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

[steel_over_blood]

So much for him being a voice of reason among the demons.

In hindsight, we should have woken up Clover. Now there's a kid with her head screwed on the right way.

[ Shit, Clover. She's still brainwashed, a little, she won't take this well from her beloved brother-

SHIT.

CLOVER. ]

...You don't suppose she's still in...?!

Re: Day 4, Major stalking patrol

[very_bad_end]

...

[steel_over_blood]

He wasn't completely reliable from the start, but I never imagined he'd go off like this!

[steel_over_blood]

...Yeah, I overestimated him. Both of them.

[ Gosh the ONE TIME Oswin was right just had to be the one time they didn't listen to him. If he's going to say I told you so, this would definitely be the time. ]

[steel_over_blood]

...You know, to add insult to injury? That song's really catchy! I can't get it out of my head!

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.]

[fauxlosophical]

[..............................]

All right, I stand corrected. From now on we'll just avoid awakening the demons.

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?]

[very_bad_end]

The Major is a charismatic man.

Of course he'll sing a catchy song.

[irenicly]

[Banjou gives Tsukiyama a strange look. He doesn't know what to do with his face, and honestly doesn't know what's about to happen, but he doesn't object.

He doesn't speak for a long moment, and when he does his voice is quiet in hopes that everyone else is too busy dealing with the Major to pay attention to their conversation.]

Tsukiyama-san, if you return to Kaneki without me...

[He might not like the man, but that's going to collapse the alliance at the very least. At the very worst, it'll kill Tsukiyama and then collapse the alliance.]

[irenicly]

[Oh.

Oh god.]

I... don't... know.

[Why this Major?!]

[lasuaspada]

[That just gets a quiet noise out of him; it's a bit difficult to tell whether it's assenting or just...noncommittal, but it's acknowledgement, anyway.]

I'll take care of that, Banjou-san. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll come up with something. I always do.

[irenicly]

[It's entirely possible the sleeping people won't ever wake up as it is.]

I tried to urge the others to take out the Maddened the night Kimblee-san and McDougal-san were attacked, but I...

[Banjou isn't much of a leader. He'd fallen in line without a fight; it's a little hard to be assertive when you don't have a spine.]

[lasuaspada]

And they couldn't see the sense in doing so on their own?

[His tone is sharp, derisive; again, it's not at Banjou.]

And here I was thinking they actually wanted to win this.

[irenicly]

The Major wanted to create patterns where they weren't any.

[It was sheer luck that they took out a pair of soulmates in the process.]

What a waste. They'll kill the Maddened now when they should be focused on saving as many villagers as possible.

[lasuaspada]

Come now, Banjou-san, they can't be faulted for that - I'd kill them for this as well.

[...Tsukiyama, now is probably not the time]

[irenicly]

[Banjou frowns.

He's... flattered?]

They're not in control of their actions, you know.

[It's entirely possible the two of them actually are murderers when they aren't brainwashed, but Banjou doesn't want to take any chances. It's not worth it.]

...they're all going to die, Tsukiyama-san.

[lasuaspada]

That's been obvious to me since yesterday. Even without the Maddened to figure for, they allowed a confirmed Incubus to live.

They're not suited for this.

[irenicly]

No, they're not.

[Had this been a group of ghouls, people wouldn't be hesitating. Banjou may be a pacifist, but he's not naive.]

Apparently the brainwashing worked too well if the Maddened have to cheat for anyone to die in this game of the Lady's.

[Seriously, it makes no sense for the Faithful to have spared Kimblee.]

[lasuaspada]

Either that or not well enough.

[He's pretty sure the Lady wants people to die, after all; whatever's going on, he doesn't seem too bothered by any of this. Not as much as he should be, anyway.]

We're terrible toys for her either way.

[irenicly]

[Still, given the rules they've been forced to follow he wonders if she's annoyed. Obviously she wants them to slaughter each other, but if she really wanted that to happen Kimblee, Tsukiyama and the Major could have easily overwhelmed the entire village.

Hell, Tsukiyama could have killed everyone by himself.]

I don't know how the hell waking people up will help them, anyway.

The only thing that's going to happen is people seeing what's actually killing them when it happens.

[...]

That's what happened to Yao-san. He was killed by something that looks just like her.

[lasuaspada]

...What?

[WELL THAT'S NEWS.]

Your Gentleman, then...?

[irenicly]

[He nods.]

Kimblee-san told me they're the same species. I don't know if he can know that for sure, but it makes sense, doesn't it?

Even if the Lady is the one in charge here, there's two of them.

[lasuaspada]

[...All right, at this point he has to laugh just because what the hell else is he even supposed to do.]

That's lovely. That's absolutely lovely.