Zenith : In Character → Threads, Logs, Events

Who: Lennon, Kiley and OPEN
Where: the maze of doom
When: morning!

( what would be left to strive for if everything were known? )

Who: Scotty and OPEN (Multiples welcome!)
When: Morning
Where: In the MAZE OF MYSTERY

( MAZE MAZE MAZE MAZE )

Day 70.

Weather: It's nice out, but it'll take a while for anyone to see that...

Events: Everyone wakes up some time after 8am, on a wooden bench in a small, windowless room. The floors are bare concrete, the walls white brick. The ceiling is dominated by harsh fluorescent lights. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound really familiar?

So yeah, everyone is back in the small rooms on the edge of the arena again this morning. But something's different. When everyone gets to their respective locker rooms, they don't find a protein bar breakfast, but a selection of fruits and pastries. While still comfortable, the change of clothes waiting in everyone's lockers aren't gym clothes, but things like tunics and robes, something you might wear to a Renaissance Festival or in The Hobbit. And the maze that waits for them all in the arena?


Yeah, it is not a bounce house.

Where an inflated bouncy maze stood just hours before, there are now solid, dark stone walls, reaching about ten feet up into the air. There's a hallway ahead of everyone which, like yesterday, splits in a few different directions. The rooms are dim, and illuminated by torchlight. While the first hall is safe, the rooms after that seem a little less so. They're also... not too different from the maze yesterday. Hell, if people are really paying attention, they might notice that the obstacle rooms are in the same order. The actual maze is the same, it's just... a dungeon now.

So, where people were jumping into ball pits and over hurdles yesterday, what will they find in their place? The course has been altered as follows:

Trampolines Hallways: Other than the first hallway and the rooms that are just forks in the road, there are several rooms that are just empty hallways. Except, like any good ancient trap, these rooms have pressure pads in random spots in the floor that will shoot darts out of the wall. Well, no, not darts. They're paint balls, and like the paint ball games, if you get hit, you're paralyzed. It's 2 minutes per hit, no matter where the paintball hits you.

Pillars Levers: Arranged in a circle in the middle of the room are a dozen levers, just sticking out of the floor. There's a closed door on the other side of the room that's locked until, you guessed it, you pull the right lever. If you pull the wrong lever, you get shocked. The shocks get worse with each wrong lever pulled, and they don't exactly start out light. Everything resets shortly after a subject leaves the room.

Slides: You climb up one side, then slide down the other. These aren't any different, other than the slides being metal now. There's no danger here.

Hurdles Mini-Maze: Yo I heard you like mazes so I put a maze in your maze These rooms are filled with mirror and glass panels, and are arranged to form a smaller maze within the maze. There are no hidden dangers here, it's just a small mirror maze that may not even lead you to where you want to go.

Tunnels: Two tunnels, next to each other, that require crawling through. The tunnels have no light within, which makes it nerve wracking when there are pinches that will be difficult for some of the larger subjects to get through. The dark also hides the many, many bugs and spiders within.

Ball pits Water Traps: The pits have lost their color, and are instead filled with dark, murky water. The water is generally between waist and chest height, with sharp drops hidden by murk and much that will plunge anyone who missteps deep underwater. There's also debris under the water, ready to trip you up even more.

Climbs Rocks: Where the walls yesterday had nice little handholds and everything being squishy, what people have to deal with today is not as nice. Now, climbs mean pulling yourself up a steep pile of rocks. And a lot of those rocks just aren't fixed in place, so climbing means the chance of stepping on a loose rock, or pulling rocks out completely, causing a small avalanche. None of these are heavy enough to kill anybody, but if you do end up in an avalanche, it's going to hurt.

Pyramids Peaks: Two pyramids next to each other. The two structures glow and pulse in many lights and colors, but the lights and colors stop as soon as a person steps through them. The first person in a group (or any single person not in a group) to walk through the pyramids will be hit with a strong wave of euphoria that'll bring them to their knees. The euphoria only lasts a couple minutes, and isn't really a danger to anyone, it just slows progress when you're traveling with someone who's high as a kite.

Ropes Lasers: Here's the laser trap that yesterday's obstacle was emulating. If you break the line of the lasers crossing this room, it activates the zapping mechanism in your implant. You could hypothetically just power through the lasers, but it's not a good feeling.

