bluesclues | WEEK ZERO: MINGLE

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!mingle

WEEK ZERO: MINGLE

WEEK ZERO

OCCUPANCY: 36

For those of you counting along, you'll find that it's been three days since you've arrived at Master Blue's mansion. On this lovely Monday morning, the weak winter sun shines in through the spotless windows. The curtains in the ballroom have been drawn closed and cannot be moved away from the back wall during the daylight hours. The scent of a hot and delicious breakfast wafts from the direction of the dining hall at 7am, and small creaks and groans in the house urge you to awaken.

Perhaps you're a late riser though. No matter! There's still plenty of food you can make for yourself and ways for you to amuse yourself. Though the decor's been taken down, leftover Valentine's candy remains abundant, and a chilly breeze drifts through the halls. Best of all, all damage inflicted on the house has been repaired. In addition, a new placard has been mounted in the entryway.

As you carry on with your day in the mansion and explore the rooms provided, you may come to find that starting today it will appear as though you've all lost the use of one of your senses. Your vision may have grown dim, or maybe you really can't smell the enticing treats in the dining hall after all. How unfortunate.

Then again, something doesn't seem quite right. Walking through the halls, nothing seems terribly out of place. However, turning the corner or entering a room you will find someone who looks a little too much like yourself behaving in a fairly inappropriate manner. You would never read something so lewd. Who would ever think that you would wear something so pink? These mannerisms may seem innocent to others, but you can't help but disapprove.

Too bad no one else can see them.

Come Monday at noon, you will also find a new surprise. The wooden box with your name on it can now be opened, and a rustling crackle of static can be heard from overhead. Try as you might, you won't be able to find the speakers but this message will play loud and clear for all.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes, but it's not in the right ord--

[He opens his eyes just in time to see a blur of something swoosh by his face, and he feels the wind off it. Reflexively, he recoils, and then he swats Ayabe's arm.] Stop! [He can't fucking see!

Irritatedly, he shoves the notebook across the counter back toward Ayabe.]

The triangles go along the top, four along the top and four along the bottom. Don't let them touch. The big character goes in the center. The two on the left go one on each side of the big character. The top one goes on the left, the bottom one goes on the right.

Wha- Why don't you just draw them in the right order for me?

[ He looked so careful to draw this exactly right, and then he gives Ayabe an Ikea manual? ]

How am I going to get them neatly on the page when I can't see, you moron?! [Shut up, and take the damn Cultivational Ikea Manual!] You're going to have to draw it in the correct order! Didn't I say it had to be perfect, or who knows what would happen?!

Do you want to die, or blow up, or summon a bunch of fierce corpses?! Have you ever fought one?! You don't know how tough the battle would really be! Try fighting a thousand of them while stuck in a cave with a bunch of others!

[ This is so stupid, he should just ask Nie Huaisang to draw it, until Ayabe learns the guy is also blind and then he'll just throw up his hands and let the two of them be blind forever. ]

You're exaggerating. It's not like I've never fought before, anyways.

[ Despite appearances and the fact that you can defeat him with a dustbunny ]

Stupid. Tell me the order again- slowly, so I can write them down.

I'm serious! What have you really fought? A wrinkled bedshe--?

[MN! He pushes at the notebook again.] Fine! Shut up and start drawing. [He does wait so Ayabe has time to get ready, eye's still perpetually squinted.] First:

Four triangles go on the top with their bottom edges level with the edge of the page, at least half an inch away. [He sort of doodles with a finger on the counter in front of himself to show Ayabe.] They can't touch. And then four go along the bottom the same way. That's eight--a lucky number.

[He pauses to wait.]

On the left side, draw the top cursive script without lifting your pen. [A pause to wait.] On the right, draw the bottom one the same way. [Another pause.] In the center, you'll draw the largest character. It should have an inch space all around it in comparison to the other parts of the seal.

[ He did fight a wrinkled bedsheet and saved your sect leader from it, thank you very much.

Instead of replying, he focuses on drawing the seal, tearing out Jin Ling's sheet and keeping it to the side as reference while he draws a new one on the next blank sheet, annotating the reference sheet with notes for the important details such as drawing the script as one stroke and how much space to leave around the characters. His penmanship is neat, and he takes an art elective at school so he has a good sense of spacial relationship and balance as well, so overall, it'll likely turn out okay.

He can't tell, though, so when he's done, he looks to Jin Ling to... press his nose up against the paper to inspect it or something, he has no idea how they're going to verify if this is any good. ]

[Yay! Teamwork!

Not that it's going to do a goddamn thing in this place, but they had a great team-building exercise.] Well? Are you fi-- [STOP.

He snatches the notebook, or the paper, or whatever and jerks it down to carefully hold it between both hands. His thumbs feel over the top of the paper, even if he can't exactly make out any ink lines or anything. Despite having it written out, whether perfect or horribly, he... can't feel any connection at all to anything. Something inside of him just isn't lighting up like usual.

He frowns at the seal.]

[ It was the entire notebook that he smooshed up against Jin Ling's face, because it it were the paper, he'd worry about it being torn. ]

...Is it no good? I can press harder so you can feel the backside of the page to make sure everything in the proper location.

