❧ A New Frontier

[luministimods]

[the moment both the Neptune sundial and the stone sundial are destroyed, many things happen at once. the townspeople suddenly stop partying and depart for their homes/places of business while all the decorations from the festival suddenly disappear. another thing that disappears is the shield preventing people from heading up to the Mayor's house. it reappears in the exact condition it was in before. the roadway up to it is nice and clear, as are the rest of the rooms in the house. nothing has changed since the last time people were allowed in, except this time, everyone can proceed directly to the room where they previously had their confrontation with Caligin. from there, they only need to proceed through the only other door in the room, leading out into a hallway that will be familiar to those from last season, as well as to those who've seen the video the left curtain crew found. sadly, the doors are all locked and will not open under any means no matter how hard anyone tries.

however, keep going down the hall, and it will open up to a vast observation deck, with monitors on one wall, and the ghost of a logo (which faintly reads "Luministi Research Labs") on the opposite wall. through the vast glass windows, everyone can see the beautiful stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud beyond. the monitors show different areas of town--and if anyone has a keen eye, they'll notice they're connected to the cameras put up all around town. continue around to the left of the observation deck and you'll find doors leading to Lab #1, Lab #2, and Lab #4, but where Lab #3 should be, there is no door; just a gap as though Labs #2 and 4 have big rooms. look closely and someone just might find a trace of the blood that had been spilt there...

but the spacestation, for the most part, is empty. here and there, there are spare parts and broken bits of cameras identical to the ones in town, as well as tools to fix and repair them and other cables and cords in many coiled piles. there are even discarded food wrappers for preserved foods that definitely aren't found in town with expiration dates that say "12/546 SSC" lying scattered around temporary card tables and disposable plates and paper napkins.

seems someone vacated in a hurry... but as the residents will soon discover, the town drew in a few more people just before hell broke loose in the town.]


❧ Plot Details: A New Frontier

First of all, I bid a warm welcome to the last batch of new characters and players we've received! Sadly, this does mean that apps have now closed for this season, but they will reopen next year for the next season. I will say that you've arrived at a very interesting time in the game! You've come at the end of what would be the equivalent of a mid-season finale, but there'll be lots to hear about from the others so it won't be too hard to be brought up to speed ICly~ I'll be explaining things about the current plot in just a moment. Feel free to jump down past the dotted line if you'd like to skip the murder plot and quick-time explanations!

All right! Just from the discussions and stuff, I really did enjoy seeing how everyone interpreted the clues and what I gave you all. Granted, some are red herrings (or are they?!) and I did throw in a few. But to make this as easy (and short) as I can make it, I'll start with the murderer and the murders themselves and continue on from there!

The clues about the murderer's identity were the following: long, brown hair (though this I did split between two people), purple nail polish, a drawing of a flame, and tears with the sound of a woman crying. The purple nail polish links directly to the Audrey we heard in the video, and Audrey is the only one of the main NPCs who has long brown hair, but the flame and tears clues are trickier. The crying can both link to Audrey's misery over her brother dying last year and to the task that she's been given (which was alluded to in the video). The flame clue, admittedly, is the hardest, and is a direct link to "Ardes", Audrey's last name. It is a derivative of 'ardeo', or to burn, and a flame burns, so...yes. That is that!

Also, there were clues around town about how the initial murder happened. The rolling pin found under the fridge was used originally to knock the other Audrey out, but the chloroform had been used a second time to knock her out, and the rag/bottle were discarded separately. However, that is not how she was murdered. In her investigations, Xion found empty vials similar to one that Fuu found outside The Chrysalis, except the ones Xion found contained a tiny trace of a liquid that would kill you instantly, instead of making you sick over a span of a week like the poison found in Fuu's found vial. The instant death serum is how people in really died. People who were unfortunate enough to receive the "A" cards were made to hallucinate their awful deaths and for that short time, the deaths were very real--until the bodies reappeared all nice and alive, that is. People who got the "B" cards got the nice, peaceful deaths since that serum acted quickly, closing up the airways instantly so suffocation would be quick and it would be like you were passing out.

