Lost Souls

[shimmershimmer]

[You don't wake up, exactly, but at some point you come to. There's something wrong with you, a numbness and translucency. Should you try to touch something, your hand will pass through it. Why, it's as if you were a ghost. So that's the bad news. Sorry about that. The good news is that mentally, you've woken up entirely. You remember the real truth of who you are, your relationship to your so-called "family," and all the other lies you've been fed by the Shimmering Lady.

You can move freely around what you will soon realize to be the village. The reason why it may take moment of realization is simply because it doesn't look anything like you remember it. The sky is black, the grass is dead, and the cottages are run-down and shoddy concrete buildings. The pond is dirty, and there are no animals whatsoever, anywhere.

And the temple. It's more like a storehouse than a temple. The Shimmering Lady is there, or that mass of flesh and tendrils that calls itself the Shimmering Lady...

She doesn't seem to see or hear you. When the others exit their "homes," neither will they. And there's some strange force keeping you within the walls...]

((Popcorn, mingle, curse the Lady, etc! Also! There will be a special thing for you to do here once Night 01 starts. Watch for it~ :>))

Comments

[theloneeagle]

[ANGRY SIGH.]

Really...

[rockmegaphone]

Somehow, I can't bring myself to be surprised.

[Just another day in the life of Organization XIII.]

[nuvolo]

You too.

[On the one hand, he's pleased that his assessment of the man being strong is correct, because it seems only the strong people in the village are the ones in this specific situation, but on the other hand, he's not amused that someone had managed to sneak up on all three of them in their own houses.]

[rockmegaphone]

[…Well, looks like they’ve been neatly fooled by this Shimmering Lady. Ugh. Even though Lexaeus is supposedly out of her grip now, he can’t help but feel ashamed with himself. How could he be so blind…?]

[That said, however, he’s no stranger to waking up after ‘death’. In a way, this is like the Nobody’s birth all over again. The human self died, consumed by darkness, and his heart fled his body… leaving the rest, the emotionless shell of a human, woke up the next morning. And now, here he is again.]

[A perfectly normal human consists of three parts: a soul (life force/willpower/thought), a heart (emotions), and a body (vessel). Well, he’d lost his heart ages ago, and his body was lying emotionless in a strange bed… he’s even less of a human now than he was then. He can’t feel upset about this, because he can’t feel anything, but he does know that it’s a truly depressing state of affairs indeed…]

[Hello, spirit friends; a wandering soul approaches you now.]

We need to speak with this ‘Shimmering Lady’ woman.

Now.

[nuvolo]

[Oh god Kyouya is not happy.

NOT HAPPY.

He lashes out a whole lot with his fists, but hits nothing but air, which makes him even angrier. There's nothing to take his frustrations out not, not the herbivores that are now talking about his death (wait, he's dead? nah, who cares). And Lexaeus'. And the chief's.

Oh fuck this, he wants to have a tantrum.

Kyouya throws himself on the ground, tucks his arms underneath his head and sulks as he stares up at the sky.]

Typical. That leech has decided to remove the only predators to leave the herbivores defenseless. [Blaming the "Glitter Lady"? Why yes.]

[rockmegaphone]

Relax.

[What are you, five? Lexaeus' commanding tone doesn't sound relaxing in the slightest.]

Are you saying that you're now invested in their fate?

Night 01

[shimmershimmer]

[Once curfew hits, everyone returns to their cottages and the village goes quiet. There's not much to do but watch Connor parkour around and set rope traps in various spots in the village, presumably to catch people who are out after curfew.]

[Around midnight, however, all that changes. Legs emerge from the Shimmering Lady's temple, long and chitinous, dragging that fleshy mass of segmented eyes and hairy, whiplike appendages behind it. It's making a noise not unlike the chirp of a cicada, but deep and loud and strangely melodic. It begins a slow crawl toward the cottages... and the people within come out to greet it.]

[Well. They don't exactly come out. Rather, they float through the walls, transparent in much the way that you are right now. They are swaying and humming in rhythm with the monster's song, eyes closed, as they slowly encircle it.]

[They look happy. What pleasant dreams they must be having.]

[nuvolo]

[Kyouya's first instinct? To attack the insect-like monster, of course, because what the hell does it think it's doing with the herbivores. And just like his attempts to touch material objects, he fails miserably.

