Week 7

[airlockedmods]

Week 7

[Seven weeks. Seven weeks of friendship and death and bonds between total strangers forming, bending, breaking, and mending. As of Friday the experiment has officially ended as it crowned it's Ultimate Champion, albeit with quite a few more hangers on than the mysterious EP or the Benefactors anticipated. However all of their PIPs are still active and there have been no attempts on their lives from CECE over the weekend.

There are no announcements on Monday.

The surviving Champions (including Xander, the Ultimate Paladin) awaken on Monday they'll find have regained the remainder of their memories from the ones they've lost.

Welcome to the end, Champions.]

Monday Tuesday


[ooc: welcome to the final week, everyone! There is no AC this week but please make sure you read and comment on the endgame announcement if you haven't already. At this point in the game everyone should be at their true canon point if they weren't already. Hold onto your butts, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride out.]

Comments

Monday

[airlockedmods]

[cyan_maid]

[No memories had come to Jane on Sunday. She had counted it a blessing and sequestered herself in the sewing room, producing a new cardigan (just as janky as the last, still with just one underbust button, but with less lumpy seams and hemming) and an attempt at a drawstring bag. Can you blame her for wanting to do something with this fabric when she saw it? No more red for this Heiress, it's blue and gold all the way, and it manages to fit everything she wants to keep on-hand at all times and not fall apart, so she considers it a success.

It's lucky she managed to do all that on Sunday, though, because Monday dawns with a rush of images and mixed emotions; Jake's tears as she details exactly what he is to be used for, skewering a troll boy she'd never even spoken a word to just to prove a point, Jade's body being smashed and crushed by her own house, a passing Knight in red offering her a Freudian slip of a compliment...this, among other things, preceded a sudden and fitful sleep. She had felt herself moving like a puppet on strings, and then - sharpness, and a bright, red, sudden pain right where her last mysterious chest scar rested...and clean through to the one on her back that Ricky had spotted weeks before. And then, nothing.

Unlike the last two weeks of memory despair, you can actually find Jane in the morning. After her shower, she braved both the diner and the greenhouse to stock up for exploits in the kitchen - whether she's measuring eclectic ingredients or unwrapping and beating her bags of Physical Affections up to break the candies into smaller pieces, she's there, grim-faced and thoughtful. A platter of chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria appears around noon, with a note for everyone to help themselves. She'll be around for any meetings that may or may not go down, but otherwise? If you set out to look for her specifically and find yourself near the holodeck, you'll catch a glimpse of a snowy suburban house inside. The lights are on in there, and it looks...cozy. Like the exact sort of place you might find Jane, if she could choose a place to be.]

holodeck

[ratherdoweddings]

[This place was supposed to be worth inveatigating, right? Yurika knocks before trying the door.]

Is someone in there?

holodeck

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi just walks in and...stares.

The last time it was here it was a garden...Well, she's still in a garden, it's just covered in snow...It's been a long time since she saw snow. She's just going to stand in the fake snow for now.]

Hello?

holodeck

[curdle]

[ It's a good thing she's started essentially wearing all of her regained clothing at once, including her cloak, because dang. Thomasin spends a while just peering into the windows of said house, which is absolutely not creepy, before knocking at the door. ]

Holodeck

[stitch_in_time]

[So, someone tells you the holodeck might be malfunctioning and trying to kill people. Better go poke it and see, right? But this scene looks downright cozy, and in no way from Silent Hill.]

[The Doctor cautiously approaches the door, that massive scarf from the bar suddenly seeming appropriate, even wrapped around his body like a sort of sash.]

[Just gonna. Open the door a little bit.]

Hello?

holodeck

[theoverseers]

[The weekend has been rough but after a very, very long shower and changing out of his gross white shirt and blue vest combo from the lockdown week finally, Jamie feels a bit more human. Not great but it's a start.

It takes a little bit for him to stomach going back up to the third floor (he doesn't think he'll ever be able to go back to the fourth) but part of him wants to check on the holodeck and stuck on that sad shadow of a beach town. It's a pleasant surprise to see an actual house and not a desolate seascape. He's just going to walk right up to the front door and rap his knuckles against it.

...God, it's been so long since he's seen snow.]

[kingshaming]

[Even after the sleepover on Saturday night, Xander had slept most of Sunday as well. He never recalls sleeping so much outside of being sick- other then getting up to eat and relieve himself he stays hidden away.

Not out of cowardice or self infliction this time though. It's almost like his body and soul just need to recover- and now finally with EP no longer over his head he can rest.

