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speaksoftlylove2014-11-20 02:27 am
dalicious) wrote in speaksoftlylove2014-11-20 02:27 am
FIC - Games People Play
dangan roleplay; henri + lysandre
1440 words
for ri
Sometimes Monobear asks questions about the other classes – usually when Lysandre is working, when he has those files that he'd taken from the Future Foundation headquarters splayed out across his desk and the damn stuffed animal decides he's not having enough attention paid to him, and so he squirms his way up onto Lysandre's lap and sort of headbutts him in the neck until he leans back enough to let Monobear settle and take a look. Usually the questions aren't about Lysandre's own, though sometimes he asks about that one too if he decides he wants to try to get a rise; usually they're about the 78th, because Lysandre seems to care a lot about the 78th for reasons Monobear's processes can't even begin to parse.
"Did you know them?" he'd asked once, not particularly caring about the answer as he shuffled through a few of the pictures with felt paws.
"Yes," had been the response, quiet and patient and surprisingly not agitated. "Some of them. These."
And Lysandre had taken the pictures patiently, as one would from a child, and he'd shown him, and Monobear didn't bother asking why he only really knew the dead people.
Sometimes he goes through the files on his own, and he asks Lysandre about them later, and that's how he learns about Hajime Hinata; it's how he learns about the Future Foundation and Makoto Naegi and why he's programmed to hate hopeful children with ahoges, and that latter point is how he accidentally learns about Jimmy, one day when Lysandre says a bit too much.
"Is he going to play with us, too?" Monobear asks him, the red eye on the left side of his body brightening in intensity.
"I don't know," Lysandre replies. "Maybe."
Some weeks Lysandre spends far more time than he really should in the greenhouse; Monobear's taken to calling the plant Audrey III, and even if Lysandre doesn't understand that particular reference, the name seems to have stuck. Sometimes he feeds it; it turns out the plant likes Poképuffs, something Monobear has never quite understood.
"It's not a Pokémon, is it?" he asks one day, after appearing without warning in his usual way; to his credit, Lysandre doesn't startle.
If Monobear were human, he may have been concerned at the fact that Lysandre also doesn't respond at all; as it is, he's just a little annoyed that he has to repeat the question at a higher volume.
"Oh...no, it isn't." He doesn't turn to look; he just keeps messing with the plant. After a while he reaches out as though to touch, only to abruptly draw his hand back when he's snapped at and shoot the thing a glare in response.
"Then why do you bother with it?"
Lysandre is quiet for a moment, though it's in that way that implies he's thinking it over, not one that implies he's gone off in his head again.
"Because sometimes it's good to be around living things."
Monobear huffs at that. "You've got your Pokémon for that! And you've got – "
He cuts himself off; Lysandre finally turns his head to look at him, and there's something in his expression that Monobear can't place but doesn't like.
"...I know, mon petit," he says eventually; for some reason, it doesn't help.
The first time Monobear sees her he's bothered; she's posing with someone who looks like him, but more importantly she looks like someone he should know.
He takes the photo out of those files that Lysandre has finally stopped playing with for the time being; his creator is having a bad day, if the number of cigarettes he's been smoking is any indication, but that's never stopped him before. He approaches him where he's standing near those glass panels that look down on the weapon chamber; he thrusts the photo at him, the gesture somewhat awkward, and even if it takes Lysandre a moment to take it he does eventually.
"That's Junko Enoshima," he says, without prompting; his voice is odd as it leaves him. Blank.
Monobear mulls that over for a moment; pulls up a few things he doesn't quite remember but has files to answer for anyway.
"So that's Mom," he says eventually.
Lysandre hesitates. "Something like that."
Monobear jabs at him a little bit, softly, with one of his paws; Lysandre keeps his gaze fixed out the window as he hands the photo back, and he takes another drag from his cigarette once it's done.
"You said she programmed me."
"In a way, yes. She helped make adjustments to the prototype I had; she told me what should be done with you, more or less."
"So you knew her."
"Mm." It's not really an answer, but it's not a denial either.
"What was she like?"
Another drag on that cigarette; another long pause before he replies. "Miserable," he says eventually, "in a way that you would find admirable."
"Is she dead?"
Lysandre is silent for a long time. "You know the game we're going to play soon...?"
Monobear bounces a little, the initial question forgotten for now. "You're talking about my favorite, right?"
"Yes." He taps some of the ash off the end of his smoke. "She was the one who taught me how to play."
