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]

[Yeager's got some items with him today and he'll drop those down on a table before getting started. Thankfully, he isn't touching the jukebox today.]

If you've seen the new floor, you've likely come across a room that required a purple key to open. Freyja left me that, so it's open now if you want to see what's in there... but it's a bit morbid.

In the back wall, there's a section with twenty-six different drawers. If that sounds like coffins to you, then you're marginally correct! My own was full of unlit candles - these, specifically.

[Item #1 is indeed an unlit candle! There isn't anything particularly noteworthy about it, but he sure did take it anyway.]

Underneath the candles were some odd designs - magic runes and that sort of thing. I'm no mage, so I couldn't tell you anything more about that.

I opened Sylvando's coffin next to see what was inside, and you'll be pleased to know there are no bodies in there. This was in there, however.

[Item #2 is a Sylvando voodoo doll! It's a bit more detailed than a usual one would be. No, he saw nothing morbid or creepy about taking this and yes, Zaveid has probably seen this thing left out in their room with zero explanation.]

There were also lit candles in his coffin, and the same magical symbols, though these were glowing.

[It's also worth nothing - though Yeager didn't try this out - that attempting to blow out the candles or smudge the magical stuff will fail. It's always gonna be like that, for anyone morbid enough to go try it.]

I also examined the armory. It was at one point some sort of store? The shelving in there for the weapons is a bit odd, it's obvious the space wasn't exactly intended to be an armory to start with.

These are replicas of weapons one of my former subordinates uses. The armory likely has some familiar weapons for all of you as well.

[Items #3 and 4 are giant knives! They look like this (on the right). To an untrained eye, they probably look like perfectly serviceable (and stupid) jrpg weapons.]

They appear to be made with sub-par and mundane materials - or at the very least, these are. They really wouldn't hold up well in a fight, although the less unique weapons are at least passable.

There were some other weapons in there that seemed to be even worse off, though I'm not familiar with those weapons to begin with.

[Any kind of weapons with a supernatural component are complete failures, in other words! So if you've got any that would appear here, you can likely tell that much better than he can.]

Finally, I found this behind one of the shelves.

[It's a souvenir postcard! The investigation thread for that is still ongoing, so check it out over here to see what that ends up being like.]

[ahelpingpaw]

Oh, so all isn't just to tell us we're as good as dead? Alright...

[Filbo looks at the voodoo doll. That's...quite something! Wow, what a thing to be seeing]

I can't decide if taking these out of the coffins would hinder whatever ritual's happening or if it'd hurt the dead ones somehow...

[Well, if things depended from the dolls being left alone in one place maybe it wouldn't be in a relatively public place opened from a key somebody around here found]

[scythegun]

I thought it would be best to take one to show all of you, but I can return this one once we're done here.

[Is the doll important to whatever ritual or whatever is going on there?? Hell if he knows. Hopefully he didn't do something bad to Sylvando wherever he is??? Whoops.]

[magycks]

Ha! Finally, something useful. [ She has already nyoomed on over and is definitely going to try and take the Sylvoodoo doll if not stopped, which means it's pretty redundant when she asks: ] Do you mind?

[scythegun]

Just try not to destroy it, ja?

[Y'know. Just in case. But yeah, he's got no problems with Magica examining it, she knows way more about this stuff than he does. Go ahead!]

mods, forgive me

[magycks]

Please, I'm a professional.

[ So! Anything interesting about this bad boy that a dark sorceress might notice, or anything from that rhyme Jack started besides the obvious thread? Semirelated: when she goes back later to check the coffin room, which she absolutely will, is the head of the Chloe doll still going to be... you know? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Ah, the dark magycks...

First of all, it's very well-made! Someone put some work into all of these. And she'll see some connectors to the rhyme for sure - there's hair woven into the seams, and the clothes definitely seem to be made from the clothing of the dead.

And uh. yes, tragically. Poor thing. ]

[magycks]

Yikes.

[ But good to know! Does it feel like there's anything inside them that's not general soft toy stuffing, or cloth, or whatever? About how heavy are these bad boys?

... Also, what exactly is the situation with Shard's doll? Because he's the only dead one without an organic body, as far as she knows, and. Uh. If she's going to dissect any of them to see what's inside, it's gonna be his. ]

[bathymetric]

[ There's something small and hard in the center of all of them... well, except Shard's! That one actually seems to be entirely made of artificial materials. ]

[magycks]

[ Interesting. But those materials at least superficially look like the kind of metal he was? To her recollection, anyway, since it's been like seven weeks.

... also will snipping open any of these dolls fuck up the dead irreparably, because unfortunately Magica lacks my scruples as a player and is absolutely going to go for it. ]

[bathymetric]

[ Yep!

And uh. We will tell you for free that no, it will not! The dolls cannot affect the dead anymore. ]

[magycks]

[ oh thank god

Anyway, she's definitely going to wait until Yeager and Constantine are out of sight, but shortly after she'll return with a pair of scissors from the craft room and, uh, slit open the front of Chloe's doll, because there's no way she could make her situation worse, right?

What's inside? ]

[bathymetric]

[ thank god zelos isn't here because uh

That's A Bone. ]

[magycks]

[ It sure is. Honestly, you gotta respect the craftsmanship here, this is pretty choice!

Chances are high that no matter what, it's not going to be an exact analogue to anthropomorphic bird skeletal anatomy, but is the basic type of bone recognizable? Is it a whole bone, or a bone fragment, or... ]

[bathymetric]

[ It's a fragment of... hard to tell what, especially because it's old. Like older than Chloe old. ]

[magycks]

Ooh, vintage.

[ Okay, I truly hate that this is who I play, but if she does eenie meenie minie moe to pick the next organic doll to open up, will she find a bOoOoOoNe??? of similar age? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Well, not necessarily of similar age - the bone fragments are of varying conditions and types. ]

[magycks]

[ This is very useful information which she will not dispense until next week! For reasons!

Is there anything else to be discovered by going through the dolls' insides, or should she move on to checking out the candles and runes? ]

[scouserer]

[Constantine seems to visibly perk up at that. The gears in his brain seem to be turning....]

Just to confirm--the lit candles were only in the drawers of those who were dead, correct?

[scythegun]

That's correct, ja. All of the deceased had lit candles.

[He also did check through all of them to make sure there weren't any different ones, I just forgot to mention that.]

It sounds like you may have an idea...?

[scouserer]

[Constantine nods slowly, scratching at the stubble on his chin.]

These runes and dolls--they may still have a connection with the dead. I dunno if we'd be able to figure it out before the Captain tries anything more, but...but if we have even the smallest window, we may be able to get into contact with those on the other side. Wherever they're being kept--because, as we know, they still haven't properly 'passed on'.

[It's an idea, at least.]

[scythegun]

[Hmm...]

If we're able to find a way to get in contact with them, we should. We don't know exactly what it is they're dealing with, after all. But I have no idea how to go about doing that, this all is a bit beyond me.

[scouserer]

[A pause.]

We could take a look at it, see what else we could do.

[Since Magica's...doing that right now!]

[scythegun]

Sounds good to me!

[Shall we be off, then?]

[scouserer]

[Constantine nods. Off they go! To go look at what Magica is looking at.]