Application for A, DEATH NOTE: Another Note

[i_am_an_hero]

[[okayed by other DN muns]]

The young man who stumbled into the sorting room is acutely awkward. Tall and gangly, he moved as if his joints were too loose, and he looked around with exaggerated, almost overstimulated curiosity. His eyes (what could be seen of them behind a shock of tangled hair) were wide and wild.

Comments

[gamerspy]

Oh holy fuck.

This was what Matt was talking about, when he said Wammy's was possibly a little fucked-up. The kids who took it too seriously...

"They're not testing us here, y'know. And there's no ranking system, as far as I've been able to tell."

[i_am_an_hero]

"System, system," A sing-songed. "There's always a system. Didn't you know? Things must be categorized, phenomena and anomalies noted. Case histories taken, specimens analyzed..."

[gamerspy]

"If you like. But you don't need to pay attention to it if you don't want to."

[i_am_an_hero]

"But I do, I do. There's nothing else, you see. Tests and puzzles and problems to work through, chances and chances to prove myself, if I can only ever be good enough." His tone was mournful. "I try so very hard, you see, to be good enough."

[gamerspy]

"There's more than life than what they taught you at Wammy's. Believe me. You don't need to prove yourself here."

[i_am_an_hero]

"There is only being taught," A said in a rushed tone. "I have to know. I have to know everything. I have to know enough to be him. I don't have a reason if I can't be him, and all things need a reason."

[gamerspy]

Well, fuck. Matt has no idea how to respond to that, and he is immensely - immensely glad that he had the kind of leeway he did when he was a kid. Smart enough to slack off, not so smart that he had no choice.

"Maybe some things have more than one reason."

[i_am_an_hero]

"Other variables, you mean? To be chased down, chased down like roaches... oh yes, yes, there were roaches sometimes, did you know? We watched them. Sometimes there was nothing else to watch."

[gamerspy]

"I'm saying... you're probably smart enough to do whatever you like. You know? You don't need to focus on being a successor, if you don't want to."

Roaches? That didn't sound like the Wammy's House Matt had known... maybe he'd picked up what this guy was saying wrong?

[i_am_an_hero]

"Not... not 'successor', other. Another... Attempted Alternate. Nothing else."

[gamerspy]

"Okay, you're going to have to unpack that a little."

[i_am_an_hero]

"Unpack?"

[gamerspy]

"Explain what the hell you're talking about."

[i_am_an_hero]

"A is Attempted Alternate. He is too precious to risk there not being another. Really, it's quite simple."

[gamerspy]

"I don't see how that's different from being a successor... unless they planned to have you both operating as L at the same time?"

[i_am_an_hero]

"No, no... How could I be L, if there is L? But I must learn, must learn so I can become when becoming is needed."