week four | mingle

[marriagebroker]

Final week at the estate! Final week with your friends. Final week with your beaus. Time to make the most of it, everyone!

In fact, to celebrate this fact, today there is a cake. It's nothing special, just a nice little cake to enjoy with your morning coffee or throughout the day. Yay, cake!

And when Wei Wuxian arrives that morning, he is going to call out once again for everyone to join him, near the cake.

"Everyone, I have another announcement!"

Hell yeah, announcements.

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

Comments

A FINALITY

[marriagebroker]

As Wednesday rolls around, the group should be braced for another round of things to be revealed about them. Tonight, the estate grows quiet and comfortable as everyone settles in for the evening and eventually, the production team will lead them out to that initial courtyard where their favorite food was all those weeks prior. In the center of that courtyard is a round table, and on that table, a stack of envelopes similar to last week.

Fifteen envelopes this week! And the cards read as follows:

• One of you cut yourself off from everyone and wallowed in loneliness during a pandemic.
• One of you gave a gun to someone without weapon's training, resulting in them killing their friend and becoming an outcast.
• One of you has been hiding your true identity for a long, long time.
• One of you has had your heart repeatedly stopped as a form of training.
• One of you has had your whole world wiped from existence and have nowhere to return.
• One of you has systematically exterminated an entire culture in a religious war to satisfy your mother.
• One of you is always gambling with your life to escape your job.
• One of you is terrified of heights.
• One of you is the only survivor after your home was struck by a meteor.
• One of you killed your father. Or did you?
• One of you sutured the bisected corpse of your friend in order for your student to take over his body.
• One of you was abandoned by your parents for being too creepy.
• One of you was kidnapped and drugged and forced to work on inhumane technology.
• One of you was put on trial and condemned to die.
• One of you was stabbed by the Spear of Longinus and forced to rewrite reality to save the world.

That's all they say and in the complete silence that follows after the cards are read, the cameras continue to roll.

[scooptimistic]

[ Well.

Maya just kind of closes her eyes as though she's warding off a headache, and then-- ]

So the Spear of Longinus is sort of like a religious and mythological artifact of sorts, made contact with the skin of a holy man who was crucified.

[ She flaps a hand. ]

Eventually, a rumor spread for thousands of years that getting pierced by it would lead to relentless bleeding that couldn't be stopped or healed at all.

[beatmatching]

[ luka listens to the list and then maya's explanation, tilting his head slightly. ]

The time you told me about?

[irreversal]

[ Shoko looks back at the card that mentions the Spear of Longinus.

...rewrite reality to save the world... ]

And you saved the world... from what, exactly?

[phenomerom]

... what a relief, then, that the rumors weren't true.

[ Since. You know. She is here, and not bleeding. ]

[poans]

All this, created from the power of rumors . . . Are you well now, Miss Maya?

[ordimame]

[AT LEAST HE ALREADY KNEW SHE WASN'T NORMAL—]

. . . on a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want to hit something right now?

[gamboler]

[ ....

You know what. Okay. ]

Oh, is that all? [ Just a little teasing, in spite of the tense circumstances. ] It seems a little ironic, that a reporter would be responsible for rewriting history.

[embellwish]

[ Well. That voice over sure is..... Something.

Yingying is quick to take her own envelope, one of you is the only survivor after your home was struck by a meteor, and fold it over so the text is facing up. ]

As some of you must already know... this is mine.

[ She can admit as much with serenity, even if her smile is strained. A lot of them already know about her poor health, that something must have happened to her homeland.... this is the source of all of that. The catalyst of the tale. A falling star struck the earth, and took the lives of countless people — and countless more after them, though the card doesn't say that. ]

But these other ones... some of them have sensitive information, right? [ Her smile is sympathetic and sad, feeling worse for her companions than for herself. It must be a total shock to hear some of these things, especially if they're things done with regret. ] ... I'm not a saint, either. I'm not fit to judge.

[ That is to say... she has a feeling such information coming to light could really change someone's opinion of another. Her card might not say it, but she hardly has room to condemn someone else... maybe that'll give a spot of comfort to anyone who's secret was blasted out in front of them all like this. ]

[nrangel]

Kind of how I'm feeling right now.

[ Her voice trails off, getting a little quieter as she goes. How do you express sympathy for something as catastrophic as that? Yingying has already been pretty open with them that her situation isn't good. That if they don't get the wishes they need at the end, then things really are dire for her more so than most. ]

I'm so sorry, Yingying...

[irreversal]

[ Shoko feels... numb, mostly. Not even angry, or afeared, or disappointed at anything else she's heard. She's just... tired. People are going to react however they wish to. She's not interested in guiding the discussion one way or another. It's not as if they need to solve whose card is who in order to win—

But there Yingying is, her warm voice and sympathy cutting through the static in Shoko's mind. ]

Yingying... even now, you're more worried about everyone else.

[ordimame]

[. . . . . . .]

[whatever he is feeling right now, he sure isn't wearing it on his face. which is very unlike someone who is normally so expressive and emotive that it's a wonder he doesn't wear himself out]

. . . is it okay? For everyone to know?

[he knows the story of her homeland's fate is a painful memory to recount. to have it laid bare. . . he can only imagine how her old wounds ache now]

[fireball]

[ ... she didn't know it would be something so dire.

Poppy sucks in a breath; fiddles with the hems of her sleeves before approaching her. ]

Is that why you've been so alone... god, I can't even imagine.

[ That feels. Way beyond something she can help with? Like something nobody can help with, actually. ]

[enscene]

[She’d been getting increasingly agitated as the different lines were read out, and but now Furina is just a little unstable-handed leaf, taken to quivering with both fear and something that sits a little tighter and hotter in her bones.]

