03.50 - week three, saturday

[afflictionmods]

W3 SATURDAY

Another Saturday rolls around. Some of you had an… interesting night, perhaps, but that’s still no excuse to sit out on your lessons. There’s another announcement, another time to meet before your lessons start today. This time is just a bit different, though. This time you’re not meeting up at campus. You’re told to meet up at the park in the Museum District - and, as always, you’re expected to show up. How you get there is irrelevant, but you better try to be on time.

Florence is waiting at the park, and behind them is another dark, ominous orb. Even as far away as you are, you can hear its whispers. It’s calling to you with promises it can show you a new life, a better life, it can make you someone better… But then Florence is speaking, as if they cannot feel the hear the whispers.

“I will be accompanying you on this lesson, as I said in the brochure I handed out on Thursday. I will do my best to assist you.” There is a pause, though their face voice remains emotionless. “It is hard to say what it will be like inside - however, your goal for this lesson is to close this place for good. I may be unable to assist with that personally, so we are relying on you.”

They take a step back, turning towards the orb.

“I would advise you to do what is asked of you while you are in there - and a word of warning. Through our observations, we have noticed something strange. This seems capable of creating replications of those who enter it.” They let that information hang for a moment, before continuing. “We are unsure what these replications are truly capable of, but please be careful.”

Then Florence gestures for you to follow, and they’re stepping into the orb.

THE RINGMASTER

The inside is still the same park, but it has been transformed into a carnival. There are booths with games and food set up everywhere, a large ferris wheel, a tent. It will be a familiar carnival, to some of you, but all the lights are off and there are no people there. There’s a tug, a pull, that draws you towards the main tent - to center stage. Stepping inside you will be greeted by someone dressed as a ringmaster, whose voice is lively and energetic despite how hollow they seem on the outside:

“Hello and welcome! It’s time for your performance! And every good performer wants to do what the people want, don’t they? There’s a list on those little tablets of yours, and you need to do whatever’s asked of you!”

The ringmaster laughs brightly, and it echoes throughout the tent. “The more you do, the more we’ll all enjoy it, and the better chance you will get to stay you! But if you refuse… Well, that won’t be any good, right?”

The ringmaster makes a wide, sweeping gesture with their cane.

“We’re very generous here, though, and realize some things are easier to do with others! That’s why one refusal won’t be an instant loss. We’re assigning task cards, you see. Kinda like bingo cards! Each time you do a task for someone or someone does one for you, you get 50 points! The more you do, the higher the score, and once you reach 200 points, you're capped! But every time you refuse to do something people ask you to do, even if you're at 200 points… you lose 100 points ! And if you don’t do anything, well, you get no points and you lose automatically! You also can’t just sit around doing the same thing with the same person over and over again! Gotta spice it up! The same thing over and over again is just boring.”

There’s a click, and noise starts up outside of the tent. It sounds like the carnival’s come alive.

“Your little tablets will track your points. I really do recommend playing along, because if you fail… You’ll lose something. Something that makes you you! A memory, a precious item, something that makes you who you are and can’t be replaced so easily… Who knows what’s at risk, here! Though who am I kidding, it might be more fun to see what you'll lose. Don't ya think? Maybe you should just give up now and we can all laugh about it!

Anyways, all you gotta do is live until the timer runs out. The timer, by the way, is gonna be at the top of your tablet thingamajigs.”

There’s a tip of the ringmaster’s hat. The timer reads 90 minutes.

“That’s all for now! Go find that pesky little robot who’s been snooping around if you want more answers, because I am very busy.”

THE AUDIENCE

Once the ringmaster’s done with their speech, you’re free to travel around the carnival and explore it. It’s an eerie, quiet place, but… you’re not alone, and it won’t take you long to realize that. Those of you who had seen this carnival before - Miach, Shinei, Herlock, and Xingqiu - probably won’t be surprised when the doubles show up. They’re near perfect recreations of you - but near perfect doesn’t mean perfect. Their mannerisms might be odd, or their movements might be jerky and uncanny… but at a glance, it’s impossible to tell who is the real one and who isn’t.

