WEEK 0 — ARRIVAL

[cartesio]

Week 0: Arrival

When you wake up you immediately feel something’s off. You sit on the bed and find it’s not your bed, and this isn’t your room either. You seem to be in a rather normal-looking motel room. To your side there’s a trunk, if you open it you’ll find a military uniform, the key to your room, a set of rules and a debit card. Don’t lose those items! Or do lose the rules, you'll find a brand new copy the next day under your pillow. There’s also a calendar on the wall, you can see today’s date. The year is unreadable, but the month and day are very clear:

March 28^th
There it says ‘Meet the Sergeant at the Lodge, 9:00 AM’. There’s also a circle around March 31st, with the word ‘END’ scrawled there.

For now leaving your motel room would be a good choice. When you reach the lobby, you see the receptionist’s desk— no one’s manning it. There’s a rack filled with maps, marking several locations in the town.

There are also many strangers here – and you’re one more. For now it may be a good idea to take a map and explore the town.

After all, looks like you’re stuck here in the boonies for a while.

Links

IC Rules
Room Assignments
Locations
Tasks (LOCKED currently)

March 28^th
March 29^th
March 30^th

Comments

[cartesio]

[When you arrive to the Lodge, you find a man standing in front of the large doors. Despite how bright the day is right now, he seems to perpetually have a shadow over his face, you can’t distinguish any facial features, only the vague outline of thick goggles covering almost half of his face. His clothing is appropriate for his title, he looks prepared to withstand anything that could happen in a battlefield.

Greet the Sergeant, troops.]

I’m aware you won’t believe me, but I’m glad you’re here on time. It seems your stay here won’t start with a punishment.

[Punishment he didn’t even warn about. Clearly this man isn’t particularly concerned about fairness]

Let’s make this short and sweet. You have been brought here for a reason: to show you’re worth keeping alive. I’m not asking for extraordinaire feats, all I want to see is that you value your life enough to do something about it. These are my terms and conditions:

I want one death. That’s all I ask for, one measly, insignificant death. I don’t care who does it, I don’t care who is the target, just make it happen. [He looks at them, somehow you can feel disdain radiating from him] But of course I imagine some of you will protest, I can see it coming. Spare me your sermon and just listen:

If there’s no death, instead of one single death I will seek twenty two. I believe the implication is very clear, isn’t it? Think about it: isn’t your life worth cherishing? Will you do nothing and let certain death drag you to the depths of hell in four days? Or, since I’m sure some of you want to think you’re heroic: wouldn’t twenty-one lives be more valuable than a single life? Any four year-old can tell what’d be more valuable, hero.

Can’t be simpler than this, if you ask me.

[His tone is somewhat flippant, and the fact you can't see his face doesn't help. Maybe some would expect him to turn around and enter the Lodge again after dropping such an outrageous demand, but he seems to like the thought of facing his guests right now]

[semperperatus]

What the hell!?

[He can't help himself. Not after everything he went through. Screw sparing the protest.]

It's not about being heroic, this is pointless!

[cartesio]

Whether it's pointless or not depends on you all, not on me. Results are what matter.

[Looks like it being pointless in the way Finley means never crossed his mind]

[clearities]

[No, it's not that simple. Not to Sakura, anyway. And even though she might not be able to see his face, she raises her hand like she's in class and then says something, frowning.] But why?! Even if one is less than twenty two-- why does it have to be death? Why do we have to show our worth to being alive to begin with? That doesn't make any sense!

[cartesio]

I'm aware to you what I'm saying is nothing short of coercion, and I have no patience to try to explain to any of you why you are here. Think of it like this:

It doesn't have to make sense. All you need to care about is about doing it.

[He punctuates the last two words with a stomp of his foot. Why can't people just do what he says instead of questioning it? It's frustrating]

[paciscere]

[ hello hello, all smiles over here and raising his hand slightly. ]

How did you manage to bring us all here? [ how did you get through his shiki and seals to manage this? is what he's really asking. ] I can understand you perfectly, but we're not in Japan anymore, are we?

[ who cares about that stuff re: death and killing??? ]

[cartesio]

Indeed, you're nowhere close to Japan! In fact, you could say we're far away from any other trace of civilization! This town is like a world of its own, as far as you're all concerned.

[Looks like he tried to sidestep the question about how they brought them here. Smooth, Sergeant]

[odoruhinokaze]

[ When Axel first arrived, he didn't know what he was expecting. As soon as the Sergeant began his tangent, the red head rubbed one of his ears, looking quite bored. He wondered how badly the Organization is pitching a fit that he's here instead of there, but it's really not his problem as far as he's concerned.

Then the guy says "one death" and he thinks, Whoops, time to actually pay attention. And luckily he does to hear the rest, and it just causes him to raise a brow in a "really?" manner. He very clearly remembers running into one or two kids here, sheesh. ]

Do you always do this sort of thing orrrr...?

[cartesio]

Certainly not! This is merely the second time.

