So the absolute max is probably five and a half hours then?

Or would it be more? Aries might be able to answer the first check in, at least. So maybe six and a half hours?

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Haha, that definitely makes sense. Feel bad for Fher there lol

If he's able to answer the first, then, yeah, six and a half is probably the max

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Yeah, lmao

The judgement holder was a bit chaotic for sure, couldn't stay out of trouble XD

And if he isn't able to but Mira is able to soothe him, then five and a half is the max.

Got it.

We might get some Aries angst eventually.

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How great, glad that's not going to happen again 👀

Yep, yep!

Fun!

-

Noooo, Briar would neverrrr XD

(To be fair, they're blamed for a lot more than they actually do, lmao)

This is going to go great. All of it. Can't wait.

Enjoy the post!

Briar is officially gone :)

Yayyyy, both of them having absolute mental breakdowns already is fun. The post was greatness, we love the angst.

Also, I'm curious, how much of this will be remembered by Briar?

Indeed. Glad you like the post! :D

Honestly? Not much. They'll remember vaguely having a breakdown, and they'll probably remember the fact that Aries was there and also panicking, but they'll also kind of feel like it wasn't them that it happened to, if that makes sense? Like, a major part of their problem is identity, and they quite literally can't decipher who they actually are in moments like these. They don't know what they look or sound like or anything. They've got a different image in their head of who they are at different times and who they're actually supposed to be, and, really, they've got no fucking idea which parts are accurate or not.

When looking back on this, they'll probably see it as more of a scene that they watched in a movie rather than something they actually experienced. :)

Also, I made some angsty T8P quotes (and definitely didn't spend the whole of my four-hour road trip finding them because I was bored, lmao). Enjoy them! You can obviously tell that I was able to find more that suited certain groups of characters than others, haha

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Aries: "I'm sorry that I'm not a person anymore, I'm a problem, and it's all my fault."

-

Gen'ya: "You know, ever since we were little, I would get this feeling like… like I'm floating outside of my body, looking down on myself, and I hate what I see, and I don't know how to change it, and I'm so scared that that feeling is never going to go away."

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*After Revan pushed Nico away again, Horatio got defensive and tried to go talk to Rev, resulting in an argument*

Horatio: "You were a tremendous help."

Revan: "I didn't ask to sit down."

Horatio: "You can't make small talk like every other grown-up in the world?"

Revan: "No."

Horatio: "You can't talk about boring bullshit for half an hour?"

Revan: "No!"

Horatio: "Hey, how about those interest rates?"

Revan: "No, I can't."

Horatio: "Hey, I lost my triple-A car!"

Revan: "No."

Horatio: "Like everybody else?"

Revan: "Nope, sorry."

-

*Nico tried to talk to Revan about something emotional and Revan lashed out*

Revan: "What do you wanna know? What? That I don't have siblings?! That I fucking killed them?"

Nico: "I didn't know that!"

Revan: "No, you don't wanna hear that! You don't wanna hear that I got fucking cigarettes put out on me when I was a little kid!"

Nico, crying: "I didn't know that!"

Revan: "That this isn't fucking optional, my mother is making me! You don't wanna hear that shit, Nico!"

Nico: "I do want to hear that!"

Revan: "Don't tell me you want to hear that shit!"

Nico: "I do want to hear that, I wanna hear because I wanna help you! Because I wanna-"

Revan: "Help me?! What the fuck, do I have a fucking sign on my back that says 'Save me?!'"

Nico: "No!"

Revan: "Do I act like I need that?!"

-

*Nico finally snapping back at Revan*

Nico: "You think you're the first one to ever lose anything?! You think that whatever you feel in your heart, I don't also feel in mine?!"

-

Revan/Horatio: "I just didn't want you to get hurt."

Nico: "That's really funny, because that's what everyone who keeps hurting me keeps saying!"

-

*After Briar and Aries return from exile, Gen'ya feels guilty about what happened, but also has mixed feelings because his power proved that Briar did go behind the groups back, so they don't really want to apologize fully, they just don't want to continue the conflict when the rest if the team is already struggling*

Gen'ya: "Briar? Heyyy! I know we've had our issues, but I'm… ready to be a better friend… to you. So, we should just hug! Let's hug it out, huh?"

Briar: "Hug it out? Nico can't leave her room, Horatio and Revan are barely functional. Have you lost your mind?!?"

Gen'ya: "Briar… I feel like you're upset, and you know what cures being upset? A warm embrace!"

