the truth is, everyone wishes to be saved.

[finalring]

The execution has come and passed with the death of two more Agents. However time moves on without cease and so must the living. There are no celebrations, only the silence that grows heavier and heavier with every day and the feeling that something is pleased with what it has done.

There are two more days before the new week arrives: what will you do?

Comments

[noneforall]

I. Fighting Ice Magic with Ice Magic (???) (Library/Kitchen)

[Saturday evening finds Subete scavenging the remains of the library, patiently and studiously ignoring the wreckage around him -- he's already picked and chosen anything really important or interesting earlier in the week, because trapped as it is (or was) the library is still an important resource.

He's got some unscathed books with him, most of them look like novels -- one or two might be nonfiction or books on philosophy, though all of them look unnecessarily heavy or difficult, is he showing off or something!! -- but he does gingerly pick up the ones that might have magic damage or just plain water damage. Damn it, Haku, have your fight to the death in a more convenient location next time.]

... It seems a pity to leave any of them here, but filling the rest of the house with books -- you never know when there might be an even more interesting library somewhere in the recesses of this place. We've seen a few extra rooms now, haven't we?

[Is that really the priority here???

Even later, he can be found in the kitchen... inserting some of the water-damaged books into the literal freezer section of the refrigerator?? They're sitting next to the soup and whatever else people have shoved in there by now. Please tell me no one's keeping spare body parts in there.]

II. Devotions for the Dearly Departed (Room 1)

[Those who reside in Room 1 have been privy to several things over the weeks, and especially this week: firstly, that this particular roommate takes his time to clear the room of miasma most days in the morning, though it seems to be taking less and less later in the day. How inconvenient. He hasn't bothered to renew the spell when it fades, because who has the time for that. Secondly, there's just been, uh, a steadily building pile of books in his corner of the room.

It started with one or two left scattered on his bunk, then piled next to it, then under it, then they started migrating to the table or going around the perimeter, and by the time post-trial rolls around it's literally just. His bunk is now a library. At least his is a bottom bunk, so a certain unfortunate doctor doesn't have books falling on his head......]

Mind your step. I'll put those away in a little while.

[Yeah, sorry, now there's literally just books sitting by the door, apparently in waiting to be sorted. Someone please stop him. Or I guess the room change will stop him. Subete himself is reclining on his bed and paging through a small volume that he's been seen reading now and again in previous weeks. Is now really the time, though...........]

III. Wildcard (Hallways, etc.)

[On Sunday, he's just generally around, though it's fairly early in the morning -- a little past his normal ass o'clock wake up time, but a little closer to sane people waking hours. This is the time of day when he goes for a quick jog around the halls, and maybe it's just the light of the mansion, or the absolute lack of sunlight, or the effects of miasma-light, but he is somewhat noticeably paler than in earlier weeks.

This is what happens when you eat MREs all day long, huh.

So he's pretty much anywhere around the mansion, or you can throw whatever at me, it's fine!! This is the wildcard option, mostly!!]

sunday

[kaliedoscopes]

[ Psh, sane waking hours. Hikage is up because as established he too is an early bird, and one without a certain person to wake up every day from now on. If it's bothering him it doesn't show on his face, having been engrossed in a book he "borrowed" from the library, seated on a random ledge in the hallway because the architecture here makes no sense and the rules don't matter. ]

Don't forget the lack of sun. [ Like last Sunday he's dressed in his Foundation uniform. ]

[noneforall]

[Maybe this is payback for keeping him up late Tues-Wednesday?? Somehow. In reverse. And by bringing the library to him at this point, apparently -- Subete blinks once, twice when he spots Hikage popping up in the middle of the damn hallway like some kind of cuckoo clock accessory with twice the fancy carvings and half the noise.

In fact, he might have given a cuckoo clock a more perfunctory glance. After a moment, though, there's just a scoff as he slows and then drops down in the middle of the hallway to do some light pushups for a bit. Yeah, he's one of those exercise junkies, apparently; just a bit more lowkey about it the rest of the time.

Sometimes. It's not too usual for him to run into a lot of people.]

Despite -- what last week might suggest -- I'm not actually -- a plant in the greenhouse. You know.

[Foundation uniform life. Considering that's just what he wears as a throwaway. It is now also exercise garb.]

[kaliedoscopes]

[ The exercise display earns Subete a full glance, the pushups apparently more enthralling than Memory by H.P. Lovecraft, but judging by the scant size of the text this is likely a reread. Novel interactions tend to be more interesting than repeated ones, but Hikage won't be joining in the calisthenics anytime soon; he's not one for exercise judging by his daily routine, but he's somehow blessed with not being a noodle like a certain other purple haired individual in the future. Maybe he just has good genes.

