week 0, friday

[vigilantics]

[ so, sometime after all of that mess occurred, steph will return to her room. when she sees hikage there, she pauses at the door a little awkwardly before going fully inside and closing the door behind her. ]

Hi. [ ... ] I'd ask how you're doing, but I think the answer is the same across the board.

Comments

[psychedelica]

[ He's spent most nights sitting in that chair, sometimes looking to talk, sometimes reading a book, sometimes simply brooding over something or other. Today's only different because the crease in his brow is a little deeper - and there's a tray on the side table next to him with a Japanese-style cast iron kettle sitting on it, along with matching cups. He's pouring green tea into one, but there's another sitting empty. Maybe he was waiting for her. ]

... For the time being, I'd just like to figure out who did it. [ a beat; his dark eyes flick up to her, then he starts filling the second teacup. ] What about you? You put in hard work today.

[vigilantics]

Not hard enough.

[ there's anger in her tone, although it's hard to pinpoint where it's directed to. herself, the killer, the tiger and dragon.

it takes a moment, but she manages a small smile. ]

Tea? [ casually avoids answering the question. ]

[psychedelica]

Yeah. I've got a lot of things to think about.

[ he finishes pouring, then holds the cup out to her without any comment, expression impassive. ]

And I'm guessing that you do, too.

[vigilantics]

[ she'll take the cup with a small nod of thanks. ]

... hm. There's a lot that doesn't make sense. Why were so many people outside of their rooms?

[ it's a little... suspicious. ]

[psychedelica]

Probably for whatever their Titles are, if I had to guess. One of them might even be one of the killers.

[ with that done, he picks up his own cup, leaning against the chair rather than taking a seat; he's got some nervous energy left over. There's a brief pause while he takes a sip of his tea. Then, quite seriously: ]

I'm Cinderella's Prince.

[vigilantics]

[ there's a pause, like she isn't quite sure that she heard him right. steph takes a sip of her own tea, mostly to hide the slight smile that formed.

she hasn't known hikage for long, but she does get that he's slow to trust. this made her stupidly happy. ]

Bear.

[psychedelica]

[ the title is so incongruous with her general appearance and attitude that he has to laugh - a short thing, but honestly amused. ]

Seriously? [ maybe these really are all random. ] I wonder if that means "Goldilocks" is targeting you.

[vigilantics]

Tough luck to them. There is only one person in this castle I'm going to share a bed with.

[ she can still make jokes. that's good, it makes her feel better. ]

Thanks.

[psychedelica]

[ congratulations on almost making him spittake that tea, Steph - instead, he just sort of halfway chokes, face reddening like a tomato as he coughs a few times. He's entirely unused to women being that forward, and even though he knows perfectly well it's just a joke, it's still embarrassing. ]

If you keep saying stuff like that to me, I'm gonna get the wrong idea, [ he mutters, staring pointedly down into his teacup. ] I was being serious.

[ but he also just doesn't know how to respond to that, so he goes into defensive mode, as usual... ]

[vigilantics]

[ that's better. sometimes, when things are horribly grim, you need to find a way to lighten the mood even a little. it's easy to drown in your thoughts otherwise. ]

I'm totally serious. [ she wasn't. ] But... I can check items. Like, see if they've been used or tampered with or whatever?

[psychedelica]

[ the blush on his cheeks isn't disappearing, joke or not. urgh... ]

Whatever... That actually sounds useful. [ he frowns. ] I'm supposed to be finding Cinderella. Honestly, I was hoping it would be you... That would have made my life easier.

[vigilantics]

How romantic.

[ that one was too easy to make. ]

I wonder what happens when you find 'em...

[psychedelica]

Do you want my attention that badly? [ said dryly. ] Anyway, it just says I'll "be rewarded" if I can identify her.

[vigilantics]

You make it too easy sometimes.

... huh. That's interesting though.

[psychedelica]

Tiger mentioned that they can grant our wishes. So I'm guessing it'll be something like that.

[vigilantics]

I wonder what exactly falls under their category of a wish then.

[psychedelica]

... In the other mansion, we were told we could have our wishes granted, too. It didn't matter what kind of wish it was. So we were going to wish to return to life.

[ it's an outrageous and impossible wish, but the thing they'd been searching for could grant it. ]

[vigilantics]

... so you think we could wish for something like that too?

[ it's odd, but she can't actually think of an immediate thing she would wish for that has nothing to do with this game.

well, there's one thing, but she ignores it. ]

[psychedelica]

Probably. Like I keep saying, this place doesn't follow the same rules the real world does. Those two are something more than mortal, too.

[vigilantics]

We should probably try to find out what the limits to this are.

[psychedelica]

I'm not sure how, other than asking.

[ and he doesn't trust either of them further than he can throw them, tbh ]

[vigilantics]

You might as well. Even if you don't get a real answer out of them, we should try to tackle things from every direction that we can. To be safe.