River’s Notebook
-> Two groups with their own goal
Our goal: Complete ritual
-> Map: Apartment building? City? Building, ground floor off limits
-> Length: Seven days, no repeats
-> No shadows – real setting
-> Own identities? Same position as others in building (tenants? cultists?)
Rules
-> Be social/communicate
-> Don’t try to leave
Other Group
-> Papyrus (Strength), Soot (Knowledge), Acorn (Social)
-> Goal: ???
-> Acorn “knows” us
Situation
-> Morning bell
-> Meals together on second floor
-> Logan (talkative) is a friend, generally liked, no enemies
-> Viewed as lovers? Partners?
-> Seven floors + open rooftop
-> Feeling watched/observed?
-> Miles some sort of leader? Talks about other people’s lives
-> Possibly two opposing cults in here?
-> Security walks around at night
Building
-> Ground floor ng (Fingerprint lock)
-> 1. ??? (locked), infirmary (with unfriendly/suspicious doctor?)
-> 2. Meals, meditation
-> 3. Rooms
-> 4. Rooms
-> 5. Library, open rooms (also sports)
-> 6. Some rooms + ??? (locked)
-> 7. ??? (locked) cultist room? Miles talks in the evening (no symbolism?)
Incidents
-> Night 1, Logan lost tongue (is conscious, otherwise unharmed? Accident?)
“River? Riiiiver.”
Aspen shook the young man out of his thoughts.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“…Lw?”
“Cgf sbe jigluta?”
“Tfr. P’w olcf.” Elnfg rtba tlr mbwqjclbc j rtbga rwlif. “Aera atlcxlcu.”
Lf gfrewfv tlr iecmt wfji klat atf fcv bo tlr ilqr megifv eq, j rluta atja wjvf Crqfc raeccfv jcv atf gfra bo atf ajyif rilutais jwerfv.
Rb bcf xcfk ktfgf Elnfg’r ubbv wbbv mjwf ogbw, fzmfqa obg Crqfc, ktb pfjiberis qbeafv ktfc tf cbalmfv atja Elnfg’r lcafgfra lc Zlifr tjv ugbkc rluclolmjcais.
Having finished eating, they once again tried to approach the infirmary. Maybe now the doctor might be more open to letting them talk to Logan. He was their most important clue for the moment, so they couldn’t just let it be.
But when they arrived, the hallway wasn’t empty.
“Thank you so much!”
The young man held the doctor’s hands, beaming with gratitude. The doctor – whose face River had only seen scrunched up in annoyance – was softened. There was even a tiny smile tugging up her lips.
“It’s fine. Have a nice day.” Still not too talkative, she retreated back into the infirmary moments later, but not before throwing a sidelong glare at River.
The door clicked shut, and in the hallway, six people stood opposed to two.
River had a feeling he’d never get used to Acorn. Even if he stuck around for long, he wouldn’t be able to adjust to it – the way Acorn’s expression changed ever so subtly when he looked at River. It was such a perfect control of his facial muscles that River himself had to doubt if maybe they had fought and it was his fault.
“Here to visit Logan? Sorry, I don’t think it’s a good time. He just fell asleep”, Acorn offered, his voice a mixture between awkward friendliness and hesitation.
Aspen was glaring.
There would always be something about his glares that was noticeably different to other people – maybe it was the way he didn’t regard them as a fellow species, or the way he was ready to kill.
River was blind to it, not only because he wasn’t ever the target of those glares. It was also because their usual interactions were with other players, who were fearing for their lives anyway and thus in a different mental state.
But that wasn’t the case here.
Acorn, Soot and Papyrus were fellow players, yes, but the other three people standing with them at this moment were not.
They were three teenaged girls.
And the moment they saw the feral glare from the opposing party, they immediately reacted with defensive aggression.
“W-What’s wrong with you? Who are you glaring at?!”, one of them shouted, half hiding behind Acorn. Her voice dropped down to a whisper, but with them all being so close to each other, it was still audible. “Creepy guy…”
“Now, now”, Acorn awkwardly laughed. “Aspen is just… not too good with people. He doesn’t mean anything bad.”
The comment just fuelled the flames.
“Nothing bad? Look at his eyes! Maybe he was the one who hurt Logan!” The teenager tugged at Acorn’s sleeve, warily staring at Aspen. Next to her, her two friends’ expressions also changed to suspicion and wariness at her words, considering the option.
“Hah?!”
A sound of annoyance slipped out of Aspen. The girl squeaked and hid behind Acorn, who raised his hands in a gesture of peace.
“Let’s all calm down. River and Aspen are… friends of Logan. I’m sure they just wanted to visit him because he is hurt. They’re also worried about him.”
