WEEK FIVE

[whimsicalism]

WEEK FIVE

There's one thing that belongs in Closetland: Monsters.

It was a monster that brought the students here to begin with, and it's a monster who controls their lives now. By now, some have even accused their classmates of turning into--or always being--monsters themselves.

The academy is just as cold as it was last week, autumn air seeping in through the unfriendly architecture and the artificial light seeming darker than before. The occasionally cloud of purple fog snakes through the hallways at ground level, a constant reminder of the new presence haunting the school and her role in the past five weeks of torment. Now that Kakuya is back in a body of her own making, the music room is silent, though the rooms and halls of the Academy themselves occasionally fill with a low, haunting flute melody. With the school's new overlord already wishing her ill, Nanami's already deflating power and free roam capabilities are more or less completely limited as well: She's just one more toy in the box.

The stairwell has opened into another new floor. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be the uppermost one. This is the top of Ira Academy, and while it likely bears some new answers and some new locations to try and find a solution to your plight, is there anything that can heal some of the rifts that formed from the accusations thrown at the last trial? Still, if you don't find answers, then you'll be here playing this eternal deadly game.

Is the devil you know better than the devil you don't?

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
Regains | AC | IC Profiles | Locations | Mystery Information | Sheep Contact | Nanami Contact | Kakuya Contact

OOC NOTES

Welcome to Week 4! Nanami has joined the party! She no longer has office hours but still be contacted privately, as can Kakuya, who is no longer stuck in the music room. New locations are now open, and some minor adjustments have been made to the IC profiles and rules. Please hit the mods with a ping in Discord and put INVESTIGATE in your subject line if you're interested in exploring a new location. The SHEEP are still taggable, though you may find them in a...different mood.

You now have a week to make sure your AC in for last week and to start collecting AC for this week. Remember to submit your regains, and sign up for a spot exploring this week's mystery if you want to!

Comments

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu goes stock still for a moment, stunned by how Anya is just coming out and saying it.

Then... she laughs, although the way her bangs flop over her face makes it difficult to see her expression.]

Reallllllly now? You don't know? I suppose it's hard to see with your eyes, especially with the innocence of a child... this is the k- kind of rot that you only realize is there after it's already too late, after all. So I'll spell it out for you, since I'm feeling particularly magnanimous today.

I'm a monster too. Not like what Adorabat kept calling Sonic. I'm not someone, I'm something.

But... [Yasu shrugs helplessly.] If Kakuya wants this something to be her opponent, I'd hardly be a good girlfriend if I didn't give it my all. That means using whatever moves are available to me, including ones that bring us off the gameboard entirely if it means winning.

Rest assured, I am on your side until the game ends. I know you don't think it means much, but... I give my word. And I never break promises.

[canreallymove]

[That-

And like that something in Sonic snaps.]

No.

No you're not.

[There's the old Sonic, even if it's clearly tired, and sad.]

[keyringwitness]

...I don't want to delude myself anymore, Sonic.

It's the same fate every time. Just like how a monster dies in the same way at the end of the story.

There's no use resisting at this point. It's what I am.

[canreallymove]

No. It's-

[Deep breath.]

Look, I...I'm not gonna pretend I, like, 100 percent get you or...or your relationship with the person keepin' us here. But...I made a promise that I was gettin' everyone out of here. That includes you. You don't deserve to be made to stay here just because you think you're some kind of irredeemable and horrible thing because of things that happened or...or because of people you know or thought you knew.

[He knows the truth about Yasu. He might be the only one who knows, now. He's not going to go into details, though. Not in front of everyone. Hers was a different kind of existential horror.

That would just be uncool.]

What...what I'm tryin' to say is that...it's not right to just be...going back and bein' back with our friends and family and stuff and...and knowing we could have gotten you out of here somehow and prevented you a lot more grief. But instead we didn't and were all "yeah, let's just leave her there, she fell in love with the doll that lied to us and told us she is a monster so she's just gonna stay there forever, oh well!"

Because...you're not a monster. I know you're not. A real monster is so selfish about what they want that they don't even care about other people. And I know you care about other people. You're nothin' like Buttnik or Father, or the monsters that wanna eat us. You're smart and you care about others and you've got a heart, man!

