[Week 5, Tuesday: Belph]

[doublecrows]

[SUP BELPH. it's just the detective you wanted to see!!]

Did you enjoy your week off?

Comments

[axilium]

[...]

Mine is pretty much what you've probably figured out. I get to confirm one person each week: I learn which faction they belong to and whether or not they have an additional role.

I get half an answer to my question if I correctly nail a role; I get another half of an answer if I figure out what role they have, exactly.

[he shrugs.]

If I don't hit a role, and if I didn't get anyone to 'fess up anything over the past week, then my weekly meeting with the Crafters is pretty useless.

[doublecrows]

[Akechi nods]

Who here have you confirmed to have a second role? For that information, I'll tell you about the last two memories the Historians received.

[axilium]

Sousei. [he doesn't need to explain the results of that one.] Souji and Ion—the passive-aggressive one—are clear.

I hit another role this week, but I'll be talking to them first. Can't give you their name yet.

[doublecrows]

[. . . . . lol]

All right.

[. . .]

Last Monday, our memory was of a masked ball. There was a girl at the ball, dressed in pink silk. She was yelling at someone-- "don't think you can just stand in the corner the whole time; you're dancing even if I have to drag you out there myself"-- and her voice was. . . familiar.

I believe it was the girl who screamed in our earlier memory. The one in which Tiger-san was stabbed.

[axilium]

... You actually did not mention a screaming girl before?

[doublecrows]

She seemed irrelevant at the time. But there was a scream, mingled with a dragon's roar, when Tiger-san was stabbed.

[axilium]

Oh. Pleasant.

[doublecrows]

. . . I suspect this girl may be Beauty.

[axilium]

Yeah, seems like it, unless they're introducing new pieces to this whole thing. Think she was talking to Beast?

[doublecrows]

Yes. I do. But as far as I can tell, none of our memories involved Beast yet.

[axilium]

[he hums.]

Have you tried writing to either of them?

[doublecrows]

[. . . . :T]

Varian-san suggested something similar. Why would I write to them?

[axilium]

Well, personally, I got desperate for info?

[doublecrows]

[what!!]

Did they respond?

[axilium]

Yup, to Beauty. Blotted out like the other letters from the dead, but based on what I could decipher... they mostly criticized my wooing attempts. Oh, and encouraged completing the objectives and working with you guys, the Historians. Nothing groundbreaking.

[doublecrows]

[oh my god]

Who are you even trying to woo?

[BELPH PLZ!1]

[but then he just looks awkward]

Where. . . did you send the letter?

[axilium]

I might've not treated the letter I wrote super seriously.

[ :) ]

Through the owlery.

[doublecrows]

[belph. . .]

The owlery. Of course.

[SHIFTS AWKWARDLY. . .]

I don't know how I feel about writing letters to those who are supposed to be dead.

[axilium]

[what...]

It's pretty weird. Though in Beauty and Beast's case—even though it turned out that the dead are in the same dimension—I guess I thought of it more as being trapped elsewhere, rather than dead.

[doublecrows]

As did I. The book didn't exactly clarify, but "being sent to the other side" doesn't at all evoke images of death.

[axilium]

Yeah. Apparently it's not a pleasant place, so there's that. Guess it reinforces the idea that completing the objectives will net us enough ink to revive them, if Beauty's gunning for that route.

[doublecrows]

Is that the theory?

[first he's heard of it]

I admittedly never asked the Crafters what would happen if enough ink was gathered. But they've always been vague, every time I've asked them about this game's ending.

[axilium]

Yeah, Dragon told me that if we gather enough ink, the dead may be revived.

[doublecrows]

[guess who never asked about reviving dead people: THIS GUY]

I see.

[STILL. . . REALLY. . . AWKWARD??]

I wonder if that's the happy ending Dragon-san is aiming for? Tiger-san seems to wish for the complete destruction of one side.

[axilium]

... Dragon's isn't much better.