stand & argue virtue

independent roleplay blog for aesop carl, the embalmer, from identity v. run by thanaticist.

[serenityservant]

independent, semi-selective, open to character/plot discussion and AUs.

[serenityservant]

( sorry that i have not been around lately! but i do very much intend to continue using this blog and would like to start posting again soon. i am aware that i have a couple untouched threads and a reply that i’ve owed for quite some time so i understand completely if anyone would like to drop a thread they had going with me. please feel free to let me know! )

[serenityservant]

( i have a quick little self-promotion for you all... i’ve officially posted the first part of the joscarl fic i’ve been working on since july of last year!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29241243

content warnings are at the beginning in the notes though it is mostly the typical aesop carl fare. )

[oneinathousandmemes]

First-Person Writing Meme

Send in 😶 + a word for a short drabble, headcanon, or one-shot written in first person based on that word.

If you can't see the symbol, send in "first person" + a word.

[villainsmemes-deactivated202503]

GENERAL

“Can you walk?”

“How did this happen?”

“What the hell happened?”

“I hit my head.”

“Did you hit your head?”

“Can you hear me?”

“Don’t close your eyes, stay awake!”

“Come on, stay with me!”

“No no no no no!”

“You shot me!”

“I didn’t mean to shoot you!”

“You stabbed me!”

“I didn’t mean to stab you!”

“Take the knife out!”

“Don’t take the knife out!”

“It was an accident!”

“That/this wasn’t an accident!”

“That looks broken.”

“I think my leg/arm is broken.”

“That doesn’t look good.”

“Am I going to die?”

“You’re not going to die!”

“Calm down!”

“Don’t panic!”

“I can’t help you if you don’t let me!”

BLOOD

“Are you bleeding?”

“Don’t move, you’re bleeding.”

“Is that blood?”

“Whose blood is that?”

“That’s a lot of blood.”

“Do you know how to get bloodstains out?”

“Why do you know how to get bloodstains out?”

“Damn, I got blood on my shirt.”

“Don’t move, you’re losing blood!”

“I won’t let you bleed out!”

“You have blood on your face.”

“I swear to god, if you get blood on me…”

“What’s your blood type?”

“Why in the hell would you need to know my blood type?”

WOUNDS

“That cut is nasty.”

“You have a massive gash in your arm/leg!’

“Don’t touch it!”

“Don’t move, you’ll only make it worse!”

“I’ll get some bandages.”

“You’re going to need stitches.”

“That looks infected…”

“Did you get bit by something?”

“There’s no exit wound, the bullet is still in you.”

“There’s an exit wound, the bullet went through you.”

AFTERCARE

“How are you feeling?”

“How does it feel?”

“It’s still not healed, but it’s getting there.”

“Let’s go home.”

“I just want to go home.”

“Let’s get you into the bathtub.”

“We need to change your bandages soon.”

“Get some sleep, okay?”

“You need to eat something, you’ve been through a lot today.”

“I’ll check up on you in a bit.”

“You’re going to be fine. I promise.”

[serenityservant]

open starter : bouquet

At least once a week, Emma would bring Aesop a basket or two of flowers from the manor's expansive garden and ask him if he would put together another one of his "beautiful arrangements."  He put them together on the floor of his room, sitting cross-legged on the hardwood with the flowers sorted by color in small piles all around him. In the wee hours of the morning he would carry the finished product down to Emma's room, with great effort, and leave it by the side of her door.

It was the middle of the night, the perfect time of night to do a covert delivery, when Aesop bumped his shoulder turning a corner too tightly and sent a good third of a freshly-filled vase's contents flying across the hallway. 

He gasped quietly and set the vase on the floor, a small panic starting to rise in his chest as he silently pleaded that no one had been woken by the thud of his shoulder colliding with the wall. At least he hadn’t dropped and shattered the vase itself.

