outdistanced | turbo heaven 🌼 richie

[ walking through the garden to work out some nervous energy, hands shoved deep in his hoodie pockets so no one can see the white knuckles or the nails digging into his palms. he offers richie a short nod when he sees him, but quickly turns his eyes away. he'd prefer not having too much attention to the lingering redness in his face. ]

Do you think we'll get lucky again tomorrow and find out one of them is another self-defense situation?

[ laurence sure doesn't. ]

[bud it's all right, Richie's a little red in the eyes too.]

It could be. [He's not optimistic, though. Richie grimaces, putting a hand to Laurence's back.] I don't like our options either.

...But you know that if you're stumped not to vote for yourself, right? If you need to throw a vote away to keep your conscience clear, just use my name. I won't mind.

[ ...hello? he pulls back, shocked. ]

What? No, I'm not doing that.

I'm not saying you would have to. I just know someone who put their own name in last week because they couldn't decide, and they got punished for it. Badly.

[ ...he sighs. ]

Yeah. Found out about that last night. You don't have to worry about that - I heard the angels warn us against it.

Okay, good. [He nods, lips thinning.] As long as we're all on the same page.

And you've got two uses left on that whistle, don't you? You can lend a hand when it comes down to the wire — and other people are likely to come in with their own saving graces. The pressure isn't just on you.

[ he nods. ]

Two more, and I still have the bear. I don't know if anyone's found something else that could be useful, but we'll see. [ ... ] I don't think we can keep relying on things like that, though. Just in case it doesn't happen. We can't exactly plan for it.

No, we cannot. Especially since you never know if the clue you're gonna get makes any sense.

They're tools, not deus ex machinas.

Like that weird one with the mask. I'm a little worried about using the bear and reading too much into whatever it points out.

[ he's still salty about that one leading them down the rabbit hole of suspecting yves. ]

[you are so valid and i hate how excited dana was for it]

Or not being able to read it at all. Imagine if Majima didn't let us know what a...what was it again? "QUER" code?

[Shakes his head.]

Anyway. Despite all arguments to the contrary, we do have a lot of good heads to put together. Don't give up hope on us yet.

Something like that. Surely that would defeat the purpose, though.

[ not that heaven cares about things like that, apparently. ]

...I'm just worried we might mess up. We almost did last week.

The possibility is always there, true. But it's not the only possibility. Don't borrow trouble from the future. At least not in too great a quantity.

[He claps a hand to Laurence's shoulder and makes to catch his eye.]

We'll do our best, and we'll do them proud. One way or another.

[Cut to the graveyard booing us as we spiral over a stray ham slice]

[ this sounds like something from a fortune cookie which laurence, for better or worse, does not know about. ]

I'm trying, alright? It's a little hard to stay optimistic when people are dying.

[ even if elysia and zhongli would encourage him to, like always. ]

Oh, believe me. I know. We're hip deep in the shit and boy, it is hard to smell anything else.

...Did you get some food in you at least? I haven't grabbed dinner yet, if you want to come with.

And yet we can't do anything about it until tomorrow.

[ that's one hell of a segue, man. ]

...No. I wasn't feeling hungry after that.

[out one end, in the other]

Well you shouldn't go to bed hungry either. Come on. We can grab something that'll go down easy.

[ he looks reluctant, still, but nods anyway. ]

Just not from the diner.

Oh god no. Absolutely not.

[AGREED. Richie will jerk his thumb over his shoulder back the main drag's way.]

Cafe sound like a good compromise?

[We can handwave from here Ray ;A; our poor boy....rattles him around]

turbo heaven 🌼 richie

week 3, friday

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