Playing House

Who: Bryce Matthews and Spencer Bishop
What: Bryce is in the locker room and gets a RUDE awakening
When: Day 8, around 10am
Where: Locker room
Rating: R for nudity and sexual content.
Status: Complete!

( Even asleep one can experience a nightmare. )

Who: Spencer and Chris
When: Mid afternoon
Where: Library

The library in this place was fucking ridiculous. Sure, Spencer liked big fancyass rooms as much as the next guy but this was seriously taking the piss. On the cameras, the room hadn't looked like much but, as the lawyer first made his way in and realised the sheer size of it, his face screwed up in disbelief. Really? A house should not have a library like this. A museum or some sort of high brow academy, perhaps, but certainly not a building holding a relatively small group of people.

Nevertheless, Spencer thought it a waste to not give the room a decent look through, so he meandered through the bookcases, a beer from lunch in hand, stopping whenever he saw something which looked vaguely interesting. He thought he might as well pick up any books which might keep him entertained. He had a whole year to spend here after all. He stumbled across the law section and bent down to give it a look. Their selection was pretty pitiful, but then again Spencer was used to having entire law libraries. He nonetheless sneered at it. Disappointing for a library of this scale, to be quite frank, he thought, not realising the outlandish and unrealistic nature of his expectations. He scanned the shelves, wondering if he could find a section on state law to determine their current location. After all, a bit of casual sleuthing couldn't hurt, right?

Who: Girls girls girls!
When: 11:30ish
Where: First floor sitting room

Daphne really couldn't have been happier with the day's events. The slumber party had been a random idea to attempt to get to know a few of the girls better, and endear herself to a chunk of people. The fact that issues with Camber had arisen from it was really just the cherry on top. If there was any way at all for Daphne to work things to make everyone hate Camber and pity Daphne as the sweet-hearted victim? That... that was just Christmas. Only here a day and already things were just falling in her lap.

Emily had helped her set up as promised, and Daphne was of a mind to bring Emily under her wing. The girl struck Daphne as being kind-hearted, but altogether naive and easily manipulated. Daphne was pretty sure she could make the girl think they were best friends forever without even breaking a sweat. After introductions went around, Daphne had insisted on those who brought extra breaking out their dresses and seeing what looks they could create. Daphne had just urged an expensive Alexander McQueen silk-chiffon minidress on an extremely uncomfortable-looking Lark, who kept trying to insist it was far too nice and she'd never feel right. Daphne waved off her objections and shooed her to the corner to try it on. "Hush, hush. It's part of the fun, dear! You don't have to wear it tomorrow if you don't want to." She'd never be able to pull it off the way Daphne could, anyway. "Ladies, what would you all say to a game of truth or dare? Liven things up a bit between trying things on."

Who: Avery and Spencer
Where: the pool area
When: early afternoon

( He stood next to a lounge chair, his face a study in deep contemplation. )

Who: Cam and open
Where: Game Room B and possibly spilling elsewhere
When: 11:45 or so

( Okay, so it wasn't strictly a heinously late hour )

Who: Trix and open
Where: Game Room B
When: Early afternoon

It took Trix five minutes after her "introduction post" to get antsy, desperately wanting to venture out of her room. Sure, her room was cute - it was all fun colours and lace, like Marie Antoinette on acid - but she had spent enough time in there for one day and she was keen to explore. Thus, she slipped on some clothes and headed out the door, ambling into whichever rooms weren't locked. She liked this house. It was big and quite impressive, though she would hope so if she was going to spend a whole year here. It seemed spacious though and, quite frankly, Trix thought that a year here wouldn't be that hard at all. She had lived in teeny tiny apartments, practically homebound by her constant state of inebriation. Living in some fancy mansion for a while was going to be cake.

When she made her way into one of the game rooms, she grinned broadly, her eyes settling on the jukebox. Trix loved jukeboxes, with their popsicle coloured 1950s lolita vibe. She had always wanted one but had always had to settle for messing with the one in a delapidated retro diner, the song catalogue missing numbers or the correct titles. Nevertheless, she had always enjoyed it, plugging in her 50p and tapping some random numbers to see what out of date hit played. It was the closest an adult could get to lucky bags or finding out the toy in their Happy Meal. It more than kept Trix satisfied.

She sauntered over to the jukebox, draping herself over it while she browsed the catalogue. Hmmm, classic rock 'n' roll or modern day club crowd pleaser? Choices, choices.

