MINGLE | WEEK 0

[lockedmods]

MINGLE LOG | WEEK 0
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Welcome, guests, to your new home. It has no true name, but you may call it The Locked Place. All doors that lead outside are locked; all windows are the same. Thinking you may try force? Try, try as hard as you can, but you cannot shatter a window; you cannot break the handle of a door. You are well and truly trapped here.

On this lovely Wednesday, why not get to know your fellow guests?

1. You wake up in whatever state you arrived in, be that hale and hearty or ... less so. You will not find medical supplies immediately available, so you will have to make do, for now. You will wake up in one of two places: in bed in your room, or sitting at the dining table. Why not speak to your roomies, or fellow ... dining guests? and get to know them? Or question them, as it were. What if they're the reason you're here, after all?


2. Shortly after waking, you will happen across two items: your room key, and your journal. The former is in your pocket; don’t worry how it got there. Just don’t lose it. The journal’s cover is blank, but you can somehow sense that it is yours. Keep it close. It comes with one pen; do not lose it, as you may not find another. Opening it will greet you to two important pieces of information: the very first page contains the rules, and the subsequent few pages contain the profiles, pictures and all. Past that, the journal is filled with entirely blank pages; it seems as if you may do as you wish with the blank space that remains to you. Use it wisely. (For Snake only, this item will be a laptop, with a basic Word processor acting as the journal itself. It will open to already contain all the above information, as well as room to write. A screen reader is available, and will describe both text and images.)


3. Should you get up to explore, you won't ... find much. The grand foyer is spacious, and lined with oddly crooked paintings. The bedrooms are dim affairs, located on the second floor of the manor; each has a plaque fixed to the door with the names of its occupants. How convenient! Within, you’ll find there is a bunk bed and a pull-out couch in each room, so you’ll have to decide amongst yourselves who sleeps where—especially if your room has four people. The bedrooms also have wardrobes, with just enough clothing for about a week's worth of wear for each character, including underthings and, strangely, a swimsuit. The kitchen is spacious, possessed of every cooking implement and appliance you could want. However, the pantry is locked. There is no food immediately accessible to the characters on Wednesday. Also available are the dining room, which seats ten; the laundry room, with two washers and dryers each; and the greenhouse, which affords the clearest and most spectacular views of the countryside--no, forest--no, plain--no... well, of whatever is outside.


4. In the greenhouse is a girl. Perhaps you should talk with her.

On Thursday, some things will change:

1. The pantry is now open. You may make food. Rejoice!


2. With the opening of the pantry came a key, and a clue. Someone ought to hold onto both of those, come to think of it...


3. Have you noticed it yet? That hallway is too long. This hallway is full of too many doors. That hallway has no doors at all. These stairs just lead to the ceiling. How on earth did you circle back to the foyer after going upstairs? What is that distant creaking, crackling sound? Did a door just slam behind you? Is this house ... haunted?


4. Today, the mysterious girl--who you may know by now as Pratibha--is sitting in the laundry room, reading a book. It is not a journal; it is an actual book. Where on earth did she get it?


5. At 8:50 PM on the dot, the lights all throughout the house will flicker steadily, the way the lights might dim before the beginning of a theater performance. At 8:55, they will flicker again. At 9:00 PM, all the bedroom doors will shut and lock, unable to be opened except by those with the correct key. Where you are at that time is your own prerogative, of course...

Come Friday, something feels different in the house. Changed. Empty. One of your own is dead, and today is your day to investigate. On the investigation post, you and up to two other characters may select a room to investigate. Don't worry if you don't get a room; there will be more chances (and more rooms) in the future. You may also choose to question Pratibha, who will be sitting in someone's bedroom staring out the window. The investigation post will go live at 3 PM EST, 5/2.

Saturday is the day of your first ritual. You may find the ritual post here at 12 PM EST, 5/3.

Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[selfreliar]

[Shock, then something like guilt or anguish ripple across Aqua's heretofore mostly expressionless face.]

...Damn it.

[He accepts Leona's arm. He has to, the situation being what it is.]

Thanks. I appreciate the help...

[As a habitual reader, Aqua does, in fact, know Leona's name from the journal profiles, but he'll leave an opening for the introduction anyway.]

[effortaverse]

[But Leona is not so forthcoming ]

Don't mention it.

[At the very, very least, he doesn't bother this injured guy with his shitty animal kingdom power play nicknames.

He's not so much taller than Aqua that it'll be awkward, so Leona gets Aqua's arm up over his shoulder and puts his own arm around Aqua's waist, giving Aqua a better support for walking.]

Looks like we both missed it when the others went to investigate the body.

[selfreliar]

[Well, that's okay, it's not like Aqua's interested in anyone but girls I mean what]

Yeah. [Frustrated sigh.] I should have been there.

[Annoying, how being stabbed and almost dying gets in the way of providing medical expertise nobody expects from you.]

[effortaverse]

Who the hell asked you to be?

[Leona, the voice of reason, completely without meaning to be.]

[selfreliar]

...No one. But I have medical knowledge. Even if I got there too late to save a life, I could have... you know.

[Examined the body, at least. Called the time of death. Doctor things.]

[effortaverse]

Hmph.

[Typical. Leona lets out a long sigh.]

Herbivores...

Real humble of you, to think you've got the power to stop anything.

[selfreliar]

...

People die quickly. In an emergency, if no one acts... someone's life can be snuffed out just like that.

[His eyes are on the hall in front of him, but his thoughts are elsewhere.]

I don't like seeing it happen. That's all.

[effortaverse]

[ . . . ]

Mm.

[Leona is quiet on the rest of the walk to the foyer.]