i pray to god it's the kindest thing

Listen. Ren might be different now; he might try to avoid people; he might be haunted by everything he sees here, all the time. But he's still himself. And that means he's still, in his own way, nosy as hell. When he passes through the Velvet Room and sees a weird new corridor, what is he going to do? Not investigate it?

It seems kind of pointless, once he's in it. Like, there's only one door. They could have just put the door in the Velvet Room directly, foregone the corridor, and not used up any more space in the Velvet Room itself. Frowning, Ren tries the door.

Locked. Okay. That's weird. If it's a weird door, maybe that explains why it's off to one side? But then what the hell is it? For a moment, he's so focused on the mystery that he nearly forgets to be a grim and miserable little rain cloud.

They wanted to beat the weather home, but Ren took too long choosing vegetables, and then Akechi got really excited about a weird-looking mix from the bakery section and deliberated about which to try until Ren, holding the increasingly heavy basket, pointed out they were free and Akechi could just take them all. So in the end, the threatened rain started to fall just as they're bagging their groceries. Oops.

Ren grimaces as they head for the door, watching the rain through the windows.

It's been an okay day. Ren hasn't had to be around many people, which has been the main high point. He's trying not to think about what that says about (what he did) everything.

But there have been other good things. His friends have been having the same conversation as each other in the group chat, instead of saying disconnected nonsense. And Ren finally dared to think, This reality is a twisted wasteland, and it's only going to get worse, and he didn't lose time or anything. He was just allowed to think it and remember that he thought it. So that's good to know.

Right now he's behind the counter of Leblanc, apron on, practicing making coffee with a less popular type of bean. Maruki knew better than to make him an instant expert. Maruki also hasn't seen fit to give Leblanc more business, but Ren likes it that way.

(He also tries not to think about how that might be why Sojiro doesn't get more customers in a so-called perfect world. Because Ren, God's favorite, doesn't want them here. None of that right now. He's making coffee.)