2. Let’s learn about Ploys
Cock robin: Good day. A blue figure meeting the daily man-watching routine dashingly sets foot on the grounds of a preschool. That is to say, the bird, has landed. Like last time, today’s session will be at a special location picked by Alice. But, I keep looking and looking, but all this looks like is a regular preschool to me. Where is Alice……
Alice: You’re late, robin. I wonder how seriously you are taking your role as one of the cast.
Cock robin: Gasp! There’s a voice but she’s nowhere in sight! Where is she, all I see are small children!
Alice: Over here.
Alice: All about ploy.
Cockrobin:……
Alice: All about ploy. (pause) Why so quiet Robin?
Cock robin: Nothing, just rather creepy how you naturally you fit in. That’s my angel, Alice, looking dangerously fantastic in everything, emphasis on the dangerous. Anyway, a simple question if you don’t mind me asking, but what are you doing here? And why?
Alice: It’s not good to fall into the same routine. Reusing the same set and props just because this is a bonus show is against my sense of aesthetics. This isn’t that Dojo, whatever it was called.
Cock robin: And you changed the location. Ah ha. Yah, I understand most of it. The money-throwing now would give even Aoko a run for her money. Still, I prefer one-pieces over smocks. Like the dress kind, the goddess-like ones. Oh, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I don’t like smocks, just image-wise, it looks more convincing visually? Like “The Forest, the Bird, and the Girl”? If it’s “The Bird and the Preschooler” on the other hand, the preschooler unbalances it all and the bird is simply there.
Alice: Oh dear. I was in the middle of making candy.
Cock robin: Okay, ignore me like it’s natural. By the way, what do you do normally? Aoko has work at the school council. The squid’s doing his part time jobs. Alice, you’re busy with the go-home club?
Alice: As you can see, I make ploys whenever I have the time.
Cock robin: Not like but a witch from a fairy tale. So ploys are made in a pot. Hey, is it just me or does this smell like chocolate? Oh, oh, don’t tell me…….ploys are candy!?”
Alice: …. You’re a ploy and you don’t know how ploys work? I didn’t want to face the truth, but were you really just a bird?
Cock robin: That I’m not too sure about. But I know about how ploys work. Why you ask? (pause) Because, Alice here will be giving a cool explanation, deeper than the sea, vaster than space!
Alice: Exactly how it was explained in the game. The end, go home.
Cock robin: You pulled the existential rug from under this show.
Alice: You have an opinion?
Cock robin: Nope. But, would be nice if you at least gave a general lecture. We’d be worse than whatever-it-was-called Dojo without one.
Alice: (longer silence) I’d like to avoid that. All right….
Alice: This is the spelling for Ploy-kickshaw. I think this alone should suffice as an explanation, what do you think?
Cock robin: Ploy? Kick shaw?
Alice: The “ck” in kickshaw is mostly silent. Kickshaw means toys, childish, a novelty in a derogatory sense in western Europe.
Cock robin: Oh, I know. You can also use that for cranks-
Alice: Ploy, likewise, are toys in western Europe, and used in war games. It’s a blanket term for educational toys for children; colloquially for strategy, tactics, and in Scotland, it has a ….particular nuance, but forget I mentioned it.
(Kinoko…..are you sure you know what ploy means?)
Cock robin: Huh. And you force these two words together and you get ploy-kickshaw. Did you invent that?
Alice: It’s a unique magic system passed down to my mother. I wouldn’t do anything as graceless as publicly disclosing it to the Association to gain rights and personal gain.
Cock robin: Besides even if it was published, only you’d be able to use it! Only for those with the blood of the Meinster!
Alice: …….You were only feigning ignorance weren’t you?
Cock robin: ? Oh sorry, I don’t remember what I just said. The past is hazier than the future for me.
Alice: (silence) What is the Meinster?
Cock robin: My goddess. Your mumsy. And she also had a second name that said it all: the pure witch. But mumsy, she was a pop culture girl, getting drawn easily to the latest trends. She was also a big fan of Lewis Carroll. A witch tunes up the ploys of her predecessor for her own use, so we ended up like that because mumsy was into Carroll. And back when she broke the taboo, she puts on a smile and says “let’s name her Alice” in a flash!
Alice: ……. Good grief. That person was a ball of girlish tastes.
Cock robin: Hahahaha, what? With how you always wake up when the squid comes home, you’re just as–gwah!?
Alice: The next lecture will be on specific ploys. Robin, make reservations at a restaurant. When you are finished with that, double boil chocolate. When you are finished with that, wipe the mirror. And when you are finished with that…..yes, go fly into a telephone pole and die a violent death.
Cock robin: Just like always, right! Alice, you’re pretty hostile!
Alice: This is what I’m like naturally. In the game, it’s too much of a bother so I stay silent.
Cock robin: What’s too much of a bother?
Alice: Having to waste calories each time I berate a ____like you . Do you think you are worth that much of my time?
Cock robin: I love it! I’m beneath Glico caramel candy! But. Since I am. I want you. To lick. Me.
Alice: Hm, yes. Why don’t we inspect if even that won’t kill you.
Cock robin: Turned to food in a flash. Ploys are candy aren’t they? Mmm, so sweet.
