adsum | npc contact.1

[ Oh- um. He takes the chocolates with a little dip of his head, hands cupped to receive them but he

looks at his hands, looks down at his pants pockets, looks back up at Ritsuka because he isn't carrying a school bag. The chocolate is going to melt by the time he gets home... what is he supposed to do... ]

Nuts. I know it's selfish, but... I really don't want to waste it, and I don't think I can eat that entire bag by myself.

Do you just want to hang out and eat some chocolate, then? I know a great spot in the clocktower for when you don't want people to look at you weird.

( ...

Well, that's good, he guesses.

then what's one more? (one more person to talk to, he means.) i can make it worth your while. do you have a favorite snack? )

[ I hope you and Alice know that Hiro's here having major deja vu vibes over two redheaded transfers telling him he looks lonely and then offering to feed him.

He looks a lot like he wants nothing more than to escape, but is also too awkward to know how to bring that up and express it, so he just sort of... gives Ritsuka a mildly distressed look and points straight up. Too many stairs. Can't do it.

But he doesn't brush her off completely, though. He takes a step to the side- gives Ritsuka a quick glance as if to see if she'll follow- and starts walking down the hall. ]

[She follows without reservation, question, or malicious intent.]

[ What's one more? He talked to Steph the One Time and now he's being harassed by Natsume and Ritsuka. What's with all these red/adjacentheads?

But, huff, okay. He picks up the pen again and writes in his little corner in cramped, hard to read handwriting: "fujiya milky" and then underneath that, "not how to make friends" ]

[ Okay good, because he's headed for the science room, science club member that he's supposed to be. ]

( Bring it up with your sister, who didn't stop him when he said he was going to become best friends with you. But don't tell her that Natsume said they were friends.

Natsume leans in to see and... his lips slide into a slanted smile.

i'm sure some of my peers would agree with you. does that mean you don't want any fujiya milkies i receive from my customers? )

[ He's going to tell her and the next time she sees Natsume she's going to try and drop a dictionary on his foot.

Also every time Natsume underlines his words, Hiro flinches a little. This is more effective than his speaking quirk in weirding people out, in his opinion.

"can buy my own" is what he writes when he gets his turn at the pen, though. He has his own money and a real supermarket he can use to buy his own snacks!!! even though food tastes better coming from somebody else... He can ask his sister to buy him milk candies and it also counts, problem solved. ]

You know, I've never actually seen the inside of this place before. It's usually locked, [Ritsuka says as she enters. Are they alone? What's the inside of the room like?]

[ Who knows! Only Hiro, because it is still locked to Ritsuka ('':

And by the way Hiro turns to look at her before he phases through the door, it seems like he knows this as well. ]

[...a.

Ritsuka will try knocking, politely.

And if that doesn't work, she will slide a note very clearly labeled For Hiro under the door if she can. It was supposed to be in the chocolate package, but oh well.]

[ The note is taken rather quickly, as if he'd been standing right on the other side of the door expecting something like this. What does it say? ]

( He'll appreciate her feelings, but as an idol, he can't accept her weighty confession.

Tch, this kid is difficult, but don't think he doesn't notice the flinching. Should he do it more? Or less...

friends share food with one another.

Less it is. Natsume frowns for a second, debating, and — he'll lie a little. Except this lie isn't a lie if you ask literally anyone he knows but that isn't the point here is it.

in truth, i have difficulties making friends; i moved around a lot as a child due to my mommy's work, so i apologize if my attempt is coming off clumsy.

...He typically has more information on people before he starts trying to befriend them.

however: i want to be friends with you, arisu-kun. it would be nice to have someone else who has even a modicum of interest in science to talk to, considering the rest of these louts hardly know a thing. )

[ He keeps waiting for Natsume to strike another line on the paper but it never comes, and he lets himself relax a little and focus more on what Natsume is writing instead of how he's writing it. Difficulty making friends... he finds himself nodding at that, a little, but catches himself and stops because that's rude.

He gets to the part about science and sort of looks away, though, without reading the rest of it. If Natsume's been following him around, he'd know that Hiro doesn't really go to the one club he'd signed up for. Even "modicum" might be generous.

"neechan knows more than me"

If Natsume really wants someone smart to talk to, Hiro's going to sacrifice his sister. ]

The transfers suspect you of murdering the student council president, and we're building a really solid case. I'm not going to pretend I haven't participated in that investigation either—I was the one who came up with the idea to homebrew luminol and pitched it to Senku, even.

But here's the thing. I honestly don't care whether or not you really did do it. You're Stephanie's friend. She might be a kid, but she's a good judge of character.

So if she trusts you, I trust you too.

I'm not going to demand that you explain the truth to me—I've always been more of a Watson than a Holmes—I'd just like to give you a warning.

I have a feeling that whatever the school will do to you if they find you guilty won't be pretty, and I'd really rather not have to put Stephanie through that, let alone get another person hurt. I'll be in your corner.

[Hastily scribbled after, in what little room remains on the page.]

