[It's another beautiful, sunny day in █████████, the only home you've ever known. The skies are bright blue and the water near the shoreline is crystal clear, though it dives deep in many places and churns treacherously just out of sight, keeping all ships at bay.
You've lived here in isolation since birth, alongside a curse that snatches away every life by the age of twenty-three. No soul has visited your nation in hundreds of years. No one knows the origin of the curse or how to cure it. The only escape you have is through the use of Reliver technology, which provides a cloned body and an imperfect transfer of memory and emotion.
That said, though your home may be small with a population of only three thousand, it's certainly not without its problems. From an exhausting and absentee monarchy, to a cold and callous people who no longer understand how to respect death, to the newly expensive prices of bread at the market, you have a wide pick of daily horrors and horrors to last your entire short lifetime.
Despite being from all different walks of life, the six of you, through your various connections, have all crossed paths before. And today, you're here together to face one of those problems. You're here to investigate rumors of a murder.]
Aerith, you are a 21 year old florist and gardener living and working in Coene, after growing up in an orphanage here alongside Cloud and Tifa. Zack was a friend of your little group, once, but an investigation he led as a member of the Corps led to his murder some time ago; Cloud and Tifa, who currently work with Yuffie, were inspired to do so after his demise. The people of Coene are fond of you, although if you’ve ever taken an interest in the lycoris noirge flowers of the island, you’re well aware that nobody else cares to hear anything positive about the flowers of death.
Anisphia, you are the 17 year old Reliver daughter of a wealthy merchant family in Chedis, living with your Reliver parents and your maid Ilia in your manor. The family is relying on you and your ingenuity to boost their influence when you take over as head of household, and after being convinced by your close friend Euphyllia, a researcher in Cerneveaul, you agreed to have yourself backed up and become a Reliver despite your youth to ensure you would survive. You’re allowed to spend your days as you please, though, seeing as you’ve finished your basic education and don’t have to take over yet.
Tomizawa, you are a 22 year old driver living in Coene while working in Chedis during the day, serving as a chauffeur for various wealthy families of the district. You’re going to need to make a decision soon about whether you’ll use the money you’ve been working for in order to extend your life as a Reliver; the symptoms of the curse don’t affect you much now, but you are occasionally wracked with coughs that make it hard to breathe, and you know the time is coming. Ichiban, your close compatriot from your orphanage who encouraged your career, died without a backup of his own a couple of years ago, but you’ve gotten to know a friend of his from the Corps: Iwatooshi, an older Reliver who used to keep an eye on him and now does the same for you.
Izutsumi, you’re an 18 year old worker of odd jobs. You were raised under unpleasant circumstances in Cerneveaul, but managed to escape them and found a family in Lavi and Marcille, whom you run your little business with. You spend your days taking on various tasks for people across Coene, Chedis and Cerneveaul, repairing roofs, catching stray chickens, babysitting. Chilchuck and Senshi are two of your most frequent customers, and with a little time, you think you can convince them to join you on staff. Your prickly personality doesn’t net you much approval from the general populace, but they acknowledge that you get things done well.
Karlach, you’re a member of the Corps that protects the public’s peace, a rough-and-tumble 20 year old from the rural outskirts of Coene. Though your parents died while you were still very young, you adapted to your orphanage well and made lifelong friends there, including Boothill and Astarion, who joined the Corps with you once you were all old enough to do so. You made fast friends there, too - Gale and Vin, for one - because the people of the Corps are drawn to your charming, sunny personality. On the streets, you have a reputation for getting things done. The children are drawn to you and love your warmth and kindness, while adults tend to look at you with suspicion, untrusting of your vast strength.
Yuffie, you’re a 16 year old self-defense instructor, the youngest and only on the island. Ever since your orphanage burned down when you were young - leaving you and your foster sister Kate as the only survivors - you’ve wanted to dedicate your life to protecting others and helping the weak triumph in a world that favors the strong. Cloud and Tifa, friends from a neighboring orphanage, help you as co-instructors. Your endeavors are well-received by the general populace, though they often doubt you due to your young age.
