sevenvirtues | (no subject)

You awaken to blackness. Frightening, although familiar--this is the same terrible thing you narrowly avoided during your first trip into Lebensbaum. The pain of your death is still real, echoes of the wounds you suffered appearing on your skin. Inspecting your surroundings will tell you that you've woken up inside of the cooled, empty bonfire pit....and the town as it was is nowhere to be seen.

The sky is a whirlwind of blank, dark void. What previously acted as roadblocks on either side of the town seems to have moved upward, blocking out most of the sun's light. The street is barren, filled with piles of broken concrete, shattered glass, and smoking craters where many of the buildings used to be. Old bloodstains dot the pavement, mixing in with overturned cars and crumbling brick walls. Lebensbaum is a dead town, in more ways than one.

Except for the hotel. It stands, as dusty and abandoned as it ever was, but no worse for the wear. Scorch marks can be seen on the ground around it in a clear border, as though it had a barrier protecting it from whatever destroyed the village. If you venture inside, everything is in its place, as though the outside wasn't completely obliterated.

The living can be seen walking around, going about their daily lives, and if you concentrate, you can even see the buildings as they once were--in working order, clean, and in one piece.

As of Monday on Week 10, however, there is a door, seemingly pasted into the middle of the street. As the days tick by, the doors will increase in number, one for each victim.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I know I'd really appreciate it if you'd do us that kind of huge favor!

[Takao is shaking with anger, lips grimaced apart enough to flash an attempt at a smile, but his typical slight formal language towards adults is all messed up. HE GOT DROPPED OFF A ROOFTOP FOR THIS??? WHAT'S "THIS"???]

Seriously, moles? [He throws out his hands in an exasperated gesture.] How much more reality television bullshit do we need? Where are the cameras?

I'm sorry. [She does sound genuine about this.] We've been trying to make sure you and everyone else gets to come back to life.

What the--???

[His shoulders immediately retract in supplication though his arms are still flung out. Come back to life. They're words that Takao hasn't let himself actually think this whole time - it sort of makes sense that he can't stick around here forever or get murdered for real, he's worked as hard as anyone else to cheer on the living and there's that assumption it'll work out in the end. These people were in some cases friends and all at the very least presented themselves as in control of whether they killed or not (THOUGH NOT ALL OF THEM WOULD NEVER KILL, LOOKING AT YOU, RHYS), these supposed secret agents never had their hands in any murders, and yet they protected their secret at all costs - it's almost immediately obvious that these were arranged by people close to Miata, who has always impressed Takao in her strength to support the villagers and subvert Katerina.

He immediately asks her with reciprocal seriousness, though it doesn't sound as composed, this revelation has shaken him--] How sure are you that it could work? [In Japan just as much as Europe "trying to make sure" is a phrase that a genuine, earnest person does not exactly use to convey complete confidence]

Assuming we can keep Miata alive? I'm completely certain. [But look at how the living are reacting to the mole thing...]

[Takao is thinking the same thing; he grimaces.] With Miata-san locked in the basement, do you think Katerina-san would kill her to keep that from happening? [Because he does understand that the basement locking reason might have actually been their close personal relationship so maybe Katerina is confirmed for not killing Miata...]

I don't think Katerina will kill Miata--at least, not under normal circumstances. I can't speak to how she might react if we can push her into a corner. [Who knows how someone who's doing crazy demon rituals might act in that case?]

Demons and corpses flying around [sometimes literally] doesn't seem like normal circumstances to me in the first place, but I guess my experience is pretty different from life in this world.

[She's seeing how Takao is rapidly approaching freaking the fuck out here and edging closer to him, because she's only mildly surprised about all of this at best and surprise takes a backseat to being her usual angry pink attack chihuahua self.]

Chill! Give them a minute! [DON'T THINK SHE'S NOT READY TO FIGHT AN ATHLETE A FOOT TALLER THAN HER AS HER FRIENDS' DEFENSE SQUAD BARK BARK BARK]

[Takao takes a deep breath and runs his fingers through his hair (it's still long, but he absently thinks to himself that if he were alive it would be annoyingly long after not getting cut this whole time). Look at him. Chilling. That's the thing he's doing.]

I know -- I know, it's fine-- [He waves an open palm at Clover.] Obviously not fine fine or anything, but like -- you know, I just didn't think anything else was going on besides the murders. And the demons. And the international war. [Those pauses have a careful pacing - attempt at comedic. Talking to Clover has grounded Takao enough to at least approach the situation with humor.] Besides those things. Figured we'd covered all the goddamn bases.

[BUT WAIT

THERE'S

MORE]

But I guess not? [Okay, maybe Takao should approach the situation with slightly better humor.]

Edited 2016-04-27 04:45 (UTC)

[Takao trying and being shitty at jokes is better than him not trying the joking thing at all? He's far less fight-able while failing to make jokes and Takao is low on her fight list, so this is good! So Clover settles, for given values of settling considering, you know, Clover. Maybe if she freaks out less so will he!! She's helping.]

Yeah, well. [This boy is too goddamn normal for all this shit.] The trick is learning not to let anything surprise you anymore. [OPTIMISTIC AND HELPFUL] There's always something else going on, dude. Sometimes it's secret revival magic plots.

[ADULT LIFE IS ALREADY SO GODDAMN WEIRD]

What's next, I get home and there's a letter waiting for me like "Yo, we heard about how you missed two months of school and had to drop out. How would you like to attend our secret academy for wizards? Because it's not like magic will always lead to more problems and corpses than we started with!"

[TAKAO wants to learn BLACK HUMOR but TAKAO already knows 4 moves! Should a move be forgotten to make space for BLACK HUMOR?

> yes

1, 2 and... Poof! TAKAO forgot HUMOR... TAKAO learned BLACK HUMOR!]

I mean, of course I'd say no anyway. Shutoku-- [The word feels weird in Takao's mouth; he realizes he hasn't said it out loud for weeks. ] You know? [What a smooth sentence. He really does almost make it work.] All everybody wants is to go home, it's almost impossible to believe it won't happen. [The moles have presented the findings so tentatively, though, that their situation is thrown into more stark relief, and Takao finds himself more seriously thinking about staying dead. He at least knows that they're supposed to be relieved at the news, and he and Clover should be keeping their spirits up.

...spirits, that's a good one, he'll have to tell Izuki-san that if (when) they get out of this.]