Zenith (mountzenith) wrote in mountzenithrp, @ 2019-04-07 15:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | #day 021, #time update |
TIME UPDATE
Day 21.
Weather: The blizzard breaks way to scattered snow flurries sometime around 4 AM.
Events: At 5 AM, the music stops. Yes, it goes for a full 24 hours. And stops just shortly after the snow does. How insanely coincidental!
Other things happen in the course of the night, too. Jesse and Justice are removed from the mansion, and Vanessa is added. There's no sign or hint of this happening, it's simply done. Vanessa will wake up at some point around 5:30 in the morning. Because that's just what every sleep deprived person on her floor wants to deal with after 24 hours of vintage Disney hell: a new arrival freaking the hell out. Vanessa's door will not open until she accesses the network and posts.
At 8 in the morning, everyone receives a message from TPTB on their computers. It reads:
"Several days ago, we removed Cecilia, Kai, and Abra from their rooms, though left their rooms in tact. We gave them a task. We isolated them from the rest of the house, and informed them that they would be presented with several non-descript choices. Each option corresponds to the next event the residents of Mount Zenith will experience next. Some of these options were vacations, some were challenges, some rewards, some punishments. They did not know which is which, they are guessing blindly. They were also informed that we were going to show the footage of their choice to all of you.
So, tomorrow you will find out if they chose well or not. We ask you to contemplate how you would have faced their decision, and wonder if you will hold them accountable for something ultimately out of their control."
After closing the message, a video immediately begins to play.The screen focuses on a small room, devoid of furniture save for one small, square metal table in the center of the room. There appears to be small items on the table, slightly glossy - pieces of laminated paper perhaps? But it is not able to make out the objects from the camera's view point. Directly in frame, a glass door slides open, and in step Cecilia, Kai, and Abra. None of them look precisely thrilled with their situation, with Cecilia in particular scowling deeply as her eyes scan the room and ultimately settle on the camera for a moment.
Abra strides into the room and towards the table, followed by Kai and then Cecilia. Kai looks a little nervous and occasionally wrings her wrist. Abra is carrying a mimosa and looks merely inconvenienced. Abra stops in front of the table and looks down at the items before them. Kai and Cecilia join her, each taking a different side of the table.
"Well, we're fucked," Abra announces, as the camera begins to zoom in slightly on the women and table. It still isn't entirely clear what is on the table, but the shapes are clearer. Large cards.
"Tarot cards?" Kai asks, shifting her weight from one leg or another. "That's... not a lot to go on." Cecilia begins studying each card, frowning heavily at each in turn. "Does anyone know how to read Tarot?" Kai asks, looking from the cards to first Cecilia, then Abra. Cecilia lightly shakes her head.
"I know... a little," Abra replies, apparently choosing her words carefully. "Or I did as a teenager. My cousin did readings at festivals and she taught me a little. But... I don't think my limited knowledge is going to prove at all helpful."
"Don't say that," Kai replies. "Anything is helpful."
"No, it's not," Abra says firmly, shaking her head. "You don't understand. Half of these cards are facing that way," she says, pointing towards the wall to her right, "and half the other way," now pointing to her left. "Half of them are inverted. But we have absolutely know way of knowing which way is right side up. None of them are facing the door, so it's a fifty fifty shot which way is which. And if we go into just basic meanings, every card has a more or less good meaning face up, and a bad meaning inverted, or vice versa."
Cecilia looks up and she and Kai stare at Abra for a few moments. "Yeah," Cecilia finally says with a sigh. "That checks out." She looks back down at the cards. "What can you tell us about them anyway?"
Abra tilts her head back and forth, clicking her tongue as her eyes scan the table. Finally she begins pointing out cards. "Judgment. Reflection and awakening, or doubt and self-loathing." She taps another card. "The moon. Illusions and intuition, or confusion, fear, and misinterpretation." She continues tapping cards as she explains their meanings. "The star. Hope, faith, and rejuvenation, or faithlessness, discouragement, and insecurity. The emperor. Authority, control, structure, fatherhood, or tyranny and rigidity. The hierophant, tradition, morality, ethics, or rebellion, subversiveness, and new approaches. The tower, sudden upheaval and disaster. Reversed, disaster avoided or delayed, and the fear of suffering.
