week five

[facultwist]

Wake up, Rosenblum Hall. Wake up.

The number of dead continues to grow.

The game is still on, and just as last week, that seems to mean that all of you have to stick together now more than ever. The Headmistress is sure to continue her efforts to the contrary, after all.

Yet another one of the gates in the tunnels has opened, allowing you access to quite a lot of open space this time. The field has even somehow been cleared of snow.

But even with these new buildings, remember: Rosenblum Hall is here for you. Rosenblum Hall will always be here for you.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: welcome to the fifth week of rosenblum hall! there are new areas to explore, if you like!

Here you can find activity check, regains, and Isabella's office hours. ]

Comments

SUNDAY

[facultwist]

[hootheart]

[Tiera wakes up slowly, feeling very strange after that last dream. When she steps out of bed, for a moment she expects her feet to not touch the ground.

She does get some food, but something draws her towards the new area. She immediately stops for a moment when seeing the stables, but immediately rushes towards them with a happy screech, that is returned by a falcon's own screech. She barely takes the time to put on a glove before finding Uncle, who immediately hops onto her arm and lets her gently run her fingers over his head. She heads to the field, where she can be found watching him soar above her for quite some time, a warm smile on her face.]

cw dissociation

[rosewitch]

[Anthy's . . . pretty out of it today. There's not much that could bring her down to earth again. But the call of a bird of prey does manage to pierce through the fog. She's elsewhere entirely, but she follows the sound to its source and hesitates at the edge of the field, watching Uncle soar above them.]

[She's kind of jealous.]

Investigation

[ergine]

[ The first thing Kohaku does, following a cursory examination of the new facilities, is backtrack to the room she shares with Dorothy and Doloris and gather every piece of dirty laundry she can find. She returns to the gym facilities with a weighty hamper in tow, and she doesn't waste any time sorting the dirty clothing and getting a load of laundry started.

While she waits for the machines to do their thing, though, she figures she may as well investigate her new surroundings. She starts by looking through the lockers; maybe something interesting has been left behind...?

...Later, while the driers are running, she can also be found out on the field. She has the field hockey balls and a field hockey stick, and she's just kind of... shooting slap shots toward the goal at one end of the field. Her ratio of shots-to-goals isn't great, but she looks pretty energetic about it. ]

Investigation

[facultwist]

[ Ooh! Well, most of the lockers are locked to their owners' student IDs, unfortunately, but there are some older ones that are mostly honor system! How nosy are we being today? ]

Field

[banishedfromparadise]

[While Kohaku is out shooting her shots (heh), a familiar figure races through the fields nearby.

Having discovered the stables are accessible now, Dorothy had to check on her horse and make sure he's been okay. Which he has, but he's been cooped up inside for so long now. (Are horses aware of supernatural time loops?)

Dorothy simply had to get him out in the fresh, if cold, air. And Milton really did have a lot of pent-up energy, galloping about with Dorothy holding on tightly. The rush is enough to make her forget about the school vacation of murder and the weirdly dark dream she had about that other her this week, if only for a moment.

After a while of getting that pent-up energy out of Milton's system, she notices Kohaku and maneuvers the horse over, slowing him down to a leisurely trot.]

Oh my! [She gasps in feigned surprise, a teasing smile on her lips as she looks down from her mount.] Looks like Milton isn't the only one who needed to get outside for a bit~.

[This is absolutely the most cheerful Kohaku has seen Dorothy all repetitions of this week. Even if it is only a brief respite from their ordeals.]

investigation!

[kickdownthatwall]

[Another week, another new location. Maybe it's easier not to think about why they got another location.

Especially when she finds her way out of the tunnels and into the field...]

Oh, finally! We are getting back to the things that matter here!

[IT IS TIME TO GO FOR A FUCKING RUN. IS IT COLD? YEAH. THAT'S WHAT THE EXERCISE IS FOR.

Of course, after warming up with a run, she's going to hit the gym to get back to a proper routine. She's been doing her best to keep it up elsewhere, but there's only so much she can do without equipment! She's gotta get back to getting somehow even more swole.

