Week 8.

[trustfelling]

WEEK 8 Despite the week of peace - or in some cases, because of it - it seems that the stream of deaths is going to continue unabated; if anything, there's been a sharp uptick this week. Yuri Lowell, Angel Hyperion, Naoto Shirogane, Aymeric de Borel, Isaac McDougal, and Ferid Bathory have all joined the deceased. In one week, you've dropped from over half your original number being alive, to almost two-thirds being dead. But surely things can only go up from here on out, right? Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; on Sunday morning the clock chimes as it always has, but at least there are no bodies to find today. The night before wasn't necessarily a peaceful one, however; you'll probably feel a bit groggy when you wake up, and it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... Another set of doors has opened up, once again branching off of the eastern corridor and leading toward the south. Go ahead and explore as much as you like; you've definitely earned it this week. COMPETITORS REMAINING: 11

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[OOC: Welcome to week eight of Trustfell! Don't forget to save your threads for coins and the activity check, and don't forget to submit this week's activity check and memory regains!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Adjudicator, you can do so here!]

Comments

SUNDAY

[trustfelling]

[innocentloveholic]

[ ...Huh.

No dreams.

She's quiet when she leaves early in the morning—she has a letter to drop off, and she'll probably spend some time chatting it up as per usual. Afterwards, it's time to explore! There's... some hesitance when she gets to the new hallway, and she waits like she's almost expecting someone to join her? But she's skipping along soon enough, just peeking into both rooms curiously.

Not enough to stick around yet; the sauna is not exactly what she'd like having, but it's pretty much good enough, so she'll definitely be heading to that at some point today.

But for now, she's in the library first to find some books on flower meanings—it's probably the one on the top shelf, and she can't reach it even by standing on a chair. Hey, maybe if she stacks some of those books on the chair she could do it... (Please stop her that is a terrible idea.)

After that, it's a quick trip to the greenhouse to find the flowers listed and to carefully pick the ones she wants. She has a butterfly knife with her (Sayaka's, for the curious!), and that's what she's using to make sure she has a clean cut that... won't cause too much unnecessary harm to the plant or anything around it.

The sewing room also gets a visit, except she stays in there for a couple of hours, working on turning the primrose-like flowers on the outfit Jean'd given her into something less... those. It's a lot of delicate, frustrating needlework, but she said she'd try! And try she will. There's a flower beside her she refers to every so often, just to make sure she's getting everything right.

When she's tired of that, it's a quick trip back to the dorms to grab the toy camera Ferid had had—and then she's hopping around their little murderlodge, taking pictures of everyone. Strike a pose or... you know, don't, that's fine too; she prefers candid shots. She feels a little weird using the same camera that took pictures of Yuri and Angel? But her photography hobby is certainly a thing.

Finally, she'll spend time in the sauna, as promised; she's so still she looks like she's sleeping, but she'll be up every so often when she feels like she needs to pour more water on. She won't say no to (female) company, but she's really here to just sort of... relax and think about what she's doing this week. ]

library

[passional]

[ Inigo wanders into the library to pick up something to read. He's not in the mood for any particular genre so he's just browsing the shelves for books that look interesting. ]

Greetings, Aligula.

[ He pauses when he notices that she's stacking books on a chair. That's a terrible idea and you need an intervention. ]

...Are you having trouble reaching the top shelf?

[innocentloveholic]

Hi Inigo! Not really!

[ ...after all, with these books on this chair she's really not going to have any trouble at all—

LOOK, SHE KNOWS IT'S A BAD IDEA, but she isn't the "ask people for help" type. ]

I'm just... [ give her a second to think of an excuse that isn't "I'm too short to reach the top shelf." ] ...giving these books a second chance at a life that doesn't include being used as a table since otherwise they'll just sit around, collecting dust?

[ #NAILED IT ]

taking pictures

[oasisrose]

Huh...?

[If you're doing candid shots, congrats! You just got one of Jean with a dippy, confused smile on her face.]

Oh. Is that the... photo-majig? [Swords and sorcery world, modern technology, blah blah blah. You know the routine by now.]

[innocentloveholic]

[ Yess, her favorite type. ...even if the toy camera photos are totally crappy looking. Hmmm, she's definitely putting this one up anyway. ]

Yep! You wanna try? It's really easy, I promise.

( photographs )

[middaymoon]

[ Mahiru isn't expecting to get photographed out of nowhere like that, and she gives Aligula a slightly puzzled look in the wake of it.

She's not too worried, however. ]

Afternoon, Aligula. Enjoying yourself?

[innocentloveholic]

[ Mahiru... looks just as pretty in poor quality, what do you know. Lucky her..! ]

Absolutely! The only good thing about Ferid being gone is that I get to have all his stuff and he can't make fun of me for not having a camera anymore. [ ...literally the only good thing about all of this. ] You holding up okay?

More photos

[greenmamabear]

[She's too startled to do anything more than try a quick, puzzled smile. She can't remember the last photo she took herself and doesn't particularly care enough to remember. But habit prevents her from turning a blind eye to the whole photo thing.]

