[He had come here initially to find someone else, but when he sees Tamamo...he almost turns around and leaves. Except, like, at the same time he knows he can't avoid her forever. So he watches her for a moment, mirroring her stance from behind before...]
[honestly it's going to be more like eight minutes because nothing is ever consistent when it comes to baking, either you underestimate the timing and everything comes out soggy, or you wait too long and the underneath of your projects has been burnt to a crisp, but ANYWAY--
She'll approach him at some point and there's a plate of chocolate chip cookies in her hands... which she'll just. place in front of him like a tribute before taking a couple of steps back. She picks nervously at her fingers.
...
...
...]
So... it has come to my attention that I perhaps acted... inappropriately in some ways... and caused undeserved grief to you...
[Have you ever seen a dog that got yelled at and their tails just wag sadly behind them? Yeah.]
... Though I did not know what would be sufficient in bribing you to forgive me, so I went with a standard human favorite...
[That's...fine. He'll wait for as long as he to because he's not sure what the hell Tamamo's doing, but when she approaches and sets the plate down he looks at the cookies with nothing less than a stunned expression. He looks at the cookies and then back up at her and blinks in surprise.]
[He's still surprised for a handful of reasons but one look at his face makes it clear that he's definitely not mad. He's staring at the plate before he looks up at her again.]
...yeah, of course. [Humbling herself is sort of like saying she's sorry, but he'll take it.] I didn't think you knew how to bake.
[There's a pleased noise because, like, he does like cookies? So he's finishing it and licking his lips before there's a slow nod.]
...they're really good, yeah. Thanks. [But he tilts his head a bit as he watches her, eyes looking back to her tails briefly before he laughs lightly.] Were you going to come find me later with these?
[... Admittedly, hearing any apology (deserved or not) goes a long way into softening her features]
To your credit, I doubt there would have been a right way.
[...]
Junpei... I'm not the true Tamamo no Mae. She resides in an ethereal plane known as the Throne of Heroes. There, all types of figures who have made their mark on history reside, until they are summoned or called down upon the world to defend it.
Consider me more of a... projection of her, as the world would likely not be able to handle her full existence. [A shrug]
And as a projection, I have almost no bearing on the original. Should I die, Tamamo no Mae will continue to exist, and be summoned again. Over and over.
[Rearranging her hands on her lap, sighing, before she reaches over and takes a cookie for herself]
But it takes a miracle to be summoned. Every second is a gift to us Servants. It's why even knowing I am expendable, I wanted to make my wish come true somehow...
[...]
Though as previously mentioned, the requirements to keep me in the realm of the living are... steep. You'd need magic circuits, first off, and even then, most humans would buckle under the pressure of maintaining me. It'd be one thing if we were in the middle of a Holy Grail War -- then, at least, my purpose would be to protect you and win our battles, while you kept my existence stable. But during times of peace the benefit is...
[-- nonexistent, she wants to say, but Tamamo is trying not to make the same mistakes, either]
...aren't you the one who said that you believed if we were fighting in a Holy Grail War, I'd be the one who could summon you? [It's nothing accusatory or even really argumentative. It's just a statement, an inquiry, and he's contemplating his options here.]
You...aren't the first person I've saved. You aren't even the first person I've saved who wasn't a full, true version of yourself. [...] Sometimes you have to believe in miracles even when it's never really about that. There s always a universe where things work the way they're supposed to.
I meant under the most ideal of conditions! And if you were a magus. Which you are not, to my knowledge. Who knows if your scrawny arms could handle magic circuits.
[Biting into her cookie]
... Though I will concede -- that is indeed an impressive resume. [No wonder he was stung when Tamamo shut him down]
[...He tilts his head back to look at the ceiling.]
It was about a year ago. I was still in school and my life was pretty normal up until that point. It was the fall, and I came home from work pretty late one night but when I got to my apartment, someone was waiting for me. A guy in a mask unleashed some white smoke that knocked me out, and when I woke up next I was on a ship with a weird bracelet attached to my wrist. It was bracelet number five. I was locked in a third-class cabin on one of the lower decks, and when the room started flooding with water I had to figure out a way to escape the room. Solve a puzzle, find the keycards to equal the right number, and get out of there alive to reach the hallway. By the time I got there, the hall was full of water. D Deck was flooding fast, but I ran up the stairs and got to B Deck. That's when I found out I wasn't alone. There were seven other people there on the staircases, and I don't know if any of us really expected to see each other. Most of us were strangers. But before I could ask...a girl came down the stairs.
