WEEK 2: April 8th - April 12th

[cartesio]

Second Week

Seven days have passed. Quite peaceful days, almost too peaceful. The town has welcomed you, excited to see tourists for the first time in many, many, many years. Some may have liked the peace, others may have been annoyed by it, but it was undeniable Cartesio seemed like such a nice and safe place it was hard to believe you had been told to kill each other.

But the threat is still up in the air. What's more: how much patience does the Sergeant have left?

Every time you take a look into the Lodge, you see the Sergeant. Lately he's looking more and more annoyed. Even though you can't see his face, you can feel he's getting frustrated. How long will it be before he lashes out and does something about these peaceful days?

Nobody in the town could suspect the harrowing times that'd befall Cartesio.

When you wake up on Sunday, you'll find new maps in the map rack and brochures on the table, showing places you hadn't noticed in the town before. Enjoy!

Links

IC Rules
Guestbook
Room Assignments
Events
Locations
NPCs
Activity Check

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the second week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

MEETING TIME

[silvertongueheir]

[After the motive is done, Franciscus raises his voice for once, calling out for everyone who's interested in a discussion to meet him at the diner. He takes up a position at the head of one of the tables, watching as people trickle in. Once he's sure there won't be any more stragglers, he begins speaking.]

First of all, we cannot be tempted by that motive. But I understand that not all the people shown may be as capable as my team, and that did sound like a threat. But it is highly unlikely he will move to attempting to kill them right away. That would eliminate the leverage he has over us. It is much more likely that further motives will offer more potential opportunities for interaction with them. We can have patience and find some other way back.

Secondly, I imagine most of you here have been taking the initiative to explore this town on your own. I encourage you to share whatever you have learned. I myself have been investigating the clinic, and I have learned that apparently it stocks medicines from my world, though there are also many unfamiliar ones.

Last, I would like to hear if anyone here has further ideas on how to prevent a murder from occurring.

[integratedsoul]

[ Cian raises her hand quietly when she hopes to draw people's attention for her contribution. ]

Uhm... I know now that my world is very different from the ones everyone else is from. I am from 2073, in a world in which crime and illness have been eliminated in most of the world.

[ Just to catch everyone up, especially the few people she hasn't told this to yet. ]

In my world we have a thing called morality sessions. Members of a medical community - or I guess any community - meet regularly to discuss matters of communal well-being and moral. It's meant to align everyone's moral values and attune them to the community at large so everyone can live harmoniously together....

Nobody here is a counselor or a life designer or anything like it so we're all not really qualified... and it might sound silly to all of you anyway... but it was my duty to suggest it, right?

[ She looks more embarrassed by the moment and then just stops speaking, looking down at her feet instead. ]

[snideper]

[audible gagging noise from the back of the diner]

[quickpersuader]

I'm not too worried about the motive myself, but that's not the case for everyone.

[Surprise aside, there's nothing Kino can do for that woman. Instead, Kino digs into diner food, only speaking up between bites.]

No one is totally sure when the Sergeant showed up, but they all say he keeps to himself, despite the friendliness of the town. The diner owner seemed to get confused when I asked where he came from, like she couldn't quite remember anything for sure.

They say the town is fairly self-sufficient, but there should be some kind of supply line to get so many weapons to restock the store quickly. The hunting shop owner wouldn't tell me where, though. He did say there are valleys outside of town where people hunt, but he only had a map of Cartesio and nothing else.

[silvertongueheir]

And I'm guessing he didn't provide directions to those valleys either, right?

[protectandselfserve]

There's definitely something strange about the town's perceptions surrounding him, considering the local police apparently think their electric chair's just a museum piece, though that's nothing new.

[clearities]

[ It takes her a while to compose herself, but she does eventually come to the diner, listens to what he has to say and then pipes up with her own words: ] I don't... have any ideas on how to stop a murder, but there's a few things I'd like to share. I think Millium-chan and Wayne-san can confirm it for me, but there used to be an ice cream parlor, but it's not here anymore. Not to mention that the casino looks like it came out of nowhere too, didn't it? Also... I spoke with the Sergeant-san last week, while he was rehearsing for the next time he would have to talk to all of us as a group. He told me that... for whatever he wanted, he had to act like that-- like he was cruel-- because he believed that there wasn't any other way to get what he wanted. I told him that I wanted to come up with something better but, he told me that.. [ She closes her eyes, before saying the words. ] Orders are orders. That he couldn't deviate from what was established. That there was no other way and that it was impossible. I felt kind of bad for him.

[doublelammy]

Yeah, I remember the ice cream parlor. I don't know why it's gone, but it sucks, and I want it back.

[Millium laces her fingers behind her head, rocking back and forth on her heels. Clearly, that was the most important part of what Sakura just said.]

...I wouldn't feel too bad for 'im. He's right, y'know. Orders are orders, they are what they are. Y' just do what you're asked and don't think too hard about it. It's prolly the same in whatever military he's a part of as it is in my line o' work.

