WEEK 3

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Karolina and Mulan are dead. The first, and hopefully the last, deaths of your stay here. Hopefully their deaths won't be in vain. Your third week here starts on a solemn note, and the mood here has taken on a significant downward spiral. If it's any consolation (it isn't), you'll find that you have two new floors to explore...even if one of those floors has about twenty STAY OUT signs nailed to it.

23 guests remain.]

[SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY]

{ooc: Don't forget to turn in your week 2 AC! As we're now officially in full murdergame mode, AC from here on out is extended till Thursday.}

Comments

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford spends Saturday night and Sunday in his room, sulking and ruminating on the events of Saturday. He's been doing a lot of writing in his journal, a lot of reading of his newly-acquired DDnMD manual, and a lot of sneaking out to the kitchen to avoid having to talk to anyone. But come Monday, he's ready to rejoin society. Especially with the news that there's more house to explore.

He takes a good meander through each of the new rooms, poking his nose in every nook and cranny, occasionally jotting down something in his notebook, which appears to be alarmingly full.

Later on in the evening, he retires to the study, settling into one of the overstuffed, dusty wingback armchairs to study his latest draws from the slot machine. Each item gets a good going over, inspected for hidden buttons if applicable, or hidden pockets. Anything not obvious to the casual viewer. Of course, he comes up with very little, except for a hunch as to the owner of the oar. He sips his apple cinnamon brew, which is somehow still frozen despite having been in that slot machine, and begins drawing up a new character sheet on the off chance someone agrees to play DDnMD with him.]

study

[chainbroke]

[ She doesn't really do much on Sunday, but Monday... ]

What are you writing, Mr. Pines?

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford glances up from his notebook, which he's filled out with a hand-drawn chart, each space labeled in his own elegant hand, and is in the middle of filling in. He splits into a weary smile at the sight of Naminé.]

Oh, hello there. I was actually just filling out a character sheet for my favorite game. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons. Wander pulled my Dungeon Master's Guide from the slot machine.

[chainbroke]

I've never heard of it.

[ She takes a seat next to him. ]

What is it about? How do you play?

[sixfingeredstan]

Oh! Well, it's very fun. Here, let me explain the rules to you. It's a game based on fantasy adventure, but with the added thrill of complex mathematical equations and strategy elements!

[He launches into a very long-winded and detailed explanation of the mechanics of the game. Naminé can feel free to tune him out any time now.]

[chainbroke]

[ Surprisingly, she listens attentively! There are a lot of things he talks about that she isn't sure about, but she's not rude enough to interrupt him. ]

It sounds very interesting. I don't think I'd be very good at playing, though... I don't know very much about math.

[toogoodforhim]

[Lefou freezes stock still like a spooked deer when he sees that red leather coat.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Seeing motion out of the corner of his eye, Ford glances up, and raises his brows at the sight of the man in the doorway.]

Hello, ah—Lefou, isn't it? We haven't spoken except for at the trial, I apologize.

[He doesn't pick up on that body language because he's Ford Pines and he's terrible at social cues.]

[toogoodforhim]

[haha speaking of the trial, he's quickly on his way to not looking much better than he did then.]

Wh-where did you get that coat...

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford's brow wrinkles. Why does this man seem so distressed? He picks up the red coat and studies it.]

This? I pulled it from the slot machine in the game room. It doesn't seem to be anything except an ordinary coat.

[toogoodforhim]

[He approaches, then, like he was waiting to do so until he had confirmation that... that I don't know, it hadn't been found on a dead body, or that there wasn't a man wearing it, or...something.]

It's my- It belonged to my- my...friend.

[My my, that word friend took a lot to get out.]

[terribibble]

[At around three in the morning on Monday, Ford will hear a knock on his door. It's not urgent exactly but there's an audible tenseness to it.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[He's awake, because of course he's awake. He clambers upright from his position on his bed, which has about four big books spread open and a whole mess of papers, most of which appear to be graphs and charts and character sheets. His brow furrows—who could it be at this hour?—and then he's calling out:]

Ah—come in!

[terribibble]

It's -- it's me.

[He's quiet -- he doesn't want to wake anyone up -- and his voice sounds about as tense as that knock was.]

We need to have a talk.

[sixfingeredstan]

[Oh.

Ford sits bolt upright; he wasn't expecting a Talk. Not so soon, anyway. His throat feels dry suddenly.]

Well, I'm here. Let's...talk.

[terribibble]

[He steps into Ford's room like he's walking onto a battlefield. In his hands he's holding Journal 3, clutched tight to his chest like he's worried Ford might try to snatch it back from him. He'd be well within his rights, it is his property.

Fiddleford spent the entirety of Sunday reading the rest of it. There were pages he skimmed, sections he skipped entirely once he saw glimpses of the pictures they contained, but he'd like to think he got to the important bit: the ending.]

Is this... is it all true?

[He's pretty sure it is. Ford is a lot of things but he isn't someone who would lie in his research, and he certainly isn't someone who would lie about the sort of things contained in the latter half of the pages.]

[wannagetsmote]

[Maui was totally peeking his head in to throw more books, and absolutely not trying to teach himself to read or anything, when he spotted the old man. Briefly, the demi-god considered sneaking back out, but the sight of that oar caught him by surprise.]

Hey, uh. You. Forge. Where'd you get that?

[Casually directs a sausage finger toward the oar.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford glances up and splits into a grin at the sight of Maui, which isn't something he'd ever thought would happen.]

Ford. And I pulled it out of the slot machine. It's yours, isn't it?

[wannagetsmote]

Forbes, right. [Is he serious? Or fooling? We just don't know.]

That it is. It's a one-of-a-kind, autographed oar. I gave it to someone but... [You know, it's a little eerie that it wound up here.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[....Close enough.]

Interesting! It seems that slot machine is able to pull personal items of ours from our home worlds, as well as things that don't seem to belong to any of us.

[He thumps the oar twice on the carpet, and then holds it out to Maui with a surprisingly deft twirl.]

Here.

[wannagetsmote]

[Okay. Consider Maui impressed. He's still weird mortal but... that was pretty cool.]

Mind doing me a favor, old man? [He accepted the oar, then held the end of it out for him to see.] If you see a big fish hook that's shaped like that, let me know. That's also mine. Actually mine.

[Though after his conversation with the Hatbox Ghost, he doubted it would show up at random.]

Study

[thetimebomb]

[Heck yeah time to call Ford a neeerd.

While none of the stuff Ford got from that machine really interested her, she can't help but wondering what the heck he's drawing down.]

You sure do like writing things down, don't you?

[Seriously Ford it feels like every time she sees you, you're writing something.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford pauses his furious scribbling and glances up to see Sylvia. He splits into a sheepish grin.]

It's the nature of a man of science, Sylvia. I want to record everything I possibly can. But this is play, not work. [Gesturing to his character sheet.]

[thetimebomb]

[She looks at the character sheet and wow this does not look exactly look like fun to her.]

"Play"? Whaddya, a writer or something?

[sixfingeredstan]

Well, yes. But that's not what I mean by this. It's a character sheet for my favorite game, Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons!

[IT'S REALLY FUN TRUST HIM.]