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WEEK 2 - TUESDAY; LIGHT + YUKINA (morning, hunting lodge)
[ On Tuesday morning, Seto is missing from the dining hall at breakfast.
The reason why is evident when Light and Yukina enter the hunting lodge and then subsequently the firing range - Seto has a pistol in his hand, and his concentration is on the stationary dummies that serve as targets littered throughout the firing range. From his stance, the way he handles the gun with intent, and the almost unflinching way that he fires blanks into dummies with an accuracy that only comes from training, it's easy to tell that Seto Kaiba is intimately familiar with the intricacies of a gun - even if said weapon provided by the lodge is several decades outdated.
When this round of ammunition has been expended, he'll turn around to reload the pistol with another round of blanks, although before he can do so, he'll do a slight double take and take out the earplugs in his ears (that's the only reason why he hadn't heard them approach, earlier).
Apparently he's lost track of time.
He's careful with the way he stows the gun away before he rejoins Light and Yukina. The gun may only have blanks, but he'd rather be safe than be accused of murder.
He frowns.
Perhaps it's just him, but Light and Yukina look exhausted. ]
... Rough night?
The reason why is evident when Light and Yukina enter the hunting lodge and then subsequently the firing range - Seto has a pistol in his hand, and his concentration is on the stationary dummies that serve as targets littered throughout the firing range. From his stance, the way he handles the gun with intent, and the almost unflinching way that he fires blanks into dummies with an accuracy that only comes from training, it's easy to tell that Seto Kaiba is intimately familiar with the intricacies of a gun - even if said weapon provided by the lodge is several decades outdated.
When this round of ammunition has been expended, he'll turn around to reload the pistol with another round of blanks, although before he can do so, he'll do a slight double take and take out the earplugs in his ears (that's the only reason why he hadn't heard them approach, earlier).
Apparently he's lost track of time.
He's careful with the way he stows the gun away before he rejoins Light and Yukina. The gun may only have blanks, but he'd rather be safe than be accused of murder.
He frowns.
Perhaps it's just him, but Light and Yukina look exhausted. ]
... Rough night?
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Yukina doesn't have dark circles under her eyes yet, but she's bound to have them by the time the whispers finally stop. As it is, she's definitely looking a little worse for the wear, because she really didn't sleep well at all last night.
If this is going to be how it is, then...
She nods slowly, wishing for a nap. Or some quiet. It's a shame that earplugs won't do anything to quiet the voices in her mind.]
Yes... though I think that's the case for everyone. [Or... almost everyone. Wasn't there a role that with an immunity to night terrors?]
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He eyes the gun range, then Kaiba, who seems awfully familiar with how to handle a handgun. He then lifts his gaze to the other young man, looking skeptical.]
It's these damned whispers. They don't stop. ....You seem to be doing just fine, though.
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Seto curses internally, because while he's read the card delivered on Monday morning, and he's technically kind of prepared to lie his way through hearing vague whispers, hoping that people wouldn't push, he hasn't entirely accounted for most people looking well.
That worse for wear. Or haunted, even. He's used to looking immaculate even on minimal sleep, back home.
It's already a jarring difference, compared to Light and Yukina.
He's definitely not going to be able to blend in that way.
A beat. ]
They don't stop at all?
[ He's... about 99% aware that he's outing himself and the fact that he can't hear the whispers at all to them, and while he still does not 100% trust Light, he knows that Yukina will probably keep this secret. ]
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[Well. She can't say she ever expected to find out someone's role this easily.]
Not at all. [Up until he asked that, she was willing to believe that he was just good at coping. Maybe he's used to being around people that talk a lot - if he's used to sleeping with noise, then a night of whispers might not bother him.
...but if he's asking whether or not they stop, then... he'd know, wouldn't he? If he was hearing them in the first place.]
You... can't hear them, can you?
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...The Psychologist.
[He looks at Kaiba directly now.] That's your role, isn't it?
[How easily he let that information slip, and Light will latch onto it with relative quickness. He thinks, maybe, that Kaiba hadn't been prepared to know how badly this might have affected the demeanor of those around him. And that he didn't know that the whispers don't stop? That was a dead giveaway. Anyone experiencing them wouldn't need to ask such a question.]
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He'd really been banking on it being not noticeable - see, the thing about immunity is that while he's not affected by the night terrors or any other happenings that afflict the mind, aside from whatever Craftly's note mentions on Monday, he's mostly also left in the dark as to the specifics of how the night terrors work.
So yeah, that makes faking it a challenge in and of itself.
While he can bluff about what he's hearing because regret is a ridiculously easy starting point, it's also not like Seto can just randomly walk up to someone and ask them how they're suffering and how they're being affected - Craftly probably wouldn't give him the information at all, and even he knows that asking the wrong person is liable to get him outed.
Case in point. Just one question, with the wrong person, could have gotten him killed. ]
... I can't. I should consider myself lucky. I'd assumed the line in the note about not sleeping was merely hyperbole instead of literal prevention of sleep.
[ His gaze will flicker towards Light for a moment - he's not surprised that Light has memorised the entire menu. He's done the same thing, too.
He'll shrug, but his features will also be grim. It's impossible to deny it now and he would rather it be discovered by someone he's at least vaguely familiar with.
