WEEK FIVE

[whimsicalism]

WEEK FIVE

There's one thing that belongs in Closetland: Monsters.

It was a monster that brought the students here to begin with, and it's a monster who controls their lives now. By now, some have even accused their classmates of turning into--or always being--monsters themselves.

The academy is just as cold as it was last week, autumn air seeping in through the unfriendly architecture and the artificial light seeming darker than before. The occasionally cloud of purple fog snakes through the hallways at ground level, a constant reminder of the new presence haunting the school and her role in the past five weeks of torment. Now that Kakuya is back in a body of her own making, the music room is silent, though the rooms and halls of the Academy themselves occasionally fill with a low, haunting flute melody. With the school's new overlord already wishing her ill, Nanami's already deflating power and free roam capabilities are more or less completely limited as well: She's just one more toy in the box.

The stairwell has opened into another new floor. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be the uppermost one. This is the top of Ira Academy, and while it likely bears some new answers and some new locations to try and find a solution to your plight, is there anything that can heal some of the rifts that formed from the accusations thrown at the last trial? Still, if you don't find answers, then you'll be here playing this eternal deadly game.

Is the devil you know better than the devil you don't?

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
Regains | AC | IC Profiles | Locations | Mystery Information | Sheep Contact | Nanami Contact | Kakuya Contact

OOC NOTES

Welcome to Week 4! Nanami has joined the party! She no longer has office hours but still be contacted privately, as can Kakuya, who is no longer stuck in the music room. New locations are now open, and some minor adjustments have been made to the IC profiles and rules. Please hit the mods with a ping in Discord and put INVESTIGATE in your subject line if you're interested in exploring a new location. The SHEEP are still taggable, though you may find them in a...different mood.

You now have a week to make sure your AC in for last week and to start collecting AC for this week. Remember to submit your regains, and sign up for a spot exploring this week's mystery if you want to!

Comments

SUNDAY

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MONDAY

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MYSTERY SIGN UP

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[Please respond to this comment if you wish to sign up. Sign ups will close at 9AM PST / 11 AM CST / 12 PM EST on Monday or when we have four players signed up. We'll be going back to trying to run by 12pm PST / 3pm EST for this mystery. Please note when you're most available after or around that time in your sign-up comment so we can try and work out scheduling!

If you've already participated in a mystery, please wait until 3pm PST / 6pm EST on Sunday the 11th to put your sign-up in to allow new folks a chance before we start taking reruns!]

MYSTERY 6: What is Home?

[whimsicalism]

[Another Monday, another ‘game’ awaits the students… At the very least the identity of the ‘game master’ is known this time. Kakuya did promise one of her greatest mysteries yet today. For a few students, it seems she’s chosen them to participate. No blood drips from your ceiling, no screaming, or even shaking walls come with the silence of midnight as Monday slowly turns to Tuesday.

You might even begin to think that the fox-like trickster forgot. Yet, a small series of voices begin to sing a wordless tune. At first, it doesn’t seem that dangerous. Memories of a time outside of the Academy come to mind. Good, peaceful memories… maybe you think you’re still dreaming as you wake up.

Maybe those voices sound familiar, too: maybe a sibling or parent or a long lost friend from when you still didn’t know anything about Closetland. You could shake it off, of course, but what harm would it do if you simply listened to the song and followed it to the source? Perhaps Kakuya is going easy on you, if you think of your new captor at all in this peaceful moment.

The top floor of the Academy is beckoning to you, do you follow?]


((As with the previous mysteries this is a locked event. You may talk about the events after they happen, of course, but trying to wake up the other students isn’t allowed. If they try they’ll get a sensation that they just don’t have the time to spare. While you may respond to the event individually to put in your reactions since this an investigation, we prefer that you stick together for the duration. After everyone has put in a reaction to the mystery we will set up a comment order to go on.))

TUESDAY

[whimsicalism]

MOTIVE

[whimsicalism]

[The Principal’s ostentatious announcements are gone, but Kakuya’s game is still in full swing. Any apprehension about the release of the upcoming motive will be answered with a familiar scenario that quickly turns to a reminder that the end goal is still the same.

On Tuesday, each character is passed a picture by a silent sheep: The subject this time is not a loved one but an event. The picture depicts a moment of significant achievement or triumph in the recipient’s life. Maybe you see the time you saved the world. Maybe it’s a moment you came to true understanding with another person, without whom you can’t imagine your life ever being the same. Whatever it is, you accomplished something important to you, and if this moment hadn’t happened, things probably would have been much worse.

