week 4 - mary - sunday, post-execution

[completelycrazy]

[Newt makes himself scarce after the execution. He ducked out as soon as it was over, and it's not until a few hours later that he turns up again. He's hiding in the comic shop, sitting on the floor in one of the more out-of-the-way aisles, turning his tape recorder over in his hands. Well, in one hand. His left hand can't seem to grip it quite right, and his palm is wrapped tightly in black fabric. He's looking a little pale, too.

Hm! Weird!]

Comments

[withsadness]

[Hmmm! Mary's not in much of a mood to be around her friends, but...okay, Newt looks...not great. So, when she sees him, she can't help but gasp, startled.]

You're hurt!

[completelycrazy]

[Newt jumps when Mary gasps suddenly, and then winces because, ow, yes, he is hurt.]

Oh, um... [He looks at his hand. That's probably what she's talking about.] It's not that bad. I'll be fine.

[withsadness]

Do you need a band-aid? I have band-aids...

[From the egg hunt!]

[completelycrazy]

[Oh. Newt is momentarily stunned into silence from the cute.]

Ah, okay, it's not that bad, but it's gonna require a little more than a band-aid.

[He pockets his tape recorder and stands, though it doesn't look like he's able to move his left arm very much.]

Hey, um, how are you doing? Are you okay?

[withsadness]

[As Mary approaches him, she reaches out tentatively to take his arm--clearly wanting to see it for herself. Of course, she'll stop if he tells her to. He just hasn't quite said no yet.]

Someone with cure drink will help! How did it happen? Did you fall down?

[She flinches at his question.]

I'll feel better later.

[completelycrazy]

[He lets her, but only because there's not much to see. The cloth wrapped around his hand looks like the remains of the t-shirt Izaya cut off of him. Recycling! The makeshift bandage is a little damp on both sides. Not getting blood on like everything he touches has been a struggle.

As for his arm, his sleeves are down and his jacket is zipped up, but the fabric down his left side is stained slightly brown, like he might have bled all over the place but managed to wash it off before the stain got too bad, maybe! There's also a jagged hole in the jacket's shoulder, just below his collarbone. A mystery, truly.]

Uh, not quite. [Should he tell her? Hm. He supposes it doesn't matter now.] I went to talk to Izaya last night. Turns out, he was a Reaper too.

[withsadness]

[Mary is quiet as she looks at his injury. Is that a stab of guilt? She was just mourning the loss of Izaya.

Jacopo and Izaya.

Two reapers.

She has bad taste in friends, doesn't she? She doesn't deserve to be sad.]

He attacked you?

[completelycrazy]

[i'm pissed off that all that is introspection so newt can't comfort her. you're the worst.]

Sort of. He was still convinced that I killed Jacopo, I guess.

[withsadness]

[Live with the guilt and suffer.]

I'm sorry...if I thought he'd do something like that I would have...

[She gulps. Would've what? Told him not to? Like he would've listened? Nobody really ever listens. They just placate.]

I'm sorry.

[completelycrazy]

[Newt frowns.]

What? Hey, it's not your fault. You don't have anything to apologize for. And, really, I'm fine.

[Well.]

I'll live, anyway.

[...For the time being. Mmm.]

1/2

[withsadness]

Yes, you will.

[She takes a deep breath.]

A lot of my friends turned against you this weekend...so I guess I just feel like I should've done a better job showing them how good of a person you are!

[withsadness]

[But then, snapping her head up!]

They're all dead now, though, so it's fine! I chose your side, and it's the side that's still standing now! There's no reason to be upset! You're right!

[completelycrazy]

...O-oh.

[hm. bad.]

Um, well... I mean, obviously I don't love that they came after me, but I don't think it was personal. I get why they were suspicious. So, um, I don't... I don't think any of them are bad people, I guess.

[And he doesn't, but he also doesn't really care about ranking people morally, so. There's that.]