Inspecting each flower for damage as he went, he gathered them into a hasty bunch that he stared at helplessly for much longer than he'd have liked to. They would slip back into the bouquet easily, at the cost of looking a bit messier than usual, but the structure of the task was all jumbled in his head now. The bouquet had already been finished. The stems were dripping water onto the floor. He hadn't thought to take his gloves off before picking them up.

Damn it.

He focused on the repetitive motion of twirling a flower stem back and forth between his fingers for a few moments before he finally placed it back into the bouquet with a soft sigh. 

[serenityservant]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐄

name : aesop carl

residence : oletus manor

average hours of sleep :  4 to 7 hours on an average night, 2 or less on a bad night, up to 14 on the drawn-out sleepless days (which happen, say, once every few weeks)

type of bed : basic, what was provided for him by the manor. not uncomfortable but not notably soft or cushiony either. he always keeps it neatly-made.

amount of blankets : even though he likes the weight of multiple blankets, aesop overheats easily and is prone to kicking them off in his sleep or getting twisted up in them from tossing & turning, so usually just one.

amount of pillows :  two. the second pillow is more of a lightly weighted anchor.

type of clothing :  aesop is an underwear sleeper. a shirt on top at most. i’m sorry to be so frank about it. in my experience this is very much an autism “feeling like i am trapped in the tormentous crystal prison that is clothing” thing.

do they sleep with company? : no, definitely not. the thought of having to do so terrifies him. if he were ever to have any sort of life partner they would most likely have to sleep in separate beds.

do they sleep with plushies? : no.

do they sleep better with company? : probably not. again, the thought terrifies him, plus he tosses & turns constantly while struggling to fall asleep and has a lot of nightmares. having someone next to him or in the same room would likely just give him more anxiety to lay awake thinking about and he would just fixate on their presence until morning.

does it matter where they sleep? :  sort of, because he already has so much trouble falling asleep. he might doze off a bit while sitting up or pass out for a short while at his desk but he’s never had to sleep anywhere particularly uncomfortable so he’s not used to doing so and would not have a fun time trying to sleep somewhere that doesn’t at least somewhat resemble a bed.

frequent dreams, nightmares? : nightmares, almost always. we need not go into detail.

what do they do if they cannot fall asleep? : lay awake, toss and turn. if he gets frustrated enough he’ll get out of bed and do some reading or practice painting surrogates until he can’t keep his eyes open any longer, and if his struggle continues into the morning, he will sometimes just give in and go get himself some breakfast.

deep slumber or naps? : aesop is sensitive to sound and has hypervigilance from his childhood so he’s a light sleeper. he does take naps occasionally due to exhaustion from anxiety attacks but those are less “naps” and more “collapsing onto his bed and passing out.” the only time he sleeps deeply is after he’s stayed awake for 24+ hours.

when do they wake up? : he likes to get up early to have breakfast before sunrise, when not many people are awake. usually around 5 to 5:30. surprisingly, despite his many sleep-related issues, he mostly manages to do this consistently--if he passed out in sleepless desperation at 5 pm the day before, he can get up for breakfast at 4:30 am the next day. if he didn’t sleep at all, it’s something to do when he’s given up on trying. and if he actually got a full nights’ rest (by his standards), he can start his day exactly how he likes to.

when do they sleep? : assuming he’s been awake for a normal human amount of time, he goes to bed at around 8 or 9 pm each night. most nights he does fall asleep after only an hour or two of tossing and turning.

what could wake them up? : most things. he wakes up frequently due to his nightmares which causes him a lot of frustration because falling asleep in the first place can be such an endeavor for him, and often they make him afraid to fall back asleep. thumping or banging sounds will almost always wake him up no matter what due to his hypervigilance, though thankfully he doesn’t have the same “i have to get up and investigate” response that he did when he was a child looking out for his mother.

taken from @guiltburied. i’m not tagging anyone but please feel free to do it yourself.

