Tlazolteotl

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Caught in a Snare

@silver21@DaftJive@Stanifly

Viné pads out of the shadow into the garden. In his wake, the plants wilt. He stops in front of Damien and regards him like a father who has found a child somewhere he should not be.

"You are not walking away from me," says Viné, the words running over a low rumble.

He looks across the thyme and the basil and the climbing nasturtiums, mildly amused. "This is a pretty dream you have made for yourself, Damien. But it is not real."

Brrring.

"Oh?" Cupping a paw around his ear, he tilts his head toward Damien. "Do you hear that? The phones are still ringing."

A phone is ringing somewhere, and the longer Viné stands there the more ringing there is, until the air around the garden is thick with the sound of it and the clatter of keys no one is pressing.

The goetic demon steps closer.

"Your mother's room is not in this garden. Her nurse is not in this garden. The bills that arrive at the end of the month are not in this garden. They are out there, where they have been since you took my hand. They are not going anywhere."

Shadow covers Damien now, and the head over him bends close. Eerie light comes up in the eyes above him. The light brightens. It burns.

"I do not begrudge you your rest. When you are ready to come back to the work, I will be waiting," promises Viné. The earl of hell reaches for Damien.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@tadcfnaf So did you have a specific idea of who the customers are? (Are they any of the player characters' groups?)

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Kyo's Catharsis

@tadcfnaf

"Coming right up." Tomi takes the bill without looking at it and heads back behind the counter.

Over at the sink, Aiko has her hands in the soapy water, working through the cups from her tray. When she notices Kyo still standing there, staring at something across the room, she glances up, follows the line of their gaze, then looks back.

"Yeah, lots of new faces today."

Behind the counter, Tomi puts the kettle on and gets the grinder going, humming something tuneless under her breath as she works. The smell of fresh-ground beans rises into the room, dark and slightly burnt at the edges. By the time she's done, she's got a paper filter folded into its dripper, settled over Kyo's cup, waiting on the water.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Kyo's Catharsis

@tadcfnaf

The bell over the door answers first, the same two-note chime Kyo used to hear as a child, and with it the smell of coffee and butter, low jazz playing somewhere in the back, the warm yellow dimness that has nothing to do with what time it is outside.

A few tables in, a teenage girl is gathering used cups onto a tray. She's in a half-apron, hair pulled back at the nape with a clip that's losing the fight, a few strands working loose at her temples. Aiko looks exactly the way Kyo remembers her: same age, same face, same everything, as if no time has passed for her at all. She catches sight of Kyo, and the cup in her hand stops halfway to the tray.

"Oh, Kyo, come in!" Aiko half-turns toward the curtained doorway behind the bar and calls back through it. "Mom! Kyo's here!"

From past the curtain comes the clatter of something being set down too quickly. Then the muffled scuff of footsteps on the kitchen floor, getting closer.

Tomi pushes through the curtain a moment later, hair pulled back from her face. Her face is the same one that used to set cups of cocoa down in front of Kyo, year after year. She takes one look at Kyo, weapon and all, and shakes her head with a smile.

"Well, look who it is. Put that thing down and have a seat." On the way to the counter, she adds: "The usual?"

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Gotcha

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Caught in a Snare

@silver21@DaftJive@Stanifly

Rising, the moth steps back from Damien. The ground between them cracks, and green shoots push through the broken soil and curl around the chains where they lie in their pile. More follows. Thyme and mint spread low across the ground while basil pushes up bushy and broad between them. Nasturtiums climb the links of chain, orange flowers trailing behind, and lavender rises on grey-green stems beside clusters of marigolds and zinnias in rust and coral. The garden fills the enclosure the way water fills a bowl, reaching into the shadowed corners, and where it roots, the dark frays apart like old cloth, and daylight leaks through the gaps.

A few steps away now, the moth faces Damien. Its hand extends toward him. "Whenever you're ready, Damien."

From what shadow remains, claws tear through the green.

"No," declares Viné.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@tadcfnaf Welcome, welcome! Let me know if there's any specific idea you have for what happens in Kyo's Catharsis. ESPECIALLY if there's anything you have pre-established about your character (for example, the name and owner of the cafe Kyo is seeing right now). Otherwise I'm going to be making it up as we go.

Oh also: ddid you want Kyo to be perceived by any of the other player characters, and/or for Kyo to perceive any of them?

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Are you saying... there might be an imposter among us!?



((FYI I also suck at guessing who the imposter/werewolf is.))

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Gosh, I'd have to read some of my old stuff to remember how I RPed when I was a kid... I think things tended to happen without any real rhyme or reason 🤔 And definitely couldn’t use hard words (and if I did it's because I just learned it and wanted to show off 😝)

Even in IRL there's times when the younger person acts infinitely more mature than the older person 😒 So it's also hard to just base it off behavior.

I think the best guess I can make is what sort of slang they might use and if it's used as intended 😂

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Caught in a Snare

@silver21@DaftJive

Its hand keeps moving through Damien's hair, and the glow of its fur softens in a way that gives the impression of a smile. "You said all of that while looking him in the eyes, Damien. That takes strength." The moth's thumb traces along his temple. "Imagine what else you can do with that kind of strength."