Scene #9687: Af-ter All This, My-La-Dy, Show Me.

Owner	Pose
Holly Asturias	The invitation is simple. A message from Holly, inviting White and Flamel to spend the evening in her hot springs. There'll be alcohol, and food, and a chance to relax and... go over what happened, after White left. The Warpgate, located in a flowery greenhouse, is a five minutes walk to the Sanatorium. You won't be having to guess; Nicole, Holly's assistant and right-hand, is waiting by it, in blue scrubs, medical mask down around her neck and protective goggles in her hair. One of the only humans you can meet here. "Oh, hello! You would be... White, and Flamel, correct? Holly is preparing everything. She..." Nicole looks left. Looks right. Sliiides right into the two's personal spaces, suspicious and shifty. "Okay, break it to me. What happened? She won't say, but she's been a mess since coming back. I'm worried. She won't even feed. Refuses to! Even if it's me. She's gone out a few times but won't ever say what she's up to." Nicole sighs, relaxes, and turns towards the Sanatorium. "... it's not normal for her. I've seen her hit hard by things before, but never this hard. And she's injured. Like, injured-injured. You two... if you can't tell me, at least promise you'll help her out. Okay?" She won't make any bigger a deal of it than that, if asked not to. Her job's just to lead you to the baths, as it is. The hot springs are past the Sanatorium, a slight walk through a bridge over a chasm and then a slight incline up. It's less a single spring, and more like an entire hidden mountain resort, with multiple baths, hot springs, a whole building, with showers and lawn chairs and the works. At the very top, up wooden stairs, is a larger bath house, and Nicole stops and indicates the entryway. "She's in there. Good luck. If you need towels or privacy to get changed, there's stalls." Nicole seems... hesitant to leave, though. "Oh!!! You two!!!" Holly, with a bottle of sake in one hand, tinted blood red, waves from the comfort of the hot water. She is wearing egregiously little, only her hat-like crown and collar section, otherwise naked in the water. Her entire right arm is covered in red wounds and marks that give the appearance of flowers and vines, but look freshly inflicted, like skin that's been cut and stretched and then grew back on wrong. Her hat has a dangling little golden feather charm on it, which it definitely didn't have before (well, White saw it at the Foundation). "I am so so so happy you made it!!" Nicole, helpfully, explains: "She's been drinking. Alcohol won't cut it for Revenants but apparently the Concord has had that figured out for a long while, so we could source some stuff. She's... a bit of a lightweight, turns out." "Stoooooop worrying," Holly pouts. "Anyway! Water's hot, I've got sandwiches, and fruit, and... do you prefer sake? Bourbon? Gin? There's a whole bunch of... stuff. Lots of it. Just take your pick!" Indeed there are dozens of unopened bottles. And cups, and glasses. Nicole, shuffling away slowly, leaves you with: "It's not dangerous for her, I don't think, but still... watch over her, okay?" Holly huffs, crossing her arms. "I do not need to be watched. Now come on! Hop in! We are celebrating a successful rebellion." She needs to be watched maybe a little bit. There is techno music playing, from an old boombox. It's not very loud.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel's smile is weak, but sincere, when he answers Nicole. "It was bad." He says. "And it'll stay bad for a little while. But it was a clean break, so it'll heal well. Just need a lot of time. We lost some people. A good friend of ours, too." His smile widens just a bit, in a sad way. "So, keep supporting her, please." He whistles, a little impressed, when he sees the resort-complex. "They build big here." He mutters to himself. Then it's time for Holly herself. That friendly, supporting look, adjusting his sunglasses. "Hey doc." He greets, picking out a nice gin and a sandwich. "Don't you worry, we'll all take good care of each other." He looks very ready to settle into the hotspring when it comes time, the warm water will be a hell of a psychic benefit. "It's good to do relaxing things like this. Good cushion for the impact." He exhales heavily. "Regulus pulled you into the rebellion, huh? Congratulations on making headway! I got an invite myself, but I don't know it's going to be appropriate to take a shot at that while I'm negotiating a few other things." He also turns to White, tilting his head curiously. "What about you? There was a lot of chaos and a lot of splitting up, I didn't get any chance to reconnect before the Storm sheltering period. How've you been holding up?"
