WEEK TWO: MINGLE

[cluedin]

WEEK TWO

OCCUPANCY: 31

Rise and shine, little monsters. A new week is waiting just for you. The events of yesterday may have been hard to stomach, but time heals all wounds, after all. The damages the house has incurred over the last week have been reverted and the staff is hard at work fulfilling their roles in this mansion. A piping hot breakfast is served in the dining room promptly at 7am, every square inch of floor and furniture has been cleaned spotless, and Pumpkin is...probably around tending to the animals outside. As you exit your rooms on this lovely morning, guests will find that the barrier leading upstairs has diminished, and a new floor has been opened to explore.

For anyone who ventures into the ballroom, a new change may become apparent. Should you choose to look at the plaques long enough, two images will flicker and change sporadically. While Nia's portrait remains the same, on occasion it will change to an image of a headless young lady. Likewise, Asch's portrait looks just like himself, though if you blink you may miss it changing into the image of a young man mid-transformation into something with claws and scales. Finally, Michiru's portrait reveals a picture of a beautiful young lady, but every now and then it will reveal an image of a shriveled up, dried out siren. There is no rhyme and reason for the change...though perhaps it serves as a reminder to those who remain.

Additionally, the house rules have been moved from the ballroom and back into the hallway, mounted in the entryway as they were.

It's been some time now. Surely you've made some friends and perhaps even some enemies. Though you may not fully understand each other, they do say the best way to know someone is to walk a mile in their shoes. Starting today you'll find that you've been bound to one other guest by an invisible sort of string. Everything you feel, they will feel. Everything they experience, you will experience. Though the threads may change from time to time, the connection is strongest with only one person. How will you handle this bond?

Some of you may find this easy. For others, this may be a little stressful! The pressure may grow stronger and weigh down on you, an anger so strong you find yourself...howling in the night to express your anguish. Others still may find that the silver cutlery will cause them to break into a painful rash, and others still will find that an increase of hair begins to take over your head, your arms, and even places hidden beneath your clothes. Perhaps it's time to invest in a razor and stick to plastic utensils.

Not to mention that the ailments you experienced last week are still in effect, though they're much less than before. Do try to keep track of your body parts this week...though you've been absolved of your sins.

You may experience only some of these events. Then again, maybe you're unlucky and you're experiencing all of these events at different points in time. Time is of the essence, however, and come Monday at noon a rustling crackle of static can be heard from overhead. Try as you might, you won't be able to find the speakers but a message will play loud and clear for all.

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Comments

[kazokun]

[ Holy shit, Ayabe would love both those games, just sitting around wasting time farming and helping people out and maintaining a farm or town or island. He takes the game cartridge and frowns a little at it, though, one because the cover is of cutesy little animals and he is not five, and two because- ]

How do you play? Is it two-player?

[ Co-op Harvest Crossing? ]

[shortfornow]

[ He'll take the game case back from him. ]

It's one player. You're the one who needs something to do.

[ Good news, opening it up needs to hands so he may catch a bit of a red there when Dazai opens the case to pull the game out. Just going to start up the tv as he feeds the game into the machine. ]

[kazokun]

...Why don't you show me how to play?

[ While he grabs that case because if there's any damning evidence of blood on it, he can shove it at Dazai's face and go "SEE???" ]

[shortfornow]

[ He'll wipe at something as soon as Ayabe grabs the case, but he'll let the other have it.

Looks like he might have removed the evidence. ]

It's pretty straight forward.

[ Just going to offer the controller to Ayabe. ]

[kazokun]

[ /: !!!

He takes the console and takes a seat on the floor, cross legged with his arms resting on his thighs as he starts up the game. He enters his name in as "Reito" and in the first five minutes of the game is told that he is in severe debt after being forced to take loans out for this house. ]

What? Why? I just started the game and I'm losing?

[shortfornow]

[ congrats it's actually the host club for farming furries ]

It's just to give you something to aim for at the start. You're supposed to go around doing odd jobs and requests for the other villagers to pay it off.

[kazokun]

I can't get a real job? It'll take forever to—

[ He shakes something out of a tree, and when he opens the bag, it's a couch. What is this game. ]

[shortfornow]

[ Pfft. He's going to laugh at that. ]

It won't take forever. Just shake things or dig if you don't want to talk to the other animals.

[kazokun]

I'm not going to ruin the town by filling it with holes.

[ He is going to shake trees and not talk to the other animals and it's going to take forever. ]

[shortfornow]

You can dig at the beach.

