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

So in that case, it would be better to divide into two teams, right? One to break out the hostages, and one to fight the demons.

[Who even knows how many they'll have to take out at this point, though?! Hopefully Sans can convince sloth to just keep slothing.]

[ He nods ]

It seems the most sensible course of action. Considering our diverse skillsets, I'd also say that those of us like Rhys and Clover should probably rescue the hostages. From everything Miata and Leviathan told us, we'll need quite a bit of strength to take on the demons, but also a rather diverse set of it.

[ so the normals can go rescue the kidnapped friends and everyone else can have shonen death battles, what a good time ]

[UGHHHH well whatever, at least taking down demons and their contractors is their job. RHYS AND CLOVER AND THE NORMALS BETTER BE GENTLE WITH OZ, THOUGH.]

If weapons like swords can cut them, we should probably go back to the armory and arm ourselves more properly, then.

[Like, in a more organized way than just grabbing 1000 grenades.]

Now you're starting to get it.

[ Instead of, yes, grabbing 1000 grenades... Really, it's no wonder that Break in particular didn't tell the ghosts anything directly because look at the ghosts ]

It would be easier with our Chains, but I already tried to bargain to get my Carcere back, personally. [ A pause, and then: ] Ah, actually, would you like to know why that was taken, by the way~?

[STOP THEY WERE JUST DOING THEIR BEST. He's definitely like (internally sweats) in response to that, though... Don't chastise him, grandpa, he tried.

But ah, right--]

Oh— I meant to ask Leviathan about that since I never got an answer from Miata, but... [HE GOT SO ANGRY AND CONFUSED THAT HE STRAIGHT-UP FORGOT.] Why was it taken?

Surprisingly, for a reason I can't disagree with.

[ For real, that's surprising. Break agreeing that he can't have a way to kill himself more quickly??? shocking ]

Our contracts interfered with the connections we have with our "patron demons." Miata is the one that explained it to me, not Leviathan, and she's not very well versed in these matters... But essentially, the two contracts competed with each other. One contracts could void the other, and for either these demons or our Chains, both would be a problem.

[TRULY SHOCKING. That does make sense, but still?!]

...So we'd need to contract again.

[HE THINKS?? Unless the contracts weren't voided but the carceres were just removed from the premise... Still, as far as he knows, the contract itself still exists even if the carceres or keys are removed.]

I'm assuming they were taken away and broken, in that case.

[ He shrugs in a wide, familiar gesture, but that's probably a relief, in a way. Break definitely hasn't been this light and clownish in weeks, so it seems like death is a nice vacation once you get over the whole, you know. Death part. ]

No~ id~ ea~. ♥

[ oh right but he's a pain in the ass like this ]

I asked about getting mine back since I thought the Mad Hatter would likely do quite a bit of damage so long as I could goad them into lifting the restriction on summoning it. It wasn't my impression that it was broken or desroyed, but I don't really know.

[SIGHS... It's better to see Break like this than it is to see him distressed and stressing out, but on the other hand, that means Gilbert now has to deal with Break like this. Why can't he have the best of both worlds...]

But the point is, we're not going to be able to rely on that for now... That's what you're saying, right?

[He actually misses his asshole Chain, wow, he never thought he'd see the day.]

That's correct. I was going to try and argue that it was more useful for me to have the Mad Hatter than to keep up my contract with Leviathan, but...

[ He waves his hand vaguely, which considering something next, might seem and sound a bit ominous. It's not, but Break can't phrase things like a normal, reasonable person. ]

Something else came up.

Something else came up...?

[DON'T PHRASE THINGS LIKE A SERIAL KILLER, BREAK. NOW HE'S CONCERNED.]

[ Why would you be concerned, gosh! Because Break isn't stopping, apparently?? ]

Oh, nothing important now. Rhys panicked, and he was going to foul things up rather badly, but I just reminded him of his priorities.

[When isn't it a good time or reason to be concerned about Xerxes Break, honestly.]

...Well. It's a good thing the two of you were there for each other, in that case.