I have died every day waiting for you

[lovelikeyou]

[That was, in Rose's opinion, even worse than last week. Any loss of life is an awful waste, but for it all to come of some horrible accident...

This week, she doesn't retreat back to her room. She knows now that the people here, or at least enough of them, like to gather after these experiences. Many of the Crystal Gems were the same way; she remembers their post-battle huddles well. It's not a party, really, but...it's good to be together. To have friends around. Maybe, to remember those who were lost.

So this time, she'll go to the cafeteria herself and request some food for everyone. It's just basic snacks, the kind of human food she knows well enough to ask for. There's some hot chocolate provided, too. She definitely knows people enjoy that. It doesn't take too long, since she isn't making most of it, and then she goes to invite everybody she can find.

She doesn't slip any notes underneath doors, for the people she doesn't happen across. Some Crystal Gems didn't join the groups, or maybe did after one battle but not another. Sometimes they wanted to be alone. She never really understood that...but it wasn't her place to tell them otherwise. Weren't they all about freedom?

Everybody probably knows something like this is going to happen again, anyway. It's their choice to come.]

Comments

[emberserker]

Perhaps he's bound by his backers, then, not just in needing to get results.

[fivestagegod]

Maybe. Though I have a hard time seeing them caring too much, if they're funding something like this to begin with.

[emberserker]

They or he must need it done in a certain way. Those logs talked about previous failures, didn't they?

[fivestagegod]

They did.

[Ugh, he's still not here for all this insanity puzzle bullshit.]

Again, begging the question of why...

[emberserker]

It's something to continue to study. That or no one's making it to the end.

[fivestagegod]

...No, I'm pretty sure someone will be. One way or another.

[emberserker]

Perhaps. It's something to be prepared for.

[fivestagegod]

Maybe. Either way, at least one person is going to win this. We're currently just working on how many of us are with them.

[emberserker]

Here I thought you didn't care whether you lived or died.

[fivestagegod]

...Leaving this place doesn't matter as much to me as it does to some people. Whether I live or die matters.

[emberserker]

Even if living means being trapped, it's still living, then?

[fivestagegod]

...Something like that.

[emberserker]

...Very well. I've still got things I need to get back to. I'm sure even you knew the feeling at some point. Something that pushes you to focus on one thing only.

[fivestagegod]

Never said I didn't. My life's work is everything.

I've just got a complicated relationship with being here, that's all.

[emberserker]

Charming.

[Anna looks at the partially eaten gingerbread house like it's offended her. She slumps slightly forward in her seat.]

I'm not finishing this.