"So... this one did murrurrder them, or did not? Do we have any evidence that he did anything at all?" the Chesshire kitten looks between Tracy and Astre. The two stories seemed to conflict heavily in the little cat's head, leaving it just as confused as it had been moments before.
Avis shrugs a coil. "Ssounds like the other events were traced back to suicides, and this heathen was found with a tainted knife. Involved or not, he'll at least need re-education, but if he isn't giving us any information-" The snake bolts to Chessa's other side as the man stomps the ground where they previously sat.
Loki rattles. "Our information does not indicate why patient zero committed suicide in each previous case, only that the suicide came immediately before the Darkness."
Johana pulses from Astre's side. "The accused was found two point four six meters from the center of the devastation. Necrosis of the flesh indicates all victims ceased to live within the same hour. Their wounds are conceivably consistent with the size and shape of the knife found on the accused. We have not previously acquired data of this nature for fear of contamination."
"It's not like we would have overlooked footprints in the blood." A few from the crowd balk at the casual morbidity of Loki's statement. "This one is very familiar with suicide... There would be no mistake."
"This one did not mean to imply a mistake, Loki. My sincerest apologies." The exchange between the two disembodied voices is an eerie experience. Throughout the room's assorted conversations, the accused stands stoically, and without a word. It looks like questions are being asked of him, but he remains unmoved.
Suzu speaks up, evidently against their better judgement. "Shuji said he took the knife from the boy after-"
"-weren't you two coworkers?" Nyx spits in accusation.
"Guardian on the Precipice?" Conquest looks to the other Erohin for clarification.
Malice turns. They and most of the Erohin weren't paying attention to the conversations of lesser beings. "He's talking about Vigor. The one that watched the Veil for leaks and did a piss poor job of it?" Malice crosses the room, the only one who has breached the invisible line between Erohin and their charges. "It'd be in your best interest to distance yourself from them too. Vigor was loyal to our little arrangement, but they have also gone missing since the..." Malice cracks a derisive smile. "Convergence." The torturer reaches out and cups Ao's cheek, getting scandalously close in the process. "Don't worry, Senshirou. No one else here would dare to touch you... If I say you've put your past behind you..." Nyx cries out, and across the room, Takara tenses watching the pixie fall to the ground and writhe there like a fish out of water. "-it is because it is thoroughly... finally... behind you."
Brilliance rolls their eyes. "We get it, Malice. You're the mean one. Please try not to damage the help. I don't think Maturity would appreciate it."
A vein pulses visibly on Malice's temple.
Maturity looks up from their placemat, upon which they have been drawing an ever expanding mandala of reds and oranges. Their tone is sleepy and dismissive. "What? Is that one mine? I forget... I have so many..."
Temerity sighs. "Can we not bring this farce to a close? I ache to be away from this stuffy cloister."
Raven moves across the room, scooping up the pained Nyx. "If we have no more worries of accusations or corruption, we should proceed with an investigation. Not enough is known to draw conclusions as to the purposes of the deaths, and therefore, more study into the matter is necessary. I ask our Erohin to move posthaste." Raven says, hoping to defuse the matter with Malice.
Perfection tuts and graces Raven with a sympathetic smile. “Oh, darling, this isn’t a trial. We are far beyond any doubt that this thing is irredeemable.”
Malice nods, grinning. “There is no power to counter free will. I can coax, coerce, and threaten, but this one has no fear of death. We are getting no more information from them.”
“It is a terrible waste, but they exhibit every quality of hate. I retract my advocacy.” Temerity sits.
Maturity doesn’t bother looking up. “Yes, this fruit has rotted on the vine.”
Perfection turns to Brilliance with a smug look of supreme satisfaction. “We have simple majority, does anyone here stake their honor on this lost soul?”
Brilliance shrugs, reclined in their chair with their slippered feet crisscrossed on the table and their arms folded behind their head. “If that is all this degenerate has to say for its actions, I must retract advocacy. Ignorance is one thing, but I can’t abide belligerence.”
Conquest looks crestfallen. “I can’t hang my reputation on respect alone. If Brilliance retracts advocacy, I won’t dare stand alone.”
