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

[mayavericks]

[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.]

Comments

[tellthestory]

Peregrine - you're plenty good.

[Do you, like, want a hug?]

You're only human. You can't be everywhere all the time - people understand that. He...he knew you cared about him.

[comeandfindme]

But I wanted to keep talking to him! I didn't... I didn't want to leave, I just...wanted to stay with him, even if he was just— just cleaning up stupid decorations, I could've stuck around, I could've tried to...to talk about what...I was feeling, maybe kept him from being alone, I...

[ God, it sounds like a hug would be perfect right now! ]

I knew how his thoughts could be, I had heard them—
I wanted to be his light!
He could just listen, or even return them,
'Cause he needed me last night...
Yes, he needed me last night...
He needed me last night...
Oh, last night...!

[ And she slumps on the bench. So close to where Connor took his last breaths. ]

If only I had known that.

[tellthestory]

[He's never really sure! But yeah, he's gonna take all of that as a cue to sit down on the bench next to her and pull her into a hug.]

You didn't know. We - none of us did. Someone probably should've stayed back, but we didn't know.

[You could say the same for him, after all. There's no reason he couldn't have stuck around to help clean up.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Very quietly, Peregrine starts crying, for maybe the tenth time today. She can't stop. It's like she's let herself start crying and now it's threatening to overtake her, like everything she's done to try and heal—from her dad, from Jacob, now Connor—like it's all been ripped apart.

She wishes she'd known. She wishes, somehow, there was something that she could do. ]

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer holds her close, rubbing loose circles on her back and murmuring nothing in particular. There's nothing, really, that he can think of to make this any better.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Sometimes there's nothing that can be said. Sometimes, just being there is the best option..

This is something Peregrine doesn't know yet. Still, she appreciates his comfort, all the same. She leans into the Balladeer's side, sobbing and hugging back as tight as she can. ]

[tellthestory]

[He'll sit there and hold her for as long as she needs. He left too early last night; he's not going to make the same mistake again.]