Week 6: May 6th - 10th

[cartesio]

Sixth Week

Killers and victims, killers and victims. Three of your own have fallen prey to murderous intent last week. Your numbers keep shrinking. Azura has fallen prey to Franciscus in the same night that Olympia betrayed her friend Millium and killed Cian who wound up in the crossfire. At this rate, is there anyone you can trust?

The townspeople's anger burns hotter than ever. Wherever they go, must they live in fear of stumbling on a corpse? They can't live like this. More than ever, the visitors are being shown that they are unwelcome.

Walking outdoors, cold looks are the norm. Shouted profanity isn't unexpected. Barely anybody is willing to still hold a conversation with any visitors.

Even within the motel, there is no feeling of safety any longer. Not only have two people died in this very place, no, now the townspeople also lost their fear of coming inside. While they don't enter private rooms, the daring among them vent their hatred of you by vandalizing the common rooms.

Cartesio has become a menacing place.

In the lobby of the motel there's a few more brochures, and the maps have been updated once again. Don't mind that some of them have been damaged in one of the attacks on the motel.

Links

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Locations
NPCs
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Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the sixth week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

[pursuitofdeath]

[...on Wednesday, Dazai leaves his room. But not until evening. As the winds die down and the skies clear-- he slips out of the motel and goes... to the library.

You might expect him to be up to something, flipping through so many books. But it's hard to believe he's really reading them the way he slips through. But there's one that-- to get to the end, he stops with his hand frozen on the page.]

"People exist to save themselves"...

[He's heard this before. This line. It was... Ah. He'd forgotten. Oh but how vividly it returns. He can hear it...

Dazai takes the book with him. He'll return it. Probably.

The rest of the night finds him lying on the grass in the park staring at the stars with the book from earlier tucked inside his pocket alongside his own less charming book on you know what.

It's... peaceful... which feels nice, which-- feels wrong. And so he hums a meloncholy tune under his breath. It fills the air with something more fitting for his current state of emotions.]

park

[robitussin]

[It's hardly rare for her to come out here, and even less surprising for her to give pause when she sees him. Still, the tune he's humming and the way he's looking towards the stars strikes her as... odd, but good, considering the way he seemed the last time they spoke.

So, she tries to sound casual as she speaks.]

What are you doing out here?

[pursuitofdeath]

They say fresh air is good for the soul.

[Do they? Is it?

...at least he's smiling when he says it. It seems slightly more genuine than before. While he still seems more lost than found; he does seem to be looking.]

Perhaps it will help me think.

[robitussin]

[She can tell, and it at least chips away at the worry she's been holding for him the last few days.]

It's as good a place as any here, I guess. What are you thinking about?

[pursuitofdeath]

[Even now this place is still... well it holds painful memories, but close to them he still feels... well. Alive.]

Oh... just a line from a book, I suppose. Something silly, really.

[And yet silly as he acts at times, he rarely wastes his time thinking about things that are truly silly.]

[robitussin]

[At that, her head tilts as she digs a little deeper.]

Yeah? What line?

[pursuitofdeath]

"People exist to save themselves."

[...]

I'd heard it once before, a long time ago. But I'd practically forgotten it. Or maybe... I wanted to forget.

it seems it originated from a book-- not that I'm surprised.

[Odasaku had wanted to be an author himself... he'd probably had a certain, special love for books.]

[robitussin]

...Huh.

[She thinks that over for a few moments before glancing his way again.]

What's it mean? Or... What does it mean to you, at least?

[pursuitofdeath]

...when I first heard them, they were echoed as the feelings of someone who'd freed himself from the shackles of living with the great pain that he felt were only naturally laid at his feet.

That kind of meaning... I can relate to it.

[That in and of itself is a worrying examination. But-- he continues.]

However... I can't accept it. That kind of thinking was flawed from the beginning. Not only the kind of thinking that lead him to that conclusion, but the very logic of those words themselves. To die is to embrace the end of one's existence. And so... if one is to save oneself... by that logic, you can't.

You have to live.

[robitussin]

[There's a pause at that, while she thinks that out, but then...]

And - is that just your interpretation of that quote, or what you're planning on?

[It's said quietly.]

[pursuitofdeath]

You asked for my interpretation of the quote.

It's not something I've thought about in regards to myself.

[That would require him to consider the concept of saving himself.]

[robitussin]

[There's another pause, but...]

You know, you remind me of someone.

[It's said simply, but it might explain why she's always been so nervous around him and desperate to help him, all in one.]

There's no harm in thinking about it like that.

[pursuitofdeath]

Oh?

[Ah-- that's... not a good thing. But for all she's listened to him, he's not surprised that there's some kind of connection.]

what kind of person are they?

park

[clearities]

[ While most children her age would normally be sleeping, Sakura is very much a night owl, even if she honestly shouldn't be lurking at such late hours, considering the place she's in. Nevertheless, she's here, ears perked as she hears the melody. Music reminds her of home. It reminds of her of things she misses, but that isn't important right now. What's important is- ] Dazai-san? ... You were the one humming that song?

[pursuitofdeath]

...ah.

[Sakura-chan.

He was supposed to... and he hadn't, not once.

In fact, he's quite unsure how to respond at all at first. But... in the end, this wasn't something he could just ignore.]

Yes. Was I disturbing you?

[clearities]

N-No, not at all! [ She waves her hands, a little embarrassed, a little frantic. ] I was thinking that maybe I was bothering you... um, what song was that, anyway?

[pursuitofdeath]

Oh, just a little something I made up myself.

I admit I used to do that often in the office. [He chuckles softly.] It would always make Kunikida-kun so mad~

[It's almost... happy to think about.]

[clearities]

You made it up yourself? [ Sakura's eyes widen in surprise, as she claps her hands together, pleased. ] That's really amazing, Dazai-san! Is this Kunikida-san your friend?

[pursuitofdeath]

That's right.

[Even he can feel that... that special something about Sakura. It's impossible not to.]

He's another member of the Armed Detective Agency-- my partner, actually.

[clearities]

That's good. [ That he has friends besides Oda-san, after... what happened. ] He's a good partner, right?

[pursuitofdeath]

[It's complicated but it's true-- it's not as though Dazai doesn't have other allies. It almost makes him wonder what they're thinking now. It's been quite some time after all...]

Well... we have very different styles, I suppose. Kunikida-kun is a man of many ideals... he likes things orderly and in a neat and timely manner.

[Whiiiiiich. Hmm! Sounds like exactly the kind of person that would hate working with someone like Dazai.]

He's quite scary when he gets angry~

[And yet he sounds so pleased talking about it...]

[clearities]

Having different styles isn't a bad thing. [ At least, Sakura thinks so, anyway... ] But he is? I mean... I think anyone would be really scary when they're angry.

cw: the barest of suicide mentions

[pursuitofdeath]

Something like...

[Ahem. Let him prepare his best Kunikida-kun impression-- by scrunching up his face and producing a deeper voice that's. Loud and frustrated.]

"There you are, you lazy good-for-nothing slacker!" or "This is my guide through life and nowhere does it state my partner has a fixation with suicide!"

[But doing that impression does make him laugh.]

It's a partnership that's worked for us though, I suppose.

[clearities]

... S- Suicide?! [ even Sakura is shocked by that one ]

[pursuitofdeath]

Well, that’s not his fault. He’s actually pretty good when it comes to insults. One time he called me a walking waste of bandages— or something like that.

[The self proclaimed Suicide Maniac fails to see the real issue here. Being that it’s on his list of likes and has come up a few different times he thought everyone knew.

Sakura is too pure for any of this.]