entranceway | video;

[The feed begins. Satoru carefully centers himself in the frame before sitting back. He's outside in the grass next to the lake, with the device propped up against a tree.]

I think I have the gist of things. [He read the pamphlet, which was pretty helpful as a crash course.] But there are still some things I'm confused about.

[His frustration is apparent in a brief pause that follows that admission, however.]

Asking questions won't change the situation, but...can someone explain the part about time not moving?

[Because that is relevant to his interests.]

[Kayo seems a little more unsure. She’s standing just behind Satoru and trying not to draw much attention to herself. Making any kind of announcement to a wide group of people is uncomfortable, and it’s easier to just let him take the lead, if he wants to.]

...Isn’t that impossible?

[She’s quiet, but also not very impressed by the supposed magicalness of the world around them. Life isn’t a storybook and people don’t get whisked away to worlds where time doesn’t exist. It sounds kind of stupid to believe something like that just because someone put it in a professional-looking pamphlet.]

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Good.

[It's better, far better, to feel as though you have a friend here, especially once events hit.]

Stay together when things get bad.

We will.

[For once, she sounds certain about that. A couple of weeks ago she wouldn't have been, but...Satoru has helped her so much more than she ever could have imagined already. He won't leave her alone here. Or at least, she doesn't think so.]

[They nod, apparently satisfied with that answer.]

It's easier with someone else.

[There's something in that statement, or at least Kayo sees something there, whether it is or not.]

...Do you have someone here?

[They sound like either they don't have someone or they know what it's like not to have someone, and Kayo is very intimately familiar with that feeling.]

Yeah.

[That lifts the edges of their mouth slightly in what could almost count as a smile - but only slightly.]

Things get complicated sometimes. But we stay together.

...Good. That's really good.

[And she smiles a little too. Just a little. Even though she's known Frisk all of two minutes, she's still glad to hear it.]

I know it isn't all good or all bad, but...do you like being here?

[Do you like being here?]

[People have asked that before. Their answer...it hasn't changed. It shouldn't change. And so it won't change, because even now, they're always going to be...safer, like this.]

It's better.

[She doesn't ask for elaboration. At first, she isn't sure what to say or if she should say anything. She just met this person, after all. But...it feels right, and she doesn't have to give details.

(And if they're the kind of person she thinks they are, they won't ask for more.)]

...I can understand that.

[Understand and sympathize whole-heartedly.]

[A faint crease appears between their brows, their lips parting briefly with a quiet intake of breath. She can understand that. And something in their SOUL aches - because no one should feel that way.]

[No one should feel like they're safer not being where they are.]

I'm sorry.

[It slips out swiftly, before it occurs to them that - ]

[That they're grateful, that this makes them profoundly horrible for thinking that, for thinking that no one should feel alone in feeling that.]

[Because no one should wish that upon anyone.]

[She shakes her head, just a little.]

You don't need to be.

[It doesn't feel right though. That's the kind of statement reserved for someone who feels sorry for her, someone who doesn't know what it's like.

So, she tries again.]

...We can both be sorry?

[Because she's sorry it happened to them too, and she's oddly grateful too, but she would never wish that on someone else.

But, being happy someone can empathize with her doesn't mean she's happy about their situation.]

[Ha ha...]

[It's not a bad compromise. They can't not be sorry. No one should have to live with that weight on their shoulders, particularly not someone so young. But it's...nice, to hear something that can almost sound like a joke, come of it.]

[Their mouth quirks slightly. It's not a smile, but it's faint, and it's accommodating.]

Okay.

[Kayo smiles faintly in return, in that tired way they both know really well by now.]

...I'm glad it's better here.

[That's the part she'll focus on. That they're out of their situation and they seem better off for it, even if it's a dangerous place.]

[More optimistic than maybe they've a right to be. But...she looks like she could use something like that. Something nice in her life.]

Me too. I hope it's better than where you were.

[They aren't wrong. She really could.]

Thank you. I hope so too.