TAKE ME TO THE MOON (End Game Investigation)

[whimsicalism]

[Friday arrives uneventfully. The fog is growing stronger, it's true, but nothing obvious has happened. It's probably a relief not to have Kakuya's presence or a monster breathing down your neck. That doesn't help the sense that something has changed. Not one but two areas have opened up. A large skyscraper now towers over everything in the east, it's large bulk casting shadows over the entire 'city'. In the west, a park surrounding a lake sprawls out; a solemn looking Japanese shrine sits on an island in the middle of the lake.

Two large new areas are open to you... it's a bit disorienting but you probably should spread out.]

((Welcome to the final investigation for the dead! It's entirely optional so don't feel pressured to join in. ICly, this will be happening at the same time as the living's investigation and trial. Something may happen near the end of the investigation not involving these locations so keep an eye out.))

Comments

[bellabellabella]

[Edward looks down at Dylan for a startled moment, and then looks faintly embarrassed and shrugs after an awkward moment. He usually didn't lose his temper in quite that manner.]

I'm open to alternate suggestions, but it felt appropriate.

Do you recognize this place?

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

...give me some time to think.

[He is...genuinely not sure what could be a good replacement, in this moment. But he will think of something!!!

Dylan rubs the back of his neck as he looks around, half expecting the phantom hand to grab him by it again.]

No idea. The best I can say is that-[sniff sniff]-we're definitely near the sea.

[Can't fake a scent like that!

...hopefully...]

[bellabellabella]

[Edward was brought up with Manners, he doesn't generally swear in front of ladies or children and there's both around here so honestly he probably should have been in better control of himself, but....

Well, the entire situation was out of hand.

He tilts his head a little in acknowledgement of the statement, though he can smell that much himself easily enough--perhaps even would have been able to if he only had human senses, instead of the enhanced senses he did possess. But as the others in the group scatter around them to search the place, Edward looks briefly around, then walks forward and opens a door onto the water.

Several months of never having to think about the sky had left him careless, or perhaps the fact that he could still feel his own comparative weakness made him think that it wouldn't be a problem. He didn't think to exercise the caution he should have, however, when he opened the door, and opened it to a patch of sunlight that fell across him.

The effect was noticeable.

Any exposed skin, which was his hands and face and neck, suddenly blazed with light as the sunlight was reflected back, casting little rainbows against the door as it opened, scintillating as he moved. He pulled away immediately, automatically--he'd already confessed his monstrous identity, of course, but the proof of the disease was by far the most obvious when he was in the sun.

For a moment he was frozen, pale, wide eyed, feeling a little frantic, but-

But did it matter? Maybe it was the best, after all, that he should be seen as he was, maybe it didn't matter because who knew where they all were trapped, they couldn't escape him, he couldn't escape then. Maybe... It didn't really matter anymore, surely.]

[noblesnow]

[ASFJSDLKFJSA BRIGHT]

1/2

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[...

Okay, on one paw, he is so very thankful that Edward doesn't seem to be hurt, he was legit terrified for a second that the man would turn to dust and blow away in the seaside breeze.

On the other paw...]

2/2

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

OH MY DOG EDWARD ARE YOU OKAY?!

[Yeah, that is still terrifying, what even was that PLEASE DON'T BURST INTO FLAMES AGAIN VAMPIRE FRIEND-]

[noblesnow]

[While shielding her eyes...]

Don't interrupt him! Let him finish powering up!

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

I-wha-he just burst into flames!

[what the FUDGE are you talking about Reika???]

[noblesnow]

That's probably just what he does!

[PERFECTLY SENSIBLE THINGS AS FAR AS SHE'S AWARE!]

[bellabellabella]

[Super not what he expected to hear in response to this but he sort of gestures in agreement with a look of bewilderment.]

[noblesnow]

[Now hurry up! These long transformation sequences are supposed to be just for the audience's benefit!]

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

It-maybe, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing!

[WHY WOULD IT BE NATURAL FOR SOMEONE TO BURST INTO FLAMES?!?]

[bellabellabella]

[He takes a hasty, reflexive step back from the puppy careening towards him, even if this....

Well it wasn't how he expected this to go, but what had been since he arrived?]

I'm fine. It doesn't hurt.

[noblesnow]

[(See?!)]

What are you doing? Transforming?

[bellabellabella]

... what?

[he is SO confused]

[noblesnow]

...this?

[they're approaching THIRD BASE! levels of talking at cross purposes here]

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

Oh thank dog...

[He doesn't careen into Edward, luckily. Still fully aware of how much the vampire resembles a statue on contact, he comes to a stop in front of him instead. Still looking him over, trying to see if he has any burns, even if there are none in immediate sight.]

What...what even was that?

[THAT WAS NOT A THING HE EXPECTED FOR A VAMPIRE, HE FULLY EXPECTED YOU TO BE DEAD, SIR.]

