week 6

[airlockedmods]

Week 6

[Six weeks. Twenty-three Champions whittled down to just seven. Where the halls of the station once felt crowded and loud now they're empty and echo when someone speaks too loudly. Again, the Champions will find themselves experiencing strange dreams on Sunday night but outside of the usual wake-up call there is no new floor announcement from CECE.

Like the trash compactor last week, the infirmary is pristine and sterile once again. As if nothing had ever happened.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday



(( Welcome to Week 6! Don't forget to submit your memory regains and turn in your benefactor threads for sweet loot, too! There's going to be no AC this week.))

Comments

SUNDAY

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[le_mat]

[Akira sleeps in.

Or well, who can say how much sleep he actually gets, but he doesn't have the drive to come out until well into the morning, when most everyone else is already awake. Which is about the time he comes padding out of Room 22, barefoot and bleary eyed. Somehow, another day happened, regardless of how little he wanted to deal with one.

One might find him at the memorial wall once he IS out and about- after stopping a few places room he leaves the red panda kigu and his Morgana plushie there for the twins, as well as a fresh bottle of the good liqour. And, something else, written in one of the few blank spots:]

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

[Later, he's around the Dinner... tossing out huge amounts of food, oddly. Some might recognize it as Thursday's leftovers from Manaka's gathering. And by evening he's in the Arcade, shooting things. A LOT of things. Occasionally cursing, but still trying]

[playthedamncard]

[Sleep is hard to come by these days, and Saturday night in particular, even with Akira with him. But he must doze off at some point, because he remembers.

And despite the months of time spanning across his memory, he wakes on the station.

For the briefest of milliseconds, he thinks that perhaps the body against him and the hair tickling him could be--but it's not.

Everyone's dead. He's still down an eye. And the game continues.

Getting out of bed is the hardest thing, but he has to. He has to keep going. They have to keep going. For the few people who are left. He shifts slowly, stretches, tries to quash the urge to stay in bed all day--even though he'd suggested staying in to Akira the other week, that it wasn't anything new, that nobody would think less of him.]

Hey. [you good soft boy?]

[in4apounding]

[Penny does not emerge from Room 9 on Sunday.]

[lmafo]

[ Knock knock knock! ]

[playthedamncard]

[It might be hunger that finally drives Kaiba to leave his room--sometime after Akira's already left. Fully clothed in his usual getup of extra and too much shit, thanks. If he looks like shit in particular today, good, because he feels that way, but he's at least actually going to eat food. Unlike yesterday.

There's no new floor. That's concerning. Why isn't there a new floor? Did they already reach the top of the station? Exploring for anything new won't do any good. Everything's changed back to how it was. As it always does.

He lingers in the bar, not to drink, but he sets his bottle of whiskey in there and...looks at it all, lost in thought.

In the gym, he's set himself up some targets to punch and kick. It might be kind of sad to watch, honestly, but hey, you try losing an eye and then have to rework your brain to function without depth perception.

He mentally finds the infirmary off limits, and the holodeck just seems like a rude idea given what he's remembered. In the zero-g room he can be found floating along--and with special guest Ibris the mecha-lizard, still with the ribbon of blue around his neck, and Kaiba holding lightly onto the trailing edge.

He also makes a point to go into every dead room, looking through what's left or to find letters he hasn't gotten yet or...just looking.]

MONDAY

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[in4apounding]

[Penny's still pretty scarce on Monday, but there are signs she's been out and about.]

[The Overseer's Door has fresh graffiti, a list of the names of everyone who's died on the station. Even Manaka, though her name is as far from the others as possible, like an afterthought. The Memorial Wall has been similarly updated, though the names here have obviously been written with more care. Each name has a small red starburst beside it, made up of dried rosepetals tacked to the wall with glue. The two exceptions are Manaka's name, which again is a distance from the others and undecorated, and Tsurugi's, which has a tiny bow of purple ribbon from the sewing room tacked beside it.]

[The greenhouse is mostly untouched, save for a small mound of freshly dug soil under one of the trees. It's been marked with a simple bouquet of flowers from elsewhere in the garden, tied with a neat ribbon.]

[Penny herself, if she's not caught elsewhere, can eventually be found curled up in the Media Room late in the evening, numbly watching Star Wars.]

[playthedamncard]

[It's too quiet. Normally he's a fan of quiet, but it's just too quiet in here. He spends a good amount of time in the arcade, the noise of machines and forgetting where he is while trying to best the high scores again at least something.

If one ventures up there, he can be found lingering outside the infirmary, but he doesn't go inside.

In the diner, he's got a few books from the library with him, technical manuals that he's trying not to squint at and get a headache from, and making a few notes while the jukebox plays whatever looks recognizably Japanese. It's noise, and that's better than the crippling silence.]

