#like the rise and fall of rapture ?? or just the events of the game ?? anything

[mvnces]

they’re so right for this … I am chewing on the bars of my cage !!

[tothemattresses]

2020 Reading Challenge - E-Book Edition!

According to Amazon, I have exactly 294 e-books currently sitting in my Kindle library. 

Granted, some of these books have been read and are being saved for a second (or third, or fourth) re-read, but when it comes down to it, that number is around 40 books, give or take. 

Which means I still have over 250 books that need to be read. 

And it’s not like I haven’t tried! There are plenty of titles that, when opened up, will go to the last place I left off - that being chapter 5, or maybe chapter 10. But sometimes life gets in the way. Or a sudden interest in another author. Or a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. But whatever the reason may be, it’s over 250 books that haven’t been read. Challenge accepted! 

For 2020, I commit to not buying any new books to add to my Kindle library (checking out books from the library is ok, because you’ve gotta support your local library!), and instead focus on the books I already have. So no addition of 99 cent books, or Kindle Unlimited books, or books that are suddenly 75% off. Only the books that I currently have. 

As the reading commences, and after the book is finished, I’ll update my list to indicate what has been completed, along with the date purchased, and a short review (or a reason I just couldn’t finish it at all). 

Below is the list for future reference - and to clarify my what my favorite genre is. Spoiler: it’s romance novels. 

Here we go!

Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 535 Easy(ish) Steps – Kelly Williams Brown

An Affair with Mr. Kennedy (Gentlemen of Scotland Yard) – Jillian Stone

All About Love (Cynster Book 6) – Stephanie Laurens

All Afternoon with a Scandalous Marquess: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Almost a Scandal: A Reckless Brides Novel (The Reckless Brides Book 1) – Elizabeth Essex

Alpha – Jasinda Wilder

A Duke’s Guide to Seducing His Bride (Chase Family Series- The Jewels Book 4) – Lauren Royal

The American Heiress: A Novel – Daisy Goodwin

When an Earl Meets a Girl (Chase Family Series- The Jewels Book 1) – Lauren Royal

The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year – Andy Cohen

Angel in a Devil's Arms: The Palace of Rogues – Julie Anne Long

Angel in Scarlet: A Bound and Determined Novel – Lavinia Kent

Anything He Wants & Castaway – Sara Fawkes

The Astronaut Wives Club – Lily Koppel

At Any Price: A Billionaire Virgin Auction Romance (Gaming the System Book 1) – Brenna Aubrey

At Any Turn: A Billionaire Romance (Gaming the System Book 2) – Brenna Aubrey

At Your Pleasure – Meredith Duran

The Awakening of Ivy Leavold (Markham Hall Book 1) – Sierra Simone

Badd Motherf*cker (The Badd Brothers Book 1) – Jasinda Wilder

Bare Ass in Love (Hard, Fast, and Forever Book 1) – Sasha Burke

Because of Miss Bridgerton: A Bridgertons Prequel (Rokesbys Series Book 1) – Julia Quinn

The Bed and the Bachelor (Byrons of Braebourne Book 5) – Tracy Anne Warren

Betrayal (Infidelity Book 1) – Aleatha Romig

Beware That Girl – Teresa Toten

Beyond Scandal and Desire: A Sins for All Seasons Novel – Lorraine Heath

The Big Bad Office Wolf (Kings of the Tower Book 1) – May Sage

Bittersweet (True North Book 1) – Sarina Bowen

Blame It on Bath: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

Bound by Your Touch – Meredith Duran

The Bride (Lairds' Fiancees Book 1) – Julie Garwood

Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel – Helen Fielding

Burn (The Breathless Trilogy Book 3) – Maya Banks

Burning Offer (Trevor's Harem Book 1) – Aubrey Parker

Captivated by You (Crossfire, Book 4) – Sylvia Day

Captive of Sin – Anna Campbell

Cash: A Power Players Stand-Alone Novel – Cassia Leo

Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson – Peter Ames Carlin

Catching Sin (Las Vegas Sin Book 2) – J. Saman

Catholicism For Dummies – John Trigilio

A Certain Age: A Novel – Beatriz Williams

Chasing Lady Amelia: Keeping Up with the Cavendishes – Maya Rodale

Checkmate: This is War (Travis & Viola, #1) (Checkmate Duet) – Kennedy Fox

Claiming the Courtesan (Avon Romantic Treasures) – Anna Campbell

Collide: Book One in the Collide Series – Gail McHugh

The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology Book 1) – Jodi Ellen Malpas

Crave: A Billionaire Bachelors Club Novel (Billionaire Bachelors Club Series Book 1) – Monica Murphy

Dating You / Hating You – Christina Lauren

Deal with the Devil (Forge Trilogy Book 1) – Meghan March

Desperate Duchesses – Eloisa James

Desperate to Touch (Hard to Love Book 2) – W. Winters

Destiny – Sally Beauman

Devil's Daughter: The Ravenels meet The Wallflowers – Lisa Kleypas

Dirty Sexy Inked (A Dirty Sexy Novel Book 2) – Carly Phillips

Dirty Sexy Saint (A Dirty Sexy Novel Book 1) – Carly Phillips

Double Down: Game Change 2012 – Mark Halperin

The Duchess Diaries: The Bridal Pleasures Series – Jillian Hunter

The Duchess Hunt (House of Trent Book 1) – Jennifer Haymore

The Duke and I (Bridgertons Book 1) – Julia Quinn

The Duke Is Mine (Fairy Tales Book 3) – Eloisa James

Duke of Scandal (Moonlight Square, Book 1) – Galen Foley

The Duke of Shadows – Meredith Duran

Duke of Sin (Maiden Lane Book 10) – Elizabeth Hoyt

The Duke's Holiday (The Regency Romp Trilogy Book 1) – Maggie Fenton

Dusk with a Dangerous Duke: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Edenbrooke: A Proper Romance – Julianne Donaldson

Elite (Elite Doms of Washington Book 1) – Elizabeth SaFleur

Entwined with You (Crossfire, Book 3) – Sylvia Day

Everything Is Perfect When You're a Liar – Kelly Oxford

The Fall of Legend (Legend Trilogy Book 1) – Meghan March

The Fight for Forever (Legend Trilogy Book 3) – Meghan March

A Fine Imitation: A Novel – Amber Brock

The Fix Up – Kendall Ryan

Flowers from the Storm – Laura Kinsale

For Everly – Raine Thomas

For the Earl's Pleasure – Anne Mallory

For the Record – K.A. Linde

Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 1) – Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Rapture (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 2) – Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 3) – Sylvain Reynard

Going Down Easy (Billionaire Bad Boys Book 1) – Carly Phillips

A Good Debutante's Guide to Ruin: The Debutante Files (The Debutante Files Series Book 1) – Sophie Jordan

Good Girl: A Rockstar Romance (Wicked Book 1) – Piper Lawson

The Good Luck Charm – Helena Hunting

Grayson's Vow – Mia Sheridan

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian (Fifty Shades of Grey Series Book 4) – E.L. James

Hard As Stone: Heart of Stone Series #8 – K.M. Scott

Hard to Love – W. Winters

The Hardest Fall – Ella Maise

Hating The Boss – Natalie Wrye

The Heir (Windham Book 1) – Grace Burrowes

Heiress in Love: A Ministry of Marriage Novel (The Ministry of Marriage Book 1) – Christina Brooke

