expiationlogs | MINGLE LOG: AUGUST

IT'S CASINO

What have the five NPCs that split off to work on their special project been doing all this time? Well, they’re ready to unveil it. The new NPCs as well as the locals hand out small pamphlets to invite the Chosen to a Great Unveiling that’s going to be done in the evening on the 21st of August. They encourage them to dress their best, and miraculously, Rin's tailor shop has new clothes for sale! When the time comes and the Chosen have begun to gather, the workers who have prepared this building so diligently cuts a bow up in front as the building flickers to life behind them.

It’s a casino! (Who knows where they got that idea.) Or rather, a new event hall. But right now, it looks like a pretty flashy casino.

Come on in!

ANTE UP!

I. DON'T BET THE HOUSE

Chosen who decide to meander past a grumpy man and into the casino itself are met with an opulent scene before them.

There's a large main hall, full of tables with games run by a surprising combination of fairies and local citizens from Aldrip. Further in, there's a massive space to lounge, socialize, and eat. Here you'll find couches for cozy conversation, tables for dining, and a cash bar on the side.

Rooms in the back offer more serious games--you may find a table of fairies playing poker, for example--but...some attendants may close the door to bar your entry, at least for now. These tables are for only the highest rollers, folks.

The sound of music may lead you further back, where you'll find a stage and musicians playing a plethora of music from different worlds that have gathered here, and a space to dance as well. For those who aren't the gambling sort, it seems as if there are still plenty of things to do.

Party away!

II. PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT

There is a grumpy-looking man in a small, dark room off the main hall of the Casino. He’s drumming his fingers on the table, and, if approached, is rather rude about it. He’ll try to chase onlookers out of the room, and then start groaning about how someone is “taking too long” and “not respecting his valuable time, for goodness sake!”

Shortly, some of the NPCs from the desert approach the room with giant sacks and lots of apologies. The tinkerer pulls tablets and cords out of the bags (some half-fixed thanks to industrious Chosen), throws his tools onto the table, and gets to work. He has tools to fix cracked screens and inner parts of the tablet to make them…work? Interesting.

For now, this tinkerer is not interactive, but he has some choice remarks for those brave–or brazen–enough to try socializing with him. Don’t just stand there! Hand me that screwdriver! or take this out to the dumpster around back, will ya? or even the occasional grab me a drink! It’s stuffier than an armpit in summer back here...though if you’re planning to run errands for him, be aware that his tab is not in good standing. If he wants you to run errands for him, you’re probably going to have to pick up the tab, either with coin or with work.

If someone were to look over his shoulder as he's doing his tinkering, they might see the words CYCLE 15 on the loading screen. Otherwise, it's just a lot of blue and black maintenance screens as he's essentially having to do a system restore of the tablets.

LUCK OF THE DRAW

The tables in the main room are where the more adventurous Chosen may go to gamble. Currently, NPCs are running the roulette and blackjack tables, but if someone wants to be the one to run these games, they won’t say no! There’s also slot machines from the sounds of the bells in the distance, so there’s plenty of ways to test your luck. Just be aware that there may be… consequences, whether your character does well or poorly at the games.

Below, there will be a comment section for players who may want the mod team to choose their luck for them. There are three options that you may choose:

You comment with a heads or tails, and we’ll roll the dice for the corresponding “good” or “bad” scenarios.

You comment with whether you want “good luck” or “bad luck” to happen to your character, and then we’ll roll for their consequences.

If you want to put your character's fate in our hands, you can just comment that you want us to rng it all!

SPOILERS: if you want bad effects to be a surprise, don't peek!

The “bad effects” are as follows: memory loss, temporarily loss of taste, can’t speak certain words for a couple of days, feel compelled to follow orders to the person they lost to (kind of like a King's Game), forced honesty, bad luck (which is entirely up to you, the player, on how to interpret this), and temporarily losing one ability of your choice for the next event.

If you want to participate and there’s something you’re not cool with us landing on for the bad effects, just let us know which ones you’re not comfortable with and we’ll leave it out of the rng pool!

A Note: The “good” and “bad” effects won here may have some mild influences on your character for the next event. Nothing life threatening or incapacitating, but just keep in mind if you want us to roll for your bad effects. If you want to just say you had shit luck in the slots and you don’t want your character to have any effects at all, this is fine. It’s not mandatory to have either effect happen to your character to have a good time playing in the casino.

WILDCARD

Go wild! This is a casino after all, and there’s supplies to play pretty much any gambling or card game laying around. If you can’t easily find it, an NPC would be more than happy to help a Chosen find the items they need to play the game they want. Want to play Go Fish while you drink your cocktail? That’s fine too. Anything goes!

A Note: This casino is going to be available in full capabilities until the end of the month. After that, the mod team will explain what’s going to become of it then and in the future!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Marianne feels out of place in a gambling den. She's played cards before, but that was mostly because her classmates dragged her into games, and she knows the Margrave and Count Gloucester would sometimes wage friendly bets (or as "friendly" as two political rivals could be), but she had neither their shrewdness nor foresight to predict the happenings of Leicester.

