kingdomdaze | (no subject)

Who: You, you, and you!
When: Day 1, evening
Where: Outside of town, a ways over there
What: A labyrinth in the form of a social bingo!

[later that day you hear that obnoxious horn sound, the one that would be sounded when they discovered a labyrinth. you follow this sound past the town and wind up at a set of stairs leading into the the ground. by these stairs is a sign reading HEAD ON IN. though you might normally be inclined to dilly dally, you're inexplicably drawn to walk down those stairs...]

[the stairs leading down to this "labyrinth" are absolutely grandeur. when you reach the foot of the steps, you become dressed to the nines in some kind of formal wear, like what you'd wear to a fancy ball... which would explain the room before you: you've stepped into a large ballroom. ballad music plays, tables line the wall, and is that a complimentary buffet table next to the wet bar? on the far back wall of this space are a pair of double doors, settled underneath an inaccessible balcony.]

My, my, my, my, m~y!

[a voice rings out from above—and an indistinguishable figure appears on that balcony, looking down at you with a hungry grin; their low voice is upbeat, but oddly smooth]

I've never had guests before! Oh, but you weren't invited... Tsk, tsk! Why, a bunch like you look like you could cause me problems... How troublesome! Oh, troublesome indeed! Still, unlike that royal kindergartener, I am actually kind enough to throw you a party! She didn't do that for you, now, did she? Hahahaha!

[they're still laughing when a bingo card materializes in your hand. between their laughter and constant chatter, they don't seem to be giving you much room to say anything. when their laughter stops, they speak again, their voice taking on a grisly tone]

If I'm going down, I want entertainment, you hear me? And there's only one way I want to go... Do you know BINGO? Must I spell it? Remind you that it's his NAME-O? Ha! You must do what you can to complete a row, or two rows, or the WHOLE CARD! If you do well, you'll earn more than just my dear palace's erasure...!

[they laugh, their laughter growing louder by the second, resonating through the spacious room—then it abruptly stops. just as quickly as that "person" appeared, they disappear, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of black smoke that quickly dissipates into thin air]

I'm watch~ing! ♫

((OOC GUIDELINES — TURN-IN — EXPLORATION

!! TURN-INS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO TUESDAY 12:01AM PST.

ETA: IF YOU PARTICIPATED AND MISSED THE TURN-IN, YOU CAN STILL COMMENT! Same applies to those who just want a participation coin!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Key word: forced. It takes a lot of magic to pull something like this off, doesn't it?

Honestly, it probably doesn't take much per person if it's a god we're talking about. It just feels like... A huge waste.

Annnnnd a god doing whatever the heck they want to other people in other countries isn't dangerous. Okay good to know.

Saying it's dangerous or not dangerous... Isn't that just a normal state of affairs? I mean, gods are worshiped for a reason.

Maybe where you're from. Some places don't have gods at all, some places they're worshipped for their kindness.

Even if they're kind, we're still just humans. From their perspective, them helping us is a matter of a whim. You can say we worship them for their kindness, but that doesn't mean we have any particular control over what they do. To even think you do would be vanity.

You take this god thing very seriously.

I'd expect everyone from my world to, considering that humanity's only survived thanks to the Shinju.

Ans Shinju are...? Gods? God-killers?

[stamping the "LEARN SOMETHING NEW" square on his card]

The Shinju is exactly what the name suggests, a tree god. The Shinju protected our island from the great plague that's believed to have wiped out all humanity elsewhere. Of course, the plague itself is still evolving in various ways, so the Shinju's protection is the only reason we're still able to live.

Magic plague? Viral? Bacterial?

The precise details are generally kept secret to the Taisha, since they're still working on putting together a cure and don't want people experimenting in weird ways and making things worse. The virus has started to evolve to the point where it's trying to infect the Shinju itself, though. My job back home is stopping it from managing that, since it has to make physical contact with the Shinju to actually infect it.

How can a virus "try" anything? They're just tiny packages of genetic code.

Like I said, the precise details are kept secret by the Taisha, but they're not exactly tiny packages anymore. Somehow, they've evolved to a ridiculous level over the 300 years since they first appeared.

...

Should we be worried about you infecting us all with plague?

Nah, we've managed to wipe out the dangerous parts, so the Shinju's barrier should have purified everything left on me.

Note the lack of barrier here.

The point is that I went through the barrier since my last contact with it, so it should be fine!

Okay, okay, good. I get sick easily, so something like a supervirus is worrying.