Alex said "You'll do great!"
Leigh said "Ah, I'm sure you'll figure it out."
Irving said "Maybe you'll come back less stinky!"
Mother said "there's no reason to worry, dear."
Grandmother said "Keep your wits about you and you'll do fine."
Grandfather said "Keep a good head on your shoulders! Eh, she probably already said that, didn't she? Still, you'll do great!"
Her aunts rained a chorus of "You got this!" "Keep your mind focused." "Don't forget what you're working for!" "You didn't hear it from me, but keep your eyes on this market. Keep sharp!" "You'll do something great!"
While her uncles sang to the tune of "Keep your eye out for frauds!" "You've got nothing to worry about!" "Ah, no, don't stress. You'll do fine!" "Good luck!"

Her father simply said "Do not disappoint me."

For two hours, Pearl shuffled around the ballroom, drowning in the fake, overbearing optimism. Smiles and polite laughs, words of encouragement, pats on the back, shoulders, and in some cases, head overwhelmed every sense she had. The words washed over her, hardly even registering, their meanings entirely hollow.

She wasn't going to make it. Pearl new. They knew. They all knew it. Why did they have to play pretend?

The third time she got the chance, Pearl slipped past the decorations and tucked herself in a corner, sinking down to the floor as her breath came in shallow. Her head throbbed with each pulse of her hearts, the ache burrowing directly into the center of her brain.

She wasn't going to make it. She couldn't. Pearl had nothing. She was entirely home educated, which meant she had no degrees, certifications, or diplomas to put on a resume. No tangible work experience to fall back on. no marketable skills that didn't want to make her garble saltwater until her eyes bled, and no references to call that could vouch for her. Tomorrow, she wouldn't even be able to fall back on the last name that she hated so, so much.

Overwhelmed with the party, she tipped to her side and brought her knees up to her face, trying to make herself as small as possible. Trying to hide from the suffocating fakeness around her. Trying to ignore just how bad her head hurt, and her hearts hammered, and her eyes burned. Trying to pretend for another hour, another minute that her life wasn't utterly disintegrating before her.

"There you are!"

Pearl jolted where she laid, cautiously looking up to see her older brother. She looked up to him with hollow eyes, before reluctantly pulling herself up and at least trying to get herself under control.

"Hey, David." She said, doing a very poor job of hiding the distress and melancholy in her voice.

"It's pretty stressful, huh?" He asked as he gingerly took a seat on the floor beside her. David was taller than the last time she'd seen him. His frame was thick with muscles that wouldn't ever quite match the scrawny image of her older brother she still had in her head. There was a... presence with him now. A mix of cool, self-assured confidence where once he was tepid and hesitant. His voice now rung with a deep bass that didn't sound like him, but also was entirely him.

"Yeah." is all she said back.

He wore a nice tailored jacket and slacks, with a caddy cap resting comfortably atop his well-groomed mantle. Pearl couldn't help but look down at her own outfit, a crinkled, creased turquoise dress that had spent weeks crumpled on the floor of her practice room. Atop her head sat one of her crowns, this one a dark, twisting, jagged shape that was sharp to the touch. It felt like she was playing dress up compared to him.

David offered her a light smile. "I remember the feeling. I had no idea what I was going to do at the beginning."

She gave him a sideways glance, but didn't make any effort to actually meet his eyes.

"It's not so bad, once you get started," he continued. "That first month is a bit rough, getting everything all set up, but once you get that ball rolling, it's just more of the same-old same-old."

The words did nothing to reassure Pearl. "You got lucky." She bit back, bitter tone cutting through his speech.

There was a few seconds of visible hesitation before David found himself again. "Maybe, but I was there to take advantage of it."

"Yeah, ok, sure." Pearl whipped her head up, meeting his eyes with a scornful glare. "I guess I'll just wait for the Great Zapfish to be stolen a second time! Surely it'll only be a few months, right?"

David scowled at her. "You're deliberately missing my point."

"...Maybe." Pearl couldn't help but pout like she did when she was 12. Dozens of similar interactions from the past echoed in her mind from before David left. Melancholy prickled against her hearts at the memory of how things used to be. It made her already poor mood plummet even further.

Conversation dried up, leaving the two of them awkwardly sitting in a dark corner, hidden from their own party. Talking to David again was... strange. Seeing this strong and confident version of her brother fall into the same little idiosyncrasies as his younger self completely threw Pearl off her game. A strenuous mix of the past and the future that she just couldn't fully wrap her head around.

Logically, she knew that that was just how people worked. It'd been seven years since she'd seen her brother for more than a passing greeting during the holidays, made worse by her increasing reluctance to even go to those events recently. That was the entire point of the tradition after all, and it clearly worked out for David. Pearl, however, felt she was in a much more precarious place. Her brother changed so much in seven years just by doing the same things he had already been doing before he left. How different was she going to be? Would she even recognize herself? Would she even like herself?

Eventually, David let out a quiet sigh, and stood up again. "Keep in mind that it's not as bad as it feels. Just try your best, and you'll get there eventually." He gave her a small smile and offered a hand to help her up.

She refused.

He cocked his shoulders in a lighthearted shrug, and turned to walk away. "Oh, right, before I go. Dad's going to give his speech soon. He plans on pulling you to the front specifically to 'wish you luck' in front of everyone."

Pearl's eyes immediately darkened. "He sent you here to get me, didn't he?"

