Tsukihiko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unbalancedscales) wrote2012-12-09 09:46 pm
unbalancedscales) wrote2012-12-09 09:46 pm
belated HEARTGAME WRITEUP (Tw, esp for death wishes)
Thank you to everyone who played in it! The game was here
Tsukihiko's heartgame writeup is
Initial ideas
DESPAIR AND DUALITY
Undertow, downward movement, drowning, sex, (limited) pop culture
Layout
* 4 levels deep (representing his desire to die) - actually 5 but the 5th is nearly impossible to find (so basically, there's still the True Heart hidden under his desire to die)
* Each layer goes down at an angle to each other -- the trap door leads on a gentle decline on each level. Basically it looks like seaweed, with the bottom layer buried.
A - surface level
Bedroom - general self presentation/immediate underlying self (Main)
Jasper - Jasper feels (right)
Swimming pool - home team feels (left)
B - Supporting mechanisms
The Lake - Subconscious constant sense of drowning, dragged slowly through things (main)
Pretty Hate Machine - Converts all feelings from above to hate, churning out a sludge which is piped into the walls, ceiling, floor. (right)
Possessiveness - The Toy Room - filled with plush toys and materials for construction/destruction thereof (left)
C - Wild and uncontrolled desires
Cuddle Spot - cute blankets and warm bed and little wading pool, jasper and iolite gems - Acceptance (Main)
The zoo - Love (right)
SNAKE ROOM FULL OF SNAKES THAT BITE AND HISS - Death (Left)
D - Fear
The Red Tent - adulthood and lust and growing up and so on. (Only)
(E - SUPER HIDDEN - TRUE HEART - via a hidden door in the bed in the red tent, only accessible by putting 6 pills into the feeder of the Pretty Hate Machine)
Mechanics
* All of the areas have significance and so do all the items! This is for the sake of it being a Boost game.
* If you do A THING in each room (except the PHM room) you can recover a pill
* You only need 6 pills to activate the PHM's access to the True Heart. There are 9 possible to get. This is because I assume at least a few of them would get eaten and didn't want to bone everyone over.
* If you put all the pills in the hate machine you can reach the true heart
* If you take the pill you will trip the fuck out on nightmare imagery
* but it's not necessary to visit the true heart also
THE HEART ITSELF
MAIN POST
You enter the heart and immediately find yourself drowning. The salt of the water stings your eyes and your throat. You're about 20 feet underwater, legs tangled in seaweed, and of course, you can't breathe like that. Even if you can hold your breath, here come the snakes -- winding around you, tangling, sliding up your body and pressing their faces against your mouth, your nose... eventually they force their way in and slide down your throat. You can feel them wiggling all the way down, coiling in your belly...
Abruptly, you can breathe underwater.
The seaweed draws you down, down, to a new area...
* The reason I wanted this section up front was a) to set the tone; b) everything in Tsukihiko's heart is informed by having been drowned and had snakes crawling through him, and; c) to give a handwavy excuse for why you could breathe underwater. It's sort of like a taste test for being a mizuchi.
A: Tsukihiko's bedroom (exit right: A1, exit down: B, Exit left: A2)
Bedroom - general self presentation (Main)
You find yourself in a rather unusual bedroom. It's wide, open, and round -- and all of the walls are made of solid glass. Which is understandable, because the room itself appears to be underwater. Outside, sharks and fish and eels and octopi swim and drift around it, occasionally absently brushing the side with a soft bump.
A bed is in the middle of the room, the sheets slightly rumpled. A calendar hangs on one wall; Xs have been marked off onto it in red for most of the month, stopping a few days before the full moon. A red crayon hangs from it by a string. Several of the Aather "shouta shorts" uniforms in Jasper colours hang from some coathangers on the wall, making a pile that is pushed out from the wall. There is an overhead light, but it's not on. A noose hangs from it about 8 feet from the ground -- so, just out of reach for even the tallest person. A dresser is pushed against one wall. On top of it is a doll (half-sewn, needle and thread hanging from it) of a cat, a pair of water pistols, and a glass of water.
A small metal drawer, closed, is in one wall. There is also a door to the left, a door to the right, and a trap door in the floor.
* Area is basically his underlying immediate self conscious and presentation. Some of the very basic fears (calendar), presentation choices (uniforms), feeling of being tainted (bed) etc without the in-depth exploration OF the issues. Essentially it's a room of signifiers for his everyday life.
* Calendar - relating to his fear of his period coming up every time it finishes - if people mark days off to the full moon, blood in the water, agitating the sharks.
* Move the uniforms - girls' uniform under that - Relates to his daily sense that he's "covering up" his intersexuality, but also relate to his sense of identifying as PART of a team. Greed rearranged them so they were both visible and alternating, which affects his ability to hide this. Sakuya put a boost in with the uniforms which upped Tsukihiko's sense of belonging to Jasper.
* The bed - sheets are damp and muddy. Can be made and mud will go, but will still be damp. - The mud and wetness represents his underlying discomfort with his growing sense of sexual desire. Obsidian took everything apart and hung it up to dry; Nunnally figured out how to get the water out quickly and managed to get the bed back together. This will help him feel a little more comfortable with starting to become a sexual being.
* Pull the noose to turn the light on. - the noose represents that his death wish casts a light on the rest of his actions. IIRC Sakuya took it off,r ealized you could no longer operate the light, hung it back up (though it failed to look like a noose after he tried to retie it), only for Greed to take it down again.
* Guns - will explode a wall if shot or shoot an actual person. (Sakuya got one of these and went back to another room with it)
* Chest of drawers - inside is nothing but a shitton of towels. Can be used on the bed to remove the dampness.
* Drinking the water will trigger the memory of introducing himself - http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/5245.html#cutid1 )
* IF they clean the bed up, pull the light, and perhaps also x off the calendar, the metal drawer pops open and inside is a small pill, one side red, the other side yellow. - Raenef ate this pill
* Allen put the needle in the doll's hand. This unfinished doll represented Tsukihiko's sense that Senryo didn't have his own autonomy in being taken by Mayoko. This changes that.
* Nunnally had Saya take the core of the Pretty Hate Machine and put it to bed in this room. This directly ties the need to convert things to hate with his sexuality, BUT since the core wasn't damaged or the machine wrecked BEYOND having the innards taken out, the Heart can mend itself slowly by putting it back there. So this is likely to be a big but temporary change.
A1: Jasper (Exit left to A)
Jasper - Jasper feels (right)
After you pass through the door, you find yourself in Jasper's main room... except everything is underwater. The entire room is completely flooded. You can breathe it with no problem, and it doesn't seem to be particularly interfering with any element of the room or your exploration thereof. It doesn't even seem to be getting things wet. It just... is full of water, making 3D navigation possible, but moving anywhere is sluggish and awkward, and breathing feels... well, again, you can do it, but it's a bit like going outside on the most humid day ever.
