post-dungeon regroup

[discutio]

[Obviously, they had to pull back and recover; Phoenix thought it would be best to head to the pseudo-headquarters in Invidia and settle back into the mansion to recover as well as consolidate what they all knew. There was a lot to get through, and a lot of recovery to be done by some of them. He'd need to talk to Etoile, thank Ariel, thank Medic again--]

[...But for now, he just about immediately collapsed on a couch and decided he would exist there for a while. You're on your own for food this time, kids.]

Comments

[emberserker]

[Oh, good, the way up is open again. Upon arrival, Wolfsbane tries not to look too relieved, walking in and leaning against a pillar.]

Let us hope that disaster is the worst of what we've got.

[But with Phoenix not cooking, someone has to. Wolfsbane might not seem like the obvious choice, but she makes her way to the kitchen regardless, pulling ground beef out to defrost, soaking and breaking up some bread that's a little stale, and chopping some onions. Looks like something's underway.

(Everything that's actually gone bad, she's cleaned up and deposited in a trash bag with a note reading MEDIC. For, you know, the mould experiment. Or in case that other thing she's growing gets hungry.)

In time, she's got some fancy meatballs to lay out at the dining table, along with a variety of cooked vegetables so we don't starve Achilles. If someone comments, she'll glare at them.]

Eat, will you, we ought to keep our energy up after that nonsense.

[mementomoritz]

Oh! [Wolfsbane is such a good friend. Medic looks positively delighted at the sack of weird stale leftovers.] Thanks, I hate wasting perfectly usable biomatter.

[Her compost heap is powerful and terrifying. This girl gardens in ways that should be banned by international law.]

I should probably move this to the lab right away- last time I left an experiment out on the counter here, Lion ate it. [And right now, Lion has enough problems.]

[emberserker]

He did that? Do I want to know?

[For her part, Wolfsbane is keeping herself and the cooking she's doing very far from the Death Bag.]

[mementomoritz]

In retrospect, that one was kind of my fault. I was testing to see if raw meat would spoil or not, since there's no bacteria here- but I didn't label it or anything, so I guess he thought it was for lunch.

It doesn't, by the way! I found that out after I repeated the test in my lab. So far there's no evidence of any microorganisms in Purgatory. [She looks into the bag, and frowns thoughtfully.] Which raises some fascinating questions about what's going on with this mouldy yoghurt.

[emberserker]

I'd wager that it's similar to how nothing in Limbo works well. Presumably the collective unconscious expects food to spoil, but it doesn't happen per se, it just exists.

[mementomoritz]

So you're suggesting that the dairy products here went bad because we subconsciously expected them to have spoiled after being away this long, but the meat stayed the same because I was actively watching it to see if anything happened?

[She considers it and nods slowly.] It's a good working hypothesis! I'll add it to the list.

[A watched pot never boils, but an observed cheese never gets all gross and fuzzy. This is the wisdom of Purgatory.]

[emberserker]

It's as good an idea as any. You're the scientist. Thankfully, enough stayed good that I've been able to cook. [Time to chop some potatoes.] With Phoenix out of commission, someone ought to.

[mementomoritz]

Ooh, good idea! After all that, everyone's going to need something to fuel themselves with, get their strength back.

Do you ever get sort of hungry if you really push yourself on using your powers? Sometimes it feels like my body is drawing on more physical reserves, if I run out of pure energy to use- or, it did when I was alive, I think... But it's hard to say if that's just how powers worked in my world or if it's still true here.

[emberserker]

I wouldn't say hungry. If there's anything tied to the way things were for me back home...

[She looks around, and seeing no one, lowers her voice.]

Most of what I've been remembering is Ernesta. Fitting, I suppose, with Ruin gone. He was the same, complaining about his blessings and claiming he wished he didn't have them, then going around showing off how strong he was and how everyone loved him.

[mementomoritz]

He did? [She's not objecting so much as looking genuinely confused. As always, the idea that someone might not be telling the clear truth to the best of their ability doesn't occur to her easily.] I don't remember him saying anything about blessings to me... was he from a world with magic like yours, then?

If there's similarities to something or someone you knew, that definitely could be helping your memories return- the brain tends to make a lot of connections to aid in long-term memory storage.

[emberserker]

It clearly wasn't the same world. It was Lion's, wasn't it? He went on about crests.

[mementomoritz]

That might explain how quickly they got attached to each other... ["Attached", sure, that's one word for it.] I wonder if they knew each other while they were alive?