FINAL WEEK

[strangerpeople]

FINAL WEEK

[Well. What else can be said? The Little Courtesy is over. You have all survived. You are now going to your final destination-with invitations to boot. And Charlotte will be getting that private audience, as promised.

But it's not over. Everyone knows it. Confrontation is inevitable. The question is what, exactly, will happen when that confrontation happens-or if anyone will in fact be able to go with Charlotte when it happens. But you've gone this far. There's no turning back. There has to be a way.

Nothing has been certain, or simple. Whatever happens will be no different from the horrors of the Little Courtesy. Perhaps the saying might still hold. Will all be well? Will it?

It must. God help everyone if it isn't.

Seven is the Number, but there are nine strangers left in this place.]

Comments

Looking for rats. Politely.

[charmingheroine]

Um, excuse me, but... is there a member of the crew nearby?

[It's not like their rooms have call buttons... or if they do, she's overlooked it.]

Re: Looking for rats. Politely.

[strangerpeople]

...

[There's a grumble from the walls.]

What you want?

[charmingheroine]

We -

Well, Towa, really -

There's a sort of memorial set up for our dead, in the Lounge. Orpheus saved everyone onboard here, and I wanted to know if it'd be all right if I set something out for him alongside them. You've all done a lot for us, and... I feel like a colossal jerk having not said anything to thank you until someone died.

[strangerpeople]

Hmph. Not like that isn't normal. People forget us all the time.

[Still, the rat's nose twitches.]

...I'll let everyone know, so they can go take a look.

CW: mild invocation of the whole genocide matter

[charmingheroine]

Wait, before you do - what should I set out, aside from a card with his name? I know the spiritualists put out a glass of water on memorial tables, so I was going to do that too, but I didn't know him, and it seems like he was one of those guys everybody liked.

[She knew one of those herself, once.]

And... just because it's normal doesn't mean it's right....

[If she ends this world, the rats would go with it. And she hadn't given that a second thought until being reminded they were there... was it this place affecting her mind, or has nothing changed, and it's just that she's trying to take the easy way out of having to choose between a solution and revenge?]

[strangerpeople]

...Cheese. Mild cheddar, if you can. Not sharp. Mate never could handle sharp cheddar.

[Sigh.]

Maybe not. Still, it's nice once in awhile to have people remember outside the Tomb of the Unknown Rat.

[charmingheroine]

I'll do my best to remember. I don't know if I'll ever see that monument, but... even if we all make it home somehow, you don't forget having your life saved.

[You really don't.

And you don't turn around and kill someone whose comrade saved your life, or justify away doing that because they were in the same place as your enemy. They're all trapped here, the rats in a system that makes her own England's class divisions seem sane, and those from other worlds are trapped like... well, like rats.

It's the smallest things that make you reconsider your path, sometimes.]

If not the cheese, then... I'll find something, at least. Thank you.