Good morning?

PHOTOS

[flagitate]

What--

[ ... That sure is a weird hobby you've picked up. ]

--are you doing?

INVESTIGATION and also open

[oasisrose]

["Our fight for the soul of this world isn't over yet."

Jean's latest dream fills her with determination. If she had any lingering concerns about silly things like what's possible or what's impossible, those are gone now, replaced by three facts: She's punched a god in the face. She's considered one of five legendary heroes now. And there's people around to do it, because her planet is alive and well.

First order of business is breakfast, because even heroes need to stay healthy. After that, people might catch her sweeping the halls, checking the old rooms first as if she's trying to take note of something.

After that, though, she heads into the new corridor, and into the chapel and -- ... well. For a moment she stares at it, more in annoyance than disbelief.

Given the way Jean preaches about having faith, it'd be understandable if you thought she was a good little church mouse under her risqué dancer's dress. But with the history of her world, there's a part of her that still associates these places with extremists and their sinister intents. Like really, the only thing that would have made this more complete would be if Juri was sitting in there playing a haunting piece on a pipe organ.

Still. She starts searching the room.

After the information from last week about where the keys were found, she's been keeping an eye out for vessels of liquid, in particular, and this seems like the sort of place that could be hiding some holy water. (Which... man, they sure could use that right about now, considering how cursed this whole complex seems to be.) So she does a quick search of the room, more of a spot check than a targeted search, for anything that fits that description.

Does anything like that -- or anything that's out-of-place enough that it'd catch her attention anyway -- turn up before she reaches the locked door?]

halls

[notaccurate]

[While Jean is sweeping the halls, she will probably see Luca at least a few times. He seems to be busy cleaning. Cleaning what, you say? Everything.

But this time he is taking a short break, so when he sees Jean he will give her an overly-cheerful greeting.]

Ah, good morning.

[...It's cheerful for him, at least.]

[trustfelling]

[Hello, Jean! You actually won't find the usual things like holy water or ceremonial wine in this place; it's devoid of any actual religious artifacts, and apparently that counts enough to not be here. It was a good thought, though!

Otherwise, the room seems pretty clear, going by spot check. You're good to look the door over, if you want!]

[notaccurate]

["Did you submit a paper to the review board?"
"As though they would have looked at it!"
"Are you so sure?"
"One look at the name is all it would take!"
"Ah. So that's your excuse? That you're Sevalese?"
"E-excuse me? First-generation Sevalese applicants are barred from applying!"
"Is it that much of an obstacle? Can you honestly say that you tried your best?"

Well. That was one hell of a memory.

When Luca wakes up from that dream, he finds himself staring at the ceiling in his room. And then, he starts laughing. He starts laughing a loud, maniacal laugh.

So that is who Balzac is. No wonder he always felt uneasy here. If that was his future, then...

Well, it matters little now.

Luca will be mysteriously absent for most of the morning, but by lunchtime he can be found in the kitchen. He did promise to teach Katniss how to make crepes, after all. Anybody else who wants to learn is welcome to join in, of course.

Afterwards, he will spend most of the day tidying up. Sure, the bodies and such are taken care of for them, but something is always out of place. Some book moved, some towel left abandoned at the poolside, some plant that needs to be trimmed. From a distance he even looks to be in a good mood! So this would be a good time to talk to him, as he is only doing busywork to keep his mind occupied.

Much later, Luca can be found in the sauna, actually relaxing for once. He is more of a spa/bath kind of person, but the hot steam does feel nice.]

luca's room

[passional]

[ Naturally, the laughter startles Inigo awake and he jolts up, staring at Luca. ]

...Are you okay?

[cilantro]

["Cilan, I want you to give me an honest answer: do you still want to keep traveling?"

In his dream, he said yes, but... not only does it seem like he's not going to have his brothers around for a while, but also...

"I was able to learn a lot from you guys, so it was a truly meaningful journey to me."

... Ash is going off to the Kalos region, Iris is going off to Johto. Cilan had said something about Hoenn, but nonetheless, it looks like he's going there alone. He's only started remembering these people and how important they were to him over the past few weeks, and now it feels strange that they're already going their separate ways. Then again, considering his current situation, maybe it's for the best. Less likely for two kids to be targeted and involved in this sick game if they're not actually around him anymore. It's better this way for him to have been traveling alone before he was brought here somehow.

As such, after preparing breakfast he spends some time in his room, though mainly it's for cleaning and tidying up purposes as he's ended up accumulating quite a fair amount of stuff during the time he's been here so far. It also make it easier to find things later in case he decides to stay elsewhere for a while since he's the only one left in this section of dorm rooms. (As such, anyone passing by might find a random tumbleweed blowing out the door of his room because somehow he's acquired three of these things here...)

