WEEK ONE

[slowpokey]

Welcome to your new home!

"...Sweet Home: Strangers Strike Back. Airing this Sunday on Lulu."

That's how the video ends. That's how the entire presentation ends, the one that you've been given with a breakdown of what you're doing here, how to earn your wishes, and most importantly, how to use your phone. They promise you that you will go home in four weeks, and hopefully, you won't go home empty-handed, and that your hard work will pay off. Either way, your actions will undoubtedly make for a satisfying finale, and wonderful ratings week after week!

The price in exchange is, well, your privacy. Cameras will not be monitoring you 24/7 (they can't air super inappropriate content, after all!!!), but enough to capture what could potentially be your best and worst moments on the show. Maybe if you plead hard enough, the producers will be merciful and edit out some of your shame, but for the most part, it's best to be ready for anything.

Which includes your introductory day! How exciting. You arrive at the house on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning, and your arrival happens by waking up in a twin-sized bed. Those phones that you were told about are either right next to you or in your pocket; it buzzes with a very interesting song that's certainly telling you to wake up. It will not stop playing until you are awake.

With the alarm, though, is a notification on the screen: "TOUCH TO OPEN!" Tapping the screen as instructed will give you a set of instructions - though, if you don't open it yourself, it will do it for you after a minute. Those instructions are:

HELLO! WELCOME TO SWEET HOME DAY ONE! :)
PLEASE PROCEED TO THE KITCHEN! FUN REFRESHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES ARE WAITING FOR YOU ALL! YOUR WEEKLY CHALLENGE WILL COME TOMORROW. FOR TODAY, HAVE FUN AND GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER! <3333

The kitchen is filled with various snacks. Chips, cookies, cake, blood for vampires – you name it. It's there. It's entirely possible they went a little overboard…but there's something interesting about the snacks. Everything is in a locked transparent case, enticing you to unlock it by how tasty it all looks. How do you unlock it? It's simple, according to the little notes left on the cases. "TO OPEN, INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO SOMEONE IN FRONT OF ME!" The cases are indestructible and will not open until you do this simple task.

Board games are present with some classics like Never Have I Ever prompts, Monopoly, Candyland, you name it!

There's also some music playing in the background on a set of speakers. This is free for you to mess with and shuffle through the modern-day playlist. In fact, pretty much everything in the house is free to tamper with.

Anyone who partakes in at least 2 joint activities with different people (board games, snacking, fighting, dancing, getting up to no good...anything, really) will be rewarded with a complimentary bath bomb on their bed on Monday morning!

Take a look around the house, get to know your housemates (and roommates), and relax on this fine and wonderful Sunday!

OOC Note: The bath bomb reward is not going to be mod-sanctioned, go ahead and just assume your character received one if they interacted with 2 or more people on Sunday ICly.

Also, characters will receive a weekly stipend with enough money for groceries and a few luxury items. You can choose to do whatever you want with this cash, though.

Weekly Challenge

Come Sunday evening, though…that's when the Challenge is issued.

A notification appears on your phone that says "CHALLENGE!! OPEN ME." Doing so will reveal the following instructions:

Did we mention that we forgot to get commercials? Oops! For those who don't know, commercials are advertisements for viewers to try and scam people into buying things they don't need. This time, however, you're going to scam people into buying things that they probably need, for the entirely wrong reason!

Your task this week is to film a commercial with at least one other person. You are to take one of the household objects in this house and give it new meaning. That hairbrush over there? Use it, and it'll turn your hair any color, style, and texture that you want it to! Ooh, how about that washcloth? Wiping your face with it will apply makeup to perfectly suit the occasion! Y'know, stuff like that. It's not actually real, but we think it'd be funny, so work with someone and get it done! Remember, your wishes are your rewards, along with some other fun little prizes! :)

Commercials will all be played on everyone's phones AND the big screen TV next week Sunday! Get excited!

You can film your commercials using your phones, as they are state-of-the-art technology. There are phone stands/tripods/etc. that can be found in your bedroom closets for you to use. Go wild, go ham, be entertaining and have fun!

