ROUND 3 INTRO LOG

[foundationmods]

Welcome to The Island. The Witch extends her greetings to you on this fine day, and is pleased to finally begin the game. Please, take a seat.

Though this game may be more difficult than originally expected, there are high hopes placed upon you. Fight well against what awaits you in order to reach a truly sparkling end.

The difficulty level is challenging, but also depends on you. Think deeply on your moves as you play.

You wake with a start - even if you don't remember falling asleep in the first place - and find yourself standing on the dock of what looks like an island. There's a noise behind you - and if you turn to look, you'll see a plain white boat taking off and leaving you all behind, not stopping for a second if you try to flag them down or scream at them.

It doesn't look like you can swim to shore, either - there's nothing but sea in all directions, and something tells you trying to swim out will end up badly. However, a small dip, if you were so inclined, would be fine. It's not like the weather is bad for it - it feels like it's summer, despite it having been firmly springish at the Foundation.

...Speaking of, what happened? The last thing you remember is being...wherever you were, and then seeing a yellow bird come towards you. Perhaps it was in the corner of your eye, or landed on your shoulder...regardless, all of you saw the bird before you were whisked away to this strange island.

Is it a new SCP? Something like this isn't outside the realm of their abilities, after all.

And there's something else. Your abilities are blocked, beyond those natural to your body. Try as you might, you just can't use any of your more supernatural or superhuman skills - though all of your physical abilities are intact, of course.

There is also a...letter? on your person, as if it was there all along - in your pocket or in your hand. It is...a remarkably plain envelope, and even the letter itself is plain parchment.

It reads:

'To the players in this game,

First and foremost, let me begin with an apology: for many of you, this is not a good time to bring you here, and forcing you to play in this game instead of asking nicely is quite rude of me. For that, you have my apologies.

However, as you will soon find out, this game is quite necessary. I hand-picked all of you because I felt you were the best for this task, strange circumstances notwithstanding, and I am sure you will excel beyond even my expectations. Please give me some consideration and play this game to your best efforts. Success will be greatly rewarded.

I will be watching, and I will intervene if needed. But I think all of you are up to this task. I am in your debt for this.

- The Witch of ██████████'

...hm.

If you decide to head up the path, you'll find Goat....men? waiting for you near the doors to the mansion. Despite their bright red eyes, they merely bow politely and wordlessly bring you into the mansion, showing you your rooms and then stating that they will prepare food for you or anything else you should need whenever you want, in surprisingly deep voices.

As they leave, you can't help but wonder...

Where are you now?

Round Calendar!
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Comments

[anonnomnomnom]

Ehh, you've met demons before? That's actually almost surprising!

[He's definitely perked up the more the conversation went on and Natsuno continued being an oddity.]

Are you sure you're a human-type SCP?

[sotoshini]

Close enough. [ Shiki, oniyaki, in that general vague sense of occult he's pretty open minded. ]

I'm not human.

[anonnomnomnom]

Close enough is close enough.

[He gives a sage nod, because that's basically what he is!

Close enough! Natsuno gets a frankly intrigued look now.]

Ah, if you're not human then what are you? You're pretty good at disguising yourself.

[Or they just met, but he's here to cheer you on or something.]

[sotoshini]

[ He considers for a moment, but ultimately decides he's not really trying to hide what he is. No, his stubbornness only extends in so far as he doesn't want other people to help him, befriend him, or any of that nice and warm stuff.

And well, if he's dealing with another non-human then he can be a bit more open, probably. ]

I don't think you would have heard of it. A jinrou.

[anonnomnomnom]

You're right, that's definitely not something I've heard of before.

[He's going to turn in a big circle around Natsuno and start examining him from every angle. Luckily for him, he's escaping nice and warm stuff despite Anon's general friendliness, but that just means that he gets treated like the latest zoo animal.

But it's okay, they're all zoo animals at this point, being herded by goat zookeepers...?]

So... where do you come from? What do you do?

[sotoshini]

[ Craning his neck as Anon walks around, but he doesn't look too bothered. Disappointingly(?) Natsuno looks pretty much like your average human, save for the way the sunlight bounces off of his eyes. His pupils look normal, but they're definitely more reflective than a human's eyes should be. ]

Japan. Why's the rest matter to you?

[anonnomnomnom]

[JIIIIIIIIIIIiiiii as he stares deeply into his eyes.]

Japan really is a strange country. Our tournament was actually held there, but that's probably 'cause God was biased.