Balls Beams: A balance beam that goes from one side of the room to the other. The good news is that the beams are easier to balance on and get across than the balls yesterday were, but the beams are up a little higher, and the drop is... Well, it won't kill you if you fall, but there is a layer of fog obscuring the ground, and there's no clear way back up if you do fall.

Creatures Sphinx: No more fun inflatable creatures to climb up. Instead, each of these rooms have a large Sphinx statue in the middle of it, and once you're in the room, the entrance and exits surprise you with a pocket door that slides shut. The Sphinx will then "ask" a riddle, as sphinxes do, over an unseen speaker. The voice is robotic, and will not respond to questioning aside from repeating the riddle. Luckily, none of the riddles are particularly complicated. The doors will slide open again once the riddle is answered.

The maze once again ends with a large slide that will drop you off at the elevator up to the old trading post, where people will find their phones, some snacks and drinks, and a dry set of their own clothes. Today's maze will for sure take more time than yesterday's, but may take about the same amount of time to actually get out of, since most people chose to play around on the bounce course. Everyone should make it out during daylight hours.

The exception to that is Lucy and Ulani. People may notice that they have lockers waiting for them in the morning, but no one will see them in the maze, or leaving it, and their belongings are nowhere to be found in the rooms that they were staying in. They have both been either removed, or claimed by the maze.

Oh, there's one more thing: Those subjects whose subject number ends in 1 (That's Scotty, Owen, and Tobias) may feel like their affinity has gotten a little boost, which may help them with certain parts of the maze. It's not anything supernatural, they're just feeling pretty good today. Too bad there aren't prizes for today's challenge, or they might have had an edge.

Who: Lennon, Harper, Tobias, Marco and [OPEN]
Where: the bouncy course!
When: morning

( spend your life doing strange things with weird people )

Who: Oliver, Edwin, Felix, Jack (cameo) and [OPEN]
Where: The bouncy course
When: Morning

( Zenith Playplace )

Day 69.

Weather: Light rain on and off throughout the day.

Events: And now for something familiar that hasn't happened in a while. No one wakes up where they went to sleep the night before. Everyone wakes up some time after 8am, on a wooden bench in a small, windowless room. The floors are bare concrete, the walls white brick. The ceiling is dominated by harsh fluorescent lights. Does this sound familiar? Yes, that's right, they're just like the little rooms everyone would wake up in when they had underground arena days. And sure enough, those rooms open up to two locker rooms, one for the men and one for the women, where everyone can find lockers with their subject numbers, and a comfortable change of clothes waiting for them inside, as well as a water bottle and a couple of protein bars. Their phones are not in their lockers. There's a bathroom in each of the locker rooms, too, thankfully. We all know that TPTB aren't always nice enough to provide that when waking people up in a new setting.

So, if all of this is familiar, does that mean that everyone's back under the Mount Zenith Town Hall? Well, it's hard to tell. The locker rooms do open up to an arena, but it's hard to tell if it's the same arena. It's also hard to tell just how large the arena is, because only a few feet out of the locker room exits are entrances to a massive labyrinth of a bounce house. There's no way around the bounce house if you want to get out of the arena, so you'll have to go through.

And boy, is this thing a beast of a bouncy structure. Entering the bounce house, everyone's met with three possible directions that you can go in, and while one may start with less difficult obstacles than the others, the paths are winding and intersecting and none of them will take you directly to the exit. It's truly, literally, a maze, and one that will take a while to find your way out of.

So, what's standing between our subjects and the exit? Well, it depends on the turns that each person takes, but it seems like each obstacle is repeated several times throughout the maze. The obstacle room types include:

Trampolines: These are just empty, bouncy rooms, like a standard bounce house. Not so much an obstacle, but still present throughout the maze in an assortment of bright colors.

Pillars: Inflatable tubes fixed to the floor that you can jump into and bump out of the way and push through.

Slides: You climb up one side, then slide down the other. Pretty straight forward, but it's also one of the only places that you can get up above the course and see where other people are. The slides are various sizes and heights, so some views are better than others.

Hurdles: Inflatable hurdles that are about hip height. No one will judge you if you go under them instead of over, but you do you.

