003✖; (voice)

[circumitus]

[Judging by the sound of her voice and the clunking of glass in the background, Rey has been drinking. Alone, no less. When that happens, she has a habit to get melancholy, and even more so now. Thanks, Sorrow.]

"So, let's get this straight.

"The goal in all of this, assuming that we have one to start with, is to bring all of these dead gods back to life so that they can work their asses to finally use that Door that brought us all here in the first place... to take us back to our own worlds. That is the mission, right?"

[Pause. Another clink of glass as she takes a shot. By then it's obvious that there's something off about the way she speaks. Devoid of the monotone and the robot exterior that she so often maintains in the presence of others. Now it's just too much work.]

"Not that it's supposed to be a bad thing. Am sure that some of you come from lovely worlds with minimal problems and actual lives to return to and whole prospects ahead of you. But where does that leave some of us?

"You know, the ones that don't have lives. People who are dead, or have nothing to go back to but a piece of metal rammed through your chest but you're not dead even though you'd probably be better off that way anyway because of your track record for only making things worse no matter how much good you try to do and..."

[...And Rey is digressing. That is also not something she wanted to actually say.

[In fact, none of these things she actually wanted to say.

[Realizing this, she cuts the feed with a muttered "fuck, never mind" at the end.]

Comments

[circumitus]

Am not sad.

[Shut up Rey yes you are.

[She hesitates for a moment, her expression screwing with uncertainty as Muscovy preps the soup in front of her.]

But, um. [Fuuu.] Thank you.

[muscovy]

You should not lie, yes?

[He is not angry - indeed, he is smiling, and his tone is pleasant. But it is also very serious.

Because you should not lie, and Rey, you are lying pretty badly right now.

He finishes his set-up by putting a full bowl down in front of her and holding the spoon out for her to take.]

[circumitus]

Not lying, either.

[Rey is undoubtedly as terrible liar, especially after several drinks and her walls have very recently come crumbling down.

[She scoffs. She'll just be taking that spoon now, thank you very much. Really, she should have been eating something while drinking in the first place.]

[muscovy]

Lying about lying is lying, too.

[It's good soup, though a bit unusual due to the strangeness of the ingredients that he could find and used. Fairly thick and nutritious.]

[circumitus]

[At the risk of "lying" any further, Rey just huffs and starts on the soup in silence. Or, relative silence. She doesn't exactly exhibit the most civilized table manners when she slurps the soup rather crudely. A sight that might be somewhat familiar to Muscovy, if the fact that he's been witnessed to her poor eating habits before has been any indicator.]

[muscovy]

[He really doesn't mind her table manners. It's just yet another proof that he wasn't mistaken about her.]

You still eat in the same way.

[circumitus]

[Of all the things she expected to hear, that wasn't one of them. Rey stops, chokes, before casting Muscovy a nonplussed look.]

What?

[muscovy]

[He giggles, a high pitched, cheerful sound.]

You have a distinctive way of eating, and you do it at a table, too.

[circumitus]

[No one has really laughed at her eat. Gawk, raise eyebrows, whatever, sure. But never laugh in the way that Muscovy does.]

That's an odd thing to say. [She says this as she takes another slurp of soup. Whatever, mang.]

[muscovy]

It is very Rey. And it is nice to see that you are very Rey.

[Especially when she tries to pretend that she is not, at least not his Rey.

He rests his head on his arms and keeps watching her.]

[circumitus]

Um. Sure.

[It seems that, in spite of her repeat insistence that she is a different person, there continues to be similarities between her and this other version of herself. While she isn't entirely convinced that that means a damn thing, she can't ignore the uncanniness of it all, either.

[Rey sighs, dropping the spoon into the bowl of soup and rubs her forehead. Her head hurts just thinking about it, though that could also be a combination of the alcohol and the unease of having the boy stare at her like that.

[What is she even supposed to make of all of this?]

[muscovy]

[Clearly she's supposed to come to the conclusion that they're family and stop being silly about this.

But Muscovy is very patient in waiting for people to come around (lacking the ability to make them come around faster). So for now, he will just continue to sit here and watch Rey until her bowl is empty, and then refill it and return to his sitting and watching position.]

[circumitus]

[Rather than eating, she is more distracted by what he just said about the other Rey's eating habits. After a moment of not touching her food again, she glances to Muscovy out the corner of her eye.]

Why are you here?

[muscovy]

Because you looked like someone who needs soup and hugs because that helps best when your feelings are sick.

[And with how he knows her, he figured that she would never ask for any help with sick feelings.]

[circumitus]

Don't need...

[--well, he's got the soup out of the way. Hugs? No.

[She rubs her forehead again, closing her eyes as she tries to keep her emotions in check. Make sure that they're even the ones she is feeling herself.]

Whatever.

[muscovy]

[He'd move over and hug her, but with her recent reactions to him he's not sure if she would just literally explode if he did, and he'd rather not have that happen. Burning down hurts, and it would be a shame to ruin this place like that.]

You should eat up, yes?

Even if you're always warm inside the soup will make you a different warm inside that helps with the feelings.

[circumitus]

[She should eat, especially after all that she had drank. But her stomach is more busy turning.]

Loss my appetite.

[It doesn't seem to have helped much with the feelings, either.]

[muscovy]

You still need to eat. Because you are sick and when you are sick you need to eat so you can fight it better, yes? Even if it are your feelings that are sick.

[Eat, Rey, there's enough left for him to have some himself even if you get full.]

[circumitus]

[Her brows knit.]

Don't really care about fighting it.

[She deserves every bit of emotion she is feeling right now, in Rey's most "humble" opinion.]

[muscovy]

Why not?

[While he's not of the opinion that 'only the dead don't fight back', because there are numerous situations where fighting back would be counterproductive, sometimes you should fight back and with how silly Rey can be with friendship and such, feelings are the one area where Muscovy will always suspect Rey of being silly.]

[circumitus]

Because. Need to be feeling this.

[You can't hide from what you're feeling forever. Or, rather, you can, but you probably shouldn't. Not without risking everything from spilling over once it's reached the brim.]

[muscovy]

Why?

[Tilting his head, watching her attentively. He's the picture of active listening right now.]

[circumitus]

Because.

[She says it again like it's supposed to be all the answer she needs. If he can keep asking her the same question, she can give the same answer.

[But it's an act that she can't maintain any more than she can keep pushing her emotions down.

[Her shoulders sag.] This pain is justified. Have hurt a lot of people. It's only fair to feel hurt in return.

[muscovy]

Did you want to hurt them or did you have no good reason?

[Those seem to be two pretty crucial questions in this context. After all if you didn't want to (and were either forced or did it by accident) that won't make people less angry but it shifts the reason to blame yourself like this, and if you had a good reason to hurt them it becomes a whole different topic.]

[circumitus]

Both.

Sometimes it was about survival. Other times, innocent people ended up paying the price.

Have lost count of how many were killed... and however many more were affected.