day nine

[guestcontrol]

dreamland day nine 10 players remaining. There are no clocks in your dorm room to help you mark the passing of time, but at a certain point, in the early hours of the morning, a cheerful chime tune plays over the loudspeaker. Whether you're awake or asleep, the door to your dorm room is now unlocked. You'll have about a forty five minutes, in which you can get ready or grab some breakfast, before the door that allows you into the park unlocks. By this time, you may or may not have noticed that one of your number is missing. Oh, there's one other thing this morning - your bracelets are no longer working. Fortunately, your rooms have all been left unlocked, as is the entrance to the park. Oh, and you still might not want to go near the fences; the automatic weapons in the guard towers are still a thing. The chimes play again, to announce that the park is open, and the rides and music begin to come back to life as a voice plays over the loudspeaker. "Congratulations to the tippy top ten! You made it!" You will have until 4 PM to explore the park and talk amongst yourselves. Somewhere in the park, you'll find the body of Oz Vessalius. rulebook character statuses private conversations graveyard

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Bulletin Board

[guestcontrol]

[As promised, the electronic bulletin board near the main train station has a copy of the rulebook, as well as the following notice: ]

Good morning! As of today, there are 10 players remaining. 6 VIPs have been killed. There have been 2 opportunities for conversion. The following guest roles are still alive:

Detonator: Meets at night. Chooses one player to receive a key that can, at any time, detonate another player's guest identification bracelet and kill them.

This morning, Oz Vessalius is dead. That's all! Have a fun filled day!

Ferris Wheel

[guestcontrol]

[If you happen to take the Ferris Wheel this morning, you may notice something somewhat unusual.

From the top, you can still see the small town and factory in the distance, looking as grey and deserted as ever. But flying from the factory, you can just make out a hint of color in something that looks like a flag. It seems to be lime green and magenta.]

Oz Vessalius

[guestcontrol]

[Take your time getting ready in the morning, but eventually you won't have any choice but to look for a body. As you wander around the park, you may notice that the circus tent is open. Inside, you'll find that the cages containing dead animals have been moved in a semi-circle around one of the raised platforms. On that platform, in the center of some kind of circle drawn in white paint, it a corpse.

The bracelet isn't working today, but this corpse clearly belongs to Oz. He's lying in the center of a paint circle, in which are drawn a variety of strange symbols. Oz's body has been stabbed through the chest, although there is no knife nearby. The overall effect is one of ritual sacrifice.

Oz Vessalius is no longer among us.]

[cheats]

[ Before he had even seen the bulletin board, Ciel knew that Oz hadn't made it through the night. They had a sort of morning ritual by this point, because Ciel was a completely hopeless child, and Oz had to help him get dressed, since he was too noble to even know how to do that. It had filled him with a bitter anger as Ciel had roughly dressed himself this morning (and only in simple clothes, for once, since they were about all he could manage), because of course it hadn't worked. Why would you trust in someone as mad as they were? Idiot, idiot, idiot...

And as Ciel runs out into the park to find Oz, he's angry and anxious, because no small part of him wants to just run into Oz as he takes a morning walk, and he'll laugh in that empty-headed way that says that he just forgot. Ciel will criticize him for making him dress in such an uncouth way, but then they'll both laugh and head to a sad breakfast of oatmeal. The small part of his optimistic heart wishes for that desperately. And he's so focused on that hope that he nearly jogs by the circus tent all together, but he stops, then walks back.

Probably not, but he had to check. He opens the flap to the tent only planning to glance inside, but what he sees makes his blood immediately turn to ice.

Ciel makes a soft noise as his eyes widen in a doeish way, innocent and so much more suited to his age, but as his eyes sweep around the scene before him, his heart races, faster and faster, until it's thundering in his ears. ]

No—

[ The circle on the ground, he knows every letter, because they've been burned into his mind from seeing this scene, over and over and over again every time his sleep came too fitfully. The blood seeps down the altar, even if it's dry now, and there's a body laying on top, staring up distantly. And Ciel, no— ]

Ciel isn't here anymore...

[ Ciel is gone. But Ciel is inside the cages that he sees, reaching out desperately as a dagger plunges into the chest of the person there. Is that Oz? Or is it Ciel? He can't tell, but it's so clear in his mind that Ciel trembles then makes a choked sound before he vomits messily, not collapsing first this time. He cries out feebly, trying to step back, but he falls, because he feels lost. Where is he? Where is Sebastian? Sebastian is supposed to destroy the ones that soiled him— them—

He clutches at the side of the tent and tries to rip his eyes away from the scene before him that's mixing reality with his past, but he can't. He can't even stand to walk, because he's afraid and reliving every moment of being in that cage. Being on the altar? Where was he? He can't figure it out, because it's both, and yet, it neither.

