Week 3, post-execution; Hiro

[sylfied]

[ What a day. More precisely, what a couple of days, and Fie can't really think of a word to describe everything that's happened beyond "bad". But with so many deaths fresh on her mind, it's hardly the time to try and nap everything away. Instead, ice cream in hand, Fie takes to wandering in the off-chance that she'll either find a quiet spot to think or she'll come across someone she doesn't mind seeing.

It's the latter this time, when she spots Hiro, and her quiet sigh is pretty much inaudible as she approaches. ]

Hiro.

Comments

[zerotohiro]

[It's familiar to him, being angry in one breath and detached in the next. It's not a range of mood swings he's comfortable with and he's let it show a little more than he's wanted. He hadn't performed nearly as well in the trial as he wanted and now with so many extra people dead the whole thing feels...awful.

It's why Fie catches him on his way back from the jungle with his pockets weighed down by rocks and shells. When he looks at her, it's a blank look almost like he doesn't recognize her before it clicks back into place.

His name is Hiro Hamada. He's on an island with 24 other people. He has to live, somehow.]

Hey. [It's a quiet tone of acknowledgement but at least he stops walking.] ...I forgot ice cream was part of the deal.

[sylfied]

You can have this one, then.

[ She's already had one, of course. Fie will never pass up free food, even in the wake of something so depressing. But considering her earliest memories were of battlefields, screams and explosions... this isn't anything that could render her all that despairing.

It's sad. But she can't stop here. ]

[zerotohiro]

...thanks, I guess. [He's not really hungry (the complete opposite, truthfully) and he's a little unsure of what he's doing here but it's also probably not cool to flat-out say no when he's getting the impression Fie doesn't usually deal with people.

It's then belatedly that he realizes that Fie was walking somewhere and he gives her another curious look.] Where were you heading?

[sylfied]

Nowhere, really. It's still too loud back there.

[ Wails of grief, angry yelling, so on and so forth.

He's right, though, in that she's not much for dealing with those she's not attached to. Hiro also isn't someone she's attached to, but he's not obnoxious, either. ]

[zerotohiro]

Yeah. It's sort of why I initially left, too. After Vriska's outburst and then Prussia it was just...a lot? That sounds really bad because of course people are going to be upset but at the same time...[A shrug. How do you say "at the same time, screaming isn't going to bring them back" without sounding insensitive? Screaming didn't bring Tadashi back. Fighting didn't bring Tadashi back. And screaming and fighting wouldn't bring back people like Lelouch, Jack, Nino, Newt...people who mattered.

He shakes his head suddenly.]

...come on. [Despite the fact he was just leaving the jungle, he turns back to begin walking into it once more.] I can think of at least one place people aren't going to venture to right now.

[sylfied]

[ Ah, yes. The jungle, where so many people stumbled out from, bloodied and burned and broken.

Honestly, he's got a point, so Fie nods simply and trots after him. ]

[zerotohiro]

[A good Fie. He's heading down the path and apparently not at all thinking about the fact that this is probably a stupid idea while he's hunting for a certain break in the main path.]

...is it weird if I still think at least we accomplished something this weekend?

[sylfied]

You mean... what? Catching two people with roles, and one of them being an actual murderer?

[ because that was kind of a disaster, Hiro. ]

[zerotohiro]

Yeah. We have names now and a few numbers and that's kind of a good thing since it's facts we can work with. If there's eleven roles and we caught two of them already, there's nine left. If there's nine left and there's twenty-five of us, there's a 36% chance any one of us could be somebody with a role. Not exactly great odds, but it's a lot easier than trying to find eleven people out of the forty-two people we started with which was only a 26% chance of picking a person.

Even further, if there's four Sirens left and there's twenty-five of us, there's a 16% chance of us picking out a Siren and there's a 4% chance of finding the last Wickie.

So...it's not a great accomplishment but we are increasing our chances. The problem is now that we know the rules the Sirens are running under, what're the chances the game's going to change?

[sylfied]

[ To her credit, Fie does seem to be listening very intently to this. And it looks as though she's trying her best to understand the point he's making, but-- ]

I was seventy-something placed on my test scores.

