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

[selfconcept]

Camping is fun.

[ He says in the most dead voice ever. Regardless, he gets a bowl (sorry for the size, Luci), fills it with ramen and soup, and gives Luci a fork. Luci can eat on the floor, he supposes. ]

I lived in a tent for several years, actually. This is the same exact tent I happened to use too. Imagine that.

[totalcatastrophe]

What, you did that for fun too?

[ He takes the bowl to the ground, stabbing the fork into the center while standing. ]

How do you know it's the same exact one?

[ Luci's guess is the blood. ]

[selfconcept]

It's long, complicated, and sounds stupid to everyone else. I was taking care of a kid.

[ ... ]

The textbooks. I guess the blood helped too.

[totalcatastrophe]

Just sounds like raising a kid. Long, complicated, and however you feel about them sounds stupid to everyone else.

[ Luci, for once, doesn't just ask who he killed. His excuse is food. ]

A human kid?

cw attempted suicide

[selfconcept]

Yeah.

[ To both. ]

Found him in the snow, wanting to die. I wasn't having any of that, so I took him in.

[ He gets some noodles and soup for himself in a bowl. ]

cw attempted suicide + flippant mh discussion

[totalcatastrophe]

Weird for a kid. Why'd he want to die? Depression? Trauma?

[ Luci asks between slurps, casually. Platitudes aren't really his thing. ]

cw: attempted suicide, family death

[selfconcept]

He accidentally burned his house down and the fire killed his parents. His brother inflicted trauma upon him. The townspeople thought the kid burned the house out of malice and thought he killed his brother too. He was already bullied in school, so to be ostracized even further took a toll.

[ He glances over at Luci. It's a blank look. ]

So, no. It's not really weird.

Re: cw: attempted suicide, family death

[totalcatastrophe]

[ Luci keeps eating like they aren't talking about something serious. But, also, he gets that feeling. Of not quite fitting in where you're supposed to. He doesn't feel like fessing up to that right now, so he actually sounds genuinely curious. ]

Why would you want to stay in this thing then?

[selfconcept]

An attempt to heal his mind. He was comforted by the tent and the location it stood on. It was in front of his burned home. Ren was odd, but he was still important to me.

[ Slurping more noodles. Man, he sure feels deader than usual. ]

[totalcatastrophe]

No, dude, I mean you right now. You don't look that comforted to me.

[ Punctuated with a lazy slurp. ]

[selfconcept]

Oh.

[ ...

Hien actually has to think about it. He was drawn to this thing the moment he saw it and he really wanted to stay. He knows staying in it won't bring Ren back nor will it help his mental health in the long run (what's mental health when you're so old). It makes him think back on some unpleasant things said by an unpleasant person. ]

You're right. I guess I'm just beating myself up a little, but I think I deserve having this much at the least.

[totalcatastrophe]

You know I'm all for torment and suffering, but it's not like you murdered the kid. Deck was stacked against you.

[selfconcept]

I thought you'd laugh at me, honestly.

[ Precisely because of the first part of Luci's comment. ]

[totalcatastrophe]

Ooh. Would that make you feel worse?

[ Luci sounds hopeful at the prospect. ... He is also avoiding the main point that last sentence is trying to make. ]

[selfconcept]

Only I can make myself feel worse, so no. I've already hit rock bottom.