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

[selfconcept]

Thanks.

[ Right after saying that, Hien brings out a knife and quickly attempts to cut the doppelganger's throat. He wants to make this fast and easy so that problems don't come up for later. ]

[undertakings]

[Tibia unfortunately does have the same skillset as Shin so its reaction speed isn't an insignificant factor here--the moment it spies the glint of the knife, it's already moving to the side, although it can't quite escape fast enough to get away completely cleanly. Instead, a line of black goop forms where the blade skims the side of its neck. And as half-assed as some of these doppelgangers can be when it comes to imitating their originals, the way it narrows its eyes is actually rather authentic.

Shin, for his part, just furrows his brows at the sudden movements although his guard is noticeably up considering Tibia looks ready to turn this into a fight.]

...Is this on one of your cards?

[He's not sure how else to explain sudden the homicide(?) attempt unless Hien just really hates doubles.]

[selfconcept]

No.

[ Despite his sudden attempt to kill someone, his expression is the same. ]

But I noticed some people have the same prompts and if this is one of yours, then, well... that's even better.

[ But he just really wants to let loose. Yeah. The reasoning isn't complicated. ]

[undertakings]

[In a way, Hien is absolutely doing him a favor here because of the nature of the task cards, but also having someone else kill his double... doesn't feel right. As he stares straight into those red eyes that mirror his own:]

...The cards never said two people can't cooperate. It won't count if I take him out, but I won't leave this to someone else either.

[If this is going to happen, he's not just going to sit there and pretend to not see it.]

[selfconcept]

Yeah?

[ Hien is better off working alone (he thinks), but he's pretty curious. ]

Then, show me what you got.

[ He rushes at Tibia with his knife with the intention of stabbing the face. ]

[undertakings]

[With the element of surprise no longer in play, Tibia has enough time to react and move out of the way... theoretically. In practice, he only barely moves out of the way to leave a rather deep gash in his cheek, apparently prioritizing an attempt to punch Hien in the solar plexus instead of stepping away entirely.

Shin, for his part, doesn't respond to Hien verbally although he'll follow the other man's lead, but with an approach from the side. Once it's apparent that Tibia is occupied with Hien's attack though, he'll follow up with a kick to the kidney. This is kind of a clusterfuck but!!]

[selfconcept]

[ It sure is, but Hien can actually dodge well, so he ends up sliding to the opposite side to avoid that punch in the solar plexus. Phew. But that movement was too large to follow up quickly, but he attempts to get back into motion. If Tibia tries to dodge Shin's kick to the kidney, Hien will cover the possibilities of the place Tibia will go for dodging and attempt another slash at the throat. ]

[undertakings]

[And a clean dodge it is, as he makes a wide step over to the side and out of Shin's reach. But since Hien's anticipating the movement, this time Tibia fails to move out of the way of the slash entirely, knife slicing through the shirt's collar and catching him where the carotid artery would be. As hands instinctively move to staunch the bleeding, the doppelganger stumbles once and levels an accusing glare at Shin.

Why are you always the one to survive? Why won't you let me take your place? There's no one waiting for you anyway.

Shin merely stares back dully as those words are hissed at him, and it's a matter of time before the doppelganger bleeds out, but he is currently wide open. Does Hien want to finish him off or just leave it be?]

[selfconcept]

[ Hien frowns and walks over to the doppelganger. ]

You sure talk nonsense for a dying thing.

[ Despite the black goo oozing out of the doppelganger's neck, he reaches out and he snaps its neck easily. No more talking. Shh. ]

[undertakings]

[And that does it. As if to confirm the kill, the task card vanishes from the tablet screen as the doppelganger flops lifelessly to the ground. With silent footsteps, Shin walks over to the corpse and stares at it before pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, crouching down to place it over its neck.]

...Thanks.

[selfconcept]

Sure.

[ Hien gets up, standing straight. He got some goo on his hands and tries to shake it off, but no avail. ]

Gross. It's like tar...

[ He also feels weird. Hm. ]

[undertakings]

[Oops, maybe he should've saved that handkerchief for Hien. Too late for that though, but he's (sort of) been here before, so he stands up and turns to the tent exit.]

There are napkins at the food stands outside.

[Not sure how effective those would be, but might as well give it a try?! Clearly it's just weird sticky fake blood and not anything else weirder.]

[selfconcept]

Thanks. I'll go wipe them off there.

[ He gives a very lethargic wave to Shin and while sounding a lot mellow all of a sudden. This is fine...

\o/ thread complete ]