godspiousjasper | 15 Strangers Week 3

[ The meeting had all but wrapped up and everyone else had dispersed to go elsewhere, but it's in this moment that Roland approached Alastor. Wanting to catch him before he'd left along with everything else.

Surely the demonic man must have picked up on a lot of... well. obvious tell-tales during their conversations and by this point? He was tired and hadn't wished to really speak of the things he'd actually seen during that time in the chapel earlier in the day. ]

...I do not suppose you'd be against some more conversation one on one, would you?

[ A glance was spared towards the alcohol, then a soft sigh exhaled. ]

Given the looks i've been getting from you up until now, I feel as though you knew this was coming.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

superstylishsquid

[Truthfully, the notion of working against the others here, of helping to feed the Qliphoth and competing for the fruit like any other demon would, makes him sick to his stomach. Any other denizen of the underworld would deride him for weakness, he knows...but he just can't bring himself to accept the wanton slaughter.

He refills the glass as requested, but quickly looks off at a random point in the room at noticing the fond expression on Roland's face. A hero type like him...he shouldn't be getting attached, for a number of reasons.]

Schrodinger's...I think that's an uncertainty principle thing? The cat's condition isn't known, so it's both alive and dead at the same time.

From:

godspiousjasper

[ Perhaps it wasn't always so smart for him to wear his emotions and heart mostly on his sleeve, but that was just something so deeply ingrained into who he was. He doubted he could just stop it anytime soon.

The only thing that mattered was that he was in good company and he didn't feel AS unnerved about things, thanks to Alastor's very grounding reactions. ]

Yeah... So what I took from it was that, like the cat? Somehow she's both alive and dead at the same time.

[ Which was still a little confusing but so was most of the things he's been seeing up until this point. He was also still fairly reluctant to admit that a lot of these hallucinations and visions were beginning to wear him down a bit. ]

This last time.. and the one before that. Both of them had Akane in them and i'm not sure what to take from that.

From:

superstylishsquid

Maybe some sort of time shenanigans? Time magic is...well, Brain thinks it's involved. Alternate timelines shouldn't be possible where I'm from, not with the Eyes of the World, but other realities...yeah, they might have multiple versions of things being just as real.

[Assuming the Eyes still exist...if the Umbra and Lumen were wiped out, what might have happened to them? If they'd gone back to the fragments of Aesir, humans would have lost the ability to influence the path of fate, so had the Eyes perished with the last qualified bearers? That's another thought that has him taking a swig from his cup to distract from it with the bittersweet burn.]

So...two different 'versions' of time, with her being dead in one, but alive here.

From:

godspiousjasper

[ As he listened, Roland took a swig from his glass and allowed himself to mull over that burning sensation along with his thoughts on this matter. His head canted back slightly, a semi-breathless noise exhaled out quietly. ]

That seems like a pretty sound idea, but... would that explain how the real Miss Akane has memories of dying in that incinerator and not knowing how she's here today?

[ It's technically some kind of paradox but he isn't familiar with the term necessarily. Though while he's thinking about it? ]

Not unless she somehow has this ability to transfer her consciousness into different reality versions of herself..

From:

superstylishsquid

Huh...good question. I don't really know much about time travel, not my thing. I know there's some...weirdness when the Eyes smooth over a paradox, but people kinda try to avoid that sort of thing.

Doesn't sound like necromancy either, though. That's...I guess you could call someone whose death was reversed both alive and dead, technically? I know some magic can do that, reverse time by a few minutes so things can play out differently.

From:

godspiousjasper

Goodness... this all truly is a lot more complex than I first thought it was.

[ People who have possibly different timelines, and when he considered all the stuff he spoke of with Akane that one time? It was almost enough to give even him a headache. Lord above he really wanted a cigarette about now. ]

If someone is messing with timelines, it would explain how she has those memories and yet doesn't know how she made it to the second Nonary Game she spoke of.

From:

superstylishsquid

That, and...Delta messed with our memories. It's. This morning, I remembered something that doesn't fit, myself. I was injured, so badly I was stuck in my weakest form. I don't know how it happened, just that I had bad burns on my torso. But now...

[He spreads his free wing.]

Back to normal. And I don't remember how that happened, either. I remember trying to fix it, but every attempt got screwed up somehow or another. So there has to be a lot missing both before and after that, right?

Edited Date: 2023-06-28 06:54 am (UTC)

From:

godspiousjasper

[ That's... definitely concerning.

It certainly ties in to the questions he has about a smattering of memories he can't really recall, either. ]

I would guess that there is, most likely.

[ He swirled the brandy in his glass amidst his thoughts, brows knitting together after a moment. ]

The memory I remembered isn't nearly as grievous as yours... but it was enough to tell me that I had to kill a murderous child vampire a second time. I arrived too late on the scene, and damage had been done... [ Pausing to take a small drink, the burn a reminder here and yet it still wasnt really enough to make him drunk. ] One of my fellow chasseurs... he was so young and yet lost his mom and dad, killed by vampires in front of him. He also lost his younger sister as well. I... arrived in time to save him from losing his life to a vampire who was only a little older than he was.

From:

superstylishsquid

[He looks at Roland and, with a terrible exaggeration of a put upon sigh, leans against him.]

That sorta thing...kid's probably gonna grow up to be a hunter. [A swig of his drink...though his expression says even the brandy tastes sour with his thoughts.] The sort I warned you about, who'd rather see vampires wiped out.

