WEEK THREE

[lesmodsalouette]

WEEK THREE

28 Guests

You awaken smothered in wonderfully soft blankets. If you are lucky, there is a warm body next to you, but... those are becoming shorter and shorter in supply, aren't they?

It's Monday at Château Ambregris, and you have just arrived here. Whatever clothes you are wearing, whatever injuries you are sporting... They are once again accurate to how you were before this tale began. Whether this leaves you with any urgent matters to take care of or relieved of ailing you had contracted in the 'last' week, the gong of the numerous clocks chimes out indifferently to the hour. Gone is the urgent summons of the past two weeks, with no Witch to greet you.

Rise and shine, and face your 'first' day in your 'new' home! And though you may now think yourself quite familiar with it, maybe another look around wouldn't hurt?

TIME LOOP:

-Characters wake up with the clothes they had with them at their canon point, like in the intro log.
-The state of their bodies is exactly the same as it was on the intro log (for better or worse).
-Any items they accumulated last week are also reset (sorry you'll need to build up your weapon cache again), except items that were given out as event rewards. Please note that the item uses are not reset.

LOCATIONS UPDATED:
- library, gardens
- mud bath → aquarium
- menagerie → photography studio
- grotto → greenhouse

WEEKLY EFFECT

This week every character will have a spirit animal that follows them around like a familiar. The choice of animal is up to you (natural or supernatural), but it should represent them in some way. The animal is restricted in size to that of a large dog and is incorporeal, though it can interact with other spirit animals. As the animal is a representation of their heart and inner self, it might be better at expressing itself than it's owner.

Yes, this is basically daemons. This palace clearly needs more animals for emotional support!

(OOC: Murder proposals and counter proposals are open! )

MONDAY • TUESDAY • WEDNESDAY • THURSDAY

Locations Proposals PCS Curfew Witch Contact Main Nav

Comments

TUESDAY

[lesmodsalouette]

🗡️💍

[lesmodsalouette]

[Last week was Tuesday, and this week is Tuesday too -- at the very least it's not the exact same Tuesday, even if Monday continues to try to drag you back to the merciless looping grind. Accordingly, there's some kind of new table centerpiece going on at the banquet hall today.

Amidst the same food, the same utensils, the same place settings for the third week straight... you'll find a workshop carving knife as well as a delicate silver and diamond ring sprucing up a lovely vase of lilies on the table. Bit of whiplash, but at least it's pretty.]

[safetycheck]

[ That's a pretty ring...if it's just sitting here, she's gonna take it! ]

[lesmodsalouette]

[The gonging of the grandfather clocks suddenly starts sounding like wedding bells--

For legal mod reasons this is a joke. But congratulations, Lili!]

[fourtuity]

[ In hindsight, she didn't pick one up yet this time... So if the knife is still there, yoink! ]

[lesmodsalouette]

[Clover is now armed with one (1) carving knife.

Surely nothing bad can come of this!]

[distain]

[Andrew was quiet for most of Monday, putting in an occasional appearance and mostly haunting the chateau grounds. She's still quiet, though more present, the following day. The bird accompanying her has been more investigative and curious. It's a little loud and seemingly determined, endlessly, to interact with an environment that refuses it, attempting to pick up everything it can get its beak around (which is nothing, since it's unable to touch the world at all).

Said magpie is going ham on the shiny lenses in the cameras in the photography studio early in the day, maybe unhappy that it came all this way to find film instead of capybara. Andrew herself is standing opposite the clown cutouts, which have for some reason completely captured her thought, as she stares at them for some time, lost in it.

Later, while spending any time enclosed in the library no longer sounds like an appealing activity to her, Andrew does swing by to see what's on the shelves this time. She brings a book on astrology out to the gallery, where she sits on one of the viewing ottomans. As she flips through details on the signs and their attributes, a single line creases her forehead.]

Do you think any of these suit you? [Someone else might have a better perspective on this. She can't even know for certain where to look. The magpie is looking for itself, too, in the art.]

gallery

[remainsilent]

[ He will peer at the book she is looking at. ]

I am unsure as I haven't really paid attention to such things as star signs. What do you think would suit me?

gallery

[coldseep]

( A dragon with a quiet temperament, resembling but not identical to Hwylryn's dragon form, travels in orbit around Hwylryn as if it were swimming through water.

He pauses when he's addressed by her. )

... On stars?

photography studio

[stygiomedusa]

[hamel appears nonetheless, jellyfish in tow]

Do you... want to take a picture with them?

[the clowns, she means.]

[caporegrimme]

[Scarlet has gotten used to the presence of the little animal accompanying him.

You might notice if you pay close enough attention. Nested inside the hood, right beside his neck, there tends to be a little red songbird. It's precious! Scarlet is staring at his reflection in the aquarium's tanks, seeing the snoozing bird]

...no, really, am I supposed to feel this is some sort of dig at me...?

[Does this mean Scarlet is like a little round feathery ball? Oh well.

The Billiards room has Scarlet already having grabbed a pool cue and set a triangle of pool balls]

Come over here. Let's play a match -- I'll try to give you a good game.