You've gathered together at the marché. It's a bustling marketplace with street vendors selling all manners of goods and wares, though the general energy of the place seems a bit muted today, likely due in part to the whispers of a cold and callous murderer circulating through the people. As you're looking around, a few things may stand out to you.
• Lavi and Boothill are over at a fruit vendor and seem to be having a very serious discussion. • There's a tall man in a white jacket that seems to be trying to keep an eye on them as subtly as possible, though a watchful eye can easily tell that he's following them from stall to stall. • A child and mother hurry through the crowd, and you can hear the mother hastily and quietly telling the child: "You didn't see it. You didn't see anything, do you understand me?" as they rush past. • Iwatooshi and Lucas are picking out a bunch of flowers at a florist stand and appear to be chatting amiably with the seller. • Corps member Vin is standing near the mouth of an alley, appearing to be turning away people who try to go through it. • Daan sits peacefully under a tree on a park bench, reading a book. • A small fight appears to be starting between two men in front of a boutique selling lace. • Ilia can be seen with a couple of others in maid uniforms, having a concerned-sounding conversation with a baker. • A car is parked nearby, where a driver is engaged in an argument with a member of the Guard. • One of the vegetable vendors’ stalls appears to be more short-handed than usual, the owner a little frantic.
The investigatory world is their oyster from here.
(Note: Please feel free to come up with your own AU backstories as to why your characters may or may not know others in the CYOA group! You can flesh out details as you'd like, too! It's also not necessary to investigate everything, just follow your lil hearts.)]
[normal day, right? she's stepped away from her flowers for a moment and vibes near the others, twirling a lily between her fingers as she watches the life around the marketplace. her eyes are very much on the two gentlemen lingering near the florist stand.]
Seems like some people are touchier today than others... [there are a few fights going on, wild.]
[she was patrolling today, i think, just wandering around the area, but when the others start to converge, she folds her arms and hangs out. she's looking around as the others chat, keeping an eye out for disturbances.
she's particularly drawn to any other corps members that are in the area, wanting to pick up with them.
she gives a little nod and a smile to whoever approaches...]
[Comment here with investigation ideas & parties! We'll be accepting solo investigations or investigation groups of up to 3 people depending on what you decide to look at and how you decide to split up!]
[Night falls, and you return to the beautiful but small church that belongs to the Society of Exorcists. Together, you and several others wearing hooded cloaks gather and move toward the altar. Behind it, there’s a door set in the floor so seamlessly that no one would notice if they didn’t already know it was there.
But you do. Together, you open it and descend down a long staircase into a dark and large underground room, dimly lit with red, artificial lights and filled with the screams of demons undergoing purging. Perhaps you’re used to it by now. Maybe it still makes you feel uneasy, when you’re clear-headed enough to think.
Regardless, the night is young, and it’s time to meet with your fellow worshippers once more.]
[Night falls, and each of you return to your homes– Anisphia to her manor, Aerith to her modest home in Coene, and Tomizawa to his slightly less modest one. Despite the events of the day running through your minds, you rest as easily as you always do: falling asleep exactly at the same time that you do every single night. Tonight is no different from any other.
Except for the fact that, after you fall asleep, you feel as if you’re having a strange dream. You wander down a dark, dimly lit passageway underground, the hallway unfamiliar to you. You close your eyes, and you’re in a different passage when you open them. You feel as if every time you drift off again, you wake further ahead, but finally… you fall asleep once more, and for a while, you stay that way.
When you wake up, you’re in what appears to be a large laboratory, and if you try to move, you’ll find that you can’t, except for–
Anisphia, as usual, you’re here at the side of your researcher companion Euphyllia, who is currently going over calculations. You’re not completely excused from being restrained, it’s more that the cables connecting to you are much longer, allowing you to move and act while she makes adjustments. She and another individual occasionally instruct you on what to do, but you can act more or less freely besides that.
Tomizawa, you're restrained where you're standing, and still feel somewhat groggy. It's a little difficult to fully take in this scene: Anisphia is here with a white-haired girl, whose Reliver mark is visible on one hand. A dark-haired man is working on something at one of the lab terminals. Aerith is here, too, restrained nearby, and despite how strange this all is, it feels… a little familiar.
