[ yeah, shock is the big mood here!! tinged with sadness and confusion and anxiety. it's great. ]

Hey. [ ... ] It seems like no one really has any idea what happened, huh?

... I have some guesses for Luke, but Dahut is a complete mystery to me.

[we saw luke die, but dahut was fine.]

Wait, wait, you saw it??

Yeah. He collapsed in front of everyone on the observation deck just moments before we blacked out—and given that everything we were experiencing through the nanites or whatever stopped then, it's safe to assume that was his moment of death.

[ what the fuck ]

He just... collapsed? Like, out of nowhere?

... Not exactly. We were all feeling pains soon after being locked in, but none of us were sure where they were coming from. In hindsight, he was the source.

So... I think he already had health issues that he didn't want people to know about.

Oh... So it was, like. A heart attack, or something like that, maybe?

[ that brings a pang of a more familiar kind of anxiety with it. ]

Something like that, I guess... Of course, don't take my word for it. I'm just guessing, since that's all we can do for now.

[...]

You okay? Worried about a heart attack yourself?

Ah— no, my dad just had something like that a couple of years ago. He's fine now, though! I just hadn't really thought about it in a while.

... Sorry to hear about that—but I'm glad he's fine now.

If it's any consolation, I don't think it was a literal heart attack in Luke's case.

Mm, me too!

[ he's just kind of thinking about his mortality now again after pushing it out of mind for a long time... and then that in turn is making this feel more real. ]

Whatever it was though... it's scary to think that someone who seemed fine the day before can just end up like that all of a sudden, you know?

... Yeah, it is. I'm guessing you don't see a lot of death back home?

Eh? No, that's... not it, exactly.

[ how many times have i died?? seven??? ]

It's just— there are different kinds of death, you know? Or... maybe you don't know.

[ maybe nobody knows. it doesn't seem like it's like that for any of these people where they came from, so maybe it's not like that here, either, and that's what's really freaking him out. ]

There are the stupid gag ones where you come back in the next segment, and then there are the serious ones that actually stick. [ and sometimes there's a weird season finale that's somewhere in between. ] But that's— you don't just drop one of those right at the start of the season, let alone two!

... I'll be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about. [????] But I guess the real question is—how're you holding up?

[ yeah, i kind of figured. ]

...I don't know. Okay? I guess? It's a lot to wrap my head around.

... Yeah, that's fair. Need anything to eat or drink?

[ haha... yeah, dahut isn't going to be waiting for him in the room with a croissant today, huh?

he shakes his head. ]

Thanks, but I can just grab something from the vending machine. ...Anyway, it sounds like your group here had a worse night than I did.

[his expression turns a bit wry.]

Hey, it's not a competition. I think we all had a pretty bad night.