[LP CYOA] Spiral

[treave]

Here and there.

Back and forth.

The rocking chair cradles my aged bones, lulling them to rest. When you get up in years, the aches come, niggling little pains that trouble you merely enough to annoy. I look out at the garden. Summer is here. The cicadas are chirping. My children have come to visit, with their children, and their grandchildren. Their laughter fills the halls of this house. Perhaps that is why I rebuilt it, so that I could smother the sorrow that has seeped into this plot of land.

But the sadness never goes away, does it? I can still feel it lingering at times, in the corridors, like a nostalgic scent. A remnant of a memory from ancient, troubled times.

How long has it been? What year is it?

I rack my failing, addled mind, trying to remember the year. The war – the two great wars, had come and passed. Then had come decades of rebuilding and subsequent prosperity. It had taken so many years for the world to fashion itself closer into the form that I had once knew, and by that time, I barely remembered how it used to be at all.

While I look out blankly at the children – playing tag, it seems – I recall vaguely a celebration of my centenary a few years ago. They had also played tag then. A hundred years in life. That means… it would have been more than eighty years now.

More than eighty years since the old Sakaguchi mansion burned. That day I could recall clearly. The storm had protected the mansion’s exterior from the flames, but it had not done a thing for the interior. The insides of the house was entirely gutted. Scorched black. Charred. Before the day was over I was helping the villagers pick out bones from the ashes.

The Sakaguchi family. Their servants. They were all accounted for, except for one person.

I do not know if she truly existed, or if it was just a trick of my mind.

With the burning of the Sakaguchi mansion went all the clues and secrets hidden within. All that I could hope to discover, lost. The only avenue of investigation left to me was the Tendou family, and they were extremely close-lipped, especially after the fire. There was no other choice but to get closer to the villagers.

I settled down in Yomiki. Learnt to farm, learnt to trade. A year later, I was married.

Yukina was the best thing that ever happened to me. Without her I would have gone insane long ago, unable to reconcile the creeping differences between what I remembered, and what I was living. Many nights I woke up in a cold sweat, imagining the whispering of the spirits, and wondering if I would not be able to escape if I took a sword and cut down every villager as an offering to the Maiden. But always, Yukina grounded me.

I was conscripted for the wars. I survived. But at the same time, I realized that the world… this world… was as real as it could be. It was not some small bubble reality of a village or a hospital. I met many people in many countries. And as time passed, my sense of belonging grew.

Perhaps I really did travel through time, after all.

Perhaps I could affect change from where I stood.

After all, I knew the history, even if my knowledge was incomplete. I was uniquely positioned to influence it all.

And so here I sit, in the mansion that had once been scourged by fire. Surrounded by the many books that I have wrote over the years, under the pen-name that had once been my actual name: Shinoseki Adachi. My family – the Maeda family – has been moderately successful, but we are nowhere near the status of a powerful zaibatsu. There is no Kaimei. No hospital. Yomiki had been preserved through the decades, thanks to my efforts. Eighty long years… I had earned my escape by paying in time… now, I am free. I should have realized that I was free long ago. Perhaps I would have done things differently. Lived more happily, more for myself, than being bound by some mistaken belief that I was trapped in an imaginary prison.

My thoughts turn to my family. Yukina is long dead. Cancer took her, as it did my eldest son. My grandchildren already have children of their own, and now those children are getting married and having children of their own. I remember one of my great-grandchildren coming up to me yesterday, with a baby girl in her arms.

Nami, they named her.

Had I changed the timeline far enough? Or were some things always meant to happen?

As I ponder these questions, wheezing slightly through my toothless jaw, one of the children runs up to me, her black skirt fluttering in the summer breeze.

Her face is familiar to me.

I have so many great-grandchildren that I do not remember them all. Not at this age, where my mind has finally started to catch up with my body.

That is why it takes me a while to realize that she is not one of my descendants. I recall her face from another place. Another time.

She smiles and places her young palm over my withered, trembling hand.

My chair stops rocking.

Ah, I wonder... did I ever truly escape?

 

[Baltika9]

So that's what would have happened had we stayed with Maeda instead of going after Maeda. No too shabby for an asocial type like us.

 

[Nevill]

More questions. Well, the right question is worth half of the answer.

I suspected that we sacrificed world peace for the life of one woman. Let's hope it was a good trade.

