WEEK 6

[umbralant]

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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1 / 3 buckle up, it's infodump time

[psychophant]

[Iago still doesn't know what pizza is, so he's just eyeing that warily. Not that he has any plans of eating, he's got entirely too much info to share for that.]

Prior to his death, Dist and I shared all the information we've gathered about the Lady and Rembrandt. I have quite a lot to cover, so do pay attention.

[He's smiling, but he sure is pissed. Let's go.]

I'll start out with general information I've learned recently. The Lady has abandoned her office, though there wasn't anything to find there. I could find no trace of her anywhere else, and when I spoke with Rembrandt, he said that when she goes through moods like this, she doesn't talk with anyone. That includes Rembrandt himself.

I also studied the sludge Ulquiorra left for us. It turns out that it is melted-down currency. I imagine we may be able to exchange it for something at the post office. There are eighty-three vials, in case anyone's wondering.

[He's also got info about the Lady and Rembrant, to be put in separate comments for some attempt at organization.]

[psychophant]

Let's discuss Rembrandt first. Rembrandt Meijer is not his real name, but it isn't an alias either. He's told me that he is whatever the Lady needs him to be. With that said, it isn't as though this is a one-sided deal - there's something he wants from her though he's always been cagey about exactly what it is.

At this point, I believe it's incredibly likely that he's a demon. He confirmed that the Lady used magic once, and it had to do with Rembrandt himself. Given the missing demon summoning books, this makes the most sense to me. It could also explain why she dislikes the idea of magic so much, if things didn't go exactly as she thought they would.

Initially, I had theorized that the deal the Lady made with Rembrandt would involve giving up her soul at the end, but I think it's more likely that she would offer much more than that. Regardless, Rembrandt is willing to make deals for someone's soul. His eyes were bright red and his teeth were much sharper when we discussed it.

He has also said that his powers are a part of him, they aren't something he was taught. He seems to be capable of a great many things; I can't even begin to guess at the limit of his powers. With that said, traveling between worlds is not his doing, but it's the Lady's. [More on that in a moment.]

Rembrandt has expressed displeasure with the Lady in the past. It may be possible to turn him against the Lady, but that is only a theory and not one I suggest attempting to pursue without further information. Until we know the details of their deal and if it can be called off, we need to assume that Rembrandt will remain loyal to the Lady through this and prepare to deal with him if needed.

[psychophant]

As for the Lady herself... Well, it sounds as though she came from a rather interesting world. Dist told me that her world is run by geniuses like herself - those who are gifted intellectually, but are completely crazy. What she told me about her family lines up. Her father's name was "Lucifer, like the demon" [does that mean anything to anyone, because it still doesn't mean anything to him] and he was involved in working on animal augmentation as well as teleportation portals. Using the information she gained from her father as well as several scientists she killed for their work, she was able to create the technology to travel between worlds. The animal augmentation she worked on involved insects, although she wasn't able to pursue her research here due to how limited their growth was.

Oh, she's also married. That's important because I have never seen her that angry; she hates her husband and wants him dead. Given how furious she was, I imagine that part of her plans involve returning home to kill him, though I have no idea if that's her main goal or simply something she'll do after she's obtained what she wants.

Perhaps most importantly, Dist confirmed that her current interest is in preserving memories and consciousness to transplant it into other brains. She has created a device to do this. My theory is that "Ruby" - the unfamiliar person in the Twilight - is the soul of the Lady's current body. Dist and I speculated that Rembrandt might be gaining that soul instead of the Lady offering up her own, but that seems unlikely given the scope of all of this. Rembrandt likely would require more as a payment.

Dist also discovered that the Lady doesn't know about the Twilight, or at least she didn't when we spoke of it, shortly before his death. She had no idea where the power was coming from or how certain buildings were regaining electricity. I'm not certain if Rembrandt knows about the Twilight or not. He's kept information from the Lady before, so it's possible.

Finally, the Lady was worried last week about someone sneaking into the castle through the sewers to attempt to kill her or Rembrandt. Once again, I don't suggest this course of action, but we may want to see if it's possible to do just that. The castle is the last place we have yet to fully examine, after all.

[And there we go, five weeks of private conversations with the masterminds out in the open, have fun with all this tl;dr.]

[drydrown]

[...iago do you mind if he just kind of sits next to you and checks out for a bit

like he'd gotten through the fun human experiment snuff film over there reasonably well and okay we've been here a lot longer than we thought and shin's eating souls and we are all definitely, definitely going to die but that's

all of that is probably fine

but he's just going to sit and not be fine for a while if no one minds

he'll be quiet about it but he's kind of doing that thing from the trial where he's just kind of staring at the dead space three inches in front of his face

he'll be fine he just kind of needs a bit to process]

[psychophant]

[don't worry, cumore, he's got enough spite for us both and also dist and maybe half the dead while we're at it, feel free to check out for awhile!!

if you're still doing bad after we're done here he'll take you back to the room and see if he can help when we aren't in public but for now you just... try to process all of this absolute bullshit...]

[drydrown]

...Can we just agree, right now, that no one is selling their soul to Rembrandt.

[Can we please just make that much clear.]

[psychophant]

[...oh no...]

Of course no one is selling their soul to Rembrandt. It would be an incredibly stupid idea.

[drydrown]

Anyone who decides it's a good idea is going to be disposed of. If you're just going to render your life forfeit then I see no reason why I shouldn't.

[...he's doing real bad he should probably shut up]

[psychophant]

I know, Cumore. None of us are going to consider that at all.

[It's not exactly gentle, but it's calm and he just sort of... lightly pats Cumore's arm.]

