week 3

[vicedirector]

seven vices week 3 31 players remaining ♫ monday - thursday Monday morning begins just like the rest, slow and uneasy. At 12pm, every television will go off with its usual bout of static, followed by a calm, albeit disinterested, voice. "Please gather in the hotel lobby within the next hour." That's all that it says before the televisions turn off. Anyone not in their rooms will hear the voice echoing around them as if through a speaker system, although there are (still) no speakers present. After hearing the motive, characters who choose to explore will find that the void around the town has retracted a bit, and there is now a small school building to the east of the clinic. On the chapel wall near the altar, black and white portraits of Sisuca, Kurisu, and Mikazuki have been hung up. Anyone looking for them will find that Sisuca's hunting knives and Kurisu's....device are nowhere to be found. >Mingle? This is Week 3's mingle log, covering Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. Investigations will go up on Friday. When posting toplevels, specify the time and location. If you plan on having any private conversations between characters, remember to let us know in the post linked below. More plot elements will be introduced this week. Mod comments will be occasionally distributed to open toplevels, accordingly. cast setting rulebook profiles private conversations

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[okuri]

[ His eyes go wide-- first in confusion and then in shock.]

What? I- [ The sight of Dhaos taking his gloves makes him panic as he realizes what exactly he's done. He looks down at his hands, his stained black hands, and then reaches for Dhaos and the gloves.]

Give me them back! [ There's no anger in his words, just pure and utter desperation. He hadn't intended to-- he didn't want anyone to see-- It makes him feel vulnerable, so incredibly vulnerable, and he hates it. He hates the emotion that's welled up inside him, that's begun to fall down his face in a few errant tears.]

[dhaosu]

...

[ Dhaos doesn't know how to respond, but if Yoite is reaching for those gloves, and is still able to move those fingers like there's no frostbite going on, he is just going to let him grab it out of his own hands. Because, yeah, why not let him grab his gloves if he wants them back? ]

.....

[ He is also confused by the reaction and understands little. The tears must be from how much it hurts, but something else is telling him there is not all there is to it. However, despite his ability to read emotions well, he cannot read minds. But, he makes an attempt again. ]

Surely... you have frostbite on your hands? Do you not need assistance?

[okuri]

[ With the gloves back he calms down a bit, though he doesn't put them on just yet, holding them tight in one hand. After a moment he turns away, using his other hand to wipe the tears from his face.]

No.

They're always-- kira. [ The words don't come out properly, which is a blessing and a curse. He always ran away when Hanabusa reached to help, but Dhaos is just standing there.]

[dhaosu]

[ Dhaos is simply watching this all happen, in a way between calculating and consideration as he thinks about the actions as well as those words.

He is able to parse what the boy means, recalling the words when he first met him. At the time, the boy had appeared so sure in his words. 'It was only supposed to be a few months'...

The explanation of 'kira' and him saying he can 'still feel it' with his hands inexplicably shoved deep in the banks of snow. He said he could still hear him too.

The man figured that the boy expected to die from this illness soon, but he wasn't aware of the effects that caused it or whatever may have been linked to kira. The blackened of hands, surely meant that he was 'losing' part of himself, and judging by the words, perhaps the senses.

He spots him wiping away the tears, but once again he doesn't...

... ]

... Very well, then. I recommend we head inside, then. I do not know how long you had your hands exposed to the snow, and therefore...it would simply not be wise to prolong our stay outside. Is that agreeable?

[okuri]

[ To say he's at a loss for words is an understatement. Dhaso wasn't asking any of the things he was sure he would ask, isn't doing any of the things that would make it easy for him to run away. He doesn't get it, he doesn't get it at all.]

You... [ It's hard to fight against someone who isn't fighting back.]

Yea.

[dhaosu]

[ Dhaos is not sure what to ask first, because he doesn't even know where to start. But he does know one thing that needed to be taken care of and that was the simple fact the other required assistance. ]

Then, follow me.

[ The man lead the way to the hotel and he is struck with the mind to say something. ]

...I am glad at the least I was able to catch you when I had, seeing as no one else was out at the time to see, lukily enough.

[okuri]

[ He follows, silent until Dhaos speaks up.]

I didn't want anyone to see. [ His hands, he means. The only thing that's stopping him now from putting them back on is the fact that his hands are soaked, and he only has one pair of gloves he really likes here. For the time being, he makes do with hiding his hands behind his hat, which he's since removed. He wouldn't normally take his hat off either, but his hands came first.]

[dhaosu]

...Understandable.

[ Dhaos is still not over what occured earlier and going over it all in his head, what the boy had surely was still nothing to be scoffed at. It was also something to be concerned over. But, one thing at a time.

The tall blond bounces around some ideas in his head, and... ]

Perhaps as for the gloves, something in that room with the machines could be used to dry them? [ Still not used to the things in the laundry room. He figures if so though, he could nab a towel in there or elsewhere. ] And if you so wish it, if there is anything you would like to discuss, you can say.

