bath game

[animusmods]

Characters: characters participating in the bath game
Setting: a shower room
Format: any
Summary: bath time for the tower
Warnings: general horror/creepiness warnings

OOC INFORMATION

MINGLE
RITUAL

The elevator opens up into a huge bathroom lined with independent shower stalls. The room is large enough that there is a stall for every participant in the game. The structure of the room itself is entirely a polished, chrome-like metal with an impossibly sterile feeling to it, not unlike the rest of the bathrooms in the Tower.

The retrieval units lead the players to the stalls. Pulling back the curtain reveals that within the shower stalls are not actually showers, but old-fashioned claw foot tubs. The tubs, in sharp contrast to the metal of the room, don't look like they've ever seen a cleaning product. Rust and mineral deposit cover the taps and faucet. The tub itself is crusted with a build-up of minerals, soap scum, and mold. One threadbare white towel rests folded next to the tub, and a plain white bar of soap sits on top of the towel.

The players are then supplied with a piece of paper including instructions on what they are to do in the stall. If they're not able to read, it will be read to them. Judging by how the retrieval units guard the elevator, there is no leaving until the instructions are completed.

Better get to bathing.

Comments

MINGLE

[animusmods]

[onhigh]

[Madoka is nervous. Well, "afraid" might be a better word, but she doesn't want to show it, so she won't think it, either. Mind over matter, right? She stiffens her back and looks around for any familiar or in need of comfort faces, offering a wavering smile.]

There's... there's no such thing as real ghosts, are there...? It's just a trick to scare us. Isn't it?

[She laughs, but it's weak and awkward. Even she's not buying her own attempt at logic.]

[cullscuttlefish]

[Feferi hadn't struggled when the retrieval drones had come to pick her up that evening. She had been expecting it, to be quite frank, after all the mess that had been that month.

What she hadn't been expecting was the sight of a whole lot of ablution traps in one place. So the whole point was to come down here and...right. Uh-huh.

She shakes her head, when the drone presents her with the instructions. Feferi reads them, then says exactly what she's thinking:]

What the shell, Ruana?

[no_longer_a_king]

[Arturia stares blankly at the letter, then the tubs, then back to the letter. She'd not been pleased when the retrieval units came, had fought at first, and then allowed herself to be taken upon realizing others were being taken as well. Some of them looked defenseless and whatever was in store for them could not be good.

She looks suspiciously at the tubs, then to the others.]

Is everyone all right?

[doesnotgetit]

[Hakuno had put up a bit of a struggle when she was being dragged to the elevators, but she rather liked not being on the receiving end of violent force, so she calmed down once they were in the elevators.

Of course, this sudden kidnapping did little damage to her attitude, and after reading through the instructions she was given, she can only stare at the paper.]

So... we have to summon a ghost. That will haunt us. [Reading over the instructions again and yep, that is exactly what it sounds like.] So I guess we're not going to get any sort of explanation for why we're being forced to do this?

[snowdriftassassin]

"Oi, really mon? Couldn't dey at least have used a clean place? If we ain't dyin' from whatevah game we go through, we'll be dyin' from sum messed up disease..."

Xue wasn't a happy camper... Not when she had been dragged from an early nap tonight. She didn't put up much of a fight and normally a bath would have been right as rain to her but this place was just gross as hell.

[ghostytrainer]

[John resisting tower forces is kind of an oddity. Not once has he ever had to be dragged to get his collar checked or anything like that. But he hasn't seen his fiancee since she killed him Saturday night and he's more than a little worried right now. On top of that, he's cranky owing to the fact that he really can't sleep well without Rose next to him. All that being said, he's unconscious when he arrives in bathroom. Luckily, he doesn't stay that way for long.]

[He rubs at his head, getting to his feet and rubbing his eyes. He reads over the instructions once they're given to him, grimacing more and more with each line read.]

I don't have time for this, holy shit. [He crumples the paper up, stuffing it in his pocket as he glances towards the elevator door and then around the room at large. Welp.]

[notsogrimreaper]

[Ryoji's doing his best not to let his nerves show. There's so many other people stuck in this game, so he's hoping he can at least try to help them before the ritual.]

Before we get started here, is there anyone who needs help? We should probably go over the instructions...

Please remember to keep your eyes closed.

[tentacletrainer]

[[Rose seems completely disinterested in everything. She's mostly off to the side, surveying the gathering of people with an almost dead stare. There hadn't been any point to putting up a fight in her mind, and once it was her turn to enter one of the stalls she would without complaint. Whatever was going to happen, she probably deserved it.

