Logan rushed inside the escape room while everyone else lagged back just in the doorway to survey the area. There were definitely many things off in the study, but Virgil didn't entirely know what he was looking for. Patton followed in after, leaning over Logan while he squatted down and checked the legs of the table. Deceit stepped in to examine a painting, rubbing his chin.
"Dials," Logan called out, pointing at the leg of the desk he was squatting in front of.
"76-24-38," Deceit responded, scanning his eyes around the area once more. Logan attempted to enter the code while he and Roman stepped inside.
"Nope," Patton answered, standing up and looking around again. Roman sauntered over to a bookshelf and reviewed the books.
"Single digits." Logan shook his head. Virgil checked the globe, not sure what to do. Someone obviously weighted it wrong since it kept spinning to the same spot, but there wasn't anything Virgil could do with that information for now.
"Do you have anything, Roman?" Virgil asked, striding over to join him.
"Nothing, but this is the strangest book collection ever. I've never even heard of these titles. It's like they raided a garage sale in another dimension." Roman shook his head. "Three Sheep, The Boater's Menace, Disco Elysium, Dark Star Tryst, Seven Fallen Angels?" He crossed his arms as he listed off a few titles on the bookshelf.
"Any other books with numbers in the title?" Logan asked, perking up from examining the underside of the desk.
"Six Lives Lost," Roman supplied after tilting his head to examine the next shelf down. Logan twisted the lock on the chair leg, and Virgil heard it click into place. Huh. He twisted to watch as the drawer in the desk popped open. Patton got out what looked like a very thin key.
"This has a thin notch to slot in another part, which might mean it is only half," Logan informed them, snatching the key from Patton's hands to examine it. Deceit hummed, scanning the key in Logan's fingers before turning around and checking the room again.
"Look at you, Ro! You said you didn't think you'd be helpful!" Patton beamed at Roman, who looked astonished.
"All I did was be puzzled by book titles," Roman muttered. "Logan did most of the work," He insisted and Logan beamed at him before returning to investigate a different shelf full of decorative items.
"Take the win." Virgil held Roman's shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. "Come on, D found another set of numbers, we've gotta enter them somewhere, probably." Virgil squeezed Roman's shoulder reassuringly and scoured the area again.
"Well, there's a book here titled 'Obvious clue'," Roman mused and pulled it off the shelf, opening it up. It was a hidden container book that contained a weird stylus. "Huh." He picked up the stylus and put the book back, flipping it around. It had a flat metal top instead of a silicone pad. "Well, this doesn't mean anything, but I suppose it's progress." Roman's mood picked up, and he sounded more confident again.
"Good sleuthing." Virgil smiled and squeezed his hand before turning away to go look for whatever they could use any of those things on.
Logan was on the floor under the couch somehow. Virgil did not know how he fit under there, but Logan seemed determined to check the undersides of things. Deceit was examining the paintings and Patton was looking under throw pillows and lamps. Virgil wasn't aware of what to seek. There was lots of clutter in here, but nothing looked particularly suspicious.
He didn't understand the concept of escape rooms. The door was flimsy. He could just break it to get to the next chamber. There was a window he could get out of. Hell, Virgil could just pick the lock to the next puzzle room. There were four rooms to get through. But Virgil could be through to the final room in three minutes, tops, if he could do things his way. Everyone was enjoying themselves, though, and even Deceit was playing along, even though he was just as capable of getting out himself. He did always like this Victorian-styled decor, though, so that could have been a factor.
"Here it is," Deceit announced, pointing to what appeared to be a hidden panel in a different painting frame. Deceit entered the code in and the painting next to it opened. He reached in and drew out a piece of paper. "Virgil, this is yours, I think." Deceit passed it over when Virgil walked up curiously. It was four bars of sheet music.
"There are no instruments in here," Virgil hummed as he received the paper, glancing around again.
"Maybe it's for another room?" Patton offered an explanation with a modest shrug. "I found something funky, by the way." They held up the backside of a throw pillow with some lines embroidered into it. Logan strode over to stare at the pattern curiously, rotating it in his hands. He held up the pillow to various pieces of furniture in the room, glancing between the pattern and the room.
"Oh!" Logan's eyes widened and took the throw pillow over to the other shelf, pushing in certain books. He tossed the pillow back at Patton when a panel opened, not even looking behind him. Patton stumbled to catch the pillow with a light giggle. Logan squatted down and picked up a crystal ball. He stared at it for a second before getting an ecstatic expression and placing the ball on a wood holder on an upper shelf on the next set over. When it accomplished nothing discernible, he got confused.