Heiress Without A Cause (Muses of Mayfair Book 1) – Sara Ramsey

Hello Stranger: The Ravenels, Book 4 – Lisa Kleypas

Her Forbidden Love Match (A Willow Cove Novel, #1) – Theresa Paolo

Her Husband's Harlot (Mayhem in Mayfair Book 1) – Grace Callaway

Hidden Gabriel: Formerly Winter Peril (Hidden Alphas Book 1) – Victoria Pinder

Highland Surrender – Tracy Brogan

Highlander Betrayed (Guardians of the Targe Book 1) – Lauren Wittig

His Favorite Mistress: A Novel (The Mistress Trilogy Book 3) – Tracy Anne Warren

His Virgin: A First Time Romance (His and Hers Book 1) – Vivian Wood

Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling – Bret Hart

Hollywood Dirt – Alessandra Torre

Hollywood on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery) – Avery Flynn

The Hotel – Lola Darling

House of Scarlett (Legend Trilogy Book 2) – Meghan March

How a Lady Weds a Rogue: A Falcon Club Novel – Katharine Ashe

How to Marry a Duke Vicky Dreiling

How to Ravish a Rake – Vicky Dreiling

How to Seduce a Scoundrel – Vicky Dreiling

If He's Wicked (Wherlocke Book 1) – Hannah Howell

The Imperfectionists: A Novel – Tom Rachman

In the Arms of a Marquess (Rogues of the Sea Book 3) – Katherine Ashe

In the Unlikely Event – L.J. Shen

In Total Surrender – Anne Mallory

An Irresistible Temptation (The Cavallo Brothers Book 2) – Elsa Winckler

It Had to Be You (Chicago Stars Book 1) – Susan Elizabeth Philips

It Happened One Midnight: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

It Started with a Scandal: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

It's Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You're Single – Sara Eckel

Just Roll With It (A Perfect Dish Book 4) – Tawdra Kandle

Kaleidoscope Hearts (A brother's best friend romance) – Claire Contreras

The Kingmaker (All the King's Men Duet Book 1) – Kennedy Ryan

Lady of Desire (Knight Miscellany Book 4) – Gaelen Foley

The Last Arrow (The Medieval Trilogy Book 3) – Marsha Canham

The Last Summer – Judith Kinghorn

Lead by Example: 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results – John Baldoni

The Legend of Lyon Redmond: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

Legend (The REAL series Book 6) – Katy Evans

Let's Do It: A Journey's End Novel – Ann Christopher

Life with My Sister Madonna – Christopher Ciccone

Lily and the Duke (Sex and the Season Book 1) – Helen Hardt

Lord of Scoundrels – Loretta Chase

Losing It – Cora Carmack

Lost Without You (The Debt Book 1) – Molly O’Keefe

A Loving Scoundrel: A Malory Novel (Malory-Anderson Family Book 7) – Johanna Lindsey

Luck Is No Lady (Fallen Ladies Book 1) – Amy Sandas

Lucky (Elite Doms of Washington Book 4) – Elizabeth SaFleur

A Mackenzie Clan Gathering (Mackenzies Series) – Jennifer Ashley

Mad About the Earl: A Ministry of Marriage Novel (The Ministry of Marriage Book 2) – Christina Brooker

Maid for the Billionaire (Book 1) (Legacy Collection) – Ruth Cardello

A Man Above Reproach – Evelyn Pryce

Manwhore (The Manwhore Series Book 1) – Katy Evans

Marriage For One – Ella Maise

Masques of Gold (Casablanca Classics Book 0) – Robert Gellis

Melt For Him (Fighting Fire Book 2) – Lauren Blakely

Midnight Angel (Stokehursts Book 1) – Lisa Kleypas

Midnight Pleasures With a Scoundrel (Scoundrels of St. James Book 4) – Lorraine Heath

Mine (The REAL series Book 2) – Katy Evans

Mine Till Midnight (Hathaways Book 1) – Lisa Kleypas

Miss Hillary Schools a Scoundrel (Beau Monde Book 1) – Samantha Grace

More Than Charming (Book 3 Dashing Nobles Series) – JoMarie DeGioia

The Most to Lose (The Redeemed series Book 1) – Laura Landon

Mr. Corporate (The Mister Series Book 3) – JA Huss

Mr Imperfect: Lost Boys #1 – Karina Bliss

Mr. Mysterious (The Mister Series Book 4) – JA Huss

Mr. Romantic (The Mister Series Book 2) – JA Huss

My Lady, My Lord: A Twist Series Novel – Katherine Ashe

My Notorious Gentleman (Inferno Club Book 6) – Gaelen Foley

My Reckless Surrender – Anna Campbell

My Ruthless Prince (Inferno Club Book 4) – Gaelen Foley

My Scandalous Viscount (Inferno Club Book 5) – Gaelen Foley

The Nearness of You – Iris Morland

Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid (Kellington Book 1) – Maureen Driscoll

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished: The Third Rule of Scoundrels (Rules of Scoundrels Book 3) – Sarah MacLean

No Mistress of Mine: An American Heiress in London – Laura Lee Guhrke

A Notorious Countess Confesses: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane Book 2) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Once a Soldier (Rogues Redeemed Book 1) – Mary Jo Putney

Once More, My Darling Rogue (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James Book 2) – Lorraine Heath

One Last Time – Corinne Michaels

One Night in London: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

One Taste (The "One" Series Book 1) – K.A. Berg

One with You (Crossfire Series Book 5) – Sylvia Day

Only With Your Love (Vallerands Book 2) – Lisa Kleypas

The Paris Wife: A Novel – Paula McLain

Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr – Robert Hofler

Perfect (Elite Doms of Washington Book 3) – Elizabeth SaFleur

The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux

The Pleasure of Your Kiss – Teresa Medeiros

Prince of Dreams (Stokehursts Book 2) – Lisa Kleypas

Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain's Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII – Deborah Cadbury

The Princess and the Peer (The Princess Brides series Book 1) – Tracy Anne Warren

Princess Charming: A Legendary Lovers Novel – Nicole Jordan

Pulse: Book Two in the Collide Series – Gail McHugh

A Rake's Midnight Kiss (Sons of Sin Book 2) – Anna Campbell

Reason to Wed (The Distinguished Rogues Book 7) – Heather Boyd

The Rebel Queen (The Rebel Queen Duet Book 2) – Jeana E. Mann

Refining Felicity (The School for Manners Series Book 1) – M.C. Beaton

Reflected in You (Crossfire, Book 2) – Sylvia Day

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin (The Secrets of Hadley Green) – Julia London

Ripped (The REAL series Book 5) – Katy Evans

Rock Me (Bodyguard Bad Boys Book 1) – Carly Phillips

Rogue (The REAL series Book 4) – Katy Evans

The Royal Arrangement (The Rebel Queen Duet Book 1) – Jeana E. Mann

Royally Bad (Bad Boy Royals Book 1) – Nora Flite

The Rule Book (Rule Breakers 1) – Jennifer Blackwood

The Scandal in Kissing an Heir: At the Kingsborough Ball – Sophie Barnes

Scandal Wears Satin (The Dressmakers Series Book 2) – Loretta Chase

A Scoundrel by Moonlight (Sons of Sin Book 4) – Anna Campbell

Seduced By A Scoundrel – Olivia Drake

The Seduction of Lady X – Julia London

The Seduction of Lord Stone (Dashing Widows) – Anna Campbell

Shattered With You (Stark Security Book 1) – J. Kenner

The Shoemaker's Wife: A Novel – Adriana Trigiani

Shutdown Player: Game On in Seattle (Seattle Sockeyes Book 7) – Jami Davenport

Signed (The Agency Series) – Marni Mann

A Single Glance (Irresistible Attraction Book 1) W. Winters

A Single Kiss (Irresistible Attraction Book 2) – W. Winters

A Single Touch (Irresistible Attraction Book 3) – W. Winters

The Six Wives of Henry VIII – Alison Weir

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy (A Sleeping Beauty Novel) – A.N. Roquelaure

