[ week two: mingle ]

[murderhost]

MINGLE LOG

We're back, everybody! Fresh week, fresh house, fresh murder. It is indeed a fresh house as when people wake on Monday morning they'll see that — everything is fixed! The windows, the table, whatever property damage that was inflicted last week is all cleaned up and reset. There is no SOS on the roof anymore. None of that. Anyone who stayed up all night on Sunday will have seen the mannequins diligently cleaning and repairing the house during the course of the night, finished by dawn. Yay!

They've also opened a new room in the house. A cleaning room — there is a washing machine, dryer, and various cleaning supplies in the room. Mops and brooms and dustpans and swiffers and all sorts of things! There's even a basket for collecting dirty laundry too.

And then in the morning, they bring in a few things to note, dumping it all in the living room.

• A assortment of feminine clothing — dresses, skirts, blouses, etc
• Included in that pile of clothing are twenty-five sailor uniforms of various sizes
• Make up! Quite a bit — enough to last the rest of the time
• So many packs of underwear. You had underwear last week but like, this is better
• A tablet with Candy Crush and Infinity Nikki on it. There is nothing else accessible on it. There's a sticky note on the cover that says FOR ECHINACEA
• A gun with one bullet is on the coffee table
• A spear is laid across the coffee table as well

That said, it doesn't seem like the food restocked. Huh...

—

PROPERTY DAMAGE | PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS

♥

Comments

garden

[hyompora]

[Bad vibes this weekend. Weird vibes today with all the snatching and grabbing of amenities. Muelsyse vastly prefers the fresh air outside in normal times, and this morning it's feeling like an extra good idea.

Not that atmosphere out here is much better, with the garden slowly becoming a cemetery. She quietly joins More at his side, watching for a moment as he tends the flowers.]

You're taking good care of them.

[The flowers or the people? Both.]

[akademise]

[ More gives a little hum of acknowledgement, though something in the sway of pitch betrays that he is not convinced of the truth of that. ]

It was Patriarch's quick thinking that gave us the freedom to bury Tsukasa properly. I am just doing what I can to make sure the flowers take proper root in their new homes, yet... I am not a gardener and I do not have any access to magic here, so there is only so much I can do.

[ If these flowers wilt, he will maybe start screaming though. ]

[hyompora]

I don't think I've seen this variety of flower before.

[A practically unthinkable fact, so there's quiet curiosity in the way she says it. She pauses to crouch down to get a better look, gently brushing one of the petals with a finger.]

But I can tell they're happy.

[akademise]

[ Happy... More swallows, overcome with a wave of emotion that is difficult to place between joy, guilt and plain simple sadness. ]

They are from my home. I was quite surprised to find they would bloom here, as they are extinct in most of the kingdom. They're known as the Royal Flowers for the only grow within the confines of the palace anymore... or so it is believed.

There is a hidden village that has such an abundance of them, it would put the king's gardens to shame.

[hyompora]

[Such a rare treat... She shouldn't be surprised by anything that could happen in this place, but this is certainly an unexpected one.]

Sounds like we're super duper lucky to have them here with us. And to... watch over our friends.

[akademise]

Yes... They're used in mourning, in that village I mentioned. Before long, they have picked up that association for me as well, despite being a foreigner to their ways.

It felt only fitting to pay respects to our friends this way.

[ To remove the flowers from their royal associations and bring them back to belonging to all. Plus, from where More is standing, Yves and Tsukasa seem as Elda, so it's just extra fitting. ]

[hyompora]

A perfect fit.

[It's a small comfort, considering everything surrounding this. But at least it's something.]

...It's still hard to believe they're gone, just like that.

[akademise]

Life can be transient and fleeting. Yet, even as I have experienced many a loss in my lifetime, I find their disappearance from our midst to be especially jarring.

[ Every dead body in the streets of Grand Trad can be laid at the feet of the greater social system, of a known enemy. And all these deaths are predicated by hunger, illness, prolonged periods of suffering that herald the end... This, meanwhile, is cruel and quick and without easily identifiable meaning. It boggles the mind. ]

They were both so young...

[hyompora]

[The transience of life. Now there's a concept she's all too familiar with. When the world decides it cares little for fairness, you have to look out for yourself.

She pushes herself back up to her feet, regarding the pair of makeshift graves.]

For some people, life is just cruelly short. They deserved better, but there's not a lot we can do for them now. Aside from making sure they didn't die in vain.

[akademise]

[ That gets a nod of approval from More. ]

I concur. Though it vexes me that currently the only way I can conceive of to make sure of this is to play the game and win. I would much prefer to break its structure from the start, yet a plan eludes me...

[ Their collective powerlessness is just too frustrating. ]

[hyompora]

[Beyond frustrating, really. She crosses her arms, exhaling a light sigh.]

I keep hoping there's a teensy little rule to be bend that I might've overlooked or something... Just have to play to win until we can find it.