IC INBOX| SCHNEIDER

[unweathered]

@Doves

unweathered

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Week 4, after the meeting

[bloodandstars]

[ Normally Maika would just go looking for someone in these circumstances so they can't pretend to dodge her concern questions. But she doesn't know Schneider's haunts, so she's reduced to using the irritating little device that Kururu instructed her on in the first week. ]

Found something to break yet?

[ Maybe with that suggestion she can just triangulate by sound. Although she half expects that now, Schneider will be saving her bullets again. ]

Week 8(?) masquerade

[bloodandstars]

[ There wasn't really time before the thread vanished — thankfully, to Maika's thinking — to clarify that she doesn't drink. Although, who knows? Depending on where her mood takes her tonight, she might change her mind. But she pauses to liberate a bottle of sparkling nonalcoholic cider and whatever snacks can be easily carried.

You know what? This is probably another reason she doesn't usually wear dresses. Where the hell does she stash things in a dress? But it's fine. Thanks to Falin's good nature and a little help, she has two hands to hold things in now. And she's comfortable enough with Schneider that she doesn't mind the casual intimacy of nudging her with a shoulder when she finds her in the gathering. ]

Where to?

before the orcharding

[moonshaded]

[Schneider is elusive like she is, so Kainé doesn't bother checking the dorms first. She already knows that she probably isn't there.

Kainé is normally...content, giving others space when they take it. If they want to get away from her, then whatever. But something has its hooks in her now, an insidious voice blossoming in her mind that has nothing to do with Tyrann's smug, hedonistic blood lust. She's felt the vanishing, the disintegration, all for herself, at the mercy of Schneider's nightmares. It's a sensation she doesn't want to repeat.

It's too late for most stores to be open, which rules out most of the shops where she might otherwise be digging through the racks. The park should also be mostly closed, but that doesn't stop anyone who knows how to get in. Kainé's spent her share of nights here. It's less like the city and more like some quiet play-pretend place away from it...in the middle of it.

And...yeah, found her.]

Thank fuck, I won't have to go on some puzzle-solving dungeon crawl to get you to come back.[God, would she do that? Some people would notice Schneider's absence quickly, too - more than would notice hers, she's sure - but Kainé doesn't know when they'd start digging or if she'd be the first to go.]

"shay the game's ending" yeah idc i want my post-grove thread still

[moonshaded]

[Once the enchantment of the orange grove has been broken, and all those splintered memories have slotted back into place, the weight of things forgotten or at risk of being forgotten is overwhelmingly heavy.

She's been keeping her promise to maintain some distance so Kirumi can figure herself out, and they can't exactly both climb into Maika's window like stray cats at the same time. So they get a quiet room out of the way somewhere, easy and painless even if it takes most of the pocket money Kainé still has.

(It's the one thing she hasn't gotten used to in the city and the one thing she might miss about it when this is all over. People don't automatically recoil in disgust or fear, even at their worst. Kainé's almost gotten used to not flinching like a hit dog waiting for it to happen.)

She tastes all the food they ordered, starting with a few bites from Schneider's plate when she isn't touching them.] That's way too sweet, [she warns. But it tastes normal.]