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[Lysithea appears on the screen in front of a doorway painted mint green, looking grim, but resolute. Her arm is in a sling and she has obvious scars and cuts across her face and neck, but at the very least, she is in one piece. She couldn't say the same for some of her friends.]

I am one day late.

I am pleased to announce...

[And here she makes a gesture with her good hand, and it becomes clear that this is a recording through the eyes of her Omen. The bird flaps back a few feet to reveal a recently renovated building that looks, if not grand, at least, well... intact.]

The grand opening of the Patisserie Lysitherie. Located in the Willful Machine, [address here], five minutes' walk from the closest Lamp Friend.

[Lysithea steps inside and her Omen follows to showcase part of the interior.]

...I'm sure I've prattled on about my business long enough, so I won't bore you with more details. Just know that our trade rates are exceedingly reasonable, and we seek to procure only the finest ingredients from the docks. It is winter, of course, so temper your expectations accordingly. Additionally, all purchases will come with a package of Weeping Wafers, our first in-house concoction. The taste is nutty and earthy with hints of nutmeg and almond. It's delicate - and not excessively sweet.

Most importantly, it is made with raw, diced Weepers.

After the... occurrences of the previous month, I imagine we could all benefit from their magic. If you seek mental stability, come by and we're happy to provide you with free samples. Don't take too many, though - I don't know what the effects are if you overdose.

...Well, that's all. Thank you for your business.

[...It is evident that Lysithea has no idea how to end this. After a moment, she looks around awkwardly and then dips her head as if in a bow before the transmission cuts.]

[action, ota, at the Patisserie]
[Lysithea will be manning the sweets shop during business hours. Her employees are welcome to join her when they're free - she could use some extra help, given her dislocated wrist. Drop by to sample normal baked goods, Weeper products, or simply strike up a conversation.

On slow days, Lysithea can be found eating her Weeping Wafers and fingering what appears to be an old research journal of some sort.]

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[ Is Ange's job around the bakery mostly just to taste things and look pretty? Yes.

But as she's rapidly realising that Lysithea's sling situation isn't better yet, Ange does show up at the bakery during some of the earlier days of December to help out a little more than she usually would. Though she's smart enough to stay away from actually making any food, instead helping out with helping customers. She's looking.. mostly recovered, though perhaps at times still a bit slower or more absent than she'd usually be. But at least she's not dropping anything when handing baked goods over to customers, so that's something, right.

Look, even if she's a little tired, she's not going to let Lysithea go without that little bit of extra help when she can clearly use it. ]

You sure picked some time to open this place. [ Ange speaks up to the other when things are thankfully a little more quiet for a few minutes. ] .. Then again, given the nature of this place, I guess any time might be 'some time' here.

[ You know, 'some time', as in a time when Wild Things Have Happened. ]

That's essentially what I figured.

[Lysithea remarks conversationally as she approaches the counter with a freshly baked tray of scones. No one really likes scones all that much, she has found, but it seems to be expected that a bakery would make scones.]

If I wait until there's nothing going on, I'm sure it would never have opened. Besides... my original plan was November 15th.

[That obviously didn't work out.]

...Speaking of unfortunate times, though - how are the injuries? Are they healing up alright?

[Ange seems to be doing very well in comparison to late November. Lysithea feels a vague sort of pride about this - perhaps her healing is acceptably adequate, after all.]

[ Yeah. Mid-November would have been worse, Ange thinks, with half of the town out of commission. Lysithea included, most importantly. If she's still having trouble handling the bakery as she is now, then it would have been even more difficult at that time, without the weeks of at least some recovery..

When the other girl asks that question though, Ange nods, moving to lean on the counter. ]

Hmm. They still hurt a little at times, but I'm already more than grateful to just be able to move around again. [ Having been stuck in bed for weeks was just torture. It was so boring. At least Ange can move at all now, and she'll take that. Even if she occasionally aches like an 80 year old woman.

She knows it's partially thanks to Lysithea though, who took care of the worst of the injuries. How long would she have been stuck in bed for even longer without that, she wonders.. ]

.. I should be asking you the same thing though. Is your arm still not much better?

[Lysithea gives a faint shrug.]

As I said, the irony of my healing magic is that I can't use it on myself. I did visit a Blood Minister, but they simply set the bones back in the right place.

[She pauses.]

