thefoundation | WEEK 5 MINGLE

WEEK 5

They said it was a break week, but two of your number were lost anyway last week. While you're all tired and still recovering, the speakers crackle to life with the voice of The Lady.

"Attention, Guests. The game is back on. Break week is now over. Happy Holidays."

The Staff are still like they were last week - only this time, the orders almost always go wrong, if they even manage to go through - the Staff are vanishing constantly. Meals are also getting affected - they're still perfectly edible, but they're not as delicious as they once were, with seasoning and other things occasionally being off. The Sign warning people to not take knives is still on the kitchen door, but The Chef seems incredibly tired, often resting on a chair in the corner.

The Resort is still furnished with Holiday items - but after Medic's christmas protest, there are more items related to other holidays up, and it's much more balanced - objects and colors of multiple holidays side by side in harmony, with the mistletoe still up for any needed smooching. There are, however, more wriggling...things, and there's even an entire 'tree' made of eldritch tentacles with glowing balls of light on them that wink in an oddly hypnotic fashion.

The weather is still nothing, but the courtyard seems to have switched to a much warmer clime, which while still a little cool is pleasant enough to sit outside in. Finally, the music this week seems... almost ominous...?

On Monday morning, another memory is returned to everyone, one more traumatic this time instead of gentle like the others have been. Yet, you feel as if you know a little more about your time in this world, now. Not everything, but...enough.

Enough to see this game through to the end, at least.

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"Broken" describes it well.

[ No other way to see it, really. It's too paradoxical at this point. Given this is a time-space hopping resort though, "paradoxical" almost makes sense. ]

... Getting closer. Hm. [ A thoughtful glance to his hand before he responds to Aoi's question about the staff. ] A ghost mentioned the staff member to me, though I'm uncertain which one. I believe they said it was the girl from the first trial.

[She curiously follows his gaze to his hand, but doesn't comment. He probably has his own personal interpretation of the whole affair.]

I guess I'll have to ask the ghost about it. But now that you mention it... there was that lady with the short hair. Not the Lady that we keep seeing, but someone else. She was the one who redid the votes the first trial, and she also stopped the fight with the Barghest during the second trial, didn't she?

[It took a little bit of thinking back over things, but other than the Lady and the Captain, that's the staff member that stood out so far.]

Edited 2018-12-25 04:20 (UTC)

[ She's not wrong, but she won't have to wait forever to figure out what he was thinking. He'll circle back to it eventually. ]

She did, but I don't think we knew at the time that the staff were part of a hivemind. If we had, I doubt her strange, independent behavior would have passed our notice. [ Hm. ] And I assume the other guests haven't mentioned her? It may be worth asking them as well.

Yeah, the staff were definitely kind of... hivemindy since we got here, looking back, but it wasn't something we were looking at too closely. There was just too much else going on. And it's even worse in trials.

[Those first trials were pretty brutal, and it's only gotten crazier since. She's determined to dig up this irregularity now, though.]

We didn't think to ask the other guests, since the staff was always just... sort of there. But it might be a good idea. We were going to look for ones other than the cookie monster. Plus, the rats might know more, too.

[Interrupting ping here!]

Oh, if you're talking about that Staff member, the person that brought them up doesn't really know that much about them.

But I can share what the person told me and you can confirm it with them, if you'd like. It's not much, though.

Edited 2018-12-25 07:23 (UTC)

[Hello, sudden ghostjack!]

We should probably put together what we have and see where we can find the rest. That'll be faster and easier than everyone running around on their own.

Probably should make a document with all our information consolidated, huh.

Anyway, I can give you my thoughts that aren't as personal - the rest should honestly be his to share, to be honest? We don't know if this person is part of the resort - I think the working theory was that they could have been some sort of parasite or part of the illness or maybe they managed to sneak in as a Staff member once the Resort got sick to blend in?

Also they're kind of an asshole? If you guys can manage it at some point, please punch her in the face for me.

Edited 2018-12-25 08:05 (UTC)

I think a lot of us have information written down in our personal notebooks, or journals, or whatever. We'll have to put it together eventually, to get anywhere.

[Unspoken: Hopefully while the writers are still alive. She's just... tired of post-mortem notes at this point.]

I can confirm it with your source afterward, yeah. But do you think -- if she came from outside the Resort, and had something to do with the change, do you think she had something to do with starting this game of mafia? If so, I really would like to give her a piece of my mind.

[To say the least.]

Please do, but try not to force too much out of him? She did some things that were... not great, to be honest when I asked him about it, and I don't really want him to freak out remembering it all on top of whatever he remembered today.

I think it's possible that she might be somewhat involved with why the game started to begin with, but it's also possible that she's an observer that gets entertained by making the situation worse.

That's just my two cents on it, though.

I'll be careful, but... who should I be asking? I don't think you gave me a name yet.

[She can take a wild guess, but given that probably literally everyone got hit by not-great-things this weekend and today she does need more information.]

I guess we should consider all the possibilities, though. It's not exactly a... locked room murder mystery when the Resort is still taking in guests. But there's still only so many people it can be, I think.

[Unless they're some kind of other-planar entity they've never seen before, but you gotta start somewhere.]

Oh, right: it's Atsushi.

And yeah. The fact that the Resort is still moving is definitely a concern.

... Okay. You did say that the Lady was responsible for releasing his tiger form this last week, right? Does this mean the... other staff member has something to do with all of that, too?

[It really sounds like it, given that Inaba (she is pretty sure it is Inaba, now that they're on the subject of tigers) seems to be pretty pissed with whoever it is.]

And I know that they said it was due to snow, but I wonder if the time limit they gave us to start with was just, the amount of time the Resort would be moving.

Edited 2018-12-25 23:30 (UTC)

Yes, actually.

But maybe? Who knows.

Unfortunately, the mafia made for an easy distraction. By focusing on them, we may have lost sight of the questions we should have been asking. And the things we should have noticed. It wouldn't hurt to try recalling details of the first few weeks now that the mafia has been revealed.

[ That's certainly easier said than done. So much has happened that too many details have slipped their notice. ]

Hm. If I find any other guests I'll be sure to question them. ... The rats as well, though I don't have any means of communicating with them. Minerva is one thing, rats are another.

That's true... Now that we're not so focused on finding the mafia or figuring out the details of the game -- I guess we can get to the important part. It makes me wonder who 34 is and why they understood so much of this, you know? The one who wrote the letter.

[If ordinary guests aren't noticing anything too unusual in the Resort or the death game, then she's really starting to wonder what 34 has to do with the whole thing. Hm.]

And, well, we were thinking of trying Morse code. Or other methods that don't need talking. Maybe if we really need to, we could see if the rats are willing to write anything down?

WEEK 5 MINGLE

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