"There is another one of those wooden stands on the shelf across the room." Roman pointed to the shelf. Virgil glanced at the stand and tilted his head. It's just a weighted switch, right? Couldn't they just press down on it to trigger the switch?
"Roman, can I see that stick?" Deceit asked, soundlessly stepping up behind him and making Roman jump. Deceit chuckled with amusement when Roman passed it off. Deceit took Roman's hand along with the stylus and pulled it up to kiss his knuckles as he accepted the stylus, causing Roman's cheeks to turn red. "It's a magnet." Janus hummed, examining it by holding it between both index fingers. "So where we put this isn't as obvious as a keyhole," He added.
"Then there's surely a clue about the room. Search for repeated imagery or another puzzle that would lead to a map," Logan piped up quickly, examining the walls.
"Half of the paintings in here are of Roman architecture," Deceit pointed out, motioning widely.
"Oh, this notebook has a page of Latin!" Patton spoke eagerly, scurrying over to the notebook to open it up. Logan joined them immediately to read it.
"It's about the Roman empire, which follows the Rome angle," Logan told them after a moment.
"I'm really feeling the love." Roman held his palm to his chest as he joked.
"There's something wrong with the globe, like it's off-balance. It's probably trying to point you to Rome on the map?" Virgil offered, not sounding positive.
"The magnet!" Logan dashed over to lift it out of Deceit's hand and spun the globe with a smack of his hand, grabbing it to make it stop spinning.
Logan stuck the stylus onto the globe and the stand under it clicked open the drawer. Logan tried to tug off the stylus, but it stayed on, so he abandoned it for the contents of the drawer. It was the other half of the key. They could get through this first room swiftly. Possibly that was because there were five of them looking around. Logan grunted as he struggled to slot the key into the other piece. He scowled at it and held the two halves out. Deceit walked up and slotted them together for him and handed the combined key back. Logan looked perplexed for a moment before heading over to the door and sliding the key in and unlocking the next room.
They styled this room like a bedroom rather than a study. Logan was the first in and checked out the nightstands right away. Roman was more determined this time and went right behind him, checking the chest at the foot of the bed. It didn't open, and Roman glared at it before giving up and checking out the rack of clothes instead.
Patton lagged back with Virgil and Deceit while they examined the room. The next door had a keypad on it rather than a traditional key lock. They could probably short the thing with the magnet from the other room, but if Logan couldn't pull it off the globe, it was probably what the game makers intended. Patton moved to go check the pillows on the bed while Roman kept rummaging through the pockets of the clothes.
Deceit leaned in to give Virgil a kiss, which he appreciated deeply. Virgil pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. Deceit played with his braid when he pulled away with a smirk to join the others while they searched. Virgil could hunt for things that didn't function right again, since it worked for him before. This room had a few appliances, unlike the other. The thing that stood out was an alarm clock flashing at 12 on the nightstand, but Logan was already poking around at it. There were a few wall sconces and one of those stupid diffusers. Virgil walked over to check the sconces, but they didn't have bulbs in them.
Logan was the most excited about this, and it would satisfy Virgil to just sit back and watch him solve it, honestly, but it seemed weird not to help. Virgil didn't know what to check, since even the mirror on the dresser seemed normal, so he leaned back on the wall while he waited for someone else to find the clue.
There was something strange about the wall, just below the sconce. He angled his head to watch the light shift on the paint. Oh. There were two digits of numbers under both scones. Well, that's no fun for them. He could be wrong, but it seemed like the point of these rooms had to be the puzzle, not the actual escape. He wasn't saying anything. Deceit looked up and noticed the wall with a shrug, returning his gaze to the dresser.
"Found something!" Roman announced brightly, holding up a key.
"Here." Deceit pointed to the keyhole on the dresser.
"Too big." Roman shook his head when he got close.
"The chest!" Patton piped up, taking the key and slipping it in the chest. As the lid lifted, it brought up a mechanism holding a map that Patton and Logan poured over right away.
They had to be skipping over clues and things with this method. How would people know to check the pockets? This set of rooms was supposed to be somewhere between intermediate and hard, so perhaps people who did escape rooms just had things they already looked for off the bat. The map was some kind of steps thing since Logan was counting steps for Patton to take through the room while Roman cleared away and sat on the bed. That seemed stupid. How were you supposed to account for stride length?
