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

[yourpiecenow]

Well, there you go. Another thing to chalk up to this place's bullshit.

[beat] God, your saints sound so much more exciting than ours are.

[nachetanya]

I'd been hearing that a lot before now, actually.

[ About the saints. She laughs, shaking her head ]

In my world, saints are women who've inherited a fraction of the gods' powers. There are seventy-eight in all, all of them with some specific collection of abilities: the Saint of the Sun, the Saint of Blades, the Saint of Ice. So on and so forth.

[yourpiecenow]

Ugh. That's so badass...

So, what, the Saint of Blades was your grandma or something?

[nachetanya]

No. I'm the current Saint of Blades.

[yourpiecenow]

Oh. So, it's more like incarnation than a bloodline?

[nachetanya]

Yes. [ She nods ] When the previous saint retires or is told to retire by All Heavens Temple, the gods will select the new saint. Usually, this can be predicted - the most worthy acolyte of the temple in question. But sometimes it can produce more unexpected results.