WEEK 2 MINGLE - ARTEMISIA

[foundationmods]

Things had changed so rapidly in the past few days.

The loss of two of them hung over like a shroud, made even worse by the fact that an innocent person had been executed.

Was this....how the rest of the game was going to go...?🗈

....Even if it was, there wasn't much they could do now. Yuuko herself hasn't shown up in public since the trial, and while some have talked to her, she's been...subdued.

Did the trial hurt her just as much as them?

Regardless, the island is still beautiful, if deadly. Summer continues, beaming down on all of them, the waves of the sea warm and inviting.

But even if things look bleak...

They have something in their hands that will soon lead to the Truth, and the heart of this matter.

And in the air...lies a heavy sense that everything is about to change.

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Comments

[anonnomnomnom]

Hahaha, nothing that straightforward! Besides, that's just wasteful, especially if they're a higher-star Celestial.

[He curls up and sways downward over the slab and spreads his arms upside-down like he's about to make some dramatic revelation. In reality, his shit-eating grin looks pretty silly upside down. When is he going to get down from there.]

And that's because of our abilities. My clan... We're unusual even for Infernals, you know?

What do you think our biggest advantage is?

[sotoshini]

[ Watching this whole acrobatics display with a tinge of amusement. ]

Your boundless energy? [ Half a joke, half not cause points at Anon's general existence. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Heheh, close!

[He is absolutely being silly now, but it's just fine -- he hasn't actually given that many hints in the first place. Anon stays in his ridiculous posture and slaps his own belly helpfully.]

Here. We can absorb Celestials and take everything from them. That goes for everyone else, too, but it mostly happens to the guys in the sky back home.

1/2

[sotoshini]

................

[ Don't mind him, he's just going to laugh a second. ]

[sotoshini]

[ 'Kay that's enough of that. As much as Natsuno doesn't want to believe it, it kinda all makes sense. ]

No wonder we get along. [ Shaking his head. ] So you get stronger after every enemy you beat. I guess you can't do that here, huh?

[anonnomnomnom]

Oh, is that why we get along?

[He seems to be phrasing that like a real question, a bright and amused one.]

I get stronger as long as I decide to keep 'em -- some of them aren't really worth keeping around, so I just spit them back out! Otherwise, well... [he gives his belly another casual pat] It's weird, but nothing can come out here -- but that doesn't mean what's in there is gone. I think I have... hmm, three or so things stored right now.

[Congrats on being backdatedly the first one who hasn't been pre-vored to learn about his power. ☆]

[sotoshini]

...one of the reasons. [ This sounds like a real answer too.

Ah but this is even stranger than he imagined it to be, somehow. Blinking a bit. ]

You forgot? [ Blink. ] And wait you just-what happens to them after?

[anonnomnomnom]

[He'll take that. Does he get some kind of reward for getting Natsuno to talk about feelings-adjacent things twice in one thread??

Anon just gives a casual upside-down shrug.]

I didn't forget, it's just been a little bit hectic around here, and besides one of them was a self-replicating SCP. I can contain it, but I have no idea how many cakes could be involved by now. [the cake dimension lives, somewhere in there.......] Once I spit them out, though, they just go on their way like nothing's happened.

No sense in being wasteful, like I said!

[sotoshini]

[ Yes. What that is though is a mystery™.

Long silence here. Natsuno's long since past the point of finding most things weird given his summer from hell and then the SCP. But this? This is really fucking weird. After several more seconds of trying to process what he just heard, he shakes his head and pulls the hood of his fluffy coat back. He can see better now, even if he still can't understand. ]

I-I'll have to see it.

[anonnomnomnom]

[The true man of mystery doesn't reveal his inner architecture even to himself.jpg.

Anon just crosses his arms and lounges through the silence, looking incrementally more amused all the time -- even if Natsuno's facial expression probably isn't showing much, he can totally sense the incredulity in the air. Also, he is considering it another win to unwrap the burrito, even if only a little.]

Haha, a picture is worth a thousand words? I can show you once we're out of here.

[You get the feeling this may be a dangerous offer.....]

[sotoshini]

[ Hearing something like this, even Natsuno can't manage to make his face completely impassive. ]

...sure. [ Shaking his head and mumbling. ] And I thought being able to smell corpses through several feet of concrete was weird.

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon looks inordinately pleased with himself, but then again he's looked varying shades of that throughout the interaction so there will probably be only marginally more regrets in this future. No takebacks, though.]

