This post was last modified: Mar 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM by Momoyo Himemushi.

Momoyo Himemushi
Nnnnnngh. I have to give him credit, I'm still feeling the shock. But I'll be happy to let Reginald have this one.

As for the rest of you, though... I believe we've got another night ahead of us.

Honoka Kosakatua
If we have to have another murder, at least let's solve it.

Hollywood Bowl
Well, at least the weather looks kind of clear. Maybe that'll be helpful?

Agent Evangeline
I feel like maybe you shouldn't have said that.

Momoyo Himemushi
Good idea! Let's see... what can we do to fix that? I know!

Momoyo rises into the air, and seems to make a call of some kind. It's too high-pitched to hear... but soon, a buzzing starts.

Bees. Millions of bees fly over the mountain ridge and down into Silver Junction, beginning to buzz and hover around the whole exterior era of the town. The three NPCs look around, concerned.

Momoyo Himemushi
Meet your weather condition for tonight! Don't worry, they're harmless... as long as you are.

Oh, and I can tell you're worried about weather. You know who wasn't? Reginald. Want to be like him? If you attempt tonight, then on ONE night in the future, you can choose to prevent that night's weather from applying to you.

Honoka Kosakatua
Is it too late to attempt and use it against the bees?

Momoyo Himemushi
Yes.

Hollywood Bowl
Darn.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Tonight's weather is Bees. Millions of bees have temporarily inhabited Silver Junction. The bees are largely harmless, but any overtly physically offensive actions taken while outside, such as stabbing or punching someone, will agitate them and cause them to sting you into unconsciousness. Stuff like shooting a gun is still safe, however.

THE MAP (Credit to Yap for the centipede graphic!)

First Floor: Show

Purple Building
Desert Sage Dorm: One of the three large dorm rooms. This one is decorated with a bunch of desert flowers.
Sheriff's Office: The office of the one lawman in the town. Contains an officer's desk, several guns, and the Jail Cell.
Jail Cell: A jail cell, to, unsurprisingly, jail people. Anyone who starts their night in the jail cell is inflicted with Jailbird upon exiting.
General Store: A store stocked with all sorts of dry goods. The destination for all items you could want in the Wild West that aren't stocked elsewhere! There's a locked trapdoor in the floor.
Army Post: A well-equipped military depot, with everything from rations to weapons that a handful of soldiers might need.

Blue Building
Lobby: This building is fully modern, unlike the old-timey other five buildings. The glass-walled lobby full of plush chairs to sit in is a great example.
Theater: An old fashioned movie theater with modern projection equipment. Perfect for screening Wild West films after making them!
Archives: A large number of filing cabinets sit in this room, full of information on past Wild West film shoots that took place in Silver Junction. The door is locked.
Executive Office: A fancy, plush office with a large chair and larger desk, for whoever's in charge of the current movie productions.

Green Building
Prickly Pear Dorm: One of the three large dorm rooms. This one is decorated with a bunch of cacti.
Chapel: A non-denominational chapel to pray to whatever you may choose to pray to. We don't judge.
Newspaper: A room to run off the day's paper, complete with a printing press and a few desks for the newshounds.
Bank: A fancy, well-equipped bank, complete with a manager's office and plenty of tellers - as well as some money lying around. The back has a large vault door.
Vault: A locked vault behind a large vault door in the bank. It looks very complex to open, and it's marked High Security.

Yellow Building
Saloon: The big bar of Silver Junction. Lots of booze behind a bar, a piano with curtains on the side, plenty of tables, and of course every door is the swinging saloon doors.
Gun Store: A store selling all kinds of guns, from pistols to shotguns to rifles. Free to take and use to all customers!
Farrier: A small shop containing everything one could need to take care of a horse properly.
Stable: A stable currently inhabited by four horses. Whoever stocked them was cheeky enough to pick a red horse, a black horse, a white horse, and a pale gray horse.

Orange Building
Century Agave Dorm: One of the three large dorm rooms. This one is decorated with a bunch of low-growing desert plants.
Blacksmith: With a furnace at full blast, this blacksmith's shop is fantastic for making metal tools.
Carpenter: This room is full of woodworking tools and wood to work with for those tools.
Ruined Mine: The collapsed remains of a mineshaft, creating a deep hole in the middle of the building. Plenty of rocks to poke at if you want.
Mineral Storage: A place to store whatever minerals were dredged up from the mine when it was active. It's full of pyrite.
Mining Equipment: A large room, full of shovels, pickaxes, and any other non-explosive mining equipment your heart could possibly desire.
Explosives Storage: A room with plenty of dynamite, blasting caps, and whatever else you'd need for a big boom. The door is locked.

