itscurtains | Is This Where You Wanna Be? Crawling On Your Hands and Knees?

[In a perfect world, Maya would have been able to isolate herself for the rest of the evening. It's not like her to wallow in her feelings, but it's also not like her to be trapped away in a murder school or part of an execution so... not like she has much choice there. Besides, between the influence of Janis, and the sight of her remaining dormmates, it's clear that Maya simply can't... let things go.

It's like she told the SQUIP. They look to her for hope. And so, hope she must be. It's her job to stand tall for the others. Thankfully help comes easier this time -- there's no need to scruff Discord, or try to keep Spongebob from making Hate Patties. Maybe that, in and of itself, is a good sign.

It's just another fluke. They'll be okay. They're together, after all. Even Salieri and Discord are getting along well enough to help.

Cutting potatoes proves to be an interesting task, considering the fact that most of the knives are missing. Maya has a few guesses as to how that happened, but she won't point fingers again today. She makes do with what she has -- two swords between her and Cassandra.

Potatoes, cakes, pies -- the arrangement is much the same. There's even cocoa (made by less experienced hands, unfortunately), and alcohol. It all feels like a repeat of last week, but she's trying to not think about it. She does her best to keep a smile on her face as she knocks on each door, inviting others to the cafeteria once more.]

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It didn't help. Maybe if he'd had more time, it could have. He wanted to get back to Jeremy. He did it for loyalty. If he could understand that, maybe he could understand what it means, to care because you want to, not because you're told to. But...

[ Orpheus trails off, and takes another long drink of wine, staring off to the side. ]

We'll never know, now.

We'll never know.

[A sobering thought, that.]

...are you gonna be okay?

[ The question pulls him up short. He wants to say no. That nothing will ever be okay again. But that's not true. He felt the same way when Idmon died, when Hylas was drowned, but the hurt faded over time. The wounds scarred over and healed. ]

I think I will be. Eventually. But not now. [ He sighs, quietly. ]

But what about you? How are you, after all of this?

I'm...coping.

["Cope" is the best word to use. Managing works too, but...really, he doesn't think he'll be the same as he was before once the weeks have passed.]

Our dorm is getting emptier by the day.

Right.

[ First Mumble, now Connor. Orpheus thinks about the empty beds, two in Broadhurst, one in Ambassador and one in Longacre, and his breath hitches a little. ]

Maybe we should all start... sleeping in one room. It'd be crowded, but. It might be safer. [ He shakes his head. ] I don't know. Maybe that's a bad idea. I just...

[ He looks over at Eurydice and trails off, going distant and worried. ]

[Varian looks up at the suggestion. It's honestly not a bad one.]

Things would definitely seem a lot less...empty that way.

[And maybe they could...]

We could...keep an eye on each other.

We could. The buddy system, like Spongebob said. If we don't go off on our own, it would be harder for accidents to happen, or...

[ He trails off, shaking his head. It still hurts to face the possibility that this might happen again. ]

Yeah...I think that's a good idea. Maybe we can bring it up to the others, somehow? I don't really know how we'd set it up, but...we could probably make it work.

I'll see about talking to the others about it?

[ He's not going to do that, talking to other people is hard right now and all he wants to do is curl up and be somewhere else, but maybe on Saturday. ]

Even if it's just for one night, I think it'd make people feel... a little better, maybe. Just being there for each other.

Yeah, I agree. Sounds like something we could all benefit from.

[Even if it's not necessarily something they have the emotional capacity for right now.]

I'll try to help out in any way I can.

Thanks. [ Orpheus smiles a little, albeit weakly, glad to have come up with what Varian thinks is a good idea. ] I guess the biggest problem would be finding places for everybody to sleep? I think the beds are too big and heavy to move through the door frames all that easily.

...not necessarily. We could always take them apart to do that, if we needed to.

[It'd be a lot of work, but.]

Oh, that's a good idea. [ Is it? Is taking apart the furniture a good idea?? ] I can maybe help with that, if this winds up being something we do? I'm not the best with tools, but I can follow instructions.

Something like taking a frame apart isn't all that difficult either. Maybe just undoing a few screws...or pulling out some nails, depending.

[It'd make putting them back together later harder but it's fine, he can't say he really...cares.]

Right! That sounds simple enough. Today might not be a good day to... try organizing anything, but maybe tomorrow we can put something together. [ by taking things apart. ]

Tomorrow.

[Tomorrow isn't guaranteed, but for now...Varian will act as if it is.]

I guess for right now...the best we can do is be there for each other.

[ It's not, but the hope that they'll all still be there is all they have. Orpheus thinks for a moment, then stands up and nods to Varian. ]

I'm going to put this away. [ he says, gesturing with the bottle of wine. ] And then I'm going to check on some of the others. Are you going to be all right?

Mmhm...yeah. I'll be fine. I'm just going to, uh...hang out here for a while.

..thanks, Orpheus.

Of course. And thank you, too, Varian. I'll talk to you again soon, okay?

Is This Where You Wanna Be? Crawling On Your Hands and Knees?

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