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What should we strive for as individuals and as a human collective?
And...is cereal a soup?

[ Sometimes you just start thinking about things, especially when you're in jail for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ]

[Mia's already well aware the jellyfish can display their memories, already having witnessed Maya's-- but here she still is in the Jellyfish library, watching as many of the strangely recorded histories as she can. She can't avoid everyone entirely, but she has tried to visit with as few other people present as possible.

This time, when she's pretty sure she's mostly alone, she doesn't try to stop the projections of the jellyfish when they feed on something that's been pulling at her mind.

Now, Miss Fey, I'll take what's mine... the papers.

A voice that sounds like it's underwater plays from the shadowy figure before Mia's perspective. Well, it's less of a shadowy figure and more... obnoxiously purple, in the dim moonlight filtering through the blinds of what is definitely a law office, down to the low-pill carpet.

I'm sorry, but I can't give you what I don't have.

The figure isn't pleased with the response Mia's memory gives. He frowns, then smiles again, gesturing past her.

Miss Fey, you are a poor liar. Why, I see it right over there... That must be "The Thinker" that swallowed those papers.

The 'camera' of the memory begins to pan around the room. A jump from the clock on her desk resembling the famous The Thinker statue, to the image of her assailant moving toward the clock-- then around the room again as Mia looks for a way out. "How could you know...?" She asks, but the figure is in the way of her path out of the office.

The figure makes a clicking sound with his tongue, and mimes a phone call with his hand, thumb and pinky as the speaker and receiver. Ho hoh. You are not cogniferous of my background? Gathering information is my business, you see.

I... I should have been more careful. Mia's words ring out through that bubbly, watery sounding filter of the passage of time, clear and apparent as the words she knows for sure she said-- words she still believes. The camera spins as her assailant approaches her, clock in hand.

Ho hoh. My dear Miss Fey... I am so very sorry. But I am afraid I must ask you for one more thing. Your eternal silence... Farewell, Miss Fey.

And then, like a TV cutting out short, the image is gone, and Mia is left there staring into the jellyfish as they float away. Her arms remain crossed and she doesn't move a limb or her face, but she does let out a long sigh.

It's not every day you get to relive your own death, especially not where curious teenagers can see it.]

[ It's the twelfth of October. Most of the injured and back on the base, recovering as best they can. Maya's since been discharged, but his body has always been a hot mess that refuses to heal right. He's not as spaced out as before, actually recognizing Where He Is now, but still out of it enough to mean everyone's on his case about resting. So, like anyone else, trapped in a hospital at 3 am, starting to go stir crazy, you... well. Try and find things to do. Realize there's nothing. Then you start running over the things you should have been doing, such as listening to the pile of new messages you have, but couldn't listen to in front of Maya or Lion or Mia. Better to use 'I'm trying to stay low-stress' as a shield.

The thing is, none of the messages were new. He heard them all already, from far away, stuck in a waking hell before everything blanked out. They're all replayed on the lowest volume imaginable, but the despair is as loud as the first time. A prayer to someone yet no one. 'I hope you can't hear any of this.' 'This was a mistake.' Maybe it would be best to ignore it. He vaguely remembers Lion running off. It would be so easy to delete the messages, assume it was handled, and leave Alex's weakness to his privacy.

But at the same time, it's not right. In the wake of everyone suffering from that thrice-damned mission and trying to keep it to themselves, the only thing that it brings back is that same old anger at the same old problems. Now, more than ever, it's crystalline. Transparent. Even if the words are pointless-

No. They're not. ]

Sorry it's late. [ wait wait shit- ] The response, not the time. I hope your birthday was...

[ Wait. Wait no that's even worse hang up before it sends ]

Do you have any other babysitters I should know about
I don't especially care for how the armored one's decided to lock me up

Can we meet up somewhere?
I want to talk to you about something.

[Before Wonderland, Michael would likely have just gone looking and skipped the text. But now, he's still tentative. Just a bit - they've talked some since, and he knows that Alex doesn't hate him. Doesn't not want him around, exactly. Isn't...

...well, being afraid of him might be another matter. Especially if Michael were to turn up out of the blue. Best to ask.]

