❝ do you like it here? ❞ for Amanda
Does she like it here? Here, in Oletus Manor? The answer should be obvious, and yet Amanda still has to take a moment to think about how to respond.
Her experiences in the manor have been fantastical and strange, yet altogether feel somehow rather dull. It makes sense when she considers it - at first, the games and their stakes were brand new; unfamiliar, but in time, the endless repetition has had the same effect on them as sandpaper on an wooden edge. They've become predictable, almost normal - yet this isn't the type of normality that Amanda has always yearned for.
No, it's been more like trading one prison for another. The tales that her friend used to tell her, of flowers and fields, gentle hands and calloused fingers, still feel so far away. She's well aware that the life she's living now isn't one that anybody would consider ordinary... but most of all, what she hates is the fact that she can't pursue the goals she's made for herself in this place. The danger, the fear... all of that would be bearable, yet though she's sure the master of the manor must believe they have some grand goal in this gathering of strangers and their suffering - Amanda couldn't care less about it.
Yet... she hasn't been here long, so in a way, Amanda feels like she needs more time before she can really give Richard a proper answer. If this manor could bring her some understanding, or reunite her with the one she wants to see more than anyone else... maybe everything will have been worth it. But maybe Richard doesn't expect for her to be honest, anyway.
"I suppose it could be worse." Amanda replies, indifferent yet almost far-away. "We're fed, sheltered, and any suffering endured here is only ever temporary. But... there are still things I want to do. People I want to see. As long as I'm here, I'll never reach the answers I've been seeking..."
