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

[serrata]

[ There's a pause. And then Yuuri claps both hands over her mouth. She looks like she's struggling between being mortified and starting to laugh. ]

Oh-- oh my god, I didn't--

[ Aaaand there goes the laughter. Two people are dead. ]

I'm sorry! It just sort of-- help! How about that? Do you need some help? There, much better.

[ She walks over to him with a guilty smile on her face, like she feels it's terrible to be smiling at all right now but she can't help it. ]

What are you making?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Well, rice.

[He sets the rice maker up on the counter.]

And I was thinking soup to go with it? You know, just broth, throw some vegetables in it. That trial really took it out of a lot of us, so. I figured that'd be the easiest way to get nutrients into people.

[Queenie and Nari need to get their strength back up. Queenie and Nari need to be the ones who get taken care of, for once.]

[serrata]

That's a good idea. Nothing too heavy after... all that.

[ She goes to wash her hands as they talk. Sad cooking doesn't mean bad kitchen hygiene. ]

What do you need me to do? Right now I... I feel like I need to keep myself busy with something. Anything, really.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Uh...

[He goes to get the measuring cup. That and the rice maker are all he's terribly familiar with so far.]

Chopping vegetables, I guess. And, uh. Stopping me from putting vegetables that don't go together in there.

[serrata]

I'll start going through the fridges, then. I think there should be some stock cubes in the cupboards too, if we want to get a quick broth going.

[ And into the fridges she goes. They don't want anything too heavy so she stays away from potatoes but... carrots, leeks and maybe some celery should be fine. ]

... do you think we should make some tea, too?

[ or. would hot drinks after this particular trial be perhaps in poor taste. ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

I think so. We're probably gonna have people who aren't up to eating at all, and it could help tide them over. Give them something to settle their stomachs, maybe even wake their appetites back up.

[He's not really associating the tea with the chocolate--they're different enough in taste and consistency for him. You can't really crush up pills and hide it in green tea quite as well as you can in something opaque.]

[serrata]

I'll go ahead and set a pot brewing so we can serve it with the soup, then.

[ And off she goes, with maybe a bit more hustle and bustle than she needs to. But it's like she said -- she needs to keep herself busy right now. Having something, anything to do... as awful as the circumstances are, it's enough to keep her going for now. ]

... how are you holding up? Today was... I mean. They're always hard, aren't they?

[ And Junpei's had a hard week as it is. ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

I'm...

[He lowers his head as he rinses the rice, thinking about it.]

I don't know yet. I have... I had a kind of complicated relationship with Angel, and. [And he's angry and doesn't know it yet.] And a complicated history with these games. Which, I mean. You know that. It's just...

[He can't even think of it as a show or an experiment anymore. It's just one more of these games. The Nonary Game. The Decision Game. What kind of game is this one? Junpei shakes his head.]

Two. I've gotten out of at least two of these already, and... not for lack of trying.

[serrata]

[ While she waits for the water to finish boiling, Yuuri scoots over and stands a little closer. She knows he probably needs to keep his hands busy so she can't offer a hug but this should do for now. ]

I remember... back, way back when this all first started. Before we'd even met Kip-san... you were sitting there on the fountain by yourself and you looked so... tired. So sick and tired. And I think you already knew what this was going to turn into.

[ She puts a hand on his back -- lightly, just enough to remind him that she's there. ]

... it's not... no one should be put through anything like this. Not for any reason. But three times? It's like someone's idea of a sick joke. It's not fair.

[misanthropicprinciple]

['Life isn't fair.'

It echoes weirdly enough that he doesn't say it, and he remembers--the second memory returned. Zero in the underground bunker, in the history where he--she?--was alive--and Junpei and Akane were 'dead.'

He pauses in his work, left hand still sitting in the rice, then retrieves it, shaking off the water and putting the inner pot down for a moment.]

