Zenith : In Character → Threads, Logs, Events

Who: Noah and Kiley
Where: Kiley's room
When: mid-afternoon

( Where's the official Lawn of Doom t-shirt? )

Who: Chase and Lennon
Where: Chase's Room
When: Afternoon

( The Awkward Adventures of Chase Hawthorne: Good Hosting 101 )

Who: Marco, Lennon, & Open to anyone who might want to help Lennon find Marco
When: After Marco received his punishment surprise & ran
Where: In town

( Running from reality )

Who: Cecilia, Pam, Owen, Jack, Marco, Kiley, Rhett, Val, Juno, anyone else on the lawn out of curiosity. Minithreads for each box of joy/horror.
When: 11:30
Where: Front yard

( omgwtfgtfono )

Who: Billy and Kiley
When A little after 10am; after this
Where: The Gym

( Grudge Match of the Century )

Who: Val
Where: Theater, then to her room
When: Morning

( and her ears were STILL ringing )

Who: Alistair and Cecilia
When: Around 9:30ish
Where: Lounge, outside Alistair's room

( Oh, hell. )

Who: Alistair
Where: His room
When: 9am

( Agent Activated )

Day 9.

Weather: It’s a nice, clear day with temperatures raising a couple of degrees. About 90% of the leaves on the trees have changed color by now, so you could say autumn is in full bloom.

Events: Alright, kiddies. You might want to go get a snack and make yourself comfortable, because a lot is happening in the quaint little town of Mount Zenith today.

At 9 am, something sounding vaguely like an air raid siren goes off in the center of town. It’s loud enough that it can clearly be heard at the house, and while it’s likely to wake up all but the dead drunk deepest of sleepers, it’s not the apocalyptic terror-inducing full-body experience it is for, say, Val. Who had no choice but to sleep in town. Shortly after the siren (which lasts about ten seconds), the PA system cracks into life. Turns out, it’s not only heard in the house -- Val will be able to attest to the fact that it can, in fact, be heard in any building in Mount Zenith. A robotic voice announces that the twenty-four hours is over, and that quests can no longer be completed. So, good news for Val (who can safely go back to the house) and anyone else who managed to do whatever crazy thing they were told to do.

The PA system dies, and immediately after the message light begins blinking on all computers. The Powers That Be are ready to be heard. The message reads:

We wish to start this message by saying how deeply impressed we are with the responses we have seen over the past twenty-four hours. We had not anticipated the way so many of you would choose to band together, offer support, or attempt to assist with rooting out loopholes. The display of camaraderie we have witnessed is truly outstanding, and we desire to begin this message with a summary.

A good number of you were alarmed or perhaps even revolted with the idea of a loaded gun in the house. That said, we saw very little in the way of personal judgment over Juno’s reasoning. A surprising number of people were willing to vote yes if only to see Juno escape punishment, and no one expressed any ill sentiment to shame Juno’s motivations. While Jack eventually changed his mind, his first reaction was to bow out of competition and allow Pam her prize -- a decision that could only be swayed with intervention and strong arguments. Marco and Owen, two individuals that came to blows previously, came together as rational adults to agree over who deserved to win, and eventually worked together. Kiley immediately had an offer of assistance from Chase, who helped devise a compromise. And Rhett was quick to spot a possible loophole when he asked Cecilia to volunteer herself as his victim.

We are so truly inspired with everyone’s display of character, and the acts of kindness, compassion, and cunning we have seen. Though we will stick to our terms of the original agreement and punish those who failed in their tasks, we have once again decided to reward the group of you as a whole. And we shall allow you all to choose the manner in which you are rewarded. We ask that each of you vote on what your first priority is for your comfort of the following options: additional clothing, additional recreational items and substances (such as tobacco), access to over-the-counter medications, or keepsakes from home. Whichever among these options wins the vote will be placed in town, no strings attached.

Now to address the successes and failures of yesterday’s tasks.

Pam was tasked with the hunting and killing of the stag placed in town. She failed.

Jack was tasked with stopping Pam. He has succeeded, and we are pleased to say the stag still thrives in town. We have decided to allow him to stay.