And this is something that makes these doubles very, very angry.

They want you to fail, and they’ll do anything they can to ensure that happens. They’ll sabotage you - or your partner - all in an effort to make you lose points. They'll taunt you if it seems like you're ready to open up, they'll tell you about all the reasons why being honest is a bad idea. For physical prompts, they'll taunt you, call you a monster... They also seem to believe that if you fail, they’ll get to replace you. They will get a chance to get out of here and be the real one. They’re not always convincing, but they are dangerous, and there’s just as many of them as there are of you.

OOC NOTES

OOC: Here are some important things to note for today’s event:

- A simple breakdown of the rules is as follows:

You cap at 200 points, but you must maintain those 200 points until the timer runs out.
Mutual agreement on completing a task nets each person 50 points.
Getting turned down or refusing to do one makes you lose 100 points.
You cannot use the same person to complete all your tasks. You must have only one prompt per character that you cooperate with.

- The cards know, meaning that they'll know if something is not answered earnestly. Prompts that are answered falsely will not go away on your tablets. They will only go away if they are answered truthfully.

- Failure is NOT a bad end! In fact, we have some plans in the instance where not enough people pass the exercise. If 5 or more people fail the exercise, that is considered a group failure. Those who failed individually will face the consequences of losing the important memory/item/etc.

- We are asking people to make their own task cards. Here is a list of prompts:
break someone's bone, make someone bleed, get someone to cry, cause someone an injury that leaves a long-lasting mark, tell your partner what you hate about your relationship, tell your partner/someone in general your deepest secret, get someone to reveal a time in which they were emotionally very vulnerable, tell someone what you like about them, make someone angry, fight someone and win, kill someone's doppelganger, have someone kill your doppelganger, tell someone what you think is their worst attribute, tell someone what you think is your worst attribute You may also add one custom prompt tailored to your character, if you wish.

Please toss the prompts into the textbox at the top of this site. Under "Configuration Options", the card size should be 3x3 and the center space should have Normal selected. All characters will get a total of 9 prompts on their cards. It is okay to have prompts that your character would not do; it would just increase their chances of failure.

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[sicklysweet]

[Well.]

Huh?

[He wasn't expecting?? Fai to go straight to that??]

[partymagician]

You wouldn't mind, would you?

[ Fai holds up his card, smiling a little. He knows it's sudden, so let him explain himself. ]

I wouldn't feel awful for fighting you, since you're not one of the kids. I want to get this one out of the way as quickly as I can.

[ And Fai thinks he can take him... ]

I'll do one of yours in exchange. Your pick.

[sicklysweet]

[He can't even feel insulted about this.]

Alright, fine.

[He also has winning a fight on the list, but.

Well.

They can't both win, and Fai probably does have better odds...]

I have one to get tied up. That should be easy enough, right?

[partymagician]

Should I feel honored that I'm the one you want tying you up?

[ No.

But it's nice to joke in a situation like this, so he'll take that opportunity. ]

[sicklysweet]

[cat no banana]

No. That one will just take the longest so might as well do it first.

[So... now it's time for Owen (and Fai) to realize how how terrible he is at hand-to-hand combat?!]

[partymagician]

Fair enough.

[ He laughs softly. ]

But I'll tie you up after our little fight so that you can have a chance.

[ Also because it would be boring to fight someone who can't fight back at all...

Without warning, goes in for a leg sweep to knock Owen off of his feet. ]

[sicklysweet]

[Oh No.

Owen is observant, but his instincts are to call for magic he hasn't had access to for weeks, which means he's slow in hopping back to avoid the sweep. He manages to catch himself, at least, so this isn't over embarrassingly easy. He tries to think about what Lennox would do and swings at Fai.