Briar: "Get. Out. Everything was fine! Horatio was happy! The family was happy! You wanna be a better friend to me? Apologies for ruining my life! Go on… apologies."

Gen'ya: "I… am… sssorryyy."

Briar: "Hmmm."

Gen'ya: "That your life is sooo great!"

Briar: "Out!"

Gen'ya: "Wait! Fine! I apologize! I wasn't trying to ruin your life! Some of us have bigger problems, you selfish, entitled princess!"

Briar: "Selfish?! I've been stuck being perfect my whole entire life, and literally, the only thing you have ever done for me is mess things up!!"

Gen'ya: "Nothing is messed up, you can still sneak around and talk with those big, stupid aliens!"

Briar: "I never wanted to talk to them, I was doing it for the family!"

-

*After they had been dating for a while, Nico opened up to Revan (and Horatio) about a little bit of past trauma (mostly minor things, but still important) after finally convincing Revan to take a little break and spend some time with them. Revan intentionally distanced himself and tried to brush over everything, assuming it was just Nico trying to spend more time with him like normal rather than an actually important conversation*

Revan: "Okay, I give up, I'm going to get more work done."

Nico: "Here's something else you don't know about me. You just hurt my feelings."

Revan: "What did I do?"

Nico: "I opened up and shared something deeply upsetting to me, and you treated it as if it were nothing."

Revan: "I-I didn't think it was a big deal."

Nico: "It is to me, that's the point!"

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Revan/Aries: "All I do is hurt people… I'm a monster."

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Revan: "I don't understand you!"

Nico: "Wha-what?!"

Revan: "I'm not here to get to know you!"

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Briar: "The one thing I know is that Aries loves me no matter what! He fucking kills for me and I'd kill for him! It feels good to know that there's one person in this whole fucked up world who has my back!"

-

Gorōta: “So… much pain, an I-I… I don’t know how to not notice it.”

Micha: “What’s hurting you?”

Gorōta: “No, not… not me, it’s them. It’s… It’s everyone. It never stops.”

-

Nico: "Why do I, and everyone I love, pick people who treat us like we're nothing?'

Micha: "We accept the love we think we deserve."

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Briar, to Gen'ya: "If I could be a different person, I promise you, I would."

-

Aries: "You know, maybe I'm not good enough!"

Briar: "You are."

Aries: "Maybe I'm not! I'm not!"

Briar: "Aries, you are."

Aries: "I'm not! I'm not!"

-

*After Gen'ya realized the scale of what Briar and Aries went through in exile and blamed himself*

Gen'ya: "I don't… know what's wrong with me, Micha."

Micha: "Hey…"

Gen'ya: "I don't know how I could be so stupid!"

Micha: "Hey, stop that now, come on. Come on, come on, come on."

Gen'ya: "I'm so sorry."

-

Revan: "I'm what's wrong! There's nothing I can do about it! If I am not hurting myself, I am hurting everyone around me, and there is nothing I can do about it! I am… Ah, I am broken!"

-

Horatio: "Briar, you can't just go around hitting people."

Briar: "God, you know what? I am so sick of people telling me what to do and how to feel."

Horatio: "Briar, the person you want to hit is me. Just say it. You've been wanting to say it all week."

Briar: "No, because I don't actually want to talk to you!"

Horatio: "You have to talk to me!"

Briar: "You did this! You ruined my life! Everything we fought for! For what? So that you can get rid of the most useless person on your team?!"

Horatio: "I get it you're angry."

Briar: "I am not angry, I am in pain, and you put me here! The person who was supposed to protect me the most! You were supposed to be better than this!"

Horatio: "I'm not."

-

Revan, to Nico: "You are so perfect. I have never been good enough for you. I will never be good enough for you."

-

*Shortly after getting Nico back from being kidnapped*

Revan/Horatio: "And then he(Nico) put his hand on my shoulder for a second. He didn't even squeeze it, he just, like, rested his hand on top of my shoulder, and I was just thinking "How could he not hate me? How could this guy not hate me?!" How could he… How could he not hate me?!"

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Micha: "I want you to imagine a ten-year-old version of yourself sitting right there on this couch. Now this is the little kid who first believed that they were fat, ugly, and an embarrassment. I want you to imagine him sitting there right now. Now tell that little kid that they're fat!"

Gen'ya: "... I'm not going to do that."

Micha: "Tell that little kid that that he's ugly!"

Gen'ya: "I don't want to."