[ And that's fine. It'll keep him busy and distracted. Also it's easier for him to process the second-hand emotions that he will get from Ayabe playing a video game. ]

[kazokun]

[ There's a lot of reluctance from Ayabe playing a video game, a lot of looking down at his hands and up at the screen that suggests he doesn't usually play video games and has to keep testing out the other buttons that aren't the direction pad to remember what they do.

The zen isn't there, is the first thing. He takes the game too seriously for that. Curiosity towards the other villagers but wariness as well, and he doesn't approach them.

The inventory also fills up quickly and now he's forced to go to town and sell things. This sure is dread at having to talk to cute little 2D animals. ]

[shortfornow]

[ He's just going to siiiiigh at that because when will Ayabe learn some chill.

Dazai is going to lay down on the floor though, fold his arms under his chin, and just watch like that. Just trying to will all of his composure over to the other.

Maybe he needs to get laid a girlfriend or a boyfriend but Dazai doesn't want second hand dokis. ]

[kazokun]

[ He will chill when he's dead, and also he doesn't want first hand dokis

Second hand composure is weird, though. It's like him going into town and wondering if the villagers will rip him off when he's buying/selling things, and somebody is there to pat him on the back and tell him things will be okay.

And then he gets ripped off anyways. ]

...I feel like a garbage collector finding trinkets in the trash to sell.

[shortfornow]

[ maybe they should go get weed for him. ]

That is one of the tasks they will have you do. Collect garbage.

[ Watching him interact with one of the critters from town and offering another sigh. ]

Don't be so suspicious of the villagers. They aren't going to steal your organs.

[kazokun]

[ Hey, yeah, where is that weed toplevel, where are the weed brownies everybody so desperately needs

Ayabe wasn't suspicious about organ harvesting before, but then Dazai says that and he sure is now! Nobody is getting their hands on his fake 2D organs. ]

...I bet they'd sell for a lot and I'd be able to pay off the mortgage.

[shortfornow]

Organs don't go for as much as you think they would.

[ Just throwing that out there as if it's fact. Is it? Who knows ]

It's not that kind of game.

[kazokun]

[ He's thinking like thousands of dollars so maybe Dazai's not wrong. ]

How do you know that?

[ To both those claims. Look at this cheery game with bright colors and happy animals. He doesn't trust any of it. ]

[shortfornow]

It's the rating on the box. It's for Everyone, which includes kids.

[ He'll reach for the box again, still flat on his stomach, and then push it towards the other. ]

Were you mugged by mascot characters in the past?

[kazokun]

[ Kids these days are subjected to all sorts of scary things, just look at Ken being in this place. Ayabe sees that E for Everyone and pushes the box back. ]

No. This is a waste of time. No matter what happens in a game, it doesn't change anything in life, so I'm just wasting my time playing this.

[shortfornow]

There's plenty of time to waste here. There's nothing to really do until someone kills again.

[ Pushing the box back ]

[kazokun]

[ He hands Dazai the controller too, but he doesn't get up to leave. ]

Stupid. Don't say it like we're all sitting around waiting for it to happen. We're supposed to be figuring out how to make it stop.

[shortfornow]

I don't know if we can prevent it yet, but we might be able to figure out who it could be by observing everyone carefully.

[ But that requires a lot of socializing with teens. He feels kind tired just thinking about it. ]

[kazokun]

[ Ugh, talking to people.

He sits back and stares at the screen, because playing video games =/= observing people. ]

Have you had any luck figuring that sort of thing out? I didn't think it would be so hard. People aren't normally good at lying and covering this sort of thing up. Or they shouldn't be, anyways.

[shortfornow]

[ He's used to talking to older people. This is new ground for him.

Lifting his head up as he looks over at Ayabe for a moment or two, trying to figure out if he's feeling his feelings or his own. ]

Usually I do, but I haven't here. It's hard when the culprit usually doesn't know they are the ones who did it.

[ A pause. ]

However, if they were injured after that night, appearing differently, or even smelling differently...

[ They can find out who did it quicker. ]

It also seems like they are motivated by hunger. [ Sometimes you munch and crunch your fellow guests. ]

[kazokun]

Everybody here is always injured in some form or another. Some of us never stop.

[ DAZAI. Staring at your face, and also at your hand. Why hide injuries when it's just going to come up in trial and he'll need somebody to vouch for him?

Hunger as motivation makes his own stomach clench out of disgust, though, imagining Nikki biting Haruka and whoever this past culprit being biting off Nia's head, and in the back of his mind is the jingling of a bell. ]

Nikki did say she got up for a snack... Maybe if everybody had a midnight snack before bed, this wouldn't happen.