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thelockedplace2025-05-26 07:29 am
lockedmods) wrote in thelockedplace2025-05-26 07:29 am
Entry tags:
MINGLE | WEEK FOUR
MINGLE LOG | WEEK 4
Locations | Rooming | Full Nav
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.
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[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.
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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.
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[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.]
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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.
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I will. You know I will.
[He has never asked for her sincerity. He's only asked her to survive.]
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[ 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. ]
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[He told her, didn't he? She doesn't even need to ask.]
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You don’t even know what I was going to ask for.
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[He means it. Truly. These words are not a lie.]
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I’m being silly. I’m fine, really.
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[Why do the strongest girls he knows so often take everything upon themselves?]
I'm here. I can help.
[Please, let him help.]
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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. ]
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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.]
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Because it surprises her.
He surprises her.
All at once it crashes into her that she doesn’t want to let him go. At all. She wants to take him home. She couldn’t stand it if he went back into that dark, cold water. Alone. Without her. He’s so precious to her now.
Her heart is pounding. Her hands seek him and find his shirt, fingers curling into soft fabric.
She’s in love with him. Even she couldn’t misunderstand this feeling. But what does that mean? What does she love? The lie he tells her? The boy in front of her? Who is Aqua Hoshino?
She finds she wants to know. That she might just be willing to do anything to find out.
With sudden resolve she leans forward, kissing him back. She breaks off, breathes, kisses him again; then rests, forehead pressed to his, blinking at him myopically before shutting her eyes. ]
I know, [ she says, soft and simple and true. ] Aqua. [ Lifts one hand to brush fingers over his cheek. ] … mm. I know.