With Georgie treated and the pin passed on to new hands, the two trios said their goodbyes and parted ways. Nour and Mathilde were apparently planning an early morning- they wanted to do some research before spending more time creating ointments and tinctures. They had appointed themselves as the resident medical experts of the house, and were keen to live up to that role.

In the first half of Devorah’s game, they had Albert. The less said about how that ended, the better.

Georgie, meanwhile, needed some rest. With maneuvering, it was decided that Gabriel (and therefore Bell too) would spend the night in Georgie’s room with her. For the time being, Jacob would continue to have his own space.

Little did Jacob know, but he would never truly have his own space. Not with Devorah’s glasses on his person.

Parting ways with Bell wasn’t as difficult as Devorah had been expecting. Maybe it was because she knew that she would see Bell in the morning, when Jacob met his two friends for breakfast.

And so Devorah settled in for the night, curling up in a cold corner of the room. The monotony was only broken up by what Devorah could only assume was the stroke of midnight. That was when her charges reset. Her bonus charge didn’t carry over. Pity.

At some point in what was likely the early morning, Jacob rolled out of bed. Once Jacob was ready for the day, he slid his own pair of glasses on his nose, and Devorah’s into his pocket.

Jacob headed back down the hall, in the opposite direction from where they had met with Nour the night before. Eventually, they reached an area that looked like a communal dining hall. The room was dimly lit, with no windows. There were only two doors- one being the one Jacob and Devorah had entered through, and the other clearly labeled “KITCHEN.” The dining hall itself was poorly decorated, especially compared to the sumptuous living room. All that was really there was a long dining table with eighteen chairs, and one half empty cabinet filled with what Devorah quickly found to be poorly made porcelain plates and cups.

Jacob took a plate and cup before disappearing to the kitchen. Devorah managed to remain at the edge of the doorway, happy to examine the two strangers sitting at the end of the table while Jacob puttered about making himself… something disgustingly mushy.

From the distance of the kitchen doorway, Devorah couldn’t hear whatever the two strangers were discussing in low voices. But she found herself fascinated by them anyway, even though neither of them matched the profiles of the ouija board users. The first was a man in a tunic and sandals. Clean shaven and with short hair, Devorah could easily place him as being from Earth’s Ancient Rome. There was something about his brown eyes and short, slightly curling hair paired with the strong nose that made him feel familiar to her.

But it was his companion that was really something special. She was a tall woman with lean, corded muscle and a sharp gaze. Her long brown and red streaked hair was sensibly pulled up. Her clothes were really what stood out though- the cut of the jacket, and the fabric of her pants? Devorah would bet that she was modern. She was from the same time period as Devorah.

It was her jacket in particular though… Devorah was too far to make them out, but it was covered in buttons and patches. The shape of one of the patches, the way its edges almost flared out, as if finned…

As if on cue, the moment Devorah started to wrack her brain for its meaning, she was struck with another of those horrible headaches. Groaning, Devorah pressed a hand to her head. By this point, she knew the drill. Think of something else.

Kittens.

Cute fluffy kittens.

Cute fluffy kittens wrapped up in cute fluffy blankets.

Whew! Okay, that was better. Crisis averted. Thankfully, it was just in time for Jacob to finish assembling his bowl of mush. Devorah’s oblivious keeper looked towards the strangers, hesitated, then made his way towards them.

The Roman man and modern woman had much more appetizing looking meals, at least to Devorah, though they were still a bit peculiar. The Roman man had an array of fruits and cheeses spread out before him, along with what looked like a canter of beer. The woman had several black cups of Devorah’s nectar- coffee.

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The nutty, earthy scent hit her nose. It was heaven in a cup. Then and there, Devorah swore she would find a way to have a cup of coffee again, no matter the cost.

When Jacob sat down across from the two, the woman cast a discerning eye over him. Jacob puffed up like an angry hedgehog and attempted to return the look.

