hatesdeerstalkers | 15 strangers r7 | Week 3, Tuesday (Akane)

You're right. None of us should have. But....

[A sigh.]

The Nonary Game was an experiment, designed to study the Morphogenetic Field. You see, there are two conditions that are able to strengthen a person's ability to access the information in it: epiphany and danger. So they put us in a place where we were forced to solve puzzles, thus leading to epiphany, while our lives were on the line, so we were in danger.

There were 18 children who were kidnapped. 9 were put on the Gigantic, and 9 were put in a building in Nevada that was built to replicate the Gigantic perfectly. They, the group in Building Q, were supposed to find the solutions to the puzzles and transmit them to us. We... were usually missing a crucial piece to solve it. 9 sibling sets. Only they messed up, because Aoi and I, and two sisters, didn't get put in different groups.

[She shakes her head a little.]

I can't really remember all of it, still. But... There was a police officer who rescued us, after we got trapped in the incinerator. But I had dropped my doll, and I went back to get her, and that man....

Hongou, he... he dragged me back into the incinerator. I was too little to stop him. To fight back. He dragged me back in and threw me down and then locked the doors again and then... h-he activated the room. And there was a puzzle that I had to solve or the incinerator would turn on and I'd burn to death, but...

[She smiles a little shakily.]

I wasn't even on the right boat. It's... easier for me to transmit than it is for me to receive, even if it's never just one or the other. But I couldn't solve it, and the fire turned on, and I....

He burned me alive.

He was watching. He had his face pressed up against the glass while I was crying.

But I... I did something. I don't remember what it was. Or... I might do something?

I... The Morphogenetic Field appears to also have a temporal element, because I was able to... to project forward into it, and do... do something. Only I can't remember what, only that it's tied to the second Nonary Game.

Daddy, I don't know how I'm still alive. I know that... when... when I got taken here it was only a few hours away from that nexus point. Something was supposed to happen.

That's why Aoi and I set it up. I...

It was easier to access the field, after, because I could die any time, I'd have been dead already, if I make a mistake. If I break the time loop. And I could see some of it, and....

I get fevers the closer I get to burning. So the worse the fevers get, the further away I am from being able to survive. So I practiced. I tried to scan the future, to run the different timelines until I found the different problems, to work out everything that needed to be done so that I could survive.

That's how I'm the cat. I'm still... waiting for the box to be opened. Only half alive.

['The cat in the box, both alive and dead...'

She'll be able to hear leather creaking from the hand she isn't holding, as it balls so tightly he's sure he'd have cut his nails without it. If not, the sheer ice cold, calculated gaze might, as he almost looks as reptilian as Holmes once said he was.]

...I have changed my mind. Jail is far too good for such a detestable man.

[That smile crosses his face, bright and terrifying.]

Instead, I believe his life should become nothing more than a living hell - everything taken away from him and his body forever mangled beyond repair. Then, and only then, will he have paid off the merest fraction of what is owed of his crimes.

[She sighs, softly, gently, and gently slid down next to him until her head was resting in his lap.]

Maybe. It seemed appropriate at the time that... since he took my life from me, I'd take his away from him. He could spend watching life pass, unable to act, even if... even if he doesn't always have to worry about dying.

[A faint trace of a smile steals into her voice.]

He usually burns when I don't make it, at least. We fixed it so that he won't know how to get out. He'll have the wrong bracelets.

[OH. Well, that IS improper, but...well....she is someone he's adopted, after all. So, he merely pats her head softly, before beginning to idly play with her hair, hands weaving a small braid without thinking.]

Truly, you should just let him burn - burning alive is rather painful, as I'm sure you know. Kill all of them and let it be...though there is that dramatic irony of having him have the same fate afflicted upon you.

[...]

And I expected nothing less. If you cannot survive, then so he will sign his own death warrant. A bid for Mutual Destruction.

[She smiles a little, faintly, dreamily.]

He can choose, I suppose. Burn, drown, or maybe starve, if he can find enough air to live through the water.

Well, he won't know he's choosing.

As it should be, honestly.

[He grins down at her, as he moves to make another braid.]

Though perhaps you should also think about electrocution as another potential method of death, if it isn't too late.

[She hums softly, contentedly, as his fingers move gently through her hair.]

It would be harder, I think. Some of the puzzles use electricity, but... it's set up so that water starts to fill up the rooms after nine hours, and the last room is the incinerator.

Is electrifying the water not an option, then?

[Look at them, acting all domestic while discussing murder. Almost warms your heart, doesn't it?]

Perhaps a sort of wire or barbed wire trap...

There's other people who are there too, ones who weren't involved... and some who were, but... but not on the other side.

[She bites her lip.]

Some of the other children who were there in the first game. And the mother of one of them. The police officer who rescued us.

I needed them. But... they shouldn't have to suffer in the same way when they die.

And they do. Usually they get killed by someone else, though.

[Well. He can't judge her for that - he has caused countless orphans, and countless suffering himself.

