“So about Brad-” Lupe began again, before she was cut off by Tiberius’s return. He was being flanked by welcome company- Bell was there, cheerily waving both hands at Devorah! Oh, and Gabriel and Georgie were there too.
All of them had their own strange assortment of breakfast items. Georgie had a full plate of meats, cheeses, pastries, and a bowl of slop like Jacob had. Gabriel had some perfectly crispy fried eggs, as well as some fruit and meat.
Tiberius had Lupe’s cup of coffee, and a lemon.
Jacob brightened up as Gabriel sat across from him, and Georgie next to him. Georgie was already starting in on her food before she even sat down. “Hey guys!”
“Hey yourself,” Georgie said around a mouthful of gruel.
Gabriel gave Tiberius a friendly pat on the back. “I didn’t know ya’ll were friends.”
Tiberius rubbed his lemon with his tunic. “We’re not.” Lupe snorted into her fresh coffee.
“Anyone else?” Bell asked, slinging her arm around Dev.
“Not yet,” Dev answered in a hushed tone, “also I have a good feeling about this conversation.”
Bell just raised an eyebrow, happy to assuage Dev.
“I didn’t know you were friends,” Jacob says, looking between Gabriel and Tiberius. On second thought, it didn’t seem that surprising. Gabriel and Tiberius were both rather large men in height and musculature. Tiberius seemed like the sort to appreciate another strong man. He spent a good deal of time with Lupe, who was clearly pretty tough herself. There was just something about those patches…
Devorah’s brain sent out a warning pulse, and she promised herself to pay better attention to the conversation. But damn, did she wish she could have had some of that coffee.
Anyway, after a pause, Tiberius said, “we’re not friends.”
Jacob looked towards Gabriel who bashfully explained, “I helped Tiberius sacrifice a chicken. Xoco was there too.”
Devorah felt her eyes widening. A live non-sentient animal in the game? And killed live?
Georgie looked up from her breakfast, which was a rare feat. “There’s chickens in here? Where?”
Lupe turned to raise an eyebrow at Tiberius. “And we aren’t eating it, why?”
“It was for my altar. I needed something to offer, and the gods provided a chicken.” Tiberius paused in his cleaning of the lemon. “But it ran away when I took it out of the cage.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean by the gods provided a chicken?” Jacob exclaimed. Devorah found herself agreeing with him. Between Tiberius and Mathilde, a religious theme was popping up that Devorah didn’t find herself caring for. But either way, there were no gods handing out chickens in these games.
Was it some weird kind of product placement? Or was there an independent sponsor that was fond of Tiberius?
“I made an altar in my room, but I needed something to offer.” Tiberius looked at Jacob like he was stupid.
“Yes, I get that, but where did the chicken come from?” Jacob said.
“Probably an egg,” Georgie joked. Gabriel chuckled sensibly.
With a groan, Lupe took over and changed tactics. “Tiberius, where did you find the chicken?”
“It was in the kitchen, in a small cage.” Tiberius said.
And then Tiberius bit into his lemon as if it were an apple.
The madman hadn't even peeled it.
The conversation froze. Lupe’s face froze in disgust. Gabriel’s sensible chuckles rose into chortling laughter.
Devorah watched, intimidated, as Tiberius chewed and swallowed without flinching. He went in for another bite of the lemon’s sour flesh. Dev had seen people squeeze lemon juice on food or drinks, and had seen candied lemon peel used as garnish, but she had never seen someone actually bite into a lemon.
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“Did you just bite into a lemon,” Georgie said, speaking for everyone watching. This was not a question- it was a statement. And everyone already knew the answer.
“Yes,” Tiberius answered, unfazed. Lupe studied the bite in the peel with unveiled confusion.
“Why,” Lupe said slowly.
It was Tiberius’s turn to look at Lupe with confusion. “It’s good?”
“Tiberius, that isn’t good for the enamel on your teeth. You’ll end up with cavities,” Jacob tried to explain.
Tiberius looked even more confused. “Tooth glaze? My teeth are not glazed?” Devorah came to the quick realization that there was no close translation for tooth enamel in Latin. Dentistry simply wasn’t that advanced.
“Don’t worry about it, comrade.” Lupe patted Tiberius on the back a few times with hard, heavy slaps. “Your teeth are fine. Enjoy your uh, breakfast there.”
