WEEK FIVE: MINGLE

[cluedin]

WEEK FIVE

OCCUPANCY: 23

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 Phoenix's portrait remains the same, on occasion it will change to an unrecognizable figure, flames surrounding the charred flesh. Likewise, Four's portrait looks just like herself, though if you blink you may miss the sharp knives protruding through her chest, rivers of blood dripping down her front. 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.

You know what to expect by now. Once a week, one of your own transforms into someone unrecognizable. But it's hard to empathize with someone without experiencing the hardship for yourself, isn't it? Worry not. Starting today, from the moment you wake, you will find that you yourself have changed into something unrecognizable. Claws, fangs, fur, scales, extra limbs, extra mouths...the changes are numerous as your monster form takes a hold of you. Oh but it's alright! It's just the physical appearance, after all. You're still yourself inside...but it may be hard to believe that as the week goes on.

Some of you may be able to brush these strange changes aside. Others of you may find yourself struggling to understand who you really are. And others of you will find even more problems on hand. Is it your imagination, or did the mansion grow several degrees colder? You just can't quite to seem to warm up. While you may normally be comfortable sharing blankets with your fellow guests, you now find yourself feeling a bit greedy and unwilling to share...well, anything, really. The insatiable greed requires you to take and take and take, no matter if you require the necessities you're taking. And yet even as you take, and especially as you consume, you find that you're never quite satisfied, belly never quite full regardless of how much you eat. That's troubling, isn't it?

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

[shortforever]

[Wait.

What?]

What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me ugly or something?

[Sorry Jin Ling, he's curious now. Gonna follow after the pompous peacock.]

[survivaltricks]

It's better that way. Honestly.

[taps the foot of his prosthetic against the ground. and he is still watching Galo carefully, just in case he does fall after all]

This one is going to take a while to get used to. Did Peach say what she's doing to help you?

[goldpeony]

Chifeng-zun...?

[The stories people tell! Haha! Well, the juniors mostly. They love gossip about the older crowd. Except when wild gay gossip happens in front of their eyes and they lose a chicken wing.]

He helped Uncle and the others at the Sunshot Campaign...

[oathic]

Hey, look on the bright side! If you're made of slime now, then does that mean physical attacks don't do much anymore?

[kazokun]

[ He stops short at that, enough to let Chuuya grab his hand. ]

You were trying to hold my hand?!

[ WHY WOULD ANYBODY THINK THAT why would he... now he has to reevaluate his entire LIFE trying to figure out anything else he had missed ]

[shortforever]

[Ken needs to be a few years older before he can ship. Maybe by the time he's in a dancing game.]

Maybe? But there's not a breeze out here right now. And birds fly without wind, so there's got to be more to it than that.

[He does stretch out the wings though, hesitantly trying to feel for some wind.]

[goldpeony]

[...

He picks up this hat and fastball specials it right at Akira.]

[unanswering]

[rip to the chicken wing...]

He did. He-- always was impressive, in that way.

[his smile's faint, maybe a little sad- but fond, nevertheless.]

[kazokun]

[ Ayabe... can learn.

Ken continues to surprise him every day, but it's always because of the fact that he can smile and be excited about things despite everything going on, whereas Ayabe's never been able to do that since... idk, probably when he was one or two years old, living the blessed life of a single child. ]

...Yeah. We don't have to worry about rain, so it's just keeping things together. The thinner sheets should be enough for the tent, and then we need binder clips and paper weights from the study.

[unanswering]

It would, but... I do need to practice keeping my shape, too...

[he's thinking about it, though.]

[unanswering]

Oh-- you know, I suppose that's true. I can't exactly be stabbed.

[survivaltricks]

[DUCKS]

[the hat sails over his shoulder, smacking the door of the closet harmlessly]

It's a perfectly valid suggestion.

[hamaoned]

One good thing?

[shortforever]

Of course I was trying to hold your hand! When you like someone, you hold their hand! Like I'm doing right now!

[He holds up their hands and shakes it a little to indicate that this sure is some hand-holding going on.]