Tunnels: Two tunnels, next to each other, made up of the same inflatable material as the rest of the course that you need to crawl through. Some go straight, and some just sort of meander for a while.

Ball pits: Basically the same as trampolines, except these rooms are filled with plastic ball pit balls. Being bouncy makes it better than the McDonalds Playplace, right?

Climbs: Slopes with small ridges on them to work as foot holds that you can climb up. These are generally how you get up slides, but there are also some that are just walls that have a straight drop, or another climb, on the other side. Luckily, if you jump off the other side of one, it's just more bounce house there.

Pyramids: Two pyramids next to each other. You can climb up them or roll through them.

Ropes: Not actual ropes, but thinner inflatable tubes that stretch random ways across a room. This is similar to when people tie ropes around a hall to simulate one of those laser grids you see in spy movies.

Balls: Big ol' inflatable orbs in a row that you can hop across the top of. Or you can go around.

Creatures: Some rooms just have inflatable creatures in them. Some are aliens, some are dinosaurs, some are really big bugs. They take up most of the room and don't do anything other than make it hard to get past.

So, that's fun. Everyone gets to bounce around until they can find their way out of the maze. And don't worry, there is a way out, at the end of one of the slides. There they'll find an elevator, which will bring them up to the hallway of the dilapidated old outpost to the southwest of the mill (Marker 7 on the map). It seems like maybe the weird tent a few days ago may have been signaling the impending arrival of the elevator. Once our subjects make their way up the elevator, they'll find their phones waiting for them on the front desk in the entrance room, plus more water bottles and protein bars, and a pair of shoes for everybody. There is a down button on the elevator from the hallway, allowing people to return to the bounce house if they please.

It shouldn't take people until nightfall to find their way out, at least, and there's nothing keeping anyone from hiding out in the bouncy course overnight if it does become an issue. Though, you'll have to climb up the slide. That's probably fine.

Happy bouncing!

Day 68.

Weather: Mid-80s and sunny.

Events: There's no reason for TPTB to wake anyone up today, so everyone is free to sleep in and figure out what they've won on their own.

So, everyone will wake up in possession of one high-powered tactile flashlight.
They'll also find that not too far from the garden that was already being tended to near the barn is a small greenhouse, with bags of soil and some seed packets for food items that will thrive in the new space.

Finally, they'll find that the large room on the second floor of the barn, which previously was inaccessible, no longer has a door. Inside, there's a new craft room, though it's not the same as the one that had been in the mansion. This one has a surprising amount of fabric and sewing supplies, including two sewing machines, which might be useful for anyone who's had some wear and tear on their clothes. There are other art supplies in the room, including a shelf that has gallon-jugs of acrylic paint in primary colors as well as black and white, which people will find topped off each morning, a collection of colored pencils, and stacks of paper, as well as some craft supplies like popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue, but the majority of supplies seem to be items intended to be used for sewing.

And that's the end of general prizes, but there's one more prize that's arrived today, and Kiley's the only one who gets a note about it:

Greetings,

The hardware store that you have requested has been constructed and fully stocked. It is available for you in the location that you specified.

At M27 on the map now stands Goose's Hardware, and while it's not quite the Home Depot that everyone was wishing for, it's not too bad. It has a lot of the things that were available to grab at the hardware store in town back in the old Mount Zenith, as well as excludes the same sort of electronic devices. You'll still be able to find power drills, maybe a battery pack for that chainsaw in the shed, but nothing that might be useful for attempting an escape.

Ulani will also find a message this morning, which reads:

"You are now a member of Experiment B. You will find a new program on your phone that will launch the ExB logon. Log on with your subject numbers, password: goldenapple. The ExB program will grant you access to every camera feed in Mount Zenith, as well as reading access on all messaging on the network - even private messages.

The other members of experiment B are Felix and Lila. Remember not to discuss Experiment B with anyone outside of the group. If you do, you will never be free again."

Ulani will find that the feeds that ExB have constant access to are limited to the lodge, barn, and mill, but this program also gives the option to track any member of the household, which is the only way to gain visual access to the cameras hidden in the forest.

While it seems that all of the uncaught bugs from yesterday have been removed, as dusk falls, everyone will find that there are still fireflies hiding out there. They can still be found glowing in the fields and woods.

