It keeps happening

[forcegalactic]

[After that horror show of an execution, Mordecai is still restless from the investigation and trial. He has too much pent-up energy, and plenty of others are sure to be upset, too. Ashley was loved by nearly all of them, the trial was mentally draining, and that execution was crueler than it should have been.

Two hours after everyone has returned to their rooms, they'll find a note slipped under their doors.]

We can't go on with empty stomachs. There's food in the kitchen, and the dining room is always open if you need someone to talk to.

Please keep anything outside of eating and civilized conversation away from the dining hall. That room is meant to be a peaceful place for those of us that need it.

-Mordecai Benmont Jiminy

[Today, there's cream of tomato soup warming up on the stove with a set of bowls besides it. It's a more mindless dish to prepare than mashed potatoes, as much as Mordecai wants to vent his frustrations on the potatoes.

He decides to follow Cabanela's tradition and lights one more candle, and after some consideration, lights a sixth. Let those who cared about either girl pay their respects.]

Comments

[icysemblance]

[Weiss isn't going to stay long. She's exhausted physically and mentally, and she doesn't have the energy to even pretend it's all right.

Instead, she's going to go into the dining room and place a very messy version of a crocheted flower by the candle. That's all she has in her, after all of that.

If someone tries to get her attention, she'll stay, but otherwise, she's going to go back to her room.]

[charcoalfeather]

[....Rakka arrived at an excellent time, it seems. As she saw Weiss in the moment she set that flower down on the table.

It took Rakka the entire trial to realize that she was wearing the hat Ashley made for her, and it hurt to wear it now. So, quitly pulling off her head, she set the blue and brown beanie on the table next to Weiss's flower.]

[decrees]

[Logan isn't around for the first part of the party so he misses Weiss, but he'll drop by her room after awhile to knock on the door. Nothing about today was good at all, but if it's done anything, it's ensured that Logan will keep tabs on as many people as possible.

Weiss just happens to be one of the ones he wants to see.]

[midnightsea]

[He'd been awake all day, and yet Dio Brando was nowhere near falling asleep now. Even if he'd wanted to, his head was full of the static and white noise of disjointed thoughts and memories.]

[He hadn't liked either Ashley or Asuka. He didn't like anyone, only tolerated some more than others. Even so, it disgusted him to see so many instantly denounce Asuka as a monster because she'd done what they were all capable of. Like they were so goddamned righteous. They were only 'good' because they had won. Reaver had been entertaining, Undyne had been pointless, but Asuka had been...Asuka.]

[Contrary to the end.]

['Could your friend save us?']

[...Ashley really hadn't told anyone. Dio sat off to the side in the dining hall with one leg crossed over the other, journal in front of him and a pen spinning restlessly in his hand when he wasn't actively writing. He was the picture of tranquil rage, purple feathers or not.]

[Apart from the reveal of being a vampire, every word between the battered covers had really been kept secret. The others would have said something by now if they knew...and he couldn't decide how he felt about knowing that they didn't. It was more convenient for him that Ashley was dead, and yet...she'd had all that leverage against him, and said nothing. What kind of person wouldn't take advantage of that?]

['Do you believe in 'gravity'?']

[Useless. Useless, useless, useless. But just because it was useless didn't make it hopeless.]

[Maybe he could outsmart the devil. No, he definitely could. He'd level this damn place and get out alive--with or without the rest of them, it didn't matter.]

[Without really contemplating why, he'd taken a loose blank page from the journal and started writing.]

[To Father Enrico Pucci:]

[forcegalactic]

[Mordecai has put off writing letters; they didn't seem that necessary, and the Conductor wouldn't send calls for help anyway, but the recent realization of his imminent mortality tells him that he better get to it now, even if it only gives him a false peace of mind.

He sits next to Dio with his own sheets of paper that he stores in his bedroom desk.]

Thanks for remindin' me to do this.

[No smart-ass remarks today. He doesn't have the energy to do that.]

[nankurunaisa]

[There's no need to worry about Hibiki being there. Long before the two hours of prep are over, she heads to the kitchen and makes more than a small amount of food for herself. Sandwiches, fruit, some leftover curry from the party the other day (she's been keeping it in the fridge, of course). Utensils. Plates and cups, almost like she's hoping someone else will join her.

