Itsy Bitsy Spider

30. Orchid Purple

That day and some of the next consisted of trying to make her feel better, or at the very least, just to venture out of her room and take her mind off the subject. They all failed, but they tried. Lucky could see none of the ones who made an effort had actually ever done the likes of this before.

Even if they had, they sucked.

Everything they said only served to make Red draw more into the shell that hadn't been there before. Still, the Phantom Troupe tried, which was more than he'd expected to come from criminals. He supposed even they were still human at their core.

The blonde with muscles and a surprising lack of eyebrows came with a tray of food, trying to get her to eat. He teased her relentlessly to get her to move from her spot, mocking her height, hair... but he hadn't gotten a response.

Pinky sat beside her in silence for a while, and left as soon as she'd come, not knowing what to say or do.

Devil pushed past his own wobbly smile and tried to strike up a normal conversation, which quickly turned into a desperate, one-sided speech.

A short man with only one visible eyeball entered with a sack and dumped it to the ground, spilling all kinds of pebbles, rocks, and minerals to the ground. "See? This one looks like your lucky rock, doesn't it?" "What about this one? It has some aura, like your rock." "Or this? It has some quartz mixed in, just like your other one—" He too, had gotten no positive response. He'd left the rocks with her, grouping them within arm's distance before departing.

Emo Loser took the effort to walk in and told her to stop crying because she looked "pathetic", a tactic which obviously backfired. After this last terrible attempt, they stopped. They just let her be, not knowing how to deal with the situation at hand and leaving her alone.

With a curt nod to himself, Lucky wandered off into the building. Everyone dealt with loss differently, and everyone comforted others in different ways. But if none of the Troupe's methods were working, it was time for his turn. He had to try. Red needed some alone time, but she couldn't be by herself forever. Though it felt nice, it wouldn't help. She'd bottled up the intensest of her feelings, and was struggling to deal with them as they were frantically trying to come spilling out now in a rapid whirlpool. Red needed support, and as much as the Phantom Troupe members seemed to try, their attempts weren't going to cut it, not at this rate.

Lucky knew who he had to go see.

*     *     *

"Pinky!" Lucky knocked on the door frame. Or rather, he tried to, because his knuckles missed and he ended up stumbling into the room uninvited, earning him a cold glare that only Machi could give. He laughed sheepishly before rapidly pushing out a small "sorry".

Her eyebrow twitched, displeased at the intrusion. First messing with their Ten, then the incident on the airship, now just being a bumbling fool. Couldn't he do anything right? "What?"

"I... right." He straightened himself as much as he could, taking care not to hit his head on the lower part of the slanted concrete ceiling. He verbally cursed his height.

"Yes?" she prodded, tone dull. "Did you want anything?"

"Pinky. I... I need a favor. Do you have any spare threads I can use?" He paused to think. "Preferably thicker strands, maybe embroidering thread thickness. That aren't Nen and won't kill anyone or slice them up if they touch them. And are in color..." He nodded as he spoke, obviously making up all these requests on the fly. "Yeah. Lots of colors."