Time for some cat therapy.

[foolishjustice]

[About an hour or so after the execution, the Coffee sends out a mass text. It's short and simple, telling them to come to the cat cafe if they need to take their minds off what just happened. Those who comply will find that two pots of delicious smelling curry - one extremely mild, the other blisteringly spicy - have been set out on either side of a dish of steaming rice, along with a platter of cookies and a large bowl of hot chocolate. Each of the dishes is covered by some sort of lid, to keep it free of cat hair...and of curious cats. The ice bucket from Tuesday's meeting has also made a return, again filled with strangely branded drinks.

There's several blankets of varying colors set on the floor and draped over chairs, in case people just want to huddle under one...though many of them have already been claimed by the cats in the cafe. It's...not much, really, but comfort food and cats should help a little, right? If nothing else, the felines seem to have a sixth sense for when people are upset and need to be comforted.]

Comments

[katsufemmefatale]

[Yuuri reads the text after waiting a few minutes, then deletes it. He doesn't move from his bed. Why would he go when he's not going to be very good company? He's tired but he can't sleep, haunted by memories of Wake's reassuring voice and the sounds of Dio being stomped to death. He's cried into his pillow already and now he just wants to be left alone. Once everyone else goes to bed, he'll go out for a run.

He wishes he was back home with Victor. Stressing out over Onsen on Ice is nothing compared to the hell of a murder trial with their lives on the line.]

[beguiledcard]

[ It's a while after he doesn't see Katsuki-san that he sends him a text. He's... prepared to be blunt, possibly even a little annoying.

Time to live up to his oh-so-creative Title, he guesses.

Whatever it takes to get him to come down... ]

You should come down.

[katsufemmefatale]

[What? Oh, it's Kurusu-san. The young man is nice, but Yuuri's really not feeling social at the moment.]

No, thank you. I'm tired.

[beguiledcard]

[ A sigh. ]

Being alone right now won't help anything.
We want to be here for you.
Guess I should warn you...
I'm known for being incredibly stubborn.

[foolishjustice]

[So, what's the organizer of this 'event' doing? Akechi has wrapped himself in a blanket on the floor, nursing his third cup of coffee today, and looking almost distant. Every now and then, he looks around to take note of everyone else's condition, but otherwise he seems content to sit by himself. But that was a rough trial, right? Even a professional must be tired after that...]

[beguiledcard]

[ Content to sit alone, huh?

Well....

Too bad? Because Akira is coming over to sit next to him, quietly welcoming one of the cats into his lap before leaning so that his shoulder is resting against Goro's. ]

[foolishjustice]

[He starts at the contact to his shoulder and quickly glances around. Nobody's paying them too close attention...right?]

Ah...how are you feeling, Akira-kun?

[beguiledcard]

[ He's a little... beyond caring about that right now.

The question is met with silence for several seconds and he's lightly scratching the cat under the chin. ]

Tired.

[ He turns his head, studying Goro's face for a moment. ]

You?

[theirmagic]

[ Yeah she's not accepting this, Ursula is going to come and sit nearby him. ]

Goro... are you all right? I'm worried about you, after all of that.

[foolishjustice]

[He gives a weak smile as he waves one hand.]

I'm simply worn out, that's all. I don't often lose my temper like that, so it's a little tiring when I do.

[thegreenhornet]

You really are the real deal.

[It's one thing for some kid to say he's a detective and talk about it. It's an entirely different thing to see him actually work. Britt has no more reason to think Akechi is some kid pretending to be a detective.

There are better moments to talk about this kind of thing, Britt, but then again, when has Britt been considerate about other people's feelings?]

How the hell did you get to be a detective at your age?

Good thing I have headcanon for this!

[foolishjustice]

[He is, however, a detective that's a little out of it after everything that just happened. He blinks with a startled expression at being approached, having apparently been entirely focused on his coffee.]

...My profile did corroborate my claim. But, as for how...I exposed the wrongdoings of a few people whose illegal activity had impacted me. Since I apparently had something of a knack for it, I undertook a few amateur investigations, and was able to repeatedly give the police accurate tips and give good evidence and testimony in court.

[He rubs the back of his head with a modest chuckle.]

From there, people began calling me the second coming of the Detective Prince, and I was able to get a job as a real detective. So, really it just boils down to observational skills, stubbornness, and an established willingness to cooperate fully with the authorities. Though, I'm certain Shirogane-san's precedent helped greatly, considering I am viewed as her successor of sorts...

[totalbullshit]

[ After she's finished eating, Helena finds herself unwilling to leave yet and face the vortex of her own thoughts. She used to love hanging out with people, full of friends parties and life. Now it feels odd for her to be spending time here. How times change...

Ah, well. Akechi has always been pleasant company here and in the trial he's spoken a lot of sense, even if she may not have wanted to hear or believe it then. She moves over and sits down next to him, taking yet another moment before she can speak up. ]

... it wasn't that satisfying, was it?