It took Patton to a collage of pictures on the wall. "Top right, middle, bottom middle," Logan instructed them, and Patton took down the three frames. Patton passed one each to Logan and Roman over at the bed and examined the frames. Logan flipped it over and opened up the back right away, and Patton and Roman followed suit. Together they made some kind of clue. Deceit came and leaned next to Virgil on the wall, taking his hand to hold while the other three surveyed the area.
"Oh, the vanity drawers, maybe? There's three on each side like these," Patton suggested.
"But we don't know what the colours mean," Roman hummed as he stared at them.
"It's red, yellow, and green. I assume we don't touch red marks and pull out green ones. Yellow is caution, but I don't know what that means in this context." Logan pursed his face and rubbed his chin, and Roman got up to go to the vanity with Patton. They set the photos face-down on top and tried what Logan suggested, but it did nothing as far as they could see.
"Caution means not going all in, right? What if we just… open them halfway?" Patton hummed as they stared at the drawers and tried their method. Roman half-pulled out another one and a jewelry box on top of the vanity popped open. Patton pulled out a black light bulb and peered about in confusion.
'Is it not as fun when you know the solution?' Virgil asked Deceit mentally. He was playing along with them more in the last room and was surprised Deceit would care about spoilers. They were pretty normal in his life.
'I could still have fun getting there, but solving puzzles when you know the answer isn't quite the same,' Deceit thought back to him.
'Sorry.' Virgil frowned and leaned his head against Deceit's. Logan pointed Patton to the wall sconce, and they moved to twist it into the socket.
'I would have seen it eventually if you didn't notice it. We can play again in the next room,' Deceit replied reassuringly.
'I don't know why they don't call it a puzzle room. We could escape in under a minute if that was the real goal.' Virgil scrunched up his lip as he watched them hunt for the next clue.
'Leave it to you to get caught up in semantics during a date.' Deceit exhaled through his nose with amusement and squeezed Virgil's hand.
'Would you rather me marvel at all the impressive carpentry and engineering that goes into this?' Virgil grinned and glanced at Deceit from the side of his eyes. Deceit scoffed and rolled his eyes, angling his head to kiss Virgil.
"Are you two just going to kiss or help?" Roman asked teasingly, peering over from the nightstand on the left side of the bed.
"We already know the code for this room, and it's just not the same," Deceit explained with a dismissive hand motion. "Have fun, we'll re-join in the next room." He smiled and planted another kiss on Virgil.
"Roman, is there an arrow next to the drawer knob for you?" Logan asked from the matching table on the other side of the bed.
Roman paused and bent down to check, testing the knob. "Yes, but it doesn't twist that way," Roman huffed.
"Shall we try simultaneously? Three, two, one." Logan counted down, and they both twisted the knobs and the drawers opened. Roman pulled out a tiny woodblock, and Logan retrieved a feather quill.
"Oh! Oh!" Patton held out their hands for the quill, and Logan passed it off curiously. Patton deposited the feather quill in a holder on the dresser, making a loud clicking noise. Patton tried the drawers, but none of them opened.
"Well, what the heck do I do with this hunk of wood?" Roman asked as he held it up and examined it.
"It looks like a Jenga piece," Patton hummed, pursing their lips.
"I would assume it would go with the set." Logan narrowed his eyes at the piece and returned to glancing about the area.
Roman leaned on the bed frame while he looked around, his eye-catching on the post of the metal bed frame. He tried twisting the knob closest to him with no success, but the one on the top of the headboard twisted off and there was a button under it. He pushed it and the picture just above the bed frame popped open, narrowly dodging hitting Roman in the face.
The wall safe had a key, which Roman picked up with another deeply proud expression and dashed over to the dressers to put the key in. The drawer could be opened and Roman extracted the other black light bulb. He installed it in the other sconce, and Roman and Logan turned the lamps together.
"The code!" Patton half-shouted cheerfully, pointing at the numbers now highlighted on the wall. They entered the code in the door, and the keypad played a few rising notes of victory before unlocking. Roman and Patton cheered ecstatically as Logan bounced on the spot, waiting for the door to open. Virgil leaned over to kiss Deceit again while they headed into the office, but none of them moved out of the corner of his eyes.