The Soldier (Windham Book 2) – Grace Burrowes

The Stolen Mackenzie Bride (Mackenzies Series Book 8) – Jennifer Ashley

The Studying Hours: How to Date a Douchebag – Sara Ney

Suddenly You – Lisa Kleypas

Summer Heat: A Storm Inside Novel (The Wild Pitch Series Book 1) – Alexis Anne

A Summer Seduction (Legend of St. Dwynwen Book 2) – Candace Camp

Tangled Beauty (Tangled, Book 1) – K.L. Middleton

Tank (Blue-Collar Billionaires Book 1) – M. Malone

Tempt the Devil – Anna Campbell

Tempted to Kiss (Hard to Love Book 3) – W. Winters

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor – Anne Sebba

Thief of Shadows (Maiden Lane Book 4) – Elizabeth Hoyt

This Man (A This Man Novel Book 1) – Jodi Ellen Malpas

This Side of Paradise – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Three Nights of Sin – Anne Mallory

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood – William J. Mann

To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 3) – Elizabeth Hoyt

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 2) – Elizabeth Hoyt

To Taste Temptation (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 1) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Too Distracting (The Lewis Cousins Book 3) – Bethany Lopez

Too Wicked to Kiss (Scoundrels & Secrets Book 1) – Erica Ridley

The Trouble With Being a Duke: At the Kingsborough Ball – Sophie Barnes

The Trouble with Dukes (Windham Brides Book 1) – Grace Burrowes

Troubles (Beekman Hills) – K.C. Enders

Truth or Beard: Enemies to Lovers Small Town Romantic Comedy (Winston Brothers Book 1) – Penny Reid

Twilight with the Infamous Earl: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps – Chris Jericho

Untouchable (Elite Doms of Washington Book 2) – Elizabeth SaFleur

Untouched – Anna Campbell

Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria (Queens of England Book 3) – Jean Plaidy

The Viscount's Wicked Ways – Anne Mallory

Wallbanger (The Cocktail Series Book 1) – Alice Clayton

The Way to a Duke's Heart: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals – Gillian Gill

Well Hung (Big Rock Book 3) – Lauren Blakely

What a Duke Dares (Sons of Sin Book 3) – Anna Campbell

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2019: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers – Richard N. Bolles

When a Duke Loves a Woman: A Sins for All Seasons Novel – Lorraine Heath

When the Duke Found Love (The Wylder Sisters Book 3) – Isabella Bradford

Where Good Girls Go to Die: A Second Chance Romance (The Good Girls Series Book 1) – Holly Renee

Wicked Becomes You – Meredith Duran

Wicked in Your Arms: Forgotten Princesses – Sophie Jordan

Wicked Intentions (Maiden Lane Book 1) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Written on Your Skin – Meredith Duran

[sabraeal]

We Seek That Which We Shall Not Find, Chapter 5

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Written for @ruleofexception’s birthday! I didn’t mean for Laxdo Arc to go on SO long in this fic, but HERE WE ARE. Hopefully in the next chapter we’ll be buttoning up this session (man, I am really dedicated to making this one seem six hours long, I guess. REALISM, you know)

“Are you seriously going to allow this?”

Shirayuki saw a bobcat once, back when she lived in the middle of nowhere and regularly had to shoo raccoons off the trash and hiss at fisher cats that roamed too far onto the property for comfort. She’d thought it was a cat, one of the big Maine Coons Mrs. Kino bred on the property catty-corner to theirs. She’d come close, thinking she might make kisses and lead it back to its grateful owner.

Too independent for their own damn good, Mrs Kino would laugh, shaking her head. Always trying to escape, like they can hunt kibble in the wilderness.

It took ten more steps than it should have for her to realize it was too big, too sleek for a Coon cat, but by then it’d seen her too, eyes shining gold in the dark.

She’d seen wild animals before -- loads of them, in fact, but this -- this was the first time she’d seen one look back with no fear. The cat only stared at her with a knowing sort of menace, the kind that said it knew full well she couldn’t do a single thing to it that it didn’t allow, and it could do a whole heck of a lot to her --

And she sees the same look now, just in blue, as Izana calmly flicks his gaze between her and Obi and pointedly turns to his brother. “I am afraid I have no idea to what you are referring. Your rest, perhaps?”

“No!” Zen throws a hand across the table, making a vague gesture toward Obi. “His -- his advances.”

“I thought we had already explored this avenue to its fullest,” Izana tells him, a thread of disappointment tying the sentiment up in a patronizing bow. “Obi is roleplaying. Unlike some of the other players here at this table.”

“But--!”

“Careful there,” Kiki drawls flatly, “if you try to get him to blanket ban flirting between characters, what are you going to do?”

His pale skin goes from parchment to pink, and, oh, looks like Kihal had been right about the, ah...purposefulness of Zen’s actions at least. “I didn’t say flirting, I meant, you know...”

“Brother.” Izana somehow manages to infuse the word with both the utmost derision and the most insincere pity. “I can’t make your character have more chemistry with Lynet.”

“I didn’t say that!” Zen yelps. “I’m just thinking about, you know, Shirayuki’s comfort.”

Izana blinks, slow and steady, just like that bobcat, no fear. “Did my ears deceived me, or did she not tell us mere hours ago that she did not mind Beaumains’ compliments?”

“Compliments is sort of understating--”

“Zen.” Kiki draws his complaint up short with only a word. “She’s fine with it. You are the one making it weird now.”

He huffs, twisting his head away, but doesn’t say anything.

Kiki’s mouth curls, and Shirayuki is sharply reminded of someone else at the table. “I mean, if you’re feeling left out, we could really make this game true to the myths, and I could--”

“No!”

“Well now that that is solved,” Izana drawls, his mouth curling into that unnerving half-smile of his, knitting his fingers together under his chin, “have we come to a decision?”

Weariness is a weight upon your back; it has been hours since the first twisted servitor emerged from the brush, hours since the last took its final breath, hours since you stopped for more than a breath and a bite to eat. The sun has long past set, but instead of the soft chirp of crickets as you pass, there is silence.

It is in this silence that you come upon it, your first sight of Laxdo.

Your heart clenches in your chest. It is same as it was so many years ago, when your father and the lord of this place had feasted together for seven nights, celebrating the joining of their houses. You had not yet been a woman, and the lord’s son had hardly been old enough to keep a knife at his belt, but still they had shook hands on it, had sat you both together and exclaimed over what a fine pair you would make.

Your would-be husband had burst into tears, snot running down his face with the force of them, and declared himself a bachelor forever. You had bore up better, but your own heart housed a similar sentiment.

Oh, how long ago that is now. You would have been married by now, had your fathers had their way, but when yours disappeared…

Ah, well, it would not have been the first of his plans to go by the wayside. Before or after.

As a child, Laxdo had seemed a glittering edifice of man’s triumph. Your own manor was not small, not by any means, but Laxdo was closer to court and thus its gardens manicured, its stones gleaming. It was larger than the Castle Perilous as well, and you had thought, in all the wisdom of a girl who had until that moment traveled hardly a day’s journey from home, that even Tintagel could not be so magnificent as this.

It shames you to think that you might never have known the thought to be false, had not all this happened. That you can find a silver lining to these terrible events, to the terror of your sister, sickens you. While you have this glorious adventure, she is trapped within the walls of your home, subject to the whims of the madman that has decamped in its halls.

“My lady.” Beaumains rides close at your side, closer now that it makes the prince glower at his back. From your other side, Bedwyr watches him, wary. It’s unnecessary; the only thing that shines in the demon’s eyes is concern. “Are you all right?”

“Just thinking,” you tell him, voice hardly above a murmur. “I was here, once before.”

“So close to Tintagel,” he hums, mouth quirking into one of his slanted smiles. “And yet you never went?”

“No.” You squirm in the saddle, and almost unbidden the words rise. “It was not as if lady of my birth would be enough to tempt a prince.”

