WEEK 6.

[trustwellness]

WEEK 6 With the deaths of Viktor Nikiforov, Varric Tethras, and Killia, you're down to half of your original number. There's only fifteen of you left. How much longer before your number drops again? Saturday is given to regrouping and rest; on Sunday morning the clock chimes as it always has, but at least there are no bodies to find today. It seems you're safe for now. The night before wasn't necessarily a peaceful one, however; you'll probably feel a bit groggy when you wake up, and it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... Of course, that doesn't mean that you've gained nothing else among the many, many losses you've faced; it seems that another floor has been made available to you for surviving another week. Congratulations and well done, even if you might not necessarily appreciate the reward. APPRENTICES REMAINING: 15

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[OOC: Welcome to week six of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Wordsmith, you can do so through letters or the switchboard!]

Comments

[plegia]

[sh-shut up he's a grown man and a king!!!]

Might as well. I don't trust myself to paint a straight line, much less manage this without spilling the bottle somehow.

[He's very jittery. It's like a constant sugar high and might actually be considering how much sugar he consumes here.]

[matchbreaker]

Well then, be patient for a few moments.

[ She sighs again scooting over to the desk and therefore next to him. She spreads her fingers out, gently blowing on the nails again. She's...

... Still worried. Still tired. But it feels better today. ]

Gangrel, have you attempted to send any letters to the dead?

[plegia]

Letters to the dead...

[...]

No, I haven't. I don't know what I'd write. I've never been very good at composing letters.

[Most of his have been taunts and jabs to try to get Ylisse to attack Plegia, but that certainly didn't work out, so.]

Have you?

[matchbreaker]

Several, though none can be fairly called "letters." [ She blows on her nails again ]

I'm trying to work out where they receive ours from - Ushiromiya confirmed to me that it is possible somehow.

[ Which is probably too practical and she knows it. If she were as sentimental as some others, she might've written them even knowing they wouldn't be received. But... She isn't like that. Or at last tells herself she isn't ]

[plegia]

[He leans over a bit so he can rest his chin against his hand.]

Incredible. Being able to talk with them again would be...

[Something. Good? Probably good. Killia's death still stings but even before that there was Kimbley and Gold and Alani...]

What would you say, if you could write directly to one of them?

[matchbreaker]

[ She... She shrugs, actually, once more blowing on her nails - or maybe that was just a sigh. ]

Honestly, I don't know. I would write to Gold and Chiyuki, and perhaps also once to Kimbley, though I doubt he would read it. But as to what I would say? I don't know what to say.

[plegia]

Can't say I blame you. I doubt I could find any words for any of them.

[What do you say to someone who died in a place like this? What do you say to someone who died period? That isn't the sort of thing you're supposed to come back from.]

Have any of the others tried writing letters?

[matchbreaker]

Oh, I'm sure. Varric probably wrote them all a sonnet before he died, and I'm sure Hanyuu and Kimihiro are just the sort of sentimental to write out to someone. [ She shakes her head ] Not to mention, some people received letters. I'm sure some wrote responses.

[ She laughs a little ]

Actually, I have Gold's to me right in this room.

[plegia]

[That gets him to smirk a bit, though suddenly he's looking anywhere but at her.]

I received a letter from Kimbley. I thought it had to be some kind of joke.

[But he's kept it on him, so maybe he wasn't entirely certain that it was a prank.]

[matchbreaker]

Did you?

[ She... actually finds herself glad he had someone to write to, other than Jasper. Despite it all. ]

No, no, I confirmed - the first letter Chiyuki wrote, it was her handwriting. Now we've received more, the prank is too elaborate for someone as dry as Wordsmith to keep up.

[plegia]

He taught me how to set drinks on fire.

[SO YOU KNOW, NORMAL STUFF.]

I'm glad to hear it isn't a prank, but it's still a bit hard to believe. I've seen a lot of death and it's hard to imagine there being anything after that.

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda hums, considering this for a moment and then asks what must be a strange question: ]

Your cult, those ones who hold sway over you country, do they believe in a life after death?

[plegia]

They're not my cult.

[But with that clarification aside...]

Not precisely. The ones that sacrifice themselves to Grima supposedly become a part of him - they die to become something bigger, to bring about an end to a cruel world. It's not life after death, but it's living on in some form... at least until the world's ended.

[Shrug! The Grimleal are Fucked Up, man.]

[matchbreaker]

I know for a fact that in my dimension, the world my family is on, that ghosts exist. My granddaughter Anju actually has a small collection of them stored within her dolls. But beyond that, I don't know what lies past death.

[ She looks at her own nails as she explains this, spreading and closing her fingers. She doesn't know why she's explaining this to Gangrel of all people, but she does need to fill time. ]

Many in Japan, where I now live, believe in reincarnation, that the souls of the dead are repurposed in the bodies of newborn babes, ignorant of their old lives. But in the old country, the land of my birth - their God promised salvation, an eternal paradise in the clouds for those who would obey His precepts, and chain their lives to His commands.

[plegia]

[He considers that for a moment before laughing. It's brief and not quite as crazy as his laughter usually is.]

Well, I never expected that we'd end up with actual ghosts after all those ghost stories!

[Sometimes shitty jokes are just the way to go, apparently.]

[matchbreaker]

[ That... she laughs at too. She can't make it as robust as she'd like, but she laughs and blows on her fingers one last time, a smile small on her lips. She had considered saying more, explaining a bit of the genocide, perhaps justifying her destruction of the chapel today. But that didn't need to be said to this clown Instead,

She picks up the nail polish bottle, opening it and dabbing the brush in ]

They're dry enough. Spread out your nails.

[plegia]

[Sometimes you just need to destroy something, he absolutely understands!!]

Of course.

[He'll do just that, keeping them as still as he can and watching her curiously.]

...Do you get someone to help you with your off hand?

[matchbreaker]

I'm over two hundred years old, Gangrel. I've had more than enough time to master these movements with both hands.

[ She says this with some arrogant amusement at the question. As she begins to apply the base coat to his left hand's nails ]

[plegia]

Huh. I suppose with enough time one could become proficient at almost anything.

[He could probably get to A-rank with every single weapon in that time!! Amazing.]

I can't imagine being alive for that long, but I am only human.

[matchbreaker]

I can't imagine living less, really. [ She tuts, man, his nails are a little bit thin. His fingers are thicker than hers but - ah well, she can do this. ]

I've every intention of meeting my great grandchildren, you understand.

[plegia]

[go elda go, you've got this]

Great-grandchildren... I can't even imagine having kids to begin with!

[WHO WOULD EVER TRUST GANGREL TO BE A FATHER, PLEASE DON'T]

[matchbreaker]

For you, I'm not really surprised. But having Henry, making that family together with James,

[ And her smile is different now. Soft, gentle. Nostalgic. It's night and day to any expression Gangrel's probably ever seen on her face ]

Those were the happiest times of my life.

[plegia]

[Oh... That's... actually a really nice expression.]

...You've got plenty of time left, you know. Once this is all over, you may be able to reclaim those happy times with your family.

[Does everyone have something like that to go back to?]

[matchbreaker]

I know, of course I do. After all, I'm going to move past this perverse game,

[ And the smile fades as she says this, finishing up on his third nail. That smile - that smile is not something which could be anywhere near her face as she makes this dark promise, if only to herself, ]

one way or another. I need to see them all once more.

[ Even if ... it won't be the same. James is dead. And Karin- ]

[plegia]

And you will. I may not be able to trust everyone here, but I do believe you'll get through all this.

[Whether it's at the top of a pile of bodies or through sheer determination and the Wordsmith's corpse, she'll manage somehow.]