And she is.

Because after she gathers everything for herself, she and Dorika (her white hen) head back to her room and lock the door. She's not even sure if she'll eat, but if anyone comes knocking and wants to talk to her, she might let them in depending on who they are.

But she might not. It's that kind of night.]

[blazeit]

[ He's not entirely sure why, but for some reason, he feels like he wants to talk to Hibiki — especially after the way that last part of the trial went down, the way everybody started arguing with each other. He'd sort of expected Hibiki to react the way she did, but not quite as strongly as she did.

Then again, he hadn't thought he would feel quite as strongly about everything that trial was as he did.

So after a while, she'll get a knock on her door. ]

Hey... It's Bakugou.

[swirlied]

[ Everything about the trial was a mess, especially the last part. With the way everyone was arguing, Yuuri is especially worried about Hibiki.

So when she immediately leaves after getting food, he decides to follow her a while later when it's apparent she's not coming back. He knocks on her door, a little hesitant. ]

Hey, Hibiki-chan. It's me, Yuuri.

[sunsong]

[ That trial was a shit show, wasn't it? Sol feels way too tired and sick to her stomach. There's no sense of accomplishment at all - but then, there never really was, was there? Hibiki had been sobbing by the end, and so it's natural to try to seek her out at the afterparty.

When she can't find the idol, it's equally natural to drop by on her way back to her own room. Sol knocks out a particular rhythm without thinking about it, a tune to a song that's been stuck in her head for days... ]

Hibiki? ...You there?

[clearasmud]

[ Well, they have plenty of time!

...Or not, depending. But surely another week, at least.

Knock, knock. ]

This is Youko. I know you wanted to talk, but I understand if later would be better for you.

[withabigsmile]

[You know what spite is?

Spite is when you get a note under your door and deliberately put time into tearing it up and making sure each and every piece gets pushed back out. That's spite.

Blue is currently exercising her spite quite well as her door remains firmly shut for the evening.

Knocking on her door will have mixed results; notes may work too. It's worth a shot, right?]

[swirlied]

[ Yuuri is concerned when he notices Blue's absence in the dining hall, and when it's obvious she isn't going to show up at all he finally decides to go check on her.

So he'll knock on her door, a little hesitant. She might not want visitors but... He's worried, so he's got to know how she's holding up. ]

Hey, it's Yuuri.

[sunsong]

[ Everyone needs to eat, Blue! ...Or, well, Sol gets her a tray with some soup and a sandwich anyway, balancing it all as she knocks on the door. ]

Blue? You in there?

[charcoalfeather]

[A small knock.

A slightly louder knock.]

Blue? Are you in there?

[She was hesitant at all to knock and check on her, but after that trial, Rakka figured it was a good idea to do... something.]

[decrees]

[That... sure is a bunch of ripped out paper outside the door. Poor Blue...

Logan hesitates for a moment before returning to Reaver's room to grab some paper and a pen. He writes a note and slides it under the door before sitting down against the wall. He doesn't know if Blue will respond right away, but even if she doesn't he can't stand to be around everyone else right now.]

Blue -
If you wish to talk, I am here. I am incredibly sorry you had to witness everything that happened in this trial today.
- Logan

[There isn't a proper signature this time. He's not talking to her as the King of Albion, though maybe the distinction isn't one most people need to make.]

[perpend]

[It's..... probably for the best that someone else has handled the mourning after the fact this time.

What Asuka did hadn't been something he could ever forgive, but to see so many people hate her for something all of them could do-- what they had all done already, it unsettles him on a deep level. They're all people, here-- well, maybe not Dio. Aren't they all capable of making monstrous decisions in the heat of the moment, in order to ensure their own survival?

That's what this is about, after all. Desperate people who desire to survive.

Cabanela has shut himself in his room, and won't be coming out-- not without some convincing, anyway. He won't be opposed to anyone coming to visit him, but for the moment he seats himself at his desk and begins to write.