There are six beds. Each has an item sitting in the middle of it: a diary, a bloody beating heart, a bag of something lumpy, a feather, a pile of rancid meat, and a hairbrush. There is a kitchenette in... well... where one would expect it to be. A piggybank sits on the counter. A pile of bedding is in a big mess in one corner.
Other than that, the layout is different. There's no stairway, no basement, no ceiling trap door. There is a small metal drawer on one wall and the door that exits back the way you came.
* General Jasper feels here.
* He is in the room but not 'part' of the room via the blankets, water etc.
* Overall water represents the sluggish fatalistic feelings he has about jasper and aather as a whole.
* If people turn on the kitchenette the flame will start to evaporate the water around it.))
Coins:
* Diary - Swift. If you flip through it you'll find a coin in the pages.
* Beating heart - Erika. if you pick it up a knife will appear in it and it'll stop beating. YOU ARE THE MURDERER IT IS YOU!!! If you use the knife to carve it open, you'll find a coin in it.
* Feather - Sakuya. A coin sits immediately under it.
* Bag of riches - Greed. A single coin is included among the jewels.
* Rancid meat - Saya. A coin is buried inside it.
* Hairbrush - Raenef. a coin is nestled in the bristles.
* Blankets in the corner - Tsukihiko. a coin is underneath them.
* Coins represent the fact that each of the teammates has value to him, but the team is not a cohesive whole that has value to him.
* As well, interacting with the blankets the first time triggers the I Hate Everyone memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/7570.html#cutid2
* If you put all 7 coins into the piggybank (and thus raise the sense of team as a cohesive whole), the drawer will pop open. Inside is a small pill, one side red, the other side yellow.))
* Sakuya made Tsukihiko's bed, which helps his feelings about being in Jasper become smoothed out again, and put the sheets on his own bed, which makes Tsukihiko feel like his place is with Sakuya.
* Greed and Sakuya put the 7 coins in the piggy bank. Tsukihiko is likely to feel they're the pillars of the team's cohesiveness.
* Obsidian put Erika and Saya's representatives in the fridge. Tsukihiko's feelings towards them is a little less likely to have any heat to it. (It won't be "colder" though, because of the team cohesiveness being rebuilt).
* Raenef put a boost in the piggy bank while it was empty. The NEED for cohesiveness is thus boosted.
A2: Rooftop Swiming Pool (Exit right to A)
Swimming pool - home-team feels (left)
The door leads you into -- well, the underwater portion of a tiled swimming pool. It slopes slightly up at one end, toward the shallows. It's perfectly possible to breathe here, though a little bit gross, like breathing on a very humid day. A foot dangles into the water from above; I AM JUST GOING TO PUT THE ABOVE WATER DESCRIPTION HERE TOO BECAUSE I ASSUME PEOPLE WILL SURFACE AND WILL THUS SAVE US THE DOUBLE COMMENT.
Underwater: A vent is on the back of the deep end, clogged with some kind of cloth. Some pool toys have sank to the bottom -- the sand-filled kind that people dive for. Some blood is stained on the bottom of the pool, as if someone cracked their head here mid-dive or something. The door back the way you came is here, in the wall of the pool at the deep end.
Above water - The pool takes up most of the area, which is a rooftop, very, very high up. A small wall surrounds the edge, but from the rushing wind and the sheer height, you know there's no getting down that way. Unless you can fly, of course. The low wall has a small metal drawer in it. Rose petals are scattered around up here.
A girl sits perched on the edge of the pool, one foot dangling in. She is slim and flat-chested, and wearing a cute (skimpy) bikini with a cute (skimpy) skirt. Her thighs have a thick scar around them near the top, as if her legs were cut off and put back on, and she's got a matching scar down the center of her stomach. Her hair, piled artfully on one side of her head, is a pure, brilliantly bright gold, and her eyes -- wide, with her pupils enormous as if she is, perhaps, drunk or drugged -- are also gold, almost the color of champagne. Her lips are small and pouty and currently wrapped around a long slim popsicle she's working over. She pops it out of her mouth and looks at you all curiously.
* FEELINGS FOR HOME Beni is Tsukihiko's connection to his 'home life' via being a fran.
* Tugging the cloth out of the vent will reveal that what was shoved into it was a bloodied towel. The water will start filtering and recycling again and the blood stain at the bottom will slowly clear out. These are a lot of his grossdirtyadult feelings about his team back home. The towel is also the ADULTS ARE GROSS memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/4252.html#cutid1 . Saya pulled this out and cleaned things up.
* Rose petals are Rouji's bullying influence.
* Convincing Beni that they're here to help Tsukki grow up (specifically) will have her open the metal drawer for them. Inside will be a yellow/red pill.)) - Obsidian did this, then ate the pill.
* Allen accepting Beni's flirtations (without returning them) might make Tsukki check him out. just a little. Just subtly.
* Sakuya took the floating Senryo plush to Beni and told her to put it somewhere that it would give Tsukihiko comfort (after boosting it). She'll take it to the comfort room and put it in the swimming pool.
* Greed gave Beni a boost for friendship, increasing Tsukihiko's view of having friends.
* Obsidian brought up the pool toys. This has very little effect, the pool toys basically are a slight + in playfulness.
* Obsidian gave Beni a boost in the hopes she could help ease Tsukihiko's need to grow up. This will be somewhat effective in that it can happen, but he'll feel he needs to rely on friends for it.
* Saya gave Beni a boost 'cause she's nice. Frans are nice boosted!
B: The Lake (Exit up: A, Exit right:B1, Exit left: B2, Exit down: C)
The Lake - Subconscious constant sense of drowning, being overwhelmed by life, dragged slowly through things (main)
You take the trapdoor down and sink into deeper water.
You find yourself underneath a lake. You can breathe in here without any essential problem, but it feels sickeningly wet, like breathing on the worst sort of humid day. Around you, seaweed twists and winds through the area. What looks like a small plush toy of a cat is bobbing up on the surface, something like thirty feet up. Fish dart around.
There is a small locked box half-buried in the mud down here, and a sketchbook, and a pile of human body parts.
The trapdoor up is visible around fifteen feet up in the water. There is a freestanding algae-covered door to the right, and another to the left.
* No matter how far up you go you can't reach the cat plushie. Just when it seems like you'll get close, something wraps around you and yanks you back down. - Sakuya managed to break this otherwise impossibility! He got a gun from the main room and shot at the thing, and managed to get ahold of the plush toy, which should have been impossible by the heart's rules. (He put a boost in it and gave it to Beni). The plush toy represents Tsukihiko's unshakeable faith that there was nothing he could have done to get what he wanted back when he was made into a human sacrifice. He still has resentment, but he has less guilt and self-hate over it than he could have. By showing it was attainable, that's shaken. HOwever, Beni would take the boosted doll and put it in the Mononoke Comfort Pool and that would increase Tsukihiko's sense that even if he could have done something, what happened at least meant they could both continue on as Mononoke.
