WEEK 5

[bathymetric]

That's three murders now - and this last trial got more than slightly out of hand. It looks like you might be in for another tough week... or at least, maybe that's just the refusal of this place to change too much. You lose Saturday again, but maybe six-day weeks are starting to feel normal by now. Who knows? The cycle of day and night continues apace, changing so little.

Speaking of change, though, there's a new area to look through, the biggest and most complex yet. And the end of one wing of the facility, from the looks of it - though you can probably guess where more areas might start to open up.

And speaking of opening up (segues!), this week if you're out particularly late, you might sometimes see Angel out and about! So hey, maybe change is on the horizon.

Just gotta hope it's a change for the better, don't you?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 5! 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! Or, if you want Angel to come to you, that's now an option! Simply put a prompt after lights-out into your toplevel and indicate you want Angel in the subject line, same as investigations! ]

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TUESDAY

[bathymetric]

MOTIVE

[bathymetric]

[ In the morning, another Tuesday means another announcement. ]

As usual, please gather in the meeting room.

[ Welcome to the meeting room, everybody! Judging from how Angel is standing off to the side, it’s not an envelope week this week! The screen turns on, minus a couple dead pixels where someone went and scratched it. ]

Good morning, test subjects. I've been thinking, and perhaps the motivation you lack is a willingness to return to the worlds you left behind. You already know I am capable of moving up and down your personal timelines with the machine that brought you here. So my offer is simple.

Surely you all have something you regret doing or… not doing, as the case may be, at some point in your lives. Perhaps something as grand as a life you failed to save, or as simple as… a ride you’d rather not have caught. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what choice you most regret in your life, what you might have done differently with the added benefit of hindsight.

Well… I could help you change that choice. Take the road less traveled, send your life in an entirely different direction. Think on it.

[ And the screen cuts out! ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Della...is very still. She's...angry? Maybe? But she's usually a lot more open with her anger, so that's strange. After a long few moments, she mutters: ]

So, that's how it's gonna be this week, huh?

[ And then, for the first time, Della abruptly stands and leaves the meeting room. ]

[drladysounds]

[Shelley is silent for a moment, staring at her hands, until she mutters:]

...I mean...I don't even know how that choice supposedly was like...

[She still remembers that red envelope from the first motive. Did the Professor mention that in preparation for this motive, she wonders? Was it a two-step plan to tempt her into murder?

Still, she leaves, conflicted]

[bolderfell]

[Is Angel taking this in any particular way, off to the side over there?]

[lovelikeyou]

[......huh.

There's no outburst here. Rose just looks very thoughtful, and a little sad.]

[emberserker]

...ridiculous.

[fivestagegod]

[There's no outburst this time; he's just quiet, and he's clearly thinking about something, and it takes him a while to react.]

Taking a stab at laser-targeting again. Cute.

[So, in summation, fuck that? Fuck that.]

[snackooed]

[ All of a sudden, it feels like there's been a "Kick Me" sign on her back this whole time, just out of reach. ]

How generous...

[ Always with the stick disguised as a carrot, huh? ]

[valentinus]

[ ...Oof. This was RUDE.

He'll take a glance at Angel, though, and then walk off. ]

[hardnosed]

[ Well, it's probably a good thing that this isn't an envelope week! See, an envelope would probably hinder Jasper from concealing the weight she took from the gym until the Professor seems to be finishing up, at which point she lobs it right at the screen with all the might that's still left to her.

Or maybe it wouldn't have. Her hands are kind of huge. ]

[bogwife]

[Haha, yeah. She's not opening that envelope.]

Jokes on you, Professor, very few of my regrets are choice-based.

[thieviusraccoonus]

[...Well, there's only really one thing it could be.

He doesn't even open the envelope. Just pockets it.]

Heh. I don't think even a time machine could change my choices.

[archboxer]

The choice that led me down my path was not mine. Time is a sacred thing and you, sir, have no right to it.

[philoxenia]

[ oooh no she does not like this at all

Even if there's the possibility that the Professor couldn't make good on this--it feels like a gutpunch, knocks the wind out of her. Mira stiffens, her hands ball into fists, and she leaves without a word. ]

MEETING

[fivestagegod]

[So. Can we all agree that "The Road Not Taken" was a shit poem, because clearly that's what we should be taken from this.

Anyway.

The motive certainly happened, shit poem or not, and a couple hours later Birkin can be found in the lounge.]

Hey. I imagine there's a good amount that we should be talking about, so it's good of you to be here.

[emberserker]

Precisely.

[She sets down a tiny scroll of paper and unrolls it. It reads "-124.508500."]

I'll assume this is part of the coordinates to where we are. Of course, we'll need the other half.

