week three | mingle

[marriagebroker]

No outright changes this week either. Week three rolls around, braced for impact as ever. The estate is still intact, the contestants are still motivated, things are looking good.

Well, aside from the fact you all had a blackout this weekend. That wasn't so good.

Either way, when Monday rolls around, Wei Wuxian seems to be in a cheery mood as he greets everyone Monday morning.

"Everyone, come here, come here. I have an announcement!"

Better go see what that's about, huh?

Boom Boom Room | Dates | Property Damage
Truth Booth Voting | Match Ceremony Voting

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A TRIP

[marriagebroker]

On Wednesday, just like the last two Wednesdays, something happens. But it's actually a fun thing this week, promise! Maybe? Either way, production comes and gathers everyone up with the instructions that they must bring their swimsuit with them for this trip. Okay? And off they go, on their merry way, off the estate and to an... onsen!

The group will gather and be treated to a night at an onsen as a group. The entire place has been booked out for them exclusively and there will be a large table filled with (faaaaaancy) sushi and sake for them to partake in before they're instructed to wash up and change and head to the onsen.



Once they're in it, they're left to their own devices. Though, of course, they are still being filmed. But it should be a relaxing evening where they're all just given the opportunity to bond. In fact, once they're settled in the onsen, they will find a stack of envelopes. Sixteen envelopes with a card inside reading a single sentence.

• One of you ate macaroni for months because you didn't know how to cook.
• One of you cannot sing.
• One of you drank a beer that was intended to be an offering to a man's dead best friend.
• One of you freaked out when a calf licked your hair while being fed milk.
• One of you has a bedroom that is an utter pigsty.
• One of you has a full head of grey hair but dyes it black.
• One of you has had the cops called on you for lurking and looking suspicious at least three times.
• One of you has your dad's old shirt.
• One of you has zero friends.
• One of you once hung upside down from the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
• One of you requires taking energy from others through physical touch in order to stay awake.
• One of you responds to animals with their noises.
• One of you schemed alongside a coworker you can't stand.
• One of you tried to stop smoking but broke your streak after five years.
• One of you turned down a girl because of your mom.
• One of you would get cut in front of constantly in the food line when you were a child.

That's it! Onsen night and ... embarrassing secrets?! After the night grows late and people are tired, the production crew will escort them back to the estate for a well-earned rest.

[nrangel]

A.

[ You know who isn't a coward?!

... Someone else who isn't Serpilia. She was told to bring a swimsuit, so she did. It's not even a remotely revealing one, so she might be one of the most covered up people at the Onsen right now.

Either way she's settling comfortably into the water and relaxing. She'll brighten up whenever she sees someone, and wave them over regardless of their own state of dress. ]

Come on it. The water's fine.

B.

[ She's looking at the cards right now, picking them up, reading them, putting them back kind of amused. ]

So the person who got the cops called on them is definitely Rom, right?

[ Not even being kind about it, whether she's right or not. ]

b

[phenomerom]

[ Damb. Not the callout. Deadpan: ]

That's quite the accusation, Miss Serpilia. I'm not suspicious.

a.

[hexensabbat]

Nice!

[Into the water she goes, wearing a cute swimsuit. Surprisingly modest, too.]

Wowwww, this is great! Now they're really spoiling us.

a.

[ordimame]

[YOU KNOW WHO ISN'T A COWARD???]

[. . . also not Edamura, though only because the pools are mixed. it might be a different story if they were separated by gender. either way, his swimwear is nothing special (plain ass blue swim trunks), and. . . neither is the rest of him tbqh. he is as lanky and skinny as the bean jokes suggest]

[he gives pause when Serpilia calls out to him]

Oh, are you sure you don't mind?

a

[researcherstory]

[ Odile is Not a coward, stepping in beside Serpilia at her suggestion and settling into the water with an exhale, relaxing slightly. ]

... This is my second time enjoying waters like these in the same week, in fact. Yi Sang and I enjoyed one together as well.

[ But he's a coward following rules, so, you know. ]

a

[irreversal]

[ Shoko isn't a coward!! Though she'll be employing a similar towel-until-submerged approach as the others here in the buff.

