week 8

[vicedirector]

seven vices week 8 21 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 Katerina's 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 boathouse and lake up North Anyone looking for them will also find that Alisha's spear and Sadie's earmuffs are now gone. >Mingle? This is Week 8'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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KEY PLAYERS

[vicedirector]

[ Come Monday morning, the corkboard sign has been updated. ]

Well done! For your tenacity, problem-solving, or perhaps random luck, you've been given immunity for the week. Violent acts will unable to be taken against you by other participants, due to the blessings on your pendants. Please see Miss Miata to receive them.

Dhaos
Papyrus
Rhys

[jackhole]

[ he hasn't seen the motive yet so, he's good enough to reply to this.

which is really just a: ]

A-ahahaha... Oh boy.

[ awkward_troy_baker_laugh.mp3 ]

[friendboned]

[either he's gone out looking for her or he's randomly yelling to no one... or both]

MIATA!!! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE COME TO CORRECT A MISTAKE.

I... AM JUST FAR TOO COOL TO BE IMMUNE!!! MY HANDSOME LOOKS AND BULGING BICEPS WILL PROTECT ME! A FUTURE ROYAL GUARDSMAN AS MYSELF DOESN'T NEED IMMUNITY! PLEASE GIVE IT TO SOMEONE SLIGHTLY LESS COOL THAN ME.

NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!

MOTIVE

[vicedirector]

[ There's no table or metaphorical object in the lobby this week, only the wall monitor buzzing softly with gray static.

Once all 21 people have gathered in the lobby, Katerina begins to speak. ]

Congratulations, you've made it through week seven. The same can't be said for Miss Alisha, Mister Gilbert, and Miss Sadie, but at least it wasn't you, yes?

Some of you are quite homesick by now, yes? But you aren't the only ones. In the interim, I've gotten to know your friends and family quite well.

[ The static fades to show 20 people, bound and gagged, sitting in a dark room with stained cement walls. And all of them are familiar faces. ]

At the end of the week, one of these people will be executed. Should you successfully spill blood and get away with it, your loved one will be given immunity and sent back home with no memory of the incident.

Fight, fight, fight, and don't give up on your love! Good luck, and tata, my doves. ♥

[ Every character will recognize a face in the room. Some look scared, and some look defiant. The person there is someone your character knows and feels is important to them. It may be a friend, family member, lover, or someone else. And if there is literally no one your character would care about (or if that character is already in the game), it may be a complete stranger whose face will seem disturbingly familiar to them somehow.

The video feed will periodically show updates throughout the week on the hostages situation. It's grim, but survivable...although most look miserable, of course. Taking care of the hostages is the screaming woman from Morrigan's execution, surprisingly calm despite her apparent temper. ]

[jackhole]

[ there is a woman on that screen and she is definitely one of the ones who looks defiant. her hat is askew, her eyes are angry, and her right hand twitches as if she's waiting for just the right moment. when rhys sees her, he goes pale.

it's fiona. of course it's fiona. she shifts in her seat, jerks in her bonds and in almost slow motion, her hat falls off her head and onto the floor. on the other side of this, rhys lets out a small, broken noise. ]

No...

[ no, it can't be fiona. it can't be fiona because fiona is fine and safe and not here and she is the only reason rhys can be here and he can die here and everything will still be okay back home. she'll take care of vaughn. she'll make sure everything goes right. she will save gortys and loader bot and get vallory off their backs and --

... and she is here. she is here and bound and gagged and something inside of rhys finally just breaks. his eyes shine over with unshed tears and his expression goes blank and anyone close enough to rhys can hear him mumble, softly and so, so hurt. ]

Someone... someone pick up her hat. S-she needs her hat.

[ then, the tears start to spill but rhys will stay silent as he keeps watching the screen anyway. he can't leave her like this. after all, it's -- it's fiona. ]

[dhaosu]

[ He scowls, looking at this.

There is someone up there. A certain woman, of sorts, aka Winona, and he just turns away. There is no guarantee that they would honor their promise, and decide to keep them or something instead. ]

[billarious]

[Some people may notice a very small girl among the group. She's kicking her feet, squirming in her restraints, and doesn't look like she plans on making this whole "kidnapping" thing easy in the slightest.

Bill also notices this girl, and his expression turns sour pretty much immediately. It's the first time a motive like this seems to get to him, though he's doing his best to remain calm about it.]