[ladygeryon]

Does anyone here know what "eridium" is? There's an empty space for it in the rock museum, but I couldn't find it in any of the library books. It does seem like that purple rock would fit in the empty space, though.

[snackooed]

I was doing some digging around in the garden before. Literally, but I'll get to that in a second. I found some Morse code that told me to press the button for the birdsong twelve times. When I did, a bottle fell in the pond with this note in it. You guys take a look.

[ In that red handwriting we've all come to love:

I HAVE NO WINgS BUT I STILL FLY
NO FUR BUT I aM KNOWN FOR TICKS
I DECIDE WHEN ALL MeN DIE
BUT IN EACH MOMENT LITTLE I dO STICKS ]

"Thyme," by the way. Found a telescope, for my trouble.

[ Showing here! ]

[fivestagegod]

On my end, the first thing is that I found some academic research papers discussing why we can all understand each other, despite presumably speaking some different languages between us. Something about some sort of universal translation field that converts whatever we speak most fluently and naturally into something that can be understood by all of us. Basically, if you don't have to think too hard to speak it, we can all understand it. Presumably consciously forcing another language won't translate.

[...he got infodumped on the translation mechanic, in other words.]

The other thing is that I'm...working on getting us another resource. A direct line to the Professor. It's something that I think might prove valuable in the end. The more we can understand about the source of all this, the better a position we'll be in. But I need your help in securing it.

[nothingcanstop]

[ Well, Della has...a document! That's the first thing. ]

I found it on the boat hanging from the cartography room. There was a...puzzle to get at it, but the rope isn't connected to it anymore, so getting back up there won't be easy. I noticed the maps in there, they're not just of one planet. There's my Earth, what I assume is some of yours, even Aela's Skyrim... And a planet called Pandora. That one was how I got up to the boat.

after lights out

[valentinus]

[ Following the motive and meeting (he usually quietly lingered there but still attended), Vincent will be making himself the same amount of scarce as he was before. Or he will be trying to, as being reminded of things you regret wasn't the greatest thing.

He can be caught in the library, with a few books surrounding him. On his wrist seemed to also be a pink ribbon, however. For those observant and having met him before, it was not a constant thing.

Then, Vincent will be in the bar with a drink beside him, hardly reacting even at the sound of someone coming in. He was simply reflective, more or less.

Very late in the day he will visit the garden, and stay there as long as he wanted for the rest of the evening. Maybe he just really appreciated this place like others definitely did. ]

[blackmass]

[After motive and meeting alike, neither of which seemed to bother him all that much, Kirei stopped only briefly in the dining hall before wandering off to the garden.]

[Where he would be looking after the poisonous plants, watering any that seemed in need of it with the bottle of water he'd stopped in the dining hall for in the first place.]

[snackooed]

[ Okay, so maybe the motive isn't so fun this time around. But if nothing else, it's not too hard for her to dodge the bullseye she felt on her this morning, because her haul from the vending machine has her in a particularly good mood. ]

Ah! Yes, yes, yes! Come to Mama!

[ You might think she's talking like she's just won the lottery, or maybe like she found some kind of pet, but the item in question that she's looking at like a long-lost child is none other than...er, a pretty ordinary-looking spray bottle. Surely it's got its uses, but the way Ema is cradling it, maybe she's being a little...extreme..?

Anyway, once that euphoria dies down and the meeting is over, she's just a bit busy at work in the craft room, working on crocheting something in the round. It seems like she's paying attention to a pattern pretty carefully, and Rose gave her a bit of a rundown of the basics, but she's not too great when it comes to crafting, and it seems like she's struggling a little...she'll get the hang of it eventually, but it doesn't quite seem like she's found a rhythm yet, and she's overthinking it pretty hard...

Much more encouraging is getting her feet back in the bar and trying out some more cocktail combinations, though! She's mostly making them for the sake of making them, not actually to drink them, but she's more than happy to harass any guests into being guinea pigs for a new creation of hers! She's not there too long past dark, before heading back to her room, but she's eager to mix drinks and play her music until then! ]

an...gel? angel???

[mouflon]

[ After the meeting, Rin heads over to the cartography exhibit. At first, it's just to glare morosely at maps of modern earth — more specifically, if you're watching carefully, at the ocean off the coast of Peru. But after a while she begins to examine each map in its entirety, both earth and otherwise. There's a definite method to the way she browses through them, but her purpose is less clear.

At some point, she thinks to grab something to eat, and then she heads to the library. In many ways, her purpose seems to be much the same as her time spent in the museum, a collection of atlases laid out on the table in front of her. She stays there even after lights-out — though maybe that's unsurprising, given that her manner seems too restless for sleeping to come easy anyway. ]