WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? OUR TALES RIVAL JUST TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!

[bloodisthicker]

[...so, uh, that was a thing that happened. Tarrlok was completely ready to do the politician thing and come up with a speech or something for most of whatever the hell that excuse for a trial was, but everything got all confusing, baffling, and horrifying and completely inexplicably, he can't find the words.

Maybe he just... needs a day. Tomorrow will probably be fine. For now, though, Misa volunteered to make brownies, and he was going to make a Northern Water Tribe comfort food specialty.

...even if they only had shortening and not actual animal fat and it'd been a while since he'd made it, but it tasted... alright? Definitely not as good as the stuff back home, but it was hard to get that good, anyway.

...there's also the matter of setting things up in a location other than the dining hall, because even though that's cleaned up, it still feels pretty tasteless to hold a wake literal feet from the place you found someone's bloody corpse.

So, a little later on in the day, a lovingly personalized note will be slid under everyone's doors:



And if the Survivors choose to head to the library, they'll find a... well, okay, it's a bunch of boxes from the storage room of comparable size stacked up on each other to kind of resemble a table. The dining hall ones don't even seem like they'd fit in the library, so Team Afterparty clearly had to improvise. One side is filled with plates, bowls, and spoons, and the other is filled with brownies, cookies, and a big bowl of berry aqutak. There are also chairs dotted throughout the room in a sort of vague circle --- close enough together that if people want to talk, they can, but far enough apart that it'd be easy to drag it off for some privacy.]

Comments

[captainobnoxious]

[Sigrun hadn't wanted to come, at first. She'd wanted to hold a vigil in his honor instead, find some way to do a funeral here in the style she knows best for her warriors, but with the body gone and apparently used as a puppet that's settled into slipping into Zagi's room to take something she'd recalled him wearing since the day he got it:

His Thief's Cape.

And from Kamui's room, she's taking his bloody clothes, grimacing slightly at the sight of it and bundling it within the cape.

From there, Sigrun's actually going to be sitting a few feet away from the library entrance itself, tearing up some papers to use as kindling for her fire and... not actually being able to burn it. Look, matches suck.

(And once she's got it lit she'll be chilling out there, watching the flames quietly until they go out.)]

[ratingspoint]

[You know, Mettaton will watch Sigrun suck at setting clothes on fire for a moment before he...turns around, wanders back to his room, and comes back with a couple of things with him.

The most immediately pressing is the lighter he's going to hand over to her.]

...This might help, darling.

[captainobnoxious]

Thanks. Matches suck, how does anyone use them?

[Lighters are so much better for burning things, on the other hand, look at it go.

It's still a sucky excuse for a funeral though, plainly seen on her face.]

[ratingspoint]

[He'll watch it burn for a little bit before he reaches out again, whapping her arm lightly with something bendy and plastic and noxiously orange and watching it wrap around her wrist.

Looks like someone else got those slap-bracelets out of the machine, and apparently this is just how we declare friendship around here. Attaching random bits of fuck-only-knows-what to people.]

Are you going to be all right?

[captainobnoxious]

[Oh my god, Mettaton. Thanks. She appreciates it, patting the spot beside her. Sit down, friend.]

Yeah. It's not the first time I've seen people die, whether they were strangers or friends. It's a reality that we face, that we accept every time we go out, and I've seen more gruesome deaths and injuries than what we saw today.

[So it's that part she's fine with, playing with the lighter absently.]

It's not that though. I want to know what the hell he did to Zagi's body and if he plans to do that with the rest of us when we eventually die, too. The dead should stay dead, [something she stresses heavily,] so seeing my brother up and about makes me want to wring that maker guy's neck.

[being emotionally competent is not fun???]

[ratingspoint]

[It's not like he minds being on the floor; god knows sometimes he'll just kind of lie there for reasons only known to himself and people back home that he hasn't talked to in a good long time, so.]

...Monsters don't leave bodies behind.

[It takes him a moment to say it, and really, it's just sort of something to say, but he's going somewhere with this eventually. Maybe.]

We don't bleed, and once we're gone that's it - there's nothing physical like that left behind. It was...strange, actually seeing someone still there at all after they died.

...It's probably weird to say that it was good to see that. Upsetting, sure. But we could actually work out what had happened to him - and, you know, knew anything had happened to him at all. It took all the guessing out of it. We usually don't get closure on death unless we see it for ourselves.

[sleepingkogoro]

[Mouri approaches the fire hazard. This is really unsafe, what were you thinking, Sigrun, come on.

But he is no mood to play Safety Inspector here. All he does is stand nearby, unsure of how to approach her]

Hm. I heard you two got along quite well.

[Sure, that could be a good place to start. Mouri is kind of ready to go away if Sigrun requests to be left alone, though]

[captainobnoxious]

Yeah. He reminded me a lot of the people I knew back home, so I counted him among my brothers in arms.

[Her mistake, really, but what can you do.]

Someone who loved fighting, who wouldn't accept death except by his own terms, a real nutjob. He said we were really glad to have met up in here and I couldn't have agreed more, and I'm actually happy he died the way he did. It's true to them both and was a fair fight.

[It's just the disrespect of the dead afterwards that gets her goat.]

[sleepingkogoro]

It is good to know he met somebody with the same attitude than him. Zagi-san was a good guy.