Once she's in, though, she sighs, contented. There have been moments here and there of relaxation so far, but this takes the cake. ]

Hah... there's really no beating getting in an onsen after a good meal and sake.

[ Sake which she brought with her, bottle and all. It's fine. ]

[anathemaw]

[ definitely more covered up than Messmer, who is currently clad in nothing more than a towel around his waist. Not that he's particularly concerned about that - it's the reveal of the winged serpents being quite literally part of his body has him more worried. His attempt to approach the pool stealthily was, unsurprisingly, a failure. It's hard not to notice the giant man with snakes. Serpilia's call freezes him to the spot for just a moment before he seems to resign himself to his fate and begin padding over. ]

'Tis fit to boil.

[ hot springs aren't really a thing where he's from, but he's quite certain this water is not Fine but actually Very Hot. ]

[reverso]

A.

[Verso is wearing this as he relaxes in the onsen. Don’t you say a goddamn thing.

Either he's just sitting back and relaxing, offering you some idle commentary-]

Can this be the entire rest of our week?

[Or he's feeling a little mischievous, casting a bit of Chroma with a swipe of his hand. At the other end of the spring, an invisible force hits the water and splashes someone just for fun.

Ehe.]

B.

[Or he’s found the stack of envelopes, nosily opening a few up, pausing as he reads each card. One in particular seems to make his eyebrows fly up, and if you happen upon him in the middle of that, Verso starts.]

Oh. Hi.

[And tosses the card over his shoulder, right into the water. Smooth. Don’t worry about it.]

a, sorry.

[researcherstory]

[ Odile is decidedly not drunk enough to deal with



all of Verso, good god, so she minds her time with the sake until she readies herself enough to take a seat on the rocks lining the onsen, robe modestly around her to keep warm.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself," is what she thinks to say, ]

You're as rugged as a cliffside, handsome.

[ Is what she says instead, smile small and pleasant as normal like she hadn't switched her words. ]

b.

[hexensabbat]

[Oh... there it goes..........

...]

Gonna share with the class, or just read everyone else's secrets?

[It's said with good humor, at least.]

b

[gamboler]

[ Oh, goodbye, card...he should have made more of an effort to sidle and read over Verso's shoulder, but he didn't expect there to be anything too salacious on them. Guess he was wrong!

Which only piques his curiosity more. ]

How perfectly sly and unsuspicious of you. So, which one was yours?

[ Yeah, he read through them and memorized them earlier... ]

a.

[nrangel]

[ She won't say it, but she will look. She will look very unsubtly and with an impressed look on her face, before looking back up at his face.

No words though. Promise :) ]

That's what I'm saying. I think we should just wrap up the rest of filming here. The water is great, the view is nice.

[ Well... some words, but she could technically mean something else.

Like... she doesn't, but she could? ]

a

[phenomerom]

[ He's been spacing out a bit from the heat where he's been sitting outside the other end of the spring and just. Eats the splash to the face with zero resistance. Cue a blink before he glances Verso's way, looking even more wet-rat than usual, but apparently not too bothered by it. ]

That was quite the trick.

a

[fireball]

[ Gets splashed. Squawks, then starts looking around. ]

Who did that??

[ No seriously who did that. ]

b

[poans]

[Yi Sang blinks at the approximate spot in the water where the card has sunk, baffled by what's just happened.]

. . . Greetings, Verso. Is aught the matter?

a

[irreversal]

[ Wow?? Shoko was just over here mid sake sip and now she's getting splashed? ]






......Okay. Who did that? Speak up.

[ Promise she's not mad. . . ]

[ordimame]

a. just one prompt for SECRETS

[. . . ? curiosity killed the bean, so of course he goes straight for the stack of envelopes, popping each one open to peer at what is written inside. most of the secrets get a few confused squints, but. . .]

[one of them gets a loud, indignant protest]

. . . SCREW YOU, LAURENT!!!

[BECAUSE HOW ELSE WOULD THEY KNOW??]

