Week 8.

[trustfellows]

WEEK 8 Regardless of what you think of the most recent deaths, four more people have died this week. Milla Maxwell, Angel, Susan Ashworth, and Aligula are gone now, leaving you with about a quarter of your original number. Thirty-five down to twelve - this can't keep going for much longer, can it? Is there anything you can do? 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... Unlike the previous weeks, however, it seems that either you've reached the end of the line or Jericho has decided to stop rewarding you for your effort; where there would usually be a stairwell to a new floor, you're met with nothing but solid wall. Perhaps it's distressing; perhaps it's a good sign. Only time will tell, and time isn't something you have a lot of around here. PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 12

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week eight 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 Hilda!]

Comments

[matchbreaker]

Which way the incentive works. It is as the secrets, where only the one who attempts it secures salvation, or does one person secure it for everyone, as with the timer and some others? I can't parse it at all.

[bloodbiter]

You could always clarify it with Hilda, I imagine.

[But...]

If they are not lying outright... I pray that all our worlds will be saved if one person acts. [A sigh.] Though I'm aware that's incredibly selfish.

[matchbreaker]

Nah, that's something everyone's going to feel.

[ She leans back a little. ]

... I'm not sure I want to be scolded by Hilda for that though, precisely because it is so selfish.

[bloodbiter]

[A thoughtful pause.]

I have no qualms with speaking to her about it, if you would like me to.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . ]

Well, perhaps that would be best? Even if that feels like cowardice on my part.

[bloodbiter]

[She nods.]

I'll do so, then.

[All the same, she has to wonder...]

What would you do if she told us all of our worlds could be saved if one person acted?

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . What, indeed . . .

She digs her nail in again, and her eyes shift to that predatory mode. But she doesn't look... well, perhaps she is angry, but it's not some big, bombastic thing. It's more quiet, more cold. What, indeed. ]

It'd be in my best interests to not answer either way, would it not?

[bloodbiter]

...I suppose I can't argue with that.

[But she seems disappointed by the answer regardless.]

[matchbreaker]

I've never denied my own vulnerability. Near to every week, I've had some reason or another - and it demands either trusting or betraying my family, depending on how you look at it.

[ She ... ]

This one, judged poorly, will be their death.

[ And her temper flares for a moment, and she digs her nails intp the chair arm, snapping it from the force as she slams it down. ]

[bloodbiter]

[She notices the snap, but she doesn't break her gaze or give much of a reaction at all to it.]

Not only their death. The death of everyone in our worlds. This is much more than anything we've had to contend with thus far.

[After all, she's told Elda already that were the stakes only her own loved ones... She would not take that offer.]

[matchbreaker]

For you.

[ She corrects that. ]

... I don't give a damn about the world, as long ad my family's safe.

[ It's true that's the home she offered Sayaka, it's true that they live in that world and to be anywhere else... that's a tall order. But the fact is, all those other people, the world in general? It can all piss off for all she cares.

Or at least.

That's something that feels good to say. ]

[bloodbiter]

[There are a thousand responses to that which come to mind, but in the end...]

Not all of us have the luxury of being unconcerned with anyone other than our families.

[She means it to be cutting, but more than anything, it's just tired.]

[matchbreaker]

[ She nods. ]

Of course not. You've got a people and a kingdom. That burden's one you've got to consider.

[ Elda lost everything except her family. That's all she has, and it's all she cares about.

... Right? ]

[bloodbiter]

Yes.

[A small intake of breath.]

My father, during his rule, never cared much for the safety of his people. Or, rather... He cared more for his own life than for their fates. I can't afford to make his mistake.

[matchbreaker]

[ And Elda won't lose... but that would be such a shame. So much so, she doesn't word it so much has just dig her nails into where she snapped the arm. ]

Good, that is as it ought to be, for your circumstances. Even if I resent the burden being on one your age.

[bloodbiter]

[It gets a small smile.]

You have nothing to resent. It isn't that I'm being put in a position of authority against my will... Rather, it's by choice. I know that things cannot continue as they are, and I can't rely on anyone to change that but myself.

[Then, her grin grows a bit more wry.]

You told me I had the bearing of a warrior. Why not a leader?

[matchbreaker]

[ Why not? The fact of the matter is... ]

I'm just too old and too soft these days, that's all. Think nothing of it.

[ She sighs again, shaking her head. ]

I have a granddaughter your age, is all.

[bloodbiter]

Any it is hard to imagine your granddaughter leading a country, I assume.

[She can understand that well enough.]

[matchbreaker]

Yes, but more than that, she'd never be given the choice to do so.

[ She picks up a book off the shelf, mostly so she doesn't smash up the chair more. ]

It seems the more time passes, the longer people are permitted to be children.

[bloodbiter]

[She pauses for a moment, to reflect.]

My first memory is seeing a gryphon fly over our castle, a creature that could have killed many. When I was twelve, I was nearly killed for the first time. When I was sixteen, I left home for the first time, and there... It happened more times than I might count.

[She's glancing at the ground again.]

I have happy memories from when I was younger, but I'm not certain I was permitted a childhood. It's not something I want pity for. It made me strong, and that has helped me survive this long.

[matchbreaker]

Worry not, you'll get no pity from me. [ But it's said with some dark humor to it. of course she'll get pity from her. She likes Adelina far too much to have that not be the case. And she waves the book before tossing it aside. ]

I grew up a spoiled noble. I wanted for nothing up until my early twenties, when the world I knew basically ended. But I'm not ignorant as to think that was regular for the time. These days, though, human kids go to school until they're a little older thna you, and then can opt to do even more school. Japan's coming of age point is twenty.