[In the one time Mouri talked with him, at least]

I think I talked to him only once? He was prepared to deal with anything, he told me that sitting around to complain would lead nowhere.

I hadn't expected that from him. I thought it was admirable.

[captainobnoxious]

Yeah, well. It's something you learn when you're faced by certain situations over and over.

[Which comes across as something she's familiar with as well. No use complaining, no use dwelling, just keep going forward.]

Which is something the rest of these people are going to have to learn. There's probably more than a handful who feel guilty they couldn't do anything for Kamui in the end too, that he'd admit to going to such lengths to live, but that's just how it is. There's only so many times you can say "I wish I could've done something" until it becomes annoying.

[sleepingkogoro]

At some point we will all have to learn that. I doubt this is going to be the only incident, so better to get prepared for any future...murders.

This is the first time I am really hoping to be wrong about something.

[ignorantly]

[ Shirazu's in the library while she tries to light the thing, but soon after it starts burning he gets up and steps outside, leaning against the wall while he watches the flames. ]

...Hey.

[captainobnoxious]

[Ah, her other sharptoothed pal. Sigrun gives him a small smile and pats the spot beside her. If he wants to sit, he can, and if not, no harm no foul.]

Hey. How're you feeling, recruit?

[ignorantly]

[ He'll move to sit down, then; thanks, Siggy, he appreciates it. ]

Kinda numb, right now.

[captainobnoxious]

[She knows how to treat her people, alright. No one can say she doesn't.]

That's normal. I'm pretty sure most people are doing just as well as you are right now.

[It's... just another Tuesday, so to say, for her. They usually die from troll attacks but, well. Death's a constant companion.]

Do you want to talk to the fire? We'd usually have their bodies in a pyre or... the incinerator, I guess, but some of their belongings is fine considering the circumstances.

[ignorantly]

...Sure, but what am I supposed to say to it?

[amygdalae]

[He sees the burning when he steps out from the library for a breather, and although he knows he should probably say something about safety...

Well.

He leans against the doorway, silent as he watches the flames flicker, lips pursed into a thin line. None of this is what he wanted, but he supposes its not like they ever had a choice anyway.]

[captainobnoxious]

[Bruce is another person Sigrun'd been wondering about since the trial, how he'd talked with him and gave him sympathy despite the fact the vampire hadn't asked for it nor needed it, but she's content with staying quiet a moment longer in her vigil before speaking up, glancing back at him.]

I've never had to accuse anyone of murder before, but a captain's job comes with the understanding that you do what's best for everyone as a whole, no matter what it is. I've made my fair share of decisions on the same line.

[And if it means that one life becomes less important in comparison to another, then that's that. Her eyes return to the fire.]

Would it have made things easier for you if we'd been killing him with our own hands?

[amygdalae]

It would have been the exact same thing.

[Except, you know, worse, since they'd be actually doing the deed.

Bruce stays silent for a good while longer after that response, not quite sure what else to say. It's not that he doesn't understand where Sigrun comes from, and he can see how it makes sense in her shoes - but for Bruce its more than just for the greater good. So many others have done so many terrible things in the name 'for the greater good', including himself.

He thinks of Nick Fury, of Agent Romanoff, of SHIELD and Loki and everything else, the memories playing in his mind. It hadn't been too long ago, and here he was now, trapped in this place, stuck in this cruel, merciless game.]

[captainobnoxious]

The way you said it made me think it might've been easier, rather than let the Kingmaker handle it. Which is a little funny.

[And Sigrun's not one to let silences go on for a while, because that does nothing but let people dwell on things they shouldn't, so she speaks up again soon after.]

Why did you give him your sympathy if he didn't want or need it? I won't knock you for having a moral balance, but I think it's a little disrespectful to tell someone that to their face. It's not like bandaging their wounds or anything.

[amygdalae]

It doesn't matter how it was done. It's already dealt with, anyway.

[His words ring just a little bit hollow, echoing in his own ears. There are already so many mistakes that Bruce doesn't forgive himself for - this will be another one to the mix. And here, perhaps, there had been the foolish thought that maybe Stark and the others were onto something. That maybe...

He should have known better.]

Because the alternative was to simply despise and hate him for what he did. [And oh, it would be so easy to hate, to be angry. It would be far too easy. Bruce knows and lives and breathes anger to know how easy it is to give into it, to let it take over. And he knows better than most how terrible the consequences of that would be.]

[bloodisthicker]

[...is something burning? He probably couldn't smell the food from here, so there must be...

...

Oh.]

...it feels like I should say something, doesn't it.

[captainobnoxious]

If you scold me about the fire, you'll have been the first to do so.

[Trust me, she's amused enough about that, but she waves it off.]

You can, if you'd like. This is the way I'm making my peace with them, though it would've been better to do it with their bodies, but I know there's some people who like to talk instead.

[bloodisthicker]

Oh, no, I figured it was some sort of funerary ritual, so I certainly wasn't going to scold you about it. It's not like this is the most flammable building around, after all.

I meant... well, say something about them. Talking is basically my job, you know?

[captainobnoxious]

[Half the reason she's doing it in the hallway, yup. Sigrun gestures to the fire, go on.]

If you've got any words at all, I'm sure they'd appreciate it.