[Placeholder]

Who: Owen and Marco
When: Morning
Where: Out

( this felt like a two person job )

Who: Tobias, Chase, Lennon and Kiley
Where: Out and about
When: Mid-morning

( this was not Tobias's idea of a good time. )

Who: Pam and Felix
Where: Game porch, then bug hunting
When: Mid-morning

( He'd done weirder shit with weirder people )

Day 67.

Weather: Low to mid-80s and cloudy.

Events: Did you want to see how frosty it was over at the old outpost? Too bad, that's gone now. Instead, if you head over there today, you'll find a bunch of bugs crawling up and out of the old well. And they're not just coming from there. There seem to be bugs present across the map.

And with the bugs comes a message from TPTB, waiting on the network for when everyone wakes up.

Greetings,

Today, we are presenting you with a scavenger hunt to once again help you to improve your living situation. We are providing an entomology challenge. We have provided enough equipment for everyone to participate in catching the insects that we have released across the map. There are several types of insects that we have released, and once you, as a group, catch a specific number of these specimens, you will unlock a reward that you may find beneficial. The insects, and rewards, are as follows:

-For a perimeter alarm system, you must catch 400 crickets.

-For a greenhouse and a collection of new seeds, you must catch 400 ladybugs.

-For an empty monster-proof shed that can be placed anywhere on the map, you must catch 500 shield bugs.

-For access to a secret craft room, you must catch 500 butterflies.

-For every subject to receive their own high-powered tactical flashlight, you must catch 500 fireflies.

Final tallies will be counted at midnight tonight, with only living insects being included in our count. Insects must be in our provided receptacles to be counted. While it is possible to collect more than the required amounts of insects, only one of each prize is available.

There is a collection of these things in the common room of the three main buildings, as well as nets, tweezers, and even a few bug vacuum guns. Finding bugs isn't too hard, but it's for sure going to take some travel and teamwork to be able to get anywhere close to the numbers needed. Fireflies only start really being seen around dusk, and man, these butterflies really don't like to sit still, but some of these rewards still seem obtainable. There are spots, like the previously stated outpost well, and over by the empty pumps at the gas station, where you might be lucky enough to find a swarm of something, but even if those don't get found, there's plenty of bugs in the woods.

Additionally, anyone who put in messages to TPTB to have vouchers cashed in, they'll find the items requested in their room, with the exception of Kiley, who has to wait a little bit longer before she can get her hardware store. Felix's surprise Pringles flavor is Serrano Ham, and it turns out that what was left on his voucher was enough to buy about 6 gallons of fake blood, and half a dozen blood capsules.

Finally, Ulani wakes up this morning to find this private message:

"Greetings,

Everyone is here for a reason. Each person in Mount Zenith was taken because they are of special value to our needs. Among our group of subjects, we have selected you for participation in a side experiment. This group is known as Experiment B. You have a special quality that suits our needs. We will have special requirements expected of you, but we believe you will find meeting those standards to be an enjoyable experience - one which you shall be compensated for.

Our terms are simple. We require that you create tension within the house. How you do this is up to you. Should you choose to openly sow discord, or quietly identify and exploit weaknesses, you may employ any strategy you see fit. In return, we will supply you with special information. We will grant you private access to the camera feeds, as well as the ability to read private messages between the other subjects. If necessary, we will even offer you special luxuries in payment for your services.

Our primary demand: you must not discuss Experiment B with anyone outside of the group. If you tell anyone of this arrangement, all privileges will be revoked and we can personally guarantee you will never see your home or family again.

We have one final requirement. If you understand and accept these terms, place an apple on your nightstand when you go to bed tonight. If that is done and you keep your silence, we will grant you the privileges spoken of earlier. You may speak of this with no one else."

Who: Felix [Narrative]
Where: The barn
When: Mid afternoon
Warnings: Mentions of abuse, underaged sex

( The gift that apparently keeps on fucking giving.... )

Who: Lennon and Marco
Where: the barn
When: late morning

( another day, another batch of weirdness )

Who: Lucy and Chase
Where: The old lodge
When: Mid morning

( Fewer surprises would be nice )

Who: Ulani Kahananui and OPEN
What: Arriving in Zenith
Where: Just outside the barn
When: Around 8:45 am.