Lynne,

It's been nearly three weeks since]

[decrees]

[Well, after the... execution shitshow, Logan is going to pull Cabanela aside for a moment.]

I need to speak with you, privately. If you would like me to wait for some time, I can stop by your room later.

[It isn't urgent, but he needs to talk to someone and right now it's a bad idea for him to talk to Youko.]

[swirlied]

[ At first he doesn't want to go to the dining hall, but staying in his room begins to make him feel even more like he's trapped and he has to leave to feel like he can actually breathe again.

He really appreciates the soup and even gets himself a bowl, but when he sits down at a table with it Yuuri realizes he's not going to be able to stomach anything for a while.

For the most part, Yuuri is staring listlessly at his soup, occasionally glancing up if someone walks by. At some point he takes his pendant out from under his shirt, clutching it for some form of comfort. It doesn't help much. ]

[announcemyvictory]

[Elise wants to leave. Instead, she's staring at her own soup.]

They were friends.

[charcoalfeather]

[Like it or not, Rakka shows up to the after party eventually. Two hours is enough prep time to make any person gain enough strength to move. Everyone stops crying at some point.

She makes it out of her room and five, six, seven steps down the hallway before her knees give out from under her and she begins to sob. Her hands curl against the tile floor, eyesight blurring from tears as she crumples against the floor.

She won't notice anyone that approaches right off the bat.]

[blazeit]

[ Oh no

why this

why him

why tears

He is not equipped for this but he also feels like he probably shouldn't just turn around? What if somebody saw him just turn away from Rakka crying and judged him for being a huge fucking asshole? Besides, he wants to talk to her anyway, so... okay, he'll approach. He can do this. He's a big kid. ]

... Hey. [ "Stop crying please". ] Do you wanna. Sit down somewhere not on the floor maybe.


[ NAILED
IT ]

[sunsong]

[ Sol always shows up to the meetings after the trials. She doesn't see any reason to alter that - it wasn't like Asuka had normally gone, was it? She'd dropped off food the first time, and then...

...

She picks a seat at random, and even grabs a bowl of soup, although it's more because she knows she should eat something today than it is any real desire to eat something. She's perfectly available for talking to, although her conversation will be peppered with language as always...whenever she finally finishes eating, she'll simply sit for a while, contemplating the candles.

Before she leaves for her room, she will sing exactly one song, picking a tune she'd sung for someone else that week and going through it to completion. Then she really needs sleep. Sol won't really be her usual exuberant self - mostly - but she will in particular be looking for Tabby to flag down while she's at the party. She can be caught either at the party with the above or on her way back to her room, her hands shoved into her jacket pockets. ]

[mortyfied]

[Though he's not in a great state of mind (though honestly, who is?) Morty shows up to the meeting. He wasn't sure what he was even doing there, until he saw Sol sitting by herself looking a little lost, very tired.

Wordlessly, he walks over to her and pulls up the chair to her left. He sits, but he can't really find the words to say. Hopefully just his physical company will be enough, or she speaks up herself before he makes a fool of himself trying too hard to cheer her up or something.

[heymcfly]

[ After all that's happened, Marty hardly has the energy to breathe, let alone anything else.

He literally forces himself to get out of his room, dragging his feet to the dining room when the smell of food makes his stomach growl too loudly. The recent executions, the murderers, the beanie that he was given that is burning on his head makes him feel sick. His body needs food, but he doesn't want to feed it.

Marty's here to get food and run. That's the game plan he has. Feel free to stop him if you want. He probably looks awful. ]

[forcegalactic]

[Mordecai is mixing the soup - it needs to be stirred so it remains an even consistency. He pauses when Marty enters, then takes a bowl and fills it for him.]

Here. You need it.

[Marty is a good kid.] You're lookin' mighty down, Marty, which I understand...you wanna talk about it?

[forcegalactic]

[Ashley is dead. The severity of this situation has dawned on Mordecai this morning. Someone he talked to often, someone he wanted to look after is dead, and who knows who else will be next. What if it's him? What if people who didn't appear all that suspicious at first continued to kill? What will happen if they never find a way out?

The words from his recent memory echo in his mind. I want to go home. That sentiment has never been stronger until now.

