[He waves a little as her eyelids flutter shut. And that smile doesn't fade until she's down for the count entirely. Fuck, his throat is already getting tight and he still has quite a few things to do. Get a hold of yourself, Egbert. You can't let this get to you now.]
[He takes a deep breath, slipping Aradia's now-empty water bottle back into his sylladex before taking the rope in both hands and tying her down. They'd done a little practicing with this, but it was kind of a hard set-up to duplicate elsewhere. And, obviously, they couldn't tie her to the tracks themselves for practice. So the knots are a little sloppy, all in all, he probably could have tied her down a little better. But it's not like she was actually going to go anywhere. This was all for show.]
[He probably could have stood to practice a little more. Maybe then Aradia would have stayed a little more...together.]
[He also probably could have stood to be a little more careful. As he pulled his hand away once the ropes were tied, his friendship bracelet from Jimmy snagged on the track. The string snapped, sending beads flying everywhere and oh shit oh fuck oh no he doesn't have time for this. But he can't leave them here! Especially since the beads spell his name out...]
[Hurriedly, he gathers up all the beads and string, shoving them into his sylladex and accidentally forcing out a couple of sedative bottles and a butload of confetti all over the corpse in the process. Goddammit, he just cannot catch a break here. Okay. Combine beads and string into one card...pick up the bottles...put them in a separate stack and...there. Everything's in place. For now, anyway. He'll have to dump all this out and rearrange it when he gets back to his cabin.]
[The confetti can stay though, that was...more or less the plan, anyway.]
[Once that's all settled, John flies back up to the beginning of the coaster, completely unaware of the fact that he's just left behind two pieces of evidence. He should have done a more thorough search for the beads, but then again: it's dark. And, honestly, he was focused more on making sure he got all the letters. A couple of blue and green beads left in the grass were just unfortunately something he wouldn't notice. Neither was the pill bottle, though it's hard to say whether it was lucky or unlucky that the one he left behind WASN'T the same thing used t drug Aradia.]
[He enters the operations booth, briefly taking note of the bracelet Aradia planted earlier. God, he'd have to apologize to Madison later...assuming he got found out. It was low and cowardly, and John hated the fact that they'd decided to do this, but they had to try and make this as confusing as possible. Either someone else had to take the fall, or they needed to have the trial stall out long enough for Monobear to get bored and end it early. Maybe some weird combination of both.]
[Everything is ready.]
[This is it. This is the moment. All he has to do is just...press a button. The ride will start and it'll be all over. Well, phase one will be, anyway. Just a single button. Then they can undo all this. Stop the Fashion Girl, save the world. It would be so simple.]
[So why was he hesitating?]
[Minutes creep by. They'd both agreed, this was the only way he was going to be able to get his retcon powers back. But it was risky. There were SOOOO many things that could go wrong with this. And he hated the idea of sacrificing everyone to make this work. If they succeeded...would they be any different than Vriska?]
[Yes, they would. But not by much.]
[His hand is mere inches over the top of the button, shaking like a leaf while his other hand covers his face. Though he's peeking out between his fingers to look at the button, so that kind of defeats the purpose.]
I can't do this...
[Except...it's a little late for that. The gears are already turning, the plan is too far along now to stop it. And John knows that. They passed the point of no return earlier this week. When John had shown up in her cabin the morning following Franziska's execution.]
[It's funny, really. Out on paper, this feat seemed pretty damn heroic. Yeah, John was sacrificing everyone so that he could escape. But he wasn't doing it for himself. It was for all of them. And yet, in spite of this, John had never felt less heroic in his entire life. And that was really saying something.]
[He hadn't really even realized that he'd pressed the button. He was aware of his hand moving, of course, but somehow...it seemed detached. There was that weird sense of surrealism again. Like he was just watching his own body instead of actually living in it. Which was, of course, complete bullshit.]
[He pressed the button. No going back.]
~~~~~
[John wasn't entirely 100% sure what he expected to happen. He of course, expected the ride to kill her but somehow he hadn't expected it to be quite so...gruesome. It was still dark out (it had to be...what? At least 4am by now??), but he could tell as he approached that he wouldn't be needing that just-in-case pillow in his sylladex to suffocate her.]
Oh g-god!
[His hand flew to cover his mouth as John retched, staring at the torso still tied to the tracks. Where was the rest of her? Tears well up in his eyes in spite of himself.]
Sh-shit, no! This wasn't supposed to happen!
[It wasn't supposed to be this violent; she wasn't supposed to be in this many pieces. That was specifically in his stipulations, he was pretty sure! It was supposed to be as painless as possible for Aradia. There's no way that was the case here. Granted, it had been hard to research exactly what happens when someone gets hit by a roller coaster going full speed after being tied to the tracks. Surprisingly, it doesn't happen very often. So maybe this was actually completely normal.]
[He didn't bother looking for all her pieces in the dark. What was the point? He knew who the monster who killed her so brutally was already. And it was way too dark to see anyway. Who knows just how far of her some bits had gone..]
[John flies back to his cabin faster than he's ever flown in his life. And clearly this is the reason for the tears spilling out of his eyes. Clearly it's just...wind sheer. In his uncovered eyes. Crying? John? You're joking, right?]
[Except it wasn't a joke. John spent the next several hours locked up in his room and bawling his eyes out. Better to get it out now, though. Because from here on out he has to be unreadable and suspicious or otherwise this was all for nothing. He refused to let them all down, to let Aradia down.]