* The box is locked! The sketchbook is full of pictures of fish, and is also the memory of Benten attacking Tsukihiko http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/4391.html#cutid1 . Jay and Raenef both wrote in this sketchbook. (Jay wrote a comforting method about always having a reason to live, and Raenef doodled in it). The sketchbook itself represnts art as escapism to him, so that's going to increase drastically both because of the message/doodles and because Raenef also put a boost in the sketchbook.
* The pile of body parts represents his sense of being overwhelmed by his horrible situation, to the point of wanting to die to escape it. Jay boosted this.
* If you break open the head among the body parts or I guess just check inside his mouth you can get the key for the box. Inside the box is a pill. - I BELIEVE THIS WAS DONE by Saya I think? Sorry I'm writing this up from my notes.
B1: The Machine Room (Exit left to B)
Pretty Hate Machine - Converts all feelings from above to hate, churning out a sludge which is piped into the walls, ceiling, floor. (right)
A dry room!
This room is full of, well, machinery. The big one is to the side, a large, but surprisingly cute machine. It's actually sort of pretty, the way the machinery winds and twists, with clear pipes attaching every which way to walls, ceiling, and the floor. It's hard to say what it's all doing, though. Some pipes are sucking things in through the walls, a strange mess of rainbow-like colours, and depositing it into the machine. Others are outputting things from the machine back INTO the walls, ceiling, and floor, a bubbling black disgusting mess. There is also a tube on the side of the machine with a funnel at the top; it looks like something small could be put in here. Six lights are beneath the funnel, none of them lit.
The only exit is back through the door you came in by.
* The pretty hate machine! Yes, it was held together by 9-inch nails.
* Breaking or prying it open will reveal a young black-haired boy inside, apparently asleep, in a foetal position. The rainbow gunk hits him and turns into the black gunk on the other side, like he's a prism. - Nunnally and Saya remove the core. This breaks down the Hate Machine.
---Essentially, this room is the most important room in his heart. Tsukihiko's life is really, genuinely, shit. There is nothing good in it and the more he remembers the more unhappy he is. He was a victim of human sacrifice. One thing was drowning with him and it got saved but he was left to die. The only reason he decided to live was because he didn't want it to end like that, but doing so permanently changed his body, so he let himself sleep 300 years and have nightmares. He was woken up to try to destroy humanity a little bit at a time by like-minded mononoke. His best friend on said team had her adoptive family cut off her legs and rip out her innards. He knows that even now the master of the guy he just wanted to die with wants him dead because he SHOULD be dead. It's p. awful. The Hate Machine allows him to cope with his past and present and remain functional. It takes things in and outputs it as a non-aggressive but non-stop sense of hate that doesn't discriminate and doesn't force him to feel the pain and grief that are overwhelming him otherwise. So basically, removing his "converter" (his young self) destroys that ability to cope, which is why he's sobbing and emotionally defenseless in his dehiatus. Now, the converter itself wasn't destroyed, just moved, so the heart will slowly reset itself as he slowly pulls it back in, but it's going to be a rough period for him.
* No drawer here, nothing else to do but interact with the hate machine
B2: The Toy Room (Exit right to B)
Possessiveness - The Toy Room - filled with plush toys and materials for construction/destruction thereof (left)
This room is dry, free from water. What it is full of, however, is plush toys.
There are plush toys of cats (lots and lots and lots of these, all black and with mismatched button eyes), plush toys of his teammates, plush dragons, plush birds, plush plush plush plush plush. Everything, really. They are piled up around the room, almost completely blocking off all the walls (though, yes, you can see a metal drawer embedded in one of them.)
In the centre of the room is a table and a single chair, with a garbage bin beside it. On the table are: Scissors, scraps of cloth, a needle and some thread. There is also a plush toy of Tsukihiko, and one of the plush toy cats up here as well. Both have had their heads removed. The garbage bin is full of dismembered toy parts.
* If players sew the heads back onto both the plush of Tsuki and the plush of the cat, the drawer will pop open. It will contain one pill.
* If players dig into the plushes on the table they will find half a broken locket in each. One has MI, the other has NE.
* The rest of the other toys all have a little note inside reading Property Of Tsukihiko.
* Reaching into the garbage bin will bring up the "Why is it always about you" memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/3731.html#cutid1 ))
* IIRC no players went here?
C: The Cuddle Spot (Exit up: B, Exit right: C1, Exit left: B2, Exit down: D)
Cuddle Spot - cute blankets and warm bed and little wading pool, jasper and iolite gems - Acceptance (Main)
You exit down into the softest, cutest, most cuddly room ever.
The walls are quilted. The quilt itself is a soft, pale blue. The fuzzy material and soft wavy patterning on it makes it look more like they're actively made of softness, and less like it's some kind of strange padded asylum room. The quilting is decorated with, instead of buttons, gemstones -- mostly Jasper, but with the occasional large chunk of iolite.
In the left side of the room is a nest of blankets and cushions, all resting on top of a heating pad. In the right side is a small blow-up kiddie pool, filled with water and some floating rubber snake bath toys. They seem like mirror images of each other in their placement.
There is an exit left, an exit right, and an exit down via trap door. There is also a metal drawer stuck in one of the soft, soft walls.
* Right now the sense of "accepting himself as human" and "accepting himself as mononoke" are separated between the bed and the pool. If people combine this in some way they can get the drawer open and get the pill. - Note that they came SO CLOSE, iirc Jay? moved the two close together, but it would take putting part of one into the other to act as combining, since even if they're close they're separate. This did slightly raise his association between the two. Then Raenef DID do this, by moving a snake into the normal bed and combined them into a bed fort. The difference between his two selves isn't so firm any more. (Raenef also hid the pill that came from the drawer here)
* Nunnally put a boost in each bed once combined. This increases his sense of acceptance and helps him find a comfort in being both, but since this is also in the comfort/acceptance room, it also overall boosts his desire to be comforted and his willingness to seek that out.
C1: The Zoo (Exit left to C)
The zoo - Love (right)
When you open this door you are greeted with howls and hoots and hollers because, you find out, the place is full of caged animals.
There are doves in a cage hanging from the ceiling, a large panther in a cage with his head down, a dragon curled in on itself and stuffed too-small in a cage, a rabbit running back and forth inside its cage, a weasel prying at the bars, a black crow pecking at its hanging cage, a golden bird settled comfortably in the middle of its cage, and more. These are the ones which are seen more distinctly but the room is packed.
You can see something metal glittering near the front of the panther's cage, under its nose.
In the space between the panther and dragon's cages is a metal drawer in the wall.
The only exit is back the way you came.
* so this room is LOVE and it's a zoo because he feels he'd have to keep the things he loved locked away because he doesn't love, he only hates, and nobody loves him.
* There is a key to the dragon's cage at the front of the the panther's, a key to the panther's cage in the dragon's, and a keyring with all the others underneath the panther, who will not move unless released. Releasing both the dragon and the panther will unlock the drawer. Releasing the rest is just bonus.
