Week 1.

[azumods]

WEEK 1. As Cynthia had promised, the sun does indeed rise the next morning. Whether you slept or not (and sleeping inside the Pokémon Center you were in before seems totally fine by the attendant), it seems Cynthia kept her word; she left sometime shortly before sunrise, and you haven't been bothered by Team Galactic and those that work for it in the interim. It isn't advisable to return to the headquarters building, however. At least not for the time being. However, a new day does dawn, and with it comes the knowledge that you're in an unfamiliar city, completely on your own. There are several things to be done before you can leave: gathering supplies and provisions, finding maps, obtaining new clothes... Of course, your new "companions" are still with you, and they don't seem willing to leave your side; they'll follow you dutifully, but they still seem...wrong, horribly so, and it doesn't seem to be wearing off. Maybe if you work with them a little...? Try to talk to them, train them, teach them to do things... Who knows? It might do them some good. CURRENT LOCATION: VEILSTONE CITY POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week one of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due this weekend! Feel free to investigate the city as you see fit this week; we ask only that you try to stagger investigations and be mindful of what's already been checked. If you wish to investigate, notify the mods in your comment subject for your top-level and we'll get on it as soon as possible!]

Comments

[hyruglyphics]

That sounds somewhat violent, doesn't it? For someone with so much knowledge!

[ Rebooted... ]

[eudaimonikos]

Well, I guess she didn’t enjoy it as much as I did.

[Geez, harsh his buzz why don’t you]

But he was planning on torturing me. Sometimes - [He spreads his hands gracefully.] - you just gotta choke somebody.

[hyruglyphics]

[ Uh. Wow. ]

No, that makes more sense now. I - I am sorry to hear that your previous boss was so vile.

[ Because what the fuck. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Oh?

[He cocks his head slightly, as if unaccustomed to expressions of...sympathy? Concern?]

Yeah, he was a jerk. But with any luck, I'll never see him again!

[hyruglyphics]

I should hope so! Was the man not brought to justice for his crimes?

[eudaimonikos]

Oh - well, no. By our standards, he was actually trying to bring me to justice for mine.

[He busies himself with picking up after Purrloin as he talks, putting the uneaten food away for later. She just sort of sits there; he doesn't seem sure how to interact with her, without a set task like feeding her.]

See, I was supposed to be torturing these four humans, but instead I ended up faking all my reports and helping them escape. He'd have been well within his rights to kill me, he just didn't want the public spectacle.

[hyruglyphics]

You-- you would be punished for not enacting torture?!

[ She looks really, genuinely, angry at this. her green eyes narrow on him, not at him though at the ... people? society? that boss? What... the hell?? ]

[eudaimonikos]

Well, yeah. Kinda a whole thing.

[He frowns at her thoughtfully, then leans forward to rest his elbow on his knee, propping his chin up in his hands.]

What do your people believe happens after you die, Zelda?

[hyruglyphics]

[ . . . That's. A question. She doesn't lose her anger but that felt so unconnected, she ends up looking pensive as she answers ]

If that soul has no business which ties them to the world, then they pass in a peaceful, eternal rest. [ ... ] Others, who are needed, may join the spirits of the past, or sit alongside the goddesses. Others might become poes or "live on" to see their tasks completed. But ideally... they may rest.

[eudaimonikos]

That sounds nice.

[I'm sorry for all this info dumping in this thread charles?]

Where I'm from, every action a human takes in their life has a positive or negative point value, based on whether it's "good" or "bad". When they die, that's all tallied up, and people whose total is high enough get to spend the rest of eternity in paradise. We call it "The Good Place".

[TITLE DROP]

All the humans who don't make that cut get sent to the Bad Place to be tortured by demons - [He gestures towards himself.] - for their sins. "Sins", in this case, being anything from murder to just regular everyday selfishness. It's very difficult to get into the Good Place, most people end up with us.

[hyruglyphics]

[ what.

... WhaT. ]

You are...

