WEEK 5 MINGLE

[foundationmods]

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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Comments

an early morning message!

[resortghosts]

[Today, on your tablets around breakfast time, everyone is getting a ping on their tablets:]

Morning, everyone. I know it's probably a little early and some of you guys are tired from box puzzle hell but I did promise that I was going to share a few details about what happened yesterday, so please expect some tl;dr! Also if anybody wants a handwritten copy of the stuff in here just in case, feel free to visit 121, I'll be in there pretty much all day.

Anyway, as some of you might have surmised based on public conversations yesterday, we actually ran into the oil creature yesterday, who holding a bunch of papers. One of them dropped from the stack, which I picked up and it read this:

"If you want to get to The Outsider, you'd better get inside this thing's room.

-34"

Which is why we decided to head up to the room - it's room 202, for the record - and we found some notes. You probably already saw the one regarding the storage, so I'll talk about the other one. There were documents from The Resort itself, most of them being storage inventory, apparently? The numbers fluctuated around six months ago. A lot of information that we already knew, but there's your confirmation.

And then there were more notes, probably from the Lady, I assume, and it read this:

"Things are getting worse. It's getting harder to get the correct items from our surroundings, and pain is beginning to be easily felt by all of The Staff. The Captain isn't here anymore - I hope he's not gone for good, but...it may be that we simply can't expend the energy for him anymore.

The Staff was already off, but now....how much longer can we keep this up? We've received some help from The Guests, but...

Ah...it's so hard to think anymore. I just want to sleep...but I can't...I'm not made for sleep...And we have to keep going. I know [INCOMPREHENSIBLE RUNES] is worried about us, and -

can't someone help us? please?

Get him out of our head -"

And that's pretty much it! Also, heads up as a warning: Don't steal the oil creature's shit, it's like a huge monster oil cat and will probably kill you if you don't return what's stolen. That especially goes for the Phantom Thieves in this Resort.

Source: me, because I almost died a second time yesterday.

Anyway, chat's open for discussion, questions, anything else you guys want to bring up, etcetra.

[13thpromise]

thanks for helping us out even if it got dangerous
try to keep yourselves out of danger as much as you can okay

but...those notes mustve been really recent
what do you think she meant by received help from the guests

[resortghosts]

I'm already thinking about learning more about sword fighting if this sort of shit happens again. Neither myself or Nanase are combat-oriented, so it could have gotten real bad even if we honestly didn't expect it. . .

I'll try to keep myself out of trouble, but I also need to try to keep the others out, which means that trouble might follow me regardless. I'd like to hope that I won't have to do something like that ever again, but I have very low hopes.

And yeah, they do look pretty recent. Not sure why they ended up in that room in particular (probably the creature found it interesting and took it back with them?) but I guess that part's not really important.

It's possible that it could be referring to us?

[There's an actual, lengthy pause before more text fills the screen:]





Or it could be referring to the three monsters - the Jorogumo, the Barghest and the Doppelganger, since I believe they're considered as Guests as well? It might be worth looking into and possibly asking the others outside our group about it. I think the latter is more likely here, though, but that's my thoughts on it.

[13thpromise]

pick up some sword fighting then or basic moves either one can definitely help in a pinch
i guess that make sense though if they were referring to those three...and maybe us too because they forced us to participate in this game so they have our "help" whether we wanted to give it or not

[ Yeah he's salty about that, fight him ]

but it also looks like because theyve been getting so sick they cant form the captain together and all that
which explains why the lady said those things last trial

[justfists]

What has Akira told you we steal...?

Anyway, thank you for this.

[resortghosts]

He hasn't told me anything, but can you honestly blame me considering that he literally lockpicked the puzzle yesterday?

[ . . . LIKE, SERIOUSLY. . . ]

[justfists]

Sometimes the treasure chests are locked, and he's always had the best hands for that. But we steal hearts-- not treasures. I think this cat is safe.

[resortghosts]

i wonder if it really did just pick them up...

it feels like she's putting these notes places to make sure we find them

it's like another game to her

[resortghosts]

Does she think we're some prime time entertainment or something?

[resortghosts]

maybe!

she talked a bunch about hints and stuff, like a game with difficulty levels. it sounds like she knows everything but she's having fun watching us instead

[whirlingmace]

[ :< ]

[resortghosts]

[ SORRY CINQUE :( ]

[whirlingmace]

[ There's a lot to process. She knows she got some of it yesterday, but her friends being in danger on top of the state of the Resort...

It's troubling. It's a super bummer ]

[messianic]

[...]

Thanks for finding all of this. You guys are okay, right?

[resortghosts]

We're physically okay.

[messianic]

[:(]

I guess that's a start, and I'll take it. Please don't put yourselves in too much danger...

[resortghosts]

it just got mad because i took some hairpins from its room i think

it calmed down right away once i returned them

we're okay!

[messianic]

[Oh my god.]

Why did you take some hairpins...?

[tacticalespionageaction]

Was she writing to someone?

[resortghosts]

I don't know.

I think it was more like a journal?

[resortghosts]

makes you kind of wonder how the pages are getting out though, right? we found a page like that before, too

it has to be someone with access to the lady's stuff and the guests, i think. we keep finding them in the other guests' rooms!

and last time she definitely expected me to find it in the nue's room

[tacticalespionageaction]

Isnt that something youd try to keep private?

[latebluemer]

[They've already been through the whole song and dance about the double dying yesterday, so she'll get straight to the point here right now. She'll ask for copies of the notes later. God, this is seriously getting her to go full analog.]

... Whoever 34 is, they were probably referring to the note about the storage, if the boxes we were working with yesterday are any indication. Did you guys see anything else interesting in the oil creature's stash besides the hairpins and the pumpkin and stuff...?

[Might as well make sure.]

[resortghosts]

I'm pretty sure that's what they were referring to.

And no. We didn't find anything else.

[latebluemer]

I'm starting to think finding out who 34 is might be almost as important as figuring out what to do about the Outsider.

[She's got a sneaking suspicion about this game of mafia that's being slowly borne out by reading through the meeting texts and notes, and just in general. It's itching under her skin now, demanding more information. It feels like that itch has been there for a while.]