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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MONDAY, 12PM

[cluedin]

[As the static begins to clear, a young woman voice begins to speak.]

My child was not human. It sounds cruel, but it's a fact; her father had not been human either. I knew what to expect going in. No, no, I only thought I knew. If I had... My lover died. I thought... Oh, I thought at least I had his child. At the very least I was still forever tied to that piece of him, that piece of him that had grown inside me. Yes, I loved her. I swear to you, I loved her. But she wasn't human, and I was... I wasn't prepared to care for a child on my own. My heart was broken, and hers was destroyed. Night and day, she would roam on all fours, howling for her father. Howling and howling. She would rake her claws over her toys, her bed, over me. And the howls. I can still hear them. At the time, I never thought I would... It was a mistake. I was so tired. Exhausted, really. I hadn't slept in weeks, listening to my child howl to someone who would never answer her again. I simply... I had wanted her to be quiet. Just a little. For a minute. I didn't mean to forget her in there. I didn't mean for her to-- I never meant for her to--

I miss the howling. The quiet is so much worse.

You're judging me, aren't you? Everyone did. Everyone does. It wasn't on purpose. Will you be able to say the same? Until someone dies... you will find no sleep. Will you snap? Or will you make... a simple mistake? I wonder.

[constellates]

[anya will be running around despite her fingie loss, because what does it mean to chill out - but others might notice that her right hand is bandaged in whatever they could manage to get their hands on! torn pieces of cloth, mostly. her index finger and her pinky sure are missing, but if anyone's gaze seems to linger on her hand, she'll just move it behind her back shyly.]

[ uno : uno prompt for uno idol ]

[you might catch a little bit of silver hair peeking out of the music room before it darts back in and - tries to close the door. you know. discretely. quietly. no one will catch her, she is so stealthy!!

- but maybe the notes of music playing will catch your attention anyway. it plays off of the vinyl player and anya seems to be treating the music room as her own personal practice room because she can, performing her choreography and singing the lyrics in time with the music like it's second-nature. even if the door opens again, she seems to be so lost in her own little idol world that she doesn't notice, singing instead to an imaginary crowd.]

♪ I look up at the spreading starry sky,
driving my thoughts out so far away
Someday I'll surely stand up there alone
No matter how lonely I am,
I'll fight against this deep loneliness
Let's cross over to the unseen sky. ♫

[it is... quite probably the happiest she's looked since she's arrived. that said once the music stops, she seems to come back to earth - and even if you were just peeking in, she stops. turns red. immediately bows - but more apologetically, than a performer's bow]

Извините! S-Sorry, did you need....?

[the room????]

[ dos : i lied she would be doing this too ]

[if you don't catch her in the first prompt, SHE will catch YOU in the second one - ]

Oh! Um! Вопрос - question... what is your favorite food?

[she's got her notebook in one hand and a crayon in the other, babey. did you know i tried to take fingers from anya's dominant hand but she's canonly ambidextrous i hate this ]

[kazokun]

i. monday
[ I wanted to say Monday is a bad day, but they're all bad days. It's the beginning of the week and he's already so tired. All these new rooms to lure them into a false sense of security while he only wants out of here. Burning down the forest did not work. There's a crematorium you can sit in and listen to people buzzing on kazoos across the hall. Everything is terrible.

Monday Ayabe grabs a bottle of holy water and trudges down the halls, flicking water on every person's face he passes by. He looks like he's on the verge of tears the entire time, but otherwise, unapologetic. Holy water doesn't burn werewolves, it'll be fine. ]

ii. tuesday
[ In the laundry room, there are clothes and bedsheets thrown everywhere, a cart with cleaning supplies overturned with detergent spilled all over the ground and a bottle of bleach emptied out to pool out under a body lying prone on the ground.

