It's like I'm carrying the weight of the world

[hesperos]

[ So, Yuri's going to be going around, putting up slips of paper for everyone to see, because even with everything that was that trial, he is sure it could help. He doesn't know--it's worked from time to time before anyway and someone should do it. ]



[ Yuri, for once, is going to be making some food for the afterparty that isn't desserts. On his side of things, his food is generally going to be geared towards something more western-style and hearty. In essence, there is some things of curry with beef, chicken, and vegetables in them, take your pick. Sayaka and Kyrie also will be assisting with food, providing stuff that is likely to be geared towards something asian.

This whole set up, of course, is going to be done in the dining hall, since that's where it usually is. ]

Comments

[evilfrenzy]

[Rideaux attends the afterparty today, and as he eats his curry in the dining hall, he's actually making himself decently approachable tonight. He's a little subdued though, because despite coming out of the trial in a better mood than expected, reflecting on the case has made him feel...conflicted. Even though neither of them hoped to be coroners so often, he actually didn't mind working with Susan, which says a lot for him. Then there was Angel, whom he genuinely kind of hoped would get to enjoy more time not confined by her medical devices. And Maxwell is an entire other story of complicated thoughts.

Maybe this got to him a little more than he'd care to admit.

Once he's done eating and chatting when applicable, it's down to the bar for his weekly post-trial drink. He spends a little time in there before heading to room 24 for the remainder of the night. He presumably finds Susan's note around this time, and...yeah. He's going to be very contemplative tonight.]

Room 24 (technically at least)

[destage]

[...Sayaka at least has some gumption to just...not, with talking to people for too long after all of this. But you know, she kind of owes Rideaux a bit, even if it was something simple. It probably just seems inconsequential, but...

Well, she slips a small note under Rideaux's door.]

Thanks for helping me out, with the pills. I really do owe you one.

[And...honestly, she's probably gonna be off without expecting any sort of answer.]

[evilfrenzy]

[A response does not come right away. Either Rideaux was busy, or he did take note of the message coming in but just let it be for now. Either way, Sayaka will receive a return message under her door later on.]

I simply handed you the pills. What you did with them was completely under your control.

I'll keep this in mind though. Glad to hear that they worked for you.

[...this small debt will be revisited much sooner than they both might think.]

bar;

[hesperos]

[ Yuri's wandered down here himself eventually, back into a little bit of routine now; he didn't go straight down into the bar on account of being the person who kind of set up the afterparty in the first place. However, here he was. ]

Hey, Rideaux. In the mood for some company?

[ He'll be drawing near to sit by anyway. ]

[evilfrenzy]

[And so continues their weekly tradition. Rideaux smiles a little bit once Yuri makes it to the bar, turning to face him.]

Always. [He pats the spot next to him for Yuri to sit.] All done at the gathering now?

[hesperos]

[ Yuri will plop himself down in that seat. ]

Yeah. I've got more than enough of my fill of handling stuff and being somewhat responsible.

[ All that effort!! But nah, he doesn't mind it all that much. ]

So, a gald for what might be on your mind right about now?

[evilfrenzy]

Look at you, living up to your title again. [His tone is emulating the "so proud of you" effect, but he's just messing around.] I had some of your curry. I don't believe I'd tried your cooking before this...clearly I've been missing out.

[It was really good!

...the question gets him to turn his gaze back to his drink.]

Reflecting on today, primarily. It was a mess.

[Not in the way that some previous trials were. There were definitely bigger shitshows. But...it just feels weird to think about how he'll kind of miss some of the victims.]

[hesperos]

You liked it, huh? Glad you gave it a try.

[ Yuri is always happy whenever people have a bite of something of his to eat. But also he's pretty glad Rideaux actually tried it out! ]

It really was. I actually didn't expect any of that to happen the way it did.

...I mean, as a whole there were trials that were even more of that, but you get what I mean.

[evilfrenzy]

I do get what you mean, yes.

[...he takes a sip of his drink.]

It was a waste of time, not to mention one of our medical professionals who can actually help with these bodies. All because someone was bored. [...] For all that we talk about finding distractions in this place, I suppose it was only a matter of time that it was simply not enough.

[hesperos]

Guess so.

[ Yuri should've anticipated someone would eventually cook up a reason like that to off someone, but... ]

Honestly, part of me was expecting Aligula to reveal that she actually gave enough of a crap to try to do something with the motive. Not that it would've made it any more acceptable in my eyes, but still.

[evilfrenzy]

It would have been more understandable than something so asinine as, "I was bored". That is what you mean, yes? It was one of those incentives where everyone probably at least entertained the thought of it.

[hesperos]

Yeah, that.

[ So eloquently put, Yuri. ]

... Say. You knew Milla, right? I know you guys weren't friends or anything, but with everything that happened, I was wondering if what happened with her might've been weirding you out or something.

[evilfrenzy]

...In a way, yes. Like it or not, Maxwell is a primordial spirit who has the ability to shape the way my world works. A loss like that could have quite the impact. At least, until the next iteration comes along, if ever.

[So from an impersonal standpoint, it's weirding him out.]

[hesperos]

Oh. That sounds like it can kinda suck.

[ Yuri has almost no idea how spirits work, even though they're now a thing as of his recent memories and all that in Vesperia-land. ]

... Well, here's hoping things still stay alright.