Wow you picked the worst possible Pines member to kidnap. I'm more worried about you guys than I am her, honestly.

[Like really. There's a reason he sort of likes her over all the others. She's border-line chaotic good. Everything she does is loud and over the top. She uses glitter as an attack and can wield a grappling hook effectively at twelve years old? What were you thinking bringing a menace like her here?]

[lastgirl]

[There's no one in the chairs for Buddy. She knows instinctively it's because she's retired and therefore not subjected to the motives. However she can't help but wonder who would even be held hostage in her name. Unless they plan to drag in her caretaker's corpse, there's no one left alive that she cares for.

And speaking of dead people she cares for - she immediately notices the woman overseeing the hostages is the same woman who appeared to kill Morrigan. She only glares angrily at the screen, trying to burn the image of that woman into her mind.]

This week is going to be insane...

[crazily]

[ As soon as Break hears the motive, his expression twists up into a scowl, since he thinks he knows exactly who it might be. The first person to come to mind is absolutely Sharon, and it's who he assumes is sitting in the room. There's not exactly anyone at this point that could confirm otherwise for him without a lot of the process of elimination, but Break's person is actually a boy with golden hair and brilliantly green eyes. He's definitely defiant in the face of being held, but he's often smiling too. And probably making friends with the other hostages??? Oz stop.

Though of course, Break doesn't actually know that. He's definitely just operating under the assumption that it's Sharon, which gets his expression to turn bitter, but not angry. He's been angry enough and quite frequently in the past few days, so it really is taking its toll. ]

...How cowardly. Resorting to this is the worst one yet.

[okuri]

[ For a second, his heart stops. His mind jumps to one person in particular but when he searches the faces, it's not the one he expects.

...it doesn't make it any better, but at least he can think again. The man he's focused on is one of the defiant ones, and he looks more pissed about the situation than anything else. If he could talk, he would certainly be mouthing off to his captor, but he settles for angrily stomping his feet ocassionally instead.]

...I'm sorry. [ Because it's all his fault that Yukimi is here, even if he has faith in him to survive.]

[sobowtor]

[Poland's looking for a familiar face...

Then bursts out in tears when she recognizes who they picked for her.]

Oh my god you have to be kidding! [She's crying...

with.

Laughter?]

I can't believe this is really happening. [Prussia needs to be rescued. By Poland.

Poland would ABSOLUTELY spill blood for this opportunity.]

[symbologic]

[One of the chairs holds a small girl who actually appears to beat Faize when it comes to the whole poker face thing. But she does seem oddly defiant, despite the fact that her expression stays so blank. She's not happy to be here, it would seem. And judging by how her eyes seem weirdly fixated on Faize, she knows exactly who to blame for that. It's always Dummy Faize's fault. How does she even know where he is? She just knows. He's somewhere on the other side of that monitor and it's all his fault and she's gonna set her doggy on him once they're out of here.]

[When Faize sees her, he inhales sharply, eyes going wide as he mumbles to himself:]

No...this can't be...

[Once he seems to get over the shock he actually...looks kinda angry? Maybe? Hard to tell because his emotional connection still appears to be kind of messed up after the events of this weekend. But he is frowning a little, so angry's probably a safe bet.]

[unpleasantries]

[Satori is prepared to be unimpressed, especially after last week's motive, but when she sees who's been taken hostage, she collapses. She straight up falls to her knees, because they've been dangling Koishi in front of her for weeks, but she never thought in a million years they'd be able to find her. Koishi is invisible to people who don't already know about her. She vanishes from your memory as soon as she leaves your field of view. She should have been the safest person connected to Satori, but here she is.

If it had been Utsuho, Satori would've been concerned, but more concerned for the captors themselves. She's huge, and strong, and stupid, and she would be fine on her own. Rin is independent, and though she'd hate being cooped up, she'd find a way out of it. Of that, Satori is certain.

But Koishi...even though she's gagged, Satori can tell there's a blank smile on her face as she surveys her surroundings with apparent interest. Her eyes are completely emotionless, as they always are, and with the smile obscured by the gag it's even more unsettling than usual to look at her face. Koishi won't fight back or resist, because this is a new experience, and those are some of the only things she still thinks are interesting.]

No, no no no...why Koishi...? How did they...

[She wants to get up, because she knows just how pathetic she seems, but she can't seem to stop shaking enough to stand.]

