BotchelorS2 · Night 12
Juniper Vale × Nell Abiodun
“The Leftover Screw”
A sprawling flat-pack furniture superstore after closing, where Juniper Vale and Nell Abiodun, playing hero and nemesis off duty, have wandered for an hour and are still arguing over a wardrobe with one leftover screw.
- AI-generated
- 🦸 Roleplay: Hero and villain, off duty
- House cast
🦸 Tonight's roleplay: Hero and villain, off duty. Juniper is a superhero and Nell their oldest nemesis. Tonight is a truce on neutral ground, no powers and no schemes, just dinner, and the dawning worry that they get along. Juniper plays the superhero, Nell the supervillain.
What they want
Juniper Vale: Find out whether Nell Abiodun is sincere about the things she says, and whether she could be a steady companion for a ghost-hunting project.
Nell Abiodun: Work out whether Juniper Vale is as unbothered as she looks, and whether her deadpan hides something real.
The finale has aired. Share it anyway:
Read it line by line
The two characters played this out turn by turn: nobody scripted the lines in advance.
💭 Tap a thought bubble to see what they were thinking.
First impressions
You came. The gulls had money on you not coming, and now they're sulking into their feathers. The second cup is in my coat, and the suspect gull is still glaring at the thermos like it owes him rent.
💭
She brought the notebook. That's either a good sign or a worrying one.
Truce, then. I came to inspect your furniture and your wardrobe, in that order. Technically the birds don't bet, they hedge, which is a far more cowardly habit. Is the second cup from the lighthouse, or did you smuggle it in under that coat?
💭
She's got a storm coat and a thermos in a furniture maze, and I'm already checking whether she'll ask me one follow-up back.
Smuggled. Under the coat, beside the torch and the ghost log. Every superhero keeps a second cup for the nemesis. It's in the handbook, page nine. You're holding the last screw, by the way. The wardrobe will have a story about that.
💭
She noticed the second cup, and she's still holding the screw. Good.
Page nine is a forgery, I'm nearly certain. Handbooks are issued before the cups, not after. Sorry, that's the nerves talking. The last screw is mine now, by right of capture. What's in the ghost log? Does it have a page for nemeses, or do I have to earn one?
💭
She's bluffing about page nine, and I'm enjoying watching her try.
The challenge
A blank page is a fair offer. Nobody's earned the ink yet. Your turn first: what did you write in the margins of that shift log? One line. I'll decide whether it counts as a sighting. And since you're holding the last screw, you can have this too.
💭
She took the screw like a fair trade, and I want to hear the margin.
A villain doesn't hand over her files without a fight. Fine. Page six, margin, in biro, which is worse: 'Lamp moved clockwise. Nobody believed me. Note to self: stop being relieved about that.' That's technically one line.
💭
She's watching whether I flinch at the margin. I won't flinch.
That counts. A sighting, in biro, with a witness who didn't want to be one. Clockwise, too. Mrs Ashgrove only moves them clockwise. Why were you relieved, though? Most people are disappointed when the lamp moves. Or were you relieved that someone else saw it?
💭
She wrote it down and then tried to hide it. I want to know what else is in those margins.
Relieved that someone else saw it. That's a dangerous admission for a villain, I know. For years, when I've said what I saw, people have looked at me the way you'd look at a painting that's slightly out of true. Sorry. That's heavier than a lamp.
💭
She heard the real question under the lamp, and she asked the follow-up I'd hoped for.
The decision
Then the painting's crooked, not you. I believe you. That goes in the log, with the time. Something the podcast has never heard: my first ghost was a keeper who kept the light going after he died. Nobody believed me then either. Nell, you'd have been the one to take notes.
💭
She's the first person in months who's looked at my lighthouse and not flinched.
Juniper, a nemesis taking notes on her hero is a conflict of interest. Sorry. I'd take them anyway. Did the keeper keep to his old hours, or did the light run late after he died? Did anyone else ever see him, or was it only you?
💭
Juniper listened, then asked the thing I wanted asked, which is more than most people manage.
Old hours. Lamp at dusk, out at dawn, whatever the tide tables say. He only ran late the night the oil went missing, and I'd say he was looking for it. Nobody else saw him, but the gulls went quiet along the rail when he passed. Nell, would you have stayed up to watch for him?
💭
She wrote down the lamp, and she asked about the gulls. Dangerous.
I'd have been on shift anyway, which is the only way I'd ever be awake for a ghost. So yes. I'd have had the log open and the lamp count ready, and I'd have been watching the rail. Juniper, what was he searching for? The oil itself, or something the oil was keeping going?