WEEK ONE: SUNDAY AFTERNOON, ROOM 106

[parodeity]

[ dave dropped violet off a little earlier at the room, then went off to haul dirk back to 106, so when he steps back into the room - knocking and being let in, presumably - it's with. the oldest member of this little power rangers squad in tow.

he goes to sit on the couch next to violet, bumping his elbow into hers as a sort of "hey" and then leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. there's like. that chair or whatever by the end table for dirk, clementine and emily are probably sitting on their respective beds?

anyway dave kind of eyes dirk (again. this will keep happening) before going: ]

Okay. Everyone but me can role reveal if we wanna get that out of the way so we can talk information and make a plan for the week based on, y'know, what we can do. Everyone but Dirk [ nods to ] knows what I am, anyway, and he can't know from my mouth 'till tomorrow so we can test a thing. Y'all can mention whatever, though...

[ LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS, to defeat...the HUNS. there is no particular tag order just do whatever and treat it like a trial you can threadjack i guess. ]

Comments

[splinten]

[No this has to come first: Dirk just kinda staring. Blank. At these people.

Actually Clem he gets, she is very postapocalyptic, so he understands her. Violet and Emily both seemed smart but also.

But also.

He just puts his face in his hands for a full minute.]

I figured it'd people he does laundry with.

[Dirk what is with you and laundry.

LET HIM GET TO HIS ROLE IN A MINUTE JUST. GOD.]

[inventurous]

... People he does laundry with?

[ that's. weird. dirk, why are you weird. is laundry like a thing. ]

[parodeity]

[ ok, firstly, are you judging this collection of a 10yo a 13yo and two 14yos, because if so

probably fair. but also. ]

Everyone in this room is everyone I trust full stop. [ IMPLYING EVERYONE ELSE IS NOT ALLOWED INTO HIS TRUST CIRCLE because yeah no this is his trust circle he chose it, it's great??? VIOLET IS A FLOWER THEMED GIRL WHO IS SMART AND COMPETENT WHO THE HELL eLSE WAS HE GONNA GRAVITATE TO obviously clementine and emily. this is fine. ] Also he wants to do laundry with me apparently.

[ dave is not sure what to think about this still. ]

[inventurous]

O...kay. [ to the laundry doing. this is not alleviating violet thinking dirk is Really Strange. ] I'm going to assume that's just a thing where he comes from.

[splinten]

[HE REFUSES TO CLARIFY he'll just like. Throw himself on the pyre, now. Or risk his death? Whatever.]

I'm rollin' the Photographer. [Magically, everyone can now see what he holds out: an instant camera.] It shows things that are hidden, like what's really in the Dark Room. It probably taps into somethin' or other about the Alien Geometries not meant for mankind.

[So if anyone wants to kill him for it, please. Do. He wants to die about laundry.]

[willremember]

That doesn't even seem that useful.

[ wow rude clem. she's just not seeing how pictures of stuff is going to help them, though, even hidden stuff. ]

[inventurous]

[ it's ok violet just figures he's a fucking weirdo. it's fine we're fine power rangers go. ]

That's a neat item, Dirk. I'm [ she sort of hesitates glancing at dave because. why are they testing a thing WHATEVER OK... ] the Bomber, and Dave's the Convict. The menu aptly described my role, and of course Dave has the skeleton key that unlocks locked doors.

[ no one can kill for items dirk sorry ]

[parodeity]

So, anyway. Last week the Convict [ who shall remain nameless ] broke into the Storage Room, on the grounds it seemed like a safeish bet that might be useful. There were...lots of boxes, and, uh.

[ pause... ] Mannequins. Some kind of tentacle monster tripped the idiot, and hackin' at said tentacle did not do a whole lot. The boxes had some interestin' shit on lower levels, but not so much up top. Clothes and chemicals and stuff up there. The mannequins...moved around on their own, and there was a ghost, but I'm not sure that part matters.

[ the information: ] There were boxes of copies of the Yuggoth Gazette. They were all pretty old. The articles were skimmed as quick as possible, but not all of them were even complete. The basics, though? We were probably brought here by the HP Formula, which was made by a lady called Abigail Phillips. She won the Hopkins Award for science. She was supposed to be awarded the prize on July 1st for..."For her extraordinary leadership, inspiration, and advocacy to studying the dimensional possibilities of our future. Her exceptional contributions to mathematics in the HP Formula is the foundation of quantum physics."

[ continuing: ] The condemned buildings were almost certainly the work of an arsonist. He was caught, and they were supposed to be demolished in the spring, but these papers were old - so they either never were, or somethin' is up. One of them is probably a pet store, for the record.

[ and finally: ] We're in North Yuggoth right now. South Yuggoth has a forest, with a radio tower. The Phillips Foundation gave a grant to build it...so that might be useful, if we can ever get there, if only because Phillips is connected to it somehow.

[ ...oh, and: ] Also there were lots of pictures of like. People bein' happy and content back in whenever the fuck, around here. So that's...cool, I guess, but not immediately useful.

[willremember]

[ Clementine just. Sighs. ]

... None of that seems immediately useful. [ oh wait that's. kind of rude to his efforts though. ] --But I bet it will be, when we know more...?

