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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...Do you happen to know of multiple ways such a thing can work?

[LIKE. before coming here he was not aware that was a thing at all??]

Not from any credible sources. The topic of possession is popular in a variety of media in my world, so I have some ideas but in the end it's nothing but fiction.

[ ... ]

And it's also been forever since I consumed said fiction.

I wouldn't have taken you as the sort for stories like that, Teru Mikami.

[The teasing tone is light, but it's still teasing.]

I don't think we have many stories that center around things like that. We do have a few popular ones about ghosts and the like, however.

Ghosts are also ever the classic here.

[ It's not all that dissimilar in the end. Ghosts, demons, possession... scaley manifestations! Why not! ]

In my childhood I was very fond of superhero tales. The villains had all kinds of abilities, including elements like jumping from body to body at will or bonding to a host parasitically.

The Lady certainly dresses the part for such a story. ... and so do most people here.

[ Including Cumore, really.]

...That's fascinating. I'm not positive I know what superheroes are entirely, but I can take a guess.

We have a few older stories about the stars, and the Goddess. I don't know many of them offhand, though I remember Brave Vesperia's, it's one we tend to tell our children where I'm from. We also have various stories and legends about curses and hauntings, but those are usually just to keep people from doing anything dangerous or interfering with things they shouldn't.

[...]

I believe, anyway. You'll always run into someone claiming to have seen the ghost ship Atherum or something.

[ It's kind of strange that Terca Lumireis sounds so completely fantastical to Mikami and yet something like this is still getting dismissed as nothing but folktales. The standards of what is normal and what isn't are going to be tough to relearn. ]

After all we have seen here, I believe I'll be very careful about assertions of realism.

[ But hm. ]

A superhero is about what it sounds like. A person fighting monsters for the sake of the greater good. Most often a kind of flashy costume is involved. This is vastly more exciting for children from a world with no monsters or daily life combat, than I imagine it would be in your world.

What is Brave Versperia's story about?

It's an origin story about the brightest star in our sky. Quite some time ago there was a calamity that threatened to consume the world whole, destroying everyone and everything that lives on it. We would have all perished, but a pair of people - siblings, a brother and a sister - destroyed the calamity and saved Terca Lumireis. The sister remained among us to rule over Terca Lumireis as Goddess, while the brother became Brave Vesperia and ascended to the heavens to watch over us and keep anything like that from happening again.

...I suppose stories like that are why I didn't find Sirius odd.

[Sirius was just kind of...very "as you do, I suppose" as far as Cumore went.]

Brother and sister gods are a popular motif, even interdimensionally...

[ Huh. He's going to have to rethink his whole concept of deities as well. The one that had been guiding him all his life, was it unique to his world? He'd like to think not, that justice is truly universal, but he would have to keep an eye open.

Not that this God would be liable to forgive him anyhow. So that's... troubling. To say the least. ]

Sirius was... well, he reminded me of angels from a religion that isn't at all popular in my country and that I have no ties to. The one this church is built for. So he was... rather strange.

We don't have any monuments or...churches, I suppose, for the Goddess or any other figures. The castle at Zaphias has statues of her, but that's about all. We aren't terribly religious people.

We have a concept of Hell as a place for sinners. I assume there's somewhere that the virtuous end up. But it's not something we concern ourselves with. At least not until death is imminent - people tend to care then, for some reason.

Edited (fingers. fingers why.) 2020-02-11 20:10 (UTC)

[ He's silent for a moment, staring down at the plants that could and would kill him if given the chance. ]

My story must have seemed odd to you.

[ Understatement of the century. ]

Faith has always been what I modeled my life after, since I was very young though I have never been part of an organized religion. The faith of my country has influenced me, but my personal deity has always been the divine principle I simply perceived around me. A punishing God, obviously.

[ Punishment is great! And there's really no reason to be telling Cumore all of this other than that he never really talked about this to anybody and it's worth a shot to see how it feels. ]

But I never believed in any sort of afterlife. It's what you do while you are alive that counts.

[ And that's exactly why death had been a comforting thought to him before Cumore came in like a wrecking ball and removed the option from the table. ]

[Holy shit, Mikami, did you just tell him something that served no real purpose? He's almost proud of you.]

So your god is more like justice itself. Is that it?

Yes. Justice, divine order, any number of ways you want to call it.

[ All those nice comforting external things that determine rule and give a measuring stick for whether or not he is being good because that's all he ever really wanted. ]

...Well, that would explain the conviction, I suppose.

I suppose so. Though God or no God, I've always considered morality to be a principle that is rather obvious.

[ EVIDENTLY HE'S BEEN ALONE IN THAT PERCEPTION ALL HIS LIFE, it's cool. ]

Even before I came to think about the concept of divine punishment, I mean.

The difference between acting for yourself instead of for some kind of greater good, perhaps. It's never been something that concerns me greatly, though I imagine that's not much of a surprise.

It's really not.

[ He shakes his head lightly, though really, he doesn't sound particularly judgmental anymore. He's feeling it, he'll always be feeling it, but they both know as much and it's a waste of effort to act it out. ]

I suppose that's what I'll be there for from now on.

[...Ah.

It's still an idea he's getting used to, honestly, though it isn't an unwelcome one; he just...takes a moment, that's all.]

Yes, well. The chance to do anything of the sort isn't something I offer most people. Be honored.

[ How haughty. ]

I certainly consider myself fortunate.

[ That is not the SAME as honored, but honored is. Not a word he wants to use. To honor him you'd have to have honor and the jury is just sort of out on this aspect.

Though this brings up the whole topic complex from yesterday that he has significantly calmed down about on some level and then really not on another (thanks Iago). ]

The way we spoke about this yesterday was... a bit disordered. [ Emotional. ] But I truly appreciate everything you said. I'm... looking forward to it, really. I suppose this all belatedly answered your question about what it is I want from you, too.

It's as you said to me, admittedly - you're not going to get your way all the time, either. And I've told you multiple times that I'm going to disappoint you. As long as you know all of that, I don't foresee this going too poorly.

[Maybe that's short-sighted. He doesn't really care.]

As much as I love making all the decisions and telling people what to do, you're going to be expected to tell me what you want at least once in a while.

[ Mikami isn't sure how he foresees this going if he thinks about it realistically but it's definitely somewhere along the lines of 'better than any of the alternatives' and that's good enough. ]

I will. What I was lacking was perspective. Knowing there is a future at all makes it far easier to... be a person, as you would put it.

[ He's really regaining his stability here and it'd be kind of a shame if they all got killed by the Lady now for that reason alone already. ]

For the record, everything you outlined... I liked those ideas.

Well. I would hope so.

[Seeing as it is what Mikami agreed to and all.]

......

[ Looking slightly annoyed: ] You want me to state desires, I have to start somewhere.

[ EVEN IF IT'S RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL. ]

I know, I know.

[It's fine, probably.]

You're cute.

[ Well. That earns a facial journey that can only be described as '...!!'

And just like that the whole 'Iago said' issue is crashing down on him again and they were doing so well here, too!! ]

That's... not a descriptor I would have expected.

Oh...?

[...you okay there, buddy]

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