* Physically interacting with the golden bird triggers the "Tsukki isn't a child" memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/6398.html#cutid1 .))
* Obv the dragon is Obsidian and the panther is Senryo. The comfy gold bird was Beni again.
* Allen freed the dragon and the panther, so Tsukihiko feels free to love Obsidian and Senryo both and, if he were offered any, to accept their love. Allen also gave the gold bird a boost, which means Tsuki might annoyingly admit he loves her (as a friend).
C2: The Snake Room (Exit right to C)
SNAKE ROOM FULL OF SNAKES THAT BITE AND HISS - Death (Left)
You open the door and hear hissing.
The reason for this is immediately apparent! That would be because of all the snakes. The room is, in a word, flooded with them. You can probably pick your way across the floor if you tried, but not without brushing up against many, many snakes, or possibly stepping on some. Nunnally, on the one hand, you'd roll over a bunch but on the other, at least a large part of what would be doing the rolling is metal. Either way, if anyone enters there and the snakes decide to bite them, there's no avoiding it completely, not with that many of them.
On the other side of the room, you can see a little alcove with a bottle in it. A metal drawer is set into the wall beside it.
There are no other exits.
* This room is death. It is the deep sadistic desire to kill and to die that he has rolling around in him all the time.
* If people enter the room they will get bitten! The bottle is an antidote. Taking the antidote will cause hallucinations BUT will save them. It will also open the drawer to get the pill out.
* Antidote gives memory of HORRIBLE NIGHTMARES? http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/2449.html
* Nunnally opened, noped, closed it, and left.
* Greed put a boost in the room :) so I WANT TO KILL, I WANT TO DIE is amped.
D: The red tent (Exit up to C or, hidden, down to E)
The Red Tent - adulthood and lust and growing up and so on. (Only)
You go down and find yourself inside a large tent. It's red, light from 'outside' filtering through the fabric and casting a garish overtone on everything inside. And inside is... a party!
One hell of a party, to be exact.
There is a food and drink table on one wall, and it's filled with all manner of delicious foods. An elegant-looking man with long gold hair is sipping a drink, eyes closed and smiling -- though at second glance, Nunnally at least will recognize the signs from how he turns his head toward the newcomers that he's probably blind. The same girl from the swimming pool -- now in a cute layered mini dress -- is hanging off him. Their hair colours are identical. A voluptuous auburn-haired woman is making out with an enormous, heavily tattooed, blond-haired man in the corner. A girl with blood red hair and a teardrop tattoo'd on her face, giggling, is seated on the table and watching the couple in the corner.
There is also a bed -- a big, heavy bed, set up against one wall. A man is chained to it, looking pretty alarmed to be here. He is big and buff, with pale pink hair. One of his eyes is gold, and the other is blue. An exact clone of Obsidian is seated on him, pinning him down, as if the chains didn't do enough of that already.
Oh, yeah, and a version (?) of Tsukihiko is chained up against the wall, too. He is taller and has filled out, with wider hips and budding breasts, though he's still wearing a young boy's school uniform. His hair is long and winds around him. His teeth are bared in a snarl and he has bitten his lips, blood dripping down his chin and neck and body, but otherwise he doesn't seem responsive to anything going on around him. A metal drawer is embedded into the wall right next to him.
* Yes this is a red tent party fight me
* The blind man is Bishamon, who Tsukihiko views as the leader. He holds all the keys and represents control being out of Tsukihiko's hands. Beni is hanging off Bishamon because he's her oldest brother and she has a huge brocon, thus making the familial bond here also sexual.
* The couple making out are Kinuka and Rouji, two of Tsukki's teammates from home who represent the air of upcoming sex.
* The red-haired girl is Ruiko, the Witch of the North. Although she's young and appears 'barely a woman', all witches would mate with an ogre, so she represents fierce sexuality in the guise of childhood. This is why she's fixated on the making-out here.
* Senryo is chained to the bed because he is to be the "sacrifice" to Tsukihiko's adulthood. This is a symbol on a whole lot of levels -- the fact that they weren't sacrificed together after all is the root of many of his issues, but basically at this point most of Tsukihiko's team (esp Beni) are rooting for Tsukihiko just going and straddling that guy, basically. So if the premise is that menstruating is making his team throw a party for Tsukihiko, Senryo is the obvious sexual sacrifice.
* Obsidian is sitting on Senryo and holding him down because that gets them both on the bed, which represents the sheer most sexual side of becoming an adult (the growth of sexual desire/loss of virginity) and Tsukihiko has a crush on Obsidian. He's not tied down nor is he a sacrifice because it's a crush, nothing more.
* Tsukihiko is shown how he fears to be as his physical maturing continues. He's bound because he doesn't want to be here. He does not want to be pubescent. He doesn't want to be already menstruating. He doesn't want to develop sexual desires and further sexual characteristics. He doesn't want to grow up!
* Bishamon has the key but won't give it up willingly because Children Must Grow Up. This is the one thing that all children are bound to. If players convince Obsidianclone to release Senryo, Senryo can arch his back to reveal a key under it. Touching this key will unlock the drawer. This key will unlock Senryo but not Tsukihiko. If Senryo is released, Bishamon will have to take out a keyring to lock him up again and they can get Tsukihiko's key then.
* Tugging at Tsukihiko's chains will cause the memory of his 1st period: http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/2737.html#cutid1 - Greed does this.
* Jay puts a boost in chained-Tsukihiko's hand. This increases his sense of fear and binding to adulthood as something totally unavoidable.
(HIDDEN: E: True Heart)
TO GET THERE:
* After players insert 6 pills in the Hate Machine's tube they'll hear a big KA-THUNK from downstairs. If people go back down to D, they will find that the tent has been destroyed. Bodies are strewn everywhere, blood and gore and parts thrown around. The manacles that had held Tsukihiko are open and Tsukihiko's body is missing. Under the overturned bed is a trap door leading down, as always, on a slight incline.
* If players inserted all 9 it's the same as above but all the blood and gore is gone. It's just empty.
* When they take the trap door down...
You find yourself in clear, clean water. Tsukihiko is here, looking like his usual self, but smiling just a little, just at the corners of his mouth. "...Why are you here?" he asks, confused but not aggressive.
* Nobody went here
So that is that! PLEASE if you have questions ask!! (Or if I got something wrong, tell me -- I was going off notes, not rereading). There's a lot of symbolism I thought of that I didn't bother to detail here (ex - six pills = six is a number representing unity and togetherness) , and probably things I also just outright forgot because of only checking notes. I'm happy to ramble more about any or all of it, I'm just not sure of where to begin.
Oh, and here's a summary of the boosts and other MAJOR changes:
BOOSTS: Love for Benio, sense that he could be with Senryo if he'd tried harder, team identification, friendship, longing for death, willingness to grow up (for other people's sakes), niceness of friends, comfort in humanity, comfort in mononokeness, value of team, escapism, sense of being overwhelmed by his situation, and the hopelessness of avoiding his fate of aging and maturing physically and becoming sexual.
