[Week 2 Afterparty] If only you'd have known me before the accident

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

That. All sure fucking happened. Didn't it?

Almost on autopilot, Leon starts pulling people aside who look like they might have it even slightly together right now and recruiting them to the task of making sure the rest don't just go straight to bed and pass out without eating all day. Anyone who doesn't seem to have it together but wants to lend a hand to stave off the grief and existential dread can help too. He's not picky at this point.

Without Yuri's tea or Otto's cooking things don't exactly turn out the same, but it's. It's something. Between all of them they get a meal together, something that can be easily picked up and squirreled away to the rooms if anyone really doesn't want to be around any of the rest of them right now, but Leon will insist that they have to come get it themselves as he goes around knocking on doors and shepherding people to the dining room. This is a check-in as much as it is dinner.

Comments

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

[ And with as many people convinced to come down and get something to eat as he thinks he's gonna manage today, Leon takes up his usual post at the dining room door, watching over the proceedings and slowly working his way through a toasted sandwich of some kind.

He'll be available to talk for most of the evening, but as it wears on he'll start disappearing off to the kitchen to wash dishes, and even later than that, cutting it dangerously close to lockdown time, he can be found in the greenhouse, knife drawn and going through training drills by himself, looking for all the world like he's dueling an invisible opponent. Which he isn't, at least not literally. ]

[selfreliar]

[Aqua's perfectly willing to take on some kitchen duty this time. He's not an amazing cook, but he can make green tea and some simple, easy-to-digest side dishes of rice, soup, and vegetables. He's quiet as he works, the look on his face a distant one.

There aren't so many people to cook for anymore, though. Soon enough, he finds a seat in the dining room, where he picks at his food a bit and mostly watches the others. He'll gently approach anyone who seems particularly in need of attention.]

Can I get you anything?

[eldritchwaifu]

[ Zoe's busy drawing Yuri's portrait for the memorial to get food herself, but she does hear you. ]

Yeah. [ She says. Distractedly. ]

[selfreliar]

[...Um.]

Food? Water?

[plangona]

I'm fine with whatever, you can surprise me. [ the aftermath of the trial and losing a roommate was rough especially learning what really happened. octavia might be a bit more quiet than usual but she isn't picky and not about to turn down food either ]

[selfreliar]

All right.

[Off he goes, and comes back with more potatoes, soup, and tea. Warm things are usually more comforting, he figures.]

Here. ...Sorry about today.

[Rooms 1 and 5 haven't lost anyone yet, and it's starting to feel unfair--one more macabre injustice on top of everything else.]

[windmilled]

Luis takes up in the kitchen, in the immediate absence of his fellow scientist. He isn't as good of a cook, but he's able to make a mean patatas bravas to provide something to snack on. Feel free to come help him chop potatoes - there may only be 13 of them left, now, but 13 people can eat a lot of delicious fried potatoes.

After he finishes the first batch, he helps take plates around before starting on the next batch (unlike Leon, he will bring the food to you).

"The grief will still be there in the morning - don't make it worse with hunger, eh?"

And after that (and yes, after he gets some for himself), Luis takes his guitar to the sitting room and starts playing.

[bouchere]

Shauna wasn't up to helping out with dinner tonight. Her hands kept wanting to shake, and she kept glancing down and thinking she saw blood. The loss of Ranma and Yuri under the circumstances they'd gone had rattled her, no matter how much she thought she could handle.

She's not even very hungry, honestly. But she knows better than to waste food, so she accepts a plate when Luis comes around.

"Thanks. I'm not grieving, though. I barely knew them."

[windmilled]

"Well, we're all feeling something." Truth be told, he didn't know them well either - but that, in and of itself, is a kind of grief. That he won't have the chance, now.

"And it'll still feel worse in the morning if you go to bed without food."

[selfreliar]

Eventually, the strains of guitar draws Aqua away from observing the others. While he's in no big rush to revisit the sitting room, after what he had to do here, music... well, it's always been one of his biggest comforts. Even in a genre wildly different from his fave, it calls to him.

So he sits, not actually on the furniture, but on the floor against the foot of a chair, arms wrapped around his knees in a surprisingly childish posture from such an adult young man. He rests his chin on his knees, too, and just listens.

[windmilled]

Luckily for Aqua, while they were in the ritual the sitting room had been restored to the way it was before, not a drop of blood or broken chair in sight.

Luis looks up from the guitar when he hears someone enter, giving Aqua a subdued smile, but keeps playing when it seems like he's content to listen, not talk. He's versatile with the instrument, but it's still hard to play an actual melody and talk at the same time.