[serenityservant]

( i was talking recently about IC among us and remembered these aesops i doodled based on some IC games i participated in a few months ago... i don’t really have anywhere else to put them so i thought it might be neat to post them here. :p

ahh, the number of times non-imposter aesop has gotten voted out purely for being too ominous... )

[serenityservant]

answering a few more questions from that ask meme, mostly for the sake of getting to type out & share a lot of character meta. i am just doing a few that i already had easy answers to.

warning for mentions of, well, some talk of death & embalming (detailed most in the rather long answer to the first question).

ABATINA: is there anything in life your muse has changed their mind about over time (due to becoming more educated on the topic, certain experiences, etc), or that they would change their mind about under certain circumstances? 

i’m aware that this is a weird, specific, and likely controversial opinion, but i believe that as his opinions evolve & grow and if he is ever able to start breaking away from jerry carl’s teachings, there is a potential for aesop to eventually become anti-embalming. no matter what aesop’s opinions may morph into, he will always be someone who believes staunchly in his own morals and who is passionate about his beliefs to an extreme degree, and death will probably always be the thing that he is most zealous about. as such i find that some people who are passionate about death in a certain way (myself included!) tend to form some... complicated feelings for the practice of embalming, and aesop, who is singularly obsessed with death, is primed for forming extremely specific impassioned opinions about it.

his special interest is cosmetizing, but being that he has such a deep reverence for death, i could see him (after a long time away from his old life & his grooming, and possibly after being introduced to some other perspectives on death--though his stubborn, trauma-borne opposition to other opinions is another story entirely) possibly abandoning that after getting fixated on the idea that “sanitizing” or “aestheticizing” death is morally wrong and disrespectful, or that death and the dead should be allowed to exist in their natural states. he strongly believes that the  concept of the afterlife stands for a disruption of death’s true peace and i could see him believing that embalming is a disruption in a similar way.

he is prone to unhealthy thought patterns as a result of his complex preoccupations. once he believes something is Morally Correct he will start to come to some unorthodox conclusions about it. i don’t necessarily believe that this change of heart is “canon” to aesop’s character but it is a direction i could see him going down simply because he is so passionate about death. it’s complicated because he also believes that one of his life’s purposes is to provide comfort for those in grieving and, even as embalming may be morally complicated, being able to provide a peaceful last image for mourners is important to him.

am i projecting my very complicated feelings about it onto aesop’s character? well, maybe. learn about some mortuary practices across cultures and then you can criticize me for flagrant & public projection! (i promise this is said in good humor)

BEGONIA: how cautious is your muse? are they prone to noticing red flags, or paranoid to the point of untrusting most everyone? why or why not?  

aesop is very complicated in this regard... he is a cautious person to the point of being hypervigilant when it comes to certain things and (in part due to his grooming & isolation and the belief that other people will never understand him) is generally not trusting, but he also has such a difficult time reading other peoples’ intentions that some red flags are very easy for him to miss. his saving graces, though they aren’t necessarily positive personality traits, are probably his stubbornness and his belief that he is More Correct than other people.

CARNATION: what is your muse’s relationship with their gender? how do they express or not express this relationship?

aesop is a trans man who knew this from a very early age (i will actually go into more detail about this below). as he got older he found that he feels most comfortable in his identity when he toes on the edge of androgyny and presents as such--he likes his longer hair and the difficult-to-place monotone of his voice and he sometimes likes to wear a bit of makeup to highlight features like his eyelashes.

GOLDENROD: does your muse believe in luck or fortune? why or why not? where do they believe these things come from? 

aesop believes strongly in fate and destiny, in ways that might not be considered... plausible or realistic. though the invitation to oletus manor was not addressed to him, he still believes that it was meant for him to find--that the body carrying it was merely a messenger guiding him towards his true fate. it was meant, from the very beginning, for him and him only, and fate dropped everything into place specifically so it would find its way into his hands.

it isn’t “luck” he believes in, so much as that the line of cascading dominos will always lead to their intended ending, determined from the start. everything that happens is meant to happen.

