WEEK 7

[bathymetric]

Another Saturday gone and just like that you wake on Sunday, down five of your number. The largest dent taken out of you at once so far - it's surely noticeable, the head count being cut by a third. Almost enough to make you wonder how many of you will even be left by the next motive or two. Surely this isn't a sustainable rate for body counts to increase... right?

There's a new and, it looks like, final wing of the building to explore, bringing everything full circle. Maybe you'll get some more answers to some of the questions and mysteries of this place there - or at least, you can certainly hope for them. Time to turn your investigative eyes towards one last batch of rooms, who knows what you might find?

Angel remains around at night, her appearances much more common now that... well, she's certainly seen a downtick in necessary surveillance work, hasn't she? The app giving you a line to The Professor remains open, and well... whatever's going on with that ouija in the library continues to happen! You're not suffering from a shortage of leads, at least, even as things get more bizarre.

Something's going to have to give here, eventually. Right?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to your last player case week! AC is over here, regains as always are over here, and... well, enjoy! After this we get to take our big turn towards the Serious. ]

Comments

[bolderfell]

[Though he's not the most expressive man by nature, after nearly seven weeks in close company, it should be easy enough to tell that Therion's in a great mood. He takes his noon-ish breakfast to the Area E lounge, where he alternates between nibbling at it, sipping what appears to be a mocha, and figuring out this thing, whatever it is. Does he have to press the ...?

He must be feeling good about his chances with technology today, because the afternoon finds him in the arcade again, cloak and scarf folded over the railing of the DDR machine as he practices his moves. He's still playing on Light Mode, but he's really starting to get into it. ...Maybe too into it, given the partial power uncapping.

Anywhere in the facility during the hours between midafternoon and dinner, test subjects may glimpse something out of the corner of their eye. Something small. Something speedy. Something... swipey. The Cait has no dang idea what's going on, where it is, or how it was summoned here, but it's going to dart around the facility doing what it does best: collecting valuables and shiny things.

Should someone miss the striped purr-loiner in the act, Therion runs in half a minute after it, looking breathlessly excited about something.]

Did you see it? Which way?

[By evening, the caffeine from baby's first mocha has worn off and Therion can finally chill, even if he's still on his weird tech kick. Specifically, he's going through his VHS collection in the Area A lounge. He got one with a label, and though it's a meaningless string of numbers to him, he still pops it into the player, frowns, rewinds, and lets it play.

...

What.

He rewinds and plays it again, looking just. Bewildered. A little disturbed, too, but the predominant feeling of the moment is what the sweet fuckity fuck?]

everybody wants to be a cait

[philoxenia]

[ She's in the dining room, putting up a few things she's made when--

Holy shit. What. Luckily, Therion conveniently comes in, and she's looking a little bewildered. ]

.... Was that a Cait?

[bolderfell]

We have to catch it.

[The icon here is more representative of his inner state than his outer expression, but also, this is the best day he's had in seven weeks.]

[philoxenia]

Well, of course we do!

[ She is Down For This. She ties her hair back. ]

Should we split up?

[bolderfell]

Maybe once we track it down. These guys are fast. We need to get it in a corner.

[He's so hype.]

[philoxenia]

It's good we're both fast, too.

[ His hype is infectious, honestly. ]

Alright--I saw it escape not too long before you came in. We should hurry before it gets too far away.

[bolderfell]

Let's do this.

[In his hype, Therion takes her hand and darts out of the dining room, pausing only to look both ways.]

...Bet it went for the gallery. Those paintings are valuable, right?

[philoxenia]

[ She's so focused on finding the Cait that she doesn't think too much of it, at least! ]

Very valuable. If we'll find it anywhere, I'm sure it'll be there. ... Unless it can sense that the vending machine has expensive items inside it.

[bolderfell]

Machine first. It's on the way. And both rooms only have one exit.

[Time to dash along. If Mira's empathy would let her track it, though, it doesn't seem like the Cait's in the vending machine room or the art gallery. Maybe in Area B?]

[philoxenia]

Those are good places to start.

[ When they get closer to the hall leading to Area B, though-- ]

Wait--I don't feel anything in either of those rooms. [ Like mischief! ] We shouldn't waste time with them.

[bolderfell]

You can sense it?

[But he accepts it even as he asks and continues to Area B.]

From how far away?

[If she's looking for mischief, she might find it in the craft room. Mischief and a sudden kittenish delight.]

[philoxenia]

Well, it's hard to not... I've never felt so much mischief from anyone or anything. I can feel it just faintly, and if we keep going, I think it'll get stronger--

[ Oho. She brightens a little, then tugs him in the direction of the craft room. Her voice is low as she says, ]

In here, I think.

[bolderfell]

[Oho, indeed. That's a one-exit room, too. Therion grins and replies in an equally low tone.]

Want to be the one to flush it out or to grab it?

area a lounge

[fivestagegod]

[You know, he's been largely keeping to himself today and living in the infirmary, as usual, but a couple of things actually manage to get his attention as he's returning to his room for a moment; the first being that the TV sounds like it's on in here, the second being the...

Oh fuck he hasn't heard opera like that in a while and now that he's hearing it again it's a little too soon for his liking, what the- ]

...What are you watching?

[bolderfell]

No clue.

[He moves back from the TV so Birkin can see. The Final Fantasy-looking guy sure is being himself, there.]

I got it out of the vending machine.

[fivestagegod]

[Just look at him, Final Fantasying all over everything.]

Oh, that's...

[God. Like he's trying to ward off a headache, Therion, why the fuck is that here.]

...I'm actually not sure who that is. Someone who's really not happy with the corporation I work for.

[bolderfell]

This isn't a movie? It's real?

[Why the fuck is it here, Birkin.]

He made a man out of leeches.

[fivestagegod]

Yeah, I don't know how he did that one, either.

[He does seem to be entirely genuine about that, albeit Really Fucking Tired.]

I know the one I've got likes it when you sing at it. Rose did that before, it liked that a lot. But I'm not sure how exactly you'd get them to...do...that.

[bolderfell]

That's not normal in your world, is it? You can't just... make people.

[fivestagegod]

No.

[Well, not outside of the standard means of making people...]

We've got viruses that have been released that can make people into things that...aren't exactly people anymore. But that's not exactly looked highly upon for really obvious reasons.

[bolderfell]

...

I don't know... what a virus is.

[fivestagegod]

...So I'm probably about to make you uncomfortable for the rest of your life, but if you've ever been sick, it's because a living thing that you can't see got into your body and tried to kill you. Your body wasn't having it and killed it before it could kill you.

Viruses are some of the things that do that. Get inside people's bodies and just raise all kinds of hell.

[bolderfell]

[uH]

...At least my body has its priorities straight.

[He'll never sleep again. For now, though, he points to the TV.]

That guy said he spread one of those virus things around. Was it one of the ones you were talking about--the kind that changes people?

[fivestagegod]

[Therion's ability to sleep, the true casualty of this week.]

Yeah. To the best of our knowledge, he hit one of the nearby cities with it. It's currently not going too well as a result.

[Understatement of the year, but you get the idea.]

[bolderfell]

...Why.