[In Person]

[stalking_horse]

[On one of the upper walkways of the village, Saguru has found a place near one of the low tables with the feast spread; he's ... well, sort of trying to stay out of traffic and watch, holding a "mug" made out of some kind of hollowed out gourd or plant, giving the contents occasional odd looks.]

[He's occasionally wandering a little - still trying to avoid the main traffic of tiny fuzzy things, but looking around for other "residents" in between investigating the food and picking up a little bit of different things here and there; he's not entirely hesitant, though he does seem a little...well, lost.]

Strangest Thanksgiving she could've come up with.

[No, he is not that genre savvy on this one.]

Comments

[stalking_horse]

Actually, I've had to chase Kid up half a building and across rooftops in a dress before. And heels. His doing.


[The story of the black evening gown. :| ]

[movingforces]

...[Well that's an image. It's not polite to laugh, so she's not, but--

Well, that was amusing. She's climbing up top and spreading her skirts out.]

[stalking_horse]

[Not like he minds; he's gotten pretty used to being the butt of Kaito's jokes, and honestly, if it happened to say, Heiji, he'd be laughing his ass off.]

To be honest, I credit his pranks with how easy it was to get used to this place, sometimes, and with my work it was a welcome break from getting shot at.

[He does pause as he realizes that you know, Kaito has been here before-]

...If he shows up here again, don't tell him I said that.

[movingforces]

As if I would. [She's sitting down and just... staring out.]

[stalking_horse]

I tried to look for you back in Silent Hill but ... it kept rearranging on me - and I had a few things I was busy dodging. [Because even knowing it's a manifestation of your own fear doesn't make it go away.]

At least, knowing the calendar, we should be clear for the next couple months.

[movingforces]

You would not have wanted to be there. Something about this year made it... worse. [She was blind and dealing with the plot from hell.]

...You're tempting fate with that. Watch. The Author will decide that a perfect gift for midwinter is something to the effect of vicious, rabid monsters coming to consume our kidneys or some such thing.

[stalking_horse]

...I'd like to say I'd be able to help, but... I'm not sure the things after me would've helped. I would've done whatever I could, though.

[He's eying the drink again; he's been trying to figure out for a while now if it's alcoholic or not.]

I'm not ruling out that there might be another dangerous plot - more likely early in December - but given her past patterns, and where I think she's from, Christmas is ... a rather big deal, and she does seem fond of sap. I'm not going to be surprised if she pulls the mistletoe again, though.

[movingforces]

[She's just making a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat.] There were people with me, Saguru.

I suspect that was part of the problem.

[stalking_horse]

...Everyone's demons at once. [He shakes his head slowly.]

Did everyone make it out alright?

[movingforces]

I... suspect so. Physically anyway, because the Manor is... the Manor.

[stalking_horse]

At least ...we have time to pick things up. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know?

Even if it's just something silly or small.

[movingforces]

...Mm, I can't think of anything.

[stalking_horse]

[He shrugs.] Either way, I'm here; for now it's probably better to get a break from things for a little while, I imagine.

[movingforces]

But for how long? Even some of the things that aren't overtly horrific... [Like Normal Week.]

[stalking_horse]

It - will be what we manage to make of it. We take what breaks we can, and try to learn from what goes wrong; it's the best we can do, and might help us find things we can use when we get home.

[movingforces]

[Tris is just... looking at her hands in her lap and sighing.]

If we remember. Which I doubt.

[stalking_horse]

One of the others from my world disappeared for a good time here, sent home, and was recently brought back; his memory had been spotty on some things while he was gone, but he did remember - enough that he'd been acting on some things that'd been planned while we were here.

[Spotty and sometimes hazy, but it was there.]

It might not be always clear, but things apparently can carry back.

[movingforces]

[As if it would matter. As if she would be happy remembering that she had friends back... somewhere, friends other than the siblings she's freeloading off of...]

[Tris shakes her head a little, smiling crookedly.]

[stalking_horse]

It's a little immaterial considering the immediate concern; we're here now and have some chance to try to build things up better, which is the important part. The rest can be dealt with later. It might not look like much, but we might have more than we think.


[Hello depression and cognitive distortions latching onto any negative out possible, how good to see you again.]

[movingforces]

[She's not saying it, but- she severely doubts that.] We have whatever a teenaged girl going 'dance puppets, dance!' gives us. And funny how much she seems to like turning that sour and yanking us around by that, too.

[stalking_horse]

I'm here, your roommate certainly seems to've taken a vested interest in caring about you as much as I'm unsure of being around him myself, you have everything and everyone here as something you could potentially be prodding into or poking at to find something of use to you; does it matter if you don't have complete control over everything, which would be an impossibility anywhere anyway? She doesn't control us that much.

[movingforces]

And at any time she could rob any of us of something that makes us essentially 'us'. [Do you know how often she has nightmares about waking up during a normal week?]

[stalking_horse]

What she's taken away ... even if it's something important, it's not everything; you're still there, and that's always been what's important to me.

[movingforces]

[...Tris is just putting a hand over her medallion.]

A non-mage's answer. It's easy to say that I'm still 'me' without it, but... I'm not. [Her entire existence is defined by it- someone who doesn't fit anywhere, who only gets fear instead of respect, with no practical use aside from something she despises.]

[stalking_horse]

I'm a detective and I've woken up with my ability to string together lines of reasoning hamstrung. Would there be any reason for the stack of books you've been getting from me if that really was everything that you were?