well he's not saying she can make things easier on him by getting lost so she's just going to keep sitting at the edge of his bed. you're stuck with her, shinnosuke.]
anyway, he can't handle this, which means it's time for a topic change.]
... Overheard some of the guests talking about how they want to do a public discussion, to make sure everyone's on the same page.
[a beat]
Which is a nice thought, but there's no way the Nightman is going to conveniently miss a group gathering, and depending on how much of their hand they reveal, they might be shooting themselves in the foot.
At least it'll be on Sunday, so I'm going to try and time my fun little meeting with him to keep him occupied—help me think of crap I can delay him with.
[hmmm. how much time are they going to need for a group gathering, anyway? shinnosuke is going to have to come up with a lot of things to drag that conversation out. just as she did the week before, she wants to argue that he should take her with him - but he'd already denied it once.]
Maybe you could pitch some new ideas for the one-ticket items in the gift shop? Barely anyone buys those unless they're weapons, so we could come up with a list of a hundred or so inane things for you to suggest to him one by one.
Yeah, that works. Let's do it—I'm great at bullshitting, so even if he gets bored as hell with me, I know how to spin things so that he can't just tell me that it's useless and to shut up.
Thanks for calling me ugly. [he's not offended he doesn't care about his looks.] Just act however like Lila would and preferably in as few words as possible.
[anyway]
... This is probably only going to work once or twice. The guests don't need to know we're pulling off a distraction for them this time, but if they plan on having another public discussion—or if they do anything that might get the Nightman to interfere—then we're going to have this problem all over again. He's going to get suspicious if I spend another meeting wasting his time.
[and then, immediately, before he can say anything - ]
And I know you don't want me to get too involved with him in case I blow it. But let's be honest - Rossi-san should have tried to get something more out of him by now, shouldn't she? She's not the type to ask for one thing and be satisfied with that.
It would be perfectly natural for her to try to negotiate for something better.
We'll see. I won't say that option's not on the table if we need it, but it's pretty risky—the more you negotiate, the more room the Nightman has to realize you're not her.
Frankly, it'd be better if the guests themselves came up with a way to divert the Nightman's attention. Unless they do something to breach their contract, it's not like the Nightman could punish them for being annoying and distracting.
You aren't wrong about that, but if he needs to be distracted because they're having a meeting, they'd all be too occupied with the meeting to distract him, wouldn't they...?
[she hums, thinking.]
...but, you know. He pays a lot of attention to the doors, doesn't he? The weird ones in the hallway. Or at least, I'd imagine he does, given that they seem designed to torment them in the ways he likes best.
His attention would probably be drawn by that... or if they found other ways to engage with the things he's set up in the hotel.
Maybe they could set off a bomb somewhere in the hotel.
[is he serious? who knows.]
I hate those doors. The guests kept asking about those at the start. [...] But you're not wrong. It's not like they couldn't take turns, either—meetings are boring and no one really needs to be there for the entire thing, anyway.
[unfortunately, she actually seems to be considering that.]
They'd have to be really careful... if the hotel started acting up while they were doing that, it could blow up in their faces. [a beat.] Um, literally.
[...]
Taking it in turns isn't a bad idea... There are plenty of people here who will share things with each other very easily. As long as one person from each of those groups is present...
True. The hotel acting up might be to their advantage, but it's not like it's designed in the guests' favour either—could just as easily screw them over.
[he presses the back of his hand against his forehead.]
It can be the world's worst relay race. Run around, make a distraction, tag in the next one. [said wryly.] Not that you know what that is. Anyway...
Well, the first obstacle is even getting them to think about this. It's not like we can just randomly tell them, "Hey, if you want to talk about anything that'll provoke the Nightman, you should really make sure he's not listening?"
Leaving things up to chance is such a pain. This would all be much simpler if we could just stab the bastard.
[sei, please.]
...I could figure it out from context! [she gives a little huff, offended at the fact that she wouldn't know what a relay race is was pointed out, even though it's completely true.] But you're right, we can't, and it's frustrating. Anything we say clearly, he's likely to remember. And if they start acting on what we say...
[she makes a small noise of frustration, then grabs for his hand.]
Well, we both know it would go terribly, if he made the connection.
[she will grip his hand so he can't pull it away, then trace out letters on his palm - she absolutely stole this idea from souji.
... Normally I'd say something about you being a musclehead who only knows how to use brute force, but frankly, I'd like to stab the Nightman too, minus the part where it'd probably go very badly for us.
[alas.
it's easy for shinnosuke to follow along, at least. all the time he spent blind taught him to become proficient in relying on his sense of touch, even if he couldn't see sei tracing the letters on his hand right now.
Medicine and first aid, logistical support, organization, note-taking, cooking, cleaning, talking to people, charming people - shut up, it's true, you would not believe what that bastard Councilor Ito made me do because of it... and plenty of other things besides that!
[she does not stop at one, because fuck you.
and she nods and draws her hand back from his, then, since it's sus.]
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[that's better, at least. she settles a bit.]
...I do mean it, though. It's easier for me because you're here. If there's anything I can do to make it easier for you by my being here, I'd like to.