From:

godspiousjasper

[ He's able to smile a little once more as Alastor leaned against him, which is beyond appreciated given the subject matter present. ]

Too late for that. This young man... Astolfo? Just as my title is Roland of Jasper, he is Astolfo of Garnet and an extremely fierce paladin chasseur at only fifteen years old.

[ Regret shone within his eyes here, along with something a bit unreadable. ]

He desires to make all vampires go extinct and pushes himself past his own limits to try and take them down.

From:

superstylishsquid

Yeah, thought so. My master, Dante? He's Sparda's son, half-human. Mundus' forces killed his mother, and near as I can tell, he's been on a crusade for revenge since he was a kid.

[He downs the rest of his drink and immediately refills it.]

Believes the only way a devil could feel remorse or care about others is if they were really human at heart. If he was able to come rip this tin can open, he'd probably shoot me on sight. Though as much as I really don't need that, still beats ending up fertilizer.

From:

godspiousjasper

Oh dear... that sounds awful!

[ To which he 100% believes this, too.

Though when Alastor continues, the very air seemed to shift a little and his expression shifted to that of a displeased frown. Even making to take another decent drink of his brandy. ]

If I were to know what he looked like? I would intervene and do what I could to make sure he couldn't kill you. I highly disagree with his way of thinking, as anyone can feel remorse or care about others without changing who they are.

From:

superstylishsquid

"Devils never cry", he said. As though we're emotionless killers...maybe Mundus is like that, but we're not a monolith. Especially us greater devils, we're all unique.

...If people in his 'game' have lost their powers like we have, I could take him easy if I have to. It's if I have to fight him with even both of our powers intact that I don't...know what would happen. He defeated the devil that destroyed my original body.

...White hair, likes to dress in red coats. In the vision I had, it looked like he's been forgetting to shave.

From:

godspiousjasper

That I can completely believe! I find it insulting that he just classifies you as all being the same and unable to actually feel emotions like that!

[ Just hearing that does give him a better scale of which to judge things off of, and he quietly nodded. ]

So he's strong. Understood. Let's just hope he doesn't show up here, then.

[ Would Roland go and try to fight Dante if he showed up? You bet. ]

I can only guess he had a pretty rough time of things... but... Alastor...? There is one last thing I remembered about what happened earlier. [ Taking a small sip of his drink, pausing to savor the burn and the slight, floaty feeling that started to come about with getting 'buzzed' but it'd take much more before fully getting drunk. ] I was told someone among us is the cause for this game.

From:

superstylishsquid

Don't think he'd kill a human unless they were seriously nasty, at least.

[And then that last sentence works its way past the fog of the alcohol, and his eyes go wide.]

Wait, something...one of the dolls from the secrets game said that. I know I figured out whose it was...I thought it was just, like. Someone thought they were specifically targeted, or something they did inspired Zero, or whatever. It was, ugh...

[Trying to think. Digging up memories with less of an impact is hard right now, but...]

I think it was Zack. Yeah, Zack's said that the game was his fault.

From:

godspiousjasper

[ That also had something click in his mind, and Roland breathed out something quietly in french without even thinking twice about it. ]

donc ça ne peut pas être un hasard.

[ A scoff sounds and he closed his eyes to try and think through everything. ]

Do you think it's worth speaking to him about this? [ A pause. ] This game isn't the first done on this ship, and if the powers that be have their way... it won't be the last.

Edited Date: 2023-06-29 06:03 am (UTC)

From:

superstylishsquid

[It's different enough from Latin that he can't make heads or tails of it, a stark reminder of his sealed magic. It would normally be so easy to weave a simple translation spell, or even lift the meaning of the words directly from Roland's mind. But here he is, only able to guess at anything outside of his limited range of modern languages.]

He might not even remember, if his memories are messed with too. But if he does, I want answers. 'Specially before telling the rest. Who knows what some of them might do, right? And we don't want another trial on our hands, even if it does turn out Zack set all this up.

From:

godspiousjasper

[ For the most part he had refrained from slipping into his native tongue before now, but sometimes it happened purely out of habit. There was nothing malicious behind such an action, being more of a comfort thing without him really realizing it. ]

We won't know until we speak with him, this is true. The worst we could say is that his memories were tampered with, but there's also a possibility that he knows more than he's letting on.

[ Some people weren't as honest as the two of them were, after all. ]

From:

superstylishsquid

Wouldn't be surprised if he had stuff he was keeping his mouth shut on, since the doll said...not exact phrasing, but it said this wouldn't stop as long as he's here. Even without possibly having caused this, some people might take that as a suggestion on how to get out of here, y'know?

'Least, that's what I'd expect, if I thought this was all being done to get under my skin.

From:

godspiousjasper

Mm-hm. The last thing we want is people trying to kill Zack, so we must collect as much information as completely necessary.

[ Going to take a decent drink from his glass, exhaling a soft noise amidst his thoughts. ]

So... we need to get Zack alone and speak to him in private about these matters within the next week if we can.

From:

superstylishsquid

Yeah. Or at least just...with only people around we trust not to fly off the handle.

[He shakes his head and takes a drink of his own.]

Short list, considering this circus.

From:

godspiousjasper

Hmm.. what about Moriarty? You guys get along and I trust him not to act irrationally.

[ Alastor was free to say no, as it was a suggestion but he didn't think there'd be a problem. ]

From:

superstylishsquid

Yeah, I think we can trust him to think things through.

From:

godspiousjasper

Perfect. Then... we'll find Moriarty and discuss things with him before we arrange a time to meet up with Zack. Work for you?

[ He quite enjoyed having a solid plan to work with here, a direction he could look towards. Being here had dampened his spirit some, but now he felt a bit more uplifted. ]