OOC NOTES: The challenge thread must have a minimum of three comments per character, though I encourage threading beyond that for the sake of cr. I will accept in-progress threads as a completed challenge turn-in. There will be a top level next week for reactions to all the commercials as they play on screen for the characters, but you're free to also thread out reactions if characters stumble into the filming in-person, etc.

The Rest of the Week

The rest of the week will have a fun little treat for the guests: Cats! That's right, cats will show up to the home periodically every day, asking for food. Feed the cats on demand and they will be satisfied. If you don't and they sense that you are walking away, you will have one unlucky event happen to you at some point during the week. What that is can be something as mundane as spilling coffee on your shirt, to having an accident so bad that you need to go to the clinic. The choice is yours.

...

Throughout the week, the following individuals will experience strange phenomena…

– On Monday, Luocha will have the misfortune of encountering a cat that really has decided it doesn't like him. It will try to bother him in various ways, whether it be attempting to scratch him, pee on him, nibble on his shoes…it will do this every hour for 4 hours today, starting at any given time of the day. It will leave Luocha alone afterwards, though it may still stare him from time to time…like a normal cat would. Maybe he can even try to befriend it…

– On Tuesday, Sakura will have a very specific struggle. The first electric or battery-powered appliance she tries to use simply will not work no matter how hard she tries. Even if she charges the appliance, it will not work. The one way to get it to power on is to ask it nicely. Insulting it will get it to actually move and smack her. Whoops! Time to throw down with some electronics?!

– On Wednesday, Jeanne will wake up to something very strange. There will be vines, leaves, and flowers that have grown all around her bed. It's rather unruly, actually, and inhaling the pollen for too long will make her a little loopy. Drunk, essentially, minus the alcohol. It is possible to get a hangover from this and nursing it will be done the same way it normally would be if alcohol were involved. The greenery will go away by Thursday midnight, but she can also make it go away earlier if she rips them out of the roots. (Which are in the floor. Don't worry about it)

– On Thursday, Avery will find a book on his bed when he wakes up. The book says My Diary. He can write whatever he wants in it, but if he writes something about any of the other residents, the book will drag him to wherever said resident is – in the house OR the town – and read his writings about them outloud, right where the resident can hear it all! Sadly, there is no way to test this out beforehand, as any thoughts that are unrelated to the other residents will be kept confidential. The diary will disappear on Friday at midnight.

– On Friday, Hakuya will gain a voucher, good for one day, for free candy at Sweet-E's! He can get a max of two full bags of whatever candy he wants. The bags are freezer bag-sized. The candy itself looks normal, but eating it will cause something interesting to happen. Hakuya will 1) gain a pair of shades that, if removed, will make another pair of shades to go on his face; 2) his top will turn into the equivalent of a disco ball shirt; and 3) party music will follow him around wherever he goes for the next 2 hours. Congrats, you're the coolest kid on the block!!!

OOC Notes

Welcome to the Week One log of Sweet Home Round 2! I had a lot of fun with this and hope you guys enjoy the game. Some important notes:

• Please do not literally burn down any buildings or property in this game. ICly, if a character tries, the house will immediately put it out via temperature regulation and built-in sprinkler systems. If your character has fire-based powers, they can affect people and objects but will not cause great damage to the overall building. Do not mess with the built-in safety precautions, please. There is an OOC reason for this that I will not disclose and please do not ask me for it; I am serious about shutting down anything that involves this at any point in the game. You will only get a slap on the wrist if it happens after being warned.
  
• Challenges are due at the end of the week, along with AC! See the AC + Rewards page for more information.
  
• Gossip Board submissions are essentially a way for your characters to get exposed ICly on any shenanigans they've gotten up to. This is purely on a voluntary basis OOCly. A link to submissions can be found below.
  
• OOC Plotting for Week One can be. found here! Feel free to reply to that top level with anything you're looking for.
  
• Feel free to ask any questions in the #mod-questions Discord channel! And please don't hesitate to ping me too so I don't miss it. Thanks!
  