Satisfied, Perfection taps a gavel on the table. When they speak again, it’s with the heavy, multitonal voice reserved for divine proclamation. “”
The Erohin at the table turn back to the man, who makes a hacking, snorting sound before spitting in Perfection’s face. “Guess you won this one after all, honey buns.” The room gasps in disgust, and Perfection stands, hands frozen over their face, unwilling to touch the offending fluids, but desperate for their removal.
Malice steps up behind the man, who is head and shoulders taller than them. Nonetheless, Malice grabs him by his collar and lifts him off the floor. The air suddenly smells of ozone, and the man arches his back. His face struggles to remain defiant to the end. His skin blackens, bubbles, and sags. The flesh drips out of his clothes to collect in piles which blow away like a fine dust. With a gentle shake, six red marble eggs tumble out of the white uniform to roll across the floor.
Astre watches, terrified, as the man receives a fate that could very well have been his own. he turns to the angry girl, the one who vehemently is not in therapy . they step close, so that their words will likely not be overheard.
does that- how often does that happen How many times will I have to watch that Astre thinks to himself Astre, by the way they say, extending their hand, almost as an afterthought.
As the ozone smell builds up, Chessa skitters out of the center of the room to hide in Sora's shadow, looking away from the sight... but that doesn't disguise the smells from her nose. Murr-urrder...
"A moment," Tracy holds up a mildly rebuffing hand at Astre's approach before stepping up to Perfection, a blindingly white kerchief raised to remove the offending humour. Brows raised questioningly, she holds her contact to be certain of the Erohin's acceptance.
Perfection waves her flared palms in a beckoning motion.
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Head inclined in perfunctory obeisance at Perfection's imperative, Tracy gently but thoroughly removes the base liquid from the Erohin's face before tucking the kerchief back into the satchel at her back, not quite kow-towing her way back from the 'Erohin's side' of the chamber.
Sotto vocce, she replies to Astre's inquiry "Our 'patron's' are phenomenally powerful & exhibit precisely the degree of courtesy THEY feel another deserves." Shrugging, she adds, "Make of that what you will."
Raven stares at the clothes that were once belonging to more than the dead, his mind trying to quell the horror of what he saw. That too could happen to me. But it won't. For I am no fool as he was. Still, Raven wishes to purge the memory, removing the stench from his nose. Hopefully I - we - can leave soon.
It was hard not to sigh at Sora's caution around the Yokai. Necessary, yes, but no less distressing. The last thing she needed was anything keeping her tense at the moment, and it was all the worse for the fact he couldn't reassure her it was alright to drop her guard and relax. Not now, anyway.
"Good to hear." 'As well as can be' didn't actually mean good overall, but in times like these, 'the least bad possible' was often something to leap for. If she actually had that, then it was at least some comf-
...he was over thinking this. Not the time for that.
His eye flicks to the nekomata as they leave. It'd always seemed curiously responsive to Sora, all things considered. Had to be a story there, but he didn't quite know right now if he'd ever gotten it...not that he had the chance to now, with...he was never going to say order called, the only way that ever happened in these affairs was if they literally called in Harmony, but with people paying attention to more than their own petty squabbles.
He waits and listens attentively throughout the proceedings, making sure to correct his memory of events as they happen. He winces at Tracy's outburst, the events seeming even worse than his limited recollection. But otherwise, he remained reasonably static, reacting as might be expected from him, up until...the eggs.
He would never be used to that. God, he was barely putting up with the smell right now.
As is his duty, he retrieves a pair of gloves and the fabrics that would cradle the eggs - measures to ensure he would not make contact with them. Each egg is gathered, to then be presented to Mercy, for them to take their pick of the selection - they were currently due two. The rest are brought back over to Conquest, and Junpei finds himself glad he won't be present for the almighty argument that would follow later.
...he makes sure to get away from Conquest as quickly as possible.
I'm not being dramatic when I say it's basically open warfare. They tell us they go to each other based on who it benefits most, but really, they're using their charges to compete with each other to see who gets any of the eggs...or god forbid, the vaunted "Need" if been seeing to all the time.
Dibs. I had hoped "Need" actually resembled anything like what it sounded like, but it's dibs. First pick to whoever can upstage everyone else beyond hope of dispute.[/color]
[color=#ff69b4]No wonder Conquest is the one looking after these things. He basically has to fight everyone else off, and the only thing stopping him from abusing his privileges here like just about every other Erohin would is the fact he'd prefer to claim ownership by stomping everyone into the ground during the competition rather than just playing dirty.
