darkinferno | [ic inbox]

only once and it wasn't because i WANTED to die, it was to try and save someone else

but i also had to fight a yeti and some sort of man-eating plant and this screaming wraith and they all were trying to kill me first so it wasn't exactly avoidable

[Okay that...that isn't so bad. Reckless sure but, not death seeking so]

oh i see.
guess those fuckers were pretty bent on killing us.
some fucking little lizard with a lantern stabbed me in the leg.

did you save that person?

a lizard with a lantern? you stabbed it back right

[Why does that sound familiar...?

The answer to Noah's question will be a few minutes in coming. Yeah, this one's weighing on him a bit.]

i don't think so

he's okay now i guess but not because of anything i did. when we got back to the city he was suddenly alive again like nothing had ever happened

yeah. and shot it with a bazooka.

[nothing's too overkill when you're facing tonberries]

he came back to life?
thats...fucked up.
is he okay?

[SINCE THAT SEEMS MORE THAN A LITTLE TRAUMATIC]

good, that way you know for sure it's not coming back

[Frankly, he feels the same way.]

physically i think so but

[A sigh. Man, how does he even explain this? He can't. The words are there, inside of him, but he's not about to release them. No way.]

it's not exactly something you can forget

yeah...id imagine not.

[...]

youre not blaming yourself are you? that someone else had to go through it?

[The way Dante was phrasing things earlier, and honestly...were Noah in the same position, he'd be prone to blame himself. Or at least feel guilt that someone had to go through that]

[Obviously he is.]

obviously i'm not

why would i blame myself, that'd be stupid

[And it's not like it was a "him or me" situation, and by accidentally saving himself he'd wound up letting Toushiro die...]

["Yeah well, you are stupid" is something he might've responded with a few weeks ago. But after the last three weeks of being with a team, learning to trust in his teammates, and then losing Ryoji....

....]

no, i think its...pretty normal to blame yourself in something like that.

i think i would be.

[There's a pause before Dante texts back this time. He's not expecting Noah to sympathize with him--he was expecting the other boy to snap at him and leave him alone. He doesn't want to talk about it, not with anyone, but at the same time, ever since the game ended it's been gnawing at him, festering like an open wound.

Finally...]

yeah

i guess i am

we were in this haunted mansion and got forced into playing this game by one of the ghosts there. it was either play or he'd have hung the both of us

i tried to throw the game to make sure he'd be okay but...

[But he'd fucked up.]

there were these blades in the ceiling. they dropped down right onto him and i couldn't do a goddamn thing to stop it

what the fuck is the point of all of this stuff from retrospec if you can't protect the people around you when it actually matters?!

[He didn't really expect Dante to open up at all, so it's a bit of a surprise. But he'll read through the message. It...sounds absolutely sadistic, the place they were. His team mostly had monster fighting. Which while that was tough, monsters aren't exactly sadistic in that manner. They just want to eat you....]

i dont know.

[That's his honest answer, since he's feeling it himself. He spent week struggling, pushing himself- all to save his friends. To save Ryoji. But in the end, before they even had a chance to reunite....]

i dont know what the point is, or if there even is fucking one. its all shit.

but i think you did the right thing, even if it didnt work.

what's the point if it didn't work

don't answer that, it's not important

i'd rather forget the whole thing ever happened

cant blame you there...

[in fact to even help Dante get his mind off it...]

whatd make a good housewarming gift for a stunt man who lost his houseboat?

[Distraction successful! It helps that Dante's willing to be distracted...]

there was someone living on a houseboat? i didn't know those things were actually real

buy him a life preserver

well he lived on a houseboat. But he lost it when the ocean went away for awhile?

so now hes got an apartment but no stuff in it.

does he have stuff like furniture and towels yet? normally i'd say alcohol but if he lost all that too, that's probably a better idea

im too young to buy alcohol.
and as far as i know hes got nothing.
just a bed.

you know people who would buy it

but get him something useful if that's the case, if you walked into a new home with a pair of mattresses on the floor what's the first thing you'd want to make it more livable

sure i do.
but its a dumb idea when the partys being hosted by a social worker.

[Not that he thinks Dante would be too broken up if he was sent off to live in foster care, BUT HE RATHER NOT]

me?
definitely food related.
a microwave or something.

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