piteous | HOMOPHONIC 🌺 KAVEH

[ IS KAVEH AT THE PARK? Because that is where Vash is... Just sitting on the swing, idly.

There is the smell of cinnamon rolls, though. ]

[He is, actually--he was coming here to sit and look at the stars, but he stops when he sees Vash. For a second he looks conflicted, like he doesn't want to intrude--but Vash doesn't seem like the type to mind company, so Kaveh makes up his mind and continues forward.]

Something smells good.

Hey, Kaveh.

[ He's right that Vash isn't the type to mind company. If anything, Kaveh's presence has him light up instantly with a smile. It isn't bright as it would be, but it's friendly all the same. ]

Those would be the cinnamon rolls. Want some?

[ There.

Are a lot of boxes of them here.

And they seem untouched. ]

[

WHY]

Where did you get all of these?

IKEA!

[ IKEA!!! ]

[HELP.]

I don't even want to know how much this cost you. [But he will... take one, actually, and come sit down to eat it. Since he's only had like coffee all day]

It's free.

[ Free food, free food, free food. Anyway, it's nice and warm. It looks like he made the trip recently. ]

You were really put on the spot at the end there, at trial.

[He barely eats at the Ikea so tbh this is a lot nicer than he was expecting.]

Nahida's the one who caught it, in the end. I didn't realize until after--that it didn't make sense for her to have two items.

[ kaveh... eat at ikea.... ]

I think that slipped our minds, in general. It isn't like we can't request things from the reaper's... I watched Wolfwood pop out a pack of cigarettes every day.

[He will now tbh]

Yeah. We didn't even think to ask about money, once we established that you couldn't buy weapons [But not every deadly item is a blatant weapon.] Though, I don't know how we'd confirm that anyway.

[ ... Because Kaveh is eating, Vash also eats. It's a little sticky and all, but he came prepared with napkins. ]

With money, everyone would need to do their accounting and have a paper trail of some kind... Sounds annoying.

[ Vash obviously sounds detached from wealth and luxuries. ]

... Are you doing okay, Kaveh?

[Thinks about Vash's tummyache

Also, Kaveh grunts in agreement.]

It is. [Speaking from experience, clearly. But he sobers a little at that, looking down at his hands.]

I'm okay. [It's mostly the truth.] I just don't like any of this.

[ Don't worry about it. ]

... I think most of us don't. [ there are six more weeks. ] But we have to move forward. There's also the tidbit that teams could bring back those erased if they have enough points.

[ Though that would be for the winning team. ]

[NO MY HTML]

Mm. [That's the hardest part, really. In a way, it would be easier if they were all villains. Kaveh would still be unhappy, but it's so much worse like this, when they're all more or less innocent people who just want to survive.] I've heard that's rare, even for winning teams.

[Would it be possible to do that without killing? Is it even possible to win without killing? He would love to think so, but he doesn't necessarily want to be blindsided by reality when it's too late.]

Rare doesn't mean impossible.

[ At least that's what Vash thinks... Even if it only means one team to win from what they've heard, but there's so much they don't know. ]

We might learn something in the following weeks—maybe find an alternative, or figure out a loophole.

[ Until the very end, keep working hard and searching. ]