...

And you know, she might want to check out the basement once she's done.]

investigation!

[facultwist]

[ Welcome to the basement. Most of what's down here is old or seasonal equipment, especially for the summer camps that the school runs for younger girls on track to attend Burnbriar. Care to look through some of that? ]

gym

[ergine]

[ There's only one person Kohaku can ask about this photo, and she has a hunch about where to find her. Sure enough— ]

I don't mean to interrupt, Alena, but there's something I need to ask you.

[shellhawked]

[Hawke wakes up Sunday morning drenched in sweat, her heart feeling like it's about to explode out of her chest and an intense phantom pain radiating from her abdomen- but none of that can negate the shaky, triumphant grin that spreads across her face in the dark. Vanity and Mafuyu both told her to survive. Everyone left needs to rely on each other, including her. She can't let any of them down, can she? Not after what she's seen she could survive.

She lifts her arm up from under the blankets and extends it toward the ceiling, almost expecting to see a clawed gauntlet dripping fresh blood from the tips.]

[When Hawke finds that the athletic center is their newest facility, she should gather her dirty laundry and get that done. Instead she's immediately setting up archery targets on the field and locating her bow, the only vibrant purple one in the bunch paired with a matching arm guard and quiver full of arrows with red fletching. There's no doubt Hawke is in her element here, unshakably focused as she draws and fires arrow after arrow. Nearly all of them hit in a perfect bullseye.

A bit later she's scouring through the Occult Club room with an odd manic energy. This is one she's not familiar with and, truthfully, she's not even positive what she's looking for but so far she has a few candles, incense, a stack of books, a crystal ball and...a ouija board game?]

Occult Club

[thanoptical]

[Hey, Hawke, have someone else who looks out of place here. She’s also just rooting through things when you come in.

There’s a pile of books from the library with titles like ‘The Premonition Code’ or ‘The Future is Now’ or ‘Winks from Above’… she’s pulling out a back of tarot cards from a shelf when Hawke walks in.]

Ah—I’m not—not doing anything!

[thanoptical]

[Anger, fear, sadness, trust... there were so many emotions in that dream. She woke up in the pull out bed, feeling a little cramped. Staring up at the ceiling Satsuki had lain quietly for a while.

Maybe she could do something after all.

Satsuki almost rushes to the larger of the two libraries as soon as she's dressed. In the occult section she's looking over almost every book cover she can. Trying to find ones that reference precognition. It's with an intense focus that is contrast with her stiff mechanical movements after the trial.

She has a purpose now.

Though, later in the day Satsuki can be found in the cafeteria with some food, her books, as well as some odds and ends from the occult club room. And she's basically just laid out flat on the table because it turns out while she has the will, suddenly diving into a subject you have no idea about is tougher than it looks!]

investigation, cw: gross levels of religion, unintentional self harm, potentially spoilers

[curdle]

[ Thomasin, never particularly active on a Sunday, doesn't leave her room for a long, long time in the morning.

(She wakes up sickened and shivering. She can barely believe she got any sleep after such as she dreamt, yet she must have, because she wakes up again, and it is even worse. She showered last night, and she showers again, scrubbing herself raw.

She must have a day of humiliation. Even if she does it alone, which she must. She must fill her thoughts with God.)

Any attempts to get her to open A-1 are doomed to failure, but if you listen at the door, you may be able to hear her whispering prayers.

Around 1 PM, she does emerge fully-dressed, but it's not to eat or socialize! It's to pray some more! You can find her in the conservatory on the upper level, gazing out at the storm with her hands folded under her chin, or in the church, staring at a Bible in the pews and flipping through it distractedly. The psalm she ends up delivering is clearly not being read verbatim. ]

... Deliver me from blood, O God, which art the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing joyfully of thy righteousness. Open thou my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise...

[ Once the sun sets, though, she grabs a candle and makes her way back to the Hall, where she goes to finally check out the library and track down those books Doloris found. Is there anything extra her Calvinist sensibilities can pick up on here? If there isn't, she's going to pop right back down the tunnels and head to the main library with a mission.