MAJOR CHANGE: His coping mechanism is currently broken
Tsukihiko's heartgame writeup is
Initial ideas
DESPAIR AND DUALITY
Undertow, downward movement, drowning, sex, (limited) pop culture
Layout
* 4 levels deep (representing his desire to die) - actually 5 but the 5th is nearly impossible to find (so basically, there's still the True Heart hidden under his desire to die)
* Each layer goes down at an angle to each other -- the trap door leads on a gentle decline on each level. Basically it looks like seaweed, with the bottom layer buried.
A - surface level
Bedroom - general self presentation/immediate underlying self (Main)
Jasper - Jasper feels (right)
Swimming pool - home team feels (left)
B - Supporting mechanisms
The Lake - Subconscious constant sense of drowning, dragged slowly through things (main)
Pretty Hate Machine - Converts all feelings from above to hate, churning out a sludge which is piped into the walls, ceiling, floor. (right)
Possessiveness - The Toy Room - filled with plush toys and materials for construction/destruction thereof (left)
C - Wild and uncontrolled desires
Cuddle Spot - cute blankets and warm bed and little wading pool, jasper and iolite gems - Acceptance (Main)
The zoo - Love (right)
SNAKE ROOM FULL OF SNAKES THAT BITE AND HISS - Death (Left)
D - Fear
The Red Tent - adulthood and lust and growing up and so on. (Only)
(E - SUPER HIDDEN - TRUE HEART - via a hidden door in the bed in the red tent, only accessible by putting 6 pills into the feeder of the Pretty Hate Machine)
Mechanics
* All of the areas have significance and so do all the items! This is for the sake of it being a Boost game.
* If you do A THING in each room (except the PHM room) you can recover a pill
* You only need 6 pills to activate the PHM's access to the True Heart. There are 9 possible to get. This is because I assume at least a few of them would get eaten and didn't want to bone everyone over.
* If you put all the pills in the hate machine you can reach the true heart
* If you take the pill you will trip the fuck out on nightmare imagery
* but it's not necessary to visit the true heart also
THE HEART ITSELF
MAIN POST
You enter the heart and immediately find yourself drowning. The salt of the water stings your eyes and your throat. You're about 20 feet underwater, legs tangled in seaweed, and of course, you can't breathe like that. Even if you can hold your breath, here come the snakes -- winding around you, tangling, sliding up your body and pressing their faces against your mouth, your nose... eventually they force their way in and slide down your throat. You can feel them wiggling all the way down, coiling in your belly...
Abruptly, you can breathe underwater.
The seaweed draws you down, down, to a new area...
* The reason I wanted this section up front was a) to set the tone; b) everything in Tsukihiko's heart is informed by having been drowned and had snakes crawling through him, and; c) to give a handwavy excuse for why you could breathe underwater. It's sort of like a taste test for being a mizuchi.
A: Tsukihiko's bedroom (exit right: A1, exit down: B, Exit left: A2)
Bedroom - general self presentation (Main)
You find yourself in a rather unusual bedroom. It's wide, open, and round -- and all of the walls are made of solid glass. Which is understandable, because the room itself appears to be underwater. Outside, sharks and fish and eels and octopi swim and drift around it, occasionally absently brushing the side with a soft bump.
A bed is in the middle of the room, the sheets slightly rumpled. A calendar hangs on one wall; Xs have been marked off onto it in red for most of the month, stopping a few days before the full moon. A red crayon hangs from it by a string. Several of the Aather "shouta shorts" uniforms in Jasper colours hang from some coathangers on the wall, making a pile that is pushed out from the wall. There is an overhead light, but it's not on. A noose hangs from it about 8 feet from the ground -- so, just out of reach for even the tallest person. A dresser is pushed against one wall. On top of it is a doll (half-sewn, needle and thread hanging from it) of a cat, a pair of water pistols, and a glass of water.
A small metal drawer, closed, is in one wall. There is also a door to the left, a door to the right, and a trap door in the floor.
* Area is basically his underlying immediate self conscious and presentation. Some of the very basic fears (calendar), presentation choices (uniforms), feeling of being tainted (bed) etc without the in-depth exploration OF the issues. Essentially it's a room of signifiers for his everyday life.
* Calendar - relating to his fear of his period coming up every time it finishes - if people mark days off to the full moon, blood in the water, agitating the sharks.
* Move the uniforms - girls' uniform under that - Relates to his daily sense that he's "covering up" his intersexuality, but also relate to his sense of identifying as PART of a team. Greed rearranged them so they were both visible and alternating, which affects his ability to hide this. Sakuya put a boost in with the uniforms which upped Tsukihiko's sense of belonging to Jasper.
* The bed - sheets are damp and muddy. Can be made and mud will go, but will still be damp. - The mud and wetness represents his underlying discomfort with his growing sense of sexual desire. Obsidian took everything apart and hung it up to dry; Nunnally figured out how to get the water out quickly and managed to get the bed back together. This will help him feel a little more comfortable with starting to become a sexual being.
* Pull the noose to turn the light on. - the noose represents that his death wish casts a light on the rest of his actions. IIRC Sakuya took it off,r ealized you could no longer operate the light, hung it back up (though it failed to look like a noose after he tried to retie it), only for Greed to take it down again.
* Guns - will explode a wall if shot or shoot an actual person. (Sakuya got one of these and went back to another room with it)
* Chest of drawers - inside is nothing but a shitton of towels. Can be used on the bed to remove the dampness.
* Drinking the water will trigger the memory of introducing himself - http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/5245.html#cutid1 )
* IF they clean the bed up, pull the light, and perhaps also x off the calendar, the metal drawer pops open and inside is a small pill, one side red, the other side yellow. - Raenef ate this pill
* Allen put the needle in the doll's hand. This unfinished doll represented Tsukihiko's sense that Senryo didn't have his own autonomy in being taken by Mayoko. This changes that.
* Nunnally had Saya take the core of the Pretty Hate Machine and put it to bed in this room. This directly ties the need to convert things to hate with his sexuality, BUT since the core wasn't damaged or the machine wrecked BEYOND having the innards taken out, the Heart can mend itself slowly by putting it back there. So this is likely to be a big but temporary change.
A1: Jasper (Exit left to A)
Jasper - Jasper feels (right)
After you pass through the door, you find yourself in Jasper's main room... except everything is underwater. The entire room is completely flooded. You can breathe it with no problem, and it doesn't seem to be particularly interfering with any element of the room or your exploration thereof. It doesn't even seem to be getting things wet. It just... is full of water, making 3D navigation possible, but moving anywhere is sluggish and awkward, and breathing feels... well, again, you can do it, but it's a bit like going outside on the most humid day ever.
There are six beds. Each has an item sitting in the middle of it: a diary, a bloody beating heart, a bag of something lumpy, a feather, a pile of rancid meat, and a hairbrush. There is a kitchenette in... well... where one would expect it to be. A piggybank sits on the counter. A pile of bedding is in a big mess in one corner.
