I dreamed of a world so far from here that's not on the map

[matchbreaker]

To my Fellows,

What is "good" and what is "evil" is something that can be debated for longer than most of you will ever live, as is the nature of men. These debates are without meaning in my eyes. Despite that man's belief, men are not born to be good or evil, and what flaws they have in personality or character are things that can be overcome through their choices. Both for better and, as we've seen, for worse.

Life is not without suffering, but I should hope that every one of you is loved by someone. Loves someone. Many of you probably know that some of those loved ones are entering into an experience similar to our own. The terror of that is an undeniable sword which hangs above our heads.

Do not isolate yourselves, and hold onto what belief will best inspire you. And if you wish to join us for another one of these gatherings, meet us in the dining hall at 8PM.

Sincerely yours,
Elda Marker

PS: Those who can taste will once more provide food.

[ Well that sure is a lot of words which is being put under your doors, put on the fridge, and generally distributed around. It... uh, sure is a letter? It's in the same impossibly perfect cursive as last week, and is written with an almost angry bravado. Because even if she was vindicated at the end there, she was vindicated by a (by his own admission) evil priest. So. That feels bad.

Anyway, with some effort, the dining hall (which now has a lot of candles at Cabanela's little shrine, even with adding the two more here) is filled with food: Susan's got the booze as usual but also a big pot of mac and cheese. Adelina's done her noble best with some finger sandwiches. Yuri's brought some sweets that Estelle might've made. As for Elda, well, she still basically can't cook, so what she provides instead is:

A few board games including a Settlers of Catan, Sorry, and Candyland knock off. I guess we're playing games. Or at least she's suggesting it, who knew? ]

Comments

[destage]

[...Sayaka smiles a bit, but...well, she seems satisfied enough with the answer. She pulls her arms back with a smile.]

...No, I think that does. Just...please don't say that a dead man doesn't matter anymore. I have memories of a wonderful one, that I consider incredibly dear to my heart. To forget the impact he, or anyone else has had...it'd be insulting to all of them.

[Sayaka smiles when she says that, though.]

[ninehundredlives]

That isn't really an answer, Elda.

[Or, well, it is. Just not the one she wanted. Fair enough. Nobody can really make promises in this place, can they?]

I know we can't say what's going to happen in here. And I can't be the one to take a hard line against killing. I've done enough of it. Just...as long as you do what you think is right, I'm sure it'll be fine. I trust your judgment.

[She doesn't really think Elda would? Maybe if Sayaka were dead already, and it wasn't a risk to the girl's life. At that point, though, what else would be different?]

[bloodbiter]

I am glad that it helped. But, remember... I would not have said it if it weren't true. You must give yourself some credit for that, too.

[She isn't in the habit of extending kindness to those she doesn't think are worth it, after all.]

[hesperos]

[ ... Okay, you know what? It's been a really long day, and nothing will change what happened. But...right now, Luca's reaction is something that gets him to laugh. ]

Pffhaha--man, I can't believe you actually screamed!

1/3

[notaccurate]

YOU were the one who-

2/3

[notaccurate]

[And he just. Stops. Because he sees Yuri laughing and it's the first time he's looked actually happy all day. And goddamn if that doesn't make his heart skip a beat.]

3/3

[notaccurate]

[But he can't handle this at all right now and he shoves his face into the pillow in his hands as he rolls off the other side of the bed, landing on the ground over there.]

[hesperos]

[ LUCA, please......that actually gets him to snicker a little more because boy that does look funny, but. ]

Hey, are you okay over there?

[bloodisthicker]

...

Right, of course. Yes.

[well, she's never really seemed like a stickler for that sort of thing, so eh.]

There was something you wanted to talk about, right?

[notaccurate]

I'm fine!

[Just give him like 30 seconds to get his face under control. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know~]

[hesperos]

[ Hmm, that doesn't sound fine to him, anyway. Or actually Yuri's feeling too curious, so he'll be coming over. ]

You sure?

[notaccurate]

[Oh, and there's Yuri.

Okay, he'll make due with 5 seconds to calm down instead of 30.]

Yes!

[By throwing the pillow at Yuri. As a distraction.

Solid plan right there.]

[chessturner]

Are all of your problems equally important? If not, you may be overthinking. You'll go bald from stress if you continue like this.

[Priorities, Tarrlok, that's the key to deal with lots of problems at the same time]

[chessturner]

I suppose you do have a way to vent, right? You're not going to spend your days staring at a wall and wishing everything was different...right?

[It'd be almost pitiful if you did, but at this point nobody here can afford to have a blue screen of death]

[hesperos]

[ He'll catch the pillow...he feels like he's missing something again. ]

Alright, if you say so.

[ ... ]

But, if that changes, let me know.

[hesperos]

Yeah, I do.

[ Sure Yuri planned on spending a lot of alone time just for today when he got the chance to sort of just mull sullenly over what happened, and he's in a bad space right now... but. ]

I'm not the type to sit around on my ass and waste the chance I do have to try to still do something about the situation we're in.

[ He sounds a little annoyed, but it's whatever. ]

[notaccurate]

[Well that is usually the trend with Mr. 'never say things clearly, always speak in double-terms', so. Yeah. Fair assumption, to be missing something.

He just sits there for a moment, stewing in his own thoughts and being generally disappointed in himself, before he holds out his hand.]

Since you have yours back, I will take mine now.

[notaccurate]

Well, since you are promising, I will trust you with that.

[Damn kids, growing on him and making him care about all of you.]

[hesperos]

Yeah?

...

[ He looks down at Luca's hand.

He gives him a high-five (or would it be a low-five) instead. Sorry he's such a troll, Luca. ]

[bloodbiter]

Yes, if now is a good time.

[It seemed like that trial weighed on him, after all.]

I was just wondering why you spoke up when you did. It seemed something had struck a chord with you.

[notaccurate]

[u little shit

What if Luca just grabs that hand to try and pull Yuri down to the ground? What then?]

[hesperos]

Woah, hey!

[ Yuri at first does give some resistance but it already throws him off-balance, so uh. Hopefully you don't mind him crashing into you. ]

[notaccurate]

[Welp. That sure is a pile of failure right there.

Luca lasts about two seconds before making an annoyed noise.]

You, Yuri Lowell, are positively irritating. You know this, right?

[hesperos]

[ He laughs a little. ]

Wow, you must be really annoyed if you're using my full name like that.

[ ... ]

By the way, it's not the first time someone's said that to me.

[notaccurate]

Because it is true! Half the time you are so dense that you miss even the most obvious things, and the other half is some grand act of cheekiness on your part! You probably have no clue how frustrating all of this is, and yet you manage to do exactly the right thing to make it worse!