WEEK 5

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Wander and Sylvia are dead, the Ghost Host was snuffed out like a light, and Tarzan is nowhere to be seen. It seems like in an instant everything is changed, not just the circumstances, but the mansion itself. It feels like it's gotten significantly colder in the mansion, and you might also start seeing bugs out of the corner of you eyes, darting away into darkness the moment you try to focus on them.

And, starting this week, any and all ghosts are eerily absent but at the same time, no matter where you go, you feel like you're being watched by something. To make matters worse, the attic doors have been nailed open. 

But there are some bright spots in this week. When you wake up on Sunday, you'll find that you have a brand new tuxedo hanging up on your bedroom door, in your exact size. Later, if you're curious enough to try going from the second floor to the attic, you'll find that there's a whole new floor to explore, but this time it's just comprised of two rooms: a smallish but serviceable laundry room and an expansive casino with an attached bar.

Don't tell Jiminy about this he will have a heart attack.

Feel free to explore, but maybe you want to keep away from the Stretching Room for awhile. Somebody cut the noose on the hanging corpse.

17 guests remain.]

[ SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY ]

{OOC: Don't forget to fill our your Week 4 Activity Check!}

Comments

Thursday

[grimgrinningghosts]

Event...?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[As soon as everyone wakes up on Thursday morning, they'll hear an announcement ringing through the halls. It's Oogie's voice.]

All you sad sacks come to the casino for a special event!

[Maybe it's friendly?]

[arpeggiositar]

Oh no...what now?

[Whatever it is, it can't be good]

[ilovepuppies]

[Yelling into the hallway] YOUR MOM IS A SAD SACK!

[capulion]

Nice one, Star!

[sixfingeredstan]

[That...doesn't sound friendly.

Ford ambles up to the casino, with Tarzan's still-bloody spear in hand. You know. Just in case.]

[splitaseam]

[As everyone enters the casino, the doors lock shut behind them, much like when Oogie arrived this Sunday. But before you can try any escape attempt there is something else that’s in the middle of the room.

It’s Lea. He’s tied up against some kind of wheel, propped up so that everyone can get a good view of him. When Lea sees everyone, he tries calling out to them, but his gag muffles any words he wants to say.

Suddenly, Oogie Boogie appears from the darkness, with a menacing grin.]

It seems like one of you tried to squish all my bugs. In case you didn’t realize, my bugs are very important, and as you all know murder here can’t go unpunished. But there’s just too many fun ways to torture this little punk, that's why we're all gonna play...

[A sign lights up above the wheel, flashing “WHEEL OF EXECUTIONS” in cheery neon. Oogie then forcefully spins the wheel Lea’s tied to with all his might. So fast that it’s a miracle Lea doesn’t die from the force alone.]

Around and around it goes, where it stops...

[The wheel slowly comes to a stop and it ends on knife throwing contest.]

Oh goodie, this will be a fun one!

[From seemingly nowhere, a knife flies in, aiming at Lea.

It’s a miss.

Another knife is tossed, it’s another miss. One more knife, a miss. Oogie is noticeably going impatient at this and yells at the darkness.]

JUST THROW ALL THE DAMN KNIVES ALREADY!

[Not even a second it comes out of his mouth, a dozen knives come aiming at Lea. While some missed him, a few were now stuck deep within Lea’s flesh, including some over his chest. Lea cries out in pain and tries desperately to get out, but his movements soon slow down until he’s completely still.

Oogie turns back to his audience.]

So just in case you thought you could squish my bugs, remember that I will squish you.

[He lets out a menacing laugh as he vanishes back into darkness.

The doors are unlocked.]

[terribibble]

[HE'S NOT READY

But he can't not go. He has to. So Fiddleford brings his banjo and heads up to the casino. The bags under his eyes are a full matching luggage set by this point.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Why you gotta throw that name around like that man, doesn't Elsa look bad enough even without the name-calling???

But... yeah, reluctantly she'll go.]

[chainbroke]

[ This is absolutely one of the last things she ever wants to do but.

How about let's not possibly make the bug bag mad and instead go to the casino. ]

[ilovepuppies]

[Star is now 300% Mad.

Unable to think of anything else to do, she storms out of the casino and over to the seance room, where she picks up the crystal ball and starts yelling into it.]

Yo, Ghostave! I know you're not really dead, because you're already dead! So where the heck are you and your dumb friends, anyway!? Come and take care of this gigantic jerkwad you left us with already!

[You know things are bad when Star is asking the ghosts for help.]

[candlelightsflicker]

[a few of the candles go out.

there's somebody in the room with her.]

[ilovepuppies]

[WHAT.

That totally didn't scare her or anything. She's just holding her wand out in font of her to try and see better, is all.]

S-show yourself!

[outsidethecircle]

[Okay, you know what? Screw you, Oogie. She's going to find someone who can squash all your bugs and not die. Someone with an axe maybe.

She heads up to the attic and before entering the nailed open doorway she gives a respectful knock.]

Miss? Can you come out, please?

[Ever polite as always, that Anna.]

a swingin wake

[terribibble]

[The one even remotely bright spot in everything that's happened today is that, for the second time, they have a body to pay proper respects to. It'll be gone come morning just like Anna's was but for now there is a wake set up for Lea in the lounge. He's laid out on one of the couches, his skin and clothes cleaned as best Fiddleford could manage between the repeated horrifying realizations he was touching a dead body. Luckily the need to give a murdered child a decent send-off far outpaced his squeamishness.