David turned away, lifting up his cap to scratch at the top of his head. "Maybe something like that. but I've not been able to spot my little sister anywhere!" He looked back long enough to give her a wink as he walked off. "I hope she turns up in time, or Dad'll lose his mind."

As he walked away, Pearl couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was reassuring to know her brother still had her back, and for a few moments, she was able to sit, feeling a bit better about the entire situation.

Until her head throbbed, at least. "Nngh.." she groaned as her vision pulsed, laying back down and covering her eyes to block out the little bit of light that reached them. Stupid fucking prick. Planning to call me out in front of everyone like that. He KNOWS I don't want to be here.

It felt like all the bad feelings she'd been able to ignore while talking with David were playing back all at once, just to make sure she regretted her night-long bender the other day. Fucking Ronnie... piece of fuckin' shit... She curled into a ball, putting her head back between her knees in an attempt to stop the world from spinning. Oh my cod I'm going to get kicked out tomorrow...

The sounds of the party swelled in her ears. All the voices, each pluck of the violin in the background, every clink of a glass or clop of a shoe echoed through her head, loud enough to bring the tears back to her eyes. It was too much, it was all too much. I can't do this! I can't!

"Everyone!" Father's voice rang throughout the ballroom, silencing all the other sounds. "Thank you all for coming out tonight. It has been a pleasure to see you all again."

Pearl's ragged breaths caught in her throat. Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck! Nononono! I'm not going in front of everyone!

"As you all know, today, we are gathered here to welcome my son, David, back into the family. Seven years ago he started his independent journey into the world to prove his mettle and his merits!"

Tears streamed down Pearl's face as she frantically scrambled upright. Tiny, horrible sounds of effort escaped her lips as she staggered to her feet.

"Stripped of all contracts, wealth, and even the Houzuki name itself, David had to fight his way through the world using only what he himself had earned. A fight, to prove he had what it takes to stand on his own!"

She nearly fell over the second she stopped to try and find the exit. There was a door not too far down the wall from where she was, but she didn't have long. If she didn't escape before her father noticed her, she'd be forced in front of everyone.

"The Houzuki family is not content to simply sit on our laurels and let the world go by! There is no 'good enough' or 'acceptable' to us! Every member must pull their weight, must push with all they have to make things better! To go further! To prove they are worthy of staying within the family, and not content to simply leach from its success!"

There wasn't time. Pearl set her shoulders and barreled towards the door halfway across the room. She tried her hardest to stay close to the wall and out of the spotlights, and if that meant muscling her way past a few family members, at this point she couldn't care less.

"It fills me with pride to say that David has proven himself." At her father's declaration, the room filled with polite, loud cheers. "I won't lie, I initially doubted his choice," Father continued. "Industrial security didn't seem like a particularly bountiful opportunity to me."

The sudden wall of sound from the cheers nearly sent Pearl back to the floor, but she managed to catch herself on the wall. She had to force herself between another cluster of family members, the tears clouding her eyes too much for her to recognize who they were.

"However! He pressed onwards, trusting his intuition, and building his corporate base. Then, when an unprecedented opportunity displayed itself, he was in the perfect position to seize it! Yes, the disappearance of the Great Zapfish was a mystery, but more than that, it was an opportunity. And quite a prosperous one at that!"

Pearl ignored the looks they gave her and the quiet calls of her name from her family as she threw herself through the open doorway out of the ballroom, back into the mansion. Her brother's voice chased her down the hallway as he gave his speech, the echoes quickly becoming too distorted to make out clearly. She tripped after taking a corner too hard, her heels sending her splaying. With a grunt, she hit the ground shoulder first, already kicking her traitorous shoes to the side as she tried desperately to preserve any momentum. Seconds later she was off the ground, now barefoot, tearing through the halls.

The door to her studio slammed open as Pearl ducked inside, the momentum so much it actually bounced off the wall and closed itself a moment later. Pearl wrestled with the dress, trying desperately to get out of the damn thing. It was choking her, suffocating her, in its pomp fakeness. She needed something different, anything would do. It didn't matter how clean or dirty, it just had to be hers. The nearest tank top and jeans were quickly donned, but that wasn't enough, so she pulled on some fingerless gloves and her combat boots as well.

She hesitated for a horrible second as her hands clasped around her crown. Without further thought, she threw it across the room, ignoring the thunk it made as it hit the wall. She couldn't wear that right now, not after she just wore it in the ballroom. Just as it hit the ground, she turned to the couch, where her phone was sitting. Opening her messages, she tapped on the top conversation: her caretaker, Fergus.

Pearl: I need to go.

Pearl: The Mountain.

Pearl: Right now.

Pearl shoved the phone into her pocket and paced the room until she found her wallet. Frantically, her eyes shot across the room, not really looking for anything in particular, but determined not to miss anything all the same. They locked onto a different crown, this one much more simple and subdued in its design. The moment she had it in hand, she threw the door open again, and barreled down the halls. A few minutes later, she nearly fell down the manor's front stairs, but barely managed to avoid it by riding the momentum and unceremoniously slamming into the side of the car. There was no pause between the crash, and her peeling herself off and opening the door.

Fergus sat in the driver's seat, his posture perfect as ever. He waited for a moment, watching her in the rearview mirror. "Seatbelt, please miss."

Without thinking, she reached up and pulled the seatbelt over herself, leaning her head back into the headrest as the car started to move. There would be time to think about the consequences later, right now, she needed to get out. The fresh air of Mt. Nantai would help her get a grip, hopefully.