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

[kazokun]

i.
[ Sometimes!!! You just want to stop dealing with life and become a hobo in the woods. That's what we're doing this week. Ayabe dragging blankets and sticks and ropes and other such things to construct himself a little tent in the forest. It's easy to mistake these things floating across the grounds on their own, the semi-transparent form of a boy carrying them hard to see in the harsh sunlight.

He is finally burning his week 0 candles for warmth. The first one to get lit is Love Potion. ]

wc.
[ Ayabe is... a ghost... because that's what he always feels like inside, dead and unseen. I'm starting a new job this week so I'll be slower and will mostly do PCs? probably? Ayabe's chilling this week and so am I ]

i

[hamaoned]

[ oh my god ayabe...

maybe it's a good thing that ken is sporting dog ears and a tail this week because he's going to be an obnoxious thorn in his side. something something dogs are loyal to a fault. either way, ken isn't here to drag him back to the room (yet) but he is here standing in front of the tent questioning if this is honestly what he wants. ]

Ayabe...are you really going to start sleep outside?

[ hands over his nose because fuck this awful doggie smell. ]

[kazokun]

Maybe.

[ He wants to get out of the house, that's what he wants. It's spring now? There's no bears in the woods? He won't die sleeping outside. ]

...Does it smell weird?

[ He gestures at the candle, which isn't lit yet but it's there. ]

[hamaoned]

It won't make a difference if you stay out here verses the room.

[ his ears droop with ayabe's answer despite his expression remaining not as crestfallen. ]

And everything smells weird, if I'm going to be honest. It's like I can smell everything except way worse. [ he'll try to remove his hand from his nose but...ugh. ] I wonder how Missile deals with it.

[ it's probably because he is an actual dog and all of this the normal for him. ]

[kazokun]

I just want to be away from everything for a bit.

[ There's some difference but not much. Maybe he just needs something to occupy himself so he's not just lying on the bed staring at the ceiling like he was all weekend. ]

Is your sense of smell that much stronger? You could clamp your nose...

i

[shortforever]

[OH NO GHOST HOBO

Chuuya is in the backyard trying to figure out how to fly (poorly), so he's going to see the levitating objects and come to investigate.]

Oi, who's setting up shop out here?

[Don't mind his new wings and pointy bits, Chuuya is trying to live his best tengu life.]

[kazokun]

[ Sometimes you just need to be a ghost hobo. Chuuya's immediately not allowed inside this tent that hasn't been set up yet, unless he can figure out his wings. ]

It's Aya—

[ ... ]

Reito.

[shortforever]

[yeah no, he'll stay outside. Big wings will knock that shit down too easily.

It does feel nice to have Ayabe's given name used freely like that though. It makes his lips twitch with the hint of a smile for a moment.]

Huh. So you got changed too. What are you, some kind of invisible man now?

[kazokun]

[ He has to force himself not to roll his eyes. Invisible man... like he's some sort of circus attraction. ]

Something like that.

[ Just a physical change is nothing too bad, even though he frowns down at his hands and hopes he doesn't pass right through things by the end of the week. How would he do laundry if he can't touch anything? Terrible. ]

What about you? Wings.

[ along with arms instead of replacing them? Three pairs of limbs... ]

i

[swordflash]

[ Creatures are one thing, but this non-corporeal nonsense is too much. Zenitsu brings his hands up to his mouth as he gasps. ]

G-g-ghost! It's a ghost in broad dayli—ouch!

[ Only for his elongated nails, now claws, to prick him on the face. ]

[kazokun]

[ WHY ARE GHOSTS WEIRDER THAN MONSTERS ghosts are literally the only normal supernatural thing Ayabe is capable of believing in while everything else he sees in this place still gives off warning sirens of "FAKE FAKE FAKE YOU ARE LOSING YOUR MIND THIS IS FAKE."

Whatever Ayabe's carrying in his arms- tarps and rope probably- he lets drops to the ground when Zenitsu shouts. ]

Hey- Lower your hands, are you bleeding?

[ Hopefully he didn't poke himself in the eye ]

[swordflash]

[ Ghosts are scarier, because this is the first one he's encountered among a sea of monsters (and slime).

But this is awkward. He lowers his hands and there are a couple fine punctures on his cheeks. Thankfully, his eyes were spared. He squints. ]

It's you! Why do you look like that?

[ He himself has white fur lining his ears and neck, but his transformation is fairly mild compared to the others. Ayabe's entire body is something else right now. ]

[kazokun]

[ Ayabe scowls, because at least he still looks like himself, if you squint hard enough and put a solid background behind him. ]

How should I know? Be more careful or you're going to scratch up your face even worse.

[ IS THERE BLOOD I cannot tell from "fine punctures" bc that could mean anything from spewing blood to pockmarks ]

i

[disreguarded]

[ ... something is trying to steal your sticks, ayabe. just like a hand sneaking out and trying to yank the sticks out of your tent. what could it be. ]

[kazokun]

[ Gently... steps on that hand. ]

What are you doing.

[disreguarded]

[ OW. beau makes a - scree sound, and then: ]

You don't need all of those! I want them. Give them to me.

i.

[survivaltricks]

[who DOESN'T want to become a hobo in the woods, honestly. Akira watches those items float for a few moments, cat ears and tail flicking curiously as he does so, before he speaks]

Do. . . do you want help with that?

Wait-- better question. Why are you going camping in the woods?

[kazokun]

[ The answer is obvious: to be a hobo in the woods. ]

To... to go camping in the woods.

[ It is exactly what it sounds like. A vacation. Something to get away from it all, and the only way he can do that is to physically remove himself from everything. ]

Do you know how to construct a tent?

[survivaltricks]

[. . . uh huh]

[Akira may not believe that response, but hey. he isn't going to try to talk Ayabe out of it. for now, he strides forward and offers to take some of those blankets and such off his hands]

Nope.

[popping that "p" for emphasis]

Think the library has a how-to book?

i.

[gitalong]

[ awwww, what a cute little tent. and the candles are a nice touch! really set the mood. but if he wants to see better, maybe he should turn the lamp on. ]

[kazokun]

[ There are no POWER OUTLETS outside, Missile, please

Ayabe picks up the lamp, though, but turns it upside down to stare at the base. ]

Huh? Wasn't it a different one...?

[gitalong]

[ bold of you to assume lamps need electricity instead of ghost power ]

... Ahhhhhh, I'm getting dizzy!

i.

[recrypt]

[ yeah guess who's sunning herself outside only to see. this.

and end up watching for a bit before: ]

Huh. So you can actually carry stuff, even like that...

[kazokun]

[ Ayabe makes a face, because he initially thought she's referring to his broken arm and ribs and Jin Ling over there yelling at him for doing so much as walking outside. But then he remembers the whole ghost thing, and how he can see the blankets through his arms and he pointedly does not look at them. ]

It's not like I'm a real ghost... It'd be a pain if I couldn't touch anything, anyways. How would I do anything?

[ He would try to be in places he's not allowed, so phasing through things is illegal. ]

[recrypt]

Aw, so you can't walk through walls? How disappointing. But I guess the house wouldn't let you do anything that could let you leave...

[ apparition whatever it is doesn't work, of course fake monster powers wouldn't either. ]

But I don't know. Maybe you can choose to be selectively intangible?