HIBISCUS: how does your muse view the gentler, daintier things in life? as things worth preserving & caring for, or things only bound to wither & disappear? 

i chose this question specifically because the answer is--both! the fleeting nature of all things, to aesop, is all the more reason to cherish them. he is prone to sometimes getting caught up in the nihilism of death’s ever-looming certainty, and has been distressed by it on occasion, but the cure for that specific brand of melancholy is to believe even stronger that everything in the world is precious. he is incredibly aware of how even the tiniest things affect the world around them and how that ties into the cycle of life & death.

LOTUS: has your muse ever felt as though they’ve been reborn? have they ever desired the feeling of a fresh start, or a better understanding of themself and/or the world around them?  

the concept of “rebirth” is of course integral to aesop’s character. as a trans man myself i became immediately fixated on the character tidbit that aesop held a funeral for his “past self” when he started living with jerry and being taught his “purpose.”

i don’t want to argue on this subject so please don’t try, but it is such a transgender narrative and having “rebirth” be the motif of his character... ah, god, the transgenderism of it all. and the gender politics of the death industry and how one could tie the symbolism of that into his being transgender! (dragging my hands down my face in ecstatic agony)

i ended up not going into aesop’s complicated relationship with his mother--i was going to answer the “how does your muse feel about their mother” question but it ended up being a bit more dark and serious than i honestly feel is appropriate to talk about on a roleplay blog, but i feel that aesop was more accepting than he otherwise would have been of starting a new life with jerry because he was someone who had never known him as a girl, or as a daughter. it’s the first opportunity he ever had to live purely as himself with no preconceived notions. jerry met him as a child with choppy short hair and boys’ clothes who answered “aesop” when asked his name.

his old life and his old self and the old ideas that the people around him had of who he was... they all went away. that person died. and aesop knows exactly what to do for those who have died.

[serenityservant]

poppy, snapdragon, tulip!

POPPY:  what comforts your muse?

aesop is very familiar with what he requires for self-soothing, as well as how to stim in discreet ways if he’s around others and doesn’t want to bring any attention to himself. when it comes to comfort he values silence more than anything, and having a solid & uninterrupted routine brings him peace & keeps him grounded. he likes to keep his makeup case with him as much as possible, being that it’s great for fiddling (messing with the handle or toggling the lock) and can provide a comfortable weight in his lap if he needs that. it also provides a sense of security since it makes him feel prepared.

SNAPDRAGON: is your muse merciful? why or why not?

“mercy” is aesop’s driving force, even if his idea of it can differ greatly from what other people might consider to be merciful. it is his life’s purpose to minimize suffering, and seeing others in pain can be very uncomfortable for him (though thankfully he isn’t squeamish). he was taught that ending someone’s life and granting them the serenity of death is the easiest and most humane solution to suffering, but after the death of his mentor, he struggles sometimes with the question of when someone’s suffering is at a threshold that warrants death. he is aware of death’s weight and has doubts that jerry carl ever truly revered its gravity, and despite not always being sure of where the line is, he knows that a mercy killing is not the answer to every kind of pain. his sense of mercy also means he can be prone to self-sacrifice in matches for the sake of his teammates.

TULIP:  how does your muse view people in general?

though aesop has a hard time being around others and tries to keep his distance as much as he can, he values the lives of the people around him immensely. he may get frustrated and snappy when people stray too close to him, and the constant struggle to read their intentions can cause a lot of panic & confusion, but he believes that all life & all people are precious beyond measure. hence why the idea of them suffering causes him so much distress, and why ending a life requires respect & care and an awareness of death’s deep solemnity.