I, er, did refuse a blood transfusion. Which would have hastened the healing process considerably. [...] I have to say, I find myself surprisingly squeamish about the idea here. It seems almost... wrong, somehow.

I suppose I'll just have to get used to it.

[If it hadn't been something that would heal on its own in time, she would have accepted the offer - but a dislocated shoulder and wrist had never killed anyone.]

But I'm glad you've recovered, Ange. You really concerned me, wrapped up like that in those bandages.

Sorry. I didn't mean to make anyone worry. [ But it's not like the zealots had given her much of a choice, kidnapping her and maiming her before Ange had even known what was going on. By the time her awareness returned to her, Ruby had already been right there, carrying her out of the situation.

It's what gives this entire situation such a sour edge. It would've been one thing if it had been a failing on her part - but there was literally nothing she could have done to prevent that situation. None of them could have.

It sucks.

Don't mind it if Ange is suddenly very intensely focused on trying to get rid of a stain on the counter.. It might be just so she doesn't have to look directly at Lysithea while thinking back on it. ]

But.. you know, I think it's alright to feel weird or not okay about certain things in this place.

[ Like zealot kidnappings.

Or blood transfusions. ]

This place seems to function by a very different standard than any of us are used to. I think it's only natural that some stuff ends up clashing like this.

[Ange bends over a counter and peers at something nonexistent for long enough that Lysithea can approximate what is happening in her mind. She, too, turns to busy herself with some menial chore, finding herself picking up a rag and aimlessly swatting it at some dirty trays.]

I don't even have blood anymore - not the way that I understand blood. It doesn't seem to emerge as a liquid.

[it's deeply concerning]

But I'm entrenched in my own expectations, I think. And hearing people go on about blood crystals and bloodletting and sticking me with needles and filling me with their blood they've collected in jars is --

Frankly, gross.

[super gross]

Anyway, it's not... really a huge concern.

I did find out what my blood is supposed to do. I suppose that was one positive from November.

It is gross.

[ That much is easy to agree with. Ange does not want blood someone else collected to be stuck inside of her body outside of a modern clean hospital situation, thank you very much!

But while that's the easier point to make, it's not the most important thing she wants to say. For said most important thing though, Ange needs to gather a little more courage.

Courage to actually look up from the counter and over at Lysithea, for one.

It takes a moment, but she somehow manages to find it, glancing over at the other girl. ]

But.. you know. It is a concern to me.

[ God, saying this feels so embarrassing. But Ange is trying to be better about this whole f.. f.. f-friendship thing. ]

I.. really want you to get better. And not just because you helped me. [ She shakes her head. ] It's just that I worry about you when I see your arm like that, you know?

[ D-Don't misunderstand! Geez! B-Baka! ]

[Lysithea stops pretending to swipe at the dirty trays as Ange begins her speech, then finds herself unable to quite look at her directly. Being an equally awkward person when placed in emotional situations, she finds herself hung up on the socially acceptable quantity of eye contact when one is listening to a ~~love~~ friendship confession.

She settles for half-turning and looking at Ange's ears.

This ends up looking about as weird as it sounds.]

I --

[Stop looking at her ears, you weirdo!!!]

Well, thank you. Of course, I -- also want to get better. [dumb. say something else.] You don't need to worry, truly. I'm... really touched, though, Ange.

Ah.

Thank you for caring.

[ This truly is the smoothest social interaction of all time to be witnessed in Trench.

Thankfully Ange doesn't seem to think badly of the awkwardness at all, since.. well, she's doing the exact same thing right now. Ange isn't enough of a hypocrite to get worked up over that. ]

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. [ Who cares, that is.

There. She can say that in a slightly more normal way, and actually look at Lysithea as she's saying it. Because it's a little less personally vulnerable. ]

This entire place is full of people who care way too much. I'm sure some of them must have gotten attached to you and your wellbeing already.

[stop looking at lysithea's ears they can't both look at each other's ears there's truly something distressing about that]

...Hm.

[She smiles.]

Perhaps it's not so bad to have people who care. After I left my classmates, I realized that it was a rare gift to be surrounded by people who both accept you and understand you.

If I didn't have that here, the events of this town would be far more difficult to bear.

I...

[She consciously makes an effort to not look at the ears.]

...also care about your wellbeing, Ange. Please don't lie around in bandages in the future if I can help - I want to see you safe and well.

