WEEK 4 MINGLE

[foundationmods]

WEEK 4

The weekend that just passed was....frankly, a lot. Yet despite all odds, you somehow pulled out a win from the jaws of utter defeat. As you wake up feeling tired but happy, the speakers crackle to life with the voice of The Lady.

"Attention, Guests. This week, The game is temporarily suspended. This week, there will be no mafia kill. Take a break for your hard work."

And...indeed, it seems like this is a peace week. The Staff, after the disappearance of The Captain, are acting worse than they did last week - not only is there the blankness and the stuttering, but sometimes they even get orders wrong, with potentially hazardous results. Asking the Staff for things has become more dangerous and unreliable, but at least you meals are still good. Speaking of, The Chef has put a sign up on the door, reading "DO NOT TAKE KNIVES WITHOUT ASKING FIRST!! THAT MEANS YOU!!" written in big, angry letters. The resort also seems to be gearing up for Christmas - there are lights and trees scattered around the place, as well as mistletoe for couples to get their public displays of affection on. There's also some other holiday decorations around, for Kwanzaa and....something else you definitely have never seen before. The thing....wriggles, and you don't want to be around it for long.

The weather is still nothing, except for the courtyard, which is still pleasantly snowy. There is still music playing in the halls, and the cover songs continue with some low-key music for the week.

On Monday morning, another memory is returned to everyone. Are you getting closer to the truth of this place, maybe? It's hard to say.


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Comments

[latebluemer]

Well, we've definitely got the hordes of footmen and the Queen Lady and the trying to chop off our heads part down?

[Dryer than the Sahara and Gobi deserts put together.]

Speaking of the Resort, though, there was something else I was thinking of after we talked to the Outsider last night. You wanted us to find out who started this game of mafia, right? Does it have anything to do with that god the Barghest kept talking about? Other than us, and the guests and monsters, the Resort's hivemind and the immune system, and the Outsider... what else is there?

[justfists]

... The barghest was the god. Or goddess.

[she's tired.]

[latebluemer]

Right. Amaterasu. It was pretty incoherent while Flat-san was hosting it, so I wasn't sure what it was talking about, still.

[It's both disappointing and helpful to have it clarified, though now they're back at square one in terms of what they're trying to do.]

[justfists]

[she just nods. and is gonna go quiet again. let flat do the talking.]

[latebluemer]

Thank you, Niijima-san.

[She seems about as ragged as Ripley did, so she does appreciate the effort.]

[resortghosts]

It's all so strangely fitting, isn't it? We even have our own mysterious cheshire cat to leave us irritating letters.

Well, Miss Nijiima answered that quite succinctly. I believe those are all the pieces of the puzzle.

- SG

[latebluemer]

Is that the Outsider? I don't think he's cute enough to be a cat, even one with a creepy grin.

[Of course she has no idea what the guy looks like, so for all she knows he's a trashtalking, Spanish-speaking, really annoying cat. Which actually sounds pretty standard for cats in fiction, come to think of it.]

So you don't think any more weird things are going to come crawling out of the woodwork?

[She seems to still be referencing the Outsider here.]

[resortghosts]

No, he's more like... mmm, well, there's not really an adequate antagonistic male character. No, 34 is our mysterious feline.

Everything thus far has been a surprise. Who the hell knows what will happen now...

- SG

[latebluemer]

So he's not supposed to be in the story at all. That's a little more fitting. Actually, I don't know what to think about No. 34. I think what they said in their letter makes sense with what we've learned about the monsters so far...

[If indeed the monsters are telling the truth and the rest of the Resort's guests aren't in cahoots somehow, which is still up in the air. But at some point you have to start somewhere.]

[resortghosts]

They're another wildcard that I'm not sure about. Their information turned out to be correct, but... ugh.

- SG

[latebluemer]

I think we're going to need to work on a lot of different fronts now if we want to make sure fewer people die. We need to see what the other guests know, understand the monsters, figure out what to do about the Outsider, understand the Resort's vents and inner systems...

[She wrinkles her nose briefly. Does that list keep getting longer, or is it just her?]

We're hitting the limits of your knowledge, aren't we, Granz-san?

[resortghosts]

As long as the game is on, we'll have a minimum of two deaths a week. The mafia must kill at least one, and we must execute at least one. At that rate, we can keep going for 11 more weeks before we run out of living personnel. But that's only if we keep it to the minimum. I think we can keep our game-related deaths there, but... there are plenty of other ways to die around here.

My dear, we reached the limits of my knowledge weeks ago.

- SG

[latebluemer]

[She's just going to laugh at her tablet because yeah, nobody here really knows what they're doing, huh.]

The exorcism last week counted as a death, didn't it? And it wasn't technically using one of the execution methods picked for us at all.

[In fact, they basically combo'd at least three different methods, which raises interesting possibilities going forward even if they're almost definitely going to have to experiment again to know what to do. She's still not sure what the best solution is, even if she's pragmatic enough (or just salty enough) to consider every angle.]

I don't trust the Outsider's methods, but I don't know if keeping the monsters around is the solution either. We'd just... be in a standoff to sacrifice more people.

[resortghosts]

[everyone is flying by the seats of their pants and it makes Mr. Plan A-Z here very very antsy -- but he's very good at hiding it]

I suppose it must have. But I don't think exorcising all the monsters it the best idea. The Doppelganger, for example, has a very useful ability. Let's not be so hasty in killing them -- after all, we all get a second chance, but the monstrous Guests do not.

[latebluemer]

[When you've been a skilled duelist for long enough, you learn a few things. One of them is that your opponent always, always has a damn trick up their sleeve and your best-made plans will probably blow up in your face at least twice. You gotta wing it, bro.

She's quiet for a long moment. Yeah, that's something else she hasn't thought of yet.]

That's probably a good thing in the Barghest's case. But...

[Yeah, she's still stalling on the Doppelling and she has no idea what to do with the spider.]

Are we sure that you guys are going to get a second chance? Didn't Kurosaki-san say he had to go through Kurotsuchi to get that?

[resortghosts]

[he doesn't like winging it he likes CONTROL!!!

but he's getting better at it....]

Mmmm, not necessarily. I am familiar with gigai technology, too. In fact, we are always in a bit of a competition in regards to tech from our own world -- he tries to do me one better on Arrancar tech, I try to improve on Shinigami tech... it has actually led to quite a few breakthroughs.

I'm not saying you should throw your life away, but I am saying you should be cautious when considering throwing away theirs.

[latebluemer]

[Is he really though.]

So he's a shinigami, like Kurosaki-san... How does a shinigami rivalry with a ghost work, anyway?

[It's kind of idle curiosity, but it's strange to think of anyone being Szayel's boss in the first place, so adding shinigami and stuff to the mix just makes it even more confusing.]

The gigai thing is good to know, though. I don't think most of us actually want to become ghosts, either way. But... what's different about the monsters? Why do they only have one chance?

[resortghosts]

[this is ten times better than like a year ago]

Shinigami are ghosts, too, you know. Just a different sort than Hollows.

Well, I haven't seen an extra ghostly barghest running around. I would assume it is because they are native to this world.

[latebluemer]

[She doesn't exactly have memories from that time, okay!!]

Well, I wouldn't exactly know. I've never met either before.

[She comes from an ordinary world where AI are sentient and data pops out of computers somehow. Nothing supernatural there.]

... Even if they're native to this world, why does that mean our ghosts are here and theirs aren't? The Barghest I can understand, it seems to be some kind of spirit anyway. But... the Jorogumo is a physical spider, right?

[And Doppelling is as always a mystery.]