week one: mingle

[cyclists]

Week One
30 in Competition

As the sun rises on Monday morning, all participants will find themselves awakening with a sense of purpose. Regardless of where they slept the night before, they’ll find themselves compelled to return to the main meeting hall first thing in the morning.

Approaching the hall, however, they will find a large, swirling mass grey in color looming near the sakura tree. This swirl cannot be approached just yet, but seems to be locked and waiting for something more.

As the last member of the village enters the hall, they will find Lune and Sol at the head of the room. Though they’re together, it’s Sol who speaks up first this time.

“Last night, Lune and I were finally able to get some answers. Or, at least, something we can do to help. The core’s still experiencing fluctuations and some instability, but we’ve figured out a place some of it might be coming from.”

They stop, excitedly holding up a scroll.

“This core is connected to several worlds out there. It’s the heart of the universe and everything that happens here can be affected by the outside, and can affect the worlds you come from. We found somewhere that seems to have a source of darkness lurking around…if we find it and clear the corruption, we can help stabilize the core a little more and help protect yourselves while you’re here.”

With that, they seem to lose steam just a little, looking back at Lune for a moment before nodding.

“So, uh…we were able to open a gateway for you to this world. Checking it out might help us pinpoint the source and get this done faster, so…leave whenever you’re ready. There’ll be another gate on the other side to bring you back here.”

That seems to be it, though Sol looks back to Lune again. “Anything else?”

"Look after one another," they repeat again. "And do not believe it is possible to be over-cautious."

The moment participants leave the hall, they will find that the gateway has changed from grey to white, the opening widening enough for multiple people to step through. The Signs will soon take their leave, and all will remain peaceful once more.

In addition, as the week goes on, partners will find that a simple touch (even accidental) may incite the bond between them to grow stronger for a moment. They will experience a swap of memories through their connection, taking a moment to see a piece of their partner's past without any control over what exactly is being shared.



Welcome to your week one mingle! Please note that as of this week, murder proposals are open. CYOA sign-ups are also live, and will close at Tuesday, 8 AM PST. They will be running on Tuesday afternoon and evening, so please be mindful of your own availability!

In addition, ensure that all of your week zero private conversations were reported on the page, and your week one private conversations are reported on that page. If you'll be taking anything from locations, please report that as well.

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Comments

[papawolf]

[ he'll give a shrug. It's easy to lose track of time with these things.

He will gesture for him to try the thing. what is legal age for things anyways? ]

[compendiem]

[ Losing track of time is how they get you... He wouldn't be surprised if it's already been over a day he'd been wandering around in this place, with so much to see and none of it being familiar. He does look at the slots, though, and hesitates.

The legal age would be 20 for him, and he's not sure he's living that long to see it, so. yolo.

He reaches over and pulls the lever. ]

[papawolf]

[ lights flash and it'll spin before settling on....

a face, a diamond, and a seven.

looks like he's not a winner this time. feral will just give a nod for him to go again if he feels up to it. ]

[compendiem]

[ ...Huh. Minato pulls again. He will keep pulling until he wins this damned machine, because he's nothing if not persistent.

And I guess he'll be here until late Friday if he doesn't die of other causes sooner. ]

[papawolf]

[ did he just make this kid into a gambler

minato or minano

not that feral will really be concerned. it's not really any of his business what this kid who has doctors that stab him does???

this time he'll get a fruit and two faces! so he gets some points for that? ]

[compendiem]

[ Yeah, but maybe he got stabbed in the head as a child and it's not Feral's fault he's like this. ]

Almost... There's more machines here. Do you want to try? It'll double our chances of winning.

[ Still going to take the better part of 5 days though ]

[papawolf]

[ there's a tilt of his head as he ponders win what.

is there anything they could keep or bring back from here?

let's just try to point to the slot where coins or whatever might come out of and then try to mime carrying and then pointing back to the doors out. can they? is it even worth it? ]

[compendiem]

[ Slot... carry... away... ]

I dunno, it looks pretty heavy. Do you think you can lift it?

