skaterbrain | ☆15 voice/action

AIGHT, so it sounds like a lotta you guys got feelin's or somethin' to work out 'cause of what happened. Not 'cause of the stupid Culturists comin' in, but you know, the other thing.

WELL, IT AIN'T GETTIN' WORKED OUT BY ITSELF.

An' since I ain't so good at talkin' and I know some people here ain't so good at it neither 'cause you got emotion Legos or somethin', I've got some pads up on the trees and I'm gonna go punch stuff. If you ain't good at talkin' neither, but you wanna blow off some steam? The name's Beat. Come punch trees wit' me behind House 10. It's good for you, yo.

Action
[And if he's not found behind House 10 punching trees with boxing pads duct-taped to them, he's inside helping around the house for once. Mainly, he's trying to clean; trying being the operative word. He does pretty well at sweeping up and vacuuming, but dusting is not his forte. It takes too much concentration and finesse and he spends most of his time catching all the things he knocked off the shelves.

Later, in the evening, he's on the porch of House 10 or out in the plaza and practicing his reading with a flashlight. It's slow going since Shiki left, but he figures she'll come back one day and then he's got to show that he improved or she'll probably slug him in the face.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And if you closed the journal on me right now, you wouldn't learn.

You can ignore what I say all you like, but you can't ignore life. The best you can do is try to work that out for yourself. That's learning, too.

Look, P.K., I ain't gotta listen to you t'know you annoyin' as hell, and life's working itself out jus' fine.

How 'bout you go take yo' rainbow wisdom wings and fly outta here, huh?

If I could do that, I would have done it nearly four years ago. This is how I've chosen to spend my time.

Sure, you gotta get back to doin' whatchu do, ruining the Game, ain't that right?

[He is still holding a grudge over that SO hard.]

Listen, Rhyme likes you and she wants t'be friends, but that don't mean I gotta. So you do anythin' to hurt her? And I'm gonna do worse than punch you in the face, got it?

I'm still not seeing where you've getting the idea that I might hurt her. Despite the animosity, I haven't hurt any of you unless I had no choice to prevent you from hurting me first.

'Cause I know what you are an' what you did. You think I'm jus' gonna forgive and forget like the rest of 'em? Hell no.

Did you ever think maybe they understood what I did better than you? Maybe that's why they've let it go.

Call me stupid all you want, least I fought wit' honor! I didn't go lyin' to people who were supposed to be my friends!

No, but you did turn around and join their enemies.

I had my reasons.

And I changed back when I saw what they was doin' to Phones. It wasn't right.

Did you really expect otherwise? You saw how few of you made it through the Game. It's not stacked in the Players' favors.

Doesn't mean people gotta cheat and make it even harder. We know what we gettin' into when we go into the Game, but changin' the rules when it pleases you? That's seriously messed up.

[ Now Joshua didn't hear ALL the specifics of what happened while he was off in Tin Pin Land but... ]

They took the wrong entry fee from Neku. That was the only part that didn't follow the rules.

And that ain't cheatin'? You can't leave a Player with nobody to partner with!

It's cheating to deliberately handicap a Player though their fee. But if they had truly been what he valued most, that would have been it.

It was cheatin'. Goddamn Iron Witch did whateva' she could to screw Phones over.

It was cheating to take the wrong fee. That was it.

Cheatin' is cheatin' - don't matter what happens after. After that, everythin's just screwy and it ain't right.

You wouldn't have known if that was his proper fee.

You jus' makin' excuses for it - don't matter if I knew or not. Cheatin' ain't right and I ain't gonna stand for it. Phones' would've known, the other Players would've known. Jus' 'cause it wouldn't be me don't change a damn thing.

Why do you think Neku would have known? You didn't even know what your entry fee was. [ Nor did Rhyme know hers, but Joshua is leaving that part out. ]

'Cause it's goddamn easy to see when there ain't no other Players to pact wit'! That's what I gotta problem wit'! Changing the rules, making it impossible to do anythin' at all! I know you wanna win your dumb Game, but you go doin' it by cheatin' and that's when you lose any respect I mighta had for you.

No rules changed. If a Player can't function without their entry fee, that's the fault of neither the entry fee nor the Game.

That's one hell of a shit Game you made then. You set us up to fail and say it ain't yo' fault? Screw you, Rainbows.

Would you have rather died with no second chance? The Game was never meant to be fair.

[voice]

skaterbrain - 2013-11-30 05:32 (UTC) - Expand

neverplaysfair - 2013-11-30 07:21 (UTC) - Expand

skaterbrain - 2013-11-30 09:05 (UTC) - Expand

neverplaysfair - 2013-12-01 06:37 (UTC) - Expand