'Temperance. Moderation, patience, finding meaning, or extremes, excess, and lack of balance. Death. End of a cycle, beginnings, change, metamorphosis - or stagnation and fear. The hermit. Contemplation, truth, guidance, or loneliness and isolation. The lovers. Partnerships, duality, union, or one-sidedness and disharmony. The devil. Addiction, materialism, playfulness, or freedom, release, and restoring control. Finally, the world. Fulfillment, harmony, and completion or incompletion, and no closure." Abra shrugs and sips her drink.
Silence hangs in the air for several moments. "All of these suck," Kai says with a sigh. "How are we supposed to pick one? The bad options are all... really bad."
"We're supposed to agonize over it," Cecilia replies. "It's entirely possible none of these matter. Could be they're gonna do what they're gonna do, they just want to see how much we torture ourselves - and how much the others torture us, depending on what happens."
"That's cheery," Abra announces, with a faux-happy tone. "Shall we just randomly pull one then and go back to brunch?"
"No way," Kai says with a gasp. "We have to at least try. It may not matter, but it deserves at least some of our time. I just... don't know how to pick. I know a few I definitely don't want though." Cecilia nods her agreement with that, her eyes still focused intensely on the cards.
Another shrug from Abra. "That's fair. Let's each veto a card, narrow the field." Kai looks up, apparently encouraged with a clear goal, even a small one, at hand.
"Veto the tower." Cecilia's voice is sure and steady, and without any hesitation. Abra sets her glass down on the side of the edge of the table, lifts a card off the table, and rips it in half. Kai's eyes go wide as she watches the pieces flutter down to the floor.
"They don't like when you destroy their stuff," she whispers.
"Fuck the patriarchy," Abra replies. "And fuck it again." She lifts the emperor card off of the table, rips it in half, and tosses the pieces over her shoulder. Then she looks expectantly to Kai.
"...the hermit." Cecilia briefly looks up at Kai, seeming to understand where she was coming from. Abra picks up the card and rips it in half. The pieces have all gathered around her on the floor, and the three women study the cards again.
Silence stretches on for at least a full minute. "Hell, I don't know. The lovers?" Abra finally suggests.
"Absolutely not," Cecilia replies immediately. "This place is invasive enough on our privacy without giving them that card to play."
"If you feel that strongly about it, then-" Riiiip. The pieces that were once the Lovers card fall out of Abra's hands and drift down to the floor. "We're making progress, ladies."
"I hate the sound of so many of these. Death, judgment, the devil... can we get rid of all of those?" Kai asks.
"I think that would be a mistake," Abra replies. "They'll expect us to have that reaction. If I were a betting woman - and I am, incidently, as long as it's on someone else's dime - I'd say those three are our best options."
Cecilia and Kai look up at Abra and stare. "That's... a pretty big gamble," Cecilia finally replies.
"The whole thing's a gamble," Abra says, shaking her head. "You said yourself, this all might not matter. Bottom line is, I don't think anyone back at the house could fault us for that kind of logic. Deliberately trying to do the opposite of what They expect us to," she continues, pointing at the camera to emphasize the word they. "That's at least something anyone in this house could understand."
Cecilia looks skeptical. Kai, thoughtful. Time passes. Another minute goes by.
"Temperance might be... not the worst option on the table?" Kai finally suggests.
"Until they remove all the booze and our nurse gets to find out how many supposedly functioning-alcoholics we have," Abra replies with a snort of laughter. She raises an eyebrow up at Cecilia. "That sound like fun to you?" Cecilia's only response is a dirty look directed at Abra.
