Audience: Vira Lillie

[probe]

Comments

[chevaleros]

[ even though she tries to be staid, she frowns minutely. ]

...I have used it as motivation for much of my actions, but only insofar as my wish to run from despair. To not have to feel its weight on me again.

[ to turn around and try and embrace it is difficult, to say the least. ]

Has accepting your grief—weaponizing it—brought you closer to your goals? Your happiness?

[probe]

I believe it has. Rather than running from it, it is motivation to remedy what has happened in the past, and never allow it to come to pass again.

[a drive to resolve that despair in some way, perhaps.]

[chevaleros]

Hm... [ she runs a fingertip idly along the rim of her teacup, then nods. ] I will see if I can't take that to heart.

[ it doesn't seem like it would work for her exactly, but the same logic can be applied to her own experiences, for her own solution. ]

I think this particular sin is advantageous to success here, but perhaps the most dangerous as well.

[probe]

Something of a double-edged blade-- apt enough, considering its mark.

[hashtag reasons the despair sigil is a dangling sword.]

But I do not believe handling it is beyond you.

[chevaleros]

[ a sin that can be endlessly indulged but perhaps never quite enjoyed. apt indeed. ]

I'm humbled that you might think so. Perhaps with your guidance I might find success yet.

[ she may be emotionally unstable, but maybe being competent will win out. she'll have to see. ]

Though I admit I came to see if you might help me with a few of my endeavors.

[probe]

[it's a balance, as many things are. but they nod, there.]

With which endeavors in particular?

[chevaleros]

[ business time. she pulls out a notebook and pen. ]

First, I would like to request a lantern of sorts. [ a flashlight ] There's a room I'd like to delve further into, but it's quite dark.

Secondly— [ and now she'll nudge the thermos she brought forward, which has a small amount of despair gatorade ] I collected this from the room with all the pods, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it. I also wonder if you might help me make sense of what I encountered there.

[probe]

Explain what you require me to help you make sense of, and perhaps I might-- but the liquid is nothing to concern yourself overmuch with.

[what are your questions beyond the juice, vira.]

I would also ask where you intend to delve, that you need a light.

[chevaleros]

[ okay she will just drink despair kool-aid later ]

I intend to look into the room with fixtures made of crystal. [ the ??? room, which is Dark ] It left me uneasy when I stayed there last week—as did the room with the pods. Had I had a light then, it may have allowed me to see something that has otherwise eluded me. The room went dark as I was investigating it.

[probe]

If you kept the items you were provided upon arrival, there should be a light there... though I suppose I might also warn you now that you will find nothing of interest to you within that room, even should you delve deeper.

[chevaleros]

[ wow motherfuck i forgot about the blacklight, anyway it's game canon now that vira probably didn't dig through the bag after she accidentally touched a boob ball

she raises a brow ]

Ah, I'll have to check for it—though do you know what that room is at all?

[probe]

[vira touch your boob you deserve it. anyway.]

I have some idea, yes.

[they do not elaborate.]

[chevaleros]

[ stop ]

An idea you won't tell me at this juncture, I presume.

[ she frowns, but not in a way that it seems she's surprised. ]

Then, can you tell me what I may have encountered in the room with the pods?

[probe]

You presume correctly.

[sorry that they're like this.]

As for the pods, they are more or less what they appear to be.

[chevaleros]

[ thanks dad. mom? ]

I'm afraid they don't appear to be anything sensical to me. [ gbf tech is better than most ye oldes but this is still a lot. ] How are there... spare bodies?

[probe]

There are processes by which multiple new bodies may be created, using material from an original body, with each being identical to the source. Several of you have been quite concerned about this.

[they sound negative amounts of concerned.]

[chevaleros]

[ IT'S CONCERNING? DESPAIR? ]

It is unsettling to see—particularly since we don't know what these—our bodies are here for.

[probe]

Do you believe that is truly what has taken place?

[chevaleros]

Do you mean to say we should know why such bodies exist...?

[probe]

I am not. But I have been told each of you see it differently, when you look into the room.

[they just think it's interesting they all assume it's real when they are all seeing only their own bodies, but they also aren't saying it's not.]

[chevaleros]

Ah, yes... I considered if perhaps we could only see those bodies which are our own. But at one point, I also saw them all vanish, as though they were never there at all.

[ so what are they, really? ]

Sometimes it's difficult to discern reality from illusion here.

[probe]

You will simply have to decide for yourself what you believe to be factual, then.

[they give her a slight nod, along with that.]

[chevaleros]

...So we must.

[ she looks down at their tea setting, pensive. ]

A related question—do you know if there's something else living here besides us and you all?

[probe]

Has anything led you to believe that there would be?

[chevaleros]

[ she recalls steadily: ]

I encountered something in the room with the pods. When the bodies vanished—it felt distinctly as though I was being watched.

Then, again—the night that Tamaki was murdered. No one attests to being in the room with me, but it seemed as though someone was there, holding the skull we found as evidence that weekend. This may have been an illusion, but given that I found bone fragments... it seemed real to me.

Both these instances were accompanied by the same noises. [ the skittering sound. ] In one case, I even thought I... felt it pass by me.

[ she sits up straight, frowning. ]

I had considered, perhaps, that it was the work of another person here. Or something that came into existence, influenced by our presence. But even still, I wonder if we aren't alone.