VANILLA SLICE

Sylas Grey

Look, it's not a bad attempt at an entrance hall. Sylas would know! He's a carpenter, and he's well versed in all things joisted and jambed and other technical terminology that I'm not going to pretend I know about without pulling up another website to frantically cross-reference. He reckons it's decent. Passable. But there's one thing.

"Ah, bugger."

Sylas announces to the world, standing in the hall and shaking his head. With his hands on his hips and a dismayed look on his face, he seems the spitting image of a teacher who just watched you add 2+2 to get 5.

"Rookie error. Real beginner's mistake, I'm afraid. They made this nice big entrance hall and then they forgot the dang entrance! Boy, I'd be real embarrassed if I was the bloke who made this joint. Whew!"

Hikaru Suzuki

Hikaru has been doing his best to subtly assess his new… neighbours? Associates? - whatever, and figure out who would probably be a good ally in this place (or perhaps more importantly, a bad enemy). This guy looks kind of strong, and hearing him talk to himself - probably not the smartest. Just what Hikaru was looking for!

"I know, right?" he says from behind Sylas, though thankfully at a decent distance to avoid jumpscaring him. "I've never done anything more architecturally advanced than pin up a poster on my wall, but I'd like to think even I'd spot that!"

"Anyway - hi there. I'm Hikaru Suzuki, nice to meet you. Guessing you're just as lost as I am?"

Sylas Grey

What an excellent assessment, Hikaru! Correct on both counts!

The strong yet not very smart Sylas turns to look at who's talking to him and is mildly taken aback by the stylish look Hikaru has going on, although not in the 'absolutely terrified' way that he had with others. If anything, Sylas feels a little sheepish that this guy's shown up in the stylish mesh undershirt while he himself is in the daggy "shorts and argyle socks" combo. M-maybe they'll let him change clothes later.

"Oh, g'day! Nice to meet ya, Hikaru. I am suuuuper lost! No prizes for figurin' that out, heh!"

He smiles, chuffed to meet someone who isn't terrifying in some way. (Yet.)

"Can't believe they forgot the door. They must have some real clowns who built this place! And if I think someone's a clown, well, there really ain't no hope for 'em."

Hikaru Suzuki

Don't worry, Sylas, Hikaru isn't judging your fashion at all!* (*He absolutely is, but he's not letting it show, of course. It's not like anyone here chose their outfit after all… he thinks, at least. He just got lucky.)

He's glad that it seems like he's put Sylas slightly at ease, though, and chuckles lightly. "Weird how easy it is to feel lost even somewhere this contained, right?" he says, avoiding mentioning the P Word.

"Does sort of beg the question as to how we got in here in the first place, but I was never any good at figuring out magic tricks and things like that. Oh gosh, clowns and magicians? I really hope that's not our captors."

Humour is a classic way to cope with stress, and hopefully this guy feels the same way about it.

Sylas Grey

"Oh, totally. I got no clue whether I'm comin' or goin' in this joint."

Wow, this guy is easy to talk to! Much less intimidating than a handful of the other folks here. Sylas internally breathes a sigh of relief. [He has no idea that he is in a building full of murderers. Or that Hikaru is almost certainly a murderer too.]

"They'd have to be some type of magiclown to get us all in here without knowin', right? Like, I'm proper stumped about scarnon here. Last thing I remember I was diggin' into the fridge at 2AM. D'you remember what you were up to?"

Hikaru Suzuki

Easy to talk to is exactly the vibe Hikaru aims for, and he nods along, though he's finding listening a little more difficult as Sylas's dialect becomes stronger. At least he can figure out what the question was.

"I'm pretty sure I was… just at home." He thinks for a moment, pondering whether more information is useful. "Nothing out of the ordinary. It was the middle of the day, though."

"Sorry if it's a bit rude to ask, but I'm curious - where are you from? You've got some turns of phrase that are new to me."

Sylas Grey

"Oh, me? I'm from Melbourne. That's in, uh, Australia. It's on the south bit of the planet," he says extremely helpfully. Thanks buddy.

"I'm gonna assume you're not from down under, then! But I'm also not gonna make any more assumptions 'cause I always wind up getting it really wrong and embarrassin' myself. Where ya from, mate?"

