Tuesday evening; 9:00 PM

[thanatosincarnate]

{ After that trial and when Arumat had sufficiently sorted his emotions through it all, he had decided to visit a certain individual in particular... because he knew he wasn't the only one inconvenienced by Kazuma that trial (putting it lightly).

He climbed up the latter and gave Adam's door to his room a knock. }

Lad, if you are present, give a response. I wish to speak with you.

Comments

[antietam]

[ Adam has had the time to process what happened, especially since he's received a couple of visits by worried people. He thinks that's all done, that people have moved on and will stop talking about Kazuma like they've stopped talking about all the other people who have died here.

The knock is surprising and he recognizes Arumat's voice. It's late, and he might normally not take it but he's valued this week. Why would anyone target him? He opens up the door, expression curious. ]

Hey, Arumat. Is something wrong? [ He hesitates, then moves to let him in. His room is fairly neat, his desk a bit of a mess with papers but otherwise presentable. ]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Arumat consider 9 PM to be early, so he never sees any issue with slinging by late. Someone should probably inform him that not everyone is used to military lifestyle. Ha ha.

That said, just because he's checking up on someone, it doesn't mean he'll be obvious about it, because he's still iffy on his social skills. Although, he's made a considerable effort to make them ... well. Apparent. }

Generally, no. The motive set in and I was simply curious about the state of a few others.

{ He'll come in, though. }

[antietam]

Oh. [ Yeah, the motive seems particularly bad. They'd managed to avoid it once, but now there doesn't seem to be anything saving them. It's strange that Arumat has come to see him, though. ]

I'm... alright right now. It's going to get worse later. [ He's pretty sure this isn't really about the motive though. ] How have you been since the trial?

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Arumat supposes it was merely inevitable, given the AI didn't get the chance to really enforce it last time. }

Hmph.

I've been coping well enough ever since that idiocy. Yet, it seems hardly deviated from the usual for me, other than a fool I once spoke to being dead.

{ Kazuma Kval is dead to him, in more than one sense of the word. }

[antietam]

[ He wants to express the same sentiment, but he gets the feeling it's not entirely the case for either of them. ]

I guess all the killers have been pretending in some way, but... Kazuma was really good, wasn't he? Did you ever get the sense that he was faking? [ Adam had his suspicions at first, but then he dropped it. ]

[thanatosincarnate]

...

When that idiot lad blew wind in my face one time. I got the idea he did it on purpose for his own amusement.

{ Annoyed grunt though, because -- }

Other than that... For a moment I even doubted him during the trial, but it was just a hunch and at the time I thought I was mistaken.

In general, Kazuma did well to hide that aberration of a personality of his. I couldn't anticipate that he would have faked to such an extent.

[antietam]

[ Adam nods. ] I thought his amnesia was weird, but he kept it up for so long... I guess everyone was just starting to make friends so I thought I should try.

It's pretty stupid to try to make friends in a place where you're meant to murder, isn't it?

[thanatosincarnate]

...No.

{ His voice is firm in this, as he happens to believe it wasn't foolish at all. He has his reasons, of course. }

Having no support in a place like this means you will be in for an even more difficult experience than if you had any. Even if having friends runs the risk of betrayal, there will always be a few individuals who you will find to be true allies instead of bewitching hostiles.

There will always be risks, but for now its better than feeling isolated --even something like that could be enough to drive someone to madness.