week 0 - arrival

[vicedirector]

seven vices arrival ♫ saturday & sunday 36 players remaining You remember happening upon something awful and nauseating. What it was, precisely, is lost to you, but you have the instinctive feeling that by escaping from it, you've avoided something terrible. When you open your eyes, you find yourself laying in bed in a dark, dusty room, facing a digital alarm clock. Its face, reading 12:01, is one of the only sources of light in the room. The other comes from the window, shadows flickering about. Opening the blinds will reveal that it is nighttime, and what looks to be a massive bonfire has been lit in the street at the front of the building. A wooden talisman hangs around your neck, with one of seven symbols carved on the back. Attempting to take off the talisman will result in a wave of intense dread, and the all-too-familiar nausea. A brass key engraved with a unique room number lays on the bedside table beside the clock, as well. But you won't get any answers just sitting in your room all night. >Investigate? This is an open mingle for arrival in the town. Waking up just after midnight on Saturday, characters will have the weekend to explore and socialize before the plot begins. The profiles and IC rulebooks (both the personal ones and the public one at the chapel) have not been revealed/given out yet. The kitchen will still 'prepare' breakfast on these days, and the bonfire will burn continuously into the daytime. Per items: smaller items that a character could easily carry with them will be in their rooms. Animals and larger objects will either be waiting outside or in the hotel lobby. cast setting

Comments

[minogame]

( Magic is the only thing he can think of, even if he doesn' thave experience with this kind of magic... )

Hm? "Technology?" ( That's still a strange word for him so it might sound a little careful, ) Do you use a lot of that?

[herbgrace]

Of course. [She sounds a little confused by the way he speaks of it like it's a completely foreign concept.] Things like computers and cell phones are in use all over.

[minogame]

( He's quiet. So they aren't in the past? Somewhere in the west... but some where not in the past. So could he be in the present? Or maybe a not so distant past? But why would they be here then? It doesn't really sound like any of his other missions. )

I-I know that! ( Of course? Duh? ) I was just joking!

... Do you know what year it is?

( WHAT KIND OF GAME IS THIS KID PLAYING )

[herbgrace]

[...This kid seems so earnest that for once her first thought isn't immediate suspicion at such strange questions. No, he must have hit his head.]

Perhaps our kidnappers were too rough with you before bringing you here. You should really sit down. It's 2016, by the way.

[minogame]

( But he's a time traveler. )

2016? ( He's doing the math. ) Uwah!

( He's in the past?! He's really in the past! )

No, no, I'm fine!

( Holding up both hands disarmingly. He's good! )

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania is looking at him extremely sympathetically. It's a much less stern expression than her usual. Maybe she has a problem with adopting people. It's fine.]

At least let me look at your head to see if you're injured.

1/2

[minogame]

( He's quiet for a moment, considering her offer... )

[minogame]

Okay.

( He'll take one step foreward. She seems... nice? So there's nothing to worry about, right? )

But I'm okay, really.

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania smiles a little when he agrees. Look, she can make non-serious expressions!] Thank you. Let me know if anything hurts, okay?

[But, as she starts carefully checking his head and moving his hair around a little, it'll be pretty obvious she's touching far too gently for her to actually hurt him.]

[minogame]

( He closes his eyes at first, not sure what to expect but.. ah... this is nice? It's like the saniwa is checking him for injuries back at the citadel and he opens one eye to look up at her and shake his head no. )

I told you, I'm okay, Miss Lituania.

[herbgrace]

It does seem like it. [She smooths down his hair once she's finished her inspection.] No headache, dizziness, confusion--well, beyond being confused about our circumstances...?

[minogame]

( Shaking his head no again. )

Nu-uh... Well...

( . . . )

I was sick earlier, I think.

[herbgrace]

[Hmmmmm!] Sick in what way? [Wait.] Was it related to the necklace?

[minogame]

Huh?

( He looks down at the necklace hanging against his chest. This one? He picks it up and holds up the wooden medallion to see if that's what she means but shakes his head. )

When I woke up... I think I had a bad dream... or... I don't know, it felt real too but I can't really remember anything about it.

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania looks a little surprised at that.] The same sort of thing happened to me. That's odd. [She's no stranger to awful nightmares, so she hadn't thought it too unusual until now.]

[minogame]

It was a really bad one! It felt like we were losing a battle!

( Let's it slip that he might be a child soldier of a sort. )

Then I woke up here all alone. Is it the same for you?

[herbgrace]

[That's a really unsettling thing to hear out of a kid.] I was definitely dreaming of something awful. [The details escape her, but she's inclined to imagine it involved Russia.] And then I woke up here, yes. I wonder if it's the same for everyone else.

[minogame]

( How can they all have bad dreams before coming here? He frowns and gives the necklace a gentle tug, )

You asked me if this made me sick? Did it make you sick?

[herbgrace]

When I tried to take mine off it did. [And in the end she couldn't take it off at all.]

[minogame]

( He's curious and begins to try to take his own necklace off just to see!

Ah... He stops about midway, hands feeling clammy and body going tense. That's... weird? He feels like something bad is going to happen but he keeps trying. The feeling intensifies until he drops the necklace back down around his neck, covering his mouth. He feels... really sick suddenly. )

[herbgrace]

Careful. [Lithuania puts a hand on his shoulder to give him something steady to focus on.] It should go away if you leave it alone.

[minogame]

( He's quiet as he recovers but once he's taken a minute, he'll ask Lithuania very quietly, )

Are we dead?

[herbgrace]

No. [Lithuania answers immediately, with complete confidence.] There's no way we're dead. You're alright.

[minogame]

But what if we were fighting and we had to retreat and we didn't make it...!

( And that's why he doesn't see any of his friends! He died in their retreat or something! He was captured by the enemy! He broke! That's why he doesn't remember? When a sword is reforged, they don't remember their past life. Is this just the first stage?! )

[herbgrace]

[The way he's talking, Lithuania has more and more questions, but right now it's important to calm him down.]

I'm sure I'm not dead, so you're not dead either, alright? You don't feel very dead to me.

[She pats him on the head gently.]