[promptfairy]

❥     𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒    [   𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚂    ]   .

headcanon prompts with questions based on plants   &   what they represent in flower language .  happy roleplaying !!  ♡

abatina :   is there anything in life your muse has changed their mind about over time   (   due to becoming more educated on the topic ,   certain experiences  ,   etc .   ) ,    or that they   would   change their mind about under certain circumstances ?  

acanthus :   is your muse deceptive ,   or willing to lie or deceive to achieve certain means ?   why or why not ?   

aloe :   how does your muse handle grief ?

amaryllis :   what is something or someone that your muse takes pride in ?   how do they express that pride ?   

anemone :   how does your muse view the world ;   as a cruel   &   unforgiving place ,   a land full of wonders ,   or something in - between ?  where does that world view come from   (   what experiences ,   life lessons ,   etc .   ) ?  

angelica :   where does your muse draw inspiration in life ?   what motivates them ?

apple blossom :   how does your muse go about expressing or not expressing their sexuality ?  

bachelor’s button :   does your muse actively seek romantic companionship ,   or cherish the liberties of being single ? 

basil :   does your muse have a love - hate relationship with anyone or anything ?

bay tree :   does your muse seek glory   &   accolades ,   or do they favour a simpler ,   more personal life ?  

begonia :   how cautious is your muse ?   are they prone to noticing red flags ,   or paranoid to the point of untrusting most everyone ?   why or why not ?  

belladonna :   how does your muse respond to silence ?   do they take comfort in soundlessness ,   or seek to fill the void with noise ?   

bluebell :   does your muse learn from their past ,   or are they prone to repeating the same mistakes ?  

carnation :   what is your muse’s relationship with their gender ?   how do they express or not express this relationship ?  

chamomile :   what is your muse likely to take away from a painful experience ?   are they one to be haunted by adversity ,   or to use what they’ve gone through to become stronger ?  

chrysanthemum :   how does your muse express romantic love ?  how do they feel about love as a concept ?  

daffodil :   is your muse one to be loyal in relationships ,   or are they likely to quickly move from one bond to another ?

daisy :   did your muse ever feel as though their innocence had been lost ?   what moment in their life could be described as the end of their innocence ?  

edelweiss :   what was the bravest moment in your muse’s life ?  are they known to be courageous from then on ?  

fern :   does your muse believe in magic or cosmic forces ,   or are they more likely to think their life is ultimately a matter of their own control ?  

forget - me - not :   has your muse ever forgotten something that is or was important to them ?   are they afraid of forgetting things like that ?  

gardenia :   is your muse one to confess romantic feelings early on ,   or to conceal them for long periods of time ?  

gladiolus :   describe a moment from your muse’s life that they will never forget .

goldenrod :   does your muse believe in luck or fortune ?  why or why not ?   where do they believe these things come from ?  

heliotrope :   does your muse believe in soulmates ?

hibiscus :   how does your muse view the gentler ,   daintier things in life ?   as things worth preserving   &   caring for ,   or things only bound to wither   &   disappear ?  

holly :   how strong is your muse’s sense of intuition ?  are they aware of it ?   do they ever fear that it is only paranoia ?  

hollyhock :   how strong is your muse’s sense of ambition ?  what’s something they strive for in life ?  

hyacinth :   is your muse athletic ?   does it come naturally to them ,   or have they had to work for their physique and/or skill ?  

hydrangea :   how much does your muse value communication in their relationships with others ?  are they prone to being misunderstood ?

iris :   if your muse could convey one last message to someone they have lost or left behind ,   what would it be ?  

ivy :   what are your muse’s views on marriage ?   do they believe it is something strictly for love ,   or an institution rooted in business   &   social benefits ?   do they desire or have they desired to be married ?

lavender :   how easy is it to gain your muse’s trust ?  once their trust is broken ,   how might one go about mending it ?  

lilac :   what was your muse’s childhood like ?   how has their upbringing affected them as they’ve aged ? 

lily :   how does your muse view their mother ?  

lotus :   has your muse ever felt as though they’ve been reborn ?  have they ever desired the feeling of a fresh start ,   or a better understanding of themself and/or the world around them ?  

magnolia :   describe your muse’s relationship with nature   &   the natural world .  

marigold :   is your muse prone to jealousy ?  how might they handle envious feelings ?  

mint :   does your muse view themself as virtuous   &   moral ?  what do these words mean to them ?

nasturtium :   describe your muse’s relationship with their birthplace ,   or homeland .  

