achates | [DAY 0] TDM.

[DAY 0] TDM.

Error in final launch sequence:
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹͚̽𝚡̰̍̂𝟸̠̯̘ͭͧ𝚌̭͉̺͖ͥ𝟿̳̰̒̇ͅ𝟷̦ͣ̉͌̅𝚋͓͎̈̒̀𝟻ͭ̌͂𝟷ͩ̓𝟾̦
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹̖͇͕̃𝚡͉̹̯͇̻̉̓̂𝟸͚̹͈͓̩͚̲̼͒̾𝚌̱̠͙̝̪͇̈̌̂̃̄ͭ𝟿̱̜̪͓̳̹ͤ̊̈́ͦͥ̑𝟷͖̱̝̀̒̇̂̄̈́̓̇ͅ𝚋̥̯͉̹͛͛̊ͤͦͩ𝟻̬̮̈́̋ͯ͛̉̐𝟷̋ͩ̔̔𝟾̼
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Debugger connection lost.
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Debugger connection lost.
Shutting down...
Rebooting
Download in Progress:
File download complete
Time elapsed during download operation: 00:12:33.131
Rebooting
Launching Demon Summoning Program. . .

You open your eyes to the end of the world, but you do not see it.

Instead what rouses you is screaming and crying, blood and tears: all around you are signs of life. Inside the overturned train, people begin to awaken, sprawled on the ground as if thrown violently from their seats, broken bones and bleeding wounds struggling to rise from the carpet of shattered glass from the windows at their feet. Emerging from the wreck, characters will find themselves at the edge of a dense forest, a towering stone wall at their backs. Bright eyes peer out from the shadows of the foliage, more and more blinking into view like stars in a darkening sky, but despite being drawn to the scent of blood that hangs heavy in the air, nothing steps out of the forest. Not yet.

None of the passengers can recall what happened, what they were doing on a train, where it was going- there's more they can't remember, but overshadowing the gaps of memory are things they have gained in return. A familiar item that is not theirs. A gemstone that feels lighter than it appears, as if hollow inside. And a device that wraps around their wrist (or rests on their head, or hangs around their neck, or however it presents itself to each character) that starts up on its own the moment the character turns their attention to it, as if waiting. Each character's COMP has a "navigator" selected at default, either "A☆L☆A" in bright neon orange, or "K5" in cool slate blue, although the presiding navigator can be freely switched between them.

Heya, boss! My name's Ala, your new navi!

You wanna know something really funny? Go ahead and touch the map on the corner of the screen to enlarge it. See all those little red dots? Those are demons out to kill you. Haha! You're surrounded!

Heya, boss! You can call me Keigo, your navigational AI.

If you touch the map on the corner of the screen, you can enlarge it and see the positions of all your allies. Looks like some of you are already heading out: see those little blue— oh. That one just disappeared. ... Try to stick together.

Along with providing a map with enemy/ally positions, the navigators will walk characters through the demon interaction, recruitment, and summoning processes, with advice varying between the two navigators (click to expand)

Just beat 'em up and force 'em to join! They can't say no if they're dead!

Nobody is immune to bribery, not even demons. What do you even have, though...? No matter what, don't let them get that life stone.

More demons incoming! Ooh, you're screwed. You'd better run! Don't worry, I won't tell.

Let's hide here. We'll wait here until that demon passes, then move!

Look, a body! Are they still alive? Wonder what's in their pockets...?

It's already too late to help. But better them being demon food than you.

Or, you could stay. There is nothing forcing anybody to leave the relative safety of the train. Those who stay behind will find the conductor's cabin empty, save for a small black cat perched on the headrest of the driver's seat that peers out with bright golden eyes at those who enter. Otherwise, there are no signs of a fight or struggle inside the cabin. Elsewhere, there is unclaimed luggage in the overhead compartments with an abundance of clothing and blankets, although characters will not find any of their own clothing except what they're already wearing. The dining cart is still stocked with enough food and beverage to last each passenger at least two days— maybe longer, if people keep leaving/dying... But at the same time, maybe shorter, considering the pervasive hunger that gnaws at the pits of everybody's stomachs, an emptiness that yearns to be filled by something... more.

As minutes stretch into hours, it becomes painfully clear that nobody is coming to help. Everybody only has each other, this town, its inhabitants. The forest is dark and unforgiving, near impossible to navigate even with a map. Strange creatures jump out from the shadows, eyes bright, mouths salivating, hungry. Strong hands claw through the dirt underfoot to grab at people's feet, pulling themselves up, mouths wide open, hungry. Sharp talons swoop down from the skies above, snatching characters up into the air, crushing skulls and snapping spines. Hungry. The demons here seem delighted to see such a feast wandering right into their home; those who are stopped for attempted conversation express surprise that characters are able to see them, but ultimately the hunger wins, and hunger does not listen to reason.