[Ogata stewed on the advice he got from Michael for a couple days. Considered ignoring it. Really wanted to ignore it. But in the end;]

Alex I need to
[He starts to write "tell you" but decides that doesn't sound right. It's too much of a statement, make it sound like the truth when it really doesn't feel like it.]

say something
to you.
[Smooth.]

Hey.

You got murdered, huh?

[Boy, somebody sounds calm.]

[She tries her best to keep an even tone, she really does. But it's a little harder when she thinks about their heart-to-heart in Lyrabar, and it still comes out weighty with sadness and a little petulant. She wants to ask why didn't you tell me, but she thinks about the reasons she might hide something like this and so she doesn't, not yet.] When did it happen?

[ At some point when Alex returns to his room, he will find a small pink box addressed to him at his door. Inside the box is a dark chocolate cupcake with vanilla bean frosting. It looks as picturesque as you'd find at a real bakery, and is also just plain delicious.

Along with the cupcake there is a small note: "Thanks for showing me where the comics were. - Natsuki" ]

Alex-chaaaaaaaan!! You're a warlock, right?

[This isn't the first time Wash has taken justice into his own hands, or wound up in jail for it. It is the first time he's done it for someone who's still around. Hooray for diamonds and Dr. Tank.]

[But it makes this an entirely different situation, and an awkward one. He'd maintained to Ogata that he'd done it strictly to keep Ogata from staging a repeat performance on someone else, but...well, he can't deny that revenge had been a large factor in it. Ogata had killed someone he cares about - someone he sees as under his protection.]

[And Wash hadn't exactly asked Alex's opinion on the matter before he'd hunted Ogata down and dragged him in. That particular ship may have sailed, but he's long overdue to check in.]

Hey. Are you okay?

[ Alex's gift was... tricky. Their first impulse was impossible - magic doesn't work anymore, so that's all out. But they had enough time to work on something else. So on the morning of the 25th, there is a odd package sitting outside his door. It's clearly labelled, with "FOR ALEX, FROM LION" neatly printed on the side, in an attempt to avoid any potential deathtrap problems.

The majority of the box is taken up by a thoroughly overstuffed first-aid kit, full of any possible thing one could need on a road trip to ~~hell~~ adventure. A field suture kit, way too many bandages, sterilising alcohol - if it exists, it's probably in here. Carefully resting ontop is a small, stuffed raven doll, and a sturdy leather notebook.

The majority of the book is blank, waiting to be written in. But the inside cover is covered in a two-page painting - a rough thing, messy but full of heart, picturing Clear. She's sitting in a dusty old record store on some long-forgotten afternoon, smiling.

Next to the book is a note, in painfully neat handwriting.

"To help you remember, on those bad days, that not everything has to end in darkness.

Keep going, Alex. Happy endings are worth fighting for.
-Ushiromiya Lion." ]

Edited 2019-12-21 03:17 (UTC)

[A present is left for Alex at his dorm! It's a bracelet with knots between each smooth stone bead, long enough for the beads to be held between two fingers while still worn securely on the wrist. There is a 'pendant' stone, bigger and flatter than the others, that hangs from a connected length, making the shape similar to prayer beads or a rosary. There's also a small, bright-yellow-brass pin in the shape of a sunflower from an artisan in Lyrabar, as well as a small handmade omamori that, if asked, she will explain is meant for warding off evil. It's wrapped elegantly in some kind of beeswax paper with a simple wax stamp. Accompanying it is a note reading,

Alex,

Did you know that the badges loaned to defense attorneys by the Lawyer's Association are meant to resemble sunflowers? They're the flowers of justice and freedom, always turning their heads to face the sun, unrelenting in their pursuit.

Thank you for everything you've done these past months. Whatever we face ahead, I believe in you, and I'm here for you.

Happy Candlenights,

Mia ]

[Alex's gift is one of the few that Michael didn't have to think very hard about.

At least, he came up with the idea quickly enough. After that, he did spend some time thinking about whether or not it was a good one. Is it too much? Would it be unwelcome from him in particular? Without the Oath in place, he can't even tell how Alex has been feeling lately...it's funny, how quickly he got used to having that.

