OOC: I'm assuming everyone got a cursory look at the other player's items as they removed them from the Belongings Room.......so everyone possibly knows everyone else's starter items, though possibly not much beyond what they are(not what they mean to their owners, or what possible uses their owners may find for them, etc.)

OOC: BTW.....we already know there are benches outside in the Patio, as well as fencing around the area, from previous player searches and the like. Before you use up your search for the patio for Day One on a random search of the entire room, are you sure you want to search the entire room for items(meaning I search a random patio area for items then), or a specific area like the benches or a wall of that room?

After seeing that disturbing sight, I come back to the Day Room, trying to forget that awful smell. I notice the bookshelves and start searching and moving them away from the wall, checking for secret passages. At that moment I realize how much movies have influenced me, yet I still check.

OOC: We've got bookshelves on our day room map, so I imagine I don't have to examine for that.

OOC: The bookshelves are there as someone examined the room's northern wall and "discovered" them as a result. Also when one searches a room for either clues or items they can also limit the search to a part of the room(A particular wall or set-piece like the bookshelves) if they want to make the search less random than searching the whole room.

Of course this has two effects, bad and good. It limits what I randomly search from in a room when someone does a search for clues or items to what the player wants to search(possibly allowing them to steer the game in a more specific direction at the time and overall), but it also limits the possible outcomes of said search to just those for said area or set-piece in the chosen room.

OOC: Well then, what's the answer to my check?

OOC: You didn't bold it as such at the end of your post: Examine "x'" where x is the area you're examining/checking(not to be confused with the searches for items or clues)

You can still write it out/roleplay as you did & posted...but at the end of the post you have to reiterate the action you're taking in bold.

OOC: Alright, I'll just redo it.

After seeing that disturbing sight, I come back to the Day Room, trying to forget that awful smell. I notice the bookshelves and start searching and moving them away from the wall, checking for secret passages. At that moment I realize how much movies have influenced me, yet I still check. (Search Bookshelf for clues.)

OOC: Lol you didn't have to do that.....but thanks.

Also do you just want to examine that area in general? Or use your check for the Day Room for the day and possibly find something(or not....if nothing is there you'd gain nothing really) worthwhile as a clue?

Examining an area or room is less likely to turn up something worthwhile beyond a general description of the room or area, but it can be used as many times as one would like per day.

Remember btw that Ubivis did a search of the Bookshelves area already and found the scales......so searching there again might be less likely to turn up something new.

I'd still like to search the bookshelves. Preferably by knocking them over.

Feeling sick to your stomach after the site you witnessed on the patio, you walk back into the Day Room and wander over to the bookshelves....perhaps to find something ton pass the time until everything gets sorted out, or perhaps to see what sense you can make of that hole everyone was looking at earlier with the scratches leading into it. "Could this be tied to the dead animals outside?" you wonder between fits of pseudo-sanity as you wander over to it. "Or am I just thinking too much into it?"

Searching the bookshelves themselves you see many old magazines the likes of what one would find in a doctor's office or similar(Like Homemaker's monthy, Auto-motor Wow!, Pppl Magazine, etc), various old paperback novels & thick dusty hardcover anthologies, and the like. Not finding much in the way of clues there(or anything worth reading at any rate) you examine the hole itself.

With a keen eye you discover something the others may have missed...small teeth mark looking marks cover the edges of the hole, some which seem to be stained a light red as if with bloo....nah, couldn't be. Could it? Letting your curiosity get the better or you you reach into the hole, feeling around. Something soft and squishy seems to be in the hole, so you pull at it, hearing a sort of CHITTERING sound come from within as the thing in your hand tries to wriggle it's way out of your grip. A mixture of fear and solid intent fills you as you decide to pull whatever it is out of the hole..........and after some struggling you manage to pull it loose.

"Oh my god! What the fook is THAT?!?" you yell out as you drop the creature in your hands, partially from seeing what it was for the first time and also due to it's continued struggles. Whatever it was, it looks like something out of a nightmare....a nearly foot long trilobyte looking abomination with sharp teeth lining it's mouth and a passion for making this SHRILL CHITTERING sound akin to nails being dragged across a chalkboard.

