C'est la mort. (Open)

[lazyinlove]

Date & Time:Tonight, around 7.
Location:The viewing windows.
Characters:Anyone who knew Peace or who might stop to pay respects at a memorial even if they didn't know her.
Summary:A memorial gathering for an Exsile who ceased to exist with the most recent world change.
Warnings:Tears, cursing, bitterness? Not sure yet. People can label threads as they come up. Everyone is free to make their own and jump around. Prose and action are both fine.


It's a waste of emergency torches, but there are a few set up around anyway, lit that soft unearthly blue of emergency lighting. The flowers are paper, clumsily folded from discharge sheets, some from the prison, some from the clinic. There are no photos. All of the ones she was in before are empty spaces, or pictures of Stanley or others who'd been holding her at the time. The music is strings, playing softly from a haphazardly tossed tablet. There are no chairs. Instead, every pillow from 144 is on the ground as seating.

Stanley isn't sitting on one, though. He's standing at the window, staring down at the planet so far below. Today, he's combed his hair. It's still in his eyes because it's too long, but he's made the effort to tame it at any rate.

He's not sure how to start things off, but if someone shows up he'll greet them. That's what you do, right? So that's what he does.

"Thanks for coming."

Comments

[gevurah]

[ Kate needs to crane her head to read the message, but luckily she's a quick reader. She looks to Nill and shakes her head. ]

Not very well. We spoke once. [ Twice. ] But you're right; he's nice.

[reassures]

[She kind of wonders if anyone really knows Stanley very well.

But if Kate was here, then he had probably invited her, just as he had invited Nill. Which meant...]

Did you get to meet Peace?

[gevurah]

I didn't. I had heard there was an Exile child who'd been snuck up here.

[reassures]

[So Kate hadn't even met her. ...Even so, if Stanley was inviting people like Kate, then he had a good head on his shoulders. Nill wasn't sure of how black-and-white the world was in Kate's eyes, but for the most part she had a good head on her shoulders.]

She was a nice girl. I don't think there are any pictures left of her.

[gevurah]

What did she look like?

[ She can't even be sure Peace is really dead and not just back with her family, safe and sound somehow. ]

[reassures]

She was small. Afraid. She looked a little like the other Exiles-- If you thought about it, you could tell she was one. But some Transports look like Exiles, too.

[It wouldn't have been a stretch to try to pass her off as a Transport.]

[gevurah]

[ Somehow, reading Nill's response doesn't come as a surprise to her. Kate never met the girl and yet she feels somewhat sorry for her despite Stanley doing something incredibly brave for her safety. ]

She must have been scared. Poor kid.

[reassures]

She was. I think Stanley was the only thing here that made her feel comfortable. He did everything for her.

[She spares a glance in his direction, before turning her attention back to Kate. Maybe it's mean of her, but...]

Please don't say that to Stanley.

[He was having a tough time as it was. Nill was pretty sure he didn't need a reminder that his good deed may not have been that good.]

[gevurah]

[ That he had been good to her? She feels she's missing something, the larger picture, but Kate nods quietly anyway. Collette said she trusted and appreciated her discretion and she honours it to the best she can. ]

I won't. He's going through enough.

[reassures]

[She realizes what she asked of her might have been misleading 0 and from the surface thoughts, she doesn't want that. Stanley should know that people other than her thought he did well. So..]

Don't say that she was scared.

Thank you.

[gevurah]

[ Denial's not something she likes to gloss over, but...

Stanley's going through enough. She doesn't like it, but perhaps she'll let it alone this one time. ]

Okay.

He didn't know?

[reassures]

[She shakes her head. It wasn't that, really. As far as Nill can tell, almost everyone here is scared, and no one is oblivious to it.]

I'm sure he knew.

I don't think he needs to be reminded that a big part of what she felt here was sadness or fear.

[gevurah]

That's not his fault. [ She says resolutely, eyes drifting to wherever Stanley has situated himself in the room. ] But I won't; I'm not that cruel.

[reassures]

[In return, Nill offers a small smile, one that conveys her thanks. She appreciates it. Kate seems a little more straight-forward than most people-- Nill isn't sure what she would or wouldn't have said, or if it would have gone against her usual way of doing things, but at the least she's glad that Kate's willing to listen to her.]

[gevurah]

He might want space after this, but keep an eye on him?

[ Losing someone is hard, but it's often exacerbated in war. ]

[reassures]

I'm not going to leave unless he asks me to.

[No worries Kate. She's got this. Sad teenage kids is something she had a lot of experience with.]

[gevurah]

Good.

[ She nods, conveying her gratitude. ]

Peace might not be gone. We don't know exactly what happened.

[reassures]

I think all the pictures that people took of her are gone.

[Which might not mean that Peace is totally gone, but... the Peace they knew, the one that Stanley saved, is definitely gone.]

[gevurah]

[ She casts her gaze upon the paper flowers once more. ]

She's an Exile, so she's affected by the timeline changing.

[reassures]

She may never have been alive at all.

Some day it's going to affect us, too.

[She's not sure when, but the way she figures... the only reason they get out of it is because they came after the Exiles, and it's primarily their past that has been changed so far. But Nill doubts it's going to remain that way forever.]

[gevurah]

[ It takes her a few seconds to realize Nill's "said" something in response. She cranes her neck once again to read the tablet, pressing her lips together. ]

Hard to know for certain.

[ Maybe. ]

[reassures]

[Kate's got her there she supposes. But it's nice that she doesn't think poorly of Nill for saying that.

However, it's a depressing thought on top of an already depressing event. Lingering on it wouldn't be very pleasant. So, once she's sure Kate is paying attention, the next message comes.]

How have you been?

[gevurah]

[ It manages to get a short pause from her, while she debates on her answer.

There's no point in telling her the exact truth as to how she's been feeling since the mutiny and all the drama that's been following. ]

Alright. What about you?

[reassures]

[Nill offers a slight shrug, her wings shifting against her back with it. It was a reasonable enough answer, even if it wasn't totally true. She wouldn't really expect Kate to tell her the whole truth.]

Alright. I'm glad it's a little quieter now.

[Definitely not as quiet as it could be with the shit people have been posting on the network, but at least there wasn't another mutiny going on or something.]

[gevurah]

Were you okay earlier in the month?

[ Between the mutiny and those zombies, the peace is both pleasing and unnerving. ]