It's Ayabe! He's still breathing, but just barely, and also not for long if he's going to be left breathing bleach fumes. ]

wc.
[ If you want to red string with Ayabe, feel free to feel like you're gradually and increasingly losing your mind all week and possibly like dying on Tuesday. I'm at birdseed and card#9038 if you want to message me for PCs! ]

[shortforever]

1

[Chuuya's major bond is already picked out, but if anyone wants a minor bond with him they're free to feel irritation at just about everything ever. Irritation which is growing into outright anger as he struggles with something around the house. Be it opening a jar of pickles, how far he has to actually walk to get anywhere, not being able to go sleep even though he's really tired, you name it and he's probably mad at it.

Enjoy the anger.]


2

[The one thing that does bring joy to his angry little heart is video games. Chuuya has taken up residence in the game room and has commandeered a tv and a console for his own use. It looks like he has a fighting game up on it, as well as a second controller.]

Wanna play? I'll go easy on you.

[Listen to this smug asshole here.]


3

[Okay, the note in the music room said not to damage the pipe organ, but he can modify it.

Hes's going to get some paper and draw little sets of eyes, which he's then going to stick right above the little square openings on each pipe of the pipe organ. This gives the effect of the pipes being alive and screaming faces of some sort.

One is even further modified with bunny ears drawn on that scrap of paper too.

But yeah your character can find him at any step in that process, or even at the end when he's admiring his handiwork.]

[unanswering]

1- gym...

[what the fuck is huaisang, of all people, doing here...

he's just exploring, from the looks of it, considering he's still wearing fancy robes! they're in a shade of darker green, this time, with a matching fan held in his left hand. nie huaisang hasn't seen equipment like this before, and while the purpose of some of it seems clear, he's... still pretty lost. it's not like he was ever the workout type.

so, here he is, pushing gently at a ball-- and looking surprised when it fails to move.]

Oh-- it's heavy!

[WHY. what is its purpose.]

kitchen, like 3am

[he's given up. he can't sleep at all, so here he is in the middle of the night with a cup of tea steeping, watching it blearily as he leans against the counter and waits. annnnd waits. it takes a second to notice he's not alone, blinking over at anyone who joins him.]

You couldn't rest, either? This is supposed to help, but I've had a cup already and still can't...

ii

[disreguarded]

[ UH?? AYABE??

Beau actually came down here for something completely different, but she sees Ayabe just... in a pile of bleach and the thought completely vanishes out of her mind. it probably wasn't important anyway because she's so sleep deprived but. ]

Ayabe! [ nyoom just let her get him out of the bleach, wtf ]

2.

[shortfornow]

Oh? Did you already forget that I won the last time?

[ S'up, co-worker or whatever you are to him. He'll walk over to grab the second controller, making sure it's in working order without making it obvious that's what he's checking. ]

i!

[miscakes]

[opens his mouth to say hello.]

Good afterno—

[... gets holy water all over his face and straight down his pie hole







GAGS]

[kazokun]

[ No, go back to doing your important thing, as long as Ayabe's face is out of the bleach he can be unconscious for a good couple of hours and that's all he wanted.

This tag is just Ayabe being complete deadweight, he doesn't respond at all to Beau's voice or touch. ]

[kazokun]

[ It is no longer a good afternoon.

Ayabe stares at him for a moment, in that sort of tired glassy-eyed stare of somebody who hasn't been sleeping well even before this week's condemned them to 24/7 wakefulness. ]

...You're not supposed to drink it.

[disreguarded]

[ okay but like she doesn't want him to be dead. or like, lose his hair? or clothes. or face?? don't sleep in bleach, kids. ]

Fuck. [ she mutters helpfully. gently, she scoops him up the best she can to at least move him carefully to the other side of the room. she thinks he might freak out about this but she's doing it anyway - she sits with her back against the wall and rests ayabe half in her lap so he at least doesn't have to be passed out on the floor. ]

You better not be dead. [ she tells him, pissy, trying to wipe any bleach away from his clothes or skin. ] Wake up.

i.

[shortfornow]

[ ...

... ... ]

I already took a shower.

[ Ayabe, please chill ]

[shortforever]

It's a different game, it's fine.

[The controller is in working order! Chuuya isn't a cheat. Usually.

