week 4

[vicedirector]

seven vices week 4 28 players remaining ♫ monday - thursday Monday morning begins just like the rest, slow and uneasy. At 12pm, every television will go off with its usual bout of static, followed by a calm, albeit disinterested, voice. "Please gather in the hotel lobby within the next hour." That's all that it says before the televisions turn off. Anyone not in their rooms will hear the voice echoing around them as if through a speaker system, although there are (still) no speakers present. After hearing the motive, characters who choose to explore will find that the void around the town has retracted a bit, and there is now a police station to the far east of the chapel. On the chapel wall near the altar, black and white portraits of Youko, Zelos, and Morrigan have been hung up. Anyone looking for them will find that Youko's pink shoes and the fragments of Zelos's crystal are now gone. >Mingle? This is Week 4's mingle log, covering Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. Investigations will go up on Friday. When posting toplevels, specify the time and location. If you plan on having any private conversations between characters, remember to let us know in the post linked below. More plot elements will be introduced this week. Mod comments will be occasionally distributed to open toplevels, accordingly. cast setting rulebook profiles private conversations

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MOTIVE

[vicedirector]

[ In place of the statue from last week is a very large, very old computer monitor.

Once all 28 people have gathered in the lobby, the soft, monotone voice begins to speak. ]

Congratulations, you've made it through week three. The same can't be said for Miss Youko, Mister Zelos, and Miss Morrigan, but at least it wasn't you, yes?

I will give you a break from all those terrible mental status effects for now. Instead of a punishment, there will be an incentive this week. ♥

[ The monitor switches on. It shows brief flashes of events occurring in characters' homeworlds, specifically, ones that they regret. ]

Any participant who manages to retire this week will be able to fix their mistakes. Is there something you wish you'd done differently? Well, you'll have a chance to redo it. And before any of you go doubting us, remember that you're in an entirely different dimension. Such things are not out of the realm of possibility. All that needs to be done to accomplish this is for blood to be spilled once more. Tata, my doves.

[ The monitor will continuously be playing these "clips" throughout the week. They're short enough so that, uninformed, other characters may not be able to tell what's specifically going on, but are definitely recognizable to those pictured. ]

[jackhole]

[ there's probably a quick flash of a bunch of robots killing a lot of people and a translucent neon blue figure laughing and that is enough for rhys to grimace.

so in the back, there's a short whine of: ]

Oh noooo.

[ this is a terrible motive. ]

[fluorospar]

[Look, she's not super fond of him, but--]

Are you all right?

[He looks terrible.]

[stupidly]

Rhys?

[GLANCING OVER... Every time Rhys does the little oh noooo whine, Gilbert knows it's time to be a little concerned...]

[dereban]

This looks like the kind of monitor, that if you turned it on, it would play the Windows 95 theme.

[ Dry sarcasm in the face of seeing events of things that she regrets, but she doesn't seem to be too phased by it. ]

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania doesn't look especially impressed with the motive this week, although she does look pained by what she sees--it's safe to say a shot involving a large group of people suffering was hers.]

As if someone could fix that. As if I could alone.

[All this does is remind her of something upsetting. She doesn't believe for an instant whatever she regrets could be fixed so simply.]

[dhaosu]

[ His eyes flicker up to that screen. There are many things he regrets, particularly one event, and really it's not as if him being silent is anything new. He may just be unable to tear himself away from that TV for a little while. ]

[unpleasantries]

[This is a bad motive.

Satori's clip is recognizable as such by the third eye wrapped around the pictured girl's body. She doesn't look much like Satori - she's been crying, and her hair is a very light green, almost to the point that it's white. She grasps her third eye in her hands, and it begins to twitch violently as she squeezes, and -

Satori seems to shrink, her haughty countenance disappearing for a moment, and then she smooths out her sleeves and sits down for a while.

She hadn't even seen this happen herself before today. And that's the problem, isn't it.]

[crazily]

[ Now, granted, all of these motives are pretty terrible, but this one hits particularly close to home for Break in particular. It's easy to see him tense up as soon as being able to fix your mistakes comes up, but it's clearly not in temptation or anything like it. His eye widens in shock, but it's also quick to set his expression into one of soft anger instead. ]

...Ridiculous.

[ That part is muttered under his breath, but he does speak a little more clearly. ]

Tampering with the past is a mistake. It won't bring anyone what they're looking for.

[ As for the clip, it's only a few moments, but it's of a young girl crying over a pair of coffins, and Break (though with much longer hair) turning to leave the room. ]

[stupidly]

[He doesn't need to see the clip to understand exactly why Break is reacting like this. The look he casts over is concerned - somewhat pinched, brows furrowed.]

...

[Anything he wants to say is something he figures he should save for later, though, so Break just gets that annoying Gilbert Silence for a few seconds.]

[princessantly]

I agree. [ Although she doesn't have Break's traumatic backstory, thankfully. ] And why would anyone trust something coming from our captor?

[muties]

[ Gee, who's that blonde drunk in her bedroom. There's also some disturbing technicolor shenanigans that we won't speak of. And a computer nearly blowing up some cute girl in glasses. Aaaand is that a neighborhood on fire. Aaaaand-- ok yeah that sums up. ]

Welp.

[ This is more embarrassing than anything. She's more interested in the computer monitor itself. ]

Think this thing's gotta harddrive?