[ she falters a moment, her eyes going wide as saucers for a moment until she focuses again and pulls her hands closer about herself, in front of her chest like in prayer, holding them together ]

You are a demon?

[eudaimonikos]

[He sees that gesture, and wonders if perhaps he should have just lied about the whole thing. Nah, wouldn't work, he's already told other people. Still...he claps his hands together in an odd little gesture.]

I am, yes.

[hyruglyphics]

You don't... [ She swallows, and she thinks of the ancient tales. the Calamity itself. The war that took the Hylian people to the heavens. The ancient... ] you do not... fit with how I would imagine a true demon.

[eudaimonikos]

Well, everyone who works with humans directly is given a randomly generated human body. I've had this for a while, it - [He flexes his fingers lightly.] - took a little getting used to, but you adapt.

[hyruglyphics]

It isn't that.

[ She shakes her head gently and... Goddess she - ]

... It is said that the Calamity that befell Hyrule was once a mortal man, but taken in by a seed of darkness made himself into the monster he is now. But the Malice that comes with him, that is sad to date back to the ancient demons that forced the Hylians to the skies. That evil, that Malice... those are what I see as demonic. And though I have only known you a few days, you do not embody that cruelty.

[ Or so... she is pretty sure. ]

[eudaimonikos]

[Whatever he thought she might say, it clearly wasn't that; he's a little taken aback.]

...oh. That's...thank you.

[His hands flutter a little, uncertainly. Wow, Mike, even it out.]

My friends...actually named me an honorary human, not long ago. I had a little box and everything, I...guess it's gone now. [Ah good, here's a different emotion to feel: irritation.] Dammit.

[hyruglyphics]

[ She isn't sure what to say to that. Perhaps she should encourage him that's the case still? But she does only barely know him. She was only giving her first impressions. Her hands coil around themselves at her chest, and she bows her head a moment, ]

... I'm sorry, I interrupted your story. [ . . . ] In short, would it mean that you didn't feel those people were deserving of that punishment?

[ The idea of punishment for dead people is just... that's cruel. It's needlessly cruel. ]

[eudaimonikos]

To make a long story short, yes. The humans I was with - no matter what happened to them, they always banded together and worked to better themselves, to overcome the flaws that brought them to me in the first place. They wanted to help me improve myself, and I was literally only there to torture them.

After I started thinking about it, at first I thought it was just a mistake with them, and that they should have gone to the Good Place after all, but I realized: humans just have this incredible ability to grow. How can we possibly condemn so many of them for eternity over just the first eighty years or so of their existence? [He shakes his head.] It's nonsense.

[hyruglyphics]

[ How foreign. It's so foreign, but at the same time, it's a very valid conclusion to make. Even the likes of say, the Yiga Clan - if the Yiga had repented and broken from their alliance to Ganon, they would have been welcomed back into the Sheikah. Or so she likes to believe. She listens intently to the man's admission, though acutely aware they had only recently met. She smiles at the end though, tightly but... ]

I agree that it sounds unjust, especially where souls continue to be awake after death.

[eudaimonikos]

I'd just brought a case against it in the eternal court before all of this started. Hopefully Janet can handle it okay on her own. Things don’t move very fast on immortal time, I think I might still be able to make it back before it’s over.

[hyruglyphics]

[ Oh... ]

I am sorry that you... left right in the middle of something so important. No one's life deserves to be interrupted, of course, but... it still seems more stressful.

[eudaimonikos]

Just a little.

[He smiles, but it's pretty hollow.]

But I'm sure we were all in the middle of something.

[hyruglyphics]

Something, yes. Though I at least have the fortune of knowing my greatest task lies behind me.

[ . . . Said the teenager. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Really? [aren't you like twelve] What was that?

[hyruglyphics]

That I played my part to defeat the Calamity that plagued Hyrule.

[ It's said with an earnest, genuine smile. She's still... so proud of Link and so pleased she did her part. ]