In the end, he just does it. It feels like making up for something.

The package is wrapped beautifully and left outside Alex's door with the following note:]

I hope this is good. Merry Christmas.

- Michael

[It's a hand-drawn portrait of Clear. We all know Michael can re-create her likeness, after all.]

[ Unlike the current Reclaimer tradition of leaving gifts outside of doors while out (which he is guilty of in a few cases), Alex falls into the same case as Maya and Lion. Which means having to be there in person.

Thou shalt not be a coward. Ugh. ]

Message me when you're free. Alternatively, I can leave it at your door. Pick one.

[A messily-wrapped box, with Alex's name written directly on the colorful paper. There's a handmade card on top, decorated with stickers and doodles of wintry images like snow, gingerbread men, etc. It's not properly signed, but the signature isn't necessary. On one side of the interior:]

Tall green trees in lights twinkling bright,
Sparkling strands of tinsel and snow pure white,
The smell of hot cocoa and apple cider too,
A very merry Candlenights, from Sayori to you!
[And then on the other side:]

I know that sometimes it's kind of hard and complicated to be here, but I'm really, really glad you are. I'm lucky to have met you.

[What a brief note. But maybe that's because in the envelope with the card are two pieces of sturdy stationery, white with soft blue polka dots, that have a lot more writing on them. One is a poem that will be familiar to Alex. And then one is...much less familiar.

Inside the box is a dark blue fantasy hoodie with a sick embroidered raven design on the back, complete with weird jagged beak.]

[Happy Candlenights! Alex receives: A raven plush in a red baseball jersey and matching hat. A light-blocking eye mask that says FUCK OFF on the front (put it in the fantasy freezer to reduce eyestrain after staring at the fantasy computer for too long). A clumsily but lovingly hand-painted T-shirt. An absolute heap of cookies, none made by him, all very good. But most of this gift isn't for Alex at all. There's a large-ish box, about milk crate sized, with the words For Clear painted on the lid. It's all in the metallic colors of the statue she made, the one that was Alex. Inside there are a few things — a lockpick set, a nice knife of appropriate size to hide in one's boot, a little wooden ornament carved to look like a smug little Alex — but it's mostly empty. A note within just says: Fill it up for her.]

[ alex will receive: a handdrawn portrait of clear and alex together (from memory so she made her best effort), a beaky ornament, a helmet covered in samurai stickers to protect him, a scarf with magatamas on it, and a card from maya wishing him a happy candlenights! the card is full of doodles of alex in various poses: being noogied by mista, a family-styled portrait with her and mia, kissing clear, hanging out with beaky (there's also a bunch of seperate beaky doodles), alex riding a giant whale, etc, etc, etc. the card details how happy maya is to have met alex --- peppered in some bits about he's a huge dork and needs her to look after him -- but also how happy she is he's alive and how she'll always be there for him to matter what. it talks about how strong and brave he is to haven gotten this far and not given up, how much she admires his kindness and spirit and perseverance, and how she knows he'll see clear - the real clear again. she tells him that he's her best friend, too, and of all alexes in every universe, he's the one she is so lucky to have an unbreakable bond with. the card tells him she believes in him, that he has the power and the strength to break away from his cruel fate, and she'll always be there to help him do that. it wishes him freedom from cruel fate, happiness and safety, and is ended with a doodle of him and clear holding hands. ]

[ there's also a magatama-shaped 'freedom' omamori, blessed by both mia and maya. yes. another one. ]

[ By the time she gets Alex's presents, she's already delivered all the ones she'd bought--including his, a scarf and a bracelet with a raven charm... and of course, cookies. But Alex's gift had touched her so much...

She'd definitely held the rabbit and cried for a while.

So he'll get another dozen cookies: sugar cookies, cut out and decorated like ravens. And a note. ]

Thank you for the gift. They really mean a lot... more than I can ever say.
-Mira

text;

action; backdated to the last week in Lyrabar also spoiler warning for Actual Dialog Pulled from AA

voice for 90% of this, forward-dated to the 12th