He also goes to the pool and dojo for a little while so that the Pokemon can get some exercise, before eventually finding his way to the music room: despite our second piano teacher Ferid being dead now, we're going to attempt to keep up with piano. However, at first, the only thing he plays is the first fifteen seconds of this as he thinks to himself about some things, before he'll eventually attempt to play the song as well as he can from memory.]

music room

[innocentloveholic]

[ Ooh, pretty—Aligula leans on him at some point in his playing, probably doing a Great Job at interrupting whatever part he's practicing. Sorry. ]

An awesome chef and a decent piano player! Is there anything you can't do?

[hentopan]

"Then, with regard to Yuuki Terumi, we will conduct the reinitialization."
"This sure is a lame ass place."
"YOU! How did you get in here?"
"Man, Raggy sure has been proving himself useful to me. I've got to be grateful for real! In all the possible outcomes, this was the only time. In this one moment, you guys looked away!
"Correct. For 1/480000th of a second, the system was engaged solely in observing the phenomenon in question. But that's easily within the range of retroactive modification."
"Oh, didn't I tell you already? My bad. See, I observed every.Single.Possibility."
"Incorrect. A human does not have the capacity."
"Keheheheheheh. Oh, you sure chose the wrong guy to initialize didn't you? Well, I'll just be taking care of the destruction from now on, if you don't mind. You're relieved of your duties. Permanently."

And that's it, that's the damn final piece of the puzzle. These past few days have been...something to put it lightly. But today Terumi's back to his normal awful self, in fact he's a great mood despite sporting a nasty bruise on his face from King Bob. But he doesn't really seem to care about that, and he's grinning like he just won the lottery. Cause he basically did by brute forcing it mathematically.

There are more rooms to explore as he expected, and strangely he can be found in the chapel of all places. It doesn't really seem like Terumi and religion would get along at all, and that's mostly the truth. But he is taking the time to carve something into one of the walls here with his butterfly knife: 建速須佐之男命, which reads Takehaya Susanoo-no-Mikoto if you can read Japanese.

After he's in the library surrounded by notes, writing with one hand and flipping a butterfly knife with the other.]

[oasisrose]

[WELP.

Since Jean's investigating in the chapel, it's natural that she'd run into him. She's not actually against defacing the church on principle, but...]

Terumi, do you want to get cursed? Because that's how you get cursed.

[flagitate]

[ Haymitch is laughing at her in her dreams. He's saying, And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies. Katniss doesn't need to be told how much of a failure she is at acting.

She'd made Coin agree to spare the captured Tributes. Well. She'd gotten to hunt, at least, too. She guesses becoming the Mockingjay wasn't so bad.

But what really sticks out is Peeta's deterioration. It hurts, almost worse than anything has ever hurt before. (Almost. Her sister's death is definitely the worst hurt Katniss can and will ever imagine.) So to cope with things, instead of running from them and hiding, Katniss faces them head on. Starting with the art room. She's not exactly good at drawing, but damn is she trying. Eventually, she scraps any attempt at drawing Peeta and goes another route. An orange backdrop, splattered with black and blue and red. And at the edges, a green Katniss hasn't seen in two months. The green of the forest.

Katniss goes to the kitchen next. She decides on simpler fare: bread, soft cheese, basil leaves, blackberries. Other fresh fruit, but mostly blackberries. There's a cup of tea with milk in it--she's still sore, a little, over the fact that it tastes so good. It's cinnamon, for the record. Anyway, Katniss spends some time sitting on one of the counters, just... setting up pieces of bread to eat. She'll even share.

She enters the shooting range next, because of course. Katniss finds her go-to bow and slings a quiver of arrows across her back. She's taking measured actions, this time, instead of just blindly firing. There's a quiet determination to her actions, and she's pretty darn focused. She hits the bullseye every time.

Later at night, she's wandering around the halls. And maybe she checks up on whoever's left, that bag of food at her hip. You know. In case anyone's hungry and can't make it into the kitchen. ]

kitchen

[notaccurate]

[Are you sure that's the breakfast you want, Katniss?

Because Luca is making crepes. Blackberry crepes, to be exact, since he remembered their talk on the night of the sleepover.]

Ah, there you are. Are you ready to learn?

[He's in...a surprisingly good mood, actually.]

( wandering )

[middaymoon]

[ Mahiru is doing a bit of wandering herself - particularly, she's leaving the chapel when she spies Katniss a little further down the hallway. She lifts her hand in a light wave. ]

Evening, Katniss. Patrolling before bed?

[killedbyapig]

[so. no more dreams. he's reached the end.

and he's pretty much royally fucked at this point, isn't he?

today, Robert is in the conference room, pacing around with a look of great concentration on his face. he's commandeered a white board for his purposes, and it currently reads:

PLAN

step one SURVIVE !!!
step two find ned


... and that seems to be as far as he's gotten.]

[hentopan]

First step looks important. [ This is the kind of company you wanted, right? And while Terumi probably did avoid Bob for a few hours after getting the crap beat out of him, he's over it now. He had a great dream, so there's no putting a damper on his spirit.]

[oasisrose]

[Um.

Well, it does qualify as a plan, doesn't it?

Jean clears her throat, and politely comments,] Well, that seems straightforward enough.