Beaumains lets out a low whistle. “If only you had known.”

Your cheeks heat. “Hush. You know nothing. The prince is merely as he ought to be with a peer.”

You mislike the smirk he wears. “Is he now?”

Zen slaps a hand on the table, loud enough to startle Shirayuki half out of her chair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kiki's eyes roll heavenward. “Here we go.”

“I didn’t say anything, your highness,” Obi says, every word dripping with insincerity. “Just was having a conversation.”

“Technically,” Mitsuhide chimes in weakly, in a vain attempt to derail the mounting argument, “Arturius would be ‘your grace—‘”

“Yeah, but there was a whole lot you weren’t saying,” Zen snaps back, “with your words.”

Obi’s mouth splits into too-wide a grin. “Pretty sure that’s how conversation works, boss. You don’t say all the words, but just the ones you need to—“

“You were implying things,” Zen clarifies. “Mean things!”

“Oh my god,” Kiki groans. “Can you guys go out and measure your dicks somewhere else—?“

“And deny you the pleasure of watching, Princess Kiki?” Obi claps back.

She lets out a huff. “--so Izana can curse us already.”

“I’m wounded,” Izana demures. “We’ve been playing a whole three hours and I haven’t even cursed you once.”

“Plenty of time left.”

“Hm.” His mouth twitches at a corner. “Whatever have I done to earn such a reputation?”

It’s chaos as the three of them trip over themselves to respond; Shirayuki can hardly make out the individual complaints, but they seem many and varied.

Obi blinks. “Well, it seems like your reputation precedes you, your majesty.”

Izana gives him a sideways glare. “Anyway. I believe we were about to come up on the castle, Lady Lynet. If you would roll me some Perception…”

It is shocking to see Laxdo now, a crackled, torn painting of your memory. It had been famed for its beauty, paving stones and trees woven over its approach, but the trees are dead now, their roots tearing up the road beneath, making the path a tricky proposition with the horses.

Still, you nurse hope in your heart, thinking it cannot be so bad as it seems –

And then you come upon the place itself, that grand edifice that had set you into raptures as a young girl – and it is ruined, stones choked by climbing vines, the great archway a crumbled ruin.

“No,” you breathe. “It isn’t possible.”

It is not Beaumains who falls in behind you as you fly through Laxdo’s courtyards. No, it is Bedwyr, his solid presence a comfort at your back. You cannot bear to look at the ruin, not when its glory is so alive in your mind’s eyes. You feel as if it madness will take you if you dare to view the whole of its destruction; better for you to deny it, at least for now. Better to believe this is not the grand castle you remember, but instead some other place, a world topsy-turvey from your own. Just merely a twisted reflection of what you once knew.

It is your hands that fling open the grand doors, that reveal the cracked tile and torn tapestry of the hall beyond. Your breath catches in your throat, but you cannot – cannot let that break you. There is yet a job to do.

A hand sits heavy on your shoulder, comforting, and though you have known him bare days, you do not hesitate to lean into Bedwyr’s touch.

“It will be all right,” he tells you with so much more confidence than you could ever muster in the face of such wanton destruction. “Arturius will see to it that things are put to rights.”

Your mouth pulls thin, and you turn your head away, lest he see your discomfort. You do not want some prince to fix this, some man who has never seen the walls of Laxdo in their glory, who had only seen its white stone and felt it paled in comparison to his home. It should be someone who knows what this place means, who appreciates its beauty –

It should be you. But it cannot be. If you cannot save her own sister, what right do you have to believe you could save Laxdo as well.

The dwarf hobbles up behind you, hovering at your heels as if he might speak. He is breathless, however, panting, and you wait for him to gain it again before you ask, voice as tempered as any steel, “Where are the patients?”

Your gaze sweeps the halls as you wait, taking in each crack, each ruined tapestry. It chills you to stand here in the entrance of this great castle while its lord is not here to greet you.

“In the great hall,” he manages finally, each word punctuated with a gasp. “They are laid out before the fire.”

“All of them?” Bedwyr asks, surprise naked in his words.

“Yes.” The dwarf shifts from one foot to the other, as if the bottoms of them itched to stand upon. “I could not very well leave them where they fell.”

Bedwyr regards him with a curious light in his eyes, and you can tell he wishes to ask more, to ask the exact fashion in which this small man dragged knights in their armor across the whole of the castle but –

But you can take it no longer. Your feet are fleet as a hind’s beneath you, hurrying you down the halls as if the wind lightened your heels. Bedwyr follows, his long strides keeping him only a step behind you in your flight.

Your heart pounds madly in your chest. The great hall. It has been years since you graced these shining corridors, and a child’s view, even in memory, is far different than an adult’s. You cannot trust what your mind shows you, what a child might estimate, but even as you draw close to the doors your heart fills with dread, for – for –

The door pushes open beneath your fingers, and your greatest fears are confirmed. The great hall of Laxdo is enormous, and every inch of its floor is covered with ailing men.

“What happened here?” Your voice barely raises to a whisper, the breath thin in your lungs. It should be impossible for such a sickness to happen, for it to take everyone in this way.

The dwarf only looks at you, forlorn, holding your gaze as if he could will the answer into you if only he tried long enough. As if there is something so obvious that if you only considered for a moment longer, you might discover it.

In the end, he only shakes his head. He cannot speak of it, and you cannot divine it. Magic you may have, but prognostication is beyond you.

Heels clack sharply on the tile behind you. “Is your master so powerful that he may silence you, dwarf?” Morgaine asks, steel in her voice, words made to cut. “Or is it that you actively wish to hinder us?”

“N-no!” He waves his hands in supplication, cringing away from the knight. “I wish only to help, I merely…cannot. Not in this way. I am only allowed to say they are ill, that it is a plague that has come upon us. All else…” He shrugs helpless. “I am not my own, my lady.”

“I want to look at them,” Shirayuki says, staring at the map. It glitters under the lights, small colorful stones marking where each sick man lies. There’s hardly any squares between them, all of them packed into the hall on top of each other. “The men, I mean.”

Izana sweeps out a hand. “Go right ahead.”

“No, I mean--” She bites her lip, thoughtful. “Is there something I can do to keep from catching this? I’m no good to anyone sick.”

“Roll Fort real good?” Obi offers with a laugh. “Your Con is better than mine, at least.”

“Because you’re an idiot,” Kiki informs him. “Some people think actual health points are important.”

He waves her off, turning up his nose. “I’ll be fine. I just won’t go in there ever.”

Shirayuki ignores the dip in her stomach. She needs to be focused on saving these men, not worried about whether she’ll get her chance to flirt with him –

Beaumains. Whether Lynet will get her chance to flirt with Beaumains.

It’s different. Probably.

“Could I…tie a damp cloth around my face?” she asks, rubbing her hands over her skirt, if only so no one will see them tremble. “That’s – that’s what they used to do, right? Back in the day.”

Izana stares at her, eyes rounded with surprise. “That’s…an admirable idea. I would say that might help you, should you need to roll to resist the disease.”

“Should you,” Obi laughs. “Like he isn’t going to make you the second you step in that room.”

His mouth curls, amused. “We’ll see.”

The air is humid in the hall, cloying, and your impromptu mask only makes it more so as you wade further in. There is hardly room to walk; you must watch your feet as you place them, careful not to crush fingers or kick ankles or trod on unbound hair. Hands reach out to you as you pass, though they grow thinner the more you walk, every step bringing you closer to those who have been sick the longest and are now the worst afflicted.

Fingers brush your ankle, and you only just withhold a shriek, peering down to see the man’s eyes roll back in his head, to hear the pained groan that tears from his weakened chest. You have seen less miserable frescoes of Tartarus, compared to this sick room.

