thefoundation | FINAL INVESTIGATION

I'm okay! I'm always okay.

[ She waits until the other two catch up before walking down the hall to the door. ]

Let's see if it's unlocked.

[ Just going to try to open it \o/ ]

[She grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like maybe you are under her breath while putting away her D-board, but it comes out on a sigh. They're just getting started, and might as well get limbered up for all the surprises no doubt coming their way.

Maybe they should knock, but also maybe they shouldn't. She'll ready her whip just in case the door grows teeth or whatever. You never know with the doors around here.]

[Tsumugi sighs as she sees Cinque continue to go on ahead, and readies her hair to use as whips, just in case. It looks like she'll be taking up the rear.]

[The door is unlocked! And when it is opened, they will be able to walk into the lobby. But it looks...off? More like a replica than the real thing.

And then, a memory plays.]

This is seen from eye-level of someone standing at the check-in desk in the lobby.

The door opens, letting in a gust of cold air and some drifting snow. Two figures walk in: a man in his 50s, and a teenage boy. Both are dressed for the weather, and carrying a couple duffel bags each.

The viewpoint character seems to regard them closely before turning to a person to their left. “Guests?” the person asks.

The other individual to their left- a staff member in their recognizable uniform, nods. “Guests,” they say back.

The viewpoint character looks back to the front door. The man has continued to walk towards the check-in desk, but the boy has stopped to close the front door. Once it’s closed he runs a bit, taking a few quick steps to catch up with the man.

“Welcome to The Hotel,” the viewpoint character says cheerfully, “Just two today?”

“Yeah,” the man says, “Make it separate rooms too, but close to each other.”

“That can be arranged,” the viewpoint character says. They gesture to the two, and a couple individuals step forward to take the bags from these two new guests. The man accepts it, but the boy puts up a couple seconds of struggle before giving up the bags and looking a bit off-put. This gets the man to snicker.

“They’re not gonna steal anything, kid,” the man says.

The boy just scowls and looks away.

Then the staff members go for their coats. This is when the man finally seems annoyed by the attention. “At least let me unzip it first!”

Whoa! Did you see that?

[ She looks back at the other two. Someone else can try to take lead before she goes ahead again.]

... Two new guests at the Resort.

[And we're going to guess one of them is a redhead, even though probably they've never appeared before their group! Huh, weird.]

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Edited 2019-01-05 04:40 (UTC)

Y-yeah, I saw it too!

[Tsumugi is looking around for any cause for these sudden memories.]

I think so.... but how did we see it?

[MAGIC~

But yes, there is another door on the other side of the lobby. Head to it, or explore the lobby for a bit?]

That it's Appy and the Outsider?

[ While the door is adoorable, let's explore. Is there anything in the lobby to check out? Anything to see around the couches? ]

Edited 2019-01-05 04:56 (UTC)

Yeah... They should look familiar, right?

[Given that Doppelling must have been here in some form if they have their timelines correct, even if the humans might have been specks of dust on the wall for all they knew. She's going to check out a different section of the lobby while they discuss this. Maybe she can have a look at the front desk?]

Maybe this is a special place in the Resort...?

[It sure isn't a movie theater.]

Edited 2019-01-05 05:04 (UTC)

Right. I mean... if it's not them I'm not sure who else it could be.

[Tsumugi is going to check the drawers of the desk in the lobby if there are any. She'll leave the top of it to Aoi.]

[DoppelCinque will definitely be able to tell that this is how the Resort looked previously, before everything started to go Weird. It's like this is a memory of how things used to be.

The front desk has the guest book from before. This time, the names that had been scribbled out before are plainly readable as "Gabriel Reyes" and "Kurosaki Ichigo". Ichigo's is written in Kanji, and Gabe's is written in English.

The drawers are, shockingly, empty. No keys, no supplies, nothing. Which is strange, because there should be something in there, right? But nada. It's almost as if items are immediately spawned as needed.]

It looks like how the Resort- or the Hotel used to look like before things went super weird.

[ Thanks Gabe.

Anything else to check out here or shall we carry on to the door? ]

It's definitely them. Their names are right here, but they were messed up back where we came from...

[They totally got blacklisted.

We're going to assume that at some point between the start of the game 5,000 years ago and now at least some of them managed to have a look at the guestbook themselves.]

That's strange... I wonder if there are anymore differences?

[Don't mind Tsumugi taking a picture of the guest book. The others will want to see this for sure. Once that's done, she picks it up and starts flipping through the guest book to see if there are any other differences.]

[There's a significant number of guests who came in after those two losers, so their names are not present in the guest book. But otherwise it's the same.

Also there's nothing else really to see here right now, you got the important stuff.]