Getting up again and brushing himself off after the nth failed attempt at crushing the damn thing, he turns his attention to the 'villagers' themselves, eyeing them all very carefully. They all look the way he does right now, and yet unlike them, he's not affected by the song.

So he reaches one hand out to the nearest one to slap them over the head. After all, what's stopping him from doing so? He's experimenting.]

[theloneeagle]

[Yeah you guys slap the kid. Haytham's experimentally punching an arm through his corporeal son's head.]

Morning 02

[shimmershimmer]

[Just before dawn, the beast plucks three dreamers out of rotation and dumps them on the ground, sending the rest back to their dwellings and then returning to its "temple." Say hello to Oswin, Bulat, and Lynne.]

[thefinaltarget]

[The last of whom certainly does not look happy about this!]

Not... not again...

TRIAL 2 POPCORNING

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Well, it's not like Oswin has much of anything better to do with his time than watch the trial. Maybe it'll expose something about why the Lady's doing this??? He hangs out at the back of the "temple," looking vaguely exasperated at the whole thing, as he does. ]

Kimblee is a "demon." I am certain of it. If the "faithful" choose wisely, he and his partner will show us what happens when someone is chosen for execution.

[thefinaltarget]

That's what I was shown. Even if he isn't, he is not going to get away with this!

Night 02

[shimmershimmer]

[The Shimmering Lady exits her home and begins doing the exact same thing as the night before, summoning forth the dreamers.

Three are missing from the lineup: The two on night watch, and Tadashi.]

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Well, that's. That's a thing. Just like Lexaeus told him, the whole village is here, faithful and demons alike. Hmm.

He paces around the formation thoughtfully until he spots just the man he's looking for. He's had a few hours to calm down, so he's not quite as livid annoyed as he was during the trial, but he's still pretty unhappy at how smoothly things are going for the demons. Given the way everything else looks, he's got the feeling that the demons are the side that the Lady's actually rooting for in all this, so he's going to see if he can do anything about that.

And okay, maybe it's a little bit of spite, too.

Either way, he's going to grab Kimblee by the collar or the shoulder if he's not wearing a shirt I DON'T KNOW and yank him out of line with perhaps a bit more force than is strictly necessary. ]

Morning 03

[shimmershimmer]

[Just before daybreak, we have more souls for the pile: let's give a warm welcome to Takano Miyo, Mitsuko, Shuu Tsukiyama, and Isaac McDougal.]

[glaciates]

[So this is what the village truly looks like, huh? After all the lies they've been fed, Isaac can't say he's surprised. The Lady's true form doesn't even surprise him, though he doesn't spent long looking at her before he leaves. He has quite a few apologies to attend to, after all.

...Though he is kind of curious about where his "comrade" is. If he's dead, Kimblee should be too.]

Day 3: "WHAT"

[tellurianterror]

[Kimblee

What???]

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Well.

Uh.

That's.

Nnnnnnnnot what Oswin was expecting.

...Somebody dun fucked up here. ]

New Friends

[shimmershimmer]

[Say hello to Banjou and Kimblee!]

[irenicly]

[This is not what he'd been thinking the dreams would look like. Not at all. It's actually more of a complete and utter nightmare.

...and now he has to hope somehow he can avoid running into his "brother" because that is one conversation Banjou wants to avoid entirely because the man has spent the last few days being brainwashed by a writhing tentacle monster and he'd very much like to not be anywhere near Tsukiyama right now.

He's not strong enough to deal with an angry S-Rank ghoul.]

Night 03

[shimmershimmer]

[The Shimmering Lady has her dreamers in a tighter formation tonight, and seems to be watching them closely. It'll be tough just to wake up even one tonight, and you're not likely to get more than that.]

[Souls that are absent from the formation: Roy and Ling, who are on Night Watch; Connor, whom you woke up before; Parker and Eliot, who are still awake and up to no good; and both Hamada brothers.]

just so we have documentation that somebody did the thing

[fauxlosophical]

[...All right, let's just. Do this thing.

It takes Kimblee a second to find the guy in the first place and he's still a bit wary of the Lady, but...come on, Major, it's time someone shook you awake.]

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Some time after we've all finished with punching welcoming Banjou and Kimblee, but before the Lady makes its nightly appearance, Oswin requests everyone's attention. ]

I believe it is in our best interests to decide as a group what we should do tonight when the Lady calls out her villagers, rather than acting on our own.

