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

[heritrix]

For fun.

[journalname]

Hmmmm.

What are yours, then?

[heritrix]

[Belatedly she smiles, making a gracious, sweeping gesture to herself (or her outfit, rather) with one arm.]

Your majesty, can't you tell?

[journalname]

[He chuckles.]

Well, perhaps you were brought in your least favorite outfit! But I am glad you were not.

[heritrix]

Nope! This is my favorite, in fact. [Small blessings! Though she likes her school outfit as well, so that wouldn't have been terrible.] Red is the signature color of the Tohsaka family.

[journalname]

Oh, is yours a very prominent family? Purple is the color of the Crown, for monsters.

[heritrix]

For most royalty in my world, too. Royal purples and royal blues. The Tohsaka don't have that level of renown, but in our own circle we're famous.

[journalname]

How nice! There are not very many famous monster families, any longer - but then, we have never had such complicated systems of nobility as some humans do.

I admit, though, I do wish I had been brought in different clothes. My royal regalia is all well and good, but it is not something I wear all the time.

[heritrix]

It looks heavy, too. Can't you take some of it off?

[journalname]

It is lighter than it looks! But it's all fairly attached, you see?

[It is. Somehow? We don't know how Asgore's stupid outfit works.]

I have not been wearing the crown and cape, at least. That would be a little much.

[heritrix]

But still better than the provided uniforms. Out of twisted curiosity, did they find one that fits even for you?

[journalname]

I have not tried it on, but it does look like it would! Even the shoes...

[He trails off, a little gloomier now that he's thinking about those shoes again. What did they give them dangerous shoes for, of all things?]

[heritrix]

[...she feels a little queasy again, thinking about that. The moment the trial was done she disposed of the murder weapon, unable to look at it any longer. And that weakness in herself and how it drove her to the bathroom in the first place makes her irritated. Would father be disappointed in her?

Even if he forgave her for that, he probably wouldn't for not being where she's supposed to be.]

I'm not sure it would suit you. [She fakes a shudder for humor, to hide the genuine tremble.] Ugh, or where they got it from! I don't want to see that closet anytime soon.

[journalname]

[Yes, let's change the subject.]

No, no. They are not exactly my style. [He chuckles.] They do not seem like very practical outfits. That is not how human doctors really dress, is it?

[heritrix]

Not the ones with medical degrees.

[journalname]

Oh...there are humans who pretend to be doctors?

[this is not going to a good place]

[heritrix]

Yup. They're the kind that wear the outfits we were given, in fact. That's definitely not standard hospital attire.

[It's really not. Also the last person she had a chat with about things like this died horribly today.]

Let's change the subject!

[And SPARE the nice goat man.]

[journalname]

[He's willing to be SPARED this time.]

Oh, okay. [Asgore doesn't seem to entirely understand the danger he brushed up against, but he does not mind. He takes a second to cast about for another subject.

...it's difficult, in this room, to think of things not related to the murder. Instead, he settles on the window.] It does not seem right that the fog and snow has lasted this long, does it?

[heritrix]

If we're in a mountainous region, it wouldn't be out of place. But otherwise it's peculiar, yes. I suspect it's man-made.

[journalname]

I agree. It is probably not magic as I know it - this would be exhausting to maintain for so long.

...they must know that it will continue, if they are relying on it to obscure our view. They could have just covered the window.

[heritrix]

Even like this, it would be worse if they did that. Humans don't cope well cut off form the outside world.

[Rin do you realize who you're talking to here.]

[journalname]

[Ohhhh, well, he'll let it go.]

No. But I do not think much of this was designed for our comfort.

[heritrix]

It's a strange mishmash. I'm of the mind most of it was designed for our discomfort, but there are others rooms that celebrities would dream of.

[Normally that's a bright thought. As much as Rin hates being here, the kitchen is state of the art and a wonderland to work in, for someone good with cooking like herself.

She remembers asking about it once, and a dark look crosses her faces as she recalls just who she had that conversation with.]

I asked the Transmitter about it once. She said she thought we should have something nice.

[journalname]

Ah, yes. That sounds like something she would say.

[Asgore, for his part, does not seem particularly bothered by talking about the Transmitter.]

I think she told me something similar about the variety of food available. Perhaps she enjoys food herself - though I do not think she cooks much.

[heritrix]

[...How can he not be bothered? Rin knows she should keep this civil conversation going, but she was also standing beside him throughout the trail.

She tried not to look, she tried not to care, but her eyes weren't blind and her ears worked perfectly. Asgore was close to Arietta; he grieved for her. He tried to help her, and each one of his reasonable requests was shot down. How--]

How are you?