OPEN ♞ SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS

[tarotcards]

WHO: Souji Seta and anyone else
WHERE: Various parts around Recolle
WHEN: All month
WHAT: Catch-all for all of Oct's wacky monster events
WARNINGS: A lot of fighting and bitter feelings

ONE

The feelings of paranoia aren't lost with Souji. He's just as much human as everyone else and even with his normally calm demeanor, he can't help but occasionally look over his shoulder or try to stray away from large crowds. However, he's quite good and experienced at swallowing his feelings and pushing through like nothing bothers him so he does exactly that.

Getting into the Halloween spirit (even though it's a few weeks away), he's dressed in a simple magician's outfit, complete with the top hat and cape. He dramatically tosses back his cape and bows with an arm across his chest to whoever dares to get even close to him. While he's still bowed over, he tilts his head up slightly and gives a smile.

"Would you like to see a magic trick?"

TWO

To Souji's dismay, these thoughts of paranoia don't leave. In fact, they're accompanied with other types of intrusive thoughts and feelings of wanting to lash out at people and push their faces into the mud. These impulses are better controlled during the day, he finds out, but he finds himself slowly losing himself in them. To make matters worse, he notices a physical change occurring as well and he takes to layering up in thick clothing, using the excuse of the cold weather to get away with using his scarf and hood to cover parts of his skin hardening and taking on an unpleasant grey color. He even puts on a pair of sunglasses to cover the strange dull glow that his eyes are giving out and wears a thick pair of gloves.

However, despite his best efforts to shrink away and avoid interacting with others, he still slips up. As he walks down the street, anyone bumping into him, even if it was a very small one, he immediately snarls:

"Watch it--!"

However, not even a second later though, his scrunched up face of angry melts away and is replaced with... guilt? Surprise? Apologetic? It's difficult to describe the combination of emotions that go through him all at once, especially with the uncharacteristic sunglasses on, but regardless, the energy behind that snarl immediately disappears and he bows his head slightly.

"... sorry."

THREE

And eventually, these changes consumes Souji completely. Although still recognizable as Souji, he's a shell of his former past. Parts of his skin have now fully turned into a hard and rock-like material that cracks and splits off in random locations but as for the parts that haven't changed, they take on a pale ashy colour. His hands, while hardened just like the other parts of his body, are unusually glossy and there's this strange, almost exaggerated, glow to his eyes. In addition, there just seems to be this chill that surrounds him, as if the temperature has dropped just around him. While afar, characters might not notice this change in temperature, anyone close enough will notice that it's like standing by an open fridge. He just exerts cold air, though he either doesn't seem to notice or care.

On top of these physical transformations, Souji's entire personality and demeanour changes. The seemingly carefree smile is gone and it's replaced with a scowl. He no longer welcomes people towards him and invites others into a conversation. Instead, he pushes others away and almost seemingly looks for a fight. Should anyone even give him a quick glance, whether it was intentional or not, he growls at them:

"What are you looking at?"

FOUR

And it gets even worse. On top of all of the previous physical changes, he gains a few new traits a few days later. No longer standing up straight, he has a slight hunch and walks as if he has a limp. He has dark rings under his eyes and although his hands are now clumsily wrapped in bandages (was that done by him or something else...?), there's still this strange shine to them. Even worse, Souji's unstable new personality takes another dive. If he seemed to be on a slippery slope before, he has essentially fallen completely over and is no longer even on the slope.

Out in the middle of the streets is Souji with his hand wrapped around a middle-aged man's collar, holding him up as he repeatedly punches him in the face with no hesitation. Even as the man pleads and begs for him to stop, Souji continues. Depending on how long he's been doing this uninterrupted, the bandages on his hands would be stained with a dark red but this doesn't seem to faze him. Nothing at all seems to faze him and until someone forcefully tries to get him to stop, he'll just keep on continuing.

FIVE

Or maybe it's not even an NPC man that Souji has suddenly attacked, maybe it's you. He grabs anyone he can to start throwing fists. Maybe he has a reason for this. Maybe he doesn't. Regardless, with his new golem-like hands, it isn't pleasant to be punched anywhere with them. In addition, be careful. That strange slime covering his hands? Make sure it doesn't touch your skin. You don't want to suddenly get infected, do you?

SIX

What's worse than an infected person with an unstable mind? Perhaps an infected person with summonable creatures who can cause mass destruction. Lost in a vicious sea of emotions that he has surpressed for years, he explodes all at once and he lashes out at others. His main Persona, Izanagi-no-Okami, stands out with him and if anyone comes even remotely close to Souji (it could be two feet, it could be ten, there is no set definition on "close"), the Japanese God will immediately wave its hand to either cause a large explosion of fire to erupt right by the person or push them back with an unbelievable strong gust of wind.

