Week 7

[bathymetric]

Good morning, New Rapture. A new day is dawning.

Less than ten of you left, now. The halls of your little slice of Rapture sure must feel empty now, hm? Even compared to their general size, you're going to naturally find yourself more and more alone more and more often. That's just statistics.

You may find yourself flagging. You may find it difficult to move on. Your captor has offered you so little respite, so little in the way of answers. The ocean is dark and foreboding. But remember this: in the darkest times, the brightest lights can shine.

As you wake once again on Sunday, there's another wing of New Rapture open to you, smaller than the ones before it. More to see, more to find, as your ally the vending machine might say.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to the seventh week of Unknown Seas Round 3! Please make sure to mark any investigation toplevels accordingly, post your ac, and you can reach either Mayor Fontaine or Eleanor for conversations! ]

Comments

SUNDAY

[bathymetric]

cw: emeto

[inaclearing]

[On Sunday morning, Brett's in the restaurant, handling what seems to be a...much more chaotic morning meal than usual. There's fish for Blake and Rain, some chicken for Cruger the giant dog, and...well, the skeleton is just sort of Here. Brett's not even really eating, himself, he's just handling this shit.

Dully, he comments when someone walks in:]

I really need someone to take the dog or the cat. I can't do all this.

[Later on, you might run into him in the nightclub or in Circle K briefly. He's just there gathering some booze and some gas station candy, respectively.

Brett then spends the entire rest of the day sprawled over several seats in the theatre, watching the entirety of the first four seasons of Camp Pining Hearts on the big screen! He's drinking vanilla-flavored vodka straight from the bottle and eating Reese's Pieces. We're having a real one here, friends.




......also that's most of what he's consumed for the past two days, so later in the evening you might just find him being sick in the Suite 5 bathroom.

Doing great, though!!!]

restaurant

[visiblepattern]

[...Oh, Brett...]

...I can take Rain, at least for a little while.

[He'll come and sit down nearby, just kind of watching the cat eat as opposed to looking at Brett.]

I don't know how well I can take care of a pet. But I've...missed Hodaka a lot.

[Still thinking about everyone we've lost, even from that early on.]

investigation

[visiblepattern]

[Forrest is out in the garden this morning, doing what he'd told Joy he was going to do; he's praying for the fallen, and when he's not doing that he's adding names to the memorial stone the Undertaker put out. There are...a lot of names this week. It's uncomfortable.

He'll get up eventually and go over to the new area to see what's there, though; he finds the sculpture studio, and it...reminds him of Shigure, a little. Not as much as the art studio, but he imagines the presence of this here would be something Shigure would appreciate. So he goes inside, and decides to investigate at least a little bit while he's here. (I'm aware of and minding the CWs!)

...And after the cavalcade of upsetting shit that probably happened in there, Forrest will be sitting out in the lobby, looking very determined to just focus on his work - his work today being embroidering something very carefully, it looks like a jacket.]

investigation

[bathymetric]

[ So the front of house, so to speak, in this studio is actually pretty clean and unassuming! There are a number of stations that have all gone long unused, if the dust is any indication - a number for students/apprentices around, and one bigger one in the front of the "class" for the instructor! There's a fairly unassuming door in the back to a storage area, which has been padlocked, and a door in the back leading to the attached gallery as well, which is unlocked! ]

garden

[onemillion]

[It isn't surprising to find Forrest here, and that's... sort of what Rossiu was hoping for, to be honest. Leafeon is with him, but the Pokémon is perfectly content to ditch them and run off to entertain himself.]

Do you mind if I join you?

[He's swapped to wearing the jacket Forrest made him today so he's not at risk of getting grass stains on his uniform, at least.]

investigation

[howveryglib]

[time to wake up and OH SOLUS, WE'RE REALLY IN IT NOW. man if he dies the big portrait of a rat man in his room is going to confuse the shit out of everyone huh. he kind of realizes that as he gets dressed after his shower. it's kind of fatalistic but nothing has encouraged him not to be fatalistic at this point.

okay. it's a new week. that means an exciting new locale. time to... check out... what's new...

