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]

Come to think of it, though, jinrou probably take a bit more exploding to really go out, don't they?

[He does remember you know, literally the first time they met and Natsuno told him about blowing up a guy?? This is how it goes, I guess.]

[sotoshini]

[ Shoving his hands into his pockets, the winter jacket makes a bunch of crinkling sounds again. ]

Yeah. But if the explosion was big enough we would die too. We can regenerate most fatal wounds, but we can't regrow body parts.

[anonnomnomnom]

[Crinkle crinkle. It's becoming a familiar sound, like a bell ringing when a cat appears.]

Ehh? How good at aiming are you, you still have all your parts!

[That's at least a little cheeky.]

[sotoshini]

That's something to ask the SCP, not me. [ Craning his neck upward, he stares at one of the lights on the ceiling. Crinkle, crinkle again, but it's better than him filling the silence with anything more. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Hmm? Did the Foundation do something?

[He rolls back over from his inverse sprawl and just watches the light on the weird crinkle fabric.

He might be restraining the urge to poke it again, you never know. Either way, he's fine with letting the silence go until Natsuno decides to crinkle once more.]

cw; suicidal mentions

[sotoshini]

[ A breath and another crinkle. ]

I can't remember and they wouldn't tell me. [ But yeah, his intention had totally been to suicide there with Tatsumi. Things never went his way as far as death is concerned, though. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Hmm.

[He seems to be thinking that over for a moment, or perhaps just reading between the lines.

When he makes the effort, which is admittedly not apparent all that often, he's pretty all right at it. So for the moment, he -- reaches out and starts prodding at the coat again, lazy and rhythmical, not quite batting at it.]

Well, the Foundation is good at that, at least. Putting things back together and also making a big secret of how they do anything.

[sotoshini]

[ Ah that-he closes his eyes briefly before opening them, looking down at the poking. ]

They're annoying. [ The words are heavy, but notably? The poking apparently isn't, judging by how his tone shifts to something almost light in his next sentence. ]

'm surprised I haven't lost a feather from this thing yet.

[anonnomnomnom]

[His mouth quirks up, half a smile as he switches from the poking to plucking at it a little, as though searching the thing for feathers. It's already gone through plenty of abuse this week, but they apparently have bottomless closets, so--]

Haha, you really like this outfit, don't you? It looks comfortable, but it's going to start really losing 'em soon in a place like this.

[sotoshini]

It's familiar. [ And warm goes unsaid, he's been cold recently with having gone without feeding for so long. Screwing up his face into something that resembles a smirk, he tries not to think about any of that. ]

Is that what you're doing? Testing it's durability? [ He's about one second from poking back and making this a completely ridiculous poking war. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Something you wore back home?

[Since their closets also happen to sometimes be nostalgia generators, apparently. His not so much, but then he's not one to get attached to fashions or indeed many conventional possessions. Not at this stage in his life, anyhow.]

Well, something like that, and you haven't told me to stop, so maybe I'll get a good measure.

[And maybe he wasn't testing the coat's durability.]

[sotoshini]

Yeah, even though the weather here isn't the best for it. [ He much prefers fall to summer, but those are the breaks. ]

Habit. [ He almost says "I know", which would have been worse. Quietly, truthfully, that word reveals more than he would like. Pushing through it and trying to act unfettered. ]

I'm not going to complain when it means I get to keep ignoring the puzzles. [ But there's more than that to it too. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Hmm, I think I get it!

[He probably doesn't get it, not entirely, but he doesn't elaborate for the moment.

Natsuno may keep his edgy burrito life to some extent.]

I think everyone's pretty good at the puzzles, really, and it's kind of fun to see them scramble over each other to solve it! [now that he can see again, that is, though the hubbub when he could only hear was fun too] What are you going to do if the coat gives up the ghost, though?

[Because he definitely hasn't stopped messing with it.]

[sotoshini]

[ Scowling and flustering because what is even happening here. The ping pong of emotions is almost enough to give him whiplash and it's hard for him to do anything but respond instinctively. ]

Take yours? [ Does Anon even have a coat on or would his clothes even fit him. Natsuno didn't think that through at all, rip. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

[His grin just widens a little at Natsuno's flailing because honestly, it's not like Anon's thinking either, he's just going with the flow here?? He laughs a little at the jab back and looks down at himself -- he's wearing a pretty hideously bright tank top with something like a star logo on it. There's a bunch of exclamation points.

