are we actually living? or are we being kept alive?

[finalring]

After the execution, the survivors are dismissed to rest in preparation for the next week. The miasma curls and turns into each room, letting fall a cold and oppressive atmosphere that fills every corner of the place.

And yet, even in a place that has caused so much grief, life must go on. Thirteen has always been considered to be an unlucky number, but that is the number of people that are left--what will you do, in this false calm?

Comments

[reanimania]

[ ...It feels especially bad now to acknowledge that he feels safer going to hide in his room now that Battler is gone, but it's still true. There's a part of him that wants to pretend that maybe Hikage did that for him, but it's suddenly not quite as easy for him to fool himself as it used to be.

For most of the night, he'll be in room 6, sitting in the lounge chair that Battler had helped him move, with the paper flowers that Crow had made and Hikage had helped him collect, with his knees pulled up to his chest and his blue bandanna clutched tightly in his hand as he cries.

Maybe red wasn't such a great color after all.



On Sunday morning, he can be found standing in front of the incinerator for entirely too long, staring at the red scarf in his hands that he can't seem to bring himself to throw in.

Later in the day, he'll be at the pool, skating around on the ice in his Foundation boots -- not very gracefully, but competently, sort of, though he's favoring one leg a little. He's still doing his best to ignore the creepy faces in the ice, and is just staring ahead absently. His eyes and nose are still red from crying, but at least in here, he can pretend it's just from the cold.

And in the evening, he'll be in the laundry room, sitting and sipping a glass of water to combat dehydration as he washes all the crusty snot out of his lab coat. ]

Pool

[oxidegreen]

[At some point he gains an audience. She doesn't really say anything though, just leaning against the door frame, watching him skate.]

Sunday

[golden_dream]

...

[She'll pass by him in the hallway. And...]

...

[She has a notepad prepared if he stops to look at her and waits for her to take it out:

"I'm sorry. Forgive me, or don't."]

incinerator

[finalring]

[ well saphir, you are One doctor that romani's not too keen on seeing but...

seeing him like that, it's...a little difficult to be angry at him when they both lost a friend. ]

Is that Giovanni's?

Pool

[zweivoltage]

[He stops by the door, watching him, curious - he heard of ice skating but never seen it himself. It looked even more difficult than he had imagined]

[finalring]

[ on saturday, after everyone has left the living room, romani can be found going back. not to cry over the corpses--no, he did not hurt for them. not enough to shed tears for them, at least.

he picks up the bishop that had been brought by dazai, taking it in his good hand. he can be found on his way or in the conservatory, staring at the blank space that was on the chessboard. quietly, he places the chess piece back in its place, next to the king. and, despite the blood and the mess, he turns up one of the chairs, and rests his head on the table.

he's allowed to cry now, right? for the person that called him his friend.

on sunday, romani seems to be keeping more to himself. he can be found on the bottom bunk of room 1, curled up and reading the sherlock holmes book or perhaps staring blankly at his notebook, pen in his hand like he's about to write something. the idea never comes. ]

conservatory

[tsunderine]

[ssssssssso

hey, Romani, guess you're not alone because surprise, there's a ghost in the conservatory who seems to watch him but isn't actually speaking up. not immediately, anyway, but she is absolutely keeping an eye on him.]

room 1

[zweivoltage]

Dr. Archaman?

[Ky spoke up quietly, his voice sounding a little raw]

Conservatory

[cw_suicide]

[he has a bottle of whiskey in hand and was just... wandering. but he pauses at the doorway, seeing Romani with his head down.

he's not eager to go back into the room--he spent enough time staring at Battler's body but...]

... sensei? Isn't it getting a bit late?

sunday;

[sageking]

[ When Gilgamesh came in, it was relatively very early in the day, and even if Romani was more or less too focused on his book or staring blankly at said notebook to notice, the King looked kind of rattled? Not really in an a obvious manner. Like he literally just got out of bed and decided to come here, though he did at least make himself presentable as best as he could. ]

We need to talk.

conservatory

[golden_dream]

[Rosa left earlier, she probably got to Battler first.

She's finishing up her emotional medley of sorrow as Romani gets closer. Probably enough to hear the full-throating sobbing she does, and the pitiful wincing from the strain it puts on her stitches after.

When she looks up she's... well, surprised, but too emotionally numb to be really shocked by his presence.]

...

[A quick wipe of her eyes on her sleeve, blinking back the remains of her moment of grief, before taking a moment to decide how she should approach him...]

[oxidegreen]

[Once she's picked herself up off the floor, she returns to Room 2 and immediately goes to bed. That said, she's laying on her side facing the aisle and her eyes are pretty clearly open so she's not really sleeping, if people want to try to get a conversation out of her.

Sunday she can be found briefly in Room 2 tending to the flowers. A bandanna has joined the plushie from Haku in this little unofficial memorial, because although she didn't necessarily like him that much, he didn't deserve the end he got by a long shot. Later in the day, she's washing all of the uniforms she went through during the week in the laundry room, dressed in a navy blue sailor dress from the dressing room for the day. Once her chores are complete, she wanders the halls listlessly, if only to move around a little.]

sunday, laundry room.

[finalring]

[ you know what's really difficult to do? wash your clothes when you only have one good hand.

but he's currently trying to do just that, trying to wash the blood off the uniform pants that he wore on friday and struggling. ]

[cw_suicide]

[Dazai sits in the room for a long while, bottle of whiskey dug out but not broken into. just sitting on his own bottom bunk quietly.]

... really... even Hikage-kun would have a better idea of what to do after this than I do.

[mostly said quietly to himself because he's looking at the floor, stuck thinking about that first night they were all in the room.]

halls;

[sageking]

[ It's been a day, but that's all which was needed to pass, apparently. ]

Hmph, in light of everything that's happened, we should talk.