Other than that, the layout is different. There's no stairway, no basement, no ceiling trap door. There is a small metal drawer on one wall and the door that exits back the way you came.
* General Jasper feels here.
* He is in the room but not 'part' of the room via the blankets, water etc.
* Overall water represents the sluggish fatalistic feelings he has about jasper and aather as a whole.
* If people turn on the kitchenette the flame will start to evaporate the water around it.))
Coins:
* Diary - Swift. If you flip through it you'll find a coin in the pages.
* Beating heart - Erika. if you pick it up a knife will appear in it and it'll stop beating. YOU ARE THE MURDERER IT IS YOU!!! If you use the knife to carve it open, you'll find a coin in it.
* Feather - Sakuya. A coin sits immediately under it.
* Bag of riches - Greed. A single coin is included among the jewels.
* Rancid meat - Saya. A coin is buried inside it.
* Hairbrush - Raenef. a coin is nestled in the bristles.
* Blankets in the corner - Tsukihiko. a coin is underneath them.
* Coins represent the fact that each of the teammates has value to him, but the team is not a cohesive whole that has value to him.
* As well, interacting with the blankets the first time triggers the I Hate Everyone memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/7570.html#cutid2
* If you put all 7 coins into the piggybank (and thus raise the sense of team as a cohesive whole), the drawer will pop open. Inside is a small pill, one side red, the other side yellow.))
* Sakuya made Tsukihiko's bed, which helps his feelings about being in Jasper become smoothed out again, and put the sheets on his own bed, which makes Tsukihiko feel like his place is with Sakuya.
* Greed and Sakuya put the 7 coins in the piggy bank. Tsukihiko is likely to feel they're the pillars of the team's cohesiveness.
* Obsidian put Erika and Saya's representatives in the fridge. Tsukihiko's feelings towards them is a little less likely to have any heat to it. (It won't be "colder" though, because of the team cohesiveness being rebuilt).
* Raenef put a boost in the piggy bank while it was empty. The NEED for cohesiveness is thus boosted.
A2: Rooftop Swiming Pool (Exit right to A)
Swimming pool - home-team feels (left)
The door leads you into -- well, the underwater portion of a tiled swimming pool. It slopes slightly up at one end, toward the shallows. It's perfectly possible to breathe here, though a little bit gross, like breathing on a very humid day. A foot dangles into the water from above; I AM JUST GOING TO PUT THE ABOVE WATER DESCRIPTION HERE TOO BECAUSE I ASSUME PEOPLE WILL SURFACE AND WILL THUS SAVE US THE DOUBLE COMMENT.
Underwater: A vent is on the back of the deep end, clogged with some kind of cloth. Some pool toys have sank to the bottom -- the sand-filled kind that people dive for. Some blood is stained on the bottom of the pool, as if someone cracked their head here mid-dive or something. The door back the way you came is here, in the wall of the pool at the deep end.
Above water - The pool takes up most of the area, which is a rooftop, very, very high up. A small wall surrounds the edge, but from the rushing wind and the sheer height, you know there's no getting down that way. Unless you can fly, of course. The low wall has a small metal drawer in it. Rose petals are scattered around up here.
A girl sits perched on the edge of the pool, one foot dangling in. She is slim and flat-chested, and wearing a cute (skimpy) bikini with a cute (skimpy) skirt. Her thighs have a thick scar around them near the top, as if her legs were cut off and put back on, and she's got a matching scar down the center of her stomach. Her hair, piled artfully on one side of her head, is a pure, brilliantly bright gold, and her eyes -- wide, with her pupils enormous as if she is, perhaps, drunk or drugged -- are also gold, almost the color of champagne. Her lips are small and pouty and currently wrapped around a long slim popsicle she's working over. She pops it out of her mouth and looks at you all curiously.
* FEELINGS FOR HOME Beni is Tsukihiko's connection to his 'home life' via being a fran.
* Tugging the cloth out of the vent will reveal that what was shoved into it was a bloodied towel. The water will start filtering and recycling again and the blood stain at the bottom will slowly clear out. These are a lot of his grossdirtyadult feelings about his team back home. The towel is also the ADULTS ARE GROSS memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/4252.html#cutid1 . Saya pulled this out and cleaned things up.
* Rose petals are Rouji's bullying influence.
* Convincing Beni that they're here to help Tsukki grow up (specifically) will have her open the metal drawer for them. Inside will be a yellow/red pill.)) - Obsidian did this, then ate the pill.
* Allen accepting Beni's flirtations (without returning them) might make Tsukki check him out. just a little. Just subtly.
* Sakuya took the floating Senryo plush to Beni and told her to put it somewhere that it would give Tsukihiko comfort (after boosting it). She'll take it to the comfort room and put it in the swimming pool.
* Greed gave Beni a boost for friendship, increasing Tsukihiko's view of having friends.
* Obsidian brought up the pool toys. This has very little effect, the pool toys basically are a slight + in playfulness.
* Obsidian gave Beni a boost in the hopes she could help ease Tsukihiko's need to grow up. This will be somewhat effective in that it can happen, but he'll feel he needs to rely on friends for it.
* Saya gave Beni a boost 'cause she's nice. Frans are nice boosted!
B: The Lake (Exit up: A, Exit right:B1, Exit left: B2, Exit down: C)
The Lake - Subconscious constant sense of drowning, being overwhelmed by life, dragged slowly through things (main)
You take the trapdoor down and sink into deeper water.
You find yourself underneath a lake. You can breathe in here without any essential problem, but it feels sickeningly wet, like breathing on the worst sort of humid day. Around you, seaweed twists and winds through the area. What looks like a small plush toy of a cat is bobbing up on the surface, something like thirty feet up. Fish dart around.
There is a small locked box half-buried in the mud down here, and a sketchbook, and a pile of human body parts.
The trapdoor up is visible around fifteen feet up in the water. There is a freestanding algae-covered door to the right, and another to the left.
* No matter how far up you go you can't reach the cat plushie. Just when it seems like you'll get close, something wraps around you and yanks you back down. - Sakuya managed to break this otherwise impossibility! He got a gun from the main room and shot at the thing, and managed to get ahold of the plush toy, which should have been impossible by the heart's rules. (He put a boost in it and gave it to Beni). The plush toy represents Tsukihiko's unshakeable faith that there was nothing he could have done to get what he wanted back when he was made into a human sacrifice. He still has resentment, but he has less guilt and self-hate over it than he could have. By showing it was attainable, that's shaken. HOwever, Beni would take the boosted doll and put it in the Mononoke Comfort Pool and that would increase Tsukihiko's sense that even if he could have done something, what happened at least meant they could both continue on as Mononoke.
* The box is locked! The sketchbook is full of pictures of fish, and is also the memory of Benten attacking Tsukihiko http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/4391.html#cutid1 . Jay and Raenef both wrote in this sketchbook. (Jay wrote a comforting method about always having a reason to live, and Raenef doodled in it). The sketchbook itself represnts art as escapism to him, so that's going to increase drastically both because of the message/doodles and because Raenef also put a boost in the sketchbook.
