entranceway | [001; video/action; open]

[ It's not certain at first whether the video has been switched on intentionally. There isn't any direct addressing of the network. There's just the spinning image of a hallway (the fifth floor, for those of you playing at home) the occasional glimpse of long, brown hair and the unmistakable sound of delighted laughter. It slows down, eventually, comes to a complete stop and the laughter abruptly cuts off. Instead of the walls, the feed shakes and jerks as she turns it around and River's face is visible, peering directly at the little device. ]

Curious name and curious nature. The walls have secrets and she doesn't know what they are.

[ She frowns a moment, then turns to eye a window with a clearly suspicious look. ]

They're hiding something.

[ She stares for a moment or two longer, then starts to skip off down the hallway again. It takes a while for the feed to cut out, in the end it only happens because she decides to sit down outside a door in one swift movement, and drops the little tablet thing in the process. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But what are we fighting?

All screams come as a result of a source, the common factor of pain is a cause. We fight the cause.

...What if it's something we can't easily fight?

Then we struggle! [ It's not appropriate timing at all, but she laughs. The question isn't funny as such, and it comes out forced and harsh, but it just seems odd that someone would ask such obvious things. ] We struggle and we dance, back and forth until someone wins. There's always a victor.

[Souji knows the questions are obvious, but not everyone has the same answer to them. Asking obvious things help him to gauge people he doesn't know, but he's about out of them now.]

...I'm not sure there always is.

Always a villain, even if they're not always in plain sight. Always something to fight, even if it may not be what it seems. Mankind are destined to find a conquest to battle from the beginning of time to when our dust scatters away with the stars.

[ She's barely paying attention to the question now, she's gone off on a tangent, distracted so easily by all the new people to get used to tuning out. It's hard, and it makes her more skittish than usual. ]

If there is no war to fight we find one, make one. Push and prod and poke and jibe until someone snaps. Relentless, always so determined to win. Everyone wants to win, no one wants to lose. We try to smile but the whole 'verse knows it's fake.

...I don't believe that's how it has to be.

Evidence speaks in contrary to ideals. Where is his proof?

[She has him there. Even his own experience speaks to the contrary.]

I'll have to find some.

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