(too late) you're at the party

[scouserer]

[Well, it's safe to say that trial fucking sucked. Therefore, some sort of afterparty is in order. Constantine is admittedly not good at throwing parties without some sort of liquor or other drug involved, but that's where Data and Sylvando guide him.

First order of business--invites. Upon returning to your rooms, crumpled pieces of paper have been taped to the doors. Written in poor handwriting is the following:]

meet at the lounge
bring whatever you want
[Simple, but effective. The lounge itself has been livened up a bit with Sylvando's help. Some nicely patterned fabric has been draped around on the tables to liven up the place a little, and snacks from the café and vending machines have been placed out for people to peruse.

A few supplies from the first aid room have been gathered, as well, for those who may need it. But perhaps the help is unnecessary, as tomorrow will likely bring another New Years Eve. And with it, another week of despair and frustration.

But for now, they can forget about that and pretend that all that matters is the present.]

Comments

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ Alice does not go to the lounge at all this go around. She makes a beeline for the cafe, grabbing some things before heading back to room 3. If she passes by anyone, she makes no notice that they're even there. When she gets to the door of her and Reika's room, she doesn't even read the taped message before she rips it off the door and crumples it up. She kind of doubt her roommate cares enough to make an appearance, either, but whatever. What Reika does is none of her business. What anyone here does is none of her business. She's known that no one here can be trusted from the get go, and... while she knows they're all just looking to save their skin, she's just glad that everything she knows was confirmed back there.

She stays in her room for the remainder of the evening, until very, very late where she goes to the top deck to partake in ye olde tradition of yeeting random junk off the side of the boat. Again, she doesn't immediately reply to anyone that shows up, opting to toss whatever's closest in hand. ]

this is going to be a mess

[leaveittomother]

[Her roommate actually doesn't care, surprisingly! Reika might go anyway because keeping up appearances is important--the trial was just proof of that--but now? Her first thoughts are actually about her roommate.

Admittedly she did think she was the culprit but when it became obvious that it wasn't the case, that suspicion had gone. After all why go after someone else when Alice probably could easily kill Reika herself. The poison theory was clever but too clever. Something drastic needed to happen.

For once, Reika isn't in the room first. She blocks the door as she closes it behind her.]

Miss Alice. [She sinks to her knees. If she had pride this might be humiliating. Too bad she doesn't know what that is.] We need to talk.

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ By the time Reika comes in, Alice has crawled up to her top bunk, facing the wall as she seemingly plays around with something in her hands. She doesn't immediately move or reply when she comes in or talks, but hearing the shuffling of fabric as she kneels down gets her to turn back for a brief moment.

She squints, trying to figure out what it was that she's doing, before returning back to how she's laying. ]

What.

[leaveittomother]

[Is it her riding crop. It better not be. Well, whatever. It doesn't matter. She's just going to sit here for a while.]

Obviously what happened at the trial was a mistake. I doubt the others will try to apologize or even see the use in it. [She doesn't think Alice will believe her. Words are useless.]

I know you won't believe them or me. So I'm asking you what I can do to make it up to you. [Beyond killing or dying.]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ Nah, that's on the desk. She might see a flash of a knife at some point, maybe?

She doesn't reply for a while, shifting in place a little. ]

Why do you care?

[leaveittomother]

[Great! Just like her daughter.]

Because if we voted for you there, I would have died. I'm not going to say I care about the others but dying due to a mistrial is something I want to actively avoid.

[conceivesfrenzy]

I don't get what that has to do with "making it up to me."

top deck

[thisaroma]

[ ...

He's just going to come and silently sit nearby while she throws away whatever she needs to. ]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ Again, she doesn't reply for a while, happy to take her frustrations out on the ocean for right now. She's opened up one of those Ikea nightstand boxes, settling for throwing the individual pieces out into the inky abyss.

When she's done with that, she throws the box for good measure, and just... kind of stares. ]

I'm fine. I don't need you to sit here.

[ She'd say that he doesn't need to worry about her hurting someone, but. They both probably know that's a lie! ]

[thisaroma]

I know. There's just nowhere else I'd rather be.

[ He gives her a smile, though after a moment he looks up to the sky instead. ]

...Sorry if I said too much back there. I wasn't sure how else to convince them.

[ And even then, it hadn't really worked... ]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ She grumbles at his sweet talking, but doesn't say anything else about it otherwise. ]

Whatever. I should've known better than to expect anything else to happen. Not that it did much good, anyway.

[ She picks up a BBQ sauce bottle, pauses to think about throwing at him, but just decides to toss it over the edge. ]

[thisaroma]

Yeah.

[ There's a silence, and his brow furrows as he idly rubs his wrist.

... ]

It felt a lot like it did back then, when no one would listen to me. But it was worse, because this time it was you they were going after.

[conceivesfrenzy]

It's nothing that I'm not already used to. [ pauses to throw something. ] I'm just surprised none of them bothered to bring up the possibility last week, honestly.

Top Deck

[ahelpingpaw]

........

[He was coming just for a breath of fresher air before returning inside. He hadn't seen Alice in the gathering, which was to be expected. Not after how things had gone in the trial.

