Right down to the compulsion to go back to the dorm and pass out like an hour later. We're still no closer to figuring out what's causing that either, but...we can expect it to mean this'll happen every time.
I asked Chad about using vouchers to find a way to interfere. He said to come up with a plan before thinking about it. I know he's right, but how the hell do we plan for something like this?
I have-- one part of a plan, if we can figure out interference, but we'll have to work past that first.
[she folds her arms, there.]
Just withstanding the compulsion to fall asleep on its own would only help if you know where to go afterward. This place is also large enough not to count on being able to simply stumble across a murder in progress, so to begin with, you would need either an idea of where something will happen or who it will happen to. For that, we need to know more about why this happens and how, or it will be a near impossibility to predict someone's actions, which... at least gives us a better idea of what the linear progression here should really be.
[his eyes progressively go wider the more she talks...]
So what you're saying is we're missing a whole lot of factors that could even point us in the right direction and that's why we can't even act yet. Is that what you're saying?
[she's leaning against the pool table while she talks, for the moment.]
Honestly, it might not be the worst idea in the world to take a page out of someone else's book, and see if we can't get someone the ability to use a Zone of Truth on any other murderers we manage to identify. If we can get honest answers out of them, we'll be in a better position. It'd require being able to impart an ability a person doesn't naturally have, though, unless someone already has some capability like--
[-no, hang on a second. she pauses, and then she's scrolling through her phone, scrolling, scrolling more--]
...like 'punching the truth out of people', if that's literal. But even if it isn't, maybe that would be grounds to make it happen anyway.
Beau mentioned that to me already. I want to believe she's telling the truth since we know a lot of worlds have a lot of different powers. If we could do something like that it'd give us the advantage. The only thing then would be trying to figure out who to use it on.
We know we can buy other powers we've never had before, but the pricing's going to be the problem.
We'd need to make sure we were right about it, but-- well, anyone who does what Kaoruko did is going to be a very obvious choice. I understand she wasn't very forthcoming.
[hence the need to, possibly, force the truth out of them.]
If it was out of an inability to explain in full, then we might learn that in the process.
[as for the question:]
It's a spell that creates an area in which others can only tell the truth, if they're not strong enough of will to resist the spell's influence entirely... which is a possibility.
She wasn't, and now that we've seen what happens to people who're caught do you really think anyone's going to make it easy on us to figure out who the culprit is? We're going to have to pay attention to a lot of stuff tomorrow.
[...but hm. okay.]
Everybody's powers are gone, so I doubt anyone has the ability to resist a spell like that for now. That's the one good thing about all of us starting at the same level.
...I guess if you're stubborn enough, you could. [he says, knowing he is an incredibly stubborn individual who refuses to back down when he doesn't want to.]
That's what I said. [like. almost verbatim, so that's hilarious.] Now that we're over the initial shock maybe we'll be able to ask him better questions. Assuming he's there and not the dorm heads themselves. They don't seem entirely out of reach this time.
This is all also assuming, if the curse we've been dealing with is still in effect, that we can just... ignore it and move on without being sidetracked by it, and honestly, I don't know how optimistic I am about that.
[mollymauks georg, who has bitten nearly all of the game, is an outlier and is maybe going to be a distraction if that happens all over again. byleths georg is also on thin ice.]
Yeah, has anyone figured out why that's a thing? It just started happening this week. [i never tagged back in during sprongle so assume he got up and left when molly started biting the shit out of the dorm.] It might be hard to ignore, but we should also make sure it isn't something that affected Lan Wangji.
[can you imagine if pixi let people bite him and we just had to do a mouthcheck. wow. but also it's something he has, in all seriousness, considered.]
Yeah...I haven't heard much about it from other people either. But I'd like to know how it's happening since that's...a pretty big deal? It means there's something out there that's able to control us on days that aren't the weekend.
I would, as well, but for the moment I think we're just going to have to deal with it and focus on the weekend.
[she breathes out a sigh, there, shaking her head. at least it hardly affects her, but that makes it no less troubling...
anyway, she's shifting to go over and investigate some of the arcade machines and the purikura booth while she's here. the library exists, she hasn't looked around here as much.]
[there's a lingering pause...and he follows after a bit.]
...I'm going to switch dorms on Sunday.
[she's...the first person he's told from the spring dorm, but he figures she should know first given her ideals seem to fall in line with his the most right now.]
