tainted. / TEMP DASH

concealing. favoring. one. seven. / header, muses, rules

[eyecursed]

        the bonfire within invidia finally died down, and many snakes moved to clean the debris. yes, the event was now over, the queen was apparently satisfied with the death of the boy, and all that had to be done was to clean the place up...and find the rebirth the queen spoke of.

        shintaro kisaragi was dead, and a snake would be born in his place. practically a newborn in terms of mentality, able to grasp speech but having no memories of what the boy had seen, suffered, and done.

         ironically, he had wished to be erased from existence, and he had gotten that wish in the flames. so what if he had burned slowly and painfully to death? so what if the queen had led him on with a false security, only to dash it and his hopes into the ether? he would be joining his dear sister in the second death, and their bodies would remain in the heat haze.

         a snake called out, and several others moved in, and they found the newborn snake, covered in ashes and soot, but otherwise unharmed by the debris. the human he had once been had already done its suffering, and the snakes were pleased to see that the rebirth had been successful.

        with sponges, they cleaned him to be at least presentable until they could bring him to a house and room. clothing was swathed over him, a simple medieval outfit that wouldn’t look too out of place within a reenactment of such times. he was cooperative, to the point where the snakes had to tell him to close his eyes as they moved to clean the extra soot from his face and hair.

       before they sent him off on his own, though, they asked him for his name, to know of what the snake’s power would be. “me o nozomu,” he replied, slowly, using his words for the first time, and the snakes all nodded in satisfaction.

       they sent him off, one heading to speak to the queen about the results of her gambit. the snake of desiring eyes was on the move, and although newly born, he would be one of the several added to the heat haze’s clutches.

       shintaro kisaragi was no more, after all.

       now, the snake known as desiring was wandering the invidia ward, unsure what his purpose was, only knowing his name.

[eyecursed]

starter call for enh’s christmas event! shintaro is going to be a bit quiet due to the recent trial of his sister’s murder, and kido for similar reasons because she’d died for momo in her timeline, but i’m sure a bit of coaxing can ease them to properly celebrate.

[eyecursed]

These will still take place during the even, prior to Shintaro’s death! I’ll make a proper open starter to introduce his snake once I return from my grandma’s.

[meokakuzu-blog]

are you going to complain, @eyecursed ( favoring ) ?

     people were terribly predictable once you had observed them for long enough, especially when they had gone about upholding certain attitudes. he could spot it a mile away — & what other topic was there to bring up over than one that had brought mutual annoyance, presumably? slender fingers take hold of a wine glass, & fingertips drum against the surface as he sighs through his nose — slowly, at that.

     ❝   he looks positively stupid, doesn’t he? ❞

[eyecursed]

        “absolutely fucking ridiculous. i’m surprised the queen hasn’t slaughtered him on the spot.”

        favoring sipped at his own drink, a spiked eggnog concoction that he’d made a few centuries ago ---- it was one that could put most pre-holiday irritants aside, and was generally his go-to when the festival started, in order for him to keep himself calm when dealing with the customers who would arrive after the dance. this was just preparation.

       “he also keeps chasing after the humans as badly as their own gods do. it’s almost as if he’s one of them.” he could understand a fondness or protectiveness ( he himself had no room to talk on that ), but desiring to fuck the players in clearing’s game was just plain bizarre. they were going to die anyway, either by each other’s hands or by the snakes’.

[eyecursed]

WINTER SOLSTICE. | @egaoshi

        it was hard to actually enjoy the event, considering it felt like the invidia ward had become something straight out of a christmas card. so soon after a murder and execution, too, which made her worry as to what would happen during the event.

        but perhaps she was just uppity from the experience of momo’s death. it was hard for tsubomi to take, since she had practically died for her own momo, and a part of her knew that she would be seeing that version of her if she managed to escape the heat haze.

        she spotted one of the newer members nearby, and decided to at least greet her. she couldn’t wallow in mourning forever, and her ayano ( well, maybe any ayano ) would want her to be willing to take the strides to heal.

        even without the concealing eyes, though, she knew that she had the habit to remain as quiet as possible. so, instead of simply lingering as she approached, she gave a wave. “h-hi...!” she even attempted to give a smile. she’s trying, sakura.