It didn't register right away because it had been a while, but I immediately knew I'd seen her before. The ship shook, and she fell down the stairs. When I caught her, I realized she knew me, too. [A pause.] Akane and I hadn't spoken or even seen each other since the end of elementary school, but here she was on this ship. All nine of us learned that we had the same experience before this. We were kidnapped from our homes, knocked out by a guy in a mask and woke up on this ship locked in a room we had to escape. Once we were all together, a speaker in the corner started playing a broadcast.
[And here he begins to recite.] "Welcome aboard. I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this, my vessel. I am Zero, the captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here. I mean to have you participate in a game. Some of you, I know, are familiar with this game. The Nonary Game. It is a game where you will put your life on the line. The rules of the Nonary Game can be found upon your persons. The purpose of the game is simple. Leave this ship alive. It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out. Seek a door that carries a 9. There is one last thing I must tell you. As you have no doubt surmised, this ship has begun to sink. On April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. 9 hours. That is the time you will be given to make your escape."
When we started to check everything, we saw that the windows wouldn't open and a lot of the doors were locked. There wasn't any way out of the ship right away, so we split up and started looking around. The entirety of D Deck was underwater, but we found an elevator and rooms and doors to pass through. The game functioned on a system where we had to use our bracelet numbers to get a digital root that equaled the number on each locked door. Each bracelet would be scanned in, and each person who entered the room needed to contribute to solving the puzzle. No less than three and no more than five people could enter the room, and if we broke those rules, or we didn't activate the sensor inside to scan in...a bomb inside of us would explode. That happened to the Ninth Man.
So...we didn't really have a choice but to play along. We had to go through these rooms and risk our lives trusting each other and finding a way out. We lost some people on the way, and the longer we played we started talking more and realized there was something bigger that happened.
[He's getting to the point, and this is maybe the most he's ever said to her.] I found out from this girl, Clover. She had bracelet number four and we worked together on a few different puzzles. She told me that nine years before the Nonary Game I played in, the first Nonary Game was run. It was an experiment run by a company called Cradle Pharmaceuticals. Nine people were put on a ship that was starting to sink, and nine others were in the building that looked identical to the inside of the ship. It was nine pairs of siblings, all kids. The purpose of the Nonary Game was to test for telepathy using the Morphogenic Field. Think of it like a fourth dimension, or a space of consciousness where living beings can tap in and obtain and exchange information between each other. In order to access the field, you need two factors. Clover told me that the first is epiphany and the second is danger. The Nonary Game itself was meant to introduce danger and force these kids to access the field to save themselves, to see how easily it could be done to transfer information between pairs. It was life or death, and according to Clover, a girl died during the experiment.
[There's a long pause.] So. Nine years later, we played the same game. Zero kidnapped us and put our lives in danger. The killings started not long after we got there, and as we started learning more about the ship and our circumstances, we came to the conclusion that Zero was among us. None of knew why, or what was happening to cause all of this, but we learned that Clover wasn't the only one who'd played in the first Nonary Game in our group. Her brother, Snake, was with us. And so was a guy named Santa. It was Santa who kind of tipped us off to what needed to happen, and then it became clear. It was revenge for what had happened all those years ago. People were killed and punished for their role in the initial game, even if we didn't know it.
[...] Akane Kurashiki had died nine years before in the first Nonary Game. She burned alive in an incinerator because she couldn't solve the puzzle and save herself. Nine years before our game, Akane saw a timeline where everything went a certain way, but it was a timeline in her future and my present. In the present, the Akane I knew that existed among us almost existed like a paradox, and she was able to orchestrate the entire game with Santa's help, recreating everything she saw and altering rules as she needed to enact her revenge and get us to play along. This girl was Zero, and she brought all of us to that building to help save herself and make sure she would exist in the future she had established herself in instead of disappearing.
There was something there that connected us in the Morphogenetic Field, so she could guide me to help me save her. She saw everything through me, and guided me through the whole game to make sure her plan worked. We solved the last puzzle together in two separate timelines through the Morphogenetic Field. Even though she died in that timeline previously, I was able to help her get out of that room and help her escape from the ship before it sank. Saving her meant that she could exist in the current timeline and secured her future. By the time I solved everything though, and by the time I lost my connection with her, we found our way off of the ship and realized we were inside Building Q all along. There was a car left for us to get out of the desert, but Santa and Akane were both missing.
...I dropped out of school and became a detective to find her. And that's what happened.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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What're you doing?
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Unleashing an unholy screech as she turns and
tries to muscle him right out of the kitchen]
No no no no! Out with you immediately!!
[:/]
You're too early!! Come back in five minutes!!