Aerith, it's the same for you, except where Tomi doesn't recognize either of the people who appear to be in charge here, you do. Of course you recognize Zack. He isn't paying attention to you right now, though, leaving you to contend with that realization.
[Welcome to your second day of investigating! Yesterday sure was… a day, huh? Wow. Even with your investigations cut short, you managed to succeed in finding the lost second victim of the attack that had ended two lives. Aqua is no longer with you, and maybe it feels a bit hard to believe. You haven’t had all that much time to process her death, after all. But unfortunately, time marches forward.
The marché is still in a bit of a disarray from the explosion. Many of the vendors haven’t reopened yet, but the place is bustling with Royal Guards and Corps members. The Guards are pretty damn useless, but the Corps members and civilians are hard at work cleaning up the debris and damage from the explosion and subsequent butter fire. It still smells sooo tasty over there.
In addition, a few more areas of investigation are open to you now. You can traverse through Chedis, the district for the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes, where it isn’t uncommon for families to live in manors. It’s a combination of 19th century architecture, but the streets are lit by LED panels and the roads here are paved to accommodate cars, even though not many drive. You can also venture into Coene, the district for middle and lower classes, which is more rural and has fewer technological luxuries, like a 19th century countryside.
As they’re looking around, they may notice a few things of interest.
In Coene, they’ll find: • Several people are clustered around an alley, whispering to each other and looking on in horror. • An abnormally large flock of crows that appears to be gathering in a field. • A farmer at the edge of a field, struggling with something stuck in the ground.
In Chedis, they’ll find: • A large puddle in the street, and people are puzzling about where the water is coming from. • The sound of a woman screaming coming from a side street. • A particularly stinky garbage can.
In the marché, they’ll find: • A small group of kids whispering to each other and gesturing for others to follow them down an alley. • An abandoned fruit stand with blankets draped over the wares. • A cart with several long wooden boxes on it.
[Comment here for investigations! We'll be accepting solo investigations or investigation groups of up to 3 people depending on what you decide to look at and how you decide to split up.]
[Night falls, and it’s time once more to go to the chamber below the church. It’s quiet down here tonight, and maybe that’s unnerving in its own way. Today was difficult. You’re tired and in pain, and the physical and emotional toll of doing the work that you do is stacking up. There are fewer of you around tonight as you move through this empty but hallowed space, and maybe you feel just a little lonely. It’s hard, doing good in this rotten world.]
[Night falls, and just like every night, you fall asleep at the usual time. It doesn’t matter if you were preoccupied thinking about the murders– it feels as if your head grows heavy out of nowhere, and you fall quickly into a deep rest.
You have the same strange dream as last night, except that each time you close your eyes– you almost feel as if you’re not only in a different spot in the passageway, but a different person, as if your perspective keeps shifting. It’s disorienting, to say the least, and by the time you properly wake up in the laboratory…
Well. It’s going to take a minute to get your bearings. The setup is, more or less, the same as last night… was it last night? You’re actually not sure. This is familiar to you, you remember being here and speaking with the others before, but that could have been any time. Any night. Last night, months ago… hard to say.
You notice more this time, though. Either the lights are clearer or you just couldn’t actually perceive it last time, but you can see what rests inside those tanks full of liquid, near the bloodied lab tables. It’s you. All of you– multiples of you, drifting in there, asleep. Though, one of the Anisphias is… very clearly dead and not sleeping, her white outfit tinted red, her special cold storage tank frosted on the outside.
The others are here too– Euphyllia, Zack, and this time, Chitose.]
[The third day dawns, bringing with it an entirely different █████████ from the one of just three days ago. It’s terribly quiet outside everywhere you go, and the air smells faintly of seasalt and iron. Marina, a bunch of assorted limbs and Red XIII are dead, their bodies (and body parts) found yesterday.
In addition, you’ve overheard some things from passers-by, your fellow Corps members or coworkers, people who are worried about your safety as you venture out into town once more, even in the safety of daylight.