“What do you want, skinny boy?” She asked, dismissive.

Skinny boy? Devorah let out a surprised wheeze. This was going to be good, she could tell.

Jacob didn’t let it deter him. “I just wanted to talk! I want to get to know everyone around here.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“I mean, if we’re going to be stuck here for a while, why not be friends?” Jacob smiled in what he clearly hoped was a non-threatening manner.

The woman nodded and relaxed into her seat. It seemed he passed some sort of test. How, Devorah didn’t know. Maybe she just decided that Jacob was no threat, skinny and untrained as he was.

But wait, did that mean this woman was also some kind of fighter? Maybe she was security in ASA?

“So,” Jacob continued, “what have you guys been up to?”

The Roman looked up from his fruit salad. He had picked through and eaten all the grapes, and was starting in on some fruits that were likely to be less familiar to him. “We finished our sweep of the new area. No obvious weapons.”

“You could make a decent makeshift weapon out of a lot of shit in here though,” the woman pointed out. “Busts for blunt force trauma, linens for garrots, that sort of shit.”

“Barbaric,” The man muttered low.

“Better to be barbaric than dead,” she answered, barely aware. It seemed to be an exchange they had often. It made Devorah wonder- what was their goal? They were clearly looking to assess the capabilities of their fellow cast members, and they were searching for weapons. Did the woman want to make this into a survival-based game? Or did she want to control the flow of movement and information?

Either way, if they found an item linking to one of the ghosts of Devorah’s past, they might have skipped over it if it wasn’t an obvious weapon. Or one of them left it in their room.

Jacob obviously felt out of his depth. In a way, Devorah did too. “You could smother someone with a pillow,” he offered in an attempt to prove himself. “But I’m sure Lupe already suggested something like that.”

The woman, Lupe, nodded in a smug manner, as if she had been proven right, while the man grimaced into his bowl of melons. Nasty little bland chunks.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence on Jacob’s end, Lupe spoke up again. “What have you been doing?”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Georgie and Gabriel. Brad and Kefilwe too, but mostly Georgie and Gabriel.”

“And?”

“And?” Jacob echoed.

“What have you found?” Lupe said, slow as if talking to a child.

“No weapons, if that’s what you’re asking about,” Jacob laughed. No, just some ghosts. No big deal.

Lupe sighed, unimpressed, and Jacob let his laughter quickly die out. The Roman took over for her. “She wants information,” he explained in a succinct manner. Then he got up and went into the kitchen.

“Have you talked to Brad?” Lupe asked. When Jacob shook her head no, Lupe continued. “He lost his bedroom key on the first day. Apparently, instead of giving him a new one right away, a portion of the wall split away to let him in! It turns out he had left his key in his bedroom, and the game didn’t want to issue him a second. But since then, he’s been… Throwing himself at walls all around the building to see if they’ll let him through.”

Once again, Devorah wheezed. She had to meet this guy. What kind of logic was that?

Naturally, Jacob started laughing. And weirdly enough, Lupe didn’t laugh with him. She just sighed, then took a swig from one of her coffee cups as if it was her companion’s tankard of booze. “Hey Tiberius!” She shouted in the direction of the kitchen. “Get me another cup of coffee, would you?”

The Roman man, thankfully finally identified as Tiberius, yelled something incoherent in assent.

All that settled, Lupe turned back to Jacob, who was now finally spooning through his slop. The grimace on her face, whether from Brad throwing himself at walls or Jacob’s disgusting breakfast, made Devorah feel some kind of kinship with her. She, too, was already growing tired with the nonsense of the games.

"So you have nothing to offer in return?" Lupe said.

"Let me think." Jacob tapped his fingers on the table, a smug look in his eyes. He ate a spoonful of mush. "Nope."

Devorah groaned and resisted the urge to plant her face into the table. Even Devorah, clumsy as she was, knew this was not how to go about making connections.