We had... [He turns to her and draws a circle around his left wrist.] Bracelets. Each of the participants, with a number. No way to get them off unless we found the way out or died.

[He returns to the rice, draining it over his hand.]

We were told they were detonators for bombs we'd been forced to swallow while we unconscious. I... I never had to fight so hard for anything as I did then. To survive.

[serrata]

[ The water for the tea boils but Yuuri doesn't go to take it off the heat just yet. She's watching him carefully and quietly and with a tinge of nausea on her face. This all sounds so awful and familiar and yet she can't help but think: at least here, the only danger is other people. She can't imagine having to be scared of something sleeping in her guts like that. ]

That was the first game. The one where you needed to save that girl. Right?

[ She doesn't want to ask. She doesn't want to make Junpei talk about this. But... she wants to understand. Needs to understand. ]

That was the life-or-death situation you needed. So you could do whatever they needed you to do and save her.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He nods.]

The lower decks were flooding, too. ...I've never seen Titanic, but it looked like that. Turn of the 20th century British ocean liner. Her sister ship, actually. The Gigantic.

[One more rinse-and-drain for the rice, then he puts the appropriate amount of water in and sets it to cook. When he's done, he folds his arms, looking at the cooker instead of at Yuuri.]

At the climax, those of us alive were--we were locked in a trash incinerator bigger than a classroom. We had to solve the puzzle before we burned.

[He doesn't say it sharply or with that bitter matter-of-factness he can muster in a bad mood, but distantly, like he has to go back there to remember the facts. He catches himself. Closes his eyes. Shakes his head.]

So I... I can't give up now. And I can't just let anyone else give up, either.

[serrata]

[ Now that both his hands are free, when Yuuri steps closer this time she slides an arm around him and leans against him. She'd thought this place was the very bottom, a level of hell they couldn't sink much lower from. The more he talks, the more he proves her woefully wrong.

It amazes her. He survived that and another game like it and then ended up in this place. He shouldn't give a damn about any of them at this point. Yuuri wouldn't blame him if he'd decided it wasn't worth trying as soon as it became clear what this game was. But trying is all he's ever done. It doesn't always work. He doesn't always come away unscathed. But he does it anyway. ]

No. I know you won't. The last thing I'd ever, ever expect from you is giving up.

[ She nudges her forehead against his shoulder fondly, with a little smile on her face. ]

We'll be okay. You've given us a good example to follow.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[The arm around him, the warmth along his side, brings him back from that place so neatly, so completely, and so pleasantly it's like she was always meant to be there. He looks at her, blinking for a moment, then accidentally laughs, muffling it in his metal hand.]

Oh, god. I hope not.

[He lets his other arm snake around her in return. A unit.]

Dismemberment is not a hot trend. Please don't repeat my mistakes. I want to be remembered for cool memes only, and also, for being a handsome dude.

[serrata]

[ And despite herself, despite everything, Yuuri finds herself giving a short laugh as well. ]

Well. Maybe you're right. Maybe 'good example' is a bit... generous? Maybe I should've said "a good example of what not to do".

[ She drags you because she loves you, honestly, Junpei. ]

But either way. For better or worse, we're all stuck together in this. We might as well make the best of it.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah.

[After a moment of just smiling at her, Junpei gives her a quick kiss on the temple--in public, in the kitchen, what scandal!--a brief squeeze, and then lets go so they can get back to work on the soup.]

How about you? Are you all right after all that?

[serrata]

[ Going back to the tea and getting it steeping now the water's done but -- ah. That gives her pause. ]

... I don't... actually know...?

[ She sounds a bit lost even as she says it, staring down at the tea leaves stewing in the steeper. ]

I just... I still can't really take it in. Just this week, me and Angel-chan were talking about... where we wanted to go after all this. She wanted to see the ocean, try ice cream and yakisoba with us and I... I just don't understand how we could talk like that and then...

[ she trails off and sighs, folding her arms across her chest like she's hugging herself. ]

I'm just so tired.