now the world is only white noise, frequencies that I can't understand

[helladoptera]

[ Well, that was some shit! Uh. To avoid pulling a Junpei and retreating somewhere, Max instead gathers up a couple people to help and goes to the first floor restaurant to set up some food, because fuck asking everyone to use the elevators. After getting some batter mixed, she writes up some notes! ]

Hey. Food in the first floor restaurant, if you're hungry.
Breakfast and burgers! :)

- Max, Pyrrha, Arianna

[ True to her word, there's a steady stream of waffles, pancakes, and some burgers coming out of the kitchen, as well as a bunch of (non-alcoholic) drinks on a table with a sign that says "BYOB if you want booze." ]

Comments

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika walks in and looks around, then starts taking up a plate.]

Thanks a lot. I have to wonder about some things...

[tokencanadian]

It's the least we can do. Everyone's been through so much...

[Let Pyrrha help with making that plate up for you, Yurika.]

What are you wondering about?

[ratherdoweddings]

Well... oh, thank you!

[Yurika smiles.]

Mostly P.A.L. and what was going on. He was giving those messages in binary, and from what Church-san and Heart-san said, it didn't sound anything like he normally does.

[cyan_maid]

[Jane doesn't come to the gathering, not for some time. You'll see her by the bedrooms if you're still waffling yourself, looking for and retrieving Lil' Sebastian from wherever he's been waiting for someone to fix him up, and then going around looking for small electronics no one will miss - the Duty Free Shop is hit up immediately, collecting the items that were left there for her. Sorry Rideaux, your phone is going to end up in pieces and also in a rabbit. She also stops by the storage closet to get some baking soda. Once everything's gathered, she's in room 11 for a while, and will answer the door if you knock.

But she still does come to the party later, eyes red and expression tired, and she...makes a burger using waffles as a bun and eats it quietly, staring into space and thinking. Sometimes she dips it in a little puddle of maple syrup. She's, uh, not too focused on the now, but...she IS here, finally?]

room 11

[daughterofthemark]

[If Jane thought she could get away without a visit from Arianna, actually I'm not even going to bother finishing that thought because we all know she's smarter than that. Knock, knock.]

[cyan_maid]

Door's open.

[And it is! Come on in, Arianna. Jane's at her desk, a vaguely rabbit-shaped robot laid out on the soft brown of her God Tier hood. He's covered in what looks like white paste, a box of baking soda nearby, while she has her back to the door and carefully disassembles the hardlight she'd been holding onto.]

duty-free shop

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika steps into the shop and gives a small, sad smile.]

Oh, there you are, Jane-chan, I've been looking all over! Did you get something?

[cyan_maid]

Oh...um, yeah. Hi.

[Look at all this. Do you want the shipping tea, Yurika? It's Kaiba/Akira, apparently. Jane sniffs, her eyes red.]

And I'm just...sort of looking around for anything people didn't want, I guess.

storage closet

[induality]

[She'd been looking for Church, but-- Jane's acts of collecting different items in the Duty Free Shop and storage closet get her attention; vaguely the first time and then it sinks in the second. Baking soda... right. The instructions Ardyn left.]

...is this for that robot?

[cyan_maid]

Touko-

[Yeah she's got a bucket now too, and her eyes are red...]

Um...yeah. I kept meaning to go to you and to Nari and work on him, but...stuff happened, and...if I don't start on something for him, I might...

[She might end up dead before he could go back online.]

[helladoptera]

[ True to the note's word, Max spends the first 90% of the party in the kitchen making waffles. They even come in slightly different colors as she goes through different kinds of eggs! If you come in, she'll give you a little smile. ]

Hey there, thanks for coming.

[ But just before the end she actually... bails, and heads up to the holodeck, which she's turned into a... junkyard? It's very specifically just the junkyard, weirdly, it seems she actually told the holodeck to just cut off entirely at the edge of it. Max herself is just... sitting on the edge of the roof of a boat. ]

holodeck

[tokencanadian]

[Hey thanks for bailing, Max-- Nah, kidding. But Pyrrha worries about anyone that goes off on their own all of a sudden.

She didn't expect that Max would go to the holodeck, and she didn't think she would find... this in there.]

...I don't suppose you'd mind some company.

[helladoptera]

[ Max is startled out of... thinking about whatever she was thinking about, and looks over. ]

Not at all. Climb on up the boat.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church does not show up at the party. Again.

