The Character Break Room

Peter

"Er... Y...yeah..." I agreed. "Um...maybe...we should just...I dunno...leave..."

What...

Just...what?

Where in the...

What?

Cricket

I was now hiding behind my hair again.

"I didn't expect it, either!" As in, I didn't know that they would walk in. I didn't know we'd kiss the first or the second time until very briefly before, and frankly, two days ago I had absolutely no idea we'd ever even get close to being together in the first place. I had to concentrate to keep from whistling to fill the uncomfortable silence. "Ah . . . surprise?"

Marley
"Er... yea..." I said, my voice cracking slightly with... awkward and stuff... "Surprise!" I did a little jazz hands thing with the hand that wasn't laced with Cricket's. "Now that we all agree /none/ of us were expecting this... um..."

Peter

"Erm...yeah..." I started. "I'm just...going to...leave..."

I turned around and headed back out the door. So much for relaxing in the calm, safe Break Room.

T.Mor:

er...
Uhm...
Uh...
Erm....

Uhm.
"...uhm." I awkwarded further. "uh..." How are you suppoused to react to this kind of thing? I didn't know... this... this NEVER happened in Auda...so...
"er." And with that, I followed Peter out of the room...he seemed to know what he was doing.

Cricket

And then they left. Oh bother.

I glanced at Marley, wondering if I would make it worse if I followed them. The awkwardness was suffocating, and I didn't want that whenever they were around, but . . . oh bother. I ran a hand through my hair, sighing "Oi my my," and looked back to the door. I think I'd told Marley that 'we'll cross that bridge when we get there' a couple days ago. "And we're at th' bridge, oi my my."

I gingerly slipped my hand out of her grasp and started to the door.

Marley
"Guess we are" I muttered, slipping off the couch and silently following. Well... this... complicates things... you know, to say the least...ug.

Cricket

...and stopped again. I had no idea what I would say, anyhow, so why go make a fool of myself? The hand that had been reaching for the doorknob fell back to my side, leaving me to that same big question: Well, what now?

T.Mor:

I walked back into the break room, having kind of forgotten that this place even existed. It had been so long.. and no one was actually dying. This was really weird...

So... I went in, fixed myself some coffee... and sat down in my favourite spot on the sofa.

Peter

I wasn't really sure how I got here, but wasn't it like that for every room in the mansion? At any rate, here I was. I'd almost done a double-take when I saw the familiar door. I sure as hell had a lot of memories of this place. First time I'd ever been plain knocked out (but not killed) since I arrived...first experience with blindness...and then there was that time when Marley faked a heart attack and I actually cracked up from the bad acting... Might've been the first time in years I'd laughed like that.

Alright, I had to go in here now. Even if no one else was inside. When was this place last used...? Feeling waves of nostalgia, I turned the handle and entered. It wasn't like I'd been expecting the room to be any different, but I was still sort of amazed how everything was the same anyway. It could've been yesterday that Marley had been faking that heart attack, and Cricket had been trying to play along in a hilariously bad manner.

...That...that was bittersweet.

Someone else was here. For the second time, I nearly did a double-take. Looked like I wasn't the only one drawn back to this place.

"Hey, T.Mor..."

T.Mor:

Peter walked into the room. ...That had been a bit of a surprise. "... ...Oh, hi Peter..." I replied, looking up from my coffee for a minute.

It was weird firstly, like being here... and also really weird that Peter was here. Like... this was nostalgic. ...Kinda bad nostalgic, because most of the other times we were here there were bad things going on in other places.

Peter

"Man, this is...really weird, isn't it?" I crossed the room and sat on a sofa. "Feels like it's been forever..."

It was almost like a fossil had been dug up and dusted off. The image held a story of a time long past, far different from how things were now. Something significant had been imprinted there--then the sediment collected and it all became a part of history. But now here we were, reintroducing the ancient thing to the present.

...I sure was a different character back then. In fact, I was so different that that character wasn't even me. Not the current me, anyway. That one was sort of a placeholder, just someone to fill the spot while my author worked out how to write people properly. It wasn't even a real character, but the structure of one. I'm not really sure where I finally stepped in. I have memories of all the events the structure went through, but they don't quite sync up with what actually took place; my memories show me behaving in a manner consistent with my current character rather than the things the placeholder said and did. I've seen the things that really did take place, and...gods, I'm glad that character isn't me.

So in a way, even though I'd been in this place from the start, I had a strange feeling dawning on me that I was coming here for the first time...which really conflicted with the nostalgia. I wondered if T.Mor felt the same way. After all, the character who first came here bearing T.Mor's name was nothing like the T.Mor sitting here now.

