come out of hiding, i'm right here beside you

[barehands]

[A while after the execution has ended, everyone will find a simple note slipped under their door.]

If you don't want to be alone after everything that's happening, some of us will be in the dining room. Even if you decide not to come, please remember that you aren't alone here.

[The note isn't signed, but the handwriting is feminine and neat.

For anyone who decides to come, there's a good array of food laid out on the table. There are some small and simple cakes, cookies, and pastries, a healthy amount of okonomiyaki, okayu, and other Japanese dishes (with a focus on rice and eggs), along with curry. In addition, there are pancakes, and a large pot of soup. It looks like a few people collaborated to make enough food for everyone here.

Just like the meal they shared together earlier in the week, the candles from the storage room lend a more peaceful light than the fluorescent lights above.]

Comments

[enhancements]

[...Wesker is going to be spending a lot of time near the walls at these things, it seems; he's vaguely surprised to find Wheatley there this time around. He's aware that he's likely not the most popular person with the group right now, but that's...]

What makes you say that?

[dangerousfool]

I'm rather smart if I say so myself, but I had no idea what was going on just a moment ago. I'm not a crime solver, I'm not the Holmes to the Moriarty that was Arietta.

[Arietta was nowhere close to being like Moriarty, but Wheatley doesn't really mind the technical details of his botched metaphor -- or kinda understand them]

[enhancements]

[Ah.]

...Morale.

[It's kind of a blunt answer that doesn't explain much of anything; it's just sort of...out there before it seems to occur to him to clarify.]

If you aren't going to be able to solve, your purpose here is to bolster morale. Clearly.

[It's sort of strange and blank, but it's something, anyway. And it's entirely true, even if it ends up being in a backhanded "at least I'm not that" sort of way.]

[dangerousfool]

[Boosting morale...sure, that could work! It's an option!]

I could do that! Morale boosting, that'd be good. Go team!

[Well that worked. So much for being disheartened]

I should make a banner.

[enhancements]

[...What even are you, Wheatley, goodness.]

I...suppose?

[Dear god.]

I'm assuming you've been functioning well enough, otherwise. [...] Physically, not as relates to whatever despair hit just now.

[dangerousfool]

Yes, no problems. All functions are intact. Not that I had that many in the first place, there's only so much that can fit on a machine of my size.

[And it doesn't seem like this body has any new functions]

Well, no, I think I cracked my optic's glass cover. Rin made me fall to the floor.

[enhancements]

...I don't know what can be done about that particular problem, but should you need anything else repaired, come to me with it.

[It's an offer made more because he really likes messing with technology than because he's particularly altruistic, but he actually knows what he's doing, at least.]

[dangerousfool]

Thanks, I'll remember that!

[It's good to know there's someone who has skills with machines]

By the way, what's the most complicated machine you have worked in? I'm curious about that.

[enhancements]

That depends on how we're defining "complicated."

[He shrugs a little.]

I wasn't responsible for programming the Red Queen, which is the AI that I've mentioned to you from time to time - she was the creation of my previous superiors, I had very little to do with her. Most of what I've done has been on the security systems themselves - weapons design and ensuring that everything isn't going to maul the people that we don't want mauled.

[...That kind of went south at one point, but that's more because the Red Queen is just sort of like that as opposed to anything he fucked up, system-wise.]

Purge bombs are complicated simply because of what they're expected to do, though once you've worked something out then it isn't...terrible, just a bit tedious. And there's a personal project of mine that I haven't completed yet that's more traditionally mechanical, but autonomous enough to serve my purposes. Unfortunately, that's been on hold for a while.