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MINGLE | WEEK FOUR

MINGLE LOG | WEEK 4
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Another week gone, and with it, two of your number. Only eleven of you remain alive. And still, there is no escape. Or is there?

This week, something has changed. Something is different. Beginning Sunday, Pratibha is gone, and cannot be found or located at all. After Sunday's puzzle is solved, and the attic opened to you, you will see why. But what has happened? How has this happened? And why is the only other object there a strange mirror? Perhaps you should investigate.

On Monday morning, your motive quickly becomes apparent. Will you isolate yourself? Will you risk being around others? The choice, as ever, is yours.

On Tuesday, the week's second puzzle becomes available, and with its solving, the game room. If you wanted another way to unwind from all the stress, pressure, and uncertainty, at least there's this?

Come Wednesday, you may realize that at last you have full run of the house. Every room is available to you now. Nevertheless, you cannot run from the messages, which come thicker and faster than ever.

On Thursday, you may wish to visit the greenhouse. There is nothing there for you--including no mysterious messages, from the dead or otherwise. Should you wish for a reprieve, the greenhouse will grant it to you. That is, at least until curfew. Should you remain out of your room past that time, the messages will return, and they will be utterly inescapable no matter where you go--or if you are alone.

Friday is investigation time once again. The investigation post will go live at 3 PM EST, 5/30.

Saturday is the day of your fourth real ritual. The ritual post will go live at 12 PM EST, 6/1.

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

code bases by tricklet

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[ When Lortel dips into the kitchen for lunch, everything seems normal. She goes about making her food, none the wiser, until frantic knocks come from the walls as soon as you join her. It sounds like many different fists, banging on the old wood.

When she turns, she sees beautiful cursive script on the wall.

“You’re lying to everyone around you all the time with every single smile. Even your sympathy is fake.”

Lortel’s expression does something funny. It blanks out with surprise, then her eyes lid above a sliver of a smile.

She returns to making her lunch. She will not erase the message herself; she leaves it there, utterly ignoring it.

For you, she still smiles. ]

It’s going to be an interesting week, don’t you think?

More like an obnoxious one.

[Abandoning the tea kettle while the water's still heating anyway, Aqua opens the cabinet under the sink, finds a rag and some multi-purpose cleaner, and goes to spray it over the cursive. Bad wall. You get the spray bottle.]

It is a new play, though. Rather than interfere with our heads directly, this time, it's letting our imaginations do the work.

[ that sparks a humming laugh. she watches him go, cleaning it up without her asking, and wonders at the ache in her chest. so familiar yet so foreign. ]

It’s clever. [ said with a sliver of a smile. ] Making us wonder about each other, suspect if we’re even safe… this might be even better than the hallucinations at inspiring paranoia. No one wants to have their secrets exposed, after all.

[ … a sigh. Only for him will she admit: ]

Even I’m … starting to get tired.

Edited 2025-05-27 18:05 (UTC)

...Rest, then. I'll be the lookout for both of us.

[Leave the worrying and counterattacks to him. Lay down the shields of self-protection and let him carry those defenses for them both.

Lortel began this by literally letting him lean on her. He can do this much for her and more.]

[ slowly shakes her head ]

That’s not the kind of tired I mean. Besides, I’m sure if I went to rest I’d simply see more words scrawled on the ceiling.

… just stay with me. [ she turns a sweet smile on him, though he’ll know her well enough by now to see the strain. ] That’s all I need.

[She could rest literally, or she could rest from overseeing everything. Aqua chooses not to press, however. Instead, he just cradles her cheek in his hand.]

I will. You know I will.

[He has never asked for her sincerity. He's only asked her to survive.]

… tonight, could you …

[ she hesitates. It feels strange to ask. She knows he won’t reject her.

But even so, asking for help without being prepared to pay for it feels … almost wrong, somehow. ]

Of course.

[He told her, didn't he? She doesn't even need to ask.]

[ a startled, wet laugh ]

You don’t even know what I was going to ask for.

Does it matter? It's yours.

[He means it. Truly. These words are not a lie.]

You’re mine, [ she reminds him, besotted and glad. She takes a breath and pats her cheeks. Get it together, Lortel. ]

I’m being silly. I’m fine, really.

...If you weren't, that would be fine, too. You don't always have to be the one holding the show together.

[Why do the strongest girls he knows so often take everything upon themselves?]

I'm here. I can help.

[Please, let him help.]

[ she opens her mouth.

all at once she feels a sudden sense of vertigo, like she stands on a cliff’s edge with nothing to hold her back. nothing, except for—

him.

she feels, for a moment, inescapably alone. she smiles at him, a shivering little thing. ]

It’s habit.

[ she still doesn’t reach for him. as if she’s not allowed to. ]

[Then it falls to him to close that gap.

Aqua reaches out, with one hand and then the other, such that his thumbs graze the lines of her jaw and his fingers gently cup either side of her neck.

He doesn't tell her she's not alone. The answering doubt that would naturally stir up is too much for either of them to bear right now. Of course they're alone, they've always been alone. Instead, what he says is:]

I won't leave you.

[For once, if she lets him, he'll be the one to lean in and press his lips to hers.]

(no subject)

richesse - 2025-05-30 06:29 (UTC) - Expand

Is that true?

[ She hates it. She hates that the house is making her doubt Lortel's kindness. Lortel had called her a friend. That can't have been a lie...it just can't. ]

It was.

[ she admits this, straightforward and soft. ]

At first. I needed to survive, and I’ve always been willing to do anything it took.

[ glances at her; eases into a smile ]

Then I made my first ever friends.

...The house is the bigger liar.

[ Anemone believes her. She should have known the house would misrepresent how Lortel really felt. Before she can say anything else though, new words paint themselves underneath the others, interjecting. She's lying. She doesn't like you. At most, she pities you.

Anemone panics. She bangs on the wall, trying to cover up the script with her body. ]

No no no shut up!

[Anemone is too teeny-weeny to cover up all this writing, especially when the house apparently has more to say.]

'Don't fall for this freaky place's traps, keep pushing on and don't give up! Punch a wall if you have to!'

[...Oh. You know, that's not quite the same vibe, is it? It's familiar handwriting, too.]

Anemone. Anemone, wait, look.

[ she’s trying not to cry, all of a sudden. feels the sting in the back of her throat and swallows it.

she thinks she knows who that is. ]

[ Her eyes widen. That writing is unmistakeably....

Anemone bangs her fist against the wall again, her voice breaking. ]

I-I know that! You dummy, that's what I'm doing!

Yes, it is...

[He won't pretend not to have seen the message; that would just be silly. But he turns away after a moment. Behind him, a claw lifts to scratch at it. Not the first time he's done this today, judging by the state of the walls!]

Would've been a little more effective the first week. I'm not sure the house is entirely thinking things through. [it's a joke but like it's not]

[ … sips her tea. ]

You didn’t have to do that, [ she sighs, nevertheless smiling a little. Cheered, to be wordlessly supported. ]

We’ve had a little too much time to bond, hm? We trust each other now.

Mmm, well. Aqua did the same for me.

[Well, Otto did the actual vandalism, of course. But he wouldn't have if not for Aqua! As to the rest...he just smiles a little, ruefully. He can admit that it may not be the best idea, but of course she isn't wrong.]

For better or worse, I suppose.

Did he?

[ She smiles a little more sweetly down at her tea. ]

Hm, well. That sounds like him.

It does, doesn't it? He was absolutely unnecessarily nice about the whole thing.

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