White	One could be forgiven for assuming White would be allergic to this kind of invitation. In many contexts, she would be! But... Things have happened. It's fine to be unusual for a day. Sometimes you just have to be. She's still in her usual clothing upon arrival, and greets Flamel with not much more than a slight dip of her head at first. It'd be hard to talk about Everything, and harder still to do it on the walk to the sanatorium, let alone do it all over again when they reach Holly, so she very clearly prefers to reserve words of meaning for when they won't need to be repeated. Even the typical niceties can wait. Nicole's questioning ends up met with White's blank eyelidded stare, not much more than some slight tension in her face to really translate what she's feeling about being asked for the details that she herself came here to acquire. Despite her best intentions in going with the flow and keeping Nicole from fussing, White only roughly manages to nod at her request. She has no ideas and no confidence to be able to keep that promise, so saying it aloud is a bridge too far just yet. White's been hit hard too, y'know? It's honestly a bit of a relief to use Flamel as a social shield right now, and let him be tactful on her behalf. Even with the privilege of power over silk White enjoys her privacy as much as anyone, and half-meekly splits from Flamel to change from out of sight. Asking the customs of the place is a step too far for her but even from the changing stall she can peek out for an idea of what to expect from Holly; ultimately though, it's Flamel's presence that drives her to emerge wearing at least a thin swim-dress, plain white with a single little pink flower design near the bottom on one side. She can't be as excited as Holly seems to be, and there's no effort at all put into hiding how her eyes scan across the other woman's injuries, but she withholds commenting on them directly just yet and stalls with different words while she steps into the water and situates herself. "... That's... A lot of drinks. How long... Have you been here... Already?" While noticeably shimmying to find the most sittable patch in the bath and smoothing out her dress to be sure it won't float, White even leans back to rest an arm against the edge of the bath and hold the rim loosely in her fingers. She's a bit... Floaty, so staying settled halfway under the water has to be a deliberate choice of position. Flamel's question has her face turned down, though, like she's not sure how much to say. She pieces her way along soon enough. "... I didn't know... Things had gone bad... Until just the other day. I don't... Really..." There's a pause, for the more difficult words to build up. "... I'm angry, I think. It seems like... Everything I did... Went to waste." It's with determination that White finally says to Holly, "... Bourbon."
Holly Asturias	The water of the hot spring is 'magical', for all intents and purposes. Ichor flows through it, and while it can't do anything for the mind, sores, cuts, bruises and aches all heal exceptionally quickly while bathing. You get to relax and refresh your bodies, provided there's anything to at all. "It was bad." "Sounded it," Nicole frowns. "Well, glad she's got people she can call to party, at least. Bad stuff's easier to deal with like that." "So, keep supporting her, please." "That iiiiis my job!" Nicole reassures, though she crudely points at her neck with her thumb. "But if you can convince her to take a sip, it'd go a long way to ease me. And uh... her, too. She's been avoiding using Formae. She thinks I can't tell." "Regulus pulled you into the rebellion, huh?" "Oh yes! If there were any doubts in my mind, they vanished the moment the Foundation put Vertin in a coma. Ah, don't misunderstand, I adore Mesmer's little dream machine, but that should be for consenting adults, yes?" She's got cheer, at least. "I hope my participation won't impact your negotiations. The Foundation's... judgmental, about the Concord? I get it, but still..." "... That's... A lot of drinks. How long... Have you been here... Already?" Holly has to think about that one for a second. "Maybe... Tweeeeenty minutes?" Her faces scrunches in thought. "Thirty. I thought it would take longer to get the place cleaned up but it turns out the girls all handled it fine while I was gone." More than fine! She laughs a bit. "... I'm angry, I think. It seems like... Everything I did... Went to waste." "Not... not everything. You saved Marian. That mattered... more than her own life to her." The mood drains. It's easy to tell. Holly reaches for a bottle of bourbon, and hands it to White, without bothering with a glass. "There are still parts I don't know about. Parts only Lilian and Vertin were there for. But we can tell you everything we were there for, at least."