[bellabellabella]

[He stares down for a moment, watching as Dylan frantically scans and seems to be trying to sniff for any hint of burning, but... well, the worst had been done at this point, he supposed. So, after a moment, he sits on the floor again and then, after a moment of steeling himself (where was the revulsion? This was as visibly inhuman, as monstrous, as he got) he reached out his hand again and held it in the patch of sunlight, having lowered himself to the ground so that Dylan can examine it if he actually wants to.

It's bizarre.

His hand again casts back the light, sparkling like gemstones, flashing and bright and prismatic, reflecting light and rainbows back onto everything else. He is still waiting for screaming and running away, and is watching everyone cautiously throughout all this.]

It's... Sunlight doesn't hurt me, but this is what I look like in it.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[Edward gets a little bit of what he expects; Dylan flinches back as the hand goes back into the light and there's a return of the...'effect,' for lack of a better term. He can't help his heart beating faster either-it really does look like the limb is on fire, even if the air lacks any horrific smells.

But ultimately, instead of screaming or running, he just...sighs. Mainly our of relief, though some exhaustion is in there as well.]

Could you...maybe give a warning, about anything else that's like this? Kind of thought the worst, for a second there.

[holyironmade]

[Jeanne has wanted to be alone and stare into the ocean, from which she was effectively born and by which she was executed. It seems... anticlimactic to see it again like this. Surrounding all of them. Calling all of them. And by extension, none of them. She could go on like this for a very long time because anything is better than cramped in the room with that boy who won't even accept magic.

There's a commotion on the other side of the roof and—there he is, coming for her. The demon from the fires of hell. Her hand flies up both to protect her face and to shield her eyes from the light. In the next moment, Edward has taken a step back to mitigate the effect. But it is too late. She knows. She... can't look away.]

...there really is a radiance about you after all.

[bellabellabella]

[He watches her uncertainly from the shadows of the building now, safely away from direct sunlight, and there's something in her expression as she looks at him, that she finally now believes what he'd told her.

Others, once, had thought that he was an angel of death, when he had acted as judge, jury, and executioner of some of the worst of humans, those with little or no humanity left in them. There is something of that in Jeanne's eyes now, and he does not know what to do with it.

Finally he forces a laugh. It sounds slightly pained.]

I suppose that is one word that could be used.

[holyironmade]

[She raises her hand towards the sky, directing his gaze away from her to that sun - his senses are so sharp that she can imagine an angle where he can see it even around whatever bulk of the platform's corners. Jeanne still does not see him very clearly after so much glare.]

So did the sun god himself curse you [plural. like vampires] and give you a reason to stay out of the light that touched the people he protected?

Or does it merely... happen? [She means as a naturalistic biological phenomenon, so many things in the world that seems increasingly similar to the deist's abandoned watch. She waves her grasping hand to sorta indicate the arcs of those little rainbows.] It seems rather strange that the light required is the sun's specifically.

[bellabellabella]

[He looks at her strangely for a moment at that question.]

Well, where did you come from? And what made you as you are? There are legends that people have, but I don't think there's anyone who knows the real truth of it.

Maybe we were cursed. Maybe we evolved, alongside the rest of humanity. Or, if you believe that we were all created, then why could not the same God create both of us? There's dichotomies enough that can be seen everywhere else in the world. If we were created, then so too were both the shark and the angelfish.

[holyironmade]

...

[Jeanne seems to take "where did you come from" to be as blunt as her own words were. She stares down at her hands.]

I do not even know the truth of my own birth...

[The ramifications of this are sinking in for the first time in her life. It was one thing to accept that being an orphan had sociological significance that made it easy for Jeanne to be exploited. Now she's thinking through how bizarre it is to have biological parents and know absolutely nothing about them. They probably abandoned her, both of them, and totally sucked. Perhaps they really did both die, "for a reason" as she used to like to think. Or they could have deserved to die. It's even possible that circumstances are more complicated than she could ever imagine and there's someone out there, a parent or relative, who could meet her and improve her circumstances.

Man, she just feels so embarrassed to be this different. This ignorance.]

I suppose that is yet more evidence I do not have all the answers.

[She looks at Edward again, his incredible handsomeness. If she weren't this strange self-centered victim mess, she'd be more charmed by the fate of the beings in the world, one of her very favorite topics. She tries to engage it again, not all of her heart in it.]

There is something suspicious about the sweet smell of the Venus fly trap, I must admit. He—the Creator—has quite the story to tell with all the colors on the earth.

[bellabellabella]

[He's a little surprised by how hard she seems to be taking that simple, largely rhetorical question, but at those soft words perhaps he begins to understand. He stays in the shadows, but settles in for a conversation. No one seemed overtly horrified by seeing the truth of what he was, as plainly as he could show them without attacking and feeding from something in front of them (which would be very unwise for a whole host of reasons, beginning with 'it would probably end up with a slaughter of the kids' and going on down the list from there), but that still seemed surreal to him, and he didn't want to push his luck. After a moment he speaks again, voice casual deliberately in response to her apparent confusion.]

I've always been of the opinion that the beginning matters less than the choices that are made once it has begun. There are things that are more important than birth.