WEEK 3

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 3

[It has begun. With the death of the Spinner and the execution of the Indulgent, they remaining Titled will be plagued once more by vivid dreams. And just as last week, they are awoken by the sounds of doors creaking open.

Just like last week. But no one had died last week. Right? No one had been subjected to that...thing.

And yet the strange, cold feeling of foreboding remains. And it is certainly most worrisome to those living in rooms 3, 4, 6, and 15. Those who pass by room 7 and 8 will feel that same, worrisome feeling of foreboding as well.

What will they wake up to find? Who knows, now. If dragons are real, anything is possible.

There are thirteen strangers in this place.]

Comments

EMERGENCY MEETING

[carries_war]

[Once Rubedo calms down from punching his letter, he tells everyone in the Depths, including the Intercessor, to gather in the cafeteria. He seems to be doing a bit better than Sunday, but he's still uncharacteristically curt. Even when he gets to the cafeteria himself, he's twitchy and frowning.]

I've been wondering about it since we found out someone tampered with the evidence Friday, but I think this letter proves it: whoever's behind all this bullshit wants all of us dead. They say us killing each other is doing the right thing, like they think we deserve to die. I don't know why they didn't just feed all of us to that dragon if that's what they're after, but I'll bet they tried to frame one of us so we'd vote wrong and they could execute us under their own rules. It makes me wonder if they even plan on letting anyone go, Order 7 or no.

Now more than ever, we have to stick together. Either because we don't want to lose anyone else, or just for the sake of showing those bastards in charge that they can't control us. That note...it's scary, but there has to be a way to stop it without two more people dying. There has to be a way out of here without anyone dying, and I promised Yusuke I'd find it and get everyone out of here. But...even though I was trained as a leader, I can't do either of those things alone. We need to work together. So, if anyone's found anything we can use against either this virus or the Intercessor's bosses, we should let each other know.

[socialhacktivist]

[Because the Intercessor ripped it up, Futaba can't bring the note she found to the meeting-- but she wants to share what she's found. That means she brings the stylized bloody knife and the blood-filled flask to the emergency meeting as well.]

There's more than one of them-- I found a note the other day. It seems like they're using letters to communicate. From the sounds of it, they were planning on putting someone's blood in our food. The title mentioned... The Destroyer... I've never heard it before. And... if this blood is her's... then she may already be dead. Whatever they're planning... it sounds like they don't want the Intercessor to intervene. But the Intercessor thought they might have been trying to infect us with some kind of vampiric disease.

The last line... It said something like "May they fall at last"...

Anyway-- either we aren't the first people they've brought here or they're trying to get to us.

One thing's clear though... they want us dead. Possibly the Intercessor too... I don't know. But I found this in the Boilery so they may be walking around.

[carries_war]

Probably not right now, if this stuff is airborne. Unless they're immune, they won't want to be here. But, maybe the Destroyer was one of the people in the other rooms. We still haven't seen who they're for...

[socialhacktivist]

I thought about that too... has anyone tried those doors to see if they're locked or not?

[Small chance but still. But anyway... since this is Rubedo...]

...hey. You're good with knives right? Would... you hold on to this for me?

[Futaba trusts him and... honestly it makes her a little uncomfortable. She's never used a weapon herself and it reminds her too much of the weapon that sealed Yusuke's fate.]

It's probably no good in my possession anyway. I know you'll keep it safe.

[zephyranthe]

Sorry guys.

[She actually sounds rather contrite about that, because the letter isn't wrong. When that thing was dumped on her with everything else she'd gotten, it'd slipped, true. And maybe that was an accident. But she should've been able to grab it before it fell or treated the leaking vial more seriously. It shouldn't have come to this at all.

Fie doesn't know how to cure diseases or anything like that, but she can't just sit by and let everyone die because of her blunder, either.]

I'll take responsibility somehow. The only thing I have right now is a journal I found in room #7, though.

[In particular, she has this page dog eared, but there are earlier pages too.]

I think the stuff we found in Eric's room might've been transported here somehow.

[carries_war]

If that guy who gives us all this stuff is connected to the people in charge, they probably planned this.

[He takes the journal and flips through, eyebrows slowly rising.]

That's a lot more names than we have empty rooms...you think those bastards are doing this to another group too?

[zephyranthe]

Maybe. But I could've tried to stop it.

[Somehow... but she'll shake herself out of it. There's no point getting all depressed about it when they have bigger things to deal with.]

Yeah. Unless this is from an older group...

[But then that would bring into question who would do that and why, which would complicate things further.]

[bythewaves]

Do not apologise for what you did not know, and cannot help.

