02nd beat; written > voice

[coffeejunkie]

House 40 Rules
Version 2
[Some of you might remember a certain set of house rules going up prior to Yuri's disappearance. Otonashi isn't exactly second-in-command, but Hinata is emotionally out of commission, Naoi had already taken the burden of announcing her departure, and Noda is MIA.

Oh, and Yotsuba is too young to be making rules.. even though the potential for comedy is there.]

1. No loud music, shouting, or being loud after 11pm. There’s a little girl trying to sleep! It doesn’t matter if you stay up late, but keep the noise down.

2. Keep your eroge and other 18+ fare safely put away! If it’s left out in the living room, I’ll confiscate it. Yotsuba shouldn’t have to see that and neither should any visitors!

3. Everyone follows the rules. Even you, Noda..!

4. Please?

5. Try to keep your rooms clean.

6. Clean up after yourself in the kitchen.

7. Don’t leave your underwear in the bathroom… Keep that clean too.

8. The house is everyone’s responsibility, not just one person’s! Especially not just mine.

9. DON’T KILL EACH OTHER. I don’t care that it “didn’t matter” in the afterlife, it always matters!

10. Don’t make medieval traps! This includes BUT ISN'T LIMITED TO hammer traps, falling ceilings, collapsing floors, and spike pits! If you saw it in a JRPG dungeon, you can't make it in the house! (We can play an RPG instead.)

11. Don’t train in the living room! Keep it to your own room if you insist on doing it in the house…

12. Yotsuba: Make sure you go to school and do well. If you do, I’ll make sure to pick you up a gift at the end of each week. Oh, and find an adult that isn’t Noda if someone is bothering you!

13. Continue respecting Hayate.

14. If you want to set up an in-house visit, mark it either on the white board that Yuri set up or somewhere we can see it. It's better to let everyone know.

15. Don’t measure yourselves in the living room… Why is this even a problem..?! I won’t tell you that you can’t do it privately, because I know that’ll make you just want to do it more.
Noda, this means you… I've heard about your "competitions" and I'm telling now, I don't care..!

16. House meetings are still held on Sunday.

17. RESPECT EVERYONE'S PRIVACY. Knock before entering rooms unless it is an emergency! If I see you barging in, I'll... yell at you!

18. No throwing furniture, halberds, weapons, people, or… goldfish…

19. Why is there a goldfish named after me again..?

20. Okay! Please follow the rules. They aren’t even that hard to follow, you guys…

21. Don't discount me because I'm not Yuri! I don't think I should have to put on a bow and thigh-highs to enforce a rule around here...

-- voice;

[Well, there is a distinct lack of Yuri-specific rules. Like it or not, Yuri Nakamura is no longer in Luceti. He's in no rush to replace her, but the acceptance and healing process has to start somewhere. So, he might as well be the one to take initiative.]

I think that should do for now, unless I missed something... Any, uh... suggestions? [No punishment games though! Otonashi isn't much of a disciplinarian.]

Comments

voice;

[trainwrecking]

Not exactly..! But I think this house would, uhh... end up on fire, or be rigged with deadly traps everywhere, or... S-somehow everyone would end up trying to kill each other.

[He laughs nervously... this all sounds completely crazy. The chance of coming off as insane is always high.]

[entreats]

I don't know, I'd think the threat would go down considerably with that girl gone. [ yuri always seemed like the type to do that.. ] Unless that house is just full of unruly types.

[trainwrecking]

She could rein some of them in, yeah... [Yuri was rather.. brash, though, whether anyone liked it or not. Yuri was Yuri.]

Almost everyone here has a.. lax philosophy on life and death. [You know, to put it mildly..]

[entreats]

.. In other words, you're all serial killers?

[ okay, now she's just being fully deadpan, not serious at all. ]

[trainwrecking]

No! No, ahh, it's not like that! They're not monsters, some of them just... don't think it's a problem if a person dies. [Not exactly... helping the case here.]

—Only if they think that person will come back! Like if they're already dead... Ah, this isn't translating over very well. [Otonashi's friends are really hard to defend...]

[entreats]

Yeah, if anything, you're starting to make it sound like it's something even more disturbing.

[ But she understands. Well, not the full details, of course, but she has a vague idea. ]

People do come back here after dying, or so I've heard, if that helps your case. Except it has consequences.

[trainwrecking]

I swear it makes sense in context... [At least she's not running in fear or calling him insane... He thinks she would have been well within her rights to.]

Yeah, I have heard that... [Speaking of all the fun that comes with dying:] Have you ever, uh... seen these consequences? I've only heard people talk about them as if they've never known someone that died and came back...

[entreats]

[ Don't worry, Otonashi, she's seen much more strange things. Half of the people she knows back in her world are basically serial killers, so.. nothing weird here. ]

I've never seen them. I almost died here once though, so in that case you could've had a direct report for.. but it didn't happen, sorry. Although I guess that's more like lucky for me. [ Her tone is still pretty straightforward, as if she isn't making a big deal out of it. ]

[trainwrecking]

Eh—? I don't want you to be sorry for not dying...

[Others from home might like killing and take no issue with dying on a daily basis, but Otonashi isn't one of them.] I'm glad you didn't, I was just curious. It seems like you're pretty, um... unfazed by this place, so I thought I would ask. Ahh, I'm Otonashi, by the way.

[entreats]

[ Don't worry, she's just being deadpan about the worst subjects. ]

My name's Ange, Ange Ushiromiya. Nice to meet you, I guess. [ ... ] And.. well, thinking about it, I guess anyone gets unfazed to this place after a while. It's since anything at all can get normal and predictable, you know?

[trainwrecking]

Ah—you too! Really, I, uh, hope I didn't say anything strange... [He'll figure it out, but for now he sounds a little nervous. What if he's putting her off?]

Ahh, yeah, anything can become routine I guess, but... getting used to it doesn't mean it's okay, right? And it doesn't seem like anyone's happy to be here, either. [Nobody should have to get used to wing implants and bar codes.]

[entreats]

...

[ A pause. As if she's debating something to herself. But then she just decides to plainly say it. That's her way of doing things either way, right? ]

I'm happy to be here.

[trainwrecking]

You... are?

[He sounds surprised, but it fades. Thinking on it, people could have hailed from worse worlds than this, right? Luceti looks unjust and twisted on its surface, but maybe it just looks that way to him...]

I guess I shouldn't speak for everyone. Even with the strange things they've done to us...

[entreats]

Even with that, my situation here is much better than anything I've ever experienced back home. [ It's a little more casually again, even though it's much more loaded than said casualness implies. ]

Besides.. even if the Malnosso just downright suck, there are plenty of decent people around here.

[trainwrecking]

Much better, huh... [He can believe that, honestly. She's awfully cavalier about all of this, much like the SSS can be about death.]

You must be strong, then... Much stronger than me. You actually remind me a little bit of Yuri. [It's a good thing, really! Even if Yuri can be a little hard to take sometimes...]

[entreats]

... [ She's quiet for a moment, as if she's not sure what to say. In the end it just ends up turning deadpan though. ]

I do hope it stays at "just a little". I wouldn't want to be compared to a girl who sneaks into people's bedrooms at night.

[trainwrecking]

Uhhhh... N-no, it's not like that! Why, did she do that here too?! That's such an invasion of privacy, I always hated that...

[For the record, he's anti-panty raid, anti-bikini raid, anti-breaking into rooms in general...]

[entreats]

[ Such a good guy, Otonashi. ]

Yeah, it's how we met. She snuck into my bedroom at night and then we ended up in bed together. [ AMBIGIOUS WORDING.. on purpose, though. ]