WINTER COMMON ROOM - WEEK 3

[dormheads]

common room.

Similar to the rest of the architecture, the common room in the Winter Dorm is almost more reminiscent of a tea room or parlor that you would find in a manor. A chandelier hangs above, everything in the room glistening in the light that is both welcoming and just a tinge cold. Seating is available for a number of people to gather, adjusting each week to seemingly accommodate a little bit over the number of people assigned to the dorm. A piano doesn't sit too far, and sometimes when the room isn't too full, it's almost like a beautiful classical melody will begin to play itself to make up for the empty space.

Or... is that a showtune...?

Who can say?

This week, we're getting into the holiday spirit! So pop some bubbly, be a little sweet - it's that time of year.

specialty room.

However on the first floor, there's an oddity amidst the serene architecture. One of the rooms opens to a Gaming Lounge, complete with screens that stretch across the entirety of one wall length-wise. Incredible comfortable chairs and couches sit opposite the screen, comfortable enough to steal you away from the outside world for hours upon hours. A series of gaming systems are hooked up to the screens, and a small tower of handhelds sit on a bookcase nearby. Every game you can think of is downloaded and programmed onto each device, though every time you start one up it seems to immediately pull up an otome game or farming simulator. The lighting system changes between a rainbow of colors, and one wall is lined with snacks that are a little less decadent but still just as delicious. The room will adjust based on the needs of the game you play, a wall spinning out to roll out DDR dance pads, virtual reality goggles, or whatever you could need for the ultimate gaming experience.

No, it isn't incredibly reminiscent of Dude Perfect's Game Time Lounge. You're imagining it. (But really, click the link for a better idea of what the room looks like.)

---

Please use this as an open post for members of Winter Dorm. You may post top-levels whenever you'd like and go wild. A new post will go up at the start of each week.

Comments

[disreguarded]

Okay - okay, okay, okay.

[actually beau is just going to like, sit down for a second, and then she immediately crouches instead, like a gremlin, thinking.]

So we have - two different kinds, now, we're working on old information. We thought that they couldn't say it unless forced, but Byleth admitted to Crow of her own volition. So the other two just were... scared, or unwilling to admit, which - fair. Caiman said - he wouldn't...

[one sec.] Caiman said he wouldn't have killed Molly if he'd had the choice. Rupert said something similar.

And then we have the executions, which have people being forced to do stuff. So that's compulsion. But we don't know if that's how it is with the murders.

Actually - Iris, do you know anything about the sleepers?

[azuta]

The sleepers... Ah, the people who are placed outside?

[she crosses her arms at that and tries to think]

.... I know that there's a theory on a pattern presented at trial yesterday, but - I think we'll need to see if it continues to hold. I think there's some overlap to those who are asleep outside, and some other oddities we've noticed.

[a glance to catra, wherever she is, sweet baby]

[disreguarded]

There's some overlap... okay. [she rubs at her face.] I don't know what the overlap could be, though, maybe I'm just not... seeing it. I don't think I've talked to them enough to figure out what it is.

-- This is gonna be a touchy question, so sorry. Or whatever. But did you know about Rupert? Like before he got caught.

[azuta]

[she shakes her head]

It's a reasonable question, and Caleb already beat you to it - I'm not offended.

But... no. No, I did not. [and her expression turns a bit more somber] He didn't tell even me when I'm sworn to student privacy, which is why I think...

There's likely something else at play.

[disreguarded]

[she mutters something that sounds like "fucking caleb"]

Something else. [...] Are we thinking like, administration level? Or like, spooky fucking terrifying force like the Somnovum?

[she's not going to know what the somnovum are, beau]

[azuta]

... I don't know.

[and that frustrates her too. her brow furrows and some of that anger continues to simmer.]

Could there be something we're missing? In the clues you've all been given. The idea that this is some kind of show... but - there is no cast or crew. No lighting. And the idea that we're scripted into following certain plotlines goes against information that other murders are premeditated.

After all - nothing could have compelled Crow to go along with a script, right? What Byleth described still sounded very... like him. And at present you all sound like yourselves - from what I can gather.

So I wonder if there's another way to look at it. It's not the first time I've been inserted into a work of fiction, but this is a much more sinister genre.

[steelo]

[


...............


