come_sailaway | Welcome To The Village

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)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Radio station?" The man says still confused. "I don't think you understand, that's a live transmission." (Some poor sap somewhere has to sit there and play this all day every day.)

"Parade? No, I don't think so. Unless...Has someone died recently?" They have parades for funerals, after all.

"I'm not authorized to give any tours today."

"Wait really, there's a whole ass band playing this constantly somewhere?" Damn. Those poor people.

"See? There could be a parade," said to Rita in an 'I told you so manner' even though he never told her so. "Aight so no tours, no changing the radio station, well.. we're citizens and this is the advice bureau. What kind of advice you got for us, we could probably use it."

"Shut up," she grumbles in an aside to Pratt, because she's far more annoyed at the idiot receptionist. Here she is, practically bringing one of the targets Number 2 wanted on a silver platter, and this imbecile isn't even getting the clue! It's frustrating, too, because if Pratt doesn't warm up to this place, she's going to have to keep dealing with his yelling about the music every morning, and it's already getting kind of pitiful.

Anyway, Pratt asks for advice, which she follows up with, "Yeah, this guy could really use a private counselling session before he loses it." If looks could kill, her glare would be boring a hole in the receptionist's head right about now as she furiously wills him to take the hint.

"Have you not seen them on the bandstand? I highly recommend you take a walk on the green and go listen to them in person." The worker says helpfully.

Then, finally, something seems to catch in his brain. "Ah, yes. How rude of me not to realize. Let me just... make a quick phone call. Excuse me." He hurries through the door marked for staff, leaving the two of them alone in the waiting room.

"There should have been like a pamphlet or something." But hey, at least that's advice for these good citizens here. So that's something.

Pratt, who suspects nothing, turns to Rita. "You actually want a tour of this place? It's.. not that big."

He gives it about thirty seconds before starting to get bored, "Come on, lets get something to eat. I don't think we can do anything about the music here."

Finally, she thinks, doing her best not to outright breathe a sigh of relief, although her foot does tap impatiently. "Of course I don't actually want a tour," she huffs, and she's not even lying. This place isn't interesting enough for a tour--not unless she'd actually get to see some of the inner workings, what holds this realm together and saps their abilities.

--Wait, except Pratt wants to just walk away now?! She balks at him. "What--hey, don't you want to try sneaking further in while nobody's watching?"

"Past the guy who went thru the door? I dunno that I'm ready to start knocking people out to explore more. What are we gonna do, tie him up and toss him under the desk while we poke around and then let him go and expect him to just be okay with it? We should come back when it's closed. You know, under the cover of darkness." He shrugs, it's not that he doesn't want to explore, it's that his main goal is to get the stupid marching band music to end and this doesn't seem to be the way to do it. Until he can deal with the speaker situation he's not super interested in finding out when their harvest festival is or who won the last flower show. Which is what he assumes the tour will be and not him being shown to a clockwork orange style torture chamber.

"Yeah, food sounds good." Aaaaaaand he's heading out. Hopefully the door has a little bell on it to alert the guy that they've moseyed off.

Sure, he's right that sneaking might be easier after dark, but then there's the curfew to worry about. They have a chance right now! He'll feel way more at ease once he just goes in and realizes--wait, he's leaving?!

"Wha--hey, wait! You can't be seriously going!" Ugh she's just going to run out after him because she's not staying for a damn tour or whatever by herself. "What, you're just going to keep putting up with that music?"

He is already totally distracted by the thought of food and forgotten what they even came here for.

"Nah, I'm just gonna sneak out after curfew and deal with it then, when it's quiet and no ones around. And we found out where the band is playing which means there's gotta be microphones and broadcasting stuff there. Just gonna go cut the lines in the middle of the night and head back before anyone sees me. Easy peasy - oh coffee."

You're losing him to caffiene right now Rita.

She realizes she's fighting a losing battle, but she's not pleased about it. If she protests too much, it'll seem suspicious, so instead she just huffs, "You really expect it to be that easy?"

.......She does kind of want a cafe mocha, though. Sand Dollars was the true danger all along, giving her a caffeine addiction like this.

Inside, with one ear held to a phone, the man lets out a sigh of relief. "I think they're going, sir. Are you sure you wouldn't like me to stop them? No point? I don't--ah, yes. I see. Very good, sir." He hangs up, but he doesn't go back out to his desk until he's sure they're gone.

Welcome To The Village

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