GUEST SERVICES - HUNTER

[cluedin]

Comments

[counterclocked]

[He nods.]

Right. It's just, I have a bunch of questions, and I'm assuming you can't answer most of them, but - just in case.

[cluedin]

You can always ask! I'll try to answer what I can. After everything that just happened I'm not surprised you have a lot of questions.

[counterclocked]

I guess the first one is... Why is this happening? Like, who exactly added the new rules, and why?

[cluedin]

The rules are altered at any time to suit the needs of the house and the guests, Hunter. Once we realized what happened and once the rules were issued we changed them on the main placard.

Though why it's happening is...a little more complicated. We were hoping something like this wouldn't happen, but we had to prepare for it just in case.

[counterclocked]

See, that's nice to say, but I don't really see how the new rules about how the guests have to murder each other and get executed suits the needs of the guests...

[cluedin]

[Her ears flatten a bit.]

Have you been listening to Goro? The rules say "will", not must!

[counterclocked]

If it's a rule that you will do something, that's just another way of saying you must do it...

[After a moment, though, he sighs.]

I think I get what you're saying, though. You didn't cause this or choose it, you just put it on the placard once it became obvious it was going to happen no matter what. Right?

[cluedin]

[She was pouting at first, but when Hunter continues her face relaxes again.]

That's right. And I know a lot of people are really upset, but we want to make sure everyone understands that it's going to happen.

[counterclocked]

[He relaxes a little bit, too, now that he knows it isn't her fault.]

Yeah. It's not really fair that everyone's blaming you if you didn't choose this... [But!] I know you said the why part is harder to explain, but - is it going to be evil wererats every week? Is that the level we're on now?

[cluedin]

Can you blame them? It's our house. [So that's to say that she's not surprised even if it kind of sucks.]

It's not gonna be evil wererats every week though. [She scratches one of her ears.] I wish I could tell you what to expect going forward, but we won't really know what'll happen until it happens.

[counterclocked]

[He pauses, thoughtful, as he commits that to memory.]

So it's going to be something different every week, but... Is it going to be the same in that someone is going to get turned into something terrifying like Nikki did?

[cluedin]

I really hope not. But until it happens...[They won't know. Haha doesn't that suck?]

[counterclocked]

...You don't know that much more about it than we do, huh?

[He pauses for a moment, sympathetic.]

Do you at least know how or why it started happening?

[cluedin]

[She doesn't answer immediately, but she's giving Hunter a curious look before she's moving to adjust some of the plants in the conservatory to be in order.]

...Hunter, can I ask you something? What was your life like before this?

[counterclocked]

Pretty crazy lately.

[He tilts his head, though.]

Sorry, that's just a little bit broad. Is there anything specific about it you were wondering? I was kind of assuming you knew most of it.

[Given the plaques.]

[cluedin]

[She shakes her head.]

Master Blue knows about you guys but we only know a little! [i.e. the things on the plaques.] But...your plaque says you're good at surviving against all odds, so I was kind of wondering what kind of world you were from that you'd have to worry about something like that.

[counterclocked]

Oh, well - it's not really the world itself. It's just kind of the situation I'm in.

[He doesn't really mind talking about this, and it's evidenced by how casual he sounds even now. Still, he wants to phrase it in a way that doesn't make it sound too alarming.]

The school I went to before I showed up here kind of had some... extreme teaching methods, you could say.

[cluedin]

[She's just frowning in thought.]

What exactly do you mean by "extreme"? Like...really bad?

[counterclocked]

Extreme like... Okay, here's an example. We all got detention once and the teachers only stopped trying to drown us when one of the people in the room gave the right answer to a question they asked her about what we'd been learning in physics.

[Still just as casual.]

[cluedin]

Uh. Okay, no offense, but why are you still going to school there....?

[counterclocked]

They have a really strict absence policy.

[A beat.]

The policy is that there are fences and guards and cameras everywhere and you don't want to get caught trying.

[cluedin]

And you can't just transfer or something...? Whose bright idea was that policy?

[counterclocked]

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it was probably the staff who want to torture us for some reason that none of us have been able to figure out.

[A small shrug.]

Once I was there, it was like... There's no cell service, no mail carrier, stuff like that. There isn't exactly a way to let anyone outside know anything is wrong. But... Can I ask why you wanted to know, all of a sudden?

[cluedin]

[Her tail flicks a little.]

...it's kind of like that for us, I guess. It's happening and we know what sort of things to possibly expect and prepare for, but we don't know if or when it'll happen until it does, and we don't know all of the reasons why.

Does that makes sense?

[counterclocked]

[After a moment, sympathy moves back into his expression, and he nods in understanding.]

And... You can't leave either, can you? Same as us.