Red Building
Train Platform: An open-air platform for people to wait for the train. Contains a few clocks and a few benches.
Passenger Lounge: A comfortable waiting area and ticket counter for people to relax while waiting for the train.
Post Office: A small station to store, sort, and receive letters, of which there are currently a blizzard's worth.
Telegraph Office: An office to send and receive telegrams up and down the line. The door is locked.
Locomotive: A full-sized steam locomotive with a tender, three passenger cars, and a caboose attached. Several necessary parts of the engine have been removed, so it's not going anywhere.

Exterior Locations
Cemetery: A graveyard. It's currently devoid of graves beyond a few old headstones, but that could very well change here.
Livestock Corral: A small pen, holding several cattle. There's also a few chickens, for some reason.
Water Tower: An elevated water tower. It contains, surprise, water.
Plot: A roped off and well-tilled plot of land. Community garden in progress.
Outhouses: A pair of new outhouses constructed by Reginald Fikwerther in a more useful location.
Outhouse Crater: There was a bathroom here. It's gone now.

Second Floor: Show

Purple Building
Officer's Club: A fancy bar meant for army officers. With the lack of those in the vicinity, it's become open to all.
Schoolhouse: A small, one-room school. Well equipped for general lessons, less well equipped for specialized.
Mayor's Office: The office of the Mayor of Silver Junction, holding all kinds of documents and records relating to the old town.
Courthouse: The judicial location of the county, back in the day. Contains a judge's bench, witness stand, desks for attorneys, and a jury box.
Hallway: An ordinary hallway to connect the 2F rooms in the purple building. There's some paintings on the walls, at least.

Blue Building
Soundstage: A big soundstage, perfectly designed for filming. There's a few different backdrops available to choose from, all fitting the Wild West theme.
Film Equipment: A storage room for the movie set building, holding the camera equipment and plenty of props for any Western you care to film.
Recording: A soundproof room for recording voice. Full of recording equipment, ranging from the gramophone to the modern systems.
Breakroom: A comfortable room to relax in during all the filming. Has several couches and tables, a coffee machine, and a fridge.

Green Building
Tailor: Plenty of clothing lies around in this store, all of it befitting the Wild West aesthetic on display.
Laundry: A hand-wash laundry, with everything you need to wash 'em and dry 'em both.
Barbershop: A fancy barbershop, equipped well for both haircuts and dentistry as necessary.
Law Office: The office of the town's only lawyer. Contains difficult-looking legal books in a row, a nice desk, and far too many papers.
Tobacconist: A tobacco shop, full of plenty of cigars, cigarettes, and chewing tobacco to imitate whatever noir or western trope you desire.

Yellow Building
Restaurant: A nice restaurant, complete with a small kitchen. Unimpressive compared to the OCGA Central Facility.
Gambling Parlor: A smoke-filled room set up for all sorts of games of chance and luck.
Brewery: A room set up for the easy production of moonshine. Saloon's gotta stay supplied, right?
Hotel: A small hotel with a few beds set up for sleeping. Perfect for quick layovers.

Orange Building
Doctor's Office: A basic doctor's office, for taking care of injuries in the West. Contains various doctor's tools, a cot, and a locked medicine cabinet.
Funeral Home: An undertaker's room, to work on laying to rest the deceased. When there's not a constant supply of them you can't keep up with, that is.
Pharmacy: With plenty of cheap drugs, nothing here is as good as the medicine in the Doctor's Office, but it can still come in handy.
Target Range: A shooting gallery set up to practice your gunplay. If you didn't bring your own, it's got plenty of guns and ammo ready to go.
Trading Post: A small trading post that caters specifically to selling to the miners, rather than the open nature of the general store.

Red Building
Railworker Quarters: A small sleeping area for employees of the railroad. It's got beds and not much else.
Station Storage: A storage room located in the train station. Contains various parts for the track and gear for employees.

Exterior Locations
Water Tower: An elevated water tower. It contains, surprise, water.

Basement Floor: Show

Green Building
Crimson Eye Liturgic Research Laboratory: A complex lab designed to study the nature of Liturgic Esotera, the magic of faith. Set up by the paranormal crime gang, the Crimson Eye. The staircase heads up to the Vault.
Liturgic Study Records: Years' worth of records on the Crimson Eye's experiments in Silver Junction.
Liturgic Equipment Room: A room full of the high-tech experimental equipment developed based on the Liturgic experiments.
Liturgic Testing Range: A room with a sealed chamber and an observation area, designed to test equipment in relative safety.