... Although, damn it, he's probably going to have to actually find some way to fake being affected by the night terrors more convincingly, now. ]
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[Of course, she's... already predisposed to make excuses for people. So. There's that. But she glances at Light, who probably came to that conclusion even before she voiced her own suspicions.
He doesn't seem too surprised. She wonders if he was already suspecting it.]
But... what will other people think? If they figure this out? [Her brows knit together in concern.] We all know that there's a role with an immunity, but...
[Her concern is that people will start to wonder why his role is immune, and if it means he's a threat.]
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The simplest solution is that they don't find out. While in some instances it might make sense to reveal your role for the sake of garnering trust, it's still too early.
[That, and it would leave Kaiba at a disadvantage in case they ever did want to plot something a bit more... well. Murder-y. But he'll not say that much.
The words may be unspoken, but it should be plain why keeping this a secret is beneficial for the sake of this alliance, which means the burden of responsibility also falls onto the shoulders of himself and Yukina. And so:]
We're still planning on continuing our weekly meetings. There's no reason why we can't explain to you the effects of what we've been feeling during these times, so that you can pretend to recreate them to the best of your ability.
...I hope you're good at acting, Kaiba. [Ha.]
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Even in Yuggoth, without his work available to him, he's just been spending most of his waking hours wandering, or reading, because even he knows that breaking the motel-enforced curfew is stupid and will probably kill him somehow. ]
I hadn't intended for anyone to find out. [ A grimace. ] You're the first ones to discover it. [ The first ones that he's let down his guard enough with, been careless enough, with, for them to find out.
There's going to be a flash of irritation that crosses his features because w o w. Are you implying that he's not a good actor? He's mildly offended. He's passable! Probably. Seto Kaiba is mostly an entertainer and a performer, first and foremost, largely thanks to his rounds on the dueling circuits, but when it comes down to it, he's fairly certain that he could pull off being a decent actor if push came to shove.
Thankfully for him, survival instinct is a proper motivator. ]
Only if I have the appropriate background to pull off a convincing performance.
[ It's a dry, sarcastic quip. Haha, very funny, Light.
Thankfully, that's the only cheap shot that he's going to take at Light for the moment, because even he has to admit that it's a good idea. And it solves his problem, rather neatly, of how to collect information about the night terrors easily. ]
That's fair enough. Now's as good a time as any, I suppose. [ He hasn't forgotten that you both haven't mentioned anything about your roles, jsyk. ] Anything else I should know for this week?
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Right now Yukina seems to be more focused on concern for him rather than reciprocation, anyway, so she nods along with Light's suggestion - that they can explain the effects. It's the least they can do, since they're working together...]
If we're using last week as a guideline... it's probably going to get worse the closer to Friday we get. So... you'll want to seem a little more exhausted or distracted day by day. [She looks down at her hands.] Yesterday I could sort of block them out... if I kept myself distracted. It was almost impossible when I was trying to go to sleep, though... it was so quiet, the voices were all I could hear. Today it's harder to ignore them.
[She takes a deep breath. Talking about them makes them harder to ignore, too.]
It's not just... small regrets, either. It's...
[She fiddles with her sleeves.]
...it's probably not the same for everyone... but I keep hearing things like, if only I were stronger, people wouldn't have gotten hurt... or killed... because of me. Because I was powerless to help myself, and... they were hurt in my place, trying to help me. ...things like that. I don't know what regrets you have, Kaiba-san, but they're not... being kind about this.
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However, there's the slightest note of hesitation before he speaks. Sharing what the whispers mutter about in his head, or rather what they're not whispering about, might be telling. Especially after the execution, a "normal" regret have to do with the way he was the one who lowered Hana into the boiling liquid. The fact of the matter is that he feels nothing of the sort -- only regret that he was made to look like a fool up there, sending the wrong person to their death for all to see. A simmering, angry sort of regret, that he should have done better. That he's capable of being better, because how can Kira hope to guide the world to a new utopia if he can't solve a simple murder?
He supposes a generalization will work just as well.]
...She's right. They're not. Mine are about the execution... I think that doesn't need to be expanded upon. [An easy way to sidestep the truth; just lean on the idea of trauma.]
I... ah. Well. [He clears his throat, as if pulling his thoughts away from the experience.] I don't look forward to how they'll be as the days pass. Imagine being berated, constantly, and that the mental consequences would be very negative. Tired and distracted, like Yukina-chan said, but also indecisive. As if one's self-confidence has been shattered.
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Seto flinches, forces himself to stop thinking, and lets out a sound that he approximates to be bitter laughter. (It doesn't sound anything like it.) God fucking damn it. He supposes the memory of being unable to save Mokuba is traumatic enough to feed the night terrors, if he weren't immune to them.
He nods.
As far as night terrors go, this is something that he can still fake. Might as well slip into the role right now if he can, right? ]
I can work with that.
[ There's a forced, eerie sense of calm over his features. He folds his arms across his chest.
Someone, please change the topic? ]
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Maybe it's for the better that he's not having the memory forced on him.]
...I'll ask Craftly-san tonight... for some makeup. Later on in the week, it will look strange if you don't have circles under your eyes. [She traces under her eye with a finger, indicating.] We can meet in the morning and make it look like you had trouble sleeping. Just... try not to look at anyone directly before then.