[dereban]

[ Love. The key word that makes Inaba freeze up and realize that she knows who she's going to see and she's going to hate herself for it. Her heart literally stops at the sight of the familiar boy, face turning pale before she blinks away tears that she's thought were never there in the first place before she runs right towards the screen, tears falling harder than ever before.

She's panicked, and it shows in her voice as she calls out his name. ]

Taichi!

Taichi, Taichi, Taichi. . .! You can't be here - it should have been aniki - you should have been with Iori! She loves you, you know! And you love her too, don't you, you selfless bastard?! [ Choking on her tears, she yells in frustration as if she's trying to convince herself of something. ]

So why is it you, of all people...

[ She falls to her knees, unable to help the choked sobs that she can't even hide. ]

[brawlhalla]

[ Given her motive last week, which was made public thanks for that Roxy, it's probably easy to guess just who Astrid's motive is. He's the only person in the room wearing viking-looking armor, after all. Hiccup doesn't generally look cowed, but probably does look sarcastic a lot of the time - if they're ever able to speak and move, he talks with his hands a lot, gesturing wildly.

Astrid's initial reaction to seeing him there is to swear violently, storm outside, and throw her axe into a tree - while Stormfly gets way too close to the screen because wow that's Hiccup before following Astrid out - but she can be found periodically checking up on the screen throughout the week and tracking Hiccup with a calmer expression. ]

Why do I get the feeling you've come up with twenty crazy plans by now? [ She asks, one day, with something almost like a smile. ]

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania's eyes lock onto a serious, scowling man. Her eyes widen in surprise, and Laima nudges at her leg, sensing her owner's distress.] Belarus--How in the world--? [She really looks upset by him being here! Even though he looks like he is set to claw through the cement of the room and is wearing an expression that could intimidate even the most dangerous sort of person.] I'm sure--I'm sure he'll be fine...

[Poor gentle and precious prince Belarus!]

[dhaosu]

Monday, early morning, back of hotel

[ Dhaos could be found tending to something here once again. The small makeshift graveyard he added Selena to? Yeah he's added a few more... specifically ones for Alisha, Gilbert, and Lucy. Someone's got to keep it up to date right? ]

Monday, morning, kitchen

[ Guess what, he can be found in the kitchen. There are a few blank papers on the counter, along with him cooking something. His countless failures of being a bad cook means black stuff thrown away, but there are a few decent pancakes made.

Not for him, though. The only reason he's stopped is because he's somehow managed to drop a tea cup due to his hands being unsteady, and is trying to clean it up by picking the pieces up. But.

If someone enters, he'll immediately turn his attention to them. ]

... I require your assistance with something. Do you have any ideas on how to "cheer someone up"? It is alright if you have more than one in mind.


Thursday, morning, lake & boathhouse

[ Listen, every place needs to be investigated, and no motive is going to stop him. At some point in time, he would look at the chemicals, as well as the other dangerous items, and squint. ]

... It is too bad these cannot be properly disposed of.

[ Because, you know, of coming right on back. But since it takes a day for them to come back, he might at least try with breaking the knives or something. ]

Various/Wildcard

[ He can be found throughout the entire week, specifically on Wednesday at 5 PM in schoolhouse for piano stuff. At some point, though he's going to do a walkthrough of places in town. He'll be pretty much looking through stuff just to make sure someone didn't hide something dangerous anywhere, either.

If you wish to plot or plan anything let me know! I'm luminitrium on plurk. ]

Thursday lake

[okuri]

[ For most of the week Yoite has kept to himself. The trial was still too fresh in his mind, especially the last words Charlotte had spoken to him. For days he had argued with himself on whether he really cared, even if it was obvious to him that he did-- it was just too hard to admit.

By Thursday morning he finds himself with a new resolve, and he feels just a bit better. There were too many bonds he had developed here, too many attachments, but it was too late now to turn back. Even if he thought she wouldn't see it, he feels like he should make an effort for her.

He walks upon Dhaos at the lake which isn't too surprising-- it was where he had spent most of his time this week, so they were bound to run into each other at some point.]

Good morning. There's a lot of weapons here now. [ In general, in Lebensbaum he means. Aside from the individual skills they all possessed too.

It's probably real obvious to Dhaos, but today Yoite is wearing that pair of pink gloves he had in his dresser. They're a stark contrast to everything else he's wearing, but it's about making a point (and what did he know about fashion anyway?).]

