some moments last forever, and some flare out with love, love, love [afterparty]

[visiblepattern]

[So that all sucked really bad, huh.

Forrest had meant what he said about going to the clinic immediately after all of this, getting medical supplies ready and set up on hand to prepare to receive people - Dandy is the primary candidate for this, whether he likes it or not - but before he goes he grabs Rossiu for the briefest moment before sending him on his way. Sure enough, when the note comes in a few minutes it isn't in Forrest's flowing, delicate hand but rather something blockier and incredibly neat. If you've seen Rossiu's handwriting, you'll recognize it: ]

We're having a memorial gathering in the ice cream parlor in an hour. Feel free to attend if you'd like, or if you would prefer to not be alone.
[...It seems like as good a place as any.

There are some things set up, though not terribly many; the tables are set out and are perhaps a bit closer than they normally would be, but go ahead and make yourself some sundaes, pull up a chair, talk to one another, ruminate over whether Jason and Hagakure would have liked this (or whether Vholran wouldn't have, either way) - it's your night, to do what you want with.]

Comments

[allatonce]

... Grieving is an individual process. A wake isn't for the dead, it's for the living. So we know we're not alone, you know?

[That's what her mom always used to say, when they would go to the funerals of aunties and other people she barely knew in the community. It was important to support the people who were still alive.]

Sometimes you have the strength to help. Sometimes, you presence is the strength you can lend.

[inaclearing]

And sometimes neither?

[He skipped last week entirely, after all. But he's...well, not entirely joking, but just sort of lightly self-deprecating about it all.]

I'm glad to do something while I can, at least.

[allatonce]

Sure. Sometimes you show up at the first one. Sometimes it takes until the hundredth day until you're ready.

[She says it easily, like of course you have like 7 funerals for a person. Then she remembers that's not a thing for Western folk.]

Or, uh. What is it you guys do instead of the 100-day? A memorial?

[inaclearing]

Uh...usually a funeral and a wake, I guess. Memorials are more like...something you might do later, on the anniversary. I...sort of did one just before I came here, actually.

[It hadn't been totally framed that way; it was just for the kids. And him, he supposes - maybe only by virtue of it being his land, but...maybe not. Per's right, it isn't like he wasn't involved too.]

But I'm sure it's different for different people.

[allatonce]

Yeah. We have a funeral, then a wake, then you sort of... check in? I don't really know how to explain it, but there's another ceremony on the 3rd, 7th, 49th, and 100th days after someone dies. Then sometimes you have ceremonies in auspiciously numbered years.

[She's only just now realizing that, like, other people think death is the end. Her ancestors and family are still around, in a way. She doesn't think dying takes them away, just makes them incorporeal.]

[inaclearing]

...I can see how that might help. Sometimes it feels like after the funeral, people expect you to just be okay again - like it's over then.

[allatonce]

The Victorians used to catch their tears in these little glass vials for a year and then at the end of the year they'd sprinkle them over the grave to signal the end of mourning. But it's... it's a process like anything else, you know?

[inaclearing]

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

[.....]

You know, I'm not sure if it would be better or worse if we'd ended up having graves here.

[allatonce]

[She snorts, just a little.]

Don't say that. You know he'll put a graveyard in the next area, just to spite us.

[inaclearing]

[Brett smiles a little.]

No, it'd make the Undertaker too happy. [RIP]

[allatonce]

True. We'd have somewhere to hold the wake part of these things and that's be too nice to us. Everything here has to be, like, the Wish version of what you want.