WEEK 6

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 6



[Fifteen X-Passes. You've finally done it. You can now go free. However, the price has been steep. Too steep.




True, you can leave. Anyone can, now. But simply leaving may be a bad idea. After all, who knows what else Zero has up its sleeve? Who knows what's outside of the HMHS Gigantic? How will they survive? How will they eat? And those are the easy questions that need to be answered. After all, the mystery of Zero, the mystery of Zack, the mystery of who is the cause of all of this and why-those things are also seemingly impossible to answer without some preparation. There's also the new area that's opened up that may yet yield more for the survivors to mull over.


Rushing is surely a bad idea. It's time to prepare. Take the time to get ready for whatever is outside. Stock up on supplies. Write what needs to be written. Say what needs to be said. Get ready for the possibility that whatever is out there, whatever the answers are-they will not be easy, and they will not be quick.


More than that, but-where are all these cuts coming from on your body? Hm. Maybe you keep bumping into things or scratching too hard. Did everyone save Roland get super clumsy or something all of a sudden?


Well. Maybe the answers to all that are just around the corner. So. Let's get ready. The end is near.


There are 8 9 strangers currently on this ship.



Wait. Nine?]

Comments

MONDAY (SK. 27)

[strangerpeople]

Your Regularly Scheduled Infodump

[superstylishsquid]

[This time, it's Makima and Roland who go out to inform people of a meeting, with a message from Alastor that there is incredibly important information to share. When people arrive in the lounge, they'll find several tables pushed together, with nine chairs arranged around them and...a platter full of honey glazed donuts in the middle?

Once people have arrived, Alastor tosses a pile of papers on the table to pass around. They're mostly unpaid bills for a business called Devil May Cry, but also include several check stubs, a birth certificate for a girl named Ayame, and a photograph with "Sub Rosa" written on the back.]

Roland and I spent yesterday checking out the captain's deck, and these were all in the desk up there. They're...Devil May Cry is the name of a devil hunting operation, owned and run by Dante. My master, and owner of one of those corpses up in the pod room that's covered in runes. His official accounts, at least the ones I saw stuff from before Dante got around to tossing me into storage, are under the name Tony Redgrave, and he has a professional informant by the name of James Morrison. Ayame...is the name of Aoi's kidnapped niece. For those who aren't familiar with the idiom, 'Sub Rosa' is an old saying that basically means something is to be done in secret. It actually goes back to an old Roman story, about Cupid bribing someone to help cover up Venus' infidelity.

That's all from the main room. When we went into the bedroom, we saw...a figment of Zack, covered in glowing blood. He said he...let something in, that it was in his mind and now it's in the blood. We tried to ask him what it was that he let in, but the figment was stolen away by the ship's vines before he could finish. That's not all, either. We went to talk to Charon after that, and he communicated that Zack's soul is missing. He didn't make it to the underworld, and I don't think Charon ever even saw him...he just seemed confused.

[He takes a breath, eyes closed for a moment, before sitting down and looking around the room. There's a scotch glass next to him, and he cracks open a bottle of the same chocolate liqueur from the first meeting he hosted. He doesn't pour it yet, though, seemingly having it more in anticipation of wanting it after what he has left to say.]

...And if anyone has anything to say to me about what I pulled at the trial? Go ahead, but try not to forget the real reason we're here.

[exequte]

Other than the fact that you wasted our time, you mean?

[Her voice is low, and soft, and not really accusatory, despite the words. Mildly reproachful, maybe, though she's looking down.]

I don't know how much of that we still have....

[superstylishsquid]

So you'd have preferred if I'd said from the beginning who we should execute, and skipped everything Aoi and Hubert wanted us to figure out? And everything they wanted to say once they had us thinking?

[He pours himself a glass of that liqueur.]

Could've done that, sure. But would you really have wanted to just find out from the letters, after they were already dead and could only be questioned by mail?

[exequte]

[At THAT she raises her eyes to him in a glare.]

No, but that's a false correlation anyway.

I'm not saying that we should have killed them before they had a chance to explain their thoughts, just like they did, but what did prolonging it like that accomplish other than increasing everyone's pain?

[superstylishsquid]

Got us looking at what actually happened. If they'd just told us they killed Zack and he got up and made them kill him again, how many of you would've believed it without looking at all the evidence supporting it?

Besides, you know how unfair Delta makes all of this. Would you have put it at all past him to make us vote the second I said I'd gotten a confession from Aoi that morning?

