Fine Food(?) and Music(???) Await You

[indulgently]

[Well that was truly a heartbreaking matter, to say the least. But what follows will be important. If they crack now, there will be no telling what their future holds. So now, more than ever, it is important that they hold together.

Few seem prepared to rise to the occasion, so it is left to Olivert to prepare something truly spectacular.

As the room is prepared, he hums and serenades himself quite happily. It's a good amount of work but he doesn't seem to mind doing it himself, although he would never turn down a few extra hands if they wanted to assist.

The important thing is that the Opera House has been decorated with lights and tables and rose petals aplenty. Enough to brighten up their little gathering. Amongst the tables there is food, but considering at least some if not all of them were the prince's doing, perhaps a little caution may be in order. There is at least probably a fifty/fifty percent chance of it being an edible dish!

Outside there is a sign made up to draw their numbers in.]

Tonight, a Grand Feast, to be shared amongst friends.
Everyone is highly encouraged to attend, though it need not be mandatory.
In the darkest hours it is important for the brightest lights to shine.
If necessary, tonight that light shall be me.
Wonderful music and food will be provided, you only need bring yourself.


Prepared by Olivert Reise Arnor.

[Trust nothing about this.]

Comments

[inordertobelieve]

[ Mikami's first step is to take a shower in the clergy housing. Has he already showered once today? Yes. Does he feel like he needs another one? Also yes. So there he goes. He doesn't normally over-abuse showering as a stress relief tool, but today has been a lot and he doesn't even have a shower schedule in this place yet and god... sometimes a guy just needs to scrub at his skin to stop feeling dirty. He only wishes these showers were actually private instead of stalls in a shared room. Anyone could walk in on him and it hinders the feeling of security that showering normally provides for him.

Later, when he catches whisper of the party, he at least wants to check out what's going on and.... wow.

He actually touches his forehead in a universally recognized gesture of exhaustion and despair. ]

... as if this place needed any help becoming less like a courthouse...

[ Later yet, you can find him walking through the seating rows in the opera house, looking lost in thought. Just what entities were here during the trial...? ]

[moonfang]

[Zangetsu has acquired something edible, and he watches Mikami from the seats]

Seems like they're gone.

[inordertobelieve]

[ Zangetsu ranks fairly low on the list of people who Mikami wants to see, but at least there's someone else who is concerned about the apparitions. ]

This city may not be as uninhabited as we thought. Just what is living here...?

[moonfang]

[good thing he cares so much about what Mikami thinks of him]

We're definitely not alone here. Spirits, maybe? Considerin' the sensation they created...

[inordertobelieve]

I'd consider the option of them being window dressing made to make the situation more scary, but in that case... I doubt that she would have been able to resist drawing more attention to it.

[ Overdramatic horrid woman. ]

[drydrown]

[As someone who is apparently loving the fact that we're gonna throw parties after we kill somebody like perfectly well-adjusted people, and also as someone whose first conversation with Mikami went right to shit within the first two seconds of him saying anything at all, he is absolutely loving the despair there. But he'll try not to be an - ]

Things are going to work a little differently around here, if you hadn't figured that out yet. But I doubt you care - at least the one who went out had a prior record this time, correct?

[...He'll try not to be a total asshole, maybe.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Ah yes. Cumore. Just who he wanted to see here. Though this is on him for even thinking attending this event, of course the more questionable members of the group would be here. Of course. ]

He committed a murder. Whether or not he had a record before coming here doesn't really matter, the outcome was always going to be this and supposed to be this.

[ Though yes, he is glad to have one of the two confirmed criminals removed... ]

[drydrown]

Would you have voted for him...? If we hadn't found anyone guilty by the end of things. Would it have been him, or did you have someone else in mind?

[He is so curious about this, he just hadn't wanted to re-engage with Mikami just to go HEY QUICK QUESTION WHAT THE FUCK regarding the statement made about voting out criminals.]

[inordertobelieve]

He was one of two options.

[ He's being cagey about this because maybe it isn't the greatest idea to parade around who he wants dead, but.... he's also a man filled with disgust that he has a hard time hiding. ]

you know what-- shower

[pr159]

[ Rideaux also already took a shower this morning, but he's touched brain since then, so it seems like a good idea to take another one before dinner. He's still pissed off about not having shampoo, but he's Dealing With It, and he's pretty much got these crappy showers down to a science now.

Anyway. This person was in that other stall already before he came in here, and now that he's done and has his priest-bathrobe on -- even after all the time spent soaping his hair like a fucking animal -- he's still in there. ]

Are you just waiting for me to leave, or are you really that filthy?

you're a hero

[inordertobelieve]

[ It wouldn't be strictly accurate to say nothing on this day went right. There may have been a murder (not right) but they did at least execute the correct person (very right). And yet, the day feels like even more of a disaster than the past two weeks. Which is astounding, considering the two weeks Mikami just had.