Kakuya’s voice imprints telepathically on everyone. The loudspeakers remain silent, as do the sheep. There’s no longer any need for them to pass out this information as long as your host can share words directly with your mind, after all.]

Hello… friends. Let’s play…a game. This was… a happy time…for you…wasn’t it? It looks…nice. Kakuya thinks…it would be so sad… if you lost…and it never happened. Kakuya… will stop this… from happening… if no one dies by Friday. Are these… stakes better? Hehe… Kakuya hopes so…

[Kakuya’s voice grows silent as your mind echoes with her girlish laughter.]

WEDNESDAY

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THURSDAY

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INVESTIGATION/Open

[canreallymove]

[Well. He knows where he’s going.

Records Room.

There has to be something her to make…anything make sense. Just. At all.







Later he is just wandering around. Go ahead and bother him. He is just trying to clear his head more.]

NO CHURCH, ONLY MEETING

[hashtagwoof]

[ With Jeanne out of the picture, it's a wonder who would be around to conduct Sunday service in her absence...

The awnser comes quickly enough. Someone woke up early enough to slip a note under everyone's door:

EMERGENCY MEETING

Playground. 8AM. If anyone asks, we're attempting to hold church.

When everyone gathers, though, there is no church. There's just Hunter and his net gun looking incredibly stern. ]

Morning everyone. Hope you've all had some time to calm down after the drama bomb that dropped yesterday...

[ He starts pacing as he speaks. ] Look, I get it. A dog everyone liked had died, people who were really close to him wanted to avenge him, but jumping the gun and attacking someone based on suspicion alone just caused a huge angry mess. In the future, if this happens again, how about we save the angry insults until after we find concrete evidence of someone with blood on their hands?

[ Yes. He is stopping to emphasize that last bit. Feel the annoyance in your bones. ]

Of course, I don't want to stay here any longer than most of you. And as Dewey pointed out to me last night, we can't fight all the monsters on our own. I mean, we're outnumbered by them anyway. Even if everyone was still alive, that's still about twenty of us and a whole lot more of them.

So what we need to do is strategize an escape plan.

That means scoping out every part of the school as thoroughly as possible for clues. Look for an opening, a document that lists the monster's weak spots, something that combats ghost stuff. I have a feeling there's gonna be another late night terror tomorrow. If you wake up for that, check out everything you can. We need all the Intel we can get.

Oh, and weapons! How many people got those out of the vending machine? Non-lethal, preferably, but we can't afford to be that picky. Dewey has offered self defense classes, but if anyone else wants to help him teach that, that would be great... I'm hoping we won't have to face too many monsters in our path, but we should be prepared to fight back... [ A pause. Something else came to mind. ] Oh yeah, I should've mentioned this earlier. When I talk about monsters here, I mean the twisted nightmare things in the glass containers. Not our classmates. Even if they end up being driven to murder for some reason. Trust me when I say none of these deaths would have happened if our collective captors didn't keep poking us with the proverbial stick.

That should cover everything... Any questions? Concerns? Maybe a good suggestion or two?

[copycut]

So you're saying we should cut our losses and run? Well... I get it, but we might be missing out on an opportunity by doing that. I don't know who else was paying attention, but did you catch onto the important part of what Kakuya said?

We're in Utsushiyo, the land of people. Kakuya's "broken toys" are in Kakuriyo, the land of the unseen. Kakuya also called it the land of the dead, but... I think "land of the unseen" is the better name for it. After all, she said that it's possible to reach Kakuriyo without dying.

In theory, that should mean... Anything that enters can also move in reverse. If we find a way to pass freely between the two, we can bring the souls of our "dead" back to Utsushiyo. Whether they'll come attached to their bodies... Well, that's another story. Still, we can talk about that once we've actually found a way into Kakuriyo.

Lucki~ly... [ And Kuro's voice brightens up. ] I convinced Kakuya to start giving us hints! The next time we win a match against her, she'll give us a clue about how to get to Kakuriyo. It involves her greatest mystery yet, though, so we all need to be careful over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime... Well, we can't just rely on Kakuya to tell us what we need to know. I think we should also step up our investigations. It might be useful to double-check any rooms where "mysteries" have already appeared... For example, the laundry room, where we found Nanami. As weird as it sounds, the inside of that washing machine might be a space where one can pass between Kakuriyo and Utsushiyo.

[temmapathy]

[Emma raises her hand.] I can help teach karate. And Carrie suggested that I should teach everyone here sign language so we have a more private way to communicate.