Who: Lark and Nate
When: Day 8; around 8pm
Where: Game Room B

( He'd spent a large majority of his time back in his room watching the camera feeds and journals - both of the things he'd been complaining about for a whole week when he'd been confined to the fourth floor. )

Who: Audrey and Daphne
When: 4PM
Where: Near the lake

Daphne had spent the better part of an hour pouring over the outdoor feeds, and trying to get a good idea of the landscape. Moreover, trying to get a good idea of what areas she - and therein, the rest of Experiment B - couldn't see. Once she had as good of an idea as she'd ever get, she bundled up for the cold weather and headed outside. It only took a few feet to regret choosing an outdoor meeting spot. She'd taken winter skiing vacations with her family before, but she'd spent an awful lot of time cozying up with some handsome thing in front of the fire during those. Getting through so much snow was a pain in the ass, and before she was halfway to the lake she could feel a stitch in her lungs every time she breathed in.

In time she reached the lake, and walked along the edge of the icy shore to a spot she deemed 'safe.' There was nothing within earshot where a camera could be placed, so it had to be relatively safe - didn't it? She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and pulled her scarf more securely around her neck and lower face. She had to wish the scientists would have just put them on their own private island. All this snow was going to get old fast.

Who: Abel and open
Where: First Floor
When: around 5pm

( Who you tryin' to get crazy with ese? Don't you know I'm loco? )

Who: Emily and Open to All
Where: the kitchen
When: early evening, around 5pm

( For Emily, the evening and dinnertime just couldn't come fast enough. )

Who: Mack and Nate
When: Day 8; around midday/lunch time
Where: Kitchen

( When the moment he'd been waiting for all week finally came, he'd stayed in his room. )

Who: Rupert and Daphne
Where: The library
When: Morning

Today's awakening had been a bittersweet one. While Rupert had woken up dry, not sweaty and not scorching at all - which felt amazing - what he read in his computer left him extremely unsettled. There were more people, a whole floor of them in the house, and they had been there all along. He supposed he'd have to live with it - and ten more people - it was just the fact that they had been hidden up there all along that bothered him. Why had there been ten people separate from the rest of them for a week, with nothing to do but talk to each other or remain locked up? Was this another experiment of some sort?

All these thoughts busied his mind during his shower, which he found actually refreshed him now. As it was his specialty, Rupert fixed himself some breakfast in record time and then scurried off to the library. There. He was in a public place, but he hadn't gone searching for people, and that was a good enough compromise for him. He settled into a chair, setting his tea and plate of toast on a table next to it, and picked up a book somebody had left nearby called 'My Sister's Skin'. It did not seem familiar, which was a good thing. Furrowing his brow, Rupert sipped on his tea as he prepared to read the first page.

Who: Delaney and Emily
Where: Game Room B
When: around 11 a.m.

( don't rock the jukebox )

Who: Damon and Mattie
Where: the library
When: mid-morning

( he thought about how he might present himself to the girl )

Who: Chris and Audrey
Where: The gym
When: Morning, around 8:30


The day of the merge, Audrey was up bright and early - even for her. She'd gotten up and dressed, fully intending to hit the gym first - but she wanted to explore a bit, first. So throwing a towel, her handwraps, and her training gloves into a bag, she headed downstairs. She didn't do much more than a cursory exploration of the lower floors; she already knew more or less what they looked like, and it was so early that there wasn't really anyone up and awake for her to talk to. Not yet, anyway, though she recalled there were several early risers amongst the downstairs folk.

Deciding she might as well introduce herself, she made a quick stop back upstairs to post a public entry, then pulled her hair back in a high ponytail and headed down to the basement, gym bag in hand. Grabbing a couple water bottles from the fridge on her way through, she added them to her bag, dropping it in a corner near a treadmill. She bent to check the laces on her shoes, before straightening and pulling one foot up behind her to stretch her quad.

Now that she was here, she wasn't sure if she wanted company or not - on one hand, she could never start playing too early. But on the other hand, she was sorely starved for a good workout. She just wanted to run, and then she wanted to hit something.

