Well now we're all sad, except Togami or is he

[refusedtoleave]

[Once they've all left the court room, Natsuhi doesn't go back to her room. She stays in the cafeteria and starts up the espresso machine. She's making coffee and lots of it, it's bitter and honestly not very nice, but it's got plenty of caffeine in. Prefect for pulling an allnighter.

Just before dinner, the remaining Champions will get a note shoved through their doors.]

Dinner is going to be served soon.
We need to prepare a suitable ceremony.

Comments

[cyan_maid]

[Jane will come - not right away, but she'll come. Her eyes are very noticeably red, her face blotchy, but she's not crying and only sniffles every once in a while. In her hand, she tightly holds a folded-up piece of paper, and doesn't let go of it even when she wordlessly takes the blackest cup of coffee she can find and takes a seat.

Sorry, you're going to have to work to get her to do more than stare into the depths of bitter blackness.]

[airlockedmods]

[Upon returning to her room, Jane finds what looks like a simple recipe for coffee cake typed and printed on plain white paper. The instructions are all entirely normal; however, the measurements for the ingredients are quite noticeably off.]

FOR THE CAKE:
14 stick Butter, Softened
15 cups (scant) Sugar
15 cups Flour, Sifted
14 teaspoons Baking Powder
5 teaspoon Salt
5 12/19 cup Whole Milk
5 whole Egg Whites, Beaten Until Stiff

FOR THE TOPPING:
9/19 stick Butter, Softened
15 cups Flour
14 cup Brown Sugar
2/15 Tablespoons Cinnamon
1 18/4 cup Pecans, Chopped

[refusedtoleave]

[You're getting a slice of pie too. Because Natsuhi really doesn't know what to say.

But kids like sweets right?]

[ratherdoweddings]

[...does yurika playing amazing grace on a squeaky otamatone count as work

at least she looks appropriately solemn, like she's actually trying]

[tasteslikesurvival]

[Kurumi had brought something from her room to the meeting. Something that she's not sure what it is but it's gosh darn cute. And it's going right in Jane's lap.]

D'you know what this is?

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika shows up, holding an empty fish bowl, an otamatone, and a few cutesy drawings of Rukia and Shadow.]

I thought we could use this for a memorial. As for the instrument, Shadow-kun liked to play it, even in the library!

[airlockedmods]

[Upon returning to her room, Yurika finds a note for her typed on plain white paper.]

En the year 1878 I took my degree ov Doctor of Medicine of de Univorsity of London, and proseeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the ermy. Having completed my studies theve, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surceon. The regiment was statiuned in India at tee time, and befure I cout join et, the zicond Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that ny corgs had advanced dhrough the passes, and was alreadi deep in the enemy’s country. I folloved, toweva, with many othir officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeted in reaching Candahar in safety, where I fiund my rigiment, and at once entered upon my new dutiez.

De campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for mi it had nothing but misphortune and disaster. I was remuved frum my brigate and attashed tu the Berkshires, with whon I served at thi phatal battle of Maiwand. Theve I was struck on the shiulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the nurderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.

[refusedtoleave]

[She's just nursing her coffee, making it last.]

What is it? And the fish bowl?

[stitch_in_time]

[The Doctor makes a brief stop at the diner before heading to the cafeteria. Partially to add two new runes to the list he left at the memorial last week, and partially so that when he arrives in the cafeteria he does so with several pies from the diner. It might not be much, but it's still better than the cafeteria food.]

[Later on in the evening he can be found scribbling a few more notes into the notebook he's been carrying on and off for the past few weeks. Notably there seems to be a list of the dead, divided into two columns. Anyone getting close enough might see that it's not strictly culprits and victims, but more accurately those who tried to kill versus those who didn't.]

[airlockedmods]

[Don't think that you get left out either. Whenever he goes to his room, he'll find a note typed on plain white paper. How's your codebreaking, Doctor?]

MLQ WKIKQ TVQ ECETWL HUJWMKCGX NYK BAC LTMGV AMYMMAR EMOCK QAZVA

[refusedtoleave]

[He gets a sad smile and nod for the pies.]

Thank you... I think the younger ones will like them more than the what we've been served.

[bylight]

[Lightning was planning on staying in her room. The trial left her with a lot of questions. Mostly about herself, and they weren't fun.

Seeing the note makes her relent. It wasn't smart to be alone right now.

Though she doesn't grab any coffee, she will sit near enough if people wish to talk to her. She'll be up all night.]

[airlockedmods]

[Lightning finds what looks like an amateur's guide to storm chasing, a couple paragraphs about the criteria for a perfect storm to chase. It's short but sweet, but there's... something wrong with it nonetheless.]

Storm chasing. hat's it like? Is it really lik what I saw in Twister? Does a storm chser really get to chase tornadoes 24 hours a day? Those are questions that I get asked quite fequently these days. I'll attmpt to answer those interrogatives in this article.

First of all, it IS NOT like what you see porrayed on the big screen. Instead, it's filled with lng hours spent on the road, with precious few minutes of action. The mvie Twister gives the impression that a tornado lurks around each corner, and every second is action packed. Tht's bogus. Doesn't happen. Movies are not rea! That mvie also would lead one to believe that you can be caught by an F-5 tornado and live to tell about it. Wrog. The odds of winning the state lottery are bettr. Don't misunderstand...I liked Twister, it's just that when you watch the movie, you're looking at typical Hollywood hype.

later on?

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi plans to stay there all night as well. It's why there's coffee that she wouldn't normally drink it.]

Aren't you going back to your room?