• The body of Geto was found outside of a farmhouse in Coene. • The body of Lucas was found on a Chedis street. • The body of Chitose was found on the steps of an orphanage in Coene. • No one has seen Iwatooshi in a couple of days.
Tensions are higher than ever. With so many brutal and horrific deaths over the course of two nights, the marché is like a ghost town. Nearly all of the vendors have shut down shop temporarily. The Royal Guard has all but vanished, no doubt called back to the castle to keep the Royal Family safe, and even the number of Corps members has dwindled as people return home to protect their closest loved ones.
Investigating may be a bit difficult now, but maybe there are other things you can do to bring this reign of terror to a close.]
[You can use this comment to mingle and decide your plan moving forward! As some suggestions to get the ball rolling, you may want to consider: ways to catch the killer in the act, plans based on patterns you’ve already seen, night stakeouts, etc.]
[Comment here if you would like to take a closer look at one of the bodies or have clarifying questions to ask! The bodies available to take a look at are Aqua, Marina, Red XIII, Geto, Lucas, Chitose and some beefy limbs. There have been several other mysterious deaths overnight with Nehan and Laudna joining the dearly deceased. Note that this is mostly for psychic damage fun; there’s no real investigating to be done with these corpses.]
[Though it’s been a long and difficult day and morale is at an all-time low, you’ve all roughly pitched some plans to one another. Staking things out, setting traps in an alley, doing what you can to bring this serial killer to justice. The one thing your ideas all had in common: nighttime is undoubtedly the best time to make your move.
Night falls once more. After some time, you all head out into the streets that you once knew so well, now filled with a mysterious and elusive danger that may very well snatch away your life, too. Will you succeed in defeating the evil that you set out to catch? When dawn breaks in the morning, what sort of future will be waiting to greet you? More importantly: are you willing to pay the price for it?]
[Use this toplevel for some good ol’-fashioned runner-assigned harm. Whether you want specific injuries or mental or emotional damage, you can hit us up here and we’ll lovingly beat you up with our little demon paws.]
[The rising sun brings nothing good with it, and in this nation, isn’t that expected? Nothing good at all; just bodies on bodies on more bodies, paving the streets a bright and vibrant red. █████████ has always been beloved by Death, and the picture painted across cobblestone and broken pavement and shattered glass - the destruction left behind - makes that crystal clear.
Most of them don’t live to see that sunrise, though. Maybe in their last moments, or throughout the night as they struggled to survive, they thought of their loved ones. The ones who left them behind first, the mistakes they made, the lies they believed in, the falsities their entire lives were built on. Or maybe they died believing it all to the bitter, exhausting end. Maybe they felt alone. Maybe they felt at peace. It hardly matters now. Most are dead, with one survivor left to carry the weight of despair. They’ve left behind a nightmare for the rest of the nation to awaken to.
As for them? Five receive a stretch of blissful, dreamless sleep, and one struggles until he too loses consciousness. Once all six are dead or unconscious, they share a single vision: the briefest glimpse of some dark place, and strange curls of oddly-colored flames, before everything fades away.
Living party members will be spat out on their side, while deadzos will return to their home in the great beyond. They’ll all be back alive (or normal levels of dead) on arrival, though you can keep any or all of the injuries received throughout their ventures! They’ll also experience some lingering effects. You can play with duration as long as they end by trial Saturday.
Karlach will be plagued by periodic and brief hallucinations of the corpses of her victims and those who died throughout her journey, real and imagined. Every time she sees them, she’ll be filled with the overwhelming urge to pray for forgiveness and repent for the crime of taking innocent lives. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied embroidered patch from the Corps in her pocket.
Izutsumi will have the occasional, creeping fear that she is, in fact, losing her humanity. Nothing about her has actually changed, but she’ll still be overcome by the guilt-riddled paranoia that she’s a true demon, much worse than any other person or the sins that they’ve committed. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied memento from Lavi and Marcille’s lil gang in her pocket. It can be any palm-sized trinket like a pin, ring, etc.