He absolutely would have broken the controller first if he had known Dazai would play.]

Best of 3. Loser has to do one thing the winner says.

[kazokun]

[ Her voice still doesn't reach him, but the good news is the side of his face is just a little red but it doesn't appear as if he'd been down very long before Beau came across him. He doesn't wake up for any of it, but if he were awake, he'd probably say something about WASHING THE BLEACH OFF WITH WATER instead of just trying to dry him off.

He appreciates this, he really does, but since he's unconscious and cannot feel it, it's Anya somewhere out there feeling her face lightly burn and going ??? ]

[voidbreaker]

i. games room

Here we go. Ever play Vantage Masters?

[ ash just immediately zeroes in on the games room, sitting himself down and dragging a pack of cards towards him. the other games don't get a look in for the moment, as he shuffles the deck with a short of quick ease that suggests he's played some card games in the past. ]

Maybe someone should set up a games night. Nothing wrong with some bright lights and flashy distractions to let you pretend everything's fine.

ii. chapel

[ wander into the chapel and you might see some blond hair sticking up over one of the pews -- get closer, and you'll find ash, slumped in one of the pews and staring rather intently at the stained glass windows. ]

... [ After a moment or two, he'll speak up: ] You have this kind of thing back home?

iii. wildcard

[ hit me up for anything specific -- ash is probably gonna be having some out of character moments this week, so that's fun for him. ]

[shortfornow]

[ Uh huh.

We already know Dazai would have done the same

Looks like he can't relax this time though. There's something like a grin that appears when Chuuya says that. ]

There's no backing out of it this time, Chuuya.

[kazokun]

[ No chill, only holy water to expel everybody's sins ]

It's holy water from the chapel. Maybe it should be added to the main water supply...

[ Then everybody can shower in holy water and he doesn't have to do this. ]

[disreguarded]

[ she has no idea what bleach actually is other than one time she was down here and she spilled some on her suit and it like, burned a hole through her shirt. so. it probably burns through people too?? which, bad.

the longer he's out the more she's going to like, get frantic. after a while she starts shaking him a bit, biting her lip. ]

C'mon, dude. Ayabe. Wake up, you're freaking me out.

[kazokun]

[ I hope on Saturday when they're doing injury checks and Ayabe has a burn on his face and Beau just looks away.

Anyways, he's still not waking up, even with the shaking and the pleading. If she was there the last time this happened, maybe she heard he was passed out for a solid three hours, so it might be worth timeskipping unless she wants to dunk him into the lake to shock him awake with cold water. ]

[disreguarded]

[ HE DID THIS BEFORE??? beau is losing her mind what the fuck ayabe

yeah no if he's out for like around ten minutes she's definitely going to dunk him in the lake. gently. not enough to disturb the kraken or frog man. actually she'll lay him out on the ground and pour a whole bucket of water on him specifically so the kraken doesn't tentacle him. good morning. ]

[shortforever]

Ha! I don't plan on it!

[Time to open up the game, pick fighters, and go!

...yeah, since Dazai doesn't have his arm in a cast this time, he'll probably win the first round easily. Whoops.]

You're cheating! You have to be!

[kazokun]

[ NOT ON PURPOSE the last time was intro mingle where somebody destroyed the lounge and he immediately noped out, that wasn't on purpose

I'm going to pretend Beau laid him gently on his side or at least turned his head so he doesn't drown on this bucket full of gross slimy lake water. Terrible morning, but at least he's frowning and trying to move away from the water, starting to rouse from oblivion. ]

[shortfornow]

[ Sighs as he holds his hand out for the bottle of holy water. Gimme. ]

I don't think it's going to help.

[shortfornow]

[ No arm cast and all nice and healed thanks to the furries. ]

How could I cheat? You're the one who set up the game, chibi.

[ Chuuya y r u a sore loser ]

[kazokun]

It might.

[ He does hand the bottle over. If Dazai is going to dump it on Ayabe's head, there are plenty more where that came from. ]