( Need a vacation, I'll send you a card From Honololu, a greeting from happy Hawaii )

Day 66.

Weather: High 70s and getting warmer every day.

Events: Things are waiting to be found in the stalls in the barn again. Here's what's in each stall today:

The first stall has a dozen metal spring traps, with all the parts needed to fix them into place wherever people decide that they need to go. They all seem large enough to catch the creatures in the woods, though if they're strong enough to hold them there depends on how well they're set up. They're sturdy, though. They'd have to be to catch monsters, wouldn't they?

The second stall has two clothing racks, set up like a miniature Cassi's. All the clothes looks familiar, either stuff people left behind when they chose the clothes that they wanted to bring with them, or stuff that's been on the racks at Cassi's for a while. The back wall has stacks of shoe boxes, with new shoes and socks for everyone.

The third stall has four neat rows of toys sitting in the middle of it. There's a variety of toys, from plush to barbies to action figures to toy cars. Each toy is well loved, specifically by the people of Zenith. Everyone will be able to find one of their old toys, one that they had called one of their favorites at a point in time where they were able to make memories of playing with that toy. They're also all toys that had been removed from everyone's lives, whether the toy had been thought lost, destroyed, or just given or thrown away once their owner had grown out of playing with them. Here they are. They've been with Zenith the whole time. There's also one extra doll. It's a small interpretation of the creatures in the woods, made out of plastic.

The fourth stall is the most important, because in that stall, Ulani wakes up around 8am. Ulani's experience will be similar to those on Day 1, but unfortunately without the fun of a room perfectly suited to her. She'll find her clothes in a box near her, as well as a phone that will give her access to the network, like everyone else.

TPTB seems to like to use these stalls, so if anyone wants to keep anything, they might want to remove whatever they're keeping and find it a new home before the day is over.

Also happening this morning, Jack will find that the items he requested with his voucher have been delivered, and conveniently have already been put away in the kitchen, in a way that he would probably find convenient, though he is of course welcome to move items around. Except the boxes, of course, which have just been set on the dining table.

There's nothing else going on at the houses, but the people who do end up heading out to the abandoned outpost will come across something unexpected. The main building at the outpost, the one that used to be some sort of lodging, is covered in a red and blue striped tent that some might recognize as an extermination tent. If people are brave enough to slip inside, they thankfully won't be poisoned, but it's not quite normal in there, either.

Inside the main building, it's unnaturally cold. It's almost 80 degrees outside, but inside, there's ice on all the floors. There are icicles on the ceiling and hanging off of furniture. Everything inside is completely frozen. It's not clear where the water for the ice had come from, or where the cold is even coming from, but there's solid ice everywhere, all lit up with a blue and red glow from the sun coming through whatever stripe is covering the nearest window. It's weirdly easy to lose track of time in here with the unnatural lighting, assuming there's not something else going on here that's making it weirdly easy to lose track of time, so anyone who's ducking in here to look for supplies should be careful, we don't need anyone freezing as we head into summer...

Who: All who attend (Free-for-all tagging)
When: 3pm
Where: Lodge living room

( Let's talk monsters. )

Day 65.

Weather: High 70s and clear.

Events: Finally, everyone gets to sleep in their own bed tonight! It's always nice to know where you're waking up, isn't it?

Today seems to be another calm day, giving everyone a break from the excitement from the past few days. While things are quiet today, it does seem that someone had gone through the houses overnight, and that person has a bit of a sense of humor. There's a large number of books in the house that weren't there before. All the bookshelves have several more books on them, and every room has at least one book in it, on a nightstand or under a bed or under another book that was already sitting around. And why is that funny? Well, it's because every book is some sort of horror title. Whether it's a well known Stephen King horror fiction or some small town's local book of ghost stories and local legends, every book is about something spooky and unsettling. There are nearly 60 new books in all, each with a focus on horror, suspense, and monsters.

Of course, there's nothing making anyone read any of those books, so everyone can avoid the weird creepy mental images, if they so choose. But who knows, maybe some of those self-published short stories or old urban legends might have notes on what might ward off unexplainable things...

Who: Harper
Where: Marker 4, the carport
When: 10:24AM

( the monsters turned out to be just trees )