She won't be the most bright and shiny conversation partner, but hey if you want to talk she won't turn you away either.]]

[myblueskies]

Romeo had gone quietly, having long learned that fighting only made things worse in the long term.

He took the instructions and read them carefully, it sounded really really complicated! Especially if they couldn't open their eyes to check what to do next.

He stood instructions in hand, staring at the bath tubs like they would eat him. They looked scary.

He took a deep breath, punched the air and looked around for anyone who might need help or cheering up. Some of the people who didn't have collars were here, and they would probably be even more confused and scared!

[doublechecks]

[Unlike the others, this man is just standing there with a non-chalant look on his face as he read the rules with a sigh.

Ghosts.

Well, he surmised that it could've been much worse than summoning a ghost, to be honest.

In any case, he's going to just wait around until his retrieval unit comes by to pick him up.]

[technologic]

[If there's one thing that April absolutely hates and fears, its ghosts. So she is really not pleased when she reads the instructions of what they have to do for this 'game', and she has to resist the urge to lash out and panic.

So instead, she crumples up the letter in her hands and crosses her arms tightly, looking at the stalls with a tense expression as she sighs shakily. Despite her attempts, she isn't able to completely hide how nervous she is about this.]

[pengeen]

[Kidou did put up a bit of a fight when the retrieval units fetched him for the game, but he realized it was a feeble attempt and gave up when they were nearing the elevator. He was expecting the worst when he saw all of the other people around him. He knew it was another experiment of some kind. But when the elevator stopped, he was surprised to see all of the stalls. What kind of experiment had to do with a bathroom... nothing he wants to even think about, that's for sure.

Once he's given the instructions, he reads them over a few times quietly. Alright so it deals with a ghost.. ok it's starting to meet expectations. But why did they have to undress?? Couldn't they just bathe in their clothes...

His face was starting to turn a little red and he lets out a sigh, visibly nervous. If it was one thing this place was good at doing, it was making him extremely uncomfortable.]

[hystericull]

[Oh, for fuck's sake, what now!?]

[Gamzee hadn't been in the mood to cooperate with the retrieval units this time around, so he was pretty banged up from resisting when he was finally shoved into the bathroom. As soon as he took in the setting, however, his face fell.]

[Motherfucker.]

[Him being selected for this was certainly a serendipitous act graced in the (admittedly overused, but still revered) humor subcategory of "irony" by the mirthful lords themselves. So, he couldn't be too upset. If he were truly as devout as he believed himself to be, it would probably be wise to laugh at this turn of events.]

[...No, he was still pissed.]

[He'd read the directions. Well, he tried. He wasn't all that great at reading, and he wasn't that great at paying attention, so his eyes were mostly trained on the carefully-guarded door.]

Someone get the motherfuckin' sudsies on a brother's back. Come on, I'll do yours if you fuckin' up and do mine.

[Did he give a shit about the paranormal aspect of this? No. His phobia lied solely in the bar of soap perched on top of that towel.]

[ladygreensleeves]

[England had put up a bit of a fight before she'd been taken and is sporting a nasty bruise on her forehead to prove it. Nonetheless, as she stands with everybody else, she doesn't let the fear she's feeling show. Stiff upper lip, she reads the instructions carefully, growing more and more uneasy. Her frown deepens the more she reads. This doesn't sound good at all. What is it? Some sort of test. She knows of ghosts, she's seen them before, but all of this is making her nervous. She folds the paper back up, crossing her arms over her chest and keeping quiet.]

[wweh]

[Eridan's not really used to this sort of thing. The drones take him kind of forcibly, because the amount of people that can get away with bossing Eridan around is a number that's pretty close to zero. one look at the tubs and Eridan looks awfully disgusted.]

You expect me to fuckin' take my ablutions in THAT? Fuck no. Couldn't even get a clean tub for me to wash in...

Though I suppose this could be fortuitous. Who wants to be washin' me down?

[His eyebrows are a-wagglin'.]

[demifemme]

When the retrieval units finally threw her into her stall, Shura was still holding on to the broken remains of one of her crutches, hissing and spitting like an angry cat even on her back. "COME BACK HERE YOU FUCKERS, I'LL FUCK YOU UP LIKE I FUCKED UP THE OTHERS!!!"

[mostremaining]

[Gilbert knew better than to mess with the retrieval units, so when they came, he followed them. When he reached the bathroom, he couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at the sight of the tub. He had bathed in worse places over the course of his history, but somehow this still disgusted him. Modern conveniences had softened him, clearly. Oh well.

