now that you are not around, my world fades to a dull, lifeless grey

[ratherdoweddings]

[Rukia will come around to everyone's rooms later, with bunny-laden notes inviting them up to the diner. When they arrive, they'll find that one of the tables in the back has been covered over with a length of fabric from the sewing room and is serving as a makeshift altar, with rosemary and, for some reason, a bottle of whiskey sitting on it alongside cutesy drawings of all the dead thus far. (Just like last time, Seth gets a spiteful no symbol across his face.)

Yurika's there too, and she speaks first:]

Thank you. I... I'm sorry for suspecting some of you a little. I was worried no matter what happened, and I knew it would be hard, but you were all innocent. If anybody wants to talk, we can.

Comments

[curdle]

Aye, he was making some things for practice. [ She gives the papers a cursory scan, her lips pressing together, then looks back up and smiles weakly. ] Thank you.

... You bathed it off. [ the glitter! ]

[damnfourthemerald]

I know others have stepped forward to try and help teach you. I wouldn't be opposed to helping. It wasn't so long ago I had to learn myself.

[He self-consciously runs a hand along his still somewhat damp head. At least when damp it's hard to tell if the shine comes from just being wet or from remaining glitter??] I, ah. Attempted to, at least.

[curdle]

I told Yurika once we ought put it on dresses. Little did I know how it clings.

[ It has the conversational tone of a joke! Unfortunately everything else about the situation has sucked any humor that might exist out of it. ]

If it should not be a burden to you.

[damnfourthemerald]

You'd want it to cling to a dress, at least. And once it's on, it's hard to come off again. He's got more glitter in his room if you and Yurika should ever actually want to borrow it.

...Heh. [More a tired sigh than a laugh, but hey, #youtried?] I've handled worse. It's no real burden.

[curdle]

[ She nods, a gesture kind of vaguely directed at everything, and her eyes flutter closed and open again. ]

I read it. [ IT TOOK A VERY LONG TIME ] His letter... after McBurn's words, I believe he was honest. He truly meant to help me. And he conspired to kill us all.

[damnfourthemerald]

He conspired to have us be the last victims of anything he does in his life. It's the point of the motives, and perhaps the memories we gain, to find our weak points. To find what will make us turn on everyone else, whether for a greater good or something more personal. He did what he thought he had to do, and he felt guilt for it.

Whether that makes up for what he did or not is up in the air.

[curdle]

I was ever taught that God has decided already who will be saved and who will burn. We can never know in this life who they are, but if they are of the elect their grace will surely make itself apparent.

He was not of my faith, but still he thought himself already damned. He knew he only hastened his arrival in Hell. Yet by committing this final sin he might save a flock outnumbering us from an even greater evil. [ She looks very, very conflicted. ] Was not that an act for the greater good?

[damnfourthemerald]

That many lives outweigh our small number. If some have to die for a greater good, then it shouldn't be a difficult decision, especially for someone like him. Even if the act of killing damns you. Even if you're already damned.

[curdle]

[ She's not as perturbed by the spiritual and ideological implications of what he just said as she should be! Instead, she just keeps thinking of the final line of Margulis' letter. ]

He saith that he prayed my soul should rest in heaven. Maybe... maybe 'tis a service that we've no more of the godly among us. When one thinks all their victims shall receive a just reward...

[ There's no impetus other than their own soul not to start killing. ]

[damnfourthemerald]

[It takes a moment to realize what she's saying, because religion + olde timey speak.]

I don't think you have to worry about anyone deciding to try and murder the rest to give everyone some kind of salvation. And it's not why Margulis did what he did. You said yourself that his version of religion is different from yours; he might not have thought everyone's...souls are predetermined to be judged one way or another.

[curdle]

Aye, I think that much is true. His church was more Catholic than any else.

[ Her default level of post-trial frowning gets a little frownier. She knows the basic differences between her own religion and the Catholic church, but it's been so saturated in denunciations that she's not sure where the facts lie. Yet she's taken that as a matter of course, all her life. Was that really right? ]

I am certain it eased his choice. But... he would have done it anyway.

[ Which is kind of a question! ]