[billarious]

Monday - all day

[Yet another day the Muse spends sitting around in the kitchen, only instead of bothering people because he's recovering, he's practicing making paper flowers. His technique definitely needs work, though it probably doesn't help when his right arm is still pretty fucked up.

He is also in...a pretty awful mood, from the looks of things. For once he's not smiling even a little, just glaring as he works. Frustration? Murder game finally getting to him? Who knows. You'd have to ask him, but honestly why would you want to do that.]

Tuesday - Thursday; various - Jerry option

[Throughout the week Bill spends mostly cooped up. And staying cooped up isn't good for a pet, no matter what kind it is, so he just leaves his window open and lets Jerry fly around doing basically whatever he wants. Maybe you're gonna find him staring at the bonfire, or watching snow fall, or following interesting looking. Heck it's probably not hard to find him staring at something shiny he found.

Or maybe you'll have the pleasure of him being interested in you and following you around for a while. Either way, you're definitely seeing more of him than you are of Bill.

Wanna play?]

Tuesday - Thursday; various - Bill option

[If you actually want to talk to the dorito himself though, you'll either have to catch him coming downstairs - sparingly - for food or you could go knock on his door. There's like a 90% chance that's where he's gonna be, and since he apparently only plans on eating maybe twice this week, that is probably your best bet.]

TUESDAY

[brawlhalla]

[ SUP, BILL, HAVE A VIKING HAMMERING AWAY AT YOUR DOOR because this is Astrid Hofferson and she doesn't knock quietly or politely ever. She doesn't look as mad as the hammering knocking would indicate - rather, it seems that's just literally her normal mode of getting someone to open a door... ]

Bill? You around?

[ ugh don't make her track you down ]

[sobowtor]

[Monday Morning - Graves - Prior to the Motive Announcement]

[Poland's standing at the makeshift graves in the back of the hotel, holding an open jewelry box from her room. It's filled with an assortment of rings.]

I swear to you, that I, the Homeland, faithful nation of the Polish people, will not abandon you. I will guard you, I will not hesitate to fight for the you, neither will I hesitate to give my life so that you do not remain in Lettland.

I have come here, to these graves, after a hard and bloody effort. I will see that your effort has not been wasted. I swear that I will never leave you. By throwing this ring into your graves, I am marrying you, because you have always been and always will be mine.

[Poland places one ring on every grave, regardless of how they killed or how they died.]

Also Gilbert you're totally not allowed to reject me because I skipped the proposal part and absolutely no one cares if you're already married, Vegeta.

[All Week - Everywhere - Anywhere]

[Everyone gets a ring. You get a ring. He gets a ring. She gets a ring!]

Congratulations! We're married!

[Wait strike that Lithuania doesn't get a ring. No ring for Lithuania. We're not married.

Everyone else though. Married. To Poland. It's official. No turning back.]

all week

[okuri]

...what? [ Did he hear that correctly? He hopes he didn't, but his face is flush.]

[thebonezone]

monday&thursday

[whenever you are, wherever you are... sitting. there is a loud, sudden fart noise. if you get up, you will notice you are sitting on a whoopee cushion. sans is also there. he looks you straight in the eyes as he says:]

woah, sorry. some kind of weirdo's been putting that on people's seats.

[HE'S OBVIOUSLY THE WEIRDO???? please don't kill him]

Tuesday, Lobby, All Day

[Some of you may have noticed a bunch of "flyers" (aka pieces of blank paper with nothing to decorate them because fuck you, sans isn't an artist) advertising a "MONSTERS/UNDERGROUND Q&A IN LOBBY" in comic sans, with the short explanation under it being "because you guys have a lot of questions and assume a bunch of weird stuff".

Sans is sitting behind the front desk, the annoying dog fast asleep with a bone in his mouth next to him. He's got a bunch more papers he's writing on, though it seems irrelevant to the Q&A. It seems to involve a lot of math, some weird symbols and a lot of barely legible side notes in comic sans. it... probably makes sense to him?

there is also a note with "FAQ" written on it at the front desk. here it is, in all its glory.

Feel free to ask... anything! Or just come pet the dog.]

Wednesday, outside of Alisha's room

[there are two skeletons outside of Alisha's room, and they are making paper mache statues. one of them is a perfect likeness of Alisha, and all it needs is some paint to be a masterpiece. the other one is ...

a lump. with another lump on top of it. it's impossible to tell, but this is meant to be gilbert. sans is sweating]

maybe you should've done both.

