The flower of evil pitifully scatters with brilliant color...

[desperateprayer]

[ After everyone leaves the Rose Ceremony, Clarith gets to work. With Nari's help, there's a few snacks set up, and then she delivers a message beneath everyone's doors. ]

Please meet up at the first floor rest area. I don't think people should be alone right now.

- Clarith

[ Takumi's includes a bit extra: "Especially you." Sure enough, there's a few snacks set up in the rest area, but otherwise just. Blankets and pillows set up so that people can pile in as they please. She's waiting, seeming a fair bit tired in more than one way, but... She doesn't want to leave people alone. ]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

I don't know what's going to happen after this, Rhys--I won't bother pretending to be completely optimistic. It's possible we may be able to pull ourselves back together, but...I worry if the others may be hiding fear or desperation like that as well.

[plugout]

... Yeah. I... don't believe no one will kill anyone else.

[ Behind the asshole outer layer is a cynical motherfucker. Rhys has seen it, apparently; Jack had told him they'd killed a lot of people to get to where they were... on Helios, in Jack's office.

Rhys, in charge of Hyperion before... well. ]

Just means we... we have to do what we can to stop it. Right?

[scourgingstars]

As much as I wish to believe we can trust one another...even if that should be true, there's no doubt the deck will be stacked against us once more. So you're right--we simply have to do what we can to prevent this from happening again.

[plugout]

There are... a few people I trust here, yeah, and I don't think sh-- they'd kill anyone. [ Good catch, Rhys. ] That game didn't work at all, so what do you think we should do? We can't... you know, force anyone to spill their secrets, especially if they reeeeeeally are determined to keep them.

[ He shakes his head. ]

We've tried parties, we've tried meetings, but they don't-- they don't work!

[scourgingstars]

Losing our composure won't help. Yes, there's only so much we can do--and yes, we're reaching the limits of that. But we have to keep trying.

[plugout]

[ Don't chastise him, Ardyn, geez. Rhys pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a breath. ]

... Yeah, I... You're right. [ He won't apologize, but at least he's breathing. ] It's frustrating. We're doing all this stuff to make sure people don't kill each other in the face, but so far... so far, nothing's worked.

[scourgingstars]

[LOOK HE'S JUST STATING A FACT]

There has to be something we're missing. But at the moment, I've no idea what we have left to us that would help here.

[plugout]

[ FACTS ARE FOR SQUARES

Rhys looks like he's thinking hard about something for a minute. ]

I mean... other than get to know each other completely? There's... there's not really a way to figure that out.

[ so like, speed dating? ]

[scourgingstars]

[rhys no]

Right--we've tried the angle of full disclosure, but even that only goes so far.

[plugout]

[ look ]

"Full disclosure" doesn't mean anything if people want to keep their own damn secrets.

[ yeah, thanks, captain obvious ]

[scourgingstars]

[rhys honey that's what he meant.]

Exactly. So we'll have to determine something else, or see if we can find a way to work around anything else PAL might do to provoke us.

[plugout]

[ shhhhhhhhh

He bristles a little at the mention of PAL. ]

How the hell does that asshole know so much about us, anyway? I'd bet anything PAL was the one who made those profiles on us.

[scourgingstars]

It's likely he erased our memories as well; if that's the case, perhaps there's a way he somehow knows what was in them to begin with.

[plugout]

[ There's a shadow that passes over his expression. ]

There's no way he could make them if he didn't know what was in our memories.