His frame is most definitely bigger than Natsuno's, so maybe it can count as a coat under the right circumstances???]

I mean, if you like it, you can have it! I have bunch of these for some reason.

[Natsuno really should have thought this through.]

[sotoshini]

I've worn brighter things. [ ...he really should have thought this through. Too late now. ]

[anonnomnomnom]

Then it’s a trade.

[Definitely too late now because — is Anon stripping in the middle of the ballroom now amidst the riddles and the entire company, sure. Why not. It’s not like the goat butlers will mind.

Random people might mind if he goes around as a topless zebra though so. He waves the tank top at Natsuno once he’s all done.]

[sotoshini]

[ ....... ]

[ Natsuno's facial expressions usually range from broody, bored, sullen, amused or somewhere in between. But this whole exchange seems to have broken him, given the hot mess of flustered, confused, and panicked that flushes across his features. Accepting the tank top with a slight bow (sometimes you just resort to what's been hammered into you for years in the absence of logic), he blinks a few times and tries to make his brain function. ]

Y-yeah, sure. [ .... right he should be taking his jacket off? Yeah that makes sense. It's pretty big for extra comfort, and as he tries to focus on that he just starts speaking again. ]

Stripes?

[anonnomnomnom]

Stripes.

[Anon confirms that, and for a moment -- in between his self-satisfied contemplation of Natsuno's flailing: the sequel and his even more self-satisfied examination of the jacket he's just snagged for himself, and the moment when he looks like he wants to laugh where Natsuno's got the whole bowing thing going on -- for a moment it looks like he isn't going to bother to explain and is just going to be smug over his new outfit for a while.

Then he goes ahead and pulls it on, just. Without a shirt or anything, because he's a heathen and there are no extra shirts in the ballroom. It's fine.]

They're the markings of my clan. Every clan has their own, and it's usually how we recognize each other! Well, it's pretty easy to recognize us even without them. [he ruffles the jacket a little, both for the crinkle and the fluff] This is pretty comfortable, actually.

[sotoshini]

[ There's a low mumbling that vaguely sounds like "glad you like it" before he shakes his head and directs all his energy into pulling the tank top over his head. Good thing it's pretty loose on him because it's essentially acting as the funkiest suit vest in existence to a plain black t-shirt.

By the time all that's done, he mostly seems to have regained his composure. ]

Does that mean there's infernals out there with hearts on them?

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon has definitely not stopped looking amused with the whole affair, especially with all the mumbling going on while Natsuno puts himself and his outfit back together; and he dissolves into more laughter with that inquiry, because where did that come from? Also considering how much he moves around, they're just going to be surrounded by crinkles for the rest of time at this rate.]

No way, though that'd be pretty amazing. I can't imagine any Infernal clan that would really be fine with having heart markings.

[They're not magical girls, Natsuno???]

I think there are some that look like stars, and others that look like rings, and all kinds of other things.

[sotoshini]

[ His recovery was short lived. Just shoving his hands into his pockets before he breaks out into a short chuckle himself at the crinkling. Why is he even trying to-actually he has no idea what he's even trying to do at this point. ]


Hm. Stripes are classic at least.

[anonnomnomnom]

[He, for one, is having way too much fun with this jacket.]

Are they a classic? All I know is that they're part of some big animal on Earth. A big cat!

[He's totally calling himself a tiger because it's cooler and bigger.]

Oh, and nobody's got us beat on number of stripes.

[sotoshini]

[ Letting his gaze flick back over to the still very visible stripes on Anon's chest. At this point all he can is embrace this crazy interaction, even if the way he shifts his weight from side to side belies that he's pretty flustered. ]

A tiger. Tigerstripe is a classic too, yeah. [ Headtilt. ]

That doesn't surprise me. Are you born with them or do you earn them?

[anonnomnomnom]

[Anon still seems perfectly at ease baring all his stripes to the ballroom and the world, though there's that additional amused quirk to his grin that hasn't quite left because Natsuno hasn't stopped fidgeting. Way to get flustered over a little thing like clothes, gosh.]

Right, a tiger was the name! I really didn't know humans liked that pattern so much. But--

[He gives his own chest a vague tap, and then his cheek, which is about the only place you can see his stripes when he's fully dressed, usually.]

I've had these since I was born. Though earning more would be pretty interesting, too.

[He really doesn't need any more.....]