[withsadness]

But if they'd killed you...I'd have had to hurt them. So why can't we all just stop? Just stop hurting each other? I guess I don't understand...I just want to be friends!

[McLosin it.]

[completelycrazy]

Whoa whoa whoa. [He kneels down so that he's not weirdly looming over her. His good hand finds her wrist, grips it tightly.]

You don't have to hurt anyone, okay? I don't want you hurting anyone, especially not on my behalf.

[But... He doesn't know what to say beyond that.]

I... Um. There's still a way to save everyone, you know? We just have to focus on that. See, the nice thing about dying here [newt???] is that it doesn't have to be permanent. It's like, when you get into an argument with someone? Like how me and Hermann got into an argument with Izaya and Monika? You can always make up from that later. People just disagree sometimes, that's all.

[withsadness]

People disagree?

[She looks at her wrist in his hand, considering.]

Do you think...we'll all be able to forgive each other for these disagreements? For all the hurting...and all the lying?

[completelycrazy]

Yeah, people disagree all the time. [A beat.] Me and Hermann are a perfect example of that. We disagree, like, basically constantly. But... I still trust him. Hell, I trust him more than I trust most people. I know he won't hesitate to challenge me if he thinks I'm doing something wrong, or... There's a lot of honesty in arguing, you know?

[He chews on his lip for a moment.]

Monika and Izaya really cared about Jacopo, right? Whether or not they were right to come after me and Hermann for killing him, the fact that they came after us anyway... They wouldn't do that if they were just, I don't know, pretending to be allies with him to get information or something like that. Arguing--accusing someone of murder, even--that's a hard thing to do. You don't do hard things for stuff you don't care about.

[He's not sure he's making sense, but. Well. Newt stans for yelling.]

[withsadness]

[As long as he's not yelling at her, it's...fine! She's fine with it!]

I think I get what you mean. It's hard for me to understand, because of my entry fee and because I'm not human...when I see people yelling and hurting each other, it just looks like they really hate each other. Sometimes I don't know what's real.

[completelycrazy]

Yeah, well... If it makes you feel any better, I think a lot of people are in the same boat as you. It's hard for most people to look past arguing, which is a bummer because not only is arguing productive, but it's also inevitable. Everyone's just... Really, really passionate about solving these murders, you know?

[He squeezes her wrist again.]

But, at the end of the day, all of us want the same thing. We're just not sure how to best get there yet. That's all.

[withsadness]

But we're running out of time, aren't we? What if we argue so much and so long that we use it all up? I'm scared.

[A FEAR.]

[completelycrazy]

Well, I... I think that might be a good thing, actually. We got those notes earlier in the week, about how to end the game. They mentioned one of the options was to just, uh, ride things out. Survive until the end. I'm starting to think those notes were onto something.

[withsadness]

You really think that's the best idea?

[She frowns.]

I thought that one was just...silly. Why make a Reaper Game if we aren't supposed to get all the Reapers?

[completelycrazy]

I don't know.

[At least he's willing to admit that.]

But... If that is the case, and we do need to get all the Reapers, um. Jacopo was a Reaper, you know. That's not to say he couldn't be your friend, too. I think the Reapers are just people like the rest of us, not like, evil or anything, but, um. We're all just playing the game like we're supposed to.

[...]

Sort of.

[withsadness]

Jacopo and Izaya...my friends, and Reapers...

[Mary hangs her head, her stomach crawling.]

They were trying really hard to help, I know they were. They both told so many people important things that they found out through really hard work. I didn't know about Magnus and Taako and Setz and all the others, but they trusted me. If there were two groups of Reapers and one was there to help locate the rest, maybe killing them was a bad idea. Doesn't that just leave us blind?

[completelycrazy]

I... It's possible, but I don't think that's the case. Both groups of Reapers are playing for their own teams. It's three groups pitted against each other, not the Players and the "good" Reapers against the bad ones. And, um, I'm not sure that the bad Reapers are all that bad.