[Because she's the true hero of this story, in John's opinion. Not him.]
no subject
[He takes a deep breath, slipping Aradia's now-empty water bottle back into his sylladex before taking the rope in both hands and tying her down. They'd done a little practicing with this, but it was kind of a hard set-up to duplicate elsewhere. And, obviously, they couldn't tie her to the tracks themselves for practice. So the knots are a little sloppy, all in all, he probably could have tied her down a little better. But it's not like she was actually going to go anywhere. This was all for show.]
[He probably could have stood to practice a little more. Maybe then Aradia would have stayed a little more...together.]
[He also probably could have stood to be a little more careful. As he pulled his hand away once the ropes were tied, his friendship bracelet from Jimmy snagged on the track. The string snapped, sending beads flying everywhere and oh shit oh fuck oh no he doesn't have time for this. But he can't leave them here! Especially since the beads spell his name out...]
[Hurriedly, he gathers up all the beads and string, shoving them into his sylladex and accidentally forcing out a couple of sedative bottles and a butload of confetti all over the corpse in the process. Goddammit, he just cannot catch a break here. Okay. Combine beads and string into one card...pick up the bottles...put them in a separate stack and...there. Everything's in place. For now, anyway. He'll have to dump all this out and rearrange it when he gets back to his cabin.]
[The confetti can stay though, that was...more or less the plan, anyway.]
[Once that's all settled, John flies back up to the beginning of the coaster, completely unaware of the fact that he's just left behind two pieces of evidence. He should have done a more thorough search for the beads, but then again: it's dark. And, honestly, he was focused more on making sure he got all the letters. A couple of blue and green beads left in the grass were just unfortunately something he wouldn't notice. Neither was the pill bottle, though it's hard to say whether it was lucky or unlucky that the one he left behind WASN'T the same thing used t drug Aradia.]
[He enters the operations booth, briefly taking note of the bracelet Aradia planted earlier. God, he'd have to apologize to Madison later...assuming he got found out. It was low and cowardly, and John hated the fact that they'd decided to do this, but they had to try and make this as confusing as possible. Either someone else had to take the fall, or they needed to have the trial stall out long enough for Monobear to get bored and end it early. Maybe some weird combination of both.]
[Everything is ready.]
[This is it. This is the moment. All he has to do is just...press a button. The ride will start and it'll be all over. Well, phase one will be, anyway. Just a single button. Then they can undo all this. Stop the Fashion Girl, save the world. It would be so simple.]
[So why was he hesitating?]
[Minutes creep by. They'd both agreed, this was the only way he was going to be able to get his retcon powers back. But it was risky. There were SOOOO many things that could go wrong with this. And he hated the idea of sacrificing everyone to make this work. If they succeeded...would they be any different than Vriska?]
[Yes, they would. But not by much.]
[His hand is mere inches over the top of the button, shaking like a leaf while his other hand covers his face. Though he's peeking out between his fingers to look at the button, so that kind of defeats the purpose.]
I can't do this...
[Except...it's a little late for that. The gears are already turning, the plan is too far along now to stop it. And John knows that. They passed the point of no return earlier this week. When John had shown up in her cabin the morning following Franziska's execution.]
[It's funny, really. Out on paper, this feat seemed pretty damn heroic. Yeah, John was sacrificing everyone so that he could escape. But he wasn't doing it for himself. It was for all of them. And yet, in spite of this, John had never felt less heroic in his entire life. And that was really saying something.]
[He hadn't really even realized that he'd pressed the button. He was aware of his hand moving, of course, but somehow...it seemed detached. There was that weird sense of surrealism again. Like he was just watching his own body instead of actually living in it. Which was, of course, complete bullshit.]
[He pressed the button. No going back.]
~~~~~
[John wasn't entirely 100% sure what he expected to happen. He of course, expected the ride to kill her but somehow he hadn't expected it to be quite so...gruesome. It was still dark out (it had to be...what? At least 4am by now??), but he could tell as he approached that he wouldn't be needing that just-in-case pillow in his sylladex to suffocate her.]
Oh g-god!
[His hand flew to cover his mouth as John retched, staring at the torso still tied to the tracks. Where was the rest of her? Tears well up in his eyes in spite of himself.]
Sh-shit, no! This wasn't supposed to happen!
[It wasn't supposed to be this violent; she wasn't supposed to be in this many pieces. That was specifically in his stipulations, he was pretty sure! It was supposed to be as painless as possible for Aradia. There's no way that was the case here. Granted, it had been hard to research exactly what happens when someone gets hit by a roller coaster going full speed after being tied to the tracks. Surprisingly, it doesn't happen very often. So maybe this was actually completely normal.]
[He didn't bother looking for all her pieces in the dark. What was the point? He knew who the monster who killed her so brutally was already. And it was way too dark to see anyway. Who knows just how far of her some bits had gone..]
[John flies back to his cabin faster than he's ever flown in his life. And clearly this is the reason for the tears spilling out of his eyes. Clearly it's just...wind sheer. In his uncovered eyes. Crying? John? You're joking, right?]
[Except it wasn't a joke. John spent the next several hours locked up in his room and bawling his eyes out. Better to get it out now, though. Because from here on out he has to be unreadable and suspicious or otherwise this was all for nothing. He refused to let them all down, to let Aradia down.]
[Because she's the true hero of this story, in John's opinion. Not him.]
[He's just the deranged monster who killed her.]