subdivided | week four: mingle

week four: mingle

Week Four
22 in Competition

As the sun rises on Monday morning, all participants will find themselves awakening with a sense of purpose. Regardless of where they slept the night before, they’ll find themselves compelled to return to the main meeting hall first thing in the morning.

Approaching the hall, however, they will find a large, swirling mass grey in color looming near the sakura tree. This swirl cannot be approached just yet, but seems to be locked and waiting for something more.

As the last member of the village enters the hall, they will find Lune and Sol at the head of the room. Though they’re together, it’s Sol who speaks up first this time.

"We've been asked to open another gateway for you guys, but...it's funny. It sort of feels like things have calmed down. The corruption's temporarily evened out and the universe is stabilized for now, but that doesn't mean we should stop looking. Take a look and see what you can find on the other side. You might even get to learn something new."

When Sol finishes, they turn to face Lune, allowing for the other to speak for themselves.

"A bit of reprieve of welcome, isn't it? Please take this time to recover, even as you make steps forward to continue your good work. Thank you, thank you."

The moment participants leave the hall, they will find that the gateway has changed from grey to white, the opening widening enough for multiple people to step through. The Signs will soon take their leave, and all will remain peaceful once more.

In addition, as the week goes on, partners will be able to hear each other's thoughts whenever they look at one another! They may not hear every single thought that occurs, but the link will partners to hear thoughts as though their partner is speaking out loud. The more private the thought, the more likely the partner will pick up on it.

Welcome to your week three mingle! As a reminder, this is break week! This means no murders and no trial! Your normal schedule will resume next week. We will still be hosting a laid-back mini-event on Tuesday, however.

In addition, ensure that all of your week three private conversations were reported on the page, and your week four private conversations are reported on that page. If you'll be taking anything from locations, please report that as well.

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Please do not jump before it connects.

[ She may not understand him when he tries to communicate, but she sure can understand when his lack of self-preservation rears its head. ]

Are you saying you want to die with me watching?

[ Four gets him? Imagine if they were partners and were mind linked and Four had to kill Minato for thinking fuck at her.

Instead of, like, killing him for one of the multitude of other reasons he gives her, like looking away instead of making eye contact and nodding his agreement to not jump before it connects. ]

[ if they were partners, i'd lose my mind. it's better that he and xion are sad and confused and cute together (minus the fucks in his thoughts)

The staircase finally connects, and Four waits for Minato to get off safely before she does. ]

... If I leave you, will you fall asleep where you stand?

[ He shakes his head but also points further down the hall, because he would at least lie down somewhere where he wouldn't immediately get stepped on by whoever comes down the stairs.

But he also points at Four, and then up the stairs, by which he means "Were you going upstairs?" and is not to be misinterpreted as "You. Go away." ]

[ Should every thread between these two this week just be Four getting angry at Minato?

No, I'll be nice here. She looks from his finger to the stairs. ]

Do you need me to get something from up there...?

[ Is that what he's asking? ]

[ Yes, because Minato is so sooo tempted to nod and send Four on a wild goose chase while he takes the opportunity to escape, but if he does that, he's going to be the next person to be fed to the sharks.

So he spares Four/Ara/me the charades and pulls out his notebook like he should've done from the very start, and writes down:

"You were going upstairs, so I won't keep you. I'll find a classroom to sleep in." ]

[ Stop trying to make Four's blood pressure rise. She just came off a weekend of being afraid by proxy!! ]

... Why didn't you do this in the first place?

[ Her voice is strained. ]

I can't in good conscience leave you in a classroom. There are multiple beds in this gateway.

[ Take that up with her partner??

"Desks are more comfortable." is the reason Minato writes down, leaving out the fact that the classrooms are right there, so close, almost within reach, and he doesn't want to walk any stairs to find beds. He did his time in Tartarus. No more stairs. ]

[ shirasu didn't curse himself with fear???

She frowns at him. She doesn't know his Dark Hour Tartarus past, so she just thinks he's being lazy. ]

I am not enabling your bad habits.

[ Somebody thought he deserved it???

"It's not a bad habit." ]

[ He did deserve it. ]

It is. Sleeping wherever and whenever isn't good for you.

[ "Y?"

...it's not even the full word, just the letter. ]

Y...? Why?

[ It's just two letters more? This just cinches it. ]

Because it's encouraging you to give up. You can't sleep away all your problems, Minato. [ ... ] You shouldn't.

[ Yeah, if Four hadn't made the addendum, Minato would have taken her up on the challenge and say that he can absolutely sleep all his problems away.