[ Maglor shakes his head ]

How could you have known?

[zephyranthe]

There's always the chance that syringes can have dangerous stuff in 'em. I could've stopped it from dropping.

[She knows he has a point, but still...]

[defriendestration]

IT'S OK! IT HAPPENS!

I SURE DON'T BLAME YOU. YOU DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE, RIGHT?

[zephyranthe]

No, but...

[There's only so much she can blame herself for, though. And she knows from personal experience (hi Rean) that it's frustrating having one person try to take all the responsibility on their own shoulders, even when logically they don't need to.

It doesn't stop her from feeling guilty, but she understands.]

Yeah. If I'd known, I would've done everything I could to keep it from breaking.

[lightnen]

...So I wasn't the only one who found something odd and out of place here.

[ It only takes a moment to grab the journal and flip through it's pages carefully, his brows drawing into a bit more of a thoughtful frown. ]

After reading this, I can attest to that the things weren't just transported here but were done from kind of mirror dimension tied to this one... or something like that. Especially seeing as i've been keeping in contact with someone else who's in the same exact situation like this one.

[zephyranthe]

[Oh wait, she also has something else that i totally forgot about earlier oops. She pulls out a pair of decorative chopsticks from her uniform pocket, too.]

This was in my room, too.

[But hey, that sounds pretty interesting there.]

In contact? How'd you do that?

[Phone reception was presumably absent, since she'd tried making a call on her ARCUS. Maybe letters... but she's pretty sure there's no pandimensional mail delivery service?]

[kiddefender]

I found a few of those as well. One was in my room... It sounds like there were people here before us. With the same titles.

[Her ears flicker, not in time with each other but she's listening.]

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor is quiet and grim when he comes in ]

I fear I have no news to offer, although I do have a suggestion.

[ He opens his hands and sets a blade on the table. It's a longsword, elegant and simple ]

In my world. [ He says quietly ] It was always Men who were the true Dragonslayers. The Intercessor has no clear memory, but... it might be that the abilities given to us here are the key. I am without much of my power here, but I can try and offer comfort to those who suffer with the illness, whichever of us do. And this blade is made with all my skill and with such blessing as I know how to give engraved on the blade. It should be enough to pierce dragon hide.

[carries_war]

[He tenses slightly at the term 'dragonslayer', though he fortunately doesn't remember the full extent of what the term should mean to him.]

It's still not going to be easy to kill something that big. Is anyone here good with a sword?

[lightnen]

[ Seeing how much Killua respected and liked Rubedo, it wasn't hard for him to come to the cafeteria area with no complaints at all. In one hand he was clutching a journal of some sorts, holding onto it tightly while he listened to what Rubedo had to say on the matter and it was completely logical.

It made sense. ]

I agree. There definitely has to be some way out without any more people dying here.

[ A nod of his head and instinctively his fingers curled around the journal in his hand. ]

...I don't even know if it counts any but we definitely aren't the only ones here in this place, if that makes sense. There's more people being subjected to this treatment, and all with 'Titles' like us.

[carries_war]

Do you have a list of their Titles?

[intercessing]

[The Intercessor glowers from where they sit, ripped pieces of note in front of them.

They at least tried to put it back together.]

I do not know of any Destroyer, nor of "the other idiot" the note also speaks of. But whoever they are, they have been kept from my knowledge from the very beginning.

[carries_war]

I'm not surprised. You're just a tool to them, so they only tell you what'll be useful for your job. And now I bdt they've left you to the same fate as us, too.

[kiddefender]

Are you saying that someone is sneaking in here?

[Please say yes. What is happening.]

Wasn't someone checking the other rooms, the locked ones? To make sure no one was there.

[carries_war]

I hope that's what happened.

[He doesn't like the alternative, that one of them is working for the enemy to get them all killed.]

[poorlovefool]

W-Wait... what letter are you talking about? I didn't hear anything about that!

[A person that thinks killing each other is the right thing, who the hell would say that? Except for the assholes in charge, but it doesn't make sense for them to send letters to them.]

Anyway, if Fie got the vial with coins - unless one of you has something else it could be, t-then the virus must be Radical-6. I don't know that much about it, but I can try to explain what it's going to do to us. We have to watch out for the symptoms.

[Just thinking about them makes him look afraid. Radical-6 had a really high mortality rate to begin with... and now they're all...]

[carries_war]

The ones on our doors. They said they'd give us the cure if one of us did the right thing and killed another of us.

If you think you know what it is, though, you should tell us all the details you know.

[bythewaves]

Is it from your world, then? [ Maglor hums thoughtfully ]

Do you know anything about a cure?