WEEK 4

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 4

[A third of those of you who came here are now dead.

Its a sobering thought as everyone wakes up the next day to find their profiles updated once more, with Rosie and Naoya now added to the list of the discarded. There's an entire empty room, in terms of humans - Rocky, Murray, Elly, and a a strangely new and realistic robot bird are still there, somehow. Someone will need to take care of them now that their owners are gone.

Just like last week, no one has regained their memories, but their powers have evolved. Also like last week, a new floor has opened for those remaining to explore. It's...definitely different from the previous ones, to be sure. Emptier, more militaristic. And very, very large.

Maybe that's where the transport will arrive? Whatever the case, Marie's claim about the universe - if she's telling the truth - means there's less than two weeks left before the universe's destruction. If anyone has not yet thought of a way out that doesn't involve killing, the time to figure something out may be running out for everyone.

Meanwhile, even despite the lack of Naoya to hack the computers, the random computers belting out shittyfluting has, if anything, increased in their frequency. Which is definitely odd, since no one else has tried to hack into the computers...right?

There are ten strangers in this place.]


SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

Comments

SUNDAY

[strangerpeople]

Mainly for Nagisa, Jonathan, and possibly Hitsugaya

[mementodagger]

[Whether Yurick was taken to the room he shares with Hitsugaya or if he took over the room previously held by Akira and Naoya, whoever is sleeping in the room will get a rude shock early this morning: Yurick screams in his sleep and jolts upright, clutching the right side of his face. The scream chokes off into broken sobbing, the mage's body trembling violently. He's covered in a cold sweat and he's white as a sheet.

A nightmare, but about what? Until someone calms him down, there won't be an answer.]

[backuphero]

[Forget sleeping. There's no way he could sleep after - yesterday, now, or it should be.

At least Jonathan's got company as he paces the round hallway: a small crimson catterfly (buttercat just sounds wrong somehow) perched on one shoulder. He's been talking to it - it was obvious pretty quickly that while all it can say is squeaking, it can understand speech just fine, and he's been getting quite the lecture via squeaks alone since saying something stupid.]

...right, all right, I get it, I get it. Of course you couldn't sleep all day, and I know I should've left you some food, I'm sorry. Still, you didn't need to see what happened, and did you really have to leave the wrappers from what you went and got all over -

[He's cut off by a scream, and he jumps enough that Fuzzball grabs onto his hair to balance, then decides to just flutter behind his shoulder, a low trill making it obvious the creature is worried too.

It's Sunday, why -

He's already running to the room it came from when the scream falls to sobs, and he recognizes the voice. It seems Yurick did what he was avoiding, and ran straight into why, and... oh, hell, he looks like he's not even really awake, but with the way he's grabbed his face that might end badly. So would tackling him, so Jonathan manages to slow himself down just enough that he lands on the bed with a light thump, and he's able to grasp Yurick's hands without jarring him too much. ]

Hey, hey, easy... easy... you with me? Come on, snap out of it!

Cw: mention of eye trauma/artificial eye

[mementodagger]

[Yurick is outright sobbing, narrow shoulders heaving with the stress of some phantom pain. When Jonathan pries his hands away he looks up, not really seeing the blond, one eye unfocused and gray-blue and weeping tears while the other is finally revealed by the shifting of the patch.

It’s featureless gray stone, set in a dark socket, lidless and staring. Five small crosses ring the lower edge, too velvet dark to be even a skilled tattoo but somehow looking like brands despite their perfect blackness.]

It hurts... it hurts... it’s burning me...!

[backuphero]

[He's not seeing him. Yurick's off somewhere else, somewhere far back in his mind - God, please, not his memories, please don't let those marks be what they look like they are -

He's not seeing him, that eye can't be seeing anything, and -

and he's not here -

"...my name's not Eric, come on, Dad, wake up!"

No. No. No. He is not thinking about that. NO.

Jonathan tries to remind himself of where he is. He can't call out for Mom, this isn't - he's not ten anymore, and this definitely isn't home, definitely isn't his father - there's no adult to call for help, he is the adult giving it now. There's a worried little squeak next to his ear, and a warm little hand patting his face; he flicks his eyes sideways and manages a brief smile before focusing back on Yurick's face, focusing on keeping his hands away from it, trying not to stare too hard at what looks like a piece of carved stone set into human flesh.]

Yurick, it's not real. What you're feeling isn't happening right now. You're... okay, I'll admit you aren't safe, but none of us are. You aren't being burned, okay?

[mementodagger]

[Yurick whimpers and shudders, Jonathan's voice slowly reaching him through the haze of his nightmare. Gradually his tremors fade and his eye focuses, and with a few owlish blinks he finally fixes on Jonathan.]

