#orbit open

Nothing had changed at all.

She was an idiot. An idiot.

Idiot idiot idiot.

Sin should've taught her this by now - you shouldn't trust people. Even if they seem like they like you - even if they seem to trust you, even. You should never. Ever. Let them get to you. And yet she had. And she'd paid the price for it again. Suicide...? Him? It seemed... unlikely, impossible, even. So strong, and his eyes - they'd always looked ahead. He'd seen people he'd cared about die and yet he saw it through, justice was the most important thing of all. And yet. She was mistaken.

Again.

Was she just a poor judge of character or what? Was Kaoru going to do the same thing to her? The worst part was knowing she'd probably continue making this same mistake. She was too stupid. Really, she was. It was too much to expect her to learn and wise up. Dumbass.

Shinobu heaved a sigh as her eyes traced the ceiling. Right now Valu wasn't around so the room was empty. She'd never been the sort of person to need space before now but right now? She was kind of glad to be on her own. To think. Maybe... if she thought hard enough, she could figure out what she'd done wrong - clearly she'd done something, right? Otherwise Yoshi would've told her right? And then there was the matter of Yuu and Sonya... damn, it'd be so easy to blame it all on Yuu-- he started it after all, but... really, they'd both been scared right? Just... scared. They were just kids, damn it. If the roles were reversed... if Sonya had struck first and Yuu killed her would it make a difference? Not much of one. Really this time they were... both victims. She briefly wondered how Yoshiro was handling this. He'd been in tears in the trial. She wanted to see him but. Ha. That wasn't a good idea. He hated her at this point. And she... hated him? Not really. She felt too tired for hate. Too hurt. She was finding herself to be a person she didn't really like. Confident, yes, strong, of course, but what else?

Nothing.

And... really... so what if she lived to see the end of this? She was a five star, the was expected. But Yoshi had been a four star and he was dead. There wasn't anything sparkly or brilliant about a dead star. This wasn't like when Himiko died - she'd-- she'd been taken by surprise. Her life was snatched, stolen, taken and ripped from her. On the other hand, he... had extinguished his own light for some reason. She'd outlived him. And she may outlive others, but... well, it was hard to see why.

Just when Yoshi thought things couldn't get any worse, Caligula drops another bomb. He didn't think much could affect him after that, but the loss of something important to him wouldn't get off his mind. At least it wasn't his entire fucking leg, right? That kind of was an object attached to him, in a way, but... He gripped at his shirt, where his pendant should've been, as he made his way aimlessly through the space station.

It was a lot easier to get around when you weren't floating everywhere, but that didn't seem to make him feel much better. With a frown on his face and a vacant stare, he didn't even seem to acknowledge anyone else around. He didn't even have a place he wanted to go anymore, instead he just kept walking around without thinking.

The announcement doesn't actually wake him up. The gravity going back to normal doesn't wake him up--he actually lands with a soft flump back on his own bed with no excess jostling, having just passed out in midair earlier after escaping from the drug and coffee crew. CAL's familiar evil laugh...doesn't wake him up. He'd like to think that the tipping point was when he felt the hat get snagged right off his innocent head, but he must have been too asleep for it.

Instead, some time after the announcement, he wakes up gradually as usual, feeling from the very first second that something has gone terribly wrong. There's a pause. He slowly, tremulously reaches up and touches the top of his own head.

Even though there must be similarly panicked reactions going on all over the ship, the klaxon shriek in a really unfamiliar voice that can probably be heard by every living person there puts them all to shame. By the time he streaks out of his room into the hallway, arms folded over his head like he's expecting to be firebombed from above, the screaming has segued into panicked tears, and by the time he actually skids to a halt, in the kitchen, to start tearing things out of drawers and cabinets as if someone had only hidden it and he would find it in a second if he just worked fast enough, he had entered critical meltdown mode.

He was...tired. He was so tired. He'd been tired constantly ever since he got on the ship, maybe because of the relative lack of space and freedom and natural light, but the last trial and the most recent area, the only decent thing in it being the zero-g chamber bookended by weird cramped mechanical rooms and too-big places, had quashed his exploring instinct, maybe for good. Instead, like his life was a symbolic Yuu-ball, he'd done nothing but curl into himself and seek out hiding places ever since. The Yuusaphone was just the beginning.

After a stint in the treehouse (deemed too roomy and too splintery), a kitchen cabinet (deemed to have too much going on around it), a section of library shelf with the books pushed out (too awkwardly-shaped), in an actual tree (too humid, even if he did get three apples out of it), and under the panel in the control center (he felt like he'd mess something up again somehow), it felt like only one place in the whole ship remained. Not nearly dramatically enough for the end of his journey, Yuu peeked into the laundry room, looked around to make sure no one was in there, and popped open the dryer. His ball form was a perfect fit. He yoinked the dryer door shut from the inside and promptly fell asleep.

She would've expected this before from the neighbourhood kids but seriously... in space with a buncha special kids... she didn't know. She was disappointed. Somehow Shinobu expected they'd be better than that. Such an obvious goddamn frame like she'd right such an indulgent ass letter like that. And leave shit in her own room, like, seriously? What did these people take her for? She wasn't smart, sure, but, she wasn't braindead.

Her latest encounters were going poorly and really, in her mind, that was good. Let them be poor. She wasn't in the mood to play nice with these people, not if this was how it was gonna be. Himiko, Kaoru, Yoshi. Those guys? Those guys were good. Anyone else, ooh boy, they'd better be ready for something else.

After her trip to the exercise room to blow off steam only succeeded in making her angrier Shinobu strode off to the lounge to be by herself but not before going to the gift shop and stealing a snack. Armed with a Hope's Peak branded lollipop now stuck in her mouth she sat on the back of an arm chair, rather improperly really, and stared long and hard at the ceiling as if it were seconds away from falling on her. The sound of the door opening snaps her away from her staring contest with the ceiling and she throws the person a look.

Well shit. That might have been the worst thing to ever happen. Yuu's assigned date just passed out right on the ground. He really should have noticed she wasn't feeling okay, but even so, passing out looked like the one way to get out of this dance party from hell scot-free. He'd given a few of the screens a searching look that seemed to say 'can I maybe go now and drag her out too?' but for the time being he seemed to be stuck here. Now alone. In this stupid itching tux.