River put a hand on Aspen’s shoulder to soothe the smaller guy. He kept his tone level, not friendly but also not rude. “We are. However, the doctor did not let us inside, contrary to you.”
The quip didn’t get him any reaction from Acorn.
It was painfully obvious that Acorn was more than just a good actor.
He was the perfect scammer. This was the worst kind of person to run into, who skillfully controlled the people around him.
Papyrus was maybe not as much of an actor, but he had a great pokerface. It didn’t change at all, and the way he stood half a step away from his teammates made him seem more like a stoic bodyguard than anything else.
But Soot was a bit of a crack in the thick defense.
Her haughty twitch of the lips was short, but it was visible. Their eyes met for a split second and she hurried to turn her face away, hiding it in the shadow of Papyrus’ large body, but River had found the crack.
She was the one whose behavior was most likely to reveal clues. She was the one to be observed.
“I’m sure Selene will have her reasons”, Acorn picked up River’s response. It was accompanied by an evasive movement of his eyes – so many implications behind his words that Aspen directly snapped.
He crossed the distance between them and grabbed Acorn’s collar directly. “What are you trying to say!”
The atmosphere crackled with tension.
As soon as Aspen had finished his sentence, Papyrus intervened, likewise grabbing Aspen by the arm to keep him under control. Aspen’s face twisted in pain.
The girls retreated in fear at the sudden aggressive movements.
With them behind his back, Acorn’s expression slowly changed.
For a moment he wore a smile, amused and arrogant. Aspen jolted forward at the sight, but Acorn staggered back, his face once again a perfect mask of surprise and discomfort.
“Aspen!”
River called out in warning, but Papyrus had already made his move to violently push Aspen away from his own companion. The considerably smaller guy stumbled backwards, right into River’s arms.
The easterner held the smaller guy in a tight hold. Aspen did not relax, but at least he stopped trying to rush forward again.
In front of them, a perfect scene played out. The teenagers worriedly approached Acorn with quiet whispers, seeing as he was rubbing his sore neck.
“Let’s leave”, River muttered into Aspen’s ear, cheek brushing against the reddish-brown hair.
There was no reply, but when River tugged him backwards, the other followed.
They made their escape from the hallway, well aware they had lost this little fight. It was only within the empty staircase that River looked back to see that his partner was walking with his head lowered and shoulders raised.
“I’m sorry”, Aspen mumbled, not even looking up. “I made it worse.”
River’s heart softened. His voice was free of accusation. “He baited you on purpose. Don’t feel bad. The game is far, far from over.”
He got a dejected “Hmm” as a response.
“We can turn the situation around. Let’s go to the library – there’s some books I want to take a look at. At the same time, we will talk about what just happened. Make it obvious we are confused why Acorn was allowed to go in, but we aren’t, and that we think he’s acting weird.”
A pair of eyes twinkled out from under the curtain of hair. “You mean, sow suspicion against him just as he’s doing against us?”
“We need to avoid people getting on his side. Acorn might be better at this than us, but that doesn’t mean we have to let him have the advantage easily.”
River had never tried to pep-talk anyone before. He was awkward about what to say, but his efforts paid off. He hid his relieved sigh when Aspen cheered up.
“I can do that! Leave it to me. You go check out your books.”
“Perfect.”
River squeezed the hand that he was holding and got a squeeze in return.
Trusting Aspen with whatever he had planned, River went on to find a couple books on the nature of religious practices, especially ritualistic sacrifices. It couldn’t hurt to get some more information.
In the meantime, Aspen was sprawling all over the table. He appeared dejected, staring out of the window, and grumbling little “Hello”s whenever someone joined their table.
The glances from other library visitors increased until one of them, a woman in her mid thirties, leaned in to whisper to him.
“Are you feeling unwell?”, she asked in a motherly, gentle tone.
Aspen pouted – the same way that he’d pout with River, lips puckered up and eyebrows scrunched cutely. “…Fine.”
“Do you maybe want to talk?”
Ah, there it was. River inwardly nodded at Aspen’s tactic.
Indeed, this place preached to have a lot of communication with everyone. It was the same reason why every piece of information was spreading ridiculously quickly – because people talked and shared constantly.
If someone was down, it was only obvious that someone would come and ask about it to offer support.
Author’s Note
Well, my life is as messy as it was before my break, BUT I got a lot of writing done and now I have some backlog which is great and destressing~
We’re back to weekly updates. I’ve long lost the hope of being able to do more but…. you’re getting the final chapters one day after each other for sure, so that’s something, right?
Take your time author…..as long as the story is as perfect as it is we will wait