trustfelled | i'll be dreaming of the day we meet again

[ After she gets Fern patched up, Aligula starts on what might be her Best Party Ever.

...until her next one, anyway. It's no surprise where she's hosting today: it's the dormitory area. Throughout the hours of setting it up, it gets more and more colorful—the doors of the dead (both newly deceased and old) get childish paper cut-out flowers (think the daisy looking ones), while the living get stars. They're all in different colors, with no real discernible pattern! Long strands of ribbon decorate the walls along with more colorful party hat-looking cut-outs, in and out of the little cul-de-sac areas. In the center of the area are blankets laid out with plates of pancakes and trays of tea, stacked on tables made out of books. (There are also parfaits in wine glasses, because of course there are.)

More importantly, there are pillows across the floor of the entire hallway and especially stacked around the center, and in every little room area there's a nice note posted to one of the walls, in Aligula's ever familiar curly handwriting:

Apparently, today's after-party is the slumber party type to even help people who might not want to wander the hallways tonight. ...and look, Luca, she even took your advice. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SNRRK. ]

Then just upgrade that to normal authority! We'll stick it to the Adjudicator by becoming a pack of punks!

Aligula, are you recruiting me to join your gang?

Well, I lost my only other two members, so... yeah!

[ well that was kind of sad— ]

Katniss said she'd be up for joining too, buuut she doesn't know that we're going punk. It's mostly just about redecorating this place whenever we feel like it.

[She shakes her head in amusement. Maybe she wouldn't think so if she hadn't befriended weirdos in the Hospital, but man. Aligula is a treasure.]

What the hell. If everyone works out with junior, I'm in.

[ Aligula's the best treasure, treasure her while you've got her, maybe next week it's her turn to die. ]

Awesome! You're in charge of punking us up then, since you've got experience with it.

I will be firm but fair with my newfound power.

As you should be!

[ ...She'll tap her shoulders like she's knighting Fern, or something, and then going back to braids. Second braid, actually. ]

Are you gonna let your son go through his punk phase too?

Well, in the past two to three months, I've punched a vampire twice, killed a giant kidney stone, and became buddies with a maggot and some germs.

So I think I'm gonna be one of those open-minded parents.

I'm happy to hear that! [ ... ] What are close-minded parents like? I can't like, really remember mine.

[ SHE PROBABLY HAD SOME AT ONE POINT, PROVIDED SHE DID NOT JUST SPRING FROM THE ETHER, BUT DOES SHE KEEP IN CONTACT WITH THEM? PROBABLY NOT. ]

[You know what, let's get in this.]

Very judgmental. Quick to hate what they don't think is "normal". They're the kind of people who'd throw you out rather than help you when things go bad.

[This has that tone of "speaking from experience" in it.]

[ O o o h yikes. ]

Your parents sucked, essentially.

Yeah, well. I'd rather raise Junior far away from them anyway.

[EAT IT MOM.]

Are you gonna rub what a great mom you turned out to be in their faces when Junior's all grown up? That's what I'd totally do. If I still kept in contact with my parents and if I had kids.

I'd be a lousy punk if I didn't, wouldn't I?

["Aligula's Punks" will tell all bad parents to eat dirt.]

[ This is going to be the best gang in the world, holy shit. Telling bad parents to eat dirt and aggressively redecorating everything. ]

That's the spirit! ...You're gonna turn out to be a pretty cool mom, you know. Like, maybe even as cool as Inigo's.

A cool mom, huh? If I'd known beating up people with fists and sticks made me cool, I'd have done that years ago.

[Try not to think about how he's probably dead try not to think about it try not to think about it]

You're gonna- hell, you already seen like a great gang leader too

That's because I've got experience! ...Sort of! I mean, I'm part of a big group, right? Leading something like a gang can't be that hard.

[ s...ure. ]

[She reflects back to the gangsters in her shitty neighborhood.]

Well, as long as you got good teamwork, it'd probably work out fine.

And good teamwork comes naturally with trusting people.

[ ...this has been one long trust exercise so far and all it's done is thrown its middle fingers up at them. ]

[It suddenly hits her that yeah, she does trust Aligula. She's befriended bacteria who have no concept of death, a maggot who finds her desire to stay alive a weird quirk. And those guys were people she trusted without question at this point.

So Aligula? Helpful Aligula who was a little goofy but always did her best to keep people happy? Yeah, Fern trusted her too.]

Have I ever thanked you for these parties? [KIND OF A NON SEQUITUR BUT.] Because they're great.

[ ...she's not sure how to handle this sudden confession, oh my— ]

You haven't, but you're welcome! They're a lot of fun. [ to host, to attend, to entertain at... ] I'm just gonna keep doin' them too, so don't worry about if we're gonna have anything fun. I think I might start tying them into meetings like I did the past week though... That was nice, wasn't it?

[Don't make it weird Aligula.]

That sounds like a good idea.

I was just thinking is all, if I was kind of judgy when we first got here? My bad. That was a dick move.

Aww, you just had to loosen up some! So you're forgiven.

[ no hard feelings bruh. ]

I guess most people aren't used to the idea of having parties when everything's all crazy, even if I totally am? So it's whatever.

Nah, it helps people settle down. Relax, process. Support each other and stuff. Better than twiddling our thumbs.

I'm glad you're finally coming around to the thought. [ ...there, Fern's braids are... hmm. ] You have really fluffy hair. Has anyone ever told you that?

[ IT SORT OF MAKES FOR A HARD TIME WITH BRAIDING. ]

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greenmamabear - 2016-08-24 03:04 (UTC) - Expand