2nd Event: Choices We Make

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Arrival


Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

C-C-Changes

Thankfully the fog has gone down to what it was before, a slow creeping crawl over the ground. And too, the monsters of before are gone, leaving the town much like it was before. Well...close to what it was before.

For now the season's have changed, from a lingering summer to a cooler fall.

There’s new foods to try, even if some things like lattes cause people to slip into warm boots and tie up their hair, and soups make people curl up under blankets on the couch. And it also means decorations of all sorts, made of the leaves from the forest, orange, yellow and red things and...we can not forget...

Pumpkin overflow

Pumpkins! They're everywhere. Wickies will find pumpkins infused into all sorts of things, like coffee, ice cream, even spaghetti options! It's wild.

There’s also many jack o'lanterns. They have been placed everywhere in town, outside homes, and even small ones have been made into table decorations. The Jack o lanterns have very cheerful faces, and seem to watch Wickies every single move.

That is, until a Wickie bashes or otherwise abuses a pumpkin. That's when it changes- there seem to be more of them. Their expressions change to that of anger, sadness and disgust. None of them attack- yet. But their faces become more and more horrifying, as they follow the Wickie more and more- outside of the bathroom perhaps, or found on top of them as the Wickie wakes up in the middle of the night.

It shouldn't matter right? They're only pumpkins.

What a ride

Funny enough, with the pumpkin invasion, there also comes a dull colored horse wandering about the island. Its head is drooped, and it looks depressed and lonely. The horse is tame on approach and will accept pats and treats, even from those who are obviously not human.

But it also wants something, for all that it seems to be begging for attention. It wants someone to ride them, seems to even be begging for it with its big eyes. The horse will help Wickies to figure out how to mount; it will even stand beside the Town Center benches, rocks, or even go down in order to make it possible for the Wickie to get onto the horse’s back.

That’s when it changes. The Wickie is immediately wrapped in chains from their barrel to the Wickie’s waist. The horse turns a coal black and the Wickie’s clothing changes into that of a soldier's uniform, with a hand either holding a whip modeled after a human spine, or a jack o'lantern.

The Wickie cannot get off the horse on their own, no matter how much they struggle. As the horse moves throughout the town, they will go anywhere from a walk to a full canter, seemingly impervious to any magic or physical attacks. The same cannot be said for their unfortunate rider.

If the rider is hit, or simply in pain, the Wickie will feel an impulse that grows and grows until they scream a name of someone in town, someone they know.

And the named will drop, paralyzed. Paralyzed wickie are likely to die within minutes, more so if they are too close to horse and rider. The horse will happily trample anyone on the ground to death.

Even without the impulse, should the Wickie rider use anyone’s name, that person will drop, paralyzed, and unable to breathe.

There is only one way to possibly save the rider: scatter golden objects in their path. The horse will shriek, and promptly buck the rider off, before running away. Just make sure to catch the rider, or at least cushion their fall: they have no way of saving themselves until they hit the ground.

Heart game: confession

Current residents of the island may remember this particular beeping alert, and how it doesn’t go away, no matter what they do! That is, unless they open up the Heart Game, and answer the question.

Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you again! Now let’s play that game, Confession! And the question isssssss…

How do you celebrate the changing seasons! Don't be shy!

Comments

[hopesong]

Let me guess, you play the playboy detective. [Her tone is dry, but otherwise very amused when he says that. It's so... unbelievably normal.

Even with the whole weird moving gecko tattoo thing.]

Even if there's no overseas release, I'm sure there's a good number of people who would be interested in somethin' like that all the same.

[You know, like pirates. God Bless the digital age.]

[paperpusher]

Akeboshi Koutarou, at your service. [He gives her a deep, florid bow, making his voice a little weightier, his accent more old-fashioned.] I'd never let a beautiful lady get accused of a crime she didn't commit.

[It's really a shame that Natori predates the dot com boom, though it looks like his ego isn't suffering for the lack of exposure. After a moment he straightens up and smiles, a smaller, more genuine one.]

I typically do romance dramas, so I think I'm already being typecast.

[hopesong]

[A laugh, and Kate shakes her head. It was a good call, she thinks. Calling out to another person. To trust someone she's never seen at the campfire.

She'd been worried that that place might change her so much when she'd gotten out, but maybe it hasn't. Maybe she'll be lucky.]

Well, I think a handsome young man such as yourself is perfect for the part. You've certainly got the flair for theatrics.

[paperpusher]

You flatter me.

[is "a flair for theatrics" really a compliment? it is if he's trying for that, he supposes.]

As for yourself, I'd love to get a chance to hear one of your concerts sometime. Whether that's here or back in the human world.

[hopesong]

[It was a compliment! Kate doesn't do the whole backhanded compliments thing. It doesn't feel nice.

Also, she'd make a comment about putting on a concert here, but there's something else that takes priority to that.]

You don't think this is the human world?

[paperpusher]

Probably not. [he says it easily, relaxed; nothing to be concerned of here.] For something this large, I think it's likely we've stumbled into the ayakashi realm. Er-- [How do you sum up ayakashi? I ask myself this every day as I try to write his app, but:] What would you call it outside Japan... monsters? Spirits?

[hopesong]

I don't think that's right. [And that, she's pretty adamant about.] I mean, where we are an' all. Your explanation is probably right.

[Monsters and spirits... Like the Entity's realm, but this isn't it. Can't be it. There's still sunlight.]

[paperpusher]

Hm, no? Why not? [For a second, he almost says 'which one of us is the expert here,' but. well. he's trying to be kinder.]

[hopesong]

[Because there's no way in hell that the Entity would let some other thing just steal her away. Or any survivor, for that matter.

It's hard to explain the reason being that your soul was a food source for some malevolent spider in the sky where you got killed over and over again, and that's why this absolutely cannot be some kind of spirit realm!]

It's not too easy for me to explain. I just know that that's not it, hun.

[paperpusher]

Just a feeling, huh? ...Well, I'll take your word for it.

[spoilers: he absolutely will not take her word for it. Still, he says it kindly, even sincerely (actor!!!)]

If not that, where do you think we are?

[hopesong]

Not Kansas.

[Haha! Funny Joke.]

Obviously there's something that wants us here instead of where we were. But I can't say why yet.

[paperpusher]

Mm, well.

[He looks up at the sky above them, pondering how to say it. It's an ayakashi, it has to be-- he took care of one of these last week! Sure, it's a concerningly powerful one, but it so easily fits into everything he's studied and experienced that it can't be anything else. Unfortunately, that doesn't help to narrow down the why, and figuring out what it wants is usually the easiest way to get out of something like this, so. Do the semantics matter?

yes]

I agree with you there. I just don't know how we can be in the human world, if you and I weren't walking down the same forest path in Kumamoto before we stumbled into this place.

[hopesong]

[Kate gives a thoughtful hum in response, but she's still not really wanting to explain how she's so convinced it's not what he says it is.

Honestly, as long as it doesn't want to feed on her soul, she's good with it.]

I don't have an explanation for it either.