It belongs in a GREAT BIG FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAH

[valkavian]

[ So, Akane is probably in NO condition to host the afterparty, so Val's gonna do the honors here. She leaves a note where everyone can see it once everyone's properly exited the theater: ]

Come to the tea room. I'll get y'all some fucking marshmallows.

[ She's not cooking, but she brought some skewers and the appropriate fixings for both hot dogs and smores and put them aside on a little table, as well as some soda and every possible booze this ship had.

Most of the tables and chairs have been just pushed off to the far end of the room, but some furniture has been sacrificed to start a huge fucking bonfire in the middle of the tea room. Precautions have been taken to keep this shit from spreading, but here we are.

She's content to let most people mingle amongst themselves, but she will be muttering something as y'all come in. ]

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil-

[ A pause. ]

Where my eternal quest takes me, I shall know no fear. My heart is strong and my blood stronger.

Comments

[not_a_lego_maniac]

Um.









Huh?

[somuchshipping]

GTFO

[Hermes gets fucking tossed out of the theater, him yelping, by hand-like vines. He skids across the floor for a good few feet before coming to a rest, and shall lay there in a daze for a few moments. That was. A thing that happened.]

Smores

[After a quick round of cleaning himself off of any blood from the vines, Hermes enters the tea room. He quickly spots the fire and lets out a little gasp.]

OhMyGosh,Smores! I'dLoveToMakeSmores!

Infirmary

[Later, Hermes can be found in the infirmary, just sitting beside Aoi, looking at him occasionally. Approach him to talk?]

Wildcard

[Come up with your own scenario!]

[superstylishsquid]

[Alastor will be briefly seen at the bonfire...to grab some marshmallows and chocolate, already with a bottle of the highest proof booze he expects to be palatable in one hand. After a moment of thought, he grabs a second bottle before leaving.

He'd...intended to just let Roland into his room so they could both make themselves scarce until morning, but he ends up stopping in the doorway at the sight of...something in his room.]

Are you kidding me? Is this what he meant by that announcement?!

[autonomousthought]

[Well. Ritsu once again attends the afterparty, but just sits against a wall. Can't exactly eat or drink, after all, not in a way that anyone would enjoy.

But it's warm in here, and she'll stare into the fire like it'll tell her the secrets of the universe.

....after a while she'll pick herself up and start brewing tea. Might as well keep her hands busy.]

What should go with it...?

[yesorwoof]

party

[Makima is using three small, mostly plain hot dogs as she is pacing her drinking of plain beer. She proclaims idly to no one in particular:]

I'm confident in drinking contests, at least.

bathroom

[Makima is here doing bathroom things and generally staring into the mirror in silence for several seconds. What a long day. She has to get all this over with, so she can help Akane...]

wildcard

((you can always pricon me too!))

Bathroom

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes enters the bathroom, strips of blood on him where the tree vines touched him. He notices Makima.]

Oh... Hello, Makima. ...Are you okay, after... everything?

[Hermes grabs a nearby towel and begins quickly cleaning up all the blood off of himself.]

[yesorwoof]

Oh, I should have been more worried about you. That was a really close call. The length of the execution just made it somewhat difficult to be sure exactly when to leave.

[Makima is not covered in blood so she watches the weirdly shaped robot writhe around. Did he somehow bleed or were the vines just covered in blood already.]

[somuchshipping]

[Most likely the latter.]

Yeah... Just waiting for something to happen was super boring.

...I heard you still trying to completely solve what happened exactly.

[yesorwoof]

It's a matter of immense importance. We technically didn't even confirm that the culprit toppled the slot machine. If his testimony is to believed, the double agent is openly taunting us.

[She looks sideways at him.]

What do you think?

[exequte]

[For Zack]
[Akane wakes up slowly. Her head is pounding, her eyes feel itchy with tears both shed and unshed, she feels sick to her stomach, and she's flushed with a high fever.

For a moment it's hard to remember why.

But then it comes to her, in fits and starts, and for a moment she looks around, confused.

