WEEK ZERO: MINGLE

[retellers]

WEEK ZERO: MINGLE (43 remain) Rise and shine, gremlins. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it's the start of a new week. Speaking of new, if participants turn on their PHS, they'll notice another section available. There's also an alert for a new message, titled TEAM ASSIGNMENT. Opening it will reveal which Leader they have been assigned to. Furthermore, at the corner of the PHS screen is an icon of an animal, depending on who their Leader is. It is visible only to them and no one else. That's not the only change, though. Participants may not notice at first—or perhaps they will?—but sooner or later, they may realize that they're... missing something? Strange. Three Leaders can be found around the area, open (?) to approach. If participants want to speak to them more privately, or to an absent Leader, it looks like they'll have to go through another channel. Which is to say, the Planetarium is now open! Finally, for the rest of the week, the participants will inexplicably have the urge to be physically affectionate. That person you just met days ago? Time to cuddle! This complete stranger you ran into? It sure is tempting to hold their hand. This urge can range anywhere from minor to impossible to ignore, depending on the situation. Enjoy your bonding!

NAVIGATION locations ₓ˚. statuses *+:｡ ic profiles :ₓo ic rules ･ﾟﾟ･｡ audience requests murder proposals ｡✧o private conversations ･ﾟo｡ curfew ･ﾟ✧ memories

Comments

SETTING CHANGES

[retellers]

[A number of things are different since the participants' initial arrival, in the river and the forest and elsewhere...

In the Plaza Inn:

• There is now an elevator, large enough to fit a horse.
• The microwave, which mysteriously (?) blew up a few days ago, has been fixed. Good as new!
• In the kitchen, the pizza cutter and four knives are missing. Don't worry, there are still a few knives left for cooking. Or shaving.
• In front of the CASSIOPEIA room door, a sealed package has been left with a note that says For Taako ♡. Opening it will reveal a cake with Taako's face drawn on it and the words Older Twin written.
• In the CASSIOPEIA room, one of the beds has been replaced with a Bigger Bed.
• In every room, there are now toothbrushes available. Yay, dental hygiene! Also, they're sparkly.

By the river:

• Various things have been fished out of the river and are now lying by the riverbank: one of the goodie bag heart headbands, and a kimono and zori.

In the Emporium:

• Any IOUs and the like that people left are gone! ... If one looks closely, they've all been stored safely in a box underneath the cash register.]

TALK TO FOX

[retellers]

[ during the day, fox can be seen wandering around the town, though they mostly stick to the inn. once in a while, they make a pot of tea for public consumption.

should anyone make eye contact with them (or so much as one can, when fox has a mask on), they smile politely. hello! ]

TALK TO RABBIT

[retellers]

[ if one wants to talk to rabbit, you can find them either browsing through the emporium or walking around. they're feeding the fishies in the river! trying to get a cute animal in the forest to walk over to them! fun things.

if they spot you, they'll wave. ]

TALK TO WOLF

[retellers]

[ Should anyone wish to talk to Wolf this week, they'll find them outside for the most part! Walking around anywhere the forest, lying down next to the river, or, on some rare occasions, just leaning against the bridge with their arms crossed like some kind of asshole.

They seem... bored. And yet, they will barely incline their head in greeting should they spot you attempting to make eye contact. And only then. ]

PHS ALERTS

[retellers]

[Furthermore, on top of the TEAM ASSIGNMENT alert, the participants will find three more messages on their PHS in the morning.]

FROM SWAN

Hi, everyone! Sorry I couldn't be in town this week, but I'm REALLY looking forward to meeting all of you!! Feel free to ask for me at the Planetarium anytime. Also, don't be too hard on Fox, Rabbit and Wolf, okay? They're doing their best. We're all working hard, and I know you guys will too! The competition just started now, so good luck to everyone and have fun!

FROM TIGER

If you make me explain what a nova is fifty times I am going to hit you.

FROM GOAT

hello. i hope you liked what swan called confetti. i'm sorry that we could not come to beet you wait i wanted an m. i did not want to write a vegetable. oh no. i did it again how do i backspace. this device is so hard to use. in any case, please work hard. we will as well.

[heartablaze]

haha i'm in danger

[Have you met pink, small, and energetic? Well, here she comes. Her eyes are a little puffy and she looks very, very tired, but she is easily bouncing her way to the nearest person. If you don't know her, congrats, she now has you by the hand and is physically dragging you in excitement.

If you DO know her, then you're practically getting full-body tackled with a hug without any hesitation whatsoever. Do you end up on the ground? Well, if 88 pounds of energetic force gets you to the ground, then congrats, you're on the ground, a tired but excited girl beaming down at you.]

