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

[ninehundredlives]

We'll probably get more than enough of it.

[Her fear with her own secret was never really that other people would blame her for it. She just didn't want their pity. And now...well. It is what it is.]

Have you talked to Sayaka since we got out of there? She looked...really bad. [Literally everyone did, but you know.]

[matchbreaker]

Am I the girl's keeper now?

[ . . . But. ]

... Yes, I did. I made certain to hunt her down.

[ninehundredlives]

She cares a lot about you.

[It's not the same thing, but it's something.]

That's good. She...it's probably good for her to talk.

[matchbreaker]

... She does. It is a strange choice, on her part.

[ninehundredlives]

People make a lot of strange choices. I just hope hers work out for her.

[Better than Susan's, at least.]

I get the feeling they kept her pretty penned up, at home.

[matchbreaker]

That sounds accusing of me.

[ Exhale. ]

... Yes, it seems so.

[ninehundredlives]

No more than anybody else. We've all known each other for such a short time...it's funny to think about. It feels like it's been so much longer.

[matchbreaker]

You needn't tell me that of all people. It at once feels like a fleeting moment and a small eternity. Maybe it's the fact I've been denied the ability for comfortable sleep.

[ninehundredlives]

What do you need for that?

[matchbreaker]

A coffin? Knowledge that I won't have some living bomb girl pick the lock to my room? The ability to know Jericho won't kill me for inaction.

[ninehundredlives]

At least we're safe from the time limit for another week or so. And you could always push something in front of the door.

[The coffin, though...]

Does it have to be an actual coffin?

[matchbreaker]

... I suppose not? It's what I'm well used to, but the main purpose is to be comfortable while blocking out the light. These beds here are far too soft.

[ . . . ]

Besides, I doubt I could afford to sleep a week here, let alone the months I was considering before I arrived.

[ninehundredlives]

...no. Probably not. God only knows what you'd miss.

[Everything happens way too much here]

[matchbreaker]

Precisely. ... That's what I meant. Honestly, the older James and I got, the more we'd tend to just... take a month or a year or three off. Sleep and wake up when things were more interesting.

That's impossible here, obviously.

[ninehundredlives]

I've definitely never had anything quite as interesting as all of this happen before.

[She winces.]

Ugh, that sounds like Jericho.

[matchbreaker]

You'd need to add about five more sentences and sound half your age to do that.

[ninehundredlives]

Today was awful, but I’m sort of pleased that it caught him wrong, too. It didn’t seem like much of anything would.

[matchbreaker]

Honestly, he seems to get tripped up over his own sentences.

[ Maybe that's just her? Ever since Kimblee pointed out he sounds childish, she's sort of run with that idea in her head. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Maybe that's why he won't talk to us face-to-face. He's just bad at it.

[matchbreaker]

Hah! That certainly seems possible to me, to be sure.

[ninehundredlives]

Imagine being so shy you can't even talk to your own kidnap victims. It's a little sad.

[matchbreaker]

Seriously! I can get me or ur departed Walter White, but what's so intimidating abut the likes of you?!

[ninehundredlives]

Really.

[Says the woman who literally murdered the mastermind the last time she was in one of these, oops.]

He couldn't even pretend like Alena?

[matchbreaker]

I mean, he likes to pretend he can't be bothered and Alena seems to think us talking to him wouldn't end well...

[ She shrugs. ]

Guess we'd be less intimidated.

[ninehundredlives]

She made it sound like it'd be really bad, if he lost his temper. Which I can believe, even so...

[Exploding spines and all.]

But there's so much death already. Sooner or later, we're going to have to risk it.