...just playing dirty. I don't care what he says, I saw some of those tactics, and they were nothing short of brutal.
NEVER. AGAIN.[/color]
Malice picks through the eggs and takes one, rolling their eyes.
Conquest sees this and grinds their teeth. When Junpei approaches, Conquest scans the eggs. "You took my egg. Not only do you mock us by taking one egg, but it's to take the one you know I want?" This is but the beginning of a sickening debate about how the seven eggs should be divided between the six Erohin. This is a fight that is only escalated when Maturity leaves in a huff, purportedly fed up with the bickering, but mostly following behind Malice.
Across the room, many of the yokai and humans are beginning to scatter. The pageantry you were all brought here to witness seemingly over.
Brilliance beckons Chessa when they manage to extricate themselves from the negotiations with a pair of eggs. "Keep an eye on that site for me? I have a feeling it's about to be flooded with amateur sleuths. See that they don't try to cover up anything we might find. We can't be sure none of them are agents of Darkness."
When each of you finally realize this was all you came to see, you're each met with a sense of disappointment. This was the committee tasked with ending these Darkness events, and they seem preoccupied with using their authority to act out personal vendettas and wax poetic. If the Darkness is to be stopped, it would seem it falls on you to end it.
------- [MUSIC: Intro I] --------
The intro opens to an high speed aerial shot over lush trees, yokai scattering. A glowing strand of DNA crosses the screen, unraveling unti the strands are paralell, then break. There is a lense flare, and we break the treeline to the sight of a massive stone cathedral carved into a dome of purple marble. A storm is brewing overhead.
A lithe figure, shown in yellow-tinted silhouette dives from a crenelated structure at the crown of the dome, and we follow them as they plummet through the crisscrossing halls and staircases. Each floor we pass shows one of the seven Erohin in their lavish temples. In the space between, we are treated to introductions to the seven characters.
"Yes, Mewstress." Chessa acknowledges, bobbing her head. The most important question she had learned to ask when it came to dealing with Brilliance was what does she really want?. But it wasn't one of her own skills to actually answer that question... which lended towards her following the letter of her suggestions, despite the high probability of failure as a direct result.
Chessa had always known where two of the Magatama were. She had squirreled them away, one where only she could find it, and one where her meowther would, when the time was right. She sat beside the tree near the studio BB-Pop had trained in... contemplating the future. It was clear that the little kitten would have to take matters into her own hands. There were murrurderers that she needed to protect her home from - but there was also something more, beneath the surface... and far above. The Erohin were murrurderers, too. One soul split into seven spirits from what could have been a friend. They had no proof that they could raise to her that he had done anything wrong besides not believing in them - or rather, had not deigned to. And for that reason, she could not respect their authority, either. A good leader would have shown sincerity. Perhaps the deepest blow, was from Conquest retracting his protection. There was a better way, and that was Chessa's way. There would have to be secrets, though. And that was going to be fun.
She paws absently at the knothole in the tree, pushing the jade resin back into the hole, so that she could get at the pendant's string, tugging it out, and grabbing it in her mouth as she absconds from the scene, and heads for the blacksite.
She ducks into an alley on the way, with no one in sight, and fades into the darkness. On the other side, a blonde woman appears with the same bright, alert eyes walks out. And all it took was borrowing a little bit of the Magatama's power... what could she accomplish if she tapped into it in full?
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Cygnus' Hands were covered in blood. the doctors were all busy, so she was the only one there when the kid started declining. They had started Spasming and tearing at their bandaging, and she had rushed over, trying to hold them down and reapply what had been torn.
As they Writhed, She felt something in his wound. to close to the surface, and in the wrong place to be a bone, it had to be a foreign object. she couldn't sedate them, they'd probably never wake, but it was probably causing this fit. She dug one hand in, the other arm used to put her full body weight on them to keep them still. her fingers got a grip, and she carefully extracted the object, a small crescent bead.
