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

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

[ Oswin is well aware this has not gone just as keikaku, thank you, Tsukiyama. ]

That would likely be the wisest course of action, yes.

[lasuaspada]

Banjou-san is one of them, I'm certain of it.

[...]

He said something odd to me last night, however. About all of that.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

Oh? What did he say?

[lasuaspada]

Well, first of all, he confirmed everything Kimblee-san is saying with regards to the host, but I'm fairly sure that was because I was brainwashed and insane at the moment. His acting is rather bad, and in hindsight I think that's what it was.

He also tried telling me he was in control of his actions the entire time. I didn't believe him due to the abovementioned brainwashed insanity. So I don't know what I should think of...any of that.

The odd thing, though, was "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I'm doing this for you."

[heartofsnarkness]

Good point. Anyway, I say we go for it.

[steel_over_blood]

They're letting him live?!

Compassion's a fine ideal, but there's such a thing as common sense!

[ Okay so the demons might be the right side but the village, cripes, is everyone with any sort of strategic ability already dead, is that what's happening here, he's so disappointed in you guys. ]

[very_bad_end]

Maybe that's the demons' plan? Eliminate the people who wouldn't let themselves be threatened or cajoled.

Rather shrewd.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

Hmmm. They have a story they've agreed on, then. I find that much more believable than taking Kimblee at his word. Likely, they believe themselves to be just as much in control of their actions as the faithful do, though I do not think they are being deceived any less. I do not imagine that this was quite the benefit he had in mind for you. Forgive my bluntness, but I would not put much stock in it.

[lasuaspada]

He manipulated me and believed it to be merciful; he told me that he wanted me to target the dove in hopes that the avenger would ensure that I didn't wake up.

...Banjou-san has a very backwards way of trying to help at the best of times. He genuinely thinks the coma is for the best.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

I can't imagine what they believe themselves to be accomplishing. If that's what you wish to know, you would be better served by asking Isaac McDougal.

[steel_over_blood]

If that's their plan, then it's working.

...I'm surprised the Major hasn't been raising a fuss. I had him down as a pragmatic man, and the bloodthirsty kind of pragmatic at that. Also surprised he hasn't been targeted, by that logic. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that he and Clover are our second pair of demons.

[glaciates]

Considering what we've seen here are we really sure we want the Lady to win?

[He's not sure the Gentleman is right either, but there's definitely more to this than they were told.]

[glaciates]

Yeah. I don't see any point in hiding anything from you guys now. I'll try to answer any questions as best I can.

[ill_hearted_gentleman]

Thank you for your cooperation. Allow me to start by cutting straight to the heart of the matter: what is your aim in all this? What is it the demons hope to accomplish?

[very_bad_end]

Hm... that's a possible, maybe even probable, scenario.

Or perhaps he's the Maddened one.

[lasuaspada]

[He shakes his head a bit at that, though he seems a bit bothered by something.]

...Banjou-san said something to me last night, you know. "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I'm doing this for you."

Does the entire ridiculous lot of you genuinely believe you're doing the right thing? Kimblee-san notwithstanding, because I have positively no clue what Kimblee-san thinks he's doing.

[glaciates]

You're not the only one...

[Kimblee is a special being, we ignore him.]

But yeah, they all think they're doing the right thing. Obviously there's more to the Lady's story than she's telling us, but I'm not sure the Demons are fully in the right either. It was harder to think clearly back there, I guess.

The Demons are putting people to sleep, but we were told that it wasn't permanent. If we got the numbers down where the townspeople matched the number of Demons, we'd supposedly "win".

[glaciates]

We were "woken" in the middle of the night to speak to an entity calling himself the Gentleman. He told us that the Lady was lying to us, which is apparently true. We were supposed to cut the number of townspeople down to equal the number of Demons, then we'd beat the Lady. We were told that everyone put to sleep would be able to be saved, so none of us thought anything about choosing our targets during the night. We could have refused to select anyone, but no one thought about that. I guess we were too riled up about the whole thing.

[lasuaspada]

[Hmmm.]

Normally I would claim that the demons have the high ground because they're simply making us sleep rather than burning us, as the Lady demands...but I wouldn't say that this is much better.

After all, we seem fairly dead to me, monsieur.

[glaciates]

Yeah, I know. That's why I don't think the Demons are in the right either. I don't think either side's right here, but it doesn't look like anyone's going to try to look at things in another way. I know the Demons aren't. They're all too focused on who the next victim's going to be.

[lasuaspada]

[...And that? That is the best news he's heard all day, actually.]

You know what we have to do tonight, then, don't you?

It's time we took our cue from Oswin-san and woke some of them up.

[glaciates]

...Wait, we can wake them up?

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

Is that how Kimblee avoided ending up here?

[lasuaspada]

Naturellement, my friend.

I spoke to Oswin-san earlier; it seems your partner is telling the truth. Oswin-san woke him up last night because he was trying to interrupt this Demon meeting you all apparently engage in, but he missed his window of opportunity - instead of putting a stop to his activity as the Incubus, he shook him before the Maddened could strike. They didn't hit him because he was already awake.

[glaciates]

[...So Kimblee just lucked his way out of getting murdered. Goddammit, Kimblee.]

So can we all do it? In that case we could probably wake up most of the demons if we strike at the right time, though I'm... not entirely sure when that is.

[lasuaspada]

Honestly, I don't know if we want to wake up so many at once or not - look at the Lady and tell me that she wouldn't try to put an immediate stop to an uprising and likely succeed.