and it takes, and it takes, and it takes

[acherontiastyx]

[It... definitely takes a while for the weekly after-execution note to arrive, but it does --- kind of scrawly and on ripped paper rather than nice stationery.]

EY. YO. WE GOT EFFIGIES IN THE DINING ROOM AND WE'RE GONNA BURN EM.

FOOD TOO. THE USUAL AND HOT COCOA. GOOD FOR THE SOUL. GET SOME. MAYBE TAKE IT BACK TO YOUR ROOM IF YOU HAVE TO. JUST GET SOME.

[Anyway, in the dining room, there's plenty of mugs set out, with a janky looking arrow sign pointing into the kitchen to where you can get your hot cocoa. On the table, there's Vichyssoise, a pot of green tea, and some booze. There's also a cookie tray on the floor away from the table on which to burn the Wordsmith and Kimbley effigies, which are handily placed near the food on the table.

...also if you go in the kitchen without shoes on just. Watch the northern corner. There's no kidneys, but there's a lot of broken plates there for some reason...]

Comments

[elepe]

[It's...a little later than she'd like when she goes to check on him. She's not really sure she's welcome anymore, after what happened, but...

Well. She's a mom at heart, and she made a promise to Gold.]

If I am disturbing you, I'll leave. But I wanted to write to you, if you're fine with it.

- Lusamine

[feistytrader]

[...There's not much hesitation before he swings his door open for her.]

Come on.

[He's a little dead in the face at this point, but it's clear that he spent a good deal of time crying beforehand. Once the door's closed, he immediately leaps straight into-]

I don't have a good enough apology, or anything that can make up for what happened today. But I'll tell you anything you want to know.

[...Well. That.]

[elepe]

[...you know, of all the things she expected, that...was definitely not one of the things on the list.

Either way, she's...inside very quickly, and kind of processing what he said. It's...she hadn't processed a lot of what happened today, other than the fact that Silver and Gold killed Kimbley, and now Gold was dead.

...It's definitely clear she's not good in the face either, but...]

...I...don't know where to start. Everything happened so quickly, I...

[They all could have died for this. But Gold and Silver weren't wrong for what they did. But--]

...Would you mind terribly if I simply sat with you, for a while? You can tell me...what you are comfortable with, if you wish.

[feistytrader]

...Yeah. Come on.

[He sits down on his bed- their bed, but it's just his now, isn't it- and the Pokémon are quick to flood in and cozy up to the two of them. Weavile's both upset and concerned, while Aibo and Polibo look a lot more inconsolable.]

We got pretty scared after Chiyuki died. [...] No, maybe that's not fair. We've been scared the entire time. That's the first time we couldn't brush it off. And then we both got back the same memory. It's never happened before. We were getting completely trashed by Arceus. It's a miracle we didn't die.

[...He still has no idea what happened to his eyes, does he.]

We talked about who we'd be willing to kill. It's a list of maybe five people. So we decided we'd wait for the motive, then make a decision. Everyone that died this week only made things worse. Once the motive went up, I couldn't talk Gold out of it anymore. We decided to go out that night, and if someone was around that we didn't mind taking out, we'd take things into our own hands. And if we got caught, that's fine, because we did our best, and we'd go out together.

[...And that's that.]

[elepe]

[Oh...oh wow]

You've both been planning this for a while, then.

[And...somehow that fucks her up more than anything, and she finds herself gripping the edges of her dress and looking away. She's...honestly been in a state of shock since this all started. Since the spotlight first turned on Silver and Gold, and everything else after that had simply been hideous.

They intended all of this. And there was no escaping that. They were scared, they only had each other, and they intended this. They had a list of people. They wanted this--]

...Was my name on that list?

[feistytrader]

[...Silver pauses for a moment, then gets up and sifts through his trunk; eventually, he pulls out a sheet of paper and hands it to Lusamine.]

See for yourself.

[elepe]

[...She's not sure what to make of it at first, really, there's a long pause of simply blankfacing her way through the page.

Eventually, a few tears prick right back into her eyes.]

Ah...

[This is fine. This is fine. She'll...shakily hand back the paper.]

...Thank you. I was worried and...hurt.

[And she still kind of is, if her tone's any indication. But it's not at this, and the smile on her face is a little soft.]

I'm so sorry. To both of you.

[feistytrader]

...We talked about how we'd go looking for your kids, if we fixed everything. Since you're from the future, we could look out for them. It wouldn't make up for what we did, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

[So there's... That. Maybe it's not the right thing to tell her, but...]

Gold said we could even see if Ho-oh or Celebi would help fix things for you and Guzma. That made things a little easier to swallow, but it was just wishful thinking, even before we failed.

[elepe]

[...Silver goddammit, don't do this to her, her head already hurts from crying. Like. A lot.

...does he mind if she just. Pulls him into a hug. God. Child, you have put her on a rollercoaster tonight. She'll back off if he minds, though.]

...I think they would have liked you two. They were always very shy children, but...you two would have made them very happy to have more friends to play with.

[There's a bit of a pause.]

I'm not angry with either of you. I'm disappointed that this situation happened at all, but that's...the extent of it.

[feistytrader]

[...He's not sure if that's a relief or not. If anything, it makes things worse. But he doesn't say anything. He stares at Lusamine for a moment, then pulls her into a hug.]

I'm sorry. I'm really, really, sorry, I-

[He doesn't regret it, he can't regret it, but- Lusamine deserves better than this. Better than him. And yet, he's still relieved that she doesn't hate him.]

[elepe]

[She'll return it, at the very least--she doesn't really speak up at first, while he's rattling off apologies, but...

She just kinda runs her fingers through his hair and keeps him close.]

Shhh...just let it out. [It's...not very okay, but she's trying to calm him down a little. Poor kid...]