a mock week

[arsholes]

[With the rules of your capture explained by a (seemingly useless and very sad) elf, the brand new apprentices of the Thanatos Institute have been left to their own devices in terms of study, co-habitation and pondering means of escape…whatever those means mean to each individual.

You're free to continue exploring your surroundings to your little hearts' content. Meals are provided 3 times a day, plates and silverware pre-laid out promptly at meal times (Don't worry, Gilear isn't cooking). If not brought to the kitchen, dirty and abandoned dishes will vanish after an hour. The only real restriction on your movements is that the kitchen is closed and the front doors lock between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am. Do try to be indoors before nightfall, dears. You never know what might be lurking in the dark.

Ambassador Gilear Faeth is unavailable for office hours, due to the fact that he doesn't have an office, but he can be found meandering around the tower from time to time. Just look for the discarded yogurt containers and you’re likely to find him.

Enjoy your week, everyone.]

Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


[ooc: Welcome to mock week proper, everyone! As a reminder, there are no regains for the mock trial but you are welcome to investigate your surroundings. Just remember to make a note in your subject header to alert us so we can get to you as soon as we can.]

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TUESDAY

[arsholes]

MOTIVE: But You're Still on My Lonely Mind

[arsholes]

[On Tuesday things start off quiet. Breakfast is served around 8 am but once the dishes have either been cleared or vanished and the apprentices have cleared out the doors silently swing shut and remain firmly locked.

When the sun reached its highest point in the sky, partially hidden behind the tower and casting a massive shadow on the grounds, the same text-to-speech style voice that summoned you to meet Gilear echoes through the stone walls and across the ground of the institute:]

Attention, Apprentices. Report to the dining hall for your weekly motivation.

[The dining hall doors are unlocked, and spread out on one of the tables in three rows of seven cards is 21 envelopes (including one with raised lettering). Gilear Faeth, your supposed Ambassador, is conspicuously absent.

Inside each envelope is a mirrored card that shows an image of the person or people that each apprentice cares about the most. The image is like a photograph, except it's three-dimensional like looking into a diorama. If you tilt the photo in any direction, however, the image shifts to something much darker.

Instead of showing the person or people as each apprentice remembers them, it shows them... far worse off. Some may be bloodied, others burned, or perhaps absent in a swath of lingering chaos, or even alone, entombed in darkness. It doesn't matter. What matters is the implication: inaction may save you from rule number 4, but it may not save the ones you love.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[She isn't sure what she'll find. Carefully, Mei opens the envelope and draws out a card; her heart drops at the first picture, but when she tilts the magical holofoil, she fumbles the card onto the table.]

That's... But I know that doesn't happen!

[Mei snatches the card back up and stuffs it into her obi.]

[speaksnonsense]

...

[After examining his own card, Hythlodaeus looked up at nothing in particular; after a moment a smile crossed his face without reaching those slightly glowing purple eyes.]

Our people do not engage in violence borne of malice. Even were that not to be the case, such incomprehensible threats are base foolishness. And I would caution you against crossing him of all people if you wish that to continue being the case.

[capeandwizardhat]

[Trixie rolls her eyes.]

A simple illusion spell. This farce has gone on long enough.

[Trixie drops her envelope and card down to the floor and fires a pink beam at it. What was there has now been replaced with a teacup.]

[metahumerus]

[Sans is very quiet, staring at a hologram of what is obviously the coolest dude any of you could hope to ever meet. Even a passing glimpse of this image is enough to fill you with determination.]

[It shifts in Sans' hand, and-]

Are we done here?

[-and into the hoodie pocket it goes, now marginally more crumpled and ball-like.]

[luckstone]

[Penny picks up the envelope with her name on it without hesitation. It's obvious there's something sinister happening but a booby-trapped letter on a table is low on her mental list of potential threats.]

What are these? And where's Vice Principal Faeth-?

[She pulls the photo from her envelope and freezes, every drop of blood draining from her face as she stares down at the image. She doesn't say a word, just stares in tight-lipped horror until suddenly she vanishes without a trace. If anyone is standing near her, they might hear the soft thud of invisible footsteps running out of the room.]

