[OTA] Up and Down and Up Again

[headfollowheart]

It can be said, at least, that for as strange as the last few weeks have been - snowstorms, friends leaving, upper Spades leaving and sending accounting into a frenzy - it's unlikely that Zoe's going to wake up tomorrow morning hungover, with Elisha on the couch, a broken coffee table, and Victor with a separated shoulder

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[elani_songbird]

Elani didn't really have an excuse to be here, unless being here to visit a friend counts.

It totally does.

Still, she pauses in the doorway and waits for Zoe to finish before she begins applauding.

[headfollowheart]

Visiting a friend definitely does count, no matter what some of the guards might think.

Zoe blinks, though, at the applause, even if she did hear the door open.

"Oh..." she says, leaning away from the piano. "Hi, Elani."

[elani_songbird]

"Hi Zoe," she smiles and moves all the way in. "That was really lovely."

[headfollowheart]

"I learned it when I was sixteen," Zoe says, wrinkling her nose slightly. "Liszt's Sonata in B Minor. It's hard enough that I have to concentrate on it."

[elani_songbird]

She tilts her head and leans against the piano a little. "Trying to distract yourself?"

[headfollowheart]

"Yeah, a little bit." Zoe sighs as she closes the key lid and leans her elbows on it. "It's been kind of crazy this week, you know? Well, it's probably at least as bad for you."

[elani_songbird]

"Yeah...it's been. Well, wild? Really not the sort of week I expected it to be. Nothing too much for you to handle though, I hope."

Then again, if Zoe is here playing instead of running around Dealing with Stuff, then it probably isn't.

[headfollowheart]

"Not really. Everything's computerized, you know? So that was a bit of a problem at first..." Because Meghana was a master hacker. "But there's only so much to do about it."

Well, she suspects she knows how Victor would prefer to handle situation, but short of that.

[elani_songbird]

"Well...I'm sure you all did your best."

And at least they hadn't had that to worry about, in the Clubs. At least, as far as Elani knew.

[headfollowheart]

"We did." Zoe smiles a little bit at that. It was times like these that she thought she got her fingers into too many pies, so to speak.

"It must be hard, though," she says softly. "You and Tegan are close, aren't you?"

[elani_songbird]

Elani looks down at her hands and smiles slightly, "yeah...we are. I-...well you know, it was a surprise?"

You're supposed to like surprises but Elani's pretty sure she's tired of them now. Too many that aren't particularly pleasant.

[headfollowheart]

Zoe laughs a little, shaking her head. "Another surprise. I think I'd like them better if more of them involved cake." And not death.

Or disappearances, at least. "But maybe you can visit Tegan, in Italy? Dafydd writes occasionally." Not much, really. He seemed to want to really be gone once he was gone.

[elani_songbird]

"Cake is definitely preferable," she agrees.

But then she sighs and sits down beside Zoe on the piano bench. "I hope so. I know you've got to go do what's...best for you. But. Doesn't mean I won't miss her."

Or other people she could mention, going off to do other things with their lives.

[headfollowheart]

Zoe sighs, reaching out to touch Elani's shoulder. "Still, it does seem like...a lot of people have left this year. Sandy left at the same time as Tegan." And while sometimes she'd never gotten Sandy, she'd been a good friend; one of Zoe's best friends, and she'd just gotten a note and a short phone call that she'd initiated.

It hurt, a little.

"It sort of makes me wonder if there's something wrong with...being happy here."

[elani_songbird]

Elani smiles slightly over her shoulder at Zoe, "I always thought here was just fine. I mean...visiting Outside? It's fun and all but. This is home."

And so many were leaving it behind.

Some more permanently than others. And that thought has her subconsciously rubbing her thumb against her left wrist.

[headfollowheart]

"Yeah. Exactly." And really, she'd grown up on stories of how Papa had come here - and those hadn't exactly been pleasant stories. She suspected there were a lot of stories like that, really. And she didn't think it was just bad...

But she didn't want to live there.

"Well, I suppose we shouldn't dwell on it. I think it's just weird; five, all at once."