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

Comments

[irreversal]

[ Shoko's already in the water, but she is also clearly not wearing anything in the water. ]

Guess which one's mine.

[fireball]

[ Shoko your—

Well. It's not anything she hasn't seen before. Still, Poppy's western sensibilities...

A faint blush before she flips through the cards again, gasps when she thinks she finds it. ]

You were trying to quit smoking??

[ But the taste of it was... really, really hot... ]

[irreversal]

Yup.

[ As the editing team splices together several shots of Shoko smoking in various spots of the mansion's garden here— ]

I mean, I can heal myself from the worst of it, but it's still not a good habit.

1/3

[fireball]

Oh, okay. Well as long as you can—

[fireball]

3/3

[fireball]

I'm sorry you can what now?

[irreversal]

I can heal myself.

[ . . . ]

With sorcery.

[ Just looking at her meaningfully. She's cool and deadpan with so much of what she says, but this is more... steady. Calm. Like something she's been meaning to say, and has said in her head many times over. ]

1/5

[fireball]

[ wait. what ]

[fireball]

[ but then, when they were— ]

[fireball]

[ huh. ]

[fireball]

[ ... huhhh... ]

5/5

[fireball]

[ slides into the water to get closer, because she is going to try to hug her now. ]

That is so cool! How? How long? What else can you do? You've gotta tell me everything.

1/4

[irreversal]

[ Poppy, your— ]

[irreversal]

[ And she sounds... excited? And is hugging her, now. ]

[irreversal]

[ . . . ]

[irreversal]

...Hah. It's...

[ She wraps her arms around Poppy, too, letting her head fall to her shoulder. ]

...It's not at all like those fantasy movies, though. It's... there's a lot, Poppy. I'm sorry I haven't told you about any of it. I'm not normal at all.

[ She hopes that Poppy remembers when they first introduced each other, when Shoko mentioned being like a doctor in a war zone. ]

[fireball]

[ Squeezes her a little tighter now that they're hugging, resting her head on top of Shoko's as best as she can. ]

Are you kidding me? You're so much better than normal. Who needs fantasy movies when you have the real thing, anyway? I mean, it's...

[ Her voice trails off as Shoko's words, the meaning behind them, start to sink in. And mercifully, she quiets down, willing herself to be more reflective than hyperactive in excitement. ]

You know you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, right? [ She loosens her hug, but she's not going to pull away. She's going to stay right here. ] Being a normal doctor would be a lot on its own, so...

[ ... ]

... If you still want to pretend to be normal, I'm right here.

[irreversal]

[ It means a lot to Shoko, that Poppy doesn't let her excitement get the better of her in this moment. That she just... treats her like normal. Truth to tell, she had worried that the image of Shoko that Poppy might have in her head would be too... perfect, too awesome, when she's anything but.

And it has been nice, to pretend to be normal. To just be Shoko. But there's so much more to her that Poppy should know about, too. ]

No, you deserve to know. And you deserve to decide...

[ She trails off, but the sentiment is there. Shoko wants Poppy to get to decide how much of this burden she wants to shoulder. ]

Let's go somewhere a little quieter.

[fireball]

[ There's no such thing as too perfect or too awesome when it comes to Shoko, though. Not in Poppy's mind. It's still amazing to her that they have this level of connection, can consistently be around one another, so this just feels like... well, an extension of that. Not even an obstacle or bump in the road, just a continuation of what they've already got going, and a continuation will always be welcome.

So she'll pull back a little, to allow them the space to go somewhere a little quieter.

Gives her a little smile. ]

Okay. I'll follow you.

[ Wherever Shoko wants to go; Poppy can't offer much, but she can offer that. ]

[irreversal]

[ Without further delay, Shoko lets go of Poppy only so that she can join their hands and lead her - by way of wading in the water submerged so as not to incur uninvited glances - to a more secluded, quieter part of the pool.

Once she's found a suitable spot, she lets go, leans back against the edge of the pool, and tips her head back with a great big sigh as she presses a hand through her damp hair. God, she could go for a smoke right about now. But no— ]

Hah. Where do I even start...

[ Shakes her head. No, she knows where to start. ]

...In my world, people who possess a certain kind of energy can see the supernatural side of the world. Like a layer on top of what regular humans see. We can see things like spirits— but more importantly, curses. Curses come to be when a lot of negative emotions concentrate in an area. Some people who can see this also have the ability to exorcise them, if they train. I don't use my ability to exorcise, but rather— I possess the rare ability to turn that energy into healing. And the even rarer ability to heal others with it. It's part of why I became a doctor.

