WEEK 2

[whimsicalism]

The first week at the castle passes without any (recent) murders. Mysteries were found, questions asked, bonds formed, and Halloween celebrated. Now as Sunday 'dawns', you might feel your mind a little lighter as your first memories fade. Will this be just a week celebrating the (questionably) best thing about October or will more sinister things be afoot?

Either way, it looks like the Alices will continue their game.

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

[Hello, and welcome to week 2! Don't forget to submit your memory losses here and your activity here. If you want to ask or annoy the twins you can do so here. As always, don't forget to turn your threads in for 'fabulous prizes.]

Comments

Sleepover

[whimsicalism]

[Sometime after breakfast, it's Queen Alice that speaks out across the castle.]

I understand things have been rough this week so I'm sorry we couldn't have this sooner. My Alice and I prepared the media room for a sleepover for everyone. It's now big enough for everyone to sleep in there for tonight, too! We'll have food and plenty of films for everyone. It'll start after supper!

Oh, by the way a few stacks of non-fiction books are back in the library. We haven't been able to place them in their places yet but they're there. Please have fun for me!

[With this notice, Queen Alice gives a great yawn before growing silent. As she says, now there are some non-fiction books of various sorts in the library.

More importantly for tonight? There are some tables with various treats in the media room. Popcorn? Candy? Everything's there. Various horror movies have also been pulled out of their cases and lined up for use.

Some books have been left in the media room if things weren't already creepy enough in this castle. The Alices themselves are absent from the proceedings.]

[strictura]

[ Hm... Nagisa definitely doesn't trust this, and he doesn't see much appeal in the whole sleepover concept anyway, so he's not sure if he's going to stay for very long or not, but he'll at least stop by to see what's going on and who decides to show up.

He picks up some of the videos to check the titles and then looks at their respective cases, frowning. Is this trash really something they need to be watching in these circumstances? In the best case, some of them will end up more anxious than they already were about the possibility of being killed; in the worst case, something here could give someone ideas.

He sets the VHS case he's looking at back down with a sigh. ]

Doesn't this seem a little suspicious?

[byzer0]

If someone like you finds this suspicious, she's really, really, sucking at this whole welcoming host thing.

[ In Natsuo's case he's poking around but that seems to be all he's interested in doing. ]

[strictura]

[ FROWNS ]

I realize you disagree with my approach to things here, but I'm not naive, you know.

[ He wouldn't have tried to set up this whole accountability system to try to prevent getting away with murder if he didn't think it was likely that someone would do it!! ]

Anyway, after being so adamant at the beginning of the week that they'd convince someone to kill before it was over, holding any kind of event this close to the deadline feels like it must be intended as a trap of some sort.

[ballooncaged]

Don't you get it?

[Mizuki is restless in a nightgown over full-length pajamas, running her hand up and down her forearm.]

It is a trap. For the kids who aren't here.

[seventhlittlemonster]

[He was initially hesitant to talk with Nagisa, but... maybe he should get to know the other leaders better.]

It kind of is, yes, but... I love sleepovers...

Maybe we should hide the violent ones where no one can find or get them? I'm perfectly willing to use my room for that.

[imozon]

[Dark Dream looks up from the bowl of popcorn she's munching on.]

What's a little suspicious?

[littlebratziska]

[Franziska has ended up somewhat engrossed in the movie, and takes a moment to register the question as a result.]

Hm? Why should it be?

[undershadow]

Oh, no. No no no. Absolutely not.

[ Dislikes: sleepovers.

That said, if this were a cartoon, it would cut from her protests after breakfast to her protesting in the media room, where she eventually does show up! Womp womp wommmmp. Under her breath, she mutters: ]

At least we can't off each other if we're all in the same place.

[ It takes an extremely long time for her to relax, and she probably sticks Hocus Pocus back in its case when she thinks nobody's looking, but eventually it... kind of looks like she's having fun? She's watching the movies, anyway, the cheesier and more splattery the better. ]

Okay, you can see the zipper on the back of his neck in every single shot. This is incredible. [ Then, approvingly: ] Oh, gross.

[ But her focus can't be complete, because her eyes keep flickering to the door. It seems like she's watching for entrances or exits, or just general movement. ]

[xxxx_me]

[Yeah, the gore just gets a glassy-eyed-not-really-paying-attention look from this kid.]

...Are there any movies that aren't so... bloody?

[octopups]

What's a "zipper"?

[Oh hi Lena look it's the only character in the castle who is shorter than you are (at least when his heads aren't held too high). Two of him have trotted up beside you and the others are strewn about nearby in pairs on various doggy beds.]

[prescience]

[Oriko arrives at the media room with fresh popcorn of her own, though when she notices that theater snacks are already laid out, it seems a little superfluous.]

While snacks have already been provided by our hosts, I do happen to have this on hand.

I hope it doesn't belong to anyone? If not, you're all welcome to it. [And she'll just...leave it on the table with the other snacks. She washes her hands of this weird vending machine popcorn.]

It's likely that I won't remain here long, as I prefer to sleep in my own room.

[Rather than settling into any specific sleeping bag, Oriko takes a seat nearby. Seems she really doesn't plan on staying. For any movies that come on, she doesn't have much in the way of visible reactions, though she covers her mouth during particularly suspenseful moments or will lean forward in anticipation in a scare. She's very quiet, all except for -]

Good grief! Why won't they just leave the house?!

[Later, despite her promise to return to her room before long into the marathon, Oriko actually seems to have dozed off watching one of the movies, her face propped up against her fist. Every so often, her expression becomes troubled, or she fidgets, or murmurs something worried-sounding beneath her breath. The polite thing to do would be to wake her up so she can return to the comfort of her room, but you don't have to be polite.]

except for

[imozon]

[Dark Dream SCREAMS at the sudden sound from a direction that was quiet before.]

vending machine popcorn

[ballooncaged]

This is as good a day as any to take a break with some evening carbs.

