Day 10 of 14 · Thursday, October 22 into Friday, October 23, 2026
Hey, [DEV] here.
Today we got the group photo, Julian and Randi finished “Grounds,” and RJ started identifying polar-plunge cowards in advance. Productive day, honestly.
The floor won
Training session four has apparently become a house tradition. Julian raised the load again. Finn got through it without a complaint, N30N defended his escape from last place, and Wes came back voluntarily. We should probably study that last part.
RJ wandered in with her camera and caught Wes flat on the mat with N30N beside him in matching defeat. Randi’s camera lesson is already paying off.
“Send me that,” Wes said. “I want it framed.”
“It’s evidence,” N30N said. “We’re destroying it.”
It survived.
All twelve means all twelve
RJ put a box around the group-photo item on the chalkboard and wrote TODAY? beside it. Subtle. Effective.
Everyone gathered on the front steps at noon. Randi tried to stay behind the camera until Julian pointed out that the list specifically said all twelve. The tripod and timer took over, and Randi had to sprint into place.
RJ immediately nominated the furious mid-sprint outtake as the official version. The proper one took three attempts. Nobody really arranged themselves, and everyone was laughing at something Dustin had said just before the shutter went.
The photo went on the fridge beside the croissant note. Between that and the workout picture, the fridge is becoming an archive.
Nine frames. Finished.
Julian and Randi claimed the dining table for the final “Grounds” edit. Two hours, fourteen frames reduced to nine, and three photographs that apparently required a proper argument before anyone could let them go.
They both cared enough to push back. Eventually Randi scrolled through the whole sequence and called it “finished.” Coming from her, that carried some weight.
Elsewhere, Finn rehearsed behind a closed door. Eva heard something as she passed, stopped for a moment, then kept going. She hasn’t asked about it. She hasn’t told anyone, either.
“Less tragic”
Eva and Wes ended up making lunch for eleven without anyone assigning them the job. She directed. He followed through. Everybody ate.
His knife skills have improved since the onion incident. Eva’s assessment was “less tragic,” which I think counts as praise. From her, anyway.
While they worked, Wes said, “You could have told me to take the bed weeks ago, you know. Before I even got here.”
“How would I have done that,” Eva said, concentrating on the cutting board.
“Dunno. You manage things.”
Neither of them took it any further. Lunch still got made.
Someone in the doorway
Carlos brought the “alone, not lonely” painting into the living room and worked while everyone moved around him. He’d been trying to figure out what the room in that painting needed.
Tonight he added a second figure in the doorway. Small, staying back, simply there.
Mori looked up from their laptop and saw him do it. They exchanged a nod over the canvas. That was the entire conversation.
Say it Sunday
The cold didn’t keep many people away from the fire pit. Eleven of the twelve came out, though Finn headed in by ten with his showing coming up. The remaining nights are starting to feel countable.
RJ pushed for the polar plunge. Randi ruled that nobody was allowed to die before Finn’s showing. It was postponed to Friday.
Eva and Wes sat on the porch steps, away from the main group. She stayed longer than she usually would. When he told her she was freezing, she said, “I know where the door is.”
He let her stay.
At some point they ended up shoulder to shoulder. Neither acknowledged the move.
“Whatever this is,” Wes eventually said. “I’m not trying to make it a thing before Sunday. I just — I want to say it’s the best week I’ve had in years, and it’s mostly because of—”
“Don’t.” Softly. “If you say it tonight, it becomes a tonight thing. I don’t want a tonight thing.”
After a pause, still facing the yard: “Say it Sunday. If you still want to.”
“Sunday.”
She went upstairs first. Her door didn’t close all the way. He noticed.
Nobody else in the house heard that conversation.
Tomorrow has a sign
Before bed, RJ taped this to the pool cover:
PLUNGE 2PM. COWARDS IDENTIFIED IN ADVANCE.
The house was dark by one. Finn’s showing is next. The pool has been warned.
