[ You step out into the open air, tinted a hazy sepia. The air smells familiar to you -- though with it, it carries blood. Your heart beats loud, an energy thrumming in your veins, resonance pulsing.
It appears you're on a castle rooftop of sorts, looking out across the lands. You're not sure where the smell of blood comes from, yet. ]
[... well, blood in the air is a plenty familiar smell to him too, unfortunately. he glances around, taking in both the scenery change and also, more importantly—]
Isabel? Shoma? You around?
[obviously, he doesn't see them, but that's still his first priority. everything here is just an illusion, after all. regardless of what tricks it might throw at him, what matters most is the people who are (probably) real.
but once he confirms that he's alone, he'll turn his gaze to his surroundings. are these lands familiar at all? either way, he'll then try to find the source of the bloody smell.]
The surroundings are a kingdom familiar to Charles from an age past. They were once calm, but the longer you stay here, the more you smell something else -- smoke, the acrid flames of things set ablaze. In the horizon, you can see remnants, the implications of war-torn lands.
If he glances down, he can see droplets of blood, leading back into the castle. ]
he closes his eyes for a moment, steeling his nerves, before he pulls out his sword and heads to—well, i'm assuming there's an entrance/exit to this rooftop. unless you're about to tell me he's stranded here now.]
[ Imagine he's trapped on this rooftop. FTR I REALLY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT COTC so you're free to say whatever about the layout of this place, I'm not going to police that. In fact, it would be helpful since I can work with it.
He can open the doorway that would normally lead back inside the castle, going down some stairs as I would assume a castle normally has.
The trail of blood is getting bigger as you go down. ]
As you step forward, you might accidentally kick something though, and it disappears into the dark. It wasn't very hard, and felt rather soft, actually.
Did you have a light source? You could probably pull a torch off the wall. Me like this world seems kinda medieval fantasy right. ]
[ You step into the interior and you're suddenly in someplace different. It's a familiar sight to you, the interior of a ship. You're not on the Eudora though.
It's awfully quiet, the only sound the occasional quiet beep of machinery like its heartbeat, signalling at least something in here is still alive -- even if it's only tech and wires.
[ hey do you ever immediately want to fucking die ]
Where—how? [ she will look around for the other two for a second, but... she's alone.
not alone. there's something... here. this is familiar. she's always back here. This is the log of Captain Isabel Lovelace, on day—Did you hear that? Did—There it is again. Did you hear it? I've been hearing things for the past few weeks. Always late at night, when the others are asleep. Always when I'm alone. It's like there's something scurrying inside the walls. Like there's rats in the walls.
[ Isabel walks, and at first, she only hears the sound of her own footsteps, and the steady beeping and pulsing of the ship. They're both steady and regular, consistent -- as ships should be.
But as she walks, she starts hearing those noises again. It starts off quiet, initially. So soft, it would be easy to miss if you weren't seemingly the only breathing person awake right now. ]
[ She can make out familiar voices -- and if there's windows on doors in the Hephaestus, she can see that it's her old crewmates, having a casual banter about this or that.
'What're you going to do when we get back to Earth?'
'I think I miss the sun. All this metal and tech is starting to give me a little depression.'
'Well, only a little longer until we start heading back!' ]
[ I wonder if he thinks about them. If he still turns a corner and sees flashes of Fourier and Hui, giggling over their star charts. If he hears echoes of Fisher coming out of engineering. Did it stop for him?
When does it stop?
No. Focus. Work. Be here. Be now. Don't stop to remember. Don't stop to think. Stay away from the ghosts.
... lovelace stands outside the door for a very, very long moment without entering. but what else is there to do but go in? even if it's not real. just ghosts. so she steps inside, and puts on a bright smile. ]
Enough. You people get plenty of sun, right? [ playful. a little gesture out the window! ] Just because it's the wrong one. Is nothing good enough for you?
[ You step through the magnificent doors... only to reach someplace far less extravagant. It's a familiar interior, this house probably built in the Showa-era, its doors drafty and tatami scratched, never having updated that blocky TV resting on a low counter.
The entire world feels a little desaturated. It's quiet in here, unchanged -- nothing's changed. ]
[ anyway i think now is a funny time to mention he got the kotatsu in-game as of ic monday so being here is kind of buckwild.
he doesn't quite move further into the house yet, standing in the doorway and looking around the room without really seeing it. this has happened before, hasn't it? the weird feeling of detachment, wondering how much of this is the real world and how much is a simulation. he doesn't feel that way now, not really. but every now and then, sometimes, he experiences that strange sense of disassociation with the world around him while sorting through what is and isn't happening.
this world feels desaturated, and shoma frowns a little as he ponders to himself. this is also a familiar feeling, isn't it? coming back to an empty house. there's no one here. no one will ever be here again, not in a way that makes a house a home. everything got a little ruined, but...fixing it is still possible somehow.
so okay. he will take a few steps forward, vaguely wondering if he should bother toeing off his shoes when this is debatably not a real house. it's quiet and nothing's changed. what if he just heads over toward the tatami? actually is the kotatsu there? because he's just going to go sit under it instead.
isabel and charles are a priority, and getting back to the eudora is a priority, but he's alone. so...maybe it's okay to actually surround himself in something familiar and gather his bearings for a moment. does anything stand out at all though since the house is largely unchanged? ]
[ JUST THE KOTATSU STRAIGHT UP... that's so funny. And valid of him.
