Reception, Thirty Minutes to Curtain

💐 The Trouble Always Starts Thirty Minutes Before

The guesthouse wedding venue Rivière Hill has a rule. Thirty minutes before the reception begins, the chief planner walks the venue from corner to corner: the "thirty-minute check." And somehow, the small troubles are always found in those thirty minutes. A ring gone from the ribbon stand. A congratulatory telegram that could not possibly fail to arrive. A bride missing from her room. The ceremony does not stop, the guests must not catch on, and you have thirty minutes. The truth is always a crossed wire of someone's good intentions or a promise, and not a single villain appears. Which is exactly why, if you solve it the wrong way, someone's once-in-a-lifetime day loses a piece.

You are a rookie planner in your first year. Your role is to follow half a step behind the chief with the schedule hugged to your chest, picking up clues and running. No, in this workplace you are not allowed to run. Walk, smile, and make it in time.

Characters

Tone Mao (35): Chief planner. She has seen four hundred weddings safely through. Her catchphrase is "The ceremony doesn't stop." It is an order, yet there is nothing cold in it, and the more urgent things get, the more slowly she speaks. When she gets serious she takes off her headset and starts walking on her own two feet.

Momoeda Kaname (27): Sound and lighting operator. He never remembers faces or names, but never forgets footsteps or voices. He can call a person's nerves from their stride and the pitch of their voice: a great detective's ear that cannot leave the booth. His motto is "Sound doesn't lie."

How to Play

Each chapter, you handle a different wedding. The clues are in the schedule, the bridal rooms, the reception desk log, and the rehearsal audio in the sound booth. In the thirty minutes between discovery and curtain, you walk the site and build the reasoning. Mao may know the answer, but she will not say it until you have thought it through. Before the opening buzzer sounds, bring back the ring, and a story that hurts no one.