Either way he shakes his head and earmarks the book, but doesn't close it just yet. ]

Thanks for the clarification, I might have mistaken you for one otherwise given that verdant hue you're so fond of. [ What with everything this experience has been so far, seeing Subete in his shield seems more typical than without, even if Hikage can only look from the outside now. ]

But without sunlight, both plants and people tend to turn rather sallow all the same. Most plants and people, anyway. [ Cause now that he's taken the chance to actually look he's noticed the paleness, something which he doesn't seem to be similarly afflicted by. ]

[noneforall]

[Frankly, if he could read and exercise at the same time that would probably be a thing -- but alas, Subete didn't come prepared with audiobooks or earphones in this day and age, who'da thunk. That's his absolute oversight as a millennial and he'll probably regret that for the rest of his days. For now, though, he huffs a little and then switches to sit ups; not many sets, he seems to mostly be cooling down.

Or maybe he's just stopping by on his way elsewhere, jogging-wise. There aren't a whole lot of other places to go, though, so that might not be the correct interpretation of his movements -- deliberate and measured and focused and what is probably the right amount of tension.]

Haha. I can't entirely -- help what color my powers give off. I'm pretty -- sure -- that's just one of those things you're born with.

[A deliberate tilt of his face to catch Hikage's eye, angled deliberately to the right, then a shrug and back to the grind. His pace is minutely slower before starting up again.]

People less than plants. But -- we're missing considerably more than sunlight.

[kaliedoscopes]

Like a beauty mark, huh? Cute. [ Yes he said that with both a straight face and an errant brush of a finger across the two birthmarks below his left eye. Who or what is he really calling cute here, who knows. But he easily meets Subete's gaze nonetheless, the small smile on his lips very much reaching his eyes. ]

Don't tell me I should make a list for that too? It would be a pretty long one.

library

[accrowed]

[ He's around the corner from Subete but the sudden question grabs his attention. Honestly, it's easy to think Subete's not talking to him but, what the hey.

When he doesn't hear anyone else respond, he decides to toss in his own answer. ]

Sure, that's one way of putting it. But, do you really wanna hold back because of something that you might find that could be better? Once this place is gone, we don't know when or if it'll come back.

So grab what you can, while you can. That way, you won't find yourself regretting not taking the chance later. [ Also, you can always dump the books in the new library after grabbing the new ones? ]

[noneforall]

[A library is a quiet, quiet place.

It's pretty hard to sneak around a library!! Especially one this large and old and full of echoey old alcoves, crawl spaces, trap basements, and honestly who knows what else there is. There are probably spider castles or something hidden somewhere in the stacks. Be that as it may, it's hard to hide a whole Crow when he's within sneezing distance.]

Hmm. My roommates might complain. I've already -- I think it was half of a bookshelf? A few bookshelves? I could probably build a bunk at this point.

[He does not sound particularly concerned, so this might just be him making small talk instead of actually caring what his roommates think.]

But it is indeed important to live a life without regrets.

[Philosophy In The Library After Murder Trial: A Primer.]

kitchen

[ghostricked]

[He came in here while patrolling between bouts in the Guestroom but...]

...huh.

[noneforall]

Hmm?

[For his part, Subete is busily spreading out the wetter books on the freezer shelves and takes a moment to glance back....... and I mean, he sees fucking nothing because Sissel isn't at eye-level. There's an amused blink before he looks down and the corner of his mouth hitches up. He closes the freezer real quick, even though there's still like. A few books sitting out.

They've already been in the library marinating, they can live in squalor for a bit longer, much as it pains him or something.]

If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was talking to one of the ghosts. Startling, but not surprising. [why is he this way] Are you looking for someone with thumbs?

[Look, it's not unprecedented.]

[ghostricked]

Well, I mean you're not exactly wrong. But, no... I don't think I have much of an appetite.

[Even an animal can lose the will to eat if sad enough]

I was curious why you were storing books in there.

[noneforall]

Hmm. Got tired of the rations already? Maybe we should have saved that raccoon the other day.

[Not that he would ever dream of eating a wild animal that turned up in a room full of dead animals in a musty-ass haunted house full of creepy vengeful dead people (the wild animal part is possibly more important than most of the other things??), but Sissel's a cat. He can deal.

Or maybe it's the sad thing. Technically, it's hard to tell on a cat, but Subete has his ways of interpreting. He just might not. Use them as much as he should.

There's a brief laugh where he cracks the freezer open a bit again to check that nothing's unbalanced or just as emphasis.]

Oh, right. This? I read it somewhere on the Net. If you put water-damaged books in the freezer and then thaw them in the right way, they're good as new.

[ghostricked]

[He turns up his nose at the idea of eating raccoon- he WOULD if he had to, but eating other predators and scavengers were always less appetizing. He's much more interested in the books]

Is that so... I wonder why. It's still full of water either way, right? That IS how ice works, yeah?

sunday

[reanimania]

[ You know what, they're both out in the halls that day, so they might as well run into each other.

SO, here's Saphir with his notebook, with a half-drawn but noticeably more accurate map of the hallways on the current page, and a crappy dinosaur drawing slightly visible on the opposite side of the page before it.

He's kneeling down in the hallway between the pantry and the library and looking at the walls for anything that might stand out as unusual. Please don't trip over him while you're jogging. ]

[noneforall]

[It's never a bad time to dig into the house's damnable secrets (safely!).

