DAY 60, B/E/ANUBIS/PINK GROUP CALL

[ghostofissues]

[ Sometime in the dead of night a few hours after the game, when all call participants are alone and in their dorms, they receive a series of messages from a display name with no number or email attached:

骸: To avoid sudden termination of your purchased video call or any mobile phone devices, please be considerate of the following guidelines:
骸: Do not record this call in any form.
骸: Do not attempt to contact uninvolved parties until after the completion of the call.
骸: Do not attempt to be overly familiar.
骸: Thank you very much.

And then their phones start to ring.

When they pick up, Mukuro’s face appears, beaming. The general angle and slight instability to the picture make it easy to tell he’s pointing his own phone at himself; it seems like he’s completely alone, wherever he is.

“Wherever he is” appears to be the courtyard of an old-style Japanese home, though it’s a bit disorienting to look at. Part of an old wisteria archway is in the shot behind him, but it seems to be, at once, heavily damaged, singed black in places and partly broken down; yet also perfectly whole and in full bloom even out of season; yet also completely chopped down and cleared away. The paper screens as well appear as two different styles simultaneously, the visuals of the two overlapping on top of each other; a worn but well-cared for framework in a darker color of wood and thicker screens, or a more modern-looking, cheaper framework holding paper with a machine-generated uniformity to its texture, or the first style again but with blood and rips and burns smashed and spattered all across it.

It’s probably easier to just look at Mukuro. He gives a cheery wave, with his marbled green nails. ]

Yaho~!

Comments

[liarliarliar]

What is being a good faithful? And what's being a faceless?

Exael said choosing heaven sends you home. And it seemed like you'd have your memories and what not intact if you did that. Did she leave something out? Or do you just think it's a poor prize for your time as an idol.

1/2

[ghostofissues]

They call the faceless the "damned." I never lost my memories, so I don't know what happens if you go along with "Heaven" even before you've retrieved all of yours, but the damned lose themselves. Faceless, powerless, no real will of their own. I thought some of you met them before?

[ghostofissues]

"Heaven" can send you home, but look- jajaja-jyaannn!

[ sweeps out his free arm and then turns the phone to show off the courtyard, a dizzying circle that isn't really fast but also isn't quite slow enough to get a good look before it centers back on himself ]

It's my old family house. Looks like a huge wreck now, doesn't it? I haven't lived here in a long time.

But I can move around wherever I want. Where I am now, where you are now, not to mention any place I actually spend any of my time~ "Heaven" just sticks you where you were before and leaves you there.

[liarliarliar]

Oh! That's a lot of freedom! Is that specific to the wish you made or does everyone get that ability?

[ghostofissues]

That's what Hell is. Power, freedom. Anyone can have them if they want it enough.

I got that wish a lonnnnng time ago.

[liarliarliar]

Anyone can have them...

Say. I know at least one of our past idols remembered being dead. Would he just go back to being dead if he took Heaven's bargain? Would Hell's bargain be the only way for him to have lived?

[ghostofissues]

Probably ♥

[liarliarliar]

Goodness.

So, you spoke briefly of Exael...what's your opinion of her and her boss? Do you two have to work together as hosts or are you completely separated?

1/2

[ghostofissues]

We're not on speaking terms.

[ghostofissues]

Not even for work, clearly! Ahahahahahahahahah!

[liarliarliar]

Five words can say so much...

I suppose I don't need to ask more on that. Ah, let me move on... People had so many questions for you...

[think brain think newwww topic]

What's the most important thing you learned about heaven and hell when you were an idol?

[ghostofissues]

Before I graduated the first time, or for the whole run? Not all idols are this "intro level" recruitment kind of thing. I was an idol under a few different programs, you know?

[liarliarliar]

You've had to graduate more than once?

[INTERNAL SCREAM AT THE THOUGHT]

What were the different programs? Ah, and I'd like both sorts of information if you please. It'd be interesting to hear how that progressed as you saw more.

1/2

[ghostofissues]

I didn't "have to" anything. I stayed an idol because I wanted to.

[ghostofissues]

Anyway, one of them was some "humanborn settling into Hell" kind of thing, back while I was still flailing around without knowing the first thing about what I was doing, but the rest didn't really have that kind of gimmick attached. I just moved around if I didn't like how they ran things. As for what I learned, it's a bit of a difficult question for me, since I was told everything right on the spot.

[ waves at his surroundings a little, vaguely ]

No one around here knew the first thing about "Heaven" or "Hell," so I didn't even know the words until I got my offer. You guys are pretty lucky Exael was so generous.

[liarliarliar]

You said your batch didn't have amnesia....so you were just plucked out into a new setting for the settling into hell thing?

Ah...you were able to choose different shows too? You really are about that freedom life.

[welp dont wanna turn this into an exael thing so lets veer away]

Whose idea was the amnesia thing? What do you think they hoped amnesia would accomplish? Just a new gimmick?

[ghostofissues]

[ rolls his head to one side and then the other, idly, not enough for any cracking noises ]

I'll draw it out for you.

Originally, your show, or my show, just tested single idols at a time. Maybe sometimes two or three in the same place, if I were to guess. They didn't take them anywhere. They just manipulated the circumstances in their original lives to screw them over. Then, whenever they decided that an idol had been pushed enough to make a choice, they gave them an offer.

After that, I got my wish. There was nothing else here for me once that was done with, so I just went off with danna for that Hellsworn show and started down that path. By that point I was already like this, a vengeful ghost, so moving settings wasn't any sort of issue for me.

Your round is different. Now, there are enough worlds on the table that they decided to recruit representatives from various worlds and place them all in one program to expedite the process. I don't know who decided on the amnesia stuff or why, and I don't really care enough to ask.

Do you understand?

[liarliarliar]

Yes. Thank you. I appreciate you clearing that up. I'm a little slow.

Ah, I was going to ask what a work day for you is like. But with so much freedom you must spend a lot more time living the life you want rather than working. It seems like a nice deal.

[ghostofissues]

Don't be such a sycophant. The moment someone sees your real face, they'll really make you regret it.

[liarliarliar]

[why]

My apologies.

[ghostofissues]

Shut up. It doesn't make any difference how demure and obedient you are. You might feel good about yourself spending all your time trying to please people, but I won't owe you anything for it. Or do you just think it's fun inviting people to walk all over you? Maybe you really luck out and everyone is so kind about it~

[liarliarliar]

[opens mouth, then closes it because he said to shut up]

[ghostofissues]

[ pitches his voice up a little and draws it back in his throat, imitating a mature woman's intonation ]

Such a good child, so well-behaved.

[liarliarliar]

[is this what it feels like to be triggered

wants to say sorry but that seems wrong]

[ghostofissues]

[ back to his own voice, inasmuch as his own voice has been very different from his chipper stage voice this whole time anyway ]

Hang up if you have nothing left to say.