[golden_dream]

[Rosa gets out of the trial, and... despite her impulse to drink herself into a stupor, she heads to the conservatory to visit Battler. Or... rather, his corpse. She stares at him, she stares at him a long time. She drops down to one knee next to him, and moves her hand like she's going to brush his hair...

...then she just starts full-face crying her eyes out.

Afterward, a brief stint through the hallway to Master Bathroom where she starts scrubbing her hands with soap... for a long time. Before finally going to the kitchen to put food in her, and then stumble back to room 5 to wallow in misery before sleeping.]



[Sunday isn't much better, but she's hanging around places people go to relax. The dining room mostly, but room 5 is another possibility.

You might spy her outside the wine room or the living room contemplating entry.]

conservatory

[tsunderine]

[don't mind her too much Rosa, she's just here to keep an eye on Battler - although it's probably not great to have a set of dead eyes watching your every movement even as you cry all your tears out.

it's probably fine.

or not, who knows.]

living room;

[sageking]

[ And here he was, looking at the walls and general room carefully, before she came closer so that he could notice her out of his peripheral vision. ]

If you intend to enter the room, you should.

[cw_suicide]

[on Saturday, Dazai has reached a level of Enough's Enough for the week and has gone to get a bottle of whiskey he had stashed away under his bunk. he spends some time in Room 2 without opening it, mostly just quietly recalling how the four people who once occupied the room had met... and how much of that has gone sideways and disappeared already.

but once he gets enough of a will to wander, it's mostly in the static areas, though he does a couple of rounds to the different rooms of the current week.

eventually, later in the day, he settles down in the Laundry Room. weird how this place is the place he goes to to try to calm down these days...


on Sunday, he's poking around the Officer for something to do. a week of fake productivity has brought him to this...

though once he gets bored of that, he goes to the dining room to... try to read a book. he's been on the same page for the last half hour but whatever. all the free time today.]

laundry room

[onemolife]

[ After a while, he will be dragging himself in here with a bottle of wine. He pauses as he sees Dazai in there and then almost smile as he walks over to sit beside him. ]

I was looking for you, you know. Want to borrow my hands for a bit?

[ Reaching up to card his fingers through the other's hair. ]

saturday

[golden_dream]

[It's probably enough that the possibility of Rosa meeting Dazai in the hallway wasn't zero. It happens a little later in the day when she's making her way from the master bathroom to the kitchen.]

...

[She stares back at him for a second, experiencing deja vu.]

Room 2

[noneforall]

[Sometimes your room just gets halved, faster or slower, it doesn't matter, does it?

But eventually, as Dazai spends his time in a daze in front of Room 2 -- he'll feel another presence somewhere briefly before suddenly Subete is there, humming contemplatively as he looks over the newfound room decoration outside the door.]

Ah, it's Room 2's turn this week, isn't it?

[There's something both thoughtful and sardonic in it.]

Tell me, are you enjoying the scenery still?

[white_camellia]

[On Saturday... Most likely, you'll have an unexpected guest to your room, as Nanaka (curtain and all) goes room to room, floating in front of the bunks of each of the dead, for a few moments, before moving on.

On Sunday, one can find Nanaka cleaning up all the damage that happened in the halls during the murder case. In particular, she even seems to be replacing all the broken decorative items and vases with things taken from the eastern halls.]

saturday

[finalring]

[ well, romani's returning to his room late, so he might be the one that finds nanaka there, floating like a specter. ]

N-Nanaka? Is everything okay?

suddenly, a meeting + discussion of plans?!

[sageking]

[ So, even though we've got thirteen people, Gilgamesh had decided that it was time to get people together. Except of course there was that rule limiting people to each room so that will make things a pain.

Gilgamesh will basically mention for people to huddle in two rooms: Backroom and Dressing Room. 7+6 = 13. Everything's all good, fam.

Said latter room has either been cleaned up as much as possible, so no need to worry about blood stains or whatever?? It's fine.

He will also encourage usage of walkie-talkie to speak to other people in the room nearby and we can all presumably handwave that was happening. And information can presumably be repeated as necessary by himself or his cute bf. Before everyone assembled into the rooms, handing them copies of this, just pretend it looks nicer somehow. The red spot is 'Obviously the target', with Gilgamesh's pretentious-looking words and handwriting.

Feel free to admire it. ]

I've gathered everyone here quickly to bring to attention some information that's made its way to my presence thanks to Hikage. We all remember two weeks or so ago that Date had handed that map of his to us all as indicative of a possible spot for which there would be the center of this all.

I surmise that this was the spot Subete had vaguely struck at when he was attacking the creature on a myriad fronts, though going on this guess, I also surmise he had a limited reach given what blocked his way in the first place.

[ He'll pass around the note in the room of six, here, and then leave for a moment to hand the note off to others in the other room before returning. Regardless, everything's balanced and no rules are being broken here.

Until next week. \o/ ]

But I digress...Date was correct in that where those bricks lie are the center of this all, and the web. And by striking it down, we will be able to free the shackles that bind us to this place, making escape far easier.

Given that striking it will undoubtedly draw a lot of attention, I will be the one to cast the first stone, so we will need to act quickly to neutralize the source right after I tear the wall down. Naturally, I plan to assist in the after as well.

Beyond that, I want to hear thoughts on how others can contribute to the attack plan or what they plan to do, if they have ideas outside of this attack, and whatever other USEFUL commentary.

[oxidegreen]

[She stares at the map for a moment. And then:]

...In this plan of attack, are we prioritizing the destruction of the source over our lives, or will we be proceeding with caution?

I know that we are still trying to escape, but our strategy will be different if we're relying on an all out attack or something more defensive.