"...So, yeah, no temperance. Do the thing," Kai finally says, gesturing at Abra. Abra actually looks amused as she picks up a card and rips it in half.
"The hierophant," Cecilia says, as she looks back down at the table. "I think that's my vote."
"Girl, you cray," Abra dismisses. "That's all we need, let's turn Mount Zenith into a theocracy. What could go wrong?"
"That's not necessarily what it means," Cecilia shoots back. "You said on one side is morality and ethics and on the other is rebellion and new approaches. Either of those options sound fine with me."
"You can't take any of these at face value," Abra argues. "They'd take something like that to an extreme. We'll wake up in, I don't know. Fifty percent chance it's the Hunger Games, fifty percent chance it's... fuck, I don't know, Afghanistan. Neither is a trip I'd like to book, 'kay thanks bye."
Cecilia looks as though she's going to fire back a response, but Kai beats her to it. "What about the star?" she interrupts, perhaps a little louder than necessary. Abra and Cecilia are broken from their respective trains of thought and look to Kai. "It's a gamble, but if it's right side up... that's a really good one. We could all use a little rejuvenation, right?"
Neither Cecilia nor Abra looks convinced. "I don't know that I can willfully subject to insecurity," she says. "I can't wrap my brain around that."
"What would you choose, then?" Kai asks.
Abra looks down at the table and considers her options. "The devil," she finally says. She offers no explanation, and silence stretches on again.
"We can go over these all day, and we're never gonna agree," Kai finally sighs. "Cecilia's right, it might not even matter. Odds are good they're all equal parts good and bad."
"They like to do that," Cecilia sighs. "But if we didn't at least try to do our best at it there's a chance we'd be punished."
Abra's eyes shift back and forth between Kai and Cecilia, a thoughtful look on her face. Finally she picks up three cards - the hierophant, the star, and the devil. The rest of the cards she sweeps onto the floor with her arm. The remaining three cards, she shuffles behind her back, and then places each face down on the table. "Alright then. Who wants the honor?" She grins widely up at the others.
"That... seems like a bad idea," Kai says.
"I don't see why," Abra replies, and her voice is pleasant now. "We all agree that we're more or less choosing blindly, so let's just do it. We've all got our top pick in the running. Choose blind, get it over with, and if anyone back at the house thinks they could do better than we did? Then I hope they get the chance to stand in our shoes shortly so we can see how they do." Neither Cecilia nor Kai says anything. "Well? Either of you got the balls?"
"Nope!" Kai immediately throws her hands into the air in surrender and takes a step away from the table. "I do not. Thank you, no. I am at peace with my lot in life."
Abra actually laughs as she looks up to Cecilia. "Boss lady?"
Cecilia scowls, but Kai looks a little hopeful. "Nobody would be mad at you," she says. "Everyone either likes you or, well... is scared of you. Nobody's scared of me. And I don't even think anyone realized I was missing right away last time."
Cecilia looks back at Kai, not angrily, but with a strange expression on her face. Softer. Sadder. "You really want me to?"
Kai shifts nervously from one foot to another. "I mean... not if you don't want to, no. I don't want you to feel pressured in it. But... it's probably better than arguing it out for hours. We'll never all be totally happy, and if they're making everyone at the house watch this before the doors open, a couple of them probably really need to pee by now."
Cecilia actually manages a small smile, though it is gone by the time she looks back at the cards. Thirty seconds pass in silence before she finally puts her finger on top of the middle card and taps twice. "Alright," she said. Before her finger has even begun to fully withdraw, Abra flips the card over.
A wide grin breaks across Abra's features again as the devil card is revealed. "Well then," she says. "Looks like we're dancing with the devil. I hope we get to join a coven." Cecilia scowls again as Abra scoops up the rest of the card and begins shredding them into confetti. The video turns off.
Around the same time the video begins playing for those at the house, Cecilia, Kai, and Abra will wake up in Cassi's. None of them know how long they've been gone, nor do they have their phones. Looks like the coven has a long walk home.