TUESDAY

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Motive: Eye of a Hurricane

[theoverseeing]

[Tuesday again? No proble- okay no, Tuesday is always a problem. CECE's voice comes out of the PIPs today after the morning announcement.]

Champions, please gather in the cafeteria at noon for an announcement from your Overseers.

[After last week’s non-appearance from the Overseers it seems like things are back on track with CECE’s late morning announcement. At noon exactly the doors to the other side of the station open and Rox and Blaze step out as they have almost every week for six weeks. Blaze still looks a little worse for wear with his eyepatch and a deep frown etched onto his face. Rox looks tense and focused despite her sharkish smile, and even the mostly healed cut on her cheek from Chloe back in week 2 looks irritated.]

Great, now that you're all here, it's time for a motive.

[Surprisingly, she's looking at them and not at her phone (although it is still present and visible in her hand).]

This week, your motive is- drumroll, please? [She looks over at Blaze, who glowers at her.] No? That's fine. The motive for this week is, if no one dies by the end of the week then all your home worlds will be completely annihilated.

[She grins, tight and controlled.]

Any questions?

[lmafo]

[ After the A Motive, Or Whatever, Roxy busies herself wandering around the station taking care of a few things. First off, she puts up a sign on the bar door that reads "no roxys allowed (tho she is lookin good today, hot damn, says i, an impartial sign)" so there's... that.

She also chills in the arcade for a good chunk of the day, having grabbed a milkshake from the diner and wandering through the arcade cabinets like a proper Mall Kid. Ruri, bless her roomba soul, is buzzing along behind her trying to keep up. Come say hi!

Or she can be found in the media room, where she's watching somethiiiiiIIIII DONT WANNA CLOSE MY EEEEEEEYYYYYYES!!!!! ]

Hey there!

[ She'll take a second away from the movie to wave at u, tho, anyone who wanders in. ]

[le_mat]

[After the motive, Akira does exactly what he said, heading for the dinner to start cooking. Having a task is important, and Kaiba's suggestion of steak is the best thing he's heard all month.

Go ahead and tell him how bloody you like your meat, he's no chief but he can manage this much. Ignore how he's shaking a little even still]

[playthedamncard]

[As of yesterday at some point, the memorial wall has a little added decoration: a few petals of hydrangea for Manaka by her name.

Kaiba is once more back in the holodeck again, in a sprawling desert landscape. There's a city in the distance that almost looks like a mirage, stone and clay and not at all modern.

And when he's not spending more quality time in the arcade, then he's spending some in the gym working on his balance and depth perception in a more physical way again. He'll try not to hurt himself, probably, but it's likely he's going to overdo it.

There's also time to himself in the game room, going over the D&D player's manual, updating his character sheet and also jotting down notes for future reference. He does not want a magic blood knife anymore.]

[in4apounding]

[After the motive, Penny can be found in the Holodeck. Depending on when you catch her, you'll find her doing one of two things. First, she's engaged in combat with... some frankly terrifying creatures, dancing around with the set of swords she's told some of you about. She's getting pretty into it, despite the outwardly graceful nature of her movements in controlling the holographic swords.]

[Other times... sitting, quietly, watching a group of girls talk on a brick street. Four of them might look familiar to a few of the other champions, if they've seen some of Penny's other simulations. The fifth should definitely be recognizable, as a recreation of Penny herself; albeit much more chipper than her real life counterpart, and back in the outfit that had been ruined during the last trial.]

["Not you. You! You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?"]

[This... probably doesn't come across as a very healthy use of the Holodeck.]

WEDNESDAY

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[in4apounding]

[Early Wednesday morning, a few things happen in no clear order.]

[First, a box of cereal is lying in the hallway by the bedrooms, slightly haphazardly, like it was thrown out one of the doors in a panic.]

[Secondly, a pair of notes have been slipped through the doors to rooms 15 and 4. The first reads-]

Mr. Bolton,
I got something in the dumbwaiter that I think is yours, but I should probably give it to you in person. It's not anything bad, I just don't want it to get lost.
--Pumpkin

[The note slipped under the door to Room 4 is identical, but with a small addendum at the end-]

PS.
Mr Jamie, If Mr. Bolton isn't actually here I'm sorry for for bothering you!

[Penny herself is in the Cafeteria, near the espresso bar with a pile of items laid out on one of the tables.]

[lovecolored]

[ Marisa's been feeling pretty "eh" about her memories returning--all it's been is catching glimpses of her life as normal as it ever was, but with the final puzzle piece sliding into place, she somehow feels...disappointed. That's all there was.

