(no subject)

[vicedirector]

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.

Comments

[jackhole]

[ have the peanut gallery ]

Well, Break and I were the only ones doing shit. Inaba kept blowing our cover half the time and we had to make sure it didn't go badly for us.

[herbgrace]

[Hey!] It wasn't just you two doing things.

[jackhole]

[ just have a flat look, lithuania ]

Yeah, babysitting teenage girls who kept making everything incredibly suspicious all the time. Why do you think I dragged Break into it? Astrid immediately called you guys out and I had to have someone adult enough to help plan around Katerina!

[ this sure does sound like an argument they've had a billion times over, huh ]

[herbgrace]

You know I didn't come up with anime club. [They have absolutely had this argument before.] What about your behavior last week, then?

[jackhole]

My behavior? Simple. Even if Miata's plans succeeds, I don't want anyone to thank her for it. She doesn't deserve a thanks for torturing us for eleven weeks. I'll be satisfied with that.

[detanimetion]

Ha! So Astrid really was right about her too. [SHE'S SO PROUD OF HER PRIDESIS the only one who didn't hit betray] I'd say everyone should have just listened to her from the start, but maybe it's a good thing they didn't.

So now that everything's out in the open, can you finally tell us the details? Don't tell me you're still planning on going along with whatever was proposed at the start of all this.

[jackhole]

Yeah, why not? I don't really care.

[ TIME FOR EXPOSITION ]

What Break said to Gilbert the other night is right. Miata and Katerina's town was destroyed in a war or something and they're the only survivors. Katerina summoned the demons as a form of revenge and this whole thing is ritual sacrifices, basically. Miata signed us up, without Break at the beginning, to be her eyes and ears in the town and help her with the magic that would be needed to bring us all back from the dead and take down Katerina, stopping the sacrifices in the process.

[ a pause and -- ]

She didn't tell us why Katerina was doing anything until last week. This entire time, she sat on that information and only really got upset when Urashima died for... some reason? Not Alisha. Not Gilbert. Not any of the deaths before now. Fuck Miata.

[ and to explain break -- ]

I brought Break in after Gilbert and Alisha's death because Astrid was right in her suspicions and while Lithuania wanted to bring on Poland, that would be stupid since she was so obvious already. [ POINTED LOOKS ] So, Break, who was ready to murder everyone because he was all sad about Gilbert or whatever. Giving him a goal would help us continue our plans in secret, without alerting Katerina, and also give us an extra hand with Alisha gone. Plus, he was gonna murder like, everyone, which uh... uncool?

[ so, finally, he just shrugs and places his hands on his hips. ]

In the end, I don't really know where we are now because Miata only told us why we're all dying after she said she was quitting after Urashima. I got angry because we still didn't know what was going on in the town and made her explain. She told me about the war. I thought it was stupid. I thought all of it was stupid. Then she gets locked in a basement -- the church basement, where all the hostages are, for the record -- and now... who knows? It's sloppy and stupid and we're all just pawns in a game between a bunch of idiots and for a cause that has nothing to do with us.

[crazily]

[ Break is mostly here to +1 the sentiment, since he's definitely no happier with how this has gone than Rhys is... But he also doesn't have anything to actually add information-wise, so he just instead adds super helpfully: ]

I would say it was a bit more than "uncool," but thank you for somehow making it sound both embarrassing and sensible all at once.

[ #teamsalty ]

[jackhole]

[ rhys just spreads his hands here and goes -- ]

Between cool, [ the right hand ] and uncool, [ the left hand ] you're definitely somewhere in the "what the fuck" middle.

[detanimetion]

YOU WERE ABOUT TO DO WHAT?!

[SHE TAKES ALL THAT BACK ABOUT TRUSTING YOU BREEEEEEAAAAAK]

[herbgrace]

We don't actually have any proof Miata wasn't forced into this. But if you want to hate her, I can't blame anyone for it. [Lithuania can't, but she's extremely biased.]

[jackhole]

And we don't have proof that she was, do we? We only have her sad looks and lack of saying anything and the actual fact that she knew why we were being murdered since day one.

[ a shrug ]

She's culpable, Lithuania. Get over it.

[fourleafcleaver]

[okay well there was exactly one part of that that actually mattered as far as clover's concerned]

...the hostages are in the basement.

[IMMEDIATELY LOOKS AT UNDYNE]

Where are the grenades.

