☣ oo9; [video]

[lucycoded]

[Kazuhiko is resting, with his NV at arm's length, as the feed turns on. There's a small bustling around him- a cafe, maybe. He's in a booth, the decor is warm, the lighting that comfortable low that makes people feel content to stay. The glasses perched on his nose, and the stoic, but softened expression relay who it is that's in control at the

Comments

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

... Have you been having trouble sleeping, Mr. Amamiya?

[because he knows for sure that (most of) those things weren't connected outside, but-- there was no saying that.]

Voice.

[lucycoded]

[Another familiar voice.]

I'm having trouble focusing and staying conscious. However, it's a condition that's improving. [His voice is warmer than the one he's been speaking with others in.]

Thank you for your concern.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

You don't have to thank me! [a-aha.] I'm glad to hear that it's been getting better, though. You've... been following all of the crimes?

Voice.

[lucycoded]

I have been doing my best to track time, so that I might see a pattern in the times I fall away from being lucid.

Yes, I've kept notes on many of the things that have happened. Created loose profiles for the murderers, as well as a list of victims in order to attempt to establish a line of victimology.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

[a pause; guessing at the reasons for that.] The last few days have been... really busy. Do you recall much of the blackout?

What makes you think that they're all connected? Aside from the timing.

Voice.

[lucycoded]

Not a lot of it. I was in and out of sleep a lot. [Even if it wasn't really sleep. It's a term he's gotten used to using, because of Yaha.]

There's always a chance, that's all. And I'd rather assume that things are connected, and pull them apart, then run the risk of not seeing a bigger picture that's there. Though timing is a large part.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

I don't think the plaster killings are related, since they've been going on for nearly a year now. It's maybe kind of odd for all of this to be happening but the newcomer killer not surfacing back as well.

Voice.

[lucycoded]

I didn't know that the Plaster killings were something that started before this. It adds an interesting note to his decision of timing.

And you raise an interesting point with the Newcomer Killer.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

That he was... possibly incited by this?

A few news reports did say that he was possibly dead. Or that 'they' chose to stop, for some reason-- that killer never was caught.

Voice.

[lucycoded]

An artist creates art for people to see. It intrigues me that he would choose now, when there are other acts of violence occurring, to present his work.

Or he could be hiding until the calm after this storm, when everyone is exhausted and overworked. Too much so to give a proper response to new, rising violence.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

Would you call him an artist? [...] It must seem like he thinks of himself as one. I suppose. Since he doesn't seem to care who he murders, just...
[and a pause.]

... Do you think it may be a power of his?

Voice.

[lucycoded]

He does view himself as such, and no, by no means would I consider him anything other than a killer. But this is the way he thinks, and so to find motive one much understand his point of view.

I'm not sure, really. These powers were something that never existed in my world, so I'm not used to compensating for them in my thinking. But... from my experience... [A pause. What would Shinji think, or the flower-pot killer.] Making the work easy with the use of an ability might dull the excitement of the experience.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

It could be a paralyzing sort of ability. The people must have died while inside of the plaster, for there to be so much blood afterward--

[a pause, because this really wasn't something he was used to discussing. it made it all seem... even worse, somehow. and he already took it as the worst-of-the-worst.]

[... but Kazuhiko wasn't expecting him to back off, and so he continued.]

... And plaster takes a while to dry, as far as I know. They should have been struggling.

Voice.

[lucycoded]

There are things with the ability to cause paralysis but keep the victim alive that are not supernatural abilities. Or at least, there were in my world.

[Talking about cases like this isn't hard for him, given his past.]

With the similarities between this world and my own, I would guess that such chemicals are present here as well.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

Do you think he'd be able to slip something into that many people's food so quickly, though?

[since he only thinks of liquid-based poisons with this sort of thing. gas poisons were unheard of in the 19th century.]

Voice.

[lucycoded]

There are many ways to spread a substance through multiple people. And I have seen cases where it was not a substance that altered a person's state of mind, but rather a sound.

[So many of his cases involved sound and music- it was rather eerie sometimes.]