quietmounds | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHAT in person
WHERE ALL OVER
WHEN day 7, evening -> night
NOTES it's just a mingle really

[ Maybe you're getting off work now, or maybe you're just heading there. Or maybe you don't even have a job? Either way, it's a nice quiet evening to be outside in Quiet Mounds. Out on the streets, there's no sound at all. No birds or crickets, no murmur of crowds, no traffic. Isn't it peaceful? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eyeroll]

Is this what you do for 'fun'? Try to corrupt humans? I guess that is a demon thing.

I enjoy giving helpful life advice to friends because I'm a naturally generous person.

[ She stands up, brushing the crumbs off herself. And then she does a couple of weird hand gestures, and the ground underneath the crows glows faintly. There's some sort of weird circular pattern under their feet, mostly obscured by the crowd. Then there's a spark -- and all at once, the crows just sort of fall over. Like they're stunned, or something. ]

Since when are we--

[Distracted from arguing by whatever she is doing. And lifts his eyebrows, nudging one with his foot after it fell over]

What the hell was that?

[ The crow blinks up at him, blearily. It looks like it has some Regrets.

Yukari, meanwhile, walks right into the crow pile, gently nudging them away with her feet to clear a path. Then she picks one crow in particular, picks it up, and carefully puts it inside her purse. ]

Magic, obviously. We're not enemies, I don't call anyone that's been inside my head an "acquaintance," ergo, friendship.

[I guess I have been inside her head?? Why do people keep strong arming me into friendship.

Reaches down to pick up that crow? Sort of curious. ]

Did you just mess with their brains?

[ It kind of flaps its wings a little bit but mostly it's very docile, allowing that. ]

In a manner of speaking. Do you know what a shikigami is?

[well now i have a bird. where were you going with this, kei]

Vaguely. But I don't think 'crow hired by a youkai' is usually the answer.

[ There's something weird going on with that bird, if you look closely. Sort of a very faint glow from beneath its feathers, brief and flickering.

Yukari, meanwhile, continues to walk through the crow pile, selecting another crow while she speaks and putting it into her purse. ]

People usually think of them as something like a witch's familiar. Not entirely inaccurate, but not quite correct, either. The term actually originates in ancient times from shikisen-no-kami. Shikisen are augury tools, boards used for divination, usually astrological divination -- sort of like astrolabes, used to calculate the position of celestial bodies. They were essentially primitive tools for a particular sort of calculation, and so shikisen is even written with 式, the character for formula.

So then, rather than being an animal familiar, shikigami are the kami that reside within formulas. A sort of spiritual program, to be installed the same way you'd install a computer program.

[carefully shifts some feathers around, looking to see if the glow suffuses through the skin.]

So you're programming the birds to do your job, basically?

[ if you push back the feathers enough you can sort of see it, glowing patterns from under the skin. almost like writing, but it's alien, and impossible to make out. ]

That's it exactly. They're hard on keyboards but other than that they're a lot cheaper than hiring humans.

Couldn't you do the same thing to a human? Or even the NPCs around here?

The difficulty increases with the intelligence of the host. But sure, I could.

And the only reason you don't is because it's easier?

Humans would take up more space, too.

Isn't that still 'it's easier'.

[Hah.]

How often do you have to eat, anyway?

Well, pretty much.

[ she picks up a third bird to put into her purse. Then she snaps her fingers, and the crows all start moving. they're a bit disoriented at first, but after a few seconds it's a flurry of wings flapping and squawking as they take this opportunity to bail right the hell out of here.

yukari comes back over towards kaito, nonchalant as usual. ]

Really, I'm too old to worry about things like counting calories. It's better to just eat when you're hungry, right?

[oh there goes my bird]

If you've been here a while, and you need to eat humans, shouldn't there be people warning about it? Jack hasn't done anything I've seen, but he seems to have more of a reputation than you do.

Edited 2017-06-09 21:34 (UTC)

Well. I suppose the obvious solution is that I'm just good at covering my tracks. But that would be somewhat unusual in this place, wouldn't it? Normally it's not too difficult to hide such things, but given that no one here dies, you would think that the victims, upon their miraculous survival, would at least be able to say something about it.

So, what does that leave.

You're eating NPCs, who probably don't complain, or maybe not even revive. I haven't killed one yet. You have the ability to kill people permanently. You haven't actually been around long enough to establish a reputation. Or you don't actually eat humans, or at least you're one of the youkai that feeds on them in a way they don't object to as much as what you've suggested.

Edited 2017-06-10 02:03 (UTC)

And if it's none of the above?

Hmmm.

I suppose you could be altering memories. Or only eating people who have their own reasons not to expose you.

Well, it sounds like you have some theories to pursue, at least... What do you hope to find, looking at a bit of me under a microscope?

...? Who asks that sort of question hoping for a specific answer? It just sounds interesting.

Hmmm. Well, we'll see. Did you want to just take a sample with you, or shall we break in and do the thing right now?

You want to help me break in?