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Comments

[skyaflame]

[ He's already awoken by dawn, and quite frankly, he's spending time looking up things on this "Internet", though it's probably more frustrating than anything because there's just more and more words he's unfamiliar with. This rabbit hole of doomscrolling however is interrupted by the alarm, which he just stares at because he doesn't understand why this thing is blaring at him.

He does just mutter one word: ] Vulgar. [ And then tries to close it, though it takes awhile and goes back to his rabbit hole. ]

[ Eventually, he'll give up on all this for now and go to the kitchen. He stares at the food. Or "food". It's not really apetitizing, especially those gaudy looking things* that look highly inedible but.... the notes catch his eye. ]

The use of magic in this place is sure highly frivolous.

[ Later, he'll take a long walk around town to survey the area. Feel free to run into him? ]

[ *Assuming chips in plastic bags here with also parody names ]

town

[cleargaze]

[ Somewhere during his survey of town, he can come across a boy with his eyes closed, deep in thought. Concentrating, even.

What to do? Step closer? ]

[skyaflame]

[ Despite his calm stroll, he's pretty aware of his surroundings. He stops upon seeing the figure, as he approached from behind him.

....? ]

What are you doing here...?

[cleargaze]

[ The sudden noise seems to put him on alert, suddenly twirling to face him. His blue eyes stare at him curiously. ]

...I'm not sure. Do you happen to know?

1/2

[skyaflame]

[ ...Ah. ]

2/2

[skyaflame]

I am not one to guess at a stranger's motivations. Shouldn't you be able to at least guess?

[cleargaze]

[ Hmm. ]

Oh, just wondering out loud, you know? This place is pretty new to me. And with your sudden appearance, I thought I'd ask for your thoughts, sir.

[skyaflame]

I'm afraid I know less about this than you do. Most everything here is strange to me, from the beds we woke up in to the architecture of these buildings.

[cleargaze]

I have to admit they're just as unusual to me then. Can't say I know anyone I woke up with either. [ That was certainly a time! ] Amazing, isn't it?

[skyaflame]

Amazing... that's one word for it. [ Confusing is closer to the feeling, but he has pride to wound. ]

Do you believe these people can really make wishes come true?

kitchen!

[madan]

You think so?

[ Not that he's an expert in magic. He barely knows the basics. ]

Aren't all witches kinda weird?

[skyaflame]

Do you know many witches, then?

[madan]

Well, yeah? All women can be witches.

[skyaflame]

Metaphorically....? [ He'd be interested to see this child say that in front of a certain woman. ]

[madan]

[ Metaphor...ically...? He vaguely remembers what that word means. ]

No, I think literally?

[skyaflame]

Hmm. I think one needs to emphasis the 'can' in your statement, unless you want to end up in more interesting circumstances.

[madan]

What do you mean?

[skyaflame]

Just that some women might take offense to what you said. But feel free to try it out.

gothic room

[toxicspikes]

[Regrettably, you are going to have to hear it again, because Klara rises at a normal hour like a normal person, and it is going to blast for a moment before she groans and finally manages to turn it off. She pats the bed for a moment before sitting bolt upright, looking around for something... and then her shoulders sag a bit.]

Oh, I guess they really were serious about my Pokémon...

[Boooo. She misses them already...]

[skyaflame]

[ Casually looking up what pokemon are, with nothing popping up since apparently they don't exist here. ]

Hmm, what is that?

[toxicspikes]

Oh!

[Totally missed that she wasn't alone, though that makes sense for a room this size... and with multiple beds...]

You... aren't familiar with Pokémon? They're our companions, creatures ranging in size, shape, type, and personality! It's hard to imagine a world without them, honestly...

[skyaflame]

So you're shackled to a creature that you have to rely on...? [ Concerning... ]

[toxicspikes]

That's a harsh way of wording it! They're our partners and friends, so I wouldn't call it shackled. It's just weird that they aren't here!

[skyaflame]

By partners and friends, what do you mean exactly?

[toxicspikes]

[She blinks at the question, not entirely sure how to address it.]

Well, they're... friends, you know? They're our beloved companions whom we can rely on, and trust in. Some are even like family, given how long they've been with their trainers!

[...is this helping at all,,,]