now listen good and listen straight, you're not the master of your fate

[bloodisthicker]

[Another week, another murder, another absolute shitshow. Tarrlok kind of just wants to lock himself in his room for a while, but... well, he volunteered. So... it's definitely going to be much later in the day before a note advising everyone to meet up in the bar for some comfort food is slipped under everyone's door.

At least Tarrlok didn't have to take care of everything alone, though; while he spent most of the time cooking by himself, Speedwagon and Yosuke helped take some delicious pork buns up to set them out across the bar so that everyone could drown their sorrows in stuffing their faces. And, you know, alcohol, maybe that too. There's also some vegetarian stir fry for people who don't like pork, too, of course.

There isn't an official bartender to start out with, but there is live entertainment courtesy of Yosuke, who's strumming his guitar over in the corner there.

Hopefully someone will step up, because lord knows everyone in the Vault needs a drink right now.]

Comments

[amygdalae]

...I don't think any of us did.

[Everything about what happened was--yeah.

The less said about it, the better.]

None of us could have known.

[prismbloom]

[ She nods, her mouth set in a hard line. ]

If we had gotten to know him better, I wonder if we could have prevented it.

[amygdalae]

I don't know.

[It's the sad truth: Bruce honestly doesn't know. He has no real idea what Norman's true issues are, but from what happened down there, what was said, and his own personal experiences...

He knows full well how hard it is to break out from that kind of cycle.]

Those kinds of things... they're never easy to move on from.

[prismbloom]

... Yet we don't have much of a choice, do we? If we dwell on it, we run the risk of falling into a darkness out of which we may never escape.

[amygdalae]

--yes.

[Just. A heavy sigh here.

(It's not that Bruce has ever escaped from his own darkness; he's just had to face it. More than once.)]

I suppose we'll never really know what happened.

[Considering... everything down there. DID always did have a habit of messing up one's perception.]

[prismbloom]

And the Kingmaker won't be giving us answers any time soon.

[ Ugh. She'd adored Megumi, and seeing her like that... ]

But we'll move forward--I know she would have wanted us to.

[amygdalae]

We've found the culprit, and he's dead - that's all the Kingmaker wants.

[More and more dead people... Bruce hates it. Two had been enough... and now there's nine of them.][As much as Bruce hates it.] This won't stop until we find a way to end this for good.

[prismbloom]

And so many of us are gone now.

[ Aqua straightens, nodding. She hates it, too. None of them deserve--or deserved--this. ]

We'll find a way. I know we will. [ ... ]</small. For now, maybe a cup of tea would help.

html..... why did you eat my tag

[amygdalae]

[Already a third of them, even. God. Bruce doesn't want to think about it, except that he totally is.

...but yes, tea. Bruce has some with him that he brought over, so he'll be pouring out a cup to pass to Aqua.]

Here.

[prismbloom]

[ She takes it, sipping at it. ]

Thank you. Between you and Cherryblod, I'm not sure who makes the best tea.

[amygdalae]

Probably him. He's got a lot more years of experience than I do.

[Comes with him being... like, 500 years old.]

[prismbloom]

It comes from being a dad, I'm sure, too. It's no wonder he takes such good care of us.

[amygdalae]

He's got the experience for that, too.

[A small smile. Yeah, Bruce can easily agree.]

[prismbloom]

I feel as if we don't tell him how much we appreciate him often enough.

[amygdalae]

You think we should try to do something to show our appreciation?

[prismbloom]

I think we should--but I wonder what?

[amygdalae]

We could... make something that he likes?

[BRUCE IS... not the best at presents, if it isn't going to be obvious enough.]

[prismbloom]

Maybe a cake of some kind. If we knew what his home looked like, we could recreate it somehow.

[amygdalae]

A cake seems like a good idea.

[Most people like cake.]

...I suppose we could ask him, or just sort of make it underwater-themed.

[prismbloom]

I'm sure there's more than enough blue food coloring for that.

[amygdalae]

We can give this a shot, then.

[Operation: Make Underwater-themed Cake is aa go.]