text;

[discutio]

If anyone else felt that, don't be alarmed. We spoke to the student council president, and I believe Etoile and myself now possess this layer's Authority.

We were able to discern that the previous president was the Authority before we arrived, and presumably through this place's stagnation became...well. We'll likely meet her in the underside, let me leave it at that.

It was a complicated situation, but I believe both this layer and the rest of us will be able to move on very soon. Make sure you are all prepared.

Comments

[discutio]

[Phoenix simply sighed, tugging on Chiron's shirt to pull him closer and leaning his head against him again.]

...I saw what happened, in part. We all did; given what you and I found earlier, it must have turned into an utter massacre.

[schardynfreude]

Mm. That was the assumption, from what we found in the gym.

[discutio]

It...was the prior student council president. The stagnation of this layer's time loop must have weighed too heavily on her as the apparent instigator of it.

...I assume we'll be meeting her in the underside, or what's left of her.

[schardynfreude]

She passed it on to the one we met here?

[discutio]

That indeed seems to be the case, and then it was relinquished to the pair of us.

[schardynfreude]

But she had the power, and yet perpetuated the cycle? She could have done whatever she pleased with it, could she not?

[discutio]

...She couldn't make it stop. I don't know if it's because she didn't know how, or that in some measure she didn't want to. She loves this school, and wanted others to find happiness here.

[He took a slow breath, sighing quietly.]

I...can't fault her for that. I don't know why, but I simply can't.

[schardynfreude]

Find happiness going in a circle.

Well. I suppose there's good reason to try and avoid graduation, anyway.

[discutio]

It's over now, all the same. I think she'll be grateful for it, knowing what little of the truth she does now.

[schardynfreude]

I'm more concerned about the beast that tore up the gym that we're going to find down below. Bound to be a rather formidable foe.

[discutio]

Please, Chiron--I've done enough thinking for one day. If I start planning further ahead now, I'm liable to make a mistake.

[schardynfreude]

Let someone else do the thinking. I promise that the rest of us together can perhaps equal half of one of you.

[discutio]

Oh, come now, you're just trying to make me feel better.

[schardynfreude]

Not just. [How about a gentle backrub? Just a hand soothing up and down.]

...You didn't want anyone else to see you. Not even those you experienced this with. [It's not phrased as a question; he can observe those realities right in front of him. But there's a question lingering in the air.]

[discutio]

...

[He would rather have left it unspoken, truthfully. But the question of why hovered unpleasantly, an explanation he wasn't fully sure he could articulate.]

You know me far better than the rest. Who I was, at least. You know I'm not always as composed as I would have people believe. There's nothing I can do to change that. So whether the decision is wise or not, I choose to trust you with it instead.

[schardynfreude]

No one here is as composed as they want everyone else to think. [Certainly not himself, that cat is quite out of the bag. Sword is going to snap one of these days, and it won't be pretty. Perhaps Medic? Very little seems to perturb her.] You're human. Perfect in imperfection.

[discutio]

I can't afford to be. Someone has to keep the rest of you together. Someone has to make sure we move onward rather than stand still or look back.

[schardynfreude]

[He frowns, annoyed.] You are not the singular glue that keeps this group together. The only one who has designated you as caretaker is you.

[discutio]

Perhaps not. But don't make an attempt to deny that we would be markedly more disjointed were I not here.

[schardynfreude]

...[huff] That I'll not deny.

[discutio]

Then my point is true enough, all the same.

[schardynfreude]

I've been utterly useless to everyone this whole time, and everyone's gotten on just fine, so clearly I'm nothing to keep the group a cohesive whole.

[discutio]

You're keeping me a cohesive whole, at least.

[schardynfreude]

I should think literally anyone else might be better at it. Achilles, perhaps, at the very least.

[discutio]

I didn't ask Achilles, now did I?

I'm not afraid of you, Chiron. Whether that's the right choice or not remains to be seen, but I have no reason to think you're going to hurt me.