Zeroth

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

The sounds and sights that broke Kenji's conversation with the other woman made him take yet another step away from the door. Partly, he hadn't really been looking, so maybe that was why he couldn't see it. Or could the pale woman truly be that fast?

And those fangs aren't normal either.

None of this is normal. It's not a dream; the pain in my joints from those ropes, and the feeling of kicking that creature, and this fetid smell...It's all real. But it isn't...it isn't supposed to be like this. Things like that aren't supposed to be possible.

That pale woman was a monster. Whether because she was distracted by the bloody events of before or because she didn't know what he was saying, the other girl didn't respond to Kenji's question at all.

There was no other reason, in Kenji's mind, to speak to the others right now. They were all in the same place he was--confused and more than a little scared. All that was left for them was to follow this pale, fanged, blood stained woman. Kenji did so at a distance, keeping close to the walls for a reason he wasn't quite sure of. Maybe just a psychological placebo, a foundation of sorts that could support his shaking legs.

And finally he got some information about this place.

If Maria or the old man were paying any attention to their "new recruits," they might notice that Kenji stood back from the others, at a place where he could see all of them. His eyes and ears were attentive, but his gaze kept flickering here and there, especially when either of them moved or pointed at something during their lecture. When the old man brought out weapons and it was Kenji's turn to take his pick, he looked over several of them, testing their edges with his thumb, or checking their balance and weight by picking them up and turning them over in his hands.

Hunters hunt "beasts," eh? Obviously not the normal kind. Rather than boars or wolves, something...monstrous. Some of these weapons seem to be made from the remains of such creatures.

These guns are far from modern. These types take too long to reload, are too finicky with their accuracy, and probably jam easily. Overall less reliable than a blade, their only saving grace being ease of use and explosive power in a small package.

Hm. A knife is always good as a backup, I'll go ahead and have that. Why does it make my stomach hurt...?

And this...

Kenji hefted the spear, noting its cross blades, and stepped back from the group. He had found the weapons he was comfortable with for now. He gave the spear a practice spin, and found that while he had enough dexterity and strength to manipulate the weapon fairly easily, he didn't have any muscle memory or reflexes related to the use of it.

I must not have been a martial artist or any kind of fighter when I was...alive. If that spiel about the afterlife was true. But the Chinese had a saying, I believe, that went something along the lines of "the spear is the king of all weapons." Historically I'm almost certain it was the most used weapon of infantry precisely because it was simple to learn, yet efficient and deadly.

These two side blades will stop a creature from simply pushing its way up the shaft of the spear to get at me, once I've impaled it. Hopefully. With any luck, I'll be able to stab and kill something from outside its arm's reach...then again, if these monsters are giant-sized, no humanly-usable spear might be long enough.

Kenji grimaced. Here he was talking about killing monsters as if he were playing a game of some sort, rather than living a wretched nightmare. Was this place affecting his sanity, as well as his memory? Maybe that was easier for him to believe than the truth. Maybe it was easier to just make excuses, rather than acknowledge the fact...

Rather than acknowledge the fact...

I killed that man.

I killed that old blind man.

I was ready to beat him, while he lay dying, if it would have gotten me more information.

I'm honestly considering going out and killing some kind of creature, becoming some kind of monster hunter, because I've been told it might get me my memories back.

Kenji barely had time to run behind one of the pillars lining the grand chambers of the church, before the sound of heaving and retching could be heard.

What the hell have I done? Where the fuck am I!? I want to go home, but I don't even know where it is! I don't like this! I HATE this!

He kept throwing up until there was nothing in his stomach, and even then he heaved and coughed. His throat felt like it was on fire, and hot, salty tears ran down his face. He let it all out, all his self disgust, all his fear, all his despair...He poured it all out until he was completely empty inside, and with that emptiness, there came a kind of clarity.

"Think, Kenji. You don't know shit about what happened...before. But you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in your heart, that you're a thinker." He thought aloud. "So put your brain to work, and let's make sense of this bullshit."

I, Nakamura Kenji, have entered the World of Wasted Dreams, and a town called Iredele, according to an old man and a pale woman. According to the woman, this is some form of afterlife--there may be a way, if I follow their orders, to recover my memories, maybe even my life. Both of them seem to follow this church of a being called the Absolute, and are recruiting Hunters to fight monsters and beasts. Somehow, fighting these creatures plays into making donations to the church. I'm not sure if that means bringing back proof of a kill, or some kind of currency. I've been supplied weapons, and there are other new Hunters I can work with.