LIVING PLAYERS
Desert Sage Dorm
-@Not Shane
-@North Star
-@Bud
-@Madame Zalsarona
-@Hifumi
-@Cascabela
-@Elster
-@Hollywood Bowl (NPC)

Prickly Pear Dorm
-@Partitio Yellowil
-@Akira Kogami
-@Strong Bad
-@Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
-@Lynne
-@Agent Evangeline (NPC)

Century Agave Dorm
-@Derek Stiles
-@Ranger
-@Roland
-@Kroos the Keen Glint
-@Nico Yazawa
-@McJango
-@Honoka Kosakatua (NPC)

???
-@Momoyo Himemushi (NPC Observer)
-@Mizzlebip (Wraith)

Submissions are due in 48 hours, at 10 PM EST on March 5th.

(Liturgic power and a basement for studyin' and monitorin' it… Spencer Edwards… A Chapel devoid o' any symbols o' faith… Jabberwock Castle and some kinda Oh-See-Gee-A Facility… Bifelgan, help me not to make a damn fool outta myself, but the thought's rattlin' in my skull that I got a way to stoke the fires of this investigation…)

Atteeeentioooon! Can I get y'all's attention, please! Come on now, don't be shy! Gather round, 'cause I got an offer for tonight you'll go home kickin' yourselves if ya miss it!

We've had ourselves a long few days here in Silver Junction. Ace, Roland, you've taken some licks. Kroos, Ranger, you've both put up some fine fightin' from the sound of it. And Bud, you put up with plenty of nonsense in the kitchen 'fore you could get a bite. I reckon it's time we could all use a day o' rest, and I'll be a dry tongue in a cow's mouth 'fore I know any western towns that don't got a regular service. So…

Let's have ourselves a service in the Chapel in the back half of tonight!

I ain't much of a man of the cloth, but I've picked up enough travelin' round the world to lead a sermon or two, so I'll take the pulpit. While everyone's tricklin' in, we can swap tales 'bout the faiths from whence all we came. Reckon it might be nice to learn what kinda beliefs they got in Madam Zee's homeland, or if ol' North Star's got any angels or whatnots from his parts.

But for the main event, once everyone's gathered… Well, s'long as we're all stuck here, I figure we might as well learn about what your average Silver Junction chapelgoer was worshippin'! I'm sure Mr. Bowl would appreciate an authentic service like they had in the bygone days here for his film, so let's gather 'round to give Atua a round of praise like in the olden days.

And don't you worry none! I ain't plannin' to kill no one at this gatherin'. A chapel just ain't the place for that. I'll be expectin' that y'all come on your best behavior, too. Bring a weapon if ya gotta, long as you don't go usin' it, but leave those cloaks and disguises behind. Any sign of trouble, and believe you me, you'll find out that this stallion has a nasty kick. I'll make sure those bees ain't gonna bother us none, either. Just mind that hole in the floor when you make your way in.

I won't go turnin' away anyone who shows up intent on behavin', so you come if you'd like, Akira. In the Chapel at least, we'll let bygones be bygones. I reckon Mr. Bowl can even film the whole event so we can show Momoyo down the line!

If yer up for it, I'd be mighty indebted to you if you'd cater, Madam Zee, and Roland and Ranger, why, I'd be obliged if you'd secure Reginald's body and bring it to the event. Way I hear it is that we'll want a corpse handy for proper worship.

Oh and one last thing. When I say anyone, I mean anyone. Spencer, door's open to you too! I reckon you ain't gonna wanna stay out in these conditions!

But for the main event, once everyone's gathered… Well, s'long as we're all stuck here, I figure we might as well learn about what your average Silver Junction chapelgoer was worshippin'! I'm sure Mr. Bowl would appreciate an authentic service like they had in the bygone days here for his film, so let's gather 'round to give Atua a round of praise like in the olden days.

HIFUMI!!

A word, bubberje.



I want to say I am very disappointed.

I saw what happened last night, all of it. Nedsh, what you have done to poor Doctor Fake Stiles... it was disgusting and immoral.
I know that sometimes it is hard to see line drawn in the sand, but... really, this was way beyond it. You owe the man an apology.



I mean, for sake of the heavens, pouring cigar ash onto his sandwiches when he was not looking?
What a TERRIBLE thing to be doing to a cook!

Have you no shame to be wasting precious ingredients like this??
First Partitio goes mad and poisons our meat, then Strong Bad makes a killer potato, and now you too??
We are in DESERT! We have such limited food to begin with!

