WEEK 4

[bathymetric]

Another trial, another week, and still you're probably running lower on answers than you'd like. And on people - you lost three since last Sunday. By the end of this week, you'll have been here for nearly a full month, yet still the days crawl on.

You wake up Sunday, again with no memory of Saturday, but this time with a simple message on your devices: You may resume requesting items, if you like. Enjoy. Guess it really was just a stealth motive after all, but at least it's being communicated that it's over! That's something, at least.

And when you leave your rooms on Sunday, there's another new area to explore! This one is... certainly more ambitious in its construction than the last one, to say the least. But hey, you have a pretty neat place to host parties, if you feel so inclined! That's... fun...

Hey, you gotta find the fun in situations like this where you can! Silver linings, right?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 4! Remember to turn in AC here, threads for regain coins here, and if you feel so inclined you can visit Angel's office hours over here! ]

Comments

Investigation!

[fivestagegod]

[Okay, so, last night was...kind of bad, and he's not at all pleased to wake up on Sunday again, but you know what, all of that is probably fine. And if it's not fine, he's going to make it be fine, because really, what choice does he have?

The new rooms are kind of inspiring a lot of oh, I do not like this at all, but he can be found in the arcade of all places at some point, looking at the newer games like they're some kind of witchcraft before finding some of the classic fighting games to mess around on. He's actually pretty good at them, for someone who seems to have more or less grown up under a rock.

That said, though, he'll be sure to investigate in here before leaving, just because this seems like an acceptable place to do so. Might as well, right?

That said, he'll leave that wing of the building entirely afterwards - somehow, getting drunk in a place like this seems a bad idea - and spend some time elsewhere. The cafeteria, putting the Professor's money to good use and letting the leech demolish a cut of meat that's entirely too nice for it (seriously, that leech eats better than Birkin does); the lounge after the fact, which is just the latest place he's taken up his papercrafting. He's actually wearing the locket he got early on, the one with the family portrait inside; once in a while he'll mess with it, absently, but he's leaving it closed for now.

He seems kind of out of it, the later into the day it gets, spending longer periods of time playing with the locket rather than actually doing anything of value, dubious or otherwise; he'll...be fine, probably. Just kind of one of those days.]

Lounge

[ladygeryon]

So. The fact that I've been left with nothing but embarrassing memories of Friday night means that we're definitely experiencing Saturday in some way.

[Aria is back at Nira's side and looking very irritated about it.]

[fivestagegod]

[That...seems to snap him out of whatever thoughts he's in the middle of, at least. Good evening to you too, Nira.]

...Huh. That's good to know - no hangover or anything this morning?

[ladygeryon]

Not at all. [A pause]

...did I really call you "Wilbur" last night? It's the last thing I can recall.

[fivestagegod]

You absolutely did. I figured it was good enough for government work.

[ladygeryon]

[Ugh. Great.] Good to know my memory's fairly accurate, then. I also remember being angry at you before that, for about the same reason I was mad at that trial.

[fivestagegod]

I'm not surprised. I tend to piss people off during trials, if the last two are any indication.

Investigation!

[bathymetric]

[ Seems like a decent idea. Where would you like to start investigating? We got all kinds of arcade cabinets, we got the good ol' walls and floor... ]

[fivestagegod]

[You know i generally always spot check the hell out of a room first, and that is because my sense of spatial awareness is terrible and I am deeply sorry for it, um. Is this stuff arranged in any particular sort of order, cabinet-wise? I know we have games both classic and modern, are they all grouped together by era, or...?]

[bathymetric]

[ That is valid and frankly how I should have started!!

So the room is way longer than it is wide, so there's only a couple real "rows" of machines in here, but they're pretty long. They're less grouped together by era than they are by type, tho era does shape that - one of the rows has more physical games like skee-ball and the traditional "throw many balls into/at hoops/bottles/clowns" games, there's a pinball section near the end of that row as well as more ticket-focused games like coin pushers.

The other row is digital, with cabinets for traditional arcade games down one side and shooters down the other. The dance and rhythm games are over in the very back of it. ]

[fivestagegod]

[Okay, so we've got midway games, cabinets and...what the fuck is all that stuff at the end. He is from 1998 and that shit is baffling and if he has to figure out ParaPara Paradise to get at whatever secrets may be in here we're going to be in here for hours dealing with his uncoordinated ass.

Anyway.

To the best that he can figure, the midway games are more likely to have physical triggers and mechanisms in them that can be manipulated, so he'll start there. Are they all set up properly/does anything seem immediately amiss with any of them?]

[bathymetric]

[ The physical games all seem to be set up just fine - they're even plugged into physical outlets in the wall, if you look carefully. There are some general oddities - the machines all still have coin slots and ticket dispensers - but as for mechanisms there doesn't seem to be much.

Except for, and I do hate to make this man do this... there's a slip of paper inside one of the pinball machines, on the board itself. ]

[fivestagegod]

[...is he going to have to go full Pinball Wizard to get at that.]

arcade

[mouflon]

Hobby of yours?

[ For Rin's part, she stands apart from the machines like she isn't quite sure what she should be doing with them. ]

[fivestagegod]

Not at all; I actually didn't get to experience them very much growing up. I was raised in the middle of nowhere when this sort of stuff started getting popular; my kid had to show me.

[mouflon]

That's right. You mentioned having a kid, didn't you...

[ Hm. ]

I guess we must be on opposite sides of the curve. This kind of thing wasn't part of my childhood, either.

[ rin you are only barely an adult and only by technicality ]

[fivestagegod]

...Something like that. My childhood wasn't too normal. Less weird than some of the others here, but not exactly reasonable in a lot of ways.

[mouflon]

Right. Graduating so early doesn't leave you with a lot of time for arcades, huh?

[ As much as she doesn't know about schools, she can relate to being busy, at least. ]

[fivestagegod]

The process doesn't really, and then I was immediately hired by the corporation I'm still at right now. They were really strict about things because of the amount of clearance required to work there.

But you know what, it's not like we don't all have hideous amounts of time now. So I figured I might as well.

cafeteria

[nothingcanstop]

[ You know what Della hasn't commented on? The leech. Sure, she's probably seen it, but. Hasn't commented!

That'll change when she's around the cafeteria at the same time, and, you know. ]

Happy not-Saturday, again. How, uh... How're you doing?

[fivestagegod]

Better than I was l- ...On Friday, I guess. Sorry about all of that; I know you said it's okay, but still.

[...The leech continues to give not a fuck about this conversation. Dinnertime.]

[nothingcanstop]

Ehh. [ She waves a hand dismissively. ] It's no big thing. ...I mean, it is, but I get it, sometimes you just gotta break down and spill your guts for a night.

[ Slowly...looks at the leech, just with her eyes. That little guy sure is going, huh. ]

[fivestagegod]

Yeah, something like that.

[...He is absolutely going to town, yep. That said: oh no.]

...He's not going to attack you, you know.

[nothingcanstop]

I could kind of tell. After enough adventuring you kind of figure out what's going to jump at you and what's just...

[ Reeeeeaches out a finger...maybe to poke him. ]

...kind of going to sit there.

[fivestagegod]

[He has been poked by many things, including Jasper. Poke away if you like; he squishes!]

Yeah, they tend to be a little more aggressive in groups. Right now he seems pretty okay with being fed and being kind of gross, and otherwise not being burdened with intelligent thought.