WEEK 4

[umbralant]

WEEK 4

monday

tuesday

wednesday

thursday

Last week could probably only be summed up as a mess. Three people died, one was turned to currency and the hotel pool remains in a general state of unusability unless swimming in pulpy mush is someone’s idea of a good time. And that’s not even counting the haunted morse code T-Rex. At least the greenhouse is as relaxing as ever, even if someone seems to have made off with a number of succulents and cacti.

But with the new week comes a new set of locations to explore as the fog retreats to reveal another portion of the city. The half moon wanes to a new moon this week, leaving streets even dimmer this week -- hopefully you have some other portable sources of light available if you plan on straying too far beyond the reach of the lampposts in the new areas.

[[Welcome to Week 4! Note that new areas have been added, and can be found under the Week 4 tab on our Locations page. Once again, feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. You can also privately contact The Lady or Rembrandt.]]

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TUESDAY

[umbralant]

WEATHER

[umbralant]

[Today's forecast is thunderstorms with severe wind. The storm will hit its peak in the afternoon before lightening up to scattered showers late in the evenings.
High: 40°F (4°C)
Low: 37°F (2°C)]

MOTIVE

[umbralant]

[The motive for this week will go up on Tuesday at 12:00 PM EST.]

MOTIVE TIME

[umbralant]

[It's Tuesday. It's Motive Day. Perhaps by now you don't need to be summoned to go see the Lady's announcement. There she is -- less excited than she has been the last three times, while she watches everyone gather, like she's trying to read something on them. Finally, she starts:]

I guess I should apologize for how straightforward this will be, but I didn't feel like thinking of something. I was too busy to give it much thought -- and the tedious business of having to sleep eight hours a night doesn't help!

[She definitely is the kind to have some serious sleep deprivation, but she hides it surprisingly well. Must be because of how often she does that. Regardless, her point is clear: she doesn't have anything big to offer today. Still, she has to give something!

The Lady closes her eyes, thinking for a moment, and sighs]

You know what, let's make it simple today. Kill someone, win the trial, and then make a request. Anything. Ask me to kill your enemies, bring you something you really need for your goals, die, give your powers back...anything you can think of. I have a lot of ways to fulfill so many requests. The only restriction is that I'm not stopping what I'm doing here in Krakow. Maybe I'll also ignore requests to fire Rembrandt. Other than that, feel free to ask anything. Consider it a free motive.

There, you now have an incentive. Let's keep going through the motions and kill someone so there's a trial on Friday, okay? Speaking of which, since this is such a broad incentive, I'm placing the 72 hours limit. Take it or leave it.

[With that, the Lady and Rembrandt leave.

[pr159]

[ eyebrow raise... ]

Well, that didn't sound desperate at all.

a very stupid shounen B+E

[bawcock]

[ Sometime Tuesday afternoon (about an hour or more after the motive), Zangetsu and Erik are finally making their move! It took a lot of effort and planning to get here, and it definitely took some time waiting for this amount of rain, but hopefully it's all going to be worth it! And if not, well, they'll always remember trying to hop over a 20ftish wall in the pouring rain.

Correction, not in the rain. During a thunderstorm.

There's a 50/50 chance Erik's hair is going to attract lightning before either one of them ever makes it over this wall, isn't there? Oh well. He's willing to roll the dice even with those terrible stakes. Which is why Erik is currently waiting for Zangetsu near a random wall around Wawel Castle! If it helps any, he does have a bag with a few supplies in it! ]

[moonfang]

[it's the return of poncho hollow. Fucking rain. ALWAYS THE THE RAIN IN THIS PLACE. Zangetsu has the sword he bought with him, just in case, though he doesn't plan on going inside. He also brought his nightvision goggles.

And if Erik has a 50/50 chance, Zangetsu has an 80/20 thanks to his now singular lightning-rod horn. He grumbles, glaring out at everything from under his garbage bag hood]

Ugh. This weather.... Let's get this over with. How good are ya at climbing?

[bawcock]

[ The man of the hour!! And he brought his own supplies. ]

In this weather? [ Gesturing at the rain with his left hand. He's given up on even trying to shield himself from the water, the Lady can just deal with drippy floors. ] I'd say my chances of slipping are better than I'd like. But I figure even if I do fall, you'll either catch me or I'll roll down the hill.

Either way, does it matter?