Throughout all of this, her hair is down and her braids are undone. ]

MONDAY

[facultwist]

[goldendoll]

[ we hear the storm, and it hears us.

doloris's eyes snap open when she wakes earlier than usual on monday morning.

she'd largely made herself scarce on friday evening and sunday, after the way she acted during the trial. she had been out and about all the same, but... even more avoidant than usual, with an exception or two. it was difficult to imagine that strange display she had put on hadn't damaged her perception by the others even further. between that and the dream, she's... started trying to formulate some kind of plan. she thinks she's begun to see the shape of the game, now. maybe, she tries to hope, dorothy was right. maybe, maybe there is a way they'll get through this. or maybe that's yet another foolish dream on her part that will be destroyed just as violently as the rest.

either way. before long, doloris leaves rosenblum hall with her fencing sabre, heading to take breakfast in the cafeteria—eating in silence, alone, unless approached.

then with a water bottle in hand, she makes her way to the athletic center. she retrieves her epee and foil as well once there, then begins running through drills for all three forms, striking points on a practice dummy with increasingly rapid precision for some time. towards the end, she holds her sabre in one hand and a dagger in the other, practicing as she switches it from one grip form to the other faster and faster, getting a feel for its weight and ultimately scouring deep gouges into the dummy's padding. parry the dummy's blade, get in close to stab or cut in some different way. see what feels best. see what feels like it would be effective if she has to fight back against someone. for her life, not just for points.

maybe it's a waste of time. but whenever she finally collapses onto a seat and drains a bottle of water, her aching muscles almost feel like a pleasant distraction compared to the storm rolling inside her.

after a quick stop by the club rooms and grabbing some food from the cafeteria, close to noon she can be found in the lounge, with a borrowed dvd player connected to the now-restored TV. something in japanese is playing—some indie horror movie, by the looks of it and the dvd case sitting nearby. no subtitles, though, and wait is that kid kana? doloris actually seems decently rapt in the movie, absently taking a sip of her drink and steadily playing with a pink, orange and white fidget spinner. still, she'll look up if anyone enters or approaches. no bolting like she would have done most times the day before.

after a while, once more, she finds her way to the conservatory, guitar and some equipment in hand. again, setting the amplifier so as to not be too inconsiderate, she begins to play a slow introduction, mimicking the piano part of the original arrangement, and then simply says to the air of the room: ]

... 'Angles.'

[ it's a slow one, more of a ballad than anything, as she starts to sing. the cold, tempting call of many of the songs she's played around campus since all of this started is nowhere to be found, here, even if the desperation and sadness of it is still palpable.

it's an earnest cry from the heart. ]

[rednails]

[Mariko has grown unfortunately accustomed to the erratic nightmares that besiege her whenever she lets her guard down. But this is different, this dream. She's herself but better. Herself but worse.

Tears streaming down her face, a fire blazing behind her, candles in hand dripping hot wax down her fist.

For the first time in weeks, she feels almost calm when she wakes up. Or maybe she feels nothing at all. Mariko lays in her bed for an extra hour, staring at the ceiling and charting constellations in the cracks and water stains.

She's found in the late morning looking refreshed in the kitchen, hesitating with a heaping spoonful of coffee grounds.

By the afternoon she's decided on coffee and is perched in the library, looking at a book on the history of sororities.

Later still. She's 👁️👁️ at the horses from very far away. They hate her vibe, she failed at horse therapy. But she likes to look at them sometimes.]

Investigation

[bellpepperexercise]

[Kana's slept poorly the past few days, even if she isn't alone. She's grateful for Satsuki's presence, but she feels guilty for it. The second half of Rinne's letter didn't make her feel much better; if anything, she felt worse with the way Rinne described the nature of her feelings for Kana.

Then there are the dreams. Some of them desperate and panicked, but then some...more bizarre than anything, but still enough to make her feel dizzy. Him again? Why can't he leave me alone?!