[Not that he knows much about billiards or pool]

aquarium

[obtect]

[Has Caroline actually left the aquarium at any point this week? Ehhhhhhhhh.

She tilts her head to Scarlet, looking at the little bird nestled in his hood.]

...You want to elaborate on that?

billiards

[ocenon]

Have you played much pool before now?

[ The large black lion with glowing red eyes that's been following Richard around seems to Scarlet warily, before finding a near corner and laying down to watch with interest. ]

Network... Town hall?

[the_obedient_servant]

We find ourselves in the same place - the same time once again, and yet things continue to change. The surroundings, the pattern of behavior, our circumstances. There is a goat next to me.

Why do we think it is that our flamboyant overlord chose not to reveal himself this week? We still remember this week after all. I have my own theories but I would like to hear what others think before I reveal it fully.

[antline]

Because he knows it's useless? A waste of time.

[He's Tired of the speech.]

[perfectpower]

Probably trying to fix his spells. If we're remembering the time loops then that means something went wrong on his end.

[snakeblood]

What color is his magic usually?

[ Ignoring the current question to something else... ]

[coldseep]

( ok not to be a slight apologist for the guy who's sending him to therapy each week (the therapist is g'raha) but )

... I think he's just tired.

brief gore ment

[distain]

I wonder if he meant it. When he said putting his hand through Siffrin's chest was a favor.

chara's theory

[the_obedient_servant]

I will elaborate on what it is that I am implying now. If anyone has any information that can contradict me, I would be happy to hear it.

I believe that the point of these games isn't the deaths themselves - I believe in fact that our assigned villain revealed it at the end of last trial, when he asked for us to unleash our emotions at the despair of losing and choosing the wrong culprit, thus sending an innocent to their death. [YMMV on how much "innocence" matters here.]

It is as the overgrown lizard said, this would be much simpler if he had just killed us all himself. But if he was looking to extract emotions (the source of all human magic) to complete this ritual of his, likely to "save" the Goddess he always speaks about - then everything he has done and every way that the game has shaped itself makes sense, does it not? We live in communal residences, we are given weekly events to get to know each-other more - and our memories of the previous week aren't even erased.

How ineffective would it be to extract outpouring emotions after one week given to the players to care?

I think we have been doing this a long while - and I think our memories will only be erased once the game is rendered unplayable, and we will all be brought back to the start to repeat the cycle. When time repeats in this way, there is almost always some variant of... loss. Nostalgia. An attempt to reclaim something that once felt so much stronger.

That is what I believe is happening.

💎💡🗡️

[lesmodsalouette]

[Nothing too intensely exciting has struck this Tuesday, not even murder -- but perhaps that's about to change.

Around the castle and grounds, wherever they may be: those who have picked up some of the strange stray items that don't quite seem affected by the time loops -- the chipped jade pendant, magic fire lantern and workshop carving knife, to be precise -- will find that those items are drawing them somewhere. Quietly, but insistently.

However long it takes them to answer that call, they'll all end up at the banquet hall at about the same time, as though their inert companions had gathered them for a nice dinner of dinner is absolutely not being served right now.

However, this is where it gets interesting: all the objects begin to move on their own.

💎 The jade pendant is a bit too round to get where it wants to go, but the chipped portion is enough for it to eke out something that looks like text. It looks like it spells... "food"...??

💡 The lantern is the unwieldy sort, but it gamely balances on a corner and begins slowly scoring lines in the wood. It's slow going, and may be difficult to read, but eventually the words "ICE SPIRIT" stand out against the wood grain of the table.

🗡️ The carving knife has a predictably easier time of it, though it wobbles precariously at intervals. The not-handwriting is just as ponderous and chickenscratch as the lamp's, but like the lamp, at the very least you can read it. The phrase "beautiful color" has been etched into the tabletop.

Afterward, the draw fades and the items go back to be inanimate, and everyone is free to go about their day. You might want to do something about the table graffiti, though.]

/2

[diel]

[ this whole thing leaves yoru pretty confused because he doesn’t even remember picking up this lantern?? but the words have to mean something and he can almost feel meaning and memories draw closer…

like a moon calling the tide to it. ]

[fourtuity]

[ by the time clover reaches the banquet hall with the knife, she's fuming—ready to claw someone's eyes out. a chihuahua walks beside her, snarling and growling.

and then all that happens.

it does not improve her mood one iota. oh she does not like what this could mean one bit. ]

...Maybe I really did get cursed.

[ Cursed listening to him, that is. Ugh. What a day. ]

[antemeridian]

[ it is with great reluctance that homura shows up to the banquet hall, more or less led by the chipped pendant and accompanied by a flickering, starry shadow quavering ominously as it trails her,

but once its business is done she just takes in the message carved out (while the shadow settles back into the shape of the white-winged blackbird seen in her previous top level) and... ]

... and how do you suggest we get it to you, I wonder? Burn it? Lay it out in offering in the mirror hall...?

2/2 pr'haps

[lesmodsalouette]

[The table graffiti stays till around end of day; at some point it's scribbled over and scratched out, erased with some precision and properly covered with place settings. As though it was never there.]