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

[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.

[nrangel]

Oh! Then the frozen city you were telling me about...?

[ So Odile herself was in it. ]

[researcherstory]

Only somewhat connected to it. That timeloop is precisely what kept the country from being frozen over completely, though we hadn't known it at the time.

[ Hmmmm. Not much she can say on it exactly, but she weighs her words anyway. ]

... I was part of the hero's party to move the clock forward once more, but I theorize that it would have been a hopeless case without that unusual circumstance. We were barely ready. We didn't even know what caused any of it then. It was only due to that timeloop that anything at all was solved and saved, even if... there is much left to repair in the wake of it, at the same time. Let's keep it to that.

[nrangel]

Complicated and nuanced, huh? I can respect how that ends up happening regardless.

[researcherstory]

Indeed. I know it still amounts little to what others have been forced to reveal, but surely it's more interesting to have a private person show their hand at long last.

[ And with so much... that only a few people ever found out. It just didn't seem important when getting to know others and to be known, really, except as a point of relating similar experiences. ]

[nrangel]

[ A small laugh, even if it sounds a little strained. ]

You didn't have to do all of that for us, but it's nice of you to offer pretty much all of it up.

[researcherstory]

[ She did, though. Because they... ]

We won't be here much longer, that's all.

[nrangel]

Ruthlessly pragmatic. I respect it at least.

[researcherstory]

That's also why I see little worth in holding anything against anyone at this point. Once we part, it is our choice as to if we'd like to keep in touch or not.

[ A small shrug. ]

I realize it's a rather boring way of looking at things, however. "It hasn't mattered the past three weeks so none of that matters now, we're all friends anyway! Let's get our wishes!" isn't exactly my style.

[ She's not!!!!!!! A protag hero speecher. But she will have words to say tomorrow if there's still any lingering unease. ]

[ordimame]

[oh. . . Odile. . .]

[. . . a tiny little huff. his own neutral features crack, just a bit, for a smile]

I didn't know you can't see color. You conquered that jigsaw puzzle like a pro.

[researcherstory]

... I followed your lead. The painting class that Nicodème and I took helped tremendously in learning the various... correlations between the shades I see and the "colors" you do.

[ Something she won't ever truly get used to, really. Now that she knows... but that, too, may fade from time, like a skill rusts from disuse. ]

[ordimame]

[he does NOT know enough about art to know what word to use, but he still gets what she means! like. . . shades of grayscale?]

The painting class. . . ? But what about learning from colors back home?

[he doesn't know]

[researcherstory]

[ he about to ]

They don't exist. Or rather-- they exist only theoretically.

[ordimame]

[a beat]






Huh??

[DISTRACTED FROM BROODING BY. . . WORLD WITH NO COLOR??]

[researcherstory]

"The Theory of Color" has been a longstanding, if unproven, concept in my world. There are books which reference various words in correlation to natural phenomenon such as plants, the sky, etc, but they hold no real meaning to us and were swiftly forgotten save by those with an interest in archiving all known writings.

[ ... ]

For the record, I believe you would see the world as you do now were you to come to my own -- things that are "forgotten" still exist, even if we cannot see them ourselves.

[ It's a weird bit of work, which is why it's only theoreticals, but. Anyway. She has basis for this. ]

[ordimame]

Wait, wait. . . so if I went to your world, I'd see color? So it does exist, it's just. . . "forgotten."

[TRIES TO PROCESS THIS]

[FAILS]

-- yeah, okay! Sounds right to me.

[okay, Edamura. but hey! look at that. some of his usual pep is back!]

[researcherstory]

[ ... Good. She hoped it'd get his mind off things. ]

There are a few other things that have been too, but the mystery of why is unanswerable save by those who made us forget in the first place -- and such cases, they may not remember themselves.

[ Such is life. ]

... I hadn't realized you all could see something I didn't until then. The world must be beautiful in your eyes.