...

he's kind of just standing in front of the Gold Saucer Express with an utterly gobsmacked expression on his face. like just full tails gets trolled dot jpeg.]

...the Mandervilles? Of all people, the Mandervilles!?

[okay. he just. he knows he needs to investigate that one because he has context, but he needs. he needs help. fortunately he walks into Circle K and sees that they have cigarettes. he is by no means a heavy smoker but he fuckin. they're fuckin. he acquires several packs.

okay. after that. he's going to light up and head into the Gold Saucer. he has never actually been to the one he's familiar with for obvious reasons but you know what it's time to become a fucking manderville man he guesses.

honestly. whatever fuckin happens there. he's going to need to just kind of. vibe after that. so he's probably just going to head to the aquarium and chill with Gary because fuck. what the fuck.]

circle k

[inaclearing]

[Brett's here, he looks like shit, and he's just gathering a lot of cheap candy!]

...you smoke?

investigation

[bathymetric]

[ While you are blasted by the familiar theme upon entry, the giant golden cat statue is perhaps an indicator that this isn't the Gold Saucer you're familiar with! ]

gold saucer

[onemillion]

[Hi, Gaius, and wow that sure is a reaction. Rossiu hasn't ever set foot in a casino or anything quite like this, but they definitely exist in GL so he doesn't seem all that surprised to see it here.]

The... who? Do you recognize this from home?

[Was one of the Founders... someone from your world...??]

investigation

[fuckingguy]

[ Another Sunday, another new area, another chance to find a bunch of tapes and learn some shit about people who are probably dead now... it is all getting a little bit samey, isn't it? But also, after yesterday (such as it isn't), Nandor wants nothing more than to take the notion that all of this is boring and inevitable and stab it to death! He cannot do that, of course, as it is a concept, but exploring is the next best thing. So he heads on over to see what's opened up, and he enters Mercury Mile... 2!

And he is immediately captivated by the armory, and trots the fuck on over with a little exclamation of delight that contains at least one "ee" sound. ]

Guys, did you see? We have weapons over here!

[ He's in there for hours, going through each and every item and looking for the most medieval shit available. Like thirty minutes into that, he has his one decent idea of the week and decides to take inventory of what they've got! So it's over to the Circle K for a notepad and a shitty pen, and then he gets right back to it. You'll occasionally hear him exclaim something indignantly, like "I lost count of the axes!", but mostly he's just muttering to himself and scoping out the possibilities.

Once he's done with that, he walks back to the Suites, carrying two scimitars, because why not? ]

investigation

[bathymetric]

[ Sure! So the weaponry itself is pretty varied, as stated, but is in fact mostly unremarkable! Mostly. The first thing of note, however, is tucked under one very big warhammer - a florist brochure, open to a page of endorsement quotes! ]

armory

[inaclearing]

...no.

[Brett looks like total shit!]

Don't we have enough weapons already?

armory

[onemillion]

[Oh. This. Is a little much, isn't it. Rossiu's in here later on, while Nandor's busy taking inventory and for a moment he just sort of hesitates in the doorway, like he's really not sure what to do with any of this. Because he isn't!!]

...Good afternoon, Nandor. Oh, are you taking stock of everything available here?

[Maybe you're just Really Enthusiastic About Weapons which is... hopefully okay and not something to worry about!!]

MONDAY

[bathymetric]

TUESDAY

[bathymetric]

MOTIVE: My city will live. My city will thrive.

