(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

[inaccordant]

... Yes. I suspect that if we can complete the story to its liking, it'll finally be content.

[...]

If you're not willing to, then it sounds like it's planning on forcing it.

[repress]

...So it does.

[ we are worried about you. ]

Do you think the clues we've been receiving are pointing towards a way we can defeat it? I know there has been talk of this 'plot hole,' but I have heard various interpretations. That the world itself is the plot hole, that the plot hole is the lack of villains, or perhaps the lack of resolution itself.

[inaccordant]

[worry for yourselves first. i've already hurt too many people.]

... I think it's a little bit of everything. The fact that the story went unfinished and didn't have a proper plot probably created the plot hole—a sentient will of the story.

[repress]

[ we all have.

everyone in this room has. but that won't drive them off. ]

So that is what we're facing...

[ can't they just get this show cancelled, damn ]

I want to believe that we can make an enemy of this story itself. That it doesn't have to mean making villains or heroes of one another. [ even if he's been ready to play the villain, these last few weeks. ] I do not know that even if we were to kill each other in earnest, it would be with enough maliciousness to be labeled villains. But the story itself doesn't have a title, an identity, or a body...? Do you think there is a way we can do that, without losing one of our own?

[inaccordant]

... I don't know. I doubt we're dealing with a fully sentient being here, so it might not work if we try to treat it like one.

[repress]

[ mods: stop trying to get around murder ]

...Hm.

And if we do not act, it will likely possess someone to be the villain on its own. [ gauging from the last run-in they had. ] If that happens, can we still... save them?

[ like the people in daycare? ]

[inaccordant]

Given how this place works, I feel like there'll be ways to ensure that death isn't the end, unless you start messing with things you shouldn't.

[repress]

[ which we might... ]

Then do you suppose by its talk of heroes and villains it wants us to die? [ us as in the cat cult. ] It seems to have failed to vilify us so far, so I do not know that attempting to do so now would solve anything.

[ but it's a possibility, so he's open to talking about it. ]

[inaccordant]

I'm sure it'd be glad if everyone else did vilify you, though that probably has more to do with you being the easiest targets when all the other killers—those who acted independently or those who were compelled—are gone or unlikely to ever be revealed.

So, you're right in that trying to create villains out of you wouldn't solve much at this point, especially if the dead manage to fix their transcripts and return.

[repress]

So if we are the obvious choice of villains, and cannot really be used as such... what are we left with?

I do not want to think about killing the 'heroes' of this story. Or that you and the other dorm heads might be at risk of possession.

[inaccordant]

[...]

You might not want to think about it, but it could still end up as a possibility. Better to prepare yourself for that, rather than avert your eyes from it.