Invitation

[deadlygoals]

[ Sometime after the motive, notes will be left for everyone. ]

Let's take a night to relax and have some fun.
Come to the Jazz Bar at 8:00 PM
There will be food and drinks provided

Party

[deadlygoals]

[ Everyone will be greeted by the creeping fig tree. There’s a sign attached to it that reads “Welcome! Help yourself with the food.” The bar counter top is full of food and drink area. There’s chazuka (missing seaweed), rice, chicken katsu (with bread crumbs), tempura, and potato croquettes. The drinks consist of the sealed bottle kind raided from vending machines, as well as a bottle of vodka in case anyone wanted to mix it up.

All the tables in the room have a set of candles of various heights in the middle of them to help with lighting. Twister is set up in a corner, with cards and other board games from the Hotel. There’s also a notebook with pens and another sign instructing people to write about what they know of those who have passed and little factoids about themselves. There’s even example questions asking for people to share where they are from and if they have any spouses or family members.

Dazai can be found perched on a stool, by the bar. He’ll lift his hands up in greeting. ]

Hello~ Are you ready?

First Game: Hot or Not

[deadlygoals]

[ After everyone gets settled, or starts to poke around, Dazai will tap on a glass at the bar. ]

To get us all started, I thought it would be fun to play a game. It's called Hot or Not! Each person will stand up here and everyone will tell them if the find them hot or not. Sounds pretty easy, right?

[inordertobelieve]

[ He's been dragged over here, because he's been too confused to say no in the moment, still slightly overwhelmed with the situation, but..... ]

.... you can't be serious.

[promittere]

[He has absolutely no idea what he's getting into. He feels that deep in his bones, but he's been nursing a drink and...fuck it. He can feel Gladio telling him to live a little.]

It sounds almost too easy.

[galrarm]

[ Everything has sucked!! But you know what, let's do this. He lets out a chuckle. ]

I haven't done this for years. Really brings back memories.

[ this is why keith calls you old-timer, shiro, god ]

[raventhaw]

No.

[pr159]

[ Well, at least this is happening after he got all his hair care products and everything!! Also he's not wearing a feather boa tonight, in case that impacts anyone's rating one way or the other. ]

Might as well, I suppose.

[ What's good for the goose is good for the gander, or however it goes... though tbh he's just going to mentally discount the "no" votes as "lmao too bad they're so jealous." ]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Can you feel nostalgic for awful memories? Mikami isn't sure why he's here, recreating experiences he's not thought about with anything but contempt for years and years. He's wearing a suit from the boutique by now and keeping himself in the corner of the bar, watching the scene skeptically.

The last time he's been to a party he'd been 20 and filled with some uncertain sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, there were people for him out there. Having escapes the confines of high school and an unloving relative's home, Mikami had felt a sense of freedom for the first time since he was 13. In college, he told himself, people would surely be reasonable. His awkward attempt at reconnecting with human society had been as stumbling as it had been earnest. A fool's hope, killed within a few weeks and buried six feet under within a few months. People did not care for Mikami's opinion. People did certainly not care for his help at reformation. Mikami was a stick-in-the-mud, he was boring.... His stomach had turned up in knots. The adult world wasn't like the world of children, no. It made people even worse.

So then, why is he here now? It's certainly not hope this time. The people he's stuck with here are a band of criminal misfits who are beneath him on every level. He's just keeping up with them and their shenanigans out of caution - and because the silence in his room tastes the same as the silence of his jail cell by now.

Unless dragged into games, he'll spend the whole night being wallflower and sipping unenthusiastically on a single drink. ]

[reanbeans]

[ Rean walked right into the place himself, looking around at the collection of food, and took some himself, but avoided the vodka.

If anyone wanted to come join him, he'll pass a friendly smile as he was getting his bearings, trying to decide on where to sit. ]

Did you want to join me for a little while?

[ Later on, he's approached the bar stools to speak to Dazai and shook his head. ]

...I don't know if I'm ever ready, so I think I'll go with 'maybe', for now.

[pr159]

[ In contrast to Mikami, Rideaux is always down for a party as long as there's alcohol involved... though honestly, his own memories of some of the post-mission parties the agents used to have together when they were younger are all tinged with some bitterness now too. There's a distinct line in those memories between when Julius was there and when he wasn't, and he hates both sides of that dividing line for different reasons.

But Julius isn't here either, so fuck thinking about him.

That aside, he's here in a new black pinstripe suit with a dress shirt in a slightly darker shade of lime green than his usual, with his hair looking absolutely terrific. And he is calmly but forcefully making his way to those potato croquettes to make sure he gets a few on his plate before anyone else can get to them and take them all.

