Day 2 Yuri Pricon

[cantry]

[Natsuki has infiltrated the indoor playground and is going through all its parts with a workmanlike dedication. Occasionally the mirth overpowers her body, but for the most part her silhouette is wracked with something else on her mind.

When she hears footsteps, though not yet knowing from whom, she draws herself up to the edge of the ball pit with a flushed face.]

Hey, what's up! I was just investigating!

Comments

[slice_of_life]

[It hadn't been the first place she had thought to look for Natsuki, but... part of her wasn't sure. Even if she was here, Natsuki wouldn't really be playing in...

...ah, she would.]

Ah, Natsuki...

...Um, did you find anything? I was... sort of looking for you...

[cantry]

[She shakes her head hard and scrambles out of the pit.]

There's a weird trap door in there, but it doesn't go anywhere useful. Nothing else. So, what's up?

[slice_of_life]

W-Well, I've kind of been looking for Monika...

...I don't know why, but she's on the tablet as... voting for you...

[cantry]

[natsuki.chr failed to load. input load command again?

natsuki.chr has loaded!]

Well... I haven't spoken to her all day... maybe... she's just got the wrong idea... she's trying... to help me...?

[slice_of_life]

... M-Maybe?

...I don't know. Maybe she plans to switch to someone else at the last moment to make everyone think "ah, there are enough votes to remove Natsuki," then change it to someone else?

[It was... the nicest possible explanation she could think of.]

But... um... I haven't been able to find her to c-check...

[cantry]

It would be a lot simpler to just not vote for anybody at all until the last second...

[She lets out a deep breath.]

[slice_of_life]

... [not sure what she can say to that]

[Eventually...]

Do you ever...

[p-pause]

I mean, i-it's wrong to gossip, right? Gossiping is... not good at all...

But...

...Do you ever get the feeling... Monika doesn't like us?

[cantry]

[she gives this a lot of thought by Natsuki standards]

Yesterday... she said something that I thought was... really, really weird. That she thought nobody was gonna want to date her.

Doesn't that sound, I don't know, not right? For one thing, it worked out that she literally has a date now.

[slice_of_life]

She did?

...Hm... I don't know... I really don't.

I mean, Monika's... she's always nice? And popular... I don't know why she wouldn't have a date, if she really wanted one... Yes, it doesn't really make sense.

But, what do you mean? I don't... see the connection.

[cantry]

Well... here's the other thing. We're all just friends in the club, obviously. It's a nice intimate little setup. I like it that way. But...

[biting her lip]

A lot of these "dates" are practically just people hanging out, so... like...

Doesn't it seem weird for Monika to think that all of us would rather die than date her? But deep down... if she has some kind of... not so good feeling... then thinking we feel not so good about her either, that'd make more sense.

[slice_of_life]

Y-Yes. I don't think a lot of people are taking this seriously... in terms of actually finding... love.

[she sighs.]

I don't know... maybe secretly, she feels... afraid of us? --Insecure? She did say some nice things to me when we were... 'speed dating'...

[cantry]

That's... one way it could be going... I mean, when she said none of us four had good odds of winning the grand prizes, for a second I kind of felt like she was putting us down. So it could be like... she thinks we're better than her... and doesn't want us to be better than her...

Waugh, this is so complicated! Why didn't she just tell me?

[slice_of_life]

... Is that it? But...

...

[She can't deny it makes some form of sense...]

She... she might not even know she's doing it... like a subconscious thing?

I mean, you and I both know Monika is a nice person... maybe she's just... subconsciously saying it, without meaning to?

...But if that's the case, I don't know why she'd vote you out of the game...

[cantry]

Right, like... I wanna say nice things to her like she shouldn't have to worry so much. But I can't really do that at all if I'm not around anymore...

Maybe we really should just be planning for that...

[slice_of_life]

Natsuki...

[No, she knows Natsuki would deny wanting to be there, so...]

I... I just... I just have this bad feeling... m-maybe it's just... nerves, but...

It feels like if any one of us leaves, it's going to start a domino effect...

[cantry]

No matter how this ends... it looks like the four of us don't have four votes to use as a clump.

[slice_of_life]

Sayori still needs to... vote. She wouldn't forget...

...

[sighs] Uuu... I don't like it...