beachepisode | [ week two: mingle ]

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

♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Not a single soul, not even an insect? Huh? Talk about going from absolute zero to one hundred.]

But... don't you have an employer?

[Who lives at the house???]

Masters of the House come and go with time.

[ this is why her lower third is CURRENTLY UNEMPLOYED, clearly-- ]

I suppose you might think of it as the House being my employer... rather than any one Master. [ soft chuckle, ] Though I know how strange that must sound...

[The house itself as her employer? A house can't pay the bills, though. Is she stationed there until the real master shows up, someone who's always traveling? But, no, she pretty much said she has no one specific master at all.]

A little bit. I think it's because I don't really understand your circumstances. Who pays you? You can't just expect to do a job when no one's even around to appreciate it and not get compensated.

[ It isn't exactly a secret... though she has to consider how much or how little she should explain it. ]

I understand your curiosity about the arrangement. [ She smiles, then splays a hand towards him. Perhaps this might put things into perspective for him: ] Have you ever had a wish in your heart that you would do anything for, my dear?

[Arching a brow.]

Almost anything.

[He replies quickly, evenly. The "almost" is essential — perhaps he's been thinking about this a lot, lately.]

But sure, pretty close to it.

The house I serve is rumored to be haunted by a witch. It's said that it grants the desires of those who reside in it...

[ Or so the stories say. Her smile lessens, perhaps trying to communicate that she's being mostly serious, despite favoring spinning this tale in a cryptic and mysterious manner. ]

And so, in exchange for a wish, I became its loyal servant. That was the "payment," in a way... hehe.

[...Okay. This very much does not sound like a normal servant kind of job; we are officially in the realm of witches and wish-granting and magic(???), presumably. Leon looks at her as though he has to newly reassess his impression of her outright.]

For how long?

[Long enough to have multiple masters come and go?]

Unto eternity, my dear.

[ She smiles, placing a hand on her chest. ]

I could serve each one of you as Master, until you departed this world old and wrinkled... and still, I would be in service. It sounds preposterous, doesn't it?

[ She doesn't mind sharing it — perhaps doubly so because it seems to mean nothing here, all of them stripped bare of what made them supernatural. ]

[Preposterous? Maybe in literally any other set of circumstances where they hadn't already been stolen away for an interdimensional murder show. But that isn't the case, so preposterous is not the word that Leon's mind lands on.]

It sounds lonely.

[And we've come full circle. What makes her happy? Speaking to people.]

...Was it worth it? For this wish. [Because eternal servitude sounds more like a prison than anything else, but he cannot quite bring himself to say that straight to her face.]

[ She smiles stiffly, eyes creasing and crinkling. ]

I've begun to question that, myself...

[ Which is the polite, smiling, digestible way to put it. The only manner that's fit for conversation. But, yes, they have come to the root of her answer: talking to people is a simple pleasure she's not often afforded. Gently closing the door on any further inquiries, she moves on gracefully: ]

Now, I believe it would be your turn next, would it not?

[Polite and digestible, yes. But it more or less answers his question, and the opportunity to ask what that grand wish could possibly be is gently swept under the rug.

(Though something tells him she might not have answered if he asked, anyway. That smile of hers acts as a gentle bulwark, doesn't it?)]

...Yeah. Truth.

[ Without missing a beat: ]

What makes you happy...?

[Oh, that’s easy. He gives her the most goober reply without even missing a beat in turn.]

Helping people who need it.

Such as?

[ Little old ladies? Sick kids??? ]

[If he could help those, too, he would! She has hit upon his Core Character Trait, so to speak.]

Anyone who needs it, if I can. Usually, it's preventive — to stop diseases from spreading.

[an unorthodox way to describe his canon but it's true]

[ week two: mingle ]

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