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

[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.

[herlocksholmes]

[Yeah, I'm really sorry. I was unsure how to bring it up and didn't want to immediately be all 'then sholmes right when the meeting started told everyone to shut up and to come with him, changing the entire location and undoing what was set before'. It kind of felt like that would be hijacking things and Iiiii admit to me even how I wrote it still feels like I'm hijacking things, so yeah, it's, well, my bad OOC. Didn't mean to step on any toes]

As you wish, my good fellow.

[Let him juuuuust go and get an instrument somewhere, yup. May as well keep pretenses and bring as many as he can find lying around. How to play this while not interrupting things? Well, he'll figure it out]

[vivens]

[ it's okay!!!! i do not mind!!! it was just one of those unfortunate things and both i, naru, and character sabo are mutable enough where adjusting on the fly can happen. it's good that they know this now before really heavy stuff starts getting thrown around.

pats nick softly and sabo will just sigh again and go to fetch something himself. maybe something that will cheer up sholmes' spirits?? not that he needs it but either way— ]

If I could make a request.

[ presenting: sholmes' beloved violin. ]

Perhaps some violin ballads for our troubles?

[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.

[imitationsoul]

We have to at least consider the option of her playing dumb in order to divert our attention from her.

But if this world really is in dire straights not even Lorelei can deal with on her own, that would be quite the development.

[undertakings]

Yes, that is a possibility. She also deliberately avoids answering certain questions, so it doesn’t appear that she’s that interested in cooperating with us.

[In the collaborative sense, at least. So they are better off assuming she sees them as mere pawns. As for this world being in the midst of a crisis…]

Wouldn’t that be the most logical conclusion? In the end, she’s only one person… even with her assistant, there’s probably only so much she can do on her own. If this town really is as empty as it seems, then there isn’t much manpower she could draw on either… although I suppose we still don’t know the extent of the situation.

[imitationsoul]

At this point, I'm inclined to agree. There was little reason to think that this wasn't going fully according to plan at the start, but the longer the operation is ongoing the more cracks are beginning to show.

Though the question then becomes how Lorelei has avoided disappearing like everyone else did? How many are there who are like her and Sage, still hiding out somewhere?

[undertakings]

They had enough time to print a newspaper article about it, at the very least. It's possible some of the residents could have been evacuated before the situation became critical, the Instructor included.

[That other question is a lot harder to speculate about though.]

I don't know if we'll be able to estimate a number... but you can only survive so long by barricading yourself in one place. At some point, you'll need to resort to scavenging the surrounding area. There should be signs of that, if others are still alive out there.

[imitationsoul]

Normally I would suggest that we'd take inventory of the food and see if any goes missing unrelated to ourselves, but... some of it does get restocked and that makes tracking a little harder.

[undertakings]

Would they go so far as to restock all the stores outside the school though? [In fairness, nothing says they can't, but.] There seems to be a shortage of fresh goods, at the least. I don't think they could replace the bread and other perishables so easily.

[cloudalike]

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