Act 1, Scene 1: Okami

[opening_act]

[ A notification on your phone goes off, letting you know the purchase of your meeting with Exael has gone through.

There is an attachment. Where are you, when you open it? ]

Comments

[opening_act]

[ From the hospital, it appears the quickest way to get there is... the map's directions are directing you to take the subway? They direct you to Ichigaya station. ]

[ There is no listed sender, and it is not a group text. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ No listed sender certainly seems foreboding, but, then again, he did just get that message about Exael. Could this be them? But why aren't they contacting the entire group at the same time? ]

Exael?

[opening_act]

《 That's me ☆ 》

[opening_act]

[ it seems like it's getting dark early ]

[furrytailprince]

[ Okay then, well that answered that question. Time to check out this subway. ]

[opening_act]

[ the streetlights flicker on in front of him as he walks to the subway, a sort of luminous light bright enough to seem to dim the air around them. The shadows seem deeper, the closer he gets to the subway.

the stairs down to the subterranean subway are pitch black

Enter? ]

[furrytailprince]

[ This is not helping with his heebie jeebies, but he's determined to see this through. And he did spend a considerable amount of his points for this, sacrificing many chances at new memories, true or otherwise. So after flitting a gaze about the area for any of his would-be companions, he steps down the stairs. ]

Where are the others?

[opening_act]

[ It is black as pitch as he descends into the abyss. no one responds to his words, not even an echo. There is no light down there. Even if he should attempt to cast light from his cellphone it will serve only to illuminate itself, not casting any further visibility into the darkness. His steps down the stairs go further, down deeper yet into the earth. There's no indication of how much further he will need to go, until, eventually, the wall and stairs end. He puts his feet down on solid ground.

There is still no illumination, but the train is visible in the abyss. Like something made of black light. Because it's pitch dark, you maybe didn't notice it before, but when the doors open you can tell there are other people in there, as they block view of the windows on the other side.

The display lets you know this is the Shinjuku line. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ He is totally going to attempt to use his phone for light, useless or not. Well, the sight of other people is somewhat reassuring. He enters the open doors to see if he can find anyone he recognizes. ]

[opening_act]

[ The other passengers don't seem to be quite occupying the same space as you-- they have black outlines that radiate body heat as they go past, like walking past a furnace but without tangibility you can reach out and touch. Their silhouettes are something like people.

The doors slide closed, not long after you board.

Next stop, Shinjuku Station. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ He's going to quickly scramble back once he attempts to tap someone and passes through them. ]

What is this... ?

[ Maybe he can still get off—well, so much for that... ]

[opening_act]

[ it's like putting your hand above a burner. the silhouette shrinks back from you, as far into its seat as it can get, but does not answer ]


[ The train ride does not last long until he arrives at Shinjuku Station ]

[furrytailprince]

[ Maybe I like the train. Maybe I don't want to leave. ]

[opening_act]

[ The train doors open to let him out. Outside the doors he can see the station is not lit, persay. But the quality of darkness is interrupted by solid quantities of hue in the darkness, visible the same way the train was. A spiral stair climbs up from the abyssal Shinjuku station, presumably to the way above ground. ]

[ If he does not disembark the train sign changes: next stop, Yoyogi Station. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ Dang it! Rushing out the door against all good sense! ]

[opening_act]

[ Dark figures bustle through the station— silhouettes of commuters off to places unknown. There are other platforms, other places he can go.

Or, he can take the stairs up and out. The spiral staircase is easier to follow than the stairwell, retaining that solid quality of color in the dark. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ He's going to go out on a limb and assume that stairwell is intended to stand out for a reason... ]

[opening_act]

[ The stairwell takes him up. He emerges into the light.

He is in Shinjuku, still. A Shinjuku busier, brighter, controrted. Shinjuku as you've never known it. Everything glows, every last window blazing with kaledescopic light, wrought iron and stained glass in all the windows. In the shadows cast from the light, the street is still filled with those who aren't quite occupying the same space as him-- black outlines that jostle you with their heat as they go past, like walking past a furnace but without tangibility you can reach out and touch. Their silhouettes are something like people. The same as the train. The sky shudders with stars-- none of them still in their celestial orbits. His stomach will lurch if he looks up, to look at any of it.

There is a television on, somewhere. He can hear singing, and a broadcasting of what sounds like a bit of the last game. ]

[opening_act]

[ the map says he has arrived. The apartment building Exael indicated he should go to has the doors standing open, with an elevator at the ready ]

[furrytailprince]

[ He is always going to be compelled to look up at a night sky. And he instantly regrets it, as he starts to feel sick and reaches out for something to steady himself against. His ears flick at the sounds from the television. ]

[opening_act]

[ it's a fragment of conversation— Okami talking to E, from truth or drink.

Is he going to seek out the television, or go to the apartment building, or elsewhere? ]

[furrytailprince]

[ Yeah, sure, let's check out the TV. ]

[opening_act]

[ he'll need to walk a street over from the apartment to find it—

This is a building not in your Shinjuku. The second story up, it is covered in fragmentary display screens, between stained glass. The scene looks like a giant game, a board set up according to rules you don't know— and some of this glass is clear, not stained with color. Maybe fifty uncolored orbs, surround panels made to look like doors, little windows into the games you've played!

It's a movie theater. There's a lot of figures around it, it seems pretty popular. ]

[furrytailprince]

[ Growls at the sight of this "audience" enjoying their pain and even lunges at them to push them away, knowing good and well they're not entirely real ]

Get away from here, you vultures!

[opening_act]

[ The heat is like a furnace, molten and boiling around his flesh as he plunges into the dark figures

Pain.

Yours, and theirs alike.

We didn't deserve it
She was better than any of these
They've got it so good
At least you have a choice!
If I have to suffer, why should you get any better!
He would never betray us
I hope this time, they make it through. Even if we can't be saved, someone should . . .
Fuck you, I'll laugh as much as I want!
There has to be enough that will do the right thing, this time! I'm cheering you on!
I'm tired. I'm just so tired.
They break so easy!
If we couldn't why should they?

Glee, remorse, hope and malice burn like nothing he's ever felt before. It singes and leaves a sizzling after-burn in his mind, pain that does not recede into oblivion but stays stuck. There are so many people here, and you cannot tell if this hatred is entirely yours, or entirely theirs even as they start to scatter away from you ]