night two;

[unnames]

[He's actively looking for someone, for once. While he'd like to generally avoid like 90% of the people here...

Alfendi's an exception, if only because he can only remember him being kind to him, and... really, he's in need of some sort of friendly face right now. Seeing that execution shook him up--no matter his exposure to Wonderland, he's still not used to violence in the least.

It's in the canteen that he finally finds him, and...he hesitates a moment before he approaches, shoving his hands into his pockets and trying to act like he just stumbled across him instead of that he was actively looking for him for the past 20 minutes.]

Er... Alfendi?

Comments

[selfdenying]

[It feels like the last few hours have dragged on forever.]

[Alfendi is He's already sick of everything, sick to his very core in more ways than one, but if there's one thing he can rely on now, it's putting all his effort into keeping himself (mostly) together. Shove everything to the back, and just move forward without regard for one's self in an attempt to find a solution. That's certainly the best way of dealing with things.]

[He's just fixing himself a cup of hot water to calm his nerves, when he hears a sound - he turns his head, recognizing the young man standing there.]

Oh, Alice. Hello. [He smiles his usual pleasant smile, though his eyes betray the truth - he looks very tired.]

How are you feeling?

[He knows the answer, of course, but he's nothing but polite.]

[unnames]

Oh... I'm alright, I guess.

[He shrugs awkwardly then, shuffling in a little more properly, still somewhat hesitant. He can tell how tired Alfendi looks, and...that's only natural right?

After all, what they just experienced was absolutely crazy.]

I mean, I'm not hurt or anything. [Just traumatized, it's fine.]

[selfdenying]

That's good.

[Ah, yes, the wounds are allllll on the inside. Where the blood is supposed to go.]

[He lets out a sigh, shaking his head. If he could erase the memories of what just happened, he would.]

What a night. With what just occurred, I don't even know if I could go to sleep...

[unnames]

[...]

Yeah, I get it. That was...

[He shakes his head for a moment, almost numbly.]

It was crazy... how was that even real?

[Was that...even real?]

[selfdenying]

It all does feel like a very bad dream, doesn't it? A nightmare you can't escape from.

[He's silent for a moment - to be embroiled in such a deadly, strange set of circumstances is horrifying, really.]

...But, sad to say, as much as I hate to admit it, it's all very real. [A beat.] We have to be extra careful, you know. The culprit, or plural thereof, is still out there.

[unnames]

...Right. It's all...real. This is all really happening.

[He repeats it, almost as if to try to get it to sink in for himself.

And then his shoulders slump.]

But we don't even know who it is, do we? How are we supposed to... what are we supposed to do?

[selfdenying]

We have to gather more information. [He says, smiling again, like smiling is really all he can do now at this moment instead of worrying what's coming up on the horizon.]

Of course, this is easier said than done, Alice. We can't lie to ourselves about that. We are outmatched in many respects but...well, nobody is perfect. People are fallible things, flawed to their core, and somewhere, someone will slip up. Nobody can keep up a facade for so long without having a few cracks.

[He says, a bit nonchalantly.]

We have to gather what we can, and wait to see the ones who'll be foolish enough to slip up.

[unnames]

[... Well, his reassuringness works. Alfendi seems to know what he's talking about, and that helps in turn to settle Alice?.]

What, so we just try to figure out who's doing all of this and hope for the best?

[He sounds a little bitter, but...at least he sounds less shellshocked.]

[selfdenying]

Ha, well, when you say it like that, it seems like we aren't doing much at all. But it's in the little things, really. At the moment, we have nothing more than slim pickings to go on, but that will change when we start digging towards the truth.

[They'll find out who's behind this. They have to.]

...What do you think, Alice? Do you have any ideas?

[unnames]

What, about who did it?

[He hesitates a moment, before he reluctantly shakes his head.]

No, I've got no idea. It's... everyone's just so weird and things are so crazy, but it's still hard to believe someone would just--kill someone else like that.

[selfdenying]

Well, I was asking more about idea of what to do, but that's a pertinent question, as well. Surely, we would like to think none of us have the capability to murder, whether through lack of means or a presence of morals, but who knows?

[He strokes his chin, his expression setting into something more serious.]

What's the reasoning behind the killing, I wonder? Besides, well, "it's fun to kill"...

[unnames]

Ah... right. But... does it really matter why someone did it? I mean--either way, they did it.

Even if they had a reason, it's not like it was good enough to kill a kid.

[Right?]

[selfdenying]

True. Murders of children are especially harrowing...whoever did this was quite cruel, to say the least. Someone so far gone that even a child could be a potential target...

[His eyebrows furrow together - he's recalling the bloody vision of that body down in the operation room.]

...What surprises me is how brutal it was. You'd think that whoever it was would save effort and murder the boy in a more clean fashion, but this? This was the work of someone quite violent and aggressive, or at least, one person who was allowed to get violent in a group of murderers, since there are multiple potential murderers out there. It really doesn't fit the attitude and nature of the Complex, no?

[unnames]

... I know. I don't get it, really. It's--

[He shudders, shoving his hands further down in his pockets and grimacing.]

Well, who knows what the nature of this place is anyway. It's not like it looks like happy funtimes to me, either. It's too...sterile. It's weird.

[selfdenying]

That's actually a good point, Alice.

[He nods in agreement, clasping his bony hands together in front of him.]

This place is too sterile. If this were a prison, we'd be in far less forgiving conditions. It almost seems as if this place was explicitly made for the purpose of whatever is going on.

[A pause, and he shakes his head.]

Anyways, I'm sure we'll find the answers soon enough. Don't lose hope, Alice.

[unnames]

... Explicitly made for what--this? Killing people?

[Look, it's hard to stay calm when...that's a possibility.]

But why?

[Alice in Wonderland's favorite word... "why", "why", "why".]

[selfdenying]

I don't know. Killing people may only be a part of it. There's a lot going on behind the curtain, like in a certain Wizard-of-Oz fashion...

[He sighs. He wishes he had answers, but he has none. They're both lost in a very dark, strange sea.]

Either way, the more we look, the more we'll ascertain the staff's true motives. It will out at some point. Hopefully before anyone else gets murdered.

[unnames]

[So cavalier about it, Alfendi!! Alice? is not sure how to handle you.]

Yeah. Right. Hopefully. I guess the best we can do is try to figure it out, huh. ... I'll do my best too.