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

[oyashiromama]

[Hanyuu is...quiet for a moment.]

Because I also hate them.

[Both, all at once.]

I've seen...so many horrible things...but I only felt alive when I was with them. Rika's smile. My family's warmth. Their diligence, their devotion they express to one another.

I can't just hate them. I have to love them. All of them, all at once.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . This, ultimately, is where they're different, isn't it?

James Marker was a vampire. Her family are all vampires.

Riku was a human. Rika is a human. Her daughter was a mix-breed able to start a dynasty. And her people were some other creature altogether in a way she didn't understand.

She thinks back to Gold's question, asking what she would have done if she fell in love with James Edwards, human. How she had told the boy that she'd simply need to grow up. The relationship that exists between the two species would be like if an orangutan and a gorilla fell in love: it's a dead end, farcical at best and deadly at worst. Gold had said that sort of world was unfair, to not allow people to make that choice.

Elda snuggles a little closer to Hanyuu. And if Hanyuu took her earlier suggestion, Elda now buries her face in Hanyuu's - well, the hat, really, but her skull, making to brush her cheeks against one of the horns. ]

... I'm sorry that was the case, Hanyuu. You should have been able to find that among your own.

[ Of course that was Elda's understanding. It's the only world view she has. However, after all this, after this week- ]

... But if James Edwards had been a human, I would have made the same, stupid choice.

[oyashiromama]

[Again, something's touching her horns, but she doesn't mind it, really? The shock and fear that pulled her back last time isn't here, because...well, she's just so tired.

And she knows this is safe. Especially after-

Hanyuu shuts her eyes tight, and gives a quick little nod.]

I'd never...ever take it back. Because it meant...I got to meet them, in the first place. [A world without her family wouldn't have been worth it.

A world without Rika, and her friends, without that fun Hinamizawa...it's not worth it. She'll keep resetting. No matter how many years it takes.]

...Thank you.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Hah.

So that's her attachment, even as a ghost. Elda smiles a little to herself, pleased to hear this even if the news is dire indeed. She hums, and she brushes herself against Hanyuu's horns again. And she kisses it again, as if to remind her that there are people who will think she is beautiful regardless - hell, to some extent because - of this nature. She'll never replace or even be a fair substitute for family, but if Hanyuu's thrown her lot in with her "Children of Men," she will suffer for it.

It's Elda Marker's selfishness to assume that she can offer respite, even when she'll probably only ever know Hanyuu for a drop in the bucket of both of their lifetimes.

... She doesn't even know what she's being thanked for, but it's warm. She can't come up with a good verbal response, so she hopes this is sufficient. ]

[oyashiromama]

[And that's okay. Sometimes, words aren't needed. She knows it's that way with her and Rika, that way with some of the others. Family...in a strange way.

So Hanyuu settles in, eyelids heavy, limbs weighed down like sandbags. This day started with finding a body she never wanted to find...and went on to sending a boy to his death who she had started to think of as her own.

But she hadn't lost everything here...and Rika, she's... There's a chance.

There's a small chance.

So she snuggles in, comforted by this feeling. Sleeping alongside Orihime and Watanuki had been so wonderful...and this is too. Another sleepover.

Her existence is horrible, and this place is horrible, and everything waiting for her, if she ever gets out...is probably horrible. But for the moment, this is good. This is enough.]