Hey, hey! C'mon, let's go look at the Planetarium! Let's go, let's go!

wild
[She can be found snooping about, climbing trees, trying to talk to the various animals or playing with the inn elevator (oh my god), so hmu if you wanna do something else! #nik3432/fairybread]

[horologia]

i. penny arcade
[ freedom to wander but no real direction on what to do or where to go means that unlike her first day here, she's just... going to be poking in and out of different buildings? she lingers in the penny arcade a while longer, though, staring at some of the machines curiously.

there's something oddly nostalgic about the DDE machine, which is... funny, because it's just a normal arcade machine? it's existed forever. anyway, if you're close enough, she might comment: ]

... What does DDE stand for? It looks like Dog Drug Reinforcement, but... are all the names of things here slightly different from what we know?

[ i wish i were making up the dog drug reinforcement thing, but! as you do. ]

ii. edge of the barrier, any direction
[ yes, including the parts that in the dark spooky forest, where things veer away from cute d*sney frolicking animals and turn a little more that runaway sequence in snow white or something. surprisingly intrepid for someone so timid, huh.

but in any case, she's going to be reaching a hand out to press against the barrier, as if testing the strength or resistance. ]

... Do you believe them, when they say that nothing exists beyond here? That it might be here for our safety?

[ alternatively, if it's the bridge: ]

Why the middle...? What if something gets dropped on the other side of the river by accident?

iii. wildcard me
[ come at me for pcs as i sprint off to work, you know where to find me. i'll keep tagging weekend threads too, but you know, for reference, ellipsesinaction / Unidentify#1562! ]

[reconnective]

planetarium

[so on this fine day, sora's wandering through town reading all of the new messages on his phs. as he passes by the previously locked building though, curiosity gets the better of him as he pauses and looks, testing the door to see if it will open. as the door swings open, he immediately bounds inside leaving it open just a crack more out of carelessness than anything if only because he's enraptured by the stars.]

Cool....[his head's tilted back as he tries to count the countless stars, eyeing the clusters and looking for anything familiar. but suddenly there's a cry of victory, and should you check in to see what he's yelling about you'll find sora latching to your arm and pointing at a constellation that looks sort of familiar? huh.] Look at this! I knew my title was wrong!

the inn's lobby

[sora can also be found in the lobby stretched out on one of the couches, phs in his hand as he scrolls through all of the new information. he's making a face while he reads, but after a while he'll look up and sigh.]

Should we be worried that the rules can be "amended" at any time?

wildcard

[anything goes! sora can be found in the kitchen practicing his cooking, at the arcade playing some games, or exploring the forest and emporium.]

[chanteuser]

i. kitchen

[ early on monday morning, if you're passing by the kitchen there's the smell of something sweet coming from inside. alex is inside, humming absently to herself, with a big bowl of ... something next to her.

if you get close enough to look inside, it's very obviously batter. and if you're this close, you'll be able to see she's found a waffle maker and is already working her way up to making A Lot Of Waffles. ]

Oh. Hello.

[ she looks... maybe a little sleepy. but other than that, she seems pretty content. ] You can grab a waffle, if you want. I still need to cut up some fruit and toppings for them, but if you're happy with plain then be my guest.

ii. planetarium

[ with the planetarium now open, there's no reason not to go exploring it. which is exactly what alex does.

although she's gone at a time she hopes will be quieter, and hopefully she might find the place to herself for a bit. feel free to barge in on her, even if she's a little hard to find, tucked away in the corner in the dark.

... you might hear her before you see her, though. ]

[stillnot]

A. Showers????

[ If you happen to be in the hall when Clementine exits her room, you will notice that she is no longer covered in blood and dirt! Wow! She seems just as amazed as you probably are. (Shouldn't she have bathed in the last 3 days? Uhhhh, don't worry about it. And definitely don't think about how long it had been since she bathed before this.) ]

There's running water! Like - hot running water!

[ She looks 100% happier than she did during the intro mingle. Like, she thought the whole 'food' part of the deal was amazing, but they also get to be clean! And to think, she was ready to murder their hosts literally like 2 days ago! ]

B. Planetarium

[ Later in the day, Clem can be found in the planetarium! Except she's like... Standing against the wall by the door, so it's very possible to walk inside and past her without even noticing her in the dark. Sorry if she startles you when she speaks up! ]

Want to make up constellations? I don't know many real ones.