"Virgil, this is you," Roman pointed out, and Patton went to go sit on the bed. Logan crossed his arms and looked impatient while Virgil walked over. There was a piano in a way too narrow room inside the door, and Virgil backed up immediately, holding up his hands.
"Nope, nope, nope!" Virgil shook his head and backed right into the bed.
"What?" Deceit drawled with annoyance as he stepped over to look. "Ah." He moved to hug Virgil. "I'll be right there with you darling, it's only four bars," He offered kindly.
"I don't suppose anybody else can play the piano?" Virgil asked meekly.
"Give it a try and leave if you can't handle it. I'll help keep you calm." Deceit rubbed Virgil's back. "I know you wanted to do this one. Roman can read music, so maybe he can try if you can't," He suggested.
"There's likely a guide somewhere as a clue to find in the room. They wouldn't assume people know how to play the piano by default," Logan pointed out. Virgil nodded and chewed his lip for a moment. It was an easy-to-play piece. Roman squeezed his hand and pressed a kiss on his cheek.
"Pat and I will think calming thoughts." Roman smiled softly and He and Patton moved back to sit on the bed.
Virgil swallowed and trod into the small room with the piano. It wasn't a nice piano, either. It was black and boxy and electronic rather than strung. Deceit kept his hand on Virgil's back and Patton and Roman stayed calm despite Virgil's panic, and it all helped him keep his focus, though it did still feel like the room would close in on him any minute. Virgil didn't bother pulling out the sheet music or even sitting down at the keys. He just started playing the piece hastily. It was just a scaled-back version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and it didn't mention a tempo.
The keys lit up blue when Virgil pressed down on them and the next door unlocked a tense second after the last note. Virgil and Deceit were out of there, slightly faster than humans should have been, but Virgil cared little. He flopped against the wall in the next room and closed his eyes. Deceit joined him right away and pulled him into a hug.
"I'm very impressed, Virgil," Deceit whispered tenderly, and let Virgil go. Virgil sank to the floor and crossed his legs.
"I wanted to do it," Virgil murmured in response. "Still glad it's over with, though," He chuckled weakly, taking a deep breath. There was a smell of dryer sheets? The next room was a laundry room, of all places. It was a really strange choice, not that having a piano closet wasn't incredibly weird. What Virgil wouldn't have given for a concert hall instead of the claustrophobia box. He wanted to go a round with his baby grand just to wash that stressful memory from his brain. But he was proud of himself for managing it despite hating every second. "Thank you." Virgil looked up to Roman and Patton as they came into the room after Logan hurried in and began inspecting things immediately.
"Did we help?" Patton asked hopefully as Deceit deposited himself on the floor with Virgil.
"Yeah, it helped a lot. I didn't even punch anything. Thanks for letting me try." Virgil sighed and smiled up at Patton.
"Oh, goodness," Patton hummed, looking concerned. "I'm glad we did, then." They smiled and bent down to pat Virgil on the shoulder.
"There's a switch behind that box on the lower shelf next to you, Logan." Deceit pointed to the switch that was just barely visible behind the box from their angle. Logan nodded and knelt down to move the box and flip the switch. It changed nothing noticeable, so they all returned to studying the room for clues. Patton checked in between a pile of towels and Roman rummaged through a box on a storage shelf while Logan scanned high and low. Virgil leaned back with a sigh, taking Deceit's hand.
"Ah, there's one on the ceiling," Virgil pointed to one near the light bulb he noticed when he looked up.
"Virgil, can you get it?" Roman asked.
'There are cameras in these rooms,' Virgil thought to Roman, shooting him an incredulous look.
"No, I mean you're tall and Logan is tall, and together you can get it if you just lift him," Roman suggested.
"Oh, yeah, that's fine with me. Are you okay with it, L?" Virgil looked to Logan, who was on his knees, peering under the table. He reached up to touch something, and Virgil heard a switch click.
"Yes, please." Logan nodded as he crawled back out under the table. "There is likely a pole or something similar to reach it but this is easier." He brushed off his hands on his pants as he stood up.
Virgil planted a kiss on Deceit's forehead before standing up and bending down to lift Logan from his knees, making it so he could easily reach the switch. He held Logan up for a little longer while they looked around for any change. Logan pursed his lips and tapped Virgil's shoulder, so Virgil put him down gently. Deceit stood up from the floor and joined the group's search.