He dreams of his family. Elise, most of all. And the people here they've lost- a strange dream where the Griffin is his childhood tutor. McBurn throws bits of parchment at the back of his head that leave little scorch marks in his hair. Kurumi and Ricky are in a Hoshidan garden (he's never seen such a place, surely...) and spin each other into the petals. Seth sits on the ivory throne and gray slime escapes between his teeth. Margulis' puts a hand on his shoulder and either he is so very tall or Xander is so very small-

-he drinks coffee with Bolton somewhere that smells like cinnamon and he can hear machines somewhere bleeting at each other. He sips the coffee and it tastes like blood.

And Light. Lightlightlight, but those dreams are secret and just for him.

They aren't bad dreams, even the ones that should be. Everyone shows up at some point, living and dead. The few times he wakes he doesn't scream or cry out. If anything he only feels scared over. The last one, when Sunday slips into Monday, is the one he's been waiting for.

He was right. He is done- not dead by dying. But instead of fear he can only feel pride- Corrin would take care of things. If it had just been the Hoshidan's he would fear for his kin and country, but Corrin is a good woman and would do right by them. He whispered pleas for forgiveness from Camilla and Leo for putting so much on them.

When the start of the day truly happens, he feels clean for the first time in so long.

After showering and eating Xander spends most of the day in the gym lightly training (though careful of his hand)- but the real reason is clear. He is here for anyone who wishes to, as Bolton had put it, 'hold court' with him. Ask questions, take revenge, whatever that may be. The Dance Studio was once that place, but he would never return there.

There's a meeting in there (but that gets it's own space, as always), but afterwards he finally does what he said he was going to do for weeks. He goes to the pool. He refuses to be afraid anymore.

Feel free to watch him splash about though.

By evening time he can be seen at the incinerator- but why go to this place of bad memories? Maybe it's the piece of paper, neatly folded but with dried old smears of blood on it that's the reason. He turns it over and over in his hands, seeming to debate burning it or not.]

Gym

[cyan_maid]

[Okay, Jane. You can do this. Just go into the diner. Just...go. The robot misses you. It's okay. Ricky wouldn't want you to miss out on all the stuff in there, she'd...she'd drag you in, it's okay, there's not going to be a body in there-

No, Jane can't do it yet. She turns away and makes to pace the hall, only to hear something in the gym and spy Xander in there. She stops, watching him for a moment, before the residual ache in her chest spurs her to enter.

Fuck it. She'd wanted to ask him when she woke up anyway.]

Mister Xander? Am - am I interrupting?

pool

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika comes in, just in her Champion spandex, and hesitates before she waves.]

You finally tried it!

incinerator

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi calls out when she sees him. Looking more resigned than anything.]

I've been looking for you. We have to talk, about what I said after the trial...

pool

[theoverseers]

[It's a meeting that's a longtime coming and Jamie knows he can't put it off any longer. No one else left on the ship deserves to deal with their obvious issues any longer than they have to...at least that's Jamie's reasoning in this moment.

He takes his time trying to find Xander, avoiding the fourth floor as long as he can before it's the only place left to search. He avoids the dance studio like the plague because just the thought of getting near it makes his chest tighten and harder to breath so he makes a wide detour to the pool. He doesn't say anything when he sees Xander floundering about in the water. Instead he just sort of wallflowers near the door, just in case he loses his nerve or starts having a panic attack at the last minute.]

Meeting, last curtain

[kingshaming]

[It felt strange holding a meeting again after not doing so last week. But they all need a chance to regroup. He doesn't bother with his board this time (the cat, it seems, will live out the rest of time there), but he does have his sketchbook as always.]

We all learned a lot the day before yesterday. And not all of it came up in the trial. I feel now is the time to ask any questions or air any information there is left.

...and decide what happens now.

[imnotfat]

[...it's over. It's truly over. Togami can't believe...it's truly over. The world is starting to be rebuilt.

It feels good.

That's why he's at the holodeck, having recreated that image. Since this is some time before the meeting, he's not aware yet of the errors in the holodeck. If anyone enters, they'll find Togami, staring at that large building. He seems at peace, even smiling, satisfied]

...we did it. It's over.

[And apparently Hagakure predicted good things coming. Sure, 30% chance at most of happening, but he's sure they all can make it 100% with some effort and work

Would you interrupt this moment?]

[curdle]

[ It's all there, now. She remembers it. She wakes up smiling, though her pillow is, once again, wet, and her face covered with the residue of dried tears.