And why wouldn't it matter to me? Of course I want to learn more about jinrou. The universe is way bigger and cooler than I thought!

[sotoshini]

Your curiosity doesn't mean I have to share. [ But for what it's worth, his eyes just totally went red. There, sharing! Even if he seems impassive as ever. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

We're both sharing!

[Now it might be veering a little close to the warm and fuzzy but like--

Oh, hey, eye color change! What the heck happened there. Anon perks up immediately.]

Ah. We match.

[sotoshini]

Yeah, now I've "shared". [ Despite his statement to the contrary, this was apparently intentional. That's enough, right? ]

[anonnomnomnom]

So you can actually change that even though there's a seal on... that's pretty great! Usually, I'd be able to change a lot more things, too, but that'll have to be for later.

[So apparently he's accepting this for now??

Don't think you'll escape his nosy mcnosiness forever, though. For now--]

But you should also share your name. I'm Anon, by the way. It's good to meet you!

[sotoshini]

[ Success! Hm, a seal makes sense even if it doesn't seem to be effecting him (he thinks). ]

I'm used to being the exception. Yuuki-Koide. Use whichever one, just not both.

[anonnomnomnom]

Have you tried seeing what else you can do? I've tried a whole bunch of things, but it really feels like they sealed me all the way back to human...

[He definitely seems inconvenienced by this, but luckily Natsuno is right there being a handy distraction from the woes of being stuck in Witch purgatory.]

Koide... I think Koide will work! Do you just pick one because it's so long?

[sotoshini]

[ Shaking his head, he doesn't want to talk about the rest of his powers and he kinda can't anyway. Short of having someone stab him or drinking blood, he won't be able to tell like this. Neither of those options are attractive, too. ]

No, they're both my last name. My parents never married, so I have to use both but I don't really like either.

[anonnomnomnom]

[It's fine, there's time for that later! Though it's debatable whether he'll ever want to let Anon know about the stabbing part. Drinking blood is fine, we're all SCPs here.]

Why don't you use a different name, then? Like your first name, or something you pick yourself, or something.

[Apparently it's just that simple to him??]

[sotoshini]

[ Maybe one time he can see Natsuno get hit by a truck and walk off like it's nothing. Surely in one universe this will happen. ]

My first name's even worse. [ ....he could pick another name but just not going to address that for reasons. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

[Ironically a truck accident is totally a thing in his canon. Comrade!! Sturdy comrade!! On the other hand does Natsuno really want Anon following him around and asking for hand-to-hand combat for the rest of time because that might happen too.]

Sounds tough!

[He himself only has the one name so he probably can't really talk, but whatever.]

Infernals of the Protectorate get to choose a name. It's pretty important for what we do.

[sotoshini]

[ Probably not, but making relationships like this seems to happen to him pretty frequently. Some day maybe he'll get used to it. ]

It's "romantic". [ He definitely misunderstood there, but he's had to deal with a lifetime of others telling him how dreamy his name sounds, the opposite of tough that's for sure. ]

Protectorate...you protect something?

[anonnomnomnom]

[I mean, this is what happens when you're a broody protag vampire?? People want to beat you up all the time for various reasons. This is the Protag Rule.]

Eh? It's romantic to hate your name...?

[Now they're both confused and it's a mess. Anon puzzles over that for a few more moments and then nods to the next question.]

Well, we're supposed to protect these funny beasts from the Celestial World, but that was a long time ago. Like, a really, really, really long time ago. Nowadays there's not much for us to do...

[sotoshini]

[ He didn't sign up for this protag unlife. ]

...nevermind. [ Moving on, maybe one day they'll clear this up. ]

Sounds boring.

[anonnomnomnom]

[Some achieve protaghood, some have protaghood thrust upon them, and some come to laugh at every variety of protag.]

Hmm.

[He lets that pass because yeah, confusing!! That, and apparently he needs to consider the next answer a little bit.]

It gets to be kind of a drag. Not as much as the Foundation... but it's still mostly old people talking about boring old traditional things. I think I almost like this better.

[sotoshini]

The Foundation isn't tough competition. 

[anonnomnomnom]

It really isn't, is it? They play it up like they're doing you some kind of favor, but on top of being boring they don't even have any creative threats yet, and on top of that they really think they can control half the SCPs they have around.

It's actually pretty funny to watch!

[But like, from the outside!]

[sotoshini]

Yeah. Reminds me of another leader I knew. 

[anonnomnomnom]

They're probably not a very good leader, then.

[Always up for dragging people he barely knows--]