C. Wildcard

[ Clem likes to patrol, so she can be found pretty much anywhere while she's out and about being paranoid. She definitely seems less trigger happy this week! Please feel free to throw anything at me, and I am open to PCs, etc! ]

planetarium

[pulsecannon]

[ Peeking in to see what is all the commotion about. Squinting up at the stars. ]

What are you talking about? [ And he's pointing at a constellation. Following his pointing finger. Hmmm... ]

Are you talking about the round shape at the bottom? I think it looks like a pouch there.

[ Pointing to one foot ]

[robopriest]

A: KITCHEN CONUNDRUMS

[Hansa is in the kitchen, except...he's not making anything. He sort of just wanders around, opening the fridge and closing it, frowning. He just seems...a little confused? And then he lets out a huff, moving to walk out-]

[Oh. Going to almost run right into you. Hansa shakes his head, lifting his hand in a gesture of apology.]

Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to run into you.

[What are you up to, priest man.]

B: SWOLE CLUB: START?

[There's a figure on the ground in the railroad station in the late, late afternoon. Is it a dead body already? Murdergame went too fast? Actually, no, its just Hansa, and he's just....doing pushups? Pretty effortlessly, too. Show-off.]

[...And look, he thought no one would come around here for a while. He's a jock. Let him live his life. (Or bother him or try to sit on his back. Whatever your heart dreams of.)]

C: WILDCARD

[Very much open for wildcard stuff and/or pcs! Hit me up on discord or vampirize on plurk!!]

b

[evocationary]

[ lup walks past him at first, holding a coffee mug. she stops, takes a few step backwards, and stares at him. takes a sip of her coffee.

and then immediately goes to sit on his back as he does pushups, sipping from her coffee mug. what a perfect way to start the day. ]

[dianxias]

i. affection, affection

[ xie lian is not at all an affectionate person. in fact, most physical contact tends to just make him embarrassed! so being in an oddly affectionate mood is strange for him, and participating in unprotected handholding seems near scandalous....

however! do you know who is affectionate? ruoye. if you are standing anywhere near xie lian within about three or four meters, you might notice something tapping politely on your shoulder. hovering there in mid air is a long strip of pretty standard white silk that looks a bit like a bandage; it appears to be attached to xie lian is turned away from it entirely, doing something else.

and the moment it gets your attention, ruoye will attempt to greet you by patting your cheek with its... bandage end. pat pat.

it's a snake (?) ]

ii. wildcard/pc option
[ have mercy on me i wrote a top level already i dont wanna write another one ]

B

[recrowns]

[soo-won is looking around

and then he's going to notice hansa doing his push-ups! wow! luckily soo-won hangs out with a bunch of jocks and he's going to sit on a bench nearby and helpfully count - ]

1,001...! 1,002....!

[it's very complimentary of him]

edge of the barrier

[stillnot]

[ Huh, someone else out in the dark and spooky forest. ]

I don't know. All of this is really hard to wrap my head around. But it does seem obvious that we're all from different worlds, and if something that impossible is true, then the rest is more believable.

... But that still doesn't mean that they're telling the truth about everything.

[robopriest]

[?????]

[He just stares at the bandage. He stares at Xie Lian. Back to the bandage?]

[Hansa will just?? pat the bandage back? he is SO confused]

...Hi?

lobby

[stillnot]

[ Clementine comes up behind the couch and rests her arms over its back, peering down at him. ]

Wouldn't it be worse if they couldn't be changed, even if the situation changed? It's better to be able to add new rules.

[robopriest]

[He literally doesn't even budge or slow down from the added weight. The only sign is him just shaking his head - you can hear the smirk in his voice.]

Ah, and here I was thinking I'd be alone. Well, the extra challenge is nice.

B!!! how many threads will i have with crystal this game

[dianxias]

Hansa, are you training? [ when he seems to stop, anyway, or at least pause, so he's not going to interrupt him... ]

Would you terribly mind company?

[robopriest]

...Oh, come now, it can't be that much. I only just started.

[He says, not slowing down or stopping - he does manage to move his head to smile over at Soo-won, his tone amused.]

I guess I can be entertainment for someone, I guess.

[dianxias]

[ xie lian is completely unaware of this happening rn. he's just doing xie lian things. the mii music is playing in his head.

ruoye wriggles in midair at being pat!! and then starts to try and wind around hansa's fingers, in between them, if it can. hello!! ]

i

[stillnot]

[ wowowow free breakfast. Clementine does not really know how to cook, so this is even better than there just being food around! ]

You don't mind?

ii

[evocationary]

[ ah, music. no response from lup - she's just quietly here, leaning against the wall. until about halfway through, and then she whistles along with the song. she does her best to be unobtrusive about it, but she's joining in. ]

[chanteuser]

[ she squeaks??






but after a moment she? tickles it under what might or might not be its chin. does ruoye have a chin?? ]