So he screams.

It's loud and harsh enough that anyone would hear it easily, because it's a sound of fear and despair, barely human sounding in just how rough it is. ]

[perfectstrike]

[Oh no. Oh no no no. Peko is not equipped to handle something like this.

She comes running at the sound of the scream, not even sure who's screaming, her hand reaching back blindly as if to grasp the hilt of a weapon. But there's no weapon to be found, not even in the body. Even she has to stop, feet skidding on the dirt as her breath catches in her throat. Kuzuryuu's death had been brutal enough in her mind, but this... this was nothing other than torture.

Peko doesn't have the first idea of how to comfort someone. She only knows what little she'd learned about Kuzuryuu before he'd been taken from her. But in a moment, she's at Ciel's side, breath coming harsh through her nose. She isn't going to be sick, not from that, but she needs to do something.]

Phantomhive. Phantomhive.

[Maybe just letting him know that he's not alone is enough? She reaches out to touch his shoulder, hoping he won't flinch away too dramatically.]

[photoshot]

[ the bracelets are down. that's almost the first thing she notices in the morning.

the next was that, experimentally, when she tried opening Sigma's door next to hers, it was unlocked.

time to do some investigative journalism and by that she means snooping in every single dead person's room for clues. tact, what tact. ]

Mori - Circus

[dotdotdotstare]

[After the initial Oz discovery, Mori is just going to take advantage of the unworking bracelets to take a second look at that crate full of machine guns, explosives and missiles, assuming it's still there. Wishful thinking at work, but it would be great if they could take out one of the guard towers with something in here.]

[guestcontrol]

[It's still there. Do you know how to operate these, though? The explosives and missiles especially are confusing.]

[foetida]

[Nanami comes running out at the sound. She freezes when she sees Oz's body, her eyes widening and every muscle completely still in disbelief - and then she screams too. Unlike Ciel though, her scream is full of betrayal and rage.]

Oz! [She whirls on Ciel, uncaring of his shock or the tears running down her own cheeks, and lunges for him. Doesn't matter that she doesn't have a weapon or that he's clearly (faking) in pain - she'll try to choke the life out of him with her own bare hands.]

You traitor! He trusted you!

[dotdotdotstare]

[....Not... really. He knows a little, like missiles need to be launched out of something. There doesn't happen to be a bazooka in here, does there?]

[cheats]

[ Ciel flinches away from the touch, and though it's sharp, as if Peko had just hurt him, the touch is something he seems to cling to all the same. He's trembling, from his fingers to his legs, but he turns towards Peko, hands gripping at her shirt almost desperately. ]

Sebas— Sebastian—

[ Because that's the only person that would provide any comfort to him, right? Who else would do such a thing? And his mind is too muddied at the moment, too confused by feeling like the mark in his back is burning all over again, feeling a small, warm hand over his own, then hearing the screams as someone (who?) laid on that altar. Ciel is wheezing, and it's clear that he's not even remotely keeping it together, and not even completely here, mentally. But he clings to Peko desperately all the same, because he wants someone to just make this stop, and yet...

He can't do it. ]

[cheats]

[ Ciel offers minimal resistance as Nanami's hands wrap around his throat, because ultimately, Ciel is a weak, feeble boy at the best of times, and now, there's barely any strength in him at all. If this is fake, then Ciel is quite the actor, but that likely doesn't matter to Nanami in the slightest. Ciel's eye goes wide in deep fear, and he reaches up to scratch at her hands, to kick at her, but they're desperate, frantic attempts. He's struggling with all his might, but that might is simply just not much at all. ]

No—!! No, no, no, I didn...

[ But as Nanami's hands squeeze tighter, Ciel's words die in his throat, though he continues to thrash and scream as best he can. He's afraid. He's terrified, and if nothing else, that should be adamantly clear. ]

[foetida]

Liar! Liar!

[And unlike Ciel, Nanami is strong for a thirteen-year old girl. It's her biggest advantage when it comes to swordfighting - she might not be as trained or skilled as her fellow duelists, but she's fast and aggressive and incredibly vicious once she snaps. And she's certainly snapped now - eight days of absolute terror followed by an actual moment of hope, only for it to all come crashing down because of him--

It doesn't matter that Ciel's clearly terrified. It doesn't matter that she's never killed anyone before. Right now Nanami's running on pure rage, the kind that ends in drowned kittens and broken duels - rational thought has completely checked out. All she knows is that the only real friend she's ever had is now dead and she's going to die too and it's all because of this stupid little boy in front of her.

