don't wait for a knight in shinin' armor, your savior's reflected in the mirror

[perpend]

[That sure was a fucking thing. That execution was a fucking thing. Those secrets are a fucking thing.

Cabanela retreats to his room, but not for all that long. Everyone will get a note eventually, written in very neat handwriting

I do not plan on bowing down to threats and intimidation. If you did not act, it means you were, like me, aware of the risk, but decided against it. Your reasons are entirely your own.

Join me in the dining room if you agree enough is enough, and that you won't acquiesce to threats. I don't plan to let this stop me, and neither should you.

-C

In the dining room itself, Cabanela has set up coffee and tea for those who want it-- there's no food, because to be honest, he doesn't know how to cook. Two more candles have been lit-- he wasn't really sure what to do about the whole... parasite thing... so Fern's candle will have to make due.]

Comments

[sleepytimegal]

...Huh? O-oh. Elda. ...Yeah, sure. Come sit down?

[ Belatedly, she sits down. ]

[matchbreaker]

... Christ girl, did you see a ghost?

[ But yes, she will... indeed sit. ]

[sleepytimegal]

[ ...She laughs a little. ]

Not exactly. Don't worry 'bout it. I'll deal.

[matchbreaker]

If you say so. that's what kids say when they don't want adults to butt in.

[ She shrugs. ]

Still, you're far from my kid, even if Sayaka's sweet on you.

[ So, you going to shuffle? ]

[sleepytimegal]

...Ah, uh...

[ Shuffles! ]

Well... Mostly it's that we've all got, uh, you know. Our own things.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, I didn't say I was was prying. Don't compare me to Green.

[ . . . She hate this. why does saying that stupid woman's name still make a leaden feeling rise in her stomach. ]

[sleepytimegal]

[ Oh...she falters in shuffling. ]

She did pry a lot, huh? She told me to talk to her, whenever I had a problem. [ ...It probably made her feel good. It would've done that. Wouldn't it? ]

[matchbreaker]

She did. Honestly, she had so many obnoxious things about her. A nasty temper, that prying, cloying vibe - I'm sure you had it worse, being a "kid" in her eyes. A great deal of projection.

[ and yet... ]

[sleepytimegal]

...I really didn't mind it. It felt like...

[ ... ]

Since Mike died, my mom's been so messed up. She divorced my dad, you know. Couldn't...just couldn't make it work anymore, without him. Sometimes, I think she's got a hard time with me being around too, but...it's not her fault, I know. We barely talk anymore. It's just how we're both grieving. [ She's shuffling the cards with a sad little smile on her face. ] So... I kinda got it. Fern projecting. It helped her and...I think I didn't realize, it helped me too.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Of course some girl contextualizes it in a way she's forced to understand. Elda's hands open and close out of fists. She grits her teeth, but then releases her tension, and... ]

... Honestly, it disgusted me - the idea of infantilizing all of you so-called "kids." The first list she gave me included Blue of all people. She was twenty, barely any younger than Fern herself.

[ Exhale. ]

Still, it isn't my place to say if you got something out of it. At this point, I've some regrets about if we could have talked more.

[sleepytimegal]

[ Still shuffling. Still...she slows down, and stops. ]

I think we've all got some kind of regrets. Whether we loved someone or just barely knew 'em or hated 'em, there's... It happens. Especially when you're locked up so close with people, as it...turns out.

...If you'd want to talk about them...

[matchbreaker]

[ . . Right, the grieving girl. She really should have seen his conversation coming in retrospect. She's going to reach out to the deck, as if asking if she can take a card. She'll let what she picks answer for her. ]

[sleepytimegal]

[ Yeah, go ahead. She holds the cards out to Elda. ]

[matchbreaker]

[ and that... one card out and- Hah. She actually snorts at what she draws, rolling it in her fingers before she lets the one card drop on the table, laying face up between them. The Queen of Hearts. ]

I never liked Fern Green. [ She'l begin there. ] That first meeting we had, I assumed she was one of our captors, and she was defiant to the end there. She seemed to work thereafter on the idea that I was some violent danger, proving antagonist at every turn. It's fitting, really.

[sleepytimegal]

[ You're supposed to keep that face-down, silly... Alex just continues to deal as Elda talks. 10 cards for each of them. The Queen of Hearts can just stay out there. ]

Mm. She was kinda rash.

[ Really she won't say much, just...let Elda talk. ]

[matchbreaker]

[ ah, right... they were playing, weren't they? Well, whatever, they can just play with a reduced deck: a deck without the Queen of Hearts, like a gift taken from it. It did, after all, answer her own doubts. ]

Foolish, don't sugar coat it just for her being dead. It's amazing she didn't die at that first reveal of Alena. She probably only didn't die when Yosuke was executed because I dragged her big ass out of there.

[sleepytimegal]

Okay, foolish. Yeah, I thought she'd get herself killed there multiple times by rushing in.

[ ...Funny, she got herself killed just by being depressed and taking a drink in a bar. ]

[matchbreaker]

Likewise.

[ . . . ]

Likewise. Like I said, projecting.

[ She'll take her rummy hand and look at it as it's being dealt ]

She had a sick little boy.

[sleepytimegal]

I know. I mean- I know she had to get back to him. Her son...

[ Breathes out. ]

So...I got it, you know. The projecting.

[matchbreaker]

Impossibly sick. Everything she described as his symptom... there's no way any human survives that - no way at all. Not to mention she said no one believed her about it back then. [ a fingernail comes up, and she bite down on it, grinding her teeth. ] She implied she died before now. That child should be dead. She'd lost a tremendous amount of her memories, even aside from our own issues. Something was going on, and now her own germs and bacteria could make that happen?

[ She grinds her teeth on the nail and then finally, painfully admits... ]

... I should have asked more.

[sleepytimegal]

[ She listens and continues the game. There's so much... So much... ]

...We all should've.

[ For such a usually gregarious girl, Alex is quite at a loss here. ]

[matchbreaker]

... Hah. Don't you saint her posthumously. At least not if you're not prepared to do the same for some others.

[ But still, there's no bite in that.

She falls silent - let's... just play Rummy and end the night that way. ]

[sleepytimegal]

Yeah, I know.

[ There's not really much she's saying to that either. ...Rummy it is. ]