Micha: "Tell that little kid that… that he's an embarrassment, and worthless, and useless, because that's what you do every single day when you say that to yourself. When you convince yourself that you're an embarrassment, and a burden. Do you think they're ugly?"

Gen'ya: "No."

Micha: "No? Or fat?"

Gen'ya: "No!"

Micha: "No? Or an embarrassment? Or horrible or worthless?"

Gen'ya: "Just stop it! No!... Right? No?"

Micha: "What do you want to say to that little kid? If they said to you that's how he felt about himself, what would you tell them?"

Gen'ya: "That they're fine… That he's perfect."

Micha: "Then that's what you need to tell yourself. Every time you feel that panic, that anxiety. You need to soothe yourself like you would soothe the little girl."

-

Briar, when they find out about the arena and its punishment: "I know punishment, and he did not deserve that! He followed your stupid rules, and it still wasn't good enough! So what does it take to please you?! Break your rules and you fall, follow them and you still lose?!? It doesn't matter whether you're a sinner! Doesn't matter whether you're a saint! Nobody can win, so what's the point?!"

-

Gorōta: "What the fuck? What the actual fuck are you thinking?!"

Fher: "Gorōta-"

Gorōta: "No, you're killing us! You are killing us, don't you get that?! You made a drill with gunshots and hammered down the door to prepare us for what, exactly? For what if feels like to be hunted?! To practice getting ready to die?! To make us feel afraid for our lives?! We already know how that feels! You're scaring us to death! Every day! Every damn day! Every day!!"

Salvia: "Calm down, son."

Gorōta: "I am not your goddamn son, get the fuck away from me! We're children! We're kids! We should be living our fucking lives instead of practicing how to cheat death, because you know what? Everybody fucking dies, everybody dies! So, please let us live!"

-

*Fher is scolding Horatio for giving the team, and, more himself, a day off from training to calm down and just chill*

Fher: "No! You are the leader! That is the timekeeper's power! You do not act like this, you do not sound like this, you are not going to waste everyone's time, you are just… acting like a child!"

Horatio: "I am a child. What's your excuse?"

-

*After Nico got taken, Briar blamed themselves for not acting quicker and saving them*

Aries: "Hey, Briar? I don't know a lot, but all that? All that shit? It's not your fault."

Briar: "Yeah, I know that."

Aries: "Look at me, Briar. It's not your fault."

Briar: "I know."

Aries: "It's not your fault."

Briar: "I know!"

Aries: "No, no you don't. It's not your fault."

Briar: "I know!"

Aries: "It's not your fault."

Briar: "Alright!"

Aries: "It's not your fault. It's not your fault."

Briar: "Don't fuck with me."

Aries: "It's not your fault."

Briar: "Don't fuck with me, alright?! Don't fuck with me, Aries! I'm not you!"

Aries: "It's not your fault."

Briar: *Starts sobbing*

Aries: "It's not your fault."

Briar: "I can't…! Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

Aries: "Fuck them, okay?"

-

Micha's mother: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

10 year old Micha after watching his dad lash out at and hit his mom: "Kind."

-

*This is just some worse-case scenario angst for Nico and Rev :)*

Nico: "I love you!"

Revan: "I don't care."

*Later, after another argument*

Revan: "I'm sorry, I love you."

Nico: "I don't care."

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Aries: "I have been considering the possibility that Briar Sallow is a figment of my imagination. This is probably because I fail to understand how someone with a personality like theirs could survive in this shitty world. And also because I fail to understand how someone with a personality like theirs would take any interest in a misanthropic, pessimistic, asshole like myself."

(This would also work very well for Nico and both of their partners, but I've already got a shit ton with them, so-)

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*In one of their rare very bad arguments*

Mira: "I am reaching out to you despite everything that you have done, and you still can't get out of your own way! Good! I feel sorry for you."

Horatio: "Don't turn your back on me!"

Mira: "I should have turned my back on you ages ago!"

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Briar, to Nico: "Do you know how incredible it is that you're still nice to people? Like, people have fucked you over, people have broke you heart, have literally made you so fucking angry, have stabbed you in the back, yet you're still kind?! You still give a fuck about people?! Really?!"

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Revan: "Mom, you demanded the impossible, and I tried to be everything that you wanted me to be, I tried to eliminate-"

Graci: "I know, I know-"

Revan: "I tried to be you! I passed every test and I learned every lesson, and I'm not enough!"

Graci: "I never said that!"

Revan: "I'm a disappointment. You said that, Mom."

I also have some angsty PoR quotes that I'll share with you tomorrow. :D