After a while Lysandre doesn't have to worry about there being other living things in the base; Team Flare is notified of his return, of course, though they seem confused by the changes made to the base. Xerosic doesn't care, in the way that Lysandre had told Monobear that he wouldn't; in the end, Xerosic ends up being the most useful one there, and Monobear likes him just like Lysandre had said he would.
He vastly prefers him to the four female Scientists who follow Lysandre around; they eat up his time, they distract him from the game.
Monobear has to stay in the console when Team Flare is around, so he does, and on boring days the printers 'malfunction' a bit more than they probably should; after a while, though, the boring days are cut down – Xerosic isn't an idiot, and he knows his way around computers, and Monobear likes playing with him during downtime.
It's very stunted, strange playing, but it's something to do.
There's someone else in the base as well, someone who keeps to the mostly empty upper floors at first, and when Lysandre dismisses the rest of Team Flare before the weapon is set to go off, telling them to return to Lumiose, that one remains behind.
Monobear just calls him Professor most of the time; Lysandre calls him Augustine. And Monobear doesn't like him either, for different reasons than he doesn't like the Scientists; he doesn't like the way his creator softens around him, he doesn't like the way they talk. If anyone's going to talk him out of the game it's going to be that one, and it's a relief the day the weapon goes off anyway and the region dies.
For a while, they're the only ones there, Lysandre and Augustine and Monobear; Monobear is no longer restricted to the console, and after several days of isolation, Augustine teaches him how to play games with yarn. Monobear likes it because he's good at it, and more importantly because it's something to do, even if he has to play with Augustine while his creator is busy doing other things.
They can't play any other games for a while yet, anyway.
It isn't until the day of the trial that he realizes that he isn't sure when 'Papa' stopped being sarcastic.
He realizes before it's over, before the votes are sent through his processor and he realizes that even Lysandre has put one in, and he's voted for Hope, he's voted to die - he realizes before all that but that doesn't make it any easier, and he finds that he doesn't want to think about it because this sort of despair has never been as fun as the rest.
He knows full well that Lysandre had lied to him, when he'd asked if they were ever actually supposed to win this; no matter what happened, the game had been designed for the Mastermind to lose. He has to wonder if Lysandre's last words to Augustine are lies as well – after all, he would know almost better than anyone the difference between adieu and au revoir.
But if it's a lie, it's a nice one, in sickly-sweet ways that he also doesn't like to think about for very long; Henri can't stop the last thought he has, before the blade comes down, from being I'll see you soon.
1440 words
for ri
Sometimes Monobear asks questions about the other classes – usually when Lysandre is working, when he has those files that he'd taken from the Future Foundation headquarters splayed out across his desk and the damn stuffed animal decides he's not having enough attention paid to him, and so he squirms his way up onto Lysandre's lap and sort of headbutts him in the neck until he leans back enough to let Monobear settle and take a look. Usually the questions aren't about Lysandre's own, though sometimes he asks about that one too if he decides he wants to try to get a rise; usually they're about the 78th, because Lysandre seems to care a lot about the 78th for reasons Monobear's processes can't even begin to parse.
"Did you know them?" he'd asked once, not particularly caring about the answer as he shuffled through a few of the pictures with felt paws.
"Yes," had been the response, quiet and patient and surprisingly not agitated. "Some of them. These."
And Lysandre had taken the pictures patiently, as one would from a child, and he'd shown him, and Monobear didn't bother asking why he only really knew the dead people.
Sometimes he goes through the files on his own, and he asks Lysandre about them later, and that's how he learns about Hajime Hinata; it's how he learns about the Future Foundation and Makoto Naegi and why he's programmed to hate hopeful children with ahoges, and that latter point is how he accidentally learns about Jimmy, one day when Lysandre says a bit too much.
"Is he going to play with us, too?" Monobear asks him, the red eye on the left side of his body brightening in intensity.
"I don't know," Lysandre replies. "Maybe."
Some weeks Lysandre spends far more time than he really should in the greenhouse; Monobear's taken to calling the plant Audrey III, and even if Lysandre doesn't understand that particular reference, the name seems to have stuck. Sometimes he feeds it; it turns out the plant likes Poképuffs, something Monobear has never quite understood.
"It's not a Pokémon, is it?" he asks one day, after appearing without warning in his usual way; to his credit, Lysandre doesn't startle.
If Monobear were human, he may have been concerned at the fact that Lysandre also doesn't respond at all; as it is, he's just a little annoyed that he has to repeat the question at a higher volume.
"Oh...no, it isn't." He doesn't turn to look; he just keeps messing with the plant. After a while he reaches out as though to touch, only to abruptly draw his hand back when he's snapped at and shoot the thing a glare in response.