* The pile of body parts represents his sense of being overwhelmed by his horrible situation, to the point of wanting to die to escape it. Jay boosted this.
* If you break open the head among the body parts or I guess just check inside his mouth you can get the key for the box. Inside the box is a pill. - I BELIEVE THIS WAS DONE by Saya I think? Sorry I'm writing this up from my notes.
B1: The Machine Room (Exit left to B)
Pretty Hate Machine - Converts all feelings from above to hate, churning out a sludge which is piped into the walls, ceiling, floor. (right)
A dry room!
This room is full of, well, machinery. The big one is to the side, a large, but surprisingly cute machine. It's actually sort of pretty, the way the machinery winds and twists, with clear pipes attaching every which way to walls, ceiling, and the floor. It's hard to say what it's all doing, though. Some pipes are sucking things in through the walls, a strange mess of rainbow-like colours, and depositing it into the machine. Others are outputting things from the machine back INTO the walls, ceiling, and floor, a bubbling black disgusting mess. There is also a tube on the side of the machine with a funnel at the top; it looks like something small could be put in here. Six lights are beneath the funnel, none of them lit.
The only exit is back through the door you came in by.
* The pretty hate machine! Yes, it was held together by 9-inch nails.
* Breaking or prying it open will reveal a young black-haired boy inside, apparently asleep, in a foetal position. The rainbow gunk hits him and turns into the black gunk on the other side, like he's a prism. - Nunnally and Saya remove the core. This breaks down the Hate Machine.
---Essentially, this room is the most important room in his heart. Tsukihiko's life is really, genuinely, shit. There is nothing good in it and the more he remembers the more unhappy he is. He was a victim of human sacrifice. One thing was drowning with him and it got saved but he was left to die. The only reason he decided to live was because he didn't want it to end like that, but doing so permanently changed his body, so he let himself sleep 300 years and have nightmares. He was woken up to try to destroy humanity a little bit at a time by like-minded mononoke. His best friend on said team had her adoptive family cut off her legs and rip out her innards. He knows that even now the master of the guy he just wanted to die with wants him dead because he SHOULD be dead. It's p. awful. The Hate Machine allows him to cope with his past and present and remain functional. It takes things in and outputs it as a non-aggressive but non-stop sense of hate that doesn't discriminate and doesn't force him to feel the pain and grief that are overwhelming him otherwise. So basically, removing his "converter" (his young self) destroys that ability to cope, which is why he's sobbing and emotionally defenseless in his dehiatus. Now, the converter itself wasn't destroyed, just moved, so the heart will slowly reset itself as he slowly pulls it back in, but it's going to be a rough period for him.
* No drawer here, nothing else to do but interact with the hate machine
B2: The Toy Room (Exit right to B)
Possessiveness - The Toy Room - filled with plush toys and materials for construction/destruction thereof (left)
This room is dry, free from water. What it is full of, however, is plush toys.
There are plush toys of cats (lots and lots and lots of these, all black and with mismatched button eyes), plush toys of his teammates, plush dragons, plush birds, plush plush plush plush plush. Everything, really. They are piled up around the room, almost completely blocking off all the walls (though, yes, you can see a metal drawer embedded in one of them.)
In the centre of the room is a table and a single chair, with a garbage bin beside it. On the table are: Scissors, scraps of cloth, a needle and some thread. There is also a plush toy of Tsukihiko, and one of the plush toy cats up here as well. Both have had their heads removed. The garbage bin is full of dismembered toy parts.
* If players sew the heads back onto both the plush of Tsuki and the plush of the cat, the drawer will pop open. It will contain one pill.
* If players dig into the plushes on the table they will find half a broken locket in each. One has MI, the other has NE.
* The rest of the other toys all have a little note inside reading Property Of Tsukihiko.
* Reaching into the garbage bin will bring up the "Why is it always about you" memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/3731.html#cutid1 ))
* IIRC no players went here?
C: The Cuddle Spot (Exit up: B, Exit right: C1, Exit left: B2, Exit down: D)
Cuddle Spot - cute blankets and warm bed and little wading pool, jasper and iolite gems - Acceptance (Main)
You exit down into the softest, cutest, most cuddly room ever.
The walls are quilted. The quilt itself is a soft, pale blue. The fuzzy material and soft wavy patterning on it makes it look more like they're actively made of softness, and less like it's some kind of strange padded asylum room. The quilting is decorated with, instead of buttons, gemstones -- mostly Jasper, but with the occasional large chunk of iolite.
In the left side of the room is a nest of blankets and cushions, all resting on top of a heating pad. In the right side is a small blow-up kiddie pool, filled with water and some floating rubber snake bath toys. They seem like mirror images of each other in their placement.
There is an exit left, an exit right, and an exit down via trap door. There is also a metal drawer stuck in one of the soft, soft walls.
* Right now the sense of "accepting himself as human" and "accepting himself as mononoke" are separated between the bed and the pool. If people combine this in some way they can get the drawer open and get the pill. - Note that they came SO CLOSE, iirc Jay? moved the two close together, but it would take putting part of one into the other to act as combining, since even if they're close they're separate. This did slightly raise his association between the two. Then Raenef DID do this, by moving a snake into the normal bed and combined them into a bed fort. The difference between his two selves isn't so firm any more. (Raenef also hid the pill that came from the drawer here)
* Nunnally put a boost in each bed once combined. This increases his sense of acceptance and helps him find a comfort in being both, but since this is also in the comfort/acceptance room, it also overall boosts his desire to be comforted and his willingness to seek that out.
C1: The Zoo (Exit left to C)
The zoo - Love (right)
When you open this door you are greeted with howls and hoots and hollers because, you find out, the place is full of caged animals.
There are doves in a cage hanging from the ceiling, a large panther in a cage with his head down, a dragon curled in on itself and stuffed too-small in a cage, a rabbit running back and forth inside its cage, a weasel prying at the bars, a black crow pecking at its hanging cage, a golden bird settled comfortably in the middle of its cage, and more. These are the ones which are seen more distinctly but the room is packed.
You can see something metal glittering near the front of the panther's cage, under its nose.
In the space between the panther and dragon's cages is a metal drawer in the wall.
The only exit is back the way you came.
* so this room is LOVE and it's a zoo because he feels he'd have to keep the things he loved locked away because he doesn't love, he only hates, and nobody loves him.
* There is a key to the dragon's cage at the front of the the panther's, a key to the panther's cage in the dragon's, and a keyring with all the others underneath the panther, who will not move unless released. Releasing both the dragon and the panther will unlock the drawer. Releasing the rest is just bonus.
* Physically interacting with the golden bird triggers the "Tsukki isn't a child" memory http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/6398.html#cutid1 .))
* Obv the dragon is Obsidian and the panther is Senryo. The comfy gold bird was Beni again.
