I love you in the same way there's chapel in a hospital

[imitationsoul]

Featuring: Miach, Tuan and later a segment that is open to all
Content Warnings: warning for drug overdose + extreme warning for suicide Tuan's and Miach's canon deals with it heavily and the girls are very prone to romanticizing it ICly, so beware. I am putting the whole rest of this under a cut so nobody has to interact with it if they don't want to!

What's happening: Tuan and Miach choose to test out if they can succeed at dying for once. It's for the betterment of their relationship, probably? Anyone is free to drop by at the reset room as they linger close to it, recovering.
When is this happening: Part A of the log is on the 28th, Part B is the afternoon of the 29th.

A. ) CLOSED

[ A week has passed since Tuan and Miach have forged a new pact to do what they once failed to do. A week of time to have second thoughts, pull back and quit. Neither of them had taken that chance. So now they meet in the hospital, quiet steps on sanded floors. Miach holds Tuan's hand sightly in hers as she guides them through the halls.

There's no more fitting place to choose your death than the very location meant to preserve your life. Ironies like this are one of the most entertaining things Miach can imagine in her spiteful mind. ]

B. ) OPEN

[ On Monday, people might have noticed that neither Miach nor Tuan came home last night. Or maybe someone comes to check out the reset room and is surprised to find two young girls in it. Miach and Tuan will be lingering in and around the room until late evening, disoriented-looking and always close together. ]

Comments

A

[infodumped]

[Miach's hand feels cool in hers as she navigates them through the hospital lobby and into the emergency department. She'd ask if Miach's been here before, but the answer is obvious enough that it doesn't warrant the effort.

They're silent by necessity of course, but that just leads Tuan's mind to wander tp unnecessary places. Despite not regretting her choice to be here at all, she doesn't like the atmosphere here at all. Her eyes dart from one dusty monitor to another, and her fingers tighten around Miach's as she remembers what it's like to be connected to them.

By the time Miach leads them into one of the examination rooms, Tuan is noticeably pale. There's a bed in there, along with several chairs, a broken sink and a cabinet of medical equipment -- all of them covered in a fine layer of dust.

So this is where Miach has decided they'll die. Together.

She pausesand looks at Miach with a small smile.]

[imitationsoul]

[ The smile is returned immediately and widely. Attempting suicide has become oddly routinized with Miach, but she's never tried to end her life with someone else right there. Even at their last attempt, they kept on living their lives for a while and would have likely ended entirely on their own. Miach had thought not much of that. Death is lonely, even when people are physically besides you. That's one of the beautiful things of it.

But now that she can feel Tuan's hand in hers, she can't deny that there is a thrill in the idea of watching each other fade away.

Miach squeezes her fingers around Tuan's and then lets go to peruse the medical closest for pills she had seen and evaluated at an earlier visit. When she gets the package out, she holds it out for Tuan to examine with a triumphant expression. ]

[infodumped]

[She accepts the blister pack from Miach and turns it over in her hands. The sense of deja vu intensifies to fever pitch as she stares at the prepackag white pills. Poison, Miach had called it, and for a moment Tuan can see just how easily medicine back before the Maelstrom could've been so easily abused.

Prepackaged and pre-dosed in quantities that weren't specifically tailored to individual need as this was, it would be entirely up to the person taking the pills to make sure to self regulate and take the correct amount. No MedCare unit to take those decisions out of your hands and no admedistration to breathe down your neck either.

Just like she's experiencing now.

She looks back up at Miach briefly, then types a message on her device.]

What was this used for?

[imitationsoul]

[ The curiosity pleases Miach. Even on the brink of death, she has knowledge to share with Tuan. Typing out her long-winded explanations is still a hassle, but Miach has nimble fingers that produce large amounts of text fairly easily.]

They were painkillers used for more severe injuries and pain levels. You know, when you had an accident or needed to recover from surgery. In the hospitals in our time they give them to you via the medport if you really need them, but it's become rare.

Opiods were always a double-edged sword because regular exposure could make you addicted, sometimes leading to the seeking out of illegal drugs after being discharged from the hospital... A quite dangerous medicine when misused, but one of the most effective ways to protect a patient from the exhaustion of excruciating suffering.

It won't hurt for us.

[infodumped]

[Right. Tuan remembers Miach talking about how much more dangerous the general practice of medicine used to be in the days before medicules and WatchMe for the people who were doctors. It still surprises her to think that perhaps drug addiction back in the day wasn't so linearly correlated with one's morality. Such thoughts would barely be considered acceptable by today's rigid system of SA enforcement.]

It's ironic to think that medicine could be helping us now.

[imitationsoul]

Right? It's super funny.