Making a dash to grab it up again you find yourself to be too late. It has run behind a couch set against the southern Day Room wall. Others have seen it as well, some visibly shaken while others seem somehow disinterested as they go about their own routine. A few have even closed in on the couch......possibly to get a better look at the thing.

OOC: Map will be updated to show new clues found and the couch's location and such.

OOC: Maybe the characters got a cursory look, but the players didn't considering we all send the items via PM... Also, I was thinking about asking to examine the scales Ubivis found but I realise now that they count as clues.

Also OOC: Well my thinking was that the patio hasn't been examined for items yet. Clues yes, but not items. Have I misunderstood something?

I'll follow up with a proper post once I understand better. :P

"Flying fish...." I roll my eyes. I am so sick of the crazies.
My attempts to silently dissassociate myself from Staines are disrupted by yelling and chittering. I turn round just in time to catch a glimpse of sharp toothed monstrosity dissappear behind my favourite sofa.
I dither for a second, before remembering a childhood hamster that got lost in the sofa stuffing and died. With a cry of "STOP THAT FLYING FISH!" I throw myself into the task of searching sofa for oogly-booglies.

OOC: All evidence is available to all players, both gamewise as a rule & storywise(some is left where it's found for obvious reasons[No one wants to move a pile of dead animals], and some is shared by the one finding it by default.).

Also just because someone searched an area for clues and items doesn't mean you can't as well.....though be sure to take into account that an area of a room can only be searched so much for clues or items before running "out" of such to give up, as it were.

Of course one can also search a more general area than a room set piece(like the bookshelves of the Day Room or a wall of a room) like an entire room and thus have a better chance of finding something, but then it becomes more random as I choose then what is searched in the room chosen.

If you need further clarification go right ahead and ask. :)

[Generic OT recordkeeping....please disregard: Profanity has used his/her searches for the Day Room and Patio. Ubivis has also used their search up for the Day Room. Rodzaju has used their search for the Belongings Room.]

OOC: So to clarify, we have an unlimited number of searches of specific areas but a limited number of full room searches?

Takes a few steps back and bumps into the wall, while backing away from the shouting fellow. "The hell is it with him? I'd stay away from the screamer, if I were you." peaks at the Belongings Room "Maybe we should lock him up for now?"

(Vote to temporarily disable by locking him in the belongings room.)

OOC: What are you searching for, useful items or game clues?

If you just wanted a basic blurb about or description of the couch or creature it would be better to just examine them. You can EXAMINE the couch or any clues(like the creature) at any time you like and as many times as you like if all you want is some generic info on the area or to look at the area or item in question.

Once you use your searches, however, they're gone for the day & you might regret using them up so fast later on.
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OOC: You can examine any specific area of a room(that we know about so far via other people's actions) or the room as a whole any number of times. It's akin to typing Look at "x" into a text adventure and getting a basic description of the thing being looked at.

A search is like a more in depth version of an examine & is limited to one search per room(You can search either a room or area within that room.....though searching an area in a room uses up your search for the day for that room as well as searching the room as a whole) per game "day". Searches let you find items you can use in the game later on or clues to progress the game story and help you to puzzle out what is going on.

Example: You have 3 searches available to use on day one(since there are currently 3 open rooms), one per room.

You could choose in this case to search the Day Room, using up your search for that room, and you'd now have two remaining searches......one for the Belongings Room & one for the patio.

You could also choose instead to search a specific area of a room (Ex: the Day Room couch/bookshelves/one of the walls/etc. If you did so you'd again have two searches left, one for the Belongings Room and one for the Patio, and your search for the Day Room would now be used up for the day.

Regardless of whatever you chose to do above each day in terms of searches, you could always look at/examine any room or room area an unlimited number of times to get a basic description of said area.

Need any further clarification?
OOC: What fellow?

Also no rooms are allowed to be locked at any time as it keeps others from being able to access them. You could possibly lock disable them by tying them up though, and sequestering them away in a corner or out of the way area of one of the rooms.