When he's finished, he rests his hands on the guitar.

"I...thought they deserve a tribute."

[madderbloom]

[ Anemone is absent from the party but passing through the halls you might spot her pink hair where she's curled up in a nook that evening. Her manic energy seems spent now that the trial's over and she's left to brood in her own thoughts. ]

[eldritchwaifu]

[ Anemone will not be left to brood in her own thoughts alone. Two friends are coming to join her!

... Those two friends being Zoe and the big furry potato people call Gulliver.

Anemone's pet is surprisingly heavy, Zoe realized as she's struggling to carry poor Gulliver, one tentacle wrapped around the creature's middle and the other trying to hold him up so he doesn't fall or rip any limbs off. Hopefully the little guy won't mind...? ]

[madderbloom]

[ Gulliver's content to be carried along! Even by tentacle hands. After spending a week rooming together, he's come to recognize Zoe as a Friend.

Anemone is slow to react to their presence, but when she sees them she does a double take and sits up from her slouch. ]

Zoe... and Gulliver, too?

[bouchere]

[ Shauna is... fine.

She's been better, but she knew the rules from day one. It's going to suck every time. This is why she isn't making friends.

Anemone seems like kind of a jerk, though, in a way that's relatable, so Shauna pauses on her way back to her room when she spots Anemone. ]

Hey. The halls aren't a great place to hang out at night.

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

Hey.

[ Leon leans against the wall across from her, arms crossed over his chest. He frowns, looking concerned and contemplative. ]

Didn’t see you at dinner.

[doctopoda]

[At some point in the evening, there's a sudden, extremely loud clattering and thumping echoing from the area of the entrance hall. Otto storms out of the hallway - the door hallway, the one that he knows perfectly well should have opened up onto this room roughly twenty hours ago - on all four actuators. He's disheveled, visibly exhausted and pissed.]

- god-damned HOUSE!

[A tentacle lashes out into the nearest wall. He's been trying very hard to restrain his temper thus far, but - look. Look. It's been a really long night and day.

(Not to mention, he knows it was Friday - )

Later on, he doesn't manage to cook - it feels far too late now, he is far too late - but he does end up in the sitting room, awkwardly wedged into one of the armchairs. It wouldn't be a good place for him to have slept even before the actuators; he's too tall and too old. But...he doesn't want to go back to his room. He doesn't want to be there alone.]

Sitting room

[eldritchwaifu]

... Dr. Otto?

[ Zoe wandered in with her sketchbook after adding to the Memorial... Again... May as well sit down on the ottoman next to him. ]

What happened? You were gone for, like, a whole day at least.

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

[ Leon's passing through the entrance hall, because apparently the house has decided it goes between the kitchen and the dining room for right now, when Otto comes clattering out of one of the doors. ]

Holy shit. Otto? [ It's only because of years of practice with getting jumpscared that Leon does not drop the plates he's carrying. ] Were you in the hallways this whole fucking time?

[plangona]

[octavia was just heading back towards her room so when she passes through the entrance hall, she is caught by surprise when otto suddenly appears ] Were you stuck here this entire time?

Sitting room

[windmilled]

[Luis has picked up the cooking slack, even if there's only a few things he knows how to cook well. He gives Otto space to find out about the case from someone else - but when he's finished up his second pan of patatas bravas he prepares a decent amount for his fellow scientist.]

...I'm glad the house spit you back out in one piece, amigo.

[Bury your feelings in some fried potatoes.]

[bouchere]

Huh. The house didn't literally eat you. Cool.

[ Sorry, Otto. That's all she can muster up. It's not you; it's her. ]

[lockedmods]

[The wall growls creakily and inhumanly, like wood and stone grating terribly against each other somehow given living voice, and opens a splintery maw to snap at Otto's tentacle.

It's less like trying to eat him, though, and more like a sleepy, sated warning to buzz off.]

Sitting Room

[mind_chess]

[ Look, we're all very surprised. ]

Doctor, you're alive!

[plangona]

[octavia has never dealt well with loss or grief. her most immediate reaction to being able to cope with any of these emotions has always been through anger as evidenced by the dented knife on her that came up during the trial.

the trial would have been a lot easier to deal with if had been as simple murder rather than another self sacrifice and mercy killing. it didn't help when she realized that yuri only appeared to be in their room that night and if only she had checked more closely things may have been different. she is totally fine though, she doesn't dwell on it too much and though she doesn't really feel up for socializing she attends the after party and hangs around for appearance sake and to grab some food at least ]