And for what is it? Is this meant to be funny? Are you one of those TicTac creators on the interweb?

I feel sorry for Derek now, who is probably thinking about this culinary irresponsibility.
You should reach out a hand towards him and make amends.



Also clean the blender. I don't know what you did with it but it is filthy!

If yer up for it, I'd be mighty indebted to you if you'd cater, Madam Zee,

Ah... I am very honored by your invitation and will try to attend your service.
But also I am terrible sorry, I was planning to run an errand this night and cannot attend kitchen.



Lynne, are you able to handle this maybe?
I am promoting you to Deputy Chef.

I'm as sure of this as I am coal comes out the ground, believe me. Why, someone's gone and went to all this trouble of monitorin' the place for this kind o' event exactly. Why not see just what they were so intent on catchin'? 'Sides, if ol' Spencer's out there, I can't think of much that'll catch his eye like this.

And not a problem, Madam! Best to ya on your errands. Mind the bees.

Oh! Really? I was going to try to redeem myself as bodyguard anyway, but sure, I would be glad to take care of catering!



You can count on me! Go do whatever you need to do, I can take care of the kitchen!

As the sun sets, you hear the faint sound of an approaching helicopter.

The dying light reveals some finer details about the seemingly military-style chopper. Clad in a vibrant purple and white, the aircraft seems to have been retrofitted with multiple over-the-top machine guns, missile launchers, and drone housing units. The landing gear looks untouched, clean as the day it was stolen.

A megaphone crackles to life as the pilot lets her vehicle hover in place - it looks like she's leaning against the exit door, now wide open. Like the mime that came before her, she too has a painted face. But, unlike Mizzlebip's vacant smiles, this one holds a stern frown as her eyes quickly scope out the set below, before settling on the enormous centipede sprawled across the mountains.

That must be the host.



Z: HEY!!! CENTIPEDE!!!



Z: YOU MIND IF I DROP IN?!?



Z: I HAVE A PERMIT!!
Z: fuck it i'm going in anyway





Z: oof!



Z: ok
Z: where is mizzlebip

Z: ok
Z: where is mizzlebip

Ah, you must be leader of the "Gen Z" I keep hearing about!
That is good timing.



You can take accountability for creating TicTacs and leading
so many impressionable youths astray with bad cooking instruction!

Roland and Ranger, why, I'd be obliged if you'd secure Reginald's body and bring it to the event. Way I hear it is that we'll want a corpse handy for proper worship.

Hah... I appreciate you thinking I'm reliable enough to trust with that kind of task, but I don't think I'll be showing up.

Don't get me wrong. Can't say I don't appreciate the express invite - and I don't mean any offense to you or the deceased, but the way you're talking about this... It sets off a couple alarms, if you know what I mean. Call it a gut feeling, or call it something else. All I know is, I've only gotten this far by listening to that tug on my insides, so I'll do what I gotta do to make sure the rest of you get the message too.



...Yellowil, you seem to know a thing or two about Atua and his worship, enough to recommend we bring a body along, like a piece of meat to slap on the table as an offering. You said you've heard you need a corpse handy, and I'd be awful curious to learn your source. When it comes to information brokers, it's hard to come across a reliable guy these days, right?

But your source, well... Unless you're hiding something from the rest of us while pushing this ceremony of yours, maybe they didn't give you the whole picture. Happens to the best of us, yeah? But I'm happy to fill in a couple blanks. Working as a Fixer, I've heard about this Atua before, whispers here and there in the dark corners of the backstreets - which is why I'm gonna say this once.






This Atua you're looking to hold a ritual for... he's a god alright. 'Least that's what people call him.

The god of murder. Violence. Blood sacrifice.

I'll pretend like I'm one of those Bureau of Paranormal Investigation guys who understands this stuff for a sec and give it to you straight: This is a bad idea. I've been around those labs they keep locked up downstairs, I've read all their scientific... stuff. This place's a wellspring of Liturgic something-or-other, and I can puzzle out what means at least. You really think it's clever to try something like this when we're already dropping without divine intervention?

Whatever's going on here, not even the Crimson Eye wanted that Deathborn guy messing with it... What makes you think you're cut out for it?



Hah... You wanna try it anyway? Be my guest. That's that, and this is this. It's no skin off my back either way. Just count me out - and don't be surprised if this doesn't turn out the way you're expecting. Where I'm from, if you go around asking for trouble, more often than not, you'll find it answers you loud and clear.

