[REG] Outward Apathy Contest (Drew, Vera, Janice)

[cibarium]

They still went to school.

It was somehow an easy thing to forget, and something that was regarded with renewed surprise at the start of every Monday, unfolding the red-and-white uniform that waited for them in her dresser drawer. Janice still always dreaded the moment she had to put the damn skirt on, and would spend the day anxiously anticipating the moment she could take it off -- but it was a wonder that she was even putting it on and take it off in the first place, that this was even a part of her life anymore.

For so many people around her, this was their entire life. It used to be a larger part of hers. And probably a larger part of Vera's, Janice imagined.

She took a short glance at her friend as they made their way off the school grounds, and for the umpteenth time noted that she did a better job pulling off the skirt than she did. Her eyes went back to the sidewalk, noting with the same amount of inner enthusiasm that the pavement was starting to get littered with fallen leaves. It was autumn. Which meant it had been about a year since they had met at Barren Pines.

An entire year.

Did Vera know that? Or did she care?

The leaf litter met a bend in the sidewalk, and eventually trailed up to a pair of shoes heading from that direction. The shoes themselves weren't very interesting, but the face of the person wearing them was.

"Drew," she said, by means of greeting.

"...You cut your hair."  

[Tsunake]

Life still went on.

Though he felt like his world had been turned upside-down and ripped apart at the seams, life still went on. People still laughed and smiled and loved one another, senshi and negaverse agents still were at each others' throats under the cover of nighttime, and plots greater than either side could ever fathom still brewed underneath the surface of it all.

He wished, just for a moment, that it would all slow down so he could finally breathe. It was a constant, uphill battle, a vain attempt to draw breath when everything was still submerged under the waters of reality. He was drifting still, letting his feet take him places without really paying attention to the finer details such as 'where' or 'why'. Now, more than ever, he was a ghost among the living--a shade of something he could and might have been.

When a spark of familiarity entered his absent thoughts, the man forced himself to focus on the pair that had somehow ended up in front of them. He only watched for a moment, faintly puzzled as to how they'd gotten there, but would offer in due time. "A while ago."

For her. It'd all been for her, and now she was dead, just like every other piece of him.

Silence filled the space between them for a moment, and he knew he should say something to break it, but the words didn't come easily anymore. "...You're good?" It was a start, at least.  

[Ithiltari]

Life did indeed go on. This was not something that Vera would find surprising, however, as it was a fact she'd long since reconciled herself to in the wake of her parent's divorce. In fact, most of her life now consisted of merely going through the motions, of pretending that everything was fine, that everything was normal.

It wasn't, of course. Not by a long shot.

The first step that had led to this point had been taken a year ago, give or take a week or so, at Barren Pines. The pink-haired girl was also aware of the approaching date, even if she'd have looked carefully blank if asked about it. What little she remembered about the school that wasn't...wasn't really anything she particularly wanted to remember. Or talk about.

So she trailed after Janice on their walk home, not saying anything, as per usual. She didn't say anything when they stopped, when Janice spoke to the man on the sidewalk; he looked vaguely familiar in a way that made Vera's head ache, but she refused to think about it.

It was usually better that way.