"Hello!" Roman called delightedly, reaching into a box. There was another switch click, and a cabinet swung open, revealing the fated Jenga stack with the missing piece in the center. Roman hustled over to carefully slide the piece in, which popped open a drawer just below the cabinet, making Roman jump back. He extracted a piece of paper and made a disgusted face at it, holding it up to the light.
"What?" Virgil was relatively baffled at what could elicit such a reaction from Roman.
"It looks like math homework." Roman flipped over the paper to show them and a laugh burst out of Virgil before he smacked his hand over his mouth. Logan came over to collect it from Roman to examine the paper himself.
"I believe they are instructions. If we can find what they apply to, it should elucidate what they mean," Logan hummed, returning to his search.
"Virge, can I sit on your shoulders? I want to sit down but I don't want to stop looking," Patton asked, tugging at Virgil's sleeve. Virgil shrugged and squatted down near the table in the middle of the room so Patton could balance themselves. Patton slowly stepped over, scooting Virgil's hair out of the way, and situated themselves on Virgil's shoulders. Virgil stood up, gripping their thighs while Patton held on to Virgil's head warily. They loosened up when Virgil stood up all the way.
"Woah, I'm so tall." Patton was in awe for a moment. "Take me to the shelf." Patton pointed, and Virgil followed suit. "Oh!" Patton sounded excited as they reached out for something. "This looks like it might fit the weird circle indent on the folding table." Patton passed it down to Logan happily. It was a small circular wooden base, kind of like the ones that held the orbs in the first room. But this one had four holes around the edges instead of a divot for a ball.
"So there's another four of something to find." Logan stared at the stand before putting it down into the slot on the table and twisting it into place until there was a loud click.
"They're not so keys, as much as they are… dowels, I guess," Roman supposed, looking at the slots in the table with Logan.
"It's really quite strange the washer has a quarter slot when the dryer doesn't," Deceit hummed.
"So we're also looking for laundry tokens," Patton suggested. Roman walked over to examine the coin deposit with Deceit.
"Unless Carlisle has some half-dollar coins." Roman pushed it partway in, but it didn't go. "These are bigger than quarters." He turned back to look at Virgil.
"I don't carry change, it makes too much noise. I pay with a card and tip in cash." Virgil shook his head, which made Patton giggle slightly.
"I would never alert my presence with something as paltry as change." Deceit chuckled darkly. Virgil moved back towards the table to let Patton have the lay of the room. Patton crossed their arms and leaned forward on Virgil's head.
"Found that pole," Deceit grinned, slipping out a pole with a big prickly rubber top from behind the metal shelves next to the laundry machines. Roman rushed over to take it out of Deceit's hands and started poking Virgil with it. Virgil glowered at Roman, but it did not deter him in the slightest. It seemed to amuse everyone but Logan, who was still on the prowl for clues while Virgil was lovingly harassed. Deceit joined the provocation party by tugging at Virgil's braid. Virgil sighed and let go of Patton's leg for a moment to rub his face, staring straight ahead with annoyance.
"You are aware I can kill every single one of you, right?" Virgil deadpanned, not looking at anything in particular.
"You won't," Deceit and Roman replied at the same time.
"It is not smart to annoy an alpha predator whether he loves you too much to hurt you or not," Logan reminded them as he examined a panel on the dryer with interest. He pulled out the paper from earlier with the fraction, placed it on the dryer, and rubbed his chin while staring at it. He lifted it and walked in front of Virgil, holding up the sheet, attracting his pest's (and Patton's) attention. "I believe this may tell me how far to turn the knob on the dryer in each direction, but it doesn't give me any clue to said directions. Can any of you parse anything?"
"The arrows are around the fractions," Virgil pointed out, not sure why Logan didn't notice them already.
"What do you mean?" Logan flipped the sheet over. "They are in circles," He added, looking confused.
"I think you need to update your glasses prescription, Logan," Deceit said before yanking Virgil's braid playfully again.
"They are?" Patton and Roman asked synchronously, and Roman took the sheet and studied it again.
"Oh! I didn't notice before. They're indeed tiny. Left, right in the first row and right, then left in the second row." Roman handed it back to Logan.
"It could be the row break means to press down or something? Right-right doesn't make sense otherwise," Patton suggested, sounding unsure.