You stoop down, close to one – or really, three or four of the sick men. Cloths are pressed to every forehead, as if such a feeble gesture could ward off the worst of this sickness. A child might have tended them better.

Your gaze hooks on the two small feet that shift uncertainly on the other side of your patient. Ah, perhaps one has. Or at least, a man who only knew as much as a child.

“What do you think?”

You blink, surprised at the sudden deepness of his voice, and raise your head –

Bedwyr stands to your side, expectant. Ah yes, that would – that would make more sense. Though now you can’t help but wonder if your other companion’s voice is the same as it was when he was a man, or –

You shake your head. Now is not the time for such speculation. “I do not know what to think. Where is the healer in this place? A physician?”

The dwarf shakes his shaggy head, the muddle hazel of his eyes mournful. One of his stick-like arms lifts, pointing, but when you follow its path the press of bodies is so tight you cannot make out its mark –

Ah, but that is his point. It does not matter who the healer is now, if he is here. A man off his feet with sickness does them no good, especially if he suffers as much as these men.

“There’s nothing for it,” you decide, coming to settle on your knees. “We’ll just have to do what we can.”

“Is it a Heal check to do this?” Shirayuki asks, peering up at Izana. He watches her curiously, chin perched on the heel of his hand.

“It quite frankly depends.” His eyebrows give an inquisitive lift. “Are you trying to identify the disease? Do you mean to heal them?”

“Yes, both.” She holds up a hand, shaking her head. “I know that’s two rolls, but I mean – to heal them. It’s a Heal check?”

“You can cast Cure spells without one,” Mitsuhide tells her gently, as if she has not been doing that nearly this whole session after the servitors kept punching holes through him and Zen. “Just pick which level and roll that die.”

“I know that,” she replies, struggling for politeness. “I meant naturally. Is there a way to do it with Heal?”

“Yes…” Izana tilts his head. “I hate to give advice on how to play, but…you understand it won’t be as effective as any of your spells, don’t you?”

She nods. “I know. I just was thinking…most of my brewed potions have been used, and I won’t have spell slots to spare until tomorrow, so if I can heal them naturally…I could help everyone tonight. Or at least, a good number of them.”

He blinks, long and slow. “What interesting reasoning. Yes, please, two Heal checks.”

Fever. Chills. Sweating. Pain there must be, somewhere in the body, though none are able to speak of it. A loss of lucidity. You’ve seen these symptoms before, dozens of times at least, but in this they are all new, not a single of your remedies doing anything more lasting than leaving a stain on a jerkin.

“I don’t understand.” You sit back on your heels, meeting Bedwyr’s dark eyes. “Even if this is a sickness unlike any I have seen, these should be doing something to alleviate their pain. Lessening a fever, easing the mind…but I might do better pouring water down their throats than tisanes.”

A heavy hand lands upon your shoulder, and you lean into the warmth. “Take a rest, my lady. Let me see what Our Lord in Heaven might do, should I pray for his intercession.”

You press your lips together, nodding. There were things a devout man might do that you cannot, or at least – cannot right now.

“Try that, then,” you sigh, levering yourself to your feet. “If that does not work, I have yet potions that might.”

“I’m going to Lay On Hands,” Mitsuhide announces collecting dice into his hands. Four d6s would be spilling out of hers, but he hold them with room to spare, plastic rattling as he shakes them. They pour onto the table, three sixes and one two, and with a grin he turns to Izana –

“No effect,” he says simply, leaning back in his chair. “Anything else you’d like to try?”

“That’s magical healing,” Mitsuhide pushes, agog. “Anything should be able to be healed by it.”

“Provided they need hit points restored.” Izana taps his chin with a thoughtful finger. “A cure only works for the ailment it’s made for. Now, other options?”

Obi clears his throat. “If you don’t mind, we--” he gestures to Zen and Kiki – “have an idea of our own.”

A single step from the room and you drag down you mask, gasping for the cool air of the hall. You had not realized how stifling the heat in that room, not until you are outside it, free from its grasp. You bend double, panting. Bedwyr will need his own rest when you are through, otherwise he too will forget the feel of fresh air upon his face.

It is only after you have caught your breath that you hear it, whispers raised to hearing by the echoes of the empty hall. It strikes you that it has been hours since you arrive – Lord in Heaven, it must be morning now, though it is impossible to tell without the chapel to ring the hours – and you have not seen the prince and his sister, nor your usually ubiquitous shadow.

That draws you up short. He had said that he would not step foot in a plague room, not for all the gold of Croesus, though you had not expected him to keep his word. He did not seem the sort to be daunted for long.

But it is his voice you hear mixed in with the others, no louder that a mocking murmur. It would be beyond propriety to eavesdrop on what is clearly a private conversation. Still, you draw closer, eager to hear some news that is not this worsening sickness –

“That sounds like a good way to get ourselves killed.” Morgaine’s laconic drawl is strident when it strikes against stone, even for all its softness. “You cannot possibly be considering this.”

“What choice do we have?” Arturius returns, the hint of petulance made large by the empty halls. “We cannot simply stand around here and do nothing.”

You can practically hear Morgaine raising a brow. “Are you saying that Beaumains is right?”

The prince sputters. “N-no! I just mean…that perhaps…ah…”

“It’s all right, your grace.” Beaumains somehow suffuses the title so much sarcasm it drips with the speaking of it. “I understand. You think I have a good idea.”

“I never said that!” he spits out, and as you turn the corner, his cheeks are just as red as you suspected. “It’s only--”

“You’re leaving?”

“Isn’t this a-a thing? That you’re not supposed to do?” Shirayuki darts a look at Izana, then at Mitsuhide, trying to find some sort of support. “Splitting the party.”

“Well, I don’t mind,” Izana drawls, mouth curling.

“Of course you don’t,” Zen snaps. “It’s the best way to TPK.”

Shirayuki blinks. “TPK?”

“Total Party Kill,” Mitsuhide explains with a dubious look at Izana. “It’s when the entire party is wiped out--”

Kiki snorts. “I think she can guess from the name.”

“T-that’s my point though,” she presses. “If we split up, we’re weaker, aren’t we? So we should really stay together.”

“Oh, I see what this is.” Obi grins, and she can already feel her skin flushing three shades darker. He leans in and that’s just – worse. “Is Lynet nervous without her bodyguard?”

“N-no!” She squirms back from him, trying to look in his eyes without feeling like barbecue. “It’s-it’s just logical!”

Nothing to do with the fact that she can’t test out Kihal’s advice if Obi – Beaumains is off on his own side adventure.

“I’ll be right here, Shirayuki,” Mitsuhide assures her, too kind. “Nothing can get past a Fighter/Paladin like Bedwyr.”

“Except for anything with a Dex mod,” Kiki deadpans.

He flushes. “I’m working on it!”

“You see?” Izana gives her a smile that somehow seems far more genuine than the ones before. “You’ll be just fine. And I’m sure you have much more to concern yourself with…”

Nothing works.

You have exhausted every trick in your bag – the panacea, the strongest antitoxin you have brewed, even the best of your restoratives – not a single one of them does anything besides a brief return of color to the cheeks, but in an hour it is gone again, the men still teetering on the brink of death.

“What next?” Bedwyr asks, every word a strain. Even still he is more optimistic than you – or perhaps, with how much you have tried, more foolish.

You sit back on your heels, rubbing a hand over your face. “There is nothing left. I do not--”

Your hand stills over your mouth, and that is when you realize – “My mask.” Your breath pants out harshly. “We’ve forgotten our masks.”

“You’ve been in the hall for how long?” Izana asks, too pleased. “I’m going to need you both to make Will saves.”

Mistuhide heaves a sigh, fishing through his bag for a d20, but Shirayuki –

“A Will save?” she asks haltingly.