[cyan_maid]

[Soldier Mom. Soldier Mom, help, Jane isn't eating the pie Serious Mom (Natsuhi) gave her. Look at her slowly break off bits of the crust to let it float in her coffee and she's not going to people or talking to them or anything, just gripping a piece of sketchbook paper between her palm and the coffee mug like it's a lifeline. She needs help.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

[Kurumi's going to stay by her side after it's clear that Ricky will be fine for a while. She doesn't seem as down or upset as she was last week, at least. After a while she speaks up,]

It happened again.

[voltrounds]

[Again, Ricky turns up late, having stopped to gather some flower petals from the greenhouse. Well, more like she grabbed a couple of entire flowers, and hasn't gotten around to removing their petals. She just sits and stares into empty space.]

[airlockedmods]

[Ricky's letter is typed on a nondescript sheet of white paper, and it looks like total garbled nonsense. But the more she looks at it, the more she may find words hidden in the gibberish. The number "20" is typed at the top of the page.]

[ratherdoweddings]

I'm so sorry, Ricky-chan.

[refusedtoleave]

[She's going to get a slice of cherry pie silently slid in front of her.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

[She'll just take one of those flowers and sit next to her. She hadn't asked Ricky directly what they were before but... She had seen the flower petals.]

I'll do it, if you want.

[imnotfat]

[Togami doesn't go to the afterparty, but unlike every other time where he went to his kind of private study, he's in his room. He's actually rather sullen, huh.

Why'd you want to talk with him? Really, he's a major jerk. But if you actually come to him, he's not going to tell you to get lost]

[airlockedmods]

[Hope you like the taste of your own medicine Togami, because you find a typed letter that seems to be some kind of scientific study on the effects of space colonization on the human body. Interspersed with the scientific jargon, some of the words stand out as a little strange.]

Are risks the same for six months on the space station versus trhee years on a Mars mission?

Living in this tywpe of renvironment impavcts the bodyx iun three impyortant ways: lloss of pyroprioception, changes yin fluid disthribution, and dekteriorathion of the musuculoskheletal system.

Expedition crews selected for a stay aboard the space station are carefully chosen, trained, and supported to make sure they can work effectively as a team for sxi months.

Cryews for a Marzs miussion wvill underggo even morre scroutiny and preparkation, since tthey will travel farther and longger than any prevzious human, being moroe isolatted and confinmed than we can imagine. The tyvpes of problkems youu may encouvnter are a decline in mood, rcognition, morale, or interpersonal interacktion.

With a communication delay of up to tnewty minutes one-way while on Mars and the possibility of equipment failures, you must be able to complete the mission on your own.

You can produce Instravenous (IV) solution from purifieid space statioon cabin water, and then mixx it with soalt crygstals to provduce normal sualine for mmedical admministration.

[kingshaming]

[Xander is at the get together because of course he is. After everything that happened LAST time he skipped one. He has his notebook out and is re-reading somethings.

Mostly their 'friend's' last note. Not because it means anything now, but because it was the last thing he spoke to Shadow about]

[airlockedmods]

[The letter isn't handwritten this time but typed, printed out on a sheet of nondescript white paper. It appears to be an entertaining short story (about ¾ of the page) about a boy learning to swim.]

Learning something n ew can be a scary experience. O ne of the hardest things I've ever had to do was learn how to swim. I was always afraid of the water, but I decided that swimming was an imp ortant skil l tha t I should learn. I also thought it would be good exerc ise and he lp me to become physically stronger. What I didn't realize was that learning to swim would also make me a more conf ident perso n.

New situations always make me a bit ner vous, and my first swim ming lesson wa s no exc eption. After I ch anged i nto my bathing suit in the locker room, I stood timidly by the side of the pool waiting for the teacher an d othe r s tudents to show up. After a couple of minutes the teacher came over. She smiled and introduced herself, and tw o more students joined us. Alth ough they were bo th old er than me, they didn't seem to be embarrassed abo ut not knowing how to swim. I be gan to feel more at eas e.

We got into t he pool, and th e te acher had us put on brightly c olored water wings to hel p us stay afloat. One of the othe r students, Ma y, had already taken the begin ning class once before, so she took a ki ckboard and went splashing off by herself. The other studen t, Jerry, and I were told to g rasp the side of the pool and shown how to kick for the breaststroke. One by one, the teacher had us hold on to a kickboard while she pulled it through the water and we kicked.

[curdle]

[ Thomasin cried in the shower, and by the time she shows up, with wet hair and no coif, the hot water has erased all traces of it. She stops by the art room and uses her old fruit basket to bring her own sketchbook, a bunch of loose paper, and a set of colored pencils. There's also markers, pastels, a vial of glitter, and a bundle of rosemary, tied together with string. When she first comes in, she makes it clear that the art supplies are for everybody, but after that she shrinks into herself.

She picks at her food occasionally, but her real focus is on the paper in front of her and the (bad) sketches of a certain Original Character Do Not Steal. Ever so often she flips over a page with visible frustration and switches her medium. After a decent amount of this, she switches over to drawing what appear to be rabbits. They're not. They are hares. ]

[ratherdoweddings]

To remember them, right?

[tasteslikesurvival]

[Kurumi isn't fast to show up at the meeting. Though, honestly, that should have been a given considering that everyone probably would want her to have a shower before coming there. Her hair is down for once to let it dry and she changed out of her school uniform into her gym clothes (though the gloves she was wearing are still one and remarkably blood free). She still faintly smells like chlorine, though. A hot shower can do wonders to keep someone sane. Even if she probably heard someone else crying Kurumi didn't say anything. It wasn't her place to scold or even comfort in this case.

She hadn't voted for Rukia. Defense was different than cold-blooded murder. That wasn't something that was going to change in a place like this.

When she finally arrives, Kurumi sticks herself to the side. The food is picked at slightly but there's really not much else from her directly.]