"Sorry he's being prickly. He's not used to people who aren't me being sympathetic to him."

"That's not true! There's--"

Daisy waits a second to see if he's going to complete the sentence. When he doesn't: "Yeah, thought so."

"God, that's depressing."

"See, now you're getting it!"

"...it's pretty depressing, yeah." Om nom.

The food's not bad! The ambient feeling of being watched is somewhat worse, but that's not the food's fault. 

The ambient feeling of being watched is an asshole and she refuses to pay it any more attention than she has to. (This strategy is working out perhaps less well than she might have hoped.)

Unfortunately this does not seem to discourage it, or at least it hasn't so far.

It's quiet for a bit after they finish their lunches.

Daisy's the first to say something. "Right, this silence is getting awkward, any objections to me turning the radio on?"

Jon actually smiles a little. It's tired, and he's still staring at the floor, but it's there. "None from me."

"Go for it."

Then they can listen to the radio in the background! It's currently talking about world news. Donald Trump says he is willing to meet the leaders of Iran. North Korea might have new missiles. IS is claiming a terrorist attack of foreign cyclists in Tajikistan.

(Daisy goes back to playing phone games. Jon slowly sinks back down to the floor.)

April, reminded that she vaguely recognized that name the first time it came up, googles Donald Trump.

"—he the fucking what?" she says, eloquently, a few sentences into his Wikipedia page. "How did this man get to be the president of the United States?? Were eldritch forces involved???"

"Ha. Not that I'm aware of, but who knows."

"Not unless you count the secretary to the state director in Ohio, who--" Jon cuts himself off. "I mean. No."

...she snorts, and then the snort slowly blossoms into a full-on chuckle.

Awkward half-smile. "The Eye is really not as helpful as it thinks it is sometimes."

"Seriously though, a reality TV host. I mean, I guess Arnold Schwarzenegger got to be Governor of California and the world didn't end, but still."

"Yet." Exhale. "Though it seems likely that politics will prove unrelated to the world ending or not, at least."

"...true."

"Better than the alternative. If this is what politics looks like without any apocalypse cults..."

"Yeah, here's hoping the apocalypse cults stay out of politics."

"Small blessings."

Nobody else passes out for the rest of the day, and eventually Jon is able to walk a couple steps without falling, which is sort of like a win.

Nothing much changes for the next couple of weeks. Basira starts occasionally putting April on babysitting duty instead of doing it herself. Melanie goes to therapy once a week; after a particularly intense session, she announces that she's decided to stop doing her job, now that Elias isn't here to make sure everyone's working. Jon and Daisy keep getting thinner and more tired despite keeping up with daily exercises (Daisy also consistently eats three meals a day, though Jon is worse about this). Daisy starts shaking all the time. Jon gets even more snappish than usual. Jon's restless; he paces and chain-smokes as much as he can before his legs give out, at which point he reads old statements aloud. Daisy rests more, curled up with her knees to her chest, eyes carefully tracking every motion in the room. He veers between staring at April and pointedly not looking her direction whenever they're in a room together.

Two weeks later, Jon passes out under April's watch for the second time.