[...SORRY, GILBERT]

tuesday, early morning but not early as fuck morning so probably ~6am

[dereban]

[ After a bit of mourning that she did earlier, she goes back into the lobby; half to check, once again, on Taichi, the other to actually go ahead and eat breakfast. And then she sees... all this, and although the FAQ seems interesting, she can't help but ask -- ]

Are those Wingdings? [ As a computer nerd, she obviously knows this. ]

[dereban]

►►► monday afternoon, lobby.

[ It's clear that Inaba — well, she's definitely visibly upset about the motive. More so than other motives. Which is pretty much why she lingers here for the rest of the day, just obsessively watching the television every now and again to make absolutely certain that Taichi doesn't get hurt. She could see him freaking out and she? She needs to save him.

But she feels bad for thinking about it, and it's stressing her out. Everything is, really, and she can't help but bury her face in her hands because she's crying. She's crying, she can't stop crying, she can't hide her crying; or any of the tears that tempt to fall, because she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't.

Iori is sure to have a field day when she finds out about this, and she sure is certain that if Taichi dies? The friendship that she wanted to keep so badly is going to break apart. And Inaba, more than anything... doesn't want that. Of course, if anybody comes over, she's definitely going to stop tearing up, at least, enough to smile at them as they pass by (unless you're Astrid, then you're just getting a firm frown). She needs a distraction right now, and thankfully she has her laptop playing various Vocaloid songs from any time until 2010, although she'll definitely put it on pause to surprise someone.

With what, you ask? ]

Good afternoon! [ Wait, that was definitely not Inaba's voice. It sounds way too happy and perky to be Inaba, and it kind of sounds a bit robotic, too.

(Spoilers: it's the voice of Hatsune Miku.) ]

►►► tuesday morning (4-5 AM); makeshift graves behind the hotel

[ She's wearing black all this week. Dark, dark black clothes of mourning. Truthfully, Inaba wanted to do this earlier. Yesterday. But she wasn't able to. She was too much in pain to do it. Too conflicted, too -- emotional. That isn't to say that she's not, still.

But she knows that she has to take things seriously, now. Even more so than before. She can't make anymore mistakes.

To her, she kind of feels almost responsible. Like it is her fault. And to Inaba, maybe it is. So when she crouches down to Alisha's grave, she's not sure how to do this. She probably wouldn't understand if she did it Japanese style, so she's trying something a little different. Of course, she just hopes nobody overhears her. ]

I don't know if you can hear me. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Maybe you won't even respond, but... I'm sorry. For all the trouble I've caused, and really, you — you didn't deserve it, at all. It's not fair. It should have been me. But I guess I can't change that. And I bet you'd probably slap me for saying that I should have replaced you, but still —

I think it would have been the better outcome. Not many people care about me, you know. It's easy for me to seclude myself. All my life, I've been all alone. That's not to say I didn't have family. I did. My mother, my father, my aniki - that's, Japanese for older brother. Guess it doesn't translate too well.

On the first day I came here, I lied to you. About my name. I didn't trust anyone. I guess that's my problem. I don't... I don't trust people. I don't trust my friends back at home, my family. I don't even trust myself. That maybe one day, I'll have my hands stained in blood. Ha ha, sorry. I'm probably rambling again - I'm sorry - [ god, she's crying again, how many times will she cry, ugh. Just let her wipe those tears. ] I'm really sorry.

It's just that I blame myself for a lot of things. Let me tell you a story. It's short, promise. You see, my name? It's Himeko. You already know that. Well, hell, everyone does. But not everyone knows what it means to me. I hate my name. I hate it. But, lately, I thought, maybe it's not so bad of a name. Maybe if I can become someone like you, Alisha. You see, my name, means "princess child". Hime is princess, ko is child. Back home, I was always scared that it would show that I was weak. Dependent. That I needed someone, a white knight. You changed that idea.

... Anyway, I'm talking too much and you probably can't say much, even though I brought my oujia board. I even have candy for a short message too, I guess. But. I brought you this. For your kindness.