Her hands tighten. Someone's probably going to have to pry her off of him before she lets go.]

[perfectstrike]

[Who is Sebastian. Sounds like a real stand-up guy.

Peko freezes when Ciel grips her shirt, both hands out at her sides like she's not certain what to do with them. He's not Kuzuryuu, not as much as she'd halfway wanted him to be. It was easy for her to forget that Ciel was younger than both she and her young master, even by a few years.]

...Ciel.

[Her voice is as stern as ever, but she tried to at least lower her tone to something softer. Comforting people is not... really something she's any good at. All she can do is slowly raise her hands to lightly hold his shoulders. If he doesn't flinch away, she'll try to tighten that grip into a hug.]

Ciel. Listen to me.

Fence

[murimurimuri]

[It would be nice to head over to that circus and gloat, and even nicer to go gank some of those weapons, but Simon doubts he can get away with either of those, and anyway the nicest thing of all would be getting the hell out of dodge. So the second he realizes his bracelet is off, he packs up a bag full of provisions and heads for the fence to see if he can find a viable point of escape.

While he checks out the fence, Money is on the lookout, riding on the back of one of the petting zoo sheep.]

[cakelover]

[ While Mori heads to the weapons, Honey splits off to the disturbance near the circus tent. He doesn't even need to look at the body to see what's going on, and for once, he actually knows what's happening - or at least he'd immediately followed the directions on the letter Oz had slipped him that morning, and that had produced exactly three names and orders to speak to Nanami, who was supposed to have given him something.

So it's not like he can't understand what, exactly, Nanami is attempting to do here. They're two out of the three.

That doesn't mean he's going to let a thirteen-year-old girl strangle a thirteen-year-old boy, and god fucking damnit Oz why did you leave this mess in his hands. Not a single one of them is more than a child, and it's easy to see why Oz had wanted to trust something other than what they'd probably have to do today.

He'll very quickly hurry over to drag Nanami off of Ciel; for all that Honey is shorter than both of them, he's very likely stronger than both, and he's still thinking clearly, despite everything. ]

Hey! Hey! Both of you calm down, right now! This isn't helping anything!

[ Calm down, even though at least three people will have to die today unless they focus on the fact the bracelets seem to be not working. ]

[paws_and_rewind]

[ Missile's room contains mostly newspaper scraps and a heap of those Listen, human, and tremble! notes. And a bunch of photographs. There is no box of possessions - all of that is under his bed. ]

[poyoyon]

[ Tiger 1 is a rather messy room. There are half-drunk cokes and some open snacks and carnival toy prizes strewn around at random. There isn't any sheet music to be found, since she gave it all to Sheba before her trial.

There's nothing useful here, why did you even bother, Aya. ]

[belgian]

[Belgium's room contains Mahiru's camera, a notebook, and a note for Oz. Apparently Belgium was expecting that if Oz was around to read notes at all it was because her death would come as a result of being suddenly detonated. Belgium's cell phone is stuffed in her box of stuff from home under her bed--all the settings have been erased. Her SD card is in there, too, though it's not in the phone (and doesn't have anything relevant on it).

There's also chocolate in her box, if Aya wants it.]

[photoshot]

[ ... she just hovers in the room for a moment and kinda wishes she could've done more for him than write a stupid satire piece in his honor. ]

[photoshot]

[ IT'S WORTH A TRY also she's just nosy, whoops. ]

[fanbase]

[ Clash has made no effort to tidy up her room before her demise. There are papers strewn and crumpled about, which looks like the starting of her final letter posted in Aya's paper. It seems she struggled to get it started and some of the smoother papers look to have had something wet on them at one point, like tears.

Otherwise, there's a stack of paper's on her nightstand that looks to be sheet music. It's not clear who they're written by, but the some of the songs look to be written for her rather than by her.

Finally, her make-up palette is left in the center of her unmade bed. Applying the final touches seems to be all she needed it for, but if a certain someone in particular wants it (Mabel) it's free for the taking. Otherwise there are just clothes lying about. It's a room that looks lived in, but feels emptier when one realizes that no one longer is. ]

[poyoyon]

[ well i guess now you have ABSOLUTE PROOF that ibuki never made her bed, ever.

wow what a champ ]

[photoshot]

[ no, leaving the chocolates.

but she takes the camera and notebook and Oz's note to share with people later. the latter two, anyway. ]

[terci]

[Dipper's room is filled with lots and lots of notes! Mostly random theories about where the park was and what the motives of the VIPs and the people running the place were, but nothing really concrete or with real reason. Also there are a few detailed sketches of the deaths before him, with notes such as what weapons were used and who could use which ones.

Besides the notes, there's nothing really useful or noteworthy.]