[ Feral: "What can we win from the slots?"
Minato: Did you mean "Can we steal the slot machine"? ]

[papawolf]

[ face in hands. no no that's not what he means.

maybe someone should attach paper on him.

pointing to minato's hand and then gesturing for him to hold it out to him. let's try this ]

[compendiem]

[ Oh. Hm. Minato holds his hand out. ]

[papawolf]

[ taking hold of his hand to keep it still and then just going to try to trace out letters.

first he starts writing in a different language, then he shakes his head and starts again.

P R I Z E ? ]

[compendiem]

[ This makes it easy, the same sort of method Minato had used with Shess before Shess found his tablet. ]

Prize... Normally, it's tokens. In an arcade, you can exchange them for candy or toys. In a place like this... it's usually money. Or a car. Or something. ...I think.

[ He leans back away from the machine and looks around. ]

Don't see anyone at the counter we can talk to to exchange the tokens, but it's still possible it's a different prize. Something useful, hopefully. The machines are getting power, after all.

[ He's thinking out loud to make up for the one sided conversation, but then he takes his hand back and reaches into his bag, pulling out a notebook and a pen and flips to an empty page near the front. Here. Minato always carries paper and pen, so this will be more convenient than single words traced onto his palm. ]

[papawolf]

[ ...what is a car

he'll brighten at the notepad. good job, minato.

taking it and getting to writing a response ]

kar?

[compendiem]

[ He'd given Feral the paper so he could write full sentences instead of one word questions...... but okay, this one is easy to answer. ]

A car is... something you sit on. It has wheels and goes very fast, and you can steer it. It looks like this--

[ He takes the notebook back and starts to draw a car; essentially, a horizontal rectangle with two circles underneath each end. That's about the extent of his artistic abilities, unfortunately, so he supplements with a little "vroom vroom" printed on the side of the drawing. ]

That's the sound it makes.

[papawolf]

[Vroom vroom.

He's going to look at it like it's weird at first, and then realization settles on his face. Taking back the pencil to write under it. ]

No horse?

[compendiem]

[ vroom vroom ]

We have horses, but cars can go faster for longer, so most people have them nowadays. It'd be kinda difficult to ride a horse in the city, I think... sharing the road would be dangerous for the horses, and on the sidewalk, people would get trampled.

[papawolf]

[ !!!

he'll draw a horse and then put a line through it.

oh wait. he can write... looking sheepish for a moment and then writing again ]

Horses don't really like me.

[ So cars >>>>>>> horses. sorry swift wind ]

[compendiem]

[ I can't believe Minato just inadvertently backstabbed Swift Wind ]

Heh... Horses can be difficult to get along with. Food usually works, though, or spending time training with them.

[papawolf]

[ good news, feral can't tell anyone he did. his betrayal won't be uncovered.

he won't get into why horses don't like him.

okay let's try to get back to the original topic. ]

Will any of the prizes be useful to take back with us?

[ or is this one of those let's win for the heck of it? ]

[compendiem]

Yeah. If the car turns out to be a jeep or something, we could drive up the mountain instead of climbing.

[ The mountain is the worst!!!!! Come to think of it, they could probably take that tractor and drive up there, huh... ]

[papawolf]

[...








he's laughing, but silent laughter. ]

[compendiem]

[ ... ]

You think I'm joking, but I'm not. If you end up winning the grand prize, let me have a turn in it, okay?

[papawolf]

[ just vroom vroom up the mountain.

then he's thinking before he gestures to his arms. look he has strength and can climb shit. he's good. ]

If I win, I'm trading it.

[compendiem]

[ He is absolutely going to vroom vroom up the mountain. If Mianto manages to survive this week, the first thing he's going to do next Monday after getting out of casino hell is grabbing that tractor. ]

Better be something grand you're trading it for... What sort of stuff would you want in exchange?

[papawolf]

[ Scratching his chin as he thinks about it... ]

Food. Weapons.

[ The currency here might be useless back home ]