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[vecna]

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[fanstheflames]

[ Listen, she doesn't know tha--well no, now I guess she does. ]

Kinda? I know you're teammates and I know the more involvement you have with someone, the more these places sort of hit harder.

[vecna]

[This is Fine.]

I don't know if "hit harder" is the right phrase for it.

[Henry is... Henry. He's managed to cultivate some empathy in his time here, but it is so very, very tiny.

However, Komaeda is something of a special case.]

But I am glad that we managed to help him. I think I would have been dissatisfied if he had remained stuck in his cycle. No one should have to go through that, and not as badly as him.

[fanstheflames]

Yeah, I get that. I'm stuck in one myself.
His luck was way worse than mine ever was, though.

[vecna]

Really? What kind of cycle are you stuck in? Luck, too?

[fanstheflames]

No, but...
Calling it a cycle of hope and despair wouldn't be wrong. So you could sort of say I know how he feels.

[vecna]

[Funny. Perhaps he knows how Tsuruno feels, too, by proxy.]

But in your case, what's causing it? If he can be freed, maybe you can, too.

[fanstheflames]

[ ... Ha. ]

It's a contract I wasn't given the full details about. So I think it would only end when I die.

[vecna]

[A contract? Very Faustian. Just what on earth has this girl been up to back home--]

So you mean you didn't know what you were signing up for until it was too late.

[fanstheflames]

[ Magical Girl shenanigans. ]

Yeah, that's exactly it. No matter what I do now, I have to keep fighting. Even if fighting also brings me closer to death.

[vecna]

[This tells him nothing!!]

Why were you lured into this lopsided contract? To be used? I can't imagine why else someone would do such a thing, other than to take advantage of you.

[It's clever. And if Henry didn't also hate being stuck, trapped, unable to leave one's circumstances, he'd almost find it admirable.]

[fanstheflames]

I think that's it.
To put it as simply as I can, we're offered a wish and in exchange we have to fight monsters. But the monsters are actually what we eventually become, if we don't die first.

[vecna]

[Now that is a cycle.]

And there's no... "loophole" in this contract?

[fanstheflames]

[ QUITE LITERALLY A CYCLE. ]

Not one that's worked yet.

[vecna]

[But have you tried murder.

Maybe he shouldn't suggest that-

No, he will.]

What if the one who drew up the contract was no longer a factor? Would it still be binding?

[fanstheflames]

[ Henry pls ]

So you know the evil bear in Nagito's Palace? And how we went to the place where it was like a neverending wave of bears?

[ SO DID YOU KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF KYUBEY-- ]

[vecna]

[HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT A KYUBEY IS--]

And so there's a never-ending wave of...?

[Of what? What has bound you to this awful contract, young lady.]

[fanstheflames]

[ Lucky him. ]

Kyubey. It's like a cat... bunny... thing.
I mean, I know how it sounds, like it's not scary at all, but...

[vecna]

[You know, he would consider this odd but. Looks at his own canon. Looks at everything they've gone through in this prison.]

I imagine it can fight back.

[fanstheflames]

I mean, I've never picked a fight with it... but you can't really kill it, either.

[vecna]

Maybe you haven't tried hard enough.

[Half joke, half something for her to consider. But!]

So that's it, then? You're just waiting for the day for you to hold up your end of the "contract" and die?

[fanstheflames]

Of course I'm not. Who would give up just because they were told they won't have much of a future?

[vecna]

Despair can run deep for some people. [He isn't using the word "despair" to make a point, but it is fitting.] I've seen it.

But it seems that doesn't apply to you.

[fanstheflames]

Not anymore, anyway.

[vecna]

So what changed?

[fanstheflames]

[ Well, I got brainwashed, tried to murder a bunch of people, including my friends, and then I was beaten up with a literal hammer of friendship-- ]

I got reminded that I wasn't alone.