Round 4 graveyard

[foundationmods]

[When your character dies, however that may be, they will feel themselves floating. For a moment or two they will linger at the site of their death, hovering just above everyone, watching.

Then they will feel a pull and they will get tugged all the way to the studio, through a wall, through the hall, through a door.

The place they end up in looks to be a backstage area. There is an area for storing supplies, a coat rack full of empty prinny costumes, a lounge area, and a place to rest. All of these areas are marked by a green border between the described rooms and the doors that go elsewhere. You will see prinnies come and go, hurrying around as they do their work for the day. But within those borders, some of the prinnies will take off their suits, revealing the human souls within. Men, women, old, young, there is a large mix. They are all very dead, though, and seem used to being dead.

And among all of the dead is one living girl, one who seems to be running the show behind the set. She can be found giving instructions to prinnies and telling them where to put things, but she will always take time to give everyone who arrives the same warning:]

Hi there! I'm Marona, and this is the backstage area. There's a lot to do yet, so if you could help us out I would really appreciate it.

All the areas with the green on the floor are safe to be in as ghosts. Your souls won't get pulled away as long as you stay in the safe areas. If you want to go outside of there, though, you have to put on a prinny suit. And if you do that, you have to follow the rules of the prinnies: no killing anyone, follow the orders you're given by the living, and try not to blow up too much.

If you have any questions, I'll be here! But you can come and go as you like. Just don't give Mr. Dazai too much trouble, okay?

Comments

Sunday Infoswap!

[arraignments]

[ He'll be going around to gather everyone up.

Once everyone is present and/or accounted for, Goro will take a deep breath and look around the group. He manages a tired smile. ]

So, it would seem we're forming quite the group on this side, after all...

[ One hand brushes through his bangs as he looks to the floor for a moment. ]

I'm sure, for some, this doesn't help with keeping hope and motivation to push forward, but... at least nobody is alone here. We have each other.

[ It might be obvious he's forcing these words out with every ounce of motivation he has. ]

So, why don't we start from the top? Let's all share everything we know, so far.

[ He looks to George. ]

Would you like to start?

[genkigravekeeper]

[Marona is here too!]

I'll help with what I can! I know a lot, but I'm not sure what all is useful?

[breadloaf]

Marona-chan, why are you here? Did you... save our souls?

[genkigravekeeper]

Uh-huh! Mr. Dazai asked me to come here too, so that I could catch all of your souls and keep you here. It was either going to be me or Mr. TG, but Mr. TG doesn't take care of souls in this world. He just helps them pass on to the next, and that won't really help us here.

[breadloaf]

The... Real Dazai-san-senpai? And who's Mr. TG? I ain't always good with names.

[genkigravekeeper]

Oh! No, not him. He wasn't in on this at all. I meant GT.

[breadloaf]

GT...

[merirut]

[Okay, this is not really topical at all but he's been wondering.]

You mentioned that we had certain rules to follow while wearing those suits. So what happens when someone violates them?

[genkigravekeeper]

Well, prinnies blow up if they get thrown around. But that just blows up the costume, your soul will be fine. You'll just need to come back here for a new one.

But, um, if they find out who you are then they're going to capture all the prinnies for questioning. And I can't promise that you'll be safe if that happens.

[merirut]

[Oh, okay that was more along the lines of tangible consequences versus some sort of cosmic one. He's not really sure which is better but oh well.]

Understood. [His expression changes to something more considering.] Wait, but if the costume is destroyed while we're outside of the border, wouldn't that mean we would be left exposed?

[Are their souls just going to get yeeted if Nora feels like tossing one of them around.]

[genkigravekeeper]

You would be, yeah. Souls linger for a little bit, but not for very long. You need to get right back to me if that happens, okay?

[merirut]

[Mrgggrgh. He is liking this whole prinny thing less and less (as if the dood part wasn't enough of a dealbreaker).]

Alright. [Hm.] Anyway. You're here to bring an end to this game, correct? Just what exactly is the plan between all of you?

[georgeous]

[ A nod from George. ]

Yes, thank you.