The fire, huh? Did it originate from the fireplace we've seen? Or is it yet another crazy arson?

Can't help but wonder what is this world's relation to reality, or to the one we came from. I don't believe that it is 'real' unless we do something to make it so. And even if it is, I don't believe it's the world. But that's the price, I guess. You can either stop worrying about it and live a normal life, or you can spend it in search of answers, without a guarantee that you'll like what you find.

Here's hoping we uncover at least some of them during our stay.

 

[treave]

So that's what would have happened had we stayed with Maeda instead of going after Maeda. No too shabby for an asocial type like us.

It would have been a pretty good ending, in my not so humble opinion.

Unfortunately, we decided to be an hero, so here we are, naked in a haunted mansion and preparing to stay naked.

 

[Nevill]

You don't decide to be an hero. You either are one, or you are not.

The 'Dex is. Which it never ceases to prove.

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, living to see our great-great-grandkids, saving the future, etc... And do some funny old man shit.

I can totally see us pulling the senile old man card to perv on hot chicks.

 

[Nevill]

Yeah, living to see our great-great-grandkids, saving the future, etc...

And never knowing if we ever truly did, too, pondering the question 'till the moment of our death.

Still, there is happiness in that, I can't deny it.

 

[Nevill]

I feel conflicted about that ending, TBH.

The setting deals with souls or at least some equivalent of them, something that is left of people after their deaths. Many religions teach that the soul is some kind of invariant, something persistent. The existence of something tangible that trascends form is further reinforced by our visits to a place outside of our reality and our time that nevertheless seems to affect our own - if only through entities like us and Ei.

A soul in the setting can be devoured and destroyed, but there implied to be some sort of constant that does not change, regardless of time travel or whatever shenanigans there may be, and that an observer stationed there could see both of our worlds before and after alterations done by us. This leads me to believe that - at best - this Yomiki is an alternate reality that co-exists alongside the one we (our body?) came from. At worst, it is a personal bubble, a sweet dream that ends with our death.

This shifts the perspective behind our actions from 'saving the future' to 'finding a world that would be more comfortable for us to live in'.

I don't know how to solve this conundrum, or whether there even is a conundrum to begin with. Obviously, you can't save each and every alternate world where something has gone wrong. So, what can you do? What happens to the souls of people who got shafted in their reality if we 'change the future'? Do they cease to exist? Do they continue to live in their fucked up world? Is it pointless to try and help them unfuck their home instead of searching for the one that never got 'tainted' to begin with?

It would be easy to dismiss that question if not for Nami who got burned down along with the mansion. Who was she, and where did she come from if the world of Kaimei 'never existed' in the first place? And if she was here, and was real... does that mean that the Kaimei and the bubble continue to exist outside of our Yomiki reality? Did we really help anyone?

It might be as happy an ending as this LP is going to get, but it is hardly one I would be satisfied with.

 

[Baltika9]

What ending would you be satisfied with?

 

[Nevill]

Well, here is the thing. I don't know.

I suppose I would not be opposed to crossing out the last century from history entirely if I knew this puts a decisive end to the bubbleworld and the suffering of the souls trapped there. Scrap the whole thing down as if it never existed and let people start anew.

I could acknowledge the series of injustices that has already happened and choose to help the still living escape another one. It would be a minor victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I could even watch 'Seiji' unite the worlds and see all of my cares lose their meaning. A bitter ending is still one.

My personal favorite would be one where people we care about return to the world determined to make a difference and make it a better place, while we stay behind to sort out the underworld and bring a measure of 'old order' to it.

I guess I would be fine with anything that provides a certain degree of closure. Of course, I want better personal endings for some people as well, but seeing how we fared with Mitsuki and how we handled leading the group I realize that might be a tall order.

 

[treave]

Naked Blade

By the time you make your way up the stairs, you have resolved yourself to ignore the lack of clothing – there are more important things to worry about at the moment, and you will not let such a trivial thing like walking about without a stitch to your body get in the way. It should not concern you, not when there is someone slumped against the wall in front of you, a streak of blood staining the beige wallpaper behind her.

As you walk towards her cautiously, you see that she is still breathing, albeit weakly. The girl – she looks to be younger than Yukina – flutters her eyes at your approach. “Wh-who… what?” she speaks faintly. “Help… help me... no… run…” . From her rough, patched clothing, she seems likely to have been a servant here.

