WEEK 5.

[trustfellows]

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!]

Comments

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda didn't show at the Christmas shindig last night largely because... well, because it was a Christmas shindig. She didn't want to deal with any association with that hateful God, her mood the way it is. She's had a lot to think about, and while she did actually leave the room on Wednesday (unlike Thursday), this is probably most's first chance to see the woman since Tuesday.

She's sitting in the Foyer, her eyes drifting between Alena's door (where that ruckus was so late last night) and the Profiles. She... mmm. Well, anyone who walks in will he urged to sit with her and: ]

So, do you have any hidden stories you know? Might be forgetting them tomorrow, might as well spread it out.

[hentopan]

Stories, huh? Might want to be a bit more specific.

[ Not sitting, but that did get him to stop. ]

[matchbreaker]

Iunno, something you'll forget and might as well tell someone else.

[ Not her deal. But shrugs. ]

[hentopan]

Keh, anything I would forget would be more beneficial to me.

[matchbreaker]

What, being a blank slate's better?

[hentopan]

Not at all.

Don't have anyone important to me, and if he's stupid enough maybe he'd get some memories of my sister. Got enough of those that I could stand to lose a few.

[matchbreaker]

No one, in either sense? All your resentment of her seems to define a lot of you.

[ninehundredlives]

You know them already.

[But she'll sit anyway, also looking at Alena's door. There's a few things to discuss about that, to be sure.

Maybe in a bit.]

I've got a lodger, now. She's the only person I think he might take who isn't either here or dead. He'll probably start with the dead ones, of course.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, is that one at all important for you?

[ She asks with some mild curiosity. But... yes, she does know the outline, for Susan. But as for her...

Mmm.

That said, the older woman can't help but be certain that for Susan, the first to go will be her family. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah, I guess so? She was the only friend I had back there. But...yeah, she wouldn't be the first to go.

[.....she drums her fingers on the arm of her chair.]

So much of my life wouldn't make any sense if I forgot them. I don't know what that would be like. I guess you know about that, though...

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . ]

I know of your loss, and what you have told me of their meaning for you. But to imagine yourself without them? I cannot imagine myself without James. It would be akin to taking my fangs or my stomach. It's... a loss that cannot be replaced. I might as well die.

[ninehundredlives]

You would. And I would, too. We'd be such different people that us - this - would be gone. It's...I don't like thinking about how fragile that is. Even if we were to just be killed, at least we would die still ourselves, you know?

[matchbreaker]

And of course you would say that.

[ But at the same time, despite the bite back in her tone, she can't... entirely disagree with it. Honestly, a world in which she never know James Edwards - James Marker - is that world even worth anything?

She can't... consider that. Not now, it's far too close to the precipice for her. ]

The hearts of all creatures are surprisingly delicate things. We're all subject to that, for better or worse.

foyer

[bloodbiter]

...You will have to be a bit more specific.

[Not that she seems to mind discussing them. She sits without complaint.]

[matchbreaker]

Some secret knowledge that you might want someone else to know if you forget, I suppose.

[ It's a little broad. ]

[bloodbiter]

...I don't typically keep many secrets, so it's hard to know exactly what would qualify.

[matchbreaker]

Well, then you can just say whatever. I suppose I'm just being antsy.

[ Mmm ]

... Or you can hear mine out.

[bloodbiter]

I should love to hear yours, if you would be willing to tell me.

[matchbreaker]

That's some shrewd diplomacy, Princess.

[ it's said with fair humor though. Go on, sit somewhere, let's talk. ]

It's less about me, and more about my family.

[destage]

...Hidden stories, huh? That's a bit of a tall order, but...mmm. The only story I can really think of is one that I'd rather forget, honestly. Though, there is another one...

[Still, she'll take a seat near Elda and smile, almost sheepishly?]

I don't suppose you're asking because you have one?

[matchbreaker]

Oh, of course I do. It's something I've rambled much of to you already, my dear, but perhaps I ought to be more clear with it all.

[ If she wants to hear her out. That said... yes, a story she'd rather forget, being in another one of these games. They should talk about that, shouldn't they?

... another one?

She smiles warmly, relaxing her shoulders for Sayaka. ]

[destage]

Clear...well, I wouldn't mind if you were. I understand why you wouldn't be, though, but...

[...hmm. Well...]

How would you like to do this? I have...one bad story, and one good story to share--would you be willing to give me a bad and good story in exchange?

[matchbreaker]

A good story... [ Does she have a good story that she's not scared? Or a bad story she's not shared? She... she eventually nods, but ] I cannot promise the mood of either won't be complicated.

[destage]

It's fine. A story in exchange for a story is what I'm looking for, and that's completely fine...who do you want to start, and with which story?

cw: loose suicide implication?

[matchbreaker]

Perhaps I shall. You've ... read or heard of both of these, but allow me to shed some light onto how they connect. In the end, this shall be a story of hope, but you'd be forgiven to not understand that until then.

[ she exhales, and she... adopts a somewhat somber expression. Sayaka's heard more or less all of the second half of this, just with a more flowery tone. And the first half was implied by the secret she showed her, though she's filling in the details. ]

Two hundred years ago, the church decided that they were done with my people. They had a lead to hunt down the major houses, and the humans gathered up their soldiers and their inquisition to purge Europe of vampires. Many, many died. My ... the whole Marker clan save for me was lost. But the one who whisked me off, and I hated him for it at the time, was James Edwards. I screamed, that my parents or brother might've escaped to the woods. But in the end, it was clear...

I was alone.

He took me to a boat, a boat where he and many others had gathered up all the vampires they could find in secret, and us survivors set out, going into the oceans and across the world. When I boarded the boat... He told me that I was never to see my homeland again. It's true - it's true that was the case. Never would I ever return to Europe's soil or see what was left of them all there.

For months, we were at sea. And eventually, we came to that land where we knew no one could possibly recognize us- a land called Japan. We vampires are solitary creatures to begin with, bound more to our families than anything else. When we landed, they all went their different ways, settling in other parts of the country. And once more...

I was alone.

[ She... ] Or so I thought. But once more, that roguish man, James Edwards, followed me. My loneliness, my despair, my hatred - all of it threatened to swallow me whole. Even now, I've relinquished little of the last. Even now, I can't help but find James naive for what he told me, about how meeting violence with violence would only make it never ending. About how he would prefer that we could befriend the humans, live alongside them. But I rejected him, over and over.

... I thought I had pushed him away, as I sat on a cliff, looking over at the end of the night. The sun would rise soon enough, and some part of me couldn't help but wonder what it would matter if I saw it for the first time since I was a little girl. I was alone. Without my family, without friends to call my own. Without anything.

But then, for a third time, that man came to me. He kissed my hair, and said he wanted to spend eternity with me. He pulled me close and said he wanted to be mine. He... he saved me, James. [ She... ] Loneliness is the most insidious of killers, but that man - he was true to his word. I had two hundred years of happiness alongside him. I had a beautiful son and three beautiful grandchildren. Those memories... they're the reason I'm still here.

[ She... ]

... He saved me from that loneliness. As long as I can see my family, as long as they're with me. I'll never want to see that sunrise, ever again.