Who: Ethan and Lina
When: ASS O'CLOCK Eaaaarly in the morning, couple hours before Emily and Spencer
Where: Back door/kitchen

When it had started snowing like it was never gonna quit again, Lina had wondered if her peaceful outdoor runs would be a thing of the past. Had that been the case, okay, she would have dealt with it. There was a perfectly good treadmill downstairs. Luckily, once the snow had let up Lina had found that a couple of the trails she had taken to had such thick coverage by the forest canopy that it was still free enough for her runs. So her routine hadn't changed -- although honestly, fighting her way through two feet of snow to get to the trails took almost as much energy as the run itself did. She didn't mind. She really liked being outside, and her morning runs left her feeling centered and okay enough to deal with everything else. Like attic people that had been stashed away like an unwanted mongoloid bastard, or just that pesky redheaded stepchild. Because that wasn't creepy at all. Nope.

More often than not, Lina didn't encounter anyone this early in the morning. After a complete week she'd only seen another person awake and downstairs this early once, so perhaps that explained why she showed no care in the world as she shoved open the door and marched inside - almost to hit some random dude in the face with the door. She managed to snatch the door-knob and catch it back just in time, but it was a near miss. "Jesus," she blurted out. "Where the fuck did you come from? Shit. Sorry."

Who: Spencer and Emily
Where: the kitchen
When: morning, around 9am

( Just breathe, its just a creepy big house. )

WEATHER REPORT: It's a little sunnier than it was yesterday, which makes for bright blinding light reflecting off the snow. Once again, there's a lot of snow out there, and anyone not used to that sort of thing might be better suited to staying inside.

EVENTS: It's a day of miracles in the house! Miracle #1: no one was removed in the night! Miracle #2: Avery and Rupert are back to normal! Miracle #3: More new people! Miracle #4: Magical new floor of the house out of fucking nowhere!

Okay, seriously now. Avery and Rupert are no longer being plagued by troublesome temperatures. Sometime in the night things would have evened out completely for them, so gradually they wouldn't have even been aware of it for a while. And now, hurray! Normal! Perhaps one of them has learned a lesson about needing people to survive in the house. Perhaps not. But it is a day of miracles.

At five AM, everyone in Experiment A receives a message from the scientists on their computer. It reads:

"Greetings,

We are most delighted to inform you all that this past week we have conducted the first test in our experiment. You will all find access to a staircase on the third floor, one that was previously hidden. This staircase leads to the fourth floor - where ten other participants of the experiment have been living this past week. Their living conditions have been slightly different from yours; those living on the fourth floor had no kitchen, and their meals have been provided via a dumbwaiter at pre-appointed times through-out the day. They have had none of the perks that you have had, such as televisions and movies, games, or even books to read aside from those which were brought in their luggage. In short, the residents of the fourth floor have had no way to pass the time but to get to know each other and find their own ways to entertain themselves.

They have performed quite admirably, and though they have also suffered two removals, we have opened up the barrier between floors. From this point forward, they are the same as you - they have merged with the rest of the experiment. We hope you will welcome them like any other member of the experiment.

To celebrate the end of the first test, we have decided to reward you all. Tomorrow night at 8:00 PM we will be throwing a large party in the ballroom. Dinner will be provided.

In addition to the fourth floor residents, we have also added Michael, Ethan, Abel, and Trix to the experiment, as replacements to others who have quit.

Thank you for your continued cooperation."

Sure enough, on the third floor is a new staircase. It is almost immediately adjacent to the stairs to the second floor, and would have been previously been hidden by a wall. Use of the dumbwaiter is now available to all floors as well. It can be found in a hidden panel in the second floor hallway and the third floor laundry room.

Experiment B has viewing access to the message the scientists sent Experiment A, but their own announcement is predictably different.

"Greetings,

The time has come for you to merge with the rest of the house. You will find that the staircase has been revealed, and you are all free to roam and do what you will.

You will also find that the viewing station has been removed. From this time out, you will find that you cannot access the camera system if your bedroom door is open - nor can you turn the volume up past a certain point. This level has been set so that what you are viewing cannot be overheard by anyone in the hall. If you would prefer to use headphones, you will find a set has been provided and can be found in your top desk drawer. Additionally, to access the camera system you must now enter in a certain command as, needless to say, we would not want someone to wander in your room and access something they should not. The command is CTRL, ALT, E + B, F4. You will be prompted to input a password, which we have set as the six-digit format of each of your birthdays. You are free to change your passwords if you feel the need.

Before you begin exploring and meeting the participants of Experiment A, we wish to remind you that any discussion of the true nature of Experiment B with those of Experiment A will not be tolerated. You are not to mention your true purpose, nor are you to mention your access to the camera system or private journal entires and private messages. Should you violate these rules, you will be removed from the experiment immediately.

Thank you for your patience and continued cooperation. Enjoy."