Izana’s face turns to her, a smooth mask. “Yes.”

“It’s a curse,” you mutter, getting to your feet.

Bedwyr shakes his head, as if he’s trying to clear it. “What?”

“It’s not a plague, it’s a curse.” You survey the room, victory so close you can taste it. “It’s a curse, and it’s coming from--”

“I just have to tell you I’m detecting magic, right?” she asks, casting Izana an uncertain look.

“Why, yes.” He sits forward in his seat, steepling his fingers. “That is all you would need to do.”

“Okay.” She bites down on her lip. “I cast detect magic.”

The room is thick with miasma, like fog on the moors, hovering over every man. Your breath catches, and it takes conscious effort to breathe again, knowing it is there, knowing it could enter you. It doesn’t come from the men; no, it’s coming from somewhere in the room. You squint, trying to find its source, noticing how it’s thinnest by the doors and thickest by the hearth –

The fire. O Lord, the fire.

You rock to your feet. “Douse it!”

Bedwyr stares up at you, uncomprehending.

“The fire!” you shout. “Douse it! It’s spreading the curse!”

[chvrchesrp]

This is Part 2 of our fifth event; Part 1 can be found here.

This event is our second missive event, which means a little bit of what happens will be assigned to your muse. This event is a finale of the “Pestilence Chapter” and will be served to you in two parts. For the second part, we are introducing what happened at the ‘end’ of each room—and you’re free to create any responses you see fit, as well as write out more elaborately anything that is described below if you like. 

There are posts in the OOC to help facilitate communication. You are not required to do a group thread and are welcome to make smaller sub-threads if you prefer—but a group thread is also welcome. However you see the task getting managed best is fine by us! We do recommend that if you do a group thread, you not ‘wait up’ on a rotation, but instead just continue replying to whomever replies last in order to maintain momentum.

The date stamp for the event is still Thursday, January 26th. Assignments are considered game canon, whether or not you explore them deeply. If you have an issue with an assignment, let an Admin know! You are now welcome to write threads dated after Jan 26th.

Challenge 10′s tallies means that everyone in the Murder Mystery room contributed and so, wins their room! Jekyll and Hyde also completed a response a piece, since we don’t have an Abaddon and Olivia was excused, so they win their room! Unfortunately, Zombie Outbreak does not win their room, as Naomi and Satan are not on hiatus and neither began their thread. 

The theme is “you win some, you lose some...” so even those who won the room might still have something yet to lose—

ROOM ONE: MURDER MYSTERY INC.

THE WIN: Shibah ascertains that the order the triptych is in is a code: what would have been correctly “1, 2, 3″ was actually “3, 1, 2″—Donato inputs 312 into the lock on the desk drawer. The drawer opens, revealing a jewelry box. In another part of the room, Babylon has re-assembled the poem into a full one by connecting with Belial’s book—“God” by Langston Hughes is on page 264. The number 264 correlates to frame 264 of of the film reel, which Cassiel and Raziel have spliced together. That frame shows Chanterelle’s husband killed at his own wedding. Isadora managed to get the key out of the drain once Maria figures out they can take the wires off of Shibah’s paintings—Isadora makes a bit of a hook and gets out the key, which opens the jewelry box. Inside the jewelry box is a locket; inside the locket is a picture of Chanterelle and the key out. You solved the puzzle: Chanterelle killed your host!

THE LOSS: The tensions in the room mounted and multiplied and divided. Everyone’s emotions are running high—and now elevated and enhanced by the adrenaline of a win. Rather than that high emotionality channeled into a victory celebration, the participants step outside of their room and back into the limousine. For the next 15 to 20 minutes, everyone is in very close quarters, unable to get out of a speeding vehicle. During this time, an all-out throw-down emerges between Shibah and Raziel—with Donato backing Raziel and Cassiel backing Shibah, obviously. Belial is gleeful in the face of so much hatred finally being brought to the surface, not being controlled or composed. This is the face of the War to come among the angels: the pressure mounting of not being able to Ascend a God, and even if they could, neither seems able nor willing to side with one over the other. 

Raziel calls Shibah out and says that if she were half the angel Adon thought of her as, she’d actually be proactive about all of the chaos around them, or at least would tackle quantifiable problems—like Satan. His platform: at least he does something to protect the people. Shibah retorts that stepping up now isn’t enough to undo a lifetime track record of horrible acts, and that if anything, it’s a facade—a farce—that will doom them all. After that, it’s Cassiel that helps the argument ahead, speaking compassionately of Shibah and bringing up some of Raziel’s more heinous moments, which of course drags Donato in to defend him. The others captive in the car are taking notes—perhaps how to exploit this weakness? Perhaps which side to join, in the case of Maria? Perhaps egging them on—in the case of the demons? Perhaps trying to break up the fight—or make it worse? By the time they get out of the limo, one person has a black eye, another a split lip.

YOUR TASK: Help bring this scene to a boiling point. Before, the factions among the angels and Saints were more covert. Now, we want this to be the moment of no return—of sides for Raziel and Shibah picked, of a divide that forms. That the talk will spread and cause the same for those not present. A war is coming among them before God can Ascend: let’s get it going with a bang. Put all the cards on the table, say things you might regret, etc. Feel free to decide who takes what injuries and how, and if you want to add in more injuries, by all means go ahead.

ROOM TWO: JEKYLL AND HYDE.

THE WIN: Olivia is able to open the cabinet with Abaddon’s help; it’s Abaddon’s off-the-wall thinking that allows them to consider the 4-code 7800—the sum of all the numbers on the clock, and then none of the numbers. Inside the cabinet is a strange jar—it doesn’t seem to fit any part of this room. It looks like a body part suspended in a viscous liquid, with little tentacles. After Kiara helps Jairus unlock the computer, there is a voice-to-text note-taking program open. The most recently opened file is played: it’s a man’s voice stating, “The experiment is almost complete—” but then is abruptly cut off, recording a strained scream. Crowley and Adele have discovered a door that has no discernable way to open it—but once four people stand on the designated floor markers H7, A4, D5, E2 that Elijah and Ethan found, the door opens—revealing a whole other room.

THE LOSS: Olivia’s jar does have a home somewhere in the newly revealed laboratory of Dr. Hyde, but the puzzles suddenly seem incredibly irrelevant. The puzzles that could be found—if they could be found—are covered in very real liquids... the familiar black blood, some red, some not easily identifiable. The digital clock is broken, the surveillance camera was clipped, and the monitor to the headquarters doesn’t seem to be working. What’s there is shock and horror to everyone’s eyes: in the corner of the room is a still barely alive Mr. Drobot. When he sees Kiara, his eyes go wide and he starts screaming incoherently. This is clearly not part of the room; this is not part of the script, this is real. Coming face to face with one of her victims for the first time as a fully aware being, Kiara feels something inexplicable shift inside of her. She thinks of all the hints she had, all the warnings she’d been given. In a last desperate moment as she feels herself unravel, she gives the vial of cure to Olivia, because she’d kept the precious concoction on her own body to protect it.

