1st Page [voice]

[onceburnedtwiceshy]

[For a moment, the recording seems completely silent. Maybe someone accidentally activated the Vine before walking away?

But no. Anyone paying close attention might pick up on the sound of panicked breathing.]

W... Wh... Wh... [The owner of the voice is obviously having a hard time, and stutters a few more times before she's able to actually spit anything out.] W-W-Where... am I...? This place... I don't...

[A dream. It has to be a dream. But no... she pinched herself, and it definitely hurt. So it was real? But how did she get here? A million questions were running through her mind - already reeling - and just kept adding to her panic.]

L... Lilly...?

[please answer please answer please answer]

Comments

[headedforhope]

Ah, then you're in for a treat. I lived there for awhile before- [the calm smile falters, grows a little melancholic.] -before I moved to my apartment.

[onceburnedtwiceshy]

Oh... [Hanako, for someone so shy and antisocial, can be surprisingly observant. Sad memories are something nobody likes reliving, and Hanako wouldn't want to do that to the girl who's helped her out so much already.] Um... w-what else is there...?

[headedforhope]

[A pause - just a heartbeat, really - and Mami's voice when she responds is so light and carefree that it seems hard to imagine she could ever be sad. The mask has reasserted itself; the facade she continues to rely on, even as she does her best to walk forward rather than stay stranded in place.]

That's about it for open housing, unless you decide to gather some magic dirt and create a home tailor-fit to your desires, as I've said. Mm, but you need to wander into the Wild Places for that, and it could be dangerous......but besides that, we also have a library, an arcade....

[onceburnedtwiceshy]

[Hanako perks up at the mention of a library... but no. She has to find somewhere she can stay, first. She'd love to hide away in a library and pretend it's no different than the one at Yamaku... but if she didn't find a place to stay, she'd have to sleep outside, and she doesn't want that.]

Can we, um... maybe... [It's hard to spit it out, as simple a request as it is.] G-Go to... to the a-apartments...

[It'd be close enough to the dormitories, so she wouldn't be too uncomfortable. And someone familiar would be there...]

[headedforhope]

[In contrast to Hanako's stuttering, Mami's response is smooth and unruffled.]

Of course. Right this way!

[Mami heads off, the paths of the Gardens as familiar to her by now as the lines of her palm. They pass the onsen from a distance; Mami points it out, being careful to skirt the edges of the busier areas of the Gardens. No need to subject Hanako to the eyes of curious strangers anymore than could be helped, right?

Fortunately, there's no one lingering around the entrance to the Monsigny Apartments.]

Here. Looks pretty fancy, huh? It's just as nice inside, I think... [She says in a casual, offhand way, making her way through the front doors.]

[onceburnedtwiceshy]

[Hanako had never been in such a fancy place before, so her awe overrides her nerves for the moment. Her visible eye is wide, trying to take in as much of her surroundings as possible.]

Y-Yeah.... a-are the rooms this nice too...?

[headedforhope]

Oh, they're all right. Here- the elevators are this way.

[Mami gets to them first, hitting the button to summon one.]