04 - week four

[afflictionmods]

WEEK FOUR

Saturday comes to a close, and it’s time for some rest and recovery. Perhaps the TLC you deserve will come this week, or perhaps the nightmare will continue. It’s hard to say with things being so strange around you, from Wei Wuxian’s disappearance to the sudden addition of objects and places and creatures from your homes. Who knows what this week will bring? Nothing ordinary, that’s for sure.

You wake up on Sunday to an increase in those little glimpses you saw yesterday. What were snippets of songs, locations that might’ve seemed familiar, and creatures that were dormant, are now all alive and whole. When you go to the karaoke bar, the songs you once knew are there. Monsters and animals are alive and sentient. New business are abound. Vehicles are operable, and perhaps some of your old belongings are back, too.

However, some of these things aren’t even things that should exist outside of your dreams. They may be far too strange and unusual to be real, or just things you don't remember ever seeing. The only thing you remember about these things in particular is that they were, quite literally, in your dreams this week.

That being said, every few hours, all of these things from your homes and dreams fade out and get replaced by new sounds, places, beasts….only to maybe come back again at another time.

Well. At least there's one constant here: You’ve got a handful of new locations to look at, with the fog having spread once more, and they aren't going anywhere. There aren’t as many new places that are native to Estelline this time around, but that may be for the best, considering everything going on.


SETTING TRACKER

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

NEWSPAPER SUBMISSIONS + EDITION #1

SAGE / FLORENCE / LORELEI

MEM SHARE DETAILS

OOC NOTE

OOC: Details on this week can be found here!

Also, we have a lot of participants for the news activity from last week. Neat! Everyone who participated in some capacity will have a small polaroid camera delivered to their doorstep. There's limited film, though - 10 photos per camera. It doesn't seem like there's any extra film at this time, either.

Finally, there will not be any weekly tasks this week. You guys are going to be busy with memshare and dreamscape stuff; instead, enjoy the Estelline University Newspaper!

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM + PARK

[vivens]

[ with the assumption that they're all here in the karaoke for this bit, sabo's going to start going over what he found with and separate from mutsu. ]

Like I hinted at last week, I've made it a point to do a bit of exploration myself when the new areas opened up. The first place I decided to do a bit of look around was in the park since I might as well have. I found an area with some fruit trees of various types. They're all very delicious and I can show you where they are if anyone wants to help themselves to some.

Something else I found relates much to something I hadn't realized had any real meaning until after I had done a bit of snooping with Mu later in the day. I found a flyer that had both the logo composing of camellias with the slogan of, "Life Under Control". It was dated for a release of "927".

[ he'll pause for a moment to take a sip of something and for people to process that. it isn't much but the next part is. ]

Alone it didn't make any sense to me and I didn't think anything of it, but like I had mentioned just moments earlier, Mu and I found some interesting information within the displays and one of the exhibits themselves. We found out that emotions can physically shape the world. In fact, this world's ages are categorized by emotions. [ which was a fun fact that became rather important. ] However, the writing specifically mentioned that it was humans and more importantly, groups of humans are the ones who are capable of this and not animals.

Though, in light of one of the areas that most recently opened up here, I think it's even more important to mention that Mu and I are highly suspicious about the possibility of this "CAMELLIA" organization being able to influence the way people think. As the most worrying thing we found was an exhibit donated by them advertising their "Vision of the Future" and I can only tell you that their vision doesn't sound like it allows for much freedoms.

[cheerfuldays]

That... definitely isn't an encouraging slogan, honestly. I hadn't thought to look around much this past week, to be honest. But... what do you mean emotions can physically shape the world? How did you find that?

[vivens]

We found it on the displays themselves. They illustrated and wrote about it candidly as if it was the same as writing that the sky is blue and that water is wet. Mutsu took some photos of the displays for easy review.

[ what a good dog, honestly. they might not have understood everything, they do have photos!!! ]

As for shaping...well, just as you think. If enough people are sad, then there will be a storm, if enough people are happy then there could be some pleasant weather. So on and so forth.

[cheerfuldays]

I see.

( she's going to take a look at them, then... but mostly she feels more confused. )

That's so ominous, honestly... though, I have to wonder if there'd been a war or something similar before? Like, recently... or a devastating event, something that would make the fear of a lack of peace more pressing.

