[ AUDIENCE: LUCRETIA ]

[dormheads]

Comments

[inaccordant]

All right. Third floor, then.

[ambiography]

[she'll be there shortly! the sling is not on her injured arm anymore, she's just kind of keeping it held close as much as she can manage.

also the vibes are bad! they're fucking bad. she's still pissed, there's some despair here, she literally had to try to stop a fucking third murder from occurring she is so damn tired right now.]

[inaccordant]

[he opens the door and steps back to let her in. the vibes are... a controlled calm, mainly. not all that different from how he's been the past week.

the room is also not that different, aside from some books in the piles knocked over, and the photo frame that was once on the desk is lying somewhere on the floor, its glass broken (but any shards apparently cleaned up), and the photo itself placed somewhere on a book pile.]

[ambiography]

[well! there's absolutely some concern slipping into her emotions, as she notes those, but she just. takes a seat on the bed as usual, exhales a steadying breath. she has lost her patience for typing ever since things popped off in trial, so her voice sounds pretty rough, but she's speaking anyway.]

Hugo, we're going to fall the fuck apart.

[inaccordant]

[...

there's a flicker of guilt and concern, before they get shoved down.]

Is there anything I can do?

[ambiography]

I don't know. I had to stop Malik from running off to kill her, nobody's in a good position after all of that, and tomorrow we're just going to watch someone else be killed, again. After one of us died for our efforts at getting answers out of all this.

I'm trying.

[but this time she really is feeling the strain of trying to hold people together.]

[inaccordant]

... It's not all up to you.

[...]

We'll get answers, one way or another. [focused, determined.] Just that we now know it likely can't come from those killing. But one way or another, we'll find a way to get through this.

Though I'm aware that right now, those words are hollow.

[ambiography]

There has to be some way, but it feels as if every time we try to find an avenue for that, we just... hit another wall.

[she reaches up to rub at her face, there.]

We'll find something. We have to. It can't just be-- nothing but death. But I'm more and more on your side when it comes to tearing this down.

[inaccordant]

I don't accept failure as an option.

[said as someone with full confidence, apparently.]

We're making progress, even if it's not as efficiently as we'd like. For instance, we have an idea of what happens to the dead, now. We can't lose sight of these things in the face of loss—however heavy that burden is.

[ambiography]

We'll have more options.

[they just need a little patience, which is hard to maintain by this point.]

And we do know they're not gone completely. I think that was something we needed, to be able to continue here.

[inaccordant]

... Mm. Every bit of hope counts here.

[ambiography]

It's harder to hold onto, on nights like this.

[inaccordant]

Maybe.

But in the end, whether we like it or not, the world will move on. Sometimes there's no choice but to move with it.

[ambiography]

...I know. Time doesn't stop for any of us. We just-- do what we have to, in order to keep going.

[does she ever know that.]

I'm not sure all of us will.

[inaccordant]

... Then we pull them along. Or, we end this for them so that they don't have to move until it's all over.

[ambiography]

If I could do what I did at home, for some of them, I think-- I think I just might.

[inaccordant]

... What you did at home?

[ambiography]

If I had the same resources, I could have let them forget.

[she says that very quietly.]

I've done it before, out of necessity. And I know-- it's not the best option, but sometimes I see people about to break and I wonder if it would be better. It wouldn't work, this is too contained a situation and there's no way to keep them from it, but if there were a way to ease the burden...

[inaccordant]

[...

he frowns, a flicker of something in his emotions before it dies.]

Forgetting the past just makes it worse when you remember again. [...] But I'll acknowledge that while I prefer to deal with those burdens and face the future, whatever it holds, I can't speak for everyone.

[ambiography]

...I know. Reasonably, I know. I've felt that for myself.

[her cyoa memory problems...

she knows it's something that shouldn't be done again, but especially this week, feeling what they all feel-- her heart hurts to see it, and if she had a way to make it go away she might be a little weak in the face of that.]

[inaccordant]

[...]

You should get some rest for yourself.

[ambiography]

I'll rest later.

[lucretia you are fucking injured still.]

[inaccordant]

And when is "later"?

[ambiography]

Whenever there's time to.

[after she finishes, you know, dealing with any other people who need it tonight.]

[inaccordant]

So, never?