* Allen freed the dragon and the panther, so Tsukihiko feels free to love Obsidian and Senryo both and, if he were offered any, to accept their love. Allen also gave the gold bird a boost, which means Tsuki might annoyingly admit he loves her (as a friend).
C2: The Snake Room (Exit right to C)
SNAKE ROOM FULL OF SNAKES THAT BITE AND HISS - Death (Left)
You open the door and hear hissing.
The reason for this is immediately apparent! That would be because of all the snakes. The room is, in a word, flooded with them. You can probably pick your way across the floor if you tried, but not without brushing up against many, many snakes, or possibly stepping on some. Nunnally, on the one hand, you'd roll over a bunch but on the other, at least a large part of what would be doing the rolling is metal. Either way, if anyone enters there and the snakes decide to bite them, there's no avoiding it completely, not with that many of them.
On the other side of the room, you can see a little alcove with a bottle in it. A metal drawer is set into the wall beside it.
There are no other exits.
* This room is death. It is the deep sadistic desire to kill and to die that he has rolling around in him all the time.
* If people enter the room they will get bitten! The bottle is an antidote. Taking the antidote will cause hallucinations BUT will save them. It will also open the drawer to get the pill out.
* Antidote gives memory of HORRIBLE NIGHTMARES? http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/2449.html
* Nunnally opened, noped, closed it, and left.
* Greed put a boost in the room :) so I WANT TO KILL, I WANT TO DIE is amped.
D: The red tent (Exit up to C or, hidden, down to E)
The Red Tent - adulthood and lust and growing up and so on. (Only)
You go down and find yourself inside a large tent. It's red, light from 'outside' filtering through the fabric and casting a garish overtone on everything inside. And inside is... a party!
One hell of a party, to be exact.
There is a food and drink table on one wall, and it's filled with all manner of delicious foods. An elegant-looking man with long gold hair is sipping a drink, eyes closed and smiling -- though at second glance, Nunnally at least will recognize the signs from how he turns his head toward the newcomers that he's probably blind. The same girl from the swimming pool -- now in a cute layered mini dress -- is hanging off him. Their hair colours are identical. A voluptuous auburn-haired woman is making out with an enormous, heavily tattooed, blond-haired man in the corner. A girl with blood red hair and a teardrop tattoo'd on her face, giggling, is seated on the table and watching the couple in the corner.
There is also a bed -- a big, heavy bed, set up against one wall. A man is chained to it, looking pretty alarmed to be here. He is big and buff, with pale pink hair. One of his eyes is gold, and the other is blue. An exact clone of Obsidian is seated on him, pinning him down, as if the chains didn't do enough of that already.
Oh, yeah, and a version (?) of Tsukihiko is chained up against the wall, too. He is taller and has filled out, with wider hips and budding breasts, though he's still wearing a young boy's school uniform. His hair is long and winds around him. His teeth are bared in a snarl and he has bitten his lips, blood dripping down his chin and neck and body, but otherwise he doesn't seem responsive to anything going on around him. A metal drawer is embedded into the wall right next to him.
* Yes this is a red tent party fight me
* The blind man is Bishamon, who Tsukihiko views as the leader. He holds all the keys and represents control being out of Tsukihiko's hands. Beni is hanging off Bishamon because he's her oldest brother and she has a huge brocon, thus making the familial bond here also sexual.
* The couple making out are Kinuka and Rouji, two of Tsukki's teammates from home who represent the air of upcoming sex.
* The red-haired girl is Ruiko, the Witch of the North. Although she's young and appears 'barely a woman', all witches would mate with an ogre, so she represents fierce sexuality in the guise of childhood. This is why she's fixated on the making-out here.
* Senryo is chained to the bed because he is to be the "sacrifice" to Tsukihiko's adulthood. This is a symbol on a whole lot of levels -- the fact that they weren't sacrificed together after all is the root of many of his issues, but basically at this point most of Tsukihiko's team (esp Beni) are rooting for Tsukihiko just going and straddling that guy, basically. So if the premise is that menstruating is making his team throw a party for Tsukihiko, Senryo is the obvious sexual sacrifice.
* Obsidian is sitting on Senryo and holding him down because that gets them both on the bed, which represents the sheer most sexual side of becoming an adult (the growth of sexual desire/loss of virginity) and Tsukihiko has a crush on Obsidian. He's not tied down nor is he a sacrifice because it's a crush, nothing more.
* Tsukihiko is shown how he fears to be as his physical maturing continues. He's bound because he doesn't want to be here. He does not want to be pubescent. He doesn't want to be already menstruating. He doesn't want to develop sexual desires and further sexual characteristics. He doesn't want to grow up!
* Bishamon has the key but won't give it up willingly because Children Must Grow Up. This is the one thing that all children are bound to. If players convince Obsidianclone to release Senryo, Senryo can arch his back to reveal a key under it. Touching this key will unlock the drawer. This key will unlock Senryo but not Tsukihiko. If Senryo is released, Bishamon will have to take out a keyring to lock him up again and they can get Tsukihiko's key then.
* Tugging at Tsukihiko's chains will cause the memory of his 1st period: http://unbalancedscales.dreamwidth.org/2737.html#cutid1 - Greed does this.
* Jay puts a boost in chained-Tsukihiko's hand. This increases his sense of fear and binding to adulthood as something totally unavoidable.
(HIDDEN: E: True Heart)
TO GET THERE:
* After players insert 6 pills in the Hate Machine's tube they'll hear a big KA-THUNK from downstairs. If people go back down to D, they will find that the tent has been destroyed. Bodies are strewn everywhere, blood and gore and parts thrown around. The manacles that had held Tsukihiko are open and Tsukihiko's body is missing. Under the overturned bed is a trap door leading down, as always, on a slight incline.
* If players inserted all 9 it's the same as above but all the blood and gore is gone. It's just empty.
* When they take the trap door down...
You find yourself in clear, clean water. Tsukihiko is here, looking like his usual self, but smiling just a little, just at the corners of his mouth. "...Why are you here?" he asks, confused but not aggressive.
* Nobody went here
So that is that! PLEASE if you have questions ask!! (Or if I got something wrong, tell me -- I was going off notes, not rereading). There's a lot of symbolism I thought of that I didn't bother to detail here (ex - six pills = six is a number representing unity and togetherness) , and probably things I also just outright forgot because of only checking notes. I'm happy to ramble more about any or all of it, I'm just not sure of where to begin.
Oh, and here's a summary of the boosts and other MAJOR changes:
BOOSTS: Love for Benio, sense that he could be with Senryo if he'd tried harder, team identification, friendship, longing for death, willingness to grow up (for other people's sakes), niceness of friends, comfort in humanity, comfort in mononokeness, value of team, escapism, sense of being overwhelmed by his situation, and the hopelessness of avoiding his fate of aging and maturing physically and becoming sexual.
MAJOR CHANGE: His coping mechanism is currently broken