White	There's an easily missable nod from White, when Holly mentions Vertin's current condition. "... I'm just glad... That Miss Vertin... Laid the groundwork... Beforehand." She takes the bottle of bourbon wholesale and glassless with the unblinking (well, her eyes are shut!) ease of someone who's done this before. Without removing the hand that's bracing her to the edge of the bath, and without wanting to break glass into the water, the natural conclusion on how she should open it ends up being... Biting into the cap and pulling it off with her teeth! The way she turns her head to drop it outside the bath and then immediately disregards it seems to hint she doesn't expect to need it again. The way she swigs and swishes her first mouthful is almost more like she mistook the drink for mouthwash, and if the burn bothers her at all it doesn't show on her face. She hasn't committed to lowering her natural bodily enhancements fully, yet, so it can't hit her as hard as it should yet, but she'll get there sooner or later. Even still, just the somatic experience of having a bottle in her hand and drinking somehow makes it easier for her to say with implicit bitterness, "... I didn't want... To save Marian. And now... I got her hopes up... For nothing." She tips the bottle back again, and sinks down into the water more on purpose, unable to submerge if she wanted to against her body's weird level of bouyancy. It's only after a dull pause to reevaluate whether letting that bitterness out actually helped her feel better, that she tries to turn the focus back onto Holly. "... Starving yourself... Is stupid." ... How elegant.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel shakes his head a little. "Consenting adults..." He says. "It's easy to treat her like a kid, but she isn't one in that sense." Flamel, recategorizing someone away from camper? "She agrees to work with and for the Foundation, and... Well, personally I diagree with it for a lot of other reasons. Mesmer wouldn't pass muster as a Psychonaut, in terms of her ethics. Don't worry about my negotiations though." He does help White out a bit, carefully inserting some psychic constructs of censor bars into his sunglasses. "Don't worry about me." He's twenty years too old, subjectively, to be stressing about such things. As for how she feels, he tilts his head and scratches at his cheek. "You have a strong inner voice, psychically. You could try giving a voice to your feelings." He says. "It's what we do, when we astrally project, you know. Give a voice to feelings that can't really speak up on their own. I was gonna help Holly with that a bit today, maybe." And he sighs, for a long time... "We all got our hopes up a bit. But that's what it means to have the kind of vulnerability that keeps you healthy." He rambles. "We wouldn't have been able to share happiness with Schneider if we hadn't been vulnerable to being attached to her. And maybe she--" He stops. "Well, things will get better." He says, in a lower tone, still weakly supportive.
Holly Asturias	"... I didn't want... To save Marian. "I... no?" Holly blinks, hit by the tens of tons hiding behind that statement. "I don't... follow?" "... Starving yourself... Is stupid." "... a little bit." At least she acknowledges it. "I am... used to it. During the final moments before the Storm, I lost control. I completely drained a few of the humans present, that the Manus had turned against us. You can say that their fate was sealed regardless - by my hand, by the Manus', by the Storm's - but I still did it. Then I exhausted my reserves anyway." "And now it turns out the Foundation has the means to burn the Ichor right out of me, somehow. I'm a bit worse off than I thought." She chugs from her bottle. It's a bit clumsy. Unlike White, she's never done this. "I just prefer to keep the blood available in case there's an emergency, and leave myself for last." Girl you are the emergency right now. "We all got our hopes up a bit." "Yeah." Holly sighs. "I am still... that the Suitcase could not save her, in the end... is so very cruel. 'Not an arcanist', even though she was so very clearly one. I wonder if the fact she accepted herself as 'fake' is what..." She doesn't want to finish that thought, and drinks from her bottle another time instead. "You could try giving a voice to your feelings." "Is it like when you were explaining that your different... mental, ah, systems, parts, emotions, were 'individuals'? Like people you can talk to?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel takes a few sips of his little mixed gin thing he made. "I keep thinking about what she said." He mutters. "It's making me... I guess, it's making me think about what to do next. I shouldn't talk about that though." He says. He at least knows better than to go straight from the bottle. "But, yeah. White's internal psychic voice is very sharply refined, lots of solid mindtech. Sometimes you don't even need a psychonaut, you know, to give it a voice."
Holly Asturias	"I guess, it's making me think about what to do next." "We can't avoid it, can we? The... we have to file a report, to the, Concord, right? To explain what happened. To... inform them that Schneider was washed away." She refuses to say killed. She can't. "We have to know if the Manus is still intending to have Partnership. Who their new... face, is going to be, if so. What it means for us. Right? That's all so, so beyond me. Where do we even begin? Who do we talk to? You two must know, right?"