[poans]

[There's much and more that he would like to ask Odile, to engage her in deep discussions regarding the nature of time and the genres of books she's read, to hear what tales and thoughts she has to share about her life and various encounters. At this moment, understanding the weight of the gift she's given the group at large, he settles for something that might bridge the two of them.]

. . . Cannot see color, you say? I was in a similar situation once, though I suspect our circumstances to be a departure from one another.

[researcherstory]

Perhaps... but regardless, what did yours entail?

[ Because that's interesting, it's... comforting? maybe, that someone would know what she means when she describes the world differently, and

that it would come from Yi Sang hardly surprises her, though it does only make their lack of a match more aching. ]

[poans]

[Yi Sang's eyes are focused ahead. He sees a bridge he would like to cross and he makes for it, regardless of the previous week's events.]

T Corp., where I resided for a time, requires its occupants to yield color upon entry. When I was there, nearly all things were sepia-hued with the exceptions of those that were restored by ways of a lofty purchase.

[researcherstory]

"Yield color"..?

[ That's. A very intriguing way to put it. They had to give up their ability to see it in all but-- "sepia", she assumes, is alike to the varying levels of "brightness" she sees now. That people could "buy" it back was... despicable, but made it all the more desirable. ]

I'm sure even "white" seemed a novelty for you after that, nevermind all the shades-- the hues you've been able to see here. How "resplendent" your wings were in the mirror.

[ Is it any wonder he adored them? No, of course not, even if to her they had been a smattering of darks and lights. ]

... On my end, we aren't sure why colors no longer exist. [ A beat, then slower. ] Or rather, we hadn't an idea until recently, due to some... circumstances which illuminated the "how", even if the "why" would still be forever unknown. They are there, but I nor the others can see them -- alike to yours, it sounds, though less "voluntary".

[ loosest "voluntary" in the world, but. it is a choice people make. ]

We use "darkless", "bright", "dark", "lightless", to broadly describe things. You can guess what they may correlate to in your vocabulary.

[poans]

[He nods along. White was a novelty . . . for a time. Color is still color, however, and that was part of the joy in staying outside, even if he couldn't appreciate it in full during the earlier weeks. As ever, Odile grasps the heart of the matter quickly.]

On a spectrum of shades, darkless must refer to white and lightless, black.

[This is exciting. Much to talk about and discuss in order to know Odile and her world better.]

If I may, how did it happen?

[researcherstory]

[ lowkey crying at his slight smile icons rn

She nods at his assessment, that's right. Everything in between... is what it is. Greyscale. As ever, he understands the concepts she puts before him so long as it pertains to anything but himself. ]

... Someone wished them away.

[ It's the only thing that could have reasonably happened, that could have wiped it from everyone's memories -- the only Craft powerful enough to twist physics on its head in that way, though it's only a matter of "if you don't believe in something, it doesn't exist". ]

Or so I believe. It's partially why I don't want anything to do with wishes, much less believe they could do anything for me -- giving them out so freely feels... like a mistake. They don't know what these could be used for.

[ And it's only luck that anyone interested may be for better reasons. ]

[poans]

Then the state of your vision is as much a cautionary tale as it is simply the way of things . . .

[It's a wonder how someone could just wish away colors, but even he in his willful ignorance is aware of the many curiosities like this that populate the City.]

Upon our arrival, I myself harbored a number of reservations regarding the wishes. Putting the matter of those aside, do you suppose it will ever be possible to reverse the wish that has altered the look of your world so?

[researcherstory]

Perhaps. But it won't be for a long, long time, and I suspect it will take more than my knowing of them to do so.

[ Unless she wanted to try combating a wish with a wish, but-- well, there's no telling how that might turn out. ]

If nothing else, I suppose I'll keep it in my back pocket and consult with my companions on the matter. Should there be worth in trying... then I will give it my all to undo even a bit of it, so that it may become undone even faster.

[ Still

not within her lifetime, of course, but. Fruits for those that come after. ]