Welcome to Gaia! ::

Food Train

As much as Horace did not care much for Taym, he still cared for Peyton. Word had gotten round, and he hadn't seen the blonde around since. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. It was... a difficult decision to visit. Horace had felt guilt creep along his spine at the odd sense of relief he'd felt in tragedy. He also had avoided any mention of suicide, as well he could. Taym had opted out, taken the easy way out, and it felt petty to not treat it with the weight it deserved, but Horace couldn't. He remembered his sleepless nights, blank days, the careful plans he had not followed through on, a deep green forest that could have been the easiest of all. In the interest of immediate self-preservation, Horace tried not to think about certain things.

So, it had been a difficult decision, but here he was. Horace knocked at her door, a deliberate, slow knock. His other hand carried a trap of food - something his grandmother used to cook. He hoped he didn't ******** it up; Horace knew cakes, not necessarily food. But he knew all too well that withdrawn, that sadness could sap the appetite out of a body and leave it listless. Food was for survival.

Food train

There was a very long pause between the last impact of knuckles against her door, and any sign of life from behind it.

She'd considered, as she always did lately, just pretending she hadn't heard it. Ignore it, and eventually they went away. Ignore it, and she didn't have to put on a happy mask and talk to people. Didn't have to pretend to be alright, or be strong, or be anything but the miserable thing that she currently felt. It was something she'd never allowed herself in the past. Always the strong one. Always the one that held it together and took care of the rest.

It was her turn to feel loss. It was her turn to mourn properly, to let the hurt dig it's claws into her chest and tear a hole clear to her heart, then through it.

Peyton slipped out of bed, walking quietly across the room on bare feet to open the door, pale eyes red-rimmed, shadows beneath them. "Hi Horace." It was an effort, but she managed to make her voice even, even friendly. She just couldn't get the face to match.



Sometime during the morning

She didn't know he'd stopped by, so the fruit went unnoticed for a very long time.

prolixity

Food train

She blinked up at him as if she couldn't comprehend what he was saying to her. In truth she just needed the time to think. To weigh his fussing over her against having to argue with him that she didn't need to be fussed over.

In the end she stepped back, leaving the door open so he could let himself in, and headed back for the bed.

Awkward afternoon text messages

Really, with how much he had been off island it didn't seem too abnormal to not seeing those he considered his friends; everyone had a job and duties after all. But he had heard some stuff. All news to him had always come second hand and through odd pipelines - gossip in the halls, twitter that he could barely make sense of half the time with what people were talking about.

Milo particularly didn't know all those involved, or what had happened, with this turn of events (always seemed to be something) and honestly at first had no idea how to approach it. Personal matters were... just still so awkward. The Sun felt stupid for deciding to resort to using his phone to instigate a conversation.

Early evening

"Brought you some things," Jordan said, and opened the bag so she could see what was inside, a couple of sandwiches, bottles of juice and water, and a bottle of a sweet wine. "That one comes with a condition, though," he added, indicating the latter, "speaking as someone who's made some extremely stupid decisions, don't have that alone, all right?"

Evening

The Miller brothers had been quite worried about Peyton. Between Twitter, gossip, and just their own discussion of the situation...well, they'd both grown quite concerned.

But while Jordy had actually gone over to leave food offerings, Andy had waffled and sent texts. That went ignored. The blond tried not to take it personally - if Pey was in bad shape like they thought she was, then she probably wouldn't want to answer a bunch of texts from some derpy trainee under her tutelage.

Even if there'd been a bit more to their relationship than just the 'senpai' bullshit.

So after Jordan came back from seeing Pey and reported on her deplorable condition, Andy had fortified himself and gone to see her. He brought thick sandwiches cut in cross-wise halves, wrapped in paper towels like Tia Rosa used to make for him and Jordan, cold sodas, hand-cut veggies, and snickerdoodle cookies he'd only partially burnt.

With all the food in a small box, he went and presented himself at Peyton's door, knocking with more confidence than he felt inside.

Ignorance is Bliss

Kyle really had no idea that he couldn't have picked a worse moment to approach Peyton. He had been meaning to consult the combat training specialist for some time now to see if she could spar with him and offer some pointers on what he needed to work on.

Figuring that he should be more proactive in approaching her instead of waiting around the island and hoping to run into her, he stood before her room on the second level of the dorms now, a smile on his face as he lifted a hand to gently rap on the door.