fujimaru | Palace Game 6/3

"I did!" Her voice rises even higher for a moment, before she seems to catch herself, coughing. "I worked so hard, so how dare... how dare anyone take my Chaldea away from me..."

The painting is a fairly evocative one. A ruined modern cityscape stretches across the length of these books. It looks as if some horrible fire raged through at some point, leaving broken buildings and destroyed streets in its wake. There is a strange circular structure standing amidst the wreckage, glowing a bright malevolent red, as a young woman--the same one kneeling in front of them now--desperately tries to claw away from it, though it seems like she's being sucked slowly in, an inexorable gravitational field that pulls her with a far greater strength than a human can withstand.

[thanks they hate it]

It's awful, and I'm so sorry.

Who took it from you? Do you know if they're still around?

"Fujimaru! It was all Fujimaru's fault!" she screeches. "I would have been--surely if I'd headed Chaldea to victory, they would have finally acknowledged me! But instead, it was that--that brat, who just came in and stole everything!"

-Ritsuka? You think Ritsuka's to blame?

"She survived and I didn't!" She sounds on the verge of hysterical tears again. "How?! I'm a mage--my bloodline is the noble and ancient Animusphere family! So how, how did a human with nothing, nothing at all--why did SHE live and I didn't?!"

Death doesn't care how noble your blood is. It comes for all of us eventually, no matter how strong we are, and that's no fault of the survivors.

"I should have been the one to survive!"

She looks like she might want to actually throw herself at Selena, but there's the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps--a man with a strained smile on his face, waving to try and get their attention.

[bracing themselves for any incoming attack when in comes the new guy, sparing him a brief glance to acknowledge his presence before looking back at Olgamarie]

Hello?

"Hello--sorry, I'm sorry, she's a bit high-strung at the moment." He grimaces, embarrassed, trying to insert himself between Selena and Olgamarie. "It's been a bit... ah, let's say... exciting, the past few days? And we don't usually get a lot of excitement here."

I'll not begrudge anyone being high-strung in these circumstances. But such a way of thinking will only cause you more pain in the long run.

[trying to keep eye contact with olgamarie when they say that, but if he's getting between them that's going to become difficult, taking a step back and focusing on him]

What's happened? I've been away the past few days, it seems there's much I've missed.

"You could say that." He grimaces, rubbing the back of his neck. "We don't get to hear a lot of what's going on here... Leonardo knows the most, but..."

He waves his free hand and sighs. "We don't know what it was, exactly. Ritsuka falls asleep all the time, but no one was able to wake her up. Next thing we knew, she'd been swept off--no one's entirely sure where to find her."

[fffffffffuck]

I'll find her. I'll ask Da Vinci for more information, thank you.

Edited 2022-09-04 01:03 (UTC)

He nods, waving them off, and turns to Olgamarie. From the sounds of things, he's trying to soothe her from her fit.

[they'd have more sympathy if there wasn't now far more concern for whatever is happening to ritsuka. time to go get answers, walking over!!]

Excuse me, Da Vinci?

She looks up at the sound of her name, and she smiles. There is something just a little bit off of her, compared to the version on Sphinx--slightly more stilted, definitely more transparent.

"Ah, I wondered if I'd see one of you here. Hi."

[they don't know da vinci super well but they don't need to in order to see this is another ghost]

One of me?

"From Cerberus, of course!" She winks. "I don't get that much information from the other me, but I have a better connection than the other two. I know who you are, Selena."

Well, that certainly helps. Can you tell me what's going on with Ritsuka? And - if you're expecting us, who else has come through here?

"Just a couple of others, from around," she says. "As for what's going on... well, we don't know the details for sure! But all of you, you've got your possessions, right? Well. Hers was given greater reign, for some reason. I think you'll find she's not the only one... but she's the one you're looking for now, right?"

[uh oh. did ritsuka die?? is this a game side effect? what kind of awful game is this?]

She is. I can worry about the others once I know she's alright, there must be some way to help Ritsuka get back in control.

"We'd appreciate it," she says cheerfully, before her expression fades into something more solemn.

"No one knows what happened, exactly. Nothing happened beforehand. There wasn't any sign or warning--it just started. You'd be better off asking the Beast himself, when you find him."

Tracking him down is at least a start. Any idea where he's likely to be?

"That's the problem," Da Vinci says. "He has his own palace off somewhere, and usually the key is with Romani, but... mm, since he really manifested, he took it off somewhere else. He's hidden it somewhere, but it won't be amongst the dead."

A pause, and then she adds, "There's more than one room for us, too. So be ready for that."

[makes a face, they knew ritsuka had a lot going on but why are there multiple death rooms tied to her stop having so much death]

Right. Thanks for the warning, I'll watch out.

Who's Romani? They might know something.

"That one, over there." She points to the man, who does appear to have calmed Olgamarie down. "He's kind of useless, but he does his best."

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