Hikaru Suzuki

Hikaru knew he looked like more beauty than brains (and it wasn't the most unreasonable judgement), but come on, he knew where Australia was! He spares Sylas an eyeroll, though, and instead smiles again.

"Oh, that's cool! I've heard of it - we get a few Australians at the bar I work at from time to time. I've thought about going, but it's… kind of pricey. And a long flight - I'm from Tokyo. Japan," he clarifies, just in case there's a Tokyo, somewhere else that Sylas might get it confused with.

Sylas Grey

Thank you for being kind to Sylas, Hikaru. If you rolled your eyes at him he might start shaking.

"You work at a bar? Sick! In Tokyo?? Sick!!!! I've always wanted to go!!! It's on the list of foreign places I wanna head to once I get my passport, along with like. Paris, and France, and Rottnest Island.* What's yer job? Bartender???"

*Rottnest Island is already part of Australia.

Hikaru Suzuki

Hikaru chuckles at Sylas's enthusiasm. Fortunately, his geography isn't good enough to have heard of Rottnest Island, so that goes completely over his head.

"Yeah - I also play darts semi-pro, but bartending is the day job. Or night job, I guess is more accurate! If you ever do make it to Tokyo, you should drop by."

In the back of his mind, he's wondering yet again how they've all ended up here together when Sylas doesn't even have a passport. No need to detail a nice conversation though.

"What about you?"

Sylas Grey

"Oh, darts! That's fun! I fuckin' love darts! Haha, d'ya reckon there's a dartboard in that warehouse? We could have a match sometime! You'd probably beat my ass, but, that's all part of the fun."

He chuckles, light-hearted. Talking to Hikaru is stressing him out way less than some other people here.

"What, my job? Carpenter. Buildin' houses, furniture, whatever folks need me to do. I can whittle stuff real good, too. Heck, if they don't got darts here I can probably make some."

Hikaru Suzuki

"Oh, I hope so. If we really are stuck here… it's going to get very boring very quickly. I can practise darts all day. More if I've got someone to play - or teach."

Not that there's that much teaching involved in darts, but he can at least do a decent job of coaching someone through posture corrections and so on.

"Oh, really? That's neat, honestly - I have so much respect for people who can manage manual labour. I could not do that life, not in a million years! You must be really strong."

Maybe Hikaru's laying it on a little thick, but the offer to make him darts has caught his attention. "I've never played with wooden darts - I wonder how different they'd feel from metal."

Sylas Grey

"Heheh, heh." Sylas is oblivious to realising when people lay it on thick, so he takes the compliment wholeheartedly.

"Well, yeah, I'd sure appreciate some lessons! Once we get outta here it means I can totally whoop everyone's asses down at the pub. Maybe I'll win some money! Or, like, a meat tray. Whichever one I get we can split."

He continues without elaborating on what a meat tray is.

"I might go take a gander at the warehouse and see if I can find any darts or, like, wood. We'll get ya some darts one way or another!"

Hikaru Suzuki

Hikaru isn't sure exactly what a meat tray is, but ends up settling on an assumption of if a charcuterie board were a bit more macho.

"That's the spirit. If my teaching makes you a winner, I consider that a job well done!"

Wow, Sylas sure seems generous. Hikaru ponders whether it's bad to potentially put himself in the position of owing him a favour, but so far it doesn't look like he's that sort of guy, so he'll take the offer.

"Aw, thank you so much! You'll really make my day. If we're stuck in here, I'm glad it's with a nice guy like you."

Sylas Grey

"Haha, agreed! I'm glad I met someone as chill as you in here! Maybe if we stay on best behavior they'll open up a pub for us so we can go play some proper matches, aye?"

The only type of guy that Sylas is, Hikaru, is dense as a brick. So I don't think you need to worry about much.

Hikaru Suzuki

That's right, he's so chill! Cool as a cucumber, our Hikaru.

"That would be nice. I'm very well-behaved, so between us two we're surely on our way to getting some privileges. Especially if I offer to work the bar."

Says one prisoner to another. There was definitely no reason to doubt either of them would ever be anything except well-behaved!

Sylas Grey

"Aaaabsolutely. Alright, I'm off to go poke around the warehouse. See ya' round, mate!"

He flashes another smile and wombles out of the entrance hall. (Still can't believe they forgot the door. SO amateur!)