[Does she really want to be investigating mystery noises in a haunted-alien-hacker-collective-mindcontrolling-rats hotel-resort at this point.
The answer is yes, yes she does, but only after stopping to check whose room it is on her tablet device. And yes, she knows the tablet's most likely bugged, but in for a penny, in for a pound. The upside to all this is that Akira is getting company. Company that is rapping cautiously on the door.]
[Well, he has a knife, but as it's a kitchen knife -- she's not as alarmed or confused as she could have been. She is still kind of baffled, though.]
Well, the knife looks more okay than you right now, buuut I'll believe that for now. Are you cooking? In your room?
[She doesn't try to take a peek into the room, but she does raise her head a little to see if anything smells like food. Even though she has no idea why he wouldn't just do that in the kitchen. They have some weirdos here.]
[it's quite a few hours before Akira finally returns to his hostel room, cheeks and ears and nose flushed red from the cold (he spent a lot of time outside collecting his thoughts). his anger has simmered from earlier, even though he can still feel sparks of it alighting to life in his gut. but it's more controllable now, at least]
[in the hallways, near the dorm area, on his way back to his room, he sees her]
[There's something distant and formal in her tone, though it's hard to tell if it's from distraction or just the remnant of everything earlier, weighing down the words and scratching at their edges.
Blue Angel's lingered at the end of the trial for longer than she wanted to -- she has a feeling they're all going to be sick of that horrid golden room and its horrid Captain long before their time is up. And they don't exactly know how much time they have, do they? There's only so many of them.
Which is why afterwards, after she's wandered the halls and then puttered around her room a little to pull herself back together, she headed straight for Akira's room.]
[ah. that's to be expected, he thinks. especially after what he pulled at the trial. not that he regrets making the attempt, even if it ultimately led to nothing. but it was as he said at the time: they had to try.]
Sure.
[he waves a hand, before shivering and stuffing it back into his pocket]
[Especially after what he pulled at the trial and then earlier in the week -- honestly, this is starting to become a trend, and one she doesn't like, and also one she's starting to see form across the board. Like, how the hell are they going to make it through this if everyone is dogpiling themselves to be eaten all the time??
It's enough to give a girl grey hairs if only she wasn't actually a virtual goddamn avatar.
Blue Angel stifles a sigh and motions for him to follow her.]
You can come over. I don't really want to be watching my every move because a knife might pop up at any moment.
[You're talking to the girl who's the most lineface, lowkey high school student on earth by day and a virtual card games on hoverboards idol at night, so she just gives him a mildly exasperated look but doesn't chastise him for messing around or pause at his demeanor here.
They'll all of them cope in different ways.
Her room is decked out in soothing shades of blue and otherwise very ordinary. It's comfortable enough, but somewhat less lived-in than you'd expect. No trinkets or anything, full on minimalism so far.]
If you haven't been back to your room in the meantime, it's probably been spruced up again. [with new knives.......] Anyway. What have you got to say for yourself?
[Totally just diving into the topic right away. She didn't even invite him to sit down.]
[IT SURE WOULD BE A SHAME but he's moving slow enough that their resident oil slick could probably keep up with him, never mind Blue Angel's swift feet which are echoing purposefully down the hallway. Of course she wants him to know she's coming. He promised, after all, and as tired as she's getting of chasing him down for things like this...
Now that everything is over with and the adrenaline's died down she's just kind of glad they're still here.]
Kurusu-kun...
[Do you need a hand back to your room, you heckin' invalid.]
[She ducks her head but I guess they are still making slow and steady progress towards his room?? Whatever, there are maybe two people who called her Aoi back home on any regular basis and it's definitely weird.]
... I don't think it's all that different.
[She's basically a walking pun on blue, what do you want from her. Anyway.]
[. . . even for someone who wound up sleeping through the commotion, the announcement that echoes throughout the resort is difficult to miss. it draws Akira out of bed, sees him bolting down the hallway at top speeds, stopped only by Cinque in order to catch up on everything he missed]
[he's still rushing towards the lobby when he stumbles across Aoi, and he wastes no time in calling out her name]
[With the announcement's echoes still ringing through the halls, it's certainly still early enough that Aoi hasn't yet had a moment to get to bed at all; the most she's gotten around to doing is cleaning off the mess of everyone else's blood and debris and various spider bits or whatever that's been a companion through the night.
This has seriously just been the no-sleep no-breaks week-slash-weekend here. She's genuinely starting to see why Kohaku keeps uselessly going on about a raise.
So she's more or less just kind of wan and tired-looking and probably wandering the halls aimlessly looking for sleepiness when Akira comes pelting over out of nowhere. For a second she just blinks at him, looking totally surprised.]
[She doesn't move away at the contact, though she does look down at his hand with some of the same sort of detached surprise before her features smooth out and she looks back up. Shakes her head in brief and simple honesty; it's definitely that hour of sleep deprivation and everything-sinking-in where reactions are a little sluggish but there.]
We lost one, instead of everyone. I guess that's something.
[It's not that she forgot that Atsushi was part of the casualty list.
It's just that out of the planned casualty list -- he wasn't part of the planned casualty list, was he? A gun to be fired once and then discarded? He was the Cleaner, it would make no sense to just throw away a third party role like that. She's not sure. It's all jumbled up now, the roles and the unimportance of the game and the continued domination of the game on their lives regardless.
She brings a hand up to rub at her eyes, a tired and frustrated motion.]
We don't, but we have to plan for it anyway. We have to plan and fail every time, don't we? We can't not. It's-- [incredibly disheartening, infuriating, she wants to stop by now but] --I'm sorry.
[For complaining, maybe for failing, who knows. She should stop talking and regroup.]
week 1, monday
[what's up with that?? you should investigate, Aoi]
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The answer is yes, yes she does, but only after stopping to check whose room it is on her tablet device. And yes, she knows the tablet's most likely bugged, but in for a penny, in for a pound. The upside to all this is that Akira is getting company. Company that is rapping cautiously on the door.]
Hello? Is everything all right in there?
[Don't be a skeleton, dude.]
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[moments later, Akira opens the door, looking a bit frazzled]
[he's holding a knife]
[a kitchen knife]
Heeeeey. . . there.
I'm fine.
[he has a knife]
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Well, the knife looks more okay than you right now, buuut I'll believe that for now. Are you cooking? In your room?
[She doesn't try to take a peek into the room, but she does raise her head a little to see if anything smells like food. Even though she has no idea why he wouldn't just do that in the kitchen. They have some weirdos here.]
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Nnnnope. [popping the p for emphasis] I'm going knife hunting.
Want to help?
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Knife hunting? What happened here?
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I found a knife in my bed earlier. This one was stuck in the toilet tank.
[. . . gross]
Iiiii think the staff put them here, actually.
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remember the last time we had a rain of knives
yes... i do....
I'll laugh and cry if we get another knife scavenger hunt trial
everyone auto-assumes it's Akira's fault
I mean, it totally is
he did nothing!!!
seems fake
D8
<3
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week 1, saturday post-trial
[in the hallways, near the dorm area, on his way back to his room, he sees her]
. . . hey, Blue Angel.
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[There's something distant and formal in her tone, though it's hard to tell if it's from distraction or just the remnant of everything earlier, weighing down the words and scratching at their edges.
Blue Angel's lingered at the end of the trial for longer than she wanted to -- she has a feeling they're all going to be sick of that horrid golden room and its horrid Captain long before their time is up. And they don't exactly know how much time they have, do they? There's only so many of them.
Which is why afterwards, after she's wandered the halls and then puttered around her room a little to pull herself back together, she headed straight for Akira's room.]
Can I talk to you?
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Sure.
[he waves a hand, before shivering and stuffing it back into his pocket]
My place, or yours?
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It's enough to give a girl grey hairs if only she wasn't actually a virtual goddamn avatar.
Blue Angel stifles a sigh and motions for him to follow her.]
You can come over. I don't really want to be watching my every move because a knife might pop up at any moment.
[Seriously, dude.]
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Fair. I think I cleared them all out this morning, but who knows when the bread knives may decide to attack again.
[he says that all blandly, with a perfectly neutral face. and this is the guy who challenged Jorogumo earlier?]
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They'll all of them cope in different ways.
Her room is decked out in soothing shades of blue and otherwise very ordinary. It's comfortable enough, but somewhat less lived-in than you'd expect. No trinkets or anything, full on minimalism so far.]
If you haven't been back to your room in the meantime, it's probably been spruced up again. [with new knives.......] Anyway. What have you got to say for yourself?
[Totally just diving into the topic right away. She didn't even invite him to sit down.]
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week 2, saturday post-trial
[IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF ANYONE STOPPED HIM]
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Now that everything is over with and the adrenaline's died down she's just kind of glad they're still here.]
Kurusu-kun...
[Do you need a hand back to your room, you heckin' invalid.]
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. . .
You can call me Akira, if you want to.
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... Akira-kun. It would still feel pretty weird to hear like this, but I guess you can call me Aoi, if you want.
[Sure, let's just skip the last name altogether. When you've condemned a man to death together what's a few layers of politeness and shit.]
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[just Aoi! no honorific]
I prefer it this way.
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... I don't think it's all that different.
[She's basically a walking pun on blue, what do you want from her. Anyway.]
We really need to stop meeting like this.
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week 4, sunday
[he's still rushing towards the lobby when he stumbles across Aoi, and he wastes no time in calling out her name]
Aoi!
[holy fucking shit has he missed a lot]
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This has seriously just been the no-sleep no-breaks week-slash-weekend here. She's genuinely starting to see why Kohaku keeps uselessly going on about a raise.
So she's more or less just kind of wan and tired-looking and probably wandering the halls aimlessly looking for sleepiness when Akira comes pelting over out of nowhere. For a second she just blinks at him, looking totally surprised.]
Akira-kun...
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[on instinct, Akira reaches out, fingers brushing up against her upper arm. his determined expression shifts to concern, features softening]
Aoi. . . are you okay?
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We lost one, instead of everyone. I guess that's something.
[It's very soft, maybe half to herself.]
I'm not sure what happens now.
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Two. Atsushi and Cynthia-san.
[Akira isn't sure that the low casualty number makes things better]
. . . I'm not, either. But does anyone really know what's going to happen from day to day in a place like this anymore?
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[It's not that she forgot that Atsushi was part of the casualty list.
It's just that out of the planned casualty list -- he wasn't part of the planned casualty list, was he? A gun to be fired once and then discarded? He was the Cleaner, it would make no sense to just throw away a third party role like that. She's not sure. It's all jumbled up now, the roles and the unimportance of the game and the continued domination of the game on their lives regardless.
She brings a hand up to rub at her eyes, a tired and frustrated motion.]
We don't, but we have to plan for it anyway. We have to plan and fail every time, don't we? We can't not. It's-- [incredibly disheartening, infuriating, she wants to stop by now but] --I'm sorry.
[For complaining, maybe for failing, who knows. She should stop talking and regroup.]
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