WEI WUXIAN;

[crashout]

Comments

[givethemhell]

So, within the next few days?

[Said in a gentle teasing tone... But also, he absolutely wouldn't be surprised if Junpei actually managed to do that at the rate he's just rapidly uncovering shit.]

But good - good! I was wondering why there was overlap between roles, but if it's for something like that, I can understand it.

[Insurance against their BUNGLING STUPIDITY as they kill off all their useful roles, maybe.]

[crashout]

[A flicker of an amused look. God, here's hoping but also god let's hope they aren't actually dead, we really don't know.]

There are thirteen of them, and all but two of them have multiple people filling in. The ones that I've talked to that share the same title have similar methods but different goals and areas of influence. Not sure why. But, while I think it's important to find them, it's also important to protect them. There's a reason I'm not telling that many people what I'm actually trying to do here.

[givethemhell]

[Escha meeting the second medium in the graveyard like OH BOY.......

In any case, he mentally chews over that new information, too. This is a lot of stuff happening in this conversation alone?? He can see now why Junpei just dragged him off and had a frantic tinhat moment.]

Larger sphere of influence, maybe? Or just to serve two different end goals? [A little shrug... But he ends up flashing Junpei a bit of a punkass grin at that.]

Haha, I'm flattered you've chosen to tell me, then! It does my heart good. [Still a gremlin even now.] If there's anything that I can do to help you protect any of them, let me know, would you? Though I'm not really sure what that would look like right now, honestly...

[What can a lone Wei Wuxian do to keep people safe?? NOT MUCH. But boy is he determined.]

[crashout]

It's possible. At this point, unfortunately, anything is possible.

[Thanks for that.] I think the best is keeping quiet unless you have a reason to suspect them. Turns out they can only confirm if you have a reason to suspect them and say so, but then you have to play guessing games to figure out what they can do.

...I do want to show you something else. [And he's disappearing to the bedroom, coming back with a notebook that he's flipping through.] Last week, Tamamo, Izuminokami and Grune broke into a security office. They all saw a pretty weird vision, but Izuminokami also let me copy his notes that they found.

[The two pages of the open notebook say:

DAY 20
SPOKE TO: █████, █████████, NE██A, M█████

- Did not find th████████ shoes
- Task still pending for A. Where the fuck am I going t███████████████████████
- ██████████████████████ █V██████████████████████
- M███████████████ moron who cannot stop breaking into places. This is the last time I pop his arm back in its socket!!!!


██y 49
███████████████████████████████████████ORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry
I'm so sorry
I'm so sorry
I want to █████████████████████████████████████████████
Why aren't I dead why why why why why wh█████████
I███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████]

[givethemhell]

[ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, AND IT SURE IS UNFORTUNATE!!]

Mm, got it, got it. They really are bound by some annoying rules, aren't they? Haha, you must be tired.

[Since he's just assuming Junpei's had to jump through these hoops for like. Every one of the nine people he knows, or at least close to it...

ANYWAY, NEAT, MORE BREAK-IN STUFF. He's trotting over to take a look! And then yeah literally making this face.]

Ah... [UM.] Twenty-nine days is a long time and a lot of things can happen, I suppose, but I can't say this is any sort of comforting.

[crashout]

[There's a withering look because yeah, this is Suffering.] I've been getting better at it.

We actually only have twenty two left if this is really a countdown. They found this information a week ago, and counting backwards that was twenty days from the first day we got here. Coincidentally, Tamamo's shoulder was dislocated on the twentieth day.

[He's flipping to another page with both Hizamaru's note, and also a note that says "Dick & Aizawa E-Room." The note reads: "Hard to look at him in the eyes knowing it might be there. It's a reminder: don't trust anyone. Sorry my friend."]

Dick and Aizawa found this in a waterlogged notebook in the electricity room on the first floor. We keep finding rooms with blood and scratches, plus some other less than great things.

[givethemhell]

[Just meets that look with a BRIGHT OL' GRIN, though it doesn't last very long since there's... puzzling over these BAD THINGS to do.]

Mm - not a fan of that coincidence. [He would actually like to avoid any similarities between their run and the previous one! Bad! Also twenty-two days is not a lot of time at all, considering how fast the first twenty-plus (over twenty, already??) have gone... But he'll leave that concern unsaid for now, instead focusing on the second note.]

--Referring to the demon? [It's the obvious guess, at least.] Wonder why the rooms are like that, anyway. It sounds like the ghosts aren't our biggest fans. Maybe that "the ship is its own entity" really does hold some water?