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The moment he's sufficiently out of the kitchen, Tamamo points to some corner for him to sit in.]
Five. Minutes. Do not move from that spot.
[And just disappears back into the kitchen.
\8|/]
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Fine, whatever....five minutes. [And he waits.]
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She'll approach him at some point and there's a plate of chocolate chip cookies in her hands... which she'll just. place in front of him like a tribute before taking a couple of steps back. She picks nervously at her fingers.
...
...
...]
So... it has come to my attention that I perhaps acted... inappropriately in some ways... and caused undeserved grief to you...
[Have you ever seen a dog that got yelled at and their tails just wag sadly behind them? Yeah.]
... Though I did not know what would be sufficient in bribing you to forgive me, so I went with a standard human favorite...
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...you...made me apology cookies. [...holy shit.]
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God, she hates this, and now has to swing this back into her favor somehow, trying to wipe some of the nervousness from her expression]
Y-yes, of course! Even I know how to humble myself on occasion!
[It's fine.
She's not worried he'll still be mad.]
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...yeah, of course. [Humbling herself is sort of like saying she's sorry, but he'll take it.] I didn't think you knew how to bake.
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[Laundry is a gray area when it includes herself, but--]
They're all qualities for a good wife. Why would I not work hard to make sure I excel in those areas?
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They'll taste delicious.
Tamamo just doesn't care to reveal that skill to most people, it seems, and even so, she looks to him with another round of nerves]
... Are they... sufficient?
[mmmrrr]
I'm not as familiar with these types of ovens.
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...they're really good, yeah. Thanks. [But he tilts his head a bit as he watches her, eyes looking back to her tails briefly before he laughs lightly.] Were you going to come find me later with these?
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Seeing as he is correct and yeah, yeah. She was going to hunt him down with a plate-filled with cookies. She guesses.
Rather than respond at all, Tamamo chooses to glance sideways at the wall and play with her fingernails again.]
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...sit down, Tamamo.
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And waits for him to say whatever he wants to this time.]
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...I'm not going to apologize for trying to find a way to save you. But I will apologize for going about it the wrong way.
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To your credit, I doubt there would have been a right way.
[...]
Junpei... I'm not the true Tamamo no Mae. She resides in an ethereal plane known as the Throne of Heroes. There, all types of figures who have made their mark on history reside, until they are summoned or called down upon the world to defend it.
Consider me more of a... projection of her, as the world would likely not be able to handle her full existence. [A shrug]
And as a projection, I have almost no bearing on the original. Should I die, Tamamo no Mae will continue to exist, and be summoned again. Over and over.
[Rearranging her hands on her lap, sighing, before she reaches over and takes a cookie for herself]
But it takes a miracle to be summoned. Every second is a gift to us Servants. It's why even knowing I am expendable, I wanted to make my wish come true somehow...
[...]
Though as previously mentioned, the requirements to keep me in the realm of the living are... steep. You'd need magic circuits, first off, and even then, most humans would buckle under the pressure of maintaining me. It'd be one thing if we were in the middle of a Holy Grail War -- then, at least, my purpose would be to protect you and win our battles, while you kept my existence stable. But during times of peace the benefit is...
[-- nonexistent, she wants to say, but Tamamo is trying not to make the same mistakes, either]
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You...aren't the first person I've saved. You aren't even the first person I've saved who wasn't a full, true version of yourself. [...] Sometimes you have to believe in miracles even when it's never really about that. There s always a universe where things work the way they're supposed to.
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[Mouth slipping into a pout]
I meant under the most ideal of conditions! And if you were a magus. Which you are not, to my knowledge. Who knows if your scrawny arms could handle magic circuits.
[Biting into her cookie]
... Though I will concede -- that is indeed an impressive resume. [No wonder he was stung when Tamamo shut him down]
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[...he tilts his head.] ...didn't I tell you about Akane?
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It quickly turns bemused, however, and she shakes her head]
Tell me what, exactly?
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[All she knows is the memory where she watched Junpei press "betray"]
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It was about a year ago. I was still in school and my life was pretty normal up until that point. It was the fall, and I came home from work pretty late one night but when I got to my apartment, someone was waiting for me. A guy in a mask unleashed some white smoke that knocked me out, and when I woke up next I was on a ship with a weird bracelet attached to my wrist. It was bracelet number five. I was locked in a third-class cabin on one of the lower decks, and when the room started flooding with water I had to figure out a way to escape the room. Solve a puzzle, find the keycards to equal the right number, and get out of there alive to reach the hallway. By the time I got there, the hall was full of water. D Deck was flooding fast, but I ran up the stairs and got to B Deck. That's when I found out I wasn't alone. There were seven other people there on the staircases, and I don't know if any of us really expected to see each other. Most of us were strangers. But before I could ask...a girl came down the stairs.