He's also going to be peering over the shoulder of anyone writing down personal facts, hoping to come across at least something juicy. ]

[ortion]

[Dist is here...but for all of his projected charisma, he is actually a pretty big wallflower when it comes to parties. Why? Well...he's a fucking nerd, do you think he was ever invited to them in his younger years? Better yet, do you think he had the time to attend one in his younger years?

The answer is no, to all of the above.

So despite the fact that he has dressed his best in new clothes from the boutique, has his makeup and hair done perfectly, and has his party food at the ready, he...kind of meanders at one of the tables. He did bring his mini Kaiser Dist RX as a potential discussion piece, at least. But no, it is not for use in a game of Hot Potato this time!!!

At some point during the party, he can be found writing in the journal. Considering it's public information, it's nothing too crazy. He just writes a bit about his world, Auldrant, and the magical aspect of its technology as well as his robots. He can be asked about it too!]

[psychophant]

[The party is... cute? Sure, we'll go with cute. Iago didn't really have anywhere else to be so why not, here he is. He's ditched the opera costumes and his usual outfit for an actual suit today, but naturally he's wearing all black with a purple tie. He's also gotten his hands on that really high-quality makeup in the boutique, so he's finally back to his usual standards of beauty. The mask and circlet in the back are of course on, but at least he's not wearing the cape today.

He's content to make himself at home with chess, so feel free to join him for that if you missed it at the afterparty (or just want to play again). As always, he'll be absolutely merciless in these handwaved games, but he's in a pretty good mood so he might even be willing to teach if you're interested in learning how to play.

Eventually he'll check out the notebook, looking for anything particularly interesting anyone's written down, and purposefully avoiding any and all mentions of a certain idiot who got himself killed by lizards last week. The rest of this is interesting, but he's certainly not adding any of his own information.

If you want the notebook he'll hand it over without a fuss. Even if you just approach for any reason, he'll speak up.]

Tell me about the world you come from. I'm very curious to hear about it.

[drydrown]

[Cumore is...well, he certainly is here, anyway. Not wallflowering because he really isn't the type, but once in a while he'll subdue himself enough to be approached if anyone really wants to do so. He's dressed in one of the opera outfits again - he likes the colors and the brocade and the...everything, really, it's closer to what the nobility tend to wear where he's from anyway - and his hair and makeup are done up; while generally he's just sort of flitting around (and apparently telling people like Teru Mikami that he'd gladly sleep with them, I am so sorry Mikami) he'll settle in a few places throughout the night.

He tends to gravitate towards the piano, not to play anything but because that's just naturally where he tends to end up when he's here; it's comfortable for him in terms of positioning and it's a decent place to watch the others from.

He'll also be spending some time with that notebook, actually; he doesn't feel like handing out a lot of personal information, but he is writing a bit in there anyway - about Zaphias and the Sword Stair above the city, about the capes and the ruins and the sacred tree at Halure. There's a lot, but he's trying to be concise at least; maybe he misses it a bit, maybe he's got his own reasons, who knows.

Either way, he won't be eating or drinking anything here, because he rarely does at these things, but it's decent enough to socialize for a while.]

Tarot 'readings'

[notbymyside]

[A certain someone has taken a spot at one of the tables. He also snagged a deck of tarot cards from the tarot shop, and he is shuffling them in his hands as he speaks.]

Care to get your fortune read? I can answer specific questions or give you general guidance for your future.

[Fair warning: Ango knows absolutely nothing about Tarot and will 100% be making up his 'readings' based on the images on the cards.]

[baitless]

[...you know, Seteth really isn’t much of a party animal, so he feels a bit out of place here... but he shows up anyway for the food and conversation. It can’t hurt, right? He does spend quite a bit of time dithering at the notebook before deciding fuck it, he may as well go ham talking about his family. You have a bit more information about Lysithea, of course, though nothing too personal... but you are probably also going to be a Ph.D in Flayn if you decide to read all proud paternal gushing he’s doing. Maybe there’s a bit about Rhea, Indech, and Macuil there too, but it’s mostly Flayn and his departed wife.....................

Anyway, he might wallflower and eat some food if he ever actually finishes that. It’s possible he does. Possible.]

NOTICE

[reanbeans]

[ Rean will be at it some point early in the morning, posting notes, though centered all around the clergy housing. He was trying to be a little cautious this time. ]

Everyone, I will be holding a meeting in the Hotel Restaurant this week. There's likely been some interesting developments, so please be sure to come so we can share any findings with everyone.

The meeting will be at 12:30PM on Wednesday, as usual. I'll be bringing refreshments and food. Let me also know if you have any requests for the kind of food you'd like to be available.

- Rean Schwarzer