White	White looks Flamel's way, scrutinizes, and comes to some conclusion that he 'did something'; she's imagined him putting mosaics over his own sight before at other times, so she's somewhere in the ballpark of what he's odd enough to do at a time like this, and doesn't seem intent on questioning it. Perhaps it's a charm point that she's so willing to just accept things like that on their face? A 'strong inner voice', though? That makes some sense. She's gone out of her way to remain as 'her' as she possibly can even while her mind gets chopped up and spliced together with all kinds of external information. She never did get that one bit of her soul back that got sent over to Ariel, she just kinda had to fill in the gap over time. Still... "I don't know... How to do that. I used to give... The Parallel Minds their own... Offshoot personalities... But then they revolted, so." There's a lot in that 'so'. She seems to think the rest is more important, anyway. "... I was glad... To find someone that the Demon Lord... Actually liked being around. And Miss Schneider seemed... So excited... When I explained things about my home." Well, hey, she's still managing to take Flamel's advice non-literally, even if it's not quite what he literally meant to try. "... She didn't have the... Exhaustion, with that place, that... Everyone else I know does. She helped me notice... Things about that world, that don't suck. I wanted to show her more of them." Even if she's forcing it a little, she's not doing too bad, for a first- no, a second time getting to consciously vent her heart to someone. Holly making excuses not to feed, and talking about how she ended up so drained, seems to ruffle White's proverbial feathers a little. She scrunches more into the bath, mostly in her shoulders and neck, and starts to drop the magical processes that help manage her body's metabolism, thermal regulation, and so on. The bourbon starts to actually hit her at the same time as the heat of the bath does, and her facial expression slowly starts to... Melt? The corners of her mouth just kind of slide lower while her eyes unthinkingly slide a quarter-way open, until she's sort of grimacing and glaring at some point in the center of the water. She sits up slightly but suddenly, enough to make the water slosh, and foregoes holding onto the edge of the bath to jut her arm out toward- no, vaguely in front of Holly? "Stupid. Dummy." she grumpily grumbles, wiggling her arm like a weirdo. She's never fed a vampire before; she always pointedly refused Sophia or Merazophis! So she's kind of just... Waving her arm around like she's trying to coax a dog, assuming what she's thinking is obvious. "Don't... Screw things up... By working exhausted. Idiot." She has no idea what the processes are for a fatality in the Concord, and apparently she is in a mood where she'd rather deflect than admit it.
Flamel Parsons	"Maybe don't give them all that much of a voice, I suppose... Eheh. We've managed cases like that before." Flamel nods to White, thoughtfully. He listens along with what she says, making little active-listening "mhms". "She had an important perspective. A really good one. I've never met someone whose sense of survival had expanded throughout their entire mind like that. I don't think I ever will again. Even her abilities seemed..." That thought seems to lead cleanly into the next. "Where do we begin..." Flamel's voice trails off. He slumps down, deep into the water, having finished his meal and now just nursing the gin. "'Situs Inversus'. Reversal, you know. Of the organs, specifically. She..." He shakes his head a bit. "This'll sound crazy. And I hate to 'talk business' when we're relaxing. But there's some important parts of how she died, that I think carry more than we're recognizing. I'm working on it. I'll ask for your help, doc. If you want mine in exchange, a little astral healing to take the edge off, let me know. I can promise not to get deep in the mind." He bobs his head towards White. "You too."
