02 - week two

[afflictionmods]

WEEK TWO

When the glitter settles and everyone returns to their dorms - or wherever they intend to sleep for the night, if you’re planning on sleeping at all - your first week of school officially ends. Perhaps it was better than you expected, perhaps it was worse.

Hopefully you learned a bit more about teamwork and school spirit.

Still, this course is going to run for longer than a full week, and come Sunday morning you’re still exactly as you were when you settled down for the night. Still in Estelline, still with that mark on your wrist, still connected to your partner. There are some changes, though. The bookstore has received quite a few books, and those of you who added to the bulletin board and pep rally tasks in the first week will find an envelope taped to their dorm door (or themselves, if they spent the night elsewhere). Inside of the envelope is some kind of voucher! Furthermore, the common area is covered in a bunch of glitter.

Also, there are a ton of eggs in the kitchen – at least 10 dozens.

Florence or Lorelei are still available, should you wish to speak to them.

Finally, you've got some new locations to explore.


SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TASK LIST

CLUMSINESS AFFECT DETAILS (BEGINS TUESDAY ICLY)

W2 CYOA SIGNUPS
CYOA Signups for Week 2 close Sunday, May 29th at 6pm EST.

THREAD SURVEY
Google form for partner threads, due by Friday, June 3rd at 6pm EST. Optional.

W3 CYOA SIGNUPS
CYOA Signups for Week 3 close Friday, June 3rd at 6pm EST.

OOC NOTE

OOC: Anyone who performed in the Pep Rally (Sabo, Madara, Riku, Shizuku, Herlock, Idia, Flat, Miach) task will be able to redeem a voucher for a prize with one of the NPCs. This can be handwaved, and the prize selection is below.

-Single-serve coffee machine wither a selection of creamer. Comes with packs of coffee beans.
-Popcorn maker and kernels.
-High-quality tea kettle with a selection of just as high-quality tea.
-Carbonation machine (think Sodastream, etc) with flavored syrup.

Any coffee, tea, popcorn, etc. will last characters up to two weeks.

Anyone who participated in the Bulletin Board task will receive a voucher for your choice of two pairs colorful socks with cute animal designs. (Worry frog design available.)

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

common area - townhall...... 🤔🌿?

[vivens]

[ some time thursday evening sabo will post a flyer on the bulletin board requesting that everyone meet in the common area around 4 pm as he has some "Very Important Information" that everyone should know about. there will also be a doodle of someone thinking along with a leaf: 🤔🌿

upon arrival, sabo will have a nice spread of snacks spread about with some cups and various drinks in an attempt to account for everyone's tastes. he'll start speaking roughly after people have settled in; his voice and demeanor ever pleasant and casual. ]

Thank you for coming to this impromptu meeting it means a lot to me! I know I teased the message about some ground breaking information, but I might have lied a bit. I do want to expose a bit of what sort of thing we might be actually dealing with. It's just that unfortunately I don't have too much to offer currently since I've only had my eyes opened but...

[ he shifts the tone to be a bit more serious. ]

For anyone who hasn't been made aware, four people—Ace, Bennett, Ryouma, and Tama—disappeared yesterday for a couple of hours. I say disappeared but I really mean "disappeared". [ obligatory air quotes present. ] I'll let them recount what happened themselves, but after hearing from Ace about what happened, there was something that stood out to me.

They met a girl named Sage.

[ he'll wait for a moment to see if anyone other than the people he named (will name) will react to the name before continuing. ]

More importantly, though, is that Shizuku and myself also met a girl named Sage.

We ran into her while Shizuku decided to be bold and do some exploring on her own. She also found a newspaper accounting for some interesting events that Sage spoke of without needing any prompting, and that event is this yearly phenomenon that cause people to feel certain things. Sage recounted it as a desire to "fix things" and also described how it made people get violent with one another. Things that were also written in the newspaper; I believe Shizuku still has the newspaper if anyone wants to examine it closer.

Now Sage is still here with us and if anyone wants to visit her, I just ask that you let Shizuku or I know as we've gained her trust. It's a trust that I hope we can continue to keep. [ or in other words: if anyone wants to test how valid his special talent is, feel free to be mean to sage. try it. ] She is just like us—stuck in a place where we'd rather not be.

Now, while it's been very nice for me to share all of this with you all, I'm more curious if anyone else has uncovered anything in the short time that we've been here.

[fabulation]

...Sage?

[ Xingqiu's expression goes thoughtful and curious at hearing the name, but no recognition is apparent. Instead, he falls quiet other than that, and then listens to what the blond has to say. ]

I wonder—I don't doubt that she is stuck in this place. But, when you say like us, does she also have the mark and such as well?

[ He figures it is well worth asking, considering. ]

[vivens]

[ hmm.

sabo will tap his chin a few times and frown. ]

Unfortunately, we weren't able to ask about that. The two of us had different priorities at the time. Getting her to trust us and open up was more important to me. However, it can be something to ask her the next time either one of us visits her.

My gut says likely not, but it never hurts to be certain.