"Yes, I'll try that. Thank you. I will need to schedule an optometrist, it seems," Logan hummed, and returned to the dryer to spin the dial. The dryer door popped open, and Logan extracted a metal rod with a flat disk at the top. "Oh!" He exclaimed and slipped it into one hole in the table promptly. "So you complete the circuit embedded in the base," Logan commented with interest. Virgil was wondering how the mechanics of that one worked, though not just taking that pole out of Roman's hands and decimating it was taking more of Virgil's focus at the moment.
"Roman, were there any metal rods in that box of sundries you dug through?" Deceit asked, giving Virgil's braid one last tug before walking over to the bin.
"Nope! It was mostly just office supplies." Roman stopped poking Virgil finally and put down the stick against the wall where Deceit found it. "Oh, but there's one sticking out of the adjustable rack over here," He added, pulling out an identical rod from the rack and passing it to Logan who rushed over.
"This room was focused more on hiding things in plain sight than the other ones," Patton mused, shifting to look around. "The tokens are probably somewhere out in the open, too. Virge, take us over to the cabinets," Patton pointed and gripped onto Virgil's head as they moved over there.
"What kind of office supplies?" Logan asked curiously.
"Um, a stapler, pens, paper clips of a few varieties, a ruler, and some ink cartridges," Roman listed off.
"One of those might be useful and the others are intended to be decoys," Logan said brightly, stepping to the bin.
"Found one!" Patton announced cheerily, pulling out a token from just inside the wall of an empty cabinet. Patton handed it off to Roman who was passing by. Roman put it in the slot and Virgil moved over to some more shelves with laundry supplies and sundries.
"Found the other," Deceit chuckled, picking it off the top of the frame of the door they entered through and walking to the washer to push in the tray. The washer lid unlocked with a click and Roman pulled it open and extracted another metal rod. He put it in one slot immediately and leaned against the table, staring at it. "Just one more," He pointed out.
"Hey, Virge? Two steps to the right and stand against the wall," Patton asked, pointing at a vent. It was just above Virgil's head and had a collapsible step stool under it. They wouldn't put one in here unless it was needed, so Patton probably thought that was hint enough. "I don't suppose anyone has seen a flathead, have they?" Patton asked after fumbling with a screw. It looked like the paint coating had worn off just under the screw, so either other people tried it or it was on the right path.
"The ruler is metal." Logan pulled it out of the bin and passed it up to Patton, who loosened the screws with the ruler. He left it dangling on the last one and happily pulled out the last rod, passing it to Logan. Logan rushed over to the table so quickly he skidded into it and slipped the rod in. A breaker panel flipped open on the wall next to the last door. "Hm. There has to be a guide for this." Logan walked up to it and stared at the breakers. "There are twenty and these are unlabeled. It would take a long time to find the correct pattern by guessing alone," He pointed out.
"So we're missing a clue," Deceit hummed, starting a circuit around the room with his eyes.
"It's not necessarily in this room. We have had tasks with things from past rooms before," Logan pointed out. "We should split up to cover more ground. I assume we missed something in the fourth room since we did literally one thing in there," He said, walking back over to the door.
"I am not going back into the piano closet unless you need me to play something, and I have emotional support. I'll chill in here," Virgil declared right away.
"Patton can join Logan in the piano room, and Roman and I can head back to the bedroom and study," Deceit said, walking over to Virgil. Virgil squatted down, and Deceit helped Patton off of Virgil's shoulders. Deceit pressed a kiss to Virgil's ear and waved with his fingertips, then walked them into the piano room, along with Patton. Patton had deposited themselves on the piano bench to look around, letting everyone pass in the tiny room. Roman followed Deceit out of the Piano closet and they left Virgil alone in the faux-laundry room. Deceit wanted to stick with Virgil today, but he must have felt comfortable going off on his own at the moment.
Virgil looked around, trying to find anything else out of place. This room didn't look like it had a ton of things in plain sight when he walked in, and Virgil still didn't feel like he knew what to search for. He was looking forward to the tea service, but he didn't know how to expedite the process. Virgil didn't like standing around alone in this room, but he refused to go backward and join anybody. He felt really dumb being lonely when his friends were literally in eyesight, but he was probably still just kind of shaken from the tiny space.