[quickpersuader]

He doesn't seem to care about interacting with the people of this town. He did have strong feelings on people who live in a hell and think it's a paradise, however.

[Why did this come up? Fushigi mystery.]

He told me to leave when I asked his opinion on people who are happy with a peaceful life, too. It was... abrupt.

[carbide]

Sometimes that's how it is.

[Olympia very slightly shrugs.]

Could it be an illusion of some kind, hiding the buildings from our view?

[robitussin]

[Once he's done speaking, she glances around at the other people gathered here, adding in something else.]

He kept saying he was in charge and everything when he first talked to all of us, but there's someone higher up than the Sergeant. Which I guess makes sense, if we're going off military rank. He wouldn't tell me whether or not his boss was here, but he was acting really weird about it.

[She pauses for a moment, thinking of what else might be useful from the conversations they've had so far.]

Anyways, he said that there are things about this town he doesn't know and can't control, too. From what he told me, he just got sudden orders to come here, probably from whoever his employer or employers are. I think he can talk to them at any time, because he stopped talking to me for a second to 'check orders', according to him.

[odasaku]

Maybe that's why he gets angry so easily. His boss must be stressful.

[odasaku]

[ oda listens to franciscus and the others speak. their contributions are great, much better than anything he thinks he can provide.

but there's one thing that's still twisting a tight knot in his stomach. ]

There's probably no way to stop a murder from happening. Whatever the Sergeant said...he probably said it because it would rile at least one person up. I think so, at least.

[doublelammy]

Definitely.

[Millium pipes up at that last statement, although she seems indifferent to all of this.]

If you think just reassurin' everyone that everything's definitely gonna be okay and he wouldn't really kill anybody's just gonna work, you have waaaay too much faith in other people.

He put Mira in an electric chair n' fried her n' made us all watch, so I'm not really puttin' anything past 'im. Especially since two people from home were here with me before you all got here.

He's just rubbin' it in with the video.

[snideper]

[Despite holding an impressive disdain for existing in the same room as other people, Clarisse comes to the meeting, opting to linger towards the back of the group. She stays standing, leaning her hands against the back of a chair. As always, she's carrying her bow and quiver... But it actually does look like she has something to say?? Uh oh.]

Oh, sure, obviously he or his bosses or whoever won't just kill all your buddies right away. He'll lose the leverage, yeah; problem is, he'll lose it if Friday wraps up and his threat turns up empty, too. If he decides to kill someone, it's gonna be a few at a time to make a point. Maybe one pal per person, and then everyone's who's got more than that has more hostages at the ready.

[Her tone carries an unspoken Haven't you figured that out by now? and an audible scoff.]

Or maybe those people show up here and end up part of his game. New targets for everyone else.

[She folds her arms, lifts her chin to indicate Franciscus.]

Real cute, that you're trying to get people whose friends or whatever are too weak to defend themselves to let their guard down, but you're either stupid and naive, or bad at manipulation.

[Addressing the group at large again—]

Either way, a murder's gonna happen. Anyone denying it is naive.

[integratedsoul]

[ Clarisse makes a good point and other people in the meeting are making it similarly. Cian isn't sure how to feel about it. Dizzy, probably. ]

... so what are our options? We should at least do some damage control, right?

[silvertongueheir]

[That gets her a glare from him.] So far, this is only a soft threat. He has not outright said that they will be harmed in any way, or even interfered with. It is far more likely that whatever happens, he will claim there was no explicit threat. If anything, it would be more demoralizing, for someone to kill because they thought they heard a threat and then learn there was no real danger.

[He knows a bit about lies and half-truths himself, after all.]

[robitussin]

[She listens as Clarisse speaks, and while she might not put it in those terms, she doesn't necessarily disagree - and honestly, that annoys her enough that she puts on her best smirk and says:]

Aw. Look at you, being all helpful. Who would've guessed?

[amburere]

[ Mostly been listening to the debate going back and forth, but interjecting here. ]

Hey, you get it. [ ...+0.5 affection points again? ]

[goturshit]

There's other places in this town we can't see. I was talking to the bartender guy and he mentioned the casino way before we went there, and he talked about a movie theater which I definitely haven't seen around.

He also said there's a bunch of farmland outside of the town, but that's not really as relevant to us right now.

[relieable]

[hm. Osomatsu doesn't really have anything to add to the meeting. he's listening to the other people, frowning]

Farmland? I thought we were in the middle of a desert.

[marmoron]

[This was a very nice speech and all, but Keith's got a question of his own, so he's going to start with that instead of addressing the topics laid out on the table.]

Who broke into the fire station?

[snideper]

[after a moment of quiet and glancing up and down the diner at everyone gathered]

So did you think you were gonna get an answer for that, or...

[doublelammy]

I dunno. I haven't even gone there yet, so wasn't me, but.

Shouldn't we all kinda be lookin' at you? Didn't you go n' get yourself in trouble last week? And you did kinda buy out the entire hunting store, so if anyone's got supplies...

[unfashionably]

It's not much of a break-in when you don't actually get in.