Cricket

I didn't want to think about this place. It's not as if there were bad memories that came to mind when I saw the door, not at all. Well, perhaps a little. That DDS scene is always a real cheery one that comes to mind due to the talks that came after in the room. But the talks weren't bad, no, it's . . . perhaps it's only that I miss talking. And heart attacks.

Ah, heart attacks.

. . . And Marley. I didn't want to think about Marley, either. She was . . . quite the lass.

Oi my my, mate . . . you know what? I'm pathetic. I truly am, and I ought to simply forget, pretend nothing at all has changed and that I'm fine. Not simply pretend, even. I should be fine. I should be able to handle this. It shouldn't be this hard.

And so, I found myself at the old break room for whatever reason. I slipped in the door, flopped backward onto a couch I hadn't felt for ages.

Wait a moment here.

"...Ah. 'ello, friends. Is it just me or is it a small bit uncanny that all of us 'appen t' show up in this old place all at once and out of th' blue when it 'asn't been used in months and there 'asn't been any recent mass deaths or even group drama of much sort? Though I also 'aven't been in 'ere myself in quite a long while so I wouldn't quite know if it'd truly been in use, now would I? Any'ow...'ello. Been a while. Nice t' see you."

Wendy

I bound into the room and grin at everyone. "Guess who has two thumbs and just discovered how to synthesise spicy Turkish coffee? This girl."

Peter

"Hey, Cricket... Yeah, I guess it is sort of weird. But don't we always wind up meeting each other, no matter the circumstances?" I attempted a weak smile.

Then someone else entered the room. I thought I'd seen her before, but I didn't know her too well.

"Er, hello," I said.

Wendy

"Oh, hullo."
I smiled. I was certain I'd met this guy somewhere before.
"Have we met?"

Peter

"I think so," I said. "Probably in the chatbox or something. You're one of Regret's characters, right?" I didn't know many besides his who sounded like they came from the UK.

Danae

"You don't have to follow me everywhere, you know." I said, shooting a glare back over my shoulder.

Jake simply chuckled, ignoring me of course. Sighing I tugged the door open to the room Bells had pointed out to me, hoping that she was telling the truth about how other characters got their chance to hang out here. If they were then perhaps I'd get to see...

"Of course I do, Mason thinks you're going off on your own too much."

... or maybe it'd be best if I didn't.

Peter

I looked over as the door opened again and brightened. "Hey Danae."

This place was slowly filling up...just like the old days. It was kind of hopeful, in a way. Maybe we could get back to the way things were...?

I'd like that.

T.Mor:

And then suddenly, the place was kind of filling up with people. ...There was the girl I think I remember from a chatbox somewhere or something... talking about coffee... and Danae... and Cricket, who I'd seen a lot of lately, which was nice...and some other guy with Danae...

I watched awkwardly for a minute...before finally doing anything. "... uh... hi... everyone..." I said, which, I kind of wanted to say things to Cricket and Peter more personally, because I knew them better, but like, I didn't want to be rude or anything, and I didn't know how to say anything without it getting all weird and stuff... so I just ended up saying hi.

Aside from talking to Cricket and Peter, I also kinda wanted to know what turkish coffee was... because like... it had the word coffee in it, and that...I like coffee. But Peter was talking to her and I didn't want to all weirdly interrupt or something and.... I didn't know. Gah. Socialness... it just... sometimes didn't work at all. I just... I felt like an idiot.

Danae

"Hello Peter," I said, glancing around at all the people in the room. "And T.Mor, and Cricket."
"Do I kno-," Jake began, cutting off when I elbowed him.
"Shut up."
"Make m-"
"Childish moron."
Walking towards Peter I offered a smile, trying to ignore the fact that Jake trailed me. He was quiet for a moment, although that definitely wouldn't last long. Taking note of the girl that he'd probably been talking to I gave a short nod, wondering if I'd seen her before.
"Hello to you as well."

Peter

"Er, hello," I said to the guy with Danae. I think I vaguely recognized him... Probably met in the chatbox like just about everyone else.

I kind of almost made a gesture in offer for Danae to sit next to me, but I wasn't sure if that was something I should do, so I kind of didn't...

((*facepalms*))

Wendy

"Ah, hello! I think I've met you. Something beginning with D. Dostoevsky? No. Wait. That was the guy who dumped me for a left-handed ice-skater some time in the seventies. How are you?"
I smile and offer a hand to shake.

Danae --

I blinked, taking her hand and kinda looking at Peter like 'am I missing something?'.
"I'm, no... I don't think I've met you before."
"Is he-"
"Shut up, Jake." I cut in, flushing when he decided to speak up.
A quick look at Jake let me know that he was looking at Peter. This wasn't good. I really shouldn't have come while Jake was following me but I'd missed Peter... So...
"I'm just wondering, do I know you?" he asked, ignoring me.

Peter

"Er, I think so," I answered. "Did we meet once in the chatbox?"