Tower Aspera » Roleplay

Birdie and Sabina, in Birdie's room, late morning.

Day 78.

Weather: Light flurries off and on, but it’s a soft, wet snow - nothing that will lead to additional accumulation.

Events: At some point in the night, Oriana and Taissa are added to the tower, back in their own rooms. Welcome home, ladies. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of interesting stories to tell.

At 8 AM, everyone receives a message from TPTB. Unlike other messages received in the past, this one will remain in an individual’s inbox after being read, and can be ‘replied’ to later on. It reads:

“Greetings.

We have decided to aid in your holiday festivities. For the next two days, we will be accepting gift orders. You may order gifts for your companions - or not, if you would prefer to opt out. Gifts will be delivered in four days.

We do have some guidelines regarding what are and are not acceptable orders.

You may not give multiple gifts to one single person. You may only choose one gift per recipient.

You may not order intangible requests, such as enchantments or contact with the outside world. We will not accept orders for bespelled items.

You may not order people.

You must be specific in your orders. You cannot simply tell us ‘give this person something nice.’ Nice is very much up to interpretation, and likely not something anyone would thank you for on Christmas morning. You cannot submit ‘give this person something they want.’ There are no freebies and IOUs.

You may not order a present for yourself.

You may choose whether or not to be listed as a gift’s sender, or remain anonymous. If you do not specify a preference, we will list you as the gift giver.

As always, we reserve the right to reject requests if it is felt they are trying to cheat the system.

Happy Holidays.”

Orders for gifts may be submitted to this entry. Comments are screened, and submissions are opened for two weeks.

Day 77.

Weather: Though there's still the occasional cutting gust of wind, that's mostly died down. Skies are clearing up, and there's a fair bit of sun in the afternoon. I mean, it's still cold as balls out there, but it's brightly so.

Events: At some point in the morning, everyone will regain their eyesight. When, exactly, is a little different for everyone - and it's not even necessarily in the morning. It's sometime after waking up, and completely and immediately at random. It's meant to be jarring, and it is - though perhaps not unwelcome. As for those handy dandy network transcribers? They disappear soon after. Much in the same way they appeared, people just realize they're not there anymore.

Beyond that? All is quiet.

Who: Gwen & Ford
When: Afternoon-ish
Where: Ford's room

( Have yourself a merry little blindness )

Day 76.

Weather: No changes.

Events: If anyone was expecting to wake up this morning with their vision magically restored… guess again.

Those that were blind yesterday, are blind today. And with absolutely no light sensitivity, some internal clocks may be a bit out of whack.

A lot of things are out of whack, actually. Blind participants may find their closets and dresser drawers have been reorganized. Articles of clothing that don’t even belong to them may show up, because - ha freaking ha - how are they gonna know? Furniture in public rooms may be moved in the path of common walk ways at random times through-out the course of the day.

Personally, my favorite part of the day is the message sent out by TPTB first thing in the morning. It says:

“As some of you realize, not everyone was blinded in yesterday’s experiment. We selected seven individuals to retain their sight. Some of them have chosen to keep this information private.

We have opted not to reveal their identities at this time.”

Lovely.

Day 75.

Weather: The snow has stopped, but it’s still extremely windy and cold outside.

Events: It’s a quiet morning. Perhaps after a few very emotionally charged days, everyone’s due for a little break.

Or perhaps not.

At noon, everyone in the tower has a shared experience, regardless of where they are or whom they are with. For every individual, a shadow appears on the ground on the opposite side of the room they are in (if an individual is outside, the shadow can be from any direction). It slowly grows in a straight line, slowly enveloping the space in darkness. It moves steadily towards any individual nearby. It will follow them into other rooms or spaces, if necessary. Eventually, this slow-rolling blanket of darkness catches up to every individual. And once they are touched by it, they are completely and utterly blinded.