[ Miach smiles brightly, genuinely delighted by this joke. She'd thought it back in Japan as well, when she was tinkering with her MedCare unit. Literally being killed by the product of this society... in front of caring eyes... Ah, it would have been the perfect statement. But now is not the time to grow wistful about what an impact they could have made as the three of them. There is only Tuan and her now, and that is alright too.

Miach sits down on the dusty bed in the room and very softly pats the space next to indicate Tuan should join her. ]

[infodumped]

[Tuan takes the cue to sit down on the bed beside Miach. Though she is also smiling, it's with a touch more reservation than her friend. Not that she disagrees that there's an ironic humor to what's happening of course, but the atmosphere just seems too somber and too quiet to feel a significant amount of joy.

Already her heart is beating faster with.... anticipation? fear? elation? She swallows dryly once seated and the sensation, though silent, feels deafening in Tuan's ears.]

Hey... Miach?
If we ever go back to our own world... do you think we'll see each other again?

[imitationsoul]

[ The 'if' in that message seems pretty big to Miach here. Though this world is less than preferable, the idea that there are all these other societies out there tugs at her heartstrings. She wants to go anywhere but back to the loathed place that made her. But specifying this would only bring Tuan more on edge, surely. It's not something she asked about either.

Instead Miach nods. ]

If you want me to, I'll come find you.

[ When she's sure Tuan has read the message Miach puts her device down to brush her friends' cheek instead. ]

[infodumped]

[Why would I not want that? Tuan is half ready to retort back, but that light brush makes all words fall back into nothing and her eyes flutter closed for a few seconds. It seems wrong to have missed these gentle moments with MIach so much, especially after everything she's learned while at Reims. And still, she can feel her cheeks warming up paradoxically against the coolness of her friend's hands.

Tuan opens her eyes hastily and nods once, solemnly, in response to MIach's message. Eyes averted back to the device still settled on her lap, she struggles with what to say to move past the stupidity of her reaction just then. It's harder when Cian isn't here to provide some appropriately inane commentary to eyeroll over, huh....]

Or maybe it'll be me who finds you.

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach raises her hand to her mouth to imitate the gesture of giggling without actually making the incriminating sound. ]

You know where to look now.

[ Seeing Tuan burst into Dian Cécht to demand to see her father, and consecutively Miach... well, that'd be an interesting mix-up for sure.

Are you ready?

[infodumped]

[It's true; she does know now and in a way... she'd like to believe in that version of herself that could do these incredible things despite all expectations and all set backs. And just maybe dying here and burying her current self is just a necessary step in making that future a reality.

Tuan smiles at Miach, smiling in all earnestness.]

I've been ready for a long time.

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach nods, signifying unspoken words of approval that she is not willing to go through the effort and type out, not at this crucial moment.

She'd said it before, that she missed Tuan as well, but right now it its home more than it did before. It's nice to do something abhorrent, it's nicer to do it with another person. The aberrations, the misfits, the rebels.

Miach had not destroyed only her books to take everything that gave her strength to the afterlife with her. Cian, Tuan... they were meant to come to the grave with her in similar fashion.

Now Miach focuses on the medicine package in her hand, getting out an amount of pill no sane human should ever take and holding her hand with them in out to Tuan. ]

B open to ... either one of them ig!

[tropism]

[ he wants to know if anyone else is coming from back home. he's been here for a few days and he already feels homesick, bored. he wants to go home, he wants to be useful back home, and he feels the general wave of uselessness bubbling up in him that makes giorno restless as he wanders around the sandpaths, day by day. at least he has some form of work, but this is not the kind of work that he wants to do.

so he wanders towards the reset room, wondering if he will find anyone. the two young girls weren't exactly the ones he's looking for, but company's company.

he approaches them carefully, and when he gets the attention of one, he taps on the screen of his phone to show them a question. ]

What happened?

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach doesn't recognize the man, but that doesn't surprise her. Every single memory in her head has felt fuzzy and far away ever since they woke up. She's sure she died, she must have died this time... but every detail she tries to summon up disappears behind a wall of fog unless she puts extreme effort into holding on to it.

Accordingly, the question takes her a moment. ]

We tried dying. It appears to have worked out.

[ And waking up from it is not pleasant. Miach hates not having full clarity in her thoughts. After a moment's thought, she adds: ]

Were you expecting someone here?

[infodumped]

[Meanwhile Tuan sits next to Miach blearily rubbing her eyes. It doesn't help at all with the disorientation.]

Um...

[Her voice is soft and scratchy, like she hasn't used it in a while. This being the reset room however, there isn't the usual spectacle of frantic shushing. Tuan looks up from the device the unfamiliar person holds out and confirms:]

We weren't attacked or anything... did something happen to you?

im sorry for the wait!!

[tropism]

[ two different forms of communication. giorno opts for talking since he hasn't done that in a while. ]

No. I'm just checking for someone.

'Trying to die' is something, though. You talk about it like it's normal.