oak :   who would your muse consider the strongest person they know ?  

pansy :   does your muse often reflect on their own actions ?   do they ever think a lot about the past ,   and what they could have done differently ?

parsley :   describe a holiday your muse enjoys ,   and why they enjoy it .

peony :   what would a   ‘  happy life  ’   look like in your muse’s eyes ?

poppy :   what comforts your muse ?

rhododendron :   is your muse receptive to warnings   &   advice given by others ?

rose :   how much does your muse value other people ?   do they wish to have many friends ,   lovers ,   and/or associates ?   are they an easy person to love ?

sage :   what is your muse’s legacy ?   what do they want to be remembered for   &   what might they actually be remembered for ?  

salvia :   is your muse possessive over people or things that matter a lot to them ?  how do they express that possessiveness ,   or lack thereof ? 

snapdragon :   is your muse merciful ?  why or why not ?

southernwood :   how seriously does your muse take themself ?   do they prefer a solemn   &   intellectual atmosphere or do they delight in jokes   &   banter ?  

sunflower :   what brings your muse the most joy in life ?  

tulip :   how does your muse view people in general ?  

violet :   how does your muse respond to betrayal ?

willow :   how does your muse handle sadness   &   depression ?

zinnia :   how has the loss of fallen comrades and/or loved ones affected your muse ?   has it taught them anything or given them any new perspectives ?

[serenityservant]

surviiived​:

Emma took a closer look, inspecting the small insect. It looked so peaceful… like it was merely resting. No sign of injury anywhere, but the gardener didn’t know anything about bees and their anatomy—maybe Melly would be able to help. 

The young woman looked closer at the legs, seeing the small pocket of yellow. Instead of being proud of the little honeybee for working hard, she found herself feeling terribly sad… it just died right in the middle of working..?? Death came be so abrupt… so frightening… the thought was making her head hurt. 

“Hmm… and you found it here?” Emma asked with a slight tilt of her head, ignoring her headache as she usually did. “Strange… There’s been a lot of bees dying around this area. I wonder if one of my flowers isn’t good for them…” She doesn’t like the idea of her being the reason for all these deaths… maybe Melly could help her figure out what is going on…

Aesop noticed the subtle shift in her expression--after a few too many misunderstandings that would have been avoided if not for his social shortcomings, he’d been making an attempt to notice things like facial expressions and vocal tones. Maybe he shouldn’t have spoken so freely of mortality.

He nodded his head. His growing feeling that the bee’s death had less to do with environmental factors and more to do with him being destined to find its body withered slightly when she mentioned the recurring deaths. But he trusted Emma’s intuition when it came to gardening, and to cohabitation with the earth and its many tiny inhabitants; it felt unlikely that it could be her fault.

He could tell he had upset her, either way. He wasn’t sure what to do about that, but he pulled his hand back towards himself slightly as if to shield her from the sight of the dead bug.

“This manor is a very strange place,” he settled on. “Sometimes I believe that things happen for no reason other than to spite us.”

[serenityservant]

→ 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: fill in the categories with 5 things that your character can be identified by.

tagged by @graveiris i don’t have anyone to tag but if you’d like to do this please feel free to say i tagged you.

𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 / 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. a sense of purpose & the knowledge that no one else could even begin to understand it, a desire to be left alone, complete focus & precision, being overwhelmed by the unwanted & the unfamiliar, the assurance & comfort of finality

𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. silence, a single word spoken hesitantly, walking away, openly expressing disinterest, panicking

𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬. grey, yellow, black, white, red

𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. powder makeup, embalming fluid, sympathy bouquets, incense, latex

𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬. a well-organized makeup case, a hypodermic needle, a pair of white gloves, a coffin, a mandala flower folded by hand

𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 / 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐬. picky eating, not sleeping, denying or ignoring perspectives different from his own, walking away at “inappropriate” times, self-isolating

𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞. perfect posture, trying to stim in ways that won’t draw attention, glancing away, a white-knuckled grip on the handle of his makeup case, shrinking in on himself

