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

[irenicly]

[Banjou scoffs.]

I should ask Kimblee-san about the temple.

[If you want to follow him, he's not going to say no. He may have gone back to disliking Tsukiyama, but he's not going to turn down the company of the only person he actually knows here.]

[lasuaspada]

[Like hell he is.

Enjoy yourself.]

[irenicly]

[Considering how well the conversation with Tsukiyama went, (read: it didn't go well at all) it actually takes Banjou a while to actually go up to Kimblee. Hopefully by now everyone has gotten over the urge to punch the man.]

Kimblee-san, I have a question for you.

[fauxlosophical]

[It seems that the recent punchapalooza has calmed itself for the time being, yes; that said, Kimblee is seeming a bit distant from the others, perhaps understandably so, and the insufferable amounts of confidence from the village proper are largely gone. He still seems a bit too placid given the situation, but maybe that's just sort of how he is.

It won't be difficult to find him and speak to him alone, anyway.]

Mr. Banjou - of course.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Oswin isn't planning on punching Kimblee in the face, at least. His flat stare will have to communicate his displeasure on its own. Because that's what he's doing. Staring flatly at him. Kimblee owes him some kind of thanks or apology or something, and apparently he's not going to say anything until Kimblee makes it clear which he plans to deliver. ]

[irenicly]

[Kimblee isn't someone he'll ever understand, which is just as well. He's not the type of person Banjou wants to be around unless he has to be, but this is important.]

When Fulbright-san suggested the barn, you had a strong reaction.

[It's one he hopes the other demons picked up on, but Banjou hadn't actually questioned it much himself thanks to the brainwashing.]

Do you know what's actually inside it?

[fauxlosophical]

...Yes. It's the Gentleman, I believe, but I have strong reason to think that he won't show us mercy if we're returned to him.

[fauxlosophical]

...Mr. Oswin.

[...it's actually going to be neither, judging by how clipped his tone is. He is clearly not in the mood for all this "formalities" bullshit today.]

From what I understand, you had no idea what you were doing upon waking me up; if that's truly the case, we need to discuss strategy. Now.

[irenicly]

Do you think he's some kind of monster like the Lady?

[He hadn't thought about the Gentleman not showing them mercy, but it makes sense. Again, more aspects of the brainwashing Banjou hadn't questioned.]

He'd probably kill us for our failure.

[Or worse. It could always be worse.]

[fauxlosophical]

Oh, it's worse than that. This doesn't appear to be a matter of one sort of monster against another.

They're the same species.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

The Maddened will make it difficult to tell if the Avenger strikes tonight, yes. ...And it was Roy Mustang himself who revealed them to the village. If he is the Avenger, perhaps he did so in hopes that the demons would do his work for him....

[ He shakes his head with a sigh. This whole situation certainly is a mess, but... ]

In a situation such as this, it can be difficult to know the wisest course of action.

[ At least you didn't wake up Kimblee last night, Banjou. ]

[irenicly]

[Oh god that's

worse than he thought]

Being sent to the barn would mean death.

[Come to think of it, being sent to the Lady would mean the same fate.

How the hell are they supposed to do anything about a pair of eldritch horrors that everyone considers their own patron deities?]

[fauxlosophical]

Why do you think she would even offer it to us as an option? Surely she's aware of what's in there; she wouldn't send those she was "punishing" there if it was so simple as returning us to our deity of choice.

[irenicly]

[He's never been so thankful for Clover.]

I'd take the fire over that.

[Banjou's kind of a bad apex predator, but if another apex predator is going to kill him he'd rather it be another ghoul and not a horrifying abomination.]

[fauxlosophical]

To be frank, I would have demanded it, had the vote gone that way.

[irenicly]

If Mustang-san is the Avenger, we need to wake him up.

We can't do it tonight because he's on the Night Watch, but he's one of the Faithful we can rely on.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Oswin can't say he wasn't expecting neither, really. He's annoyed by it, certainly, but not surprised. ]

My proper title is Sir Oswin, I will thank you to use it.

[ He's been letting the misters slide, but not for you, Kimblee. ]

Had I known what you were going to do, I never would have touched you. That much is certainly true.

[fauxlosophical]

Sir Oswin, then - my apologies.

[...Look, at least he's nothing if not polite.]

Either way, it's of utmost importance that we do...whatever it is you did to me, to as many influential people in that village as we can.

[irenicly]

[Now he knows this whole thing is apparently a couple sadistic monsters playing dolls with 32 people for kicks.

.....and apparently they are lousy playthings because they invented their own non-lethal option.

There's no way that'll last forever. The things will get bored eventually.]

We need as many people as possible to learn the truth.

[fauxlosophical]

We've bought them time, if nothing else. Admittedly, that wasn't quite what I was intending at the moment, but it serves everyone's purposes quite well, I imagine.

[Ah. There's the insufferable confidence.]

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

...You were woken up more than just physically. You saw the Lady for what she really is.

[fauxlosophical]

I saw everything for what it was. The village, my true relationship with Isaac, the Lady and the Gentleman both.

[irenicly]

[....dammit, Kimblee.

He just... stares at that.]

We need to think carefully about who to target. The Faithful won't believe anyone they suspect of being a demon.

[fauxlosophical]

We need influential people. Someone seems to have awakened Connor, but I'm concerned that our Archdemon is going to target him eventually.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

There is no Gentleman. All who fail to wake in the morning, be they targeted by demons, Maddened, or Avenger, are made so by the Lady. You'll see as much yourself tonight.