This is like her room, as much as it could be said to be hers, but it wasn't. And for a moment that was alarming, as she struggled to push herself up. But Zack is there--it's hard to miss him, as big as he is--and a moment later she stops struggling. She stares away, not meeting his eyes. She can't, maybe, or doesn't want to. She can remember what she did.]

Did you... did you bring me here after? Where... where is here?

[Bathrooms]
[Akane is crying silently now, though even the tears seem tired, miserable. She's trying to wash the blood off her, out of her clothes, out of her hair. Who knew that the blood spray would get everywhere like this? She'd never shot someone before, so she certainly hadn't.

Her hands shaking, she stands on one foot and wrestles off her first shoe, then starts trying to wash the blood from the soles. She'd left faint bloody footprints behind her when she'd come here, and she can't....

But, doing this, she's washing Moriarty away. And that is making her cry too. When someone comes in she looks over her shoulder to the door, almost cringing back, wet shoe still in her hand, faint bloody footprints leading up to her location.]

Sorry. I... I won't be long.

[Kaito's Room]
[And then, once she's clean of blood, Akane goes to... not to her room, but to the empty room that had belonged to John and Kaito. She curls up on Kaito's empty, empty bed, his jacket wrapped around her, curls into a ball, and cries.]

[somuchshipping]

[Hermes slowly bobs up and down.]

I don't know shit, I only have an intelligence stat of 3. Even in my game, I'm bad at puzzles. I nearly lost a trivia-off with Val because I'm bad at puzzles! Sure, I know a lot about romance and its signs and the mechanics of Fortuna, but I'm...

[Hermes sighs a little.]

I've been programmed to be an idiot and there's nothing I can do about it. We need you. You're the only one who cares! I tried getting others to think more about what had happened so they can figure it out, but they just didn't listen.

...So thank you for caring.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

...You're awake.

[He's got a washcloth if you want to wipe yourself off Akane.]

You're in my room. I figured you might not want blood on your bed or anything, so after you fainted I brought you here.

[exequte]

... oh.

[She falls back down onto that bed, a little limply, then looks up at him. Her eyes are too bright, but she's not crying. Not yet, anyway.]

But... but now I'm getting blood on your bed.

I'm.... I'm sorry.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

Oh, no, it's ok. I'm sure I can get it all out in the laundry or whatever!

[Waves it dismissively. Hopefully his smile will help a little.]

[exequte]

[It feels....

Wrong, somehow.

Foreign.

She remembers her own glassy smile as she'd been betrayed and feels sick again.

Zack is too good for this. Kaito had been too good for this.

She hopes he won't die next.]

Do you think this is hell?

[not_a_lego_maniac]

...

I...I don't know. But I wonder if even hell is...better than this.

[exequte]

[She finally smiles, just a little, but it's a broken expression.]

I-I guess we could ask Alastor, right?

[And there's the first tear, sliding down the side of her face and into her hair.]

[not_a_lego_maniac]

...

[Well, he has the washcloth to offer. It's not much, but.

If she needs to cry. He holds it up to her.]

[exequte]

[She just looks at him, still very much a broken bird, and finally after a brief struggle manages to push herself up and then throws her arms around him as she starts to cry.]

[not_a_lego_maniac]

[He responds almost instinctively, giving her a tight, and more importantly, warm hug.


He's....really surprisingly warm. But it's something for future Akane to think about. Right now, it's time for present Akane to be hugged.]

It'll be ok somehow...I'm here....It's all right, let it out.

Don't...don't keep it in.

[exequte]

Everything was so awful. Everyone must hate me now, right? I can't believe I....

[Definitely still clinging.]

[not_a_lego_maniac]

No...I...I don't blame you.

[He hated how she killed Moriarty. But.]

You were angry and you were right to be. What he did to you, to Kaito...the way he acted towards you was wrong.

[exequte]

When he said he tortured him, I....

[She can't find the words, can't continue.]

I don't know how he could do that.

If this is hell, maybe it's where I deserve to be.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

No-don’t say that. You don’t deserve that, none of you do. Not even Alastor, yeah?

This…place and Zero just…it wants us to think that. But it’s just not true.

[exequte]

I should have... I should have done better. I should have been better.

I'm so sorry.