trustfell | WEEK 5.

WEEK 5.

WEEK 5
Tabitha Smith, Sigrun Eide, and Solf J Kimblee are all dead. Regardless of what you think of the trial or the events leading up to it, there's no denying that you can feel the dent in your numbers now. After all, ten people are gone now.

It may be hard, but all you can do is keep going.

Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; come Sunday morning, the clock chimes the hour at seven o'clock and there are no dead bodies to be found, so it can be assumed that all of you are safe for the time being. That said, you'll be feeling a little groggy when you wake up; it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost...

What with Jericho's excitement at the last trial, it's evident now more than ever that the new floor that's opened up to you is a gift, a reward for a job well-done. Because while surviving is something that you'll continue to try to do of your own merit...well.

Let's say that he's so, so very proud of you.

~~PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 25~~

~~PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 24~~

PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 23

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week five 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 Coordinators, you can do so through private meetings with Alena!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[If Kirei's interest is mild, Rin's is fierce. What a great room? It's so well stocked; if she had something like this at home—she'd have to make room for it, of course, but the shelves would be a great way for organizing materials for anything she might need, magecraft or otherwise. Rin's a kid in a candy store here; some of the salts are out, and she's currently checking out the beakers and a vial rack, and while she hears someone come in, she doesn't bother to look up to see who's there.]

...Of course you would be in here. Have you found anything useful?

[Dammit, it's him. Rin's good mood doesn't quite deflate, but it's definitely noticing a pebble in your shoe.

Oh well. She was going to seek him out today, anyways.]

[Looking over her shoulder at him, she sets the beakers aside for the moment.]

That would depend on your definition of useful. Back home this would be a small gold mine, but if you mean to ask if anything out of the ordinary has turned up like those keys, then I'd have to say no. Not yet, anyways.

[he's kind of a moodkiller]

Well, perhaps we'll be able to put some of this to use sooner or later. I would qualify that as 'useful'.

In that case, yes. There's a lot we can do with what's in here, though the same goes for what can be used against us. I noticed multiple toxins.

[She points them out to him.]

With the way the last two trials have gone, I'd remove them if I didn't think they'd be restocked by tomorrow.

Would that it were that easy. For now I think the best we can do is be sure to take inventory of what's stocked here in case someone ends up poisoned.

I'm already on it, though if you want to do your own check I can't stop you.

[With a dismissive hand wave.]

Putting aside that, it's good that I ran into you today. I have a question.

Do you? Very well--what is it?

How is there an eighth Servant running around in the Holy Grail War?

An eighth Servant? That certainly is unprecedented, but not impossible.

[Rin places a hand on her hip.]

Possible or not, it's not something that should happen. An eighth Servant allying themselves with a harmless gnat like Shinji Matou? Even less so. The last I saw him, he was running with his tail between his legs straight for your church, so if there's anyone who could explain that it should be you.

...Wait, what?

[Kirei's look of infuriating condescension cracked in favor of what appeared to be honest confusion. Gilgamesh, work with Shinji Matou? Not a chance, he'd throttle the would-be mage just to see him twitching. Besides that, he was certainly already-]

Rin, I don't know what you're talking about.

[She'd probably scoff if that wasn't such a rare look on him.]

...Seriously? [How could he not know? Even in her memory, she was sure of it. The only complication was they didn't know Kirei's whereabouts to properly question him. Unless—No, that's not possible either.] I'm sure Caster's only made the church her base recently, since I spoke with you on the phone after that incident at school. Did Shinji never go to you in the first place?

[He's a coward, so she'd find that twice as shocking over him suddenly having the most powerful Servant in the war.]

...What?

[??????????]

Caster's done nothing of the sort, and I don't believe I've spoken with Shinji Matou in recent memory. What incident are you speaking of?

[Kirei not only has she taken over the church she's stuck Saber in a sexy wedding dress right under the cross, it's like the weirdest Playboy pinup.

...Incidentally, she has an inkling she knows what's going on here. It's not like Kirei to play dumb. If he doesn't know what she's talking about with this it'll confirm it.]

A few days before I arrived here, Shinji had Rider activate a bounded field over the school to harvest everyone's mana. No one died, but it was a close thing; dozens of students and faculty had to be hospitalized.

[You know, the kind of incident you have to tell the overseer about immediately so they can cover it the hell up.]

...I see.

