FINAL INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

FINAL INVESTIGATION


[Fifteen X-Passes. Six weeks. Freedom at last.



But it's not the end. Of course it's not. There are questions to answer, and souls to save. And now that the group is outside, they can see where they are.

They are inside a massive cavern, illuminated in an eerie green light, standing on a stone path. On one side is the ship-or rather, a massive, ship-shaped tangle of bloody branches, the trunk-like roots snaking out and into the river its buoyed on, as well as into the ceiling of stalactites. Said river is wine dark, but it's clearly not water. No-it is blood.

And on the other side of their little pathway? A root-encrusted palace. It sits over a labyrinthine city, bathed in emerald, and all is eerily silent save for some sounds coming from within the castle. It's clear the infestation somehow started here. And it is here that answers are likely to be found.

The doors are right in front of the group-and they are already open, covered in branches. From the outside, it seems little more than a ruin. Once everyone goes in, though?




It's even worse. The tree has taken over. Whatever lives here is no longer in charge. There's no easy way to disentangle the Qilphoth from this place. But there is life here, somehow. You can see figures entangled within the roots as you explore. And-they are still, somehow, alive. More than alive. They are beings that bleed ichor instead of blood-beings of incredible divinity and power. They are gods. And they are hostage to the tree, forever and ever, trapped in induced ennui, unless something is done.


So welcome, Strangers, to the House of Hades.]







[Once you enter, the investigation shall begin.


Good luck.]



((OoC: And here are team assignments!))

Comments

[autonomousthought]

[From the cat car driver's seat-]

Moriarty-sensei?

[Has to be, right? Who else is that fancy?]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

...You're still calling me sensei, even after...?

[Look, he expected most people here would NOT want to see him, tbh. Even after getting Alastor's letter.]

[autonomousthought]

...You're really not that different from the other teachers I've had. And you did get us thinking more.

[She may be an absolute wreck both physically and emotionally. But she's glad to see him.]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

[Yeah, definitely - poor girl's practically rotting of the bone at this point.]

...Well, I suppose then that my trial did have a purpose, after all.

[He actually seems...relieved, at hearing that. Of course, he'd really had no clue about how everyone else took his trial, and he didn't feel like asking in the letters.]

I do wish you were in better health, but it is also wonderful to see you, Ritsu.

[autonomousthought]

[She's definitely more rot than not. She is running out of time.]

I think we got a bit better at it every trial. At least, a little. I hope we did, anyway...

[Her health. This was bound to come up...] I've been taking what measures I can to preserve myself. I...just need to last long enough to reach Gai's home.

[hatesdeerstalkers]

If only it were possible to transfer you here...I would have given you my blessing to use my body, even if it would be awkward for you to be in an old man's form.

[Seriously, it wasn't like he was going to use it after his execution anyway, and he mostly just bled out beyond the bullet holes akane put in his skull.]

Still, perhaps you can ask someone else to help with that? With all the powers we've been given, there should be something someone has in order to help with the preservation.

[autonomousthought]

It would at least reset the clock... An old man can't be that much more awkward than this, right?

[Some part of her is still wondering if, even in this loop, they were reset. If the boy whose body she's stuck in was one of them, once.]

Akane-san's power would probably be the most beneficial for me. But her health isn't the best, either. Zack's might have helped, but... [well.]

[hatesdeerstalkers]

No, I suppose not...still, it's terrible form to not even offer you a replacement every few weeks or the like.

[UGH their captors have been TERRIBLE HOSTS, he is filing a complaint.]

Yes...though I find it curious he's not here. Or, perhaps, he is - but he is in no state to come to see us.

[autonomousthought]

It's not as though there weren't more bodies. We found several in the pod room.

[To say nothing of her main unit turning up but she is maybe not going to bring that up right now.]

Tata [trying 'papa' but in Greek for Alastor] asked Lord Charon, and it seems he never encountered Zack's soul?

[hatesdeerstalkers]

Sigh...a pity.

[He listens to that, and shakes his head.]

Yes...he never appeared. That, along with a few things I gleaned while in that empty house has me suspect he's anything but a normal, mortal being.

[autonomousthought]

It looks like he really is at the center of everything... I guess we're here to figure out how. Who and what he is.