is this darkness of the dawn and your friends are gone

[bogwife]

[Everything keeps happening so much and the only real constants are death and parties.

Zerinda takes the initiative to plan things this time, with Della helping her deliver the invitations either being slipped under doors again.]



[It gives everyone an hour or two to settle down from the investigation and trial. By 6 on the dot the tables in the lounge are packed with miscellaneous vending machine snacks, a large pot of a thick and warm white stew, a plate stacked with biscuits and cupcakes. So many cupcakes. Mira has been coping well with her stress.

There's also several bottles of wine, hot coffee and hot chocolate waiting for anyone thirsty.

Welcome to the party, ya'll.]

Comments

[philoxenia]

[ After they leave the trial room, Mira makes a beeline to the kitchen. Indeed, she is making cupcakes. So, so many cupcakes. She seems pretty focused--doesn't even notice the flour on her face--but she won't say no to company.

A little later on, while the gathering's underway, she'll be around! Just like Della before here, she makes sure people have whatever they need. Even if it's just a shoulder to lean on or an ear to talk into, she's here to provide. And even later on, she's flipping through her ever-present notepad, looking thoughtful, more than anything. ]

[fivestagegod]

[Birkin will actually show up on time to this whole gathering thing, despite how he usually shows up late or not at all; he is noticeably not eating, but it does turn out that he agrees with the whole "we need to talk" portion of that.]

Look. As much as I hate acknowledging anything that happened a little while ago, Kirei had a point - we're all a goddamn pile of secrets and I had thought we were all aware that that wasn't going to be sustainable anymore. However, apparently we don't actually all have that figured out.

Does anyone else have something they want to share with the class, if only so it can't be used against us anymore? Because now would be a great time to get that shit out into the open.

[philoxenia]

[ ... the empathy thing, she already fessed up to during Alice's trial, but. ]

.... I apparently tried to kill the gods in a past life and therefore am somewhat responsible for the state of my world.

[ Normal Girl Things! ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Okay, so Della does arrive on time, of course she does. She ferries some things, you know, to the whole gathering.

But, at first, she ends up at Kirei's room. And. Jesus Duck Christ what the hell do we have here. It's all a little. Numbming?

So, in the prep time, she's just...hanging out there, a little, door open a bit.

But this is fine! We're at a gathering now!! This is great!!

Della's doing a little less hovering because it seems she's trying to keep off her leg. In fact, you might find it disconnected as she's...kind of tinkering with it? A screwdriver, some spare screws, muttering to herself a bit. ]

What is it, you miss low gravity? Is that it? Seriously. I can't take you anywhere.

[ ...Or, to the leg, probably. ]

[fivestagegod]

...I suspect a lot of this is going to involve me wondering how the hell these things even happen to some of you, but it defeats the purpose if I stand here judging you people for it. I... All right. Attempted deicide. I assume that didn't go well.

[hardnosed]

[ but okay for real: ]

Anything else that could matter is from my future. And that's only if he was telling the truth last week.

[ But she sounds much less skeptical than she usually would, under the circumstances. ]

Did Rose tell any of you about corruption.

[philoxenia]

Not particularly, no, but someone had to do it. [ She waves her hand. ] Abuse of power doesn't sit well with me, even if it's actual gods.

[fivestagegod]

I've heard some things about it, yeah.

[nothingcanstop]

Not...a lot, particularly? ...She kinda clammed up about a lot of serious Gem things.

[ And Now We Know Why. ]

[bogwife]

[Before and during a good chunk of the gathering, Zerinda is again going to he holed up in the kitchen just like last time. Her pets are with her again, albeit Julius is behaving much better than last week...possibly due to having been shoved into a little vest for the occasion and who is laying down in a corner to pout about it.

She has a better apron now, one salvaged from a vending machine lab coat, and it's coming in handy while she absentmindedly wipes her hands on it between chopping turnips, sausage and barley. Anyone who comes into the kitchen gets a smile over her shoulder.]

Would you kindly get me the cream if you have a moment?

[At the gathering itself, once she's out of food to fuss over, she's around. Mostly fussing over other people, seeing if they need or want anything else, with Julius and Princess following at her heels. When she finally settles down later on she just sort of...flops onto a couch and decides no, she's not moving from here for a good while.]

[fivestagegod]

There's a point to be made about picking your battles, but I am the last person with any right to make it.

So what was going on there, exactly? That led to...all that.

[nothingcanstop]

I'm an open boo-- oh. Huh, well, he did see fit to make that my "secret," so...

[ Della heaves a sigh and shrugs. ]

My sons are demi-gods. [ ...DELLA???? ] I swear, this isn't as big a thing as it is in fiction, they're just kinda durable.

[fivestagegod]

[...EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS GOING TO MAKE HIM REGRET ASKING THIS, AREN'T YOU]

[nothingcanstop]

[ YEP, PROBABLY!! ]

[fivestagegod]

[ONE OF YOU TRIED TO KILL GOD

ONE OF YOU JUST...FUCKED ONE, HE SUPPOSES

WHY ARE ALL OF YOU LIKE THIS]

[mouflon]

[ ughhhhh ]

The trouble is figuring out whether something is going to be a problem before it becomes one. No offense, but I'm not really interested in throwing all my dirty laundry on the table for the rest of you to pick through.

[ What she actually means by dirty laundry is trauma but ha ha, ]

[mouflon]

Well, she explained it to me. Not so much how it works, though.

[nothingcanstop]

[ look




she was never going to ever be normal, she was raised by a man whose nemesis is Santa Claus ]

[bogwife]

[Her magic is already out and her title hasn't exactly made things subtle from day one but...]

I'm a necromancer. [She takes a long sip of wine.] It's not as bad as it sounds, in certain parts of Thedas it's a very respected form of magic. Just not the parts I'm from. The fact I have magic and wasn't immediately shoved into a Circle Tower as a little girl is the much bigger issue.

[fivestagegod]

Then don't. If this is another thing that's just a job to you, then treat it as such, but the rest of us are more interested in not dying than keeping secrets at this point.

[philoxenia]

[ Oh boy. She hesitates for only a second, but honestly... Yeah, get it all out in the open. She can do that. ]

Long story short: I was trapped in a death game with one other person, because the gods decided they wanted to play a game but didn't feel like doing it themselves. They chose two people as their champions, and each time one of us got a kill, it meant a point for them. Luckily for them, they always brought us back, so these cycles just kept going.

[ tone: fuck this, actually ]

A couple cycles in, I decided I didn't want to do it anymore, so I tried to cut it off at the source. As it turns out, they really don't like when you do that, so they gave me a new power, took away my memories after each cycle, and decided that those with powers had the honor of being treated like outcasts. ... Or, maybe it was just me. It's not really clear.

[ yeah. ]

I don't remember any of this, obviously, but my brother's journal made it into that vending machine, and he wrote everything down.

[bogwife]

[Damn, Della, get it.]

[philoxenia]

[ that's just how it fuckin be, my guy ]

[mouflon]

...If something does get to be a problem, I'll tell you then. How about that?

[fivestagegod]

Oh, come the hell on. No, you won't, simply because if it's a problem it's already well beyond the point of telling anyone.

I'm not telling you to do anything. No one is forcing you to be here, no one is forcing you to talk. Stop acting like I am.