[h3]Peer to Peer Communication[/h3]
Word Count: 1430
EXP: +3 (+3 rapport)
Yayama, Amaterasu

Amaterasu took the time during their walk to meet up with the others to project some relevant information to their newest member. 

She did not, in this, pull any punches, starting off with the news that they weren't who they remembered being, not really, but rather reincarnations that had been popped into existence in arbitrary places and in arbitrary circumstances without being able to notice that was the case. Not only that, but they had 10 years to live since the moment they got put into this world. And that was them. Everyone else also had to contend with the fact that they could only live if others died to fuel flame-clocks that kept all the people linked to them from simply evaporating before their time. The only exceptions were the lost numbers, people born into this world who had their own unique existence rather than just being copies of ones stolen from other worlds.

“Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with not being the only version of myself.” Yayama’s tone was light, confident, but internally she was deeply unsettled. Her now-unlocked memories flickered back to the memory of a discarded possibility, a dying world and a conversation with her own shade. [i]Looks like I’ll have to do my best to take my own advice.[/i] 

Amaterasu then explained what they had to contend with. First off, the remaining six of 13 guardians prevented them from getting at Galeem, the Four Kings collectively being one of these. There were also the 26 alphabet letter-named consuls who more or less ruled the world from the shadows, who were not bound by the limited lifetimes of all the rest, and who also fed off of the flame-clocks whenever they pleased to fuel their continued eternal existence. She also noted that maybe not all the consuls were bad. At least one had apparently surrendered to captivity by the Seekers, and another had been a Seeker before she claimed the title. (It was only here where she mentioned that the consuls could simply refill their numbers.)

Also, apparently there was a big floating hand that liked to issue challenges before they got to a guardian, but didn’t seem to want to get involved itself. This, of course, immediately caught Yayama’s attention, but she decided to hold her questions until later.

Some of this rang familiar to the somewhat self-proclaimed Warrior of Darkness. Eternals that manipulated and parasitized mortals to further their aeons-long plans, largely unknown to the population of the star. They even numbered thirteen, as the Convocation once had, and had evidently greatly decreased in number in the time between their formation and the current day. 

Finally, Amatarasu filled Yayama in on what they had on their side: a flying invisible ship called the Avenger, another team who were off trying to take down another guardian, and the manipulation of spirits. Pressed to the heart for abilities at the cost of physical and mental changes, to the head for skills and only color changes, spoken with to turn into summonable strikers, or crushed to be turned into items. Apparently there was a hat that made the results of the last better, and also some sort of magically accessible armory where all the spare stuff went that she’d need to get someone with fingers to show her how it worked. Plus, some items that made fusion less chaotic on the Avenger, and one that made it only affect individual bodyparts. 

This was, she would agree, a lot to take in, but she offered any more aid or information she had in her head. 

Yayama shook her head in response. “I have a lot of questions about more or less everything you just said, but I need time to think. My head still hurts from trying to catch up to ten years of fighting all being dumped into it at once, much less contending with a brand-new existential crisis and. . .” She trailed off, suddenly breathing heavily. The thought of what had happened to Petra filled her with rage that strained her ability to contain it. “And other things related to that matter,” Yayama finished after a moment. 

The wolf inclined her head in understanding, before adding that she fortunately had time, as they were doing the tournament in order to fight the four kings, and so the action, such that it was, wouldn’t be starting till the next day. She then also inquired if Yayama had entered one of those while under Galeem’s influence.

The knight nodded. “I joined the Mortal Kombat tourney hoping to investigate and, hopefully, bring an end to the practice of executing losers. I know it’ll probably make some people here angry, but I can’t abide the senseless loss of life.” She tried not to think about how much of that she’d been proxy to herself, good cause or no. “I don’t think I’ll be dropping, either, unless I’m urgently needed elsewhere.”

Amaterasu informed her that Pit, their elected leader, and Miss Fortune, the cat lady who’s fallen to pieces, were also taking part in that one, and that they might want to try and coordinate on how they were going to go about that one. She also noted the unfortunate reality that that tournament’s deaths might be what was keeping everyone else alive. 

“That isn’t making me want to hit something any less,” Yayama grumbled. “I thought it was only a few people that got that horrible little ‘privilege.’ Are you saying that the people around here would die even faster if they weren’t regularly sacrificing people in the guise of a normal tournament?”

Amaterasu explained how, if the flame clocks were not filled, the entire town would simply cease to live. In other places there were monsters that would kill or be killed, or wars, but here it seemed like it was the tournament that was fueling the clock. Unless, she supposed, there was something else going on in secret.

Galeem’s world, in her opinion, was a nightmare of graves built upon tombs cemented with blood, and this more than anything else was why it needed to die.

“I couldn’t agree more.” The full horror of what she faced, and what she ultimately [i]was[/i], had begun to sink in, but with it came a resolve to bring it to an end, one way or another. “I regret to say that I’ve done my part in keeping the clock ticking, though I had hoped, at least, that it would lead to less death overall.” She shook her head. “To be quite frank it’s taking all I have to not explode in a berserk rage right now, given I’m learning that my entire existence is a falsehood and I’ve done naught but perpetuate this accursed world for however long I’ve been in it. I don’t even know how long I have until I’m replaced with yet another shade with no idea she’s championing something so vile, to boot.” 

Yayama paused and took a deep breath. “But calmer heads must prevail in the face of something like this. Is there a place to meet up with those two? I’d like to channel this energy toward something productive.” She glanced down and grimaced. “After I change into something less. . . shiny. Though the fact that I’m wearing it means that some part of me knew something was wrong.”

The wolf moved close, fur brushing against the little woman, in a sympathetic gesture, before informing her about the link pearl chat that had been going on while they’d been conversing. Namely that it existed, that a lady named Primrose had the way to distribute them, and that they were going to meet up at the Banishin’ Flats as it seemed to be a good place to stay overnight. Perhaps, she thought, Yayama was familiar if she’d been in town for a bit?

“You guys have linkpearls?” It hadn’t taken her long to sort out that the vast bulk of what she saw around here wasn’t anything she was familiar with, and that this was because the World of Light was some kind of mishmash of a thousand different realities, so to hear a familiar term was almost a surprise. “But yeah, I have the general idea of where that’s at. I’ll be heading that way. Unless you had other business you needed some assistance with first?”

The divine wolf replied that she did not, and that she’d be more than happy for the guidance and company.