[bathymetric]

[ It’s a little later than usual in the morning, though not much, when the silence is broken by the familiar crackle of speakers, and the increasingly familiar true voice of your Mayor. ]

Meeting room. Half an hour. Chop chop, boys and girls. Ugh, no, that’s worse than kiddos-

[ Upon arrival in the meeting room, the screens are set to the technical difficulties screen that the Mayor has chosen as her “face” once again, and she speaks up to all of you. ]

Death. Epicurus - this old Greek guy, ask Orphaned Work or better yet, Pillage Idiot, if you don’t know what Greece is - said “When we are, death is not come, and when death is come, we are not.” At some point between eating figs and having wildly outdated views on human sexuality, anyway, going by his contemporaries.

But it’s an interesting idea, right? Death doesn’t mean anything to us because we never actually run into it. Death shows up and we leave the party.

Now, you and I know Epicurus was full of shit. Death hangs over every corpse, and over every loss. When you remember the books someone liked, or the way they did their hair, or the things you talked about… rest assured, death is with you. In a place like this? I’d be an idiot to say that death doesn’t play a part in your day to day lives. I’m the one who keeps sending the invitations, right?

[ The mirror flicks to clear glass, and in the motive room are nine to eighteen stark white coffins, one to two for each of you. Massive greyscale pictures of lost loved ones adorn them, wreathed in dead leaves and flowers. ]

But this is my party. And if I want death to leave? Death fucking leaves. Kill someone by the end of this week and get away with it, and I’ll bring yours back to life - hell, I might toss in the rest for free - and you get to go home with them.

…Or let death hang around and drink all your fucking beer and eat your cheese dip. Your call.

investigation!

[onemillion]

[There are things to do that do not involve thinking about the motive, so that's what Rossiu's going to be doing! Up first is investigating... sure, let's go with the Circle K. He knows enough about convenience stores to likely be of some use here and he needs a distraction so he will painstakingly go through everything here if it's absolutely necessary.

After that, Rossiu goes to the teahouse. You can find him preparing tea like he's on autopilot, or maybe slightly later after said tea is prepared where he's attempting to read. Given he's been on the same page for a very long time now, it's probably not working.

Eventually he ends up back in the lobby, where he's staring at the profiles. It's not as though he needs a refresher on the information, but he's looking over the pictures of those who have departed. You might even overhear him muttering to himself:]

Sixteen... Just how many more until we can put an end to this?

cw: v brief suicide mention

[specialyellthing]

[Despite the fact that Jonathan totally died last week, Suite One's population has not gone down. With Hild gone, and the chaos of the last meeting, Zinda felt like the girls needed some space. So she does what any rational woman would do when she finds out one of her wards tried to poison a man, and that the other tried to poison herself. She moves in with her vampire boyfriend without actually clearing it with him or any of his roomies. The one-time war hero can be found brushing her teeth in their bathroom or making coffee in their kitchenette or reading a book on the sofa-- pretty much just existing in their space, uninvited.

Sometime after the motive meeting, Zinda can be found briefly in the Circle K, grumbling to herself about something as she rifles through the drink fridges--- and much later, hauling a full six pack of beer and an armful of nachos with plenty of fake cheese on top into the meeting room.]

Well-- Blackhawk. Barda. Nandor's Horse, who I jus' can't believe was named John--- Hawkah.

[and, sitting on the edge of the meeting room table, she cracks a beer.]

[honeyedtea]

[ For the first time in a while, the motive leaves Mielle feeling a little shaken. As it turns out, her situation at home had been its own bizarre advantage - there were so few things to take away from her at this point and even dangling Aria over her head stopped being quite so frightening after a point. But Cain - that was different. That was her real brother and he'd been frustrating and hopelessness and completely unfit to lead House Roscent but-

But he was still her brother. She hadn't wanted him hurt. She certainly hadn't wanted him dead.

"You'd be tradin Mafuyu for him."

Yes. I know. You don't have to rub it in.

And she's fairly sure she's the last person in the world Cain would want to see, even if it came with saving his life. Besides - after last week, she knows she's near the top of just about everyone's suspect list. She's gone and ruined everything, hasn't she?