[speaksnonsense]

[Well, that was sure a worrying reaction. It was usually considered impolite to look in on people with aethersight, but the sudden shock and escape was...alarming. Hythlodaeus was neither the first nor the best person to leap to comforting anyone when the situation called for it, but then again there were a lot of new experiences going on for him lately.]

[So let's say he hesitantly follows the track of that bright purple soul he can still see very clearly. Where're we heading?]

[strongestfeelings]

We all know that trick! [Calling, after her---

Yeah, Stella hasn't opened her own yet at the time of taunting.]

[sunshade]

[ Patchouli's card has a couple of people on it. A girl with bat wings, a maid, a girl dressed in green, someone with blonde hair peeking out from the corner. ]

Charming. I'm doubtful they're all in danger, however, with their combined talents.

[ Though the way her eyes linger on the card for a few seconds too long is a bit suspect. ]

[isadisappointment]

[ Mike isn't expecting much, looking around at everyone else and their reactions. There's not a lot of people around that he cares about, as harsh as that might seem, and while yeah sure he doesn't want anybody getting hurt on his account there's a chance this is all some kind of stupid wizard trick anyway. Sighing through his nose, he opens the envelope and looks at the card.

And looks. And looks. He almost doesn't recognize the figure at the center of the image at first, standing on the pitcher's mound and wreathed in deep crimson flame but unfazed, untouched. But he tilts it to the side and- ]

Jaylen?

[ That has to be her. He tilts the card back and forth, realizing with a dawning horror what's going on. She's in the follow-through of a pitch, and the batter looks to have just taken the ball directly to the skull, flinching away as that same crimson fire starts to envelop them. An umpire hovers nearby, eyes white and hand outstretched.

Mike puts a hand over his mouth, brows furrowed as he tries to puzzle through it all. ]

[strongestfeelings]

They got your girlfriend? [like that's the reasonable explanation, right? As she leans over and tries to see his picture.]

[an0therbitesthedust]

Huh? [Rindo Kanade is in his diorama, but he honestly looks fine. It's a little confusing - until he holds up a cellphone to the front screen of the card, showing a social media account called An0ther ... With ZERO FOLLOWERS. Ooooh, spooooky!]

Tu parles! They would have me canceled? El nervio of these people!

[He's not too bothered though. Okay, maybe a little.]

[strongestfeelings]

Shouldn't have been a creep if you didn't want to be cancelled. [she knows nothing about this guy]

[replacementshield]

[ Felix angrily snatches up the envelope. He doesn't care to open it but he doesn't want anyone else to look. Though, on second thought, he opens it...

...And says nothing. His hands tremble for a moment before he just scoffs, stuffing what he saw back inside as soon as he could. ]

How stupid do you think I am?! I'm not about to fall for some magic trick!

[ ... ]

I challenge you to face me right now! Otherwise you're just proving you're a pathetic coward! Which wouldn't surprise me because if you actually tried to meet me in battle I'd run you through in a heartbeat!

[ This is going to result in literally NOTHING but Felix is going to wait there quite a few hours out of sheer stubbornness. ]

[strongestfeelings]

[Stella's all bravado when she enters the room, head held high, hair perfect. She's even managed to rearrange the pieces in her outfit so that it seems she's wearing something new-- though a closer look will tell you that she's just rearranged the layers, taking away things and wearing them differently.]

Oh, look. He's already frightened of us. [There's a bit of a smile to her lips. She watches the others take their envelopes, and even finds time to question or call out after some of them. Then... She finally opens her own.

At first, it's an annoyance. Of course they'd test her, with her mother. Her Mother had done it herself, time and time again. This was nothing new, but-- when she goes to toss the photo away, she freezes. The frame's changed.

The Queen of Light, the most powerful faerie in all of Solaria, is alone in the dark. Is it the darkness that frightens Stella more? Or is it the way that her clothes are rumpeled-- her hair askew, and one shoe missing.

It doesn't matter. Her eyes flash a violent, vibrant gold-- but the powers won't come, and for a moment, she looks like she's going to be ill. She looks around the room, to see whose left to witness her-- and then bolts.