As soon as she removed it, the child went still. breathing shallowly, and allowed her to reapply the bandage. They had lost too much blood, never woke up. She quietly pocketed the bead, clearly a leftover from the attack, a weapon or something. she would show Astre, or Ao, Or Junpei. Someone on the purity council
Brilliance's temple is a maze of shifting passages and large amphitheaters. In an ideal world, it would be a bastion of intellectual endeavors full of academics of every sort. In reality, the twisted halls are filled with those deemed deviant, each following a course of re-education meant to dull the harsher contrasts of human nature.
---
Mercy's temple has become an emergency triage center. Wide halls facilitate the passage of the injured in and out of quarantined care units. Erohin, being immutable, have no concept of harm or healing, and until the Darkness began its attacks, these halls were meant to house the chronically infirmed and elderly with every care taken to accommodate their exceptional needs.
---
Malice's temple is a place of magnificent horrors blotted out by deep shadows. Build vertically, and open to the air, most of the area is taken up by deep pits. In a reality few accept outside of Malice's own followers, most of the subjects are willing. Malice's first rule is that followers do not discuss their methods outside the temple.
Conquest's temple is a vast stretch of open gardens. Several regiments--a hundred strong and filed into square formations--perform exercises and drills around a huge Colosseum-like throne hall. The penitent and pious alike wait their turn to challenge the boisterous Erohin in single combat. A tanuki bursts through the stucco wall of the hall and tumbles to a stop in the middle of a grassy field. A few feet away, a human charge looks up from the plastered hole they are finishing and sighs.
Swooping down into the gardens, Junpei can be seen in uncomfortably bulky gear, seeing to some of the yokai down there. Some might claim the heavy wear was only for protection in case of an event with younger or more impulsive yokai...not Conquest, though.
All this weight piled upon him had, and always would be, a way to train his body, and he was certain that it only got heavier when it was thought he had adjusted to the weight it was currently at.
Not that he'd ever managed to prove that. At least it actually protected him when he needed it.
This was where he'd find it...there. After checking over a few other points to make it at least seem like he didn't already know where to go, he plucks the object he'd been seeking from where it'd managed to get twisted into the dryad's root system, the gold-flecked, burnished red magatama squirrelled away quickly and securely.
His current state of wear had more use than training.
Once his work was done, and the unbearably heavy protective wear removed, he quickly manoeuvres to where he'd been told Astre found his own...there. One more magatama. The purple crescent bead is tucked away once more, possibly to be slipped to the blonde woman that the others would soon know well...he, even more so. It took a long time to notice, but she always reacted to this particular magatama the first time she saw it.
He didn't remember if it was hers before...that hadn't come back to him yet. It wouldn't, really, until he used his own. All he knew right now was that it felt really, really important that Astre not find it...many other people for that matter.
...could he stow it somewhere in the hideaway? He'd have to try if he hadn't already.
----
Alright...private location, magatama in hand...red and gold fluctuating as the power within felt its call. As much as he wanted to see if he could still go between as he had when he'd first gained power, he couldn't remember if that was something that happened the first time, if at all, and it was likely better to go with a recognisable face if he had the choice...
Well. Time to head over, then.
He pulls on the magatama.
And memory floods in.
As the camera pans* through the twisting halls, it takes a hard right into a room and past one of the protagonists of the previous story, recognizable by her hair and the photographs that had decorated her walls in the previous season - it doesn't give most people long enough to catch the easter egg, before the camera dives out of the window, rising and falling to stop on a view of outside the window. It dives off the edge of the window to land on a fire escape, then another. The camera goes dark.
The camera shows a small, perfectly human building juxtaposed between the alien architecture of the city, the camera still dashing along the ground at speed, before pausing at the base of a tree, vibrant green standing out against the lavender domes, ashy wood, and pink blossoms. The camera moves forward into the green, pressing into it, before the scene fills with that deep green... and then with geometric patterns forming into hallways of vivid blue and black stripes, giving the feeling of falling. Then, in the distance, more city at the end of the minimalisticaly rendered hallway. The camera swoops ahead, and pans to another street view.
A blonde-haired girl in her mid teens stumbles out of the alleyway that the camera has turned to view. She's wearing a jean jacket with a hood and white sleeves, as well as blue jean pants. Her eyes are the same color blue that the striped walls had been. She runs the back of her hand over her cheek, before grinning with slightly-too-sharp-teeth, and taking off down the sidewalk - away from the camera.