𝐚𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬. sterile white tile, the edge of a scalpel, undereye circles & chapped lips, a pinned butterfly, a single speck of blood gone unnoticed

[graveiris]

                         Aesop should have been one of the easier people to navigate himself around. after all, he was not forward, nosey, or loud like some of the others who inhabited this house could be. but there was something about the vibe he had that put Andrew off. so much so that when Aesop entered into the kitchen at the same time as himself he did something he never did, “   Uh… Good morning…   ”

                           rare did Andrew properly initiate any kind of conversation and though he winced at the clumsiness of it, it was better than whatever instant reaction of discomfort he had around Aesop in the silence. @serenityservant​

[serenityservant]

The sheer number of people living in the manor and their varied, inconsistent schedules meant it was rare that Aesop managed to venture outside of his room without running into someone. Though he had tried to find at least one point in the day that was completely free of his housemates, the best he could do to minimize interaction was make note of when the manor was at its most empty and try to maneuver around those times. At the very worst, he might bump shoulders with one or two people.

If it had to be anyone, it may as well have been Andrew--a quiet, nervous man with social habits similar to his own, unlikely to rope him into uncomfortable smalltalk. 

And it was for that reason he was even more unprepared than he already would have been when Andrew actually greeted him. He stiffened slightly and his knuckles tightened uncomfortably around the handle of the kettle he was holding. It would be fine. He prepared himself for this every day before he left his room.

“Good morning,” he said softly. His next words were directed more towards himself than to Andrew, a small reminder of the task he was there for. “I’m... making tea.”

[serenityservant]

phxttxgrxpher​:

→ The word the Photographer would use to describe the other on the ground would likely be pathetic. It was like a game of cat and mouse, Aesop being the little mouse that got caught by him and now laid beneath his shoes on the dirty ground. Joseph added some more pressure on the other’s back, his lips curling up into a little smirk. He was aware that somewhere was the other survivor, likely trying to decode for her life. The attempt was almost adorable, yet Joseph would stop them before it would come to the point of escape. 

→ “ Hm? “ He tilted his head slightly to the side, his gaze still on the embalmer on the ground. This amused him, the way the other spoke, the way his voice was shaking. “ Why not? After all… “ Joseph leaned in closer, using his sword to stab the ground right beside Aesop’s head, merely to scare him. “ … it is fun seeing you so scared, embalmer. Do tell me, are you scared of me? “ A noise got the photographer to look up. Another cipher was done and he was aware that he had to hurry up. At least he knew where the Perfumer was located, even if just for a moment. 

→ “ Hm… what am I gonna do with you? Chair you up and chase you again? Or… leave you here to bleed out~? “ As the words left his mouth, he pulled out his sword from the ground and pointed it right at Aesop’s head, close enough that the end of it almost touched the back of his head. A little chuckle passed his lips. He hasn’t been amused in quite a while. “ Aren’t you going to beg me to not harm you or have you already accepted your fate? “ 

Aesop managed not to flinch when Joseph’s blade pierced the ground mere inches from his head, instead briefly squeezing his eyes shut to brace for an impact that didn’t come. He had to suppress a relieved sigh when he was able to open them again.

The far-off ding of a cipher being completed rang out through the arena, the sound both reassuring and frustrating. He did sigh, then. While it meant that, in the ideal scenario, they were at least one step closer to escaping together and securing a tie, Aesop wished Vera would just give up on decoding and start looking for the entrance to the dungeon. She could still make a clean, pain-free escape if she tried, and that mattered more to Aesop than avoiding the loss of a match.

"I think that I... I should fear things that want to hurt me,” he said quietly. His voice was still strained.

He heard the blade being dislodged from the dirt next to his face, feeling the tip of it just barely brush against the back of his head a few seconds later. He kept as still as he could. Even if it only prolonged his time by a mere couple of minutes, and the effort to conjure words in his debilitated state bordered on agonizing, it at least seemed that attempting to trap the photographer in a conversation had been the right move.