Well, the bandages part wasn't exactly my idea..

[ But with Lysithea being brave - truly brave enough to actually try to look Ange a little bit more into the face, Ange is trying to do the same in return.

Which she manages. Even though it's always weird to hear these things. To hear peopel care so genuinely about whether she's okay or not. It's such a constrast to the way people mostly just seemed to wish she would just die already.

But.. it also makes her want to try harder. It's why she vowed to try harder in this place. And yet..

Ange frowns. ]

It's really not fair if they catch us off guard like that. And disable our powers. I've been trying to be more careful in this place, and I've tried practicing my magic. But.. what good is any of that if they're going to catch us like that anyway?

[ Ange can't quite help it. It's a bit of frustration slipping out, like a thought she's been sitting on for a few weeks now, and that's only now fully coming out for the first time.

It just doesn't feel fair. And Ange knows one shouldn't expect fairness from things like these, but still.. ]

[Lysithea's smile fades at these words, and she responds with a slow shake of the head.]

...Do you wish it was different here, too?

I know it was foolish... but when I stood before that door in Deerington, knowing this was where my future would lie, I was filled with... certain hopes. The future we had constructed together.

I didn't envision that these sorts of incidents would still happen - or that if they did, they would be so...

[dark. intense. filled with murder.]

It's still too much, isn't it? To live with the knowledge that at any time, these sorts of events might just spring up and catch us unawares.

[ Ange doesn't think it was foolish, that hope. After all, she felt it herself as well. It really felt like they were leaving a crappy place behind them in order to build up something new and better in a different place. A place that didn't mean they would have something horrific thrown at them every single month.

But.. ]

It is too much.

[ Even if - aside from last month - things might not have been as awful as in Deerington yet, if not just for the lack of as many deaths, they have still been pretty awful. ]

Living like this.. it's unacceptable. [ She shakes her head. ] And I refuse to just give in to it. Even though it seemed like we couldn't do anything against what happened last month, there has to be a way. We have special powers now.

[ Or.. more special powers, in their case. Already having been able to use magic and all.

At least Ange's tone is less socially awkward now, and more just determined. ] There has to be a way to shape this place in such a way that we can all live here without constantly fearing for our literal lives.

Hm.

[The way Ange voices 'special powers,' for some reason, brings a faint smile to Lysithea's face.]

Perhaps if we hone them with enough diligence, we can overthrow the Pthumerians and create a new order in this world.

[...She's probably being sarcastic.]

No, but we've spoken of this previously, haven't we? These recent developments, though - they do make the situation much more pressing. If this is our... second - third month here... what will happen two years out from now? I don't anticipate they will lessen.

Ange -- the way you speak...

It feels to me as if you've had to determine to change your fate, once before.

Of course. I'm not the type to give up so easily.

[ .. well, given the right circumstances, anyway. She sure did give up at one point back home, but it had been since she had been totally deprived of any and all options to change anything about her circumstances. But as long as she still has had a scrap of hope to cling onto, as long as she's been given something to work with - Ange sinks her teeth into it and doesn't let go.

And there's still plenty of scraps left to cling onto in this place. Things are still relatively new, after all. ]

There are way too many people in this place who are important to me to just give up. Even though I'm not saying I'll find something for sure.. [ Because Ange certainly isn't that optimistic. ]

I'm still going to do my best to try and work out a way to make this place better.

[ It probably sounds oddly dumb in its determined way, considering their current setting.. standing in the middle of a bakery, talking about this stuff..

But, you know. Sometimes you just have to make passionate speeches in a bakery, apparently. ]

And it's not like I'm the only one. A lot of people are doing stuff in their own way, like Ruby and Mako's project to ensure people have safehouses to go to when stuff gets really bad. [ ... ] But, you know, overthrowing the Pthumerians doesn't sound so bad either.

[ Ange is.. probably.. being sarcastic too..?

.. or maybe not..?? ]

Hm.

[In response to this heartfelt speech - this very uncharacteristic outpouring from Ange... Lysithea can't help but offer a rare smile.]

I'm not an optimist, you know. I try not to get my hopes up about things - there wasn't much to hope for in the past. But I admire your determination, Ange. That's always been a quality I respect.

[Lysithea, too, defined her life by that one ideal: determination. Even if her life came to ruin over and over again, she would continue to press on with everything she had.]