Yuffie will occasionally experience bursts of intense short term memory loss. She’ll forget where she’s going or what she’s doing in the middle of doing it, and may even forget the people that she’s talking to. When her memories of what she was doing return, it’s jarring and disorienting. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied armband from her self-defense school in her pocket.
All three will also be dealing with some nasty withdrawal symptoms! Yippie! These symptoms can come and go as you please. They include bouts of intense headaches, nausea, dizziness, chills, muscular weakness and mental spaciness.
Aerith will be plagued by periodic hallucinations of Zack, and by the sense that she isn’t exactly real. The hallucinations speak to her, saying the same things that this version of him told her, down in the lab. Additionally, she will arrive with a preserved black lycoris.
Tomizawa will find himself suffering from periodic memory loss; he’ll have difficulty with his short-term memory, forgetting things quickly and having difficulty holding onto them. This can optionally include being memlossed about things that happened within the CYOA. Additionally, he will arrive with Chitose’s set of keys.
Anisphia will struggle with her sense of self, believing herself to not be real; she will find herself thinking of herself as a fake person, a replacement, someone who wasn’t supposed to exist. Someone made to fulfill a purpose, and nothing more. Additionally, she will arrive with a locket containing a funerary photo of herself.
All three will also be dealing with occasional personality shifts much like they did during their bouts of instability here! This will come and go, it’s up to you guys how you want to play it. They will also all be wearing black chokers with a bit of gold, circuit-like detailing on them, and for the duration of their effects will find the idea of removing them uncomfortable. They aren’t stuck though. You can take them off whenever.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
⮞ DAY ONE
You've lived here in isolation since birth, alongside a curse that snatches away every life by the age of twenty-three. No soul has visited your nation in hundreds of years. No one knows the origin of the curse or how to cure it. The only escape you have is through the use of Reliver technology, which provides a cloned body and an imperfect transfer of memory and emotion.
That said, though your home may be small with a population of only three thousand, it's certainly not without its problems. From an exhausting and absentee monarchy, to a cold and callous people who no longer understand how to respect death, to the newly expensive prices of bread at the market, you have a wide pick of daily horrors and horrors to last your entire short lifetime.
Despite being from all different walks of life, the six of you, through your various connections, have all crossed paths before. And today, you're here together to face one of those problems. You're here to investigate rumors of a murder.]
⮞ WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Aerith, you are a 21 year old florist and gardener living and working in Coene, after growing up in an orphanage here alongside Cloud and Tifa. Zack was a friend of your little group, once, but an investigation he led as a member of the Corps led to his murder some time ago; Cloud and Tifa, who currently work with Yuffie, were inspired to do so after his demise. The people of Coene are fond of you, although if you’ve ever taken an interest in the lycoris noirge flowers of the island, you’re well aware that nobody else cares to hear anything positive about the flowers of death.
Anisphia, you are the 17 year old Reliver daughter of a wealthy merchant family in Chedis, living with your Reliver parents and your maid Ilia in your manor. The family is relying on you and your ingenuity to boost their influence when you take over as head of household, and after being convinced by your close friend Euphyllia, a researcher in Cerneveaul, you agreed to have yourself backed up and become a Reliver despite your youth to ensure you would survive. You’re allowed to spend your days as you please, though, seeing as you’ve finished your basic education and don’t have to take over yet.
Tomizawa, you are a 22 year old driver living in Coene while working in Chedis during the day, serving as a chauffeur for various wealthy families of the district. You’re going to need to make a decision soon about whether you’ll use the money you’ve been working for in order to extend your life as a Reliver; the symptoms of the curse don’t affect you much now, but you are occasionally wracked with coughs that make it hard to breathe, and you know the time is coming. Ichiban, your close compatriot from your orphanage who encouraged your career, died without a backup of his own a couple of years ago, but you’ve gotten to know a friend of his from the Corps: Iwatooshi, an older Reliver who used to keep an eye on him and now does the same for you.