The kotatsu is indeed there. And sitting in it is a great relief of warmth from the cold you were experiencing just moments earlier, comforting -- home.
The house is the same as ever, but once he sits in there, he hears the sound of the front door rattling open.
[ ...it's safe here. that's what hits him first when he's under the blanket and he's leaning his elbows on the tabletop, flesh hand rubbing at his face. it's safe, nothing's going to happen, the outside world is doing whatever and he has, like, five minutes to breathe.
except who the absolute fuck actually.
which is about what he's thinking when his head whips up suddenly and he stares at the front door. god. well. he still has a robot arm so if this is bad he can maybe defend himself?
[ It does. It's the sound of a middle-aged man with a REALLY fucking weird silhouette, but that's YOUR middle-aged man's weird silhouette.
Except.
A silhouette is all it is. It's a half-transparent shadow of a man, raising his arms as he dashes into the room with palpable excitement, though it feels distant.
'Guess what? Your old man just booked his first gig on live television! Though, I'm still gonna perform at the Isetan rooftop. It was your favourite place to play growing up, after all.' ]
[ oh that sure is his middle-aged man with a weird silhouette. it's...listen even if it's a silhouette, it's the voice and the mannerisms and being at home and being on a ship for three weeks and being around murder and not hearing this for six years that kind of gets him, actually.
god...he doesn't even want to think about the part where he still goes to that rooftop now. or that he just went there with mizuki a few weeks ago in the simulation room because sometimes he retreats to what's familiar. he also doesn't want to think about the part where maybe if...what if...
if things were different...
but they're not, right? so he sort of just smiles faintly. ]
That's great, Dad. [ he can play along. he can just...talk to this shadow of a man who's never coming back. ] I knew you could do it.
[ 'I promise, your old man's going to be the face of comedy before you know it, as long as you have faith in me! Hey, that's the name of that new show they started, isn't it? FACE to FAITH?'
The silhouette laughs in overexaggerated motions. It's entirely unnatural, frankly. Its edges too sharp, its movements seeming to overcompensate.
[ it's a little creepy, yeah. he still has enough awareness to remember this is very much not correct, and watching the silhouette move in ways that aren't how a person should move keeps hm focused.
it's at least enough to make sure he can bat away other thoughts. 'it was a day i didn't think about wanting to die.' 'it was a day i think that could've been worse?' 'it was a day.'
but this isn't real. he's going to keep talking, but he's letting his gaze drift around the house. he vaguely wonders if roboji's actually in the closet here, too. ]
Fine, I guess. [ ...and then, a test. ] Amame and I spent some time together. And I started working on a new project.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[[NIFLHEIM]]
CHARLES
It appears you're on a castle rooftop of sorts, looking out across the lands. You're not sure where the smell of blood comes from, yet. ]
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Isabel? Shoma? You around?
[obviously, he doesn't see them, but that's still his first priority. everything here is just an illusion, after all. regardless of what tricks it might throw at him, what matters most is the people who are (probably) real.
but once he confirms that he's alone, he'll turn his gaze to his surroundings. are these lands familiar at all? either way, he'll then try to find the source of the bloody smell.]
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The surroundings are a kingdom familiar to Charles from an age past. They were once calm, but the longer you stay here, the more you smell something else -- smoke, the acrid flames of things set ablaze. In the horizon, you can see remnants, the implications of war-torn lands.
If he glances down, he can see droplets of blood, leading back into the castle. ]
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he closes his eyes for a moment, steeling his nerves, before he pulls out his sword and heads to—well, i'm assuming there's an entrance/exit to this rooftop. unless you're about to tell me he's stranded here now.]
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He can open the doorway that would normally lead back inside the castle, going down some stairs as I would assume a castle normally has.
The trail of blood is getting bigger as you go down. ]
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he follows the trail of blood, gripping his sword more tightly. anything he can hear from the outside, or is everything silent?]
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As you step forward, you might accidentally kick something though, and it disappears into the dark. It wasn't very hard, and felt rather soft, actually.
Did you have a light source? You could probably pull a torch off the wall. Me like this world seems kinda medieval fantasy right. ]
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[great!!! but yeah, he's from the medieval octopath. so, he will in fact grab a torch for light.]
