009 | Dictated/Action | forward dated to morning

[hellofist]

[Room 503]

[When she wakes up, she wakes up alone in a room she doesn't recognize and she feels like she's still on fire, she can still feel the Lazarus pit burning her mind away and the heavy, oppressive feeling of something on her chest. Through her chest, making it hard to breathe-

And then it passes, and she catches her breath, and she's alive again. For a few long moments she sits in bed and waits for her body to calm back down, for her heart to stop racing, but her mind is a blissful blank she doesn't really know what to do with. It makes it easier though, she doesn't have to do anything.

Sluggishly she gets out of bed, checks the window. It's Paradisa, she remembers now. But everything looks different from her view from the window, the city looks completely different and she can't seem to find anything that looks familiar, no landmark to tell her where her home with Stephanie and Tim would be.]

Right, her friends. She should probably... do something about that, shouldn't she? Luckily her journal is just there, resting on the bedside table, so she flips it open and talks to it.]


I'm... awake, I guess. Alive again. [But her voice sounds so dull.] Things look different outside. How long... was I gone for? Is everyone okay?


[Friends]

My room's on floor five, room three. Door's open.

[She knows she has to do this, that some of her friends will need to know this information, it's just hard to really admit to.]

I went home. I-

[She stops after that, because what can she say? She doesn't want to explain, she can't put the right words to what she's done, how she's failed.]

Things changed, there.


[Assassin-types]

If you were asked, by anyone, to kill... the person who killed me? Please don't. He wasn't in control, didn't know... what he was doing. It wasn't his fault. Please, just leave him alone.


[Lucrezia]

I need to see you. Please come here.


[Room 510]

[She doesn't bother with a filter to Ezio because he's just right there, she can walk the few feet to his door and knock on it. She still feels exhausted, drained of everything except the desire to see his face and the stupid, selfish need for someone to just hold her and to get away from her own room for a little bit. She feels guilty, letting people come see her only to find she isn't there, but there's only so much misery she can look at.

And then, because she thinks maybe he should have some sort of warning, she calls out to him.]

It's Cass, Ezio.


[Room 321]

[This is her last stop. She doesn't want to go to everyone she knows and comfort them for the loss of her, it's exhausting to even think about, but she needs to be here. She needs to see Joel and tell him what he's probably been refusing to believe these past two weeks.

What he did wasn't his fault. He doesn't deserve any retribution that her friends might have planned against him. She still loves him, because it doesn't matter what he's done, he still deserves her friendship.

She has to tell him all of these things, but it's very likely she may just end up hugging him very tightly.]

Comments

assassins

[unmanned]

Welcome back, Cassandra.

assassins

[hellofist]

[Alright, that's... not actually the kind of response she was expecting on this filter.]

Thank you, James. [James, just in case. Who even knows what might have changed since her encounter with Joel. Two weeks is a long time.] Guess you... made it through that okay.

[Okay is sort of a relative term here...]

[defyingfrigidity]

Alive... again? [Elsa sounds confused, and a bit worried. Worried enough that she doesn't bother switching over to her preferred method of writing in her journal instead of speaking to it.]

What do you mean?

[hellofist]

Oh, uh... I died.

[Twice, technically. She's really not good at softening that kind of blow even when she is thinking straight, but she at least remembers to say something to clear things up after the fact.]

It's okay, though. I'm fine now.

dictated;

[lucre]

[ Lucrezia should be glad to finally hear Cassandra's voice again, when there was always the chance that she might not return. But hearing it now has her secondguessing everything she's done since then. Threatening Joel, letting Ezio clean up her messes, everything.

So she doesn't make her way there yet, replying over the journal instead. ]

Welcome back.

Lucrezia

[hellofist]

[N O P E]

Where are you, Lucrezia?

friends

[samson]

[Oh, there she is.

Death here is an awkward thing for Brock; his own death didn't really bother him that much, and so he finds it difficult to be too wildly upset about the deaths of others. People die and then they come back -- it's shitty, but what can you do? It turns out fine in the end.

But Molotov flipped out when she came back, he knows, and so he's cognizant enough to realize not everyone is the same as him.