I do not know if I can trust anyone, thus far, whether it be the people who arrived here with me or the two natives of this world.

I still need more info. I have weapons to defend myself with, and though the pale woman has displayed supernatural strength and speed, she doesn't seem hostile to us as long as we keep to ourselves. Right now it looks like the old man has actually left, heading...downstairs? To what, a basement or cellar? The pale woman is still near the altar. Donny's talking to her. Other than him, one other guy, and a woman who didn't respond when I spoke to her, no one has taken any notice of me. I can probably leave without any problems.

If this Iredele is a real town, there have to be other people living here. I can cross reference what I have so far with whatever they can provide in terms of information.

So, that will be my first course of action: Exit the church, and speak to the townspeople.

Wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his uniform--his own clothes would probably work for now, he didn't really think he needed to take any from the pile--Kenji stepped away from the pillar and headed towards the entrance of the church, walking much more steadily. The butt of his spear tapped the cobblestones like a walking stick, and the knife in his pocket was a reassuring weight.

He took his first steps into the World of Wasted Dreams proper, and went out into the town of Iredele...

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

After he'd spoken, there was silence for a moment, before the guy Kenji had labeled as "mysterious hooded stranger" suddenly began cackling like a madman and ran out after the gun toting woman, slamming the door in the face of several others. Obviously a few moved to follow the guy, rather out of curiosity or just a desire not to be locked in the room again, and the door was flung open once more.

"I'd like to know what's going on too, stranger. But assuming you know as much as I do, which is next to none, she's the only one with answers. Stay in this shithole if you'd like. I'm heading up." Donny had answered, just before following the crazed man. The guy in the martial arts uniform went after him as well, and Kenji stepped closer to peer around the door frame and see what was going on.

Aside from stone stairs and a cold looking corridor, the young man saw the psycho in the cloak attack--and lick?--the woman with the gun.

Chalk him up as dead.

But Donny and the other guy intervened, Donny quite literally lassoing the fool and the other man delivering a hefty punch to the face.

Why not just let her shoot him? In terms of the group as a whole, Kenji didn't have a lot of info to judge people with. But at the same time no one up until now had done something completely out of the blue--except maybe himself, kicking the old man to death and all--so there was a kind of standard in his head right now that everyone stood on. The psycho dropped way below that standard, for obvious reasons. But Donny and this other guy dropped a bit in his opinion as well--why risk themselves for someone they didn't know, much less someone who, in the process of shooting their attacker, might accidentally shoot her rescuers as well? If the bullet had enough penetration power, it might even ricochet around the hall and hit someone in the room. With that thought Kenji moved a little further back.

"We should kill him." the martial artist told Donny. Kenji dropped the man a few more points.

For one thing you don't know anything about what's actually going on yet. Weird as he is, there's still the possibility this guy figured something out and his killing of this gunslinger could be a good thing. For another, nice to know you have the impulse to go for the most escalated form of violence as a first response.

Not like you have room to talk, literally the first thing you did after waking up was kill an old blind man.

Shut up, I still can't acknowledge that right now...and besides, that guy was going to eat -me-, specifically. This psycho wasn't hurting the big guy, just the woman, who already had a perfectly good method of defending herself...

"As much as I distaste believing the woman, we don't have any choice but to trudge out of this area... with the others who I presume are... squabbling... And besides, interrogating a half-dead man with gouged out eyes definitely makes for a better informer than someone in one piece..."

Kenji looked over at the fellow who'd spoken next, a somewhat normal looking guy who was just going about and helping some of the others get out of their binds. Donny had said much the same, and Kenji had to admit they were right. The woman with the gun was at least offering them information for free--whether she tried to mislead them could be determined at a later date with further knowledge.

But as he looked around the room once more, trying to get a gauge on some of those who were finally coming to, he noticed that the woman who had been near catatonic had now managed to get up. She even seemed amused by what was going on in the hallway. But what Kenji labeled as most important about her appearance were her hair, eyes, and facial features.

She's Japanese, like me? I wonder if she shares the same gaps in her memory...