Logan looked convinced that the photo in the piano closet opened up with how intensely he glared at it. Patton just looked perplexed. They held the bench and glanced about. Patton seemed to notice something under the lid of the bench and stood up. Patton squatted down and poked at a few things out of Virgil's view, but there was a clicking sound and they opened up the bench and found a piece of paper. Logan got excited, but was disinterested after a single glance. It must not have been the clue they were looking for. Patton poured over the page with interest as they sat back down on the bench. They turned around to face the piano and looked at the keys, putting up the page where the sheet music goes. They turned to face Virgil with a big grin on their face.
"Hey, Virge, are you excited for the—" Patton returned the piano and pecked out c, a, f, and e and twisted back to shoot Virgil a very satisfied grin. Virgil nodded and flashed a lopsided smirk back at Patton. "I wonder if I should get—" Patton asked and poked at d, e, c, a, and f in a choppy and staccato manner.
"I don't think it would hurt much if you enjoyed something caffeinated," Virgil shrugged, crossing his arms and leaning just outside the door frame.
"Do you think we have to"—Patton tapped d, e, b, a, and g on the piano —"our own tea?" They looked incredibly amused with themselves when they turned back to face Virgil to see his reaction. Virgil huffed a laugh through his nose and smirked at Patton.
"Are you two searching?" Logan asked shortly, looking at the piano itself more closely now.
"Did we do—" Patton pressed b, a, and d with a giant self-assured grin on their face. Virgil covered his mouth and snickered.
"I assume Virgil has perfect pitch and knows what you are playing, but I am simply lost on what you are attempting to communicate," Logan informed them, putting their hand on Patton's shoulder as they leaned in to look closer at the piano.
"Yup! Virgil really"—Patton played a, c, e, and d with better pacing this time—"it!" Patton announced, looking at the sheet a little longer with interest. Virgil sighed, watching Logan inspect the piano. He got down on his knees and checked the underside of the keys. His face lit up right away, and he ripped off a paper. His eyes darted across it quickly and he mouthed a conversation with himself while he apparently decoded a clue. Logan never turned it around for anyone to see.
"Patton, you're playing words, right?" Logan asked excitedly, rocking on his feet. "I think that's what this means. Will you play 'fade cage' on the piano?" He asked hurriedly, trapping on the piano. Patton nodded and checked the sheet again before pecking out the letters with his pointer finger. After a slight lag, like the last time, the picture opened up on the wall, and Logan cheered, heading over to extract a notecard. He inspected it curiously while Roman stepped in.
"Did you find it?" Roman asked hopefully, gripping the frame. He was probably sick of hunting for dead ends.
"It's only half the clue, I believe. This alone doesn't tell me all the switches to flip." Logan held up the page, and his expression had renewed vigor. Patton poked out 'egad' on the piano with a little snort of amusement.
"I successfully located it," Deceit announced smugly as he walked up behind Roman, holding a piece of paper. "There was a second number to enter on the table leg in the paintings. I noticed that there were three paintings with sets of items and entered the numbers left to right," Deceit explained proudly as he passed off the paper to Logan and stepped into the laundry room, pushing Virgil away from the doorway and kissing his neck. Virgil pulled Deceit in for a hug, feeling relieved to have him back. Deceit expressed no desire to leave, which was nice of him.
Logan read the pages a little longer in confusion, but then seemed to have a realization and held the two pages together up to the light. He made an expression that could only be described as 'eureka' before rushing back into the laundry room and to the breaker box. Roman helped Patton off the piano bench and they headed into the room while Logan flipped switches. The door clicked open with a collective sigh of relief. Logan put down the papers on a shelf next to the door with his head held high and Virgil fished the sheet music out of his pocket to abandon on the nearest surface as well.
"Ah, this room is somewhat cramped, Virgil," Logan muttered as he stepped in. Virgil sighed and huffed his bangs out of his face.
Everyone was in good spirits as they left the room, which helped him get through another narrow room. This room wasn't as bad as the piano closet. Deceit stuck close to Virgil and held his hand at the small of Virgil's back as they walked out. A modest, affectionate habit that Deceit often had in public when Virgil was presenting in a masculine fashion. It was very sweet and nostalgic and he was getting fancy tea soon, so he could be happy despite the dumb, claustrophobic rooms.
"I thought I would be way worse at that," Roman admitted, sounding proud of himself.
"Me too, honestly," Patton nodded, sticking close to Roman as Logan led the way down the decently sized hall. There was a timer over the door at the end, with their completion time posted on it. Virgil didn't have any context for how long these things normally took, but that last stretch probably put their time up there. He was just happy to be out of these stupid, tiny rooms. They entered a moderately sized banquet hall with round tables and white linens with fancy iron rolling serving trays wheeling about with tea and finger foods.