He still keeps it casual anyway.] That doesn't seem to happen every time, going home.

friends

[hellofist]

[That's something they have in common, actually. She'd died twice even before coming to Paradisa, three times if you count stopping your own heart, so one more with the knowledge that she would eventually come back again didn't bother her much. It had been for a good cause, to stop Joel from hurting anyone else and to protect Lucrezia. She doesn't regret it.

The only bad part about it, really, is that other people have suffered while she was dead. That's the part she'd like to take back.]

Probably for the best. It's better here.

assassins

[eaglet]

[Connor's heart is fit to burst when he hears her, so much so that it takes him some time to respond. He didn't know if she would come back; he'd barely known Molotov when she died, and didn't know anyone else at all who had died in his year here. It felt unnatural, waiting to see if he ought to mourn, if his grief was appropriate or premature, and the perversity of it all makes him more resentful toward this world.

But then again, she's come back and he's glad for it. His own hypocrisy irritates him, but he swallows it down and speaks up quietly instead, tone soft and a little hesitant. It's awkward and he doesn't know what to say, so he opts for the subject of business.]

We are not mercenaries, nor are we in the habit of misguided revenge.

assassins

[hellofist]

Good. He's not a bad man, doesn't deserve... to be hurt.

[But her voice goes a little soft now, now that she knows Joel is safe from Connor at the very least. He's so young, he doesn't make friends easily, he'd already lost so much.

She's concerned.]

Were you okay, while I was gone?

action; room 321

[focusrighthere]

[ Two weeks in exchange for two weeks feels about right. There was something that had been said on the journals before, something about how residents killed by other residents don't come back. He doesn't know if he's relieved or if he should be worried for his life.

Always thinking about his own hide first. He knows who it is at the door because he's been paying careful attention to the journals. Joel let Tess pick a fight over it, but this one is his. Belongs to him.

Broken wrists and fingers supported by nothing but two splints, he doesn't present much of a threat. He wouldn't present one otherwise, knowing her skill. Joel lets Cass drift inside the room, the door unlocked. He's leaning against the windowframe, standing and looking out over the Castle grounds.

Nothing but tension and silence for now. ]

action; room 321

[hellofist]

[She closes the door behind her as she comes in, but it's only for privacy. There's no aggression written anywhere on her, just a frown. Has he been hiding this whole time?

It makes sense. It was probably the best move, considering the people she's become close to here. As she makes her way over to him, she can't help but notice his hands. Still bandaged, still ruined. Two weeks and he hasn't done a thing about them?]

Joel... [She sighs, frowns more, and when she's right up next to him she reaches out to put her hand on his arm, gentle and light.] Should have fixed those...

Assassins

[deadlybanker]

[What do you say to some one who has just returned from the dead, welcome back? Sounded trite... ]

I was not asked, however I do know the one who did you harm was being searched for. If you want him to remain safe you should speak to Ezio.

Assassins

[hellofist]

[This is a new voice, but if he's talking about Ezio and she's never talked to him before, how many people can it really be?]

Plan to. He's just... a few doors away, will see him in person. Are you his dad?

Friends

[indirectcause]

Welcome back.

I hope things aren't too terrible. I mean, with them changing and all.

Friends

[hellofist]

[Awkward. She doesn't want to lie, but she doesn't want to depress the entire castle either. So she'll just kind of take a page from Ben's book, leave things out a little bit to make the whole story seem less bad. Yeah.]

Could be better. But I'm here, and that is better. Most of the changes... stayed at home.

[Which had been on fire the last time she'd seen it... hmm...]

spam, 5-03

[patheticvillain]

[He's there almost as soon as he gets the message. He doesn't think he's ever walked this fast. Things changed, she says. And what the hell does that mean?]

[He raps on the door quick and sharp, then folds his arms over his chest, shifting from one foot to the other with unease.]

spam, 5-03

[hellofist]

[There it is, she was wondering when the knocking would start. She likes this better, people coming to her. It's easier, she doesn't have to walk all over the castle to see the people she needs to see.

Cassel is certainly one of those people, and she had been considering reconsidering the whole stay put thing, but then he beats her to it, she opens her door and there he is, looking as uncomfortable as she feels with a brain that's all fuzz and uncertainty.

It's strange, the flood of home that she feels when she sees him. They'd been family, for him. She feels it now, and that's part of why she opens her arms up to him to hug him.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean... to be a liar.

