mermaidkin | 15S R6 IC Contact

[There's a song, you see, sung by Kitty Kallen, that makes for perfect soundtrack dissonance. Jonathan's inclined to think otherwise, but having a song stuck in his head is better that nothing but that beat.]

I, uh, didn't really think you'd answer. I've got a couple of questions about what you're offering us.

Hm?

[In these first few seconds it would be easy to forget how cold Hiyori has become; there's still the gentleness of breath that comes from inching over to the phone.]

Why wouldn't I answer? You think I'd give out my phone number just to hang up on people? Well. I can't say that wouldn't be kind of satisfying.

[Leaning in conspiratorially.]

But I didn't expect I'd get to answer your questions about the motive, Jonathan Morris. I'm sure you have crazy ones, just like you did for the Captain! So! Go on!

Crazy, sure... I thought I was being as reasonable as conditions allowed.

[He doesn't sound irritated, though. Just tired, and not only in the way one would expect of the hour.]

I guess if you're expecting crazy, this'll be disappointing. There's got to be some rules about what we could and couldn't ask for, right? If there are, when are we finding out what they are?

I don't mean unreasonable, I mean... Amazing?? Haha, it's been too long since I took an organized English class...

[Still, what comes from Jonathan next isn't crazy in that sense either. Hiyori takes a deep breath.]

Whatever. You. Desire.

That's it. That's what my briefing on this was. That's what shakes out with the clearance level.

I'm telling you now since it's so late, in case you want to save your time and talk about something else.

Haha, yes, I suppose it is!

But your little advertisement routine from earlier had me thinking, and I had... well, I'll say "a question" to start with. Maybe more. We'll see.

I can put it in my timesheet either way, Kazuaki Nanaki! I'm fine. Say whatever's on your mind.

Say we do what you ask. Kill another person here, and get away with it.

Suppose we do that, and something unfortunate is to happen to us. Does that void the agreement?

Because frankly, I don't care what becomes of me. So long as Nageki makes it home safe, I'll do whatever you ask of me.

I would've thought they'd restrict it some. I mean, what if what all you want is to make it so nobody else gets killed? But...

[He sighs, after that, and the wish he has that this chair would actually creak when he leans back into it is probably obvious. Too much about this place is new for his comfort.]

... you're right, there's other stuff on my mind. Good to know we're literally speaking the same language, the Base had some kind of automatic translation deal going on and I still don't know if I was always heard as saying what I did.

Am I allowed to ask if it was "Rachel" who brought you in to all of this?

Hm. [His smugness about Jonathan's intrigue at the motive, his patience as they settle down into business.]

I won't say no translation has ever gone on in this place. But I know you actually listen to me, so, why not, right? ...now I just want to know what Vita Clotilde-Morris hears when you talk. Yes, I meant it that way around...

[Hiyori tilts his head into the new question.]

During this exercise, I'd never prohibit the open and honest discussion of evidence that's already out there. As for whether I'll actually answer your question?

Well, let's start here. If she weren't, you'd still have a lot of questions for her, right?

You guessed it. A lot of questions, and a lot of 'em phrased as you shouldn't ask a lady.

[Sarcasm and honey-in-winter Hollywood drawling are a comfortable combination, really. But he doesn't want to wear that joke out, so his voice goes back to normal after obliquely implying "Rachel" is anything but a saintly mourning mother.]

As to Vita... hell. I know she hears me, listens when she can, but... "can", that's the important part. She can't always hear me. If I come up behind her too sudden, if anybody does that - being told to give Akira the benefit of the doubt - there's times where she's just right back there about to die and there's nothing to do but make sure she's safe after she comes back.

[He is helpless against her trauma, and he doesn't know what to do, and that hits on his own. It puts an edge of despair to his voice, and makes him cut himself off, makes him try too late to redirect the conversation.] But that's not really what you asked, is it?

Edited (HTML o9) 2020-02-06 20:55 (UTC)

Especially not a young lady?

