It floats away, a small wish with tears and a little regret

[desperateprayer]

[ After the entire trial, Clarith gets to work. If Rii-san won't make the memorials, she will, and if Rii-san does, she'll supervise. And then, she'll slip a letter under each door. ]

Please join me in the gardens for a funeral and then a wake in the first floor rest area.

- Sister Clarith

[ When people arrive, Clarith is waiting with her Levin Bible in hand. Afterward, they can all file into the rest area, where hopefully someone has made food! She's sure someone would have, but she wanted to just... Get the funeral done. ]

Comments

Funeral, cw: suicide mentions

[desperateprayer]

[ When everyone is gathered... ]

...I won't lie. I've never done a funeral that I remember. But I will do my best. We lost... Two people today. Two people who felt they had nowhere else to go or turn, no other course of action. Both took their own lives. Angel was telling me just earlier this week that she didn't think she was strong. I'm not sure I believe that now, even still. She took her life... So that she couldn't be used against us. So that she couldn't hurt us. And Rhys... Rhys took his life so that another of our own wouldn't die. ...They will both be missed.

[ She'll bow her head, and whisper a prayer. ]

...May they both rest in peace. Should anyone have anything they wish to say, they may. If not, then please, there is a wake to be had in the first floor rest area.

[serrata]

[ As is now, unfortunately, customary, Yuuri is in the garden, putting together two more memorials in the usual plot for fallen friends. They get the usual three flowers, but this time she's left a few packets of seeds and some trowels next to them. If anyone wants to plant any extra on any of the memorials, they're welcome to.

What's different this time is Yuuri herself, though. She's changed into her pajama top before coming here which means that everyone can now see the lotus blossom tattoo on her chest, just on her sternum. She's wearing her hair differently too. The side bun in her hair is gone -- instead, she's got a small braid with the thin red ribbon from her school uniform weaved into it.

She looks... tired. Angry. But determined, too. She'll attend the funeral and supervise anyone who needs help planting anything. Then, if anyone still trusts food from anyone else at this point, she takes to the kitchen to see about putting together a light meal for them. Gotta keep herself busy somehow. ]

Kitchen

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Oh wow, great minds think alike. Junpei's already getting out the rice cooker, but looks up when he hears someone come in.]

Yuuri?

[Annnddd there goes the male gaze.]

garden

[everylittlesecret]

[As much as she can, Nari will use her abilities to grow the flowers as Yuuri plants them. The energy she's using for it mixed with her grief warps a few of them unintentionally as she tries not to cry.]

Do we have honeysuckle seeds?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei showers before he does anything else, because of course he does. Now that it's all finally over--the investigation and the trial, the shouting and putting everything together--now he can finally feel the ache of losing Angel. A lost opportunity. A lost friend. He knew her better than he knew Rhys.

After the funeral, he'll ask anyone who looks sort of at a loss:]

Hey. Mind helping me in the kitchen? I want to make some soup.

[Easy food for tired people.

Once his hopefully well-supervised cooking is done, Junpei brings it to the wake, offering little bowls of rice and broth with vegetables individually to each person.]

Here. Get something warm in you.

let's make some frickin' soup

[shikosuki]

[ Choromatsu is SUPER at a loss, so much so that Junpei's voice doesn't register to him at first. But when it does, he looks at him sheepishly]

Um... yeah. Sure.

[myocordial]

[Heart won't be in either the garden or the rest area. It takes a while for him to even leave the courtroom and when he does, he's just... tired? Lost? Something. Even he isn't sure.

It's almost as if he's on autopilot as he heads back to his room, but as he starts to open the door he just... stops. Because he... he can't.

He can't be with the others right now. And he can't just... go back into his room. Just his room now. He lets go of the door, turning and simply... leaning against it. Sliding down to the floor.

So for a long time Heart can be found sitting outside room 9, his back against the door. Staring at the floor, most of his face hidden by his hair. He won't really react to the sound of anyone approaching.]

[serrata]

[ It's a little while before the sound of approaching footsteps come close. Bare feet, by the sounds of it, so there's only so many people it could be.

She doesn't say anything right away but eventually she settles down on the floor next to him. ]

... I came to say sorry, Heart-kun.

[goteachother]

[It's late and she's trembling, every step unsteady like she might just collapse. She was going to go back to her room, try to clean up because she's a mess of tears and dirt and wood chips. But then she sees Heart in the hallway and goes to him instead, reaching for him even as she slides down the wall beside him.]

I'm sorry I couldn't... save him. [Morgana but she had tried.]

There's a tree in the garden... it's probably going to die anyway... if destroying it will make you feel better.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church does not go to the funeral. He doesn't go to the wake, either.

It almost feels wrong to ignore it, but they didn't give anyone else a fucking funeral, and it doesn't feel right when they know the bodies are just going to sit in those fucked up pods. When he's sure that nobody is acting strange, because it'd be really obvious if Jack had jumped into someone, then he finally gets up from Rhys' body and leaves.

He goes to the dining room. He can't keep still enough to bother sitting down and taking a break. It isn't numbness buzzing in his head, but it's a lot of stuff that's crowding everything else out. Normally he's not one to pace, but he takes a lap around the long table, looking distant, looking inward, clearly not okay.

Until he grabs one of the chairs with a primal yell and hurls it at one of the walls. It clatters loudly, one of the legs cracking, before dropping onto one of the smaller tables. Anyone cooking up grub in the kitchen might...want to duck.