She had quickly lost her hand after arriving and now finds herself wandering the casino without aim. She's started to contemplate leaving when she spots animals and a familiar young man on the far side of the den, which encourages her to draw closer and look. ]

Is this also a game?

[He should've known he'd see her here, with how much she cares for animals. It's weird, though, being in a situation where he's the one giving explanations -- usually it's the other way around, with him being utterly clueless. Guess Serendipity was good for something after all.]

More or less. It's a race. I think the idea is that you're supposed to guess which one will win, but... [a soft shrug] I just like watching them go.

[He offers a small smile. He probably isn't the only one who does. Anyway, he nods back at the doors to the main hall.] This is quite a place, huh?

This is my first time seeing them. They're beautiful.

[ Marianne feels similarly to Noel in that regard. She isn't interested in the gambling so much as admiring the creatures, and she smiles as the birds take their place at the starting line. His next remark makes her eyebrows crease, however. ]

It's, um, very different from the gambling halls from my world.

[ Which were usually in sketchy back-alley locales where a respectable noblewoman would never find herself. She still has a hard time shaking off the feeling that it was improper for her to be here, though she feels more at ease after discovering the chocobos. ]

[Beautiful? He gives Marianne a surprised look for a second -- he's never heard them described that way before, but...turning his attention back to the birds, maybe he can see why someone would.]

They're called Chocobos. You can find them all over, on Pulse. [At least...you could in the past. He and Serah had run into plenty of them -- had fought some more aggressive ones, and ridden plenty. Even in his time, when there weren't any animals to speak of, you could still hear stories about the legendary birds.]

I think I know what you mean. It feels almost...decadent, in a weird way.

[She's not the only one who feels out of place, albeit for different reasons. Serendipity had been similar to all of this, but it had the air of a...what'd Serah call it? "Amusement park?" This-- it feels different. Less about the games and more about the stakes. That makes it kind of uncomfortable.]

Really? That's wonderful.

[ Chocobos...what a cute name for a cute creature. Marianne smiles to think of the birds roaming Noel's home in abundance. She had been surprised to learn that the animals she was used to spending her days with didn't exist in his world. A world without horses was tragic, but the presence of Chobocos makes it less so. ]

I think so, too. The extravagance feels almost out of a place in a town like Aldrip.

[ Most people here lived simple lives that it would be a bit of a shock to see the local farmhand don a suit and come to gamble. Marianne's adhered to the dress code herself, wearing a long dark gown and her hair pinned up. ]

[The reality may be somewhat less idyllic than what Marianne is picturing, but her care for animals continues shining through -- even ones that are unfamiliar to her. For a moment, his mind wanders. There had been a Yeul who loved flowers, and one who wished to travel...was there a Yeul who loved animals, too?... His Yeul would have been overjoyed to see them, that much he knows for sure.

... ... ... Ah, but that's not exactly in the spirit of all this, is it?]

"Out of place" feels like the right description. Everything else in town is so humble, I'm surprised they managed to make any of this happen at all.

[Especially with that dress code. It's hard enough for him to get used to it, let alone the food vendors and farmers they're used to seeing.]

The people who made it came in from the desert, right? D'you think they might have been used to things being a little more like this?

I feel as though I don't belong.

[ Decadence aside, she's not much of a risk taker. At least in this corner, she can simply admire the chocobos. She's relieved Noel feels the same way. It makes her feel less out of place as people around them place their bets. There's the sound of a whistle and the birds take off. ]

That could be. I never went to the desert, so I can't say... [ She had been among the ones who stayed. ] But they strike me as very skilled at construction. [ Building the new housing, and this casino springing up overnight and whatnot. ]

[His expression in response to that is both sympathetic and relieved. She's kind of just voiced how he feels, himself -- so at least neither of them is alone.]

I know the feeling. But-- hey, no one's kicked us out yet, right? So we can't be too out of place.

[Boy, there really is something nostalgic about watching the birds race. He remembers stuff like this from...gods, ages ago. His journeys with Serah, trying to figure out the Serendipity casino...he hasn't seen anything quite like it since everything happened.]

I didn't, either. Sounds like it was quite a trip, though...I've been thinking it might be worth taking another look at some point.

[ Marianne's expression also lightens, relieved to find a kindred spirit in Noel who feels the same way. ]

That might be because they want our money.

[ She replies, but she's laughing a little. Which is rare coming from her, but her mood has lifted after watching the chocobos. ]

I would like to see what's there as well. Maybe we can visit together.

[ She ventures to say. In the past, she wouldn't have considered leaving the relative comfort of Aldrip for an unknown town with unknown people, but ever since discussing trade relations with Claude, she's been thinking more diplomatically. ]

[A snort.] I wonder how much they're willing to put up with just for that.

[Maybe someone needs to cause enough chaos to make the people in charge question their commitment to money. He's not sure whether he's up for that job, but it'd be interesting. Money seems to have too much power over too many places. He'd love to see it backfire more often.

Somehow, his grin manages to brighten more at her agreement.]

Yeah? If I start making plans for it, I'll let you know. Though I'd probably want to go on foot. After all the pranks those fairies played, I'm not sure I want to put myself in their hands like that.

[Who knows what could happen in that case, right?]

MINGLE LOG: AUGUST

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