[eyecursed]

starter call for enh’s christmas event! shintaro is going to be a bit quiet due to the recent trial of his sister’s murder, and kido for similar reasons because she’d died for momo in her timeline, but i’m sure a bit of coaxing can ease them to properly celebrate.

[eyecursed]

From the Three King's Event, Favoring has received KATHY'S gift of Star Sand + Eve's Apple!

        kathy, right. she was one of the ayano lookalikes. or, well, used to be. he’d seen her new haircut, found it rather nice. both items would be kept on his person and later placed in his bedroom.

[eyecursed]

From the Three King's Event, Shintaro has received MAERU'S gift of a box of condoms + a decapitated cat head! ( Maeru that's disgusting. )

        before the murder, he would have probably screamed at the sight of the cat’s head. instead, he merely stared long and hard at it, his mind lost within the time after he’d found momo’s body.

        he’d felt so alone. so...abandoned. he’d seen many timelines, but those memories had missing details, details that seemed to have been filtered away from his eyes. and the one thing he knew was that he’d failed his family and friends ---- again. and it was a cycle he couldn’t break.

        why him? why did he have to suffer with the memories from other timelines? he’d seen so much that had been on his shoulders when entering this world, but he hesitated whenever speaking about them was on the tip of his tongue. it was like he was still the IDIOT who had led ayano to her own death by simply not caring about her.

        ...the thought made him rewrap the cat’s head and place it back with the condoms in the box. apparently this was given to him by the princess, maybe some jab at how terrible of a person he was. how many times had he seen ayano die? how many times had he killed ene? how many times did he fail to save konoha, haruka, marry?

        if they knew the things that he knew, they wouldn’t want to be around him. they would avoid him. fear him. he wouldn’t even have the dan at all, he’d just have ene if he was LUCKY, but a part of him knew she’d likely leave too.

        she always had a better bond with kano, anyway.

        why did the snakes give him such a power? in the next timeline, he’d have to relive his dad dying, possibly momo dying, most of his friends possibly dying, and he’d likely kill himself all over again. not even death was safe, unless he could make himself nonexistent permanently.

        and the queen wouldn’t let him. he didn’t need what few memories he had of her ( mostly flashes of her face ) to know that she wouldn’t. he was just one of her many toys in this game, and that was ironically what he feared LEAST at this point.

[eyecursed]

From the Three King's event, Kido has received Ayano "Charlatan" Tateyama's gift of a JELLO KNIFE!

         it was a knife. made of jello.

         tsubomi frowned, turning it over in her hands, examining it. what a strange weapon. was it really a weapon? she wasn’t sure, and she was too scared to ask.

         no, not scared. saddened. if it weren’t by a rock, would momo have died by this? or some other weapon? even the brief mental image of momo laughing at such a silly gift just made tsubomi’s eyes tear up, even as she moved to wipe them with her sleeve.

         this event was…beautiful, yet it seemed to be salt in the wound known as loss.

[eyecursed]

starter call for enh’s christmas event! shintaro is going to be a bit quiet due to the recent trial of his sister’s murder, and kido for similar reasons because she’d died for momo in her timeline, but i’m sure a bit of coaxing can ease them to properly celebrate.

[gospelofdismay-a4]

rebooted! recreated! immortalized!

this is the NEW gospel, my little sheep, and in this tale are a great many twists and turns. time marches on, consequences can result in the rise or fall of the studio, and we, this congregation, feast our eyes upon the artifact known as “THE LAST REEL”.

we know that the end is in sight, and soon, HE WILL SET US FREE. come now, my little sheep, and see the end of the world we once knew, this world of ink and abandonment, and pray that we will be beholden to the new creation.

the angels will wail. listen! hear them now, for the ink demon will soon judge what our fates will be.

we will all rise up in the ink, my little sheep.

