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Entry tags:

open;

Who: Makoto Naegi and OPEN.
When: 12/24 & 12/25 icly.
Where: Various places.
What: Naegi tries to make sense of things. Or at least fumbles around for a few days trying to make the best of things...same difference!!
Rating/Warning: He's fairly mild but will probably think about murder game trauma being that's a thing that just happened. Probably Dangan Ronpa spoilers but just lemme know if you need me to avoid those (though I'd caution you away from any castmate threads if they happen in that case).

a; grocery shopping (12/24)

[ This is not Naegi Makoto's lucky day. He's a fairly terrible ViViD player, as he quickly finds out - game over, because he can't bring himself to attack someone really, and it takes him a while to actually get through things. After that is the power point that seems like it honestly could be an extension of the Mutual Killing game, except for the part where no one is insisting he try to kill anyone (except maybe aliens?) so that's...that's an improvement, but it still doesn't feel very lucky at all. Especially given that the powerpoint covers the end of his world - which, well, didn't he just do this...

...But this is even more literal than the last time, so. Okay. That's a thing. Following that, he can't locate anyone he knows. He tries their names on the CereVice, tries to ask around about the classmates he's misplaced, but there's no real luck there (ironic, given his talent) and while Naegi doesn't believe they're dead or lost to him forever, he does have to admit that at least immediately he might have to focus on something else.

Like picking an apartment, mostly at random (though nothing fancy, in the same way he'd picked a job). And acknowledging that he was hungry, and had to eat. Since he'd been supplied with credits enough for that (though he's going to be frugal, not knowing how long he's there), Naegi heads out to pick up some food since it seems to be left to him to do it...which is actually a nice change of pace. He looks more than a little lost and weirded out even as he locates a store, though. It's...strange. Being outside of Hope's Peak. Nice, except for the whole world-ending and missing classmates thing, but really strange. When was the last time he saw the real sky...? Or a sky that looked as real as this one?

A while, for sure. But Naegi's fascination with the sky is not really useful at this juncture, because he apparently is not skilled enough to walk while staring up and not become a catastrophe. Because that would be just his luck. It's not so much that he trips - although he seems to - but that one of the bags he's carrying breaks - why this - and several bottles of cherry-vanilla cola begin rolling free. Along with several more ordinary and healthy-ish groceries. Sorry if something rolls into you. Or if the short boy chasing after his scattering things gets in your way and trips and/or hinders you, he doesn't intend to do that... ]

A-ah, wait! [ Because talking to the groceries that roll away from him will stop them, clearly.

Honestly, he might also just run into people while looking up and/or around, in which case he'll always immediately stop and begin apologizing. ] I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going... [ And who knows, maybe his bags break. AGAIN. Sorry if he drops a can of soup on your foot or something. Or he just looks apologetic and also lost, how the hell does he get back to his apartment again why this. ]

b; shopping for something else (12/25)

[ Having at least succeeded in getting groceries into his apartment (whatever mishaps happened, at leas the was determined to do that) Naegi ventures out again the next day in the morning, clutching a packet. He'll eventually hit up shops, and can be found taking things out of the packet - specifically, he's trying to find photo frames that will fit a variety of dumb pictures from the manilla envelope he'd been carrying around. He's apparently brought them along to double-check for size, so it's possible to catch a glimpse of them as he frowns and tries to find things that work.

...Simple black frames should be all right, right...? But single frames, or one of those photoboard...things? ]

Ah...pardon me! Do you think a collage would look nicer in an apartment...? Or single frames...? I've never really been in charge of decorating anything. [ His parents had done that...well, and he'd never really done much out of the ordinary with his own room. Hadn't had many photographs, either. ]

c; bike shop (12/25)

[ Well, he can't count on those credits to last forever. Even if Naegi hasn't bothered to buy anything other than groceries and photo frames (he...bought a few clothes, but nothing major and mostly jeans and tees, he's very simple in terms of fashion), he doesn't want to do nothing and he should probably at least try to get involved in whatever all this is so he'll better be able to help his friends. Whenever he finally finds them again.

So he's sitting behind the counter of the shop, his nametag pinned to his shirt as he flips through the employee manual, looking more than a little nervous. Those nerves won't abate if someone comes in (what if they ask him something hard) but he'll try to smile all the same. Why are you buying a bike on Christmas? Why is Naegi bothering to do something like go in to work on Christmas? Who knows. ]

Er, welcome! Can I help you with anything?

d; wildcard

[ If you have your own scenario in mind, feel free to throw it at me and I'll roll with it. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hinata glances over at him, and he nods. It worked! Well, there's more to it than that, but he might elaborate on that a more a little later.

Right now...

wait hold on no why is he apologising he doesn't need to apologise at all naegi pls]

No, you don't have to apologise for that. The responsibility for that is... mine. [He chews a corner of his mouth, shaking his head, and adds:] It hasn't happened for you yet, but you're going to be the one who'll try to save me-- us.

