hey mom, dead mom, i need a little help here

[nothingcanstop]

[ ...All of that happened, huh. That's the sentiment each and every week, and it's no different this time. Except, this time they've lost more people than before. Five.

The gathering invitation is slipped under everyone's doors, but it specifies something a little different. ]



[ That's a good two hours or so of difference. Enough time to wander around, for sure.

But, in the garden, at the appointed time, there's a variable arrangement of fresh-cooked food. A good amount of beef stew, some Chinese hot pot, and...watermelon? Just, an absurd amount of watermelon, cut up and set on plates. All the food's set on tables that seem to have been moved from the library, and the ground is littered with blankets, for those who don't want to sit on the grass.

And yes, she did not lie. There is, indeed, a variable fuckton of alcohol. (And coffee, for our underaged.)

This has become routine. But, we're still here. We're still alive. ]

Comments

[blackmass]

[Kirei made no appearance at dinner; instead he went directly to his room after the trial and slammed the door shut with force enough that it seemed to shake the hall.]

['When you broke a long time ago... it's hard to be put back together.']

[mouflon]

[ ...So, Rin normally wouldn't do this, but... Some hours later, there's a knock at his door. ]

Hey, Kotomine. You home?

[mouflon]

[ Rin... doesn't look like she's in a good mood.

That's actually rare, so far as these parties go. Either the executions don't mean much to her at all, or she waits until she can put a neutral face on before showing up. This time, though... Even after helping to put food on the table, there's an odd emptiness to her expression that conveys more than neutrality.

Earlier on in the evening, she can be found near the table. She's a bit spaced out, and doesn't notice anyone who approaches until they're close. When she does, though, she looks up from her own plates of food and says, ]

If you want more of something cut up for the hot pot, give me a minute to get it.

[ Later on, though, she's moved away to sit in front of some flowers. She... doesn't look like she's doing much better now, her knees drawn up to her chest as she stares at the plants in front of her. Or maybe she's looking at nothing at all? It's hard to say. Either way, if anyone approaches her now, she'll say nothing until directly addressed. ]

flowers;

[valentinus]

[ ...

....

This was awkward because Vincent came here during alone time so he supposed he was suddenly in the midst of a party. Maybe he should've looked at the invitation for once, and he's about to leave as suddenly as he came, but he saw her sitting there. Then, for some reason he came over instead. ]

...Rin?

flowers

[fivestagegod]

[Birkin never shows up on time to these things, preferring to wait until most people have cleared out and then coming by to see what's left; "what's left", tonight, is apparently Rin, and she looks sort of out of it, and that's fine, honestly.]

I'd ask if you're okay, but then we'd both have to be annoyed with me for asking pointless questions.

Table

[ladygeryon]

Hm? I just wanted to ask...how you were. [Because she's definitely noticed that blank-eyed look.]

table

[nothingcanstop]

You can relax, Rin. I'm fine with what's here.

[ Rin's been...very helpful. But, Della knows a distraction when she sees one. ]

[philoxenia]

[ Five people gone. The memorial's going to see a considerable amount of additions this upcoming week.

But for now, she doesn't want to think about it. Doesn't want to think about anything for now. Immediately after they leave the trial room, Mira goes to her own--not Zerinda's, but her own. Things are far too raw and painful right now, and she needs to be alone--

Just remember your promise.

If I don't throw away people who hurt me or can't help me, then they'll do the same to me! That's how this world is!

If things had been just a little different, maybe she would have been like Anna.

Eventually, though... she goes to the dinner. This time, she doesn't hover near the back, away from everyone else. Daisy's here, too, head in Mira's lap. She has a plate of food, but she's eating it pretty slowly. All the same, she's here, she's trying. And she certainly won't turn anyone away. ]

Dinner

[ladygeryon]

[Despite the rhyming names, Nira doesn't actually know Mira very well. But her Pokemon are good at noticing upset kids. After a while, Rori comes over, stepping carefully before crouching down near Mira and gently bumping her snout against the girl's side in a comforting manner.]

dinner

[nothingcanstop]

[ Della comes over with some hot pot and kneels next to Mira. ]

Hi, honey. I'm...really glad you showed up.

dinner

[bogwife]

[When Mira finally shows up to dinner Zerinda doesn't waste a minute getting up off her blanket to go to her. She doesn't say anything, not this time, just takes a seat next to her and pulls her into a hug.]

