CYOA - W6

[afflictionmods]

ic date: thurdsay, w6
ic time: 2am - 5am

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[afflictionmods]

awakening

[It's the middle of the night, but you find yourself waking up, restless. You're not alone in the cozy room you've found yourself in - it's not quite like any room you've seen in Estelline so far. It's a large, cluttered bedroom and you were definitely sharing the bed with your classmates. (One of you might have gotten unlucky and ended up on the floor, though.)

The room is actually quite... personalized, unlike the empty dorm rooms you've been occupying. There are posters on the wall, books and knickknacks on the shelves, a desk where it seems like someone's been painting or doing some sort of messy craft. There's clothing strewn about - it's cluttered and disorganized, but not quite filthy. Someone's been living here.

There's rain gently falling outside the windows, and there's the faint sound of birdsong coming from deeper inside the house.

What would you like to do?]

[escardos]

[ waking up in a bed with others is a bit awkward, but that's fine. flat gets up without much hesitation, and walks over to the desk. what kind of stuff is on it? ]

[afflictionmods]

[Well, there's paint, for one, and a lot of paper. But there also seems to be small clay figures. Some of them were in the middle of being painted before whoever's room this is stepped away.

There are also paintbrushes, pencils, markers, and a cup filled with... questionable looking water.]</small.

[escardos]

[ maybe we can make julius drink it

let's see... what do the clay figures look like? are there any that are painted? ]

[afflictionmods]

[just a little sippy, as a treat

They seem to be... animals! There's a cat, a bird, a dog, and a rabbit. The dog is painted, looking very much like a Golden Retriever, and the rabbit is partially painted an all over soft brown without any details added yet, while the cat is half-yellow. The bird is untouched.]

[superstructure]

[ ...

Hm. This must be what the others have talked about. Julius'll just peek outside the window before moving to look at anything else. Is there anything of note that they can see from here? Landmarks, anything familiar? ]

[afflictionmods]

[The window looks out into the backyard of the house - it's quite green and well-maintained, and there's a sturdy-looking wooden fence.

Beyond that, though, it's unclear. Between the rain and the time of night it is... It looks like there's nothing at all beyond the fence.]

[superstructure]

[ How ominous! Is there any closets or drawers or anything to poke through? ]

[afflictionmods]

[There's a closet, a dresser, and the desk Flat is poking around has drawers on it, too.]

[exofractured]

[Phantom's not a fool, even in his sleep! He's koala'd himself onto Marcus, who is a nice solid anchor to keep him from being kicked out of bed. Meaning the only person rocketing Phantom out of bed is himself, when he wakes up enough to realize what's happening. He's cursed and this is fine.]

What-?!

[What is going on here, on like five different levels. Why is everyone else so quiet and calm. When Phantom picks himself and his dignity up off the floor he decides to deal with this by... just joining in in acting like this is normal and beelining for the bookshelf. What's the reading taste of the room owner look like?]

[mirrite]

[Things Marcus absolutely did not expect to wake up to: this. There's a brief comfortable, warm moment when his sleep-addled brain thinks this is Phil clinging to him, but the instant he's awake enough for the reality of the situation to set in, he's jerking back and away from this, which is fine because Phantom has already startled-cat-ed himself right out of the bed and onto the floor.]

What the hell--?!

[Ugh. UGH. You know what, he really feels like he needs to at least wash his face after that, so he's going to be heading into the bathroom to do exactly that.

What's he going to find in there?]

[afflictionmods]

[I’m not sure if I feel worse for Marcus or Phantom…

The bathroom connected to the bedroom is spacious, and the lights are very bright, but it’s much more impersonal compared to the bedroom. There’s everything you would expect to find in a bathroom, sure, but it’s all immaculate and utilitarian.

He can take a moment to make sure his hair looks good and style it, though!]

[mirrite]

[Thanks, he'll be doing just that. Might as well at least not have bedhead for Phantom to laugh at..!

That done, he's going to head back out into the room. Phantom is checking out the books, so he'll take the closet so he can stay as far away as possible.]

[afflictionmods]

[There is no resting in peace for Phantom…

The bookshelf is the one place in the room that is utterly immaculate. Every book is lined up neatly, and the decorations on the shelf seem rather deliberately placed. There’s not a hint of dust or disarray at all.

…But there’s no outward hints to what is inside the books, as they’re all just pure white hardcovers with no dust jackets. There are no titles or authors to be seen.]

[exofractured]

[Thank you, distracting mystery. He pulls a book out to peek at the contents, what's going on here?]

[afflictionmods]

[So.













Does Phantom know binary? Because there sure are a lot of ones and zeroes in there, written in pencil.]

birdherd.... where my boys at

[superstructure]

[ Don't mind Julius, he's just coming back up the stairs with some garden shears (???) in hand. And about a billion keys in pocket. Normal stuff.

He checks the time on his pocketwatch for a split moment, then shuts it and puts it away and squints around. ]

Have you found anything else up here?

[ general "you." ]

[mirrite]

Just a knife with something weird on the tip.

[You know, as you do.]

I think Phantom found a lighter.

[exofractured]

Yes. It has a flower on one side and a rod of Asclepius on the other.

[Rays can absolutely fight me if they don't have that concept after naming the damn airship 'kerykeion.']

Some knitting needles, some books, and a key as well.

[superstructure]

I found two more keys, actually, on top of the one that you gave me.

[ Which probably means the one that Phantom has is the one with two on it... nod nod. ]

There was also another one of those clay bird whistles, an empty heart locket, and a picture of a bird with a note on the back.

[ He'll show them the picture with the "hello" on the back, in the same handwriting that they've been seeing all night.

And then also the shears, but that seems obvious enough. ]

[mirrite]

There might be more in the attic. It looked like the part I went up into had been walled off away from the rest of it. We'd have to destroy the walls to get at it, but between the two of us I don't think that's gonna be a problem.

It's weird, though. I found a whole lot of stuff in boxes, but it was all just clothes and regular everyday stuff. People normally like to store things like keepsakes in attics, right? I didn't find a single thing like that up there.

[escardos]

I found Lethe!

[ what the fuck does this mean?

maybe the bird that's sitting on his head can help. ]

Everyone, say hi to Lethe.

[afflictionmods]

[There is, in fact, a bird on Flat's head. A very colorful bird with feathers that are somehow in a floral pattern. This is normal.]

Hello.

[And it can talk, which is also normal.]

[escardos]

Aren't they cute?

[ flat absolutely thinks this is normal. ]

[exofractured]

[Agreeing with Flat is not happening, even if he's right, so Phantom will definitely opt to talk to the bird instead. This may as well happen.]

Hello. Lethe, is it? And you are?