The Second Trial

[hot_mess_express]

Who: game participants!
When: Day 5, night
Where: ~outside~

[A silence abruptly descends upon the jungle. For a moment, all is calm, and then a heavy gust of wind blows in, making the Aurora sway. In your mind is a call some of you have heard before:

Come hither, Heroes. Prove thy worth.

This time, however, there’s no worn-out house. Instead there’s a large tent -- dirty and imposing, with a jet black flag above it, it looks like a command tent right out of a medieval battlefield. The canvas is spattered in mud and blood, and white feathers are scattered all around it, carpeting the ground for several feet.

By your own will or by unexplained compulsion, you are drawn to the tent, to meet your second Trial. As you enter, a man’s voice, clear and resonant, rings out.]

“O unfortunate pawns of the Light, answer me this: What is Justice?”

RULES ☆ ROOMS ☆ WINNERS ☆ ENDGAME

Comments

[nihilmancy]

[Points upward.]

This is how we gain sparks.

[ewestmarch]

[Looks up.

Looks horrified.]

That's for us? A star for us? I don't want one!

[This is way too much fucking responsibility!]

Did people just come back to life because of that stupid game??

[nihilmancy]

I never died. It was a hypothetical scenario.

[ewestmarch]

No, no no, no -

[She's gonna try to grab onto Hlasoh's upper arm, to try to get her to keep looking up.]

They said - something's consuming worlds. We put - those back?

[in the sky?? stars????]

[nihilmancy]

I'm not certain if those are actually previously consumed worlds. They may simply be a sign of the increasing Spark energy.

[ewestmarch]

[All the breath goes out of her like a deflating balloon. Her head hangs, and her grip goes limp.]

It's been ... a day. I don't know what to trust.

[nihilmancy]

It has only been five for me. But I can say, that I will look out for you, because we are in this precarious situation together, and there's little point in fighting.

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia looks wary about the idea of being looked out for.]

Why did you go in?

[nihilmancy]

Somebody had to.

[ewestmarch]

Unless nobody had to, and it was just a trap to get one of us killed.

[nihilmancy]

It was framed hypothetically.

[ewestmarch]

But you had to go in in a very non-hypothetical way.

[nihilmancy]

...It has just now occured to me that you have not yet been given a team code name. Our theme is cats. Meow.

[Definitely not changing the subject.]

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia... sighs.]

I'm not your babysitter. But nothing obligates you to play into the hands of something that means you harm. That's what I think.

Why cats.

[nihilmancy]

It was Panther's idea.

[ewestmarch]

Do we need code names?

[nihilmancy]

Many people arrived without memories.

[ewestmarch]

...So not code names, just names. And I don't need one, because I have a name already that I remember.

[not that she wasn't over here trying to think of a good way to be 'black cat' without sounding stupid...]

How many?

[nihilmancy]

Just me and Panther right now.

...Anyway, your name will be Grimalkin.

[ewestmarch]

I have a name. It's Emilia. Hi.

[nihilmancy]

Hi Emilia. Let me know if you want to be a cat.

[ewestmarch]

I don't have anything against cats.

[Her neutral voice sounds naturally bitchy, sorry about it.]

Doesn't it bother you that you don't know who you are?

[nihilmancy]

[Frowns, and then tries to look unperturbed. But she is clearly perturbed.]

I don't know.

[ewestmarch]

You know how to talk, and read, and you know what cats are... so some things stayed. Do you have some idea of what was or wasn't normal where you're from?

[This is starting to be in the tone of someone trying to figure out a crossword puzzle.]

[nihilmancy]

I don't know, I can't just list all of that on command. Zombies were rather rare. I'm not sure if I've ever met one, though. But I know there's also a land where zombies are quite common somewhere.