And then he grabs another chair, dragging it over and beating it against the wall, a pained and angry yell every time he takes a swing, the legs buckling, breaking, snapping off. The padded seat getting knocked out of place. The seat itself finally ripping from the back, and then he hurls the broken back away. And gets another chair to do the same.]

[everylittlesecret]

[Church. Church, no. Nari waits and watches him smash chair after chair. She grabs his arm before he can get another. Without a word she pulls the taller man into a hug. Church will feel a rather comfortable level of heat coming off of the young woman as she just clings to him.]

Please stop. If you damage the walls, I'd lose you too. No more loss today. Please.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn, as he was known to do on occasion, followed Church at a quietly seething distance. He was angry, as usual, but wasn't quite sure at what. Jack? PAL, Rhys and Angel?]

[What did it matter?]

[So instead he just watched this unfold in silence, not remotely flinching as a chair went sailing past him on the left. Anger was easy. Anger was always, always easier than feeling anything else at all. His own screaming rage earlier in the week had felt justified, almost even liberating--so he understood the outburst and simply waited in silence for his would-be Shield to run out of energy and decide the expended effort outweighed what he felt.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[The noise scares the shit out of Junpei. It's hard enough to try to chop carrots with his left hand. Were his right not already a robot hand, he probably would have lost a finger. He tosses the knife aside and runs out into the dining room, ready to see another body or a murder in progress or a knife or a gun--]

Jesus--Church!

[Yeah no he's going to try to grab and keep that chair down.]

What the hell?!

ACTUAL AFTERPARTY THREAD, also CW: Suicide mentions

[desperateprayer]

[ After the funeral, Clarith will... Go sit. She seems tired. She had, before, contemplated taking her own life. Many times, in fact. During her childhood. When her mother died. When Mikaela died. When she died again here. ...She's tired. She'll just hug her Bible as she sits in a corner. ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Clarith.

[He's offering her some soup.]

[everylittlesecret]

[Nari herself will be more absent than before. She's shaken, badly, but doesn't really want to let it show. That display back in the courtroom has her feeling like an outsider now. She's so glad that Jack-Rhys didn't keep talking. So, so glad...

She'll be mostly in the garden, hanging out in the vegetable patch area. There's a pumpkin she's slowly growing, and when it's a good size, she goes on to the next. There might be a reason for this. Otherwise she's sitting on a stump of a former lemon tree. Just sitting there.

Occasionally she'll slip into the dining room to see if there's coffee or tea out. Might want to stop her if you want to know why what happened happened, or... ask if she's okay. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't.]

garden

[theundertaker]

[hey, Nari, there's someone small and light hugging you from behind and draping herself over your back while you sit on that stump.

She just kind of needs a hug right now and you look like you could use one too.]

garden

[scourgingstars]

[The term for the fear that a duck is continuously watching you is 'anatidaephobia'. There is, presumably, no equivalent term for the fear that a pigeon may be doing so. But one was sitting on a tree branch a respectable distance away--a galaxy pigeon with an orange ribbon tied neatly around her neck.]

[Its apparent owner came in much later on, muttering a halfhearted complaint about the bright lights. If one wanted to talk about feeling like an outsider, the walking apocalypse was certainly not a terrible choice.]

dining room

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna does not want to know why what happened happened. Arianna has had all the reasons she can stand. Arianna just wants to make sure nobody else is planning on dying today.]

Dame Nari?

[theundertaker]

[Cece misses the funeral for reasons everyone is more than familiar with by now but she does make an appearance at the after party. Before that she takes a lap through the entire house, taking a headcount, seeing where everyone is and, if they want, stopping to talk with her Champions.

If anyone stops to talk with her her it's clear her mood from the other after parties has changed. There's no crying or curling up in corners looking for comfort. She walks the halls stiffly, her arms crossed over her chest and giving off a general vibe of "if I had my girlfriend's element powers this whole hallway would be an ice rink". Occasionally she clenches and unclenches her right hand a few times, like its bothering her.]

[shikosuki]

[ He's in the kitchen, helping with cooking and still in his post trial daze but the familiar sound of her clicking heels on the floor snaps him out of it long enough to turn and look for where she is. ]

Cece-chan...?

[scourgingstars]

...You're liable to snap, holding yourself so tightly.

[and then there's this asshole and the pigeon nesting in his scarf.]

[goteachother]

Rhys!

[She comes to in the rest area, jolting awake with a pained gasp.

A good long while later, after she's gotten the story (or at least a version of it), she's up and shaky and weak but determined. She'll be in the garden where she's been so frequently this week. But this time it's not magic wielding her knives she's holding one herself, slashing at a tree, furious in a way she's never felt before and with no way to let that out.

So she's taking a leaf from Church's book and just... yelling and breaking trees.]

[buddyoldpal]

Queenie-chan...

[ Hey bae, it's Nishitani here to try and hold your hand and stop you from hurting yourself. ]

If ya wanna cut somethin' up, I'd go fer somethin' a little softer, yer gonna hurt yerself here.

[shikosuki]

[ When he's done helping Junpei with cooking and checking on Queenie, Choromatsu finds a blanket in the rest area and wraps it around himself before sitting in the corner.

He's not really doing anything different from the last few after parties: mulling, staring off and generally being barely there. But this week he keeps catching himself looking up. Or to his side.

...As if he expects someone to be there. ]

[scourgingstars]

[All in all Ardyn didn't know Choromatsu all that well, and the last time they spoke he did get (correctly) called a supervillain.]

[So his ability to express sympathy was, to say the least, a bit limited.]

[Which was how Choromatsu found a cup of tea carefully placed in front of him.]




[An attempt was sort of made.]