In the morning, she starts her routine heading to the door of the kitchen, but she can't bring herself to walk in, standing still and staring it down before she just walks in the opposite direction.]

Come on, Kana, you know she won't be in there. Don't be stupid.

[Later on, she does a load of laundry since, uh...she definitely needs to. She mostly seems to be staring at the spin cycle like it's hypnotizing her, but while she waits, she does decide to investigate the equipment in the facilities just to potentially dispose of anything that can be used as a murder weapon. There's not much else she can do to help, right?

In the afternoon, Kana can be found in the art room, engrossed in folding paper cranes. Compared to Rinne's, they're not very elegant-looking, but she's doing her best.

At night, Kana looks through the library for specific information. She wonders aloud...]

Parallel universes count under quantum physics, right? Maybe I should be looking in the classrooms.

investigation

[rosewitch]

[Anthy sails through Sunday like a ghost. She does all of the things she always does after a trial — cleaning, organizing, returning errant items to their homes, restocking basic items like toilet paper — but she isn't present. It's as though she's digesting something, carefully chewing to ensure it goes down safely.]

[On Monday, she steps outside for the first time since the trial. Her gaze is distant, elsewhere, but she walks with purpose. All of this might well be futile, but there's one thing that always has value. None of the horses are going to loose a chlorine bomb and kill them all.]

[Well, maybe Pagoda. The Vanity von Aegis of horses.]

[Once she's trudged her way to the stables, she greets each of the horses in turn, giving them gentle pats and whispering apologies for her long absence — which may have no temporal significance at all, but it's safer to apologize and not need to. One by one, she takes them out into the field, walking them around for a good half-hour each. It's not nearly as much time as she'd like to take with them, but it's better than nothing. And it's a solid five-plus hours, so even Pagoda can't complain. Throughout the process, she carefully investigates the stables — every inch that she can see — taking advantage of the horses' intermittent absences.]

[As she walks, she occasionally, absently rubs her ribs just above her solar plexus. It doesn't truly hurt, but it feels like it should, the phantom hilt of a sword pressing against her insides, desperate to escape. Snowflakes landing on her lashes feel like cold falling stars. In the heavily-clouded sky, there could be so many castles, looking up/down at her. Reality goes askew in these long hours.]

TUESDAY

[facultwist]

MOTIVE - we are all prisoners of our own minds

[facultwist]

[ There’s something… different about the Interim Headmistress’s voice today. She sounds almost… concerned, under her usual bravado? Nervous, even? Something like that. But it’s slight, and she doesn’t let it get in the way of the weekly motive announcement. ]

To the lounge. Ten minutes. You’re going to want to pay attention to this one.

[ Once everyone is in, this one is actually less supernatural than the motives usually are. Isabella is standing by with a stack of envelopes, one addressed to each of you. She hands them out as you arrive, expression grim. ]

Tell you what, let’s cut the bullshit this week. I’m a piece of shit, but there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s not fair. I’m a coward. All of that good stuff. We’ve been here long enough that you have to be getting tired of acknowledging it every week, right?

[ She sighs. ]

Inside your envelope, you’re going to find a picture. On the back of that picture is an address. Whoever’s in that picture? Either lives at or spends time at that address. And if you don’t get killing this week, I’m going to visit that address and do to the person in that picture what I did to The Straight-Shooter.

[ Opening the envelope will show that someone very important to your character is in the picture, definitely unaware that they’re being photographed. Notably (or not, considering the panoply of tragic backstories present), none of the hostages are your characters’ parents or guardians. ]

Maybe it’s a bluff. Maybe it isn’t. Can you afford to risk calling me on it?

investigation

[tomestones]

[At this point, it isn't a surprise that the motive hits hard. Dagr leaves immediately after opening their envelope, and heads out to the athletic center. They'll be here for several hours, focused solely on shooting hoops. They're unsurprisingly good at it, as this is the whole reason they were accepted into Burnbriar in the first place. They've been spending a lot of time here this week, so if you're looking for them, this is definitely where you'll find them.