[eyecursed]

knock knock. hey shin, are you in there? haruka's calling with a soft, "shintaro-kun?" while slowly opening the door a crack, looking visibly worried -- although any of his own stress, he's hiding. at least he has some root beer ( he knows it's not coke, he's sorry ) and an overflowing lunchbox full of food for him. "can i come in?"

        he had finally gotten to his room after realizing that his haze was fucking hogged for investigations. even so, he was laying on his stomach as if trying to stave off the feeling in it after seeing momo’s corpse. he knew she wasn’t from a timeline he recognized immediately, but she was still his sister, timelines be damned.

       at the soft call of haruka’s voice, he lifted his head, blinking slowly. “...yeah. come in.” with that, he...rolled off the bed, landing on the floor, before scrambling back up.

       all that napping hadn’t done him any favors, it seems.

[eyecursed]

        haruka had told him to go for a walk, and shintaro ---- well, shintaro couldn’t refuse haruka very easily. he lost his sense of touch, not his sense of hearing, and so of course he could hear his friend admonishing him for staying indoors and sleeping all the time. it’d been his primary activity after losing his sense of touch.

        and so he’d found himself in the acedia ward after some walking.

        he didn’t really feel like dealing with people, and so shintaro had wandered first to the wishing well. after staring down in the water, a thought occurred to him: he hadn’t attended one of momo’s concerts for...several timelines at this point, if his memory was correct.

        why? if he was supposed to be a great big brother, then why did he simply refuse momo’s offers to watch her on stage? perhaps it was unconscious knowledge that he would be drawn in with her power, but she didn’t know how to control it for a long time. even so, if he were to accept such a flimsy reason, a terrible excuse, that still held no excuse for continuing to do so.

       shintaro rummaged into his pocket and pulled out one of his coins, staring down at it. when he escaped the haze with momo, the first thing he’d do is attend one of her concerts. the next? make sure to keep doing so in future timelines.

       he clutched the coin in his hand, closing his eyes for several long moments, wishing that he could make and fulfill that promise to his sister ---- then he tossed it into the well, watching as it splashed in the water.

       another few moments spent staring at the water passed by, before he moved on, walking towards the river near the town of nora. a good stop, he’d been told, if one wanted to just collect their thoughts within this wretched place.

       it was when he saw a group of birds pecking at something large on the shore that he would’ve felt his heart sink ---- if he’d been able to feel it, anyway. the vibrant colors of the object, too, felt out of place, as if it were a meteor in the middle of a street’s walkway.

      shintaro drew closer to the birds, shooing them away, before he was able to get a good look at what exactly they were pecking at.

      and all he could do was SCREAM as the realization dawned on him.

      MOMO KISARAGI. dead. likely drowned, like their father had been. her body was sandy and her hair mingling with plant life presumably found in the river, the signs of bloating already having begun on her body. this was the first proper murder. and it was his own sister, the one he’d wanted to make things right with. how? why? why did it have to be momo?!

[damashita]

why the fuck did he wake up to all the humans screaming & having panic attacks what happened NOW.

[eyecursed]

kogerou daze was born from one of the kiddos, everyone is screaming because they only just realized that saeru’s not fuckin around

[eyecursed]

CHAPTER 1. | @helixempress

        stumbling around blind, kido couldn’t help but swallow hard as she used her arms to help her move around. she had to find someone who could help her get back to her house, where she’d likely stay until this whole thing was over. a bump into another person caused her to squeak out, “s-s-sorry!”

[eyecursed]

CHAPTER 1. | @azaminohebi

        “wish i could say i could help, ma’am, but you know clearing’s got his own...THING going on. between that and the queen, i hope you understand me when i say i prefer NOT being disemboweled.”

[eyecursed]

CHAPTER 1. | @odietamc

        for shintaro, losing his sense of touch just gave him more reason to just avoid doing much. if only to keep up some appearance of politeness, though, he gave a half-hearted wave to someone who’d strayed close. “...real sense of humor these guys have, huh?”

[eyecursed]

EDEN NO HEBI. | @unlovcd

        “you’re the one who enjoys all the torture, right?” red eyes flicked over to vincent, before he raised an eyebrow. “looking for input?”