Cecilia was informed that we required her vow that she would not offer medical assistance to anyone else in Mount Zenith. She refused, and thus has failed in her task.

Rhett was ordered to injure another subject, and failed to do so. To be fair to him, Cecilia took it upon herself to police him, and see that such a thing could not be done. All the same, our terms stand and Rhett must be punished.

Owen was told to find someone willing to allow him to sleep in their room. He had several offers of this, including from Marco. He succeeded in his task.

Marco was told to keep Owen awake at all costs. He did not do this.

Kiley was ordered to sacrifice her door, and did so most admirably. She even showed concern about not ‘cheating’ the rules, and we confess this to be much to our amusement. She has succeeded in her task.

Val was ordered to exile herself from the house and avoid all human contact. She did this without hesitation, and much determination. A flying success, and we are certain she will be quite pleased to learn this as soon as she returns to the house.

Finally, Juno failed to win over the majority of the house, and so she has failed; however, we are surprised to admit that she probably could have succeeded if she had campaigned harder later in the day. Not nearly as many of you were as vehemently opposed to the idea that we imagined you would be.

And so among the nine of you, Jack, Owen, Kiley, and Val will be rewarded. Pam, Cecilia, Rhett, Marco, and Juno will be punished.

We require that each of you be in the front yard at 11:30. There you will receive your reward or punishment.

Finally, we regret to inform you that Jean-Léon has been terminated from our study. We have also added a new subject to the group.

Okay, so there’s a lot of weirdness in there. Let’s tackle the biggest things. First, what’s this with being on the front lawn at a certain time for rewards and punishments? Granted, there is no standard for this sort of thing, but shouldn’t the punished just get zapped and be able to move on? Shouldn’t the ‘winners’ get told where to pick up whatever it is they asked for? The greater question of the whole thing is probably a resounding what the fuck, at least regarding Jean-Léon’s removal.

Allow us to break it down. Last time there was a removal, it was several people, and it more or less happened quietly. Names were never given, the people in question just quietly disappeared in the middle of chaos. There was never really an opportunity to sit back and ask where they went, or how. But Jean-Léon was absolutely, positively in the house yesterday, and can even be accounted for up to a certain point. He’s definitely been in the kitchen to get meals at the very least, and he got along with a lot of people. But the biggest concern of all should be the fact that every moment of time has been accounted for. People falling asleep without warning and waking up in a new place was pretty standard for the first few days, but that didn’t happen last night. If someone tried to stay up all night or would have naturally, they could have. No one was forced to sleep against their will. So it stands to all reason that someone should have heard Jean-Léon being removed. Or perhaps more accurately, should have heard his room being stripped out, or seen something. Not a single stick of furniture remains. His room was on the top floor, more or less smack dab in the middle of everything, and no one heard or saw a thing.

But of course, that goes double considering the last line: someone new is in the house. Alistair will awaken at 9 AM with everyone else, in pretty much the same condition that everyone else did on their first day in Mount Zenith: the IV in the arm, the hospital gown, the box of belongings. However, he’s also got the same circumstances from Day 2: the locked room, the computer message, the instructions regarding the network and how to create a log-on and password.

There is one chief difference. After going through all those initial steps, before his door will unlock, another message pops up.

This is not a drill. Mission is a go. Compartment D.

In a false bottom of one of his desk drawers is an earbud attached to a USB cord. Plugging the cord into his computer automatically locks his door and launches and asks for a subject #. If Alistair inputs his subject #, it asks that he create a new logon and password. If he uses those to log in, he is granted access to what appears to be every camera feed in Mount Zenith. But wait, there’s more. On the network he has access to all public posts. If he logs in with his secondary logon, he has viewing access to all private messages.

Shit’s getting real, and honestly? Things are only going to get worse from there.

Okay, you might say, that’s legitimately fucked up and I would like to revisit these ideas at length later, but what about that front lawn business?

Ah, yes. That.

