midway | heaven / marcoh

[ AND THE HOT SPRINGS DO?

He just sits his ass down here, clinking his bottle to Claude's without really looking. At least drinking seems like a familiar-enough activity to him despite his seeming apathy about any particular drink of choice.

The drink that he doesn't actually drink, at least not right away. ]

I don't know what to think.

[ THE AMBIANCE... IS COMFY...... look stools are the enemy ]

Hm? About what?

All this.

I think, we are at six weeks left.

Already it is worse, with more bodies, and whatever it was that happened to you on Thursday before we were trapped.

Will there be more?

I think all signs are pointing to yes, right now.

I don't think things are going to accelerate, but I think we should prepare ourselves for more of the same each week.

Tomorrow, we will lose another.

So that's how it is? We'll lose three, at least, every week until the end? What does this prove?

I don't know if it's meant to prove anything.

Maybe it's pessimistic but sometimes suffering isn't about learning a lesson or growing. Sometimes it's just suffering.

Before the rise of the God of Fear and Hunger, maybe. But the Skin Bible says they were different. They acknowledged humankind's suffering, unlike the other gods.

[ what ]

Sorry? [ He is just so taken aback by this. ] Is the Skin Bible the faith you practice?

That is the most traditional bound scripture. The books where stuff about the gods are recorded.

[ There's even two versions because they HATE Enki Ankarian for telling the truth. ]

Do you think the explanation of why this is happening is in your scripture?

... No. I don't know.

Some things I recognise, like the tree. Others, I don't. This is not what the afterlife would be like, I thought.

But revealing its ugly underside, maybe I wasn't so wrong after all.