[ Thank you. Let's motor /o/ ]

I don't notice anything else. Let's see what's behind door number two, okay!

[ She will wait until the other two come over. Once they are all ready, she's opening the door. ~~is it kingdom hearts~~ ]

[If this were Kingdom Hearts, they'd at least have Keyblades instead of whips. Or maybe they'd be using the glowy whips and hair to open the doors, which begs the question of whether Tsumugi can grow bioluminescent hair.

Before we get any more off-topic, Aoi is going to be right over here with her. Maybe they'll get more memories? Or maybe something else?]

It's a little weird to have a whole room just... for this. How many more are there?

[The question of bio luminescent hair is question that will have to be answered another day, as Tsumugi is following Cinque and Aoi, taking up the rear again. There's a moment of hesitation, but then a mental shrug as she takes the guest book with her. She's curious to see if it can actually leave the room or not and it's evidence anyway.]

I guess it is a little weird, yeah. Do you think there's these umm... past versions of all the other rooms too?

[That is a good question, one that will be answered ~~After a puzzle~~ immediately because we're pushing through this a bit here ayyyyy

The door from the lobby opens up into the child daycare, interestingly enough! Even though that is on an entirely different floor normally. Memories don't have to follow real world spacial reasoning.]

This one takes place inside the child daycare. It seems a certain pair of guests have decided to make use of its padded floor for some training.

Or, well. It looks like it might be training? Both of them have stripped down to t-shirts and sweatpants, and the older man looks ready to do some physical training. Boxing, maybe wrestling, who knows. But the teenager, he’s running circles around him. He’s clearly the faster of the two, appearing to be a blur as he goes from one spot to the next. As soon as the older man tries to get to him, he blinks off to another spot, laughing as he goes.

The older man seems to be getting irritated by this, and he points at the boy in an accusing manner. “That’s cheating, I sad no powers!”

“Your whole body is a power, Reyes,” the boy says, crossing his arms in front of him - but looking amused., “Or are you saying your ‘super soldier’ enhancements aren’t that good after all?”

The man grits his teeth and goes for the boy once more. The boy simply blinks out of the way, ending up on the other side of the room.

“The point is to train YOU, not me,” the man says irritably.

“I already know how to fight,” the boy points out.

“Practice makes perfect,” the man responds.

“Then you can practice by catching me,” the boy says, grinning widely, only to move again as the man rushes at him.

Clearly frustrated, the man reaches out for the boy once more. But this time, instead of just running at him, a mixture of black smoke and shadow in the form of a clawed hand shoots out of the end of his arm, reaching out and snatching up the boy. Both the boy and the man are surprised by this, and the man immediately ‘lets go’, making the shadow disappear. Then he draws his hand close to himself like he had been burned.

The boy stands there for a moment, shocked. Then, he tentatively says, “Reyes…?”

“I’m fine,” the man says immediately, though his voice sounds a little shaky, “I just need my medicine, that’s all.”

[ Child day care.

She then blinks... ]

Do you think he has any medicine here still?

[ Because that would probably help a lot. So there anything to explore here or should they keep moving forward? Cause if there's nada, let's keep the babe train going. Choo choo. ]

... He doesn't. He said he was out, and I think Inaba-san said it was getting worse.

[So, you know, if they do get to wherever in the brain shadow!Gabe has holed himself up, they're going to be walking into... whatever that was. It's not like she's not used to weird shadow monsters by now, but Aoi would still rather avoid them if she can, all the same.

Anyway, she's down for moving on if there's nothing else, still looking thoughtfully around.]

I don't think I've ever actually been in this room.

Edited 2019-01-05 05:49 (UTC)

Well not now at least, right? But...

[Tsumugi checks to see if the guest book she's taken with her is still there and not doing or turning into anything weird.]

Maybe, if we find his room while we're exploring here, we'll be able to find some?

[Even if they can't take it with them, at least they'd know what it looks like.]

[The guest book will actually disappear later, when they all get out eventually. Sorry, it's a memory item. No removing it from the brain.

But hey, it's time to move on! And this time the door on the other side of the room opens up into a long, long, long hallway. Like seriously, you guys will be walking for ten minutes, maybe longer.

But at the end of the hallway is...another door! This one has bloodstains on it.]

[ A long hallway means she can bounce around between the two, and walk backwards and maybe even pet Moogie's hair babies? They are good babies!

Cinque just makes the ten minutes pass quickly for her whatever they let her do.

So anyways let's head to this door that's not ominous or dangerous looking at all! ]

Oh.

[ She says it quietly. She's not bothered by bloodshed but... ]

If we're seeing memories from then... then Cinquey has an idea what this might be.

[ Let's open the door. ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject