PAPER RITUAL - END

[wooliefrand]

[Bodies litter the pasture now, as the demons cackle through the air.

The blood that flowed from everyone converges on the paper flower, turning it a bright, disgusting red.

And then--something bursts from it. Another shadowy demonic beast, emerging with unfurled black wings. For those still alive, it looks something like a crow.

Black feathers scatter all over the pasture, and the voices of the demons are overjoyed. "She's returned! She's truly returned! Oh glorious day, our time has come--!"

The beast flies into the sky, easily bypassing the pasture's barrier, and simply....disappears. And with it, the oddities of the ritual.

All the remaining paper withers. and those living can hear a faint voice.

Well done, mortals. Finally you show your worth.

For the most ruthless, Rose, Daffodil, Weeds, Lily, Peony, you have our thanks.

The rest of you. . .what pleasant sacrifices you all made, hahahaHAHAHA!

And it is gone.


[OOC:
WINNERS get revived painlessly, and any special effects incurred are instantly poof, gone! BONUSES WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER/IN THE MORNING BUT YOU'LL GET SHIT FOR OUR SACRIFICES.

HOWEVER no limbs regrow if you're missing them. You gotta fix that shit yourself.

ETA WINNER BOONS
Each winning team gets the standard memory coins, along with their trees taking on the following changes/sprouting fruit:
Daffodil - Buddha's Hand.
Lily - Cherries
Rose - Pineapple (yes i know shh). But most curiously, their tree blooms into a giant rose. Not a tree with roses, a giant rose flower. It's stem is large enough to be climbed like a tree trunk, and its thorns act as branches. The fruit hands from stray leaves/petals.
Peony - Dragonfruit

WEEDS curiously, will have a strange plant growing on the grounds near their clubhouse. Uh oh are those Avocados?? Sure are.

MINI BONUSES
MOST READY KILL - Daffodil - They receive 50lbs of meat of whatever they desire. This can be a creature from home or just like. a lot of steaks. They will also find that for the next 3 ic days, they will auto-heal from any sort of injury whether they use their powers or not.

MOST 'can you lighten up a bit' - Weeds/Rose. They receive two sets of clothing; one any design in their standard fashion (ripped/suits), but the other can be in ANY STYLE so long as there is a flower of some sort incorporated into it somewhere, no matter how small.

MOST 'aren't you tired of being nice' - Peony - they'll find their Horse ability extended by 24 hours for the next 3 ic days. (tho it does not have to last that long)

MOST Survivor's Guilt - Lily - Ananke gets a knife made of pure silver, but it can be molded into any other kind of weapon.

DAFFODIL, ROSE, AND PEONY also instinctively know they can request a barn upgrade OR a community upgrade (one or the other, and it can't be something that's a deal in progress). Let Ash know what you want by Wednesday so I can incorporate in the next mingle!


Losers - Bluebell, Clover, Thistle. Oh buddies. Any dead MUST be manually put together/fixed by others, and also will incur a Paper Curse. This can either be:
-True words will appear on their body like ink/tattoos at inconvenient times
-They will become Light as Paper for two IC days and thus easily blown away/knocked down
-or have their soul trapped in an origami paper animal and just be that for a day.
SINCE THIS GAME WENT BUCK WILD this will only effect those present.]

Comments

[survivaltricks]

Remember when I was a horse?

[holds out a fingerguns]

They shot me afterwards. I haven't been able to summon my Personas since then.

[reportinastorm]

I see. I guess that must be another one of their powers...

[survivaltricks]

Must be. . .

[A DEEP SIGH, before he pushes himself to his feet, stretches, and offers her a hand]

. . . let's go home.

[reportinastorm]

Ah?

[surprised]

But—the others—? Bluebell and Clover lost too...

[survivaltricks]

[nods in the direction of Bluebell and Clover, who are surrounded by people in other colors]

. . . they're being taken care of.

But do you want to stay to check on them, too?

[reportinastorm]

[...]

So after all that, people just... toss their friends in the fountain to revive them and walk away?

[survivaltricks]

[WHEW. WHEW BOY!!]

[his deep breath in it out makes it clear that he actually does not have the bandwidth for this conversation. but at the same time. . . he recognizes how important it is, and how fucked up things are, and he clearly does not want to dismiss that notion when this is Flora's first death]

[so. . . he makes the space for it]

. . . sometimes, it's all people have the energy for.

[reportinastorm]

[She looks him over for a few seconds.

and then stands up, with some effort]

...I want to at least look around and see what's happening. I can see you back at the barn.

[survivaltricks]

. . . I can wait for you, if you'd like. So you don't have to go back alone.

[reportinastorm]

...I don't know how long I'll be. But if you want to.

[survivaltricks]

. . . I'll wait, then.

I don't mind.

[he may not have space for righteous anger at how fucked up this is anymore, but he does have space to wait for his flockmates. to make sure they make it home safely]

[reportinastorm]

...Thank you.

[She walks away, back towards the main part of the pasture.

However we are going to assume that by this point a lot of people have in fact absconded, including Charon with Minuet's body and Peony, so it doesn't actually take her that long, and she comes back looking dissatisfied]

. . .I'll have to check on some people later.

[survivaltricks]

[he is sitting on the edge of the fountain, staff in his lap, when she returns. he is mostly dry now!]

Mmm.

[a tiny smile]

. . . yeah. Sometimes, it's best to give people space to decompress. Usually then. . . they're in a better place to be fussed over.

[reportinastorm]

...Mm.

[Vaguely affirmative, but she clearly doesn't like that. What is taking more than a minute to process and decompress before going back into Action]

[survivaltricks]

[extends a hand]

Ready to go now?

[reportinastorm]

...Yeah. I guess.

[takes his hand]

[survivaltricks]

[takes it, holding it loosely as he guides her back to Thistle]

Ah. . . what you said during the ritual— about priests.

I wanted to talk to you about it when things settled. Is now good for you?

[if she talks about work will she be DISTRACTED??]

[reportinastorm]

[she doesn't look super excited to talk about that right now either. but probably]

Ah... What did you want to talk about?

[survivaltricks]

[an attempt!! is being made!!]

The person you spoke with, for one. Was it Red?

[reportinastorm]

Ah, no. It was Charon. He seemed a little reluctant to let go of that piece of information, for whatever reason, but when I suggested that Thistle might just go around dealing with demons directly rather than worrying about a priest he wanted to control the potential damage, I think.

[survivaltricks]

[lightly amused]

Playing things close to his chest. . .

Mmm, well. It's good to know for any future endeavors we might undergo.

[reportinastorm]

Yes. ...I may have implied we had more plans to summon demons willy-nilly than we actually do, but who knows what the future will hold. It's good to know what we're dealing with.

[survivaltricks]

[A LAUGH]

It's true, I don't plan on summoning any demons other than Bonbon for right now.

But it's nice to know our options.