WEEK 8

[bathymetric]

Good morning, passengers. Happy Sunday. Happy New Year.

Your numbers have officially dropped to single digits. One of you managed to kill the first of the major living obstacles to your collective freedom. A ghost or demon or something nearly killed you. It was a weird week.

The cruise continues on, roller coaster back up and running as ever, arcade free and clear of coins. The last free floor of the ship is open, as well as part of the top deck with... well, something you might expect to see way more on a cruise ship than anything else here. One way or another, you get a feeling you can't shake - things are going to end soon.

No rain yet, but the clouds are closing in fast above you. A cold wind blows during the night, sending the ship gently rocking. Around midnight or so, if you head to the deck, you can hear thunder in the distance.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to week 8, everyone! Remember to turn in AC here and coins for regains over here! If you wish to get in contact with the npcs, Davy Jones is over here, and "The Captain" is over here! And as requested, profiles are accessible here. ]

Comments

[scythegun]

[Good to know! There aren't any of those here that Yeager would be all that familiar with, but I'll be sure to point this out in the meeting so someone else can figure it out!

Anything else to note about the weapons in here? Is there anything that looks remarkably out of place otherwise?]

investigation, cw: hallucination references

[magycks]

[ Early Tuesday morning, Magica takes the spear she took from Plumeria and heads on down to the workshop, where she promptly gets on top of cutting it down to size. This means you may, in fact, walk on her using a goddamn bandsaw, but don't worry, it's fine, she totally knows what she's doing. Eventually, with one end sheared off into its own little mini-spear and the shaft reduced to "tall by duck proportional standards", she starts aggressively sandpapering the new edges, and that's where she's at when her device lights up with the traditional summons to the theater. Smugly, to nobody, she says: ]

Knew it.

[ And that energy lasts for all of two minutes! Here is the thing about photos on devices that look like smartphones: you can just shut the fake phone down and only look at whatever's on it in moments of private vulnerability. Even if it eats at you, even if the motive is something that would upend your reason for being, you don't have to look it in the face constantly. Unfortunately, the entity inhabiting Jack's corpse is actually good at his job, and his curse can't be powered down and tucked into her cloak for later. It follows her out the theater and down the stairs, and there's absolutely nothing she can do about it.

So that means it's time to investigate the pub, right? That's what's this overwhelming sense of impotence and rage means? Search aside, she spends a decent while in there, because as long as she keeps inputting random songs in the jukebox there's something to keep her distracted, and the dart board... She pops over to the art room very briefly, then returns with a bunch of paper and various art supplies, which she sets up at the bartop and proceeds to utilize furiously for the entire afternoon. She's drawing picture after picture of Handsome Jack's face, but specifically dead Handsome Jack, judging from the liberal use of red. Also, there are a few incomplete workups of this guy mixed in there. Several hours into this, Magica has a glass of something non-Disney XD friendly off to the side, untouched, You Oughta Know is positively blaring, and any entrance goes unnoticed for a good long while — until she suddenly whips around, eyes wide with surprise, and says: ]

Couldn't possibly announce yourself or anything, could you?! [ There's a pause where a normal person would probably start to feel bad for snapping. Magica looks back down at her work, holds up a Jack portrait in each hand, and continues in a normal tone of voice, as if she hadn't snapped at all. ] Which one of these do you like for the dartboard?

[bathymetric]

[ That's it for the weapons. The shelving is a little weird - this room clearly didn't start as an armory - and there's something tucked behind one of the shelves. ]

[scythegun]

[Time to check that out, then! In terms of weird shelving, is it all pretty much "someone stuck this in here to turn this into an armory" without anything else of note? And what's this thing back here?]

[bathymetric]

[ It's another Jack selfie! He's standing on the topdeck - there are a bunch of robots building the roller coaster. ]

[guffawsungraciously]

[Cool, they can switch them around! So many pictures of Jack to throw darts at!

What's number three?]

investigation

[bathymetric]

[ Hey there, Magica! Where do you wanna start? ]

[ahelpingpaw]

[That dramatic pause is amazing, hah. Filbo gets his darts ready, trying to stop chuckling before he gets his turn]

The Man!

[Go against The Man, nice. Rage against the Machine]

You know, I'm pretty sure given my probably former job I qualified as the Man, somehow. Does that count as working from the inside against the Man?

[Even though he's referring to his job as the mayor in past tense, somehow he feels...okay. Like he has come to terms with the likely possibility that's over and done with. Sure feels well enough to be joking about it, at least!]

morning

[magycks]

[ Magica is leaving her room with a spear, looking in general tired and agitated. When Data speaks, she cocks her head to the side and considers it for all of three seconds. ]

... Sure, why not.

