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

[evilfrenzy]

...Admittedly, yes.

[And it actually does sound like he's struggling with admitting that. It feels strange to admit that. He was never that great about genuinely caring about another's well-being, even as a doctor. When did this change come around?]

Believe me, that I can understand. Asking yourself, "What's the point? I'll just force it aside myself." when it comes to talking things out. [He shrugs, swishing his drink in the glass.] Talking to you these last few weeks, though...I don't know, I suppose I started to see some merit in just letting it go and venting with someone. So, I wanted to extend that to you as well.

[...]

I assume friends are good for that sort of thing.

[innocentloveholic]

[ ... ]

I was gonna say, "Really, never?" but like, if Inquisitive looked after you... I totally can't imagine him baking... [ Huh. ] You don't have any friends back home who'll do this kinda stuff for you?

[destage]

...Stoner?

[She thinks she's heard of the term before? It's uh. One of those things, you know, that she's pretty sure the industry wouldn't want her going near, but...

You know, she doesn't seem to take a damning tone with it. If anything, she's a little surprised to hear that second bit.]

A band? Wow...that's amazing! What kind of music does he play?

[heritrix]

[Rin smiles and shakes her head.]

I chose to go to high school when I could have skipped it because I wanted a social life, but I always had to take care to keep my classmates at a distance for both our sakes.

[What with that secret of hers on the wall. If they learned she was a mage, it would end badly.]

I have a few friends, but we're not close. I don't think any of them actually know when my birthday is.

[heritrix]

After making a fool of myself, you mean?

[She gives Yuri the key and glances to a corner of the room, huffing a disparaging sigh.]

Thank you for stopping me. I wouldn't have gotten so much as a hit on him like that.

[bloodisthicker]

...well, I have to preface this by saying it's far more applicable back home, since... I didn't exactly have power to abuse here. But for practically all my life, I've been trying to go against what my father wanted me to be and basically become a legitimate politician and straighten out Republic City.

[He doesn't really feel the need to explain that his father was a nasty crimelord. I mean, it's right up on the wall.]

...except honestly, I was just deluding myself. The only difference between who he was and who I ended up being was that I was an appointed political figure instead of a mob boss. I used intimidation and manipulation to get what I wanted and tried to justify it as being in everyone's best interests in the long run.

[he sighs.]

A lot of my memories put that into sharp focus, and honestly... everything that happened at this trial just made me spend even more time thinking about it. Am I just... destined to be Yakone's successor, no matter what I want?

[hesperos]

[ He takes another sip of his drink. At least he's had a positive effect on people, despite his earlier momentary idiocy. ]

Yeah, friends do that sort of thing pretty often. You're doing good at that too, by the way. Even if you're probably not going to hear me practically crying about everything that went wrong in the last...few hours? Or night. Whatever.

[ He almost mentions Flynn or Judith, even if the latter isn't going to be present in any murdergames...but, it makes him not want to talk about it because of generally everything. He'll just groan and lean back so he's half lying on the bed while his feet are still on the floor.

He thinks of something (not) very nice to say. ]

At least Kirei died like that. Damn bastard deserved every moment of it.

[notaccurate]

[Luca hesitates there for a moment, before he finally says something.]

I. I'm glad.

[And then he leaves to go into his room and scream into his pillow for a few hours about how big of an idiot he is.]

[innocentloveholic]

[ ...That's pretty pathetic, and even if she doesn't think Rin's secret is that big of a deal, it wouldn't be up on the wall if it wasn't... at least to someone. ]

So I'm your only friend that does?

[heritrix]

[Wait, Aligula would consider herself her friend?? Rin turns a little red again around the ears, but takes it in better stride.]

Yeah. I guess you are.

[Rin slices a piece of cake away with her fork.]

[innocentloveholic]

[ Rin's someone she likes hanging out with, but doesn't have a favor-for-favor relationship with, which she's decided means that they're friends. ...This is how she decided her and Sayaka were also possibly friends, and that went over well, and this has gone over well too?

She is decidedly not thinking about what it means for other people she liked, though, ha ha ha ha who cares about the dead we living now.

She's also... watching Rin really closely. She wants to see her reaction to her cake, please like it... She did her best. It's not even that overbaked, and the frosting's actually really well-done. ]

[heritrix]

[Well Rin tries it now, chewing appreciatively. She manages a smile, and swallows.]

Mm! The frosting is so creamy.

[bloodisthicker]

...well, I might be able to clear up one of them pretty easily. It's just a matter of going through with it, so... I'll just put that one on the backburner for this conversation.

[maybe if he feels better in general he can go ahead and ask the thing.]

[innocentloveholic]

[ !!!!!!! Phew. ]

That's the easy part, honestly! And the tastiest... I always practice it while I'm waiting for stuff to bake so I like, totally have something to snack on.

[ aligula do you eat anything but sugar i'm just fucking wondering. ]

[chessturner]

See? You're making progress already.

[As long as this problem you're leaving aside is commit murder, this is actually good for you!]

[ninehundredlives]

...no, I guess not. But I can't blame you for trying.

[bloodisthicker]

...mmm. Well. I was thinking about how it could be important to get to the heart of things to seal the deal, and...

[...fuck it. trying to sweep things under the rug will just make things worse, won't it?]

I remembered a similar situation recently, I suppose, where I lashed out at someone who didn't deserve it. Thankfully I didn't kill anyone, but... I guess it just gave me some perspective on the "why."

[ninehundredlives]

Alright. Do you want a bowl of this, then?

[ninehundredlives]

It couldn't hurt to search everything again, I suppose. Things may have changed.

[bloodisthicker]

Oh, his real name is Noatak. Amon is a name someone could theoretically have, but it's not really Water Tribe.

I have no idea what he's been up to for the past few decades since he ran away, anyway, but he was a great older brother to start out with. He always believed in fairness, so he practically always tried to stand up for me when Yakone was being overly harsh with me, and since Yakone liked him better to begin with he'd usually try to persuade our parents that I'd help out with domestic chores with our mother and he'd do the outdoors things with our father.

...of course, everything changed once bloodbending entered the picture. I always found it odd that he took to it as well as he did. Maybe he found the power somewhat intoxicating? I don't really know. But it definitely changed him a lot, between what our training involved and the fact that all of Yakone's hopes and dreams rested on him, since he was a prodigy and I was... not incompetent, but below our father's expectations and not terribly enthused about it anyway. He ended up... cold and distant over the years.

[matchbreaker]

That's Susan's work. I should probably do better.

[ ... Look. ]

[matchbreaker]

Do you think that'll be fast enough, or that there won't be casualties before that time?

[ Like... somewhat honest question. ]

[matchbreaker]

If I knew, I'd tell you. There's so many mysteries surrounding her and the Armashes, everything has just been this blur of information for me. And now the Brownlicks've got her on top of everything?

[matchbreaker]

[ She smirks at this, sounding pleased. She goes on playing, without much in the way of response. But all the same... yeah, to hear Adelina tells it is a pleasant thing, to have the girl heart her out like this. ]

[matchbreaker]

Is perspective really the same thing as wisdom though, really...?

[ Mmm. ]

Still, it's nice that you'd admit that I bother you so much.