[Hiyori can't help himself. Jonathan is asking about Rachel and the host is just steering the conversation towards completely personal matters instead despite a professed distaste. That kind of hint, literary in its timing, to chew over, is the least deserved.]

It's not not what I'm interested in. I really do feel quite bad for her. "The new transfer student at Shujin High is a bad person"; this fact is as obvious to her as up not being down or the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. We can obviously imagine other worlds where this isn't the case; Venus is such a planet, for example. But when everything around us still looks so much like Earth...

[He sighs, shrugs, loses his train of thought so clinical.] Of course, even though I want to provide you both support, under the circumstances - who cares? [About what the host thinks.]

Edited 2020-02-07 14:29 (UTC)

Sheesh, I wish we had contacted you earlier! There are some really choice positions in these games for guys like you...

[Hiyori clicks his tongue.]

Violation of the agreement depends on the terms of the agreement. I don't want to bind you in a contract right away... but yes, to cut to the heart of the matter, our surrogates can bring Nageki home for you, as soon as your tasks are done if that's what you please.

It isn't that I don't care, it's - what you mean by "support" isn't something I'm sure of. It's more generous than a couple of bad guests deserve from their host... aw, damn it, that's too formal. Can't think of another way to say it, though.

[And it's devoid of sarcasm, too.

He slumps down further in the chair, sliding down until he's almost slithered out of it. Again, the damn thing doesn't even creak, but this time there was probably an audible rustling as he moved.]

There's just so much I don't know. I don't know what's really safe to ask, I don't know what happened to you, I don't know if we really made the right choice sticking with everybody on the plane - I mean, I think we did, they needed all the survival-trained people they could get given where we "landed" - I don't even know what I really wanted from this talk.

["You're probably the smartest guy here" he'd said, so shortly after they'd met. "Help me, I'm no good at this kind of thing" was what he'd meant.

It's like that, again. He can't say what he means. There's even more reasons now that he can't than there were on that plane; the way he'd felt with a blade aimed at his face maybe not the first but definitely one of the most distracting among them. He doesn't know anymore if it's his own trust or something this place has put in his head that has him asking for help without being able to ask Hiyori outright, again. It's exhausting.]

Because you wanted to hear our voice, right?

[The host just wants to help and isn't even thinking of anything else. That purity of intention is saturated to the point of tainted by the grammar suggesting this voice is not his to solely own. His words themselves are clear as crystal, even though in the silence there's snow in the distance on the phone line.]

Vita Clotilde-Morris said you didn't like it when you woke up and she couldn't be seen by you. [Similar neuroses wracked him at the base; Hiyori elects not to bring up the even wider extent of his knowledge at this time.] You've realized you can't be sure what's happening to me, so it's the same thing, right? You know, I wouldn't mind if you checked in every evening! Nobody else ever called all day. You're the only one who would rather talk to us than Link, I think. So I'll have time.

...though if you do it enough I'll have to talk about the corporation sooner or later... [He sighs. He doesn't want to dwell on what sounds like a depressing thing!!] I wish you could understand what a wonderful opportunity I've received. Not to mention getting away from Yurick - powers regained - as soon as possible. But at least you can tell that this is me. I sow confusion to keep things truly classified and all, but you're the only one I can't abide not having completely sure that it's me. My point is... Even if your wife remains utterly impossible to convince, if she at least felt less completely at odds with the world I'd still be so pleased...

Edited 2020-02-08 00:50 (UTC)

That makes two of us. I'm worried she's wearing a target, now, one I can't pick up and put on myself. If she didn't feel like it was us against everyone it'd be different, but... I cain't shake the feelin' she's decided we shouldn't bother with alliances.

[He grimaces at the sheer Southernness of his own voice - this time, it definitely wasn't intentional - and while Hiyori (probably) can't see it, he can definitely hear the frustrated little noise Jonathan makes with the face.]