They got their asses handed to them at the moon and came back without much to show for it, except Yuyuko stole some ancient booze and she didn't even get to drink any. She and Reimu and Sanae unearthed a flying trip that didn't turn out to have any treasure on it at all, but she got to see Makai for the first time in over a decade. Someone was trying to resurrect themselves and sent the spirits out of whack, and she had to trudge through a graveyard--and she's never going to look at zombies the same way again, and what will she say if sees Yoshika and her stupid drawling?--only to find out it was more politics. She got to see the Outside World for the first time in her life, flying over a cityscape with blinking lights and wheeled carts whizzing by so fast she wasn't sure if she could call them 'carts', exactly. And then that stupid no-name asshole had to try to invade the moon, because that worked out so well for Marisa herself, and Yukari before her, except this time it actually worked. If they didn't do anything, Gensokyo would be flat-out erased by the evacuating Lunarians, and they'd finally reached her, and Reisen actually tagged along this time, and they geared up to take her down, Junko fired off her first spellcard, and--

She woke up here. It's anticlimactic, and Marisa finds herself wishing she just knew if they lost the fight or not. Junko didn't even want to engage in a real danmaku duel, she just wanted to kill them all. Eirin's help be damned, that was shaping out to be one of the hardest fights in Marisa's life. If she lost, and so did Reimu and Sanae and Reisen, then that would be it. Everything would be gone. Junko would invade the moon, and the Lunarians would seek refuge in Gensokyo, and wipe everything clean to fit their stupid fucking obsession with purity.

After the motive, Marisa retreats to her room. She won't be seen for much of Tuesday.

Come Wednesday, she's had a bit of time to think, though. What was it Zombina said to her in her final letter? Keep being the optimism this place needs, or something?

At the holodeck, Marisa is still learning how to fiddle with the controls, but eventually, things settle on a spacious-looking house in the middle of a massive forest. She stares at the front door for a few moments, looking sullen. ]

...home sweet home, I guess. Anyone want tea? [ said to no one in particular. She isn't sure how far these simulations go, if she'll even be able to recognize the inside of her house, given that she doesn't remember half of the junk she has piled inside.

Later on, Marisa's in the zero-g room again, aimlessly flying on her broom. At anyone coming in, she'll fly down the door, and pat the edge of her broom. ]

Hey. Wanna ride? It's more fun than just floatin' around like a baby without their air legs, trust me.

[playthedamncard]

[Wednesday means more items. It doesn't disappoint. (Well, in some ways it does.) Upon gaining a diary that he can read, of course he's going to sit down and read through it, in the cafeteria this time. The noise of the diner doesn't feel appropriate for it, but whatever he's gotten himself for breakfast gets quickly forgotten. This is...from Manaka's world.

He's going to be distracted with it for a while.

Although, he does pop by the diner later for a better meal, some tunes, and a place to lay out his cards again.

He's been avoiding the infirmary for what anyone would call perfectly sound reasons, but he and Akira are still going to need a few things that the basic supplies of first aid kits can't provide. So after psyching himself up for it, he finally goes in to grab a few bottles of pills, mostly, though some extra clean gauze and bandages won't hurt.]

[le_mat]

[Considering everything, Akira is having a good day. Or as good a day as he can have with everything. After finding his Joker outfit with Penny, he's decided to wear it the rest of the day. He can be found most anywhere playing with the coattails, enjoying the click of the heel on the chrome, or tugging on his gloves. He can even be seen in the Zero-G room. practicing his flips and shit.

Just all and all, a day for feeling as extra as possible.

Once he's calmed down a bit, he hangs around the cafeteria, playing with the other thing he's found: his phone. It's hard not to notice the 'taptaptap' of fast practiced typing, though he is frowning at something on it.

...though you might spot him in a very specific pose before the click-whirl of a pic being taken.

By the end of the day he decides that he is done being a child of the modern age for a bit, and heads to the library- there's a specific book he wants now that the Lord of the Rings is done... and while he's still having issues reading, he's damn well going to try.]

THURSDAY

[airlockedmods]

[in4apounding]

[Thursday finds Penny in the Art Room in the morning. She's working diligently on a drawing of a group of people, mostly young women. It might be possible to recognize the facsimile of a dark-haired girl in a red cloak at the forefront of the group, if you've seen some of the simulations Penny's made in the holodeck; and Roxy might be able to hazard a guess at the identity of the stern gentleman in military uniform at the back of the group. As with most of Penny's work, it's fairly middleground. People are generally recognizable but she's clearly an amateur.]

[Also of not is a canvas set off to one side that's been absolutely brutalized with rough slashes of paint, and parts of it splashed over entirely. It might be possible, looking closely, to make out the visage of Rox Petuu drawn onto the canvas underneath the vandalism.]

[Later in the day Penny is back at it in the Holodeck, fighting with intense focus against a holographic enemy that only has enough detail to look like an off-brand Crash Test Dummy with a pair of swords. She's swinging Shovel-kun with intense focus, alternating between using it as a staff and swinging the bladed end.]

