week 7

[arsholes]

[On Sunday morning, there is a small gift waiting for the early risers in the tower: a gold key, dangling from a length of twine tied to the wooden beam across the ceiling at the cross section of the four dorms. Upon further inspection it has a particular symbol on the back half and a note that reads "Good job. Here's your reward". The note is signed Heisenberg. The key goes to seventh floor, where there is the same symbol etched above the keyhole on the lock.

Another new floor, another pair of deaths and their numbers halved in a matter of weeks. Things can't go on like this much longer.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

✨WEEKLY DEALS✨
1. Random Record Shuffle* - A funky fresh record you can play in a record player! The only catch is Garfield gets to pick the artist. *Repeat customers now welcome [1 coin]
2. Pondering Orb - A large red-tinted orb. Good for pondering in your deep dark lair. [2 coins]
3. Dis Bear - A human-sized plush bear in fun monochrome colors! Good thing the doorways here are pretty big. [3 coins]



✨LEFTOVER STOCK AT 50% MARK-UP ON SALE✨

1. Moon God Mask - A very large moon mask that covers your entire head. It kind of makes you want to either get a hamburger or form a cult. [1 coin]




(( OOC: Don't forget to submit your orders for any threads that aren't with Heisenberg or Garfield! And don't forget activity check! ))

Comments

[draconite]

[ She opens her mouth as if to respond right away, then falls into a troubled – and troubling – silence. Then she smiles, but her brow is creased in a way that makes her look just a little uncomfortable as she answers. ]

He was my guardian. And he... raised me, for as far back as I can remember.

[ Which isn't, strictly speaking, an answer to the question he asked. ]

[encelevenemus]

[Fortunately, he did know better than to push. Sometimes.]

...I see.

[draconite]

[ And yet, Bryn continues to sit there with that troubled look on her face, like she's got something sitting on the tip of her tongue and she's not sure she wants to say it. She breathes out through her nose, looks up at him and then directs her gaze back to the board. ]

... I think... perhaps we weren't as close as I might have believed. Or wanted to believe. I had no one else, so I cared for him and in turn, I suppose I was...

[ She shifts uncomfortably in her seat. ]

A troublesome pet, perhaps.

[encelevenemus]

...

[At first, the silence was broken only by the click of a well-worn and oft-used piece placed on the board.]

As if he were your entire world, but that world extended only to the boundaries of living in his shadow.

[draconite]

[ Her expression breaks into something that's too bitter to be called a smile – but there's a bit of relief there, too. ]

Precisely. And if I had ever wandered outside of those boundaries, I certainly wasn't permitted to remember it.

[ She taps a piece into place. With it, something else clicks into place as well. ]

... I had– have an older brother, you know.

[encelevenemus]

[His hand twitched almost imperceptibly on his own next move, Somnus' face as stone cold as ever.]

...Is that so.

[draconite]

So it seems. Just another thing I wasn't permitted to remember.

[ She doesn't know why she's saying all this now – to Somnus, of all people. But it's like something has come loose inside of her, a door she doesn't know how to shut, and all sorts of things are flooding out. ]

For a very long time, I thought it was just Teacher and I. And then as it happened... there was another person who cared for me and wanted to find me and I wasn't even given the dignity of knowing he existed.

[ She snorts to herself and brings her piece down with perhaps a little more force than is entirely necessary. ]

... not that it matters anymore, of course. Dumping all of this into your lap won't change much of anything.

[encelevenemus]

...

[Silence passed for a few moves, and it almost seemed as though Somnus would say nothing more. But then again--he'd already said too much at the previous trial. His existence itself was no longer the secret Somnus wished it was.]

My-...our parents died when I was very young--young enough that I can scarce remember much of them, especially now. Fallen to the scourge, both of them. It was only the pair of us and our guard, Gilgamesh.

He...my brother was once everything to me. But it is exactly as you say--it no longer matters. It was generations upon generations ago, two thousand years at least.

[draconite]

... Two thousand years is a very long time to miss someone.

[ She says it... as gently as Bryn can ever say anything, really. She's similarly quiet as she makes her move, keeping her gaze on the board as if to spare Somnus from having her see his face. ]

That is to say... I wouldn't say that it doesn't matter, however long ago it was.