Just wish you two could get along. You're right, by the way. I do worry because I don't understand what's been done to you.

[Admitting it feels like burying himself in a grave he just happened upon; the choppy stiff rhythm of his speech, trying to resist the tempo set by this world, sounds like dirt hitting a coffin-lid heard from the inside.]

So, ah. Yeah, if you're sure you're okay with it. I'd like to call.

[Link is blandly placid in a way he didn't seem to be when they last met. Hiyori is very like himself, still, even when pronouns keep slipping into plural and he calls people by their full names no matter what. To people who hadn't met them, maybe the former would seem easier to handle than the latter, but for Jonathan the choice is clear. He'd rather think it's possible to maintain some kind of self, in case the worst happens, and talking to Link makes him start to doubt that. Hiyori seems far less... diluted by combination, in comparison.]

[It feels like sneaking around, especially after jolting awake unsubtly enough that he'd worried he'd awakened Vita, but not keeping his word would build up worse guilt than that.]

I'm an idiot and let it slip my mind and I'm sorry. I do want to check in.

Don't know if you're the one I should be asking, but... what happens to us if nobody went for it?

[Jonathan's voice is just barely above a whisper. Why? He's in the bedroom, seated by the built-in vanity, talking on the telephone there (because where else would a handset in the bedroom be?). He's gazing at the bed, and the woman sleeping there, and he's silent in a way that speaks to words left unsaid for a few moments.]

She's asleep. I can't sleep. Didn't sleep. I'm scared if I do it'll happen again.

[In time, he'll lay back down and hold on to his wife and try to pretend anything in any world is remotely okay. But in this moment... he's fidgety and nervous and doesn't want to wake Vita up with that.]

Sorry for waking you up. I just... I didn't want to be alone, all of a sudden.

Why would she? [Bother with alliances.] Is there anyone else she's actively close with right now who wasn't directly charmed by you first? Also, you're literally twice her size - she can hide from almost anything behind you.

[He's asking these questions like Vita is using magic to do make-up but not fix her hair: Guileless confusion.]

You're the kind of person who wants to pick up targets and calls. That earns you admiration. It's very simple. You shouldn't... want to be hated more, okay?

[But it sounds like this kind of abstract concept is something very difficult to wrap his mind around. What Jonathan wants is to understand what's been done to Hiyori, which for the person in question is like looking at the sun instead of basking in its rays. What happened to him having so much to say? So many plans? What were some of the words he was using before?] No, literally double, haha. [Even the powers can serve as unpleasant reminders that aren't needed with so little additional information, when every inch of architecture screams the name of their new home. Hiyori decides to focus on a happy thing and end on a high note!]

Anyway, that's when I'll hear from you again then! Good night!

[Hiyori is clearly very excited that Jonathan actually called; keeping such a strict schedule evidently made him project that calling by midnight specifically was the plan and therefore the promise had been broken. Though it's not like the host deserves to have standards that high, you know? So, he's glad and not even bitter about initially staying hanging like that. However, he quickly steers the conversation to the fact that without Thursday going into full swing yet, there's still plenty of time for all fifteen strangers to convert before a murder occurs. Doesn't that sound great, Jonathan? Having the chance to save everyone?]

[Jonathan did wake Hiyori up from a deep sleep, this much is immediately obvious. Not that he's mad or anything! At all! Whether that Jonathan didn't call earlier, or that he's calling so late now! A host always does whatever their duties for the strangers require! But having a more precise schedule does help their hosts meet their needs even more efficiently if that's what would make them happy. Just saying!!! It's a tiny physical drain and that's the only reason it's hard to imagine that on the other end of the line Hiyori is even physically smiling!