[Surpriiiiise]

[doublelammy]

[Let's be honest, she's probably only here because one of her new babysitters brought her.]

Question!

[She raises her hand.]

Where's all our stuff? And do you make a habit of kidnapping little girls? I mean, whatever on the whole murder thing, I just wanna know.

[cartesio]

Your stuff is right here. [He points with his thumb behind himself, towards the doors] They'll be given back to you...eventually. Nothing comes for free, so don't expect me to hand it all out like it's candy.

[He shrugs]

Gender, age, status, none of that matters. You all have exactly what we seek, that's all.

[magecrafter]

If you've managed to earn your title through combat, surely you know that asking another to take a life on some whim is beyond reprehensible.

[Even the ever prideful Rigel understood life was never insignificant. For all that the Witches were sacrificed easily, the life they gave for the Faithful was still considered sacred and valuable. His sister may have been more substantial than most, but even in Rigel all are substantial.]

[cartesio]

It's not a whim if you're given a reason.

[alfin]

How could you! Each and every life is precious-- and you're asking us to choose which of us is least? You're a monster!

[ Twenty-two... So that's how many people have been kidnapped. Perhaps if they all banded together, they could take on the Sergeant without having to lose any of their own. ]

[theserpentsmiles]

[Nagisa listens to the entire speech, stone-faced and intent. This isn't good... No, this is the opposite of what Sensei wanted for his students. But it is familiar. He hasn't graduated quite yet, it seems. If they haven't been told important things like what the purpose of all this is or how they got here or why them, he doubts they're going to get those answers by asking. He needs to think carefully about what to ask. He doesn't like that he can't see the Sergeant's face - body language isn't enough, and it's harder with military types.]

The rules say we can't leave town, and that you'll use force if we try. I guess that means you're tracking us somehow? [He doesn't expect to be told how. But the answer could be an important one, going forward.

He knows what it says in the rules. He already knows who he'd like to kill.]

[streetwolf]

[He's here, only just on time and tracking muddy footprints all over the porch. And up until the man starts talking his teeth are bared.]

What the actual fuck? Why'd I need to prove to some old bastard that I'm worth keeping alive.

[intentus]

[ "measly," "insignificant"? and that look in the sergeant's eyes... this person doesn't care about anyone here, do they? they don't even want to listen—it's like they're completely shutting out anyone that says something they don't want to hear. ]

Even if you want it, that doesn't mean you should involve innocent people in this. What are you even trying to do?

[londonstar]

[ waver listens to the Sergeant quietly, arms crossed and shoulders tense. unlike most others who are clearly angry, he understands, from a mages' view point, what this man is trying to say.

but what pisses him off the most is the reasoning behind it. ]

I don't need to prove my life's worth to you. [ the only man he needs to prove himself to is long gone; his king. ] However, you're a shitty excuse of a "hero" if you think that the "one life vs many lives" sermon is worth anything.

[valimar]

I think I'm with the rest of us when I say there's nothing "heroic" about this set up you've got here. Not if you're forcing innocent people to go along with this.

[ Right off the bat, Rean's feeling a surge of anger at this guy's words. It's hard to keep a cool head hearing someone callously talking about their lives like it's nothing, but he keeps his tone level for now. ]

What I want to know is: why us? There has to be more to this than just "proving our worth".

[beanstarscream]

[ARE YOU FUCKING okay how the fuck does he get out of this, murder is a little much

okay. He's gotta look like he's got a handle on the situation. Look real fuckin snide.]

Bold of you to assume you're not on the table, given everyone's reactions here.

[agoreable]

[ Lovepon is listening to all this quietly from a bit away. The longer it goes on, the more nervous she seems to get and by the end she has her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing her own shoulders frantically. ]

... an execution... we need an execution... If we find a criminal it's going to be fine.. Just execute once...

[dvaita]

[ There's a lot of questions Serph has, but let's start with the important ones first. ]

Are you with the Church? Or Colonel Beck? [ The brand on his cheek itches, his eyes shimmering from silver to gold. Now's not the time to act aggressive, but he can't say he particularly feels like holding back right now. ]

[snailedit]

[Mira just. Sighs at all of this.]

...You're just asking us to solve the trolley problem. Isn't that a little boring?

[monstrology]

[Oh. Well, this sure explains a lot.

The actual priest here will throw this comment out before anything else:]

No worries about receiving a sermon from me. I always thought that one was particularly ridiculous anyway.

[With that out of the way... Will keeps his expression and tone even as he speaks back up. As much as it irritates him, he knows when his back is up against the metaphorical wall.]

Any particular reason why you need the entire lot of us to eliminate a single person? [Asking it of kids too sure is something, but that's another point entirely.] I know, I know, we need to prove our worth, but really. Assigning twenty-two people to a task is just asking for a messy situation.

[tresbienmoi]

[France shudders to think about the type of man they're dealing with in the sergeant if he thinks taking the lives of others is the opposite of an 'extraordinaire feat.']

I take it diplomacy is not something of high value to you.