Casualties are inevitable. Blood mist permeates the air, and follows even as characters break out of the forest and across town, all the way to the fraying end of the world. Out in the open, however, the sun rays beat down bright and harsh, and those hungry eyes shy away from the sunlight to remain in the shadows, inside husks of buildings and thickets of overgrown fields. Characters will be able to find refuge in the greenhouse and the church, and some of the standing houses are truly vacant (as opposed to "surprise! there's actually a demon inside!" vacant); the only eyes that follow you are those of photographs hung crooked on the walls, of familiar strangers and forgotten friends. Look, there's a picture of you too.

Other locations require more caution to explore:

The sound of crying can be heard from the upper stories of the school building, thin wails echoing up and down the deserted halls, and human-like shadows peer out from the broken, unboarded windows, as if watching. A barricade inside the front doors makes it difficult to enter from the main entrance, and with most of the windows boarded up, the hallways inside remain dark even during the day. The smell of rot is prominent, heavy and cloying, especially in the auditorium-become-mausoleum that is littered with crushed bones, thin and brittle, every last scrap of flesh already nibbled away. A flock of demons crowd around outside principal's office, where a blizzard blows through the entire hallway, rendering visibility near zero and temperatures below that.

The hospital is also deathly cold, breath visible in puffs of mist that sometimes form into screaming faces, and when all is still and quiet, you look up and see yourself. Shadows form into mirror images of the characters who enter the hospital, silently approaching others and attacking once the person's guard is down. If a demon borrowing your face isn't bad enough, Phantoms go a step further and take the form of people who are close to your character: friends, family, foes. Exploring the hospital may or may not be worth the potential backstabbing, considering the fact that the supplies found are maybe not the most sterile, half the equipment is rusted or corroded, and a lot of the medicine is unlabeled tablets and capsules inside unlabeled bottles (essentially, take at your own risk). Moreover, hordes of all sorts of demon ghosts will bar characters' way down to the basement, gathering in massive numbers anytime somebody tries to descend. Electricity bounces around the top of the stairway down, while bright flames lick the bottom of the stairs; particularly unlucky characters may be hit with a confusion spell, liable to throw themselves headfirst down the stairs to be consumed by the waiting demons below.

Hauntingly beautiful music can be heard from within the concert hall, and listening to their song puts you fast asleep— possibly in the middle of the street if you're not careful— while those who manage to make it past the front doors are immediately frozen in a hunk of ice or electrocuted to a crisp before being kicked to the curb. The concert hall appears to be actively guarded, and it's clear that strangers are Not Welcome. Even the other demons keep clear of this building, drawn to the music but lingering far enough to not be overwhelmed. Characters may have an easier time of initiating conversations with demons from around town or inside the houses nearby the concert hall.

The crackle of electricity can be heard from inside the power plant's upper stories despite the blackout, and the entire building shakes from time to time, as if caught in a thunderstorm, or an earthquake. A slow drip... drip... drip... can be heard throughout the building, of amorphous demons clinging to the walls like mold and leaving puddles of caustic acid Everywhere. Anybody who enters the power plant's front entrance is met with a massive agglomerate of black Ooze that has expanded to fill the entire first floor from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, preventing anybody from going upstairs while it remains. Arms and legs poke out of the demon's body in places, desperately clawing and kicking, weaker, weaker. done.

OOC

Welcome to Day 0! What better meet-and-greet is there than everybody being tossed into the fray to fight for their lives? ('': For convenience, here are the game info, locations, and demon compendium pages; please use these as reference for what more can be found in the setting.

The characters' COMP will turn on only after they notice and focus on it. If they do NOT activate the COMP, they will not be able to see the demons or interact with them in any way other than being killed. Activating the COMP will allow characters to see demons and somewhat understand their language, with an added effect of allowing physical attacks to harm demons, and mitigating the damage taken from demons.

For characters who app and are accepted, please report demon recruitment here. Characters who are just tdming do not have to report. Recruited demons are inclined to listen to their summoner, but are not necessarily friendly at the beginning: if your character shows weakness, the demon may be just as likely to eat them as they are to protect them.

There will be no NPCs in this game other than the two navigators and some key demons. You're on your own for now!

