Afterparty the Third

[canreallymove]

[Yuta's gone. He can't do the after party. So now it's up to Sonic. Yes, Hunter was going to do it, or...at least yell at the sheep to do it, but Sonic pointed out they were going to need more than just apple slices. People were starving and the sheep couldn't cook. In his opinion, of course. How does one even bruise an apple like that!?

Hunter wasn't happy with him, and what's her face Jeanie probably hated his guts now, but honestly, who was happy with anything at this point?

So, the first thing he does is go to the kitchen and start to do the one thing he knows will at least help: cook. The food is back, and so he's going to make a hearty mean and veggie stew in the oven, courtesy of an old recipe that nanny Rosie would make when they were kids. Back before the takeover. After they got food in Knothole.

While the stew is stewing in the oven for a good hour or so, Sonic himself is just...stewing. And also making something with rice in the microwave to tie people over in the meantime. It's actually congee, but he thinks its hot rice pudding, so whatever, it's good to go for people.

And yes. He also has apple slices and graham crackers, Hunter insisted on it. And yes, he's made extra and enough for everyone and Nanami to have seconds if they'd like. They need to eat, albeit slowly so they don't get sick, and he makes notes at the cafeteria table stating that. Then he gets to work with a cookbook to try and make some kind of drink that can help with getting people back on their feet. Dylan does cover with chamomile tea, at least, so it's not as much of an urgent issue.

He's mostly staying in the kitchen if people want to bug him. When he does finally come out, he sits in silence, staring at his bowl of stew, picking at the carrots. He's tired. It's pretty obvious on his face.]

Comments

[violence_ensues]

Memorial

[It takes a small bit for Adorabat to enter the room. The very first thing she does is go over to all the names on the walls and adds two more: One for Valmont, and one for Yuta. She draws a nice sun with a great, big happy face under Yuta's and a turtle under Valmont's. Finally, she sets a few of Yuta's photos under his, and a talisman under Valmont's.

Because these two, in her eyes, were never monsters.]

Eating

[ADORABAT DON'T CARE ABOUT NO STINKIN SIGNS! She's scarfing down food as fast as she can because she H A T E D being hungry! Someone might want to try and stop her.]

Gym

[Boy, does she feel SO MUCH BETTER and so energetic now that she actually has a full stomach! You can find Adorabat in the gym just flying around the outer edge of the room as fast as she can. She's panting, but she decides to keep going. After all, she missed out on a handful of days of training.]

[holyironmade]

So you knew what it looked like? The talisman.

[She points at it.]

I wish I had learned of the situation earlier....

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat looks over to Jeanne.]

Oh, I saw it in Dylan's room. I've been in there a couple of times to be with him when he was scared and felt alone.

[She looks back to Valmont's name.]

...Dylan said Valmont wanted it during the trial. He attacked big bro for it. If I knew about that before, I could've talked to them about it. Maybe then, Valmont wouldn't have gone outside his room Thursday night.

[Not much guilt is in Adorabat's voice. More like hopefulness.]

Memorial

[hashtagwoof]

[ Hunter stops by the memorial for the first time in a few weeks. He hadn't been paying it too much attention before, but now that Yuuta's gone...

He sits next to Adorabat while she's placing her offerings. ]

... Hey. [ Slight smile. ] You did a good job keeping up with these so far.

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat returns the smile with her own.]

Thanks... Emma did Reika's and Thomasin's, but I did the rest, except for the owl. That was Ava. You like the drawings?

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[Dylan is in and out of the kitchen, always leaving the kitchen with a tea cup on a saucer balanced carefully on his head. He doesn't know how many people here drink chamomile, let alone tea in general, but...this is the first time he doesn't feel completely horrible a trial. He wants to do something.

So, everyone gets a cup. Even the animals, if people request it. Or if they don't-because they probably need some too, after this week.

And once everyone's got some tea, he'll just...sit, eat, and drink for now.

Entertainment was...never really his strong suit...]

[violence_ensues]

[A familiar bat friend lands next to Dylan after a while. Enough time for Dylan to have some time to think.]

Hiya, big bro. Whatcha got there?

[Adorabat has never really seen tea before. Neither Mao Mao nor Badgerclops drink it.]

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[A nod of acknowledgement, a small smile on his muzzle.]

Tea. Chamomile. One that's friendly to dogs and helps soothe nerves.

Did...did I forget to give you some?

[hashtagwoof]

Thanks...

[ Hunter didn't pay attention to who was serving the tea until he has to grab the cup off of Dylan's head. ]

Huh? [ That is tea. He has to check the drink for traces of dog fur but actually brewed tea. ]

Woah. Did you brew this?

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

Huh?

[Previously lost in thought, Dylan looks up at Hunter, a little confused.]

Uh, yeah? I figured everyone could use a little help calming down, and we have chamomile, so...

[A shrug, like it's the formalist thing in the world for a dog to brew tea.]

[keyringwitness]

[When Yasu walks into the cafeteria, her shoulders are slumped over with pure exhaustion. Not shock, not sadness, not even grief, just the overpowering certainty that this is never going to end weighing her down.

She sits alone, grimoire spread out before her, that message bottle Kuro brought her a few weeks ago at her side, and...]

Can I really... is this...

[She starts writing, first slowly, then furiously as she flips the pages. Something clicked as she caught Yuta, and she's not going to let it go, no matter how fatigued she is.

Scritch. Scritch. 110. 011. 101. But never 111.

Scritch-]

So it was... ha... hahahahahaha.... hahahaha!

[Yasu lets out a hysterical laugh before pitching over backward and fainting. There's a thunk as her chair hits the floor.]

