catch-all: shess.

[televised]

love me jan

Comments

[televised]

[The gateway is valid, honestly.]

Shess.

[Hi. Hello. What's up on this fine murder day.]

The corruption is getting worse.

[nonbelligerent]

It is.

[...]

I heard that you, Nana, and a few others dealt with it earlier this week.

[televised]

We did. Not that it seems to have done much good.

[The increased body count is... frustrating. To say the least.]

[nonbelligerent]

I'm sorry for that, as well.

Can I ask what happened? I got parts of it from Akane, but she still seemed shaken, so I didn't want to force her to talk about it.

[televised]

How much did Akane tell you? It's easier if I fill in the blanks instead of starting from the top.

[nonbelligerent]

You woke up somewhere and had to do puzzles to escape. There was something about darkness—first appearing when you started a casette and disappearing when you completed a word scramble—and how it took different forms...?

[televised]

That's about the gist of it.

[Puzzles, darkness, near death experiences... It was fun. (No.)]

There was someone we had to save from the darkness, but— [A beat, as her expression shifts to something more troubled.] It was odd. He didn't have to die like Mary.

[nonbelligerent]

What do you mean?

[televised]

We knocked him out, and that was enough to bring him back to normal.

[nonbelligerent]

Did any of you recognize him? What happened to him afterwards?

[televised]

[She shakes her head.]

He was a native of the world the gateway brought us to. We were spat out of the place before we could finish interrogating him.

[Which was, uh, rude.]

[nonbelligerent]

[jan: was it santa]

I see. Did you learn anything from him?

[televised]

[maybe shess??? should ask???? a mystery.]

Nothing useful. He gave us his sob story, but all we got was more cryptic bullshit when we asked about the darkness.

[nonbelligerent]

I suppose anything useful might've been too much to hope for...

Can I ask what he said specifically?

[televised]

He said... [She pauses, as if trying to go for the exact phrasing.] Maybe there are other ways to snuff out the darkness if we keep getting rid of it as it spreads.

And that's when we got kicked out.

[so thanks for nothing, gateway.]

[nonbelligerent]

[...]

Certainly convenient timing.

[televised]

I know. How shocking.

[the universe: fuq u

... but, anyway:]

We found a recording that talked about the darkness, too. But we didn't get to retrieve it.

[nonbelligerent]

Akane mentioned that. "Revenge isn't the only purpose of darkness. There's another reason. To save someone"...?

[televised]

"To save someone. To save someone, you must save yourself. Return to where you once came, and find a clear path." [That's the full quote, apparently.]

What do you think?

[nonbelligerent]

[hm.]

If it's talking about darkness, it can mean that you need to understand yourself. Your worse parts, as well.

[televised]

Like... what? Like accepting your hypocrisy?

[hm!!]

It sounds like a warning to me. Don't bleed yourself out for others, or else you'll fail to help anyone at all.

[nonbelligerent]

That's certainly a viable interpretation as well.

[televised]

What I don't get is... if it's talking about the darkness we're dealing with, or the "weakness" that let the darkness corrupt that guy.

[nonbelligerent]

That would muddle things a bit. Info specific to that world won't be quite as helpful to us.

[televised]

Basically. It'd be nice if the information we got was less vague for once.