[ ok, well, owner may not be his first choice of bathroom squad member to reconvene with, but he'll still go over to him when he sees him again a little later in the day. ]

Hey... It doesn't sound like anyone has any idea what happened to Da-kun, but— did you hear about Luke already?

[ like, beyond the alert that everyone is obviously very aware of. ]

[ there's a nod. ]

The general consensus is that he likely passed from an illness he already had...

[ is the timing suspicious? sure. but if that one was a natural cause death then at least that is one less thing they need to figure out. ]

[ also nods... ]

I guess if he had something like that, it kind of makes sense that it would have gotten worse in a really high stress situation.

[ like a heart attack or something. that's why dad had ended up in the hospital that time, wasn't it? ]

Though you'd think the senior crew would have been aware of that, right? I mean, someone knew enough about us to write those profiles, and those pods were monitoring our health before. So shouldn't he at least have gotten a heads up that the systems were going to go down like that, or at least that that jump thing was going to happen?

[ like, god damn. ]

Something's still so weird about all of that. And then Da-kun...

[ what the FUCK happened there??? ]

[ that's fine. he sips at his drink, staying quiet for a long moment to the point where it might seem weird that he even called him over. ]

How have you been?

[ casual ]

[ i guess he's just kind of wandering around on his fucking crutches because he got kicked out of the food court and can't go for another round in the medbay yet, so he'll find owner somewhere. ]

What the hell, why did this happen again?

[ why is everything! fucking! terrible!!!! he's honestly too emotionally drained to be as upset as he feels like he should be, but. man. their bathroom crew... ]

[ THEIR FUCKIN BATHROOM

owner is just covered in a big blanket because he is trying to avoid people asking questions about his fuckin arm. everyone will think he just wants to be cozy. ]

I know everyone was worried about it, but the very next week? On the same day?

[ why...... ]

[ he's so valid... todomatsu doesn't really like talking about personal stuff in the first place, so getting all these questions about what happened is killing him. ]

Yeah! I mean— [ hold on let him cough for a minute ] —that's weird, right? There wasn't even a system error like last time.

[ well!!

so many things are closed, so they are just somewhere. owner is just smoking in his blanket. ]

I wasn't expecting that.

[ hahaha yeah he probably freaked out when they found themselves kicked out of the tea shop and even more when he realized who was missing and saw the alert.

he's in grayscale and just kind of curled up against the wall nearby. ]

Yeah. Me neither. [ ... ] He's pretty much the last one I thought this would happen to.

[ well!

wherever, totty is, owner is going to walk over to him. ]

Want to get a drink with me?

[ he blinks at the invitation at first, but he doesn't have to consider the question for long... even though he's been drinking so much this weekend that he should really probably say no. whatever, shit sucks and alcohol is great. ]

Ah... [ he nods — still flickering back and forth between color and grayscale every so often. ] Sure.

[ and away we go ]

[ they can be at the spa! they're relaxing! owner is squinting at the items in here, and will turn to look at totty... when the mem void strikes.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

he just sighs. ]

Okay. Is this just the new thing this week?

[ kind of squints at him for a moment afterward like ............i see

and then continues massaging this cream into his face. ]

I guess so? Ugghhh... that's going to be so annoying to deal with...

[ he just knows his brothers are going to manage to humiliate him even in absentia through his memories. thank god they have this spa to help them de-stress!!!! ]

[ where is todomatsu. owner is walking over. ]

... you got caught up in something rather chaotic.

[ nodd... ]

[ the bar. surprise. ]

Yeah! What the fuck was that?!

[ todomatsu is actually not at the bar this time, which may just be because he was getting secondhand embarrassment from nodd's drunk ass during the trial. he's just sitting in the lounge with a glass of water instead.

when he sees owner, he gives him a little nod, then looks out the window. ]

What do you think? About how that ended.

[ that's fair, nodd was bad. but also owner loves this spot so he is fine bumping into totty here instead. ]

Extremely inconvenient. We have quite the mess to hope we can fix now.

[ popping in to check on him while he's in the med bay... ]

Hey... did you lose any more limbs?

Just the same one I already lost.

[ no more prosthetic. ]

[ observation deck because owner missed this place.

but anyway, he is seated next to the window, watching a black guinea pig chew on some apple slices. it is peaceful. ]

How have you been?

[ that is to totty not the guinea pig ]

I mean, pretty stressed out, not going to lie.

[ sits down next to him. ]

Having you all back now is a huge relief.

[ honestly i think he's just lying down somewhere after all of that. on a couch or a floor or whatever. he has a lot of complicated feelings about things and he's kind of forgotten about the date promise at this point, but when he cracks open an eye to see owner, he smiles and holds up a hand for a high five. ]

We did it!

[ ah! he kneels down and offers a high five. hell yeah! ]

It went much better than I was expecting.