[evilfrenzy]

Yeah. We'll have to see. It might be fine in the long run, because my dreams have told me that we are very close to completing that test. Perhaps the primordial spirits will just let us continue to live as we are. That is what we wish for.

[Then again, his dreams have also been unpleasant so he doesn't want to dwell on them too much. So after he takes another sip of his drink, he moves to change the topic. Like...complimenting Yuri. Yeah.]

You did well again today, by the way.

[hesperos]

[ Yuri will go with the flow of shifting topics, though Yuri does pause at the compliment. He doesn't want to like ... dismiss it or anything considering who it's coming from. Though, he looks a bit thoughtful. ]

You think so? Heh, well, I can tell you that whatever I managed wasn't without people doing their own thing in that trial as well. That's for sure. You did pretty good too, you know.

[evilfrenzy]

You put together the pieces of what we had all gathered. It was nice and efficient. I'd say we have this process down rather well at this point.

[...]

Not that we want to be efficient at these things, but I am sure you know what I mean.

[hesperos]

[ Yuri moves his feet back and forth a little when he gives some elaboration to his earlier compliment. He even smiles a little-- though it does suck that they do need to be 'efficient' at these things, but ... he's glad to know his efforts are appreciated. ]

Yeah, I do.

[ ... ]

Hey, you know, I know I've always been asking stuff about you from time to time. But, is there anything you've ever wanted to ask about me?

[evilfrenzy]

[Interestingly, Rideaux seems to light up a little bit at the suggestion.]

As much as I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about myself so often... [HE'S JOKING...MOSTLY. He leans an arm against the table and faces Yuri with a smirk.] "What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?"

[...is that one of those speed-dating questions.]

[hesperos]

[ ... IS IT. Yuri actually sort of smirks, if anything. Granted, he didn't actually go to the speed-dating thing, but he recognizes it because of the posters and he probably like snatched a paper before quickly bailing anyway. ]

I guess it'd going on a journey that'd basically be the definition of an adventure and 'adventurous'. That basically started with me getting thrown into jail because some knights were being a couple of assholes when I was trying to track down an aqua blastia thief and then I ran into Este--

[ He pauses for a moment. He hasn't talked about Estelle in awhile, actually. Not since last weekend, but anyway. ]

-- then after that, we escaped from the castle, keeping on collecting friends along the way. First there was Karol, then Rita, the old man, and then Judith. 'Course, along with them was Repede too because he's always been by my side and sometimes ran into Flynn when he was butting into our business like the pain in the ass he is. [ He says that part fondly, like someone would about a friend. ] Also things got pretty hairy - it went from a journey about finding an aqua blastia thief to suddenly 'welp the world is being threatened by some crappy-looking things called Adephagos'.

[evilfrenzy]

[Oh, wow. Rideaux was just planning to jokingly start out out with that question before asking something serious, but he sure did end up getting a lot of mileage out of it.

He starts out surprised and mildly confused by all of the information coming at him at once, but he manages to absorb it eventually. The pause when Yuri brings up Estelle is definitely felt too, but...he's glad Yuri is able to continue.

By the time Yuri finishes, Rideaux is mildly stunned to say the least.]

You weren't kidding when you called it an adventure. That is quite the journey you ended up on. And it looks like you got yourself an entourage as well. Are the people you mentioned also part of your guild?

[That's one of the main things he's remembered about when he met Yuri. The whole guild thing.]

And what's this about your world being threatened...?

[hesperos]

[ Wow, he thought it was a totally serious question too...though it's probably not a bad thing to talk about, despite the bit there. Either way, he doesn't seem to mind continuing. ]

Yeah, they are. We're pretty much a good team, as you might guess.

[ Hmm, well, where does he start... ]

Anyway yeah, long story is that the world's being threatened by them. There was a whole bunch of a crap before then that lead up to that, but some guy basically accidentally unleashed something that could end up dooming the world because he was on one hell of a power trip. That 'something' is the Adephagos, who were around anyway, but less of a problem before that or something.

[ ...That is probably more flippant than anyone would expect he'd be. But it's just how Yuri deals with things, honestly. ]

[evilfrenzy]

[Don't worry Yuri, he's glad he asked it. Just that little question has given him a lot of insight into Yuri's history.

A good team, though...hm. Well, he chooses to focus on this talk about the Adephagos. He tips his head in vague concern. It's Yuri's world, after all.]

What are they, exactly? Do you have the ability to eliminate them?

[hesperos]

They're monsters who basically feed off of aer mindlessly and constantly. Think of like a big monster that constantly eats everything in its sight and just keeps multiplying in number or growing in size until it's everywhere. It's kind of like that.

[ He'll nod. ]

Yeah, we do have an idea. It involves spirits - different from yours and not crazy by the way - and they're supposed to do their thing with converting aer to matter, which will basically get rid of the Adephagos since they are born from aer too.

[ There's a complicated and more in-depth version explanation here, but Rita would be able to do something like that... not Yuri. ]

[evilfrenzy]

[When Yuri says "aer", Rideaux just keeps hearing it as "air" and that's kind of confusing. But the more Yuri explains, it starts to click that he might be referring to something else. Rideaux's guess is that aer is the equivalent of mana. Which...yeah, what the Adephagos are doing does not sound good at all.

The inclusion of spirits into the equation is quite the twist he wasn't expecting, though... Huh.]

Have the spirits made any progress on that front?