Their vision does not come back.* They are effectively blind. After approximately twenty minutes of whatever reaction feels most appropriate to that person, they will realize something odd. There’s a small, handheld device on their person - be it in a pocket, or even on a strap dangling from their wrist. They will have absolutely no memory of this object, or when it appeared, and wherever it is, they certainly didn’t put it there themselves. It feels small and cylindrical, perhaps about the size of a roll of lifesavers candies. There are a series of buttons on it, and upon experimenting with it, you’ll soon realize that it grants access to the network. It responds to voice commands, transcribes voice to text, and reads messages and posts out loud in a monotonous computer generated voice.

So, yeah. Have fun with that. Team trauma building, all the way!

*Spoiler alert: I lied. Marco, Winter, Ari, Royal, Hiroki, Maya, and Eunmi all regain their vision after a couple of minutes. It is, of course, entirely up to them how helpful they choose to be. Or if they choose to tell anyone at all. They may decide they don’t want the responsibility of being Tower Aspera’s seeing eye dog. Or maybe someone will think now is the perfect time to rearrange furniture.

You never can tell with this lot.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The stairs from P1-P2, and from P4-P5 have been replaced with slides. No idea why.

Day 74.

Weather: In the course of the night a fierce wind kicks in, paired with a rise in temperature just high enough for thick snowfall. Howling winds assault the tower all day long, and create some very intense snow drifts around town.

Events: At 4 AM, an earsplitting, pants-shitting sound plays in any room currently being occupied by a person. It might take a moment through the jolt for an individual to realize, the sound is… the Unsolved Mysteries opening theme being played at an unacceptably high volume. It takes 15 seconds for the little ditty to stop playing, and immediately after that, everyone receives a message from TPTB.

There’s not actually any written message, though. Opening it simply prompts a video to begin playing. It’s an Unsolved Mysteries episode! The new host isn’t as good as the old one, doesn’t have that commanding neo-noir presence about him, and it’s just– oh. It’s about Ari.

Oh.

Well, frankly, this is just awkward.

A placeholder featuring the heckpuppy

Day 73.

Weather: No real changes. Temperatures remain below freezing - even at the warmest hours of the day. The skies are cloudy, and there’s very little wind.

Events: One might expect… something. Anything, really. Some smug little nod to the previous night’s antics, or hell, a public admonishment for the death of Hunter. Something.

Sun rises at twelve minutes before 8 in the morning. It’s a calm and quiet morning, and the residents of the tower are free to come out of hiding, or simply lick their wounds and find a safe space to process what happened. Here at Tower Aspera, we like to take our walk-of-shames up a notch, as you well know. There are certainly a few long, awkward walks to be had. And they are allowed to take them without impediment.

Sort of.

Apparently TPTB didn’t want to rob anyone of a very uncomfortable awakening, but they’re a bit too antsy to let anyone really take their time and digest (lol - if you know, you know) it.

As said, the sun rises at 7:48 AM. At 8:48 AM, something happens… like a blink. No matter where each individual within the tower is, they open their eyes and they are in their own room. It’s not like in the past, that vague memory of feeling sleepy before the world fades to black. It’s instantaneous. One moment you’re doing - well, whatever it is you’re doing. The next, you’re seated at the foot of your bed. Your door is locked, and you have a prompt waiting for you from TPTB.

It reads:

“You must submit a name. It must be the name of a current resident within the tower. You may not submit your own name. You may only submit a name.

Please submit a name.”

The prompt cannot be exited out of, and no other programs can be accessed, be it on computer or phone. Subjects are locked in their rooms until they submit a valid answer to the prompt, and no one (with the exception of Yasiel and Ford, who share a room) is able to discuss the process until after it is completed.

The prompt will only accept one, singular name. A submission with any other commentary will result in the answer being rejected, the individual receiving a painful jolt through their implant, and the prompt displaying again. Not so much as a single additional character can be submitted. No punctuation, no emojis, only a name.

What do they want the name for? Is this nominating someone for a punishment? A reward? What will happen to whomever is ‘named’ the most? We’ll have to wait and see how each character decides to play this one. Do you submit the name of someone you don’t like, just in case it’s a bad thing? Or perhaps you’re an optimist, and choose to submit the name of someone you care deeply about, in hopes that they will be rewarded. Perhaps it’s safer to pick a name at random, and simply hope no one is ‘named’ the most.