Then, all eyes fall on Kiara—how could they not?—as she goes over to Drobot—or perhaps a better word is drawn, as if by destiny, as if by some force bigger than them all—and she sits on his shoulders as he whimpers. Her jaw seems to unhinge as if she might swallow his entire head. But through her gaping maw, rather than chomping down with inadequate teeth, a dark mist rises from him, as if she’s steaming out all of his darkness, all of his corruption, all of his deceit and greed and unforgivable acts, and she swallows them down with a smile. Only then does it become clear that beneath his body are other bodies; soon, he shrivels into a husk of a man, as if all the moisture had left him, and he looks as brittle as the bodies he sat on. The last thing to emerge from his body was a small speck of light, almost a bit of dust that happened to catch something bright, before it disappeared entirely. This, of course, might be easily forgotten in contrast:

Kiara seems to become, for a moment, larger than life. While her body might have remained the same size, something about her—her energy? her way of being perceived—seemed to take over the whole room. The room becomes colder because Kiara is drawing all of the heat to her like a new sun: she is glowing and fire unfurls from her back shaped like wings, singing the walls, the puzzles in the room, anything they touch on the edges. Just like a fire blaze, she stokes hot and hotter, and then the wing shapes slowly crackle down, becoming more like a sparking forcefield of energy around her body, like a visible aura. When Kiara steps off of the bodies, she looks just like herself, but now a faint glow permanently lines her skin. A living embodiment of the Rapture, the Horsemen of Pestilence has been fully integrated. No one has noticed that Olivia is missing; she won’t be found again until the next morning, with no memory of the night before after this moment. She lost the cure.

YOUR TASK: Your muses have just witnessed the first full birth of a Horseman and she is standing in front of you, this balancer of the universe, this Sin-Eater, this cleanser of souls. What the fuck? What do you do? Do you know her still, try to talk to her, try to see what’s left and what’s changed? Do you try to win her to your side? Do you run? Do you go to the previous room and try to contact the authorities? Do you see if the 3 town cars are waiting for you out front, back the way you came? What do chaos demons do in the midst of all this chaos? What do the Saint boards do to try and manage everyone? And do the unaligned humans feel a little bit more like believers?

ROOM THREE: ZOMBIE OUTBREAK.

THE NEAR-WIN: Magda and Josh have the key from the actor’s fake stomach; Renee abandons Dom, but he manages to figure out that the skull goes on the scale in fast fashion, meaning he gets to keep the velvet pouch, which has a key in it; Noah and Zoe do figure out the Morse code to open the crate, and inside the crate is another key. Everyone has a bunch of keys but none of them seem to open anything—that’s because Satan and Naomi couldn’t solve their box puzzle, so the puzzles can’t progress, so the team fails the room. As the living zombie actor closes in on all of them, a honking siren goes off inside, a blaring indicator that they did not escape the room. The noise only further functions to put pressure on those who failed, but many people are just happy to have the door open again so they can get out—happy to have survived, if not won, a room with Satan.

THE LOSS: So what maybe started as an only slightly unhealthy bicker contest between strangers has unfortunately devolved under the weight of imagined pressure with an unstable force. Satan was cruel and degrading but Naomi wouldn’t back down; it was too much insolence and that, combined with their inability to solve a fucking box puzzle, made him almost fit to burst a gasket. When the door opened regardless as the failure alarm sounded, loud and invasive as a fire drill alarm, Satan snapped at Naomi. He grabbed her by the throat and raised her 3 inches off the ground, staring hard at her, and then putting her back on the ground without releasing her. In a voice that matches her dead ex-boyfriend, Satan said, “It was nothing, Naomi,” but the voice held an edge of anger and rage, despite being a perfect channel. His face twisted and contorted just as Christopher’s had. “A guy has needs, Naomi,” he continued, boring holes into her with his eyes.

“I have a right to be happy, to be pleased,” he continued, punctuating the quotations from nights so long ago like punches, “and if you won’t do the things I need you to do then I’m going to get others to take care of me.” He brought up his other hand in a fist and hit her upside the head, an echo of where she’d hit her ex with blunt force trauma, but not as hard. “You have literally nothing to complain about.” Satan’s face was a mask of her ex’s as he released her from his grasp only to slap her in the face, just as Christopher had. He was eating her pain, lapping it up like a dog, trying to find the cracks inside of her that would make her crack. The entire room hung in a hysterical silence, not yet enough time to be bystanders, not yet enough time to divert the crisis, how quickly had it escalated, and by whom it had been perpetrated. Naomi’s face had red marks across it as she was reeled back, dazed from the impact, tears forming in slow trickles in between shock.

It is at this time that Satan, so focused on Naomi, doesn’t notice a redhead sliding in for a literal dick punch. Magda had been paralyzed by fear, but couldn’t witness something similar to her own trauma happen to someone else. She couldn’t stop Satan, but she could pause him, enough so that everyone can try to get out of the room in one piece—including Naomi.

YOUR TASK: Satan obviously can’t be killed by anyone present, but he needs to be stopped, needs to re-center himself and perhaps get a grip on his worry stone to realign his thoughts. People also need to get out and back on the bus back to headquarters, which still involves sharing space with Satan. Do things escalate? Does Satan have allies in the room, willing to take the opportunity to cause more damages or to support him in his actions? To exploit the moment? Or are people more interested in getting out of there, looking after each other? Will this be a divisive moment, or one that brings unlikely people into a bond?

Enjoy, darlings!!

[deniscollins]

Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?

Former CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, spoke about working 130 hours a week. Elon Musk noted that employees should work 80 hours a week, and peak at 100 at times. Bernie Klinder, a consultant for a large tech company, said he tried to limit himself to five 11-hour days per week, which adds up to an extra day of productivity. If you were a CEO of a high tech company would  you encourage employees to work: (1) 55 hours a week, (2) 80 a week, (3) 100 a week? Why? What are the ethics underlying  your decision?

Never once at the start of my workweek — not in my morning coffee shop line; not in my crowded subway commute; not as I begin my bottomless inbox slog — have I paused, looked to the heavens and whispered: #ThankGodIt’sMonday.

Apparently, that makes me a traitor to my generation. I learned this during a series of recent visits to WeWork locations in New York, where the throw pillows implore busy tenants to “Do what you love.” Neon signs demand they “Hustle harder,” and murals spread the gospel of T.G.I.M. Even the cucumbers in WeWork’s water coolers have an agenda. “Don’t stop when you’re tired,” someone recently carved into the floating vegetables’ flesh. “Stop when you are done.” Kool-Aid drinking metaphors are rarely this literal.

Welcome to hustle culture. It is obsessed with striving, relentlessly positive, devoid of humor, and — once you notice it — impossible to escape. “Rise and Grind” is both the theme of a Nike ad campaign and the title of a book by a “Shark Tank” shark. New media upstarts like the Hustle, which produces a popular business newsletter and conference series, and One37pm, a content company created by the patron saint of hustling, Gary Vaynerchuk, glorify ambition not as a means to an end, but as a lifestyle.

“The current state of entrepreneurship is bigger than career,” reads the One37pm “About Us” page. “It’s ambition, grit and hustle. It’s a live performance that lights up your creativity … a sweat session that sends your endorphins coursing ... a visionary who expands your way of thinking.” From this point of view, not only does one never stop hustling — one never exits a kind of work rapture, in which the chief purpose of exercising or attending a concert is to get inspiration that leads back to the desk.

Ryan Harwood, the chief executive of One37pm’s parent company, told me that the site’s content is aimed at a younger generation of people who are seeking permission to follow their dreams. “They want to know how to own their moment, at any given moment,” he said.

“Owning one’s moment” is a clever way to rebrand “surviving the rat race.” In the new work culture, enduring or even merely liking one’s job is not enough. Workers should love what they do, and then promote that love on social media, thus fusing their identities to that of their employers. Why else would LinkedIn build its own version of Snapchat Stories?

This is toil glamour, and it is going mainstream. Most visibly, WeWork — which investors recently valued at $47 billion — is on its way to becoming the Starbucks of office culture. It has exported its brand of performative workaholism to 27 countries, with 400,000 tenants, including workers from 30 percent of the Global Fortune 500.

In January, WeWork’s founder, Adam Neumann, announced that his start-up was rebranding itself as the We Company, to reflect an expansion into residential real estate and education. Describing the shift, Fast Company wrote: “Rather than just renting desks, the company aims to encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds.” The ideal client, one imagines, is someone so enamored of the WeWork office aesthetic — whip-cracking cucumbers and all — that she sleeps in a WeLive apartment, works out at a Rise by We gym, and sends her children to a WeGrow school.