He doesn't hide his worried expression as he lays a blue and purple scarf in in front of the memorial. It may last longer in this place than he will.]

[housenurse]

[she's not sure how she's supposed to handle this. how do you deal with such massive losses, so close after the other? she has no idea how she's meant to manage this pain and return to a sense of somewhat normalcy.

there's laundry to be done. there's always laundry to be done. she can control that, focus on that. she takes an unreasonable amount of laundry with her and sets herself on washing herself to exhaustion, until she's too tired to feel this grief.

she manages to half-clean a shirt before she breaks, collapsing against the washboard, huge sobs wracking her body.]

[rickdiculous]

[...haha okay. this is. not cool.

Rick is gonna take that neat little blue-and-puke-green scarf Ashley made him, which he hasn't stopped wearing at this point, and just kind of silently try to wrap it around her neck.]

[ninehundredlives]

[After the execution is finally over, Susan returns to her room without a word or a glance at anyone.

They can all mourn Asuka all they want. She knew what the risk was, and she took it anyway - she valued Ashley's life so little that she thought even that slight opportunity was worth it. She threw Ashley away for nothing.

Her, all of the other killers...they were nothing more than parasites. If they weren't here, they'd have just gone to prison, and maybe she'd have been satisfied with that. But they are here. They knew the way this little game's being conducted. Whatever simpering morality anyone wants to throw around, they brought their executions on themselves.

It's not even that Susan thinks she's a good person. She knows she's not.

She doesn't push the note back out, but she won't be showing up at the gathering either.]

[forcegalactic]

[There's a knock on the door sometime after most of the others have come out.]

Susan? I got dinner for you.

[He doesn't expect her to open the door immediately, but he won't let one of the people he's least afraid of starve.]

[oftheland]

[Well, that was pretty fucked up, now, wasn't it? This place must really be wearing down on people, for things to go like that... the Conductor included.

...heh. What a way to learn that the Conductor's got feelings too... even if they are a bit of a mess, looking at things. Not that that would've been too difficult to figure out in the first place, given everything, but there wasn't much they could say about that now. It was really just time to come up with new and better strategies at this point.

...honestly, there were a few things he just had to wonder about, going forward. He didn't have to worry about them today, but... maybe once the weekend had settled down. They'd probably be remembering something new... and then there'd be another set of locations.

So... right now, maybe it was time to have a few feelings, or at least write a few letters while eating tomato soup in the dining hall. ...not really letters that are meant to be sent to anybody, as he ends up crunching them up and tossing them over to Beedrill for him to play with after a word or two. ...it's kind of hard to tell if he's feeling bad about things or if he's just messing around, really.]

[midnightsea]

...We were right, you know.

[Dio looked from Giovanni to his giant wasp from where he was sitting, idly spinning a pen in his hand.]

About those who think it so easy to stand on some imagined moral high ground, that is. It just wasn't me they were aiming their hypocrisy at.

[clearasmud]

[ At some point, Youko had hoped that once the trial was over, she and Logan could go back to one of three possible rooms and nap for one hundred years. Asuka's trial was an exercise in slowly being ground to whatever lay at your core.

That point had passed. Probably when she'd let loose and encouraged Hibiki's revulsion, if she thought back carefully to how events had progressed. It was strange, how hard some things already were to remember.

Whatever the cause, Youko had gone back to her own room to nap alone.

Several hours of sleep are what it takes before Youko finally realizes what people had really been shouting out at the end. ]

Morality...?

[ ...She needed to talk to Hibiki and Katsuki posthaste. Things were going to get stupid around here.

She'll be aiming for their rooms, before doing a lap of each floor in her quest to find the teens because let's say she isn't immediately successful. Youko can be happened upon just about anywhere in the school, if someone was hoping to catch her. ]

[forcegalactic]

[Mordecai stands just outside the mail room when Youko runs by, catching his attention. He meant to talk to her after the trial and apologize for his accusations against her while she was still one of the suspects. While he knew that kind of behavior was justified during a trial, he believed in apologizes.]

Hey, Youko!

[He fights the lump in his throat tat has been forming all day and waves at her to come over.]