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]

[ She has only just stepped out to smoke— ]

...

What's gotten into you?

[ did she hear him go "ooh"?? ]

[poans]

Look, Miss Shoko. Courtesy of Miss Yingying, Wei Wuxian has brought with him quite the surprise.

[He gestures to the crate over which he's hunched. Please check it out.]

[irreversal]

[ She walks over, box of cigarettes and lighter held in one hand, and peer down at the crate's contents. Sure enough, those are fireworks. And sure enough, it's Yi Sang, of all people, encouraging her to partake. ]

Uh... yeah. Fireworks, huh...?

[ Her gaze flicks to his face - is it her, or does he look kind of desperate? - and then to the box in her hand, then at last to the fireworks.



She shoves the cigarettes back into her pocket. ]

...Alright. Count me in. It's been a while since I've done this.

[poans]

[He is desperate, but feels and looks more at ease now that Shoko is here.]

Which type appeals to you? There are fireworks that can be set upon the ground, or held as the one in our overseer's grasp . . .

[irreversal]

[ She holds her hand out, smiling softly. It's a bit tired, but it's warm. ]

Gimme one of the ones I can hold.~

[poans]

[Nodding, he fishes out two sparklers—one for Shoko, and one for himself.

Have at it. He's not very familiar with this type, so he'll follow her lead.]

[irreversal]

[ She'll grab one of the lighters from inside the crate, too. One of those multi-purpose ones with the long neck (for safety!), so that she can light the end of the sparkler while holding it out with her arm extended. ]

Hold yours out, too, Yi Sang.

[ So she can light his up, too! ]

Hm. Did you ever do something like this, before? This is really nostalgic for me.

[poans]

[As instructed, he holds the sparkler out, mimicking her.]

I am accustomed to the method wherein gunpowder is launched into the sky and blown up. A firework condensed to this size is therefore new to me.

[irreversal]

So, the bigger fireworks. Something like this is more for little gatherings with friends in the summertime. Kind of like this, I guess.

[ With both their sparklers lit, now, it's easy to silently appreciate how the light sparks and flares and showers down onto the ground. ]

It's pretty, right?

[poans]

[Keeping the sparkler at arm's length, he nevertheless leans in a little to marvel at the golden sparks that so resemble petals scattering in the wind. They bring to mind the yellow shrubs of his hometown, of a time when children raced across the meadow in a chorus of laughter. The sparks climb the stick as the latter burns, and his eyes travel to follow their trajectory, clear and bright against the dark backdrop of the night.]

. . . Beautiful.

[irreversal]

[ Shoko can't help but glance over at Yi Sang, finding herself smiling at the way the sparklers cast flickers of golden light over his eyes. Just a few weeks ago, his gaze always seemed so dark and empty, but now... ]

Heh. Right. What are you thinking about, Yi Sang?

[poans]

. . . A friend.

[He raises the sparkler, holding it up against the inky canvas of the night sky overhead.]

Dongbaek was fond of fireworks. She must have taken to the hobby, for she longed to view the stars form in the skies and fall to the land as buds. Those were the sights we oft enjoyed in our youth, ere we fled the district . . .

[irreversal]

[ Stars falling from the sky... like shooting stars, perhaps? He's being poetic... ]

So, a childhood friend of yours. You ran off somewhere with her?

[poans]

A meaningful living was not tenable in our hometown. Thus, myself and several compatriots took flight to another district, where we might build to our hearts' content.

[The sparkler continues to sputter, nearing the end of its transient life with every word that's uttered. His expression grows pensive.]

We were . . . merely children who loved technology.

[irreversal]

Hmm.

[ She watches as Yi Sang's expression changes, pieces slowly slotting into place in her mind. He and his friends ran off to be able to build... which ultimately led to him to being forced to work on inhumane tech. ]

You had your love for technology turned against you...

[ Unfortunately, it's a plight that doesn't feel too unfamiliar. Love really can be the strongest curse. ]

[poans]

We might have brought it upon ourselves. In our glibness, we believed a loophole would pardon us.

[He eyes the blooms sprouting from the sparkler. Unlike that day, the fiery flowers that dot his vision now are colorful. He brings a hand up under the sparkler, palm upturned as if to catch the sparks that peter out before they can reach him.]

The playthings we made to be tools for laughter . . . In order to prevent them from becoming aught else, Dongbaek immolated the League and herself with it.

[irreversal]

[ As a doctor, Shoko's impulse is to warn him against putting his hand under the sparkler like that, but... It's fine. It seems harmless for now, and there's more important things to talk about. ]

...Ah.

[ To lose a friend that way... Unfortunately, that kind of loss and pain is not unfamiliar to her. So Shoko rests her free hand on Yi Sang's shoulder and gives it a squeeze. ]

She wanted you to be free, then, didn't she?

[poans]

[The sparkler sputters until, at last, the final bloom fades before it can scorch his palm. Shoko's hand warms his shoulder where it rests.]

What Dongbaek wanted . . .

[Perhaps it was to go back to when times were simpler and images of their hometown, bright and vibrant. He remembers how she would tease him about missing rice, when it was her eyes that were ever turned toward the district of their birth. In the end, she buried the League and a part of herself in an imitation of the flowers she so adored.]

. . . I would like to inquire her about the answer, should she still live.