FINAL WEEK

[strangerpeople]

FINAL WEEK

[There are no new floors that open today.

No food, if you didn't bring any with you. No way to figure out how much more anyone can take of this. There's just no way to know. Half of your number are gone. Half of your number either betrayed, or were betrayed. It is overwhelming and terrible-and who knows what more is to come.

You can feel the shift in the air. The fear, the strain, the tension, between everyone who is left. What can anyone do? Is there any way out of this? Is everyone truly condemned, after all? Who will betray whom?

What will happen next?


There are seven strangers left in this place.]

((OOC NOTE: This post is your last chance to have your characters explore the Mansion and all of its corners for possible clues. After the Final Investigation is open on Thursday, the Mansion will still be accessible, but the Strangers will be unable to uncover any new clues-or alter their Nightmare levels-in Investigations or Encounters.

You have been warned.))

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CURRENT NIGHTMARE LEVELS

[strangerpeople]

[As of Sunday, the following characters have the following levels of Nightmares:


Level 1
Emma

Level 3
Ambrosine

Level 6
Arthur

Level 8
Harriet

Level 9
Eric]

SUNDAY

[strangerpeople]

INVESTIGATION/ENCOUNTER THREAD

[strangerpeople]

[whiterosefoes]

[Harriet is still spurred on by restlessness and agitation. She's going to check the armory for any advantages they may have missed.]

1d150 for talking to the mummies = (77) = 77

[relieable]

[for some reason, Osomatsu's been able to sleep without nightmares lately.

that doesn't mean he sleeps well, considering everything that's happened. he's still haunted by his thoughts when he's awake, wondering where Akko and Franciscus are. if it was possible to talk to the dead, maybe he... can try...

he throws off his blanket and gets up early that morning, grabbing one of the souls he took from the trial two Saturdays ago. he can't sleep, so he might as well try this. he goes down to the parlor and sits on the couch. then he holds out the blue soul and stares determinedly at it before closing his eyes and focusing on the whatever power he has inside of him]

My heart inside of me... my heart inside my image... Oh, Franciscus... live once again.

...

[joinhands]

You are my sunshine; my only sunshine...

[From behind this appears to be a familiar sight from when you first arrived at the mansion. The garden, with its usual drab sky. Krone in her matronly dress bent over the well, singing.]

You make me happy when skies are grey...!

[The bucket is all the way up and Krone scoops it out of the well into her arms. She turns to put the water down safe on the ground.]

You never know, dear! How much I love you~

[The right side of her face is completely familiar. On her left eye is a purple eyepatch.]

Please don't take my sunshine away ♪

CNTUAW - this is likely to head bleak, dark places

[yonosoymaria]

[It's like when they met, almost. The woman at the well, almost like that parable. But not once-married, not more-than-once-married, not a metaphor, not her, not Krone. She is entirely real.

Eric hopes so, at least - and then she turns, and - ]

What awful coincidence, how - God, the same side where Quincey - what happened?

[It was Quincey, wasn't it? And he'd failed, so - then - but no, it was - there had been someone else.

But he's gone, and she's here.

And she's been hurt. Any thought of his present disheveled state falls from Eric's mind as he closes the remaining distance between them at a sprint.]

Re: ...

[necroyalty]

...

[There's a moment of pause when she sees Krone, as if she's trying to process just what the hell went on.

She says nothing. At her feet, Gumdrop seems to be enjoying himself, nibbling on the various flower shoots popping out of the ground.

Ambrosine is very well aware of what this implies, but still not sure as to what it means.]

[incendiarize]

[Good morning, friends! Today starts with a shout from the bedrooms. Not a scream - not some extended cry of pain or danger. Just a shout, short and loud and somewhere between fear and shock. Then silence. Then a call, to clarify for anyone worried:]

I'm okay!

[Sort of. He's not sure, his mind is playing tricks on him.

Somewhat later, he'll be in the workshop, just....glumly making figures out of clay. Nothing big or detailed, nothing all that good, just....makeshift toys, really. This is what we're doing now.]

bedroom

[hexposition]

[You would think Emma would be a little more concerned about her own well-being after yesterday, but no. Apparently, not, because she hears that shout and comes running.]

Arthur? What's going on?!

[hexposition]

[Emma sets up in the dining room, spreading out a couple of sheets of paper full of notespaperweight prototype of some kind of machine.

Emma still looks a little troubled, or perhaps a little shellshocked, but either way, she's here to answer any questions anyone has about these.]

[relieable]

[later on in the evening, Osomatsu comes down to the dining room with Hydrangea riding on his head and sees Emma there. he smiles a little sadly at her, before he notices the papers. he'll come over to see what's happening]

What're these?

MONDAY

[strangerpeople]

???

[strangerpeople]

[Sometime in mid-morning, a strange, animal-like skittering noise starts to echo through the hallways near the bedrooms.

...]

[yonosoymaria]

[Eric has accepted that he may be permanently unmoored from what most people call "real", now. But that sound -

He has abhorred rats since childhood. He really, truly wishes these rooms still had doors, that he hadn't been at fault for -

Is that noise getting closer?]

TUESDAY

[strangerpeople]

.

[strangerpeople]

[It is late morning, when suddenly, there is another scream. This one, however, doesn't come from the bedrooms, or the library, or the parlor, or anywhere in particular. This one comes from everywhere, through the webs.]

YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!! YOU SHITSTAINS!! YOU LOWLIFE PIECES OF RECTAL VOMIT!!

HOW DARE YOU-BIG SIS IS--GRRRRRRGH!!!

[The screaming starts to fade, though it can still be heard, if someone less coherently, then when the Elder Steward's voice comes on. There is no playfulness, no bemusement, no subtle darkness. His is the voice of cold, unbridled, monstrous fury, with only some semblance of decorum keeping him from also exploding into a similar rage as his companion.]

You fools. The individual that you somehow managed to assassinate was a dear guest of ours, and of Our Lady's. I will not pretend to understand how you succeeded. But know this.

You have made a very terrible mistake, humans.

You have deprived Our Lady of something she keenly needed and took great lengths to have with us-

[The Younger Steward's voice suddenly becomes very loud again, briefly.]

you fuckers you FUCKERS YOU BRAT I WILL RIP YOU APART-

-and you have plunged us both into a mood of incalculable grief and anger. We have done nothing but try to make you what you were born to be, and THIS is how you-

[A hiss, then exhale.]

...It is only due to the fact that Our Lady would not want us to merely rip all of you apart limb from limb where you stand for what you've done, that I and my partner have not come to do so right away. No. We demand recompense.

We demand that you restore what you have so cruelly destroyed. We will give you such a chance to pay the price we-no, that Our Lady deserves. There is a Temple beyond where you are now-we expect you to be there on the top floor in two days' time from now. All of you. We will discuss what you are to do for us in payment for your blasphemy.

Should you be late, or should even one of you not appear...well, allow me to simply say that my partner will ensure that you will wish you were never born.

THAT WON'T EVEN BE THE BEGINNING OF WHAT I'M GOING TO D-

[And with that, the communication is done. The survivors are alone once more.]

[joinhands]

[Krone is in the library a little after the announcement. She looks calm, for a woman whose life has presumably been indirectly threatened, and with a purple eyepatch over her left eye.]

Interesting...

[The books are so hard to read with zero nightmares, this is apparently more of an exercise in not getting bored while listening to an earpiece for the slightest variation in noise.]

---

[Walking through the hallway or wherever, she's carrying an oversized chocolate bar under her arm and extending a triangular piece with her free hand.]

Want one?

[But she's still holding onto it. This is apparently a toblerone piece with conditions.]

obviously toblerone!!

[whiterosefoes]

[Harriet has steered clear of the armory ever since fleeing it, which means she never did get to return the big lance she grabbed. Be that as it may, the armor she got back from Franciscus just before he died is on, since she might as well look the part if she's carrying this thing around. Her streetclothes, besides, were stained with blood. Irrevocably now, whether in dream or reality.

Even if that thing that killed Bang and Emma was dead now, who knows what the Stewards were going to do as a result. The way they were ranting today, it definitely seems better to be safe than sorry, she doesn't want to run into either of them in a dark corner of the mansion.

Instead she runs into Krone. Who has a ludicrous amount of chocolate, and an eye patch. Harriet shifts her glance between these two additions to her. Somehow, this feels quite mocking already.]

Oh she did pay you nicely, huh?

Toblerone

[incendiarize]

[Two and a half weeks, now, since Arthur's eaten. Two meals in five weeks. It's not enough, and even if he's stopped feeling hunger pangs, he hasn't stopped thinking about food.

Also, that's not just any food Krone is offering. That's chocolate.

So yeah, his eyes are wide as saucers and the eye patch goes either unnoticed or at least uncommented on. #priorities]

Yes.

[Yes he does want one.]

library

[relieable]

You'd have a better time reading with both eyes, yanno.

[it's meant to come off as a joke about the eyepatch. is Krone a pirate now? or maybe she needs it? Osomatsu doesn't know. he's just trying to lighten the mood after that... that mess]

WEDNESDAY

[strangerpeople]

[15unknowns]

[Another path of destruction has found its way among the mansion. The cauldron in the game room is kicked over, in direct disrespect of blob-sealing efforts. A parlor ottoman is bisected. The bat flowers are shredded. The scrolls in the library are unchained and thrown at the walls. And now, Giriko is in the tavern, just day drinking like a crazy fool. His anger has obviously not abated given the state of things, but he looks uncharacteristically calm as he downs his bottle. Or bottles.]

((ooc: proceed with caution, these threads are likely to get dark))

[joinhands]

[Down this path, Krone and Eric are straight up walking around, hand in hand or not depending on the whim of the moment. They're still on team beer. It's a bit surprising the team's leader is right here, but—their allegiance is open, now.]

Hi, Giriko! [Just greeting him. Like a civilized person.] Oh, I've got chocolate. [She decaptchalogues a sort of basket, where the giant toblerone has been broken into individually rewrapped chunks.] Have you ever had chocolate?

[He's got great reason to be mad, of course, but he IS just sitting there drinking...]

tavern

[relieable]

[it's probably not a good idea to poke the bear. but Osomatsu looks around at the destruction in the mansion, and he can't help but think that the remaining guests are going to be next. if he's going to die in this awful place, he might as well die trying to save the others.

...okay, he's not that heroic. but he cares about Arthur, at least. the others, too, but Arthur is just a kid. Arthur needs to get back to his home. he also wants to know if it's possible to bring people back once they are gone here.

so he strolls into the tavern, eyeing Giriko before sitting down]

You having fun today, nutsack?