[ THAT WAS A LOT OF NUMBERS, HIRO. ]

[zerotohiro]

[...sigh.]

Sorry. The point is that our chances of stopping this are increasing and knowing what we know now they're probably safe for now. I'd like to get out of this with as few casualties as possible though and that means not talking to most people today while everybody calms down.

[...] Is it bad to think that maybe Jack had a reason for doing what he did? You heard what he said. He only hit Mello's head.

[sylfied]

Murder is murder.

... But I think there's always a reason for it. It might not always be a good reason, but it's never really black and white.

[zerotohiro]

Yeah I would agree with that. I never thought Jack had a good reason unless maybe Mello was attacking him first, but we still don't know what happened. Jack made it sound like Mello got in the way of Jack's job, but...we'll never know.

That's one of the problems this island has, I think. A lot of people see things in black and white but how do you tell people not to do that without making them even angrier?

[sylfied]

You don't.

[ simply. ]

They either figure it out themselves, or they condemn people to die without really thinking about it.

[zerotohiro]

You mean like what just happened? [Is he bitter? A little.] I really, really hope people start figuring it out or we're losing even more innocent people because nobody's thinking stuff through.

It's been almost four weeks now and we haven't successfully caught a killer. At what point does it become a problem with how we're operating instead of the killer doing a good job?

[sylfied]

It really might be both. There's still a lot we don't know.

... And either we trust each other or we don't, and either we die or don't. Again, it's not black or white.

[ ... ]

I mean, I guess we got a killer by accident.

[zerotohiro]

I can't say I'm not making things more difficult that way...there are still people I won't trust by principle of things, but it's people who've proven they can't be trustworthy, I suppose.

...do you trust people more now than you did?

[sylfied]

... Maybe a few.

[ Trust still comes slowly, and it's not like she was thrown into situations where trust means she'll stay alive a little longer or at least get a passing grade-- but Fie isn't the same entirely distrustful kid she was when she was first thrown into an orienteering exercise, either. ]

[zerotohiro]

Good. [There's a little nod.] I can't force people to trust anybody else, but I think...as long as you have some people to trust here you'll be okay? Just like the rest of us. It's all we can do otherwise we're going to tear ourselves apart.

[sylfied]

Which is what they'd probably want, anyway.

[zerotohiro]

I'd say "do you really think this group of people will give in to what the Chiefs want", but...we're not exactly the most organized group of people. Either way, the Chiefs are getting their way.

[sylfied]

...

[ yeah, she's just giving Hiro a rather flat stare. ]

[zerotohiro]

[A raised eyebrow.]

Am I wrong? We can't even follow basic instructions, dude.

[sylfied]

... You're not wrong. But people are always going to argue.

[zerotohiro]

I know. Back where you're from, how did you get people to stop fighting? [Is that a thing that even occurred?]

[sylfied]

... Well, it was more that we just worked on minimizing casualties.

[ NOT VERY WELL. ]

[zerotohiro]

Even that would work considering where we are. Anything you can think of we can apply here?

[sylfied]

... Threatening to beat them up?

[zerotohiro]

...do you think anybody would take us seriously if we did that? [No, kids.]

[sylfied]

Only if you followed through with it.

[zerotohiro]

We could try to follow through with it but there are a lot of tall people on the island. We'll think of something else.

[sylfied]

Size isn't everything.

[ did you not see her take on Jaffar, sometimes you just need a good shot at the crotch. ]

[zerotohiro]

Then how about I be the brains and you be the brawn of the operation? [Yes he absolutely did, but he's also used to outsmarting people instead of beating them up. Let him live.]

[sylfied]

... Sure. I can swing that.

[zerotohiro]

Then we've got a plan for the week. [There's a flash of a grin, but...]

...I'm not ready to head back yet. Are you?

[sylfied]

[ a pause-- and then she shakes her head. ]

Nope, not really.

[zerotohiro]

Cool. The oasis it is, then. [And he'll lead on so long as there are no objections. Everybody can mourn over what just happened. But hiding out for a while doesn't sound like a bad deal either.]