YOU'RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT

[sictransitgloriamundi]

WHO: the Captain + You
WHAT: contractually obligated price is right game
WHEN: 11/18, like nightish?
WHERE: Bellona Theater
WARNINGS: N/A, currently

[you've heard the announcement, the sound of Friday's cautious optimism as she spoke it. you've waited all day. now, it's time for the game.

the amount of effort that has gone into this production at Bellona can be safely defined as “minimal.” there are three podiums, with three slate boards and three pieces of chalk. there is another podium, currently empty, next to a plain folding table. there is a tablecloth draped over the table, covering a lumpy, inscrutable shape.

the most remarkable thing is the giant wheel set up on the other side of the empty podium. the slices of the giant circle are colorful, but also completely blank. the Captain actually spends 30 minutes prior to the start of the event simply sitting in front of it, back to the audience, and spinning it, listening to the loud clacking noise pick up and then die down again, before spinning it once more.

clackclackclack clack clack. clack. clackclackclackclackclack.

it's gonna be a long night.]

Comments

[konpeito_aji]

"Guess, guess, guess!" Because that's the point of the game. "Go wild! You can do it!"

[millay]

Maeve looks at him. "It is a glass piano." She frowns. "I don't even know what a regular piano costs." She's never had to pay for anything before in her life. She's mostly listening to everyone else in the room shouting guesses. "My understanding of money is very skewed."

[konpeito_aji]

"That's what makes this funny. No one has the same idea of money or proper frame of reference. We're all from different worlds and time periods, and the art is specifically esoteric and of different value depending on the cultural values and individual significance. That is how treasure is measured. Make something up. Like 40,000 gold fans."

It is not anything close to 40,000 gold fans. A glass piano, if truly playable is about 3 castles or 50 gold fans. But Nobunaga has no idea what changes over the course of several centuries, and in his time he went out of his way to fiddle with the value of treasure and art. You have to fund art and luxuries in order to make humanity survive on even the basics, ironically. And what better way to get that pricing going than to create buzz about it being ridiculous and appealing?

[millay]

Perhaps it doesn’t matter. She just needs to let go of the idea of looking ridiculous that is holding her back. “Certainly worth more than the Mariposa. Even with us included.” Well, maybe not all of them, but who knew?

“Probably half of Westworld,” she says after a moment. “Or the price of one park, I guess. Not all of them, certainly.”

[konpeito_aji]

"Sweet!" a beam. "Truly the most magnificent piece yet. How gloriously expensive. Mufufufu."

[millay]

Maeve hums thoughtfully. “Phil would love it.” But even this thought makes her smile drop. She frowns slightly.

[konpeito_aji]

A head tilt. "Don't be sad. Cheer him on then."

[millay]

Maeve looks over. "I can't help it. And I don't want to cheer in case he sees me and it throws him off." She frowns and looks at her hands. "I killed him, so...it's fair." A beat. "Sorry. The person in my body killed him. Rather brutally from what I can tell."

[konpeito_aji]

"You weren't friends before?" A headshake. "But that wasn't you. Wouldn't cheering him on remind him of that?"

[millay]

"We were," she says quietly. "He asked for time. I just want to respect his wishes until the time is up." How long will it take? She doesn't really know, but...perhaps it doesn't truly matter. "Emotions are hardly logical, darling. You cannot force them to be anything but what they are."

[konpeito_aji]

"Oh, I see."

The exact opposite of Nobunaga then. No wonder they clashed. Or just... literally never interacted or something.

A small nod. "Emotions are stupid." Spoken like a true five year old.

[millay]

Maeve reaches out to pat his shoulder. "Sometimes, yes. But I think life would be terribly disappointing without them, hm?" She studies him. "You have your own things I'm sure you have emotional reactions about. Both positive and negative." She doesn't ask if he does. She's certain he does. She's spotted him dragging someone around with him before.

"Unless I've misread your actions...and I don't think I have."

[konpeito_aji]

"All my decisions are completely logical." He's an idiot. That is not true at all, but he's silly enough to think it is.

[millay]

Maeve smiles at him the way she might a young child. “Ah. Of course. So if someone harmed someone you cared about, you would react logically. I see.” Her expression is mostly neutral, but there’s something in her eyes that’s challenging. But in a friendship way. Where you try to make your friend see the error of their thoughts. Because they aren’t fully considering things. “The boy I’ve seen you with. If someone killed him, you would be fine, naturally. All logic, no emotions.”