It then shows the same girl in black with her signature blue off to the side, holding a plain white mask that hides half of her face. The visible part of her face is grinning, and 'Nobody' flickers in and out beneath her portrait, suggesting that the name might not stick**.
*Later analysis by film geeks would note that the camera itself is viewing the world from knee-height until it separates from the protagonist whose world we're seeing, and that it bobs and weaves just enough to be believably seen from Chessa's view.
**And indeed, the enigma's name would change in the opening credits with each moniker she took.
Temerity's temple is a massive hover craft maintained in a hanger in the outskirts of Neo Jimazan. Engineers work to maintain and improve the craft, and squads of navigators pour over unfinished maps of their new composite world. The breakdown of the Veil destroyed many of Earth's physical laws. There is even some question as to whether it's a sphere any more. The Erohin describe their side of the Veil as an endless wasteland.
---
Maturity's temple is a cozy court of pillows and curtains filled with a dim, warm light. Supplicants court destruction, producing harsh alcohols and pickled foods, sharing morbid fascinations and nostalgia, and most critically, producing human children.
---
Perfection's temple is Obusa, plucked from its home in Japan and transplanted at a slightly compressed scale within Neo Jimazan. Those who find themselves under Perfection's domain work to continue the town's development. This temple acts as temporary housing for outsiders as well as a place for Perfection's many pitiable strays. A deviant's last hope is to maintain Perfection's advocacy.
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Whelp. That went about as expected...
As her Patron & the other Erohin finally conclude the 'business' of divvying the fragments of a human soul, Tracy silently confers with Loki regarding the best order to clean & prepare the chamber for returning to it's 'at rest' state.
Ultimately, the baby Bodhisattva's remove themselves & their entourages, allowing Loki & Tracy to complete their task. A task fraught with it's own complexity now, thanks to the execution performed not long before. "It would have been nice to know they were probably going to kill him before hand," she grumbles, "we could have set up wards, made certai-"
The first thing she notices is the absence. For all that having a supernatural spirit of purity & health as a literal constant companion was still oftentimes the strangest thing about the last ten years of her life, Loki was, in many ways, the rock which provided it's foundation. The only stability she could find herself depending on. With realization that the Kodama was truly gone rocking through her like an ungrounded current, Tracy could be forgiven for not immediately realizing she was now someplace...
OTHER
Falling past these scenes, the yellow sillouette lands in some sub basement in the center of the city. A terrible shadow rises, tendrils unfurling to surround the lone figure as a golden light blossoms from an extended hand.
The result of the exchange is obscured as the shadow fills the screen, and the title card flashes on screen.
We open on the interior of the Hideout, a place folded between places, a wrinkle in space. It looks, at first, like an unkempt closet, or an abandoned bag of holding. There are shelves and chests filled with things like jeweled tiaras, glowing orbs, and an absolute deluge of candy wrappers.
It takes a few weeks of the six of you shifting around the furniture before it starts feeling like a proper clubhouse. You each put your own personal touches, claiming fixtures and squirreling away your precious contraband.
One object amongst the mess seems immutable: a crystalline sphere like dark metal, spins atop a pillar as water bubbles up from the base, trickling down the sides as if it were a fixture in a fountain. Ao identifies the stone as hematite. The sphere spins and turns as if seeking.
The Library still smells like blood.
Loki breaks the seal containing the Dark residue, and Tracy is hit by a wave of metallic scents. For all of their magic, the Erohin still have a loose grasp of the needs of a mortal culture. The area has been contained and preserved, but even days after the event, the bodies are still here.
It's as Astre described, and a very similar scene when compared to those you have had to clean before. Here at the edge, victims' bodies fell where they were gored, but nearer the center, tables and book cases are blown to splinters, and the thick, black ichor left behind by the attack hangs from every surface, and pools on the floor, teeming with feint purple streamers of Dark energy.
"We aren't the first to return since the committee meeting." Loki sounds surprised.
Tracy's here now because last night the shrine's seeking orb stopped shifting, and has since been rolling on a single axis. This on the heels of a creeping, formless hunch.
"Really? And you're surprised?" Tracy admonishes the Kodama gently. "You saw what they were like at the meeting. This was the first time any of them besides Perfection was made aware, or attentive to the fact that 'the Enemy' has been using the vital energies of intentional cessation of life to punch through every time..." Her expression sours at being forced to recall both the unpleasantness of that many Erohin in one place at one time, not to mention acquiring the attention of so many in one place at one time, compounded with the already dolorous task of contemplating such a massive entropic event.