In the other Audrey's case, this is what happened: she was surprised and gagged by the chloroform-laced cloth and dragged out into the street in front of the bar. Both Audreys were cloaked at the time, and after other!Audrey was injected with the serum, the cloaking was removed and she was given a push so she'd land the way she did when people found her body. The scream that everyone heard came from the real Audrey as the other body was going down.

Now! The curtains! Everything that you needed to find the correct curtain was all the note. The right curtain, or #3, was the correct answer, and you could get this by counting the number of lines in the clue, the number of "arches" at the bottom, and the "get lucky" part of the note (which add up to three clues and hints to the number 3! Fun times~). The lucky thing, though, hints at the number 3 being a lucky number in some cultures. (And granted, the lucky number thing was a bit of a long shot...)

And the most recent quick-time itself. Remember that thing about some clues being possible red herrings? Well...some of the clues I gave originally in the town investigations/deaths were meant for this part of the plot, namely the hammer, the sun, and the two clock hands (though I noticed people used these to help with the curtains!) Well, the clock hands were meant to point you at the clocks in town, which there are five, including the one in the Town Hall. However! The sun was meant to hint you at them only functioning with sunlight, and the hammer...well. That was to foreshadow to the eventual destruction of the sundials. Also, in the most recent mod post, I hinted that the Town Features had a clue about which two objects, but I had said it was subtle. The clue I had hinted at was related to the odd phenomenon when you try to get to the mayoral residence too many times. You go from that corner of the town directly to the lake. And the two objects that happen to be right there at the two points in that journey are the Neptune sundial and the stone sundial in the park.

Regardless of how you came to the answers, I was so happy to see everyone plotting, planning and having fun. It was awesome to see your theories and everything!

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OKAY! On to new plot stuff! As you saw, Luministi has...sort of gone to hell a bit. The town is still in operation and will be set back to normal "default" looks soon, though the things that were destroyed in the quick-time will remain ruined for now. And...for a day, those who were incorrect will remain in jail. (And you won't be able to break out either. All powers are nullified while inside the cells.) Fortunately, the jail cell doors will unlock themselves once that day's time is over, though for the most part, the deputies--as well as the rest of the townspeople--will ignore you. And that goes for anyone who ventures through town. The NPCs will not take note of you, but will dodge you if you get in their way so it'll only seem like they're ignoring you on purpose, but throw a ball in their path and they'll ignore that as well. Odd.

As for other things that have been damaged previously, like people's clothing and such, those things are as good as new! No more holey clothing! And those who lost their faces will be reunited with them again. Yeah for real faces!

People can now freely traverse through the Mayor's house to the open areas of the spacestation! I will note that the only way you can get out of town is through the Mayor's House. The hallway and the observation deck are the only open things at the moment (and there are lavatories and vending areas available within the observation deck so people won't have to run back into town for things if they don't want to), and Lab #3 has gone missing (how, well...who knows yet), but that is only the start. There is much fun to come, but this new obstacle should be fun to traverse.

Oh, three things to note. One, at the very end of the observation deck, there is a deadlocked sealed door that has fresh drops of blood splattered on the glass--but you can only see it if you shine a light through it into the darkened hallway beyond. Two, like the door at the end of the observation deck, no other doors in the area can be opened, broken into, jiggled, etc--nor can the rooms beyond be portaled into at all.

And three: you know those cameras in town? Some of them have turned up in different places in the observation deck as well as at various points in the long hallway, but the video feeds for these ones can't be found anywhere in the observation deck or in town.

But yes! That is it for this post. This is your plot break, so take a breather, relax in town or hang out and explore the available areas in the spacestation and the Mayor's house.

On the business end of things, we only have one person in danger after the recent Activity Check, who will have another three days to get in touch with me before being removed from the game! We will have another one come August 14th!

And...I believe that is it from me! If you have any question, comments, etc, go ahead and leave them here! Enjoy your time of peace, everyone~ ♥