(ROLE) CULT 6.0

[dormheads]

cult.

On Monday at 10 PM, Luxanna, Dimitri, Manwol, and Ichiro receive an encrypted e-mail.

d4rkness@Wiwaldi.edu

Come to classroom 1304; see attached map.

No one is in the halls as they creep to the abandoned classroom circled on the map. The normally locked door opens, revealing the room inside.

There are no windows and the lights are off, leaving the room cast in near darkness. Only a handful of candles, in what's probably a fire hazard, keep it illuminated; the fog being emitted from a personal fog machine doesn't help with visibility. What was once the teacher's desk has been pushed to the center of the room, with chairs seated around it. For some reason, there are cat decorations everywhere, mixed in with various (garish) occult items and patterns.

As of Week 3, a lamp has been added to the room to give it some light.

As of Week 5, the fog machine has been turned off.

As of Week 6, all of the junk has been shoved to a corner so that Manwol can put whatever she wants in the room. This is just Manwol's free room now, apparently.

There is a cat-shaped bulletin board hanging on the wall, which reads:

» This world is trying to assimilate all of you, who started this year, into its setting. If it succeeds, you'll remain trapped in this school, your souls drained until you cease to exist.

» Each week, this place will make active efforts on a few select students. Once the weekend hits, they'll all be beyond saving. However, if any one of them is killed before then, they'll all be freed from the link, at least for the remainder of the week.

» Death isn't necessarily permanent. Those who died can potentially be saved. However, no such option exists for the fully assimilated.

» At the start of the week you'll be informed if you may recruit one person to join the cult. Provide a list of 4-8 people you want to recruit and you'll be told which one of them is approved. If you extend an invitation and they accept, they will join the cult the following week.

» Preventing the assimilation aside, even the original cult was meant to be a secret, so it's important that word doesn't spread. If anyone else learns about your involvement in the cult or your task, whether from your mouth or another's, this world may enact consequences. No guarantee on who they might affect, so it's up to you to decide if risking harm upon another is worth it.

As of Week 3, more notes have been added.

A summary of what the others were told previously:

» This world is forced to act according to an internal logic. It isn't always aware of everything going on, and it can't break whatever rules it wishes. This would presumably be why you all arrived here with your minds intact, rather than already assimilated; it's possible that this defence mechanism has manifested in other ways as well, to try and correct things to how they should be.

Comments

CHAD

[inaccordant]

[He's here if you have any questions.]

[lifeless]

[Manwol gestures to Hugo to move closer to her,

and like really close so she can whisper at him. no one is allowed to EAVESDROP]

Hugo. Can I follow Dimitri and Luxanna?

[inaccordant]

[...............]

I suppose?

[lifeless]

[a relieved SIGH]

Thank you.

[then in another whisper -- ]

Oh, and tell Ichiro he's not allowed to follow if he asks.

[inaccordant]

That's not exactly up to me.

[repress]

What? Why?

[lifeless]

[excuse me dimitri this is a secret conversation]

I'm not going to interfere. I just want to follow and make sure of a few things.

[repress]

[ it's free real estate ]

...I'm sure I do not need to tell you that you should be cautious not to leave any trace of your presence.

[illuminance]

... Have you had a memory lapse, like the other Dorm Heads have?

[inaccordant]

... Yes.

[illuminance]

[ hm, bad. ]

Do you know anything we can do to help prevent it?

[inaccordant]

I suspect this is where the world—the plot hole, perhaps—is focusing its energy. As far as I know, no.

[steelo]

...Hugo, are you okay? I've got... a lot of questions, probably, but, that first...

[inaccordant]

Exasperated that Spring Dorm thought it'd be a good idea to hide this from me [they really went "we will not tell hugo that other dorm heads are losing their minds"], but otherwise fine at the moment.

[steelo]

[ oh

he, uh. laughs a little sheepishly. sweats. ]

...sorry. Uh, that might've been my fault. We weren't sure if buying the plot clue was what triggered it or not, so we thought we could keep anything from happening to you.

[inaccordant]

... That's why they suddenly decided not to buy it?

[they went and collected vouchers in front of hugo's salad (curry) and then abruptly went "nvm" and it was very confusing to him.]

[repress]

[ his thought process right now is something like oh goddess the vibes are bad. so he pulls out his tamagotchi and lets it hang off one of his fingers. ]

Hugo. How much for... a cat?

[inaccordant]

What?

[repress]

Oh, I should explain. How to put it...

[ this machine is actually what remains of streusel, our robot cat, whose brother was lost saving the universe. the two helped us countless times, including one instance where I was nearly kidnapped by a waltzing flower with teeth. streusel is clever and brave, and also adept at finding gold and jewels. but most importantly, I think for a cat cult, we are rather lacking in cats, and given the low spirits here tonight, having an animal may help with morale. I would also like to feed streusel a fish in thanks of all his service to us last week, and to help ease the passing of his family, who was died only because we adopted them. ]

...It's complicated. But there is a cat in this device that I would like to see again.

[inaccordant]

[...

you were what? never mind, i don't want to know.. hugo is so tired already.]

Eight vouchers.

[steelo]

[ if you hear someone like

make a touched little sniffling noise from over here no you didn't ]

[repress]

[ and then on wednesday... ]

Did you see what the others found?

[ he'll show him a photo of the google doc otherwise. ]

[inaccordant]

[he takes a look

nu is this the voice thing or]

[repress]

[ yes it's the voice stuff, i'm lazy ]

Anything you've heard of?

[inaccordant]

... Nothing I've heard, specifically. But considering everything over the last month, I can make a few guesses.