"Leave me alone!"

Regardless of whether this person was just simply walking in the vicinity of Souji or actually wanted to bother him, it makes no difference to him. He will simply lash out to everyone and attack with little provocation.

WILDCARD

Anything is game! PM me or toss me a private plurk at northpaws if you want to do something outside the above options or to discuss anything! Let me know if you want your character to get infected or not.

Also for clarification, Souji is infected with the ghost, golem, and slime traits for prompts two and three while in prompts four and five, he has gained the mummy infection as well!

Finally, will be replying with action tags rather than prose!

Comments

[promisedyou]

Of course it wasn't. I'm the former heiress of a company-- I had to work hard day in and day out. We didn't have any maids or anything like that. For the most part, life was normal even if we did have money. Sure, we didn't have to worry about much, but that doesn't mean that we don't have problems. No, not we. Just me. Because sleeping in a comfy home? With my family? I don't do that anymore. I can't do that anymore. [ She smiles, but it's a little pitiful as she laughs. ] I'm still a little lucky... and I know that others are probably less fortunate than I, but I can't say that my life is easy. My parents disowned their heir, after all. So I'm all alone. And that's fine by me.

[tarotcards]

Boo hoo. You had to work hard to eventually inherit a company? I've heard some overly privileged shit before but that takes the cake.

[ he scoffs. ]

And whose fault is it that you were disowned? That you were cut off? If you pushed your own family away then you have no one to blame but yourself.

[promisedyou]

I never wanted to inherit that company. I never wanted it. If someone else wanted it, I would have given it to them the first chance I fucking got. I might have been privileged, but I had nothing to myself. I was just "the heir" to everyone. I wasn't even truly seen as an actual person. [ Her hands clench by her sides, shaking. ] I didn't ask to be disowned-- it's-- [ She hesitates for a moment. It's strange, she's always blamed herself for it the whole time but now that she admits something otherwise. Such a hypocrite. ] It's not my fault. But I suppose you don't give a shit about explanations, about "excuses", huh?

[tarotcards]

[ as much as souji enjoys ragging on someone, to call them out on their bullshit and to take out his own anger and frustrations on someone else, that doesn't mean he won't stop to listen to whatever "excuses" that mio might have. after all, it seems like this is something she doesn't really want to talk about or that it's a relatively difficult topic so this is still something that souji wants: to get under her skin and get a reaction. ]

Surprise me.

[promisedyou]

... [ She's quiet for quite a bit, but eventually she speaks up, hesitant. It's true that she doesn't want to talk about this, though. ] Why should I even tell you about it?

[tarotcards]

Do you want to prove me wrong or do you want me to just become another person who thinks of you as nothing else but a shallow has-been heir?

[ regardless, he thinks he'll win either way ]

[promisedyou]

I don't really appreciate being egged on by other people, you know. But okay, I guess I'll tell you. [ Her words are shaky, but she doesn't seem to be happy. She can't even look at him properly as she swallows hard. ] I was given a disease from Retrospec that would have normally been incurable.

[tarotcards]

[ he's a little surprised that she gives in and agrees to tell him but hey, he's not going to complain if it gets her to reveal whatever it is that she doesn't want to talk about. ]

What, so it's Retrospec's fault?

[promisedyou]

A little... but it's my fault, too, so I don't mind taking the blame.

[tarotcards]

[ ...? ]

What did you do?

[promisedyou]

[ She closes her eyes for a moment, trying to think of how she should do this before letting out a breath through her nose before opening her eyes again, giving him a serious look. Her reputation doesn't matter anymore, now does it? ] I killed someone.

[tarotcards]

[ and now this is when souji is actually taken back. he doesn't have a shitty snappy remark or anything like that. he's genuinely surprised and it shows in how he replies. ]

What...?

[promisedyou]

It's the truth. Well? Are you still going to say that I have it easy?

[tarotcards]

[ he scoffs ]

You think that qualifies you to say that you have a "hard life"? You're the one who murdered someone. You put yourself into that position. Take some responsibility for it.

[promisedyou]

You think I had a choice? That I had any control over it? I was ripped of any sort of agency because of what Retrospec gave back to me. You're telling me to take responsibility? I've been taking responsibility for months. And I won't stop taking that responsibility, because even if it was all because of a disease, it was still all my fault.