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

[arebetter]

We better not. I mean we couldn't even go a week, apparently, but.

[crywiththesaints]

We'll need to see. Unfortunately, this group is still nowhere close to finding an exit.

[arebetter]

Nope. And we're going to go stir crazy stuck in here eventually. We have like five rooms apart from where we sleep.

[crywiththesaints]

There needs to be more to the building, even if we haven't found it. There's got to be a door, after all.

[arebetter]

Right. Just a matter of finding it.

[crywiththesaints]

I'm surprised that hasn't happened already. Whatever they've got at work, it's effective.

[arebetter]

Yeah. Apparently magic is real, it might be that.

[ If only Felicia could see her now. ]

[crywiththesaints]

Perhaps. Real, but in the hands of the Risen and out of the rest of ours.

[arebetter]

Yep. Either magic in the real sense or magic in the Penn and Teller sense, it doesn't actually matter too much when we have nothing.

[crywiththesaints]

The Transmitter did tell me something. Some of our number once had magic, in their own homes, but there's a block in place so it's all "shut off," as she put it. Of course, I don't know the details. Perhaps someone can elaborate.

[arebetter]

I know at least one of us did. It makes sense to me, though, there's always some kind of... anti-magic manacles or collars or fields or whatever.

[crywiththesaints]

In stories, you mean.

[arebetter]

Sure, in stories. But it's as likely as anything else.

[crywiththesaints]

In here? Absolutely. I simply asked because you didn't have magic at home. This is new to most of us.

[arebetter]

That's good. It feels like half the people I talk to here have it.

[crywiththesaints]

And most of them don't match up. Different worlds, different rules.