At first. By the time that the direct apology is offered, Hiyori has sufficiently adjusted to the situation and calmed down. He still doesn't like that Jonathan is whispering to him - it seems genuinely difficult for him to understand, parsing the words or the reason for doing so - and doesn't respond in kind at all but is still following along closely. Die-day concerns, not surprising. In the future, Jonathan will obviously realize when he looks at the autopsy report that the incident had already happened at midnight, but in the present, Hiyori diligently doesn't hint one way or the other whether he knows anything at all about the case, dodges and weaves and keeps him guessing. There's a faint air of guilt, sure, or at least discomfort from awareness that the situation appears to have negative elements, but that could easily apply to simply compliance in generating a situation of such intense fear in the first place.

That's what Jonathan's actual question is about, after all, the scenario where there isn't a case. Hiyori does state promptly that there was not actually an explicit mention of a time limit in this particular motive announcement, while past games have had motives with an explicit time limit. No other type of more flexible time limit was implied either, like the overarching premiere class threat on the plane. But even this isn't phrased in a way that serves as a concrete reassurance nothing would happen at all. Whether because they didn't murder on schedule, or because more time is passing in the City without that intense expression of personal desire. It's all a mystery.

Hiyori winds down by pointing out that if Jonathan joins the corporation, he will never be alone. This could be interpreted in many creepy or at least strict ways, but rather than confirming or denying any of them, he cuts deeper: on many levels, they practice what they preach, because Jonathan can call Hiyori whenever he wants.]

I couldn't sleep thanks to your fucking monsters. Thanks for showing us that, you asshole.

[Eric snaps at being chided once he calls, his voice as groggy as the 'excuse' suggests.]

Why were there people there? People I know. No one, no one could tell me whether or not that was real... that's not going to happen to us, is it? It can't, right?

Yooooooou're welcome! [chirps the thanked Hiyori, just dumping honey the fuck on to compensate for the unique misery of having a schedule where you wake up at 5 AM, and getting awoken at 3 AM.]

That's a lot of different questions... If I didn't explain why Kazuaki Nanaki made his choice, can I really explain why anybirdie else was on that stage? [He laughs.] God, the things I've had to read up on in this line of work, you know?

I'll tell you this for starters. Your individual familiarity with Yusuke Kitagawa and Futaba Sakura was not the reason that you all saw what you saw.

No. I don't. You think you're being so goddamn cute, don't you? [this is him not being amused by 'anybirdie', sorry hiyohiyo]

Okay, all right...

[that at least makes him feel less like he is being directly threatened here]

Then what about the rest of it.

I'm not cute, I'm being culturally sensitive...! [That pretentious counterattack is even more cute, even if it's true.]

Back when we presented the execution, we had plenty of time to explain it to you if that was our plan. But on the other hand, providing a welcoming attitude over these phone calls is—is also our plan!

[He had to quickly, politely stifle a yawn there. This faint sense of desperation makes it perhaps seem like Hiyori is genuinely conflicted between these two options and stressed about that, not just playing with his food.]

The execution wasn't performed by "people". Rather, by Noise. In this case, they were clearly subdivided into two groups.

Edited 2020-02-11 06:37 (UTC)

[Should he feel sympathetic? Because he totally doesn't!!]

Right, I get it. It's always some big plan with you people. Great fucking job. You know, if you don't want to put up with me, you could always transfer the call to one of your many bosses.

[His swearing has apparently doubled, because he is more tired and cranky than Hiyori and don't you forget it >:/

but the explanation does pacify him a bit. The clarification that it wasn't by people. He wouldn't say that if noise were also people, right? Then it doesn't matter to him what a noise is, his main source of worry is cleared up and he can focus on this subdivision thingie. Two groups seems pretty straightforward as hints go.]

...Oh. So that's why...

15S R6 IC Contact

11:60 PM, or, rather, Midnight

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call late late tuesday night/wednesday morning, because what is a sleep schedule

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Wednesday night... TECHNICALLY Thursday morning....

"Thursday night" - yeah, no, it's Friday Morning, sometime around 0330

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[mindless self indulgence voice:] IT'S 3 AM (saturday week 2)

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