scared, probably. People do all kinds of crazy stuff when they're scared or when they've already given up. It doesn't make it any better, but it's a possible explanation.

But how many other rules are we going to get added because of stuff like that? And who else is going to throw people in the line of fire just because they're doomed to die? We need to keep people in check so stuff like this doesn't keep happening. I just don't know how yet.

[hydrazine]

She seemed pretty coherent to me.

[But maybe that's because Raven is #bitter about the whole thing.]

...We could keep a careful watch on what everyone is saying to the Chiefs. We're all in one room, there has to be a way.

[zerotohiro]

Maybe make sure nobody actually speaks to them alone? We're all in the same room, but we're all talking over each other, too. We're bound to get really distracted.

[hydrazine]

...I'm not sure how to fix us talking over each other. It's going to be chaotic no matter what, with that many people crammed together.

[zerotohiro]

We could find a conch shell and make sure nobody gets to talk unless they're holding it. [This whole Lord of the Flies thing needs to stop.] I mean...yeah, it will be chaotic the more people we have, but unless we can get everybody into small groups or something that's about my only suggestion. It doesn't help that the heat and being stuck for nine full hours is going to drive everyone even crazier than before.

[hydrazine]

That'll only work if everyone agrees to stick to only talking when they have the shell, which... Let's just say I have a fairly low amount of faith in that.

[A sigh.]

It might be something we have to work around, not work through.

[zerotohiro]

...I know you're right, but maybe I was just hoping. Okay, so we work around everybody talking all at once, I still think we should always have a witness or two to what people say to each other and the Chiefs? With so many of us, that part shouldn't be hard. Sort of a mass chain of communication. We hear things from people, we start spreading it around.

Otherwise...it's another waiting game.

[hydrazine]

Having someone to watch anyone who speaks to the Chiefs might be a good plan. It could definitely stop what happened this trial from happening again.

[But.]

We need to figure out how to figure out who's actually doing this, too.

[zerotohiro]

I'll do my best then. [Since he doesn't trust anybody else to pick up on the details, he means.]

I know, I know. That's where I keep getting stuck. Everywhere we try keeps leading us to dead ends so...what are we doing wrong?

[hydrazine]

Maybe we're still focusing too much on evidence. They told us outright that none of it was going to count. Even if I don't trust them... Maybe we need to start paying more attention to what people say and how they act.

[zerotohiro]

Some of it has to count, Raven. I don't think all of it will, but some of it does. It has to. It doesn't make sense otherwise.

...but I think we need a closer study of people, too. One little slip in somebody's story could unravel the whole thing for us as long as we're paying attention. A good liar knows how to lie, but they can still be tripped up just like the rest of us.

[hydrazine]

Unless it counts to lead us in the wrong direction for five hours until we lose it because we realize we still don't know what's happening.

[A nod.]

We focus on what everyone says, and pick out anything that doesn't match up. We can trust that more than evidence that the Chiefs could easily mess with.

[zerotohiro]

It's a lot easier to rule out what's a lie when you can hear someone talk. Maybe then we can only waste four hours instead of five. I've been watching people for a long time...the people here are a challenge, but they aren't impossible.

At least we have another week. That buys some time and that's all I can ask. [Until week 3 happens and we kill 13 people.]