[...I guess he was going to find out sooner or later, but.] Sorry, Naegi. This has to be strange to hear.

I can't deny that...

[ It's strange, but then...it's not the first time he's been told about doing things he doesn't remotely remember. And Hinata doesn't seem like he's lying, not that Naegi has always been the best judge of character. If Kirigiri or Togami were there to give an opinion...

Well, they aren't just now, so he'll just go with his gut instinct: trust what's being said to him. ]

...But I'm glad to hear that I tried to help, and that you're all right now. We didn't have any solid plans, but...we definitely all wanted to find a way to help our world. So, it's good to know we found a way to try.

[Hinata blinks. Well, from the type of guy he saw that Naegi was in the short time he'd had to learn about him and interact with him... No, it's still a surprise, all right, how readily he accepts it.

Not that Hinata's not grateful.]

... Aa, you have. And I appreciate it. After all, if it wasn't for that, we might not have gotten a chance at all and all wound up killed instead.

[Even if things happened the way that they had, at least there's still a chance. However small.]

Edited 2015-04-23 23:07 (UTC)

...It's at least a little easier to understand this than those powerpoints, even if I still don't really get it.

[ That moment when the plot of SDR2 is made less crazy by flamines... ]

This...all feels a bit like a science fiction film, honestly..."Flamines"...I keep just picturing flamingos...

[ Which cannot possibly be right. Of course, there's always a chance it's all a crazy dream, but considering the last crazy thing to happen to him was entirely legitimate, he's...

...well, may as well make the best of things, right? ]

[Thank goodness for flamines I guess???

But Hinata just gives him a look before wait no now he's thinking about flamingos.]

...maybe they're alien flamingos. [They never actually got information about what they looked...like...]

I don't really believe their story, though. Just too many things about it... [His is crazy but at least it is a cohesive whole.]

[ He also just sat through Junko's exposition...someday people will stop expositing things he doesn't remember and finds odd...surely......................

You're welcome for the flamingos, Hinata. Naegi sadly has some pretty inane thoughts and this is definitely one of them. Now he just has to apologize to an inanimate object and he should be all set. ]

...Alien flamingos...Hagakure-kun would probably have a story about those...

[ Burger-snatching aliens, after all... ]

...Anyway, I watched that entire powerpoint but I didn't really understand a lot of the details. About home, though...if that...program-thing worked, does that mean you don't remember much of what the world was like after that event?

[ ATTEMPTS AT INVESTIGATION...he's slow but methodical. Maybe he'll have things to actually report to Kirigiri, who will doubtless shore up Naegi's methodology with her actual detective instincts. More than that, though, he desperately wants to know more about the world he can't remember. Enoshima only told them just enough to imagine it, and those video shots weren't...well, they told a story, but there had to be more to it. Most of the world had fallen to despair - including this class, apparently? Naegi hasn't asked what "bad things" they'd done as of yet and isn't sure how to broach it - but he wants to know more about the hold outs. ]

Edited (RANDOM SPACE and wasn't quite done...) 2015-04-23 23:23 (UTC)

[Hinata shakes his head slowly...]

No, I... remember. A lot of it. The thing was, we had to do a forced shutdown at the very end, in order to stop Enoshima's AI. But what the forced shutdown meant was that we'd return to how we'd been just before we were put into the program.

[You might not want to know about that world, Naegi-- Hinata knows he has nightmares remembering. So much death. Treated in such a way that was almost unimaginable. Just some of the things that they'd-- he'd done, he...]

...honestly, we were supposed to return to being in despair, but I remembered what had happened in the program and managed to stay myself. So I can... tell you, some things.

If it's okay with you...whatever you can tell me, I'd like to know.

[ Well, "like to know"...some of it is probably entirely unpleasant, if not all of it. But he'd like to be a little less lost, if possible. It's probably not possible. ]

[bless you Naegi... you try, at least!!]

Well... there's a group called the Future Foundation who've been working to try and bring the world back from despair.

Things have gotten slightly better... especially since Enoshima died and her closest followers were...scattered, but it's still rough. [Hinata frowns. Kamukura... hadn't been that interested in it all getting better. Shockingly. He hadn't been interested in much.]

But, back there, crime rates skyrocketed, governments lost control of their countries, terrible pollution occurred worldwide where the air was poisonous to breathe in places... it was almost impossible to find one completely safe place.

Edited 2015-04-24 01:10 (UTC)

[ He tries so hard. ]

The Future Foundation...could those be the people who tried to get us out...?

[ He's still not made the ENOSHIMA'S FOLLOWERS connection from "we were in Despair" and that may take him longer than it will take Kirigiri if and when Naegi relates all of this to her. He's not the detective, even if he can get through class trials with patience and persistence. ]

It's still hard to believe that one person...could have caused such a thing to take off.

Yeah... You guys join up with the Future Foundation.

[Hinata shakes his head slowly with a small grimace.] It's hard to believe, though, isn't it? Enoshima's good at manipulating things, but she also manipulated others, caused them to fall into despair and help her...