So I'll share that determination, too. And if there's one thing I can do to make this place a little more tolerable...

[Ange finds a sweet bean bun being dangled in her face.]

...

[ Something about that determined attitude fails. Not because she's losing hope though. No, it's because Ange is currently being very distracted by 1 (one) sweet bun in front of her face, which she promptly takes from the other girl.

Brought to her knees by Lysithea's sweet buns. A cruel fate. ]

How do you always know exactly what I like?

[ Granted, it's mostly just that Ange is not very picky, and will gladly 'taste' test everything in this bakery. She's already taking a small bite off the bun, chewing it before swallowing, and then letting out a sigh of delight.

So good. So yummy. ]

If we could somehow save the world with cake, you'd be our local saviour.

Probably because you like most things.

[This is not a judgment. Lysithea also likes most things - actually, she likes every single thing, which is why she's doing this in the first place.]

I'll say it's nice to have external validation about my lifestyle choices, though. I used to hide my, ah... interests when I was younger, as I was trying to project a certain image. But really, who doesn't like sweets?

[bad people
bad people don't like sweets]

If I'm going to be more useful to everyone, though, I should probably return to the magical studies. I think an understanding of blood magic - or just blood in general - will be key to making headway in this place.

I think so too. [ Said between two different bites of the bun.. Look, this conversation is important.

But this sweet, sweet bun is also very important, and Ange can clearly juggle both at the same time. It feels a little easier to talk about this when Lysithea seems to be on a similar level of energy and spirit about it as herself, now Ange has come down slightly from the determination and Lysithea seems to have gone up a little. ]

Somewhere between understanding our blood and understanding the Pthumerians better lies the solution to all of this. [ Not that she can be sure, but it's just like Lysithea.. she's got a strong gut feeling. ] Maybe things are still so unfavourable for us since we came here without any appropriate knowledge of this place. That means we're already one step behind everything that's constantly being thrown at us.

[ Which sure doesn't help. ]

If we have both more knowledge and more experience, we should realise more quickly how to tackle new things, or uncover patterns we can anticipate.

Theoretically.

[Lysithea agrees, conscious that their best-spun plans and efforts had only gotten them so far in Deerington. In the end, the town had simply unraveled itself the way it was always meant to, with or without their involvement.]

It's a start. And we'll build from there. Either way, if we're going to continue to foster a life in this town, we must understand the blood business, either way.

I'm going to go bother Never Mind again, too. He likes company - and if he's going to be a know-it-all, he might as well be helpful about it. You haven't met any other Pthumerians, have you?

[ Ange shakes her head, before saying with the absolute dryest tone possible: ]

I'm allergic to those types.

[ Though there's some truth in that statement, because if there's anything Ange can't stand, it's people who happen to have a lot of power, and then use said power just to harass people who don't deserve it..

She sighs, before taking another bite off the sweet bun. She chews thoughtfully before swallowing. ]

That awful stuff last month was also done in the name of one of them, right? I definitely don't want to talk to that one.

The Tower...

Isn't there some sort of Earth superstition that says towers are bad luck?

[Lysithea is referring to tarot cards.]

I vote we avoid that one for the rest of our mortal lives here. ...I further vote that we adjourn from the tactics planning portion of our visit today and move on to the tea and biscuits portion.

...You are segueing already, of course.

[Using a pair of tongs to pick up some more cookies, Lysithea begins to set them on a tray.]

But before we do so --

Thank you, Ange.

For being... honest.

[ A small sound escapes Ange.

It's surprise, really, though she's trying to mask it as a huff of breath. ]

I don't see what's so special about this that it requires any thanks. [ T-Tsun!! Please, Ange will accept gratitude when she dies, maybe. ] I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't hesitate to tell you their opinion on this place.

.. or was it my secret plan to overthrow our current Pthumerian overlords that you're thanking me for?

[ That's a joke.

Or she's trying to spin it into one, anyway. Ange is still not opposed to this idea, honestly!! ]

[Lysithea will not embarrass Ange further by clarifying what she means, knowing full well that she does not need to do so. She will entertain the joke.]

Naturally.

Operation Pthump All Pthumerians stay within the confines of this wall. Our plan must not leak elsewhere.

[And with that, Lysithea sets the tray before Ange and turns to cumbersomely boil some water on the stove for tea.]

((I think we can leave this one here if that works for you!))

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