Izutsumi, you’re an 18 year old worker of odd jobs. You were raised under unpleasant circumstances in Cerneveaul, but managed to escape them and found a family in Lavi and Marcille, whom you run your little business with. You spend your days taking on various tasks for people across Coene, Chedis and Cerneveaul, repairing roofs, catching stray chickens, babysitting. Chilchuck and Senshi are two of your most frequent customers, and with a little time, you think you can convince them to join you on staff. Your prickly personality doesn’t net you much approval from the general populace, but they acknowledge that you get things done well.
Karlach, you’re a member of the Corps that protects the public’s peace, a rough-and-tumble 20 year old from the rural outskirts of Coene. Though your parents died while you were still very young, you adapted to your orphanage well and made lifelong friends there, including Boothill and Astarion, who joined the Corps with you once you were all old enough to do so. You made fast friends there, too - Gale and Vin, for one - because the people of the Corps are drawn to your charming, sunny personality. On the streets, you have a reputation for getting things done. The children are drawn to you and love your warmth and kindness, while adults tend to look at you with suspicion, untrusting of your vast strength.
Yuffie, you’re a 16 year old self-defense instructor, the youngest and only on the island. Ever since your orphanage burned down when you were young - leaving you and your foster sister Kate as the only survivors - you’ve wanted to dedicate your life to protecting others and helping the weak triumph in a world that favors the strong. Cloud and Tifa, friends from a neighboring orphanage, help you as co-instructors. Your endeavors are well-received by the general populace, though they often doubt you due to your young age.
You've gathered together at the marché. It's a bustling marketplace with street vendors selling all manners of goods and wares, though the general energy of the place seems a bit muted today, likely due in part to the whispers of a cold and callous murderer circulating through the people. As you're looking around, a few things may stand out to you.
• Lavi and Boothill are over at a fruit vendor and seem to be having a very serious discussion.
• There's a tall man in a white jacket that seems to be trying to keep an eye on them as subtly as possible, though a watchful eye can easily tell that he's following them from stall to stall.
• A child and mother hurry through the crowd, and you can hear the mother hastily and quietly telling the child: "You didn't see it. You didn't see anything, do you understand me?" as they rush past.
• Iwatooshi and Lucas are picking out a bunch of flowers at a florist stand and appear to be chatting amiably with the seller.
• Corps member Vin is standing near the mouth of an alley, appearing to be turning away people who try to go through it.
• Daan sits peacefully under a tree on a park bench, reading a book.
• A small fight appears to be starting between two men in front of a boutique selling lace.
• Ilia can be seen with a couple of others in maid uniforms, having a concerned-sounding conversation with a baker.
• A car is parked nearby, where a driver is engaged in an argument with a member of the Guard.
• One of the vegetable vendors’ stalls appears to be more short-handed than usual, the owner a little frantic.
The investigatory world is their oyster from here.
(Note: Please feel free to come up with your own AU backstories as to why your characters may or may not know others in the CYOA group! You can flesh out details as you'd like, too! It's also not necessary to investigate everything, just follow your lil hearts.)]
⮞ MINGLE
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Seems like some people are touchier today than others... [there are a few fights going on, wild.]
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Who do you think we should hit up first?
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she's particularly drawn to any other corps members that are in the area, wanting to pick up with them.
she gives a little nod and a smile to whoever approaches...]
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⮞ INVESTIGATIONS
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⮞ NIGHT ONE
⮞ THE SOCIETY
But you do. Together, you open it and descend down a long staircase into a dark and large underground room, dimly lit with red, artificial lights and filled with the screams of demons undergoing purging. Perhaps you’re used to it by now. Maybe it still makes you feel uneasy, when you’re clear-headed enough to think.
Regardless, the night is young, and it’s time to meet with your fellow worshippers once more.]
⮞ MINGLE
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⮞ A SWEET DREAM
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⮞ DENY
THE EXPERIMENT
Except for the fact that, after you fall asleep, you feel as if you’re having a strange dream. You wander down a dark, dimly lit passageway underground, the hallway unfamiliar to you. You close your eyes, and you’re in a different passage when you open them. You feel as if every time you drift off again, you wake further ahead, but finally… you fall asleep once more, and for a while, you stay that way.
