WEEK 5

[killerwaves]

WEEK FIVE

21 Vacationers

The weekend sure was something, wasn't it? Tempers flared, explosions burst, and some were treated to an immersive sand bath experience. Come Monday at least, things seem quieter though not in the unnatural still way—the distortions on the islands have receded sometime in the night (with some impressive firework-like booms that may have stirred your sleep, at that; and the waves seem a little higher this morning) and the various amenities on the island have been made orderly again. Though, as always, some traces remain in the landscape; the waterfall looks like it has seen better days, though it's no longer in danger of coughing up debris on your head if looked at wrong.

This week like the rest brings new locations for you to explore, on Kakapo's Nest though it seems like only one of them really fits the vacation vibe. Hope you like snow!

!

WEATHER ALERT:

Bulletin:
Starting Monday morning and continuing throughout the week, pollen counts will be elevated. This is expected to last until late Thursday

!

TASKS:

Breathe Freely:
Enjoy the great outdoors with a fellow vacationer! It's never too late to appreciate nature.
(REWARD: RARE!)

(( Yes, only one task this week which is memshare with someone else. Have fun!
REMINDER: Task submissions are due Friday by 9 PM EST/6 PM PST. ))

(( OOC: Murder proposals are due by Tuesday at 4 PM EST / 1 PM PST, for the current week's murder, which is the last week of standard murder, week 6 being endgame!!

Also, as always, your admins can be contacted for a chat. ))

MONDAY • TUESDAY • WEDNESDAY • THURSDAY

Locations Proposals PCs Check-in Submissions Profiles Network Main Nav

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Comments

memshares - CLOSED

[gluttoning]

TEMENOS - THE FIRST BEAST

[gluttoning]

[You're starving.

You've been starving. Always starving. Every hour, every day, ever since you came to this place. You roam the castle walls, look out windows to a sky of nothing but black, a horizon of crooked rooftops and rising smoke, the echoes in a house that's not your own, in a form that feels wrong. It's you, and yet it isn't you. The wings on your back are a stranger, the horns on your head a heavy, unforgiving weight.

And your hunger, a claw, that digs and digs and digs. You've never been this hungry. But every sunless day makes it worse.

You eat. It begs for more. You feed it. It begs for more. Your brothers look at you with confusion. With concern. With fear. With disgust. They tell you to stop.

You try, at first. You try to ignore how your stomach growls louder than the people talking at the tables. The digging starts to crawl to your mind. It hurts. It hurts. You feel like you might bite off your own tongue.

Your hand finds something closeby. It hurts. You bring it to your mouth. It shatters between your teeth. You don't care. It hurts. You're hungry. It hurts.

Lucifer slaps it out of your wrist. Control yourself. Control yourself.

But it hurts. And the more it hurts, the more your mind slips. The walls are a space, the voices are a noise, the light is a nuisance, you smell anything and you smell everything and your stomach digs like a swarm of termites begging for an escape out of every pore, and you want, and you want, and you want, and you want, and you want, and you want, and

You feel the crack beneath your jaw, the pressure in your throat. Not enough.

More.

More.

More.

You hear the noise. The smells change, and you tense. You roar. It goes into your mouth. It all goes into your mouth. You follow the scents. You grab what you find. You unhinge. You chew. You swallow. You starve. You chew. You swallow. You starve.

You run out.

You starve. You starve. You howl.

It's agony.

It's agony.

Your space is in the way of the smells.

So you change that. Your body hits the wall. Your mouth tears at the space. You taste rock. You taste concrete. You taste steel. You taste wood. You swallow it all. You free yourself. Your space is bigger. You have to find more.

And you find more. And more. And more. And more.

And...

...

You're on your knees, in a basement library. Your hand is full and pressed to your mouth. Your tongue tastes of leather and paper. You withdraw your hand, and half of a book comes with it. Your brow furrows, as you turn to look at the debris you sit in, as you turn further to see shattered bookcases and a door thrown off its hinges. You see smoke coming from further in the building. You see rubble. You see a hole ripped straight through a far wall, and you see Lucifer's unapproving gaze.

You don't realize that you've brought the rest of the book to your mouth until you're swallowing. You don't know what's happened. You don't know what you are.

