WEEK 5

[bathymetric]

That's three murders now - and this last trial got more than slightly out of hand. It looks like you might be in for another tough week... or at least, maybe that's just the refusal of this place to change too much. You lose Saturday again, but maybe six-day weeks are starting to feel normal by now. Who knows? The cycle of day and night continues apace, changing so little.

Speaking of change, though, there's a new area to look through, the biggest and most complex yet. And the end of one wing of the facility, from the looks of it - though you can probably guess where more areas might start to open up.

And speaking of opening up (segues!), this week if you're out particularly late, you might sometimes see Angel out and about! So hey, maybe change is on the horizon.

Just gotta hope it's a change for the better, don't you?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 5! Remember to turn in AC here, threads for regain coins here, and if you feel so inclined you can visit Angel's office hours over here! Or, if you want Angel to come to you, that's now an option! Simply put a prompt after lights-out into your toplevel and indicate you want Angel in the subject line, same as investigations! ]

Comments

[bolderfell]

Or however many are dead that he needs there to be. Before I came here, we found someone who was doing something similar, if more straightforward; he had to drain the blood from a certain number of people to create the stone he wanted.

[blackmass]

Far from an unheard of sort of magecraft. Blood is a common component in such rituals.

[yikes]

I myself came here from a situation involving a ritual requiring combat to the death.

[bolderfell]

Huh. What was the ritual for?

[blackmass]

[christ on a bike take a shot every time i have to put on the nasuverse reading glasses]

That depends on who you ask. Ostensibly, it is a ritual intended to grant the winner any wish they should desire.

[bolderfell]

[Let Nao tell you about Homestuck the Heaven's Feel]

Any wish they desire... That's vague, but obviously tempting. Surprising the Professor hasn't just gone straight for that--though I guess that doesn't tell him quite as much about what each of us would want.

[blackmass]

There was the offer to grant someone else's wish, though I suspect that was targeting Zelos Wilder specifically. For all he clearly does know of us, I have to wonder if he would understand our desires or even be able to grant them at all.

I am inclined to believe 'no' on both counts.

[bolderfell]

...Agreed. He definitely made sure I wouldn't act last week. And as much as he says, "Oh, I can do such and such, with my technology..."

[Therion's imitation of an accent that doesn't even exist in his world is actually pretty darn good.]

...We haven't seen any follow-through. Even the gold--that was just an image. He hasn't shown us anything real.

[blackmass]

It's abundantly clear he possesses information, but information may be all he has on us. Dangerous though that still is, I've also yet to see anything else of true substance.

[bolderfell]

Didn't even bother with pictures this time. Just had us fill in the blanks ourselves. Sloppy, don't you think?

[blackmass]

No--this is also clever in a way. The human mind left to its own devices can fill in such blanks with maddening insistence. Even I can think of a handful of regrets I possess, and I would presume others to be far more deeply haunted by their own.

[bolderfell]

Well, yeah. There's nobody alive without regrets.

[Still, he shrugs off the mood that brings with it.]

But it's harder to picture him doing anything about it with nothing concrete in our hands. After last week, this feels... easier to ignore. Less targeted. Maybe it's just me.

[blackmass]

I would cautiously agree with that, unless someone's spoken on their past failings in a place where I've not seen but the Professor has. Otherwise, perhaps he has few ideas or simply no desire to drive anyone specific to murder this time.

[bolderfell]

[Ah.

Therion doesn't name names, but he glances away. Some past failings may have, er, come up. Just, like, at some point...s.

Though...]

Wonder if the offer covers what's happened here, too. Lives we didn't save and all.

[blackmass]

I don't recall that he specified. But in wondering as much about the possibilities, you are rather proving my point.

[bolderfell]

Suppose I am. To be fair to myself, though, if I didn't put my life on the line for any of them then, I damn well wouldn't now they're gone.

[blackmass]

There's little point in treading over one's regrets, either way. To do so is very likely to destroy the average person.