day one; afternoon; locked to Mahiru Koizumi

[glasshole]

Who: Kyouya and Mahiru
When: Afternoon, post vote, day one

[As everyone filters away from the funhouse, he'll let Koizumi go her own way for a little while before approaching her on his own somewhere around the park.]

Oh, Miss Koizumi. I'm rather glad to run into you, actually. Are you busy?

Comments

[photonement]

That'd be nice. I don't want to sacrifice other people for my own survival or anything, more than we all have to, but I just want...

[She sits down with her hands in her lap, shoulders finally sagging.]

[glasshole]

I know. Plans and speculation are one thing, but this sort of unpredictable situation...

[Still sounding self-effacing and worried, but this time it feels sincere. Maybe.]

[photonement]

[He doesn't finish the sentence. It's eerie, to Koizumi, and hammers home that the sky is less than 50% bright by now. She realizes that he probably doesn't really want to tell her anything - or maybe he did, but she didn't pass the test. A chill runs down her spine.]

Can I ask you a question, Otori? [Pause.] Do you think it's stupid to have fun or make friends here? I don't mean, doing that instead of playing. But maybe, like, look forward to the sunrise over that castle, or a shelf of the candy shop Honey managed not to pillage?

--Sorry, I... [being vague on purpose.]

[glasshole]

[Yes. Alliances are one thing, but it's very stupid to make friends here. Anyone should be able to see that. The fact that the very few people in the world he cares about are almost all here is the most terrifying part of this.

But that's not what he says.]

I think...if the purpose of this game is to instill distrust and division, coming to know one another can only help. Why do you think I sought you out? I find your thoughtfulness and your perspective refreshing.

As for having fun, it's more in my nature to worry, and to try to work hard, but because of that...it would be a relief to me to know that someone is helping all of them get through it.

[photonement]

That sounds like you... it's important to take care of everybody. [And... did she expect him to say anything better or different? He's doing his best. He's a serious boy. He flatters her. She is pinned between friendliness and skepticism.]

You definitely already understand that there's gotta be this "division" anyway. Just like there is within my class. [To be fair at this point Koizumi just thinks at least one of them is also lying about not having a buddy. Possibly that jerk Kuzuryuu.] Even though we're both probably perfectly regular players... we can't just pledge to give each other all the information, cause what if we get converted, or that info spreads to our friends and they slip something up?

You still wanna know how I think. That makes sense. It's one of the hardest parts of this game. All the strangers. And I wanna be better acquainted with you too... You probably are a halfway decent guy outside of this, you know? [Real polite there, Koizumi.]

See you tomorrow. I've got some stuff I wanna do to pass the time.