[Mizuki shuffles over to reach into the container with one hand, the other dangling at her side. Dark circles under her eyes are fresh from Wednesday night.]

house calls

[soverainty]

[Niko is actually using one of the sleeping bags more like a body pillow at this point, half of it is all spread out underneath her and holding a spot of cookies and popcorn (spread out on a towel because there's no sense in sleeping on crumbs, right?) and the other half is all bunched up in her arms as she stares over the top of it.

In fact, only her eyes and pigtails are visible as she stares fixedly at the screen, and she seems to jump a little when the normally quiet Oriko suddenly lets out her exclamation -- she might have chosen this corner of the room both for camaraderie and quiet, really.

She is a very quiet movie watcher herself, after all, only muttering into her armful every now and then. But she tilts her head a little.]

I-I mean, it just means that they might be like us, right? There's something keeping them there...

[Who knows what they're watching but it's doubtful that there's any overt indication of a force field or other type of trap in the movie. Maybe she's just being charitable.....]

How would you leave, Mikuni-san?

[xxxx_me]

[He'll settle down in a chair and munch idly on the snacks while the movies play, although whenever things get violent he just kind of... stares distantly at the screen. Like he's not 100% paying attention to the actual movie anymore.

Eventually he gives up on watching and instead picks up a scary book instead, curling up with his knees tucked close on a chair.]

[strictura]

[ Sits down next to him with a decidedly not-scary (at least in the traditional sense, who knows what boring nonfiction thing he's got here) book he brought over from the library.

He doesn't react that much to whatever potentially gory thing is happening on the screen, but he doesn't seem thrilled to be watching either, and eventually he looks away, shaking his head. ]

I don't like these kinds of movies much.

[littlebratziska]

It's not real, you know.

[She notices his discomfort eventually, but despite him LITERALLY SAYING he watched his friends die she cannot put together the source of it.

Dead people don't even look like this??]

booking it

[soverainty]

Allen-kun, is that a good book? I don't think I've seen it before...

[There's a small yawn as Niko drags herself away from the huddle surrounding the hubbub of all the horror films going on -- she's in fact run out of snacks and may have run out of watching or horror energy at this point given her slightly sleepy expression, but she still seems alert enough to peek at his book.

The real question is whether she actually can sleep when they've just had a whole marathon and then a whole new discussion of murder in the middle of the night. That's what sleepovers are for, right?

She's going to shuffle through some more of the book pile...]

The Alices are really dedicated to the Halloween theme, aren't they?

[littlebratziska]

Hmph. A foolish waste of time.

[This had been her first reaction upon hearing of this foolish slumber party, but by the evening the noise of the movies and occasional chatter was enough to make her slightly curious.

Franziska was, naturally, perfectly aware of how VCRs and video tapes worked, but had never had the leisure time to really watch movies. It had always seemed - and did seem still - like a foolish waste of time, and she always had something better to be doing.

For the first time, she didn't, really - she probably could make something for herself, and probably should, even, but that didn't keep her from drifting to the doorway, feeling slightly curious, just in time to see a dinosaur attempt to eat a pair of children.

As she suspected, clearly a foolish waste of time - dinosaurs were decidedly not alive anymore, so this was clearly yet another work of fiction, but she still hovered near the door for a while to see what happened, and eventually drift in.]

[octopups]

[Hello Franziska! Amdi would greet you, and indeed probably has been greeting plenty of people seeing as his dog beds are strewn hither and thither throughout the room, but in fact at this moment every single one of Amdi is huddled in the back staring at the screen in sheer terror.]

[No one has yet told him that dinosaurs are not, um. Extant.]

[imozon]

[Dark Dream is pretty engrossed in this movie, as it turns out, but once Franziska gets a little further into the room, she waves.]

[octopups]

[After a frustrating afternoon of trying to calculate the size of the castle from the yard and getting weird inconsistent results every time, Amdi slumps into the media room right after supper and arranges himself in a lazy posture, tossing his supplied dog beds pretty much wherever and slouching down on them in various sets of two or three, barely within decent mindsound distance of each other. It leaves him in a kind of slow dopey mindset, especially when the movies start and more people file in, making it hard to hear himself think. He doesn't particularly feel like thinking tonight, though.]

[This whole "films" thing is very interesting (he'd only seen a properly-working viewscreen for the first time about a tenday before he came to this place), but the actual subject matter mostly leaves him only mildly spooped or just perplexed. For a critter who's used to looking at things from multiple angles at all times, there's a certain inherent breaking of the 4th wall that comes from only seeing events from one perspective.]

[Also, there's something about the colors that just seems weird and flat and unrealistic to him. In fact it is the case that Tinish eyesight is slightly skewed towards the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum compared to humans, so a standard 3-color display is poorly calibrated for him, but Amdi is mostly too loopy for that to occur to him tonight.]

[While he will occasionally bunch himself during a really tense narrative moment, for the most part he's dragging his little beds around to wherever and whoever and just hanging out. And simping for pets]

[battlestations]

[Nigel has no interest in horror movies at all, but he's here - mostly just lurking in the back, keeping an eye on the door (never know when an enemy could show up!!) He'll pet some tines if they're near him though.]

Hey, Amdi. What've you been up to?

[He looks tired...]

[scratchitti]

[Neku is here, and while this isn't really his thing usually, there's something nostalgic about a sleepover- even if he only ever did that with one person.

He's mostly looking at the Scary Stories book between movies]

...the art in these is actually really good.

[NEKU THOSE PICTURES TRAUMATIZED ME AS A CHILD WTF]