Since it looks like you know our whole deal: while we've been trapped here in the school, we've been investigating the crawlspaces. The big thing is that someone dropped the body in there before everyone else arrived at the school. They had to have done it after hours. Everyone else seems pretty eager to get out of the school after six, so unless you and Maya have secretly been transfer students this whole time... I don't think either of you are our killers, for what it's worth.

[There are some chocolate smears on the note.]

Edited 2021-04-14 04:29 (UTC)

[ There's silence for several minutes as he reads it— rereads it, digests it, tries to fully understand everything that she's saying here, her trust in him, Stephanie's trust...

How do you trust somebody just because they handed you a lemon and cracked some eggs? How do you trust somebody just because your friend trusts them? There's no way he can...

Ritsuka can hear some shuffling on the other side of the door, the scratching of pen on paper, and when he slides the page under the door again it's on a different sheet of paper. He's keeping the other one, presumably so his sister can read it too. ]

im not scared of the school

[ His handwriting is terrible, by the way. Apparently he practices writing even less than he speaks. ]

if you really believe in me, then you wouldnt have a solid case against me
wouldnt need to warn me or corner me
im not the one you should be talking to

Back home, I have a friend. Kind of a mentor, really, it's a complicated situation. His name is Waver, and he's... he's a Holmes, that's for sure.

The most important thing he taught me is that it's never about the howdunnit or the whodunnit. Those can be faked with enough effort, especially in places as weird as Yogen.

It's about the whydunnit.

And no matter what angle I look at it from, I can't figure out why on Earth you would murder someone. Not when you took time out of your day to help Stephanie. Not when you've already lost somebody to this school. Not when you're scared of something else, if not the school. That's why I believe you, even if we do have a "solid case" against you.

I'm trying to warn you because I'm not sure that anybody else will believe me and Stephanie when we say you're innocent. We have a reputation for being bleeding hearts, after all. And at the very least you deserve to know before whatever happens, happens, and be prepared for it.

But for Steph's sake, I want to know something, anything, that might help prove your innocence.

So I guess the question I should be asking is: who should I talk to?

Edited 2021-04-14 04:54 (UTC)

thats up to you
you dont know me
thinking nice people cant be bad is dangerous
tell stephanie to open her eyes
you cant see if youre always looking away

Maybe I should make myself more clear.

Some of the nicest people I know are also some of the most vicious killers on the face of the planet. I'm pretty well aware of that. I've got a sense for murderers, I guess.

Another friend of mine told me you can only murder someone once in your life. She may not have meant it exactly like this, though. I've been using the words "kill" and "murder" interchangeably until now, but... even if you did kill the president, even if against all of my instincts you did perform the physical act of bashing in her head, you didn't murder her. You're not a murderer yet.

Not knowing the whydunnit doesn't mean you're not the killer, but it does mean you're not the murderer. You might be the means, method, and opportunity, but you're not the one using all of those.

And, again, I still don't think you're a killer either. But either way you are definitely not a murderer.

I'm not making any sense, am I. These past few years have made it... hard to communicate, sometimes.

Edited 2021-04-14 05:26 (UTC)

( no need to thread so this can be handwaved, i just wanted to write here that komaeda is shaking his treat bag because he wants to cuddle lily may. you know when the entire ROOM hates you and while that's lovely, lily may has never done him wrong so give him at least five minutes of holding. he's going to settle his back against the wall, sliding down to the floor with his arms open so she can come into his embrace because he wants to pick her up and scratch behind the ears. after two or three scritches, he's now curling his index finger under her chin to scratch there too. as for komaeda, he's staring at the wall slightly spaced out.

he's weird. )

Edited (better) 2021-04-14 05:53 (UTC)

( this isn't an actual thread either, but norton pours out some cat food the next time he sees the little white one and tries to call it over with "lily may" like he was told. he kind of stares at it like a weirdo for a little bit if it eats, but if he's allowed to pet it, he's like... keep taking care of komaeda. he feels Extremely fucking stupid after doing this, so he huffs and leaves. )

((OOC: Would you rather have this thread happen in the clock tower thread ongoing now, or have me link the peeps in that thread over here?

( Is this what sibling love is like... He's glad he's an only child. Why is Hiro in the club if Maya knows more- hmm, she's on student council too, isn't she. Maybe she's just too busy.

i'll be sure to bother her later. it was silly of me to bring it up though - i know you don't often attend.

BUT MAYBE HE STILL HAD AN INTERESt his life is hard.

why did you join it? )

oh nooooooo oh no please she'll let him cuddle her for five minutes until she realizes he's not actually going to give her a treat and then she'll walk over to Natsume and scratch at his pants because he actually fed her once upon a time

also her favorite thing is if you slowly stroke her forehead from in between the eyes and back over the top of her head, her eyes squeeze shut and she starts purring immediately and it's very cute

npc contact.1

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4/25, like an hr or two into the meeting bc he walks out to see his dotter

04/13 | lily may

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