You kneel down at her side, noting the fresh injury in her abdomen. It is a clean, deep cut: beneath the torn fabric and split skin you can glimpse her viscera, trembling gently with every breath she takes. If only you had something you could use to stitch her wound… Then again, this is not Kaimei or Ikei – and will not be for at least another fifty years or more. Pressing your hands around the wound, you attempt to stop the profuse bleeding through pressure. The girl moans in pain, jerking weakly.

“Bear with it,” you say, trying to keep a calm, steady voice so as not to affect her mental state even further. “What happened here?” You hope that talking about things will keep her mind off the injury, and lessen the pain.

“The… the master… he lost his mind…” groaned the servant girl. “We couldn’t find the young mistress… the mistress hanged herself… so… he…” She coughs, gasping for breath. “Wait… why are you…” Her eyes travel up and down your naked body, and widen in shock as she finally realizes what she is looking at. Somehow, she manages to find enough blood in her blush heavily despite being critically injured.

“I met the dogs outside,” you explain.

“I… I see…” She closes her eyes awkwardly. “Th-thank you for helping me…” The blood thickens and slows to a trickle as you hold the wound together.

“Hm, Acchan, weren’t you supposed to go find Maeda?” reminds Ei, peering over your shoulder.

That’s right. You can’t spare too much time here. “I’m sorry, can you place your hands here?” you ask the girl. Confused, she does as you ask. You make her press down firmly. She winces in pain, but follows your instructions. “Don’t let up on the pressure.”

“Wait… where are you going?”

“Have you seen another girl around here? She isn’t working in the mansion… she would be taller than you. Prettier,” you blurt out.

“Ouch.” Ei laughs. “Talk about kicking a girl while she’s down.”

“Not that… not that you aren’t cute yourself,” you add hastily, prodded into it by Ei’s remark. That is what girls want to hear… right?

The servant girl only chuckles lightly, letting your slight slide off her shoulders. “Yes, there was a girl who visited earlier. She… she came at the wrong time, but I don’t know where she is… I heard the master shouting… I came up here to take a peek, and he attacked me before running downstairs.”

“Right,” you nod, standing up. Maeda is in one of the rooms on this floor - you only need to knock on every door until you find her. The girl pointedly looks away from your shamelessness, towards the stairs. You hear her breathe in sharply, and her expression freezes. She mutters, “M-Master…” Turning to follow her gaze, you see a man in traditional dress standing at the landing. The skinny, balding man breathes heavily, staring at you without a word. His circular spectacles are fogged over, and there are streaks of red staining it. There is a sword in his hand. It is a well-polished weapon, gleaming where it catches the light. Drops of blood slide off of the fine tip, dripping onto the soft carpet. They seep into the thick fabric, spreading into fuzzy circles of red.

“That is going to be hard to clean,” you say conversationally, hoping that he is up here for a quick chat, and not something more violent.

“Oh, hello. I know who you are. You are the one who took my daughter, aren’t you? You are the one who pushed my mother into the well, aren’t you?” He laughs. “I finally found you at last, you witch.” Gripping the hilt with both hands, he raises the sword above his head. “Give me my daughter back why won’t you give her back give her back!” No such luck, it seems. Talking with him is going to be futile.

“Help… help…” whispers the girl nervously, tugging at your bare ankle.

The man's gaze snaps towards her. "Job, finish the job," he chants. His pupils bounce around madly, like little rubber balls. From them, a creeping darkness begins to slowly unfurl, as if flowing forth from the two bottomless pits that are his eyes.

***

A. You go for the kill, holding nothing back. The madman is too dangerous to be left alive: he needs to be put down so that you can explore the rest of this place with ease of mind.

B. You try to disarm and subdue him peacefully. There will be no more deaths tonight if you can help it, though you will need to find a way to secure him should he resist.

C. You run down the corridor, calling for Maeda. She is your priority at the moment, not getting into a prolonged fight with some nut with a sword while you are naked and unarmed.

 

[treave]

It would be easy to dismiss that question if not for Nami who got burned down along with the mansion. Who was she, and where did she come from if the world of Kaimei 'never existed' in the first place? And if she was here, and was real... does that mean that the Kaimei and the bubble continue to exist outside of our Yomiki reality? Did we really help anyone?

