(ROLE) CULT

[dormheads]

cult.

On Monday at 10 PM, Rupert and Otome receive an encrypted e-mail.

d4rkness@Wiwaldi.edu

Come to classroom 1304; see attached map. You won't like what you're going to learn, though.

Be discreet and don't tell anyone.

Chad

No one is in the halls as Rupert and Otome 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.

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 3-4 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.

Comments

CHAD

[dormheads]

[He's here for any questions.]

[heartlands]

[a few shocked moments pass after he reads the entirety of the bulletin board, before:]

...You're kidding. To save them we have to kill one of them? What sense does that make?

[dormheads]

[unlike the exasperated/annoyed tone chad has taken to talking to everyone on the public mingle, he sounds a lot more somber here.]

It interrupts the link. [...] If I knew of any other way, this wouldn't be the option I'd choose.

[heartlands]

How did you even learn about this in the first place? And - I'm pretty sure murder is a much bigger deal than breaking a contract, so I hope you have a good reason for why you aren't sending us home immediately now that this is happening.

[dormheads]

[he gestures to the crystal ball (probably, it's hard to tell with the stubby arm). but feel free to touch it.]

I don't control the way this world works, so I don't have the power to send you back.

[heartlands]

Then who does?

[...he'll touch the crystal ball, though.]

[dormheads]

[touching the crystal ball will reveal words and images, filling rupert with the knowledge of basically what's written on the board.]

... If you make it to the end of the school year, you should be able to return home. Ultimately, this world still acts according to an internal logic—it might try to keep you here, but it can only come up with so many plausible excuses for you to be unable to return to your worlds. That's my own interpretation, at the moment.

The problem is if people are absorbed into the setting before then. If they become convinced that they should stay, then the world has every justification to keep them trapped.

[heartlands]

[he pulls his hand back with a frown, closing his eyes for a second]

So we're going to have to do this for an entire year? But if we have to pick somebody every week... That doesn't make any sense! And - are you saying the world itself is behind this?

[dormheads]

Well, we're already about an eighth of the way there.

[a week isn't an eighth of a year? wow, weird. time sure flies by.]

... From what I understand, this world can be thought of as a... semi-sentient entity. It doesn't exactly think the way a "person" would, but it has a certain path it's trying to guide people towards. It'll try to forcibly change what it can for that purpose, but as I said, it can't completely break what makes sense for its setting and the people in it. Otherwise, it would've immediately assimilated all of you from the start, rather than allow you to question things.

[heartlands]

...Are we?

[he knows nothing about modern schools so he just accepts it

but anyways!]

But - this is the first time it's ever done this, right? Why now?

[dormheads]

It's the first time, as far as I know. But it's entirely possible that it's done other things in previous years and I never noticed. I only joined the cult this year... which, frankly, isn't a choice I would have made myself, and I suspect that break in logic is why that [he gestures to the crystal ball] was able to work for me.

[magic is real! all the dorm heads have apologizing to do. but yeah, sometimes you just wake up to find that you apparently agreed to lead a cult and go "wait that's ooc."]

From that perspective, this year is likely its test run, so to speak. To see if this change in setting works—bringing in people who didn't ask to be here and trying to come up with activities like the Dorm Wars to occupy them.

[heartlands]

Wait... If you wouldn't have joined yourself, then how did you wind up joining?

[oh. bad.]

So, that means - if it wins, if we don't make it out of the school year, it's going to keep doing this to other worlds and to other people?!

[dormheads]

Most likely, the world could momentarily influence me into agreeing—but in the immediate aftermath, it couldn't abruptly rewrite who I am to make me think that was a normal choice for me. [he is not suddenly a huge cat lover.] Again, it can only bend logic so much.

But I prefer not going back on things I said I would do, so it's ended up like this.

[...]

It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

[momming]

... Why us, specifically? And how did you even learn death was the only option?

[ it's still said as politely as she can muster, but she honestly looks a little shell shocked. ]

[dormheads]

... Kaoruko passed on a note to let me know that she was nominating you two as the next members.

[as for the second question, he gestures to the crystal ball.]

[momming]

She's-- [ wow her voice cracks a little ] She's really all right?

[ but she'll pause and then slowly touch The Ball. ]

[dormheads]

She passed on a note to the principal while being held, though I doubt he had any idea what it was about. I haven't heard from her since she was expelled.

[touching the crystal ball reveals words and images that pretty much reveal to otome the same info written on the board.]

[momming]

... So if she--

[ wait. Give her a minute to process, also the crystal ball is weird. ]

Was that why she killed Hiyori? And do any of you have any kind of say in these expulsions or was that the world itself?

[ because she hated that ]

[dormheads]

[don't judge my convenient plot device.]

... Yes. He was one of the people who was going to be assimilated, so she chose to target him as the lesser of two evils.

As students, we don't have any authority over that. That's apparently a tradition created from an incident far in the school's history... though it should be separate from this. In previous years, I think this cult was... [he sounds tired] just an actual cult about cats?

[hence. the cat decor.]

[momming]

... That's sort of a tragedy, that it's changed so much.

[ Haaa. ]

Then the four of you... I assume have been a part of this for awhile? Are you at any risk of being assimilated?

[dormheads]

Well, I don't know if I'd say we've been a part of this. This world is our home, after all. We've lived here all our lives, so there's no reason to assimilate us.

[momming]

If it has natives already, why bring in people from other places?

[ it is so bizarre talking to this panda ]

[dormheads]

[he hates spirit week.]

My theory would be that that's the premise of the school it wants. It's not necessarily looking to create a mundane school life. [tiredly,] Otherwise, I imagine it wouldn't offer some of the classes it does.

[momming]

I-- yes, that's fair.

[ She continues to hate this. ]

It mentioned a potential way to save those who were killed... is that something you know much about?

[dormheads]

I don't know the method yet. Give me some time—I don't have that many more resources than you, but I'll look into whatever I have to find a lead. And keep your eyes and ears open, as well.