But you're still hungry.]

[dupiety]

[Temenos is on his knees when the memory ends, clutching at his stomach and breathing deeply while his mind continues to reel in that agonizing hunger for a few moments longer. After some time, his vision clears and he can finally think straight.

That...is what the Avatar of Gluttony's hunger feels like at its worst.

It's horrible. Terrifying.

He feels like he understands Beelzebub on an entirely unexpected level now.

Slowly and steadily, he rises to his feet. After wiping sweat from his brow, he returns to the resort. Something tells him he knows where to find Beelzebub if the demon experienced that trip down memory lane too. It's kind of where Temenos himself wants to go, too. Strangely enough, he still feels a little hungry after all of that.

Will he find Beel in the buffet area?]

[gluttoning]

[Strangely enough, the buffet is Beelzebub-free!

But there's some heavy crashing of metal coming from the kitchen beyond it.]

[dupiety]

[Ah. That isn't particularly surprising, either.

Considering how this went the last time he found Beelzebub back this way, he enters with a degree of caution.]

Beel--

[gluttoning]

[A couple of the kittybots whir pathetically from where they've been tossed to the ground on the far end of the industrial kitchen. A cutting board has been set up, obviously used, but whatever used to be there is long gone, only juices and seeds remaining across the counter and part of the floor.

Off to the side, in one of the walk-in refrigerators, a cardboard box hits the inside of the door. Beelzebub can be found right inside, a case of raw eggs being shoved into his mouth by the handful with the cracking of shells, the cardboard dividers between layers either being tossed aside or just brought along for the ride to go straight into his mouth.

He hasn't transformed, at the very least. But his pace is still frantic.]

[dupiety]

[Temenos's eyes drift from the abandoned cutting board to Beelzebub tearing the fridge apart. It's just like when he wakes up on a Friday morning... Temenos watches him with a look of concern and empathy before disappearing back into the buffet for a moment.

When he returns, he's brought a big platter of cheeseburgers with him. Balancing it on one hand, he helps the tossed kittybots regain their bearings before approaching the fridge.]

Beel, why don't you come out here and eat something a little more exciting than raw eggs?

[gluttoning]

[He's turning before Temenos even speaks up, the smell of burgers hitting him like a train.

Beel scrambles to his feet, wiping egg off his mouth and nearly knocking the kittybots back over in his haste. His stomach whines.]

Cheeseburgers...

[He grabs for one and instantly shoves the whole thing into his mouth, but at least pauses to acknowledge Temenos while sizing up the second one.]

H'd you kn'w r -- [Oh wait. Temenos doesn't like when he does this. He swallows.] Sorry. Good timing. How did you know I was needing a snack?

[dupiety]

[Oh no, after he'd just helped the kittybots out... RIP. But at least his plan worked.]

Mm. Merely a feeling. You see, I--

[This time it's his own stomach interrupting the conversation. His eyebrows furrow and he reaches for one of the cheeseburgers.]

Ahem. I believe I witnessed a memory of yours. Quite vividly, in fact.

[gluttoning]

[He stops mid-bite.]

...I've never heard you that hungry. [Huh.]

You're sure it was mine?

[dupiety]

I try not to get this hungry if I can avoid it.

[Alas. He'll rectify it now, though.

He frowns at his burger after having taken a bite out of it.]

I cannot imagine it having been anyone else's. I experienced a hunger so agonizing that I would consume anything in a vain attempt to sate it.

[gluttoning]

Oh.

I was thinking about that earlier. I was trying to make something for the others in my cabana, and... it was like I was remembering something from a really long time ago, all of the sudden.

[Mm, cheeseburger.]

I couldn't help myself afterwards. I don't like thinking about those times.

...

...Ah. Wait. [As he reaches for another burger, his expression tightening with confusion.]

How did you see something like that?

[dupiety]

I can certainly see why.

[And then Beelzebub asks the all-important question, to which Temenos ponders as he chews on another bite.]

That is precisely what I would like to know. [Munch munch.] The only thing I remember before that vivid vision hit me was looking at some strange animal that appeared in front of me.

[gluttoning]

An animal... I wonder why it would do something like that. Have we always had magic animals running around this island?