[researcherstory]

[ Wow. ]

Which one is yours? Mister "Got Cut In Front Of" or "Grey Hair"?

[ Edamura's hair is "black" (lightless) enough, thank you. ]

[poans]

[They were told to bring their swimsuits, so Yi Sang arrives in a white t-shirt and dark shorts, because he does not own actual swimwear.

For the most part, he keeps to himself by one edge of the onsen, where he waits for his turn to peruse the cards. Gleaning through them at last, he pauses on the one as a dumbfounded look pulls on his slack visage.]

[gamboler]

a.

[ Well, since he was instructed to, he packed a swimsuit, but once he finds out it's an onsen they're visiting, he's not going to bother wearing it?!? He's been to Edo Star, he knows how this works. Besides, he's long grown so used to using his looks as a tool that he doesn't even think twice about it, but at least he wears a towel around his waist while he's out of the water, so it's a little...less scandalous...

Don't worry, I have fanart for this, too. If anyone takes more than a passing look, they'll probably notice that he bears a fair number of scars — the only explanation he offers is a wink as he passes by. ]

Ah, I can already feel the heat sinking into my bones...join me, won't you?

b.

[ Like several of the others, he's looking through the envelopes, eager to see what dirt the production staff has on him this week. After the last, he's more than a little apprehensive...but his isn't all that bad! Comparatively...

He holds up the one of you has zero friends card. ]

Alright, who's brave enough to claim this one? Come, don't be shy now! We're all friends here now.

[phenomerom]

[ Despite the staff's desperate attempts to persuade him, which others might have overheard ... Rom is not in a swimsuit. He's in a pair of black slacks with the hems rolled up to mid-calves, and a dark-gray linen button-up (long-sleeved, of course). Yes, the steam and heat from the onsen is making this kind of miserable, but don't worry about it. No hat, at least!

He's sitting off to the side with just his feet dangling in the hot spring water, spacing out a little from the building heat, and looks over with his usual smile only when someone approaches. ]

The water's nice, isn't it?

[ He's sure one to talk???? ]

[anathemaw]

[ Messmer is not terribly enthused about the prospect of public bathing. A few days ago, he probably wouldn't have given it a second thought - he'd gotten used to people simply accepting his serpents, and spending time so long with soldiers means he's used to being in groups in various states of undress - but the "date" with Shoko was a bit of a painful reminder that he is, in fact, an abnormality. He's sure that he's about to be on the receiving end of more staring, and not because of his height.

But he's suffered a hundred times through situations a hundred times worse; ultimately, he decides the warm water looks too inviting, and that there's little to be gained by avoiding interactions with the others. So he braces himself and appears. He's long and gangly, with somewhat distorted proportions in accordance with his unusual height - but more alarming are the two snakes, which can now be clearly seen erupting straight out of his body from the front of his chest, with one even reentering his flesh through his shoulder at one point. The skin around the openings is reddish and scarred and undeniably painful-looking. Maybe that's why he's intent on getting a nice, healing soak... ]

... What is the "Hollywood?"

[ he's imagining a giant tree while he peers at the envelope like an old person with a phone. The two serpents are floating on the top of the water beside him peacefully, looking like unspooled yarn. (Messmer also doesn't have any swimwear on, on account of not knowing what it is, but he's already sitting in the water. No 18 inches for you.) ]

[fireball]

[ Poppy is sitting on the edge, wearing a simple, black one-piece bathing suit because she's just as lazy as I am, idly kicking her legs in the water as she flips through the envelopes. ]

Huh. Loser, dork, relatable, relatable, weird, weird, weird...

[ Just pleasantly enjoying herself with some nice, relaxing judging, ]

[irreversal]

[ Shoko isn't a coward!! She brought her swim suit, but eh. She's never been a modest person, though she'll at have a towel wrapped around herself when she's not soaking.

She's taken some of the left over sake bottles from dinner with her, and they're waiting to be finished off along the edge of the hot spring. ]

It'd be a waste if we didn't finish these, right? By the way, my secret should be pretty easy to guess at this point.~