awashlogs | Event Thirteen.

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Event Thirteen.

To love a human face was to discover
The cracks of paint and varnish on the brow;
Soon to distrust all impulses of flesh
That strews its sawdust on the chamber floor,
While at the window peer two crones
Who once were Juliet and Jessica.

t's a regular morning here in the Town. The sun isn't shining at all, snow is falling like crazy, and...there may be the sounds of shouts coming from the well, thoroughly muffled.

Okay, so it's not a regular morning at all, but you'd better go help those people! The newcomers are here again. Of course, once you get to the well, you'll notice that there's actually no real help you can offer -- it's totally frozen over.

As for the newcomers, well... hopefully being suddenly dumped into freezing cold water in the middle of November in a dark, damp well is your idea of a good time, because that's your life now!

And that's not even taking into account the mirrors in everyone's homes that are about to wake up and start chattering...

Welcome to Awash's thirteenth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. Please keep in mind that while this is a general event log, it is also an intro log; be sure to pay plenty of attention to our newcomers!

If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

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[Overnight...? Hasn't it been months...?]

Nothing different from the usual. A few people have made it further in than we got before, but they usually come out missing some color.

[And some emotions. Those two go hand in hand here.]

Oh.

[ It comes out as a breath, barely audible, and Ryoji reaches up to touch the tips of his fingers to his lips. Akira doesn't have to mention the absence of emotions, because Ryoji remembers that very well- had been there when Akechi had left the forest just like that, quiet and grey-scale and nothing like himself that Ryoji is used to. ]

That's what happened with Akechi-kun last month, isn't it? When Ichinose-kun, him, and I went inside together... [ in... April... but whatever. maybe it's still April and it's just a very very late winter snowfall they're having right now. ]

And you're saying more people have experienced the same?

[Last month...?

Akira starts to get the full picture now. He doesn't know what happened to Ryoji, but somehow, he was transported away, and wherever he was, it was like no time at all passed for him.

But a lot of time has passed. Hm.]

...Yeah. A few have.

[There's a pause, and he gives a small sigh.]

It's been more than a month ago, though.

A month and a half...? It's a bit difficult keeping track of the days without a school schedule to adhere to.

[ Unfortunately, Akira's comment does little to show how large a scale the time Ryoji had been missing. He just thinks Akira's being pedantic /: ]

[He shakes his head, not giving Ryoji any grief about thinking he's being pedantic. This is a lot to take in, after all.]

Probably about... five or six months. That was back in early spring, and it's the start of winter now.

[Sometimes, people go away for what feels to them like a long time, but come back here as though only a few days passed. And apparently they can also leave for a long time, but what feels to them to only be a few hours or days.

This place is very, very strange.]

[ Ryoji glances down and off to the side, looking inward for a moment. Hearing that he'd gone and left for half a year, he doesn't automatically blame the town, but rather he asks himself if it's something he might have done. If things had been so bad, he'd chosen to just wipe his own memories and put himself into stasis for a while; it wouldn't be the first time he'd done it. Things were hard, and they were a lot scarier than he'd imagined, but he'd make a handful of friends, and he would have like to think they were enough to keep him rooted here.

With a quiet hum, he looks back to meet Akira's eyes. All the time he'd skipped out on, that doesn't really matter, he thinks; that's not very important. ]

Has everybody been well in those five or six months? How have you all been?

More or less alright. A lot's happened, but we're making it through.

[People come and go, but a lot of them are still here - himself, Minato, Akechi, among others. Things have happened to all of them, but he thinks they've managed to support each other through it all.]

Everyone's made friends. It helps.

[ Friends seem to help. But considering Akira's words, Ryoji can tell that things haven't really gotten any better than the five or six or however many months he'd supposedly been missing. ]

Let me hear about you specifically. How do you feel about being here?

Me, huh...?

[That's his least favorite topic, Ryoji!]

There are some hard things that happen here. But there were hard things back home, too... Being here has given me time to think about a lot of stuff.

[He's great at vague statements.]

[ Why do protags suck at talking about themselves >:( None of this tells Ryoji anything about anything, but he smiles anyways, huffing a small sigh with a shrug of his shoulders. ]

Hardship isn't new for you, is it? It seems to be the case with a lot of people here, though I wish it weren't so.

[He knows Ryoji is wanting him to talk more, but he has to get to at least confidant rank five for that. But his eyes are light when he nods.]

We've built a community here, though. Everyone tries to make things better, and tries to have good times. We've had parties and celebrated birthdays... what we can do to keep our spirits up.

[That's how you make the world a better place. He wants to do so here, and back home, too.]

That truly does sound wonderful.

[ Ryoji had been new enough to the town the last time he was here to recall something of a party, although they weren't really celebrating anything so much as they were simply sitting down together as a group to share a large meal. It counts, he thinks, and his smile softens to imagine that people have been able to find little pockets of happiness in a place like this, to carve out special times and events and create memories out of them.

He shuffles his feet up there on the rooftop, turning his toes towards the forest, deciding against it and turning back, and settles with bouncing slightly on his heels in place. ]

I've been trying, in the past, but this doesn't seem like a place that I can easily find myself at ease. There is no peace in this world... it'd be nice if the world were to know peace enough that celebrations are abundant, commonplace, not a means for boosting morale.

[ It's too telling!! how shitty this place is, that people have to guess calendar dates to celebrate birthdays to keep their spirits up. ]

[It would be nice if that were the case, but the town seems too determined to keep them on edge. Sometimes it's just a nuisance, like the mirrors, and sometimes it's full-blown danger. It's enough to keep anyone off kilter.]

I'd like that. Maybe we can make it a place like that again.

[If they restore all the color, one day... maybe it will start to be like what it might have once been. A nice town, where people lived together in peace.

But were they in peace? If the people were divided by color, then...]

Or maybe better than it was before.

[ Ryoji clasps his hands behind his back, looking again to the forest before turning his gaze to Akira. ]

Is that really what we're meant to do, though...? For whom would we be fixing this place for?

[ Everybody was brought here from their own worlds and lives, after all, and surely there are those who remain hopeful of returning one day, where they are needed, whether they like it or not, because it's where they're from and where they're supposed to be. ]

You've been here longer than me. Have you learned whether the people who used to be here would come back?

[ Or are they all dead and the only other inhabitants in this town are demons, so there's no point? ]

...Don't know.

[He looks around the town, wondering what happened to the people from before. Something certainly did happen to them, according to what Dextera and Guren found, but... can it be reversed?]

I think that's why we were brought here, though. To fix what was broken.

[He has things to do in his world, but... he doesn't mind helping this one, too.

Especially as long as it affords him time with Akechi, and all these other friends he's made.]

[ Working out why they were brought here still begs the question of who, and whether that's the true end, but Ryoji merely lifts his shoulders in a shrug. It doesn't matter, does it? The others here are fixing things because that's what they think is right- for their own ends, if not for the mysterious entity which drew everybody here. ]

That's quite the task. Shall I leave you to it, then? [ It's not like Ryoji has anything to do with this? ] I was on my way to the forest. Just to be near it; I promise you I won't go inside.

[Akira frowns just a little, because he still isn't sure about that - even if Ryoji promises he won't go in, who knows where he might find himself if he goes down there.

But he's not one to stop people from doing as they please, so he shrugs.]

Don't let me stop you.

[A pause, and he adds:] Are you sure you want to go alone?

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Event Thirteen.

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