Particularly at this time -- in the wake of yesterday, and after the week has ensured that a grand majority of the rooms have been swept for traps and obvious information -- it's not such a bad idea, and those who haven't been knocked down by yesterday's disaster of a trial are picking themselves back up. And how many of them are itching for action? Well...

It's debatable whether Subete was even moved two inches to the left by that outcome, but all the same: the fact that he's out here early enough is probably proof that he's ready to get moving even if there's little enough places to move to.]

Looking for secret passageways? You might be a little late for it. [said lightly, spoken up over Saphir's shoulder where he's totally peeking at the map and doodles in an amused manner, jogging in place but at least nobody's getting stepped on] Or did new leads conveniently turn up?

[reanimania]

[ Ugh. Honestly, any non-shield interactions with Subete always tend to make Saphir bristle, and this is no exception. Those shitty smirks at the worst times are completely off-putting!! (IT'S A GOOD THING JADE DOESN'T ACT LIKE THAT!!) ]

Nothing new, no. I just wanted to document this week's rooms a little more clearly, for future reference, and check for any potentially useful details we may have missed.

[ He's not going to be specific about why he's looking at these particular walls right here because asshole ghosts are probably listening, but you know why!!! ]

Ideally, it would have been done before most of these places were torn apart, but. [ sigh! ] Lesson learned for next week, I suppose. Make these rounds after most of the traps are out of the picture and before Lore-- Friday.

[noneforall]

[Hmm. He's actually going to stop jogging and start stretching now, because while this is probably just Saphir turning in circles on the ground (kind of hilarious) -- it's also not a bad follow-up considering the somewhat ridiculous, maybe valid, maybe bullshit things that their own personal terrible secret agent has wrought this week.

Also wow, isn't it a really good thing he's not Jade. He just snorts and taps semi-mockingly on the wall, it's probably complete nonsense (Or: .- / -... .. --. / -... . .- .-. / .... ..- --. --. . -.. / --- -. . / .- -. -.. / - .... . -. / - .... . .-. . / .-- . .-. . / - .-- --- .-.-.-).]

It's a good thing we've been mapping the house up to this point. You never know when one of the wrecked rooms will come back to haunt us -- they're a little harder to see coming than our dear Vessels.

[They're really not dear in any sense of the word except possibly cost, but eh.]

Haha, it's smart to let the combatants take the traps. I'm sure we won't run out. [wow] And what's Lore Friday?

I. booking the freezer space

[eyeforai]

[Okay, let's just say this is a little after Subete fridged those poor books. Here's our scenario: one teenager, who tried to gallantly save those sad, damaged books and then one tired policeman who decides to peek inside to check out how much space they have in there. So this is what happens.]

...What the hell are these doing here?

[Yeah, he's just going to take those books out and leave them on the counter.]

do you realize what you've signed up for fishy!!!

[noneforall]

[The books were already fridged, in this scenario he's like, double-fridging them to cancel it out and really -- they already fought fire with fire last week so why can't you understand fighting ice with ice!!! Subete has moseyed off to get a few more stragglers, or a snack or a can from the pantry to scare his roommates off with or something.

But at length he comes back after Date has sufficiently policed the fridge, blinks at the books out on the counter and shakes his head to himself.]

Well, that definitely wasn't the cat. Hmm...

[Back into the freezer the books go, and this time with a note and a few cans of soup on top. The note says: FREEZING IS GOOD FOR BOOKS, are we being a little petty here, maybe. This is dumb.

Then he sashays off again.]

note at all

[eyeforai]

[Look he's not a scientist, how is he supposed to know that freezing wet books helps them?? Either way, he wanders off after doing that good(?) deed for the day because there are cans to collect and other necessities to swipe.

Some period of time passes, and Date is back to drop off a couple of cans from the pantry. Of course, it's no skin off his back if the books just went missing, but his detective's intuition tells him to check the fridge, and so he does.]

...

[Yeah, those are the same books, alright. With a huff, Date removes the offending objects once again to leave them on the counter closer to the sink, adding STOP TAKING UP FREEZER SPACE WITH BOOKS as an addendum to the existing note.

With that done, it's time to do more looting.]

wow don't write it off like that

[noneforall]

[Date this was literally on Twitter, this shit is pop culture!! Get with the 21st century program!! I can't believe his detective's intuition is more accurate about fridges, this is clear discrimination against bibliophiles. Speaking of which, Subete is back yet again!! With more books!!!!

Returning books to the freezer and adding even more books will continue until book and police(??) morale improves. Wow. He's not crowding the food out of the freezer yet, but it is getting a bit tight in there... Or maybe he's just wedging things in a bit extra tight to account for kitchen bandits.

This time the note says BOOKS ARE FOOD FOR THE SOUL because I don't know what the fuck is happening anymore. Also he probably cheated a bit with ice magic to freeze the books and note to the shelf a little.]

[onemolife]

[ What if his dear friend is in the freezer ]

[noneforall]

[THERE IS ALSO FOOD IN HERE, DUDE.]

[onemolife]

[ He's arming the food ]

[noneforall]

[Don't arm the food?? There's enough shit in this house that wants to consume us already???]