He doesn't change his voice or stop his work as he speaks.]

That is the Resolve you must have in order to continue down the path you've chosen, Akane. It is...hard, certainly, but if it is for your goals...you must become deaf to their suffering as a consequence of what you have set in motion.

In the end, though, it is all about what you can live with.

[She smiles, maybe a little sadly.]

They usually die. I can't help that. I know I can't. But... I still don't think I need to make their ends... worse than I have to.

That is all you can do, sometimes.

[His hands actually do pause for a moment - is he thinking of something? - before he quietly gestures for her to sit up.]

...Akane. Would you mind if I taught you something?

[She pushes herself up when he silently requests it, looking at him curiously.]

Daddy?

...I have spoken of what I am, yes? At the meeting.

[That he's basically a summonable Magic ghost.]

If...anything were to happen to me, then...I would teach you something that, perhaps, might be able to bring me back to your side once more.

I would teach you how to summon a Heroic Servant.

[She considers him, briefly, and then takes his hand in hers, smiling up at him.]

Teach me, then.

[He smiles back at her, a bit relieved.]

So I shall. But first, let me go and grab a few supplies to write down what it needed, and to show you the proper seal.

[And so he just.

Makes a portal right in front of her, which shows his room before he steps in and it closes behind him. About a minute later, the portal reopens, and he steps in with a few piece of (stained) paper and a pen.]

...!

O-oh! I um.... I forgot you could do that.

Ah, yes - my ability is surprisingly useful, you see. I'm merely careful about when and how I use it.

[He grins, even as he sits back next to her.]

After all, that way I can control the pertinent information about it. Even if one knows your skill, they might not know, for instance, that it appears completely silently, and that the light surrounding it can be easily ignored if someone has their back to you as you enter behind them.

[Quickly, he draws a perfect circle, and then adds lines and writing until it looks like -

Well, like a magic circle, which he gives to her.]

This is a Summoning Circle, though it's fairly generic. Most Mages would add their own flair to the thing, but this should do for what I will be teaching you.

Edited 2023-07-05 04:57 (UTC)

[She smiled just a little and tapped her foot to the floor. Spiderwebs of ice raced away from it to form a ring before she pulled it away.]

I've been practicing too. Even if it doesn't seem terrible useful as something offensive... it would be much easier to avoid something you didn't want to step in like this, right?

[She takes the drawing from him, and begins studying the symbols, looking for any familiar scripts or languages. She had always been interested in the occult, after all.]

[There may be a few familiar symbols - runes, perhaps, or even alchemical symbols - but nothing overt.

He perks up at that, nodding.]

Indeed! It seems you've quite the fine control, then.

[He'll let her look at it a bit before he clears his throat.]

Now, you would have to draw this symbol on the floor - in whatever you wish. It doesn't particularly matter what it is, after all. Next, you would place a Catalyst in the center to be used as a 'calling card' of sorts - while you could merely summon without it and hope you are granted what you wish, most often than not your summon will be a Servant that matches you in personality.

[...So, Like, she'd still have a good shot at summoning him regardless, but.]

Having a Catalyst connected to the Servant themselves is a guaranteed way to assure they hear your call.

Mmmm.

But does hear also mean answer?

[As they speak, she flips the page he gave her and neatly begins to copy out the relevant letters and symbols, as well as a replica of the circle. It seems like it would be prudent to check she was reading everything correctly, after all, and it seemed more than a little likely that the specifics would be important.]

In most cases, yes. A Servant has the right to refuse the call, but...hm, how to put it...?

[He pauses, tilting his head before nodding.]

A Normal summons is akin to someone politely coming up to your door and asking if you would do them a favor. Since most Heroic Spirits are stuck at the Throne, most leap at the chance to leave and be among the living once more. But one could say 'no thank you' and shut the door.

A Catalyst is much more like the police coming to your door with a request to come with them to the station. You can still refuse, of course - you have that right - but doing so may have consequences, such as not being called up again if people learn you're not keen to answer. Or being strongarmed into it regardless.

All right, that makes sense.

Do you know who is calling you? That is to say, would you recognize me?

In a sense, yes. Your Mana signature would give you away, as it's unique to every human - much like a fingerprint, in that sense.

However...it's possible for a summoning to be blocked, for whatever reason. Just keep that in mind, my dear.

Really? Even if I hadn't done it before?

[Huh! Interesting. But that second one....]

I see.

I suppose I can always try it once we escape, too... This place....

[She sighs, and for a moment her eyes look distant.]

I'm certainly in enough danger for it, and I've had more than enough practice... but I haven't been able to reach the Morphogenetic Field at all, here. Or, if I have, I guess it's been no more than anybody can normally. After all, some influence spreads from it even among those who cannot access it as strongly.

15 strangers r7 | Week 3, Tuesday (Akane)

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I had this tag sitting open last night I THOUGHT I SENT THIS

i don't know how many times i've done that

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