The instructions are more than a little weird, but Gilbert decides he'll follow them. Better to follow them than experience whatever bizarre fate Ruana has devised for them.]

[drakenguard]

[Well, this situation was extremely aggravating. Yamato had, for the most part, allowed the retrieval units to escort him peacefully to this area, as he didn't particularly want to be dragged into a situation injured if it required all his limbs intact, but that didn't mean he liked this current situation any.

Why did they have to summon a ghost? And in...these disgusting tubs of all things. Yamato skin crawled just at the sight of the filthy stalls, and the man was anxiously tugging at his sleeves, or his gloves, as his hypochondriac side privately flipped out.

He would rather be drowned by the ghost than take a bath in those horrible things - which would require him to be in filthy water anyway, so this situation was pretty much lose-lose for him]

RITUAL

[animusmods]

[onhigh]

[As a general rule, Madoka has never been very good at following instructions to not do things when in stressful situations. This time, however, she has a chance to do something to distract herself, so following the rules shouldn't be too much to take. As long as everyone does what they're supposed to, everyone should be fine, right...?

So, into the stall she goes, eyes already shut just in case that could put her in danger even at the start. It's difficult going to remove her clothes and fumble around for the faucet without her sight, but she manages, even with her instinctive flinching at the scummy sides of the tub and the cold water.

Once in the tub, she wets her hair and starts washing it as quickly as she can. This is a bad place, and not a smart thing to be doing, but she doesn't have much of a choice, so getting it finished quickly is the only way.]

D... Daruma-san fell down. Daruma-san... fell down.

[cullscuttlefish]

[No sense waiting too long, Feferi thinks, pulling the stall curtain closed behind her as she steps inside and turns on the water. Her clothes go into a pile next to the towel, and she takes the soap with her. If the surface of the tub bothers her, she doesn't let it show - she's seen wrecked ships and such before.

As she steps into the tub and wets her hair, she just hopes no one tries to talk to her. She doesn't need to go telling anyone else to focus, not when she needs to focus herself.

Feferi starts washing her hair and speaking, chanting the words 'Daruma-san fell down' almost like someone would chant a prayer, calmly as she can manage. She has conversed with horrorterrors before; a ghost almost seems easy, in comparison.]

[snowdriftassassin]

[If there was one thing Xue learned from all those spiritual leaders and shaman and storytellers about ghosts and spirits, it was that you didn't mess with that shit if you didn't need to. The voodoo was strong, no matter how physically adept you were and the spirits could be as helpful as they could be vengeful and seeing as spirits could move mountains if they favored you... She wasn't looking to piss one off.

Granted, she didn't really have a choice in the matter at the moment. She read over the instructions over and over to make sure she understood every bit of it. Seemed easy enough though she wasn't too happy with having to call a ghost and then doing shit to piss it off...

She went along step-by-step; filling the tub with water, taking off her clothes without a care in the world (since really, what is shame?), then grimaced at the fact she'd have to sit down in that... she let out a sigh and sat down slowly facing the direction the paper had said.

Once that was all said and done, she closed her eyes and began washing her lengthy hair with as much haste as she can muster while doing the chant.]

Daruma-san fell down, Daruma-san fell down [Continuously...]

[notsogrimreaper]

[Ryoji's not looking forward to this... He has to force himself to stay calm, to breathe slow... almost let the side of him that's Death take over so he can handle the summoning. He runs the bath, takes a moment to get settled inside and pull the curtain closed, then as soon as he starts washing his hair, he lets his eyes fall shut, still trying to stay relaxed and in control.]

Daruma-san fell down. Daruma-san fell down...

[His voice wavers at first, but the more he says it, the more he starts to accept the situation, letting the sentence repeat over and over like a hypnotic chant.]

[wrigurun]

[The state of the bathtub didn't bother Wriggle too much, she'd bathed in worse places and honestly it was kind of nice to have a bath with warm water at all. It didn't seem like a particularly fun game and she hadn't been too happy about being dragged along with a group of other people she didn't know but by the looks of things she wasn't going anywhere until this was done. She seemed a little startled once the lights went out but adjusted quickly, half wishing she'd remembered to bring some fireflies to help illuminate the tub.

Washing her hair she started to realise it had been in dire need of a wash. Relaxing in the water she almost forgot that there was instructions to follow. It was only when she heard the chanting of the others that she shut her eyes and begun to chant too]

Daruma-san fell down, Daruma-san fell down...

[Well this was even more boring than she thought. The monotonous chanting over everyone else wasn't helping. In order to entertain herself she started to sing the words with a slightly jazzy flair]

Daruma-san fell down♪, Daurma-san fell down♪