audience: emma perkins

[cyclists]

Comments

[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.

[foodbin]

...Yeah. It would at least be a little easier to think about if it never took good people.

[cyclists]

Doesn't that just bring up the question of what makes a person good or bad?

[foodbin]

...That is way more loaded than I want to get into.

[cyclists]

Probably. [He sounds content to let it go.] In any case, think about it for a while even if you don't answer me or come up with an answer at all. It's a good question to think about.

[foodbin]

Do you think it's one that'll matter much here?

[cyclists]

...yeah. I do, actually, because it changes how you look at people and allows you to really think about what they're capable of.

[foodbin]

So you think the way to judge whether someone is good or bad depends on what they're capable of doing?

[cyclists]

[A sigh.]

...no. It's about what they're capable of and the choices they make with that capability. [...] I know some people who made some really bad choices before, but it was for the greater good even if the methods were wrong. Likewise, I've known people who made good choices that ended really poorly.

I want to believe everything could be black and white, but it's not. That's all.

[foodbin]

So, you're one of the 'there's no really good or bad people' types. Just complicated people?

[cyclists]

There are some people that are definitely bad, just like there are some that are definitely good. But those people that are one or the other are really rare so it's mostly a lot of complicated people.

[A shrug.] Maybe I'm just used to working with complicated people.

[foodbin]

Yeah? What kind of place did you work before this?

[cyclists]

...it's sort of a long story? But it was a place for people like me that was supposed to help us complete something really important. A lot of the people I worked with were kind of weird, but I got used to it until I left.