Like last time he's covered the mirror in the corner with a bedsheet. It's just a nod to superstition when he hasn't bothered to cover any of the other mirrors but it makes him feel a little more comfortable all the same. He didn't bring food -- his appetite's gone on him again and he wouldn't know the appropriate food for a wake anyway -- but people are welcome to bring in their own if they plan on staying. What he has brought is the copy of Cosmos he got out of the slot machine and is now a few chapters into, as well as the magical instruction book and the library book of fairytales (and Julia's music notebook but that's intended for her, specifically). It's going to be a long night and people will be needing something to keep themselves occupied.]

AAAAND NOTE DISCUSSION PARTY pinging everybody who got Weird Notes

[terribibble]

[Tucked inside the front cover of Cosmos is the strange parchment note Fiddleford got out of the slots. When he's taken about all he can in terms of Carl Sagan waxing poetic he closes the book and starts poring over the parchment instead. There's barely anything on it but he can't shake the feeling that it's important, somehow, a piece to a much bigger puzzle.

Or maybe he's just being paranoid and seeing things that aren't there again. Could be that too.]

No, no. He... he definitely said Randall.

[Or, well. Started to say, before he got his head chopped off. Who wants to ask the weird southern uncle what he's muttering to himself about?]

[amadeusrockette]

[Julia actually comes over because she recognizes her notebook, but when she sees the parchment he's reading she pulls something out of her pocket.]

I got a note from [. . . on second thought, she doesn't want to say "Captain Blood" out loud.] someone too. It's, um. Not very nice?

[defyingfrigidity]

[A part of Elsa didn't want to come. All of this reminded her too much of when Anna died, and while she was slowly becoming numb to everything about this mansion, it still struck something deep inside of her that hurt. But... she had to go. For everyone else's sake, at the very least.

And maybe it's good that she did go, because she notices Fiddleford hunched over a scrap of paper that looks... oddly familiar. Familiar enough that she doesn't really feel too awkward approaching him, after their little... incident when he was drunk the other day. She can't hold that against him.]

Um... Fiddleford? What is that?

[whistlenotchirp]

[Jiminy's tired. All he wants to do is lie down and take a nap. But he can't sleep because all he can picture is the knives entering Lea's body. Stabbing that child.

So he pretty much does a continuous sweep over the wake. Press Lea's button in the foyer, go to the lounge, pace around the room for something like five minutes, go to the foyer, press the button, return to the lounge, rinse and repeat.

He kind of hates this new kid music but... its Lea's, right? That counts for something.]

[amadeusrockette]

Mr. Jiminy, do you want some cake? It's, um. Traditional, where I come from.

[It's nothing fancy, just something that looks like a coffee cake topped with peaches.

She . . . she wasn't feeling well enough after Anna's death to do this, but this time she feels obligated. Sophie is gone. Wander is gone. Someone had to make something, and it might as well have been her.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford has been attending far too many of these for his liking as of late. And while he'd only spoken to Lea once or twice in the past few weeks, the boy was just that—a boy. He certainly didn't deserve his fate simply for squashing a few bugs. So he's there, at the wake, looking morose and tired and feeling very old.

He sits on a stool in the corner, something lower than the couch Lea is laid out on, hands folded where they rest between his legs, elbows on his thighs. He's got a piece of parchment in hand that he studies for a long while, puzzling it over, it seems. He'd pulled a whole lot of items out of the machine on Tuesday, but this was by far the most intriguing.

Later, he wanders over to find Fiddleford, sitting down beside him, but on the floor, so as to stay lower than the deceased out of habit. He nudges Fiddleford's knee with his shoulder, just the subtlest amount of physical affection, because he can't restrain himself entirely. His brow furrows at the copy of Cosmos, which looks...very familiar.]

Is...is that mine? My signed copy?

[amadeusrockette]

[Julia show up in the lounge with . . . a coffee cake. It's topped with peaches, and she carefully cuts it into slices once she sets it down so everyone can have some. Once that's done, she disappears for a few minutes, only to return with a tray of coffee too. This . . . with Sophie and Wander gone, Julia assumes somebody has to try and keep everybody fed and comfortable. She's ruined everything else in her life, she doesn't want to ruin the rest of their time here by not doing things the right way.

Eventually, she retreats to the kitchen entirely. She managed to haul her keyboard in there, and she's cycling through snippets of the songs of everyone who died, making some kind of unholy mashup. When she calms down, she pulls a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and smooths it out, starting at it for a long moment before she starts playing.]

[toogoodforhim]

[Lefou looks dead inside, but he's here to pay his respects. He looks at the body of the boy and is reminded of when Anna laid in the same place, of tying his bow around her throat to keep her head looking attached.

So when he's done paying his respects, he goes over to Fiddleford and sits next to him.]

...Thank you.

[pardonmylanguage]

[Tip has two cats with her now. One is Mochi, and one is a gray tabby that a few people might have seen around. Said gray tabby is occupying most of her lap, to Mochi's slight displeasure. At least she'll be offering him to anyone who passes by as a hug option.]

[outsidethecircle]

[Clearly trying to get the attic ghost on their side was a no-go but, hey, someone had to try. Either way, Anna is here. She... stays in the corner a bit, clinging to the old diary she recieved from Maui.]

...So no one's really safe now, are they?