"Congratulations!" A server walked up to them, holding a pile of menus. "Does near the window work for you?" They asked and Deceit made an annoyed face while Virgil bit back saying something rude. He was not happy after that tiny hall, but it wasn't anybody's fault.
"Somewhere away from the windows and bathrooms, please," Roman requested kindly, and Deceit and Virgil both reached out to squeeze his shoulder or hand to thank him. The server led them to their booth with a cordial smile. Logan was still buzzing with happiness as they sat down in a large corner booth on the back wall. Patton sat in the very middle and Logan and Virgil took the outer ends with no fuss or discussion. The server placed down the menus and gave a half-bow before leaving.
"That was cool, Logan. Thank you for suggesting it," Virgil said, and leaned back in the booth, feeling a little tired.
"Thank you for taking us!" Logan beamed, speaking much louder than usual. He unloaded his silverware and started folding the napkin right away. It seemed Logan knew how to do origami, because in only a few seconds he was playing with a napkin crane. He pulled it apart and switched to making something else, and Patton's attention was rapt as they watched him fold up the napkin into a flower.
"Will you teach me how to do that?" Patton leaned forward on both hands to watch Logan's expert folds. Logan nodded with an enormous smile and returned to his napkin craft.
Virgil took Deceit's hand to hold under the table and shot him a tired smile. Deceit was still very proud of himself, along with Roman. It was very nice to feel his entire clan in an elated mood. That was something nice about doing something like this all together. Virgil had never seen Logan so incredibly excited, so he clearly wasn't the only one who felt gratified with the experience. Patton cheered for the flower Logan folded up, and he flapped his hands happily before moving to the next design. Even though Logan wasn't in his clan, that energy was incredibly infectious.
"Hey, do you think you could make a napkin crown?" Roman asked excitedly, leaning forward. Logan paused with folding and tilted his head back to think, snapping his fingers softly as he thought. He smiled at Roman and finished the bishop's hat napkin, stealing Roman's napkin, and started folding it on the table right away.
Patton picked up the bishop's hat napkin carefully and set it on their head, which Virgil quickly pulled out his phone to get a picture of while Deceit snickered behind his gloved hand. Roman studied Logan's folding while he clicked his nails together and Logan folded with surgical precision as he bit his lip. He folded a simple crown, pushing it carefully over to Roman, who also planted it on his head and sat stiffly with Patton, wearing their napkin hats. Virgil snickered and got a photo of that, too.
Deceit appeared to be attempting the crane Logan started with while Logan grabbed Virgil's napkin to fold it. Patton and Roman were trying to make the flower from earlier on Patton's napkin. Virgil leaned on his hand and watched all his friends folding up napkins like it was some kind of sporting event, all feeling terribly pleased. Deceit pushed Virgil to sit up straight and deposited the crane on Virgil's head with a small snicker.
"This is not a hat, D." Virgil rolled his eyes but didn't move a centimeter to not disturb the napkin bird.
"What rule says that birds cannot be hats?" Deceit huffed facetiously and put his hand back under the table to hold Virgil's.
"There!" Patton had a satisfied smile, putting a slightly lopsided rose in Deceit's hair. Deceit looked annoyed, but he didn't move to take it off. Logan finished his lotus flower and looked around the table in bewilderment.
"It was napkin hat time, apparently," Virgil shrugged when Logan looked at him with a scrunched-up face.
"I see. Should I join you?" Logan asked, motioning to his flower.
"If it behooves you," Roman snickered, snapping a photo of Virgil and Deceit with napkins on their head with his phone. Logan nodded and carefully placed the lotus on his head.
"Hello! What can we start you off with… today?" The server looked up and noticed them all sitting there with origami cloth napkins on their heads. "Would you like me to take a photo?" They asked, seemingly no longer fazed by the bizarreness of the situation. It was possibly a regular fucking day for this guy.
"Yes, please!" Patton agreed excitedly, moving their hand to hold up the napkin hat while they passed their phone down the table to the server.
"Say tea," The server said as they held it in landscape mode and backed up from the table to fit them all in the frame.
"Tea!" Roman and Patton said enthusiastically. Deceit was more sardonic as he spoke, and Logan sounded puzzled again. Virgil just laughed, squeezing Deceit's hand under the table.