(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

[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.

[heartlands]

So... If it can momentarily influence us, it was what stopped us from getting up to help during the execution, right?

[he just kind of. drags his hands down his face.]

Why does it keep getting worse?!

[dormheads]

Most likely.

[he's quiet for a bit, sounding borderline hesitant when he speaks again. but just relatively so, given that he sounds pretty confident most of the time.]

... You don't need to act immediately or form any conclusions right now. It should take most of the week for the assimilation to reach the point of no return, so there isn't any harm in observing the situation for a while.

[heartlands]

Right.

[...]

But if it does come to that - does the rule about not telling anybody even apply to the person we choose? We won't even be able to tell them why it's happening?

[dormheads]

[he's silent for a while, as if thinking.]

... I think telling them is a risk you can take. As callous as it is... since they'd be dying soon after learning, it wouldn't necessarily catch the attention of the world.

[heartlands]

...I think the more callous thing would be letting it happen without even explaining what's going on, or why.

[he's not about to say 'that's good' or anything, but comparatively, it is a bit of a relief.]

[dormheads]

I don't disagree.

But some people take offence to having things stated from a purely practical perspective, rather than a sentimental one.

[heartlands]

I mean, if I'm going to object to something you've said during this conversation, I'm not going to start there.

[dormheads]

Fair enough.

[heartlands]

...Speaking of which, it feels really weird to talk about this while you're wearing a panda costume? Can you please take it off?

[dormheads]

[just

a sigh]

I don't like it either, but it's expected for this week. I'd rather not risk it right now.

[heartlands]

Are you implying the world is going to punish you if you aren't dressed up like a panda.

[dormheads]

[SO TIREDLY,]

More that there are certain things I'm expected to do as Dorm Head, and the world isn't necessarily going to differentiate between minor offences and major offences.

You're just going to have to deal for this week. Close your eyes if it bothers you.

[heartlands]

—No, it's fine. Priorities, Rupert. Do the other dorm heads know about this, or are we sworn to secrecy or whatever with them as well?

[dormheads]

The other Dorm Heads don't know, at least as far I'm aware.

[heartlands]

Okay. So, it's not just the other students who are not actually students that we can't tell, it's the other three dorm heads?

[dormheads]

I'd advise not risking it. I don't know how they'd react, or how this world would either.