WEEK SEVEN: MINGLE

[retellers]

WEEK SEVEN: MINGLE (21 remain) Rise and shine, gremlins. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it's the start of a new week. To the participants, yesterday's events may seem distant now—albeit not as distant as their life before this. Whether or not they notice, they will have lost a memory upon waking up. As usual, the participants will find that their lodgings have changed, and should anyone check their PHS, Chiron, Ochako, Soo-won, and Dorothy's profiles have been removed. They may also find that they have difficulty recalling complete details of the past weeks. Furthermore, it looks as though the rules have updated. Not everything is the same as the previous pattern, though. The barrier to the north is back up, and once more, what lies beyond is an empty field. In contrast, however, participants may notice that they can finally access a place they haven't been able to before... Additionally, it looks like the Leaders aren't around. No matter where the participants look, they're nowhere to be found. Should anyone try calling for them in the Planetarium, there will be no response—not even a message telling the participant that they're busy. Finally, everything around the participants begins to... glitch? Buildings may suddenly blink out of existence and then back in, random items like chairs or cups may suddenly distort even while they're being used, and looking at any particular thing for too long may give someone a headache. It's worse than it was that one week, though: participants will find that it's happening to themselves as well. Body parts might suddenly glitch out of existence then back in, and there will be a shot of pain when it occurs. It'll happen randomly, but it also seems to occur more often if they're touching something or another person.

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Comments

[soulus]

[Having advanced several steps to study their surroundings, Rufus looks over his shoulder at Izumo's outburst.]

Is this the forest where you retrieved the sword? Then you must know the way.

[horologia]

Mmm. Since you know what to expect, you can explain it all to us.

[ since some of us haven't harrassed everyone coming out of cyoas this game out of politeness.

anyway since that... not concerning in the least message, she's gone and grabbed some of her stuff. most obvious is the bow, probably. what other secrets does this purple hold. ]

[arcsplainist]

[ Alphinaud thinks it's actually quite scenic; he nearly comments so, too, but Izumo's screech cuts in first. He starts in place, turning toward her in surprise.

"Where she retrived the sword"... Oh. ]

—Well, it may not be quite the same, either. Though it may be familiar, there is a chance this place could differ.

[retellers]

[ au where i tracked this. anyway! The good news is, this just looks like a forest? A completely innocuous forest that whispers sometimes, but there isn't any scary rustling or anything. Or anything that doesn't look like More Forest in front or behind them.

That's fine too.

Though the obvious paths that were in Izumo's last experience of this don't seem here now, so that's less fine. Hm. ]

[sacredchants]

[ all of us vibing peacefully while we waited but—again, she has to know whether or not she can hear anything from the voices. are they still the disembodied voices from last time or are they finally saying something she can understand?

that said, she'll give her head a shake. ]

I'd say I'd know the way but I don't recognize anything this time. [ glances towards alphinaud. how are they positioned? who is standing next to who?? for the record. ] Plus, after a while, all we did was follow the sword and see where it lead us.

Kind of like dowsing rods...except with a sword.

[soulus]

[He also listens to the voices as he moves into more of the forest in front of them. Rupe pads along the dirt beside him with a pistol strapped to his side for safekeeping.

Perhaps Alphinaud can tinker with the sword to see if it'll help again.]

[horologia]

[ since one of them has the sword, she's just going to listen. Any direction in specific the whispering is strongest from?

otherwise, they might as well go forward. she's been in enough labyrinths to know how this goes. ]

No point in wasting time, then.

[arcsplainist]

[ Alphinaud has the sword now, I guess, because everyone decided that. Anyway, he kind of... looks down at it. Lifts it up, shakes it a little? Like it's supposed to do something?

He doesn't know how this thing works, but, he moves along with the gang while he does this. ]

[retellers]

[ i got it answered it's izumo's sword okay please don't do this to a mod on painkillers

this time the sword doesn't do anything! sorry to alphi. as far as whispers go, it's actually less like whispers now that they pay attention to it, and more like the wind makes a noise that makes it sound like the woods are whispering. weird?

but lucky for all of them, they can find a duplicate of the sword right here! in this convenient field that was right next to them! that's weird

you know what's weirder is probably the blonde with poofy hair and a red jacket who is trying to get it first, except she pauses and looks at everyone with a deer in headlight expression. and then she screams.

this is normal. ]

[sacredchants]

[ WE LOVE YOU ZIA..... apologies for the retcon without letting a mod know. that said, it kind of sucks that it doesn't do anything up until the point but at the same time there is someone who izumo definitely didn't see last time around and the fact that she's screaming at them is. guess whatever the woods are whispering aren't important anymore.

a concern? izumo isn't screaming but she isn't not startled. also, given her state it can be up to either rufus or homura to get the sword this go around. ...if they wanna fight the Mysterious Person for it. ]

[soulus]

[The blonde is closer, but Rufus, ignoring the scream, steps toward the sword. Rupe follows. The remaining two can strike up a conversation in their stead.]

