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]

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.

[allmyfriendsaredead]

What in the world makes Alcor and Oda similar?

[houndumb]

'Cause they're both fucking idiots??

[There. There's a bit more animation in that and he definitely answered in a split-second because some things are just universally true, especially this weekend.]

[allmyfriendsaredead]

[Opens mouth. Closes it again.

She'll just get back to ineffectually brushing glitter over by Nora.]

[houndumb]

[There's a brief snort at her expression before he looks back down at the glitter and then uses his hands to sweep it in a little pile. The dust is pretty much useless but settling it over all the bits and bobs of box still piled here makes them look a little less like burnt bread or legos or something.

He starts moving them around a bit, stacking and sorting. Wire frame, edges, broken sides. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. There's definitely a lot missing still, but the motions are soothing in their own way.

Eventually he just gathers them up properly and makes a little pouch with his shirt to hold them all. Clinkety clink. He'll have to find something else to hold them but that's for later.]