recession | scawwy ✦ karlach cliffgate

[ ...It won't, though. ]

Yeah, I do. Still figuring out where we're headed from here.

[frowning...]

Yeah. [her tail swishes back and forth. worried, you worry me, be safe - disjointed and distant.]

Maybe I ought to harass Famine a bit more for answers. See if we can get us a real direction to go in.

Have you gotten anything?

[ No answers... what am I even doing here? I couldn't find what I was looking for in Prehevil. I'm just counting down days until rock bottom, aren't I... ]

Miss Mitaka told me about something interesting. Those Thursday ventures people split off to -- have you seen some of the odd trinkets they've come back with? Apparently, she's caught wind that they might be components of some kind of ritual...

I'm not very good at asking the right questions, I guess. I said I wanted to help and they said I was doing as much as I can, which is not... what I wanted to hear.

[she folds her arms.]

... I haven't seen any trinkets at all. [not smart enough to be involved, just the muscle, like always.] Heard a bit about a ritual, though. Suguru told me a bit about something he heard.

...

I don't know which ones are the relevant ones. But the ones in the first week came back with burlap dolls. Miss Banner had a jar with teeth and a... fairy in it, and Lavi had a tongue in a box. I don't know what everyone brought back, but these items did strike me as strange, and appropriately occultish, let's say...

I don't know where Miss Mitaka heard it from, but the idea of them being components for some kind of ritual... it makes sense with what little themes we have to work with.

What did Mr. Geto say?

Don't think Rondo and Mathis got anything, but.

[she pats herself down, looking for something, and then offers him a paper.

caution, for the ritual is not without its troubles. The god we seek to bring into our realm might still be a fledgling. A newborn. It needs to be protected and the steps to bring it into the realm completed perfectly, else it just become just as mortal as those who brought it into the world.]

... Might be able to fuck it up.

Right, yeah.

[ It's been a while since he'd seen this one. He fishes out and sorts through a couple of sheets of paper again, looking through them... and handing one over back to her. ]

What about this one?

—ter what happened today, I don't think you could call this place safe by any stretch of the imagination. We've seen it react now in nearly a hostile way to our presence, and I don't know how long we can stay. Even so, the fact that it exists at all is beyond my expectation.

I suspect some of them want to reach out and make contact with the others, to ease their grief. I understand. But on the other hand, the cult realizing that this place exists—that there might be any space, no matter how small, that they cannot observe—would be catastrophic. What little safety and advantage we do have would be forfeit, and the cult is likely to wipe the slate clean and start over. And in truth, I have no proof that there's a way back.

So, is it worth hoping that they can keep a secret? Perhaps it is cruel, but I want to err on the side of caution.

[she reads through it, and there's a faint little soldier that he'll hear but she doesn't say.

a nod. she's seen this - but every time she reads it, it gives her a little bit more hope.]

Might be what those bits are for, even. A way back.

Great.

[ Repockets this memo then. ]

...It'd be nice if that were it, wouldn't it.

It'd be nice.

[she says, softer.]

I think it'd be nice for both of us to have something nice to think about.

[ Is it nice? ]

...Sure. Any answer... any clear path forward would really be nice around now.

[ But he's said that for. Weeks. ]

[silence for a moment, as she looks over towards the ocean.]

Well. We haven't got one yet, but I'm working on it, and I know you are, too. [firmly. maybe a little aggressively. like she'll make it true.] And until then, until we've got something, I want to try to live. Not just survive.

...Sure.

[ Working on it might be a bit generous, given he's got nothing to work with but. It's very 'here's where I would put our plan, if we had one' energy. He just looks out at the ocean 2 with its quiet waves. ]

That sounds like a plan.

[yeah she's got fuck-all as well, but this is her self-appointed job and she will die trying to make it work.]

Okay.

[she takes a deep breath.]

So - in that, let's go do something fun. See if we can find some good food, and then put our feet in the ocean, and have a good fucking day, yeah? Just one, if we can manage.

...

I have to go walk in the water?

[ He ended up not walking in the water at all during island time. Actually he has not wandered into the water in any location. ]

[help she snorts, tail flicking.]

You against that? I guess you don't have to.

I'm not going to put up a huge fit against it, but just thinking about the sand, and how I'd get my socks back on without it being dirty.

[ I need you to understand he is a clean and somewhat prissy boy and has been deeply unhappy with their accommodations and situations this past entire month. He really would like to be genuinely clean and comfortable one of these days! ]

I could bring a towel!

[city boy... she tilts her head.]

It's more about making you happy, so if you don't want the sand, you haven't got to. But I think finding good food can stay. And I heard from Suguru that there are showers here, so I can stand guard for you later.

[ Don't think sand and water's going to do that. The sentiment's nice though. ]

Why do I need a bodyguard to shower?

So there's no surprise attack spiders or something! I'm not going to look.

I don't know, I feel better when I can take a second to not be looking over my shoulder while I'm trying to relax.

[ That wasn't part of my concern. Should it be? ]

The spiders were last week. And they left us alone.

I'll be fine to take a shower on my own.

[ Though do whatever you want tbh it's funny. ]

[makes a face at him.]

Alright, but if you get eaten by shower spiders, it's not my fault.

[she glances out to the boardwalk.]

I hope they have food with spices. Or flavor.

[starts to wander off in that direction]

[ ...Spiders... shower-spiders. Beetlemen and babyfaced worms. They just eat each other. ]

Our standards really have fallen... Don't just go meandering off on your own.

[ Following after her, albeit at a default slower pace. ]

Catch up then!

[she says over her shoulder to him, teasing, but she does actually slow down to match pace with him so who is the sucker really]

I want to win some of the stuffed animals they've got here as prizes. Add them to my army of one I've got already.

...? You had one?

[ He knows she has like. A carved figurine or something. He's not totally sure if she means that or something else. ]

They can't be that hard to get, can they... nobody is manning the stalls.

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