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]

[ Maybe not, and yet... when Nico's hand comes to rest on her arm, she can't help but lift her hand to rest over his, all the same. ]

...Yeah.

[ She doesn't regret what she did. They all knew it would be a possibility - it's why it was a contingency in the first place, and one that they thoroughly discussed. But she still thinks about Okkotsu on that day, asking them why they'd always pushed the responsibility of being a monster on Gojo and Gojo alone. Wonders why things had turned out the way they did, when...

She was there, too, wasn't she? ]

Nico-san. [ . . . ] Am I a monster, too?

[crimsin]

[ The question startles him, something surprisingly vulnerable coming from a woman who has always kept herself guarded, her hurts carefully sealed away where they can’t do any harm. ]

Doing something monstrous does not always make you a monster, mon ami.

[ He turns to face her, hand still resting on her arm, hers slotted over top. ]

But… in the end, we become what we must, so that no one else has to bear the burden.

[irreversal]

[ He startles, and for a moment Shoko thinks to take it back. He's right - that was much too vulnerable, much too much of a question coming from her. She has no right to ask it, after everything... ]

...

[ But they become what they must. Gojo and Okkotsu had understood that better than the rest of them had. Sorcery has made monsters of her dearest friends, and so it has of her, in its own way. But if it all means its future doesn't have to rest on any one person's shoulders, if that burden can be a little lighter... ]

Mmh.

[ She nods, a subdued little thing, as her hand finally falls away from Nico's, finding its way back into a pocket instead. ]

Maybe it was worth it, to get to see his dream carried on by his students. I don't regret having done it. But when I say this was why I was glad to see my friends as their younger friends...

[ It was because of this. Because when it came down to it, she bore Gojo's severed parts in her hands before she even had a chance to accept he was gone. She slotted the pieces of him back together, and cut his brain out, so that he could be used as a weapon in his death. ]

[crimsin]

I understand.

[ Sebastien died in his arms, bloodless and quivering and afraid. For so long, that was the last image in his mind of the man he had so loved. Seeing him full of such life again, even if it wasn't the real him, even if he wasn't really alive, healed something in his ancient heart he didn't know still needed healing.

He hopes that perhaps Shoko found a fraction of solace in it as well, seeing her friends as they once were, before the bloodshed and the tragedy and the burden of monsterhood claimed them all. ]

Please be kind to yourself, mon ami. You should not have to bear the burden of their fate alone, either.

[irreversal]

[ It's hard, sometimes, to hear people say they understand. But with Nico, she truly gets the sense that he does. He can't imagine someone like him, with his bleeding heart and all, living for as long as he has without understanding.

So... she smiles. A little rueful, but there's a sliver of... peace, there, too. This wasn't something she'd anticipated having to reckon with so squarely amongst the other contestants, but here they are.... And thanks to a certain Overseer, the burden even now feels a little lighter than it otherwise would have. ]

I'll try, Nico-san. I'm not alone, anyway. I wouldn't be any better than that idiot Gojo if I thought I was. The truth is, I have friends who are still alive, and the students...

I think... we can bear it together. I wasn't the only one they all left behind, after all.

[crimsin]

[ He spots it, the little bit of peace in her expression, and he smiles back. They have both had to say goodbye to so many, for so many reasons. He's glad, at least, that she found some healing while she was here. ]

You will be returning home, then?

[irreversal]

[ She nods. ]

Yeah. Home's kind of a mess right now in the aftermath of that fight, and I don't wanna leave it all up to old man Gakuganji and the kids to deal with.

[crimsin]

I hope you will continue to keep in touch. I will have my hands full for a time, but if there is ever anything you need, please do not hesitate to reach out.