[horologia]

[ well. honestly the first reaction the scream nets is a primed arrow, nocked and ready to go in an instant, but. for once let's try not to solve this via violence.

down it goes. still ready, but. string lax. it safe. ]

... Is that how you commonly greet others, here.

[arcsplainist]

[ Alphinaud is nearly going to panic here when Homura raises her bow; thankfully, before he needs to say anything, she puts it down.

Thank god for small favors.

Still, the scream once again startles him, but he raises his hand in a reassuring gesture. ]

P— pray calm yourself! We mean you no harm!

[retellers]

[ Well, the girl doesn't seem to be listening to them, considering she looks between Homura and Rufus before leaping towards the sword for herself ]

Stay back! I don't want to hurt you!

[ that seems a little at odds with someone gunning (haha, get it) for a sword, but it's fine. there's almost an echo to her voice? how odd. either way, whoever this mysterious person is, she seems ready to fight for this sword hanging out in the ground that they have a copy of. ]

[sacredchants]

[ hm. don't like how izumo has to decide on where things are going to go. this is clearly a memory of one of the leaders and this person is certainly important to them—they have to be, right? she's not really the person here to stop rufus from doing anything but—let's just hope we don't have to do something we shouldn't. ]

Y, yeah! We're not here to hurt anyone aside from the reason why we're here in the first place.

[ maybe? does that make sense? sorry about the duplicate sword. ]

[soulus]

[He stops. There's no need to escalate right away.]

Is it yours?

[horologia]

[ awkward. someone's going to have to change.

well, while everyone else has the pleasantries handled, she's just... going to keep an eye on their surroundings. ]

[arcsplainist]

[ Likewise! He will be keeping an eye on things, but for the now, Izumo and Rufus have covered the comments he'd say.

Alphinaud glances around, just to see if there's anything else of note. ]

[retellers]

[ well, since she's not being attacked, the blonde jut pauses, leaning against the word in what is probably meant to be a casual manner ]

Uh, yeah. Of course it's mine. I always leave my swords... sticking out of the ground... in the Whispering Woods. It's a great place to store... swords. Yep. That's definitely it.

[ she is probably not very believable. Still, despite her general shiftiness, she doesn't seem to mean harm? Maybe?

Not that it matters much, since Alphinaud and Homura looking around will notice that there's definitely something more pressing in the background, which is a beautiful bug monster. That's neat. That's cool. ]

[sacredchants]

[ no, she's not believable at all. there are plenty of others who are going to be believable over her and izumo will look over towards rufus to see what his take on the whole thing is. though, there's some irony here to leave the two people who probably shouldn't be talking to...do the talking?

it's fine. izumo hasn't quite noticed the bug monster. ]

Whispering Woods?

[ a bit on the nose with that. ]

[soulus]

[What an awful liar.]

Have you seen anyone else in the area?

[Homura and Alphinaud can take care of the monster. Rupe does turn his head in that direction, though.]

[horologia]

[ hm, yeah. don't like that.

sorry if this is anyone's pet, but she's going for an eye with one of her hoarded arrows. by all means, continue your discussion. surely, it screeching in pain or anger whatever will be warning enough for the rest of them staring at the sword, or talking, or something. ]

[arcsplainist]

[ Oh. He sees that. ]

'Twould be best to hold your words—

[ And then, Homura fires off an arrow. ]

—for a beast lies ahead.

[ He has no idea how to use a sword. ]

[retellers]

[ Well, the arrow does hit, and when it happens there's a kind of-- echo, around Homura? Like suddenly there's another person there also shooting a bow and arrow, a dark skinned boy with a crop top, but it only lasts a second before the monster fails to die of convenient arrow like an asshole, just screeches, and the girl grabs the sword hastily. ]

For the honor of--

[ the word she says is garbled, and it does not really matter anyway, because there's a flash of light that encompasses the entire scene and when they next blink, they're somewhere... completely different.

All of them will find themselves wearing their outfits from the ball of last week, in the middle of a very icy (literally? why is there so much ice here) ballroom. There's people everywhere, and the girl from before is still here, wearing a red dress and looking around worriedly. She's further away from them now, though, vanishing through the crowd.

There's music! Food! Dancing! Absolutely none monster. Also, someone is immediately coming up to all of them. ]

There are no weapons allowed at Princess Prom.

[


what ]

[sacredchants]

[ nope. this is officially an entirely different experience than she had before and now izumo is honestly at a loss. she can no longer be any use of a guide to them. we're all on this ride without a map or anyone at the wheel.

it's nice to know she's back to being dolled up, though? in a way. it was a very pretty dress but at the same time she has bonus injuries, tragic.

nevertheless— ]

Princess...Prom?