Day 10

[andascholar]

[Everything is terrible and Zelda has no time to mourn forever. She needs to make plans and solidify alliances. And so she is making invitations to her dressing room whenever boys are available.]

Comments

[andascholar]

[Stares back at him, trying to breathe evenly. Getting each other worked up will not do any good. They both understand the situation.] Yes. There is no other choice now. Before... Before the attack, Link and I discussed forming an alliance with you and Corrin.

[locktouching]

Did you. I bet you weren't too happy with the thought of working alongside me.

Lord Corrin, though... he is someone that can be believed in more than anyone.

[andascholar]

[Small, wry smile] I was the one who suggested your name, actually. Your devotion to Corrin seemed true enough to warrant trusting you both.

[locktouching]

...Can I tell you something private?

It's not vile, I swear.

[andascholar]

Oh? Very well. Let's have your first test of trust.

[locktouching]

[Fishes something out of his pocket and holds out his hand to show it. There's a ring laying on his palm.]

I know he's a higher rank than me... and that our futures are uncertain... still, I've really fallen for him...

...I want to ask him to marry me.

[andascholar]

[...Oh! Oh!!!] Speaking as someone from Corrin's rank, I think you two would be well matched together.

[locktouching]

I hope so.

I may ask him tomorrow, if the situation allows.

[andascholar]

[If the situation allows ahahaha when has this place ever allowed for anything nice] I wish you luck.

[locktouching]

[Closes his hand around the ring.]

What else do we need to discuss? Plans?

[andascholar]

The alliance, an investigation into who placed, the poison gas, and... One more thing. If we are able to catch whoever did this, and secure their hotel pass, I want to use it on Lotus. She has tried to manipulate me into despicable things with the voting list before, and I do not trust her being in charge of the board while I am indisposed. I want her placed in the hotel as soon as possible.

[locktouching]

...Lotus.

She approached me today.

She said she's using her final vote on Clover... to double-vote her to the hotel. And she wanted me to use mine on Mary.

She was so persistent about it... offering me things no one should offer. And I caught her lying about Santa to press me into doing what she said.

My vote is still on Okuyasu, I told her if she wanted it so bad she'll have to ask him to volunteer for death herself. It looks like she took Link's passing as advantageous and went after Simon's vote.

[andascholar]

Is that right.

In the second round she approached me to make a list of people who were willing to 'leave'. I'd been talking about the hotel, but it became clear she was asking me to create a list of what order we should kill people in. And anyone who didn't respond to me should be the first to go. When I expressed disdain with the idea, she tried to convince me that it was kinder, that life in the hotel was no life at all and I'd be showing them mercy.

I'm sure she found Link's death fortuitous.

[locktouching]

Even Mary believes Lotus was lying to me. She's really trying to manipulate us.

...I could change my vote from Okuyasu to her and get rid of her now. But... I'd hate to do that to the guy, even if it's unlikely for him to make it to the end. And it wouldn't look good for me. I could be denied all votes or sent to the hotel next. I can't go there... I can't abandon Lord Corrin.

She has people on her side, too. We are all very vulnerable...

[andascholar]

...I won't ask you to change your vote now. We'll think of something else, protect the people you care about Niles. I'm not sure I trust her allies much either, especially the Ushiromiya's. Natsuhi told me Eva was very untrustworthy, and Rosa has tried to manipulate and bully me for my position too. However, if she's willing to throw Santa under the cart, that poisons her position with her own friends. I can't imagine June would be too happy to know about that. And if her plan pans out, Clover and Snake will be gone too. If we can get this hotel pass it would be the best time to use it on her. Otherwise... We can wait until next round.

[locktouching]

...I have another idea.

[Grips his cup so hard that some of the smoothie oozes up through the straw.]

If your talk of murder wasn't all bluster.

[andascholar]

[...Oh wow he's really mad at her isn't he] What exactly did she say to you? You said she offered things no one should?

[locktouching]

...Ah, she wanted to offer me... what she called "sexual favors".

It... brought up some unpleasant memories. And for a moment I felt sorry for her...

[andascholar]

She... [jfc Lotus. And unpleasant memories for Niles.......]

[locktouching]

I don't know if she meant what she was offering. I know how I act, but I wouldn't have wanted that. It's just... the reminder that got to me.

[Debating if he wants to keep talking about it. But... well, Zelda isn't such a bad person to talk to anymore, and it kind of helps. SORRY BUT THIS IS GOING TO GET DARK.]

As I said when we first met, I grew up close to death every day, just a thieving wretch barely surviving in the gutters. I did anything to keep living... killing, stealing, begging... and selling everything, even my body and my soul.

...I only remember pieces of what happened. Bricks, rain, rats, a large man laughing cruelly, blood, gold coins... All of my past is in fragments.

[Puts his cup down on the floor.]

[andascholar]

[She listens quietly, attentively, taking it all in. It's a world she's never had to worry about, and she can't imagine what it must be like, what he's been through. No wonder Niles said he hated the privileged. The people with money and power in his life hurt him like that when any decent person should have helped him, he said he grew up like that, just a child...] I'm so sorry you went through that, Niles.

[locktouching]

...Thank you.

[It could go on and on, but he stops there.]

About my idea...

[Takes his bow off and places it on his lap.]

You'll have to be open to the idea of assassination. At this point, it might only be playing fair. ...I didn't want to go back to such ways, but survival is becoming harsh. We need to be willing to do anything.

Next voting round. If we strike at around the time the bid is being carried out... we might get away with it. Others might think it is a bid, or at least be thrown off by the timing.

[andascholar]

...And what would Corrin think of such a plan?

[locktouching]

It would weigh on his heart... but I think he would understand. He has always done what was necessary, as hard as it may be.

Doing this could also redistribute some votes.

I doubt the jester would give us weapons like he would the bidders, but I have a special skill for capturing enemies. This could be done without leaving arrows.

[andascholar]

[This is all so much different than plotting to kill an evil pig monster force of nature. Does Lotus really deserve this? ...Did any of the others? Ayato? Katou? Gorix? Zelda has to cut herself off there, lingering on those she couldn't save won't help anything. She has to focus. Nobody here deserved to die but it was going to happen anyway, and Lotus was actively contributing to it. She'd already said she was a person who couldn't be trusted, who was spreading dangerous rhetoric and had to be eliminated. Think this through.] If... If we were to do it. Would it not be an idea, for one of us to use it as an opportunity for the hotel pass? Just like the first round, say there was a problem with the turn-in and use a position as a zero voter to get... But that's so hypocritical. After everything I said, the whole point of hunting the person with the second hotel pass down was to dissuade others from trying to escalate their bids, if we do something like that we'll be exacerbating the problem. [ZELDA IS PERHAPS TOO SOFT FOR ACTUAL ASSASSINATIONS.]