A beat. “And if you were asked to give him up to save your country. You would, of course, logically choose your country over love. If you were asked to give up anyone close to you for the sake of your country or whatever equally important thing, you would.” There’s a nod as if she’s fully understanding something instead of lightly pointing out logical errors.

[konpeito_aji]

"Wanting to protect someone you love is logical." He doesn't even see how it isn't. It definitely makes sense. Because it preserves self interest in the highest form!

A headtilt. If someone killed Klaus... well, he already couldn't deal with the ghost that simply attacked Klaus, he had to have Crichton talk to them. So Nobunaga would probably lose his mind if someone killed Klaus, but it depends, he wouldn't be irrational about it, he thinks. Not emotionless, but still willing to think things through, and hear things out. He hopes.

Ugh, give up Klaus for Japan?

That hits hardest.

His stomach knots remembering Kitsuno.

"I've given up everything for Japan." There is nothing left they can get from him. Especially here. And now. "I let myself stay trapped there my whole life until my mission to return it from the depths of Hell where it sank was finished. I've never let myself truly openly love before because I knew it was untenable. If we were in Japan, in my time, then yes. I would give up Klaus for Japan." He hates it, but it's true. "He could never have reached me there though. And if I thought it could be necessary here, I wouldn't have engaged from the start. This is not an unemotional decision, of course. But it is the price of my soul. Power to do what needed doing, in exchange for the freedom to be who I wished." Oichi and Kitsuno once had tried to stop him, and both of them failed. With it too went his soul, perhaps. Now it was returned here, and as such he could do what he wanted with it again. Maybe.

"I have made that choice before. I sent Oichi, my baby sister, away. Sold her into a marriage and exiled where I can't find her, so she can't be used against me. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was the best I could do. Under what circumstances would I have to give up Klaus?" Freeing the ghosts? Nobunaga shakes his head. "He's very strong. I love him because in the battle at Halloween, he stayed strong. He hates battle, hates war, hates fighting, hates all these things, but stayed, learned my gun," Nobunaga's hands reflexively go to the Tanegashima. "And protected others so long as I could bring them to him. And even afterwards, he bounced back. He's deceptively strong like Ranmaru. Strong in the ways I am not." Nobunaga was deceptively weak. It's kind of funny, he thinks. Still, it's obvious the idea has him unsettled. He's given up so much of everything, not allowed himself things that would get in the way of his ambition and dream that the idea that this is different now still worries him. Is it? Isn't it?

Another headshake and Nobunaga smiles softly, confidently. "This is why my Lucky Number 4 is not one of my soldiers or generals. So he can do as he pleases, and no one can expect me to use him the way I must with everyone else. I will concede to your point however, it's true I don't know what I would do if an impossible decision did occur. I can only place myself in the best position to avail myself of options or prevent such a risk."

If Japan needed him back, this version of himself with all his knowledge and changes here, the version deeply in love with Klaus, and he couldn't bring Klaus back... what then? Was Nobunaga even capable of that? Forcing himself to go back to hell? When everything he wanted was desperately here? But it's moot, right? How could it not be? It wasn't worth dismissing, so he thinks about it as rationally as he insists he does all things. Even the void that ghosts fell to seemed preferable, as far as he's concerned. Is that rational? Who knows.

[millay]

"It is logical, yes, but there are still emotions tied up in there." She can remember every emotional response that came as she lost Hector. The anger, the loss, the decision to destroy the person that had killed him. She hasn't, but...she wants to. Even still. It's something she can't...do anything about. Serac made promises he couldn't keep and her feelings on that...are much more than she can put into words.

She listens as he speaks, taking in his words, but also his expressions, studying him very carefully. Even the way he speaks about him is emotional, so she knows that it's not easy to give up someone you care about for something else. It's like giving up on finding her daughter (though not entirely giving up) to focus on something. Setting it aside. Knowing there's still too much to do, too much to figure out. Her daughter was safe, so she could wait. But it didn't make the decision easier.

"The point is that none of us are free from emotions. It's not a bad thing, of course. And we cannot discount that occasionally our emotions can make us stronger and weaker at the same time." A beat. "Even our pasts hold emotions we can't really get rid of. The way we feel about things we've done. No one is free from emotions. Even beings like us."

