WEEK 3

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 3

[Well. Good morning, Strangers. When you wake up, you will realize two things.

The first is that something has changed with your memories. One of them is different from when you recall it being before. Clearer, more coherent, more...correct, somehow.

Could it have been an effect of what happened with the trial? You don't know. What you do know is that the staircase outside of the bedrooms has also changed-the way is no longer blocked. There is a new floor above to explore, now.

What do you do, now? Will you eat anything that had been offered by the Stewards, if you'd managed to snag some of it during the trial? Will you continue to dive into the mystery of this place? And if you do-how much more will it cost you?

There is, unfortunately, only one way to find out.


There are twelve strangers in this place.]

((OoC: Please remember to do activity check!))

Comments

A Troubled Planet

[strangerpeople]

[This will not be easy, or quick.

The Approach finds themselves as another, plunged deep into the memories of a girl. They are so strong and vivid that the Approach cannot, while they have this vision, differentiate between themselves and the one whose eyes they look through. So she is you.

You are in the ruins of a desolate city, one long dead and giving way to nature. Hunger gnaws at the bone, and you can see the shadows of the hunters nearby. You quickly go to the ground, hiding behind a large slab of eroded stone.

You know why they hunt you. They know you have potential. A gift that can be harnessed by the powers of good, against the powers of evil. They intend to deprive you of your life, if only to prolong their own for a few more precious days, against you.

As if you could truly stop them as you are, a young, powerless, untrained child. As if anyone could truly stop them-they say the whole world went mad centuries ago. You believe that.

You hear a groan behind you and watch with wide eyes as the leader of the shadows suddenly stops. They proceed to scream with a voice that isn’t human before stabbing another with a sharp weapon. Soon enough, there is a din of fighting amongst the entire group, and knowing they cannot stop themselves from thinking the worst of one another as the fall deeper into their curse is the only advantage you have now.

So you wait, quietly, until finally everyone is dead from their own paranoia, forcing your own fear back down. It’s hard to do - fear is such an easy thing to let creep up on a person nowadays. It has been this way for so long, you can’t remember it being otherwise. Your mother couldn’t remember it being any other way, either. Now, though, your mother is dead.

Pigtails whip around you in a cold wind as you weep at the thought. You want to be with her now, have her give you a hug, and tell you everything will be ok. You want to stop and just let death take you as it has nearly everyone else on Earth. It’s preferable to the every-day hell that engulfs everyone and everything that lives and breathes the cursed air.

But you can’t. Your mother made you promise.

“Go to Nevada. Your father is there.”

So you steel yourself. You get up and ignore the hunger, and you huddle in your clothing. Nevada is salvation. Nevada is freedom. Nevada is a future, which is better than no future. You take a deep breath, and you turn to your partner, the only other survivor you know of, and he says-

Nothing The Approach will hear. They will find themselves standing, dazed, in the Music Room, an instrument in their hand. It’s the wrong instrument. No matter how confusing it feels to think that, The Approach will just instinctively know three things from here on out.

First, her partner played an instrument.

Second, somehow, he's wound up as this skeleton.

Third, that is still the case, even though this is a vision from the future.]

[incendiarize]

[Apparently we are, in fact, going on a field trip. Bye Krone! But not to the rotator. No, Arthur walks downstairs in his trance, certainly enough, but visits the basement's other room.

The return from another time and place doesn't send him to the floor this time. But he's here, holding a lute for some reason.]

Wha...? Huh?

[joinhands]

[Oh, well, great, they are on a field trip after all. Krone follows along at first with a spring in her step, looking forward to seeing The Mysteries of the mysterious Mister Skeleton. Around the time Arthur actually sets foot atop the flight of stairs, Krone holds back the bouncing as she begins to keep up a serious clip. In his condition, she knows, the young man could fall and hit his little head. This doesn't happen—but Arthur turns into the music room. At this point, Krone is seriously concerned. But to get in his way could inappropriately startle him. Krone retreats to the very edge of the room and picks up an adufe that was at hand.

She strikes this a couple times once Arthur seems to come back. Drawing his attention before calling.]

Arthur, are you alright? You were in such a trance!

[incendiarize]

Nevada is...salvation...

[The sound of the adufe draws him out of his daze. That was seriously weird. And apparently visions might make him walk away now, so he should probably be careful.]

Uh, yeah, I'm okay. That didn't make a lot of sense. Maybe I should do this more often.

[He isn't sure he wants to, but he feels like he's peeking at something important. And he might be the only one who can.]

[joinhands]

[Yes if he develops epilepsy/narcolepsy symptoms Krone will be very concerned and supportive for him!!! But he's doing well enough here for now. Krone puts down the adufe as she places her hand on her chest and breathes a big sigh of relief, weight on the balls of her feet again instead of quaking into the wall.]

Thank goodness...

[But she has to think more about what he's said. On the one hand, Nevada is a place and that could be really important. On the other hand...]

I don't want you to push yourself into these situations. I know how painful seeing things like this can be. In person, that is. ...it's not like I think I can talk you out of trying to help, but if it's ever too much, please let me know anything I can do.

[incendiarize]

It wasn't that bad. Definitely not like reliving someone's murder.

[Of everything he's seen, that was the worst so far. The others haven't been good, really, but... Anyway, he'll be fine. He just has to keep up what he's been doing!]

This one kinda fits together with the first vision I had, if I was the same girl... Mr. Skeleton is her partner, though? A musician. But something's weird, he was alive in that vision - and that was the future...

[joinhands]

[Krone nods sagely. If anyone gives her flack for enabling Arthur, she can just point to that. Swell.]

Well, doesn't it actually make sense? A lot of us are from "the future" relative to the castle. Too many for it to be just a coincidence between worlds, honestly. Maybe he came from that future, perhaps even trying to fight the cult of the Lady...

[But he ended up like this. So sad.]

[incendiarize]

You're right. But....if I was the same girl, the first vision was through her eyes - and in the past. But that was like, seeing a different version of herself in a mirror? And not just figuratively, like she actually talked to a version of herself whose life sucked less.

[Both visions held memories of a dead mother. He gets the sense it was the same girl, but.... He's not sure.]