[ And she just... instantly hits a pose that looks something like this? Like, there is no thought put into this at all, it's just 0 to villainous vamping without a shred of self-consciousness. The wildly oversized spear stands in for the staff. ]

Where's the other one, then? [ She means Jasper. ]

[magycks]

[ Well, since she's trying to not think about auditory hallucinations, she's definitely gravitating towards the jukebox first and going to punch in some tunes! Is this a "you might recognize some music from your home universe" situation, or...?

Also, if it turns out it's a normal jukebox, she's going to just crawl under the pool table like a goddamn gremlin and start poking around to see if there's anything taped to the bottom. ]

[ltcommandroid]

We will have to keep it in mind.

[which, he'd like to pretend we won't need it, but y'know

Anyway, Data will take that picture, and look at the back of the camera...oh right, there's no way to see it now, just gonna have to wait until it's developed.]

Although I doubt that we could develop the film in time for the photographs to be of use.

pub; cw: allusion to hallucinations

[scouserer]

[Constantine has long since entered the pub when Magica finally notices his presence. With one hand, he leans against the pool table, and in the other, he holds a drink.

He ignores the echoes of those whispering to him, for the most part. Constantine is no stranger to being haunted, and these voices are just another way of it manifesting. Magica's outburst is enough to make him arch an eyebrow, however, and he casts a sort of withering look towards the duck.]

Hmmm. Personally, the one on the left really speaks to me, you know? I think.... [He raps his fingers against the felt, pretending to look thoughtful for a moment.] ....I think it's the usage of the color red.

[Both pictures provide equal amounts of red, but...you know. His tone is light as he speaks, the trademark Constantine Smirk seemingly plastered to his face.]

You know, at least you're takin' out your aggression in debatably healthy ways.

[ltcommandroid]

I am almost always working on at least one painting. I had been considering doing a sculpture, though I did not have its form planned yet.

pub (cw: hallucination references)

[scythegun]

[Well, that sure is a greeting, hi Magica. But she moves on quickly enough and Yeager is totally fine rolling with the sudden topic change like that didn't just happen. It's Fine, we're all a little on edge right now.]

Hmm... A difficult question, both of them look like they'd make for excellent target practice! Have you already put some of these to use?

[Darts sound like an excellent idea right now, and destroying something that looks like "Jack" sounds even better.]

[scouserer]

[Constantine nods sagely.]

The Man.

[He repeats it, just to really drive the point home.]

Hmmm. I'd say that qualifies--s'long as you were in a position to support the people, not push down on them. And given what I know about you, Filbo, you seem to be more inclined to the former.

[He gives Filbo a reassuring smile.]

[scouserer]

[Constantine grunts, shoving another piece of bagel into his mouth.]

Fair enough. Maybe if you find a Polaroid or somethin', it'd be much more useful. Unless the Captain'll let us sit in the darkroom for a few hours, idly twiddlin' our thumbs the next time someone decides on going on a murder spree.

[A pause.]

Sorry. Bad joke.

[ahelpingpaw]

You can be sure supporting them is all I'd have ever wanted.

[He definitely means it wholeheartedly]

You have been all your life about fighting the Man, no? I mean, I could tell from the music -- all that, uh, all that fury didn't come from nowhere!

[Well, it sure is a way of interpreting the way the punk music from Constantine's band made him feel like he accidentally tased himself with those electrical things from the vending machine]

[ltcommandroid]

I am not sure. We are going to compare our photographs during the development process.

[He'll snap one off of that, then!]

Have you done this often?

[ltcommandroid]

[and don't forget it!]

During my time at the Academy. I did not have any friends at the time, so I spent much of my leisure time in solitary artistic pursuits.

[ltcommandroid]

I did not register it as a joke.

[Helpful...???]

But you are correct - I doubt this Captain will be any better than the last. If anything, I expect he is far more likely to take direct action against us, should we fail to behave as he wants.

[bathymetric]

[ It pretty clearly used to be some kind of... store? And the thing is, in particular, a souvenir postcard! It's a little faded, but the front at least can still mostly be made out. ]

[scythegun]

[Huh! The others can probably help him out since he knows nothing about cruise ships or why there would be a store in one. Thankfully, souvenir postcards are a little easier for him to understand, so what's on this one? What does the front say, and does the back have anything still legible on it?]

[bathymetric]

[ It's a picture of Jack and Davy Jones in Jack's office! Jack looks much happier than Jones, but that's probably to be expected.

There's also a conspicuous relatively small, locked box on Jack's desk. ]

[guffawsungraciously]

Well, there are certainly plenty, such as...

[ANOTHER SKETCH!]

The classic slime variant, the shell slime.

[guffawsungraciously]

[HM. What details can be observed about the box? Is it too small to be properly observed, or...?]