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

[ossie_oswald]

"Mm, let's see."

Ossie also has no idea what the fuck to be doing to help, his own brain shorts out and presents him with what is less a solution and more what he wants to be doing most right now in this moment.

He leans over Giles' shoulder a little further, and with a hand coaxes Sharky into a kiss.

"There. Much better. And anyone who's still listening to that dreadful Number 2 doesn't get so much as a single kiss from me until he cuts it out."

Please, by the Wyrd let this work.

[ring_for_giles]

Sharky's hand loosens but doesn't let go, and Giles is in the middle of deciding how best to prise it off with great prejudice when... Oh he should be feeling something about that kiss shouldn't he? He recognises that somewhere deep.

He only barely manages to comprehend what Ossie says after. If only it were so simple. If only the droning in his skull would stop.

"I can't. Please, sir, I-" His focus dims, eyes finding Number 2 in the fray again. He has to- he has to- he-

Giles shuts his eyes. Breathes, slow and laboured. Abstract the problem. Remove the fear.

"You need to restrain me."

[broshaw]

The fact that he's like one wrong move away from getting his ass beat in an unsexy way does nothing to diminish his pleased grin. Now who's the cat who got to eat the mouse, Giles?!

Except obviously Giles is like, way too busy fighting off a month's worth of brainwashing to see how smug Sharky is. That's fine, he can tell him all about it later. (The retelling of this story is going to become extremely X-Rated, assuming Ossie backs up every one of Sharky's bold-faced lies.)

His hand remains on Giles' arm, but there's no real attempt to restrain him past that. Sharky knows two ways to solve a problem: you hit it with a hammer or you hit on it. In this tricky situation, he's gonna look to someone more capable for guidance.

"We can do that, can't we, Ossie?"

[ossie_oswald]

"I think we're both very capable, yes," Ossie slips away from Giles' shoulder and takes his other arm, "come along. I think we've seen our fill of excitement."

His grip is... well, it's pretty weak, but it's a grip, certainly.

"Find a corner, or some stretch of wall fairly quiet. By a corpse if it keeps others away."

[ring_for_giles]

Ossie's grip could be lighter than a feather and it would still be enough, just by virtue of it being him. It lets Giles lean into the deep rooted thread in his psyche that finds comfort in instruction, in orders from Ossie specifically. He's fairly confident he won't be able to pull himself free.

"You may want to continue with the occasional threat, Shh- Number 420"

There's a blink and you'll miss it quirk of the lips before Giles falls into line to follow where he's lead.

[broshaw]

Sharky might as well be in the music video for "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" because he catches both the near-slip of his tongue and the ensuing near-smile at his number. He bobs his head in agreement, helping Ossie pull Giles towards a less violent patch of dome. It's either age or love that's making him prioritize Giles over a fight; he's inclined to believe it's the latter, given how much he wants to stomp the guy responsible for all this.

"Oh, I can threaten! You know me. I'm like a bull in a china shop. You gotta keep a hold of me unless you want me to whoop his ass!"