Dinner

[bolderfell]

[Some time after she's settled in, Therion arrives. He doesn't even ask permission, he just takes a corner of her blanket, half-facing away, and fishes a piece of meat out of the stew to offer to Daisy. You know, if she takes her head out of Mira's lap for a second. He's not gonna dangle stew over Mira's legs, that's rude.]

[bogwife]

[From the moment they leave the courtroom and she agrees to help Della to the very start of the party, Zerinda is in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Her recently purple hair is pinned up on top of her head and she'd taken a small detour to the sewing room to cut up some muslin for the most slapdash, un-sewed apron known to man. She's chopping meat and vegetables (probably with a little more force than necessary), tossing it all in the biggest pot she can find, throwing in seasoning then tasting, throwing in more seasoning- she's not used to cooking for this many people so she might be overdoing it but she's in too deep to stop now.

On a stool next to her Princess dozes gently and at her feet Julius is walking in circles around her until she tosses him scraps of meat.

At the party itself she's settled on a blanket with her legs curled up underneath her. Princess is happily taking a swim in the pond and Julius is laid out next to her, gnawing through an entire raw chicken with his powerful but toothless jaws. Her food is sitting half-eaten in front of her and in her lap she's working with hyperfocus on flower garlands- she's already finished one made of forget-me-nots and borage flowers. The one she's weaving in her hands is pink roses and carnations.

If someone approaches her she might not notice until she's spoken to but she'll welcome any company on her blanket.]

kitchen

[mouflon]

Hey, if you have enough extra to feed him, pass it over here.

[ Hot pot, at least, is just getting the broth right and then cutting a lot of things into thin slices! Which Rin has been hard at work doing, on the other counter. ]

party

[nothingcanstop]

What're you making there?

[ Hi, gathering buddy. ]

Flower...things?

kitchen

[hardnosed]

[ Jasper is also here, and she's also chopping things up! Unfortunately, what she's working on... is a humanoid watermelon. She has gone full Gallagher at this point, and it is a truly horrible sight to behold. ]

You've had enough, [ she says, after a considerable period of silent slicing and dicing, speaking directly to Julius. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Before the gathering, here's Della. Flitting around. She's got some of the nice paper from the vending machine...and blankets. Setting up the garden, as it were. She's tracked down some people to help her and she's...well, in determined mode again.

Nothing can stop her, so it seems.

During she's mostly around. Mostly. Helping at the tables, or trying to chat someone up. In quiet times, she's sitting by the pond, no blanket needed. Maybe trying to pretend she's somewhere else.

There are...so fewer people to check on now, so every absence is felt. So she does what she had a few weeks ago too, goes out looking for those who aren't here. She has a bowl of stew, a little watermelon. If you aren't there... Where might she find you? ]

[fivestagegod]

[Hey, Della.

Birkin is doing his usual thing of not showing up to the mass gatherings anywhere near on time; it's questionable whether he's going to show up at all, honestly. So he doesn't really fault her for looking; he's currently in the infirmary because of course he is - he's sort of predictable in that way, consistent, it's either the workshop or the art room or here, and tonight he's chosen to be here.

He's currently sitting on one of those beds that's in here - ten beds, ten of them left, what a fucking coincidence that turned out to be - and he looks like he's reading some stuff over; whatever it is he's got, he seems like he's getting increasingly agitated with it.

But he's here, and he's in one piece at least, so thank god for small favors.]

Pond

[ladygeryon]

[After a bit, Nira comes to sit a ways behind Della, so she's close to her without being close to the edge of the pond. Aria does approach more to nuzzle her slightly, though.]

I...I started thinking of him as my kid at some point. Brian, I mean...and Piers, before that.

elsewhere

[blackmass]

[boy oh boy della if you think he's coming out of his room tonight you're in for a surprise]

During

[bolderfell]

Did you eat?

[Oh. Therion's here, actually. Not immediately, of course, but not so late he misses it, either.]

[hardnosed]

[ Jasper, unsurprisingly, doesn't show at the dinner itself! You can definitely find her around in the preparation stages — singlehandedly carrying those tables from the library to the garden, glaring at the contents of the bar before doing the same for virtually all the alcohol it contains, and slicing up a, frankly, deeply upsetting watermelon child with a carving knife in the kitchen.

