WE'RE STILL HERE AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS FOR GRUMP'S SAKE

[ahelpingpaw]

[Well today was quite the unusual way. Filbo pretty much went into his room and collapsed on his bed and just fainted because hey, everything that happened? It's overwhelming. Bluuuuuuuh.

A few hours later, once he recovered somewhat, Filbo just goes and gets paper. This is a ridiculous situation, but...hey, no matter what, stuff needs to be done]

I know today was a really weird day, but let's try to gather and see what happens. There will be ice cream at the ice cream parlor in half an hour. With everything that happened we really should try to at least not forget we need to stick together for whatever reason.

---Filbo Fiddlepie (pawprint)

[Geez.

Well, he goes and does exactly what he said: this time it isn't booze, it's all kinds of ice cream available for anyone who comes. The tables all have spoons and water because really, this is going to be a whole lot of sugar for everyone. Better this than alcohol, especially since things clearly have gone off the rails one way or another, so may as well gorge yourself with ice cream and try to gather your wits for whatever the next week can bring]

Comments

[magycks]

[ At least she'll be light! ]

Yes, I've known the like. [ She puts the lever back into place, finally ending the pitch-black torrent of yogurt damnation. ] Ugh, of course the machine couldn't just give me my ghost-banishing amulet—

[ She realizes the yogurt tower is absolutely going to go splat if she doesn't set the bowl down immediately, sighs with irritation, and does so. ]

Ghost, demon... the lines blur, especially when the life preceding was one saturated in dark magic. Jack got his voodoo dolls and that recipe from someone.

[ahelpingpaw]

Well, most likely. And he probably--he may have gotten duped. I dunno what kinda, uh, work relationship that thing had with Jack? But it didn't seem like it even wanted Jack around anyway.

[Even the demon/ghost/thing possessing Jack didn't want him, good grief]

[magycks]

Would you? Calling the man a means to an end is a compliment. [ Less sidetalky and more serious: ] Sometimes, when powerful dark forces are banished from this world, simpleminded fools like Jack serve as a sort of wedge in the door.

No doubt he consented to it, promised... whatever. We just saw how easily he falls for a grift. But why use a living tether that can argue, and think, and do things that aren't following orders, when you could just puppeteer a corpse? Also, he was the worst.

[ahelpingpaw]

I guess now that Jack is dead that thing has some freedom to do whatever it wants, anyway. You saw it, it was gonna kill us all right then and there.

[If it weren't for Davy Jones' timely intervention, it might have been death for everyone, geez]

[magycks]

[ Extremely, unnecessarily dry: ]

Yes, Filbo, I was there. [ Anyway! ] It's curious, actually. Almost two months sunk into this ritual, and he was ready to just... throw it away by annihilating us?

[ honestly it sounds like something she would do, but magica's not self aware enough to think of that and way too proud to say as much if she did ]

[ahelpingpaw]

I dunno how this stuff about rituals are supposed to work but maybe our lives just...aren't needed for it anymore? Maybe it already got enough deaths and the rest of us are disposable or something.

[If a motive comes next week then that's not true, but that's a few days away, really]

[magycks]

Possible, yes. But if that's true, why are we still alive?

[ahelpingpaw]

Not because it learned self-restraint during the last few hours, that's--that's for sure.

[It tried to murder Filbo, seriously]

...I dunno.

[magycks]

And the entity still has Jones' heart in its clutches, so it's unlikely he's dispatched it. What does that leave us with, realistically?

[ She doesn't wait for an answer. ]

The game is still on. I mean, we'll know for sure by Tuesday, but...

[ahelpingpaw]

Is it really worth it for it to continue with the game as it is? I mean, after what happened? You'd have to be... [Filbo goes silent for a moment] ...alright, this one is a little hard to soften up, I can't think of a way to do it. You'd have to be an idiot to believe that thing's gonna fulfill any promises. Nobody's gonna fall for them.

[Well, threats would be somewhat believable, all things considered, but it'd depend on the threat itself, really]

[magycks]

Well, obviously. Why else do you think I haven't killed anyone? [ ... ] But nobody fell for anything on the second week, either, or the third, or the fifth.

[ And yet we still just keep on tripping on banana peels and murdering each other! ]

[ahelpingpaw]

I mean, you're not wrong, that's true. There have been a lot of accidents and...accidental murders...all happening in the same night and more or less at the same hour every time...

[...]

Maybe someone dying on Thursday nights is part of the triangle's effects and it's useless to fight them as long as we're here, I dunno.

[It's the power of narrative necessities, Filbo, don't think too hard about it, hah]

[magycks]

Ooh, very defeatist.

... But seriously, the ritual itself may hold a sort of power over us. Call it jitters or whatever you'd like, but when you're out at night with full knowledge of what typically happens on Thursdays, the chances of something happening are heightened simply because you expect it to.

[ No, guys, it's really not that deep. ]

[ahelpingpaw]

That makes more sense than it should. If you believe something will happen you subconsciously make it likelier to happen, or something like that. I never thought that kinda thinking would be applied to accidental murders.

[Trying to find meaning in the intricacies of murdergame tradition is a silly endeavor, guys, really]

[magycks]

Manifestation is a powerful thing, Fiddlepie. Best not to leave it to chance.