Week 4, Saturday

[foundationmods]

[As everyone files into the studio once more, they will be invited up on stage instead of to their audience seats as they normally are. On the far left of the stage is a set of 16 chairs, one for each living contestant, arranged in two rows of 8. On the right is a podium for Dazai to stand at, and in the center is a big board with spaces and numbers on it.

Once everyone gets settled in, it's time for the game.]

Comments

[houndumb]

[Nora's here as fast as he can be, nearly skidding facefirst into the wreckage in his haste -- he glances at Vanitas but he doesn't fucking know what to say, he doesn't even know what to fucking say to himself at this point, so he jumps straight to action instead. They're not looking for the same thing at all, but right now it doesn't matter.

With a snarl he throws himself into moving the wreckage of the studio -- his strength is still higher than an average human's and he doesn't care about jagged edges or shit on fire, and he's summoned his spear to help him lever debris out of the way. His anger (it's never been snuffed out, just paused for a long instant) is actually making him just yeet bits and pieces of walls and sets and props farther than he should and without really looking to see if he's about to hit anyone.

Look out over there.]

[prayerwheel]

[ Yeah, no, Azura's so hyper-focused she doesn't notice that softball-sized plank of wood flying straight at her head. It hits her straight-on and she staggers back. ]

H-Hey!

[ WHO DID THAT ]

[houndumb]

[I'm sorry because he's literally so hyperfocused he doesn't even look up. You might need something more to snag his attention. Also, watch out for other flying debris here because yeah he's not stopping......]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[Oh hey that's a piece of debris aimed at her head. She narrowly avoids it.]

Watch it!

[houndumb]

[Well, this is definitely not the first time he's been yelled at and Nora's at a pause anyway. Everything's terribly dusty and smokey and there's a fair bit cleared out but nothing substantial at this point; no conclusion nor anything useful and he's covered in soot and dirt and taking a moment to scrub at them. Or just, you know, scrub at his face.]

... Watch it yourself.

[You'd think with the energy with which he's yeeting everything that it would have some bite to it, but... nah. He'll just be crouched over here with like, weird bits and pieces piled at his feet. Mysterious artifacts. Strange debris.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

My pieces aren't about to hit anyone.

[Is her reply, but it's lacking in energy or bite. She's just...

tired. Tired and scared and grieving, so much, over those who were lost.]

[houndumb]

[He'll just scrub more dirt and ash onto his face at this point and then... go back to yeeting bits of flaming and nonflaming wreckage, but in the other direction. Presumably there's no one standing directly there, but Nora still isn't looking, especially. He doesn't say anything else, but if Saki happens to look closer at the weird pile by his feet...

Well, they're distinctly patterned and probably glittery.

Somebody's got to scavenge box parts around here.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[She does notice eventually, and it has her pausing in her - admittedly pretty pointless work, for all the good it's doing to this mass of wreckage.]

...What are...?

[houndumb]

[It's all pointless work, really -- there isn't much left of anything, and none of the objects in the studio were of especial value to any of them or to the wider world. Maybe to the Prinnies. Either way, Nora pauses briefly again with his head tilting at the questioning tone and the not-quite question.

Then he reaches down and drops something else onto the pile. Clink, clink. This one's what looks like a small section of wiring, framing, something. It is also glittery. Somewhere under all the soot and ash there's hints of red and black. Also more glitter.]

Now what.

[This time he's doing better at sounding the proper amount of maybe-grouchy for a dusty dog. There's another scrub and a sniff, then another, head up now and scenting the air. Is he... smelling for scraps?]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[...

Yet again, she has no answers. She never really was the one for that; it was always Shun or Satoru, but it isn't like either of them are here to be relied on.

As usual, she has to come up with something herself, and as usual, it feels woefully inadequate.]

I... I don't know. We don't even know what they think happened.

[The audience, the Foundation. Her hopes aren't high, however.]