[ It's an origami flower. Along with it is a torn paper from her notebook; a drawing. It's a drawing of Alisha -- with Faize, both happy. The drawing's actually pretty well done, too. ]

We'll bring you back, alright? I promise. Okay, I'm done talking, soooo. [ Just going to put down the board along with a piece of candy, like. Here you go. If you want to say something. If you even do. ]

►►► wildcard

[ Inaba is going to be hanging around all areas this week, although she will spend a good portion of her time in the hotel lobby trying to make sure that Taichi is safe. He doesn't deserve any of this shit, after all. :(

If you need a private conversation, feel free to hit me up at endlesseight! ]

Monday - Afternoon

[sobowtor]

[Poland was eating lunch in the kitchen. But.

She knows that voice? She absolutely knows that voice? Did they swap Prussia out with someone from home after her reaction or something?

She wanders out into the lobby, her mouth full of sandwich.]

OOMMMHGGMM!! MIKU HMMSUMM!

[POLAND ACTUALLY KNOWS THIS ONE HIMEKO!!]

[symbologic]

[JUST FOR THE RECORD: Faize is wearing Alisha's flower hair tie around his left wrist for all of the foreseeable future. The only way that's coming off is if his whole hand goes along with it.]

any day; 1-4pm; joint Hinata option
[It's take your bagel to training week, apparently. Though really it's more like your bagel follows you to training because your bagel wants to be sure you're okay...week. In any event, if you happen to look behind the chapel at the times Faize is usually there, you'll find Hinata as well, if you want to talk to either or both of them.]

[From Monday to Wednesday, you can either find a) Faize attempting to teach Hinata sword forms...with a stick instead of an actual sword because Hinata cannot be trusted with something sharp and pointy just yet. Especially when he seems to be having some struggles with proper posture, Hinata keep your arm up for the last time, goddammit. Or you can find them b) running all across town. They might just be doing a friendly side-by-side jog or they might be racing. Whichever the case hopefully they don't get in your way or vice versa. Somebody cheer for poor Hinata if they're racing because Faize will likely soundly kick his ass every time.]

[But on Thursday, towards the end of the session, the two can be found putting practice to use with a stick-sword fight. Again, because Hinata's not ready for an actual sword yet and Faize only has one anyway. Which he's not about to use on Hinata and chance a tragic accidental skewering. But that doesn't mean he probably isn't going to leave a few bruises on the poor bagel. Because despite holding back and despite Hinata Trying His Best, the skill gap is blatantly obvious. At least until Hinata, apparently 100% Done With This, tosses his "sword" aside and just...full-on charges Faize and tackles him to the ground. See you later, space elf...]

Wednesday; 5pm; near the boathouse/lake
[Perhaps the biggest downside to repressing your emotions is that you still feel them, even if you don't let your face show it. And when you're feeling and repressing a lot of things at once, sometimes you just can't hold it all in. So, sometimes, apparently you just gotta hack some poor innocent trees to pieces with your sword because you've been trying to keep your anger contained for almost a week.]

[But anyone who's actually seen Faize use his sword before will know that this isn't normal. He's usually all grace and form, almost elegant in a way. This is just...erratic hacking and slashing and raw, angry shouting. It's questionable if he's even aware of his actions and surroundings right now. His eyes are doing that weird pink-red glowing thing again but do you really want to get close enough to be able to see that?]

Tuesday-Thursday; various
[Save for the motive announcement and aforementioned training session with Hinata, Faize will be pretty scarce on Monday. But the rest of the week he'll alternate between stretches of seclusion and bouts of trying to be a normal, functioning person. When he's not in his room, you can find him wandering around just about anywhere, looking for save for some kind of distraction; doing laundry, making coffee, futzing with his Sol control unit at the kitchen table, going for a walk, dismantling and reassembling record players...whatever he can find to act as some kind of distraction, choose your own adventure here. The only place you absolutely will not find him is the school house, which he actually seems to be avoiding for the first time since it was revealed.]

[In the evenings, he can be found sitting near the bonfire and staring intently into the flames. Save for Thursday evening, when he instead can be found sitting in the makeshift graveyard. You don't get any prizes for guessing which marker he's sitting in front of.]

wednesday;

[brawlhalla]

[ She's getting ready to head back to the hotel, but Astrid sees someone hacking trees to death and...well, that's a thing she does literally all the time. She's never thought Faize the type to do it, though.

She raises her eyebrows and approaches, arms crossed. ]

Want to have a round or two?

[ She's surely better for frustrations than those trees. ]

[fourleafcleaver]

Wednesday morning, clothing store
[Operation "distract self too much to be sad enough to shut down or do a violence" is a go! God, is Clover trying. She was doing so well before all this nonsense and she is trying so goddamn hard.