[foolishjustice]

[He appreciates her not speaking immediately, since it gives him time to register through his distracted thoughts that someone is sitting next to him. He shakes his head slowly, glaring into his coffee like it's hiding the secret of how to escape from him.]

No. What we witnessed was not an execution, it was public torment. I was speaking the truth when I said my work has sent criminals to their deaths before, but their deaths were swift and certainly not made a spectacle of.

[theirmagic]

[ Ursula is... forcing herself to be a busybody, mostly because she needed something to do. So for dessert, there's cookies and some rather fancy cake she only just finished making and is bringing in now. She'd been making it elsewhere.

She accepts a mug of hot cocoa and some of her own cookies because what she really needs right now is comfort food, and settles in with the kitten she'd gotten earlier in her lap, Antares. It's black. How fitting for a witch. She's hoping to socialize it with the nice friendly cats here.

In general, she'll be fussy over pretty much everyone. ]

[incrediblystressedout]

You're looking very witch-like, Ursula. The good, helpful kind of witch who has a cottage or something, I mean.

[Joey can fake her way through an actually pleasant conversation for Ursula, she figures. It's easy to put bad things out of your mind when you're surrounded by good things, like animals.]

[theirmagic]

Well, of course.

[ Giving Joey a mug of cocoa that Akechi made? Yes she is, she figures you'd like it over tea. Also some cookies! ]

How are you, Joey? Is there anything I can do? I'm trying to socialize Antares, here. He's still young, so there's plenty of time to do that. The cats here are good for that.

[scienceofmagic]

[ Almost as soon as Croix files in, she is going to catch her arm and pull her over. And then just. Kiss her. Right in front of everyone. No regrets, right? She doesn't want to have any. They never know what will happen tomorrow, so she wants to just... Do this. ]

[theirmagic]

[ UM HELLO THIS JUST HAPPENED. Ursula is very, very red. She doesn't mind, though. She does return it. ]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama does eventually end up in the cat cafe with the others. He fixes himself some hot chocolate, grabs a couple of cookies, and disappears under a green blanket. Somehow entirely without disturbing the cat curled on the corner of it.

It's completely undignified but he is tired and tremendously unhappy and not sure he wants to be Shuuichi right now. He isn't sure no one would question after him if he vanished into his room, however.

Hopefully they'll believe he's just worn out from the trial, which isn't even entirely untrue, and that he wants comfort food, cats, and the presence of others while he rests.]

[steelmagnolias]

[ Ren...has tried to do his part for this gathering, and in the absence of any actual cooking ability, he's made some tea and brought a small selection of various boozes from the grocery section of Yotsukoshi. It's... not much, but he wants to help. Otherwise, he'll be silently sitting at a table with the same calico from the other day. He strokes her ears thoughtfully, but it's not helping with his glazed-over sort of look. He'll take some food, but he's not really diving into it, preferring to just kinda pick at it whenever he's reminded that he forgot to eat that day.

Otherwise, he can be found outside the cafe and a little bit closer to the Swedish meatball place, where he's having a smoke now that the only person who got on his case about it is dead. Yeah, he could return to his room right now. But he really doesn't want to be alone. ]

[theirmagic]

[ Setting down a mug of hot tea for you, Ren. She texts him--even if they're right next to each other. She figures he'd appreciate not having to read lips while being so exhausted. ]

Mister Sanzashi, you should at least drink something.

[steelmagnolias]

Thanks.


[ He takes a sip of the tea, but clearly he thinks the cat is more interesting right now. ]

I don't want to seem ungrateful. I just don't know if I could really stomach much of anything after.

Everything.

[ Even if he knows, logically, that he hasn't eaten in like a day and a half. ]

[incrediblystressedout]

[Before she locks herself in her room tomorrow, Joey is going to spend some time with the kitties. The nice, healthy kitties who are doing perfectly fine on their own and don't need a veterinarian's touch, but are still quite fond of reassuring contact with a human. They're good like that.]

[She's just sitting here, still, letting them use her as a chair and petting any that come within reach. It's soothing. She can let them carry her mind back to simpler times, before Literally Everything That's Happened In The Last Seven Days.]

You guys are doing just fine, huh? Not a care in the world...

[totalbullshit]

[ Maybe it is surprising to the other strangers, but Helena finds herself attending the meeting. After the trial, the perhaps weirdest and most terrifying thing she has lived through in her life, her room doesn't feel right and the presence of Dio's jacket in it is suffocating. Still, she has no intent of tossing it out. The last words Dio said to her ring in her head much too confusingly for that.

The curry is the first warm food Helena has eaten since the very first night here. Which she had spent with Dio. Great memories there. Cat Café, too, fuck this. But it's not the cats' fault...

Unlike anyone approaches her, she'll be joining the party of people being quiet but quiet in the company of others instead of alone in her room. ]