Before any of that, though, she comes to the garden. She slowly unsheathes an elaborate pink sword. This is what she used to do it, 5,000 years ago. This is what she used to fake it. But thinking about that, remembering anything about what it entails or how irrevocably it changes her entire wasted existence, is too much for her. She lets her breath go in a low, pained hiss, she swings...

(She talks like a Diamond.)

... and she starts fighting the nearest tree. Or fighting at it, really. She slices deep into the bark on the trunk, kicks it, sends leaves showering in every direction, until she gives up, at which point she turns on the poison garden and rips the wolfsbane wholesale from the ground. Her left hand, still faintly rusty with Rhea's blood and overflowing with purple petals, opens and lets them fall to the ground, and then she grips the hilt harder than ever with both hands. This is where she buried half of her — for a misdirection nobody even noticed. This is what Rose (Pink) sacrificed everything for. This is what she still can't understand.

(I know, Jasper. I know. No sinner goes unpunished.)

She looms over the hollyhock, which she knows Rose (Pink) planted — of course she's been keeping tabs on her this whole time, did you expect her not to be a weirdo angry stalker? — sword raised. There's a long, still moment. She thinks about the unsightly image of herself, half turquoise, her arm deformed, crawling through her own birthplace like a mindless beast, sacrificing everything to destroy the one person she was made to protect.

(It doesn't matter! Even if it destroys me, I need to...!)

And she plunges it into the earth beside it before storming out. ]

garden

[nothingcanstop]

[ It was fortuitous, honestly, that Della ran into Jasper before all this. Or, maybe Jasper ran into her. She has no idea who really was looking for the other, just that Della needed help with putting something together, and Jasper needed...something.

Through most of the prep, Della mostly just...directs her places to go, for the tables, and the food, just helps with things. They don't have time to talk, not that she thinks Jasper would want to.

But, there's a little time where Della, being unable to carry tables and unable to cook, has nothing to do. So, she disappears for awhile. And, she returns to check on progress, just in time to see a sword plunge into the ground.

She stands very still, in the northern doorway. Is...Jasper storming this way? Or to the south? ]

[ladygeryon]

[Nira shows up to the garden fairly early, early enough for her and her Pokemon to help a bit with moving stuff around. Later on, she's sitting at one of the tables, looking thoughtfully at one of the bottles of alcohol and even picking it up before putting it back down with a sigh.]

That's why she reacted like that, wasn't it?

[Later on, she heads for Rose's room, and can be found bringing some meat to Lion.]

Hey...wonder how much you know about everything that happened there. [She sits down next to Lion and sighs.] Wonder how much she said about finding you was true.

Garden

[bolderfell]

...Why who reacted like what?

[He sits at her table, his own drink in hand.]

[bolderfell]

[Oddly enough for a thief, particularly one with no compunctions against robbing tombs, Therion doesn't make a habit of going into the rooms of the dead. Maybe it's superstition; maybe it's mere discomfort, having known them while they lived. Maybe what Aela left him the very first time he crossed a newly-unlocked door spooked him off the rest.

But before the gathering, Therion slips into both Anna's and Rhea's rooms. And before he joins the others, he goes to Shelley's memorials. There, next to the others they've lost and killed, he leaves a hand-carved flamenco figure and the Shield of Seiros.

Maybe he'll think of things to leave for Sly, Brian, and Rose later. For now, these two were the ones he feels he knew best.

It's an evening of firsts, it seems, because Therion actually attends this party instead of lurking just outside of it. He takes some of the food prepared (though careful observers will see he doesn't eat it); he brings his own drink, a bottle of homemade mead. He spends most of the time at the fringes of the group, quietly watching everyone else. Now and then, though, his attention drifts somewhere internal.

That night, before the clock turns over to midnight, Therion duct-tapes plastic wrap over all the vents in his room and waits, the taste of black licorice between his teeth.]

attending party;

[valentinus]

[ Feel free to note that Vincent didn't even so much as touch any of the food or drink. But even though originally he came here for peace and quiet, apparently he's decided to linger at a party for the first time as well. ]

Some Gil for one of your thoughts?

[didntgetdadslooks]

[ Oh hey, Angel does actually show up at the party eventually, if just for a little bit. Maybe someone talked her into it? Anyway, she hangs out on a blanket a ways off to the side, eating some stew and drinking something from a wooden cup between doodling in a notebook she brought from her office. Come say hi? ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ ...Oh. Oh, this is actually a huge surprise? ]

Angel. I...didn't think you'd come.