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

[heritrix]

[What Rin lacks in snake-like reflexes, she makes up for in physical strength atypical for a teenage girl her size. She struggles to rip her hand back again, and while she's no match for a vampire, Elda will probably feel a show of that in Rin's resistance.

Congratulations, though! As Rin's attempts fails, Elda successfully gets closer. What's she going to do next? Because she has about a second to make her move before Rin breaks out the martial arts. Her eyes flash, drawn to where Elda has it captured, and her free arm is already drawing back like she's making to use it.]

[hesperos]

[ Yuri couldn't be bothered to move himself elsewhere as well, so that factored into it too. ]

Man, guess I'll have to try some if she ever makes any for more people. Been awhile since I've had cake too.

[ ... Also, he kind of really would like to because he is a person who likes sweets a lot. Do not judge. ]

...Wait, did she make birthday cake for you because it's your birthday?

[hesperos]

[ There's a bit of a pause, as he begins to take another sip, and Yuri's thoughts immediately go back to the last time they were drinking after trial. He remembers them taking a photo on that thing of Rideaux's and how ridiculous it was--he makes a noise that might be a snort and almost spills his drink all over himself.

... He decides it's probably a good idea to sit up again now. ]

Yeah, though I like our tradition more.

[ Of course he would--not that he has a beef with people having candles for those he thinks actually deserves it...but whatever, a lot of hard thinking was done tonight already. ]

But I guess that shouldn't be surprising, huh?

[heritrix]

[Rin shakes her head.]

It wouldn't be Aligula if we celebrated things in order, would it? [She shrugs.] My birthday was actually a few days before I woke up here. I made an offhand comment to her a few weeks ago that I skipped celebrating it because I was busy, but I guess she remembered.

She'll probably get the rest of you later. When it first came up, I thought it was going to turn into a massive, joint birthday party for everyone.

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah. Has...nobody shown you how to do that? [IT'S BEEN SO LONG]

[ninehundredlives]

I think we should try to burn a hole in it. This place doesn't seem to catch on fire easy anyway.

[sleepytimegal]

[ There's a pause on Alex's end too. ]

Because...sometimes understanding something can lead to a better outcome. That's what I believe.

[sleepytimegal]

...Alright, then we're getting somewhere! Sincerity all the way down.

[sleepytimegal]

...Oh, I think that'd be fun! We could have a bonfire!

[ninehundredlives]

I mean, the whole place is weirdly impossible to destroy. With the invincible piano and all. I'm sure we'll be just fine.

[hesperos]

[ ... Oh. In that case-- ]

Well, I guess this is where I say 'belated happy birthday' then, huh?

[ Though being dragged into a murdergame has got to be like the worst birthday present ever. ]

... A massive, joint birthday party sure does sound like her kind of style too. If she does pull off something like that I won't be surprised to walk into a room with big signs and party hats everywhere, since she pretty much goes the extra mile with these sorts of things.

[chessturner]

[Kyrie thinks for a moment, unsure how to bring it up, but...]

First than all I should point I know nothing about the circumstances, and I know nothing about your granddaughter or about her kidnappers, but...

...what reason would they have to kidnap her?

[ninehundredlives]

He deserved to hurt. And he was the sort of person you couldn't hurt. Even if you'd beat him down, he'd have probably just laughed.

[ninehundredlives]

...of course.

[She withdraws her hands as well, slipping them back into her pockets.]

I want us to win this, but...I know that isn't always possible. As long as we do our best - as long as we go down spitting in Jericho's fucking face - I can be happy with that.

[sleepytimegal]

Exactly. So...burn something down. There's no rules about it anyway.

[heritrix]

If she does, I'll have to pay you back by wishing you a happy birthday as well. When's yours, actually?

[ninehundredlives]

Burn the whole fucking thing down.

[heritrix]

[She's glad that Susan lets that one thread go. There's something wrong with her, isn't there? She feels miserable enough, without thinking of that.

Because Susan's right, of course. Rin knows that better than anyone. All the while she was held down, Kirei just smiled at her. It's always been like that. She remembers realizing it weeks ago, when those secrets were put on the wall, how so many things about him made sense. How hard it was to sit there with him when she called him to dinner, not showing any expression on her face as she worked more and more of that puzzle out.

She was conceited, thinking she'd figured out the worst he'd done. And in the end, he got her to crack too with that surprise attack.

Feeling miserable, Rin simply nods and sits down at her desk.]

[evilfrenzy]

[Yuri.......

Well that's going to get Rideaux to turn to face Yuri again, raising an eyebrow. Thankfully he didn't actually see Yuri almost do a repeat of last week. He wouldn't be letting Yuri live it down otherwise.]

It does distract from the situation, if only for a little while. And it is something that we can fall back on if we find ourselves in this situation the following week. So I am in agreement, obviously.

[He didn't want to say it's something to look forward to exactly, because he doesn't look forward to more trials. But it's just come to be something that they expect.]

[hesperos]

[ Huh. Well.

...Good thing he's from not the old times of Vesperian weird months and years. ]

Second of April. So I guess make of that what you will or whatever.

Never thought I'd hear anyone tell me a 'happy birthday' while I've been in here, though.

[innocentloveholic]

[ if it's any consolation i just remembered one time she had some of sayaka's curry at an afterparty...... ]

Ooh, Chinese sounds great... [ .....Hmmmmmm! ] Hey, if you teach me to make some of that, I'll help you with baking! How's that sound?

[hesperos]

[ He learned his lesson from last week, apparently. It'd have been one hell of a time to embarrass him; anyway, when Rideaux faces him, he brings the cup to sip at the drink again, looking right back. He just slowly raises an eyebrow in return, because he can't resist the urge to mess around a little. ]

...Yeah, that's right.

[ Pretty much, honestly.

There's a moment of silence following, and he looks down at his glass--it's almost done at this point too. Funny, how the weight of the recent events is still present, and yet it doesn't feel insurmountable anymore. ]

I'm really glad you came on by. Probably obvious and I didn't even need to say, but I thought should anyway.

[heritrix]

It's not really appropriate, but nothing we do here is.

[heritrix]

Mm? [Rin covers her mouth, chewing.] I don't usually eat sweets.

[...she says as she stuffs her face with cake here. She's not done with the first, but she's also helped herself to another slice. It's just one of those days, okay.]

[matchbreaker]

Susan's near to the best among you.

[ Exhale. ]

I'd not want to disappoint her in general.