He's not going to lose a fight on purpose.]

[partymagician]

[ Fai leans back just far enough to avoid the hit. ]

Not bad~

[ He reaches out to grab the wrist of the fist Owen just swung at him in an attempt to twist his arm behind his back. ]

[sicklysweet]

[Fai says that right before he grabs Owen, which really. Should be expected. He didn't learn that much from the shepherd.

Owen isn't going to make it easy, trying to twist and flail out of the hold even if it risks his shoulder getting dislocated. Never go down easy!]

[partymagician]

[ Of course Owen won't make this easy...

Fai doesn't want Owen or Riku to get hurt if he dislocates his shoulder or worse, so Fai tries to use the momentum Owen has created to pin him down on the ground, face first. If he's successful, Fai shoves a knee down onto his back to keep him in place. ]

[sicklysweet]

[This is undignified. Face first on the ground, pinned by some wizard who's a fraction of his age...

At least that gets his wriggling to slow down. There's not much he can do like this and it's not like he has the strength to just buck Fai off.]

[partymagician]

[ Fai presses down a little bit on his back, only letting up slightly when he stops moving around. ]

Three... two... one. I think that counts as winning, doesn't it?

[sicklysweet]

[scowling into the dirt]

You win, fine.

[He says, as sulkily as possible.]

[partymagician]

[ He laughs, getting off of Owen as he stands up and holds a hand out to help him up. ]

It's cute when you sulk like that, so don't feel too down.

[sicklysweet]

[Why does this keep happening to him? He swats Fai's hand away, pushing himself up on his own.]

Why are the two of you like this?

[He just!! Sulks more!!]

[partymagician]

The two of us?

[ He laughs again, pointing to himself. ]

[sicklysweet]

The two of you. You and Hien.

[>:C]

You do the same... saying I'm cute thing. It's weird.

[partymagician]

[ He laughs. ]

Is it? I think we both find some similar things cute.

[ Fai hums softly. ]

People who get flustered like you do are cute. It's pretty simple, really.

[sicklysweet]

You're the worst.

[Huffs.]

I don't get flustered.

[He doesn't have time for this!! He wants to pretend this never happened so he doesn't have to think about wizards and world eaters calling him cute.]

Let's just get this over with. Tie my hands up already.

[There's plenty of rope around with all the tents, at least.]

[partymagician]

You're most definitely flustered.

[ There's an amused look in his eyes as he walks off to go find some rope, destroying one of the tents around some kind of game booth in the process of getting said rope.

He comes back just a couple of minutes later. ]

Hold out your hands for me.

[sicklysweet]

I am not!

[Very convincing.

He holds his hands out, wrists together, sighing heavily.]

You know how to work the timer on that thing, right?

[The tablet.]

[partymagician]

I do. Hien showed me when we first got here.

[ He starts to tie Owen's wrists together, the knot not especially tight, but tight enough so that Owen won't accidentally slip out of it and ruin his time. ]

[sicklysweet]

[Owen is immediately testing the limits of the rope, and...

His face is blank, which is unusual. Owen's generally pretty expressive, even if most of his expressions could be described as "unhinged smile" or "sulky scowl".

He shifts, tugging at his bonds again.]

You started it?

[partymagician]

[ Fai presses "start" on the timer. ]

Yep.

[ He looks at Owen for a long moment, the blankness of his expression immediately obvious. ]

Are you feeling alright?

[sicklysweet]

Of course I am. It’s just rope.

[It’s just rope. It’s not even magic rope.

So why does it bother him so badly? Why does he feel so out of sorts? It’s like being back in that candy house, with those children sent to die staring up at him, running around, being thankful that feeling that he’s unraveling, unbecoming himself.

Like being in the Forest of Dreams with a puppet and thorny briars that shouldn’t be there, everything muddled and dark and he can’t leave.

He tugs his wrists apart, ignoring how the rope chafes. He’s not staring at Fai, but through him.]

…