3.0 - week three

[afflictionmods]

WEEK THREE

Last night might have been exhausting for any number of reasons - maybe it was the emotional

toll of dealing with those ghosts, or maybe you stayed up too late after watching Jim Shrok. Who knows, but Saturday is over, even if some of you haven’t quite left it behind and half spirits that are still hanging on, tethered to you and weighing you down…

But that’s not going to stop a new week from starting. There’s no breaks in an eight week course.

There’s very little fanfare to the start of your third week of the course, though it does seem like the fog has lifted even more. It’s a bit more of a trek down the abandoned streets of Estelline, but surely a mile is walkable? Or you could grab a bike or try to hotwire one of those cars in the mall parking lot… Whatever you plan to do this week is up to you. All you know is you've got some new locations to explore.

As always, Florence and Lorelei are available.

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TASK LIST


( OOC Note: Luci, Mutsu, and Mae will each receive a small roomba! Congrats on the successful egg drop. It's a tiny little friend that cleans extra well, though this also means its trash compartment is a little smaller so it'll need to be cleaned more often. )

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[exofractured]

[At least not totally careless but... ugh. Phantom sighs as he picks himself back up.]

I'm less inclined to be an optimist. You might consider warning people before it does that, however.

[undertakings]

I can try, although the other times it's happened were during periods where I wasn't looking at it directly.

[He also doesn't think it's feasible to watch it 24/7 either.]

It'd be easier for me to just avoid speaking to anyone, I think.

[exofractured]

In a place this size, that doesn't seem feasible either. A general warning would do. And more to the point, we should see how many others of these there may still be around.

[And how long they intend to stick around?? What are the odds the instructors know anything helpful.]

[undertakings]

[Too bad this takes place in the past(??) because they could've asked Shizuku to include "ARE YOU POSSESSED" in her interview questions. Missed opportunities, man.]

None of the others I've spoken to today seem to have one, but I didn't ask them about it either. If we have another meeting, we could check everyone at once.

[Zero faith in the instructor here for sure!!]

[exofractured]

[Another week, another newspaper...]

As well as the possibility that not all of them would be so... conspicuous. Unfortunately, you're correct. This may require another meeting. Perhaps one of the others will know a way to remove them permanently.

[What he wouldn't give for his spells, honestly!]

[undertakings]

I've heard of rituals for exorcisms, but I don't think we'd have the materials even if we thought they would be effective.

[This is his entirely useless contribution to this discussion. Although... he'll turn to look at the ghoul again.]

Do we even know what it actually is? We've been calling them ghosts, but it's possible it could be something else.

[exofractured]

That's true. More than a ghost, I would say it resembles a magical construct of some kind. Or a monster. If we had a means to analyze more accurately we might have more success banishing them permanently.

[Between how tame the ghoul seems now and Shin's relative calm, Phantom apparently decides it's safe enough to approach after all. He gives the ghoul a warning little glare and then reaches out to poke at it.

noclip.gif, huh.]

[undertakings]

[The ghoul obviously can't do anything even if it wanted to thanks to the blessings of noclip, so Phantom's finger is spared from being Phantgone. It's just watching... for now.]

A monster, huh... [Also right, Phantom was a magic user, huh.] Do you run into these sorts of things often?

[exofractured]

[You know, earlier jumpscare aside, this isn't so bad. Hollow is one of the less grotesque of the options. Phantom warms to his subject a little, passing his hand through it a few more times.

This is so useless. He can't measure anything. But it's kind of fascinating.]

Monsters aren't uncommon, so I suppose. Although as is no doubt obvious, I'm not often fighting them directly. Monsters that can possess human bodies... less so. Generally speaking, you could only put human anima--a human soul into a human body.

[undertakings]

[Phantom truly finding his people here... The hollow ghoul puts up with the first few passes just fine, but for one of the last ones, it seems to try a swipe at Phantom's hand which predictably ends up doing nothing. Feels bad, man.

But souls, huh. The way that's worded is a little...]

If you're saying it like that, then there are probably exceptions to that rule... should I assume that?

[exofractured]

[Phantom startles a tiny bit for that, but gives a little (evil) chuckle when it clips through him. Yeah, sucks to be a completely powerless villain, huh ghoul friend? That's a mood.]

Of course. Rules apply to magic as well as science, but there are a number of factors that complicate both. ...It's not an accurate way to put this, but I suppose you could imagine that a soul has a shape, and not every container would accommodate it. However, in circumstances where the animus is broken down into particles, it can fill a different container. We have monsters that incorporate bits of animal and human souls, though it's not like this possession.