When you wake up, you’re in what appears to be a large laboratory, and if you try to move, you’ll find that you can’t, except for–
Anisphia, as usual, you’re here at the side of your researcher companion Euphyllia, who is currently going over calculations. You’re not completely excused from being restrained, it’s more that the cables connecting to you are much longer, allowing you to move and act while she makes adjustments. She and another individual occasionally instruct you on what to do, but you can act more or less freely besides that.
Tomizawa, you're restrained where you're standing, and still feel somewhat groggy. It's a little difficult to fully take in this scene: Anisphia is here with a white-haired girl, whose Reliver mark is visible on one hand. A dark-haired man is working on something at one of the lab terminals. Aerith is here, too, restrained nearby, and despite how strange this all is, it feels… a little familiar.
Aerith, it's the same for you, except where Tomi doesn't recognize either of the people who appear to be in charge here, you do. Of course you recognize Zack. He isn't paying attention to you right now, though, leaving you to contend with that realization.
So... what do you all do.]
SOLO;
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ETC;
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⮞ DAY TWO
The marché is still in a bit of a disarray from the explosion. Many of the vendors haven’t reopened yet, but the place is bustling with Royal Guards and Corps members. The Guards are pretty damn useless, but the Corps members and civilians are hard at work cleaning up the debris and damage from the explosion and subsequent butter fire. It still smells sooo tasty over there.
In addition, a few more areas of investigation are open to you now. You can traverse through Chedis, the district for the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes, where it isn’t uncommon for families to live in manors. It’s a combination of 19th century architecture, but the streets are lit by LED panels and the roads here are paved to accommodate cars, even though not many drive. You can also venture into Coene, the district for middle and lower classes, which is more rural and has fewer technological luxuries, like a 19th century countryside.
As they’re looking around, they may notice a few things of interest.
In Coene, they’ll find:
• Several people are clustered around an alley, whispering to each other and looking on in horror.
• An abnormally large flock of crows that appears to be gathering in a field.
• A farmer at the edge of a field, struggling with something stuck in the ground.
In Chedis, they’ll find:
• A large puddle in the street, and people are puzzling about where the water is coming from.
• The sound of a woman screaming coming from a side street.
• A particularly stinky garbage can.
In the marché, they’ll find:
• A small group of kids whispering to each other and gesturing for others to follow them down an alley.
• An abandoned fruit stand with blankets draped over the wares.
• A cart with several long wooden boxes on it.
Where to, clowns?]
⮞ MINGLE
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⮞ INVESTIGATIONS
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⮞ NIGHT TWO
⮞ THE SOCIETY
⮞ MINGLE
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⮞ ACCEPT
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⮞ DENY
⮞ THE EXPERIMENT
You have the same strange dream as last night, except that each time you close your eyes– you almost feel as if you’re not only in a different spot in the passageway, but a different person, as if your perspective keeps shifting. It’s disorienting, to say the least, and by the time you properly wake up in the laboratory…
Well. It’s going to take a minute to get your bearings. The setup is, more or less, the same as last night… was it last night? You’re actually not sure. This is familiar to you, you remember being here and speaking with the others before, but that could have been any time. Any night. Last night, months ago… hard to say.
You notice more this time, though. Either the lights are clearer or you just couldn’t actually perceive it last time, but you can see what rests inside those tanks full of liquid, near the bloodied lab tables. It’s you. All of you– multiples of you, drifting in there, asleep. Though, one of the Anisphias is… very clearly dead and not sleeping, her white outfit tinted red, her special cold storage tank frosted on the outside.
The others are here too– Euphyllia, Zack, and this time, Chitose.]
⮞SOLO
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⮞MINGLE(ISH)
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⮞ DAY THREE
In addition, you’ve overheard some things from passers-by, your fellow Corps members or coworkers, people who are worried about your safety as you venture out into town once more, even in the safety of daylight.
• The body of Geto was found outside of a farmhouse in Coene.
• The body of Lucas was found on a Chedis street.
• The body of Chitose was found on the steps of an orphanage in Coene.
• No one has seen Iwatooshi in a couple of days.