[konpeito_aji]

No one is free from emotions...

"You sound like Kennyo." There is no human alive without some warmth in their heart! If someone exists with a heart of ice, it is only because they have frozen it themselves!

A small sigh. "You don't have to ignore emotions, but if they are the only guiding force, then they will always result in more lives lost. This is not to be confused with the moral law Sun Tzu spoke of. Emotions are temporary. The moral law is about the long term inevitable outcome of actions." A nod.

[millay]

Maeve nods. "That's true enough. Still, I would have immediately killed the woman that killed Hector if I could have." Not that she couldn't come back. They could all come back. But...no. Not Hector.

She pats his arm. "Not everyone has to worry about these things, though. Not everyone has had to give up everything before or experienced quite the same things. And so...they must be given grace." Her gaze shifts, searching for Phil. "Some emotions can't be buried deep and forgotten and that has to be okay. For us and for others. Everyone experiences emotions differently. I'm sure you've noticed."

[konpeito_aji]

"An oni's temper is a terrible thing. This is why I have generals to guide my hands." Though again, he doesn't know what would happen here with Klaus. It would be tricky.

Nobunaga nods at the final part however. "You're a strong woman, Maeve. If you ever kill me though, make sure you give me no respite. Harass the hell out of me. Otherwise I will worry about you brooding."

[millay]

"My temper is not as bad as it could be." She looks down. "But I would like to hurt the person who was in my body last month for everything she said and did to Ruby. But I wouldn't let her die easy. She would stay alive until the last minute. So maybe it is." She would probably kill Hale herself as well.

Maeve looks at him quietly for a moment. "If I have to kill you, it will be because I had no choice in the matter and I may at least feel some concern about it, but...you do not seem overly troubled by death in general." So she's not certain it should be something. "I would prefer to be in my own mind if I'm going to kill someone. Not be someone playing me."

[konpeito_aji]

"Torture is always fun," way too damn cheerful about that! "Though as far as I know, it was mostly more what she didn't say or do. That she missed you." Unless something happened at Halloween, he was kind of busy.

"Your body by someone else isn't you killing me at all then."

[millay]

Maeve hums thoughtfully. "When it's deserved, it is." And that woman deserves it. "She...she..." Maeve frowns. "She said things she knew would hurt her. Ruby had to kill me. I don't hold that against her. She did what she had to do."

She logically understands that, but emotionally, it feels the same. "Well, I suppose that is technically true, yes."

[konpeito_aji]

"I only want people I like to kill me. I'm selfish," a nod, "It's a demon king thing. When you kill a fellow demon, you have to take on their responsibilities and ambition and dream. Unfinished business. It's a very troublesome thing: taking care of their families and lands. Klaus had to kill me after Halloween, I didn't know Ruby was in that position so--" a headtilt. "Do you know what would cheer her up? Stories right? She's had such a rough time lately, tch." An irritated noise.

"She misses her friends back home on Remnant, but there's not a lot I can do about that. Friends here... I don't know who she knows or not, to be honest."

[millay]

"I would prefer no one need to kill me, but enough people I didn't like have. A few of them, I may have egged on a little." And then there was the tent with Hector, but she didn't need to mention that. "That sounds troublesome, though. Sounds difficult to make someone take on your unfinished business. I guess that doesn't really count here, though." She frowns again. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry you had to go through that." As for what Ruby needs to be cheered up? Well... "I guess we've agreed to be family while we're here and I think she's...been talking to others on the ship."

As for her friends. "Erin, I know. Is her friend. I believe she is friends with quite a few of the teens as well. I don't know all their names."

[konpeito_aji]

"You'd have to haunt them. And I'm fine, hopefully I've made it up to Klaus, since he had to deal with the negative effects of it, not me."

Nobuanga softens as she explains about being Ruby's family here. "Good. She needs that. Hm, I know some of the teens... but not enough. And although I remember my own teen years a little hazily, I don't think my experiences with them are going to be particularly useful. Maybe just a party? A relaxed one. Deputy Pratt mentioned a soup party where everyone could just chill on bean bag chairs, whatever that is. It sounded like torture to me, but maybe it's something they'd be more into?"