theairlock | week 1

Entry tags:

!round 2,
!week 1

week 1

Week 1

[With the introduction to the relationship experiment and their overseeing hosts done with, the Champions are left to their own devices to explore the first floor of the mansion as they please. Cece and Kip will pop-up every once in a while to chit-chat but for the most part they're somewhere inaccessible.

Each morning the Champions are awakened promptly at 7 am by PAL's even, almost laid back voice announcing the time and each evening at 10 pm to announce when the kitchen is closing for the night. Unlike the Overseers, he doesn't seem to be one much for conversation.

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

[ooc: welcome to week 1, everyone! This first week is a peace week which means there will be no murder this weekend! Feel free to start submitting threads for the benefactors]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That sure is a plethora of desserts in the dining room, there. Once Junpei's done interrogating his cold mashed potato dinner, he looks over the spread, selects a big slice of chocolate cake, and goes to find somewhere quieter to talk to himself.

He isn't expecting to find anyone in the rest room, and he blinks owlishly, cake in hand, before lifting the plate.]

You object to me eating in your bed, or...?

Oh, of course not! Come in, sit wherever you like.

[ She assumes all the soft furnishings in here are supposed to facilitate Bonding Sleepovers of some kind and what's a sleepover without late night snacks?

But speaking of snacks... ]

What do you think of the cake? I haven't baked anything in a while but it seems like it came out fine.

[He takes a seat facing her, cross-legged so he can balance the plate on one knee, and looks up at her question. Instead of answering, he smiles a little, digs in with his fork, and pops a sizable chunk of cake into his mouth so he can chew with exaggerated movements.]

Mummfh mrmny nooum!

[Still chewing, he gives her a thumbs-up.]

[ Approval! She gives him a smile in return, clearly pleased to see him enjoying it. ]

Good! I thought-- well, if they're going to give us all those cookbooks then we might as well use them. And it was something to do.

[ you'd think she'd be used to having nothing to do but... at least back at school there were books to read, chores to do, supplies to sort through. one of yuki's silly games to play. not so much here. ]

[He covers his mouth as he swallows, then twirls his fork idly around his fingers while he speaks.]

Yeah. Honestly, I'm probably going to lose it pretty soon--we're allowed to investigate, but nothing I do's turning anything up. And I can't cook or garden, so, short of beating my head against these padded walls...

[He needs a hobby, is what Junpei's saying.]

There's only so much we can do when there's so little here. [ sigh ] This place seemed so big when we first arrived but the longer we stay here the more I realize how small it actually is. There's twenty of us here, after all. Not counting you-know-who.

[ you know ]

There has to be more floors for us to use though... maybe we'll eventually get access to them?

There has to be a way to unlock them.

[A proactive way. There's no way they can just "get access." No way out can be found without seeking it.]

But so far, no dice.

[ She's quiet for a moment, thinking it over. Then: ]

This is supposed to be some kind of reality show, right? Maybe there's some sort of game we have to win or a puzzle we have to solve before we can get up there. There might be something around here we need to do or find. Like a challenge and more floors of the mansion are our reward for clearing it?

[ It certainly sounds like a solid idea on the surface but she wonders how likely that is considering Junpei's been looking everywhere and hasn't found anything... ]

That's... typically how these work, yeah. These, uh. Game shows.

[hahaha]

But I haven't even found a word search, let alone some kind of solvable door key. No mysterious switches, no keypads... Have you seen anything--I don't know, off? In the garden?

Nothing much in the way of clues, but... maybe there's some sort of code or message in the flowers?

[ She pauses for a moment before realizing just what a ridiculous image that sums up before hastily elaborating. ]

What I meant was, um-- do you know anything about floriography?

[It doesn't sound that ridiculous to Junpei. He's already starting to think about numbers and patterns and what they might mean, but if the Champion Green Thumb has an idea--]

Not really, no. It, uh... doesn't come up a lot in my work. It sounds like... flower writing?

You're on the right track. It's the idea of sending coded messages in a flower arrangement. Lots of flowers have some sort of meaning or sentiment associated with them and if you arrange them together properly, you can use them to convey more complicated ideas and meanings. People used to send entire bouquets of them to try and send someone a message.