From this vantage, “Office Space,” the Gen-X slacker paean that came out 20 years ago next month, feels like science fiction from a distant realm. It’s almost impossible to imagine a start-up worker bee of today confessing, as protagonist Peter Gibbons does, “It’s not that I’m lazy. It’s that I just don’t care.” Workplace indifference just doesn’t have a socially acceptable hashtag.

‘It’s grim and exploitative’

It’s not difficult to view hustle culture as a swindle. After all, convincing a generation of workers to beaver away is convenient for those at the top.

“The vast majority of people beating the drums of hustle-mania are not the people doing the actual work. They’re the managers, financiers and owners,” said David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, a software company. We spoke in October, as he was promoting his new book, “It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work,” about creating healthy company cultures.

Mr. Heinemeier Hansson said that despite data showing long hours improve neither productivity nor creativity, myths about overwork persist because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies. “It’s grim and exploitative,” he said.

Elon Musk, who stands to reap stock compensation upward of $50 billion if his company, Tesla, meets certain performance levels, is a prime example of extolling work by the many that will primarily benefit him. He tweeted in November that there are easier places to work than Tesla, “but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” The correct number of hours “varies per person,” he continued, but is “about 80 sustained, peaking about 100 at times. Pain level increases exponentially above 80.”

Mr. Musk, who has more than 24 million Twitter followers, further noted that if you love what you do, “it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.” Even he had to soften the lie of T.G.I.M. with a parenthetical.

Arguably, the technology industry started this culture of work zeal sometime around the turn of the millennium, when the likes of Google started to feed, massage and even play doctor to its employees. The perks were meant to help companies attract the best talent — and keep employees at their desks longer. It seemed enviable enough: Who wouldn’t want an employer that literally took care of your dirty laundry?

But today, as tech culture infiltrates every corner of the business world, its hymns to the virtues of relentless work remind me of nothing so much as Soviet-era propaganda, which promoted impossible-seeming feats of worker productivity to motivate the labor force. One obvious difference, of course, is that those Stakhanovite posters had an anticapitalist bent, criticizing the fat cats profiting from free enterprise. Today’s messages glorify personal profit, even if bosses and investors — not workers — are the ones capturing most of the gains. Wage growth has been essentially stagnant for years.

Perhaps we’ve all gotten a little hungry for meaning. Participation in organized religion is falling, especially among American millennials. In San Francisco, where I live, I’ve noticed that the concept of productivity has taken on an almost spiritual dimension. Techies here have internalized the idea — rooted in the Protestant work ethic — that work is not something you do to get what you want; the work itself is all. Therefore any life hack or company perk that optimizes their day, allowing them to fit in even more work, is not just desirable but inherently good.

Aidan Harper, who created a European workweek-shrinkage campaign called 4 Day Week, argues that this is dehumanizing and toxic. “It creates the assumption that the only value we have as human beings is our productivity capability — our ability to work, rather than our humanity,” he told me.

It’s cultist, Mr. Harper added, to convince workers to buy into their own exploitation with a change-the-world message. “It’s creating the idea that Elon Musk is your high priest,” he said. “You’re going into your church every day and worshiping at the altar of work.”

For congregants of the Cathedral of Perpetual Hustle, spending time on anything that’s nonwork related has become a reason to feel guilty. Jonathan Crawford, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, told me that he sacrificed his relationships and gained more than 40 pounds while working on Storenvy, his e-commerce start-up. If he socialized, it was at a networking event. If he read, it was a business book. He rarely did anything that didn’t have a “direct R.O.I.,” or return on investment, for his company.

Mr. Crawford changed his lifestyle after he realized it made him miserable. Now, as an entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Start-ups, an investment firm, he tells fellow founders to seek out nonwork-related activities like reading fiction, watching movies or playing games. Somehow this comes off as radical advice. “It’s oddly eye-opening to them because they didn’t realize they saw themselves as a resource to be expended,” Mr. Crawford said.

It’s easy to become addicted to the pace and stress of work in 2019. Bernie Klinder, a consultant for a large tech company, said he tried to limit himself to five 11-hour days per week, which adds up to an extra day of productivity. “If your peers are competitive, working a ‘normal workweek’ will make you look like a slacker,” he wrote in an email.

Still, he’s realistic about his place in the rat race. “I try to keep in mind that if I dropped dead tomorrow, all of my acrylic workplace awards would be in the trash the next day,” he wrote, “and my job would be posted in the paper before my obituary.”

Lusty for Monday mornings

The logical endpoint of excessively avid work, of course, is burnout. That is the subject of a recent viral essay by the BuzzFeed cultural critic Anne Helen Petersen, which thoughtfully addresses one of the incongruities of hustle-mania in the young. Namely: If Millennials are supposedly lazy and entitled, how can they also be obsessed with killing it at their jobs?

Millennials, Ms. Petersen argues, are just desperately striving to meet their own high expectations. An entire generation was raised to expect that good grades and extracurricular overachievement would reward them with fulfilling jobs that feed their passions. Instead, they wound up with precarious, meaningless work and a mountain of student loan debt. And so posing as a rise-and-grinder, lusty for Monday mornings, starts to make sense as a defense mechanism.

Most jobs — even most good jobs! — are full of pointless drudgery. Most corporations let us down in some way. And yet years after the HBO satire “Silicon Valley” made the vacuous mission statement “making the world a better place” a recurring punch line, many companies still cheerlead the virtues of work with high-minded messaging. For example, Spotify, a company that lets you listen to music, says that its mission is “to unlock the potential of human creativity.” Dropbox, which lets you upload files and stuff, says its purpose is “to unleash the world’s creative energy by designing a more enlightened way of working.”

David Spencer, a professor of economics at Leeds University Business School, says that such posturing by companies, economists and politicians dates at least to the rise of mercantilism in 16th-century Europe. “There has been an ongoing struggle by employers to venerate work in ways that distract from its unappealing features,” he said. But such propaganda can backfire. In 17th-century England, work was lauded as a cure for vice, Mr. Spencer said, but the unrewarding truth just drove workers to drink more.

Internet companies may have miscalculated in encouraging employees to equate their work with their intrinsic value as human beings. After a long era of basking in positive esteem, the tech industry is experiencing a backlash both broad and fierce, on subjects from monopolistic behavior to spreading disinformation and inciting racial violence. And workers are discovering how much power they wield. In November, some 20,000 Googlers participated in a walkout protesting the company’s handling of sexual abusers. Other company employees shut down an artificial intelligence contract with the Pentagon that could have helped military drones become more lethal.

Mr. Heinemeier Hansson cited the employee protests as evidence that millennial workers would eventually revolt against the culture of overwork. “People aren’t going to stand for this,” he said, using an expletive, “or buy the propaganda that eternal bliss lies at monitoring your own bathroom breaks.” He was referring to an interview that the former chief executive of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, gave in 2016, in which she said that working 130 hours a week was possible “if you’re strategic about when you sleep, when you shower, and how often you go to the bathroom.”

Ultimately, workers must decide if they admire or reject this level of devotion. Ms. Mayer’s comments were widely panned on social media when the interview ran, but since then, Quora users have eagerly shared their own strategies for mimicking her schedule. Likewise, Mr. Musk’s “pain level” tweets drew plenty of critical takes, but they also garnered just as many accolades and requests for jobs.

The grim reality of 2019 is that begging a billionaire for employment via Twitter is not considered embarrassing, but a perfectly plausible way to get ahead. On some level, you have to respect the hustlers who see a dismal system and understand that success in it requires total, shameless buy-in. If we’re doomed to toil away until we die, we may as well pretend to like it. Even on Mondays.