Tensions are higher than ever. With so many brutal and horrific deaths over the course of two nights, the marché is like a ghost town. Nearly all of the vendors have shut down shop temporarily. The Royal Guard has all but vanished, no doubt called back to the castle to keep the Royal Family safe, and even the number of Corps members has dwindled as people return home to protect their closest loved ones.
Investigating may be a bit difficult now, but maybe there are other things you can do to bring this reign of terror to a close.]
⮞ MINGLE
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⮞ BODIES
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⮞ THE FINAL NIGHT
Night falls once more. After some time, you all head out into the streets that you once knew so well, now filled with a mysterious and elusive danger that may very well snatch away your life, too. Will you succeed in defeating the evil that you set out to catch? When dawn breaks in the morning, what sort of future will be waiting to greet you? More importantly: are you willing to pay the price for it?]
⮞ MINGLE
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⮞ RUNNER DAMAGE
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⮞ AFTERMATH
Most of them don’t live to see that sunrise, though. Maybe in their last moments, or throughout the night as they struggled to survive, they thought of their loved ones. The ones who left them behind first, the mistakes they made, the lies they believed in, the falsities their entire lives were built on. Or maybe they died believing it all to the bitter, exhausting end. Maybe they felt alone. Maybe they felt at peace. It hardly matters now. Most are dead, with one survivor left to carry the weight of despair. They’ve left behind a nightmare for the rest of the nation to awaken to.
As for them? Five receive a stretch of blissful, dreamless sleep, and one struggles until he too loses consciousness. Once all six are dead or unconscious, they share a single vision: the briefest glimpse of some dark place, and strange curls of oddly-colored flames, before everything fades away.
Living party members will be spat out on their side, while deadzos will return to their home in the great beyond. They’ll all be back alive (or normal levels of dead) on arrival, though you can keep any or all of the injuries received throughout their ventures! They’ll also experience some lingering effects. You can play with duration as long as they end by trial Saturday.
Karlach will be plagued by periodic and brief hallucinations of the corpses of her victims and those who died throughout her journey, real and imagined. Every time she sees them, she’ll be filled with the overwhelming urge to pray for forgiveness and repent for the crime of taking innocent lives. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied embroidered patch from the Corps in her pocket.
Izutsumi will have the occasional, creeping fear that she is, in fact, losing her humanity. Nothing about her has actually changed, but she’ll still be overcome by the guilt-riddled paranoia that she’s a true demon, much worse than any other person or the sins that they’ve committed. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied memento from Lavi and Marcille’s lil gang in her pocket. It can be any palm-sized trinket like a pin, ring, etc.
Yuffie will occasionally experience bursts of intense short term memory loss. She’ll forget where she’s going or what she’s doing in the middle of doing it, and may even forget the people that she’s talking to. When her memories of what she was doing return, it’s jarring and disorienting. Additionally, she will arrive with a bloodied armband from her self-defense school in her pocket.
All three will also be dealing with some nasty withdrawal symptoms! Yippie! These symptoms can come and go as you please. They include bouts of intense headaches, nausea, dizziness, chills, muscular weakness and mental spaciness.
Aerith will be plagued by periodic hallucinations of Zack, and by the sense that she isn’t exactly real. The hallucinations speak to her, saying the same things that this version of him told her, down in the lab. Additionally, she will arrive with a preserved black lycoris.
Tomizawa will find himself suffering from periodic memory loss; he’ll have difficulty with his short-term memory, forgetting things quickly and having difficulty holding onto them. This can optionally include being memlossed about things that happened within the CYOA. Additionally, he will arrive with Chitose’s set of keys.
Anisphia will struggle with her sense of self, believing herself to not be real; she will find herself thinking of herself as a fake person, a replacement, someone who wasn’t supposed to exist. Someone made to fulfill a purpose, and nothing more. Additionally, she will arrive with a locket containing a funerary photo of herself.
All three will also be dealing with occasional personality shifts much like they did during their bouts of instability here! This will come and go, it’s up to you guys how you want to play it. They will also all be wearing black chokers with a bit of gold, circuit-like detailing on them, and for the duration of their effects will find the idea of removing them uncomfortable. They aren’t stuck though. You can take them off whenever.]
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