Did that girl just have a baffling interaction with Edmund Pevensie, London. Because Annisa also had that and maybe they can put together their data and figure out what the hell is going on with Edmund Pevensie, London, it might be important.

"Hey, I'm Annie," she says.

"...hi. Um. I'm Chantal." After a pause just long enough to make her feel really awkward about its length, she adds, "Toronto." How does she even begin to have this interaction...?

"Surabaya. Was Edmund Pevensie being baffling? I found him baffling. I couldn't work out his agenda at all - I thought he was flirting, until he declared he was gay."

Oh, okay, this actually offers her a fairly straightforward segue. "I told him I'm planning to kill myself and he said I shouldn't do it because I should instead stay alive and help other people, and I argued with him about it and he had a breakdown and had to be carried off by what I assume was someone else from his enclave. It was extremely baffling." We are SUCCEEDING at this human interaction. Yes.

She looks taken aback, but only very slightly. "Huh. Maybe he's just - emotionally incontinent? Does London have some kind of deal with Toronto, why would he care if you're letting some enclave-mates down?"

"London and Toronto don't particularly interact as far as I know. His angle seemed to be that I was letting everyone down, because the school as a whole is better off the more students are alive and doing things, and when I pointed out that that is not how anything works he got very upset."

Well, that doesn't help Annisa make any more sense of him but it's something. "Maybe his parents drilled him so much on duties to the enclave that they forgot to mention the reason for all this nonsense is that living is pretty great and we want to get to do it?"

"Maybe! It was really unclear. Anyway I do want to be of some benefit to my fellow students, it's not like it's going to cost me anything at this point, so do you want to take down my room number and check on me tomorrow morning and if I'm not there you can take all my stuff and tell people you have tentatively confirmed a case of someone walking into the void on purpose and not coming back?"

Could be a trap - she can think about that later. "Yeah, all right, can do. You know that people try that and mostly just come back in worse shape than they went in, right -"

"I'm aware. I want to try it anyway. If it doesn't work then that's also information and also I'll get to find out what it's like to be void-touched and maybe that'll be interesting, who knows. Anyway I'm in 105A. Sorry I couldn't contribute much to your Theory of Edmund Pevensie, London—what did he say to you that was so baffling, anyway—"

"He kept complimenting me? Whatever I'd say, he'd say it was delightful and clever. I wasn't sure if he was making fun of me or, like I said, flirting with me, except then he declared he prefers boys," which isn't really a thing in Indonesia but Annisa has no attachments to her homeland, it's not one of those homelands that can keep you alive, "and I just don't know what he was after."

"...I wonder if he... wasn't. I mean I wonder if... he's just delighted by the way you say things, and just really thinks it's important to stay alive because it gives everyone better chances if everyone is trying—I actually do think he believed that, because I think the way he collapsed when I poked at it looked very much like someone who built a lot of themself on top of a belief and didn't expect it to suddenly wobble out from under them. I sort of wish I hadn't done that but I have no earthly idea what I could've done instead..."

"I don't think it's a favor, helping someone live a delusion, even if they're an enclaver."

"That makes sense but he would still probably be better off if someone with a better idea of what they were doing had let him down a bit more gently. Oh well. If you find me tomorrow morning and I am void-touched I will still attempt to give you some of my stuff, so if I don't do that you can assume that being void-touched changed my priorities somehow and maybe you can write it down and people as a whole will know a little more about how that works. I would consider it a favour if you wrote down whatever you learned from my void-diving efforts to contribute to the sum of human knowledge, but obviously it's up to you how much you care about doing favours for people who don't intend to be around to repay them."

"Seems like it'll make for good gossip, at least?" Is that callous? Probably. Annisa has no idea if there is a middle ground between being callous and being roped in to sadness about this stranger who is -

- the thing is, if you think you're going to make it, you're very probably wrong, but if you think you're not going to make it you're almost definitely right -

Slight smile. "I imagine it will!"

Maybe slightly callous is the right way to be here, actually, if Annisa were dying she'd mostly be annoyed for people to suddenly manifest caring about her. "Well, no promises but I intend to tell people what happens, if anything happens, and if instead tomorrow morning you're like 'I stuck one arm in and realized I want to live', you can buy my silence with occasional snack tokens, how's that."

"I think that is very fair. Good luck existing."

Human interaction: COMPLETE.

Annisa would kill for Toronto. But there's no point in being that confused, or even thinking that much about it. Probably the girl will fail, anyway.