"I just hope that possibly, with such a large event, comparatively, they left some spoor that might give us an idea of their immediate goals, some hope of generating some push-back..."
Sighing, resolvedly, Tracy opens the significantly larger 'work' satchel. "What do you think, six liters? Twelve? It's always so...
Disturbing, how all that is left of...
whoever it was that ended themselves is that...
goo. As if the body itself is just converted completely into the energy needed, leaving only some manner of 'spiritual toxic waste'." She shakes herself almost convulsively in revulsion. "It doesn't help that the volume of goo always seems to match the general volume of how much blood an adult of that age, mass, and health should have..." She muses in horrified fascination as she pulls out a large quantity of consecrated rock salt before crushing it into a coarse powder with the mortar & pestle also stored within the satchel. Once she has prepared enough to adequately absorb the corruption, Tracy begins the slow process of properly spreading it across every contaminated surface, chanting sutras of cleansing & surcease in a steady drone as she did so, just as Loki had taught her, those many years previous.
"Is it just me, or did this one...
play with them a bit? None of these look like clean kills. Well, you know what I mean."
Not at all knowing what she was meant to find, Chessa takes the little jade stone that had been stolen from Ninsar (the other, belonging to Anastasia, being left somewhere that only Sora could find it - to the letter of her instructions) with her as she heads down to the source of the darkness. Little more than a bauble tied to a collar to the untrained eye. Stripes slid cooly over her body as her fur caught bits and pieces of light, piercing blue eyes lighting the way forward.
Pad, pad, went her paws as she traversed the mostly-abandoned location. Surely, all of the clues would already have been found... but maybe there was more to be found below waist height... or for sneaky little kitties to discover. This place didn't feel like it had been filled with murrurrder. It didn't smell particularly inviting, but that was hardly the building's fault. So, slowly she made her way through, before official clean-ups could occur, bounding out of the shadows to pounce upon lights that dappled through a broken window, and generally approaching anything that looked remotely like a stain as any kitty would, investigating with eyes wide open, as if the stain might move to reveal something more.
From the center of the fallout, it's more clear the path the creature took through the library. The other victims are distributed in small clusters along a spiraling path outward. After checking a few of the clusters, the position of the bodies, the placement of the wounds, and the trails of residual Darkness, you come to a perplexing conclusion: the victims were planted in place, frozen somehow, each group in succession, before the creature doubled back, taking her time to murder them. This creature has some means of paralyzing her victims.
Somewhere in the back of the library, near one of the stained glass windows, there is a strange hole on one of the clusters, as if there had been a person standing there before the others became paralyzed, who later left... or was taken.
Only one Erohin deigns to lay eyes on the scene personally: Conquest pours over the scene, stopping to scratch you behind the ears. They keep their observations to themselves, and doesn't seem to think twice about your presence.
Suzu stops by to fret over the books. She checks several shelves, moving books about, and disappears without leaving through the front door.
A human you don't recognize arrives, wearing a long coat and smelling of burnt clove. They circle the library, crouch by a mound of Dark residue, then leave.
Azumamaro and Ayatori stopped by briefly. Azu spent some time checking to see she wasn't being watched, and picks something up off the floor. You're a little distracted, however, by the fact that Ayatori is marked by Darkness! Your blood chills as you realize, beyond any doubt, that there are traitors on the committee.
Little Chessa bounds about in the bookshelves, giving Suzu a leg-rub, and getting scritches from Conquest. She pads along in the footsteps following after the man once he's left, little kitty sneezes escaping at maximum velocity once she reaches the end of her trail. The sneezes seem to distract her from any goal she may have had. She starts to approach Azumamaro for her cat taxes, when she stops, eyes glittering in the dark, as she watches Ayatori instead. What could it mean?
Her instincts tell her to stick to the shadows, while her curiosity tells her to ask Ayatori if he felt alright. Her internal puckishness told her that she could do both. So she stayed away, and instead traced their footsteps, continuing to listen in on the pair.
it's not... there's a fog Astre said
You need to try harder. You've said it yourself, the Erohin aren't going to do anything. it is down to us. Astre trembled a little, locked away in the hideout, safe from their yokai for the first time since they had arrived.