Of course, while they're here, they may as well investigate... Obviously they're looking at the basketball court, what do you take them for. They're starting with the basketballs themselves, though they'll cover the entire court while they're here since they need a distraction want to be useful spend a lot of time here anyway.

Later on, Dagr heads to the dumbwaiter to turn in some coins, receiving some items. In particular, they're fascinated by that necklace... This doesn't seem like one of the usual random things? Though that lead pipe also has them deadeyeing it. Of course we're getting murder weapons from this thing. Of course.

Sometime before nightfall, you'll find them in the church, of all places? Dagr isn't praying - they aren't religious, after all - but they're staring up at one of the stained glass windows, speaking softly to themselves.]

...I guess I shouldn't have expected any answers, but this feels particularly pointless...

WEDNESDAY

[facultwist]

[ergine]

[ Kohaku doesn't open the envelope when Isabella hands it to her. There's no point, she thinks—not in the middle of a crowd, not when she already knows who it is she'll see. It's only later, when she's alone, that the thought wears away at her. Neatly, she slips a nail beneath the envelope's lip and breaks its seal.

She sees what she expects to see: Hisui, absorbed in dusting the surfaces of the Osgale household. It leaves Kohaku with an odd, anxious feeling in the pit of her gut to see her like this—oblivious, seen from a vantage different than Kohaku's own. She slides the photograph back into its envelope and slips it into one of the drawers in her nightstand, but the feeling doesn't go away.

She needs to stop thinking about it, so she goes to the pantry and pulls out the broom tucked away in one of its corners. She hums in that familiar way as she sweeps its floors, the strokes of the broom against the wood becoming the rhythm to her improvised melody. Brshh—brshh—brshh—

The tempo of the melody picks up as she sweeps her way through the kitchen and dining room.

By the time she has reached the ballroom, the energy of her song has reached a crescendo. Each sweep of her broom swings back and forth until she is practically swinging with the momentum of them. Kohaku twirls—the paintings swim past—the straw of the broom grazes over the polished floor again— ]

Eek!!

[ ...And there's a crash as the broom's handle strikes the base of the Christmas tree. It does not seem like that should be enough to knock it over, but slowly, it tips; ornaments clatter against the floor and paper-filled boxes are crushed underneath as it falls. It manages to clip one of the nearby paintings as it goes down, dragging it with it. Another decoration falls off the wall as it strikes the ground. ]

[to the tune of "pink pony club"] let's talk to ghosts~

[shellhawked]

[Hawke has been weird this week. Given the emotional meatgrinder she's been crammed through and her violent reaction to the motive yesterday, it's not surprising she hasn't quite been herself. Truth be told, a grieving jock spending her time practicing archery and throwing herself into obsessively reading in random places around the accessible areas on campus isn't too concerning at a glance.

Early Wednesday morning each bedroom with living occupants gets a note slid under their door:]


Séance @ 7 at underground pool.
Gym basement -> maintenance tunnel -> through the metal door

[By the evening a few candelabras have been snatched from Rosenblum Hall and set-up to light the way from the gym basement down the maintenance tunnel to the original pool. Candles from the cathedral have been placed around the edge and scattered at the bottom of the empty pool as the primary light source, all strategically away from anything flammable.

Hawke is waiting when people start arriving, sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the empty pool surrounded by old and new graffiti on the walls. She's laid out a few blankets to avoid having to utilize the waterlogged picnic supplies. Even just peering over the edge it's easy to spot that she's poured a circle of salt around the blankets. When people get closer the faint smell of dried sage, dry coffee grounds and lavender creep in under the chlorine. The pantry may be low on herbs for the next few days.

Sitting in front of her is a ouija board from the occult club room, Rinne's book beside her, and a slightly wilted lily from the chapel just above the board. Varric lays next to her, snoring softly and unaware of what's coming. She raises her hand to wave lightly when she sees the others, a fresh band-aid visible on her thumb.]

Welcome to the party.

THURSDAY

[facultwist]