[He doesn't even know where to start with that. But...]

Mn. Maybe if we catch it, it might taste good. You won't have to have a vision like that again, either. It's nice to be eating. It's not to be hungry.

[dupiety]

Unless Merlin's little pet was magical in nature, I don't believe so...

[He certainly doesn't remember seeing any other weird animals around until today.

The suggestion makes him smile, though in a melancholy sort of way.]

If only it were so easy for you to dispel your own hunger. Now that I have experienced it for myself, I feel I have gained a deeper understanding of your day-to-day struggles.

[It's probably not that anymore like it was in the memory, but it still can't be any fun to deal with.]

[gluttoning]

...

[He sees that sad tinge to Temenos's expression, tilting his head a bit at it. He was really concerned about this, wasn't he?]

You don't have to think of it as a struggle. It's just a part of life.

Sure, I don't like to feel hungry. But I'm happy when I'm eating. I've had thousands of years to get a little used to my appetite, even if it feels like it's always getting bigger every century.

My brothers always tell me I wouldn't be a very good Avatar of Gluttony without it, though. It's my role to play in the Devildom.

[dupiety]

[Temenos laughs softly. It's reassuring to hear all of this.]

It's all-too easy to forget that you are thousands of years old sometimes. And I imagine the memory we visited was when you were still quite young as a demon.

[He remembers feeling something like that in the memory- being himself, but not himself at the same time.

With a nod,]

You do play your role well, and I enjoy seeing your happiness when you get excited over your favorite foods. I suppose I simply can't help but worry when I see you eating with such urgency. I know you'll be all right, but I find myself wishing for a way to help alleviate that.

[He'll just have to get used to that too.]

[gluttoning]

[He falls quiet, thinking it over with a softening gaze.]

...It's nice to hear. That you want to help, that is.

My brothers have all gotten used to it. Belphie still worries sometimes. But we've been connected for a long time, so he's good at reminding me before I get too hungry.

[It's all become preventative. Keeping the beast at bay.]

It's not like it used to be. The castle... You must have seen the castle, right? That was our first year in the Devildom.

We had to learn a lot.

[dupiety]

[He nods slowly.]

Very, very young, then. Goodness, all seven of you must have been adjusting together.

[What a mess that must have been, considering the seven sins at play here.]

But I imagine you all have come a very long way since then.

THE SHELTER

[gluttoning]

[You walk in on an argument you shouldn't have heard. You feel anger. You feel hurt. You feel relief. You feel joy. You feel fear.

(All 7 clips are part of this memory!)]

THE QUIZ

[gluttoning]

[You are here to watch your brother Leviathan have some sort of stupid quiz game with the human exchange student about a TV show. You're only here cause they're feeding you and don't really care much about what's going on, even when it escalates. But at least the food's great.]

help

[necrotiem]

[It's...a lot of stimuli to take in all at once. There's a certain tonal dissonance to what she's seen, loud and full of terminology and familiarity and care in a way that blindsides her. When she gets ripped out of the memory, she isn't sure she understands anything more about the? series? these people were talking about, or its plot. But what she does understand - ]

...You have a boisterous family.

[It's difficult to understand that. Perhaps that shows in her voice, the slow way she tries to muster something to say.]

Pick on you quite a bit, do they?

lmao :)

[gluttoning]

Eh?

[Not him zoning out five feet from Waltaquin... but he shakes his head as though waking himself up.]

Oh. My brothers.

Maybe a little. I'm one of the youngest, so it happens. But so long as I get to eat, I can usually ignore what they say.

[necrotiem]

[Just a little bit of dissociating with friends on this fine day!

In her opinion, it's less awkward like this. All they need to do is make eye contact and move swiftly on with their days! It beats the worse vibes of being apart, possibly even having to pretend to have seen nothing at all.

This way, it's less a game, but also less of an inconvenience.]

Yes, so I saw.

But they must like having you there, too, I suppose, hehe, or they wouldn't budget for the food. ...What was it that had the little blue one so invested in this series, anyway?

THE PUDDING

[gluttoning]

[You walk in on your older brother and the human exchange student. You lose your temper. You rampage. You face consequences. And... you open up a little.]