but even if the stars and moon collide [afterparty]

[allatonce]

[Well, that sucked!

After about an hour, invitations written in colorful ink appear under everyone's doors.]

Understandable if you're not up to it, but we're having a memorial and "don't wanna be alone" hang-out in the restaurant again.

[The restaurant has very much been decorated with the most rainbow fabric she could find in the department store. Jonathan got roped in, mainly so she could make sure he was doing okay, but also because she assumed that he knew how to put a tablecloth on a table. He seemed like the type, anyway.

After consulting with Undertaker, most of the food that's been set out is more traditional Chinese funeral food than Victorian—you can get a whole roast duck in the restaurant—but she tried for a mix of things. There is fruit, the aforementioned roast duck, and several vegetarian dishes along with potatoes for some reason and... cookies? Okay then.

Joy's trying, because that was way less terrible for her than it was for basically anyone else.

Happy Pride Wrath, New Rapture!]

Comments

[pairtner]

So when you say 'everything bagel', you mean absolutely Everything in existence, crammed together on top of a pastry.

[...............]

Is this one of those 'it's how another universe works' things? Because this is stretching my suspension of disbelief, even taking that into account.

[Not that she thinks Joy is lying, it just is...so, so bizarre and surreal!]

[allatonce]

No, no: the Everything Bagel. It's different from an everything bagel.

[That's why it's capitalized on her profile! Those are two different things.]

Anyway it's like I've said: anything is possible somewhere. So yeah, in most universes I couldn't have made a black hole out of a bagel I put some toppings on.

[pairtner]

Once another oddity that feels like seeing it myself will make it more understandable.

[...still...this all makes her wonder...]

I'm aware you're intensely nihilistic, but that doesn't mean your heart is as dead as your belief in everything. Are you alright, Joy?

[allatonce]

Honestly? This is the okayest I've felt in a while.

[Which is possibly, like, concerning? But.]

[pairtner]

I'm sure in some way that response should be alarming.

[Oh well, what can one do, really]

[allatonce]

Probably, but I'm one of the people you have to worry about least. It's kind of nice, being here.

[pairtner]

Something about this doesn't fill me with confidence.

[Probably related to her nihilism. Maybe that's why she then offers:]

If you ever need to talk, I don't mind listening. Consider it my thanks, for telling me that joke.

[allatonce]

I might take you up on that, who knows. [She laughs, just a little.] I had a friend like you, you know, in one universe. Well, sort of. Her projected form looked like Ruth Bader Ginsberg.