It didn't register right away because it had been a while, but I immediately knew I'd seen her before. The ship shook, and she fell down the stairs. When I caught her, I realized she knew me, too. [A pause.] Akane and I hadn't spoken or even seen each other since the end of elementary school, but here she was on this ship. All nine of us learned that we had the same experience before this. We were kidnapped from our homes, knocked out by a guy in a mask and woke up on this ship locked in a room we had to escape. Once we were all together, a speaker in the corner started playing a broadcast.
[And here he begins to recite.] "Welcome aboard. I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this, my vessel. I am Zero, the captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here. I mean to have you participate in a game. Some of you, I know, are familiar with this game. The Nonary Game. It is a game where you will put your life on the line. The rules of the Nonary Game can be found upon your persons. The purpose of the game is simple. Leave this ship alive. It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out. Seek a door that carries a 9. There is one last thing I must tell you. As you have no doubt surmised, this ship has begun to sink. On April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. 9 hours. That is the time you will be given to make your escape."
When we started to check everything, we saw that the windows wouldn't open and a lot of the doors were locked. There wasn't any way out of the ship right away, so we split up and started looking around. The entirety of D Deck was underwater, but we found an elevator and rooms and doors to pass through. The game functioned on a system where we had to use our bracelet numbers to get a digital root that equaled the number on each locked door. Each bracelet would be scanned in, and each person who entered the room needed to contribute to solving the puzzle. No less than three and no more than five people could enter the room, and if we broke those rules, or we didn't activate the sensor inside to scan in...a bomb inside of us would explode. That happened to the Ninth Man.
So...we didn't really have a choice but to play along. We had to go through these rooms and risk our lives trusting each other and finding a way out. We lost some people on the way, and the longer we played we started talking more and realized there was something bigger that happened.
[He's getting to the point, and this is maybe the most he's ever said to her.] I found out from this girl, Clover. She had bracelet number four and we worked together on a few different puzzles. She told me that nine years before the Nonary Game I played in, the first Nonary Game was run. It was an experiment run by a company called Cradle Pharmaceuticals. Nine people were put on a ship that was starting to sink, and nine others were in the building that looked identical to the inside of the ship. It was nine pairs of siblings, all kids. The purpose of the Nonary Game was to test for telepathy using the Morphogenic Field. Think of it like a fourth dimension, or a space of consciousness where living beings can tap in and obtain and exchange information between each other. In order to access the field, you need two factors. Clover told me that the first is epiphany and the second is danger. The Nonary Game itself was meant to introduce danger and force these kids to access the field to save themselves, to see how easily it could be done to transfer information between pairs. It was life or death, and according to Clover, a girl died during the experiment.
[There's a long pause.] So. Nine years later, we played the same game. Zero kidnapped us and put our lives in danger. The killings started not long after we got there, and as we started learning more about the ship and our circumstances, we came to the conclusion that Zero was among us. None of knew why, or what was happening to cause all of this, but we learned that Clover wasn't the only one who'd played in the first Nonary Game in our group. Her brother, Snake, was with us. And so was a guy named Santa. It was Santa who kind of tipped us off to what needed to happen, and then it became clear. It was revenge for what had happened all those years ago. People were killed and punished for their role in the initial game, even if we didn't know it.
[...] Akane Kurashiki had died nine years before in the first Nonary Game. She burned alive in an incinerator because she couldn't solve the puzzle and save herself. Nine years before our game, Akane saw a timeline where everything went a certain way, but it was a timeline in her future and my present. In the present, the Akane I knew that existed among us almost existed like a paradox, and she was able to orchestrate the entire game with Santa's help, recreating everything she saw and altering rules as she needed to enact her revenge and get us to play along. This girl was Zero, and she brought all of us to that building to help save herself and make sure she would exist in the future she had established herself in instead of disappearing.
There was something there that connected us in the Morphogenetic Field, so she could guide me to help me save her. She saw everything through me, and guided me through the whole game to make sure her plan worked. We solved the last puzzle together in two separate timelines through the Morphogenetic Field. Even though she died in that timeline previously, I was able to help her get out of that room and help her escape from the ship before it sank. Saving her meant that she could exist in the current timeline and secured her future. By the time I solved everything though, and by the time I lost my connection with her, we found our way off of the ship and realized we were inside Building Q all along. There was a car left for us to get out of the desert, but Santa and Akane were both missing.
...I dropped out of school and became a detective to find her. And that's what happened.
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