IZOU'S PALACE

[goei]

KYOTO BAKUMATSU PALACE
You find yourself in historical Kyoto at night. The city is shadowy and beautiful, elegant but hostile. It's a sophisticated city, but you don't belong there and it knows it. Everyone knows it. You are being watched.

Worst of all, a terrible demon haunts the streets of this powerful capital city.

Eli Walsh, Kirumi Tojo, Still Sunrise, Argenti, Yi Sang, Celeste, Mafuyu Asahina, and McGillis Fareed, do you dare journey into hell?

 

♪♪♪

Comments

[goei]

[DON'T TRY TO CATCH ME ON YOUR TECHNICALITIES.]

Angels go around killing people where yer from?

[cirquedesang]

Sinners, yes. By way of divine punishment.

[But you look kind of wack for an angel, my dude. Even an avenging one.]

So you're not as intimidating as you'd like us to believe, I think.

[goei]

Big talk for someone who deserves divine punishment, vampire.

[beathollow]

--eh?

[cirquedesang]

[.........surprise?? He's sure not denying it.]

[cirquedesang]

And yet, here I stand. You've yet to do anything about that.

[..........Well so much for not using Fighting Words. Ah.]

[goei]

A professional knows to wait fer the right moment to strike. And a demon strikes from th'shadows.

[cirquedesang]

You'd come for me in the shadows? I'm no LaSombra, [Vampire clan with spooky darkness powers, don't worry about it.] but I've lived in shadows for seventy-six years now. You'll find I'm rather at home there.

[So, like, you're welcome to try? But we're also being literal and pedantic to be a little shit about it.]

[goei]

Then it sounds like you'll actually give me a good challenge. You think that's gonna scare me off?

[cirquedesang]

No, I suppose it wouldn't. You are just a lonely man under all that, after all.

[goei]

I'm not a man. I'm a demon! And I don't need anyone!

[cleansewithfire]

[ Huh??? ]

[cirquedesang]

[Now you know why there's blood bags in the dorm fridge, Sunrise! Yaaaay(?)]

[cleansewithfire]

[ He sure isn't denying it, but so she has to ask: ]

Mr. Celeste, what is a vampire?

[cirquedesang]

[...Huh. He never expected someone just... wouldn't know, so. How to do the short version? He tilts his head and thinks about it for a second before-]

A... supernatural creature of myth and folklore that drinks blood and can only go out at night. The particulars beyond that vary depending on the legend, though.

[Like, are you a Dracula-type, or a Nosferatu-type, or a Strigoi-type or-- (The particulars also vary depending on clan, for him, but, like. That's a bit too into the weeds for someone who doesn't even recognize the broader term.)]

[cleansewithfire]

Ah, so like an aswang. [ Apparently she understands the concept of vampirism but somehow hasn't heard the word "vampire"?

She also seems pretty unbothered by the fact Celeste is a vampire at all, but u kno. ]

[cirquedesang]

I... suppose so? [Well, so long as she understands! Because he sure hasn't heard the word "aswang" before, but if it's close enough, then it's close enough. Maybe it's a clan or a bloodline more local to her that he's too Western to have heard of???

And, honestly, the fact she's unbothered is kind of a relief. He's been flippant about it in general here, because the changes and oddities make certain things more apparent, but also when Izou first found out he threatened to kill him over it, so really the reaction is a coin toss.]

[cleansewithfire]

They are also a type of creature that sucks people's blood. ...And sometimes their organs.

[ But that doesn't seem to apply to Celeste, so... ]

[cirquedesang]

I see... some vampires consume organs, but I don't have to, luckily.

[Organovore life sounds real difficult, man.]

[vogelfrei]

[ Excuse him for cutting in here because this is his favorite fucking topic. ]

Angels are merciless beings that stand above all, cruel and indiscriminate. It's demons that have saved my world... It's demons that grant power and agency to humans.

So tell me, demon, who and what is your power good for? What ends do you seek with your violence?

[goei]

[?? MCGILLIS THIS IS STILL IZOU YOU'RE GOING TO CONFUSE HIS PEABRAIN WITH YOUR WEIRD PRO-DEMON RHETORIC.]

You got some weird ideas about demons. All I do is kill who I'm told. People standin' in the way of the bright future smarter people'n me have in their heads. But when I'm done killing I'm just going back to hell.

[vogelfrei]

[ Oh this just gets a deep, deep sigh. Evidently, Izou has hit onto the wrongest wrong answer there could be in McGillis' book. The image of Mikazuki Augus flashes through his mind, and it fills him with an emotion that is equal parts disappointment and sentimentality. He hates that emotion - and there's a better one to burn it away. (Izou has the right of that at least: anger is very useful indeed.) ]

A brightness without a goal is a fire that is going to burn out sooner rather than later. Is this the extent of your ambitions? To move towards a future you cannot even conceive of, a loyal dog in gilded chains?

[ He once wanted someone like Izou, wanted to be the one to hold those chains - to turn them into something beautiful. No more, no longer. He bet on losing dogs and he's died to pay the price. ]

Alright. Show me what your aimless brute force can do.

[ And with that, he summons Fenrir. ]

[goei]

[That's all well and good, McGillis, but before he can try to launch any attacks at Shadow Izou, he steps back into the shadow cast on the floor by the lantern light. Literally. He steps into the shadow and is gone into the darkness. Now disembodied, Shadow Izou says;]

If you wanna kill me, you'll have to find me, first.

[BOSS BATTLE: KAKURENBO]