thelockedplace | It’s been a long day without you, my friend

Entry tags:

afterparty

It’s been a long day without you, my friend

[ What was that?

What did they see happen?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough to save Leon. Which means that Lortel has only herself and Otto for the usual afterparty crew. And her boyfriend, if she press-gangs him, which she will.

She and Aqua leave the crypt together, and don’t immediately return.

But it’s not too long before she’s getting everything ready, hair tied back in a sensible ponytail as she readies the dining room. She doesn’t know how to cook, but Otto does, and even if he doesn’t feel like it, that’s too bad, because she’s going to encourage him.

They have so little left, and so much of that is simply each other. Why else do this? Why bother?

Except to…

Lortel will consider the white board.

Eventually, all she writes on it is “What happened?” ]

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That was Ranma and Leona at the end! They found a way to interfere with the execution!

[ Anemone is bursting with questions. She's shocked and agitated but also hopeful, for the first time after a trial. ]

Can we try contacting them again?

Tomorrow, they said. Sounds like they had a few more things to take care of.

I'm impatient. Pratibha's still asleep, too.

[ She misses them. ]

Is there anything we can do?

...Are there mysteries we still haven't solved? It seems like that's one way we could continue...

[His words falter for a moment.]

Continue... Luis's work.

… do we have all the clues that came with the keys we found? Maybe we can go over them again.

Fine, alright.

[He's feeling being alone in a dark room for two to three days, but fine, he'll pull over the whiteboard and start writing out the keys we've got!]

I think we understand "Pratibha fell first" a little better now.

[Otto will, in fact, cook! He doesn't even really need to be asked; he just goes straight to the kitchen. It's his job now, isn't it? But he's extremely quiet the entire time.

When he's finished making a simple soup, he'll repair to the attic and make no effort to come out.]

[Aqua has an excuse to come look for him this time, folded in his hand with Otto's name on it.]

...Dr. Octavius.

[He has a dead letter to deliver.]

.....what's this?

[He's not obtuse, he can see pretty well what it probably is, but Otto's not even that sure he wants to deal with this right now.]

Luis wrote it for you.

[Aqua wouldn't blame him for shredding it like confetti, honestly.]

Ugh, of course he did.

[Otto looks, briefly, like he's considering doing just that! But he does slice it open and glance through it instead. Just very briefly, before:]

That jackass.

[Aaaaand away it goes]

Yeah.

[Yeah. Adiós, papelito.]

...That's all. I'll let you be.

[Unless Otto wants to talk, which, like. Sure? But what if they didn't. What if they kept all their feelings right here, in their chests, and then someday, they died.]

What happened?

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Attic

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THE NEXT DAY...

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This is what I get for not tracking this thread