WEEK 6

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Another week has come and gone, and three more people are dead. Nearly half of the guests are dead in a little over a month. The ghosts are still not reacting, and with Demyx's execution one has to wonder if the ghosts are even here anymore.

In the very least one more floor has been opened up: the trophy room, a shooting gallery, and a bathing room.

... Maybe keep Kiara out of the trophy room.

14 guests remain.]

[ SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ]

{OOC: Don't forget to fill out your Week 5 Activity Check!}

Comments

[toogoodforhim]

[He scratches at one of his sideburns sheepishly. Everyone keeps saying that. Ford said it, and Elsa, and Namine... Even Wander called him a hero. It's hard to forget the look the small... whatever Wander was had fixed on him that one time, hands folded on Lefou's knee and looking up at him like he was holding a key to creation.]

I'm... just trying to do my best, really. But thank you.

[defyingfrigidity]

[She knows how awkward it can be, having praise heaped on you like that after so many years of only feeling put down and stifled. So she doesn't try and correct him or question how fidgety he gets, she just... well. To say she smiles might be saying too much, but there's an upwards twitch of the corners of her mouth that's certainly a good sign.]

You've gone above and beyond your best. For me, and for all the others... you're one of the best of us, Didier.

[toogoodforhim]

[It's more of an encouraging sign than he's had in the last couple of weeks, anyway.]

It means a lot to hear you say that. I'm not really... smart, like Ford or Mike or Fiddleford. I'm- I'm just... here to try and make people smile.

[And that's been getting harder and harder to do.]

[defyingfrigidity]

I don't think many people are as smart as Ford or Fiddleford. I'm certainly not. I wouldn't say that's a bad thing at all.

[She doubt the rest of them put together are as smart as those two, geez...]

But... it takes a lot of thought into how to cheer people up and make them happy. I don't think you can just ignore that.

[toogoodforhim]

[He smiles, gratefully.]

Thank you. Really, I... Don't know what I would have done without everyone believing in me.

[But his expression clouds over when he remembers what he said at the trial.]

Uh, Elsa? I hope... I want you to know I wasn't... I mean, when I overreacted during the trial, that wasn't about y-

[Deep breath, start over.]

You're my friend. And I know that you care about everyone here. I just don't... want you to think that I was talking about you.

[defyingfrigidity]

[She just shakes her head. She hadn't taken any sort of offense to anything anyone has said to her or about her in their time in the mansion. Did she fret over what they thought about her sometimes? Sure, of course she did. But so much of the heated things the people trapped in this mansion have said were said in the heat of trials or investigations, where emotions were running high.]

It's okay. I... I know what it's like, to do things you don't really want to do because of fear or stress or too many things piling up at once. I would never judge you for that.

[toogoodforhim]

[He fidgets with the lace on his sleeves. It feels more like a year ago than a month when she froze over the floor in the ballroom and formed skates right on the bottom of his shoes. He wasn't scared of her or of her magic. She was human, she cared, she loved. She understood.]

I don't mind if you judge me, I just wanted to make sure you weren't...hurt. By what I said.

Back home, there is- well, there was- a woman named Agathe. Everyone in the village thought she was just... destitute. A beggar-woman. But she was really a, um. ...I don't know what exactly she was, but I don't think she was human. She put a curse on the prince to turn him into a- a beast, and all of his servants into... objects. She cursed the village to forget that the castle was ever even there - old Jean the potter forgot his wife and son for years, Clothilde the fishmonger forgot her husband... Just like that, like their loved ones never existed. If the curse hadn't been broken, they would have spent the rest of their lives completely oblivious.

But she did it because the prince was cruel and heartless, to teach him how to find love in his heart, as though that made it right. That-- that was what I was thinking of, when I said that magic doesn't care about people even when it says it's helping them. But you're... [Just as cursed as the prince was.] ...human. You're not Agathe. I wasn't talking about you at all.

[defyingfrigidity]

[It's not right to say that Elsa is scared of the things he talks about, no. Not exactly. But it clearly doesn't sit well with her, considering she can't look at him as he describes what had happened. All her life, she'd been afraid of what her magic could do to others, and this... this is like something out of her nightmares. Hurting people, hurting others close to them... she can't imagine ever doing it on purpose.]

I know, I absolutely know that you wouldn't say such a thing like that to me, but... that doesn't mean I don't understand. For me, for most of my life... I felt the same way about magic.

It was nothing but a curse, something that made my life difficult and kept me away from my sister, the person I love most in this world. Up until very recently... I haven't been able to do anything good with my magic. So I absolutely understood where your words were coming from.

[toogoodforhim]

[He did, at least, leave out the whole "oh and froze the castle in an eternal winter" part of the curse. When he looks up from his fidgeting to see the way she's avoiding his gaze, he immediately regrets saying anything at all. But the least that he can do now is listen, so he does. He can't even imagine what it would be like to bear that kind of curse.

He wants to hug her, in the moments when she seems so small and fragile like this, but not without asking.]

I'm glad. That you found a way to use your magic for good. To help people.

[He smiles and reaches out to her, to hug her or take her hands or whatever she wants to allow. To show her he trusts her, he cares about her.]

You're a good person, Elsa. I'm glad that I met you.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Thinking back on it... has anyone in this mansion hugged her since the last time she hugged her sister? There'd been people patting her back or shoulders when Anna's body had been found and she broke down, small brief things like that in the weeks following, but she can't remember the last time she'd been hugged...

She doesn't exactly melt into it, she's a little stiff an awkward, but she lets him hug her, won't try and push away at all, and that's really what counts now.]

I-I don't think I can agree with you. But.... it means a lot to hear you say that...

[toogoodforhim]

[She feels so small when he hugs her, and it stirs up something protective in him. If he'd been lucky enough to be a big brother, he would have hoped for a sister like Elsa. He wishes he'd gotten to know Anna better, while she was here.]

Let me believe it for you until you can, then.

[He gives her a tight squeeze and then pulls back, rubbing her shoulder with one hand.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[She doesn't deserve it. He shouldn't have to waste his time on a lost cause like this. There's no point and she should just tell him so. But Elsa has always believed she was a selfish person, and this feels nice, so for now, she doesn't try and push him away.]

... Thank you.

[Her voice is small, almost a whisper, but he would be able to hear it.]

[toogoodforhim]

Of course.

[If he sounds concerned, that's because he is.]

...Let's get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Yes good, topic change. You bet Elsa will latch onto that.]

You're not the only one.

[She understands hunting for necessity, for skins or meat to make clothes and food, but this is so... absolutely unnecessary. It seems like it's just someone trying to make a statement to them, and she doesn't like it.]

I can't really see many of the others spending much time in here. I wonder what the point of it is.

[toogoodforhim]

...It's a show of power. Someone, or something, that can collect all these trophies is showing us that we're nothing more than game to them.

[He said bitterly, with a bitter expression.

He has experience with this kind of asshole remember]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Her bitter expression absolutely mirrors his now.]

If this is the handiwork of the "employer" that the Host talked about so often, I doubt he needed to do all of this. That's become very clear over our time trapped in this mansion.

[toogoodforhim]

People like this rarely do things because they "need" to.

[He uses the hand still holding her arm to guide her toward the door.]