Jonathan? What... where...?

[He feels the warmth of his eyepatch on his forehead and gasps, ripping his hands from the blond's and quickly tugging the patch down over his eye again. He won't look at Jonathan.]

Don't look at me!

[backuphero]

Little bit late for that. Yurick, is that... was that supposed to be a seal?

[More worried squeaks from his shoulder. He reaches up, aiming to pat Fuzzball and hopefully calm the little thing down, but the catterfly has other ideas...

Congrats, Yurick. There's a ball of fur with wings and a catlike face squeaking down at you, with a worried look mirroring Jonathan's own, from the top of his head. Jonathan sighs.]

And... this is Fuzzball. He came out of the computer like the other critters. Fuzzball, this is Yurick, he's probably going to say he wants us to leave now, but don't buy it for a minute.

[theserpentsmiles]

[Nagisa stayed right here holding Yurick's hand all night. He'd fallen asleep sitting on the floor, head resting on his arm on top of the mattress. Naturally this put him at ground zero when Yurick began screaming.

He couldn't figure out what his eyes were looking for fully awake, half-asleep he can't even figure out pressure points. He's just been calling his brother's name, trying to break through.]

Yurick- Yurick, you're not there, you're--

[Bur....ning....?

He remembers fire. A circle of fire, and mad laughter, and....eyes. Yurick's eyes and her eyes, pupils dilated and sclera turning black, the field burning as she threw everything she had and more into her attack, knowing she wouldn't survive, not planning to survive, her brain rotting away faster and faster and]

Yurick, wake up!!

[mementodagger]

[Between Jonathan physically restraining his hands and Nagisa shouting at him, Yurick finally fights through the disorientation of his nightmare. He feels drained, worse than if he hadn't slept at all, yet the last thing he wants to do is go back to sleep. He sits there for a while, still clinging to their hands, turning his thoughts over and over in his head.

Now the two people he actually cares about here have seen what's under his eyepatch and it's not a story he wants to tell. They'll pity him, maybe, or think him mad for what he did to himself and the reason why. Still, it won't compare to the horror they'll likely feel if he tells them the full truth about his eye and his magic.

There's no way out of it.]

What you saw... it's not for anyone else to know. Bad enough they heard me shouting about my magic, but even my comrades back home don't know about this.

INVESTIGATION TIME?

[tiefleaf]

[ Okay, he spends most of his days just kind of dicking around, but the hangars caught his interest.

First off: How well lit is Hangar P? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Pretty well lit, actually! Having a look around, then?]

No one saw that misfire

[tiefleaf]

[sure thing! Let's have a look at them robots. ]

What misfire

[strangerpeople]

[Well, there are those robots, and they're pretty damn big.

Fancy a climb to get a better look at them?]

[tiefleaf]

[ sure, let's go with that.

What do we see? ]

Investigation Time for Baku

[vividsins]

[ He's done wallowing in despair over everything. When he wakes up and there's stronger powers and a new floor, he's going to head on to it after feeding the animals and himself. And since Molly has Hangar P, he's going to take the mecha repair area. See if there's any notes or anything. ...He has the small cat with him, tbh. ]

[strangerpeople]

[There is a computer in the processing area, naturally. Investigate?]

[vividsins]

[ Hell yeah, let's look at that! What is on this computer? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Its a repair and upgrade kiosk. There are a few files, primarily a document and a spreadsheet. The latter is password protected.]

[vividsins]

[ Does that mean the document can be read? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Yes.

The spreadsheet, meanwhile, has this for the password:

_ _ _ _ _]

investigation???

[backuphero]

[Guess who still hasn't slept.

Spoilers: THIS GUY.

Jonathan can be found, a bit before noon, haunting the library. Naoya wouldn't have wanted him to pray for him, so he won't, but the others... well, there's a Bible here somewhere, he's seen it, compared Naoya's sequence of events to its version of events. He's accompanied by a catlike creature with butterfly wings. Perched on his right shoulder, it seems worried about him...


Sometime after that, though, he can be found in the computer room. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to the terrible music popping on and off, and yet... he's leaning against one wall, trying not to doze off. In the moments before the music pops on again, what does he see on the nearest screen?

[strangerpeople]

[A lot of garbled garbage code.]

[backuphero]

[And if he keeps watching this happen, would it seem to be the same each time?

Also, are there manuals still lying around in here?]

[strangerpeople]

[Yes to both questions.]

[backuphero]

[Oh boy. Is this shittyflute enough to justify/play behind a frantic sleep-deprived studying montage?

And if so... can he manage to get the garbage code to print?