[that's-- it definitely is unexpected, considering he's the only one she's actually discussed their dorm head much with, and she glances up in surprise.]
Well, I suppose if your mind is made up, but... I'm curious about why.
Somebody asked me to switch a week ago. I told him I wanted to wait, because I wanted to see what would happen and because I didn't want to leave yet when Chad's...himself. And then Sagihara, Sieghart, Claude and the others all came back the way they did yesterday and we were all still forced to go back to the dorms and be put under lockdown. Lan Wangji still died.
...I don't really want to leave because I know what we're doing is important. But I also have another priority. I can't leave him again.
And besides...maybe I'll figure out some other answers when I switch. And it's not like I won't be talking to Chad as much as I have been even if I'm not in the same dorm. I don't think actually competing against each other is the answer here. It feels too much like a cover for something else. Doesn't it?
...I can understand that. If he's that important to you, then-- there are other ways to learn what you need to know, and you'll still have at least one person here to help you. I don't have any reason to think about leaving, after all.
[she's going to continue keeping an eye on chad, to the extent that she can, and it's not like taichi is fully leaving him behind either.]
The entire setup feels strange, obviously, but then again... someone did mention to me that when they spoke to Kaoruko, she stressed playing along with it. I don't know that working against it is necessarily the right course, right now, and we do need to participate to at least some degree.
[if they want to be able to earn anything they'll need, anyway.]
I told him I wasn't leaving here without him. Kind of hard to do if I can't be there when I need to be. [so yeah, yamato's important.] I'm telling you because I think you're one of the least likely to leave, and I still want your help with Chad. There's...a lot that I think is on his mind. He won't talk about it and he'll probably get mad if we try to ask him or help him too much, but he seems to listen to you. I'll help you guys as best as I can from the other dorm.
I heard the same thing. We can play along, fine, but we also don't really know what that means or why we're doing this. But I'm not really here to play along with murder for longer than I have to.
But I do intend to keep trying, with him. I'm waiting for those who actually found them to mention it first before I try to have that conversation, but-- you've seen the document on him that they returned with, haven't you?
Yeah. It's kind of about what I figured from talking to him. He told me what he was studying a while ago but he said he always had to return back to where he came from. I thought it was family stuff after some things he said.
But it's also why I didn't want to leave right away.
[taichi does not like abandoning people. especially people that need an extra hand or people that are maybe difficult. but that's the problem because that applies to yamato, too, and that's why he waited a week to make the decision.]
I haven't ever asked him much on a personal level, to be honest-- it seemed more effective to keep things focused elsewhere for now.
[she has largely just been trying to make sure he's cooperating and trying to establish the sort of relationship he seems to prefer, first-- it isn't as though she's not used to keeping it more professional.]
But given one or two mentions on there, I'm... not terribly surprised he's distant.
That's probably why he listens to you more than me. [haha.] I'm not surprised either though. He...eventually answers questions if you ask enough, but he seems to think that all of that's none of our concern.
Which, sure, he's right. But he's bad at the part where he lets it be our concern.
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[she folds her arms, there.]
Just withstanding the compulsion to fall asleep on its own would only help if you know where to go afterward. This place is also large enough not to count on being able to simply stumble across a murder in progress, so to begin with, you would need either an idea of where something will happen or who it will happen to. For that, we need to know more about why this happens and how, or it will be a near impossibility to predict someone's actions, which... at least gives us a better idea of what the linear progression here should really be.
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So what you're saying is we're missing a whole lot of factors that could even point us in the right direction and that's why we can't even act yet. Is that what you're saying?
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[she's leaning against the pool table while she talks, for the moment.]
Honestly, it might not be the worst idea in the world to take a page out of someone else's book, and see if we can't get someone the ability to use a Zone of Truth on any other murderers we manage to identify. If we can get honest answers out of them, we'll be in a better position. It'd require being able to impart an ability a person doesn't naturally have, though, unless someone already has some capability like--
[-no, hang on a second. she pauses, and then she's scrolling through her phone, scrolling, scrolling more--]
...like 'punching the truth out of people', if that's literal. But even if it isn't, maybe that would be grounds to make it happen anyway.
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Beau mentioned that to me already. I want to believe she's telling the truth since we know a lot of worlds have a lot of different powers. If we could do something like that it'd give us the advantage. The only thing then would be trying to figure out who to use it on.
We know we can buy other powers we've never had before, but the pricing's going to be the problem.
