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

[irreversal]

[ He doesn't need to.

And he doesn't need someone to tell him to calm down, either. Instead, Shoko stands leaning against a wall - as she always does - with an unlit cigarette in her mouth, holding the box up towards him in question, a fresh cigarette already peeking out from within. ]

[gamboler]

[ He doesn't need to calm down, he's just amused, that's all. So amused that he doesn't hesitate a moment to go stand next to her, taking the offered cigarette and hooking it between his lips. ]

...Thanks.

[ ...This is so fucked up. ]

[irreversal]

[ Her lighter comes out next, which she ignites and holds up between them, so they can light up together. ]

You're welcome.

[ She takes her first drag, savoring against all good reason that first hit, the way it burns inside. The way it feels like something, in spite of how hollow she feels at times. ]

That was the leash you can't slip, huh?

[gamboler]

[ That first feels like the perfect kind of indulgence you shouldn't want, a blade to gladly cut themselves on: for her, so she feels something, and for him, so he drowns out just how much he feels. ]

I gave them every reason to cut me loose. [ Gambled with his life. Had prepared himself for, expected death to meet him at the end of Acheron's blade. ] Hm. Always winning can be a real pain in the ass, you know.

[ When he wins everything except what he wants. ]

[irreversal]

You're about to win again, though.

[ This show, she means. He'll have a wish in his hands soon enough. ]

[gamboler]

...And now you understand why giving Nico my answer isn't so simple.

[ Because even if he wins the show, even if he gets his wish, won't his inherent "luck" just turn right around and turn that victory against him? It always has before. He gets his success, his wealth, his high rolls and his payouts, but never his own freedom. His own happiness.

He takes another long drag. ]

[irreversal]

Do I?

[ She's not sure that she does, actually. Because here Aventurine is, a man who has never truly been free- not from his past, nor his present - with an opportunity to emancipate himself with a wish. To do so in the company of, with the support of friends who have come to know who he is outside of his role and his fate. Of someone who has come to love him so wholly.

Why can't he see? That he's not alone. That they're here, too. ]

I guess I get it. But I also think it would be pretty idiotic to waste this opportunity. You'll never know what your freedom might be like if you never even try. You're not alone anymore, Aventurine. You're not the sole survivor, or whatever the hell your job title was. You're you. So let others help you, for once.

[gamboler]

[ ...You're you.

She makes it sound, once again, so simple, when he's spent so much of his life pretending to be something he isn't, wearing what he needs to be as protective armor to survive. To win his way to something that always escaped his grasp at the last moment. But here, he isn't just the last Avgin, he isn't one of the Ten Stonehearts. He'd felt guilty for that at first, like he'd been hiding that side of himself, but when she puts it like that...

He hasn't really been Aventurine, here. From the first moment, it had been different. A mini fresh start, like Maya had called it.

...Maybe his profile was onto something. ]

...Would that be a gamble worth taking? For you.

[ For her, for Nico, for anyone who's decided to care about him. ]

[irreversal]

[ High risk, high reward. He should understand as a gambler, shouldn't he? ]

For something that valuable, isn't it worth the risk?

[ If they play their cards right this weekend, then Aventurine will have been given an incredible chance at his own freedom - his own happiness. Why wouldn't it be worth the gamble? What's the alternative, anyway? For him to return to his old life, more miserable for what he tasted while he was here?

Yeah, no. She's not going to tell someone to go back to that kind of life. And she's not going to stand idly by and let it happen, either. Not again. ]

I'm sure as hell not going to tell you to go back to your old life, either. I don't think anyone here would let you, anyway, least of all Nico-san.

[gamboler]

[ In an alternate timeline, Nico wound up carrying him over his shoulder back to Vampire France when he tried to go home instead...

It's a little sad, perhaps, how even after Nico had given his invitation, Aventurine hadn't really pictured himself making that choice. If he couldn't get away from the IPC before, why would this time be any different? Even the various new factors at play hadn't been enough to convince him.

...But something else might. Something that comes from within, that has brought him so close to this group who were perfect strangers to him only a few weeks ago. For something that valuable, isn't it worth the risk?

It feels like a more dangerous gamble than he's ever made before...but he's nothing if not committed to his aesthetic. ]

Well, who can say what will happen when it's time to go home? If you all form a barrier around the door and I can't go through, then that will just be that, won't it? It'll be out of my hands.

[ Because...he doesn't need to do this all on his own anymore. ]

[irreversal]

[ She can't help but huff at that, amused, but also a little relieved that Aventurine - or whatever his real name was on his profile - relents at last. Shoko lifts her free hand to rub at her temples. Her stress levels.... ]

There's a bunch of you all that we need to form barriers for, I think.