[The win/loss ratio looks to be about 40/60, if anyone watches long enough to keep track.]

[Shovel-kun stays with her into the evening, apparently, as she starts patrolling the station around the nighttime announcement.]

[playthedamncard]

[Early in room 22, Kaiba has retrieved some scissors and is staring intently in the bathroom mirror, his now odd-angled bangs between fingers. Even does a few snips, an attempt to even out the sides, but he's not happy with the work, or happy with much of anything.

Later, when he's out and about, he's a little less bandaged and a little more patchy, with a haircut to boot. Whatever damaged skin is still visible still looks bad, but healing. It's going to take time to heal into whatever nasty scar tissue it's going to, but it's not infected at any rate. He doesn't appear self-conscious of his image, but neither does he call any attention to it. He adds more tributes to the yard sard and downs some coffee and calls it a fucking day.

jk this is kaiba what is rest After the...debacle in the cafeteria yesterday, Kaiba is going to do an experiment, because he is a scientist, damn it, and reproducible results are a must. He counts himself lucky that nothing had happened in the infirmary, and he's not about to take his chances in the trash compactor, so he goes to the pool to see if any more of these ghostly apparitions appear.

Whether anything happens at the pool or not, he ends up in the art room sketching out some people and scenes, some fantastic monsters and some distinctly not. If, later on, you happen by the memorial wall, some of these sketches are taped up by each and every name. Apparently someone decided to associate some cards from a certain game with everyone, if the style is anything to go by--though any names or descriptions are left out.

At some point, he specifically seeks out Bolton. Why? Because it's Thursday. Surely they can't break D&D tradition now...

Later, in the evening, he leaves a note under the remaining survivors' doors: Meet for movies tonight.

It's a bit sappy and friendly for him, but it's what Max would've wanted. He doesn't believe anyone left would be willing to kill for a shoddy motive like this, but keeping people as together as they can be, at least for a time... Well, if they aren't going to tabletop, it's the next best thing, right? So in the media room, and in true Thanksgiving fashion, it's a meta analysis of plot holes in classic science fiction movies, for as long as they like.]

Closed

[le_mat]

[Akira hadn't been in the storage room since Miki died. But after finally getting to say goodbye, it feels... fitting to come here. It's inching up on late- the movie night just finishing up, and everyone else still in the media room. He won't be gone long, and hopes no one comes looking.

It's harder to get up on the shelves then it used to, but he manages]

Hey CECE... Most of this isn't for you, so don't worry about answering. Still... Thanks, for all you've done to help us.

Anyways. I... dunno if anyone else will ever see this. Other then Petuu I guess. But I wanna do it either way. I told Seto I'd never do letters, and I'm not going to. Plus I have a feeling that, if something happens tonight there won't be anyone to read them anyways. We can't take another death, I think. Not after Max. I'm not giving up hope, I'm gonna fight. But I get it- fighting might be the last thing I do. I think everyone else are thinking the same thing too.

If we're lucky then Petuu and Blaze will be dead. Even if CECE can't send us home without them, I think I'd be okay with that. But if we lose then... I guess I just want to leave something someone else might see someday.

Mom, Dad... I know I wasn't always the kid you wanted. That I pulled shit and hurt you. But I... I love you, and miss you so much. Morgana... Everyone. I hope you're still fighting back home. I know you'll be okay. Cuz you're stronger then me.

Bolton, Jamie, Marisa, Penny, Roxy... Seto... I wish we all coulda met outside here. But I don't regret anything we did. Not one bit.

[he rubs at his eye, exhausted ]

I... feel like I should have something big and important to say. But I don't. I guess just that I'm sorry. And... goodbye.

[he climbs down, meaning to catch the end of the movie, go back to Seto's room, and sleep. ]

[dejabrew]

[It's not until Thursday that Bolton actually goes back to his own room, for the first time in a while. And he finds a bunch of things.

His typewriter and his pills stay in his room. He changes into his own clothes, pleased at the sight of his red-dusted old and filthy birkenstocks.

The sword he can guess who it belongs to, but unfortunately a falchion is too big to fit inside of his trunk so he carries it to Lucina's room and leaves it laid on top of her trunk.

Everything else he takes out with him when he goes to the cafeteria, setting it up on one of the tables while he cracks open the coffee and sets about grinding enough to make a full french press of it. He has the brownies within eyesight, and once he's sat down with his coffee he carefully takes a bite from one of them. Coffee has given him nothing if not a nuanced palate, and he is well-versed in these particular brownies, so the minute that he's realized he's kind of fucked himself he giggles.

And then gets a knife and portions out a couple of the brownies into very, very small portions. Like 1/8ths.

If Coffee Dad's gonna get you all high he's at least gonna be responsible about it.]