This first event/tdm is open to the public, and can be used for test driving at any time after the game starts. I'll be keeping a pulse on threads for when characters have gotten their bearings and seem to have a general idea of how they want to proceed into the next day, and we'll go from there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ BB pats her belly rather anticlimatically, giving him a long hard look as silence fills the air between them. A bit too contemplative in the wrong moment, responding a bit slower than usual. Regarding the whole situation at a different pace than what she was used to. Her mind automatically overthinks, and because there is less processing power - she is... Slower. ]

Not right now, [ Demons, what they are made of, possibilities of consuming? Possibilities of consuming with a human body? Possibilities of gaining abilities? Possibilities of gaining abilities with a human body? Corruption? Data missing? Data is already missing. Data is not data. Memory is Data now. ] no, [ Location of Concert Hall now adding to DNI, singing causing corruption? Singing is an issue? Why is Demon singing? What is this singing? What is going on? What location should observe next? Missing Data. Missing Data. Cannot connect to the Moon Cell, and cannot compare Data. Memory altered. ] and it didn't even fill BB up.

[ Her mind is a buzz, which had been the case before this all happened as well. Having began to fall into a trance, and be lulled in by the singing concert hall. Thoughts in such a trance-like state became actions, and her inquiry as to what would happen if she ate a pixie - turned into reality. ]

But you seemed to have taken a lick too, [ But that was neither here nor there - ] so now we are under a blood Oath - right?

Edited (wakes up to add what i forgot yesterday) 2024-08-30 17:52 (UTC)

[ Well, now he feels particularly bad, because if he hadn't interrupted her meal, would BB have swallowed the demon instead of spitting it out and going hungry? he looks over at the chunk of demon on the ground like maybe they can just wipe it off—- ]

Blood Oath...?

[ he. what? okay. ]

Right. Okay.

[ HE OWES HER, HE THINKS? ]

What promise are we now bound to?

NEVER TELL EACH OTHER SECRETS!! [ This will surely not bite her in the ass later down in the road. ] That means you have to hold this moment dear to your heart and never tell anyone ever, about what you saw!!!

[ As if playing with emotions and the moment here between them. She wipes away any stains on her face and looks towards him with more girlish eyes. Seemingly trying to cry. ] B-Because that was an uncute moment for BB-chan ~☆!

[ do NOT cry ]

It was cute, though...?

[ it was. something. Minato is great at keeping secrets (aka he is great at not saying anything to anybody unless he has to) and isn't one to gossip. In either case, this is a promise he can keep. ]

You don't have to worry. I won't ever forget this.

[ He will treasure this memory of getting half chewed-up Pixie spat in his face, it will haunt his nightmares for weeks to come ]

[ Did he just call her cute while she was in a vulnerable state of showing her true monsterous nature and seem totally unbothered by it too? ]

OKAY GOOD! [ Yelling loudly. ] YOU BETTER NOT FORGET THIS MOMENT WITH BB-CHAN EVER!

[ She flips her hair, turning to her side and looking off into the distance. ]

Anyway, we should totally leave this area before someone gets mad I killed their pixie girlfriend.

[ Sometimes... monsters... are cute...

It's fine, he's fine. He can agree with getting the hell out of here— demons, particularly ones of the same race, do tend to be friends with one another and the remains of this particular pixie is right at their feet, damning. ]

Right. Keep pushing forward. [ Away from the train, away from the forest. But past the concert hall is the end of the world: pitch black darkness takes place of a horizon. Despite himself, he steps towards the end. ]

Do we really want to go into the endless dark? BB feels we will just end up like a game and hit a wall, or loop back elsewhere... If this place is more messed up, then it could be this dark space is something that will swallow us whole. [ She steps along with him, embarking on this strange journey. A calm of confidence upon her unwavering. ] Are you unafraid?

I should be, shouldn't I...?

[ He can recognize that much, that he's walking towards a bad idea. Still, it draws him: the darkness, the unknown, the almost certainty of death. ]

We'll want to know for sure what's out there. If there's a wall, or if we're sent somewhere else... [ They can use that. If they disappear forever... that knowledge will be useful too: others will know what not to do. ]

I just want to see. I won't leave.

[ The ever-present unknown, being the decisive thing that makes her own hunger ache in the pits of her own stomach. The need to know, the need to understand, with the innate need to grow. She hungers always as a back-burning feeling, but here, it is so much stronger and the ebbing darkness before them. Cultivates this hunger of curiosity in her, to which, she knows ever upon what he says primarily - that this is not a place to be. ]

See enough as you are, since we have a blood oath now - BB-chan can't just let you go into the dark and get yourself killed. [ An excuse, she can use to hide any sense of "kindness" behind actions. ] It would be stupid anyway, even if you can get information by throwing your life on the line, it doesn't mean that you should.

Besides, as humanity's population is below 3% from what BB can see - we can't risk it getting any lower~ ☆!

[ She then, grips his arm and starts trying to walk away - mind you. She has no strength behind the pull but she tries! ] Maybe we can throw a demon at it instead, or like a rock.

[ There might not be much strength behind BB's pull, but neither is there much resistance on Minato's end as he follows along at the slightest nudge. ]

A rock.

