angryhearts | to lose all my senses

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to lose all my senses —

THAT IS JUST SO TYPICALLY ME

It's not clear how many days it's been since you arrived in Wonderland. With it stuck in perpetual twilight, it could have been days, perhaps longer — everything starts to blur together, in this artificially joyful place. Maybe you've started to feel like you you're getting used to it, maybe not...

But eventually, something happens to break the monotony. Your ears begin to ring, and ring, and ring and then — stop. The lights become blinding, forcing you to squeeze your eyes shut and try to rub the afterimage of all that light from them — but when you open your eyes, you still can't see.

The staff don't understand when you ask them what's happened to you. "You've always been like this", they insist. They sign at you, or try to hand you papers written in braille — if you insist you've never signed in your life, or that you can't read braille, they laugh at your funny joke. You begin to wonder — have you always been this way? You were so sure... But everyone around you is equally sure of their truth, and their voices are so much louder.

As if that weren't enough, nothing in the hotel can be found in the same place twice. All the shops keep switching places, once you enter one area it's as though everything shifts in the minutes before you leave again. Getting back to your room is a struggle — where are the elevators? Finding food is nearly impossible — the Pig & Pepper was there, but now it's not. The staff are equally useless here — they have no idea what you mean about moving shops. Where would you want to move to when all your needs are accounted for right here?

What is going on?

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL — 5/11

The day starts like any other has in the Hotel — unsure if a new day has started at all. Perpetual twilight and lack of clocks makes it difficult to tell time here in the Hotel, but on this particular day, something breaks up the monotony. It begins slowly — or else it happens all at once. Over the course of the day, all Oysters find themselves losing a sense. Staff don't understand their complaints — you've always been like this, they say, gentle, as though to a person in the middle of a break with reality.

Losing your temper won't help, either. Oysters who shout and yell will find staff remaining frustrating calm and compassionate, insisting that they cannot fix what has always been and murmuring about Mad March before taking their leave. Physical aggression may result in a spike of fear, but staff will quickly make their exit and may avoid that Oyster for a while.

If that wasn't enough, nothing in the Hotel is staying put.

IT'S LIKE A MAZE IN HERE — 5/11

The interior of the Hotel has ceased to remain stationary. Beginning at the same time as the loss of senses, the establishments of the Hotel begin to jump around, never staying in the same place twice. An Oyster may have entered the Pool of Tears from the lobby, but exit it into the middle of the casino. The Pig & Pepper Buffet is never in the same place twice, and always seems to move right when Oysters desperately need a meal.

Even as the old shops move, new establishments seem to be being added, but they aren't easy to find — Oysters will see a new sign across the building from where they are, only to see it's moved again by the time they get there. If you take your eyes off an establishment as you head toward it, it disappears and reappears elsewhere. Making it to the new establishments will take some time and dedication (or perhaps plain stubbornness), but there are rewards in it for any Oyster that can manage the feat!

Back To Rights — 5/15

A few days after the effects of the event begin, they just as suddenly end. Sight, hearing, speech — they all return in a rush, possibly overwhelmingly so, and when one tries to make their way to a shop, it stays exactly where it was when they first saw it, and they exit the exact same place they entered. Staff will react much the same way as they did when they were questioned after the loss of senses — you've always been like this.

You made it through, Oysters. You've completed your first event in the Hotel.

We hope you enjoy this first event, Oysters! If you have any questions, please leave them on the first comment to this page. Happy playing!

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Mikumo nods as if committing the name to memory, watching his lips more closely when he says it as if to make sure she doesn't miss it. She might fudge the pronunciation a bit the first time they meet again after this, but at least she knows what to try to replicate.

Work, thankfully, is an easy thing to talk about as she starts moving again, keeping a close eye on things around them. "I'm a singer. Part of a tactical sound unit called Walküre. We were picked specifically because our singing had an effect on a strange condition that was driving people to violence in our planetary cluster, so we mostly sung on battlefields. What about you?"

Ignoring that Mikumo probably just generated a thousand questions with that explanation, which she said like it's the most normal thing ever.

That actually didn't seem to hard to understand for him. There were things he didn't get like planetary cluster but making music on a battlefield is something he can relate to.

"I'm a cultivator. What that means is I use energy to fight. Most cultivators use their spiritual energy but I use dark energy. And..I actually use a flute to control it. So I use music to fight my battles as well."

He uses corpses and spirits and controls them to fight..but that sometimes doesn't get the best reaction so he holds onto that bit of information for now.

Mikumo hums curiously - she sees power in music more often through singing, but she can't see why it wouldn't be possible with another kind of instrument too.

"In my case, it's more that mine and my friends' voices have a particular uncommon trait to them that makes them work on this specific condition. So perhaps a bit less flexible than your example, though there are rare singers who can affect things more widely."