No, once they're out of the trial room, and he's got Junpei's ring secured along the others, and he's got Heart's necklace also around his neck, he's going to the holodeck. Actually he's going down the concourse at a pretty good clip. Just short of running, I'd say.

Junpei's not there, of course. He still needs to find out where the bodies are being kept (and who's moving them). He still needs to talk to SIS about the Big Sister. They'll have to find out what's going to become of PAL.

But not right now. He can't. His brain is buzzing and his skin is crawling and the plain cube of dark, lined space feels like at least the slightest balm. He has to breathe. He must...remember...to breathe.

Champion of Loss. Champion of Loss. He'd asked for this, had to go asking for something stupid and reckless and impulsive in his grief, and he knows it's stupid but it feels more than ever like somehow this is his fault. Like he goaded PAL into it. Like Junpei's promise that he'd work on the way out while Church mother-henned everyone put him at greater risk. He's the only glaive left. He's the last one. You can't have a Kingsglaive with just one person. Why is he left alive?

He recreates a snowy, icy world, and he sits in the middle of it all. It somehow doesn't feel quite right with the dead bodies or anything, but he's gonna...hold off on that. For now. Just some distant bases on an icy fuck world, and Church shivering in the snow like a fucking goober.

He's totally okay.]

[airlockedmods]

[Ask and ye shall recieve.

Or don't ask and sit there shivering like an asshole until your spaceport's AI takes pity on you and materializes on top of the snow in a terribly weather-inappropriate circle skirt and blouse. She surveys the scene with a small frown before disappearing and then reappearing with a heavy blanket that she unceremoniously drapes over Church's head.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Wha-!

[And now he's smothered to death in a big blanket--wait no. He flails about until he finds an edge and pokes out of it.]

SIS...? Are you, uh, lookin' after me now?

holodeck

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika spotted Church going down the concourse as she went to check on the mural she'd been painting. The one Junpei suggested. So of course she goes after him quietly, shaking her head.]

Wow, even the temperature...

[motherfucking_ghost]

...I mean. Ice planet. Even if the temperature's not really real, you need it for the effect. Right? Right.

Is...there a party? There's always a party. Get-together. I'm not um. I'm not. fit. for that. If that's what you're here for.

...Or I'm hogging the room, I'm hogging the room aren't I, you want to use it.

[induality]

[Church was the one person she was looking for. The one person she knew she couldn't leave alone right now. She looks all over the damn spaceport.

Passing by the holodeck... Fukawa saw him. Saw him in his snowy ice hell.

That's why about five minutes later the entire comforter of her bed is dropped over his head a little. Then she sits next to him.

She's glad her uniform skirt is longer it's hella cold in here. But it doesn't matter. She'd be here anyway.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Oh. That's...nice. That's real nice. He doesn't move for several moments, but when he does, it's to throw an arm, and thus also the part of the comforter covering his arm, over her shoulders.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna is, thankfully, doing a lot better with the burgers today than she was yesterday. It's kind of slow going, though, because in between she makes trips out to the seating area to, as usual, check in on everyone. She's... really talkative, for some reason?]

Have you had enough to eat? If you've yet to have breakfast, I highly recommend Dame Max's waffles. Or lunch, perhaps? I'm quite proud of my hamburgers. We don't have them in Caledonia, but the recipe was simple enough to learn...

[Yeah, she'll go on like this for as long as you let her. Maybe she can bury her feelings under chatter!

When things start winding down, she leaves and heads for the VIP lounge, where she does what unfortunately seems like it's going to be her usual post-trial routine here: she gets some paper, and makes memorial markers for Junpei and Heart. But... then she just... stares at them and cries. They may or may not actually make it to room 4 tonight.]

[ratherdoweddings]

Thank you, Arianna-chan. All I had for breakfast was saltine crackers.

[She sighs and looks at her burger.]

[daughterofthemark]

It's important to get enough food. If you don't, you won't be able to think clearly.

[tokencanadian]

[After all that, Pyrrha was driven more than ever to do something useful. That's why she's in the kitchen with Max for most of the party, busying herself with making food. Good, mindless work, making sure there's enough for everyone. But she'll always notice when someone comes in, and gives them a tired wave.

Eventually, she finds a seat to nibble on her own burger while she peers through one of her older items, a small book about roomba repair and other things.]

[everylittlesecret]

[Someone is sort of there. Long enough to make sure everyone is there before retreating to the showers where she'll spend the rest of the day.]