week 7

[airlockedmods]

[For the first time in several weeks there is no new memorial in the garden. No new body in the morgue, no bloody mess for the roombas to clean. Choromatsu is still in need of time to heal and constant vigilance but he's alive. They're all alive for once on a Sunday and, even with the terrible realizations their returning memories may bring, there's a sense of hope for the first time in a long time.

There is no new floor this week.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 6, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church was absolutely dumb enough to touch t h e o r b but thought it was just a shiny trinket. Have fun with that if you ever come back, Skylight.

He looks exhausted by has his big boy pants on, probably, trying to look not like death. He even takes a cupcake. Yes, a cupcake. Because fuck it, PAL's not gonna poison them, that would be truly the stupidest thing he'd ever heard.

Half of it's already stuffed in his mouth when PAL lets the motive slip. It almost tumbles right the hell back out of his mouth (except that'd be a waste of food).

...Oh.]

[everylittlesecret]

[................................ that was pathetic.

Which means Nari is breaking her cover by laughing at just how awful that shot was.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Y-yeah. I mean...

['I can do it,' he wants to say, 'I'll do it and no one has to die.'

But thinking all night about the argument he had with Church has shaken his certainty, and the words don't come out. He closes his now-drier mouth and looks around the room, trying to see who's more shaken than he is.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

My ideas are always wrong or...fucking stupid or something. [Wrong during the trials, and everyone at meetings think they're stupid even if they're not.] I don't really uh. Add anything. Helpful.

[And then he chases people off hahaha.]

So I mean. I'll just keep my damn trap shut.

[everylittlesecret]

.... that you could turn shiny and silver? Or... somehow that's a special form? Does it make you more fast, stronger, able to deflect beams of light?

[Sorry about all of the questions.]

[everylittlesecret]

It takes a lot for me to get drunk, and there was no McDonald's open that late. There was a Burger King, though, and the pizza places stayed open till 2am.

Ooooh snakes make for good eating. Grill them up just right, and it's amazing.

[scourgingstars]

...Don't, Junpei. [Even Ardyn was looking shaken at the moment, sounding like he was trying to convince both of them.] Something like that...for all we know, the consequences could result in a worse outcome than the one we would be trying to prevent.

[everylittlesecret]

[GOOD SHE LOVES HELPING PEOPLE MAKE HORRIBLE LIFE CHOICES]

And after that you should watch a cute movie about a dog called Cujo.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[If looks could kill bore a message directly into other people's brains without the medium of sound, the intense--and very slightly panicked--look Junpei's shooting Church would tell him, Ho, don't even THINK about it.]

[scourgingstars]

[yeah, oh]

['I'm feeling rather inspired'--was this all Ardyn's fault? He'd been so fixated on fate this entire time, was it-]

...We need to talk.

[everylittlesecret]

I'm always concerned about everything. I've seen diseases wipe out towns before. It's.... It's not fun, especially when you can't help them. Sometimes I wonder how I haven't caught half the diseases I've come across. How does the daemon even work? Is it bloodborne? Airborne? Fluids?

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's a slow turn of his head to catch Junpei's look. Too late. The thought has been had. Whether he's nursing the thought or has tossed it aside to cover it in gasoline and set it on fire, it's unclear, but it's clear he's had the thought.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

What--hah, no, I... I won't.

[He looks down at his hand, seems surprised again when it's metal and not the palm he's used to.]

I already... altered the course of six billion lives. I don't--I don't need to.

[myocordial]

No, nothing like that. It is more powerful than a normal human, but not nearly as powerful as my evolved form. Every Roidmude has a base form. What we are before we copy a human and reach our evolution... Everyone has to start somewhere, after all.

...But just now... that is not my base form. It shouldn't look like that. Which means that... [He presses a hand to his chest for a moment. Right where, if he was in his true form, his serial number would... should be...] This is not my original body.

[serrata]

[ Yuuri's first thought is: how did he know?

This is too well timed, to soon after all that talk last night of going back, changing what happened changing fate. But... of course he'd know. Of course he'd have heard her weeping for Ruu, ranting about Kurumi and Megu-nee -- and that was just her. How many of the others had people they loved back home who were suffering, in pain, or worse? What about Arianna's dear friend, anyone from Heart's world -- everyone here has loved and lost.

And at this point... it would be so easy, wouldn't it? Junpei would never think twice about her leaning in close enough for a kiss, would never anticipate a knife slid between his ribs. Arianna would open her arms to Yuuri without a moment of hesitation, smiling in the instant before Yuuri started throttling her. Church, Queenie, Heart, Choromatsu -- all of them here trust her so much.

It would be so easy.

Yuuri is pale enough to look like she's about to faint -- but going by the utterly enraged expression on her face, it's not an approaching swoon to the ground making her hands shake. She can't even speak, she's so angry.

But, with the way her chair goes clattering to the floor when she storms out, perhaps she doesn't need to. ]

[buddyoldpal]

Real cute, PAL-han. Real nice.

[ Motive: Seen at 9:18am ✅ He can't bring back Billiken. Could he save Majima? Who knows. ]

Ya make these cupcakes yerself? Shit, Clarith-chan wasn't kiddin' was she?

[scourgingstars]

You don't sound much more convinced than I feel.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Church...

[Please. Please don't do this to him, because if he still has the thought, then Junpei--Junpei has no right to talk him out of it.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He manages at some point to actually choke down the cupcake half and now he's definitely not hungry right now and then Ardyn's actually showing his face, and for a moment, all that hurt rises to the surface--] Sounded like you said all you wanted to yesterday.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...It's not about me.

[He has no one he needs PAL's help to save. But there are ten other Champions in this mansion, and not one of them hasn't known loss, by now.]

[scourgingstars]

...

[Ardyn didn't say anything--just reached over and took Church's hand with one of his own--a living human touch with actual warmth beneath a dozen layers--staring at him intently and waiting for him to get the point.]

I'm done arguing.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He might say something if his mouth wasn't full of fluffy vanilla goodness. Hold on a second. Um. He's putting the other half back. (Gross. Who the fuck else is gonna eat 'em, though, shut the fuck up.) The room feels a little crowded and his head is spinning and maybe he could be the hero, even if the hero doesn't get to see the ending.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn took a slow breath, raking his right hand through his hair. If even they were doubting this, then there was no telling what the others might think.]

We have to get this under control. Convince them this isn't going to help anything.

[everylittlesecret]

... that... then who does it belong to? Is there a way to tell? A serial number or something somewhere? I could help you look for it unless each of your kind have it in the same place.

[She's good at finding things.]

[scourgingstars]

..I never studied the specifics of it on a biological level, but I do know it's parasitic in nature. The reports from Niflheim's laboratories categorized it as something which was mutated from malarial parasites. As a result, it's largely bloodborne; one can sometimes escape injury from a daemon without affliction, but more often than not it's a death sentence.