[ That... was already a lot. She glances over at Poppy, checking if she's still following along, pausing for any questions. ]

[fireball]

[ For a second, Poppy really thought they were going to get out, and Shoko was just going to—

Not the time, not the place. Not once they've stopped, and it's her turn to listen, especially to somebody who sounds like she really needs it. For as much of an asshole as she can be, she gets that the people she genuinely cares about need more than that from her sometimes, and this is one of those times.

So she waits for Shoko to find her footing, and she listens. ]

I... okay, so this already sounds pretty wild to me, like... I never would've been able to imagine something like this, let alone it being real. [ But she nods, like she follows so far. ] That's... kind of cool, though? Not the whole curses thing, those being real isn't cool, but that you can take something bad and turn it into a good thing. And that you do that regularly. That part's really, really cool.

[ That Shoko is such a good person. That's undeniably the coolest. Makes her the coolest one here? It's just, it's cool.

Small smile, like okay, she's ready for her to continue. ]

[irreversal]

[ Without her realizing, Shoko's mouth tugs into a little smile because—

Well, because even without even knowing about the principles of cursed energy and techniques, Poppy's managed to grasp the very foundation of what Shoko does. Taking something bad and turning it into a good thing. Reverse cursed technique, creating positive energy. She's— she can't get into the technicalities of it all right now, but...

...It's good. This is good. That she's finally telling Poppy, and that she's being so understanding. Her expression tempers back into something more serious as she continues, ]

So the work I do... it's for fellow sorcerers. I work for the school where I trained - Tokyo Jujutsu High - but it's something like a headquarters for professional sorcerers, too. So the patients I treat are students and fellow sorcerers who get injured on missions.

[ . . . ]

At the beginning, when you mentioned that being a doctor is always stressful— it's true, and I didn't deny that. But it's... different, from what you were probably imagining. For sorcerers - even the students - it can be... a violent life.

[ And though she's saved many lives, there are times when she hasn't been able to. ]

[fireball]

[ ... She liked that little smile on Shoko. She wants to see that more.

She'll have to see it again later, though. Poppy stays quiet as Shoko explains; as she pauses; as she seems to struggle to find the words. And she gets the sense that a lot is being left out, will continue to be left out. Not out of insult for her, which is the first place her mind normally would have gone, but out of a sense of protection. And Poppy is kind of useless in turn? She isn't a regular doctor, let alone a magic one; the world would go on just fine without her, even if she thinks it would suck more.

But despite being useless what she can do is put her hand on Shoko's arm, so she does that. ]

So, um. When you talk about being in like a war zone...

[ ... exhale. This is so beyond anything she's experienced, so it brings forth a level of gentleness that's borderline foreign to her. ]

Were you dealing with, like... dead kids?

[irreversal]

[ Shoko can sense how out of depth Poppy must feel, hearing of all this. It almost would have been easier if she'd found Shoko that night the ghosts were roaming about. It would have given her an easier segue into this conversation—

But it's better, like this. That she's chosen to do this, for Poppy, rather than it being necessitated by the literal ghosts of her past. What would those guys think, anyway, if they saw her like this now? If they knew how strongly she felt the urge to just stop and leave things at that and put her walls back up, and accept that their lives as sorcerers is always going to be too much to handle? Too much of a burden to have to share with others?

No, they... They would probably cheer her on. They would be delighted in the way that Poppy reaches out, and rests her hand on Shoko's arm. And the way that Shoko finds it all too easy to lift her own hand in turn, to keep Poppy's touch there, where she needs it. ]

Some. [ it's a miracle they didn't lose more of the students than they had. But it had taken a hell of a lot of work. ] Dead colleagues, too.

[ Colleagues... no, they were more than that. ]

My friends. [ ... ] It's... been a lot.

[fireball]

[ Shoko's hand comes up to meet her own, and she thinks, I must be doing this right. And despite how heavy it all is, how much Poppy is not a part of this world, she starts to feel that much more secure of her place in Shoko's, even as she confirms that there were dead kids.

She sucks in a breath. Dead kids; dead colleagues. There aren't any kids in her life, so she tries to picture dead colleagues, but it's a little different when you really only like one of them...

Friends, and she tries to think, okay, what if Ian was the one who was dead, and she was in a position to save him and couldn't, and.

Yeah.

That would be a lot, so Poppy leans in to rest her head on Shoko's shoulder. ]

I bet. That is... It's so not my world. [ Turning her head to look up at her, ] Has it felt better? Being here?

[ Being at the onsen, being on the show... selfishly, selfishly, selfishly, meeting her, but she's not actually going to say that out loud. The main concern is how Shoko is feeling, anyway. Not her. She just wants to help, for once. ]