Chapter 1: Goodbye, High-School Life

[hopefullyyours]

Who: Nagito Komaeda and anybody else
Broadcast: Fleetwide video
Action: On the Marsiva
When: 1/30

[Komaeda shows the stars before himself, arranging his bad arm one last time to make certain nothing is showing. It's a wasted effort- his hand is already tightly bundled up under multiple layers of bandage and clothing. He switches the view so he's fully visible.]

Hello, hello! What an interesting setting we're in now. I don't suppose Monokuma has given us any announcements to explain why it looks like we're in space?

[He smiles, eyebrows quirking up. It's an expression that seems to beg forgiveness, though there's a shadow of another expression, a colder one, behind his eyes. The combination of those two layered expressions reads as contempt, but is it just that?] And, goodness my, but it's quiet here. Have I been locked up again? In punishment? I promise you all, I did what I did in order to further you-

... To further hope.

Comments

[hopefullyyours]

.... I mean, hope isn't a tangible object or person, is it? So attention from an idea seems to be the kind of thing that would warrant, maybe, um, a little more... action.

[As evasions go, it's pretty weak. But Komaeda doesn't have it in him to explain everything loathsome and foul that he's learned recently about himself and his classmates. That wound isn't even scarred over- it's still bleeding fresh in his mind.]

I really haven't done much of anything in the general view of hope!

[onlyanapple]

...Well, I suppose that makes you a change from the horrendously initiating never say die heroic types. [He has had enough of Shonens to last a lifetime. ]

[hopefullyyours]

I mean, don't get me wrong. I definitely don't think you should just give up, and certainly not on principle alone. Hope is a very important thing! But I don't think I could be considered the heroic type, not at all...

[onlyanapple]

No, you definitely have an air of fatality about you that's almost refreshing.

[hopefullyyours]

What?! I... Definitely not! The brightest of lights burns in my breast for the triumph of hope over all future adversity! There isn't an ounce of fatalism that I could possibly harbor, especially in relation to the strength of my convictions towards hope!

[He starts to gesture with his good arm, eyes going a little wild around the edges.]

[onlyanapple]

[There's a delicate pause.]

I take it back. You have an air of crazy about you.

[hopefullyyours]

I suppose that isn't the first time I've heard that. [Komaeda hums in thought.] It doesn't really bother me, though. You can't lose sight of what matters, right?

[onlyanapple]

Well, I suppose not. What matters is different for everyone. though.

[hopefullyyours]

What matters for you, then?

[onlyanapple]

Free will.

[hopefullyyours]

Hm. [It's an abstract concept rather than physical desire, so he can't really object. He thinks, for a moment, about the fact that his own luck has never really allowed him any free will over it. It's really an unusual "talent," in a lot of ways, isn't it?]

I take it you're in favor of it, then? What about situations where something occurs that a person only has the free will to respond to?

[onlyanapple]

It's still free will. It's an important thing. If you've ever lived without it, you'd know.

[And because this can be a sensitive subject for him: ]

...Of course, there's booze and sleep. Those are important, too.

[hopefullyyours]

Oh, you won't hear any disagreement from me. I was just sort of curious. [It's best to know what will set people off ahead of time, after all. That way, you can choose to instead of doing it by accident, right?]

... Uh, I think I'm still a little too young for one of those, but I do appreciate a good nap in the sun now and then!

[onlyanapple]

True, but you'll grow into it one day. Probably.

[hopefullyyours]

Hmm. [His gaze wanders a little as he thinks about this.] Maybe. I wonder if I will.

[onlyanapple]

That's the glory about free will, maybe you will, maybe you won't. It's your choice.

[hopefullyyours]

Oh, that too. I was mostly wondering about timing, though. I mean, what if I died in a blimp crash or something first, right?

[He makes a sound that's a little too boyish to be a giggle, but definitely too high to be a chuckle.]

[onlyanapple]

I-

You're pretty odd. As humans go.

...You are human, right?

[hopefullyyours]

I hear that a lot. [Komaeda looks unmoved by this proclamation. He's used to it enough that the sting has long since been blunted.]

But I'm definitely human! ... Are you? [Enjoy that intense stare being directed your way.]

[onlyanapple]

Not even marginally. I'm a demon.

[hopefullyyours]

.... Like, really a demon? [Pardon his skepticism. He's spent the past month (?) on an island stuck with several weirdos, including one kid in particular who constantly proclaims his power over demons in the form of hamsters.]

You don't happen to have any pets, do you?

[onlyanapple]

No. Like a fake one. Of course really a demon.


...Not any more, they were all left behind in the magical castle.

[hopefullyyours]

Um, I only mention that because I knew somebody who-

[.... oh god okay so he is clearly just like Gundam never mind. Ugh. Why are people who raise animals all so weirdly fixated on demons!?]

Uh, haha.... oh, wow, that's.... sad. I'm sorry to hear that.

[onlyanapple]

Somebody who what?

No it isn't, they were a pain in the arse.

[He misses them, really.]

[hopefullyyours]

Ahahahah, it really isn't important, ahahaha.....! [CUE THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE LAUGHTER. Komaeda is pretty sure he's going to get beaten up if this guys knows what he's referring to. He seems like the tough sort.]

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you think you'll get another pet here? [Don't worry, friend, he totally speaks Emotionally-Repressed Dude.]