[ He doubts it, but he makes the awkward offer anyway. Other people are probably better at this than him. ]

[okuri]

I can use one of the pairs they gave me until they dry. [ He doesn't want to, but the thought of someone else seeing his hands like this isn't worth the risk.

In response to the question he shakes his head, and decides to turn the question on it's head, stopping in his tracks.]

You don't know anything about me, but you keep trying to help me. You don't know who I am or what I've done. [ He knows the counter is also true, but in his view, he isn't someone people should waste their time on. Why waste effort on someone who was already dead.]

I told Takao that he shouldn't talk to me because of things like this. [ To emphasize his point he holds up his blackened hands, in spite of the embarrassment he displayed earlier.]

[dhaosu]

Even so, I could say the same for you regarding myself.

[ His eyes flicker back to the black hands before back to the younger male's eyes. ]

Yet, you are saying why I should not bother assisting is due to all of this? Why is that? What makes my decision to speak or assist you not worth it?

If you so wish it, you can elaborate more on this, and perhaps see if I would change my mind.

[ Which he wouldn't be, he believes, but he gives no indication of this. ]

[okuri]

It's different. [ He was different and in his mind, he had helped him out in turn due to a debt owed. It wasn't that cold when it came down to it, but that's what he preferred to tell himself.]

It's a waste of your time, I'm already dead.

[dhaosu]

[ When he arrived, he thought the same at one point, recalling simply that which was supposed to be his last moments. He deluded himself into believing he could return and save his people, but he needed to face reality. He had failed.

Yet, surely...Yoite had not died yet. He still had time to live and maybe be happy once leaving this place for the time he had left. ]

Not yet in your case. However, even if I could not convince you otherwise...I would believe it is still worth it. You can still make choices or associations that impact others and even if you had and being alone in the end does not make it better.

[ ... ]

As for my time...perhaps in this case you could call it 'borrowed time' instead, and every single action I make is simply making use of whatever I may happen to be lucky to be granted each day. If originally my 'time' was absent in the first place, I can hardly say I'm wasting any of mine.

[okuri]

You're wrong. I've been dead since I learned kira, I'm only good for one thing. [ He is about to say too much and he knows it, but thankfully Dhaos' next statement catches him off guard, and he falters.]

...what?

[dhaosu]

...

[ Dhaos has a feeling where Yoite may go concerning the subject, although he is not sure exactly, but all the same it may be not what he wishes for the other to take away from the conversation. Perhaps that the boy would insist he is a 'expendable weapon' or something to that effect. He can only hazard a guess.

But in the process, he said too much himself. Although...for some reason it doesn't bother him much. First, though... ]

What as in you do not understand or... was that simply just because it was not expected?

[okuri]

Both. [ Was that possible? To Yoite it was.]

Before you came here then [ A beat.] you were dead?

[dhaosu]

...Essentially.

[ Dhaos had been breathing still before he was brought here, but it had been at the last possible moment when surely all that was needed were a couple of minutes before he'd actually die. ]

[okuri]

[ He sighs.] Sorry. [ So they were both ghosts then, in a way. He's not sure whether that's a comfort or not.]

I had wondered why you never asked me any questions. [ That night when Dhaos had helped in his room, the man had that it was better than the alternative. He gets that now, at least a little.]

[dhaosu]

It is fine.

[ Well, at the very least it has turned calm, and that is just as well. ]

That said, perhaps I could start now, if this has changed matters.

[okuri]

You can ask.

But not here. [ He begins to walk towards his room: the matter of his wet gloves still needed to be dealt with besides, and this wasn't a thing he would discuss in public openly.]

[dhaosu]

Very well.

[ He nods his head, understanding of that at least, and moves just so towards the direction the other was going as well. ]

[okuri]

[ Yoite's silent the entire walk to his room, and takes some time once they enter to hang his outerwear (hat, gloves, and scarf)by the window so they can dry. When he's done he finally turns to Dhaos and meets his gaze.]

What were you going to ask?

[dhaosu]

[ Dhaos waits very patiently, and he does not even seem to mind should it take quite awhile. He has a lot of time while he is here, after all and he is not the type to rush people unless he has a time-sensitive reason for doing so. ]

The reason you do kira, even though it hurts you so. Why is it?

[okuri]

[For a moment he recalls the moment he told Miharu why he wanted him to use the shinrabanshou. The circumstances were different, but the answer is the same.]

Because I want to be erased. [The words are said plainly and truthfully, and if anything he looks peaceful.]

[dhaosu]

[ 'Because I don't want to live.'

And then:

'Because I want to be erased.'

Saying such things and such words calmly back then and now...Dhaos cannot understand it. Yet, nothing had seemed to change in his answer--only the wording. ]

...And why is that?

[okuri]

[ The wording was important, because it was distinctive. There was a difference between living, dying, and being erased.]

You wouldn't understand. [ He had never told anyone the answer to that wish, not even Miharu.]