So you might expect something immediate and terribly dramatic to happen immediately at 11:30 on the dot. It doesn’t. At least, it doesn’t seem to. It will take almost a full minute for anyone to hear it, and perhaps longer still for each individual to realize what they’re hearing. To be honest, in nine long days away from civilization, it’s a bit strange to hear the sounds of a helicopter again -- and yet, not so strange for it to immediately register as ‘wrong.’ It’s the sort of sound most people are used to hearing once in a while. You know, in the real world. Perhaps it will only be in those moments that people begin to realize there hasn’t been any overhead traffic in the past nine days. No planes, no helicopters -- hell, not even birds, if anyone really stops to think about it. So that black helicopter coming in from the north might come as a bit of a shock. Within a couple of minutes it’s above the house, and then so are nine glints in the sun. It doesn’t take long to realize those glints are actually nine large metal boxes, and they’re falling fast. After a bit of time, a plain white parachute opens on each, and everyone’s got plenty of time to get out of the way. They float swiftly but safely to the ground, landing mostly in the road. By the time they hit the ground, the helicopter’s already gone.

The best thing that can be said about this situation is: hey, at least Pam and Cecilia didn’t win their pets.

No, seriously. Thank Christ Pam and Cecilia didn’t win their pets.

So regardless of what’s inside, each box is the same size. They measure in at only 18x18x16, but despite that they are extremely heavy. Too heavy to really be lifted and carried inside by any of the subjects. Each box is a silver-colored metal, and each box has a subject number stamped on all sides in red - obviously, one for each of the winners and losers. There’s also a scanner at the top of the box. You guessed it: if the subject scans their subject bracelet, the box opens. There’s a mechanical whirring sort of sound, and then one of the sides of the box will simply fall away with a bang.

Of each of the nine, only the contents of Val’s box are immediately visible. Her quilt is inside, safe and sound, hurray! Everyone else is going to be greeted with a flurry of packing peanuts. Everyone else is going to have to root around inside for a smaller cardboard box.

Each of the winners get exactly what they asked for. Jack will find his mobile phone and charger, though his phone has no connective capabilities, and also no calendar or date. Owen gets his sleeping pills. Kiley gets a new doorknob with lock and key, as well as the necessary tools for Chase to install it. Everything is in perfect working condition, and there isn’t really any room for any winner to complain. The powers that be have made good on their end of the bargain.

Now, on to the losers.

Pam will find a rather large cardboard box. When she opens it up, it’s not going to be immediately apparent what it is inside. It looks like maybe confetti? A very strange textured confetti? A closer inspection will reveal that it’s actually her wedding album -- after it was put through a woodchipper. Chunks of the book bindings can be found inside. No single page or picture is salvageable. It’s like the worst jigsaw puzzle in the history of mankind, with just enough pieces missing to guarantee she’ll never come to a result anywhere near satisfying or acceptable.

Juno will find a parcel wrapped in brightly colored paper with little gold stars over it. Unwrapping the parcel will reveal a large, golden trophy. The plaque on the bottom is engraved and reads, "Do you really think 'surviving' is really that big an accomplishment if you haven't done anything else?" Taped to the inside of the trophy cup is a note. That reads “PS- consider yourself on suicide watch. You don’t get a way out.”

Marco will find a pretty large cardboard box, big enough to take up almost half the space of the inside of the metal container. Inside of that is a wooden box, its sides elaborately painted with little boys chasing dragons. On one side is a wind-up arm. Yeah, it’s a jack-in-the-box. Also, possibly the worst jack-in-the-box in the history of creation. When wound it will play the merry little song, and once it hits pop goes the weasel? The box literally collapses. And inside is… an octopus. No, seriously. An honest to God octopus, and it’s not fully dead yet.

Cecilia will find a relatively small cardboard box. Inside is her dog’s collar, covered in red and brown stains. Some of them are still wet. The scent is overwhelmingly, undeniably, fresh blood.

Rhett will have to search the hardest, as inside the container is a simple brown envelope. Inside the envelope is a picture of Rhett and Colt, his dead former lover. Written on the back of the photograph is a note. “We’ve hidden your records in town, but we haven’t hid them too well. You better hope you find them before someone else does. Someone turned informant on you. There’s a great read in there about what happened to this happy couple.”