MINGLE - Post-Op(era) Recovery

[pumpkinhollow]

On this night we drink to the death of Sorrow.

After the Fall of Efrain With the Prince of Sorrow's Song dead and gone, the opera dissipates, spitting its victims out on the summit of Crane's Ridge where the Dance of Celestine was held some months before. It's getting late, and there is no one yet in town to run the train. Some will brave the trip home simply for the sake of collapsing into their own beds and achieving some sense of normalcy. Others will do so with the hope of returning with help. But many others will simply say "fuck it" and camp out on the mountain, still fitted with extra firewood from the festival and the means to build temporary structures in nearby storage sheds. The journey down will be safer in the morning, and there's solidarity to be had in a cool spring night spent under the stars.

Oh, look, there's even some non-perishable food and wine from the Dance. Combined with what can be hunted or foraged, as well as snacks and drinks stolen from the concession stand, there's plenty to go around. This might even be a little bit fun! Anyone up for another game of Never Have I Ever? Maybe a little Truth or Dare? Or perhaps you just want to chat and unwind with your friends. Whatever the case may be, have fun. This is your time. After darkness, there is a dawn. At the death of Sorrow, there is joy.

Comments

[not_the_last]

"Roughly, yes. There were a few details that were simplified away; I wasn't retaken until nearly two years later. The townsfolk hid me, and made me part of their resistance against the Briarwoods. It was in trying to take the castle back that I was taken prisoner again, and yes, kept."

[liesdontfindyou]

Exhale. Well, she knows a little of what it's like to think maybe you've escaped only for the fact reality is rarely kind to come crashing back.

"And after, you kept some contact with the resistance but also reported to the Briarwoods?" That's what she thinks she understood of the story, anyway. Of course the stylisation is what makes so many of there questions necessary.

[not_the_last]

"Yes. I was perfectly placed to gather information for the resistance, which may be why they never caught on that I was primarily passing it the other way." Quite calmly. "Or perhaps it simply never occurred to them that I might. By any reasonable reckoning my loyalties should have been with them."

[liesdontfindyou]

She wonders if it's the kind of detached, clinical calm that you earn through stubborn force.

"Situations are often more complicated than they seem." Everyone in the program thought she was sending information to the bad guys, by the end. Cassandra's situation is more of a reverse of her own, but still. Complicated. "...your turn?"

[not_the_last]

She wouldn't be wrong there.

Cassandra breathes out. "I'm sorry to ask this, but -- you were killed? Is that what happened?"

[liesdontfindyou]

CT exhales. "I was. That's the death that brought me here. We had no way to escape that bunker without a fight and there was— no universe where we won that fight. None."

The only way they were ever going to get out of that bunker alive was if Texas had seen the tags and sided with her, or she'd pulled off a miraculous persuasive argument. No version of that confrontation that ended in a fight ended well for them.

"That was the other performance it made me do. Except there were two soldiers, not just one. Texas killed me but Carolina didn't stop her."

Her eyes flick subconsciously across the ridge to Carolina, then back to the fire.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra's gaze follows that glance, and lingers for a moment.

Very quietly: "Is she going to be trouble?"

[liesdontfindyou]

"She— hasn't been so far," doesn't sound all that certain, but: "Everyone that's talked to her has come out believing her when she says she won't be. I'm trying not to worry about it too much."

[not_the_last]

"I can keep an eye out, if you like. Though I can't promise much."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I won't say no. The more people aware... well, at the very least, the more backlash if she crosses the line."