craven castle: private conversation, week 2, tuesday

[lullabytes]

WHO: Nanami & Kuzuryuu.
WHEN: Week 2, Tuesday, 8:30PM.
WHAT: Nanami wants to test a theory and volunteers Kuzuryuu.

[ Around half an hour after dinner ends, there's impatient knocking at Kuzuryuu's door - to the tune of the forest song from Ocarina of Time, because it's Nanami. She has some clothes folded nearly under her arms for some reason. ]

Kuzuryuu-kun? Kuzuryuu-kun, it's me. Open up.

Comments

[impheired]

[Watch and be amazed as he completely misses yet another hint that there is Something Up With Nanami. It's just like back on the island that he doesn't remember. Ah, good times.]

Ah. Well...you'll get to see 'em again soon enough. Since we're all going to make it out of here, right?

['all' being their little murder family...]

[lullabytes]

...Mhmm. I'm going to give everything I have to make sure you all make it out of here alive.

[ Every last one of you. ]

[impheired]

[Kuzuryuu falls silent for a minute or so, just staring at the floor with a weirdly unreadable look on his face.]

She tell you what she's planning? Peixes, I mean.

[lullabytes]

[ And we will never know if that was a Dangan blind spot or a subtle topic change...

Nanami shakes her head. ]

Nope. But...she was very confident. I think...that she's given it a lot of thought.

[impheired]

[probably the former, who are we kidding.]

Well I sure as hell hope she's done that much at least! You can't just go and do something like this without a plan. She may have us on her side, but there's only so much we can do...

[lullabytes]

...But we'll give it our all. So...we have to believe in Feferi.

[ Nanami doesn't want to see any of them die. ]

[impheired]

Tch, yeah, well that goes without saying now doesn't it? She's just gotta give us something to work with.

[They can only hope.]

...so how long has it been, anyway?

[Have you been keeping track, Nanami?]

[lullabytes]

[ She glances at the clock. ]

...We have a few minutes left, but we're almost timed out.

[impheired]

This better fucking work. I am not looking forward to having to explain this if I actually am breaking the damn rules here.

[So much ridicule...he can already tell.]

[lullabytes]

...Wouldn't it just be..."We talked for a while about our families and lost track of time"? I don't think that's too odd.

[impheired]

Yeah, that rule isn't the awkward one. [He takes the skirt between his fingers and lifts it slightly, as if he were curtseying while still sitting down.] This is the awkward one.

[He lets the skirt fall.]

Technically, if this doesn't work, I'm breaking two damn rules here.

[lullabytes]

..."Nanami made me do it"?

[ SINCE...

SHE DID. ]

[impheired]

...you have no fucking clue what pride means to a man, do you?

[WELL SHE'S A GIRL, KUZURYUU.]

[lullabytes]

I'm not a man, so why would I have such a thing...?

[ HONESTLY... ]

[impheired]

You've got a brother, don't you? Doesn't matter if you're actually the one who...oh fuck it. Just forget it.

[Kuzuryuu, stop sulking.]

[lullabytes]

Mm, I do. But...he's not very manly...? Well, he sort of looks like he is a little...

[ A pause. She feels like she's missing something here, and isn't sure...what...

After a second, Nanami continues. It could have been one of her usual "pause to load conversation" pauses, but... ]

...He's not like you, at least.

[impheired]

[Okay, he'd probably write that off as just a Nanami pause if it weren't for the fact that like everyone's memories are fucked up. He knows that pause. He's done it himself a few times.]

...you can't remember what he looks like, can you?

[lullabytes]

[ Perhaps the longest pause she's ever used with him. It's long enough that it seems like Nanami's not going to answer, and then... ]

...I should, but...for some reason, I can't be sure.

[impheired]

With as much as they've fucked with our memories, I can't say I'm surprised. There's someone whose face I can't remember for the fucking life of me either.

...Actually, I can't remember anything about 'em, really.

[It's really weird. Sometimes he almost wonders if he's imaging it.]

[lullabytes]

...Who would that be? That is...you can't remember them, but...what do you remember about them?

[ Now she's curious. ]

[impheired]

[Kuzuryuu sighs, shifting in his seat so that he can lean forward over his knees, propping his chin up with his hands.]

I don't...know who they are. It's not just that I can't remember what they look like or how they sound or what their name is...I have no fucking clue who they are. I mean...you know your brother is your brother, even if you can't remember what he looks like. And Upland mentioned she had a fiancé or something last week, right? It's not like that for me. I can only guess what role they played in my life.

[He scrubs at his face.]

They're almost...more like a damn ghost than anything. It's like the jackasses who brought us here tried to erase 'em from my memory but couldn't quite manage it entirely or something, fuck if I know how this shit works. Maybe the opposite is true. Maybe this person was never real to begin with but they're fucking with me and trying to make me think they are.

[He's not sure which option he prefers here, to be honest...]

But if they do exist, all I know is...whoever they are, we've known each other since we were kids. And I'm almost positive we were supposed to go to Hope's Peak together but I can't be certain.

[Twin sibling? Friendly cousin? Childhood friend? We just don't know.]

[lullabytes]

[ Let's all take a moment to remember that this deep, meaningful conversation is taking place while Kuzuryuu is in drag.

Remembered? Okay.

Nanami tilts her head to the side, still leaning forward herself. It's weird to be sitting in her room speaking secrets to someone other than Usami, but it's not a bad weird: she never really had friends outside of her siblings until she came here.

Even if she knows she'll have to give up every last one of them when the game ends, it's a nice feeling. ]

...It's not me, at least. I don't...have a childhood...? I have no memories like that.

[ She sort of does. There are important memories she's missing here about the people she'd willingly die for, and she's talking to one of them about another one of them, wow. ]

...But they sound like someone who was really important to you, don't you think...? If they couldn't entirely erase it, because...they were so important...?

[impheired]

[Never forget.]

[And in another stunning display of the Great Super Dangan Nanami Blind Spot, Kuzuryuu assumes that "I have no memories like that" means that their captors took away all the memories of her childhood. Which has to suck.]

I didn't really think it was you. It...feels different. Which I guess could just be because my memories are all fucked up but...my gut says otherwise. [What he's not saying here is that his friendship with Nanami has a distinctly different feel to it than what he remembers of his friendship(?) with mystery person. He can't admit that he's thinking with his heart here. Hence: it's gut instinct. Much more manly.]

I guess that's one way to look at it. But I just don't know... Maybe my mind's makin' 'em out to be more important than they actually are just because I can't remember. I'm not too worried about it though. There's someone I can actually remember and absolutely know is important so she comes before anybody else. I'll worry about figuring out ghost person after I'm sure she's safe.

[lullabytes]

[ Ah, yes. SHSL detectives, her entire class. GOOD SHOW, EVERYONE. Let her talk more about humans needing to eat in a completely unsuspicious manner!! ]

...I don't think that's the case. About your mind making someone out to be more important. After all...it's clearly worrying you, right? So...probably, that person is also waiting for you, in the place your sister is. You're right that...you can worry about it later.

[ Focus on your sister, basically. NOTHING CAN GO WRONG IF YOU DO THAT. ]

Anyway, you...have friends here, too.

[impheired]

[Ah yes. Mystery person is definitely waiting with his sister. Definitely not somewhere in this castle at the very moment. No way, that's just crazy to even suggest!]

Tch, I'm not worried. I'm more fuckin' frustrated than anything. [How can he be worried about somebody he can't even remember...he's not sure if they're someone he NEEDS to worry about or not.]

...but I hesitate to use that word here.

[The other f-word...]