[NO]

[jackhole]

[ ah... well. gosh. ]

Church basement. Uh, try not to blow it up too much?

[thebonezone]

[hi rhys sans didn't get to greet you because he was away but he does get to hear all this shit now!!

he made an effort and all the stuff he gathered was just told by miata to these assholes? he didn't even have to make an effort because it made no difference?? he is screaming internally. THIS IS IT. THIS IS HIS LIFE AS USUAL.]

should've just slept through this entire game.

[jackhole]

[ hi sans. sorry about your life. ]

Yeah, I guess so.

[detanimetion]

[okay well first off]

Break did what?!

[and then:]

Wait, you knew where the hostages were all this time and you didn't tell us? Why don't we go break them out right now then?!

[and finally:]

And I don't give a shit about Miata or whatever dumb fight she's having with her dumb sister that they decided to pull in completely unrelated people into their dumb plan for! Fuck her! [SHE WILL BE SALTY WITH RHYS FOREVER] So is there an actual plan to revive everyone and kill Katerina and the demons or not?!

[herbgrace]

That's what Miata's been doing this entire time. She's been learning magic so that she can bring everyone back and stop this from happening, and we've been helping her prepare.

[jackhole]

[ he won't answer the break thing but here we go. ]

Can't rescue the hostages because Katerina will kill them. I wanted to do that too but Miata said no and that they were being used for leverage just in case. That's why they didn't go home.

[ and the second part ]

See, I don't know. That's what's great about Miata! She tells us she's working on a plan, tells us she needs our help, tells us she wants to break the game and start a revolution -- then we just sit on our hands and do nothing for... months? I don't think we ever actually did anything but made a deal with Leviathan to give Miata more power to take down Katerina. This is all about them and nothing we do even matters! All we get told to do is "not interfere"!

[ he's REALLY REALLY REALLY ANGRY ABOUT THIS, HO' BOY. ]

[disapproved]

I suppose I wasn't to be told about this.

[ it makes sense to her why she wouldn't be informed while they were alive, but after she died.. well, she's not exactly mad, and it seems like they weren't entirely successful (that's what happens when the teens are involved, morrigan wagers), but morrigan being morrigan, she hated being in the dark about things. ]

Shouting as if we were petulant children will certainly not bring us back to life, so instead, let us focus on what we must do now.

[stupidly]

Sorry about that.

[HE UNDERSTANDS THE FRUSTRATION, MORRIGAN, since he only kinda-sorta knew what was going on and definitely not to the extent of what was actually happening. He'd still wanted to tell Morrigan something was up but then a demon told him to cut that shit out and trust Break, SO. He did, like the loser he is.]

But I agree... I'm not sure anything they've been working toward will actually come to fruition now.

[jackhole]

[ oh, ah. he did honestly want to tell morrigan, he did. he just never was sure how to do it.

plus, he really only wanted to talk to her again when he was sure he could bring her back. he wanted to be so sure, first.

so, he deflates a little, running a hand over his hair and looking away from her. ]

Not... while you were alive, no. I argued with Miata about that too. Why couldn't you help? You know magic, you're excellent at it. [ he... assumes... ] But she said her magic was different. I don't know, just more bullshit.

[ but right. yes. ]

I... don't really know what now. Everyone who knew what was going on is dead now except for... maybe Roxy and Inaba? But I don't trust them to do anything right. Not Inaba, but maybe Roxy. I don't know what's going to happen from here.

[crazily]

[ Morrigan at least gets an apologetic smile from Break, and he even bows his head to her lightly as if to accompany that smile. ]

...It may not be worth much, but I would have included you if I could have.

[ It's not that Break didn't trust Morrigan. Actually, it's the opposite, since he would have been happier to tell him what he knew, albeit in the frustrating, vague ways he was limited to. The problem is actually simpler than that. ]

But the only reason that they know is because they wouldn't leave me alone. [ god... ] I only expected to include Gilbert, but I didn't think other dead would be lingering around me.

[minogame]

( Urashima is really confused because why him??? It doesn't make sense to him but okay. There are clearly more important things to focus on, )

She's with the hostages?!

[jackhole]

[ doesn't make much sense to rhys either! maybe for entirely different reasons but boy, he sure is still angry about it. ]

Yeah. In the church basement. Not doing a fat lot of anything to help us.