week two | mingle

[showhost]

Welcome to week two, Teens Who Are Definitely Searching for Love!

Hopefully everyone got a lot of rest over the weekend, and are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the upcoming week, because there are a few things of interest this week.

But first, some changes of note in the house!

First: there is a giant rectangular box on the living room table, addressed to Lessing. It is a care package. The only thing in it is his sword.

There is some Bauernbrot bread on the counter. Ask Lessing about that too.

There is now a hot tub near the pool. It’s large enough to seat about six teens comfortably, but you can get more in there if you really try for some reason.

Okay I think that’s everything. Additionally, Tsukasa is here early this week! He’s looking pretty perky, seemingly recovered from the Match Ceremony, and he’s got some interesting info to share with everyone.

Embrace Space | Property Damage, etc | Dates | Mini-Event
Truth Booth Voting | Match Ceremony Submissions

Comments

[haircared]

[ To be honest, he gets that a lot. Thankfully, it doesn't go to his head. ]

Yeah? Maybe.

[ He settles in more comfortably next to her, now that the game's resumed and focus is off of them. ]

I guess you could say I just have problems with guys who run around with girls irresponsibly. It's a personal thing. My mom would also rip me a new one when I get home if I went around kissing everybody willy-nilly...

[ He can hear it now. Josuke, did you seriously not consider anyone's feelings? Say goodbye to those games of yours! ]

[rosethorns]

[not the games………

Dorothea likewise settles back, half paying attention to the next spin of the bottle as she listens.]

I guess she’s succeeded in raising a chivalrous son, then. [Her gaze drifts back to him.] Are you close with her?

[haircared]

Yeah, we get along. When she's not being a total hardass.

[ Somehow, the fondly annoyed comment speaks more to their closeness than anything plainly positive he could've said. ]

She raised me alone, so... it's always been the two of us. [ He purses his lips, somewhat embarrassed. ] You close with any family at all?

[ Some of his closest friends aren't, so he asks the question very loosely — he seems to anticipate more than a normal person that some people don't have great relationships with blood ties. ]

[rosethorns]

[A smile, warm as he speaks of his mom before it turns into something a little more bittersweet.]

No, I… [Her gaze drops a little, and she shakes her head.] I lost my mother when I was very young. And my father was never in the picture.

[She tries to rein in some of the bitterness at that last part, only partially succeeding. At least she manages a little better as she continues.]

So it’s pretty much always just been me.

[haircared]

[ His smile turns wry, and he leans over a bit to bump his shoulder with hers in understanding, comfort. She doesn't need to hear I'm so sorry or for him to pity her - he'd rather focus on the strength it must have taken for her to survive. ]

I hear you... my old man didn't even know I existed until this year.

[ His bitterness is more resigned - like he's accepted it, at this point. He won't ever fully get over it, but it is what it is. With laid-back, sincere admiration: ]

But damn, you're pretty tough, coming up all on your own. Probably more than anyone gives you credit for.

[rosethorns]

[There’s an appreciative little hum from her, both at the physical gesture and his tactful avoidance of any pity. Because she is all too used to facing either pity or disdain when others learn of her less than ideal origins and she’s frankly sick of it. She wishes it didn’t bother her as much as it does, but it’s hard to fight the heart when it has strong feelings of any sort.]

I appreciate you saying that. Truly. Sometimes others might feel sorry for me, but I don’t think most of them really understand how hard it was to live like that.

[Particularly when she spent the last few months surrounded by the sons and daughters of wealthy or noble families who were used to simply overlooking the struggles of anyone they deemed beneath them.

A tiny bit of tenseness is there in her shoulders now that the conversation’s hit a less than comfortable topic for her, but as she glances back up at him there’s some gratefulness in her eyes, and maybe a bit of an emboldened spark there too—he understands how it feels, at least in one aspect.]

But we’re more than where we come from, right? We’ll take life into our own hands and show those worthless fathers of ours that they’re the ones missing out on us.

[haircared]

[ That makes him laugh, snapping his fingers once. ]

Well, you're right about that. I swiped the old man's wallet last time I saw him, as sixteen years of back allowance.

[ There's mischief twinkling in his eyes — more silly than truly malicious. His relationship with his father has changed a lot over the the last few months, but he'll always understand the sentiment that Dorothea's laying down. Their fathers are the ones who missed out by being deadbeats. ]

Next time we hang out outside of here, we can enjoy a drink on him.