[CONTINUE + 2] Week 1 || Act: mingle

[foundationmods]

Monday comes onto the snowy town once more, though it still looks as if it's 'night' as ever.

Then again, you are underground. That's just to be expected, considering no natural light can get down here in the first place. The Monsters around you are just as friendly as ever, despite this being your third 'time' trying this monday.

There doesn't seem to be many Monsters here...or at least, you think there was more before? Huh.

Well, whatever.

You still have a mission - And with two trials under your belt, you're now a little closer to figuring things out.

...How much longer will this repeat?

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[improbablenotimpossible]

...Then it might be possible, if we can get something like that....

[He trails off]

[accessorytomurder]

If we can get two things like that, we can get him back, and then get him a gigai when we go back—and that thing only ever possessed one person at a time, so then if we stick it in a body it can’t or won’t leave...!

[improbablenotimpossible]

There's something about what happened at that trial that bothered me. Why did it wait until it's over to possess someone... it'd be more successful if it did so in mid-trial - when everyone's too distracted with the proceedings to react in time?

Or... why not repossess me to make me throw myself over?

[He considers - while setting a tea kettle of hot water down next to the cup]

Would it not have time to escape before hitting the core, or is it that it can't repossess people and monsters?

[accessorytomurder]

Maybe... hm... maybe it can only do certain actions at certain times? Or maybe, the further away from the Core it starts, the more likely it is to fail?

It also might be it can only use one person once—at... at least per loop.

[improbablenotimpossible]

It's possible, it does seem like the core is the key to all this.

[accessorytomurder]

What if... what if it’s looping, too? Just, um, in a weirder way. Like, it gets one opportunity on that one night, and then immediately jumps to the second point, near the core.

[improbablenotimpossible]

Yes - it might be looping because it wants a specific result... on that note, we need to figure out what exactly stays and resets. It may give us some means of plotting our next course of action.

[accessorytomurder]

Even if we save Humans, we lose Monsters. That’s significant.

[improbablenotimpossible]

Yes... it seems whoever they possess disappear, but the others - why are they diappearing?

[accessorytomurder]

...I think it might... be the colors. And the fact that most of us have already died at least once. And that we’re... well, ‘foreign’ SOULs. Anybody else seems to be gone after getting possessed, so maybe the Monsters are getting possessed where we can’t see.

[dereban]

[Inaba's overhearing this and she'll interrupt in a bit with her own thoughts, humming slightly.]

Ah - speaking of things that bothered me during the trial...

Don't you think it's weird that they tried to throw you to begin with? The reasoning behind that doesn't make sense to me. If it was simply just trying to 'get rid of you', there are other ways to do that besides trying to toss you in there.

Not to mention that they didn't touch Ren's SOUL, either.

It's all - odd.

[improbablenotimpossible]

I agree, neither yours nor Amamiya's SOULs were touched - if, let's say for the ease of conversation we name this figure "Phantom" - needed SOULs why not grab yours? Are the murders just a means to get everyone to do the core?

If so, then the core is the key part of their agenda.

[dereban]

There's another thing that can be an option as well.

That area is the best place to gather everyone, right? If all the monsters are there, then... that makes the rest of the Underground deserted, doesn't it?

[improbablenotimpossible]

That's another possibility, that might imply the Phantom is searching for something or trying to stage something that they don't want to be interrupted...

[dereban]

Yeah.

There's plenty of possibilities to work with, honestly.

[cw_suicide]

There's also the fact that we were assuming that possibly the Professor got possessed and thrown in because he was purple. And that it discarded blue because it wasn't necessary.

But if that sort of thing is true, why use a yellow to kill a yellow?

... this is a bit of a leap of logic but...

It's possible that whoever is possessed and is thrown in doesn't matter as much as, potentially, the color murdered.

[improbablenotimpossible]

So from that angle... is it possible that it doesn't need a particular SOUL but a combination of them?

But it does seem like they're not focused on grabbing the murdered SOUL as attempting to throw in the 'culprit'...

[There is a risky way to test it, and he hates that he even thought of it]

[cw_suicide]

Think of it this way: it knows at least one blue and two yellows. If it has need of either of those colors, it could easily get to them at this point. Purple has been claimed in the core, but is that where the proper claiming of a SOUL occurs?

... the books Gilgamesh found in the Librarby state very clearly that our SOULS are very powerful. So to leave SOULS laying around like that does make it out like blue and yellow are not the ones they are looking for.

Moreover... doesn't the SOUL shatter when thrown into the core? That's why the Professor is vanishing the way he is.

So it is possible that the core scenario fulfills something that they require, but more importantly, they are hunting for a specific colored SOUL.

What was that thing in the books about the collection of SOULS? I could swear there was something about that...

[sageking]

About the collection of a human SOUL being able to give a Monster Determination, and that it must be consensual on both ends? Or about what a Monster could do with the shard of a human SOUL, but happens to be not known as of yet?

[cw_suicide]

... both.

[sageking]

Hmph, well. It's hard to truly say if a Monster could obtain something like 'Determination' from the single shard of a human SOUL, but that may change upon the collection of different human SOULs' shards.

That said, one might say the reason they went after that Detective may be a combination of that and the fact that he also coincidentally had an immensely close connection to the one who had been erased—the latter of which wasn't a condition Ren could have any hope of fulfilling.

[cw_suicide]

If that's so, then our good detective would be either the next killed or possessed once again unless there is also a "can only possess a person once" clause.

It just doesn't really make much sense otherwise.

But it could have also just been a matter of convenience that there was a close connection. Not a requirement.

But if you think about it, what is one way to pressure someone like the people in this group to do something as hasty as... oh... willingly give up their SOUL?

... the answer is exactly the thing I did in the previous meeting.

[sageking]

It is entirely possible that it could've been a rather convenient coincidence.

[ He had really nothing substantial to prove it, and at this time it would be best to keep their options open. ]

...Are you implying that, should someone sacrifice themselves to volunteer as the voted 'culprit' in the real culprit's place, then that would be ultimately tantamount to their entire SOUL being at risk instead of simply just a shard?

[ He, at least assumed Dazai was referring to the volunteer episode. ]

[le_mat]

I.... never considered that.

[romancekiller]

Yeah, I was wondering about that too— if it's limited in being able to possess more than one person, it could also be that they can't possess the same person multiple times.