antumbrac | WEEK 6

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Five weeks. It's been five weeks, and twenty-seven has now dwindled down to eleven. And while only two passed this week, this trial may have been the most devastating in its own way, as threads of patience frayed and fragments of trust fractured. Nevertheless, if The Lady is to be believed, that may very well have been the final set of sacrifices that she was waiting for, so perhaps the end is in sight.

Of course, the fact that everyone is still stuck in Krakow means that it's not over yet, and who even knows what's happening over in the Twilight?

And so, some more changes are in store for this week, even if it may not be the same ones that you've gotten used to. For one thing, the fog stays put and no new areas of the city are revealed under the light of the lampposts. Secondly, The Lady is nowhere to be found in the city, with her bookstore office vacated and abandoned with nary a trace as to where she went. And third, the clock tower will no longer operate, which-- well. Actually that's not new at all, but it certainly may make it difficult to keep up with the facade of passing days. At least the moon still serves as a reminder of that, gibbous phase waxing into something fuller over the course of the week even if the color looks a bit off.

It may not be a fresh new start, but it's not time to give up yet, is it? After all, you are all Survivors.

[[Welcome to Week 6! Note that there are no new locations this week, but feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. As alluded above, The Lady will be unavailable, while Rembrandt will still be around on Monday and Tuesday before disappearing for the rest of the week.]]

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[ Okay, Mikami has had enough. This whole place is a complete mess and a mockery of places. The Lady is right, it is a farce and so is she. It's time to investigate and take that to a new level. We've all been too kind this far.

Mikami can be found in the hotel for the majority of the day. He's taking the place apart - methodically, not on a rampage. Every piece of furniture is getting moved, every pillow-case is being opened, every lightbulb is getting unscrewed. He really is systematically working his way through the lower floor and not leaving anything untouched. For this, he's wearing a simple dress shirt and simple pants as well as gloves. He suspects this is going to get physically exhausting, with all the furniture-moving and whatnot, so no use wearing a full suit.

Feel free to watch, mock, help, whatever you want to be doing.

Come evening, the hotel doesn't look disorderly, actually! Everything is just definitely moved a bit from where it was. Sorry. ]

[...How is it that every time Cumore sees Mikami, he's managed to get even weirder.

That said, he's fine with just sort of observing this for a while, because he isn't sure what went wrong in Teru Mikami's head today but it's making for an interesting time, if nothing else. Eventually, though...]

...Morbid curiosity compels me to ask. What are you doing.

[ He's very focused and has indeed not actually noticed Cumore. At least Mikami really is a thorough and dedicated man? This surely says something good about him.

He straightens up once actually addressed. Oh. ]

We have to be missing something. There are no new places to take apart today and I am not about to sit idly. If we haven't found everything of use yet, then I will now.

...That's fair. How many places are you planning to dismantle, exactly?

Ideally? All of them.

[ That's not going to happen for time constraint reasons, but lofty goals. ]

I figured I would start here since this is a place we know for sure has been actually used by the Lady for her purposes.

Well, by all means, don't let me stop you.

[...hopefully we all know Cumore well enough by now to know that he's not going to be helpful in actually doing this.]

She seemed a bit unhinged today. Moreso than usual.

[ 'I wouldn't let you stop me' is on the tip of his tongue, really, but it's not worth it to say. In the end, Cumore is no small part of what made Mikami regain his motivation in the first place so sassing him about it is superfluous.

Mikami's going to keep taking apart decorative lobby picture frames while talking. ]

She did. For all she's promising to let us go, I do not believe her in the slightest. Also her shoulder... well, if she is messing up her own body, you will not find me complaining.

Oh, we're absolutely going to die if she gets her way. I'm not harboring any delusions about that.

[Just saying.]

I believe her when she says she's bored of this, but that's only because I believe that she gets bored in the same way I get bored.

[And then he starts looking for people to play with.]

[ He looks up from his work to raise an eyebrow. ]

Are you really using yourself as a base to profile her on?

Consider it one of the benefits of having unrighteous allies. We aren't surprised when common enemies start acting like this.

I've met my share of unrighteous and downright unhinged people before, it comes with the job.

[ Just because they're usually not his allies!! Anyway... ]

But alright, I'll regret asking and I will do it anyway. What do you do when you get bored?

Well, if it's solely boredom then I can usually find ways to amuse myself. Working on personal projects, killing monsters, all of that.

This is the sort of thing that happens when I tell people I'm bored because things have stopped going well. There are a lot of executions on days like that.

I'm wondering what stopped going well. I doubt it's because Ango made her bleed.

[ Executions. Great. Briefly he wonders how their body counts measure up next to each other but that's morbid to ask. ]

The loss of Dist seems to have also displeased her... but if I had to issue a guess, it would relate to the Twilight somehow. It doesn't seem like that was included in her plans.

I'd say not.

[...]

I'll see if I can find something related to that, perhaps. In one of the areas that's gotten power back.

Thank you.

[ Saying thanks to Cumore is becoming a little too effortless and a little too genuine these days. ]

We really have no time to lose now. Strange to think, after time seemed to drag out endlessly this last month.

I wouldn't say it's felt overly long to me, but I imagine we've been having different experiences.

[...okay look- ]

I have something to discuss with you at some point. I doubt either of us will care for it much.

[ Mikami looks... confused. He's genuinely not sure what this is about. The general status of their discussions has always been somewhere between 'we both hate that we're getting along' and 'uncomfortably comfortable and casual', so this doesn't seem... out of the ordinary? The announcement is weird. ]

I am always open to conversation.

[ And there is nobody else in this hotel right now. ]

[oh my god mikami you useless walnut of a man

fine

you want to do this now, we'll do this now]

Why didn't you tell me that you were considering Terca Lumireis, after all of this is over?

[There's surprisingly no bite to it; one of the few things he's asked that's just a question.]

[ Did you ever want to be in a comedy movie where a shocking piece of dialogue is accompanied by the timed slapstick-esque dropping of an object? Probably not. ~~Does Terca Lumireis even have movies?~~

Either way, that's what's going on here as the picture frame he's reassembling slips from Mikami's fingers and crashes down onto the reception desk.

Cumore isn't supposed to know this. Even Mikami realizes he hasn't been very subtle about it, but there had been literally no sign of Cumore figuring it out when they had the actual talk. Why now, two days later? Why now, that he's already gotten over himself and stopped being such an utterly pathetic fool? ]

... what?

[ This is a very weak response, both in terms of eloquence and tone of voice. ]

[And true to form, Cumore gives not a fuck about weakness, though he admittedly jumps a bit when the frame comes down. As it turns out, we do not in fact have movies in Terca Lumireis. We have functioning holograms for some reason and we can do some cool stuff with magical hovering keyboards that reprogram the life force of the fucking planet. But no movies. Alas.]

You heard me. Why didn't you tell me?

[ Mikami is very markedly not making eye contact. He's... going to examine the glass panel he just cracked. That's a good thing to be looking at right now as his heart hammers in his ears. He's been doing so good today. Motivated, stable.

Why is he being confronted with the remnants of his breakdown now? ]

I... I don't think it was actually hard to tell.

[ To his own discredit. ]

What brings this up now?

Inves...tigation.....?

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