[vivens]

[ yeah...but, hmm. he'll think back at the events and there sure were a lot of them but there was one thing that was really strange. ]

It doesn't look as though there has been anything the past nine hundred years in regards to any kind of large scale war that they've document.

I don't know the history of your world, but something like that is almost impossible for my world as it stands.

[ and now sabo is wondering if that is even a world worth living as a result from what he's seeing here. ]

[imitationsoul]

The information on empathy affecting the environment and also other people seems to be basic biology stuff here - it's been in the textbooks.

[ That Miach and Flat have... bunkered in their room for weeks now. And then never shared that info as more than vague allusions....................... ]

[vivens]

[ thank you for the contribution.... sabo's not going to say anything about the amount of time she (they've) has known this. it doesn't matter in the end, after all. ]

I see; thank you for that information.

Mu and I got had that feeling given how the museum didn't seem to note the phenomenon as anything particularly strange because it was likely the same as reporting on the weather, and it seems like that is likely to be the case.

[imitationsoul]

Sage, having lived with the empathy effect, can be quoted as calling it "annoying".

I imagine I would feel much the same if I were in her position.

[vivens]

I wouldn't be able to disagree with you.

The idea of enough people losing their temper in a single space causing some sort of environmental effect...

[ he'll just shake his head. there are too many words that can be used to describe it. though— ]

Did the books make it a point to be aware of their emotions while in spaces with other people?

[imitationsoul]

Yes, indeed. Since the people of Estelline both affect the environment with their emotions as well as experience the emotions of those around them, it is regarded as common courtesy to try and keep yourself from overwhelming others with your feelings.

Judging by the Camelia program's slogan, the success rate of this is not as good as they might desire.

[tosa]

(NODDING ALONG FASTLY AND HE HOLDS UP HIS TABLET.)

I got some pictures and stuff if anyone wants to see 'em.

(He's taken a few photos from the museum. Of note there is,

- A map of the world
- Some diorama descriptions that show different eras named after emotions (Age of Fury, Age of Sorrow, Age of Confusion, etc). Each one is about a few centuries long except for the Age of Confusion where something happened but don't worry about it.
- Each age seems to have been named after a big change (like the Age of Fury being defined by war and the Age of Sorrow being defined by famine)
- The current age doesn't have a name but has been going on for about 900 years
- Emotions can influence the environment
- There is a time each year where emotions are heightened, and as a result have a more significant impact on the world around them
- The time is usually in the summer
- There is also like, a picture of a description somewhere saying people have tried to manage their emotions because of the effects it can have but there are some disagreements about how to do that. Do you repress your emotions? Or do you embrace them?
- There is also a photo of the exhibit Sabo mentioned
- There are also probably a few shots of his thumb or extremely blurry photos of exhibits where he moved his camera too soon and stuff because Mutsu isn't a perfect sword boy

And that's the gist yeah. I'll have a more detailed list in the lore doc when I get that up but have a spark note-y version for now.)

Museums are pretty useful, huh? Even if ya don't really get everything inside of of 'em...

[mirrite]

... physically shape the world, huh.

[That's... hmm. Not sure he loves that idea.]

You mean like creating things, or altering what's already there?

[vivens]

[ no one likes this idea? like it sounds cool on paper but then when you stop and think about it, it's probably actually terrible. ]

From the sound of it, a bit of both. I think on of the better examples of it was when there was a group of people who were mourning a loss and they managed to manifest a storm from the grief they all felt.

So, I'd think if enough people felt strongly enough about a particular something then they'd be able to make it happen.

[exofractured]

Unsurprisingly, I found more of the same. The effect of emotions on this world seems to have been well known and understood. I have a toy from the museum for detecting emotions that also provided a mapping to common environmental effects.

[And he's going to get batteries for it and proceed to be as irritating as possible at a later date, likely.]

I also found advertisements for a carnival in the park being held supposedly at this time. Hardly useful information any longer, but we may be able to find similar hints for our future activities.

[vivens]

They have a toy that can do that sort of thing? Have you tried it out on anything yet?

[ HELLO? hopefully it is not actual toy and phantom is just calling it a toy because he's v. techno savvy but either way, sabo's taking it at face value here. ]

But I'll take a note of that. If nothing else, the "lessons" certainly have tied in with something we've experienced or will experience. Our trip to the museum full of ghouls and then the carnival.