... She needs something to do. Just to get her mind off things.

Mielle skips breakfast on Tuesday and heads straight for the backrooms of the department store to see if there isn't a project she can occupy her brain with. Maybe some clothes she can alter or something to practice her sewing on, just... Anything. It's while she's sorting through all this that she comes across something that surprises her - a small stack of neatly cut fabric trimmed down to handkerchief size, all abandoned halfway into being done. It takes Mielle a second to remember - oh. This is her work. These were the gifts she'd planned to make and hand out to everyone, a showy little gesture of friendship to get into their good books. But between the frustration of chipping away at such a large task and the stress of everything else she'd just... forgotten all about it.

She realizes just how much smaller the stack would be if she started it now, for all the people who are left alive.

...

For the rest of the day, Mielle can be found at the lake, in the process of viciously hand stitching... something. Get close enough to see and you'll realise it's a handkerchief - one out of a pile she has at her side. She's sewing with the sharp, angry movements of someone who's riled themselves up about something and the overly tight, kind of intense expression of a person trying very, very hard not to cry. ]

WEDNESDAY

[bathymetric]

[sastruga]

[Today, Mafuyu is in the aquarium again, for a little while. Staring at the jellyfish today, seeming almost mesmerized. It's a quiet moment -- she doesn't look as dour as she has for some time now. Could she actually be enjoying herself? It's tough to say.

Certainly it's more peaceful than when she later visits the armory. She's looking at the bows, because... of course she is. Carefully examining each one, looking for one that she approves of. She nods to herself as she looks at one in particular.]

This should do...

[Later today, there's an interesting setup in the barn. Mafuyu has used strings to hang up... books? Actually, are these all the books she was using to study in the first few weeks? The purpose of them becomes a little more clear as she takes out her new bow

and fires

skewering a book to the barn wall. Right through the center.

After which, she takes a deep breath. Takes a new arrow. And goes again.]

[inaclearing]

[Brett looks, overall, somewhat less like shit by Wednesday! There’s still dark circles prominent beneath his eyes, and he seems a bit hollowed out, but...well, there's no more alcohol and he isn’t watching Camp Pining Hearts over again.

After the usual pet-feeding rituals, he ends up in the department store for a while. He’s sitting on the ground amid some clothing racks, and arranging a red scarf around the neck of the skeleton he inherited from - well, from last week.]

There. Now you smell like the moon.

[Later, he goes to the vending machine. There’s only two items of particular note - a fancy-looking blue book that he stands and pages through for a little bit. None of it ends up being remotely comprehensible!

After that, he can be found wandering around, looking extra tired. He's carrying a piece of parchment or something.

If you aren't Nandor, he'll ask:]

Have you seen Nandor?

[If you ARE Nandor, he just goes right into:]

Did you sleep with George Washington?

investigation!

[visiblepattern]

[Today has been...better than yesterday, at least.

Forrest spends some time at the lake, not swimming in it this time, but rather taking one of the boats out. He's got Rain with him, who's currently under the seat at the bow of the boat until everything stops rocking so much; he's seeming fairly calm, at least, and he'll wave a bit if you're nearby.]

Do you want to come out with me? I don't mind rowing.

[Otherwise...well.

Forrest has been a little shy about approaching the doors in City Hall (the ones that I presume we have access to by way of a handwaved opening of the area, if not then I'm stupid and we can move my findings, if any, elsewhere as needed), but he seems to have decided that today is the day. He's shut Rain in his room for the time being, and Forrest will play with him later, but he really doesn't want Rain getting into trouble he can't get out of, or stumbling across something unfortunate. So in his room he goes, even if he's squirmy about going and sounds so damn sad on the other side of a closed door.]

I'm sorry, kitty... Later, okay?

[And...well, off Forrest goes, to go see what's on the other side of Door...let's start with Door #6.]

THURSDAY

[bathymetric]