Mikumo is one of them, which she doesn't mention because that opens up a rather nasty can of worms she's quite happy ignoring until she has to open it.

"People tend to fear darkness and unknowns. Did you seek out that method or fall into it?"

"A little of both? I lost the ability to use spiritual so the only way I could continue what I was doing was to use the dark arts. And I kind of fell into a place where if I didn't then I was going to die."

Literally fell..from the sky..into a burial mounds. Long complicated story.

"But it was frowned upon in my world so I wasn't the most popular person for using it."

Mikumo can't say she's surprised about that last part, though the way he puts it gets a dry laugh out of her. "I can imagine. Sometimes people have to reach low to defend themselves, but people who haven't been in that position are often ready to judge regardless of the situation."

Since her whole life has been war, she has a fairly flexible lens as regards the morality of that sort of thing. If he's doing it to protect himself and not hurt innocent people, she doesn't really see the issue.

"Though I suppose I see it more often with people who haven't adjusted to the battlefield yet. Newcomers who aren't prepared to take an enemy's life to protect civilians even though they know what they signed up for."

Mikumo phrases it like something she's completely used to, even though it's understandable for it to be a moral quandary to people who've only just entered a war for the first time.

"For us..civilians don't have to actually go to war. Cultivators are the only ones that are supposed to fight. But sometimes clans try to show how powerful they are by destroying those that can't possibly defend themselves. War is just a terrible thing for anyone to have to deal with..but it should be left to those that know how to handle it."

He hates to see anyone have to fight, especially fight other people. When it's the dead that they are fighting it is a little more clear cut. Release them, send them back to death and be done with it.

"I wouldn't call it 'civilians going to war', they're trained into soldiers before anyone actually lets them onto the field. The experienced ones know who's going to get themselves killed the moment they set foot on a battlefield and hold them back until they either quit or learn the lessons they need to learn."

Or at least cover their asses until they do, in the case of some of the recent newcomers to the squadron Mikumo works with. She definitely didn't envy Messer that job for the brief time he had it.

"But civilians usually get tangled up in it even if they're not the soldiers. Especially in our case, since that condition I mentioned my singing works against causes people to become uncontrollably violent, and it's quite random who it affects."

"I understand that..Although my power is supposed to only affect the dead, but sometimes the dead don't like to listen."

And when the dead don't listen..lots of people get hurt. "Do you get to sing out of enjoyment at all? Can you turn your power off?"

At least for him, he can play his flute without using the dark cultivation.

Mikumo laughs at that, though it's something of a bitter thing. "You know, I didn't think about singing for enjoyment until recently. I enjoy singing, but that wasn't why I was doing it. That said, the 'power' only really makes a difference if there's people around with that condition. Outside of that, it's just like I'm singing 'normally' anyway, so I don't have to turn it off."

That said, his remark about the dead does have her curious, so she comes back to that after her own comment has given her time to mull on it. "So you're a...necromancer is the word, isn't it? It's not something I ever ran into in my world."

"Well in this place you don't have to worry about your power at all, right? So might as well enjoy singing while you can!"

He considers that word. It's one that people around here seem to be putting with him and it does kind of fit. "Yes..I guess in a way I am a necromancer. My ability involves spirits, ghosts, corpses..but I don't really raise them as much as I control the ones that are already around."

"It's difficult when the rest of my group isn't here, but I think they'd want me to try anyway," Mikumo admits, though her voice is more gently amused than anything, the emotion the words imply not quite seeming to carry through. She tends to have a slightly odd way of expressing things, given her short history.

"I suppose people still consider it death magic either way. I can see why people would be opposed to it if you're actually forcing people to live again when they shouldn't be or don't want to, but if it's more a case of moving them to do something and then returning them to rest, that sounds more like people are just being precious about it."

"Maybe there are others here that would enjoy singing with you." He hasn't ever really tried to sing, but he is musically inclined.

"Well, I've done some bad things with it so I'm not surprised that people don't like it. War is like that though..You always tend to do things you regret."

"I don't think it would be the same, but then, it can't hurt to try something new," is her answer to that - she doesn't exactly sound reluctant, but it does sound like trying new things is something she doesn't do very often.

She gives a hum of agreement to his remark about war, though. "There doesn't tend to be much of a choice, when it comes down to it. You either do something you'll be thinking about long into the future or stand by and let something just as scarring happen to the people around you."

Her gaze finally catches on something that looks out-of-place. She's not completely sure it's the restaurant, but it looks like one of the businesses and it definitely isn't there normally, so she turns their trajectory a bit down the hall it's lurking at the end of.