[ Throwing a demon into the abyss... there's some mixed feelings about that, but something else takes precedence. ]

3%... Is that how many of us are here? [ That doesn't make sense. There are billions of people in the world, and the entire country of Japan accounts for barely 1-2% of it all. The number of people here is miniscule by comparison, and with more and more of them dying, their collective existence here amounts to basically nothing. ]

[ She is going to drag him along, there they go! Bye Pixie body again for the second time, she gives it a wave. Definitely need to keep themselves down low though, ]

BB said what she can see, BB usually sees from the moon but she can only see from her eyes now - right? [ As if implying, this made any more sense. ] Makes more sense?

[ Bye pixie body, hello... houses? There were several secured ones he'd been brought to by various people already— Armin, Mitsuri- but he doesn't know if any demons have moved in during the time he's been gone. The only other "safe" place he knows is the church, so he just sort of leans that way, towards the cemetery behind the building. ]

It... I guess. [ not really. not at all, actually. ]

What does the world look like, from the moon?

[ Tiny, he bets. A little blue marble in the ocean of darkness that is space. He's only ever seen pictures of the Earth from space, always thought it looked beautiful. ]

[ BB follows along, although her eyes are everywhere else other than the church itself. ]

Beautiful. [ A beat. ] Except for all the annoying pigs walking all over it. BB just wants to squish them all with her hands sometimes, [ Some gremlin-like laughter, as she skips a bit in her step. Then hops to a full halt. ]

Want to explore a house, or go back into the church?

[ She says the world is beautiful, and Minato's gaze softens, almost a smile.

Then there's a beat and she speaks again. ]

The church, I guess. I've seen some pig demons in the gardens of some of the houses, so... [ considering how much BB apparently hates pigs?? she's talking about actual pigs, right,,, ]

[ We all wish it were like that. ]

Oh okay, BB was there cleaning it all out. That was when she got really hungry and ended up exploring more. [ She chimes in, rather positive about it. ] Ehhh, that so? Too bad BB doesn't have her Authority, she can turn her favorite people into little piggies you know!

[ If BB was in the gardens, he'd figure there would be better (or at least other) options available to eat other than demons if she were getting hungry. ]

"Authority"...? [ granted by who? or what? ]

BB, do you like people? I can't tell.

Yeah, Authority. [ Her voice chimes in as if implying Minato should already know what this means. Despite knowing that he likely doesn't. Playing coy with her words and being the way that she is, provides ample information in a way that only chaos can. ] BB hates humanity, and BB loves humanity - why?

Edited (LMAO ICON) 2024-09-13 05:12 (UTC)

[ Prompted pause, as her eyes look over and turn a dark shade of red. ]

Is that a problem?

Edited (LMAO ICON) 2024-09-13 05:12 (UTC)

[ The red eyes give him pause, but even then there is no hesitation to his answer: ]

No. I'm actually... kind of glad to hear you say that.

[ Because she hates humanity, and there is nobody in the world who can fault her for that. Human beings lie and cheat and kill, they destroy their own kind and the very planet they live on, and you don't have to look very far to see the worst of humanity.

But at the same time, she loves them. Despite everything that they are and everything that they do, BB still loves humanity. And it's the same for him too. ]

[ Oh huh, BB gives him a tenative look. If she were floating, she'd be looking down at him from above. ]

Oh, BB gets it, you're an edgy boy, huh? That's why your hair is in front of your face like Mashu-chan. [ She teases, taking heavy note of this interaction. ] For girls you get that haircut because you're shy and pathetic, but for boys, it's because you're emo and sad.

[ Minato opens his mouth to argue but he... really... cannot... ]

...I'm not... sad.

[ edgy? emo?? MAYBE. but there's nothing he's particularly sad about. even being here, away from his friends, he isn't: he's long accepted that he won't ever see them again.

anyways!!! we're not going to talk about him anymore. ]

Is Mashu-chan a friend of yours?

All humans are sad, all they do is suffer, it's cute ~ ♡! [ Stated casually, and moves on from it as if this were a senseless statement. ]

Mashu-chann is not BB's friend, she is my ENEMY for thinking she can take up BB's spot as cute kouhai.... Absolutely, ugly, of her! That said... She is Senpai's favorite servant... So.

[ Once again, he really can't find fault in anything BB says. Living is suffering, that's true, although it's not as if people's only option is to be sad about it. many still struggle against life, despite it all. ]

So you're like... rivals, then. Sounds complicated.

[ Sounds like two people vying for Senpai's attention and that sounds messy, he doesn't want to get involved in that. ]

Life is complicated, this PLACE is complicated. [ BB looks at him with an eyebrow raised. ] There's nothing new about that. That's just how things work, unless you are BB-chan of course, then you can do anything!!! So sucks to be you. Anyway, what is your name? No one here likes to introduce themselves. It's stupid.

[DAY 0] TDM.

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