All I'm saying is... better hope that when you go knocking on that door, there's nobody home - only silence on the other side.

Bud go see bees. Bees good friend.

This post was last modified: Mar 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM by Hifumi.

Sorry, Madame, it was a lapse in judgement. Someone I know took up smoking once and it resulted in some of the younger ones trying to copycat. It was a whole incident but the church managed to cover it up with some outside help. The whole ordeal really drove home how harmful such things can be so when we arrived here and came across a whole shop just for it i knew i needed to dispose of it all before it could cause more harm.

As for the blender, I'll have you know I make sure to clean all cooking implements when appropriate. As the Gourmet Research Society would tell you, the quality of a dish is proportional to the care the cook puts into their implements!

Hah... You wanna try it anyway? Be my guest. That's that, and this is this. It's no skin off my back either way. Just count me out - and don't be surprised if this doesn't turn out the way you're expecting. Where I'm from, if you go around asking for trouble, more often than not, you'll find it answers you loud and clear.

All I'm saying is... better hope that when you go knocking on that door, there's nobody home - only silence on the other side.[/color]

You've got grit, Roland! More than enough of it to spare, even. Weaker folks woulda turned tail from this without sayin' a word, but you've got it in ya to offer up a word o' warnin'. Losin' someone as reliable as you for this ain't ideal, but I gotta respect a man who goes a hollerin' through town at the first whiff of smoke.

I ain't gonna fool with tuckin' away any info on this. Investigatin' this town, well, y'all've seen the comparisons too. Jabberwock Castle, some kinda Central Facility. Never been, but all signs point to one thing connectin' 'em... and I'm fixin' to see how it connects to our pre-dic-a-ment, come what may.

You got a lot to say 'bout that City where you came from, don't ya? From the sound o' it, it ain't a tender place. I ain't judgin' none, don't go gettin' me wrong! City or countryside, wet or dry, cold or hot, everywhere we sprout up's got its own dangers. Livin' with some kinda danger 'round every corner, where I come from, it's character-buildin', and I see it in ya, Roland. Learnin' to survive taught ya to keep your head down, to stick to the well-trodden trails ya know, to never knock on a door if ya don't know who's behind it. Fight if ya gotta, but don't go wastin' your energy when ya don't, is what I'm gettin' from you.

And, well... I ain't one to question the sense in all that. You standin' here today's enough proof for this cowpoke. A desert mouse's got thin skin and a tundra mouse's got thick fur, and ain't neither of them wrong.

But let me tell a tale of where I come from. When I was just a little chickadee, my pops and I planted our roots on a barren strip o' rock charred red by the beatin' sun. Nail by nail, we built ourselves up a home, 'n' year by year a mighty fine town grew up 'round that little plot of rock and dust. Ol' Oresrush wasn't much - wasn't much bigger than Silver Junction, even - but home is what it was. The work wasn't easy, but the mine brought a boom, 'n' the good times flowed as freely as the drinks in the saloon...

...'til they didn't. I reckon you know how it goes, Boom towns go bust when markets shift. I'll spare ya the details, but times got tough and belts got tight. A chunk o' town up and left, but some of us, well we weren't gonna leave home so easily, and that's when those parasites got a hankerin' to bleed us dry. The landlords and the landowners sat back and got fat on the hog o' our labour without even leavin' us the scraps. Starvation's a different kind o' danger than turnin' a corner and gettin' jumped, but when the threat of it's chokin' your mind like a noose 'round your neck, it don't feel different none. Day in and day out was wonderin' who'd go without that day, wonderin' who'd collapse from the work next. Poverty's a devil on par with any god of murder and violence, and I'd bet good money you could sooner run from a god than from it.

But we got our ship righted. The detail's don't much matter, just that we did it by bandin' together and takin' those parasites head-on. I reckon things would've turned out different in a place like your City, but out there under the hot sun, there were more o' us than there were o' them, 'n' we cowed 'em. Still didn't have much, but without 'em bleedin' us dry, we made it fine. I went walkin' my own dusty trail after that, 'n' ever since, I made it a rule o' my survival to meet every challenge head-on and take the fight right to 'em.

We all know there's a rank smell comin' from the litter 'round here, and my instincts for survivin' are tellin' me to arrange a meetin'. If danger comes, I'll be the first to put up my dukes, and if I should die tryin', well... I got trust in your instincts to see this to the end too.

But don't you worry none! I ain't croakin' when I still got a promise to Neil to carry out! You follow your gut, and I'll follow mine, and we'll get to the bottom of Silver Junction one way or another!