Thomasin spends almost the entire morning in the zero-gravity room, alternately bouncing off the walls and just kind of hanging around in the middle of it as if meditating, the way Shadow used to. Later, she pores over the Griffin's bible in the diner. Her hair is loose until after the meeting, at which point she appears to be trying to do something with it in the art room, using a new set of self-snipped ribbons, but she's not doing her usual plait and tie-up. Instead, she makes a weak attempt at two pigtails, then one weird... side pony? It's pretty obvious what she's getting at, but it doesn't work as well without bangs. At a certain point, she picks up the same scissors she used for the ribbons and just stares at them, pondering where she would even begin clipping. ]

Tuesday

[airlockedmods]

[cyan_maid]

[Another day, and still, nothing. Jane's a little calmer today, if on-edge, and she'd throw herself into baking something else if she wasn't still distraught from her forays into the diner and the greenhouse yesterday. Still, she needs something to do to keep her mind occupied, so she decides to make her home for today in the music room. No one's ever joined her in there, and it always seems to be a place where she has to run out because something's happened, but that doesn't mean she thinks ill of the piano inside. After all, no one's been found slumped over dead on the keys yet.

Pretty much anyone on the second floor will be able to hear her play snippets of songs, as if trying to settle on one or the other - she's left the door open, as if asking you to ask her to play something specific. And, in the rare occasion it's a song with words, you just might hear her sing; her voice is mediocre at best, but at least she can hold a tune.]

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika starts the morning in the gym, working out just like how Lightning always used to make everyone do. After hitting the shower, which... apparently also involves washing all her clothes in it and letting them dry in her bathroom, she's. Uh. Well, she's back in that stupid bunny suit.

Bunny suit Yurika proceeds to the dance studio. She didn't see the body, so the room isn't ruined for her, but it must be for so many others... time to fix this the best way she knows how: taping a big tissue-paper-art rose to the mirror. It's as big as a person. She dragged it here in five pieces.

Later, she's set up a bunch of board games in the game room and will call anyone she can over.]

Come on! We've been here long enough, let's try some of these!

[stitch_in_time]

[So if the Holodeck is malfunctioning, obviously the Doctor needs to test it thoroughly and make sure- but no, he's got the TARDIS control room simulated again. The doors are open to the vastness of simulated space, a view of some kind of nebula or cloud that's infinitely more colorful than the view afforded to them by the space station's windows. The center console is active, making a low grinding, wheezing sort of noise as the Doctor sits quietly with his legs dangling into the apparent emptiness.]

[Later in the day he can be found in the sewing room, carefully trying to make a very basic tote bag out of the material on-hand, and cursing under his breath at the inevitable snags in the sewing machines.]

[refusedtoleave]

[After confessing to Xander, Natsuhi doesn't return to her room. She ends up spending her night on the holodeck. Just looking at the rose garden that's outside the fake windows. Occasionally she moves away from them to mumble at painting of a beautiful blonde woman... Don't read the plaque below the painting.

It's really amazing how realistic this place is. It even has the sickeningly sweet smell on the upper floors.

If she wanted to, she could head out into the rose garden or the forest beyond it, go to the parlor. She could go back to spending days wandering the empty halls...

She doesn't. She stays in safety of the building.

Eventually she'll leave and go to the art room. Back to placing cranes. There are enough of the white, paper birds that she has to start putting them on the floor.]

WEDNESDAY

[airlockedmods]

[There's no actual shift, nothing spontaneously happens. However, on the first floor, the door to the clown room (the one that was locked until an unlucky Xander met his rude awakening in there what seems like forever ago now, that's been closed since then as well) is slightly ajar.

Perhaps this has something to do with the Doctor's recently-restored little toy.]

Re: WEDNESDAY

[cyan_maid]

[...

You know what? Jane had been vaguely wondering about what the hell was in here since Xander got shoved inside. Bolton's explanation hadn't dampened her curiosity. And since she's up...and that door is super ajar...

Let's casually peek inside of the clown room.]

[imnotfat]

[Having been on the lookout for any oddities during these days, Togami notices the ajar door. Should he enter alone, though? It may be wise to wait for someone else to come too.

Not that it'll stop Togami from trying to peek inside]

[stitch_in_time]

[So the Doctor's been on kind of high alert since Monday or so for anything that's out of the ordinary, and this is... kind of weird and warranting checking, but not immediately threatening. He's currently outfitted with a poorly-sewn, heavily uneven satchel made in the sewing room, currently filled with a couple of the medkits from the supply room, gloves from the art room, and a few of the odds and ends the Benefactors have graced him with over the month or so they've been here.]

[That ridiculous scarf is still pulling double-duty as a sash, and- is that a vuvuzela slung across his back? Okay.]

[But notably, he's got out his now marginally-less crusty sonic screwdriver, holding it with the same kind of air one might find in a gunslinger ready to draw.]

[Whatcha got going on, room of nightmares?]

[kingshaming]

[Xander's already been in there a second time to investigate- he's still not sure WHY it was unlocked though. Seeing it open he kinda assumes Jamie went in there...

Might as well peek]