In case you didn't notice, it feels really nice and I've got goddamn butterflies in my stomach, so take responsibility for that!

[kazokun]

[ Akira stayed up all night being extra... he deserves a good nap. So that's why, when Ayabe returns fifteen minutes later, he puts a thin blanket over Akira and sets a stuffed animal of a dog next to his head and does not wake him up, because he doesn't need need Akira to try and decipher this camping manual he ended up finding. It talks about pitching tents from normal tarp, and suggests using a tree as the base to make the tent stay up easier... Time to wander through the woods and get lost for half an hour only to return to this exact same spot in the end. ]

[goldpeony]

[He glances back, but... his big, stupid tail is in the way. So he keeps going.]

Well, you don't even have a tail! You just-- [UGH. He spins around so suddenly that Chuuya will have to slams the brakes to not run into him.] Your feathers are messy! You looked stupid when you tried to fly, so stop that. Just walk.

You can't rely on that weird ability you have here to impress anyone.

[goldpeony]

[Wow. Thank God they won't find (redacted) as a (redacted) in (redacted) when he goes back home!]

But you aren't like that at all...

[He doesn't mean it rudely, and he doesn't mean it as "you aren't impressive," but more, "you aren't some kinda jock warrior."]

[goldpeony]

I'm not wearing a dress! Why are you trying to make me dress like a girl?!

[He thinks his name is bad enough?!]

I'll just make a damn hole for the tail!

[shortforever]

[Yep, that sure is Chuuya almost running into him there! He only stops at the last moment, and his feathers are even more ruffled now. Which he's finally starting to notice.]

What's wrong with them? They're feathers, they're just supposed to be on there, right?

[This isn't his usual sarcasm either, help him he's got a bird brain now and cares about the appearance of his wings.]

[kazokun]

[ It shouldn't count as hand holding when it feels like he's been trapped and can't make himself let go or pull away, and butterflies in his stomach? feels like DEATH, butterflies are not a nice fluttery feeling, they are heart palpitations and lightheadedness and a red face.

Maybe if he headbutts Chuuya, Chuuya will stop. Maybe Ayabe will pass out again. Both options seem appealing right now.

Instead, he places his other hand on top of theirs and lowers them so the hand holding isn't right in his face, and mutters something inaudible under his breath. This is cheating. ]

[hamaoned]

[ ken is also an orphan so let's not be to quick on the blessed life of an only child. but it comes in the territory of knowing that things suck so either you can let them continue to drag on you for sucking or move forward with that pain. ]

It sounds like you've done something like this before.

[ looking at their new "living situation". ken has no grounds of offering any critique about what ayabe's telling him, however— ]

But wouldn't weights from the gym be better? They're sturdier and more reliable to stay in place. [ hmm. ] Should I bring back anything from the room so we can have it out here with us?

[hamaoned]

[ ken debates saying anything in return but he ultimately does and it's...also disjointed and tentative. ]

Yeah, we will.

[ um. ]

...and then we'll greet him with a smile. [ a slight nod. ] I'm sure he wouldn't hold a grudge against you for what happened.

I know I can't say for sure, but...call it just a feeling.

[unanswering]

[he knows, he knows-- he exhales a little huff of a laugh, at that.]

I'm really not, at all. He always scolded me for not training enough.

[shortforever]

[This is absolutely cheating, but Chuuya has been following the rules for weeks now. He has also decided that following the rules is for losers, and he will be doing what he wants from now on.

That said, he quiets down just a little bit, since it does seem like he's finally getting through to Ayabe.]

You're gonna have to say that a little louder.

[Regardless of the answer, Chuuya needs to hear it. Not knowing for sure is the worst.]

[kazokun]

[ The gym is on the upper stories which Ayabe's not going to be able to get up there without huffing and puffing the entire time, so it made more sense to him, if he were working alone, to use what weights he can find from the study on the first floor. ]

Will you be able to carry back the weights? I'll be counting on you. The small five pound ones should be fine.

[ They add up quick, so hopefully Ken won't push himself and try to haul twenty of them back in one trip. ]

In the room... there are some things. But I'll get them later, after we have everything for the tent.