[ He's not going to say "to avoid a repeat of what happened today" because that would be admitting he fucked up, but. That's basically what he means. ]

We know now that the Lady is much displeased when a demon fails to sleep as they should. The course of action I suggest is to try and save one of the faithful in the same way, to determine if she will act in the same way. The Maddened pair is most likely to be targeted tonight, I believe, by the demons, the Avenger, or both. I do not think we should wake both, of course. I would suggest Elliot over Parker.

If there are any other suggestions, of course, I would like to hear them.

[irenicly]

I believe the Avenger is Mustang-san. He told me at the trial yesterday he was going to vote for Tsukiyama-san. Him being targeted by the Avenger at night isn't a coincidence, I don't think.

[fauxlosophical]

...I have a suggestion, simply because we need influential people on both sides to be aware of the current threat. Feel free to argue or disregard it at your will, but since the Maddened are otherwise occupied tonight and we believe the Avenger is as well, I would like to request permission to awaken our Archdemon.

It's possible that they'll be able to influence things in ways that will keep either side from overtaking.

[steel_over_blood]

[ If Kimblee's actually cooperating and not playing some other angle, that does sound like a good plan. Even if it's coming from... well, whether it's a demon or Kimblee in there doesn't actually matter, he'd be a slippery bastard of a weasel either way. ]

You realize you can't just leave it at "wake up the Archdemon" and leave it at that. I'd like to know who they are instead of leaving it up to your good faith and judgement.

Day 04

[weeabird]

[Your newest member doesn't have much to say, and will likely be spending the entire day stalking Athena.]

Day 4, Major stalking patrol

[steel_over_blood]

[ Just.... spectrally hanging around the Major's burning cottage, staring in disbelief

jesus fantasy christ

one day he will have an ex-boss who is not a complete and utter lunatic

today is not that day ]

[irenicly]

[Oh my god.

And he agreed with Kimblee about this.

HE CAUSED THIS.]

Day 4: Pity Party

[irenicly]

[Once some of the initial... everything with the Major settles down, Banjou sits down as far away from the fire as he can while still being in the general area of the village.

He really had thought that everything would be okay despite how bleak the situation was, but now...

Well. It's made everything a lot more complicated.

Banjou would prefer to be alone right now, but he hasn't hidden himself away either, so he probably won't say no to someone approaching him.]

[lasuaspada]

[Well, it's good that you aren't saying no to the approach in general, Tsukiyama supposes, though he imagines he'll find out if you're opposed to his particular company or not soon enough.

He doesn't say anything when he approaches, though his arms are folded and he seems a little agitated; it's moreso at the Major's...that than anything else, judging by the fact that his glare seems to be aimed in the direction of the impromptu bonfire.

...look can he just join you in sitting on the damn grass because that seems like as good a course of action as any right now, or is he going to get his head bitten off for the attempt?]

Day4 Trial: Major's Confession

[very_bad_end]

[laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and...]

[weeabird]

I hardly see the humor in any of this! Or are you as much of a frothing lunatic as he is?

Trial 4: Connor tho

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Well that conversation Connor just had with the Lady was. A thing. Truly unrivaled in the quality of its thingness. And both very enlightening and very unenlightening at the same time, but either way, Oswin's gone ghastly pale by the end of it. He doesn't even care about being totally wrong about whether or not the Gentleman exists, that kind of pales in comparison to how one of them's going to eat the survivors if they win and they don't know which one it is. ]

[irenicly]

The Gentleman told us he was trapped in the barn because of the Lady. I don't know if he was lying or not, but...

[If the Gentleman is the one who won't eat the survivors, the odds aren't good.]

The Gentleman

[shimmershimmer]

[Is sitting in the "barn," cozy amidst of a mass of thick webbing. He most definitely resembles the Shimmering Lady in form, but smaller and overall less fleshy and he has just the most adorable golden flecks on his body.]

[From the ways his eyes are moving, it seems pretty apparent that unlike the Lady, he can see you.]

[irenicly]

[To be quite honest, Banjou is positive he's leading two people to certain death, but they need to do this. The fear in his eyes is obvious, but if he's never waking up when this is over, he might as well be the one who goes in first.

At least Oswin and Bulat will be safe in that case.]

Gentleman?

[Yep, he knows the Gentleman can see him. He's not going to pretend he doesn't.]

I know you're probably not happy to see me, but I... there are people here who need to speak with you.