The City of the Specter, Atem's Palace

[metagame]

The corpse sinks to the floor
Even the brightest gold, even the sharpest blade
Becomes sand, becomes dust

Comments

[pointzeropercent]

[Okay, it looks like they're going the diplomatic route, so he's going to pivot from healing to try something else.]

Hey, we don't necessarily need to fight here. It's better to save our strength for any future fights, yeah?

[And then he's going to hit Shalem with a Energy Shower to cure any Confuse/Fear/Despair/Rage/Brainwash. Will it cure self-inflicted things along the lines of those status effects? Who knows! But he's sure gonna try!]

[prozaic]

[Alas given the insanity is innate, it does nothing :pensive:

is there a spell to undo psychological effects of childhood trauma]

[metagame]

"Do you believe us to be blind and deaf? We saw you throw that pot at the guards and heard how you spoke to them. You and that snake. Any more lies and I'll have your tongue," Mahaad says.

Mana struggling to keep herself up now after Soujuurou punched her in the diaphragm and that critical hit. She lifts her wand to cast a spell, stops, then lowers it as Shalem goes down.

"How can we trust any of you to keep your word?"

She gestures to Haruka.

"Didn't you say violence is always the answer?"

Her wand points at Argenti next.

"And you called the guards fiends!"

Then looks at Joshua again.

"And you're the one who said you were all planning a coup against the Prince!"

She bites her lip.

"Did any of you even stop and think to help the servants escape? I know they're not real. We're not real either... But we still exist in this world because of him. Because some part of him still has hope that someone will save him."

[moodwrecker]

[Oh. Well, at least they know they aren't real?]

Then how are we supposed to help him? That's what we're trying to do here, even if we have no idea how.

[She got a 19+4 YOOOOO]

[ledbythewind]

I would hope that the fact we were willing to subdue one of our own companions would count for something.

[Will this 7+4 be effective? Time to find out!]

[emptyself]

I apologize for what my teammates have done! You're right. We should have done things differently from the start. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at this.

[ now that she's not attacking, soujuurou will also take steps back, hands raised and palms close to his chest to show that he doesn't mean harm. pacifism (14+4) go! ]

This is probably the doing of the God of Conflict. If we keep fighting like this, then it'll just become stronger. I trust that the both of you want the best for Atem and I want to help him because he helped me when I was also in a dark place. So please tell us what we should do so you can trust us. Please.

[privatedomicile]

Yo, that's what we've been trying to do from the beginning! Like half of us have been dealing with walkin' into other people's nightmares and gettin' kidnapped into personal hell––shit, a guy died because of this God of Conflict bitch!

Wait. Wait hold the phone. [Jesse looks down and thinks of something with his 15+4 roll.] ...if those villagers are blamin' him for what went wrong, don't that mean he blames himself? I think––we gotta help him get outta his own head.

So where the hell do we go to save him, magician girl!?

[pointzeropercent]

You know, half of us were alone with the Pharaoh already. We hung out in his library and read scrolls together. If we were planning a coup, wouldn't we have done something then?

[Logic go! 14+4!]

[metagame]

"You all should know the answer already. It's something you can show, but you can't see," Mana says.

Mahaad and Mana end the fight!

And for your troubles, Mana casts Mediarahan on almost the whole party. Except for Shalem. Shalem can eat shit and die for all she cares. She almost didn't cast it on Soujuurou too, but she can put aside that grudge for the greater good.

[privatedomicile]

Hold on, like the--the riddle!

[Jesse's eyes light up in recognition, but that quickly dims.]

I said the answer was "Balls."

[moodwrecker]

[Just. Staring.]

[privatedomicile]

As in, you know, courage! You can't flash somebody, but you can prove you got balls with actions and shit!

this is not a gagtag they are literally staring at jesse like this

[metagame]

[emptyself]

Like the ones in gym class?

[emptyself]

Feelings?

[moodwrecker]

...Character.

[beathollow]

( joshua. joshua, stop saying words. shhh. )

....

Faith.

[cleansewithfire]

...Courage?

[beautifulknight]

Yes, I do. It's...

Love.

[ Argenti remembers this riddle, because his answer was the same when he answered it, at the very beginning of this, when Atem asked everyone. ]

[townmusician]

[Oh... That was the first thing he thought of, too, but he doesn't vocalize that.

He really doesn't want to answer, so he's just Here.]

[finalmix]

[ at this point mafuyu has presumably removed her hand from josh's mouth so he can talk i guess.

also: ] ... Trust.

[metagame]

Joshua gets the stare too.

[strawsandals]

[ Oh hey guys what's going on- ]

...Courage.

[ledbythewind]

... friendship.

posts this twenty years late but this needs to be real now

[finalmix]

[ joshua rolls his eyes in exasperation because honestly, has no one here heard of hyperbole and look, some situation calls for white lies and like, whatever joshua did worked in the end because they're here now, right?

... right? ]

Please. If I was actually planning a coup against your prince I would have killed him instead agreeing to play a game with him and losing to a game that was clearly rigged-- mmph!

[ because that's the point mafuyu probably slaps her hand over joshua's mouth so that he doesn't get himself into more trouble. ]