[He's next to her, but not close enough to be pressed up against her side, and he doesn't close the distance. That inch or two of space feels like a chasm right now. Who knew a lack of contact could feel this powerful? But if he closed it . . .
It feels wrong, so he doesn't. Instead he fiddles with the device, turning it on, his eyes focused on that rather than Rise; his brain, though, is barely paying attention to what he's doing with his hands. This conversation takes up most of the juice he's got.
There's too much. Some of it he only knows because the others told him. Where does he start?]
"She's" the one who pulled all of that. She's the one who locked us up. She put me in that machine! She made us—
[His voice breaks, and he flinches at the sound. That was . . . an attempt at starting the story. It didn't go very well. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, how stupid . . .
Leon closes his eyes hard for a second. When he opens them, he's got the device on and open to the list of student IDs.
Okay. Start there. He takes a deep breath.]
—Forget it. I mean—I'll get to that. Look, in my third year of high school, that's when I got scouted for Hope's Peak. That's . . . you saw it, but it wasn't always like that. It used to be this dream school where you only get invited if you're the best at what you do, and after you graduate, you're totally set for life. Like—a celebrity. We were celebrities. It's a huge friggin' deal gettin' invited there! They picked us 'cuz we were the best . . .
no subject
It feels wrong, so he doesn't. Instead he fiddles with the device, turning it on, his eyes focused on that rather than Rise; his brain, though, is barely paying attention to what he's doing with his hands. This conversation takes up most of the juice he's got.
There's too much. Some of it he only knows because the others told him. Where does he start?]
"She's" the one who pulled all of that. She's the one who locked us up. She put me in that machine! She made us—
[His voice breaks, and he flinches at the sound. That was . . . an attempt at starting the story. It didn't go very well. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, how stupid . . .
Leon closes his eyes hard for a second. When he opens them, he's got the device on and open to the list of student IDs.
Okay. Start there. He takes a deep breath.]
—Forget it. I mean—I'll get to that. Look, in my third year of high school, that's when I got scouted for Hope's Peak. That's . . . you saw it, but it wasn't always like that. It used to be this dream school where you only get invited if you're the best at what you do, and after you graduate, you're totally set for life. Like—a celebrity. We were celebrities. It's a huge friggin' deal gettin' invited there! They picked us 'cuz we were the best . . .
[He hands her the device so she can flip through the profiles of the 78th class.
A few of those people might be familiar. There's Leon, obviously, and a few more that might stand out from either Leon's memories or around Cerealia.]