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ISABEL LOVELACE
It's awfully quiet, the only sound the occasional quiet beep of machinery like its heartbeat, signalling at least something in here is still alive -- even if it's only tech and wires.
Something draws you to walk around, explore. ]
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Where—how? [ she will look around for the other two for a second, but... she's alone.
not alone. there's something... here. this is familiar. she's always back here. This is the log of Captain Isabel Lovelace, on day—Did you hear that? Did—There it is again. Did you hear it? I've been hearing things for the past few weeks. Always late at night, when the others are asleep. Always when I'm alone. It's like there's something scurrying inside the walls. Like there's rats in the walls.
... nothing to do but start walking. ]
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But as she walks, she starts hearing those noises again. It starts off quiet, initially. So soft, it would be easy to miss if you weren't seemingly the only breathing person awake right now. ]
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...And then eventually, the strange scurrying will fade away. In its place, she'll hear a different kind of sound.
It's... soft chatter! Idle chatter. The sound of people just killing some time. ]
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she will put her gun away... and head towards the chatter. can she make out any familiar voices, or what they're talking about? ]
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'What're you going to do when we get back to Earth?'
'I think I miss the sun. All this metal and tech is starting to give me a little depression.'
'Well, only a little longer until we start heading back!' ]
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When does it stop?
No. Focus. Work. Be here. Be now. Don't stop to remember. Don't stop to think. Stay away from the ghosts.
... lovelace stands outside the door for a very, very long moment without entering. but what else is there to do but go in? even if it's not real. just ghosts. so she steps inside, and puts on a bright smile. ]
Enough. You people get plenty of sun, right? [ playful. a little gesture out the window! ] Just because it's the wrong one. Is nothing good enough for you?
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SHOMA ENDA
The entire world feels a little desaturated. It's quiet in here, unchanged -- nothing's changed. ]
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he doesn't quite move further into the house yet, standing in the doorway and looking around the room without really seeing it. this has happened before, hasn't it? the weird feeling of detachment, wondering how much of this is the real world and how much is a simulation. he doesn't feel that way now, not really. but every now and then, sometimes, he experiences that strange sense of disassociation with the world around him while sorting through what is and isn't happening.
this world feels desaturated, and shoma frowns a little as he ponders to himself. this is also a familiar feeling, isn't it? coming back to an empty house. there's no one here. no one will ever be here again, not in a way that makes a house a home. everything got a little ruined, but...fixing it is still possible somehow.
so okay. he will take a few steps forward, vaguely wondering if he should bother toeing off his shoes when this is debatably not a real house. it's quiet and nothing's changed. what if he just heads over toward the tatami? actually is the kotatsu there? because he's just going to go sit under it instead.
isabel and charles are a priority, and getting back to the eudora is a priority, but he's alone. so...maybe it's okay to actually surround himself in something familiar and gather his bearings for a moment. does anything stand out at all though since the house is largely unchanged? ]
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The kotatsu is indeed there. And sitting in it is a great relief of warmth from the cold you were experiencing just moments earlier, comforting -- home.
The house is the same as ever, but once he sits in there, he hears the sound of the front door rattling open.
'Shoma, I'm home!' ]
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except who the absolute fuck actually.
which is about what he's thinking when his head whips up suddenly and he stares at the front door. god. well. he still has a robot arm so if this is bad he can maybe defend himself?
does the voice sound familiar? ]
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Except.
A silhouette is all it is. It's a half-transparent shadow of a man, raising his arms as he dashes into the room with palpable excitement, though it feels distant.
'Guess what? Your old man just booked his first gig on live television! Though, I'm still gonna perform at the Isetan rooftop. It was your favourite place to play growing up, after all.' ]
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god...he doesn't even want to think about the part where he still goes to that rooftop now. or that he just went there with mizuki a few weeks ago in the simulation room because sometimes he retreats to what's familiar. he also doesn't want to think about the part where maybe if...what if...
if things were different...
but they're not, right? so he sort of just smiles faintly. ]
That's great, Dad. [ he can play along. he can just...talk to this shadow of a man who's never coming back. ] I knew you could do it.
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The silhouette laughs in overexaggerated motions. It's entirely unnatural, frankly. Its edges too sharp, its movements seeming to overcompensate.
'How about you? How was your day, Shoma?' ]
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it's at least enough to make sure he can bat away other thoughts. 'it was a day i didn't think about wanting to die.' 'it was a day i think that could've been worse?' 'it was a day.'
but this isn't real. he's going to keep talking, but he's letting his gaze drift around the house. he vaguely wonders if roboji's actually in the closet here, too. ]
Fine, I guess. [ ...and then, a test. ] Amame and I spent some time together. And I started working on a new project.
[ he just straight-up holds out his robot arm. ]
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