too late for a savior;

[katzenpfote]

[Well. That had certainly been... a thing.]

[Between fractured relationships, revalations about each other, and the sheer horror at whatever the hell that execution was, the living Strangers still need to recover.]

[No one seems to be in the mood for a gathering as they all leave.]

Comments

[carryabigstick]

[Estelle doesn't like admitting it, but that whole trial was painful and uncomfortable for her on a deep level.

"And then there's the person who already killed, so you shouldn't be forgiving them either then."

She's never been good at sitting still if there's something to be done. The problem is, she doesn't know what to do. She's a useless ball of frustrated energy. Of course there are some people that are doing far worse than her that she wants to check on, but--

There is a moment that she takes for herself. To absorb the things on her mind and... try to sort through them a little.

She does the only thing she can think of. She hums a familiar tune. Maybe just hearing it can put her at ease a little.]

[touchsensors]

[It might be surprising that she attracts an audience, or it might not. Lala certainly doesn't mean for it to be a surprise. She stops a ways away, closes her eyes, and listens.]

[carryabigstick]

[She doesn't mind the audience-- even though she senses Lala there, she finishes the song to the end.]

[poorlovefool]

[well, this melody isn't part of 'drift away!!' Eric takes off the headphones he grabbed, glancing around a bit, and then finds Estelle humming.

...this is a little more comforting than what he was listening to before, but maybe he's just glad to see the carrot top girl from this game doing a lot better than the one from the depths, apparently. she still looks pretty rough though. they talked enough in trial, maybe he should check on her.]

You all right?

[carryabigstick]

[That's a pretty tough question. Compared to a lot of people, she's fine. But in this situation, that's not saying a lot.]

I'm... frustrated. And sad. And there are a lot of things on my mind.

[She sighs and shakes her head.]

But I'm not going to stop. I can't afford to.

[unwittingking]

[King...he's starting to think he should've been added to his own list of dislikes. That whole thing was just a nightmare, and he feels like there's a pit in his stomach as the elevator doors open and he get's away from everyone as fast as he can. That was just...he can't even thing of a way to describe it, other than awful.

You might be able to catch him at one point-rummaging around in Crab-O-Licious like he's trying to find something important. He doesn't try paying attention to what's around him, so you might surprise him.

Other than that, though? He's in House 1, and he doesn't plan on leaving it anytime soon.]

House 1

[carryabigstick]

[There are a lot of people that had a far worse time at that trial than she did, and she wants to find all of them. Maybe things got out of hand but--

It wasn't because their intentions weren't in the right place. What was fucked up here was the game... not the players.

So she's going to pay King a house visit.]

Um. Hey. Mind if I hang out here for a while?

[poorlovefool]

[he's on the ground floor, whatcha doing at the crab shack]

[katzenpfote]

[There’s the sound of a mailbox opening and then closing, so whenever King slips his muzzle out to look, there’s the corner of a note there. It looks like the paper was torn from one of the blank newspapers.]

I forgive you.

[There’s no signature, but odds are good that he’ll recognize the writing, anyway.]

[relieable]

[dammiiiiiiiitttt...!

when Osomatsu makes it out of the elevator, he practically stomps off in the direction of his "house." he's so frustrated and terrified, enough to be on the verge of tears. he feels so... alone here. like no one even cares that he's around. he thought that maybe Arthur and Ambrosine would be some comfort to him because they are familiar, but he's practically burned his bridges with Arthur at this point, and he gives up.

he's such an idiot.

but he's a lonely idiot. why is he even here? why is he even bothering trying to play nice with the other strangers? they don't care about him!

it's not like they're the only ones with problems, right?

argh! he finally gets to his house and kicks at the outside wall. a little too hard. he yelps, pulling his foot back. ah, that hurt... he hisses in pain. the rule about not destroying property flashes through his mind but he doesn't care because his foot hurts.

then he slumps down onto the ground and sits there, pouting like a child who isn't getting their way. he's been trying to hold it together, but he's cracking, thinking about the trial, and his chat with Link and Hiyori, and how he's super lonely, and how the food tastes like sand and auuuugh whyyyy]

[katzenpfote]

[What is this yelping from a few doors down, he needs to investigate -]

[Caleb wanders over there, posture a little cautious, before he spots Osomatsu.]

... What happened?

[carryabigstick]

[One of the people on her mind had been Osomatsu. They'd felt the same way about a lot of things so at the very least she figures that he's just as frustrated as she is. And from the looks of it, she's not wrong.

She's just going to flop down on the ground next to him.]

Mind if I join you?

[...even though she sat down anyway. She'd leave if he asked but-- well, Estelle doesn't know a lot of people here. And one of them is already gone. So maybe she's feeling a little lonely herself.]

[touchsensors]

[Lala is, shockingly, unhappy with how today has gone. Nanaki was... not someone she fully trusted, but someone she had some positive memories of to counteract that voice in her head, and now look what he'd done. And then she'd just assumed for most of the trial that one of the three living suspects had to have done it, even if she was never really willing to commit to any of them. And then whatever that execution was...

It's not that she wants them to have to suffer through a murdergame, but she really wishes she had her friends with her right now. Hell, she'd take her enemies at this point.

Will sitting around in the dining room, using her antennae to nudge a couple of food pills around, help with any of this? Probably not. That's what she's doing, though.]

[poorlovefool]

[Eric sees her in there and sits across the table, a bit stiffly.]

