we're all living under loaded gun

[amygdalae]

[Every week was bad, but this one? This one most likely has hit them all the hardest.

All well, almost all of them. Bruce certainly can't speak for everyone here... not that there's a lot of them left now.

Anyway.

Working with Speedwagon in the kitchen the two of them whip up a decent, simple fare of food just so that their stomachs won't go empty - Bruce knows that a lot of them won't have much of an appetite at all after what happened, and he can't blame them. He doesn't have much of one himself even after the food is done.

Once everything is set up in the dining hall a couple of hours later after everything that happened downstairs Bruce goes around to slip a notice to every body's room. (Everyone that is still alive, that is.)]

I know what happened was hard to take in. I feel the same as well.
If you wish to be alone I understand, but if you need company, or somebody to talk to... there is food in the dining hall made by Speedwagon and I.

I sincerely hope to see you there.

- B. Banner

[For Sigrun and Cherryblod respectively, he'll have the note along with a plate of some food from the gathering by their door.

As mentioned earlier, there's a small fare of simple, light food and snacks for everyone to eat if they have the stomach for it. For better or for worse there's alcohol too, although Bruce certainly isn't going anywhere near it. But if anybody needs that drink after what happened, he can't blame them for the need for it, either.]

Comments

[cherryblooded]

Not even decades later.

[...Sorry, Mettaton. He'll try to mourn you a little less.]

[uro_cyon]

That would be too boring for him.

[notjustawriter]

I... I've been holdin' up, I guess.

[Barely. That's mostly a lie.]

[isafraid]

Well, we're being "saved"... feels like that was enough for him at first. [Then things kept getting worse.] Or that was all just a lie and we're simply here for some entertainment.

[amygdalae]

...I certainly hope so.

[Bruce himself knows he could never do it, anyway. He could never value anybody's life more than another's. Which is why this whole thing has taken its toll on him, right from the start - week after week he's forced to deal with somebody dying and then sending another person to die just for that. It would be a lie if he said if he got any better at dealing with that.]

We've already lost so much. I just hope we don't lose even more already.

[amygdalae]

Logically speaking, yes, but Mettaton always has been his own person.

[He was far too... himself to really be just a mere robot with incredible AI. In his way, he too was alive.]

I doubt the Kingmaker was doing any control behind the scenes. What Mettaton did was of his own free will.

[uro_cyon]

The latter.

It's too much effort for someone like him otherwise.

[amygdalae]

[Bruce is only silent for a moment before he quirks a smile and glances down.]

It's alright. I think all of us are at least a bit shaken up from what happened.

[goodforsomething]

Yeah, sure. That's about what I'm doin'.

[It's all he can do, under the circumstances.]

Hope your family's alright, too.

[cherryblooded]

[That just gets a silent stare.

You saw his son be executed, Stan. He's as much family as Lobco and Doloz are.]

[notjustawriter]

[Gabriel gives a sad nod.]

It keeps getting worse and worse, the more time that goes by.

[isafraid]

Normally I'd be in agreement... but there's hardly that much we even know about the bloke, is there?

[goodforsomething]

[He meant the ones back home in the apocalypse, given the context of the conversation...but fair point, he winces a little at the look.]

The ones back home, I mean. Someone oughta be. [The safety ship's kinda sailed on everyone in here]

[cherryblooded]

Appreciate the sentiment.

[He's going to set his head on the table now and maybe look up never.]

[amygdalae]

It's worse because we know each other more than before. We feel the loss more keenly, and the pain that we know that somebody within us still could do this even after what we've been through thus far.

[...its probably not the best thing to say, but it is the truth. There is an irony to that, too, but Bruce knows he probably doesn't need to voice that part out.]

[goodforsomething]

[Well don't hold your breath, Bruce]

I dunno. I think there's enough folks here who won't turn on each other. Especially the longer we're stuck here. Somethin's gotta give sometime.

[uro_cyon]

I could be wrong but guys like him all tend to operate the same. [He doesn't think he's wrong, especially after recalling some things...]

[amygdalae]

There's only so much all of us can take.

[And only so many people here to die.]

[goodforsomething]

If nothing else, I'd rather go down tryin' to fight.

[amygdalae]

I don't want to give him the satisfaction of letting him have his way.

[Bruce has no qualms about dying and death in general, but letting the Kingmaker win? No, Bruce isn't going to let that happen.]