[Maybe he's rambling, but he's just. Whatever.]

...You don't have to go home, man, I'd never think you'd be trying to go home, but. A Freedom Fighter doesn't abandon anyone in their hour of need. And you need help, so we gotta help you find a way to get out do you're not stuck in this place forever waiting to be broken and then just. Having no way out.

That's the least we can do for you.

NOT HERE-ISH

[violence_ensues]

["A real monster is so selfish about what they want that they don't even care about other people."]

[Hmm...]

cw: emeto mention

[keyringwitness]

Sonic, you...

[Yasu is taken aback for a moment, shoulders slumped in apparent exhaustion. Then, they start to shake, as if she's crying, but on closer inspection-

She's laughing.]

YOU IDIOOOOOT!

You must be used to racing so fast that your brain can't catch up to your feet, let along your eyes or tongue. I was skeptical at first, but I'm really starting to believe that you can go faster than light given your apparent propensity to outrun the sound of what I'm directly telling you and even basic logical thought!

[More cackling. Yasu's words drip with red venom.]

So I need you to lis~ten close~ly for once in your life. I don't want to stay here, you buffooooooonnn! I'd be just as dissatisfied languishing in Kakuya's daddy dearest's vision of perfection for future uninteresting suburbanites as much as I'd be piggybacking atop one of you moralizing fools who think you know what's best for me and being forced to play pretend with one of your families. I! Am! Done! With pretending that I'm still some ordinary, scared little girl, that I'm even capable of being the sniveling, pathetic Yasu for a moment longer!

Sure, sure, surrrreeee, the taste of freedom was bitter, bitter enough for me to want to vomit up all my insides just so I could rid myself of my disgusting flesh and bone, but it's still freedom. I'm not Beatrice, but I have her legacy and her potential both, and I'll be damned a third time before I'm satisfied with shuffling off to be a side character again while all that pain festers and pushes me down the same path as I would've tread had I not come here. Dragging me off to live some wretched daily life again isn't the bliss you think it is; it'd just be an old hell with a fresh coat of paint.

So let me make myself clear, in case you haven't gotten the point yet: I'm not going with you, but you're not going to leave me with Kakuya... you'll be leaving Kakuya with me, and I'll decide a new destination from there.

[She huffs, crossing her arms as some of the manic energy that erupted apparently from nowhere fades.]

I hope that managed to penetrate your thick coating of quills, because if I have to simplify it further I'll have to break out the picture books. Do you FINALLY understand?

[violence_ensues]

Yasu...

[Adorabat lands next to Yasu and prods her with a wing.]

Kuro and I need your help. We all need your help. And I know, in your own way, you want to help us... but we all still need to focus on being a team together. You can't do this alone.

So please help us while we help you...

[keyringwitness]

You're so sweet, Adorabat.

But I don't need any help. Truly. If anything, the delusion of humanity being ripped away from me was what I needed to realize my place in the world.

I meant it when I said I'd do my best to help all of you, though! It's just that if we win, I won't let you take vengeance on Kakuya. Losing will be punishment enough for her. I'll stay by her side after to make sure that she doesn't get any funny ideas about a round two, either.

[violence_ensues]

...And what if she changes the rules on you to make us squish her? This isn't your jurisiction. As a sheriff, I hafta follow the rules.

[spychic]

.....

You are....a monster.

[And it's like Loid takes over Anya's personality at this point, because--]

...What the hell did she tell you? What makes you think that? You're a normal person, Yasu, just someone who wants to be with someone doing bad. You're not 'something'. You are a little girl!

Everyone here is just a person. Including you.

Anya just hopes you will make the right choices and see the truth.

[keyringwitness]

...ah. You misunderstand.

I only discovered the kind of creature that I am last week. She was just there to help me through, that's all. We fell in love long before that.

Although I think you might be right. We really did reach another level after the Principal delivered the truth to my doorstep... only a monster can love a fellow monster, after all.

