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

[notaccurate]

[Welp

Luca screams and brings his arms up to protect his beautiful face from the horrible pillow. But he is definitely hit anyway, and it totally musses up his hair.]

[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?

[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.]

[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.

[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.

[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. ]

[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!

[hesperos]

I do, huh? You know, I can be pretty good at noticing things.

[ ........ ]

So, what is this all about, exactly?

[ PROBABLY PROVING LUCA'S POINT again but he has to ask!! ]

[notaccurate]

You-

[SEE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT

Actually it's probably good that Yuri got him so worked up, because being irritated to this extent is enough to override his 'say nothing, be proper' instinct.]

I like you, you insufferable fool! And if you had any sense about you then you would have noticed that by now!

[hesperos]

[ Yuri's about to say, 'well I didn't think you disliked me', but then he sort of realizes right after in what context he means. If only because his mind goes back to when Luca had shown him that outfit of his, in his room privately, and then even before that, when they had gone on that 'date'.

And he's all over him too. ]

Oh, huh.

[ His face begins to turn a soft red. He doesn't know what to say for a moment, okay well he has to say something--more than that at least. So, he just continues to talk while he's processing Luca's feelings and trying to sort out his own. ]

I didn't know you felt that way. About me, I mean.

[notaccurate]

[That's not too encouraging. But then again, after that first 'dinner date', Luca had suspected that Yuri wasn't into him anyway.]

No, I figured that you didn't.

[Sarcasm? Bitterness? It's somewhere in there, maybe. Because Luca is mentally kicking himself, why did he say anything, he really shouldn't have said anything-]

And now, if you don't mind-

[He's attempting to untangle himself from Yuri, because leaving sounds like a good idea right now. He's made enough of a fool of himself for the night, he doesn't need to make it any worse.]

[hesperos]

[ Yuri is still not prepared so it takes him a moment to try to help Luca with that. Then, he'll get to his feet. Part of him is still digesting what Luca just confessed to him--a smaller part of him actually wants him to stay, but.

His emotions are kind of still a mess and he's sure judging by Luca's words he'd like to go now. ]

...So, I guess you wanna go now?

[notaccurate]

Of course I don't-

[No, wait, stop. Yuri is dense about this kind of thing, so he needs to be very clear.

He breathes in once and let's it out before speaking.]

I don't expect you to like me back, and I won't hold it against you that you don't. It's my fault for saying anything in the first place, now is not the time for such things.

I'm going because I respect you and want to give you space, not because I am mad. I don't want to impose on you, especially not after today.

[So he'll just start gathering his things up. Luckily it's just blankets and a pillow, he can carry that in one trip.]

[hesperos]

[ ... ]

Hey, Luca.

[ He'll begin to say something before he at least vacated the room because Yuri isn't ungrateful. So there's that at least. ]

Thanks for coming over. It ... kinda helped.

[ He'll let him go though; it's really for the best he has time to absorb everything. Particularly given the timing too. ]

[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.]