So, uh... sorry I was a dick to you in the investigation. Just. Putting that out there.

[things got going too fast - and escalated too much - for him to really get to that in the trial]

[illusionarymelody]

[Vita really hasn't said anything for quite some time during the trial and she definitely was acting like she wasn't hearing anything and clinging excessively to her husband. She was definitely upset by the accusations, but also upset by the fact that history just repeated itself and yet enough person fell victim to Akira trying to kill him.

She definitely can no longer trust most of those people or even herself now to not decide to pull a knife the next time she sees King. At this point she's going to just let her husband take her away from there and take her back to her house and she's not going to be coming out any time soon. She's first going to make sure he gets himself to bed because he's been up since the night before and she's not letting him repeat what happened at the Base as long as she's around to prevent it. She's just not going to be able to get to sleep right away herself so if anyone comes around to house 12 to try and check up on her, she'll answer.]

[katzenpfote]

[Hey there, neighbor.]

[Once he's gotten Arthur situated for a bit - and assured the boy that he's just going next door - he heads over and knocks softly on their door. He's aware he might get a sharp response, but he has to check on them. Maybe he'll explain things to Jonathan... he's more concerned about Vita right now, though.]

[touchsensors]

[Knock, knock.

Knocking on the door is what they normally do on planets where they don't have computerized visitor announcements, right? Lala's pretty sure she remembers Hikaru doing that.]

[carryabigstick]

[More than anyone, Estelle is extra worried about Vita. Even if they'd all shared a goal-- it had turned into something ugly, not at all what Estelle had hoped for when she thought about looking for the truth.]

Hey... I get it if you don't want to talk a lot right now. But... I wasn't going to get any sleep if I didn't at least check on you.

[Maybe she didn't know-know Vita, but this was still someone from Zemuria. On top of that, she'd been nothing but nice to her so--]

[otherworldlyking]

[ McBurn wouldn't call it 'check up', because why would he? But he saw that non-responsiveness, so after a nap, he'll come by and see how she was before heading right on back. Simple and easy enough for him.

So now he waited for her to answer. ]

[poorlovefool]

[Eric hesitated at the door to the elevator. The noise they saw in the execution had been all around them, so part of him irrationally worried they'd be in here too. Of course he knew he couldn't stay, so he was in there hugging himself anxiously while it went up. He's not really trying to get away from everyone else. After all, none of them were killers. But he doesn't understand at all why people from his round would be monsters like that, or what they even were. Before it reaches the top, he'll mumble a question to the others inside.]

Were those... real people?

[he needs an answer to this or he'll freak out. If that was the real Yusuke and Futaba, he'd have to worry about what happened to Mira, too. ...You probably do not want him to be worried about her at this point.


Later, the nerves from the trial still haven't died down, the events playing over and over in his mind. He thought he'd solved the case, but he hadn't. It was lucky that he voted with his heart anyway. But he can't shake the thought that if this was the Depths, they'd all be dead. And there's also the fact... he didn't know until then that something was screwing with their heads. Hiyori confirmed and denied it in the same breath. Can he trust his feelings? How did they get inside? The screen in his wrist? Or was it magic?

For now, when he feels so lost, not thinking about it any more seems like the best solution. That's easier said than done, but he'll go to the library and seek out a CD player, some headphones to jam on... probably some oldies for the music. Of course the library itself is so chaotic-looking it probably takes him a hot minute full of swearing to locate, in which he decides that is definitely not where he wants to listen to these tunes. He'll just walk about the ground floor, swirling blue lights against his fingertips.]

library;

[otherworldlyking]

[ McBurn was in here, lounging about, watching the blue lights. ]

Nice light show.

[comesaround]

[ The weird thing was that after that mess, Karma really didn't seem to be himself if anyone paid attention to it. Mostly in that he was quite silent and seeming really subdued.

He had kept an eye on Kurama the best he could, but anyone can now find him sitting alone on the front steps of his place, head tilted upward and staring up at the black sky almost listlessly. Almost like he's not able to focus on anything and it's not entirely wrong. His mind is elsewhere, and it's almost like he's a shadow of who he is normally.

A soft sigh even escapes him, a fist hitting the ground beneath him. ]

... Couldn't save you either, huh?

[ Someone may even note his hand continually raising and falling - punching - the ground but not looking away from the sky yet. ]

[poorlovefool]

[Eric's spacing out with his headphones and almost trips on the kid squatting down there.]

Whoa -

[he takes a step back. awkward. this is really bad.

it's no wonder he's taking it rough though. if things went south, this kid would've lost both of his friends at once. he didn't even hear what he said, but it's written on his face.]

Hey... don't blame yourself for that shit. That's not gonna help anything, is it.

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama will spend some time staying near Karma, quiet and withdrawn, but eventually the urge to den up and lick his metaphorical wounds gets the better of him.

And because Kurama is far better about doing what's good for other people than what's good for himself, he closes himself up in Akira's house. His sense of smell is abysmal here but curled up on his boyfriend's bed, face buried in the pillow, Akira's scent is discernable. He'll take what he can get.]

[katzenpfote]

[There’s the sound of a mailbox opening and closing, and when Kurama opens it he’ll find a note. The handwriting is tight, though there’s some awkward spaces between the words like he had to stop to think and then start again.]

I am available when you wish to talk. Arthur is staying with me, so if he is asleep we can meet somewhere other than my ‘home’.

- Caleb Widogast