She vanished because she was from a future that ceased to exist when the mansion was burned down, since it ended up being the turning point for you attempting to change the future. You could be optimistic and think that.

 

[Nevill]

If we run to find Maeda, calling for her as we go, we run a risk of her looking out of her room while the armed madman is in pursuit. That's a risk I can't take.

Now, to subdue him, or to go all out. I'd try to avoid harming anybody, but only if it doesn't endanger ourselves. Do we think we can take him?

Is his dress thick enough to serve as a rope to restrain him, should we cut it? I wonder if it is possible to beat him unconscious then strip him and tie him up.

Then again, through the Power of Meta we know that they are all destined to burn down anyway. Is it even worth it to try and avoid bloodshed?

She vanished because she was from a future that ceased to exist when the mansion was burned down, since it ended up being the turning point for you attempting to change the future. You could be optimistic and think that.

I can't. She didn't vanish, they have found the unidentified bones. Or did I misunderstand this part?

Before the day was over I was helping the villagers pick out bones from the ashes.

The Sakaguchi family. Their servants. They were all accounted for, except for one person.

 

[treave]

Yeah, that was supposed to mean "The bones of everyone thought to be in the mansion at the time were found, except Maeda's".

 

[Nevill]

Well, here goes one of my ideal endings, then. Now we have to bear the partial responsibility for everything that happened. Uehara was right, after all.

Spoiler

We have saved ourselves some time by not accepting a detour for clothes. I'll go with B. I don't want my peace of mind to depend on killing people.

And I'd like to put as much distance between ourselves and 'Seiji' as possible. We have described ourselves as 'not a murderer' to Uehara, while he gleefully accepted the accusation thrown by Sakimura. I'd like to stay true to that.

 

[treave]

Well, here goes one of my ideal endings, then. Now we have to bear the partial responsibility for everything that happened. Uehara was right, after all.

Oh, it's still supposed to be rather inconclusive whether it's 'real' even with that. You're in a setting where ghosts can steal people away without a trace, after all. There're other explanations that can be offered up.

 

[Kz3r0]

B.

 

[Nevill]

You're in a setting where ghosts can steal people away without a trace, after all.

Can they? All the disappearances without a trace I can remember came from people performing some rituals that disrupted the border between the worlds.

Ghosts never actually amounted to much so far except for a few possessions here and there. The worst always came from humans, though we don't know if they were 'helped' with that.

Ghosts are more pro-active in the bubble, but that was to be expected, given its nature. And even here the people manage to be more dangerous.

 

[treave]

Twelve significant disappearances in a single day, according to Investigation Notes of Hospital Disappearance (October 2012), but beyond that, the number of missing persons has risen since then, bucking the trend of the national average.

 

[Nevill]

I thought it weren't ghosts who were behind this, much as our own predicament is not their doing.

Still, that Maeda seemed unique in the same way we are, and we seem to be able to appear and disappear from this reality. Could very well be something else in play.

I wonder who the current owner of the Mansion is. He claims to have lost his daughter and his mother. But Sakaguchis only really visited Yomiki for piligrimages. Why would the curse affect a family from Kyoto?

He is either mad and rambling, and the deaths of his loved ones have nothing to do with the Witch (just as they have nothing to do with us), or the reach of the powers in these lands is greater than we thought. Unless, of course, the incidents happened in this village during their visits - but why then would anyone want to do anything with these lands?

 

[treave]

You guys missed out on quite a few important notes in the second night, I suppose.

 

[Nevill]

Drops of blood slide off of the fine tip, dripping onto the soft carpet. They seep into the thick fabric, spreading into fuzzy circles of red.

If we manage to subdue him, can we roll him into a carpet?

Spoiler

When Maeda next looks up from her room, the house is on fire, the stripped down owner is jumping around while rolled into a fabric and tied up with his own clothes, and we are standing over a maid, naked, with sword in hand.

A perfect setup for a proposition, no? I bet no one courted her like that.

 

[treave]

The carpet's pretty long. You might have to cut it up.

 

[Kz3r0]

Let see:
We are too soft changing my vote to
A

 

[Nevill]

From the options:

• Subdue the maniac
• Kill the maniac.
• Run and scream.

You messed up the order.

P.S.: can you make rolls when answering and not by editing the post?

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