Holly Asturias	"And Miss Schneider seemed... So excited..." Holly's head droops down. "I understand. I... did not get to spend as much time with her as I'd have liked. Maybe I get attached too easily. But she'd asked to see this place, and... it might have to wait a very long time, now." Still struggling to accept the idea of 'never'. Like holding onto the promise has any chance to bring her back, on its own. "I don't know much about your world. Only what you've said about Sophia. Might you show me, on a better day?" "Stupid. Dummy." Holly, momentarily stunlocked by White's directness, takes entirely too long to grasp the meaning of the flailing arm. "I... couldn't possibly... are you sure?" "I suppose we do know we're compatible, from the time I spent in you." She manages half of a smirk, like for once she's fully aware of what she did and it WAS on purpose. Holly's empty hand reaches up to grab White's arm, gently, rising a bit from the water and risking flashing the two of them as she brings her teeth near the skin. "... do not worry, it isn't my first time. It won't hurt." That one was nebulously perhaps not on purpose. She bites, expertly, right for where the brachial artery should be. What starts as a brief sting numbs quickly into the odd feeling of blood being guided out of her body. Warmth, slowly, leaves with it, and between the alcohol and the hot water, it risks bringing a certain dizziness it might not normally. She's careful, delicate, treating White like a fragile candy wrapper she wants to keep afterwards. She doesn't overindulge. White's blood is rich, beyond any human's she's ever tasted. Her fangs and lips pull away from the arm, and her hand shifts to cover the pinprick holes, a golden light eliminating the very idea of pain, and the marks left by the bite. A deep sigh. Holly flushes a bit redder, and sinks into the water, content. "Oh my... no one does it like you, White." She remembers to wipe her mouth. "'Situs Inversus'" "I've read about that, but never encountered it. Ah... but... any help I can provide, I'll provide happily, of course. You need not ask at all." 'Died', though. Mind just a bit less groggy from feeding, and just a bit groggier from feeding, it still bugs her. "The healing... I'd like that. I don't feel right. 'It'll get better,' of course. She isn't... the first patient I lose. I'd like her to be the last. But even so, I'm not used to it." She trails off, into something else. "She gambled everything on Vertin. Twice. That shot through her heart - where it should have been - and then the Suitcase. ... we're agreed we can't let that go to waste, yes?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel makes soft "mhm" sounds at Holly, and starts on some initial outer-layer projection-work. "I'll go light. White, let me know if you want in." While remaining placidly conversational in the spring, he stands and steps forward in the astral plane. Typically, the worst part after something like this will be the buildup of massive excesses of Doubts and Regrets, which means he'll need pyrokinetics to burn away the Doubt gunk out of mental machinery, and plenty of shots in his psychokinetic marksmanship to cull excess Regrets that tend to fall from above. Gotta leave the normal population alone, but the explosion of both after something like this could do with containment. Whatever sort of environment he finds in there, clearing excess Doubt and Regret out ought to be a nice, warm, tension-releasing feeling for Holly, at least.
White	White, even becoming tipsy and fussy, still manages to access the morose vocal register she had before while Flamel talks about Schneider. "... I think I know... What you mean. She was... Easy to work with. And what she wanted made sense. If everyone just... Wanted to live, and wanted the people... Around them to live... And knew that was how... Everyone else felt, too... Wouldn't peace... Be easier..?" She loses her confidence right before finishing the sentence, though. She doesn't know much about how to reach something as vague as peace; mostly she keeps ending up in fights she didn't want, every time she thinks she's doing the obviously right thing. Flamel's offer makes sense, but after some consideration she slowly shakes her head. "... I would feel bad... If I got over this... Too quickly. I... Need the reminder, maybe." Perhaps it's just the impulse to bleed oneself as punishment, but that's not really something that's within White's typical inclinations. It wouldn't even be respectful to Schneider to act like that. Rather... It's more like the feeling itself isn't something she's experienced often before, if at all. 'Loss', itself. On some level, it feels like this might be her only chance to practice dealing with that, on her own terms, to this level of severity. She has to hold onto it a little longer for that, though. "... I want to know what happened." she says, about Flamel's hesitation to explain, a little late. "But... I'll hear it from Miss Vertin too... When she wakes up. If I have to wait... I'll wait." She drinks again. Holly's request to be shown her world very briefly confuses White before she remembers Holly is one of the more recent people she's met, unacquainted with... Most facts of White's life, really. At some point White had gotten tired of explaining the System to everyone she met, and Holly ended up left in the dark! "... That's easy." And it is, because there's nothing White has more ability to provide than a reasonably paced tour of the multiverse's top contender for 'Most Gamer-poisoned World'. As for the feeding, White reacts to Holly's euphemisms with abnormally noticeable, judgemental squinting. She raspy-grumbles "Vampires with eating disorders..." like she's complaining about more than just Holly (because she is), waiting impatiently for Holly to get over her reluctance. The fact that her body's magical enhancements are reduced helps avoid any peculiarities that constantly regenerating her blood might cause, and White herself manages to somehow be both stoic about the discomfort and still woozily annoyed at the same time. She might've insisted on a whim, but- "Whenever I'm not around..." she says, speaking of the holdout site being maintained by the arcanists, "You have to be ready." When she has the opportunity to withdraw her arm again, she habitually flexes her fingers, and dunks it under the water for a rinse. "Mister Riku has... A time limit. Most of the others... Are really shootable. And I heard the staff talking... About that little girl. They resent the arcanists. You can't protect them... If you're drained." Like an afterthought after she finishes figuring out how to process Holly's incessant euphemisms, she puffs air through her nose and reminds, "Don't get used to it. I don't want to... Make Angela mad." So, Vertin had to shoot Schneider, and there was some trick about the place? Damnit, Schneider...
