Superbia Intro Log ... ?

[cancrymods]

SUPERBIA

With the dragon of greed thoroughly slain, the Executors are at last free to escape the sensory hell of the Avaritia Underside and descend to the next Layer. There's still sound and chatter, of course, but compared to where you've been spending all your time until now. Welcome to Superbia. And make yourself comfortable... because now that you've arrived, the stairs that guided you down here have disappeared and you won't be leaving any time soon. Feel free to use this arrival log to chronicle your initial misadventures in the Pride Layer of Purgatory. As noted in the location page, several locations will require further investigation if you'd like to get some information on them, so get investigating! Drop a comment down to the Investigation Request subheader if you'd like to explore. Get out there and have fun! ... is anybody else feeling some deja vu?

Comments

INVESTIGATION REQUESTS

[cancrymods]

[daughterofthemark]

Veil again heads for the woods, although this time it's less "wanders off as soon as nobody is looking" and more "purposefully heads out once it's clear what happened." She doesn't have much more of a specific plan than last time, but what she does have is a pretty good memory of what some scattered landmarks looked like--a particularly ugly piece of litter, a low tree branch she had to duck under, that sort of thing--so at the very least she can see whether that stuff is exactly the same as it was.

Also are there at least deer this time?

[cancrymods]

Everything is more or less the same – no big changes, but there are some bits of litter that have been kicked aside or moved and some new scatterings of trash that weren't there in the last loop.

Tragically, there are still no deer.

[daughterofthemark]

Having run her basic idea by the other Executors, Veil comes back here and picks three trees she's confident she'll be able to find again.

She props up a tray from the cafeteria against the first tree.

She carves the initials "RV" into the second.

She cleans up all the trash in a five meter radius around the third and breaks a small branch off the tree itself, throwing all of it in a trash can near the track.

going to the store

[emberserker]

Well, this isn't going well. Wolfsbane will check the shop and peruse all the things in there while she grabs a new uniform. Anything particularly weird for sale?

[cancrymods]

Nothing out of place or noteworthy at the shop! Unless you were really lusting after a water bottle in the school's colours, which I presume Wolfsbane isn't.

Re: INVESTIGATION REQUESTS

[swordofajerk]

Okay fuck this, time for Sword to go check out the Principal's office.

[cancrymods]

The first thing he'll find is that the handle on the door is missing. It looks like someone with super strength might have just pulled it clean off, but surely that's ridiculous.

The Principal's office is empty, and seems as though it has been for a little while. Is there anything in particular Sword is looking for here?

[swordofajerk]

The switch to make DW send me my fucking notifs--

But for real, he's going to start poking around for files and documents that could be relevant: enrollment records, maybe a note about where the principal has gone, any other signs of tampering.

He's also going shut the door and put something in front of it so no one can get in (but he can get out).

[ourtomorrow]

Once he's done the obligatory staring, confusion, worry, and reminder to himself to Keep Moving Forward, Monarch goes to the student council office. The only leads he's got right now are that the Student Council President wants the school festival to happen and the principal doesn't, but gave in - and then, because of the loop, there wasn't a festival.

PERHAPS THERE IS A CONNECTION.

1/2

[cancrymods]

The first thing Monarch will notice when he slides the door open is that the room is – mostly – empty. It looks as though student council duties have been dealt with for the day and its members have dispersed to handle smaller tasks among themselves.

The second is that there's a girl stood at the open window, staring out across the school grounds. Her pale hair is pulled up into whip-tight twintails that sway softly in the breeze and for a long moment she seems so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't even notice his presence.

Eventually, though, she seems to register that someone has come into the room and she glances over her shoulder at him before giving a little "oh" of surprise and turning around.

[cancrymods]

She smiles.

"Welcome to the Student Council room! Is there something you need help with?"

[ourtomorrow]

"Ah, yes...."

But Monarch can't very well say that he is here to uncover clues about this Layer of Purgatory being trapped in a time loop. So he thinks about things that worked in Avaritia and decides to try a variation.

"I'm...new, and I heard about the festival. Is there any way I can help?"

He regrets this story as soon as it comes out, because now he has to pretend to be the sort of person who enjoys festivals (and he has no idea how to do that), but it's for the sake of everyone trapped in Purgatory! For them, Monarch will attempt...

to feign...

extroversion...

(what has he done)

[mementomoritz]

[Medic is going where any nerd in need of guidance goes: to the library.]

[Specifically, she's looking for anything on the history of this school. ...Also just any good reading material? They're apparently going to be here a while, she could use a few novels.]

[cancrymods]

The school history hasn't changed since Chiron checked last loop, so that at least seems to be consistent!

As for novels, the library is fairly well stocked, so Medic won't have any trouble tracking down a good number of novels to occupy herself with.

gym

[schardynfreude]

So it's locked up tight For Reasons. Is it chained shut or just locked from the inside?

And either way, what if fuck these doors in particular when Chiron cuts them open with his Executor scythe?

[cancrymods]

Well, the doors were chained shut but FUCK those doors!!! Chiron's weapon easily slices through the chains, leaving the gymnasium accessible to him.

Does he enter?

[discutio]

Sword and Phoenix are going to be walking through the school top to bottom for anything Weird after the gym turned out to be turbohaunted; there was some general interest in the garden and the roof specifically.

[cancrymods]

The garden just generally seems to be a nice place to vibe and hang out. No weirdness there that either of them can tell.