As a matter of fact, when I spoke earlier, everyone understood me. I don't remember being good at English, if that's indeed what we're speaking here. But can I intentionally speak my native language anymore? A few whispered phrases under his breath, out of hearing of anyone else, and he nodded to himself. Any attempt to recall something of my personal life or the history of the place I lived in, just blank. But my education level and the skills I've learned over life seem to be retained.

@Lugubrious "Osoreirimasuga," he began, speaking directly to the woman. "Nihonjin ka?"

<<Excuse me, are you Japanese?>> His speech was a bit on the curt side, but at a moment like this he didn't care about being formal. If she was the same as himself, there might be a possibility to coordinate their knowledge and get a fuller picture of this situation. Maybe they were kidnapped from the same place, along with some foreigners, or maybe they had been foreigners. Kenji had figured out before that he had a high-school level education, and though he wasn't sure of this woman's age, there was the possibility that he had been on some kind of foreign exchange trip or something. Whatever the case, if there was someone here he identified with the most at the moment, it was her.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

Edit: Ok I edited the part, if you want me to put it back just massage me.

I'm really sorry to those who have been offended by this whole thing but given the nature of that typo/Freudian slip in that sentence I really had to laugh.

Anyway, rather than lecturing this guy--who obviously has been completely unphased by most of what's been thrown at him in terms of logic, as is the norm for these types--maybe we ought to just ignore him/block him entirely, rather than wasting our breaths and time.

The Jade Stream

"The Jade Stream is not a cooking RP."

If you get the reference Dai Xin will food-gasm strip.

The Jade Stream

"They are usually very angry. I often have to fight many challengers in a single day. Especially if I choose to take copies of their skill books." Dai Xin answered Torako and Kyang, once more completely-matter-of-fact. "Oddly enough they get even angrier when I return the books. I suppose it must be because I make a point of only throwing aside techniques and training methods that I think are useless, and they may feel disrespected because of that."

When their food arrived, Dai Xin made a point of letting the ladies go first, then deftly separated his chopsticks and picked up one of the buns. Unlike Kyang he didn't bother to separate it, opening up wide and putting the whole thing in his mouth in one go. He still managed to chew politely, mouth closed, but his stern jaw bulged comically. The dough was soft and chewy, but firm enough to completely envelop the pork's juicy, slightly fatty body without any of it leaking out. Biting into the dumpling was like lying on a soft pillow, after which the warm, full body of the pork was like the sensation of a lover settling down next to you. It was tender, each chew causing an explosion of juices, but there was a light dusting of spices that made each movement of the jaw tingle delightfully. The powerful flavor of the meat, and the fierceness of the spices, melded perfectly with the light and elastic texture of the dumpling. It was like martial arts itself, hardness and softness, working together in harmony! Dai Xin could feel it, in this dumpling--the essence of the universe! The Yin-and-Yang of existence, the dark of pork and the white of dough, intermingling to create a sensation of oneness!

He swallowed, and took another.

"These are excellent." he said.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

What a start to such a game.

@harinezumikouken

Best to weed 'em out early instead of letting them get heavily involved in a plot element and then bailing/getting kicked out and leaving someone hanging.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

<Snipped quote by Bishop>

I am going to say it right now, what you've posted is not amusing, not comical and certainly not worthy of atoning for the shit you've pulled.

To be brutally honest, I'm debate wether or not to pull out of this and hand my spot over to people who don't making quasi-rape attempts only to try and cover it up with emojis, hashtags and bad music.

@ClocktowerEchos

Why let the one creeper player run you out of a game where everyone else is already debating kicking him out, though?

Honestly I'm of the opinion that he's just shitposting and intentionally being an edgelord to get reactions.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

If you claim anything could have happened, then could I claim while Hayden was out she got the ability to kill anything in one punch and shit rainbows and no one could argue against it?

@ClocktowerEchos

That first one wouldn't work because we haven't been down there for three years and she doesn't have room for a 10k run.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

Using the rope might not be the best idea, as edgy as he is he'll just cut right through it.

Let Maria blast his head off and just call dibs on his stuff.

In Hunting Beasts and Monsters

It's more like the man can't answer, what with his throat bleeding out and everything.

@TheWindel

Oh yeah that probably would limit the ability to speak. Alright, lemme edit my post real quick.