Act 1, Scene 1: Pleasant Boy

[opening_act]

[ A notification on your phone goes off, letting you know the purchase of your meeting with Exael has gone through.

There is an attachment. Where are you, when you open it? ]

Comments

[opening_act]

Then you can still aim for graduation! That's a valid graduation gift.

[afailedmurder]

What are the graduation requirements?

[opening_act]

That the production staff thinks you're ready to. There's no one hard and fast thing.

[afailedmurder]

I see.

[considers for a moment]

You mentioned before that you weren't interested in talking about yourself because you already knew all about yourself. Was there something you were hoping to learn from talking to an idol?

[opening_act]

That's a good question! [ she grins and for a second it looks like she's not going to answer that either ]

I wanted to see how far along you are, and which way you're likely to go. That and it's easier to plan if I know more about what I'm working with, of course.

What did you think about the House of Mirth, and what was found there?

[afailedmurder]

I think there were some interesting bits in there amidst the B-movie horror. The statuary, for example, and the painting that C took. I'm sure others have noticed similar things.

[opening_act]

Ehhh, boring. . . Azzy's painting isn't a real mystery, not when he walked right out there to grab me. So none of you have even figured out his name.

[afailedmurder]

[well, based on OBVIOUS ANGEL THEME...]

Azzy... Azrael?

[opening_act]

Bzzt! A good guess, but there was a hint in the house! If you didn't find it, you might want to consult with an Angel closer to home!

[afailedmurder]

I'll be sure to ask her, thank you.

But I apologize for boring you. Would you prefer I examine the ghosts that possessed some of us? Personally, that was the mystery that I found the least interesting.

[opening_act]

You could, but you don't need to.

[afailedmurder]

Perhaps they were fabricated and perhaps they were real. There's certainly a narrative there, but I'm not sure it benefits myself or the other idols to dig into it. So I'll pass on that one.

What else interests you?

[opening_act]

Why did you buy the meeting?

[afailedmurder]

We idols know essentially nothing about our situation. We wanted to take steps to rectify that.

[opening_act]

Nothing you've asked has really been aimed towards that, though? You sound more interested in what you can do to get ahead. How to graduate, if my apartment is bugged, what do I want . . .

[afailedmurder]

Well, I am working under the assumption that B will be asking all of the boilerplate questions, and I don't think the two things are mutually exclusive...

But what if I were interested in that?

[opening_act]

We could try it out a bit, but I'd need to know what you'd want to be rewarded with first. Nothing in life is free, right?

[afailedmurder]

What I would most be interested in is information — ideally useful and exclusive, though I would take either.

[opening_act]

That's really vague. Especially because you could ask for information now, but you're not.

What would be useful to you? There's no exit door I can tell you about.

[afailedmurder]

The difficult thing is that you would know better than I do what is useful to me. But if you're not willing to volunteer anything, I'll keep asking questions.

Why did you agree to meet with us?

[opening_act]

I think if I give you info now, you're more likely to do what I want later! We'll see how it turns out.

[afailedmurder]

That's not unlikely. A few tidbits of information in that haunted house of yours and here we are, even though it was far worse than what Mukuro did.

Why did you choose the graduation option that you did?

[opening_act]

There's a man outside your door with a gun, and your apartment is filling with smoke! Do you ask the man with the gun to let you by? Or do you put on your favorite music and see if you have any of that candy you really like left in the fridge? Do you wait and see, or is it like this might as well happen!

[afailedmurder]

I attack the man with the gun. Preferably by inviting him in and ambushing him, as the familiar terrain of my apartment is the only leverage I have on the situation, but ultimately I would rather die fighting than allow myself to be slowly suffocated by complacency.

[opening_act]

Feisty!