[hashtagwoof]

Hah? [ Hunter raises a brow at the girl... ]

What do you mean by something? [ He vaguely remembers the stripping incident... The scars on her chest... A zombie, maybe? ]

Whatever. I wanna believe you'd stay on our side, but don't blame anyone for having a healthy amount of skepticism. Besides, since you're so close to her, you might know a few things about her that we don't... Like the reflection thing, for example.

cw: gore, kinda

[keyringwitness]

Sorry, no can do. Kyahahahaha!

[She laughs for a bit, then grows more somber and shakes her head.]

Kakuya has been planning this for some time, and I doubt she altered her plans much after we started, er, um. G- Going out. [Blush.] Even when I asked her about Ao, all Kakuya did was tell me that I was right and she wasn't really her. She knew I'd end up on the other side of the board eventually, so she didn't give me any unfair advantages.

However, I would like to say that if anybody even suggests taking advantage of our relationship to win the game, witnesses or not, I'll kill them in a way that would make being hung from the gallows by a rope of your own intestines seem like a charming afternoon on the park swingset~

[hashtagwoof]

. . .

[ Backing away slowly.... ]

[copycut]

Yasu.

[ Kuro's voice is very flat. Yasu is right next to her, so she doesn't have to raise her voice much. ]

Let's talk after dinner, okay? When there aren't so many other people around.

[keyringwitness]

I-

[She looks away, clicking her tongue.]

Fine.

idt I'll make a top-level until later in the week so I think?? this is the best way to handle this

[copycut]

[ Kuro doesn't say anything else about it during the meeting. When dinner rolls around, though, it's obvious that she hasn't forgotten. Yasu will find her loitering around the entrance of the cafeteria, waiting to intercept her when she tries to leave. ]

Hi~ [ Her tone is cheerful, in a way that doesn't match her expressionless face. ] Do you want to head upstairs with me? I thought you might want to visit the butterfly room again.

[shinedsobright]

OK, let's take you at your word. But lemme ask you what you mean by that so we aren't confused. 'Until the game ends' doesn't really mean much when she's on record saying we're just gonna play again if we win. So are you ACTUALLY going to try to stop the game or what?

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu snaps her fingers.] Sharp ear, Fret~

There's no fine print, though. Hm, let me put it like this...

Each murder or spiritual mystery or whatever is a single round in the game. Winning one doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things as long as she doesn't lose.

There's something you need to keep in mind when dealing with wi- er, um, I mean spirits like Kakuya. They only give in once they acknowledge that they've lost. Even if you win by their own rules, they'll sneak around behind you and write something new in the book to make the game keep going... as she's already shown a talent for doing. Really, Father was quite sloppy.

I plan to make her fold to end this once and for all. Kakuya might be a little bit grumpy, poor thing, but I'll find some other diversion that doesn't concern anyone here.

[She pauses.]

I will also do my best to make sure that it doesn't involve the mass murder of some other group of children, if that's any comfort.

[shinedsobright]

I hear you. Kakuya basically acts like the hotshots in the Reaper's Game... though the literal rulebook WAS kinda on the nose.

[After the beat, Fret pauses for a moment too.]

Well, I'll take it, as long as there's no fine print on that one either?

[There are a lot more people than children you could mass murder and it would still suck...!!! But it's also their decision to even take what Yasu's saying now as the truth anyway. There would be little point in thinking too hard about it.]

cw: implications of toxic relationships

[temmapathy]

So she told you the only way you can be loved is to be with another monster?

That's not true! None of us here see you as a monster! Please, don't think that she's the only way out!

[keyringwitness]

No. I drew that conclusion myself.

In my future, every possible path, every possible love, leads to disaster and bitterness and blood, all because I would think that there was a possibility that a monster could love a human.

So fate did me a good turn by bringing me here, to someone I could love without reservation, without my rottenness ruining her too.

[temmapathy]

How do you know that? Maybe you just don't get to meet the right people because of where you are! [Her fellow servants bully her, and Emma really doubts any relationship with someone higher-status than her could be meaningfully consensual.]

[romancing]

Eh? What's wrong with being a monster?

[ frowning ]

Even if you think something about yourself makes you not human, why are you so torn up about it?

[keyringwitness]

Nothing, as long as I don't touch things I can corrupt. Nothing is wrong at all, [said in the flippant voice of a girl trying to disguise how she thinks something is very, very wrong with her.]