01 | Video

[survived]

[The video feed clicks on to reveal a mop of snowy white hair – or it does for a moment, anyway, as the boy that said hair belongs to adjusts his wrist in order to be shown from the shoulders up. His appearance is almost shocking at first glance, or at least to those that aren’t used to teenage boys having shockingly white hair and red-violet eyes. Perhaps the strangest of all is the red scar that coils from below his left eye down around his neck and beneath the collar of his shirt. Nevertheless, he’s smiling, albeit nervously.]

Hello? This has been on my mind for a few days now, but has anyone thought of making a list of names and houses of everyone in the city? I think it would be helpful for everyone to see who’s here. I’m looking for people as well, though I haven’t found anyone familiar to me yet. [And almost as if on cue, a white mouse scurries up the arm of his jacket and onto his shoulder with a squeak.] Aside from Hamlet here, that is.

Um, so how are we expected to flourish within the city? I’ve been here in the Sigyn district for a few days now and it still looks mostly colourless. It’s kind of depressing, but since we were brought here to change that, I’d like to do something to help if I can.

It’s amazing that so many people were brought here like this. If everyone here was chosen individually, then every person you pass by on the street must be special in their own way. Or, well, at least I’d like to think so. It's incredible, if you think about it.

Comments

[survived]

You remind me of them.

[entreats]

[ slowly raising an eyebrow because.. wait, what..? ]

I remind you of who exactly?

[survived]

The people in the West Block.

I'm sorry.

[And he goes quiet before anything else can slip out. Wow, way to be awkward.]

[entreats]

[ ..... did she just find Shu's long-lost brother. ]

There's two problems with that. The first of all being the fact that I don't have any clue what this West Block is, and the second is that I don't even know what you're apologizing for.

[survived]

[THEY'RE SIMILAR....]

I was apologizing for talking about something that you aren't familiar with.

[entreats]

[ TWINS... ]

Oh, if you're going to apologize for that, this entire place should constantly be apologizing to each other for that since talking about stuff no one else knows about is what everyone does all the time.

There's such a thing as being overly polite, you know.

[survived]

Overly polite? I'm being overly polite?

[ARE YOU, NOW....]

[entreats]

[ ............... ]

Anyone at all would consider apologizing over something like that overly polite, yes. You don't even understand that much?

[survived]

I guess not.

[And he turns his head to the ground. Of all of the things he'd learned, this wasn't one of them? Surely he'd improved from before, he knew well that he'd grown, and yet--

He has to catch himself before another apology slips from his lips.]

[entreats]

[ there's another long pause, but then she speaks up again, her tone flat and dry. ]

Did you meet a guy named Shu in this place yet? I feel like the two of you should start some kind of club for this.

[survived]

No, I haven't. I don't see any need to start a club.

[entreats]

[ ........ ]

I didn't mean that literally, you know. I'm sure the two of you are too polite to start a club together, either way, you'd never get to anything since you would be too busy apologizing to each other all the time.

[survived]

I don't think I'm that bad.

[entreats]

You won't know until you've tried, right?

[survived]

I've learned a lot in these past few months. I'm not as naive as I used to be.

[entreats]

And you're saying that now? In that case I almost can't help but wonder how naive you must have been to start with..

[survived]

Hopelessly so.