WEEK ZERO: MINGLE

[gatonina]

WEEK ZERO

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Rise and shine, everyone! At 7:00 AM on the dot, those who are asleep will be roused from their slumber by the sound of a bugle call. It seems that breakfast is now served in the Mess Hall. How nice! It's up to you to decide if you want to continue sleeping or not... But maybe it's a good idea to grab a bite and explore your surroundings. After all, it looks like you'll be here for a little while. Regardless of what you do, be sure to check the weather before stepping outside. You never know when you might need an umbrella! Once you're up and at them, though, there are a few points of interest this week. If you swing by the Director's Office, you will find Black Shadows manning the receptionist's desk or flitting in and out of the rooms down the hallway. This week's tasks are now available, and you can check them out on the announcement board in the waiting room. Should you visit the Camp Shop, Purple Heart will be handling all transactions at the checkout counter. Even camp directors hold down normal jobs, you know. Strangely enough, Winter Wizard doesn't seem to be stationed at any set location. Maybe it's their week off? Oh, well. Seems like if you want to get ahold of them, you'll have to pay your respects to the bunnies. Finally, though all seems normal at first glance... You will quickly realize something is wrong the moment you start interacting with other people. Or, more specifically, once you come in physical contact with them. For the rest of the week, anyone who makes skin-to-skin (or whatever counts as skin, for the non-humans) contact with someone else will find themselves in a bit of a sticky situation. Whatever body parts touched will be stuck together for the next hour, with no way to separate them. Try not to create additional points of contact while trying to cheat your way out of this situation, yeah? That would be unpleasant, for each spot will last an entire hour. Good luck.

Comments

[recrypt]

[ she laughs, incredibly softly- there's an odd and blunted edge to the sound. ]

I don't know if I have a story like that. But ... I suppose this one might work.

[ it's a moment before she starts, like she's sorting her thoughts. ]

Once, there was a girl. She was mistreated by her caretakers, told to work for the barest of scraps. It was a low and miserable life. She fooled people for a living, and stole from travelers what they had to offer at the beck and whim of those who held her life in their hands and punished her when she didn't steal enough. She did these things in order to eke out the most pathetic of survivals in a city that paid no attention to the things in its shadows.

One evening, she met another traveler. They seemed better dressed than the average, a little better equipped, but she did the same as she always had, thinking perhaps with this mark, her caretakers would be more lenient with her for a while. She tricked them into following her into the shadows, where no one would see anything go astray. They seemed just like any other foolish traveler, she remarked to herself when she was done, only to find herself suddenly unable to move.

It was the traveler who had fooled her, and now held her life in their hands... then let her go free. They vanished immediately after, and the girl was left to wonder.

Days later, as if by a stroke of luck, she glimpsed the traveler again. She decided she had to know why she was spared. But the traveler vanished just as quickly into the crowd, and so she set herself to trying to find them again. More time passed before she received her chance, only for the traveler to speak up before she could: "That's enough. You have been following me. Why?"

"I was curious..." started the girl, before she stopped. "No. I want to ask for help. I don't want to be forced to live this life. Please, if you free me, I'll give you all that I have."

[swordflash]

[ knowing what she is, maybe he gave her the wrong request. but even knowing that, he was hoping that there would be something that qualifies as a happy factoid for her.

still, he watches her with unwavering attention while she tells the story. the details are upsetting, but he listens. when she stops, he urges her to continue. ]

What did the traveler say?

[recrypt]

"You tried to trick me before," said the traveler. "And now you want me to pity you. Do you have no shame?"

"It's not another trick!" the girl cried. "I truly believe... No one should have to do these kinds of things! But you're strong! If it's you, I know you'll be able to stop them."

The traveler was quiet. "...Fine. Show me to what chains you, and I will break it. But if this is yet another trick, I will not be as merciful as I was before."

They went together to a small and dimly lit grate, where the faintest flickering flame burned in the dark. There were no guards, and the gate was rusted through. The traveler slipped through as if it were nothing, and the girl struggled to follow, lingering behind in trepidation.

The traveler stepped toward the flame and put it out. All at once, their surroundings burned to life, surrounding them with a wall of fire. The girl, who had stayed near the entrance, ran-- as was her plan to begin with, for she never could have put out the small flame in the grate on her own and escaped. It was simply too far in, and so she left the traveler behind.

But then she stopped. She found herself unable to take another step. Despite the fact that she was now free, she couldn't walk away.

She ran back to the blaze, but she couldn't get through. When she thought she saw a gap in the flames, she slipped past, only to find nothing within their confines-

Before the traveler snatched her up from behind and pulled her back out.

It had been another trick, but the traveler had seen through this one too. They turned to face the girl once the two of them were safe from the blaze, waiting for her to explain herself.

[ hm. who are the girl and the traveler, anyway? or is this just a story in the truest form of the word? ]

[swordflash]

[ zenitsu isn't analytical enough to stop and think about what all of this means. he's already having a time trying to imagine the scene. if the grate is symbolic for something, he puts that aside in favor of leaning in and waiting for 45 to continue.

besides, why think too hard when the answers are bound to come later in the story? he's better off focusing all of his attention on 45.

please continue! ]

[recrypt]

"How?" asked the girl. "You should have been trapped when I fled."

The traveler only gave her a pitying look. "It isn't hard to deal with tricks like these when you are prepared for them. Did you think I wouldn't have checked the traps laid for us beforehand? But by running and then coming back, you've made yourself a fool."

"Then you knew I would run? Why did you save me? Letting me go was one thing, but people would only risk themselves like that for ones they consider family. It's too high a price to pay."