We shall see. Once a name (and only a name) is submitted, the individual’s door unlocks and the prompt disappears, allowing them to use their communications devices as normal. It is worth noting that if someone submits Hunter’s name, the answer is rejected and they are prompted to answer again.

In the event of an individual refusing to submit a name, after two hours a five minute countdown timer appears beneath the prompt. At the end of that timer, the individual is zapped, and the timer restarts, minus ten seconds. This will keep happening in varying intensities and speeds until a name is finally submitted.

All comments to this post are screened. Please submit your character’s submissions here.

Day 72.

Weather: The weather remains clear and cold, with temperatures in the low teens dropping to single digits at night. The snow remains, but nothing new falls.

Events: The extreme cold may deter some from outdoor activities today, but the supplies remain - minus the hot cocoa stands. All of the cheerful holiday decorations still line the streets, and it’s all rather charming and picturesque… which is kind of annoying in a kidnapping.

Everyone will experience a slightly disoriented feeling when waking in the morning. Something feels… off-balance somehow. Wrong? But nothing’s actually wrong. Some individuals might experience a brief period of dizziness or nausea, a feeling akin to motion sickness… but it passes very quickly. It’s weird that it happens to everyone, but… well, nothing else happens. Nothing looks different. Nothing feels different. It’s a quiet, boring day.

Until.

Oh, oh, until. The sun sets early these days, somewhere around 5 PM, give or take a range of fifteen minutes or so. The sunset is a stunning sight, the tinges of gold touching all the white glittering snow as the sun begins to dip towards the horizon.

Precisely five minutes before the exact moment of sunset. That’s when it hits Grayson, and Grayson only.

It’s a full moon.

That makes no sense. That’s not possible. He felt nothing implying such a thing until that moment, and the other weres? Not a clue at all. It’s just a normal evening. People are going about their daily lives, such as they are in the tower.

Wherever Grayson is in that moment, he's going to hear a voice in his head. It says, "None of the others know. You have five minutes." Where it comes from, who knows, but Grayson will know in his heart that it's true.

Five minutes until the blood bath begins, and only Grayson knows. All of the weres are going to forcibly change, and the bittens will lose control. They will have no warning, and no preparations are in place. Let’s see what his priorities are. The rest of you? Strap in for the bloodbath. You’re in the splash zone.

Day 71.

Weather: The day dawns bright and crystal clear, without a single cloud in the shockingly blue sky. Temperatures are steady in the teens all day with only the faintest breeze, and the snow has piled up into picturesque, fluffy, pristine white drifts.

Events: If anyone thought the transition from fall to winter was going to be subtle and natural, they were wrong. The morning dawns bright and clear and Hallmark movie perfect, with mounds of fluffy white snow everywhere - everywhere except commonly used footpaths, of course. No shoveling snow to get anywhere in town today! The lake has frozen over and there also seem to be some areas piled with extra snow in conveniently placed hills. Interesting.

The rest of the town has become a veritable winter wonderland, festooned with holiday decor - white fairy lights strung up in the trees and on buildings, festive garland wrapped around posts and buildings, decorated with little baubles in red, green, gold, silver, blue, and white. Snowflakes and candy canes abound, and the whole space smells faintly of pine and cinnamon. The window displays at Felicitas now feature mannequins in their most festive holiday gear and a new collection of warm and cozy winter wear.

The real surprise, though, comes to any souls brave enough to venture down to the ground floor lobby of the tower. Piled there is a giant heap of snow toys! The curious investigators will find snowshoes, cross country skis, a variety of sleds and toboggans, and ice skates both figure and hockey styles. One may also find moulds for building ice and snow structures and kits for making ice snowcones and snow ice cream. There’s also fun little stations serving hot cocoa sprinkled through the more popular areas of town, out at the lake, and near those big piles of snow that are just perfect for sledding.

Congratulations! The holiday season is upon us. Enjoy. And don’t worry about going too hard on those winter sports - magical healing has been completely restored.