]

You did know what NecklacexEvil was! Iris! [ HOLY SHIT SHE'S AN ISEKAI ]

[azuta]

[





she covers her cheeks and looks away, flustered]

I-It's a good game.... I haven't been able to talk about games in so long...

[steelo]

[ STOP THIS IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD

he just takes her hands off of her face and squeezes them in a moment of pure nerd solidarity ]

We're gonna have so much to talk about when you crack this thing.

[azuta]

[STOP THIS IS FLUSTERING HER WORSE]

I - alright?!

[SHE'S BEEN AN OJOU-SAMA FOR LIKE 6 YEARS, BEING TREATED LIKE A WEEB AGAIN IS SO STRANGE]

[refate]

[ ichiro goes for the doki doki reaction





kon just looks dead inside ]

Why are so many of us issekai-adjacent if not outright issekai'd..?

[disreguarded]

[squints]

[disreguarded]

I - it. What? What do you mean -- holy shit are you an pre-Wiwaldi isekai?

[BEAU, FOCUS]

[steelo]

[ elbows her like an excited child ]

[disreguarded]

[elbows him back stop you nerd]

[azuta]

[she nods]

Yes. I've got about three lifetimes worth of memories now since I have Viola's too so - I hope that you'll be patient with me as I sort through them all.

[disreguarded]

[snort.] Yeah, no, I don't blame you.

Uh... fuck - anyway. [she thinks.] We've all seen everything that's gone out so far, I think. The scripts, the daycare sign in, our fill in the blanks thing...

It's all - it's all really appropriate, is all. [a long pause.] Molly's death was almost fucking cinematic.

[steelo]

The curse, right? The school spirit one?

[ my theorizing!!!!!!!!! ]

[azuta]

[she nods]

There's been a few instances of that, from what I've heard reported.

[steelo]

[ nodding!!! give him a minute. he pulls up his phone, and pulls out his pattern notes. ]

Taichi and I found that out. Every time someone's been cursed with the school spirit thing, they've been asleep outside - and they've been from the same dorm as one of the victims.

Catra's week was weird. She transferred over here, though, so it still fit the pattern we'd found, but... that threw me off, a little, too.

[azuta]

[ . . . . she tilts her head at that]

I suppose....

Well, keep an eye on it in the coming weeks. You've all done well in creating other systems that definitively par down suspect lists and help locate evidence so you shouldn't need to rely too heavily on individual theories.

[steelo]

Yeah. Just taking your advice. The more evidence we get the better, at least in proving theories to be true. [ with a smile!! but also uuu praise from iris, always good. ] Our dorm's getting this down to a science.

[ but ok, ok. thinking. ]

You said someone else is probably our big issue. I'm guessing it's the person, or people, who wrote on those papers, right? Kon, lemme see your notebook. [ i said this out loud to snow so he will grab the redacted out papers from kon's adventure, and then pull up his phone to look at the picture from the groupchat from this week's. ] Maybe the "editors" Crow mentioned were on the script?

[azuta]

Oh!

[she snaps her fingers]

That's right. The annotations - everything that was written on my file... They must know an awful lot about me.

I am Iris Lana Armelia, eldest daughter of the Armelia dukedom. I was excommunicated by the church because I was renovating an orphanage that was on church grounds. And the list of items - I've developed patents for skincare, jello, and conditioner, but we haven't rolled out the refined dandelion tea in my cafes just yet. Income tax has been slowly implemented, but my health insurance plan still needs to be negotiated with the guilds before we can start working toward universal healthcare.

[she leaves out the 'social pariah' part. it's cool.]

The list of things wasn't just things I liked - it was things I invented. But Viola obviously wouldn't know any of that...

[steelo]

[ whoa...holy shit ]

....Heh. Kinda makes your plan to get us all healed up make more sense. [ this is all wildly in line with everything viola iris has shown so far. she invented health insurance! and also health insurance with vouchers. ] Man, I think all the dorm heads are cool, but no wonder we've all got our shit together with you as our guide.

They know a lot about all of us, too, right? It kinda fits the narrative, especially if we still think the deaths are like filling in the blanks. Like... the cinematic thing that Beau said. [ sometimes you see memories of your friend's friend dying and then you see him dead like the same way the next day ]

[commandertoolbelt]

[ mouthing "jello...?" ]