[It fell into place as events became more disjointed, ironically enough. Kirei frowned, folding his arms behind his back as usual.]

Even with all the talk of Second Magic, I hadn't considered this outcome. Had you come to me with any of this a week or two ago, I might have presumed our lost memories merely failed to line up. But I'm afraid even that can not account for the fact that I have no idea what you are talking about.

So you've come to the same conclusion I have. How frustrating.

[Sighing, Rin raises a fist to her chin.] Should we compare notes? If there were major discrepancies like the nature of our relationship or the nuances of magecraft, we should have noticed them before now. Whatever difference there are, they're probably recent.

I agree with that--any core differences that would result in tremendous shifts would certainly have come up by now. As it stands, perhaps catching each other up on the situation would be a wise choice.

First, tell me about this eighth Servant and what he's doing with Shinji Matou of all people.

[Another sigh, this one more exasperated.] That's what I'd like to know. Since I can't give you that answer, the best I can do is explain how we encountered them.

[At least it's fresh in her memory, since it was the very dream she had today. Rin intuitively skips over certain details and focuses on the basics.]

Emiya-kun and I were intending to strike an alliance with Illyasviel von Einzbern, but by the time we made it through the forest, it was obvious a battle was going on. We snuck into the castle just in time to see her Berserker facing off against a Servant we hadn't seen before.

It was an intense fight, but Goldie bested Berserker in the end by exhausting all twelve of his lives. Strangely, his defeat didn't seem to be their main goal, though. After he was killed and Illya was likewise dead, Goldie tore out her heart.

Even though he's with Shinji, he's obviously the one calling the shots. Shinji wanted to fight us, but Goldie determined to leave because he was more concerned with preserving Illya's heart.

... [Kirei frowned, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he carefully turned this information over in his head. What was Gilgamesh thinking? For that matter, what on earth was he thinking? Control of the vessel was paramount to awakening the Grail, that much was obvious. Whether the vessel was living or dead made no difference, Kirei knew that much through experience. But why so straightforward, and why take out her heart rather than merely recover the body itself? Perhaps to make someone else the vessel through transplant, but that seemed pointless.]

[...speaking of vessels-]

Is there anything else out of the ordinary about the war? An unusual number of fatalities through collateral damage, for example.

...that's a very specific question, Kirei.

[Rin sharpens in on that immediately, like she suspects it pertains more to his version of events than her own. There's an edge to her voice that demands he explain himself once she's humored answering him.]

The Holy Grail War is a secret war, so that would be a terrible outcome for us and one to be avoided at all costs. As near as I can tell, even Caster has been cautious about that. We've had close calls thanks to Shinji, but the only fatalities have been the ones you'd expect.

[Servants and other Masters, essentially.]

It's not the same for you? If you're asking me this, I have to assume something went sideways.

[...Well, no point in being coy about everything. It would likely be to his own advantage to be straightforward about some of it while keeping a few other cards a little closer to his chest.]

First of all, Shinji Matou is--or was, at my last recollection--no longer a representative Master from his family. [Not that he ever really was, but that was down to semantics and details that meant nothing. He was inconsequential, and therefore glossed over.] At the time of my most recent memory, the Holy Grail War has been waged for approximately...two weeks, I believe. Illyasviel von Einzbern was in some moderate peril, but still alive.

More pertinent to your question is the matter of a quite literal dark shadow plaguing the war at the moment, and the individual who was until recently influencing it.

Zouken Matou has...or had sway over the vessel of the Lesser Grail.

[So Shinji's no longer a Master... And most likely dead, if she's understand Kirei correctly. Rin can't help but frown at that. If he's dead, he brought it all on his head, but whatever she might think of him, he was still Sakura's brother. She wanted to avoid that outcome.

It seems like Illya is alive in his place, however, and curiosity compels her to ask about Shirou after Kirei explains himself. When he does, however...]

Vessel...?

[She sounds confused. Look, it took us a little longer to get the important deets on that plot point in UBW, okok. But she can put two and two together with this much.]

You're saying the Lesser Grail is a person. [...and with that she can make sense of one mystery.] It's the Einzbern's role to provide the Grail for the war, so that can only be Illyasviel. Zouken captured her?

While none of that is objectively incorrect according to my memories, perhaps I misspoke. What I should have said is 'Zouken Matou had sway over a vessel of the lesser grail'.

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