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...

[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?]

[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. ]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

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.

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.]

[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?

[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.]

[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]

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?

[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.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Wow, this sure is... a thing. It's a thing she can tentatively identify as science, at least.]

You disappeared quickly...

[cyan_maid]

Y...Yeah, I. I just.

[She pauses, looks at the whatever she's doing for a moment before turning to Arianna.

She's crying.]

...I'm so tired, Arianna.

[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.

[daughterofthemark]

Jane!

[Oh no this was a bad idea. She runs over to her, sweeping her up into a hug.]

Jane--

[She didn't mean to just repeat her name. She meant to follow that with something encouraging. But... what? What encouragement can she offer? This was a bad idea because Arianna was already having trouble holding herself together. And failing to come up with anything to say is, it seems, the last straw.

They're just two girls, crying on each other.]

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?

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...

[cyan_maid]

Uh-

[The hug is unexpected, but...welcome. And Jane hugs back, squeezing her eyes tightly shut and shoulders shaking.]

A-Arianna...

[airlockedmods]

It is my responsibility to look after all of you but you are, at the moment, the worst at taking care of yourself.

So yes.

[tokencanadian]

[She's good for that, and she starts the somewhat dangerous trek of getting up onto this boat.]

It's a nice boat. Is it yours?

[She's joking, but if it is she'll deeply apologize.]

[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.

[helladoptera]

Until I turn the Holodeck off? Absolutely. This whole junkyard is my kingdom.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Thanks, Sister.

I--a lot of shit happened here, back home. And shit lately makes me think about it? Even if it didn't all happen. Or happen the way I think it did.

[Even Junpei wrote memory is the key, is that phrase going to follow him around, is everyone he's told that to just doomed, is it all connected to him just like it was back with Wash and the fragments--?

His chest is tight, and he breathes out slow, almost a wheeze. But he doesn't shrug the blanket off.]

...PAL's probably offline. Right? Do you...know?