Holly Asturias	Doubts and Regrets! What there is to be found isn't too exceptionally surprising. Holly blames herself for not having been able to save Schneider. She blames herself for not having offered her the bite, not certain in the slightest that it would have appeased the Suitcase, but wondering, in that way you can only do when you've missed your one chance to try a solution. She blames herself for not having found out about other safehouses, while they wasted all that time hanging out in the Walden. She wants to be angry, but she doesn't allow herself that much. There is one person she is allowed to hate, and his presence looms over her entire mental landscape like his hand is tightly wrung around it and squeezing. There's only so much to be done, with a 'light session'. Everything in there is weighed down by her father in a way that leaks even into Schneider's fate. If not for him, would she have been a better doctor, and able to bring the dead back? Would she have greater mastery over Formae, and have been able to teleport like White, or erect a safe area? It's nonsensical wishful thinking. But it all boils down to him, and perceiving him at all is rage-inducing and twists the landscape bloody and red. For now, if Flamel can eliminate just a bit of the guilt, a tiny bit, it'll be enough. She's a bit stronger than she looks. She'll be able to stand just fine like that. "... I want to know what happened." After giving White a thankful nod and a promise not to come to rely on her for this, Holly takes a deep breath, a chug of her sake, and then ponders where to start. "The Manus... found out she was a 'fake' arcanist, per her own words. They intended to leave her to die. We were separated, during our escape; Lilian and Vertin were with her. The next thing we knew... Schneider's 'dead body' was delivered to us, as a message from Vertin, who had 'joined' the Manus. But she wasn't dead at all. I managed to heal her, with some help," she clutches her right arm then, fingers trailing her marks. "We needed shelter from the Storm. Vertin had been taken to a refugee camp, which Arcana was meant to sanctify. But... it hadn't been. And we didn't know if the Walden would be safe or not. That left the Suitcase as our only option. And it... failed. The humans, one by one, they vanished in the Storm. She went last. We couldn't do anything." Holly slumps against the side of the bath, looking at Flamel. "... I missed a lot of details, but that's... the very, very broad strokes."
White	The story isn't palatable at all, but White bears with it, a look in her eyes that's halfway like she wishes there was someone she could attack for it, but nobody present satisfies the prerequisites. "... It was good... Then... That you were with... The others." she pieces together, remembering Holly's reluctance to split off when they originally went to find Marian. "... I had wondered, after I saw... How Miss Schneider was treated. Not just... As a person, but as an 'asset'. About whether... She 'wasn't magic enough'. Or something like that. Eventually... Miss Schneider gave me hints. But I still thought that... The suitcase would work... For her." There's so much more to that retelling, though. White looks dizzied enough that her tipsy grumpiness manages to be shelved for a few more moments, as she carefully puts events in order in her head. "... I guess I know better now... Why Miss Vertin is being... Treated how she is." It's hard not to feel inadequate, in the face of something like the Storm. Everything White is proud of seems irrelevant against it. Going by precedent, even if she were in her prime and could do what she pleased, it didn't seem like even a god's Boundary Field could truly make someone safe from the Storm if it decided they weren't needed. Just the fact that she could frame it that way, in those words, easily made White's anger bubble up again, only to simmer back down in its aimlessness. "... What about Miss Lilian? I haven't seen her. It sounds like... She's alive, but..?" But not okay. It'd be hard to imagine being in that position, captured, and still being okay.