But shouldn't he? Probably not. But he gets his notebook out againt to write.

"I'm taking care of myself. Like everybody wanted."

By... resting. He's resting. He's just not resting in a bed, because even when he's trying not to be as concerning, he can only ever manage it halfway. ]

[ She sighs and holds out a hand to him before she realizes what she's doing and drops it back to her side. ]

Come on, let's go to a classroom like you wanted.

[ Not to rest but to talk. He may not like it or enjoy it, but she.... can't not try to correct him. At least a little. ]

[ Minato's gaze trails from her hand up to her face, but he doesn't say anything about it— not because he doesn't want to bring it up, but because his throat hurts, so he doesn't feel like it. Again, it's easier to comply and do what somebody wants than to argue, knowing he can't hold his side of the argument, so he just shrugs and nods at the same time— a "sure, whatever" rolled up into one motion- and steps off towards the classroom first. ]

[ If it's not worth irritating than his sore throat, Four sure isn't going to explain what happened of her own volition.

When they reach the classroom, she takes a seat and gestures at Minato to take the one next to her. ]

What do you thinking taking care of yourself is?

[ He pauses for a moment, and then takes the seat in front of her instead of beside— but it's so he can sit backwards on the seat and face her, notebook out flat on the table where both of them can see it, while still able to fold one arm to rest his head on as he writes.

"Not dying."

It's basically the extent of it. He only exists in two states: dead and not dead. If he's not dead, then he's fine. ]

[ If he looks like he's falling asleep, she's kicking him awake. This isn't an awkward but cute date with Xion. This is a serious conversation about his ability to live. ]

It's more than that. It's... behaving in a way that's best for you. Sleeping all the time isn't that. Getting hurt because you don't care about yourself isn't that either.

... You have to think of yourself more. You have to want to improve yourself.

[ He looks like he's half asleep all the time, and it gets harder to tell when he's staring down at the desk instead of up at Four.

Thinking of himself sort of goes in hand with disregarding others, but it's such a passive way that he does that- careless and thoughtless decisions made on the fly because he can't bother with foresight. But improving himself— he's tried that, he's tried really hard and spent so much time and energy trying to be more than he is, trying to be somebody people would like more and want to keep around- somebody kind and good and honest.

And for what?

He lets go of his pen, and folds his arm under the other, and buries his face in his arms. ]

Why?

[ If she knew what he was thinking, she would have a different response than what she gives him now.

Wanting to be liked more, wanting to be someone people keep around— that resonates with her. She doesn't know that about him because all she knows is what she's seen. ]

It would make the world and people less scary.

[ Or at least, it's supposed to. ]

[ They're things he doesn't need people to see, or to know. Nothing about fear, nothing about loneliness, nothing that gives them a reason to empathize- that's not what he wants. He's not scared of anything. He's scared of everything. Somehow, the two can exist and it's here right now, when all he can see is darkness, all he can hear is Four's voice.

If he just focuses on Four, the rest of the world doesn't matter. It was something like that. ]

How?

[ When he'd tried back then, when he'd surrounded himself with "friends" and "teammates" and "lovers," the world and its people weren't any less scary. They were more so. And they were scarier because he cared. ]

How?

[ Four didn't think she'd have to explain that. She's silent for a moment, as she tries to figure out the best words for this.

She thinks about some of their past conversations. ]

You said you're happy when you're with people, but you have to want to live with them, too. You have to want to live for them.

[ Her voice is soft when she asks her next question: ]

Is that something you can do?

[ He's silent, biting at his bottom lip in the darkness of his arms, because wanting to live for people and wanting to live for people are two incredibly different things. He wants to do what he can for people, he wants to make their lives easier and a little happier and he doesn't mind at all being used to make that happen, even just a little bit. But he doesn't want to live for them, doesn't want their concerns, doesn't want their happiness or lives tied into the state of his being, doesn't want to matter so much that anybody will be hurt if something happens to him. That's not something he can do. He doesn't want that. ]

...No. I don't know. I don't think so. I just...

[ He wrings his hands on the desk, wondering how to say this. ]

I just want to exist around people. But not have anything to do with them.

[ For once, Four is glad that Minato chooses not to look at her during their conversation. She's not sure if she wants to see what kind of expression he's making, if he's making any kind of expression, and she doesn't want him to see the kind of face she's making either.

She lets his answer hang in the space between them for a while—like how he wants to be treated. It exists, but it isn't acknowledged. ]

... You really are selfish. You can't make anyone happy or anyone's life better that way. You need to make up your mind.

[ She watches his hands. ]

Aren't you with Akane?

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