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

[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?

[journalname]

I am - well enough, thank you.

[He's fucking lying and it is very obvious.]

[heritrix]

I'm not a good companion in times like this, but you don't have to lie to me. If it's for your sake, I won't question it.

[She frowns, looking down at her tea.]

But I won't ridicule you for grieving either, so you don't have to hide it.

[journalname]

...I have seen death before. [He speaks up after a moment.] Violent death, even. But she was so young. And that was...a cruel illusion to craft.

[heritrix]

[He sounds as old as his profile says he is, like this. Even if he told her he's younger.]

...So you saw what she called it too?

[The strange electricity being. When it transformed, Arietta had called it "mommy".]

[journalname]

I did. I think perhaps I could have guessed it - it did not have to take any form, to kill her.

[She could have just been electrocuted by a ball of energy, and that would have been that.

He wonders if electrocution is a painful way to die, for humans. But he will not ask her that.]

[heritrix]

No. [She agrees.] It didn't.

[So she wonders why.]

[journalname]

It seems it must have just been to be cruel.

[heritrix]

It might not have any consciousness of itself; we don't know yet. But we'll find out.

[journalname]

Well, cruelty on someone's part. If we could interact with it outside of that room, perhaps...

[heritrix]

I wouldn't recommend it. Not without a foolproof barrier between us and it.

That said, I do want to study it more.

[journalname]

Well, no, I do not exactly want to meet with it as things are now. I suspect my body would not conduct electricity quite as well as yours - humans have a great deal of water in them, do they not? But it would certainly still hurt.

[heritrix]

Wait. You don't have water in your body?

[How does that work?? She's not sure it's possible with a non-spirit creature— ohhhh.]

[journalname]

I am made mostly of magic. And a bit of dust. Some monsters are more or less corporeal, but none of us contain very much physical matter.