[pegasinister]

Akane...

We could have confessed from the moment we stepped into that room. But I fear what happened to Aoi may have happened instantly if we had. If I am being honest I am surprised it took the Zeroes that long to lash out at us- that was the purpose of the letters.

[godspiousjasper]

[ He gives Alastor a cursory look at that last comment, but just otherwise nods as to acknowledge what had already been said.

Even moving to place a second photo with the rest of what was there on the table. As well.. a second piece of paper there.

He'd forgotten it ages ago due to that hallucination that had followed right after receiving it. Hope others could make sense of it. ]

When Zack said something was in his mind and now it's in the blood? Didn't he say something about.. ah... Zack Jr being in his head?

[ Which was.. hmm. Really concerning if that was the case here. He's still also bothered by that Zack's soul is missing as well. ]

[superstylishsquid]

He did, yeah. And told me that Zack Jr.'s gender changed a little before the start of all this, but she seemed the same otherwise.

[godspiousjasper]

Do you think the thing that was in his mind.. and is in the blood might BE her, then?

[ Simply just a guess, but what else was he supposed to make of all that? ]

[yesorwoof]

[Makima listens to the "incredibly important information" with glassy eyes. She says quietly, in the silence after Alastor invites criticism of his actions at the trial:]

Kira-kun will be here shortly. I have impressed upon him the gravity of the situation.

[He is not here yet.]

[superstylishsquid]

I'm not holding my breath, considering past experience. [Can you hear him rolling his eyes?] But there's a chair for him, if he does decide to show.

[onychomance]

Reserved seating? How kind.

[Wow, he actually showed. He does not look like he wanted to. But he is sitting in his chair. We are in the good timeline now surely, the one where Kira was relatively on schedule.]

[strangerpeople]

[The Gimme was not here for the meeting's start. He is here now. Something seems different about him, somehow.

He holds up a letter, as usual.]

[exequte]

You have a letter for us?

[strangerpeople]

Hhhhrrrrrhhhhhnnnnn.

[He is very serious as he hands the letter over.]

[The letter is on a folded piece of paper. When opened, it reads:]

Hello, everyone still alive! It seems we're beginning to come to the end of things, hm?

This is a letter to inform all of you that we've decided to attack the roots on Wednesday, in order to make our escape from Zeus katachthonios's underworld. I hope that time passes the same, but I am sure that it does. If you hear pained screams from the ship on that day, then you know what it's from! Wahahahaha!

We will be doing our utmost, as we have nothing more to fear. Hopefully, even if you cannot see us, we will be able to see you when we break free and rejoin you.

Also, not to worry! None of us will be looking back in the slightest when we're about to cross that threshold! So no worries about any of us getting stuck back in Tartarus, Okie-dokey?!

Sincerely,

James Moriarty

P.S. HERMES IF YOU GET THIS LETTER DO NOT PUT IT IN YOUR HOARD PILE WITHOUT FIRST SHOWING EVERYONE!!!

[superstylishsquid]

[He looks over, and after a moment of thought, slides his scotch glass of chocolate liqueur toward Charon to trade for the letter.]

Ήδη από το Aoi; Γράφει γρήγορα.

An lingua haec pro te commodior est?

One finger if you prefer the first language, two if you prefer the second.

[strangerpeople]

[He accepts the glass.

And raises one finger.]

[voidseeing]

In his mind?

[Ohhhh, he does not like the sound of that.]

In my vision, when I was in Aoi's body, I felt the same thing happen. At first I thought I was seeing things from Aoi's point of view... until I felt him in the body along with me. And he was aware of my presence.

So that makes me think that I was actually seeing things from someone else's point of view-- someone who was sharing Aoi's body.

[onychomance]

Do you believe that was Zero?

[voidseeing]

I don't know. The only people I could recognize for sure in that moment were Aoi and Akane.

[somuchshipping]

[The only way you can avoid your actions having any consequences at all is by isolating yourself from everything you could have consequences on.]

[The door to the room Hermes is staying in is locked.]

[pegasinister]

[Knock knock]

Hermes. You are missing the meeting.

[somuchshipping]

[No response. Huh. Hermes usually isn't like this... right?]

[pegasinister]

[He waits for a bit, tapping his foot in annoyance]

I WILL break in if needed.

[he can't, of course. The doors need the matching watches. But he can threaten]