Spamming you try to stop me

[preformthisneigh]

[It takes Cheese a while to respond. This is because he decided to bake her a cake. He's never come across somepony who's come back from the dead before, and he's not sure what the protocol is. But cake's always a good starting point.

So pulling his carefully made cake on a little cart behind him, head heads to her room to knock a hoof on her door. The cake is big, and glorious, and says 'Congratulations on being alive!' upon it in yellow icing.

Yep.]

WHY WOULD I DO THAT

[hellofist]

[When she opens the door, it's not a big surprise to see Cheese on the other side. She likes him, he'd been so cheerful their first meeting, this just makes sense.

She stares at the cake for a few long moments, trying to pick out what the words say, but she just gives up before too long and gives him a tired, barely there smile.]

I can't read. Thank you, though.

503

[secondchances]

[She'd been counting down the days since the number was at fourteen. Once everything changed, she'd panicked before thinking of Cass' room in the castle, rushing there and finding her friend's body. Thank god. And since then, she'd been staying in her own room, keeping herself busy, but occasionally coming by to sit and talk to Cass about this and that.

Not that she'd hear any of it, but it made Steph feel better.

Stephanie knew Cass would be back right now, and that's why it's not long before Cass has a blonde more or less throwing herself at her.]

[hellofist]

[It seems like as soon as she's up she's being tackled back down, and it's hard to fight the immediate urge to fight back. But then blonde hair and a hug register, and it's not an attack. It's Steph, and Cass sighs heavily and puts her arms around her and hugs her tightly.

She'd forgotten. Steph isn't really dead, she's fine. She's somewhere else, and the ghost who had shown her Bludhaven destroyed and filled with chemicals and all her dead friends, that wasn't a ghost. This Steph is real and Cass buries her face against her neck and holds on, might never let go.]

I missed you.

Room 510

[assassino]

[He's been counting down the days almost nervously, worried that the day will come and she won't be there. What if Paradisa doesn't return her to the Castle?

And then, of course, after worrying him stupid, she's back. Just like that, a knock on his door and her voice calling out, and he drags himself up from his bunker to unclasp the lock's latch and open the door.

And there she is, exhausted but in one piece.

Ezio doesn't say a word, he just grabs her and pulls her in and pushes her up against the wall in one movement, trapping her there with his own body just to feel her alive and breathing under him. Only then does he dare utter anything at all.]

Cassandra.

[hellofist]

[She doesn't know what she expected from him, really. Hugs, yes, but not this, aggressiveness and holding her in place like he's afraid she'll try to escape him.

But it makes sense. She had escaped him in a way, hadn't she? She'd spent all this time telling him she was indestructible, that she didn't lose, and then she had died to protect someone she isn't sure he even particularly likes. With a sigh, she puts her arms around him and hugs him as tightly as she can.]

I'm here. It's okay.

special homies filter aka cass and eddie only I'm keeping this exactly like this

[hellofist]

[This is a bit of a surprise, because no one has filtered directly to her before Edward does it. The question is why, but it's also something that really doesn't matter. If he has things he wants only her to hear, she won't stop him. But-]

Remember what I said? You're always welcome, Edward. Come over.

[Maybe this is one of those cases where seeing her in the flesh, not a ghost, is what will do more good than just hearing her voice over the journals.]

Cassandra; not backdated

[gottaknockhard]

[Spike didn't see this at first, but he was aware at how much time had passed since he heard about it, so it's natural that he would flip through the journal to settle his hunch. As many friends as she has, he knew there would be some kind of announcement when it happened, and even he feels relieved when she passes it on herself. The dead continue to come back and all is well in the castle.

He shouldn't say anything at all, since that whole falling out thing happened, and for a while he doesn't. Only after eventually weighing his choices, he decides that she deserves some kind of an acknowledgement, even if it comes from an untrustworthy source.]

How does it feel?

Spike

[hellofist]

[She's had a few days now, time to readjust to the castle and try to figure out where her head is at. Not much has really changed, but it's nice to hear Spike's voice, so there's that at least.

Everything that happened before, most of it's forgotten and his falling out didn't mean he'd lost Cass' friendship. No need for him to worry about that.]

Honestly? It just... feels empty.