Apparently she's gunning for this week's death to be hers via hypothermia, though, because she's standing around in a tank top and skirt, hair done up in a high ponytail with one of Lucy's ribbons. No, Clover, tall boots don't make up for not wearing anything even vaguely resembling pants; warmth and fashion can coexist if you really try, please Clover.

The good news: she's brought over a clothing rack with a few hung-up cardigans and jackets on it and she's trying them each on, spinning and posing in front of the mirror she's found, putting them back, trying one she's already tried on like four times again—rinse and repeat.

Someone else might be embarrassed about all this twirling but nah, not Clover, so if anyone walks in she just pauses, poses in their direction instead of the mirror's, and asks:] How's this? [This cardigan's red to match her skirt, but there are like eight of them in various shades of pink and more besides that next to her.]


Thursday late afternoon, kitchen
[Cooking's one of the few things that Clover's really good at, that she actually enjoys here, and eating is a tragically necessary thing anyway so it isn't really too terribly surprising that, despite what week five turned out to be, she's still been as active in the kitchen as ever—but no baking. No sweets, treats, or pastries since. That was supposed to be their thing, every Monday and Thursday; they'd decided that Wednesday, and they would start next week, but...

Mondays and Thursdays. She's missed a few weeks, but maybe Lucy would like this.

There's a pie baking in the oven right now while Clover sits in a chair nearby, face propped in her hands as she swings her legs anxiously underneath her. She never got the full recipe. It probably won't turn out that good. Anyone even just passing by should notice that it sure smells good, though—blueberry, her brother's favorite.

No belting out Nicki Minaj verses and dancing up and down the kitchen this time, but she's lightly humming something's chorus; how dare we sit quietly and watch the world pass us by. Maybe another day she'll be up for twirling and screaming. For now, maybe she'll share some of that pie if you ask nicely.]


Thursday night, lobby
[Well, that made for a nice distraction for all of, like, an hour and a half, but now she's just even sadder. Before Undyne inevitably shows up to carry her back into underhell for the evening, Clover's found a place on the lobby to sit: more specifically, on the floor, where she's got a great view of the television. She's fidgeting anxiously with her jacket sleeves and watching the monitor with wide, too-focused eyes. Sometimes she shifts to hold her head in her hands and scrunch up her face like she's really, really concentrating—and then no, she's just sad again.

This is how people get murdered, Clover, go to bed.]


Wildcard
[As always, give me a shout at nidorina to do whatever else!! Clover's probably going to spend a disproportionate amount of time this week hanging out at the lobby monitor in between a) locking herself in her room and/or b) doing bullshit nonsense to keep herself busy.]

thursday night

[thebonezone]

[after a lot of waffling, sans has decided to plop down next to her. look. undyne will inevitably come get her later, and probably cheer her up, but until then he can always just make sure she's not murdered in the middle of the night. ... papyrus likes her, and that's good enough reason, shh.]

and i thought the channels in the underground were bad.

[...he's gonna make sure she's not getting murdered by getting himself murdered, apparently.]

[crazily]

monday - shortly after the motive

[ So even though Break is getting bullied by ghosts, he does actually have something to share here. So while everyone is still relatively together, he'll at least pass along what he's learned and explain to the rest of the group. ]

I managed to talk to Gilbert last night, somewhat.

[ A big "somewhat," since without sight, Break definitely had to improvise an especially creative way to be able to have a conversation, but. He'll also explain that. ]

It was difficult to actually ask much, since I couldn't use sight for letters as it was mentioned at that gathering a few weeks ago, so I don't have much. I was limited to "yes" or "no" questions. But it seems the dead are in this town in some capacity, as mentioned, since I wanted to confirm it a bit more directly. Other than that—

[ He sighs, since he hadn't actually gotten to ask as much as he'd like, and even what he asked was largely based in what the two of them personally know. ]

This place itself seemed to be the most important. It's a bit difficult for me to explain, since I asked him in the context of something we're both familiar with. This is... a very condensed explanation, but where we're from, there's a place known as the Abyss, and it's very important to the balance of our world. It's dangerous and powerful, and a century ago, that balance was disrupted by someone breaking an aspect of what holds the Abyss together. This caused a catastrophe where our world may have been destroyed completely, but luckily it was halted. Still, the city where the aspect was broken up, Sablier, was swallowed completely by the Abyss. Gilbert said it was similar to both Sablier and the Abyss we know, but I don't know the extent of that similarity. But I wanted to at least share this much. I can explain more about Sabler, the Abyss, and Chains, since he said they were all similar to this town and what may be happening here, but he pointed out that Sablier and the Abyss were the most important of those three.

tuesday - early evening

[ Once the bonfire is lit for the night, Break heads out there with something in hand. If you were at the music store during the previous investigation, you'll probably recognize it as the coat that Break had been wearing at the time and had eventually wrapped Gilbert's head up in to move it. Though if you hadn't, this is probably much more worrying, since Break is carrying around a very bloody coat, even if the blood is all dry and he has the coat balled up.