Oh, I can smell all kinds of things, too, when I'm not sealed! We're enhanced all the way across the board when it comes to our physical capabilities.

[He waves a hand at Natsuno, though, apparently a questioning motion.]

I didn't know jinrou also had all of that, though!

[sotoshini]

Yeah, all our senses are several times stronger than humans. But only if we feed.

[ A beat. ]

So we have more in common.

[anonnomnomnom]

That seems kind of inconvenient, really, but I guess otherwise you guys would be just like demons, too! I'd say Infernals and demons and vampires aren't too far off in terms of capabilities. It's just that we have some different rules in play, especially where I come from.

Still, it's pretty funny how similar everything is, even though we all come from so far away, huh?

i almost lost this backtag but it cant escape

[sotoshini]

Dealing with one folklore entity is enough. If Sotoba got invaded by demons and infernals, it would have been raised to the ground in less than a week. You probably wouldn't have had a problem dealing with the shrines and temple either.

[ Directing his gaze towards one of the windows, he gets lost in thought for a moment. ]

Yeah, it makes Sotoba all that much smaller.

heheheh

[anonnomnomnom]

It would have been pretty interesting to get to go up against a bunch of jinrou and shiki and stuff, though! We're only kind of like demons, so shrines and temples aren't really that big a deal. But... well, even folklore entities like you call 'em have a way of balancing themselves out.

[There's something a lot like mischief running throughout his chatter, but also something more like anticipation -- the thrum of energy before a challenge. He just really likes thinking about fighting new things, apparently.]

Honestly... it even makes where I come from seem small, and that's three worlds across.

[sotoshini]

Unless you fight them at night, Shiki are a pushover. Even then they're pretty weak unless you let them get close. If you fight a mob of them though, they're annoying.

[ That energy is pretty apparent, and Natsuno doesn't seem to mind to pushing it along. Talking about killing the undead is always in good fun. ]

Mn, and yet some people want to live in the same small box forever.

[anonnomnomnom]

Right, because you can just go at dawn and pick 'em off one by one. They'd be a pretty good warm-up at night, then!

[It's too bad they don't actually have them around for him to sharpen his teeth on, but it's a fun exercise in image training??]

... Yeah. Sometimes nobody even notices the box, or the box is made up of other people. It's a pretty big test, isn't it?

[sotoshini]

Yeah... [ Sounding fondly nostalgic. ] Ozaki-sensei herded a bunch of them into the irrigation system under Sotoba. It must have been like playing a giant game of kakure-oni but I had to miss it.

[ Regretfully at that apparently, but it suits his next words as well. ]

Mhm. They just get comfortable I guess and die in it, having really accomplished nothing at all.

[anonnomnomnom]

Hide and ghost seek! That does sound fun -- whoever Ozaki-sensei is, he has good ideas!

[He seems to be pleased at the idea of chasing vampires through an irrigation system, because he's a weirdo I guess.]

Really, though, I've never understood how people can be such good strategists, or good fighters, and get so far there but then never get anywhere in life. They just keep turning in the same circles with the same opponents forever.

[sotoshini]

He was my partner in eradicating the Shiki. Logical and not afraid to get his hands dirty, he's a pretty fun guy.

[ As far as humans go anyway, Ozaki is the cream of the crop. ]

Me either. But there were families in Sotoba who never even left the prefecture and thought they could judge me anyway.

[anonnomnomnom]

He does sound like a pretty fun guy to team up with. So you still have people like that in your village, huh?

[Some redeeming features!]

But for the rest of them... the smaller your world is, the easier it is to just listen to what everyone else says. It doesn't matter what the truth is, or what the possibilities are.

That's probably what they call "peace".

[sotoshini]

Just him, I think.

[ Two other people come to mind, but he made sure they left the village so. He pauses a bit, but then nods accepting the definition. ]

I guess I hate peace, then.

[anonnomnomnom]

Even one is probably enough!

[Actually, with Natsuno involved even one is overkill, but in a good way??

He quiets down a little, though, and then just nods. There's a faintly funny note in his voice, though it's a blink and you'll miss it sort of deal.]

Me too, I think... It's just all stifling, and not that useful.

[sotoshini]

Heh. [ He's content to leave it at that—his thoughts on Ozaki are clear cut and it's not like he'll ever see him again. Same with Akira and Kaori, except that's more complicated and involves what are probably feelings. Natsuno's done with those type of things so no need to dwell on the irrelevant.

He might have missed that shift if it didn't sound so familiar to his own at times. ]

Sounds like you've lived it. Or...been trapped in it.