[pr159]

Where did you see this girl, exactly? Given what a small area we're confined to, it's hard to imagine that there are really other people here whom the rest of us have somehow never encountered.

[vivens]

Down some stairs in a room near the arcade. The door to it is normally barricaded and it's certainly out of the way—almost to a creepy degree, so I imagine that it's not a place people would notice normally.

[ sweats in mods until they expose the exact location. ]

It's why I give so much credit to Shizuku for deciding to go down there on her own initially.

newspaper and stuff!

[cheerfuldays]

The newspaper I found specifically details the yearly phenomenon is "much greater and more dangerous than before". It said that citizens were lashing out at each other, violently or verbally; some say they've been isolating; some have been found crying on the streets. The continuation was on the floor in the kitchen... some of it was smudged, like someone had stepped on it with something on their shoes, but I was able to find something important, and I think it might be part of why we have a curfew:

The appearance of unexplainable spherical shapes that have been appearing at night specifically, which Sage mentioned people would 'wander into'. She said she'd felt tempted...

It was dated 5/3/926.

[catarou]

Seemingly strong emotions, building until they burst forth like water through a dam...

[ Uncomfortable! Gentaro frowns. ]

This "yearly phenomenon" escalating to that point is concerning, to put it extremely lightly.

[fabulation]

926...?

That's the year listed on the calendars I found.

[ Either way, hm. That sounds odd, and not at all like a good thing. ]

But, unexplainable spherical shapes can be anything. Maybe even something supernatural.

[ Which he thinks is more likely if they have a certain time where they appear and yet leave no traces behind... ]

[cloudalike]

I wonder if Lorelei and her assistant are susceptible to the same temptation...

[unsinksyourship]

Hm? Hmmmmm? Hm?!

[Tamamori seems to be ruminating something deeply, his eyes getting a little wider with each tidbit of Sage lore and revelations -- well, a lot of it is still on the level of trivia, but some of it sounds a lot like urban legend, so maybe he's finally starting to get a sense of the dangers and the scope of what they've been through--]

Don't tell me... Sage is also a real person???

[closes my eyes]

[vivens]

[ take your time, sabo can wait.

he'll vibe here until tama is ready to say something and then he'll just give him a casual nod. it's okay frogmeme. ]

I don't know what your Sage looked like other than how Ace described her to me, but from the description alone, they certainly do sound like the same person.

[herlocksholmes]

.......

[Sholmes looks around, and, once a pause comes, raises a hand]

Come along with me before you continue any further. There's something you must see.

[Having said that, Sholmes does lead along anyone who wants to come along. He trusts that, once he says his piece, the rest will take into account what he'll say.

The place he leads people to, is the karaoke. Once he's there, he makes sure the 'practice room' sign is pinned properly on the entrance, and goes in]

I have performed a few investigations all over the place, including interrogations at Ms. Lorelei and her assistant. Among my findings and deductions there's one you should heed before continuing further:

Don't speak carelessly outside of this place.

[Sholmes stares at them all]

As the people in charge, it's natural they must keep surveillance on us to some extent. However, through some schemes Mr. Escardos aided me with, I have pinpointed this building is safe from Ms. Lorelei listening in, at least for today. I myself examined every inch of this place and found nothing that could indicate we're being listened to right now. To keep it safe for as long as possible you would do well in coming here from time to time and play the most ear-rending or the most annoying music you can muster.

Keep that in mind before dropping potentially sensitive information about people Ms. Lorelei and Florence may not be aware of while being outside of this location.

[So yeah, Sholmes names the karaoke as a safe place for sensitive information since it's outside of Lorelei's possible surveillance, at least for the time being. That's all he has to say right now, yup]

[unsinksyourship]

I thought ear-blasting or annoying music was a feature of karaoke?

[You'd think this was joking but no. It's very serious indeed. The karaoke genre has been Taught to him through a great deal of trial and error(???); also you'd think he'd want to stay out of the karaoke bar but nah. Here he is, like a bad penny as always and forever.]

Did you just want us to sing with you?

[vivens]

[ do you ever just feel yourself age when listening to someone speak? this is how sabo feels the more sholmes starts speaking because...

wow.

why would this information be held up until this point. here sabo is making an announcement about a mystery person who is in a precarious situation. a person that maybe sabo would agree to do small crimes for. ...but sometimes that's how things go and he understands it just be like that sometime. ]

Thank you for your input, Herlock Sholmes... [ sabo: closes my eyes ] I suppose if there were another meeting of this nature, it would be in our best interest to include musical accompaniment.

[ i guess it's a party in the karaoke bar next townhall which may or may not be a good thing with its proximity with alcohol. ]

In the meantime, would you do us an honor and play us a tune during this current meeting of ours? At least, minding that there isn't anything else you'd want to quickly share.

[undertakings]

[hmm.]

Based on what I've heard from her, she didn't realize we had access to these spaces, so it doesn't seem likely that there was surveillance equipment inside this entire mall. I can't say if she might have decided to add anything after I spoke to her though.

[Also added like an afterthought:]

She said the fog shifting wasn't her doing either.

[cloudalike]

Wait - is that why you were playing so terribly the other day?