You’re the only one left… and the tree is all that you have. [Her voice is quite low.]

[irreversal]

[ Those who have been out and about with Shoko this week - and even those who haven't but have a keen eye - would have noticed that in contrast to the last two weeks, Shoko hasn't been smoking.

Tonight, however, there is already an unlit cigarette in her mouth by the time production finishes reading everyone's cards.

She picks up her card - which else could it even be, other than the one about suturing a bisected corpse of a friend - and sighs, pressing her free hand through her hair. ]

Feels like he's never gonna let me live that one down.

[ordimame]

[this is so much worse than the envelopes!!]

[each secret narrated aloud seems to be worse than the last, and by the time the list is halfway finished, Edamura is already standing there with hands clenched into tight fists, knuckles white. he looks ready to about face and leave— completely uninterested in playing along with this charade— when—]

[One of you killed your father. Or did you?]

[. . . and then he goes perfectly and utterly still]

[anathemaw]

[ this is an awfully anticlimactic way for it to come out; he'd been debating on how best to tell Odile or Serpilia (or both), but it seems like production has taken care of it for him. Messmer looks neither remorseful nor proud. He just looks the same as he always does: tired, aloof. ]

Let fly thy barbs, thy hatred. I have too long suffered thy unwitting courtesy.

[ he also doesn't bother pointing out which one is him. It should be pretty obvious, given what he's shared with most of the others already. ]

[beatmatching]

[ at the onsen luka pretty much ignored these cards, they seemed silly and irrelevant. here, well he'll admit they're not silly besides maybe the person afraid of heights?

he'll just reach forward to take his with one of his usual calm expressions. ]

Is this supposed to frighten me? That was the entire point of the training... [ smh, literally.

he has in his hand "One of you has had your heart repeatedly stopped as a form of training." ]

[phenomerom]

[ After a few moments of the heavy silence following the last card, he speaks up placidly. ]

Hmmmmm. I see, I see. [ ... ] I hope everyone will remember the possibility of the production inserting a falsehood or two in there, just to stir up juicy conversation. It would be nice if we weren't too quick to jump to conclusions.

[ He doesn't actually think any of these are lies. But in case anyone wants to cling to that escape route to avoid any messy fallout ... well, he's planted the seed. Given the gravity of some of these statements, he doubts there's much more he can do for the group, other than addressing people one by one if need be. It might be a long evening.

With that, he's just gonna get up and amble towards the kitchen to make himself some coffee. If he notices anyone following or coming along: ] Would you like a coffee as well?

[crimsin]

[ Sitting and listening to all this with uncharacteristic stoicism. It's hard to tell which one is his since he doesn't react much to any of them. ]

I see. All of the skeletons come tumbling out of the closet in the eleventh hour.

[reverso]

[This is certainly one way to brute-force his own attempts to be more open and honest with this group — by going straight towards one of his biggest secrets, the one that always draws out guilt and shame.

Hard to be flippant about this one, but right now? A humorous mask dulls the edge of everything else, even if his comment feels. Well. Stripped free of any real amusement.

He holds in his hand the card that reads: One of you has had your whole world wiped from existence and have nowhere to return.]

They went straight for the big one, I see. How nice of them.

[gamboler]

[ Well, then. How...tactless, and yet an ugly part of him acts reflexively, committing each and every one of these facts to memory. Friends are weapons, information is a tool. Secrets hold power —

And so does his own. Something he had been so desperate to keep from the cameras, even for how he danced around the truth for these last few weeks. Only once has he admitted to it, and that was behind closed doors, away from eyes that are always watching.

He wears a practiced mask, effortless and easy. Were it just a few weeks ago, no one in this room would think twice about his smile, and yet — it isn't a few weeks ago. These people know him now. They are his friends.

His lips quirk, a mirthless laugh escaping him. ] Well, well...don't we all just have a few skeletons in our closets. Let's see — deception, patricide, negligent homicide, religious genocide...and to think! We've all just been playing house and growing cozy. If you ask me, they should have started the first week with this little stunt. It would have saved us all sooo much time.

[ Oh, he's mad. He doesn't pick up his card — he doesn't need to, does he?

"One of you is always gambling with your life to escape your job." ]

[poans]

[After the voice-over concludes, Yi Sang picks up the card that states, One of you was kidnapped and drugged and forced to work on inhumane technology, and its corresponding envelope. While his heart aches and puzzles over everyone's unspoken stories, this one sparks a kind of concern, and for that reason he pockets it.]

. . . For the collective sake of my fellows and all those present, I shall refrain from speaking on the matter.

[nrangel]

[ Well, she will listen to them being read in silence, and this time she won't make cold shots at who she thinks these are.

She already knows one outside of her own regardless. He hinted as much to her already. ]

Isn't this a little too cruel when we're so close to the end? Is this trying to farm drama?

[researcherstory]

[ Odile's own is a literal drop in the bucket compared to some of these, and she stares at the card for a moment before sighing a big sigh and picking it up.

Everyone and their rueful smiles, their admittances, their reassurances and hesitation and-- ]

I am deathly afraid of heights, and I like to repeat noises back to animals. I cannot see color -- literally -- and my mother abandoned me before I was named. While I like to read non-fiction, some of my favorite books are fairytales; I kept a number of them checked out long after their due date particularly when I was young, and I have yet to pay the fine even now.

[ It's all spoken normally, and she waits a moment before continuing a little softer in tone. ]

I recently escaped a timeloop I knew nothing about. [ So what's it matter. Everyone is allowed theirs, and some are unforgivable in their nature -- she won't refute that nor brush over it any, but

maybe, just a bit, she wants to lighten everyone's moods with her own silly, unusual, and hefty secrets so much lighter than their own. ] I believe that is all the secrets I have left.