[houndumb]

[There's a soft snort from Nora's end, where he seems to be done with his snuffling about and has started digging again, slightly less extra with his rubble yeeting but just as dogged as ever. This cannot be good for even demon hands but it doesn't really look like he cares much.

It takes a little while for him to get around to answering. The funny thing isn't Saki's words; it's that he's nowhere near thinking that far ahead yet, so it takes him a while to even parse what she's talking about.

The Foundation. The show. The world outside this stupid pile of rubble.]

Who the fuck cares. [it's flat, because as of the moment he really doesn't] We ain't dancing monkeys for them RIGHT NOW.

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[This is probably the most quiet she's seen him, and that's about the only thing that keeps her from snapping back. Instead, she bites back her reply, pausing again to come up with something a little more neutral.]

Then I really don't know what to do.

[houndumb]

There ain't anything we can fucking do, is there.

[He still hasn't slowed down, though.

There's an insistence to his movements now, like the momentum itself is the point -- there's clinks of bits and pieces of box parts coming to rest at her feet now, Nora apparently no longer looking carefully anymore. There's bits and pieces of rubble actually crumbling to dust in his fists from gripping them too hard with something like demon strength; a low, insistent disturbance in space from his unsettled magic.

It's not anything big, but then the big things have already run their course today; now it's just time for the other things, the smaller bits and pieces to sweep up at the end.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[...

After a moment, some more of that glitter among the rubble sweeps itself up and into his little pile. But just a bit.]

[houndumb]

[...]

[Yeah, after that he just goes totally quiet, and they move things around together for a while, shifting the rubble around pointlessly. The pile of beaten up box parts grows until finally Nora gives a huff and sits himself down next to it, stretching and then staring at the sky.

For once he sounds kind of tired, like all that fury finally kind of sputtered and ran out. His voice is all rough, maybe from inhaling the smoke and the dust.]

Thanks. I guess.

[Now it really is the dogpocalypse.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[It must be, for him to say thank you for once. Can she... put a hand on his back?]

[houndumb]

[She can, though he tenses up a little anyway and his head goes down, not quite a flinch but still something full-bodied and not quite accepting. All the same, he doesn't pull away completely, just staring at the ground now. Or the box pile going on there -- that's there too.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

...Were you close?

[houndumb]

[He actually does stir at the question, head sinking down further and tensing up some more, either like he can shrug off all the words or like he can shrug off any closeness right now. It's a tiny movement. Maybe he can't be bothered to move much right now in general. But...]

How the fuck should I know-- All he does is shit like this, stupid...

[...]

I don't fucking know. I just thought we were kinda the same, but.

[And there's a motion that could be another shrug before he scrubs his hands across his face with a motion that would be angry at any other time, but right now it ain't happening.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

...Kind of the same how?

[Her voice is soft, like that might coax more of the story out of him. But it's hard to tell with Nora at times, even if this is unusual behavior for him to start with.]

[houndumb]

... You know what a... [...] Septentrione is, right?

[Miracle of miracles he somehow managed that word without stumbling. Maybe that's the true indication of the kind of day this is?? Or something. He stares down at his hands and all the dirt and scrapes on them and doesn't say anything for a long moment.]

Kinda like that. Cerberus ain't just for show, you know.

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[Hmmm...]

So... because you're both so different from humans?

[houndumb]

[Thers’s a quiet noise that’s something like and not quite like a laugh.]

No.

[allmyfriendsaredead]

Then what...?

[She does her best to keep frustration from her voice, because she's tired, she's sad, and irritability comes to her quicker than it does others.]

[houndumb]

[He blows out a long breath, mostly steady; Nora pretty much lives in the irritability continuum but today is just a bad day to be anything at all.]

Doesn't matter, I guess.

[Sorry, Saki. That's one door he's slamming shut if Alcor hasn't opened it.]

It's all the goddamn same anyway. Him and Oda and everybody.