[symbologic]

Even if we were capable of tampering with such...primitive technology [Giving that monitor a slightly haughty look because this goes well beyond ancient, in his eyes.] I doubt it would do us much good. The announcement has already been made. It's not as though we need this [Gesturing to the computer.] to relive our regrets...

[vicedirector]

[ Doesn't seem so. It's literally just a monitor stuck into the wall. Classy. ]

[dereban]

Well, I don't see the computer itself, just the monitor. Otherwise I'd totally dismantle it.

[ She's an expert at computers! She knows how to take them apart. ]

[earie]

[ There are clips of Sadie with a girl, either kissing or looking as though they're arguing before the girl descends down a staircase.

Sadie remains quiet and places her hands on her earmuffs protectively, hunching down a bit. ]

[keepshispride]

[There are a lot of things for Vegeta to regret but there's nothing on the screen that should stand out as belonging to him. Maybe his glare tightens a little bit when there's a brief image of a spikey haired man with a halo smiling, but that's all.]

... Well, isn't that nice of them?

[symbologic]

[Faize's clips feature a somewhat peculiar collection of people, in what appears to be a rather dark and foreboding military base of some kind. Probably an airplane hangar, from the looks of things, though there's a spaceship docked inside instead of airplanes. It's hard to tell what's going on, but there's some manner of very serious discussion going on with a severe-looking blonde woman in a military uniform. At some point, the young green-eyed man hands over some manner of weird crystal battery that anyone who saw Faize's doodles back during week one might recognize. The clips just get more confusing from there, but clearly something went horribly, horribly wrong. There are red lights flashing all over the military base, bizarre voids tearing themselves into existence, people running around like crazy, and eventually what would appear to be planet Earth compressing into nothingness and exploding.]

[Despite the fact that he seems to have been little more than a background player in the situation, Faize clearly isn't pleased by what he sees on the screen. Even after the clips have moved on to someone else's regrets.]

...I notice that they neglect to mentions what sort of consequences might follow such "hopeful" motive.

[minogame]

( As soon as Urashima hears the motive, there's something like a surprised gasp and he's immediately looking offended and just addressing everyone, )

You shouldn't! Even if you can change the past, you shouldn't! If you do, your soul will...

( He actually sounds really serious about this, too. He's cheerful, innocent, naive, and definitely silly but right now, he's being very serious. It probably comes off as out of character for him. Look, this is a personal subject. )

Just... don't even think about it; it's not good!

( As for the clip that's playing? Well, anyone will recognize it. It's strange that it isn't one from home but Urashima literally doesn't have any unfortunate experiences back home. He's been pretty lucky for most of his 545 years........ until he came here. )

[stupidly]

[He doesn't understand all this SOUL STUFF, but he does recognize the clip playing on the screen, and-- well. That's not something Gilbert can ignore.]

We shouldn't stay here.

[Changing the past sure does nothing good at all, but he also knows how real the temptation can be.]

[aumygoddess]

Has Urashima-san...tried to change the past before?

[ he sounds like he's familiar with screwing with the laws of time ]

[aumygoddess]

[ As for Hanyuu here, her clips show a much older version of herself fighting a girl. A village burns down in the background, and the girl seems to get the upper hand, temporarily stunning Hanyuu by landing a blow that chips her left horn. With a very familiar sword, on top of it. ]

Ouka...

[ That's the only thing she says, biting her lip and tearing away from the scene as quickly as she can. ]

[americanbeauty]

[Surprisingly, there aren't many things Lucy regrets about her life despite the ups and downs she's been through. What bothers her more than anything is the fact that the monitor is showing something it has absolutely no right to share with strangers. It's a bizarre jumble of images from Lucy bloodied and hiding in a bathroom to her apparently dead body. Stranger still are unexplained flashes of a black haired woman, although there is nothing strictly tying that to Lucy unless someone is really good at guessing 1890's fashion sense.

Whatever that all was supposed to mean doesn't matter because Lucy is confused and angry. It's a novel sight to see considering the girl is usually so reserved.]

What was all that? This is nonsense- It shouldn't be able to show that!

[She's not even sure what she would change in that moment but she definitely doesn't want other people to see it, even in a chopped up and fast rendition.]

[hopefragment]

An incentive...?

[Who's Hinata talking to? Seemingly recovered from his stabbing stomach pains from yesterday, he's standing in front of the monitor with his arms crossed over his chest, his chin in his hand. In some ways, an actual incentive sounds worse than the strange mental effects they've endured so far.

Then an image crosses the screen, the body of an incredibly large young man facedown under a table, fingers of one hand brushing against a pair of night vision goggles, the other near a bloodstained knife. Speaking of blood, there's blood coating the motionless young man, the tablecloth over him, and the floor beneath him.

It's also a brilliant shade of hot pink but no, trust me, it's blood. Just pink?

The scene changes briefly to show another young man, bound at the hands and feet and plummeting through the air, only to land with a brilliant splash into lava below.

Hinata goes very, incredibly still as this unfolds before tearing his gaze away and taking a deep, shuddering breath. A few more clips go by, but he doesn't seem to actually see them; he only waits until some other things have crossed the screen before turning and walking quickly away, clearly distracted by whatever he'd seen there.]

[sobowtor]

[For once Poland actually looks like she's been socked in the gut.

Repeatedly.]

...

I guess this doesn't apply to those of us who don't make mistakes.

[Her usual enthusiasm isn't really in the words though.]