SELF-DEFENSE

[lets_dewey_it]

_{[Dewey has tossed his forester's axe into whatever weapons pile there was for the sake of keeping track of them, along with his keytaur and the Druid Cup.]} Two of these are more last resorts if anything, but that's beside the point.

Sonic and I had this in mind for quite some time, but we were never able to get around to it. Sunday was for church and Saturday was for trials. And even now, Sonic is in no state to help me out with this; he needs time to get his footing back so to speak.

I'm not a fighting expert like Webby back home, but I'll do my best to teach you all what she does. And I can use help from anyone else who knows a thing or two about fighting. Emma knows karate. Anya's parents are a spy and an assassin. Adorabat had been getting training from Mao Mao and Badgerclops. Any kind of fighting knowledge, no matter how limited, is better than none.

[temmapathy]

Kakuya was surprised that Nanami came out of the machine...so there must be something about it she doesn't know.

WEAPONS PILE

[lets_dewey_it]

_{[An axe, a keytaur, and a big gold trophy's already there. Anyone else have anything to toss in?]}

[hashtagwoof]

... You're serious? We could revive the dead like that...?

[ That idea leaves a bad taste in his mouth after what Jeanne did, but at this point he's getting desperate.

Plus... If Dylan's really in there... He still has a chance to redeem himself. At least to him. ]

I... Well, thanks for pointing that out for everyone who didn't pay attention. Definitely for stepping up our investigation, but...

You realize what her offer means, right? Two more people will have to die before we get her hints. You sure we can afford to let that happen?

CW: Mao Mao Spoilers

[violence_ensues]

Closed to Hunter

[Adorabat does hear more arguments directed her way. She can't really argue against them. Someone she really misses wouldn't like it. So instead of screaming and yelling, Adorabat will go up to Hunter, looking... not exactly guilty nor remorseful, but still down.]

...I know now that Sonic's not a monster. It's just that... all the monsters back at Pure Heart Valley never thought,. They only cared about eating and smashing. But... but it's so coffusing. I've never seen monsters that can think before. It's weird to think of such mean things as people when...

[When she lost her mother to one.]

I'm... I'm sorry.

Open to all

LISTEN UP, EVERYONE! We can't just do self-defense. We need to start thinking of moves to use as a team. But not just that. We need to stretch, cuz flexibility is really important. We'll need to build our stamina, too.

Dewey, I'll help you with your self-defense and dodging. Hunter, I'll help you with that bubble blaster and your aim. Anya won't be fighting with us. Treat her as a civilian. Sonic, I'll help you learn how to plan things out. Anyone else, try to use the rest of your coins on the machine to see if we get anything useful.

Me and Kuro talked last night and we think we can find a way to get to the people who have died without actually dying ourselves. We just need to be on the lookout for strange magical things. Other than that, we maybe should do a seance to try talking to the dead. Hunter can tell you more.

TRAINING

[lets_dewey_it]

_{[Anything about fighting anyone knows, now's the time to share!]}

[copycut]

[ Kuro hums and nods. ]

It's making a bit of an assumption, but... If Father isn't the one who put her there, that makes Kakuya the most likely candidate, don't you think? I'm not sure Nanami remembers much of anything, but—do you think, if Nanami had become one of the "unseen"... that Kakuya was surprised that she managed to find a way out?

[temmapathy]

I don't think that's what she means by the mystery game. She said Anya won two times, but we've had four trials. I think she was talking about the things that happen on Monday.

Open

[lets_dewey_it]

...Thank you, Adorabat. We could really use the help.

[temmapathy]

Oh, it was definitely her. She told me herself. But it's certainly possible that's how she got out, although we also know that she was in the detention room just a few days before that.

[copycut]

Consider it from another angle. We've already been here for more than a month. Even if we put aaall of our time and effort into finding an escape route... Do you think we'll do it before the end of the week?

[ she actually has more thoughts on what "reviving the dead" means in this context but, also: one point at a time ]

[hashtagwoof]

[ Hunter has a nail bat, a combat knife, a dueling sword... ]

I also have the net gun and Dylan's Party Bubble Wrapper. I'd like to keep one of them on me in case something happens...

Think we should start bringing at least one concealed weapon to the trials? Just in case?

[lets_dewey_it]

Ah, yeah, concealed weapons are a must at trials now. Heck, that's why I added the skirt to my look. Spacier than pants or trousers, easier to hide more stuff.