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

[poans]

[Now that the card is safely tucked away, he angles his head toward her at the call of his name.]

Miss Shoko.

[irreversal]

I won't ask you to speak on it any further than you're comfortable with.

[ She remembers him saying it was better left classified. She remembers that a disagreement led to his departure, so perhaps she can be forgiven for drawing some conclusions for herself in place of asking him more questions. ]

But at least let me say... that I'm glad you walked away from it.

[poans]

[He nods appreciatively. Shoko is among the few who knows, albeit vaguely, the circumstances from which he parted. The details of his departure aren't important, but one facet of the assignment might be dangerous to impart.]

Thank you.

[Sincerely, he relays his thanks.]

What of you? If there is aught on your mind, I would hear it.

[irreversal]

Something on my mind, huh...

[ Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out her card. It's been crumpled by now, but remains legible all the same, as it tells of someone suturing their friend's corpse, allowing a student to take it over. ]

I guess when it comes to questionable ethics in science, you're not alone.

[poans]

[He looks at the card, crumpled in a way that he imagines reflects a certain state of Shoko's heart.]

. . . For what reason did you do it?

[irreversal]

[ Crumpled by way of Edamura, too, and his response to reading Shoko's card, but perhaps it's not wrong to think of it as a reflection of her own mangled feelings, too.

Even though her answer comes almost hoarsely. Exhausted. As if this reminder has placed her squarely back into the stress of that moment. ]

We were fighting the King of Curses named Sukuna. So we needed our strongest sorcerer, only he'd died fighting Sukuna, too. It was our contingency. A monster to fight another monster.

[ A beat, before she adds: ]

He was the white-haired guy you saw, that one night.

[ Her classmate. Her friend. ]

[poans]

Mm . . .

[The pale-haired boy who'd lost as Shoko had in their earlier years. While the exact details of the story elude him, Yi Sang can ill bring himself to repeat her words and call the man's remains monstrous, regardless of the horrific things done to them.]

Then . . . he might have been prepared for such an outcome. Is that not so?

[irreversal]

[ She nods. ]

I don't think he thought he would lose, but... we were prepared for it. I also—

[ She takes her cigarette out from between her lips, sighing smoke up into the air. ]

I thought he would win. But there's no changing the outcome now. We all did what we had to.