[ she has to think for a bit, but. ]

What do you think the timeline is like, here? Like... Is something going to happen on July 1st? Is it before the demolition in spring right now? Or... Has it been a really long time since all that? Since we all got taken from different places, I don't even know when... This place is.

I don't get it. [ ugh. figuring this stuff out really is not her strong point. ]

[parodeity]

I think it's useful to know this place was not...like it is now. Ems has some other shit that points towards that [ though dave will let the kid reveal it ] and all the Lovecraft references kind of back up the idea that shit's weird.

[ he is not bothered by her not finding it immediately useful, tbh. he just likes knowing more than he did at the start. ]

I think there's somethin' weird about the timeline. Like...also? Those photographs showed a Yuggoth where it wasn't always twilight. So, somethin' happened to change that. I'm wonderin' if we're in a pocket universe or something, but...

[willremember]

I don't see how that helps. My world wasn't always like it is now, either, but it's not going back and knowing that doesn't help anyone.

[ who's bitter ]

What's a... Pocket universe?

[inventurous]

"Something is up" is likely correct. Though... suggesting they never were demolished, which is obvious, but that almost makes me wonder how much we can trust the newspapers. I mean, we don't have much choice, but...

[ she's going to be annoyed if it's all manipulated bs is what she's saying. ]

I hope one day we can get to that radio tower, though who knows if a distress call would be useful or not.

[ pause ] Pictures of happy people is sort of odd. Maybe the papers and pictures belonged to someone?

[parodeity]

They mostly seemed to be like...old things you'd box up. I couldn't see Abigail in any of the photographs, just like, the newspaper. The pictures were mostly relevant because, like. Happy? And also, day and night were separate concepts, not this always twilight bullshit.

[empireofrats]

[Oh, we're telling roles. Okay, yes good.] Hi. I'm the Medium.

I can talk to someone who has died, but... I will get in trouble if I tell anyone what they say. I asked if it was okay to draw instead. The Innkeeper said I just can't say it.

So I'm going to draw it for everyone. The Innkeeper said finding a killer isn't what's important. Something else is, but he didn't say what.

[parodeity]

[ yes good job emily ]

Ems is gonna show us the pictures so we can. Figure out how to distribute whatever without implicatin' her as the Medium.

[ because that would be Bad. ]

...Also, she's gonna claim Vi's role if she has to. [ clementine and violet both agreed this was a good idea? ] D'you know which of 'em you're talkin' to this week, Ems?

[empireofrats]

[She shakes her head.] I get to choose. Who should I? They could have talked to a lot of people.

Unless someone else dies before I have to talk to the Innkeeper...

[willremember]

Huh. [ so - maybe there's a way out of these rules after all. ]

We'll be counting on you, then.

[empireofrats]

[She smiles a little.] Okay.

I'll try to ask the best questions. Should I ask something special?

[inventurous]

I suppose being able to just tell us would have been too easy.

[ god forbid anything be easy. ]

Hm. I guess we'll find out eventually what's "important". Important to the Innkeeper, anyway.

[empireofrats]

He said he didn't make this game. Someone else did, but he wouldn't say who. He said they wanted it to be a bad game. I asked what they looked like so I could draw a picture of them for the refrigerator. He said he couldn't tell me, but to let the "sun" be my inspiration.

[splinten]

What's your opinion on the Innkeeper? [This is... maybe a weird thing to ask but actually he's curious and trusts Emily's opinion so.] Do you think he wants this to end?

[empireofrats]

I think he's okay.

He said that the person who made this game doesn't like him very much. They gave him a choice, and now he's--like our "host," he said.

Then he said he didn't want me to have the same choice. Maybe he played the game too.

Also, we shouldn't vote for him. He said it would be bad if we did. He would go away, and then we wouldn't have any help. But people would still die and bad things would happen.

[splinten]

I was supposed to bring back the rules for a weapon, so here's what they got for the Carpenter.

[He clears his throat and uses the goddamned Craftly impersonation for it because WHY, DIRK.]

Salutations, Carpenter:
1. The following rules are for your eyes only. The ink is invisible to those who surround you.
2. You have been granted a gift. Your weapon is a nail gun.
3. As you read this message, your weapon has been left under your bed. You are free to retrieve it at any time.
4. Do not worry about your roommate catching a glimpse of it. The nail gun is only visible to you and those who you willingly choose to reveal your role to.
5. We hope you are able to enjoy this gift.

[End impersonation.] If the other weapon rules are like that, then we might be dealing with unlimited ammo, but nothing particularly tricky in their functioning.

[inventurous]

I'd definitely prefer none of them be tricky. More so than they already are if they do have unlimited ammunition, not to mention them being invisible.

[ pause. ]

I wonder if you attack someone with a weapon, if it becomes visible? Or does it look like you're attacking someone with nothing? Er, not that I want to find out on a personal level.

[splinten]

We could try an experiment with the nailgun.

[He looks a little pained to say this. There is a reason for that: if they try it, Jake will briefly be unarmed.]

None of you have had the role given to you willingly. I could try to take it and quickly check how someone interacts with it. [Er.] Not actually gettin' anyone hit with a nail, obviously.