"I don't care about a price or anything of the sort," came the traveler's curt response. "I helped you simply because I couldn't tolerate people like that using others in that way. It made me recall some bad memories, and I don't want them happen to others." They turned and took a few steps back toward the entrance of the street. "Besides. What did you even expect to accomplish, throwing yourself into the flames like that? Did you even have a plan for putting out the blaze?"

The girl didn't have an answer for them. "I... I felt I couldn't just leave..."

The traveler was silent for a while. "Go. Get out of my sight, and never show yourself to me again."

"You... You don't want anything from me?"

"What would you possibly have to offer me that I would want?"

"...I don't understand," said the girl. "Why you would do any of this, knowing there was nothing in it for you? You even knew I would run, so..."

"I simply felt that you were very much like the person I once was. Perhaps if someone who could have brought it all down back then had existed at the time, we might not be here today. But if you still don't understand, then maybe that's for the better."

And then they turned to leave. "Don't follow me," they said. "Do not ask any more questions of me. It will only put you in danger. You're free now, so do as you will."

[ hmmm looks like the story is winding down... ]

[swordflash]

[ the traveler is heartless! how can anyone treat a girl like that? he makes a face, but refrains from passing judgment verbally. it doesn't seem like the story is over quite yet.

there are some things he's not following here, but maybe the next bit will explain them. ]

[recrypt]

As fortune would have it, the girl found the traveler again not a few days later. The people from whom she had been freed were angry, you see, and in anger had come seeking retribution on the traveler. There were many of them, and only one of the traveler. "Give back what you stole from us," they threatened, "or we'll take it out of you in trade."

"I have nothing to return to you, for I have stolen nothing from you," responded the traveler, though they knew they were outmatched. "Hmph. What a pitiful ending this is."

"Hey!" cried the girl, who had watched as this occurred and waited for a moment to act. She had remade herself during the days previous, emboldened to strike. "If you wish to act against my kindred, then you will have to get through me first!"

And together, the two drove the specters of her previous life back into the shadows. Exultant in their victory, the girl proclaimed that she would follow the traveler from now on, and guard them as they had freed her.

But the traveler was unhappy. "No," the traveler said. "That's foolish. You don't even know me, and it will only put you in danger. Do you know what you have done to yourself? Do you know the price you have paid? You were free. Why didn't you walk away?"

"Because girls like me have existed in this city for a long time, and no one else ever saw us," said the girl. "No one else ever cared. You were the only one who said you couldn't tolerate this and did anything to help. You said I was like you. How could I abandon you?"

"I only did it to satisfy myself," responded the traveler. "No good will come of staying with me."

"But you said we were the same," the girl insisted. "That makes us family. Family has to stick together. Don't you think it's fate that we met?"

"... You're a fool," repeated the traveler. "You are throwing away a future you could have for one that promises no reward. I thank you for your assistance, but-"

The girl cut in. "What I know is that staying with you can't be any worse than what I've been through already. Allow me to stay with you, please, and let me prove myself to you so that I can get to know you."

The traveler was quiet again. "You have nothing to prove," they said, raising a hand to forestall any objection. "But fine. Do as you will." Their voice became wistful, for one brief moment. "Perhaps one day, when my wish is granted, the two of us will be as close as you seek to be."

[ ...she settles back. looks like that's it, zenitsu.

so, heartless travelers and determined, persistent girls. a story, huh? ]

[swordflash]

[ oh. well, that ended on a hopeful note. his heart is moved, even if his mind is still a little lost as he attempts to make sense of the story with his limited knowledge.

putting that aside, she's a gifted storyteller!

he has a few guesses, but it's better to just ask, he thinks. ]

Are they people you know?

[recrypt]

Maybe. The task did say for us to share a few facts about our worlds. It's a story, but who knows? Who's to say there aren't a few truths in it?

[swordflash]

[ that's fair. ]

What was that grate of fire? I still don't understand it.

[recrypt]

It was merely meant to represent something deceptively fragile and easy to access, but still linked intrinsically to the trap laid there. 'Why didn't the girl free herself, if it was so easy?' As if she wouldn't have been gone long before, if it actually was that simple.

[ that, and there's only so much she can do to try to reframe future stuff in a way that a ye olde might understand. ]

[swordflash]

[ he nods slowly. ]

I think I get it now.

[ even if it's easy for someone, there's always going to be someone else who finds it hard. ]

Thanks. That was a good story.

[recrypt]

[ hm. ]

... What about you? What sort of story do you want to tell?

[swordflash]

[ regrettably, he isn't a talented storyteller like 45. he stares off into the distance, searching for a fact to share about home. ]

I'm an orphan, so I don't really have a home. But in the year Gramps trained me to become a demon slayer, I stayed at his place by the mountains with his other disciple.

[recrypt]

... Were they like family to you?

[swordflash]

[ he takes a moment to consider the answer before nodding. ]

Bro became a demon slayer before me. Now that I'm one, too, we don't really see each other anymore.

[ but they're still important to him. ]

You read the placard at the house, right? In order to become a demon slayer, we have to pass Final Selection first. It's up in a mountain where wisteria grows year-round; demons can't stand it, so it's the perfect prison for them.

[recrypt]

[ a moment, before: ]

It never mentioned anything by that name specifically. [ but from context... ] That's the mountaintop where you had to spend and survive seven nights, correct?

And with your brother... Is it not possible for you to request to be sent on the same missions as him?

[swordflash]

[ he nods again. ]

You remembered! That's just like you, 45.

By now he's probably much higher in rank than I am. The only way we'd end up on the same mission is if lower ranks like me weren't enough.

[ said brother also can't stand him. ]

[recrypt]

Don't say things like that, you're also more dependable than you make yourself out to be.

[ when it comes down to it, anyway. ]

You can't just rely on me all the time. Trusting each other is sometimes our only option.

[swordflash]

[ sounds fake. he cants his head to the side. ]

I do trust you.