He notices a little hesitation in her step and a slight change in their direction. "Is something wrong?" He doesn't sense or hear anything out of the ordinary but that isn't saying a lot. He has to rely on her if there is some sort of trouble. He doesn't expect any in this place but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

"Just noticed something that wasn't there when I came through earlier. I can't tell if it's the restaurant from this distance, though," she says, though she sounds a little thrown off by that second thing. She knew from the moment she arrived her that her senses had been dulled a bit to bring her in line with a normal human, but it's only now she's had to apply those muted senses to anything particularly pressing.

That said, while she managed to catch that short question in her peripherals, she's not sure she'd be able to get anything longer right now. "I might not be able to answer you for a little bit, the last time I tried to catch one of these places it disappeared when I took my eyes off it."

Can't watch a doorway and watch someone's lips at the same time, so she's going to set the latter aside until she's caught the doorway and can tell him what it is.

Wei Wuxian just nods to show he understands and moves a little closer to her just so if they have to move quickly that he can sense the urgency to do so. He closes his eyes as if that actually will do anything, but it almost makes him feel like he can concentrate better as he listens to her and waits for her to figure out what might be going on.

Mikumo does start to move a little faster after a moment, but it's only so she's sure she can catch the door before she has to blink. Once she does...

...unfortunately, the sound of water will become audible to her companion at that point, and Mikumo lets out a sigh of discontent.

"The pool. It was worth a shot, I suppose. At least we didn't land in it somehow."

Considering the weird issues that have come up with the pool previously, she'll take that victory.

This place really was strange.."The pool shouldn't be before the bar..this place really is just trying to frustrate us."

He usually really likes the pool but he thinks that maybe visiting that when he can't see anything would be a bad combination.

"What should we do?"

"It's been mixing itself up since this whole sensory strangeness started. I'd be shocked if it wasn't intentional," Mikumo says, sounding a little dour about the whole thing. She initially compared it to an experiment when it started, that sort of thing being her nearest comparison point, but what's gone on since then definitely hasn't done anything to do away with that initial take.

"There's not much of an option but to try other doorways and see where we get. I've found the restaurant to be particularly evasive, but if we've both been looking for it for a while maybe we'll have better luck actually catching it. Odds in our favour, or something along those lines."

"not going able to actually look makes things a little more difficult.." It's not like they have two sets of eyes keeping close watch on the rooms. He wishes he wasn't so useless in this trial.

"I wish I could help more."

"That's true, but I have a feeling it's not in their interests to let us outright starve to death," Mikumo guesses, taking a look around the Pool of Tears and what exit options they have. If they were going to let people die this quickly, why even take them in the first place?

"It's no matter, anyway. I suggest we take a few more doors and see how it turns out."

She begins to guide him over towards the other side of the pool, before pausing and instead turning back the way they came. Perhaps the less traditional route might help them more here.

"I'd say you should leave me somewhere so you could travel faster..but we'd probably never see each other again..uh..feel each other?" Can't see, can't hear..what terminology does one even use? He's only half teasing about getting left behind, not that she can hear any sort of teasing tone.

He continues to follow along, not wanting to say too much so that she can focus on where she wants to go.

"There's a good chance I wouldn't be able to find my way back, yes," Mikumo remarks. She imagines the other man would find it just about impossible to track her down when he isn't used to having lost his sight, so she feels she doesn't even need to point that out.

They pass through the door, and it leads out to one side of the casino, where there shouldn't even be a doorway normally. There's nothing to turn back to, so Mikumo proceeds to the next door, which spits them out near the end of a corridor that looks somewhat familiar.

Mikumo turns around so they're not facing the hall side, and realises why it looks familiar. "Ah. We might have something, give me a few more seconds."

She's usually more pragmatic about this sort of thing, but honestly, the sensory loss has been jarring enough for her that she doesn't mind taking the extra moment or two to clarify that they're making progress. Her steps down the hall are faster and more determined, like she wants to catch something before it goes away.

Wei Wuxian let's her continue to guide and stays quiet for now so that she an concentrate. He can hear the sounds of the casino when they enter it so he has a vague knowledge of the rooms once they are there. But the fact that the track they are taking shouldn't end up in these places is still rather disorienting.

But he keeps up and feels encouraged when she says they might have finally found a potential lead to their actual destination.

Mikumo is rather fast about this sort of thing once she's decided on a destination, so after a few moments, they move through another door and into the familiar sounds and smells of the restaurant.

"We came from the casino into the corridor to the restaurant. I wasn't completely sure the door would lead here this time, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try," she admits. Then again, if everyone's expecting things to be in entirely different places by this point, then why wouldn't it show up in the actual place once or twice just to mess with them?

THAT IS JUST SO TYPICALLY ME

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL — 5/11

IT'S LIKE A MAZE IN HERE — 5/11

Back To Rights — 5/15

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