I don't know if it'll be as complicated as a coded message but maybe the placement of the flowers... or even the choice of flowers in the garden might be some sort of clue for where we need to start looking.

[He nods.]

I, uh--I recognized roses.

[Junpei, you useless male stereotype.]

Probably those stand for love? Well, that makes sense, with the theme.

[ A nod. ]

Red roses do. And there were some red camellias... those mean love as well.

[ ... they can also mean "dying with grace" BUT SHE'LL PUT A PIN IN THAT FOR NOW. ]

... Actually, most of the flowers there meant 'love' in some way. Which is probably intentional... but there were some others that aren't really quite as nice.

Oh?

[He's listening.]

Flowers can have negative meanings, too?

[ She nods. ]

Well... yellow roses, for example. They mean "jealousy". Primroses can mean "desperation". And red spider lilies can mean abandonment or a neverending separation. And orange lilies just mean "hate" or "revenge".

[ hanakotoba is HARDCORE ]

There's plenty more like that but I'm sure you get the idea.

Separation and revenge...

[He repeats it softly to himself, thinking before he meets Yuuri's eyes again.]

Those are all there in the garden? Uh, do you think any of them stand out in particular? I'll take a look, too, but, ah.

[He makes a vague gesture that probably means, "I am a useless male stereotype and wouldn't know an azalea from my ass."]

[ She shifts a little uncomfortably. ]

... yes. From what I could see. There were seeds for all of them as well.

[ without really thinking she puts a hand to her mouth and starts chewing on her thumbnail. ]

The yellow roses were just with the roses so they weren't really out of place but... the spider lilies surprised me a little. They're beautiful but I wasn't expecting to see them mixed in with the others since, um.

[ She pauses since she only just now realizes how ominous the rest of this is going to sound. ]

... they usually bloom near cemeteries.

[When the implication sinks in, Junpei shudders and rubs his arms.]

That's... damn.

[The longer everyone else lingers on death, the more he finds it dominating his thoughts, too. After all, regardless of rule 7--what's more stressful than a life-or-death situation?]

Maybe we shouldn't share that particular observation with the others. It's... it, uh, might creep people out.

Mm. I think I'll keep it to myself. At the very least... it's a tasteless joke on the part of whoever set out that garden. It might not mean anything in the long run.

[ But then again. It might. ]

... Then again. Um. I'm basing most of this off what I know about Japanese flowers. Hanakotoba. If they're sending messages using a different kind of floriography then I might be looking in the wrong places for it.

At the very least, it's worth thinking about. Especially since, for all they're trying to convince us this is outer space, they're using plants that grow in Japan. I should write this stuff down...

[He pulls his notes out of his pocket and starts jotting down what she told him. As he does so, he asks:]

As for different kinds of floriography, do you think one of the other Champions might know other kinds? Is there a Western system, too?

I think there must be, but I don't really know a lot about it myself. I think a lot of floriography is influence by the culture around it -- things like religion or the people that end up associated with certain flowers. And the meanings get sort of abstracted from there.

[ She's tapping idly on her P.I.P as she talks, drumming her fingers like someone rapping their nails on a table without thinking. ]

You know... if this is supposed to be a space ship then that does explain why they'd want real plants here as well. I thought it was just for decoration but it's probably to help produce extra oxygen.

[ ... you know. if you believe the space story. ]

...That's true. I didn't consider that.

[He studied all the wrong sorts of conspiracy theories to be good with the We're Shooting in Space hypothesis.]

It could also... be a pretext for making sure we spend some time in sunlight. I mean, that's the point of these types of lights, right? [He indicates the lighting in the garden.] Whether we're in space or underground or otherwise isolated from our natural habitat, our health will suffer for it eventually. Imitation sunlight is one way to lessen that impact.

... That's right...

[ And suddenly she sounds thoughtful. ]

We've got plenty of food here, too... enough that our diet is going to be varied enough that we won't get sick so long as we eat properly. But now I wonder... if they really want to keep us in here for so long, why not provide supplements as well? Vitamins, that sort of thing.

Or a gym. Or laundry facilities.

[They're not ANIMALS.]

We have material comforts, but they won't cover the long term. Even with access to the kitchen, it's more like we're staying in a guest room situation than dorms.

week 1

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