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shinnosuke just flops onto his bed because he has no fuckin idea how to handle an offer like that.]
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well he's not saying she can make things easier on him by getting lost so she's just going to keep sitting at the edge of his bed. you're stuck with her, shinnosuke.]
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anyway, he can't handle this, which means it's time for a topic change.]
... Overheard some of the guests talking about how they want to do a public discussion, to make sure everyone's on the same page.
[a beat]
Which is a nice thought, but there's no way the Nightman is going to conveniently miss a group gathering, and depending on how much of their hand they reveal, they might be shooting themselves in the foot.
At least it'll be on Sunday, so I'm going to try and time my fun little meeting with him to keep him occupied—help me think of crap I can delay him with.
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Let's see...
[hmmm. how much time are they going to need for a group gathering, anyway? shinnosuke is going to have to come up with a lot of things to drag that conversation out. just as she did the week before, she wants to argue that he should take her with him - but he'd already denied it once.]
Maybe you could pitch some new ideas for the one-ticket items in the gift shop? Barely anyone buys those unless they're weapons, so we could come up with a list of a hundred or so inane things for you to suggest to him one by one.
[1/2]
Yeah, that works. Let's do it—I'm great at bullshitting, so even if he gets bored as hell with me, I know how to spin things so that he can't just tell me that it's useless and to shut up.
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though speaking of sei's thoughts—]
... I'm going to need you to notify me when they're done, though. I don't want to risk ending the meeting with him before then.
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[sei will have to crash the meeting, probably. he won't have his typewriter with him in there.]
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Thanks for calling me ugly. [he's not offended he doesn't care about his looks.] Just act however like Lila would and preferably in as few words as possible.
[anyway]
... This is probably only going to work once or twice. The guests don't need to know we're pulling off a distraction for them this time, but if they plan on having another public discussion—or if they do anything that might get the Nightman to interfere—then we're going to have this problem all over again. He's going to get suspicious if I spend another meeting wasting his time.
1/2
You're welcome!
[why are they like this.]
2/2
[and then, immediately, before he can say anything - ]
And I know you don't want me to get too involved with him in case I blow it. But let's be honest - Rossi-san should have tried to get something more out of him by now, shouldn't she? She's not the type to ask for one thing and be satisfied with that.
It would be perfectly natural for her to try to negotiate for something better.
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he sighs.]
We'll see. I won't say that option's not on the table if we need it, but it's pretty risky—the more you negotiate, the more room the Nightman has to realize you're not her.
Frankly, it'd be better if the guests themselves came up with a way to divert the Nightman's attention. Unless they do something to breach their contract, it's not like the Nightman could punish them for being annoying and distracting.
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[she hums, thinking.]
...but, you know. He pays a lot of attention to the doors, doesn't he? The weird ones in the hallway. Or at least, I'd imagine he does, given that they seem designed to torment them in the ways he likes best.
His attention would probably be drawn by that... or if they found other ways to engage with the things he's set up in the hotel.
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Maybe they could set off a bomb somewhere in the hotel.
[is he serious? who knows.]
I hate those doors. The guests kept asking about those at the start. [...] But you're not wrong. It's not like they couldn't take turns, either—meetings are boring and no one really needs to be there for the entire thing, anyway.
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They'd have to be really careful... if the hotel started acting up while they were doing that, it could blow up in their faces. [a beat.] Um, literally.
[...]
Taking it in turns isn't a bad idea... There are plenty of people here who will share things with each other very easily. As long as one person from each of those groups is present...
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[he presses the back of his hand against his forehead.]
It can be the world's worst relay race. Run around, make a distraction, tag in the next one. [said wryly.] Not that you know what that is. Anyway...
Well, the first obstacle is even getting them to think about this. It's not like we can just randomly tell them, "Hey, if you want to talk about anything that'll provoke the Nightman, you should really make sure he's not listening?"
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[sei, please.]
...I could figure it out from context! [she gives a little huff, offended at the fact that she wouldn't know what a relay race is was pointed out, even though it's completely true.] But you're right, we can't, and it's frustrating. Anything we say clearly, he's likely to remember. And if they start acting on what we say...
[she makes a small noise of frustration, then grabs for his hand.]
Well, we both know it would go terribly, if he made the connection.
[she will grip his hand so he can't pull it away, then trace out letters on his palm - she absolutely stole this idea from souji.
o talked this way in dreams. workable?]
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[alas.
it's easy for shinnosuke to follow along, at least. all the time he spent blind taught him to become proficient in relying on his sense of touch, even if he couldn't see sei tracing the letters on his hand right now.
he'll write back on her hand:
depends on who we're fooling.]
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[as she's griping, she traces out letters again.
watching eyes listening ears
if the nightman can't see what's being written, it might be a way to pass something along that they can't say out loud.]
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[he seems to be thinking about it—what she's written on his hand—before:
not bad but still sus
probably don't want to rely it on too much, lest the nightman start to wonder why they feel the need to communicate in secret.]
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[she does not stop at one, because fuck you.
and she nods and draws her hand back from his, then, since it's sus.]
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