Aesop wondered if Vera had found the dungeon yet, or if she had moved on to another cipher. He watched his blood beginning to pool in the grass beneath him.

“You must think it’s humiliating to be afraid,” he murmured.

[phxttxgrxpher]

[ @serenityservant​ sc ]

→ The match was going rather well, much to the Photographer’s joy. Only two ciphers were decoded so far and two people were already gone. He was currently chasing after the third person, which turned out to be the embalmer. The chase shouldn’t be all too bad as the embalmer didn’t possess any traits that should make it harder for Joseph to catch up to him. 

→ The first hit was rather on accident as he turned the corner to chase after the survivor and swung his sword, not really expecting to hit him. Despite that, his lips turned up into a little smile as he kept on chasing after the other. He was trying to keep in mind that there was still another survivor left and he would make sure that no one could escape. After all, he was known for taking them all out, a perfect four man win on his side. Again, he swung his sword as he was close enough, hitting the embalmer a second time. 

→ “ It seems like our game of tag is over, Embalmer. “ The Photographer looked down to the survivor, walking closer to him before pressing a foot down on the other’s back to keep him to the ground. “ Let me guess, you already set up your coffin somewhere across the map, didn’t you? “ This was going to be a headache as he knew he had to walk all the way to where the coffin was located before having to chase the embalmer again. 

[serenityservant]

The second hit knocked the wind out of Aesop and he hit the ground, skull rattling with the impact.

He was one of only two survivors left--it was unlikely they could get three ciphers done without being eliminated, but if he was able to stall, maybe it would give Vera enough time to finish the third and open the dungeon for herself when Aesop inevitably got knocked down mere seconds after he stepped out of his coffin (just barely far enough away to give him a head start).

But his thoughts swam so dizzily around his head that he could barely string a coherent idea together, and even as he tried to nudge himself out from beneath the uncomfortable pressure of the photographer’s shoe, he wasn’t able to move.

Joseph spoke and, with great dread, Aesop realized his only option to buy time might be to try and get the hunter to talk more.

He felt even dizzier at the thought. But aside from a pointless struggle, there was nothing else he could think of to delay his own demise even slightly.

Through gritted teeth, he began to force words from his throat, anything he could manage.

“Do you--” His voice was shaking, audibly strained by nerves, and he cleared his throat to try and ease the tone. “Do you really feel like doing this a second time?”

[serenityservant]

surviiived​:

“…Huh?” Emma wasn’t entirely sure of what she expected the male to be doing in the garden, but she certainly wasn’t expecting the response she received. Not that there was anything wrong with searching for dead bugs…she supposed… maybe it was just the way he said it, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

However, Emma didn’t want Aesop to think that she thought his…hobby was strange. Or perhaps there was a logical explanation..!! Some people collected deceased bugs to admire their beautiful bodies. Perhaps that was what he was doing? That made much more sense, and it was certainly less odd than him just searching for dead bugs in the plants just for the heck of it. 

With a newly rejuvenated smile, she took another step closer—not to get too close to the male, but rather to see what he was holding. “Sure.!! It’s a shame the poor thing had to die… but its wings must be really pretty! Can I see?” she asked with a warm smile.

Aesop held his hand out, just about as far away as he could manage to get it from his body without touching Emma, and carefully uncurled his fingers, revealing the pristine little insect resting on his palm.

“A honeybee,” he said softly. 

It was indeed a shame that it had died, but at least it could become something new in its death. He wondered what had killed it, for its body to be so unblemished: the cold, maybe, or perhaps it had expelled its stinger for some reason--he would take a closer look when he was able to go back to his room where he kept a magnifying glass for such inspections. Or maybe Emma knew something about the flowers in that patch of the garden, if there was a reason why so many bugs chose that spot specifically to lay their bodies in the dirt.

He pointed at it, the tip of his finger poised right above the small yellow pocket on one of its legs. “Do you see there, on its legs? It was carrying its pollen baskets. It was working hard.”