I don't want to. Astre said, holding their legs a little tighter What I have. it's not good
Cygnus moved forward, pressing a cup of tea into Astre's hands That's why we have to stop them.
You don't... it isn't just the bad things that happened around me. it's also the bad things I did, when I was part of it
That wasn't you.
How do you know. I don't know.
I do know Cygnus said, going closer, taking his hand in hers I know you. You are a good person. It will be okay. just go slow, and tell me what you can remember
*sends an two enigmatic private messages*
Mercy's temple was a busy place right now. That was only natural, given what had been going on. Most of the time, it saw far more use in the future too.
But the constant flow of people to be treated wasn't what drew him here. No, there was something else...
Something different had happened here.
Everything came back at the Hideout. All the knowledge he had garnered, gifted to him in the form that he might best see through it. The logbooks the magical system provided were certainly a help in that, constantly expanding as he filled them with all sorts of notes.
But he didn't need to refer to them to know that Cygnus and Astre weren't supposed to be there. To know why he had gone to take that other magatama, and to know that the plans he had laid out had more to account for than he'd known -
Something was different this iteration, and he needed to know what.
Junpei worked through the clinic, practiced routines and slowly accumulated knowledge helping him insert himself into the flow of Mercy's temple, helping out how he knew he would be permitted to if he asked and taking the opportunities he could to learn and observe as he went through the place.
He'd learned so much here, in other times. He'd gotten familiar with the place as best an outsider can, gotten to know it in more depth than any knew.
Enough to know, at the very least, when things were not quite how they were before.
Subtly, he peered into the workings of the temple, a careful eye and a practiced tongue rooting out the little details as his mind put them together.
"I see, field medicine, right? You wanna make sure Conquest's hordes are well-prepared for the mortality of their humans." Avis darts around while Junpei learns the system of records and the workflows of this impromptu hospital. Acolytes run teams of Medics, making diagnoses and delegating incoming patients. Eventually, Junpei finds a private moment to bring up Cygnus' work log.
The log is a cross-referenced list of procedures with information about the medic, the patient, the admitting staff, yokai attendants, and a thorough description of every aspect of the procedure. Junpei can see the records from Astre's recovery as well as the record of the foreign body removal. Instinctively, they corrupt the description of the magatama in the record to cover Cygnus' tracks.
The admitting acolyte is listed as Hiro Miku. The same Acolyte who admitted Astre. Was it odd that they were involved in both procedures? Hiro's entry makes no mention of the foreign body.
The patient is listed as a Jamie Doe. There is a description.
"Always a good thing to know a little first aid." Hence why he'd already made a point of learning before. He was no professional, but he was good enough.
Avis didn't need to know about that, though.
And...that's where it came from...this was new to him. The question was, how did it get there?
And...where was it every other time...?
When everyone is back at the hideout, Cygnus speaks up
Thanks to Astre they say, squeezing Astre's ahnd as they do. We know the M.O. of at least some of the darknesses agents. they find vulnerable people, and manipulate them, put them in positions to descend into self destruction, draw them into darkness.
It isn't pretty Astre says People who are vulnerable, turned into monsters
Yes... Cygnus says, trailing off for a moment, before rallying But, we also know one other thing. The hunters. a force that fights against the darkness. I think our first step is finding them!
As Cygnus speaks, excited to be part of a team, fighting the good fight, Astre closes his eyes, mind whirring.
before the creature doubled back, taking her time to murder them
Should I be reading something into that? Can I actually tell that the agent/monster identifies as female?
Pretty sure that is always gonna be weird...
Once again, the first thing Tracy notices is absence...
But circumstances allow her no time to reflect upon this.
At Cygnus' & Astre's words, Tracy counters. "Is that worse or better than to be goaded into taking your own life, only to have the act be nothing more than a power source, fuel for the fire that lights their way here." Shaking her head, she continues. "Our first step should be learning more about what is in play here. 'The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend'."
The Darkness residue causes all kinds of bad stuff. Folks were panicing before a proper disposal ritual could be written. It's really dangerous for anyone who isn't trained to approach the stuff. Do not ever let it get on your skin. Even looking at it still makes you nervous.