[ which, you now, makes one wonder about what it means for things this week, should they repeat. ]

When I asked for future hints about our lessons, I didn't think it would be manifested this way.

[exofractured]

I lacked a power source. Although with the new areas we have access to, that should now have changed.

[Someone's going to be doing a chinchilla in a dust bath impression at the electronics store later!]

I doubt it would be much use for us, since our emotions haven't produced such physical effects. But it did provide basic explanations suitable for children. Anger manifesting heat, and so on.

[He gives that last point a little nod and a grimace.]

If they'd been interested in providing more direct information, they would have. Perhaps we should think of this in the nature of another exercise.

[vivens]

[ i'm proud of phantom for turning into a chinchilla for our cause. ]

Right, well, I hope you find out some interesting results with that toy once you're able to properly test it out. [ though hmmm. ] Especially if you're able to manifest anything.

[ given what xingqiu said on his cyoa experience because timelines are fake when it comes to threading. ]

And what kind of other excuse would you purpose? I think we're in a safe enough space to go about theorizing.

[exofractured]

[Phantom pauses for a second to press x to doubt, but he gives a slight shrug.]

They may be limited themselves in the information they have about the situations they send us into. Firstly because they might not be willing to take the risks to access those locations. Secondly, the possibility that the situation is changing more quickly or unpredictably than they can manage. If emotions here manifest more than weather, it's difficult to say how much that could be shaping the environments we find ourselves in. At this point, any theorizing is little better than speculation, however.

[vivens]

Speculation or not, those are two good points, but perhaps if we are progressing faster than what they planned for is ultimately a good thing for them. It is hard to really say.

[ that said though: ]

If emotions have the influence as everything seems to suggest, a way potentially understand the extent of what can be done might be to test it out for ourselves. The writing never specified how many people were involved but I think there is a fair number of us to effect something.

It'd just be a matter of what emotion that we'd want to channel and what result we'd hope to achieve. That is, of course, we're able to even do anything ourselves as non-natives.

[ which, you know, hopefully phantom's toy can help give them a clearer picture of what happens on a much smaller scale?? ]

[exofractured]

[Phantom is watching this suggestion with his face progressing through a whole spectrum of emotions. Fascination? Curiosity? Faint horror? All of the above?]

If it was a property of this world's people, I wouldn't expect us to have any effect. But if it's the world itself, then I suppose we would. We were brought here for a reason, after all.

...I'm more skeptical of the notion that we could get any number of us to focus towards the same purpose.

[Or that that would be??? Good???]

[imitationsoul]

[ 'Life Under Control' - gross, gross, gross.

This world is way more like her own than she initially expected and it SUCKS. ]

The art section of the museum further deals with this 'empathy' power that the natives have. Artwork about the yearly phenomenon is strongly characterized by exaggerated depiction of emotion.

[vivens]

[ smiles slightly.

but also...huh. he'll give a nod. this sure keeps falling into place, doesn't it? ]

Could you better explain on what you mean by that? By any chance, were they works depicted during the summer—if you could tell that much.

[imitationsoul]

It's difficult to tell for all of them, but it's possible. Depends a little on whether or not the empathy effects are affected by season - for example, there was a painting of a woman emoting 'happiness'. Sunflowers kept spouting around her.

Now, does empathy only create flowers that are somewhat in-season? If so, it would indicate summer.

[vivens]

[ hmm. ]

I wouldn't know since all of this isn't exactly anything I'm familiar with, but there was writing that implied that the empathy effect are heightened during the summer.

[ so while that painting depicts that or not is kind left up for debate however— ]

Sunflowers often represent a happier time in someone's life and are often used as a symbol of joy.

[imitationsoul]

So you think it's based on flower language...

[ She blinks, small light-bulb going off in her head visibly. ]

Ah. Now that is a thought - the relationship between cause emotion and environmental effect might be a little different from how we imagine it. "Sad makes rain" rings immediately true to us, but that is not a natural connection. It is not inevitable.

If the effects might make use of flower language, this means they are based on learned social connotations rather than inherent to the emotion regardless of context.

Theoretically one could be socialized to have sunflowers represent anger and their environmental empathy might react as such. I wonder if that is one angle the Camelia group might be looking into...? Reconditioning to minimize damage.