driftfleet | +1.5: Free Time Event

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+1.5: Free Time Event

Who: The Crew of the Huntress
Broadcast: ??? IF YOU WANT???
Action: Here and there on the Huntress
When: Whenever!

[It's a nice ship, isn't it? It's definitely a nice ship. It doesn't matter if it's a nice ship to other people. It's a nice ship to him.

What a nice ship.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh? An entire planet? What was it like?

[But hey, hey, what was that? That's a piece of information right there. Komaeda gives a little start.] An attack! How unnerving! Was it on people from other ships, or by them?

Foresty. There was a spa there too, but the forest was the big thing. And by big, I mean it was most of the entire planet.

[ Chris isn't surprised someone reacts to that. He's just not going to treat it as a big thing even if it is because he doesn't know this kid well enough. ] Both? Like I said, I don't have too many details. Aggravated assault or something like that.

Hmmm. [It sounds kind of nice, Komaeda muses. Though- and here he can't help but look down at the arm in the sling- he probably wouldn't exactly be able to soak in the communal hot springs, would he.] It sounds rather nice. [For once, there's no hidden edge to the comment. He just thinks an unending forest would be nice.]

Oh no, that's so tragic...! I'm sorry that such a despair-inducing incident happened. I'm sure only further hope can arise from something like that. People are resilient, after all, aren't they? [Komaeda definitely gets the sense that there's more to the story than he's being told. He'll ask after that to somebody else, he supposes.]

Not really. It was like a maze and... well, it tried messing with you pretty hard.

[ No, yes, Chris gives the new kid such an odd look for the phrasing. Who the hell even says stuff like that? ]

Uh... maybe. I'm not exactly sure how many people are in despair right now, though.

You're not sure?! [He physically hunches up, his good hand rising to clutch at air urgently.] Do you mean to say that an unknown number of people are in despair right now!?

Okay, hold on. Who uses despair anymore?

.... Well, I mean, it's.... [Komaeda looks so fundamentally puzzled that it's probably funny.] It's just what it's called. Especially nowadays.

Nowadays? What kind of nowadays do you come from?

I mean, what with the.... Ultimate.... Despair.... incident.....?

[His voice is getting quieter and more uncertain with every word. He tips his head to look at Chris sideways.]

[ Nope, no recognition at all. Chris momentarily considers that Komaeda might be referring to the time when Wyatt takes over the world, but it sounds like a title for the incident and nobody really has anything to call that event except "when the world went to hell". Besides... ]

Looks like nobody told you. We're... not all from the same places here.

Oh, really? ... Ugh, that's right, I'd forgotten. Sorry. It was pretty thoughtless, which is to be expected of total trash like me.

Anyway, what's your world like? [To be honest, he had sort of forgotten about that. It still seemed like it was a bit much to take in all at once.]

[ Well. That escalated quickly. Total trash like him? Wow, kid. You got issues. When Chris Halliwell thinks you have issues, that's pretty bad. ]

It's... my world. Hard to say. More advanced than a lot of the others here from what it looks like. It's 2004 and I'm from California if any of that means something to you.

[Nagito Komaeda: a long, continuing visual novel series of why are you doing that no.

Based on how casually he moves on from his rather, uh, strong way of referring to himself, this isn't something new.]

America, right? I've been there. I haven't been to California, though. Or, I think I haven't! [Moving on from the bizarre nature of that statement just as smoothly as he did his initial self-directed insult, Komaeda continues:] Have you ever heard of Hope's Peak Academy?

You think you haven't?

[ How does that even work? You can't visit someplace like California and not know. Chris pauses, shakes his head a little. ]

No, never heard of it. Why?

Layovers? [Of course that's not the reason, but it seems feasible enough. Komaeda looks a little down at Chris' answer, though at this point he's unsurprised.]

You're not the first one. I suppose there are plenty of things from your world that I wouldn't know, too, sorry... So I guess I just find it interesting to be confronted by that, really.

You'd still know.

It's just a school, isn't it? I don't know about every school back home. [ Not to mention one of his own schools growing up was, you know, Magic School and he doesn't expect everyone to have heard of that. ]

I guess!

[oh god Chris why]

Hope's Peak Academy is much more than just a school! It's a bastion of hope, a place where the best of the best collect and put themselves together towards one great goal! It's no exaggeration to say that everybody in the world knows of Hope's Peak! It's a school of incredible prestige and importance!

[HE IS CLEARLY PREPARED TO GO ON. Komaeda has gone a little wild-eyed, excitement or something else filling him with the kind of energy that you usually find in sidewalk preachers.]

[ Why indeed. What the hell. Chris kind of pulls away at the sudden enthusiasm over a single school. ]

Okay... Super school. Safe to say we don't have it where I'm from.

Do you have anything similar? [Komaeda snaps back to normal like a ball smacked out of midair.]

A particular institution of greatest prestige, or a company, or something like that?

Not really. I mean, there's Harvard but that's definitely not on the same level.

[ He considers that for a moment. ]

Well, unless you don't have Apple or something. People get pretty crazy about that stuff.

... A fruit? People get really excited about fruit where you're from? Well,.... it takes all types, I guess!

[He tips his head to think about this. He does like apples, but to feel so strongly about them...?]