[partymagician]

[ Fai immediately settles onto one of the couches, grabbing some snacks. ]

I looked around the stationery shop the other day, since I was in there for a while. I found a few IDs, a wallet, and a backpack. I only have the IDs with me, but when I went through the backpack, it looked like someone had left the shop in the middle of their shift and never came back. The water bottle was only half empty and they had all of their money still in their wallet. It was quite strange!

[ And... Fai reaches into his pocket, pulling out a phone. ]

I also found this phone sitting on a chair in the back room. If anyone wants to take a look at it, you're more than welcome to!

[ Unfortunately, Fai is not good enough at technology to do his own little investigation on it. ]

[vivens]

[ SCREAMS MY HATRED ABOUT ONE PIECE LOUDLY FROM THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN because he'll take a look at the phone and....be completely unhelpful. what's it like having a character who has technology that makes sense?

that aside, IDs you say? ]

What are the names on the IDs?

[selfconcept]

I can take a look at the phone. Give it here.

[ He rambled about technology stuff as his contribution. Let him help. ]

jewelry backroom crimes

[superstructure]

[ Julius is here! He adjusts his glasses before he starts talking. ]

There's a room in the back of the jewelry store that's filled with monitors and a computer. There's not much on them, aside from a few photo editing programs and one that's made for tracking. A pair of bugged earrings were given to a customer by the name of Lorelei. According to the data kept, the earrings moved to a position outside of our current reach well over a month ago, and did not start moving again until recently, with the most recent data being from right before we arrived here.

[ He'll hold up some of the prototype earrings they nabbed. ]

It seems they went through a few different iterations before settling on the ones they gave to Lorelei. They only seem to be able to log positions every ten minutes, so they're not completely accurate.

[ pause ]

There's also a version of the program made to track these made for a phone [ ghs ], but no record on where the device it's installed on is.

[vivens]

[ i. i hate how he could follow up everything up until we get to the "phone" part. i'm in literal tears. well whatever, he's slowly getting more exposure to "phones" so let's go i guess. ]

I doubt we could ask our instructor to confirm whether or not she was that customer or not. Rather, even if we did want to, I'm not sure if it would be in our best interests.

[ but it sure does tell an interesting story. ]

[iubar]

[ ace motions for sabo to come over to him. he has a phone from his time away. he might have gotten distracted and forgot to mention it when he got back. oops. ]

I barely figured out how to use this, but fumbling around enough I managed a few things when we were away. Got to bring it back to me.

I figured maybe someone here knows how to use it or you could figure it out.

[vivens]

[ STOP THESE PHONE CRIMES.

i desperately hate one piece. ]

Don't go breaking it before someone is able to look at it closer.

Tablet/internet/florence

[selfconcept]

[ This guy is just here with bandages wrapped around his neck and his entire right hand with each individual finger wrapped separately. Maybe Hien is always getting injured somehow. Poor Fai.

Anyway, here's for all you tech geeks out there. ]

Here are some breakdowns on the tablet. Each device has a name. It seems to indicate the number you're assigned with. I'm from team 8, so my device name is "8-1". The Wi-Fi isn't changeable. Moreover, you can actually set a password to your tablets. When you do, a notification is sent and the change is recorded. I put a password on and off multiple times throughout 30 minutes and they're all sent, presumably to Florence. They didn't seem to care, as they do with many things.

By the way, Florence is part machine. The core seems to be the main processor in their chest area. They can also read your physical status by touching your forehead. As an aside, our current "clumsy disease", wasn't known to Florence either, so it's not their doing at least. Miss Instructor also seems to want Florence to be independent to an extent. When I asked her why did she not get Florence to stop Flat from playing the trombone for so long, she didn't want Florence to interfere, even though it was in her best interest.

[ Back to the tablet. ]

There's nothing interesting about the calendar, but it marks holidays if you want to take a look. Translated, of course.

On their video sharing website, Estelltube, the newest video that was uploaded is barely a month old. We can't comment nor upload videos ourselves. I have a feeling that many videos are also hidden or blocked due to some sort of censorship too. Apparently, Estelline was involved in a revolution that led to their independence, hence independence day on the calendar.

A strange thing I also noticed was that the more recent comments on the videos are a little over a week or two old and they all boil down to the same thing: concern for the uploader. Some even mention that something is strange and they dont know what's happening. Opening the source code opened a pop-up that said "its rude to peek without asking". Despite that, there was nothing off about the source code that I could find.

And finally, on the Estelline University's website, the staff and course catalog are wiped clean.

[ ... ]

Oh, the security system is kinda shit, so feel free to break all the glass at the mall if you'd like.

[imitationsoul]

Now now, this is beginning to sound more and more like a horror movie. An abandoned town whose residents disappeared into hungry spheres one by one, violent incidents occurring... A compulsion inflicted onto us that our captors claim not to know about it...

All those little breadcrumbs feel a bit too good to be true, don't they? It gives off the vibe of an ARG... though sometimes truth is just as strange as fiction, too.

[ Also she's going to have to talk to Florence about that status checking stuff... ]