So, he'd really hoped he could get the pleasure of simply showering alone. Of course, he doesn't get it. Great.

He kind of hoped the other person - Rideaux as it turns out by voice - would simply leave without initiating contact, but... No admitting this. ]

It's been a long day. A long shower feels appropriate.

[pr159]

[ (you know if you're going by voice it could be hyoubu's ghost-- too soon?) ]

Well, I can't really argue with that.

[ 6+ hours in a trial following a murder investigation is objectively a long fucking day, yes.

Anyway, hearing who it is now, the comically long shower does suddenly make a lot more sense. ]

At least it all turned out well enough.

[ And now there are more towels to go around! ]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Mikami finally turns his own shower-head off, because it's easier to talk when the water isn't being noisy. He pulls his own towel down from the place he left it, slung over the door. ]

Thankfully. It was a farce of a trial, but it fulfilled its purpose. Barely.

party;

[reanbeans]

Yeah...well, hopefully our captors won't enjoy the sudden new festive look either?

[ He's...he's trying. It's probably not going to fly, and he's definitely going to have a talk with Oli about this but still. ]

[inordertobelieve]

[ There's a moment of silence here. Is he considering this or is he just trying to decide if it's too stupid to answer to? Yes. ]

I don't think a minor annoyance to them is worth this much gaudiness.

[reanbeans]

I guess not, if that's all there was to it.

[ ... ]

Maybe us not falling down in our spirits as much as they thought we would could annoy them. Did you see the way The Lady acted when...Kyousuke was executed?

[ If...Rean didn't know any better, he'd have wondered if The Lady wished for them to essentially embrace "despair" in their situation. Her reaction to his defiance was definitely something he kept in his head after that. ]

[inordertobelieve]

[ There's a nod from Mikami. ]

She does get strikingly emotional when people don't abide by her expectations. I had chalked it down to her sense of dramatics.

Do you suspect there is more to it?

opera house

[psychophant]

[So the trial was kind of A Lot and the "party" is also A Lot, and Iago would greatly prefer to ignore both of those. The only reason he's here is because he's curious about those things that were watching them— and oh look, Mikami's here too, wonderful.]

Well, it looks as though we had the same idea.

[inordertobelieve]

[ There could still be people he hates more than Iago, even though the whole aesthetic Iago has going on makes him very hard to consider non-evil. Mikami has seen his fair share of superhero shows in his days after all.

Either way, the company could be at least slightly worse. ]

I don't suppose you have any idea just who or what our spectators were? They seem to have vanished without a trace again.

[psychophant]

[this is discrimination against the non-evil dark mages!!!!!!]

No. I haven't seen anything quite like that before, and even if I had, I sincerely doubt it would be the same here.

[This world is just. so far from what he actually knows and it sucks!!]

My first thought was "ghosts" which is ridiculous, but unfortunately not something I can dismiss entirely since I'm not sure whether those exist in this world or not.

[He hates it!!!]

[inordertobelieve]

Ordinarily, they shouldn't.

[ He's lived 27 long years on planet Earth and a lot of people died around him. Statistically, if anyone would have ever seen a ghost or even gotten haunted, it should be him. He hates that he's reasoning it out like this, but he also stands by his result. ]

But ordinarily, the sun rises in Krakow. This mockery of my world is beyond what I can accurately predict. It's irritating.

[notbymyside]

[Mikami is actually someone Ango has been looking for. Given what he knows about the man and how today went, he's sure Mikami isn't taking this well. Ango isn't usually one to pry, but this is a situation that is far too close to his own experiences and he wants to make sure Mikami is okay.

...well, he seems fine enough to complain, at least. So there's that.]

I suppose it's not completely terrible. At least he didn't go with lilies.

[inordertobelieve]

I'm not sure what would be worse, seeing funeral flowers strewn about so haphazardly or having them be associated with our criminal alongside our victim.

[ Hyoubu does not deserve Lilies, that's Mikami's strict opinion here. People may also put funeral flowers on the graves of departed criminals, but they are wrong.

Mikami looks... well, does he ever look fine? He looks disgusted, but that is fairly regular. He's also slightly damp from his previous shower. ]

[notbymyside]

[Yeah, that right there? That makes Ango frown a little.]

Teru-san, even if he was a criminal he still deserves to be remembered.

[inordertobelieve]

[ Ango would say that. Ango, who is so familiar with that Dazai who's profile calls him a Mafia member. Mikami has noticed and he hasn't liked what he'd seen. ]

As a bad example, maybe. Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically. You can't literally erase the memory of a crime and you shouldn't.

[ Actually, he's no longer sure you can't and that's... bad. ]

But pleasant remembrance of the killer is a disservice to the victim.