[temmapathy]

[Emma doesn't hear the thunk, but when she turns her head to see Yasu lying on the ground, she definitely freaks out, rushing towards her to check her head for injury.]

[whimsicalism]

What's wrong?

[There's a doll trying to push her way in to see what's happening. It's A, so at least the talking is 'heard'?]

[whimsicalism]

[As Yasu falls, the gold haired doll near her falls over and. Stands up.]

Yasu? Yasu! C'mon... you're alright, right?

[That's. A. Yeah. A is definitely in that doll, shaking Yasu.]

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[Well, if one thing was going to snap Dylan out of his funk...]

Y-YASU!

[That would be it.

He comes running, looking her over for injuries.]

A-are you okay?! Do I need to get a first aid kit!? What-what was that?

[The...laughing, is what he's referring to.]

[whimsicalism]

Water! Dylan, can you get some water? Maybe--maybe we can throw it at her!

[Yes, there's a talking doll freaking out next to her.]

[canreallymove]

[Aaand here is Sonic dropping the bowl in his hands as he sees Yasu faint and the doll become a horror film prop and-





That high-pitched squeak is him, don't mind him-]

[holyironmade]

[Jeanne pokes her head into the cafeteria and sees that Sonic's stew is going to take an entire God-loving hour. She slowly closes the door completely, so even the latch clicks, which is probably the Jeanne version of slamming the door.

If she's going to have to continue to suffer (which nobody asked her to do), she might as well do it somewhere else. So here she is on the playground with her bible under the light of the moon.]

I will not deny that I am contemplating church.

cafeteria

[Now Jeanne is eating the soup. She's patient and meticulous about it and exhaled air on the spoon but tears of involuntary gratitude are streaming down her face.]

I must be careful not to burn myself... It is not as if that pain has ever stopped me, after all.

Cafeteria

[canreallymove]

Burned tongue still sucks, though.

[...]

Um. Do you have a sec?

Playground

[panglici]

[So this is why Carrie wasn't panicking over Yasu's sudden case of Gothic Novel Protagonist Syncope with everyone else: she saw Jeanne peer in and then leave. She'd almost been finished peeling that apple from earlier, having sliced off the bruises left by throwing it at the screen their captor used to show his presence, then.

It was easier to focus on finishing that than it was to admit she was afraid to go looking for Jeanne, afraid because she'd been quiet when she shouldn't have been. But it was a task soon finished, and so was slicing the apple, and there's only one option for escaping-without-escaping, here. The playground makes sense as a place one might retreat to if the cafeteria is loud and the kitchen populated by someone who accused you of murder repeatedly.]

I think there's still a point, if that's part of what you're contemplating.

[A pause the length of one heartbeat, and then she holds the plate of skinned and sliced apple out towards Jeanne.]

And, um. I know it's not much, but I didn't want to eat it alone.

[Yes, she's completely oblivious to any symbolism here. The narrator, meanwhile, is screaming.]

Playground

[temmapathy]

So NOW can I say that he was a jerk?

[copycut]

[ Intellectually, Kuro takes in the words on that sign Sonic has posted. Emotionally, she does not. The truth is, for all she had said about about Valmont being uniquely soft, Kuro isn't accustomed to the mundane, physical hunger of the human body either. The fainting lightness that came with it felt familiar enough, but that gnawing emptiness...

In the cafeteria, she stuffs spoonful after spoonful of stew into her mouth. As she finishes her first bowl, she sighs and stretches, enjoying the feeling of heat seeping down to the tips of her toes (for now). In fact, it seems that her portion alone isn't enough to satisfy her. For those that are eating a little too slowly, or perhaps just a little too emotionally overwhelmed to finish their meal, she leans over, and— ]

Hey, hey— Are you going to finish that?

[ But, as time passes... More and more, Yuta's absence weighs on Kuro's thoughts. Maybe she hadn't said it, but there was a part of her that was looking forward to mooching off his cooking when everything was said and done... In the end, she gets up from her seat, leaving her dirty bowl behind for someone else to clean up in her stead. She heads to the gym; tonight, when she throws a dodgeball against the wall, it isn't with any real fervor. It's quiet and contemplative—a steady and rhythmic thunk, thunk, thunk of rubber ricocheting from the wall.

It's only later, in the dormitory commons, that the consequences of her actions strike. Other returning students can find her sprawled out on the floor in a way that might be a little concerning with murder so fresh on the mind... If it weren't for the fact that her groaning marks her as obviously conscious, anyway. One of her arms is flopped across her brow, and sweat beads faintly on her skin. ]

I think... Maybe I overdid it...

Gym

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat hasn't much talked to Kuro, not that she was guilty over it. It's just that she latched onto a bunch of other people first. It's no surprise that when doing laps around the gym that she does notice Kuro bouncing the ball on the wall. She adjusted her trajectory accordingly so as to not interrupt said ball bouncing.

...However, Adorabat can't really resist for too long, and upon return to the ball wall, she manages to snatch it with a wing before it hits the wall.]

Wanna take turns?

DORM

[panglici]

[Momentary panic at seeing someone sprawled out seemingly bonelessly on the floor is something Carrie can set aside. Things have changed, she can put anything in a dusty back cabinet in her mind, she has a purpose and that is trying her damndest to help people, and with that in mind... well, she may not be able to do much, but she'll head over and kneel down to check on her.]

If you vomit on me - oh, I defintely shouldn't make that joke right now. Just please don't. If I help you up you can make it into your bed, right?

[holyironmade]

[Jeanne is extremely diligent in how she is eating her food. It almost seems to be a skill of hers, eating again for the first time in a long time. So it's probably a different person like Sonic that Kuro is nagging when Jeanne remarks about observing it with the others.]

I pray that there truly is enough for everyone. It is hard to trust the stock of the restored school.