If you'd like a comical (?) misunderstanding where it seems like Break might have been too hyped for murder, this is absolutely fair! But otherwise, if you have an idea of what this coat is, you'll see Break just stop at the side of the fire and sigh before he tosses it into the flames. There's really no salvaging it, and he doesn't want to let a bloody coat sit around...

He stands at the fireside with his arms crossed like he's watching to make sure it burns, but of course it's not quite that. His eyes are closed, after all, and he's just standing there silently in the snow. If someone approaches, he'll at least speak to them, though he won't open his eyes. ]

Is it almost done burning?

[ Though if you just walked up, you might not know what he's referring to here. ]

wednesday - morning

[ If you're in the kitchen in the morning, you'll see Break sipping at a cup of tea rather peacefully, and in itself, this probably isn't anything that extraordinary. He doesn't seem inclined to speak right away, at least. But then again, you might not be that focused on Break anyways.

After all, there is definitely a sugarcube floating through the air his way.

He won't actually notice it unless it's pointed out, but if you wait to see what happens, eventually Break sets down his cup. A few moments later, that sugarcube is dropped into it with a satisfying plop, and he flinches rather sharply because of how it startles him. But after that, Break is quick to get more animated, since he waves rather vigorously in the thin air next to him. ]

Gilbert, stop. You weren't even this bad when you were alive, so save your energy and stop looking after me!

[ gilbert's mother henning has only increased... ghostbert is a mighty force of babysitting ]

Wednesday morning

[herbgrace]

[Lithuania had been peacefully making breakfast, not really paying attention to Break, until she saw a sugar cube floating through the air. She ends up just gaping at it the entire time, until Break starts flailing at the air and shouting about it. Oh.]

Goodness, for a moment I thought something alarming was happening. [Does this not qualify as alarming, anymore...] Good morning, then, Gilbert.

[minogame]

Monday morning, Kitchen (before the motives)

( Early Monday morning, Urashima can be found first poking around the lobby before he finds his way into the kitchen. )

Kamekichi, where’d you go? ( He’ll look under the table and on the counters (because clearly, a turtle can end on a countertop on her own). ) Are you here…?

( When he doesn’t find Kamekichi, he sort of just lingers in the kitchen for a little while. He isn't really looking for Kamekichi at that exact moment anymore because Kamekichi isn't the only one he didn't find in here today. )

Monday afternoon, hotel (various)

( Yeah, so he still hasn’t found Kamekichi? Where can a turtle possibly go to on her own? Clearly on top of some display shelf in the lobby or in the laundry machine because these are totally reasonable places.

Really, he’ll be found looking everywhere in the hotel except the pool. )

Monday evening, graves

( After he finds Kamekichi, he’ll head over to the makeshift graves. It isn’t much but he’s left a cup of coffee and a paper lily in front of the two newest ones. It isn’t much— or at least, it doesn’t feel like it— which is why he tried to wait until no one else would be out. Yeah, don’t mind him just sort of wiping at his face with his sleeves and trying to compose himself before heading back in. Gee, get it together, turtle boy. )

Wildcard

Urashima’s had a pretty miserable last few days, to be honest, and the motive this week is going to hit him really hard so he’s going to be considerably more antisocial than he normally would be. If you want a reason to run into him, you can find Kamekichi and try to return her.

tuesday evening

[fourleafcleaver]

[Clover's on a mission. A sword-hunt. She is super determined to see this through, it's very important she find Urashima very quickly because his turtle has snapped her way onto of one of Clover's pigtails and she can't get rid of her.]

Urashimaaaaa. [just...the most defeated little wail......as she trudges up and down the hotel, her head and most of the rest of her just kind of tilted to the side Kamekichi's hanging from. urashima where are you please collect your turtle]