[pr159]

I don't think Rembrandt is aware of Twilight either. He doesn't seem to know how the electricity has been coming back either, and definitely doesn't think it has anything to do with the souls of the dead.

He seems to have a very strict idea of how souls work, actually, and says that they're usually dealt with quickly by "neutral arbiters" and don't hang around in limbo.

[psychophant]

Did he? Fascinating. We only discussed souls briefly, and I was unable to determine whether he was trying to hint at knowing about the Twilight or not. That's good to know.

[bawcock]

We didn't exactly talk about it, but I think you're right about him not knowing.

Back when the museum first lit up, he asked me what happened and I asked him if he really didn't know. Then he said it'd be "considerably less amusing" if he was always watching us.

[inordertobelieve]

[ Okay, that's... a lot of information. Mikami's getting out his notepad and scribbling along like... three phrases in, because wow. There's... so much. ]

The subway, the salt mines, the crypts, the sewers... All leads continue pointing us underground.

Though we have yet to look through every part of the upper town as thoroughly as I have examined the hotel, I do think we have a good enough overview to know that we won't find anything drastic if we only remain here.

[ So uh. Yeah. ]

[psychophant]

[He's Nohr's greatest tactician, did you expect anything less of him? ♥]

Precisely. I'm not particularly looking forward to that, but at least now we know where we need to focus our efforts.

[inordertobelieve]

[ He has lowered his expectations for everyone, partially including himself, to the ground. That's how he's been surviving. So yes, he expected less. ]

Now we have to make sure it's safe.... One way or another, I suspect it will lead back to the manifestations and their properties. Now that we know that even our own powers are caused by them, they really appear to be the key to the whole city.

The Night is their home... and we have what may be molten parts of them in jars...

[ Now if only he knew where he was going there. ]

[psychophant]

Yes. We still have much to discuss and consider before we start making plans. We don't have all the pieces just yet, but we're making progress. Please do keep your notes up to date, I'm certain we'll need to reference them in the future.

[...he kind of destroyed his own notes except for the most relevant stuff, so uh.......]

[inordertobelieve]

Oh, I will.

[ He's going to hold up his notebook to see and... god, his handwriting is tiny. There's a lot of content here on just on this singular page. ]

[psychophant]

[squints]

Well, it certainly looks like you've been keeping them up to date.

[why do you not write like a normal person.... also the most important question: what color is the ink!!!!!!!!!]

[bawcock]

[ H m, ok this is... a lot to take in. He's gonna need a minute to shake his initial surprise and "yikes" face before he can respond!! Oh, and he looks particularly uncomfortable at the mention of Rembrandt taking souls and him having red eyes. ]

I... might be able to add a little something here. I can't say if it'll help, but here goes.

Basically, Rebramdt was about as cagey about his reasons with me as he was with you. The only thing I really learned was he always takes what he's owed. Even if we somehow get him on our side, I don't think he'll accept getting anything less than what the Lady promised him.

[psychophant]

He does seem more interested in what he's getting out of this than whatever the Lady wants or what will happen to us. Rembrandt is exceptionally dangerous. There's so much we don't know about him.

Did you happen to learn anything else from him that may be useful?

[bawcock]

For some of it, I don't even know where to begin. [ Or if he wants to, for that matter. Not like it'll help. He glances at his still-very-bandaged-but-also-obviously-dagger hand for a second with a frown. ]

Uh, wait. Do you want to know everything or only what seems important?

[psychophant]

Start with the most important things. At this point anything could be useful, but let's begin there.

[bawcock]

That makes things easier on me. You know how he is, it's harder to get him to stop talking than to start.

[ Rembrandt 2 chatty. Anyway, the most important things that he recognizes as important vs the innumerable things he says that could be important but probably aren't... Ugh, guess he has to talk about his hand. He reluctantly holds it up. Still bandaged but he hasn't been doing the weird arm-crossing shit for a while now and the shape of his fingers are all off. Still, like, fingers? But yeah, no, you can tell by looking. ]

A while back he told me this hand "won't work on me, I don't have what they want." I think by now we know why that is—and you already said it. He's some kind of devil, which he was all too happy to tell me last week. But honestly, he's been hinting at it for a while. He doesn't seem keen on human anything, I'm not sure if he sleeps, and he said even if he was "young" once he was never a kid. Of course, he was a brat.

[ This is critically important information that requires bolding (it doesn't, Erik is just happy to say it). ] Oh, and he told me he doesn't have the same kind of soul as we do. Too bad for us, he didn't want to say any more than that.

As far as working with us goes, I don't think it'll be easy-going getting him on our side. If we had a way to lure him in, it'd be one thing. I just can't think of anything he'd want from any of us. Besides, he was pretty clear that he couldn't act against the Lady's word "under most conditions." [ Even if he could, wouldn't he only want a soul? He glances away, arms crossed. ]

Let me think... [ Posing his hand at his chin. ] I know when I stole a look with the night-vision goggles, I saw dark spots around him. I dunno if that's as important as the next part, it might be just another thing about him that's off. Anyhow, most of the time when I saw him use his powers, everything would go dark.

[ He's still thinking but he looks and sounds uncomfortable when he says the last part. ]

[reanbeans]

[ ...Wow. ]

You really did deliver, Iago. Not that I didn't have faith in you, but I'm just amazed at how much you managed to collect.

I appreciate everything you've done for us, really.

...And I do think checking out to see if we can sneak into the castle would be possible soon. As cautiously as we could, anyway.

[psychophant]

I am Nohr's greatest tactician. It would be rather disappointing if I couldn't put my talents to use.

[praise!!]

Agreed, the castle is certainly important and somewhere we should investigate, but we can't afford to be rash.