hatesdeerstalkers: (I will surround you)
James Moriarty ([personal profile] hatesdeerstalkers) wrote2023-07-13 04:19 pm

15 strangers r7 | Week 5 and beyond(?), Letters with Akane

[Akane gets a letter from Charon, still just as simply as before.]

Dear Akane,

I am glad to hear that you received it properly - thankfully, a god seems much more reliable and punctual than the postal service, hm?

I had thought I felt a tinge of something last week, so I suppose that was your summoning attempt. I am both surprised and yet not at all - not on your account, mind! But more that whatever means our captor has placed us here, is powerful enough to block a call from the Throne itself. Which only gives me a suspicion onto who, exactly, is pulling the strings behind it all - there are only a few beings powerful enough to do that.

I miss you as well - every day, in fact! ..Do days still run down here? It's a bit hard to tell, given we're all but cooped up without a glance at the sky! Though it's not too dissimilar to the ship, is it not? Ah, perhaps you don't want to be reminded of that...

Regardless, I am a bit perplexed to hear Zack is at the center of all of this. I wouldn't have thought he would be, honestly - the boy seemed a bit...'slow', so to speak. Still, unless he finds his way down here, I suppose I won't find out how exactly until we manage a 'jailbreak.'

But do not fear, my dear. Merely getting a letter from you is more than enough for me, regardless of the important information contained in it. Why, you could send me a letter full of nothing more than random gibberish, and I would treasure it all the same! ...While also being a bit concerned for you, of course! You are eating, I hope? And your fevers - have others been helping you through them? And you've better have been resting, young lady!

Ahem, I suppose I should cease bothering you like an overly broody hen and stop before this letter gets any longer and incurs more of a cost from me. I am sending all my love, my dear - and my apologies. I won't elucidate, but I believe you should understand why. I am an old fashioned man with old-fashioned foibles, after all.

Still refusing to give up,
Papa
exequte: (hardly anyone even died mostly sometimes)

[personal profile] exequte 2023-07-13 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Dearest Daddy,

I'm not quite sure if Charon is a god proper, though he is certainly connected to them. I shan't offend him by asking, of course! To be honest, though, I don't think that distinction really matters right now. There are bigger cats to skin? (If you are allowed bad jokes then so am I.)

It is possible that I failed to summon you on my own merits, rather than due to any outside interference. It's not exactly like I can test it in a neutral environment. Still, you're probably right. But if you're insinuating that Zeus katachthonios is behind all of this... that's a scary thought.

It's been a very long time since either of us have seen the sky, but... I think we are approaching the end of this. We're only missing 3 X-Passes now, and one can be from another timeline. The last two visions haven't provided any.

On that note, since Zero has threatened to erase our memories of our time here if nobody is killed this week, it might be prudent to give you those for safekeeping.

HIPPO, MOTHER, HORN, WELL, BEAR, GRAIL, HEART, GEHENNA, as well as those from another timeline: CANCER, ROYAL, TRIPLET, ROSE.

I hope I don't lose my memories, but keeping them isn't something I'm willing to kill for. If I do forget, you may have to be a little patient when I meet you again. I'm confident we'll end up in the same kind of relationship, though! I'll still be myself, and I'm sure you'll know how to handle it.

Part of what is strange about Zack, Daddy, is that he hasn't changed at all. He seems exactly the same as he did when we woke up. But there's things about him that are very strange, especially in light of where you are now. For example, he grew up somewhere named Greece, even if it is a different Greece than the country. It's an interesting coincidence, don't you think?

I was eating altogether too much last week. I'm still recovering from that. They took food away from everyone but me, but it turned out that I could share leftovers. I couldn't produce enough for everyone, but I did my best. Do you think Kaito will still like me even if I gained weight from all that? I'm trying to rest well, but this week there are strange sounds all night that are keeping everyone up. Its eerie, and it makes it hard to get much sleep.

I do know what you mean, I think. I forgive you. I don't think you knew any better, and I also think you understood me, then. And, especially with recent events, it seems like you did even better than Aoi does. He is very upset with me, for what I did, and he lied to me about so much. I don't know how much I can trust him now.

All my love,
Akane
Edited 2023-07-13 23:13 (UTC)
exequte: (just kidding I know there's not)

[personal profile] exequte 2023-07-15 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Dearest Darlingest Daddy,

Indeed it does not! I really can't see anything that would be gained from trying to challenge him, and a great deal that might be lost. After all, it is only through his generosity that we are able to communicate at all. And, Charon, if you are reading these as you pass them between the realm of the living and the dead, I hope that you know you have my deepest gratitude for the service rendered. It's not everyone who is offered such opportunities, and I'm grateful to be one of them.

It is possible, I guess. I don't remember dying before coming here, but then, I guess that's not always a requirement. Of course, those who don't die generally enter the Gates of their own accord, at least from what we have in the stories. Maybe those should not be relied too heavily on, though it does seem that would upset the balance of everything. But, if it comes to a fight.... Well, you know that I'm not prepared to just lie down and die. That would have happened a long time ago if I wasn't willing to fight for the chance to live.

Don't worry, Daddy! It seems like people will kill for almost anything, here, but even if people finally make the right choice and decide not to... I'm confident that we'll find some way out. We're learning more every day, and I'm confident that if we learn enough, eventually we'll find something that might help us. And, if someone does.... I'll try not to let it be me.

As to a word or phrase... hm. There's not anything specific that will immediately make me recognize everything, I'm afraid, but....

[The gap between the lines is slightly uneven here, as though her pen was pulled away from the paper for a time as she thought.]

Tell me that less than zero transmitted the fire and overwrote history. That, at least, will startle me, and I think that if anything would do it, that would.

Nothing about him has changed. Nothing. At all. Sometimes I think that he's about to act more seriously, but he always reverts. I've wondered, sometimes, if he is a sliver of the Unseen One and bound against change. Alastor said that his blood was unusually delicious, and between that and everything else he seems to have some kind of connection to that One's country of origin. I can't quite think what, though. If not for what I first said, the only names I've been able to come up with are Zelus, Zephyrus, or Zagreus, at least if we assume his true name also begins with Z. He is nothing like Zeus. The first only makes sense, I think, if he is in some regard responsible for the organization of our current predicament, but I'm not sure that notion can be discarded. There have been several pieces of evidence that hint at it. The second... well, Daddy. He is an airhead. And that god is said to be kind. The third, in some ways, sounds very close to the name he has been going by, don't you think? Zack Prince. Only I'm really not at all sure how he would fit together with that one. I guess all he ever did in most of the myths was get distracted. That seems to fit. But he was a child in those, and I cannot see him growing up into the god of wine, no matter what kind of transformation that process took.

I know I'm being silly, and vain, but I don't think I can help it. Isn't that what young ladies are supposed to do? So thank you for being patient with me.

I think we understand each other very well, and so I could hardly hold that against you. I think you understand me better now than you did before. I hope you do, anyway. I'm sorry for how it happened.

I don't know him anymore, I'm afraid. But with so many other strangers around me, maybe I should have expected it. I would have preferred to have him be as he was to me, but... especially here, I think it would be a mistake not to face the truth of the situation. I hope to see you and Kaito soon, though, especially since that happened. It's been lonely here.

A thousand hugs and kisses,
Akane
Edited 2023-07-15 06:02 (UTC)