Tiberius bit into the lemon again, this time slowly, to better savor the flavor.
After that, they were content to finish their breakfast as they watched Tiberius methodically devour a lemon raw. Once he had finished, conversation shifted to Brad and his wall adventures, as well as bets on who in the combination of Kefilwe, Mathilde and Nour were having sex or dating.
As this happened, Devorah dragged Bell over to the middle of the table, and sat down. It felt good to sit in a chair at a table. Few things in this world were more humanizing than a good meal in good company. Though there was no food, and Bell wasn’t a close friend, the experience was comforting.
“So how was your night?” Bell asked. “It was weird to not need to sleep! I don’t know if I like it. I used to always have really cool dreams, and it’s so weird to know I’ll probably never have them again. Since, no brain. But we do have pretty advanced systems. Maybe we could program in sleep and dreaming?”
Oh yeah. This was why Bell wasn’t a close friend. When they were alone, just sitting and talking without an activity, there was rarely a chance for Dev to get in a word edgewise.
But weirdly enough, Dev didn’t really feel much like talking. She was content to let the nonsense wash over her like a wave.
Once there was finally a small pause, Devorah decided to take advantage of it, even if only once. She really did want more information about this hell hole, and since Devorah could only pick up items twice a day, talking to people was the best way to do it. Unfortunately.
Dev always did her best work on her fifth cup of coffee at four am. In the archives. Alone.
Or with Anna. But that was a special case.
“Bell,” Devorah rushed out, “did anything else interesting happen with Kefilwe, Nour and Mathilde?”
“Oh yeah!” Bell said. “They actually had a pretty big fight. Turns out, Kefilwe likes to hang out with the host sometimes- that creepy doll robot.”
Devorah hadn’t seen the doll since waking up a second time, but the doll being a robot made a lot of sense.
Bell continued, “Kefilwe goes and talks with it when the other two are exploring, or helping people with injuries they get from traps hidden around the haunted house. She kept saying the Host wasn’t all that bad. That when it wasn’t acting all scary, it was kind of just nervous and sweet.”
“That’s strange,” Dev mused. “Do you think it’s an AI made from originally organic data, like us? That would explain why it isn’t only set to homicidal, like ours was.”
They both took a second to shiver.
“Anyway!” Bell started again. “Anyway, obviously Nour and Mathilde weren’t too into that. They’re convinced the doll is also demonic, kind of like we are. Or like they think we are. But to be honest, I also think they’re kind of jealous? Especially Mathilde.”
“Romantically?”
“Probably! But weren’t Christians really weird about being gay? I don’t know much about what they were like, though.”
Dev sighed. “Christians still exist, Bell. You shouldn’t talk about them as if they were an extinct species.”
“You’re right,” Bell said, chagrined. “I should be more respectful of her culture. But yeah! Maybe romantically? But I don’t think they’re in a relationship. Any of the three of them!”
Devorah shrugged. It didn’t really matter. “It’s a shame that you aren’t still with them. I’m already with Jacob, and now you’re with Gabriel. I’d love more eyes on more groups.”
Bell tilted her head to the side. “Why though?”
Dev blinked. “What do you mean, why?”
“It’s not like there’s much of a point on keeping up on investigating, is there? I mean, it’s not like we can really do anything. Unless you just want to look for the ouija board people?” Bell paused. “Hey, Dev? Is everything… Okay?”
“What do you mean?” Devorah said again.
“You look kind of droopy again.”
Did she? Devorah traced the lines of her face.
Ah. Yes, Devorah most certainly was grimacing. How had she not even noticed? Had she truly slipped so far, that she couldn’t even control her face anymore?
“Just… Just let me know if you learn anything else, okay?” Devorah said, unable to respond in any other way.
Bell’s entire body quieted. “Okay, yeah, of course.”
Devorah gestured back towards the group finishing their breakfast. “I’m going to go wait for Jacob to finish up. My hope is that we’ll get to learn more about that boy throwing himself at the wall.”
Bell offered Devorah a smile. There was something sad about it, and Devorah just didn’t have the mental energy to parse that at the moment. “I’m going to enjoy some time here to myself. But I’ll see you later, okay? And I’ll update you on everything that happened while we were separated.”
“Thank you, Bell.” And Devorah returned to Jacob.