Chapter Text
In the three months that Victor had spent in the manor, he could count the number of survivors he had an actual meaningful interaction with on one hand.
William (who insisted that the postman call him by his first name, despite his objections of it being too informal.) approached him from time to time but Victor had a feeling that the Forward was just the kind of person who was nice to everyone.
He spent a few nights at the library with Aesop Carl, completely in silence. He writes letters. Mr.Carl reads books. Once, the Embalmer broke the silence by giving Victor a random compliment about his letter-writing skills which he only nodded at. That was the only time he ever spoke to him.
Victor only ever had one match with Miss Adams. The pair stuck together for most of the match, decoding together. The combination of his decoding letters and her ability to locate the hunter was surprisingly effective and the team ended the match with a swift victory. She thanked him afterward and as she spoke, he noticed that he could actually drop his guard around her...simply because the Mind’s Eye couldn’t see his face. Upon realizing this, guilt immediately hits him like a brick for taking solace in her blindness and Victor started avoiding her.
Out of all the survivors, Mr.Baden and Ms.Bourbon were the ones who looked after him the most, guiding him through his first matches. The First Officer and the Barmaid roped him into drinking with them pretty often but…to be completely honest:
1) He’s not a big fan of alcohol.
2) More often than not, he felt like the two of them were just taking pity on him for not having any friends.
These shallow relationships are the closest thing he ever had to any semblance of friendship but...again, he hardly had the confidence to call any of them his friends.
That suits him just fine.
Victor was used to living a quiet life by putting a wall between himself and other people. He didn’t see any reason why that should change just because he was stuck in some weird manor that forced him to play games where got hunted for sport.
He preferred to stay behind the curtains, away from the spotlight. He was content with his position as a supporter and an observer.
He might not have a solid connection with other people (and probably never will) but he had Wick by his side and that was good enough. He much preferred the company of animals to other people.
That’s what Victor always tells himself, anyway.
As a postman, Victor always wakes up in the early hours of the morning as his daily shift starts at 5:30 AM. He had no letters to deliver in the manor but it’s hard to break the habit when both his body clock and his loud dog are always determined to kick him out of bed at dawn.
His daily routine starts with taking a walk around the woods under the morning light, feeding any stray animals that he comes across with yesterday's leftovers and returning to the manor just in time to get breakfast.
He checked his watch. It was nearly 9.
The majority of the manor’s inhabitants aren’t exactly early-risers and go down for breakfast at 10, this usually gives him enough window to safely grab a bagel or two without being noticed after his morning walk.
He didn’t expect that morning to be any different so imagine his surprise when he opened the dining hall’s door to find most of the survivors gathering around the wooden table.
...Alright, breakfast can wait. Victor wasn’t good with crowds, never was. He had no idea why so many people were there but his anxiety outweighs any curiosity that he might have had.
Just before he managed to make his retreat, Mr.Baden caught his eye and called out to him. He felt like he wanted to cry. “Victor! Have you heard? We’re getting a new guy!” Jose laughed cheerily. “About time. You’re not going to be the newest survivor anymore, boy!”
The postman pondered what the proper response to this piece of news was. Should he be happy? Excited? Shouldn’t they be upset that another person got dragged into this hell of a game? ...ah, he’s probably overthinking again. He really didn’t want to spoil the mood especially when everyone looked like they’re excited for this new survivor.
When Victor’s not sure about a reply, he usually offers a polite smile which seemed to be working well enough in this situation.
The doctor was holding what seemed to be a small card, too far away for him to read “ Andrew Kreiss...” She flipped the card to see if anything else was written in it. “Looks like we only have his name and room number. He's arriving tomorrow, I wonder what kind of person we are getting this time.”
“Ah, Don’t we have a game scheduled for tomorrow? That's a bad time for him to arrive...” The seer expressed his concern.
Yikes. Victor had a whole week of moping around in his bedroom before he got dragged out for his first match and that experience was still incredibly traumatizing for him. He hoped this new survivor would fare better than him.
...Not that being better than him was that high of a bar.
“Another man? A pity, I’ve been waiting for another lady to lighten up this place.“ The cowboy sighed dramatically.
“The women in this place are not enough for you, Kevin?” Demi interjected, drinking what seemed to be booze at 10 am in the morning. “You know that’s not what I meant, kitten! I’m just saying, the more the merrier!”
“I hope he’ll be nice!” “What time do you think he will arrive?” “His last name sounds German, do you think he’s from there?” The young girls in the mansion usually stick together in a big group and chat at a high speed, a huge reason why Victor had not exactly interacted with most of them.
“My wish is that it’s someone who’s good at decoding, we need more of those.” The coordinator expressed. Despite being one of the youngest survivors, she had always been the leader type and made the most attempt at organizing their teams.
“You can say that again,” Tracy said between bites of her breakfast. “I tried to teach you guys to decode but some of you are just plain hopeless!”
“You can just say my name, you know.” William teased from next to her. “Hey, I'm not talking about just you!”
Talks of speculation and hopes about this newcomer continued and Victor found this to be the right timing to quietly slip away from the room.
The moment Victor closed the door behind him, he let out a long sigh. As the conversation continued behind him, a random thought entered his mind...
Did they talk about me like this before I arrived too?
The idea made him nervous. He had no idea what kind of person they expected Victor Grantz to be but he hoped he didn’t disappoint them…they didn't expect an antisocial and quiet postman, probably. He was nothing special but he hoped that the other survivors at least find him tolerable, and-
Wick’s bark quickly snapped him back to reality and he sighed again, crouching down to pet his best friend’s head. My paranoia must have shown in my face, huh? Sorry for making you worry, Wick.
As Victor walked back to his room, he found his mind wandering back to the new survivor again.
Andrew Kreiss …
He tried to imagine his own version of the new survivor but his mind drew a blank. He decided to just memorize that name for tomorrow and went through the rest of his day like normal, writing letters and playing with Wick.
At this point in time, the postman had no idea just how much he’ll think about Andrew Kreiss in the months to come.