[crashout]

Either the ship is its own entity, our narrator is still around and setting stuff up, or the ghosts and messing with us even worse than we thought. The fact that it can be any of those is what exhausts me. [Ugggh.]

I'm not big on coincidence either, because it means something worse is coming. Four weeks is only twenty-eight days. We're approaching that timeline pretty fast.

[givethemhell]

Guess we'll have to keep looking to see if we can get anything that points us in any particular direction. Though honestly, depending on what the answer is, that shoe note is even more alarming.

[He says this far too lightly but when in doubt, laugh it off?? IT'S FINE. They're fine... They're doing just great.]

So, then - less than four weeks left to figure out what's going on with this ship, all while dealing with rampaging demons, the possibility of two curses shifting into a more covert form, ghosts that don't want anything to do with us, twelve people with roles to protect, and an island full of secrets that we have barely a thread of access to. [...] Haha, well. Can't say we don't have our work cut out for us?

[crashout]

Yeah. Totally easy, no problem. [This is still bad? There's a lot to unpack, but he blinks slightly before he shakes his head.]

Thirteen people still, actually. Did I forget to mention that the roles really do shift when someone dies?

[givethemhell]

[Yeah they're all gonna die of exhaustion before Thot comes for them.]

Ah - haha, you did! [GOOD TO... KNOW. WHAT THE FUCK. Though after a second, he blinks.] —Like a hydra, was it?

[crashout]

Like a hydra. They jump from person to person, and if that's true we need at least thirteen of us alive to keep them all in play. For whatever reason.

[givethemhell]

[He makes a considering sound.]

Do you think "day 49" or thereabouts is the point in time that our previous friends ended up losing one of their final thirteen, then? To be honest, I'd been assuming this would end in our loss if everyone was killed, but if we need all of those roles in play...

[crashout]

Maybe...the timing is weird because the recording we heard said it was four weeks, which is only 28 days. So how did they survive for another three weeks after that if it was true?

[givethemhell]

Mm, you're right... Haven't the faintest in that case.

[A shrug from both wwx and also me, aki, my brain is fried from trial]

[crashout]

[Looks at time of pc. Looks at info received later and sighs.]

...there's still definitely the possibility people might've been doing some weird revival stuff. Dick and Taako put a corpse back together and she came to life again before Taako hit her with a chair.

[givethemhell]

[Hate this!!

Wei Wuxian also hates this!!]

—Why!! How many times do I have to tell people to be careful with the newly revived?!

[crashout]

It wasn't exactly their fault? They broke into one of the locked rooms and that happened a lot. You'd have to ask one of them for more details but that's the most important part.

[givethemhell]

[METAPHORICALLY TOUCHES THE GROUND AND THE CEILING.]

--Right, right, I'll ask them later, then. Goodness... [A SIGH.] Things really do just keep getting messier and messier, don't they?

[crashout]

That's one way of putting it yeah. I think it's like we thought. The longer that we're here, the worse and harder the rooms are becoming. It can only men we're actually getting somewhere but at a price.

[givethemhell]

Mm, makes sense. The less time we have, the higher the stakes are for every party, presumably. I can imagine this ship or whatever else is responsible would want us to work "harder" for our end of things.

[Though he's not happy because he'd rather people not end up putting their lives at risk for information?? Even though he knows it's one of those Necessary Evils.]

[crashout]

If it's true, the good thing is that means everything is solvable. And there's a way around everything. If we can prepare ourselves for the future and figure out a way to avoid dying on the job that might help us with the biggest problem of all.

[Demons, he means.]

[givethemhell]

Only one thing to do about it in that case then, hm?

[MORE BREAK-INS! MORE BREAK-INS!!]

You and I should go on an adventure sometime, ourselves. Not that I'd want you to go sticking your head into any dangerous places, but it's better someone capable and used to facing harm.

[crashout]

You do know I'm capable, right? [He doesn't sound offended, but it's a reminder. He might not be able to fight, but he can definitely get himself out of horrific situations easily enough. "Easily."] But sure. I'd rather take them on myself than risk everybody else taking the worst of it. If we can prepare for things we might be able to get in and out pretty fast.

[givethemhell]

Oh, absolutely! But even the most capable will end up being injured with this place being what it is.

[In short, it's not really him doubting Junpei's ability so much as him anticipating the worst and being concerned... He likes Junpei?? He'd rather not have people he likes get fuckin whapped with zombie bites, explosions or broken limbs.]

Hm, like go in armed to the teeth and carrying antidotes and first aid kits?

[He's only joking like, a tiny percent.]