[...] What's a Zone of Truth?
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[hence the need to, possibly, force the truth out of them.]
If it was out of an inability to explain in full, then we might learn that in the process.
[as for the question:]
It's a spell that creates an area in which others can only tell the truth, if they're not strong enough of will to resist the spell's influence entirely... which is a possibility.
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[...but hm. okay.]
Everybody's powers are gone, so I doubt anyone has the ability to resist a spell like that for now. That's the one good thing about all of us starting at the same level.
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[sometimes you are a d&d and have to find like actual ways to explain these things...]
...but I do think you're right. We'll need to be more careful, but-- at least we shouldn't spend an hour yelling at a bear this time.
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That's what I said. [like. almost verbatim, so that's hilarious.] Now that we're over the initial shock maybe we'll be able to ask him better questions. Assuming he's there and not the dorm heads themselves. They don't seem entirely out of reach this time.
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[mollymauks georg, who has bitten nearly all of the game, is an outlier and is maybe going to be a distraction if that happens all over again. byleths georg is also on thin ice.]
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[can you imagine if pixi let people bite him and we just had to do a mouthcheck. wow. but also it's something he has, in all seriousness, considered.]
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anyway even if she has gotten the answer by now i think she might not. tell her local teenager just yet. so.]
I never had much luck connecting it myself, no. It only ever happened once.
[both of which are true and it's fine.]
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Yeah...I haven't heard much about it from other people either. But I'd like to know how it's happening since that's...a pretty big deal? It means there's something out there that's able to control us on days that aren't the weekend.
[bad!]
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[she breathes out a sigh, there, shaking her head. at least it hardly affects her, but that makes it no less troubling...
anyway, she's shifting to go over and investigate some of the arcade machines and the purikura booth while she's here. the library exists, she hasn't looked around here as much.]
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[there's a lingering pause...and he follows after a bit.]
...I'm going to switch dorms on Sunday.
[she's...the first person he's told from the spring dorm, but he figures she should know first given her ideals seem to fall in line with his the most right now.]
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[that's-- it definitely is unexpected, considering he's the only one she's actually discussed their dorm head much with, and she glances up in surprise.]
Well, I suppose if your mind is made up, but... I'm curious about why.
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Somebody asked me to switch a week ago. I told him I wanted to wait, because I wanted to see what would happen and because I didn't want to leave yet when Chad's...himself. And then Sagihara, Sieghart, Claude and the others all came back the way they did yesterday and we were all still forced to go back to the dorms and be put under lockdown. Lan Wangji still died.
...I don't really want to leave because I know what we're doing is important. But I also have another priority. I can't leave him again.
And besides...maybe I'll figure out some other answers when I switch. And it's not like I won't be talking to Chad as much as I have been even if I'm not in the same dorm. I don't think actually competing against each other is the answer here. It feels too much like a cover for something else. Doesn't it?
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[she's going to continue keeping an eye on chad, to the extent that she can, and it's not like taichi is fully leaving him behind either.]
The entire setup feels strange, obviously, but then again... someone did mention to me that when they spoke to Kaoruko, she stressed playing along with it. I don't know that working against it is necessarily the right course, right now, and we do need to participate to at least some degree.
[if they want to be able to earn anything they'll need, anyway.]
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I heard the same thing. We can play along, fine, but we also don't really know what that means or why we're doing this. But I'm not really here to play along with murder for longer than I have to.
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[absolutely fuck this murder business.]
But I do intend to keep trying, with him. I'm waiting for those who actually found them to mention it first before I try to have that conversation, but-- you've seen the document on him that they returned with, haven't you?
[he's a popular boy, she assumes so.]
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Yeah. It's kind of about what I figured from talking to him. He told me what he was studying a while ago but he said he always had to return back to where he came from. I thought it was family stuff after some things he said.
But it's also why I didn't want to leave right away.
[taichi does not like abandoning people. especially people that need an extra hand or people that are maybe difficult. but that's the problem because that applies to yamato, too, and that's why he waited a week to make the decision.]
What do you think of it?
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[she has largely just been trying to make sure he's cooperating and trying to establish the sort of relationship he seems to prefer, first-- it isn't as though she's not used to keeping it more professional.]
But given one or two mentions on there, I'm... not terribly surprised he's distant.
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Which, sure, he's right. But he's bad at the part where he lets it be our concern.
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