She may have taunted Penny for running away, invisible, but at least she could use her powers. The light wouldn't respond to Stella-- and so, she's stuck visibly fleeing, looking ever bit like the foolish girl she is.]

[brokendeeragonal]

[He can guess what's in the envelope before he even opens it, based on the others around him reacting. That doesn't make it any easier to look at even at a glance. He stuffs it back in the envelope in a rush, just to be safe, glancing again at the others. Everyone is spooked, some even running away. Things are going south, fast]

... time for some loud moves.

[he crumples the envelope in his fist, glaring up at the ceiling, not unlike Felix]

YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH CHEAP FRIGGIN' MOVES LIKE THIS, BASTARD?!

[Susukichi starts to crackle with power, and in a flash a pair of fricken energy antlers form over his shoulders. The air reeks of ozone, and he hunches over in a ramming position]

OUTTA THE WAY, I'M SNAPPING THIS BOARD IN HALF!

[ better heed that warning, because once he charges he's not stopping. Chairs, tables, people, lesser magical effects- he goes right through. Maybe even through the far wall if it's not magically reinforced. He won't stop until he's forced to]

[metahumerus]

No. Stop. Don't be a hero.

[this is delivered exactly the way you're thinking, sans ain't doing shit]

sneaks in a reaction at work

[toostaleforthis]

[Almond Cookie looks at the strange hologram, turning it to the side to see the image. His face turns ashen for a moment, then he places the paper back in the envelope and into his coat]

... Nonsense. Magical nonsense. I hope none of you believe this. Illusory spells are a dime a dozen.

[fuckingguy]

[ Judging off appearances, getting summoned to go anywhere at all at noon might as well be Nandor's entire motive for murder! He moves like a dead man walking, and looks the part. The hair and clothes which were so meticulously groomed when he first showed up are in disarray; it looks like he got dressed in the dark and then fell down five flights of stairs. He glowers and grumbles his way to the envelope with his name on it, and he looks at the card inside. Honestly, he's kind of delighted by the holographic magic part before what's implied registers in his brain! And then: ]

Fucking Colin Robinson?

[ There's multiple people in the image, to be clear! The whole Staten Island household. But, like, seriously? ]

[twibeast]

[ Orthrus feels a little oblivious as he looks around, holding off on opening his because he doesn’t really… get? Why he’s being given this? But seeing everyone else (mostly) in some form of turmoil persuades him to finally open it.

There’s a moment where there’s a small smile on his face. It reminds him of whenever he finally comes home after months of travel, and the Beastials all welcome him back, clamouring all over him with bright smiles, the youngest eager to hear what stories he has to tell this time, the older ones pressing him if he’s hungry or needs anything. A full family welcoming every time.

…But then he shifts it, and the smile slips off his face entirely, leaving but a pale, blank visage.

He doesn’t say anything, but the air around him starts to feel a little colder. ]

[ordinarythings]

...you know what, I'm not even going to try looking. [Surolam just tucks the card away into a pocket.]

[allthatgleams]

[ There are two cookies in the little diorama given to Lilac.

The first is a cookie wearing a cloak, her "hair" done up in a way resembling a scorpion's tail. Despite him and Scorpion Cookie having drifted apart as of late, and despite the complications in her being hired to do what he couldn't, he's not at all surprised to see her.

He is surprised to see the other cookie, a young man (cookie?) dressed in whatever confection cookies dress in instead of silk. Seriously. That is an absurdly finely dressed cookie.

Lilac didn't want to think he's gone that soft, but... well.

There's a sigh of discontent when he tilts the diorama, watching them crumble, but he quickly tries to find somewhere to shove the card before anyone sees. ]

[cuttingremark]

[Loki's face remains oddly blank as he shifts the picture back and forth between the two images.]

You're mistaken if you think threatening him will get me to do anything.

[ninehundredlives]

.....hm.

[Susan looks at her card for a moment - a younger woman in a green striped sweater - and tilts it back and forth a little before tucking it away.]

Ridiculous.