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

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.]

[cleansheets]

[ A hum of agreement from Angelo. ]

Not much he's still got to tell us, now that he knows his memory-wipe mechanism is broken.

[the_obedient_servant]

Is it though?

[perfectpower]

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

[the_obedient_servant]

We remember two loops. That is hardly game breaking.

[perfectpower]

And in two loops we managed to injure him. It must be a shock to someone who thinks he is invulnerable.

[Siffrin truly did their best.]

[snakeblood]

What color is his magic usually?

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

[the_obedient_servant]

For time travel it ought to be red.

[snakeblood]

So it changes on the use type?

[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.

[snakeblood]

Is he? [ Good. ]

[coldseep]

Just a guess. He must have his fingers in a lot of pies to keep this all going... it really is much more complicated than just killing us outright.

( And, as speculated, there's likely been loops before, so. )

[oncefallen]

He did get quite testy when Miss Shiv and I questioned him about his Goddess. I wonder if his resolve is beginning to break down.

[the_obedient_servant]

I think so.

I wonder how long he has been doing this for.

brief gore ment

[distain]

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

cw for implications of child death

[the_obedient_servant]

From experience, it is one of the quicker ways to die.

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.

[distain]

[Right, that was what she was trying to recall.]

"I think I'll be able to get some anyway."

Perhaps we already aren't providing exactly what he wants to his expectations.

[snakeblood]

[ Not a contradiction, but... ] I asked him if emotions was what he was after outright. He neither confirmed or denied.

"I enjoy them," he said.

[oncefallen]

[This is literally what he was just saying to Hwylryn so yeah. He's in agreement here.]

That's my theory as well. The fact that he chose Hwylryn to kill Chu Wenshan rather than doing it himself lends further credence to that, as does him making all of us watch it happen.

[And the fact that he's here amongst the group makes him even more certain, not that he's going to say as much out loud.]

If what he's after are strong emotions, what better way to orchestrate them?

[perfectpower]

[He nods along as he listens. It's not a bad theory.]

That would explain why our memories aren't resetting with the weekly resets. People get more emotional about people they care about.

So, what are we going to do to test this? Show no emotions at whatever happens tomorrow?

[antemeridian]

This has been my working hypothesis for a while now, after he told us to 'try to get along' that first week.

But that might be because I have some familiarity with the concept of entities exploiting a population and harvesting energy based off of the conversion of emotions.

[coldseep]

( As much as I wish Hwylryn were useful, he has nothing to add to this just yet, but he's definitely listening to all this. )

[diel]

Assigned villain is a nice word for it. He's told me before that he's dutybound to us in some ways.

[ provide food, answer calls, etc. ]

Two things to consider: if he had the magic along with the know-how, it would not have taken him this long to save that woman. [ every time he mentions her, he sounds faintly bored tbh. ] And he's implied it's been a long, long time. And second: where, then, did this miracle chance come from?

To borrow your phrasing: who is the real villain? What if the little Witch is just another player?