audience: emma perkins

[cyclists]

Comments

[cyclists]

...I can tell you that they're still alive? [That doesn't. Help.]

[foodbin]

Please don't tell me I wasted my question on that.

[cyclists]

No, definitely not. But I can't really tell you too much about them. Even if I try, I'll be stopped.

[foodbin]

If I asked about just one person, could you give me a yes or no?

[cyclists]

I want to say yes, but I can't promise anything.

[foodbin]

Is that a no, or a try it and see kind of thing?

[cyclists]

A try it and let's see.

[foodbin]

Okay.

[...]

Akane.

[cyclists]

What about her, exactly?

[foodbin]

Is she corrupted?

[cyclists]

What makes you think Akane in the first place?

[foodbin]

...I think the way she's acting is suspicious.

[#vague]

[cyclists]

That's probably because Akane's kind of terrifying.

[foodbin]

Maybe it is. But... She seems to fit the kind of person it's been drawn to so far. You know?

[cyclists]

Emma, let me ask you something. Can you find a pattern in the people you've known to be corrupted so far?

[foodbin]

All of them were younger girls. I didn’t know Mary at all, but Futaba was... rebellious and excitable, I think. Both of them were Air.

[cyclists]

I don't know if the corruption's biased enough to pick a type. Is it a pattern if it was only twice?

[foodbin]

...If it isn't a pattern because it's only been twice, why did you ask me to find a pattern in the two people we've found?

[...]

Unless you're saying there's no pattern, and it's someone completely different from the two of them.

[cyclists]

[A thumbs up.] Didn't we tell you the darkness can manifest in different ways, too?

[foodbin]

Yeah. It can turn even traits that aren't necessarily bad so overblown that they become a problem, right? Lune mentioned a sense of justice.

[cyclists]

Exactly. That's why you can't blindly guess who may or may not be corrupted. We want you guys to bond and get to know each other for a reason.

[And that reason is to know people. better to pinpoint why they might go crazy later and help them.]

[foodbin]

Right. I'm the first to admit I am not the best at making friends, but I'm trying harder here.

[cyclists]

I've never been really great at making friends either. But as long as you have one, the rest is easier. You can manage that, can't you?

[foodbin]

I'm pretty sure I already do, so...

[cyclists]

Then there you go. [There's a pause, a hand coming up to fiddle with the edge of his hood.] Spotting the corruption is hard, but the hardest part, I think, is facing the fact it can be anybody. We didn't really set off to a good start when it claimed a little girl as its first victim.

But the more we learn about how it can change people, the better chance we have of figuring out how to find it earlier.