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

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh.

I mean I'm freaking out, like really hard, so I'm going back to a place of trauma both real and imagined. Cuz I'm dumb. And freaking out. Have I mentioned freaking out?! Cuz that's a thing I'm doing.

[ratherdoweddings]

I don't think anybody would blame you for that, Church-san. We're in the same position. They meant a lot to you and they wanted to make things better.

[motherfucking_ghost]

How are you just so...collected, all the time? God, I wish I could do that.

[ratherdoweddings]

I guess... I just let myself be a mess when no one's around. Or when it's just Jane-chan or Xander-san, but even then, I need to be strong for them, too. I know I give off a certain impression, but I still try to be someone people can follow.

Nari-san told me I didn't have to keep smiling, and I think she might've been right. At least to an extent. Maybe you've got it right, Church-san.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Don't sit in the middle of a fucking ice field having pseudo-flashbacks to your team dying.

I can promise you already. Not the way to go.

[ratherdoweddings]

I can understand that one. ...Maybe we ought to set it to something else.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Um...I could set it to a storage facility for discarded AI. We probably don't want that, either.

[ratherdoweddings]

Haven't you been anywhere nice, like where nobody was dying?

[motherfucking_ghost]

There was a place I was stationed at alone for over a year, uh, let's not do that one.

Hold on.

[He doesn't get up, but from his spot he starts constructing somewhere new. Warm--no, hot, even. Canyon walls. Two bases on either end.]

Blood Gulch. It's where I was stationed for a while, with the Reds and Blues and those morons I call my team.

[ratherdoweddings]

So it's where your friends were, and because of that, it's where you feel at home. I think I can understand that.

[motherfucking_ghost]

It was a stupid place, but yeah. That's home. God, it's been a while since I've been back, even in my memories.

[ratherdoweddings]

It's that feeling where you wish things were simple again, even when you spent that entire time working for something exciting to happen.