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

[glaciates]

[He's silent for a long time, glaring at the floor, before he finally shakes his head.]

I don't know what to say right now. Give me some time and I'll figure everything out.

[Hopefully he can go back to just being angry after he's had some time to distance himself from everything that happened here.]

[lasuaspada]

[He laughs a bit.]

Oh, no, don't worry about that - I think the attempt itself will make me feel much better. A piacere. You understand.

[fauxlosophical]

...Did he do that to me intentionally? Do you...understand what you're doing to people, when you wake them up?

[fauxlosophical]

All the time you need, then.

[And his tone is back to being clipped; as far as he's concerned that's the end of it today.]

[irenicly]

[He tenses noticeably.

There's really nothing he can do about it, especially if Tsukiyama has his ghoul skills here in deadland, but...]

If you think I'm going to stand here and take it, you're mistaken.

[lasuaspada]

Is that so.

[Oh, now he's amused, good lord.]

Tell me what you intend to do about it, Banjou-san. I could use the amusement right now.

[very_bad_end]

... [actually looking rather amused more than anything, for one of the Dead Villagers]

Really? Was I the threat? Or my assistant?

[thefinaltarget]

Well, no.

But that's something you should probably tell all of us, not just me.

[irenicly]

[HE'S GOING TO BACK AWAY FROM YOU, THAT'S WHAT

Banjou is... look, he doesn't even have a rating because the CCG are barely aware of his existence. He's not exactly willing to get into a fistfight with Tsukiyama until he has proof he's not going to be torn in half by Tsukiyama's kagune.]

[fauxlosophical]

[...well, at least somebody is handling this well.]

Honestly, it was neither of you. We imagined we couldn't go after the False Seer last night due to the presence of the Templar; our Archdemon suggested we strike you as a means of trying to create patterns where there aren't any.

[fauxlosophical]

Oh, believe me, I intend to.

Would you like to work more frustration out before I do so?

[thefinaltarget]

Nah, you're expecting it now. Wouldn't work as well.

[lasuaspada]

...How laughable.

[Oh, if he had access to his kagune at the moment, Banjou would have been torn in half already. There wouldn't have been any leadup, he wouldn't have bothered with the greeting. If he were feeling generous he would have alerted him to his presence just so he could see his face before ripping into him.

As it stands, he's not sure he could use his kagune even if he wasn't feeling strangely out of sync with it; he'd forced himself to eat in front of Siebold immediately before "dying" and he hasn't exactly been right physically ever since. That seems to be less of a concern here, but still...

As it stands, he simply palms his closed fist, not hard enough to crack knuckles but enough to make it plain that if he's capable of harming you here, your face is going to be the first thing to go.]

Anything to say to me before I ensure you can't say anything, brother dearest?

[very_bad_end]

Hm. An act of desperation.

I don't suppose you could be convinced to divulge their identities?

[fauxlosophical]

[...Really.]

You know, it's a shame we lost you so early.

[fauxlosophical]

If it becomes relevant, I will. But not for the sake of satisfying mere curiosity.

[very_bad_end]

...you don't know what's going on, do you?

[thefinaltarget]

Aren't you just saying that because you were tricking me into thinking I was the false seer?

[irenicly]

[It's suicide to go up against Tsukiyama, but if he's dead anyway maybe it won't be so bad. He'll be a crumpled heap on the ground in about five seconds flat, but if he's lucky maybe he'll get one dodge in first.

Banjou's fists clench. He's hopelessly outmatched here, but he doesn't care now.]

I wonder how that thing made you care about someone other than yourself, Tsukiyama-san.

[fauxlosophical]

[...Ah.]

If that's what you would like to believe. I know that my word means nothing to you at this point, and I'm not going to try to convince you that it should be otherwise.

[fauxlosophical]

...I have a better idea than most, actually.

[lasuaspada]

Please. You've been mourning me all day - if I didn't know better, I'd say you'd been spending too much time among the humans. Beginning to feel like one, were you?

Or were you just too pathetic to be able to live with the consequences of what you'd done?!

[And even if Tsukiyama doesn't have access to his kagune he's still obscenely fast; he seems to have change his mind about going for Banjou's face, so at least that's...arguably good.

...He seems to have shifted his focus into trying to knock the wind out of him instead, which is probably less good.]

[irenicly]

You should have been the demon. You would have enjoyed it.

[...what's wrong with mourning someone, anyway? Banjou had spent time mourning his followers for dying because of something he'd done, why wouldn't he--

Well, he wouldn't mourn Tsukiyama now.

Banjou is also an idiot. He's not exactly capable of dodging the attacks of an S-Rank ghoul at all.]

[lasuaspada]

[No. No, he really is not.

That said, Tsukiyama draws up just before hitting him, his fist stopping barely before making contact; rather than indicating that he's decided to feel merciful today for god only knows what reason, he just looks incredibly annoyed.]

Would it kill you to try to intercept me? Fight. Back.

[irenicly]

[He tenses.

Banjou hadn't been expecting Tsukiyama to give him a chance to fight back, honestly.

But he does raise his fists finally, at least looking like he's ready to defend himself. It's stupid and going to end with him severely injured, but if he's being given the opportunity to fight back before ending up in a heap on the ground, he's going to take it.

Actually successfully hitting Tsukiyama, however, is only going to happen if he deliberately takes the hit. Banjou's just too slow to fight effectively.]