[...] Do you know what it was that started it all?

That..."The Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident"...? Er, I understand Enoshima-san set it off, and there were riots of some sort, but I don't really know all the details. That the world "ended", that she caused it to come to that state...that it was bad enough that we agreed to be locked away forever...that's the sort of thing we learned of, but probably she knew it was worse if we didn't know the exact details, isn't that so...?

[ A half-hearted shrug, as he readjusts his grip on his groceries. ]

...After all, not knowing is also a sort of despair, or rather she wanted us to be afraid of choosing the exit....

Yeah... [He nods slowly... but they'd chosen it.]

What kicked it off was... actually at Hope's Peak. Yours wasn't the first "mutual killing" that she set up. There was another one before that, before the world became what it was.

And she used that incident. [Hinata raises his hand to his head, absently swiping his fingers over his temple, kneading.] I guess you probably don't remember the reserve course of Hope's Peak, right?

Edited 2015-04-24 01:26 (UTC)

N...o. [ Sorry. If he DID have his school memories, he'd have more of a clue about this stuff, but his frantic google searches had not mentioned a reserve course, or not one that he'd paid attention to. ]

At least, I definitely don't recall reading about anything like that...and since I can't remember those two years at Hope's Peak, I don't remember learning about it.

That's all right.

[Hinata gives him a small smile before he starts explaining again.] The reserve course was a way for Hope's Peak to get funding. They'd charge huge fees but they'd allow regular students who hadn't been scouted to attend the school. Then, when they'd graduate, they'd have the prestigious name of the Academy on their records...

...But, those students were taught by regular teachers like in any high school, and weren't treated the best.

[A pause--] I was one of them, for a while.

Edited 2015-04-24 01:36 (UTC)

[ wOW THAT'S A QUESTIONABLE POLICY...it...makes sense given the regular course students didn't really have to pay huge fees but still had incredible facilities and the like, but Naegi had not realized that was how the school managed it. ]

That...actually answers a few questions about the school's funding. Then, you weren't scouted for a talent? [ This doesn't seem to bother him but this kid also just randomly got a letter because of a lottery so...it's not like he can talk. ]

[Hope's Peak more like Questionable Policies Academy tbh.]

No, [shaking his head.]

Going to Hope's Peak was always my aspiration [a nigh-on unhealthy aspiration in some respects], so... I studied a lot, and I paid my way into the school.

[ where's the lie though ]

I see...well, it's not like I really was scouted for a talent, either. Rather, I don't think "luck" qualifies. [ Although he and Komaeda are doing very well at being unlucky in the same proximity in another thread. ] So she ran a game in that course...?

[you two must be kept out of the same proximity--]

Not exactly, but they're important to what happened. They were the ones who rioted. She exploited their feelings at being treated how they were. But... Hope's Peak was researching talents at the same time they were trying to nurture them in students.

[He frowns, waving one of his hands.] They wanted to see if they could... well, make a genius out of an ordinary person.

[Questionable Policies... and Practices Academy strikes again.]

[ maybe sometime they'll hit a good luck upswing at the same time though, wouldn't that be grand. instead of covering naegi's only clothes in soda... ]

...Er...by having other students teach someone else their talents...?

[ He's not thinking questionably enough for this... ]

[Naegi you're a good guy--]

Think more... extreme. [...] They took a volunteer for their project from the reserve course students and operated on--

[...well, it's not like he's going to hide it. That's certainly not accepting what's happened in the past. And Naegi deserves to know.]

Me. On my brain.

That's...! [ WHAT THE HELL, HOPE'S PEAK?! ]

I-I see... [ his expression very clearly says NO I DON'T SEE WHAT EVEN. apparently naegi lived in a sci-fi even before cerealia. ]

They wanted to make a genius above others, an ultimate hope, I guess...

[Hinata trails off and looks over at his face oh Naegi. He reaches over to tentatively thump at his shoulder as though in commiseration. Imagine hearing what you yourself had done from Enoshima tho Naegi, he's had a long time to mull over it--]

They suppressed about everything that made me me to make room for talents, and I was taught off somewhere secluded from the rest of the school... but Enoshima knew about it.

Of...course she did. [ OF COURSE SHE DID, even though Naegi has no idea how she would have found out. Ikusaba, maybe...? He doesn't know about her childhood friend things. He doesn't seem to mind the shoulder thump, and at least Hinata gets that their school is insane...

Naegi never knew how insane until...well, everything. ]

...And she used you somehow?

[YES, OF COURSE SHE DID... damn it Enoshima.]

...Yeah. As part of her first mutual killing. It was me, and the student council... and by the end of it, it was only me and the president left alive.

[...] She showed the reserve course students what had happened, even though Hope's Peak tried to cover the incident up. She played off of all their feelings of inferiority and frustration with the school, making it worse and worse until they started rioting... and from that, it gradually spread out as the students from the school who were already in despair, part of "Super High School Level Despair" helped...

It started off as inequality, but soon enough, people forgot what it was. It turned into war without meaning.

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