One day we'll reach to emotions: unexplored, unprecedented

[matchbreaker]

[ Sometime shortly after the trial small notes will be folded underneath the doors of everyone still alive, and also posted to the staircase leading up to the upper floors. Not many of you have probably seen Elda's penmanship yet unless you checked that Penmanship check a while back, but it's impossibly impeccable fancy cursive script, to match with her old timey appearance. ... She also writes a lot more proper than she talks. ]

To My Fellows,

The half of you who didn't assist me in this are cordially invited to a celebration of our continued living, and to the memories of those who aren't. We are a mismatched group,
but it has become increasingly clear that we are together in this. Do not allow yourself to be alone.

We will be congregating in the ballroom for the rest of the night.

Better chefs than I will be providing food.

Sincerely,
Elda Marker

[ she's being somewhat facetious about half the group, but the fact does remain that she got more offers than she expected, when she set out to do this. She had expected that Sayaka would help, and indeed both her and Alex provide cookies and curry for the tables. Elda herself sets up the tables, dotting one longer central one made of smaller ones in the ballroom for things to sit on. The bulk of the food's provided by Tarrlok of all people, Chinese food by any other name. Susan, bless her, provides alcohol. Hibki, once she was clean, decided to run backup on preparing the food.

And then perhaps fittingly, Aligula provided the decorations. Steamers line the room, and little cut outs hang around. At Elda's instruction, it's a mix of cats, snakes, and bats. The majority of them have little faces on them. And finally, as and afterthought more than anything else, Elda makes some tea.

... Said tea is black tea and is impossibly dark and bitter because she can't taste it, but maybe that's what you want on a night like this. Who knows. ]

Comments

[brandnewday]

That's right! [Wait, she's thinking.] Ah, but it's okay if we let ourselves rest a little more than normal, too. It's gotta be a good balance!

[hesperos]

I plan on doing the other thing much later.

[ For now it's socializing time. And speaking of which.
... ]

Did you get a chance to help out with setting this thing up?

[brandnewday]

Mm, I did! I helped where I could, but I had to wash my hands about a hundred times first. Holdin' onto Chie's key made 'em smell real bad.

[If he missed that during the trial.]

[hesperos]

... You know, I think I gotta congratulate you on your dedication with that.

[ Yuri probably wouldn't have dared to reach into a burnt corpse's pocket to get a key. He also vaguely remembers that coming up mid-trial but figured it was...just a thing that happened because investigation things. ]

[brandnewday]

No one ever told me we could get the keys from Elena! I just knew that we shouldn't lose Chie's photographs forever. There might be an important clue in 'em! You agree, right?

[All those execution and murder photos.]

[hesperos]

...We could, huh?

[ Guess who didn't know they could ask her for the keys. Him.

It's good to know, anyway. ]

Yeah, I agree actually. You never know when something's gonna wind up important and it'd be bad to miss anything here. Stuff can get complicated even when we do have all the evidence we need; it'd be even more of a pain if we didn't have everything.

[brandnewday]

Apparently.

[She sighs, her shoulders drooping. All that body touching for nothing.]

Hey...that reminds me. You know how she's always takin' pictures of the executions? Where are all those powers and weapons coming from anyways?

[hesperos]

[ He remembers having a conversation about that a few weeks back, so he has an educated guess. That Jericho is passing the powers through to her, and so... ]

My guess it's from Jericho. Where he gets all of the powers or weapons himself is pretty much a mystery to me--it's obvious he has some kind of source he's able to draw them from, though. Whatever or wherever that is I wouldn't have a clue.

[brandnewday]

'Draw'? Like...in a movie where a wizard draws his power from somewhere? How does he have so many? Is that magic?

[hesperos]

Yeah, kinda like that.

[ Hmm. ]

I dunno how he has so many on hand. It's likely there's some magic involved, seeing as it looked to me like a few of those abilities were spells. In fact, that whole light show in the third trial just looked like a complicated arte to me.

[ Granted, what was used on "Fern" was, in fact, not in arte. But yeah, it just looked that way to him...but he's sure that was some kind of magic. ]

[brandnewday]

There's an idol in our group who sings about magic.

[What a helpful an aside.]

Mm, it really looked like art. Like a light show. It was still pretty scary, though.

[hesperos]

A friend of yours?

[ Totally helpful. ]

Yeah, I guess it looked like art too; spell artes tend to look like that. [ The funny thing about 'arte' and 'art' sounding similar... ] I don't think you were the only one who thought that, that's for sure. I wouldn't want anything like that anywhere near me.

[brandnewday]

She's more like a boss. She's a producer now, but she used to be an idol.

Hey, can you tell me about spell artes? Maybe it won't mean anythin', but I'm the one here who knows the least about magic and stuff like that. Except for maybe Sayaka.

[hesperos]

Wow, not bad.

[ Hmm. ]

Well, I guess if I'm going to be talking about that, I might as well just go for a general explanation for artes. Anyway, it's basically all magic--spell artes are more flashy and take more time to cast while attack artes are spells you can usually go right ahead with using them while attacking.

What's true of all of them is that you usually need to have something called a 'blastia' to use them. Something like this.

[ He shoes her his golden bracelet. ]

[brandnewday]

Huh...so there's more than one type? I dunno why that surprises me. I guess I thought all magic was somethin' you said with a wand after brewin' something in a big cauldron.

[She's seen H*rry P*tter, she knows how that works?]

Y'know, I always thought your bracelet was a gift from your girlfriend or somethin'.

[hesperos]

Knowing that there's a lot of dimensions and worlds out there, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a place that had magic working exactly like that.

[ ... There's a bit of a pause. ]

Girlfriend? Nah, I don't have one of those. I got the blastia from an old companion of mine.

[brandnewday]

This dimensions and worlds stuff is still a lot to think about. Sometimes, I feel like I'm better off forgettin'.

[Her brain can handle only so much.]

It's really pretty. I've been eyin' it for a while since you and I are the only ones wearin' gold bangles here.

[She holds up her own. There's one on at least one of her wrists each day. Sometimes two.]