Filbo feels guilty about the things that happened even though he never really took part in the hunt for Alice. The most he did was blurt out some nonsense about if Decus would risk Alice dying, which had been compleeeeetely innecessary, hah. Well, even Alice had pointed that out to him, really. Should he have come up with an argument in Alice's defense?

She's not really a good person. He can tell that much. She's ruthless, rude, and doesn't care Decus is following her around like a purple lost puppy. By all accounts she's not the kind of person he should be associating with and he knows it. But still...she's part of the group. That's all the justification he needs, as far as he's concerned. He should at least...try to make things a little easier to deal with. Too bad he doesn't know how!]

...you...you know...it's not against the rules to throw the deck chairs overboard.

[He isn't sure how he should feel that this is pretty much the third time he technically encourages vandalism in one week, this being the first time he does so directly. After the Captain's clear callousness and all? He really can't find it in himself to care too much about that. The Captain locked them in his murder boat, whatever happens in it is his fault, even if it is the passengers damaging the stuff]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ aren't you tired of being nice, filbie

don't you want to go ape shit

Anyway, she turns and just gives him a look, before going back to throwing whatever she's got in hand over. ]

Maybe later.

[ It'd probably be a little awkward for her to carry on her own. Not to mention trying to get it over the ledge................. she's like two feet tall, what do you expect her to do? ]

[ahelpingpaw]

[The Captain is going to inch Filbo closer into 'you know what fuck this all' territory if he keeps up the horrid demeanor, haha. Well there's still some road left before he gets to that point, but still!

Still, he can't help but feel a pang of worry at that 'maybe later'. He's taking it as a serious sign Alice really is not taking anything well at all right now]

Right.

[...this is a biiit like walking on eggshells. One wrong move and he'll ruin it and just make things worse. Come on, Fiddlepie, think things before saying them.

...nope, he's still way over his head. Ugh...]

...I'm surprised you could keep your head high despite everything that was going on. That was...that was really something.

[He's pretty sure if he ever received even a quarter of the attention Alice and Decus got, he'd fold. It's what happens when you're way too softhearted for a place such as a murdercruise. It'll be a miracle if he stays alive until there's only a few people left]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ this is why he's gotta have a relaxing week this week. please let filbo rest!!!!!!!! god! ]

To be fair, I'm surprised none of that came up sooner. I guess I should be glad that it's out of the way.

[ She gets the feeling that even without that comically awful timing of Decus getting food poisoning, she still would have gotten some heat with the multiple vests in that lazer tag room or anyway. Oh well. ]

[ahelpingpaw]

[Now that Bugsnax have popped up and he has to take responsibility because they're from his world, there's even less chance he'll get to rest, hah. Well, he'll try to relax, anyway, at least for one day or two]

No guarantees it won't come up again, though.

[He hates to say it, but yeah]

I hope it won't, but there's always a chance it will. It's not fair, but it's not like this ship is all about fairness, anyway...

[conceivesfrenzy]

I guess that's true.

[ She sighs, chucking another piece of whatever overboard. ]

On the contrary, I'd actually say it's plenty fair. People should be making the most of what they have available to them. I would do the same exact thing if given the opportunity.

[ Doesn't mean she can't be pissed about it, though. ]

[dokkalfheimr]

[Freyja had waited until rather late to come up here; for a while she wasn't sure if she'd wanted to at all, partially because Adeline used to come up here with her a lot and so being up here alone seems weird.

...Then she notices that she'll have company up here and god, she's not sure if being alone would be preferable, since Alice is guaranteed to be in a Mood.

But you know what, she got most of her own anger at this whole shitty shebang out earlier, and she can only stand so goddamn much 80's girl power music videos no matter how fascinating she finds Madonna's wardrobe, so...]

Good evening, Alice.

[Might as well not act like she doesn't exist, and not get in the way of the time-honored tradition over there. She's just here to stare at the stars, after all.]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ Alice gives Freyja a look as she enters the vicinity, a quiet 'tch' escaping her lips as she goes back to throwing the contents of an unassembled Ikea nightstand overboard. ]

I take it that pity party downstairs got to be too much again?

[ It's probably in both of their best interest to not talk but... literally when has Alice had any good ideas this whole trip? ]

[dokkalfheimr]

[Jesus, the kraken is going to resurface just covered in screws and those eight thousand horrid little plastic bits that don't actually designate where they go and you just have to guess. You know the ones.]

I wouldn't know; I didn't bother attending.

[...So there's that.]

I'd imagine they're all being fairly miserable, however.

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ The endgame investigation is just trying to find all the little pieces and screws that got dropped on a dark carpet ]

Oh, really?

[ She seems kind of surprised, for whatever reason. ]

What've you been doing, then? Being miserable elsewhere?

[dokkalfheimr]

Destroying things, primarily. It isn't as though it matters; it will be dealt with by morning anyway, if last week is anything to judge by.

[conceivesfrenzy]

... that's right, it all resets. I'd almost forgotten about that.

[ Also the lost day. There's a lot of stuff to keep track of. ]

I guess making them have to deal with cleaning up or whatever it is they're doing would be a more conducive way to spend time instead of throwing stuff overboard, huh?