At the very center of the carnage, growing up from between the floor tiles is a single blue rose. The sight is the most compelling evidence in support of the creature's redemption. Looking at it fills you with a serene sorrow. There was something out of this person's reach which drove her to this. You've seen such signs before.
The creature fled. From the changes in her path around the library, the area behind the shelves where there are signs of a struggle, and the scorch marks on the wall beside a door, you get a sense of urgency and dismay overriding the unbridled instinct of the original attack. She's somewhere, and wounded. How did no one notice she's still out there? Passing your hand over the burns dulls your sympathy for Shuji. She had lost control, not her mind...
"That in mind, I'm just this side of certain whoever they 'patsied' into doing the deed is now loose, as in 'loose of all control, even the control of the Darkness'. The fact that there have been no reports of continued attacks leads me to suspect that she, yes SHE," Tracy glares provocatively at the rest of you, "has gone to ground somewhere."
"That or the Darkness have managed to track her down & 'dissapeared' her into an oubliette..." She adds fatalistically.
There was something out of this person's reach which drove her to this. You've seen such signs before
Too many damn times...
Passing your hand over the burns dulls your sympathy for Shuji. She had lost control, not her mind...
Refresh my memory, who is Shuji?
When everyone gathers back together after their first bit of free time, in the form of downtime, Nobody is sitting on a bookshelf formed from multiple small cubes that she's dragged from... somewhere. If you were to guess, it looks as though she found it on the street. It's in need of a bit of fixing up, though it handily supports her weight, and only rises to about waist height. In one of the many nooks is a small bracelet of wooden beads, and if you take the time when she's not around to examine it, you'll find several carved that read "♀ⒶⓉ♥ⓉⒶ♀".
She grins at you widely when she sees you glancing in that direction. She's still wearing the exact same worn-down denim clothes she'd worn the first time you met her - she always is. It's rather surprising that she doesn't smell and they always seem mostly clean. "I think the little blackbird from Perfection's court may be one of the bad guys. He didn't cast a shadow, as if light refused to touch him, when I spotted him last." she offers by way of what she's been up to. "Preeetty sure that's not normal for blackbirds, and I've seen a lot of them. Usually really glossy, they've got really nice feathers. I wasn't a fan of this one."
"Remind me again," Tracy's visage corkscrewed in perplexity as she attempts to parse the meaning in this strange girl's missive, "who you are & what you are doing here?"
Granted, I don't know for certain that you aren't simply the 'guardian spirit' of this place; but if so, it would be nice of you to flat out admit it instead of being all enigmatic like every other supernatural 'thing' out there...
All of you notice Tracy is carrying a comparatively long narrow parcel, the most unusual thing about it it's wrapping.
"Well. Wasn't expecting to see anyone else here...well, good to see you all the same. Get comfortable, I'll answer any questions you've got in a moment."
Those were Junpei's first words when he first encountered everyone at the hideout.
Welcoming enough, but to those with an eye for such things, it's pretty clear he's handling the sudden arrivals far too well. No scramble, no little adjustments, no uncertainty in the slightest - he goes through it all like he's done it a thousand times.Still, he's been warm and friendly the whole time, as if they'd known each other an eternity and not a few days. When he's not helping out, he can be spotted working on little accessories and clothing alterations - as best as one can with limited resources.
Occasionally, there are a few quiet lamentations as to not having access to the wardrobes or a proper workspace yet, spoken quietly to himself in a tone that most wouldn't be able to properly hear.
For the moment though, he's gone to grab Cygnus for a moment. As tough as things could be with Nobody and Tracy, he knew he couldn't really make many moves regarding the latter at this stage that'd work out for the best...and to tell the truth, there were a couple of things he needed to double check.
And learn...Cygnus was the one member of the group he wasn't used to being in the hideout.
"Managed to cover up the record of the magatama you got, but there's still stuff I'm wondering about. Anything particularly strange about that day or the procedure you can remember? Any idea why it was there?"
Cygnus is taken aback by Junpei's question Cover up? are we hiding this from people within the city too? Cygnus asks, looking Junpei over.
I found it at the hospital, in one of the victims of the attack's wound. Buried deep, particulate. I pulled it out. planned to take it to the council. instead Astre and I went to get you or Ao or Sora, and wound up here instead. with everyone here She says, taking a seat. Do you know what these do?