Flamel Parsons	"Lilian was in a bad way too. She wasn't showing it, but she was." Flamel answers. "She and her wife got through it, but... Well, she went undercover with the Manus for a while. And it had her in a stressed mindset. Had me in a bad one too. All of us. But, anyway, don't feel like you have to spend a certain amount of time feeling awful. There's grieving, and then there's suffering, and the two can happen at the same time. But grief doesn't have to be a type of misery. They can be different." Still working Holly's mind... "You got a lot of dad in here." Flamel whispers inexplicably while he's in there. He is walking through the Walden, through the Sanitorium, through a vast medical anatomical model of a body, composed of chunks of memory instead of organs and tissues. "I could take a crack at re-balancing it sometime if you want." He rambles, while solving puzzles somewhere around the heart and lungs to get at a tough chunk of Doubt, and shutting away Memory Vaults showing the man in any form. In the real world, he nods along with the explanation silently. "There were a lot of details. A lot of things happened." He says. "Before she vanished, she knew it was coming. Activated her death-avoidance survival-path ESP. She said to Vertin, she wasn't a real Arcanist. And she..." He goes silent for a while, before resuming his muttering. "...She said to not forget her heartbeat on the right." "Which keeps sticking with me." He whispers, staring down into his drink as water goes still around him. "I know I shouldn't be trying to process this so early. But, I just keep thinking. What if the ESP worked? What if 'don't forget my heartbeat on the right' was important, in something she could see in the future? What if she wanted something done? A last wish, using every bit of knowledge she could see through her ESP?" "I need your help studying a certain case of Situs Inversus."
Holly Asturias	"She 'wasn't magic enough'." "Apparently," Holly frowns. "It's unfair, isn't it? She was an arcanist. We saw her use arcanum. 'Magic'. But both the Suitcase and the Manus denied her. It's... I..." She can't relate. There's no frame of reference for what that's like. She recalls her conversation, regarding acceptance, discrimination, against those like them. What she'd thought was about vampires at the time... was about something else entirely, wasn't it? "That's why we have to help Vertin now. So the Foundation changes. So there's not another incident like this." "... What about Miss Lilian? I haven't seen her. It sounds like... She's alive, but..?" "I didn't get to see much, while we were fighting to clear out the refugee camp. Forget-Me-Not had turned the humans there into living bombs and... the Storm Syndrome was hitting hard. It's a bit fuzzy. I mostly remember feeding and flailing." She's unhappy about that. "After that... she seemed off. It's like Flamel says. We were all hit by what happened. She must have been, too. She had harsh words for us, but she meant well by them." "You got a lot of dad in here." "Don't touch that," Holly warns, suddenly completely lucid and perhaps a little bit angry. "It's fine. I... can't quite tell what you're doing, but I do feel a bit better." It might be the alcohol. It might be feeding. It might be talking. It might be Flamel. She's not going to think about it. Flamel can take a break from the bloody puzzles and the golden inner architecture like old gothic mansions and dungeons, at least. "I need your help studying a certain case of Situs Inversus." "A certain case...? Hers, or...?" She agrees, or maybe she's desperate for any lifeline at all, that there might be something to her last words. But what? Arcanists, magic... it's all so far beyond her skills. She's a doctor! She treats people. The Storm... isn't treatable. Not like that. Not by her.
White	There's a conflict almost immediately between what White thinks is the plain and normal thing to do, checking in on Lilian herself, and where her thoughts land after some more serious consideration. If Vertin's in the situation she is because of how she handled being captured, then Lilian has to be under some kind of scrutiny too. White hadn't ever really involved herself, but there were things here Lilian had poured time and effort into, enough to put up with people she hated in the process. ... Maybe it's better to wait, rather than immediately putting another pin in someone's conspiracy board by going to see her immediately after the rebellion starts. Flamel's sentiment on grief is something that White can understand, loosely. She's able to nod without much hesitation, gesturing a fingertip like she's drawing a line between two things. "... It's practice. I have to... Fight the boss myself. Until I know how... To beat it on my own. I... Think I was expecting something like this... Anyway." It's not like she can say that without feeling at least a little stupid and odd, but it's part of her ideals. That no matter how bad something can be, you can consume the misery, tackle it forthrightly, and grow from it. The point isn't to 'feel better', but to learn how not to feel this unprepared and defeated ever again... Though that in itself is probably worthy of a Psychonaut's concern, in some respects. Regardless, White finally hears what she's been hoping to hear. Schneider's last words. After a few moments of brainstorming badminton, tossing ideas back and forth inside her own head and trying to solve the puzzle on the spot, she comes to the expected result and lands somewhere near where it sounds like Flamel has. "... We'll just... Have to remember it then. Either way..." White considers silence, thinking she's only going to state the obvious, but after glancing at the drink in her hand and tipping the bottle back again a little too aggressively (she spills a bit in the bath) she finally pushes out, "If she had a plan... Or not. I'll wait, and see." The extra drink brings her aggression back up a bit, though, and the muttered "Idiot." aimed downward at the water feels like it might be for someone who isn't in the room at all.