From the beginning, this test was going to be about what the Foundation will do with our kind. In an effort to rig it in our favor, the real 'Osamu Dazai' has been replaced with an imposer and Marona here has been brought to the site in secret to hold on to our souls. This was also known to people at Site 4. Gabriel Reyes, for example, was in on the plan.

The plan has now been compromised and Reyes is locked up on a lower level of the site. A person called Mission Control has taken over with his men. I don't know Mission Control's real identity, but he is a short young adult male with a short brown ponytail. Mission Control wants our annihilation. His goal is to prove to the world that we are monsters. Currently public opinion is in our favor, he aims to change it.

Further interference with the mission from his end is more than possible. He's in contact with Dazai about his goals and he commands him. There is only so much Dazai can do without arousing suspicion.

From all of this follows a Rule Nr. 1 for us: Do not let Mission Control know you're still here. If Marona is found, our souls are doomed. If the camera picks up on us identifying ourselves or on any of the living mentioning us, it is over. Never forget this.

My next conclusion is that further death isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as the group remains in a sympathetic light. Rather, people should die, because everything else will call suspicion onto Dazai and thus limit his power.

Questions?

[merirut]

You mean that more should die in the games, correct?

[There's a small, thin smile as he says that, although none of it reaches his eyes at all. It slips off his face easily as he moves on to his real question.]

So what course of action have you plotted out in response to all this?

[georgeous]

Games are preferable, yes.

[ There's no use sugarcoating that. Sandalphon killing a person himself was a risky move, though... ]

It stands to reason, however, that your motivation for murder and everyone's reaction to it were sufficiently soap-opera-esque to keep us in the clear for now.

[ Yay? ]

What I think we need to do now is convince Dazai and the others to play along more extremely with the cruel master vs innocent victims act. His softness isn't doing us any favors right now.

[merirut]

[He narrows his eyes at the soap opera comment, but he lets it pass without comment. Getting into that whole week and the trial isn't productive now anyways, and he doesn't care to vomit feelings during a meeting (or ever, really).]

We're of the same mind on that, then. At this rate, the only thing he'll accomplish is giving away his entire disguise and whatever cards he has left in his hand.

[He still remembers the chalice incident...]

[georgeous]

We absolutely have to keep up the image that he is Dazai and though I don't know the original one... I am still getting the picture he's doing an abysmal job at pretending.

[ He sighs audibly. ]

Our very existence hinges on someone so ill-equiped... Outrageous.

[merirut]

...As irritating as it may be, we have no choice. The most we can do is confront him with his poor decisions and devise a strategy for him to follow if he can't be trusted to think of something on his own.

[Although Dazai's ability to act is also questionable enough but... well.]

[georgeous]

That's my thoughts exactly. The one advantage we have here is that we're basically in a position to play producer to this poor excuse of a show. It really does need a better script.

[merirut]

If there even was much of a script at all. Did he even have a concrete plan outside of playing pretend for these past couple of weeks?

Palace Recap

[arraignments]

[ He's quiet for a moment... ]

Mission Control - Akira and I went into his Palace. Originally, we had been planning to go into the Palace of the one posing as Dazai... but were guided to that one with the false Dazai's help.

Its keywords - essentially, the password for getting into those places - wound up being secure, contain, and protect. Unsurprising, even if it went against the norm for Palaces.

The Palace took the form of a regular house. There was the smell of smoke inside, and then we were surrounded by cartoon-like flames. In the end, we came to a young child - a black-haired boy with glasses who was crying. There was... what felt like power emitting from him.

When we got there, Akira and I could hear two voices holding a conversation; they talked about how the little boy had some power from "that person", and how the boy had already burned down a neighborhood. They discussed killing the child, because they apparently needed to erase all of this mystery person's power from the world.

Once it was all over, we were left with a yellow daisy that felt like it held some power within it.

[georgeous]

That child... is that Mission Control or someone who is important to him in some way?

[ He assumes the latter. Also... Mission Control having the Foundation motto as a password is oddly commendable, his respect is weirdly rising. ]