Welcome To The Village

[number_2]

Who: Everyone who was signed-up for the excursion
What: The Village December Excursion
When: Dec 1st - Dec 23rd
Where: The Village
Warnings: Involuntary capture and confinement including immobilization and restraints, violence, injury, maiming, possibility of death, torture, coercion, gaslighting, mind control, drugging, scientific experiments, and extremely inaccurate depictions of mental health facilities/hospitals, among other potentially triggering themes. Please mark all threads appropriately.




"Good morning, good morning, good morning!" A voice that sounds very similar to Friday's chirps over a loudspeaker outside your character's home. Yes, their home.

Overnight, all the passengers who signed up for this excursion have been transported to their very own personal cottages. They will awake in a bed that is familiar to them. While this home of theirs does not necessarily have to resemble the place they were born or raised, it will be a perfect replica of a place they truly thought of as their home, down to the most minute details.

The cottages are self-contained, the size of a large studio apartment so, in some cases, they may only resemble the bedroom and living room of a person's home with a shrunken-down kitchenette and bathroom adjoined. But the heirlooms of their past are here. A favorite doll? A treasured family portrait? Trinkets you have long forgotten about? All of them will be here, somehow. (All except for weapons, that is.) They are indistinguishable from the real item, down to the molecule.

After that wake-up call, the voice continues on to express that the weather will be warm and sunny, with no rain forecasted. A brass band concert is announced, to start at noon on the lawn next to the living chess set. And once that bit of news is wrapped up, lively marching band music will begin to play. And it will continue to play. All day. From every speaker...including the ones hidden in their home.

Welcome to Your Village

It only gets stranger from here. Characters may be dismayed to find that they are without any of their original clothes or belongings. They awake in conservative button-up pajamas. The closet in their home is full of the latest Village Fashion to choose from. Everything is The Village label brand, including the tin cans of food that stock the kitchen and any of the groceries you could get at the General Store.

Your ship phone rings. When you answer it, you will be greeted, once again, by the voice of Friday. "Your number, please? Of course, you have a number. Look at your badge." If they look down at their chest, they will discover a small round number badge has been pinned to their pajamas. Was that there before? It bears the symbol of a Penny-farthing Bicycle, with a number in the spokes. This is their number.

"No names here," the voice of Friday chides, "Only numbers. Number 2 would like a word with you at the Green Dome. He requests you come for breakfast. Thank you!" Before they can protest further, the line goes dead.


Some Notes:

No matter how many times your character tries to take off and disregard their number badge, they will always find it re-attached to their clothes again the moment they look away and look back.

Your characters still have their phones but now they can only make calls instead of sending texts. They also do not take or store photographs anymore.

If your character destroys or damages anything in their home, or in The Village it will instantly repair the way things used to on the Serena Eterna.

The noise from the speakers can be muffled by covering it with pillows or other creative items, but cannot be stopped entirely. (Sorry Phil)

Comments

[light_mischief]

Good, so it wasn't just him being out of the loop. (Kind of rude of Peter not to tell his new rival about his old archnemesis, but not everyone can be as emotionally mature in these situations as Skulduggery.)

It's good information Ava's sharing, even limited as it is, and Skulduggery turns it over in his mind. So the man in charge is fond of head games. Likes to pit people against each other and play with their senses. It's an easy way to unbalance a person; if they can't trust their own senses or their neighbors, then they'll remain isolated and easy to pick off.

"What do you mean, this 2?"

[decohere]

"By the way he worded it, just thought so. They recreated his office in London." She can only guess as a way to get him to divulge the answers they were trying to get from him, by making him think he was in the safety of allies again.

It was always Peter's secret that he kept so close to his chest, a past best left behind, and so Ava hadn't shared even with those that she trusted most. But with the telling phrase written into the excursion sign up, he had finally intended to confront his past, and deal with the fallout of others finding out the truth. So now it feels necessary to share what she can if it helps other prepare or figure out a strategy.

"Oh. It... they went through a variety of those using the number. Each trying different methods of getting Peter to crack. He made quite a few of them resign. I don't know what happened with this one, why he was replaced."

[makesomedeals]

"Yes he did say something about that when I asked if this Number 2 character would have a cat. Apparently one of them did, but not this one, which is unfortunate. That would have been nice collateral." A much funner caper to try and kidnap a cat for a prisoner exchange than to figure out what this particular one wants.

"Do you know what they wanted out of Peter?"

[decohere]

"Why he resigned. People like us know a lot of dangerous secrets. When we suddenly quit or... run away. We become targets of our own agencies, or others. Retirement benefits aren't exactly..."

She pauses. "Not like any of that is relevant now." Government secrets mean nothing here. "I think at this point it's more the grudge." Bruised egos...