Flamel Parsons	"I don't know. But it's all I have, so I'll chase it, and I'll ask for your help." Flamel mutters. "Gonna be a while and a lot to go through. Just, help me, please, if you need to do something." He finally gets through the golden architecture and the gothic archways and finishes things up. Leaning back, his astral form shifts back into his body and he takes a big breath, as if he'd been holding it for a while. "We have things to do." He says. "New era, more to do, and a lot to figure out with this rebellion. Just stick around." He says. "And, good luck with your work with Regulus. I do hope Vertin's cleared for release soon." He winds up cocking his head towards White. "That goes for you too. I'm... running out of allies who know global magical theory in-depth. You're one of the best experts I have. I'll need your help a lot too. There's gotta be something meaningful in everything that happened. It can't just all be a waste. I'll be put my trust in Schneider." "Still, if you need space to get through your grief, go for it." He says. "Giving space can be a way of helping, so if that's the kind of help you want, I won't hesitate to." His smile has some gentle tone to it, tired but sincere. "We're here for each other to get through it, I guess! I've already been getting my mental tune-ups from my support network, myself." He gets back to slumping in the water and nursing his drink, but, like, in a Mentally Healthy Way.
White	An expert on 'global magic'? That's not exactly what White was expecting. Still, she considers it. "... It'd be nice... If I could tear into... The System. Find out... How D's conjury works. I..." She hesitates. "Might eventually... Have the chance. But it isn't likely. But feel free... To ask anyway." Maybe they aren't close, but Flamel makes himself very easy to boil down and interpret, most of the time. At least if you do a fair bit of reading between the lines. Where for others that makes him more alien and less trustworthy, for White it creates sort of the opposite effect, and with understanding comes something adjacent to confidence. "... I imagine... A lot of what I will do... Is managing supplies... And recon. If I fight... People will get hurt. Miss Holly... And Miss Druvis are both... Better with restraint." She aims an almost snooty-looking side-eyed stare at Holly, remembering the gatling guns. "Mostly."
Holly Asturias	"If she had a plan... Or not. I'll wait, and see." "Maybe she did." What a comfortable lifeline to hang on to. "... thank you both, for the company." "We have things to do." "A lot. Let's make sure when we meet again, we have a lot of wonderful things to tell her." An empty hope, but one that shines brighter than everything else she could be doing. Her practice, her Sanatorium, already survives entirely on the vain hope that the world can be fixed, can be made better, even if it's one single patient at a time. This isn't any different. It can't be. "Mostly." "Mostly~" Holly smiles. "Ah, my, let's try to enjoy the rest of the evening. We've all this alcohol and so little time." She reaches over, to click the boombox a track forward. Her tastes are kind of predictable. "Nicole!" "!" Like an apparition, she is just there. Did she ever leave, or is she just very quick on her feet? "You've earned a break too, come on." "Did you...?" "Mhm mhm, White was a lovely partner for it." Nicole squints towards White, and then laughs. "I see, I see! Good, I was getting worried!" "I just needed a moment." She raises her half-empty sake bottle, to toast. "To her heartbeat on the right."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel raises his weird little mixed-up gin, telekinetically refreshed. "To our good friend, and her heartbeat on the right." He says, in a weakly, but warmly, positive tone. He downs a lot more of it at once than before. "Nnnhah... And we'll never forget it." He says, once it's done.
White	Has White ever toasted like this? Maybe... Once. A decade ago, almost. Either way, everybody knows the drill for this. She even leans over to clink bottles, closing the gap on behalf of the other two from inbetween. It's just not right to toast without the little clink. "Mm. To Schneider... And..." She realizes it so late that it almost feels too late, but... "... Achille and Cosimo, too."