"Then why do you bother with it?"
Lysandre is quiet for a moment, though it's in that way that implies he's thinking it over, not one that implies he's gone off in his head again.
"Because sometimes it's good to be around living things."
Monobear huffs at that. "You've got your Pokémon for that! And you've got – "
He cuts himself off; Lysandre finally turns his head to look at him, and there's something in his expression that Monobear can't place but doesn't like.
"...I know, mon petit," he says eventually; for some reason, it doesn't help.
The first time Monobear sees her he's bothered; she's posing with someone who looks like him, but more importantly she looks like someone he should know.
He takes the photo out of those files that Lysandre has finally stopped playing with for the time being; his creator is having a bad day, if the number of cigarettes he's been smoking is any indication, but that's never stopped him before. He approaches him where he's standing near those glass panels that look down on the weapon chamber; he thrusts the photo at him, the gesture somewhat awkward, and even if it takes Lysandre a moment to take it he does eventually.
"That's Junko Enoshima," he says, without prompting; his voice is odd as it leaves him. Blank.
Monobear mulls that over for a moment; pulls up a few things he doesn't quite remember but has files to answer for anyway.
"So that's Mom," he says eventually.
Lysandre hesitates. "Something like that."
Monobear jabs at him a little bit, softly, with one of his paws; Lysandre keeps his gaze fixed out the window as he hands the photo back, and he takes another drag from his cigarette once it's done.
"You said she programmed me."
"In a way, yes. She helped make adjustments to the prototype I had; she told me what should be done with you, more or less."
"So you knew her."
"Mm." It's not really an answer, but it's not a denial either.
"What was she like?"
Another drag on that cigarette; another long pause before he replies. "Miserable," he says eventually, "in a way that you would find admirable."
"Is she dead?"
Lysandre is silent for a long time. "You know the game we're going to play soon...?"
Monobear bounces a little, the initial question forgotten for now. "You're talking about my favorite, right?"
"Yes." He taps some of the ash off the end of his smoke. "She was the one who taught me how to play."
After a while Lysandre doesn't have to worry about there being other living things in the base; Team Flare is notified of his return, of course, though they seem confused by the changes made to the base. Xerosic doesn't care, in the way that Lysandre had told Monobear that he wouldn't; in the end, Xerosic ends up being the most useful one there, and Monobear likes him just like Lysandre had said he would.
He vastly prefers him to the four female Scientists who follow Lysandre around; they eat up his time, they distract him from the game.
Monobear has to stay in the console when Team Flare is around, so he does, and on boring days the printers 'malfunction' a bit more than they probably should; after a while, though, the boring days are cut down – Xerosic isn't an idiot, and he knows his way around computers, and Monobear likes playing with him during downtime.
It's very stunted, strange playing, but it's something to do.
There's someone else in the base as well, someone who keeps to the mostly empty upper floors at first, and when Lysandre dismisses the rest of Team Flare before the weapon is set to go off, telling them to return to Lumiose, that one remains behind.
Monobear just calls him Professor most of the time; Lysandre calls him Augustine. And Monobear doesn't like him either, for different reasons than he doesn't like the Scientists; he doesn't like the way his creator softens around him, he doesn't like the way they talk. If anyone's going to talk him out of the game it's going to be that one, and it's a relief the day the weapon goes off anyway and the region dies.
For a while, they're the only ones there, Lysandre and Augustine and Monobear; Monobear is no longer restricted to the console, and after several days of isolation, Augustine teaches him how to play games with yarn. Monobear likes it because he's good at it, and more importantly because it's something to do, even if he has to play with Augustine while his creator is busy doing other things.
They can't play any other games for a while yet, anyway.
It isn't until the day of the trial that he realizes that he isn't sure when 'Papa' stopped being sarcastic.
He realizes before it's over, before the votes are sent through his processor and he realizes that even Lysandre has put one in, and he's voted for Hope, he's voted to die - he realizes before all that but that doesn't make it any easier, and he finds that he doesn't want to think about it because this sort of despair has never been as fun as the rest.
He knows full well that Lysandre had lied to him, when he'd asked if they were ever actually supposed to win this; no matter what happened, the game had been designed for the Mastermind to lose. He has to wonder if Lysandre's last words to Augustine are lies as well – after all, he would know almost better than anyone the difference between adieu and au revoir.
But if it's a lie, it's a nice one, in sickly-sweet ways that he also doesn't like to think about for very long; Henri can't stop the last thought he has, before the blade comes down, from being I'll see you soon.