perfectmatch | week four

Entry tags:

week four | mingle

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

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[ That evening, Wei Wuxian will show up at the estate. He's carrying a large crate of... something in his hands and a few production assistants are carrying similar crates. He will carry them through the estate, whistling as he goes to signal that he's here and the contestants will be encouraged to follow him out to the back courtyard.

When he gets there, he sets down the crate and beams at everyone. ]

Hello! Now, we have so little time left with each other so I hope you won't mind but Yingying asked for something to close out our time together with.

[ And now, he'll pop open the lid of the crate to reveal fireworks. The production assistants set down their crates as well, showing the same. Wei Wuxian picks up a little sparkler and lights it up with fire from his fingertips. It begins to sparkle and he looks delighted as it cracks and sparkles in the nighttime. ]

Fireworks, my friends! A simple treat to enjoy one of our last evenings together. Tomorrow, after all, is the Truth Booth. Then Saturday is the Match Ceremony and Sunday, everyone goes home!

So... yeah! I know things are a little awkward considering yesterday's, ah, event, but won't you indulge me a little?

[ And so, everyone is given fireworks to play with and set off! Wei Wuxian will stick around if anyone wants to hassle him, playing with a little sparkler in the corner with amusement. It really is a little idyllic, despite the atmosphere. ]

[Yi Sang does not hesitate to approach a crate and eye the goods inside. Everyone is in dire need of a pick-me-up, so he is desperate.]

Ooh, all these fireworks are sure to be a sight to behold once lit. Who would like to light one with me?

[He glances around at anyone who might make eye contact with him. Please. Please, humor him and have fun.]

[ She has only just stepped out to smoke— ]

...

What's gotten into you?

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

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.]

[ 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.

[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 . . .

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

Gimme one of the ones I can hold.~

[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.]

[ 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.

[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.

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?

[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.

[ ..........................................................

He's so cute. ]

You'll have to tell me what color it is in a way I can understand it, but hand one over, Yi Sang. It's been far too long since I lit one myself.

[ Festivals are always the same... ]

[Yi Sang is more than happy to oblige as he offers Odile a ground firework with both hands.]

See here. This bright shade and the darker lines imprinted on its surface are light and dark blues, which are reminiscent of the colors in the sky during the day. [He gestures accordingly at the cover.] As you may already know, the darkless text here is as white as the clouds overhead. Now, if you would imagine the sun as it sets beyond the horizon, the slightly darker shade in this section is a warm color much like the sky around it.

[ It really is so useful, so nice, to have someone that understands -- Nicodème had done well to connect it the same way, using the natural world around them, and Odile feels no small affection for Yi Sang's plentiful, poetic words. ]

Some may consider it silly or odd to ask that you explain them so, given I cannot see the colors of those, but... it does help, I think, to learn the words of a song before you're able to give it form. Speaking them in rhythm until they no longer trip across your tongue and you can give them better voice.

[ No, she does not know what the trees or flowers look like with their colors. But she knows they are made up of those colors, just as she knows the sky can share them with the firework she has in hand too.

Regardless of all that, though... when Odile sees fireworks next, she will think of him and this moment, and that does warm her heart. She'll kneel to set it up once away from the rest of the fireworks, continuing. ]

I owe you and Nicodème much in that way.

[She may not be able to see colors, but she can understand that they're found all around them. Bridging those things brings the value of sentimentality, and it heartens him that she sees the significance of said connection. It's encouraging, too, to hear that Nico is of a similar mind.

Yi Sang watches her for a moment, then turns around to retrieve another ground firework, this one brighter overall in design, from the crate before joining her side.]

Ah, Miss Odile. It appears that I have yet to show you the firework I have chosen for myself.

[Perhaps she'll recognize the shade, which is similar to that of "new buds in spring."]

[fireworks are all cute and dandy until someone blows off a hand--]

[NO I'M KIDDING THAT IS NOT HAPPENING IN THIS THREAD. but he does light an itty bitty firecracker, underestimating the length of the wick as it sparks. . . which means it is exploding in his face]

[it's such a tiny li'l firecracker that it does zero damage beyond stinging his face a little. . . and his pride]

-- whoa, what the hell!? Ow!!

[ Oh, Edamura... so cute. ]

Careful — wouldn't want you to get burned.

[ She uses her silk fan to fan away some of the lingering smoke, more amused than genuinely worried. ]

Have you set them off before?

[he's a fool. . . and he is genuinely not hurt, just a little put out. no need to worry!!]

I have, but it's been a while. Were the wicks always this short. . .?

Maybe they're different from the ones you're used to. I wanted ones similar to my homeland...

[ She has no way of knowing how such a tradition might have changed in Edamura's time. Maybe the wicks really are longer in that era! She strikes a match to light one of the sparklers instead, holding it daintily like a wand. ]

It's the sort of things kids play with. Hehe.

[uwah. . . he takes a moment to admire the bright array of colors that burst to life at the end of her sparkler, before he picks up one of his own. these won't explode on him!!]

Yeah. It is.

But as adults, it makes you feel kind of nostalgic, right?

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week four | mingle

A PRESENT

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