[Damn. Uncle Jiang would know what to do, he thinks. Uncle Jiang, or even that damn Wei Wuxian. He frowns again, but for a different reason this time.]

Forget it.

[He almost wants to crumple the seal, but no. Putting the notebook down, he rips the page out, quickly and carefully along the edge.] It’s like the cave... There’s... some kind of cultivation dampening...

My sword is gone, the seals don’t work, I can’t feel my core...

[ Ayabe's eyebrows furrow when he listens to Jin Ling speak about this ...metaphorical cave, something about dampening. From the sense of it, a place where he felt suppressed and hopeless, and this situation is reminding him of his dark past in that """cave""". The core must be something like the heart or soul, the will to keep going, and when he says that, Ayabe reaches forward and touches the tips of his fingers to Jin Ling's chest, right over his heart. ]

Your core is right here. It will never leave you.

[ DON'T GIVE INTO THE DEPRESSION, LING. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF LIKE AYABE BELIEVES IN YOU. ]

[Wow. Ayabe's heartfelt words of wisdom are lost on misunderstanding. Jin Ling glances down at the prod, confused, touched,

but then he reaches up to swat the hand away, face souring.]

It hasn't gone anywhere, stupid! My core is still there, [Is he trying to convince himself?] I just can't feel it!

[ If he would just press his hand to his chest and feel his heart beat, he would see that he can feel it, he just has to calm down and pay attention. But if Ayabe tries to guide his hand again, he's just going to get slapped, so he doesn't touch Jin Ling again, that wouldn't be the right way to deal with The Depression. ]

You'll be able to feel [ it ] again. You've experienced this before, haven't you? What helped last time?

[Wh... what?! What's happening?! Jin Ling looks... bewildered, to say the least.]

What? No! I've never--nothing has ever happened to my core since I cultivated it! [His hand squeezes protectively over his chest.] I've always been able to feel it.

[ "cultivated" what does that even MEAN ]

How long ago was it [ ... ] cultivated? Sometimes stress throws people off...

[ayabe is suffering so much with the fantasy characters]

Years ago! Well--! A few years! [He's only fifteen, and that's still fairly new to having a core. He puffs his chest.] It isn't stress! Practicing cultivation and your qi is what strengthens your core.

[ YEAH everybody stop it with your fake words ]

And have you been practicing?

[ Cultivating?? his qi??? Maybe if Jin Ling goes back to his yoga routines he'll be just fine. It'll bring down his stress, get him to calm down and center himself, he can find peace and happiness. ]

I practice all the time!

[Wait.]

I can't practice here if I can't use any of my qi! That's why I said something had dampened my cultivation! There's something off about this place, and not just because we all woke up here!

[ Ayabe's trying so hard not to shit on Jin Ling's fake cultural beliefs, he's telling himself to just leave it, it's not harming anybody, don't ask what cultivation is and why can't he practice whatever he need to practice, he doesn't want to get dragged into all of that. ]

Mammon said something like that, as did another girl I talked to a while ago. Do you think it'll be better if we were able to go outside?

[ Get some fresh air. Breathe. Cálmate ]

That isn't going to change anything if we've been dampened. It's--ugh! You wouldn't understand anyway. The dampening could be on us, not the building.

[His face sours, fingers curling into the paper a little.]

Besides, all of us have tried to get out already. There's some kind of barrier tossing us back inside. [He glances down, even if he can't see shit all.] Have you talked to those three girls since?

They have to know more than what they were saying.

[ He doesn't understand at all, that's true. There's nothing to dampen... he goes and fills up another glass of water and hands it to Jin Ling, so he can grip the cup instead of the paper. ]

I've spoken to Plum and Pumpkin. Plum's been accommodating, and it sounds like they're just very insistent that we stay for this event, whatever it is.

[Frowning, he refuses to let go of the paper. Instead, he pushes the water back at Ayabe, lips thin.]

That isn't comforting! That's suspicious! People were saying something about "different worlds" and now there's an event? I can't use my cultivation, and I don't have my sword, or my bell!

This is a trap! We can't go along with this!

[ You wanted water like five minutes ago, you brat-- He leaves it on the counter, but out of arms reach so it doesn't accidentally get knocked over. ]

Not letting you have your sword is reasonable... Have you opened the wooden box in your room?

[ There are four bells in there, Jin Ling. In different colors, too, he knows they're not quite the same but maybe Jin Ling can take comfort in them anyways. ]

[Yeah, he's just like that. Very cat-like and finicky.]

No one is allowed to touch my sword but me! [HIS SWORD.] The what...? No... [He's trying not to feel guilty or stupid about this, so shut up.]

Why? That girl already brought me one of the bells out of it. That's not my YunmengJiang bell. None of those are. This bell is for calming your mind and focusing. It keeps you from ever turning into a fierce corpse.

[ Thank god Jin Ling is blind so Ayabe can just make this face at him. ]

[ Ayabe places a hand on his shoulder. ]

It's alright. You're not going to die. I won't let you die here.

[ Poor kid is scared he's going to turn into a corpse, somebody give him back his comfort object. ]

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