(no subject)

[productions]

Who: The Mastermind and Host
What: A Conversation
When: Wednesday night

[When Nanami goes back to her room Wednesday evening, she'll find the host waiting for her there.]

Comments

[lullabytes]

I'd like to play lots more with you, too. Although in this place, I can't show you the ones I'd normally play - ah, I don't even have all the systems, but the one I have...

[ ...............hahaha actually she hasn't opened her backpack to check...it...but she had it in her backpack on her back when she went to the library and Nanami is not sure she wants to see what damage may or may not have been done to her precious PSP that doesn't have a charge anyway. ]

...but we can play the games that are here, or make up our own. And if you go away from here, Usami-chan and Alter Ego will also play with you, I'm sure.

[ Talking about games, and her siblings, is enough for her to smile for the first time since they'd opened the reading room door that morning. ]

As long as I'm able, I'll play with you, though.

[productions]

I'm glad to see you smile again. [Another pause.] I won't lie and say the next few weeks won't be difficult, but I hope you'll still have things to smile about throughout them.

[Once the game ends, he'll start cleaning up the cards, shuffling them and putting them back in the pack.] Unfortunately, I don't have any time left to play another game. [He'll hand the pack back to her.] But keep this for me, okay? As a good-luck charm. Maybe we'll be able to play again soon.

[lullabytes]

...I hope you will, too. I think it's harder for you than me, isn't it? After all, I...can speak to these people as a friend, even if no one trusts any of us from that list any longer. But...you know, even if I can't speak to you like that outside of these meetings, that doesn't change...that I think of you in that manner.

[ She takes the deck back, nodding. ]

Any time. I'll...keep it safe.

[productions]

[There's a long pause where the host seems to be debating something, before he reaches for Nanami's hand and pulls her into a hug.]

Stay strong, Chiaki-chan. [As he hugs her, she'll feel him subtly slip a piece of paper up her sleeve where he's holding her hand, the movement hidden by the embrace. He lets go and nods to her.]

I'll see you tomorrow at the trial. [And with that, he'll leave the room.]

[lullabytes]

[ She will definitely feel that, yes. Reading it immediately after...no, she can't do that, because she knows that the producers are watching and this doesn't feel like something he'd want them to know about. If it were, he would have simply handed it to her without the pretense.

After he leaves, she'll pick one of the books off her desk and read that for a while. She keeps them there solely to read at night, anyway, so this isn't remotely weird. An hour or more after he's gone, Nanami will try to unfold the note as carefully as possible under her covers and read it against the book, half under the covers and out of the way, leaning up against her wall and curving in over the book.

This feels a little dangerous, but. ]

[productions]

[The note reads:]

Whatever good luck charm I gave you tonight, keep it on you for the rest of this week. If towards the end of this week's trial, you're faced with an impossible decision - and you'll know what I mean if it happens - open it. It may help you. But don't open it until then.