The roof however immediately has some Vibes the second they step out onto it. The air is colder out here than you might expect and while it doesn't feel turbohaunted in quite the same way as the gym, you definitely just get a bad feeling about this place.

The other thing that will be immediately obvious to Sword and eventually obvious to Phoenix is that there's a butterfly here.

It seems to be in a state of agitated distress, fluttering around urgently. It's also a sickly sort of orange colour in contrast to the soft blue of the butterflies found on previous layers.

[ourtomorrow]

[ Skippable, Self-Indulgent Memoria Portion ]

Monarch has once again been eagerly accepted by the soccer team, who tend to walk back to the dorms together after class. When Monarch begs off, citing working with the Student Council President, he's tossed a bun from the school store and told to not become an honors student on them.

Monarch isn't hungry, so he sort of stares at the bread. Breaks it in half. Reaches up to his shoulder, to feed it to -

To whom?

There's a....there's an empty space where someone's supposed to be. Someone who always gets the first piece.

His eyes widen. His lips move. A few syllables, what should be a nonsense word.

And then the memory's hitting, and Monarch bends over, hugging himself, dropping to the ground. Why these always are so intense he doesn't understand, but this one fills him with emotions unlike the shame or delight he's experienced before. Wormmon - Wormmon -

in his arms, telling him how glad he is they're partners

holding his leg, begging with him to stop....something

light, so light, so....frail....falling...dissolving

smaller, smaller but still Wormmon, crying and cradled

protecting him

following him

flying

I will always believe in you, [ ]-chan....

How could he have forgotten?

How could he have forgotten again?

Monarch's face twists. He sniffles, trying to hold back the tears, but he can't, he can't do it, it's too much. Who is he crying for? Is he crying for himself, who was so loved? Is he crying for Wormmon, who he's abandoned by dying? Is Wormmon still alive? What does Monarch want the answer to be, and why? Did he die in a way that would have lived up to Wormmon's faith?

And if all he feels is regret, then what's this warmth, felt equally strongly and with equal urgency? Are his tears only half in sadness, and half in....

Monarch hugs himself. Squeezes his eyes shut. And just like that, Wormmon is there. Not in reality, but in his mind.

"It's okay. Take your time and think about it."

"...Mm." Monarch nods, hugging himself with extra fervor in Wormmon's place. This is hard. This is so hard, harder even than realizing he and Esme had been similar, because this leaves so much unanswered about what life is like without him. He would leave a gap! Why is that both an awful feeling and an oddly encouraging one?

"Aren't there things you have to do now?"

Monarch nods. Wipes his face. I will, he promises the Wormmon in his memories, and tries to stand. It takes him a few tries, but he manages it. He'll be okay. He's....he's not okay, but he will...be.

He's not alone.

[ Investigation! With Etoile & (vs?) Miss President ]

"I'm sorry I'm late!"

Monarch, busting in, head up and eyes a little red. He does a quick once-over of the room to see who all is here. He's expecting the Student Council President, hoping to see Etoile-san....who else? "Has it started?"

let's investigate!

[etincelledefierte]

"It hasn't started yet, you're just in time," Etoile answers, gesturing to the seat next to hers. "I saved you a seat."

She takes a handkerchief out of her bag, handing it over. "Allergies? They're pretty bad this year." Etoile's just going to give him an easy out. She can tell something else is going on, she's just not going to drag it out of him in front of everyone else in the room.

Library redux

[heir_to_ruin]

So Ruin is playing at being a librarian and it's a wonderful excuse to bury his head in a puzzle and not think too hard about the awful things that are crawling around in his brain. Guilt ferrets are bastards.

Having also gone through a lot of books up in Limbo are there any parallels? Things that line up or don't with information in the previous levels?

Chiron's already gotten a look at some of the school info, which helps. Amid his "work" he's also trying to keep an eye on the "students" that are coming and going, see if there are any trends in what books are checked out most or seem to make the rounds the most. And if the computer systems completely reset or if there's anything weird about the check-out process because of the time distortion.

[cancrymods]

Ruin we love you don't listen to the ferrets :(

The books in Superbia seem to line up pretty neatly with what can be found elsewhere! There's no exact matches and there's some disconnects in terms of information here and there, but that doesn't seem to be anything sinister. It's just a continuation of the "reality but a little bit to the left" vibe that permeates Purgatory.

There don't seem to be any notable patterns in terms of students checking books in or out.

As for the systems and the effect the loop has on the check-out process...

Just how far back will he be looking?

[twibeast]

[ It's a few days after their meeting when Achilles decides to check out the student council president for himself. She doesn't want to suspect her just because she was curious about what they were doing, any specter could have felt the same. But it's the closest thing they've got to a lead and while he has no idea what a student council is, a president has to have... some kind of influence right? It's not too much of a stretch

That and maybe he feels... a little too confident over the way he successfully managed to get Greta to reveal who she was.

So after classes are over, he heads to the student council room, a box in hand. He gives the door a knock before opening it a creak to peek in. ]

Excuse me...?

[cancrymods]

[ As luck and the whims of your mod would have it, Miss President is indeed in the student council room, hard at work at... whatever it is the student council in this school does. Does all that paperwork actually, you know, do anything???

Either way, when he peeks inside, Miss President looks up and then immediately jumps to her feet. ]

Oh, hello! Please come in! Is there something the student council can help you with?