Week 3 Post-Trial

[xxxx_me]

[It's hard to feel much cheer after finding out the culprit. Everyone's welcome to do whatever brings them peace after such a tense time, whether it's jotting down memories before the next loss or finding other things to occupy themselves with.]

Comments

[soverainty]

Is it really okay to be grabbing that? It's some kind of haunted chimeric flesh tree, you know.

[It's probably not a flesh tree but like. Hm.

Niko's wrinkling her nose a little at Mizuki trying to handle the tree, at least, though she's also here and has seemingly been here for a bit and although she didn't have any particularly strong reaction to their bizarre rendition of Snow White... Well, now they've really got a garden going.

She's giving Mizuki and the tree their space, let's just say.]

Or did you just feel like yelling now that you've got your voice back?

[ballooncaged]

[Breathing heavily, she draws her hands back to her sides in fists.]

...maybe I am trying to say what I couldn't back then. Get it out of my system.

[There's a high sarcasm in that, skepticism such simplistic therapy can actually help. Looks at Niko.]

What about you, wanted to jump on some leaf piles in shorts?

[soverainty]

Hmmm. Maybe the tree's lucky you didn't decide to just go straight for punching? Yelling at the dead is kind of like yelling at the ocean, though? Just less satisfying.

[Glancing at the closed fists with a sort of academic curiosity.

There's a snort at the idea of jumping into leaf piles. She's wearing a dress now, and was wearing leggings earlier, but yes, she does have outfits with shorts.]

With our luck, they'd be poisonous leaf piles.

[ballooncaged]

[O-oh seeing the outfit ending in a skirt Mizuki blushes and feels stupid. Not the first time Niko has made her feel that way.]

...if I knew I'd end up here one day I would have seen the ocean more often when I could. [Just add this to the pile of times Mizuki foreshadowed the pirate zone.] Can't tell whether our luck is good or bad.

[soverainty]

[At least the tree isn't still in a skirt. All things considered, it's somehow still more fashionable than all of them, so it's quite understandable that Mizuki's been dazzled(??).]

Well, you could always see if the Alices want to give us some kind of simulated ocean. You've seen how the windows work, hmm?

[Of course, then they'd probably get another drowning, but y'know. Pirate zones are important, though.]

Definitely bad, though. This murder mystery marathon is going on a little too long.

[ballooncaged]

That actually wouldn't be off brand for them. You can see the stars in the arcade even though there's probably more floors above that. I wonder if Anna ever drew a picture of—

[And then. She hears that voice again. Saber...]

Kyaa! [She brings her fists together in front of her chest, trying to school her wide eyes into sturdy suspicion.] She IS in there!

[soverainty]

Hmm. Well, if you can do whatever you want in a castle of your own design, I don't see why you wouldn't go all out. In fact, it's a little disappointing how conservative they've been with their designs.

[Maybe she's just here to be critical.

There's a tilt of her head as she looks around, like she's going to start going over the garden aesthetic next, but there's a blink and a step back because then Mizuki starts yelling??]

... What? Did you lose your marbles on top of everything else?

[whimsicalism]

[An apple drops from the tree. It sort of rolls towards Yuniko.]

[ballooncaged]

Maybe I just wanted to hear...

[Okay, NEITHER of them were touching it while this apple rolled out. Mizuki kneels to scoop up the apple in her palms (covered by the fancy thumbhole coat sleeves), at a Niko friendly height.]

Trust me, I'm not stupid enough to eat this yet, that's for sure. But it seems like more than another one of their overwrought props.

[soverainty]

So you're hearing things, huh...

[Since Niko has not been nor will she ever be particularly much of a treehugger, she probably didn't hear any weird whispers.

She definitely gives that apple the side-eye, though. Mizuki did the bare minimum of picking it up with (bare minimum) PPE, so she'll just circle a little closer, suspiciously, like a small animal that's just seen a mushroom of the wrong color.]

And what's with the 'yet'? The tree not tell you it wanted you to have dinner or something?

[ballooncaged]

You know how we investigate tons of stuff around here to grope for any illusion of control over our environment?

[She turns the apple upside-down for good measure.]

Now not knowing what this is really made of bothers me. Though talking things out, in most bu... boring fairy tales it's something bad anyway. [Was gonna say bullshit but got shy.]