# 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Team Hades The crow Pam had given him trills and caws softly as it rests on the top of his head. Jakey wonders, rather grimly, if the creatures summoned by the little mouse could die. He still hasn’t named her. **“Jakey.”** He introduces himself to the group, rather simply. He recognizes the tabby cat, Horizon, and is surprised that they had kept the tiny fishing lure. It does look nice as a little pendant, he supposes. **“Nice to see you again,”** Jakey murmurs to him, politely. Jakey also recognizes the panda bear, Atlas, and something in his chest hurts as he says *two halves made one*. Back at the observatory, he had asked him about the god stones, insisted that the dark, blade-shaped stone didn’t really belong to him. But Atlas had said since Hans wasn’t holding it as the world ended, they were gone. It was his stone, now. Jakey shakes his head and moves forward. That’s what they would do, too. -# Action: sadly look around (Nat 1) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Team Hades Jakey’s vision has been getting worse, clearly, and he feels a little useless as the others point out their observations that he could barely see in the darkness. He nods towards where he thinks Diane is as she points out the scattering of items, hums as Horizon reads out the engraved prayer to Ys. He looks to Alula as she greets him back, blinking as his eyes finally adjust. The tiny cat had called herself a prophet of the goddess. She gives her opinion about the offering they should give, then moves towards the statue. She’s touching it with her paw, eyes shut in concentration. His brows furrow together. *Is she praying? What use would that be, now?* He’s feeling polite enough to not say it out loud, but if anyone were to glance at him, his expression is pretty clear. Snorting softly, he leans down to pick up the bone with his lips. He might not believe in Alula’s connection to the goddess, but what she said about the offerings makes sense to him. Carefully, he maneuvers the bone into one of the outstretched paws. -# Action: Put the bone in one of the statue’s paws (DEX: 13) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Ambrose, Alula, Striga, Horizon He’s acutely aware of Ambrose’s gaze following him as he places the bone. It sort of creeps him out—why the hell is he just sitting there?—so he gives the big cat a bit of a side eye. Jakey forgets about it quickly as the mechanism clicks. He huffs proudly as he steps back, lets Alula do her… thing. But whatever she was doing, it doesn’t seem to work. Jakey barks out a sharp laugh when the statue cracks further from Alula’s touch, snorts softly when Striga chides her to be more careful. But when he sees the clear frustration on her face, his amusement quickly drops into a frown. There’s a strange, prickling, slightly acidic sensation on his tongue. Guilt materializing psychosomatically, he supposes. And now that he thinks about it, Alula reminds him of… He clears his throat, bites his lips softly before he dips his head to her level. **“Sorry, I don’t mean to mock you. It’s just…”** *Ironic*, he wants to say. *Been there before*. Jakey sighs instead. **“Shit, this must be really weird for you, huh? Being her… prophet, I mean.”** The doubt is still clear in his voice, but he’s trying his best. Then he looks to Striga, the masked lemur, who’s currently eyeing a vial of some strange substance. He flicks his ears towards them, wary. **“Hey. You be careful, too.”** He sees Horizon trotting to the half-lit bridge, and his gut tells him to follow the little cat, suddenly anxious for their safety. **“I said be *careful*,”** he grumbles, his shadow reaching for them. -# Action: Watching out for Horizon (DEX: 16) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Diane, Atlas, Neoma / m: Horizon, Pontia, Ser, Pam, Cher Jakey’s shadow trots back to his side after Atlas pulls Horizon off the ledge, melts back into the dark stone floor. He blinks, surprised at what he had just done. He’d assumed that the surge of Death and Darkness after putting Pontia to rest was from the goddess, not from… within himself. So he is death and shadow, it seems. How depressing. How fitting. Jake sighs softly. He flicks his ears as Diane speaks–he’d honestly forgotten that she was there for a moment, lurking in the shadows and not introducing herself. Even though she’s a stranger and he doesn’t know her name yet, Jakey finds himself stepping next to the dog in support, nodding along to her words. They were reasonable questions. What *is* down that pit? What *is* at the center of the earth? And if that’s where they were going to make the new world, a paradise, will his loved ones be there waiting for him? (And will Ser’s brother be there? Pam’s sister? Cher’s family?) He gazes at the constellations, eyes tired, chest dimly aching. Two halves of a soul, they said. He wonders… -# Action: Soul read Neoma and Atlas (LUCK: 14 / Spark of Inspiration used) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Atlas, Neoma … The fuck was that? Was that really what a whole soul looks like? *Two as one,* the thought echoes in his mind. He frowns rather deeply. Does that mean the Godling has no soul? He’d only seen a reflection of himself when he peered into her, darkness and grief and... well, he was half expecting the constellations to be the same. *Half*, huh. **“Are we not… whole souls by ourselves?”** Jakey asks Atlas and Neoma, though he already knows the answer. He has not had a whole soul since his world ended. -# Action: Ask the constellations about halves. # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Atlas, Neoma He’s unsure how to respond to the constellations’ words. *Your other half is still here,* Neoma says, and he glances down at the gem sitting on his chest. Right. Of course. The next room appears to be yet another puzzle. Jakey grumbles softly—he didn’t expect there to be more. He marches straight to the closed door at the opposite end of the room and kicks it. -# Action: Kick the closed door (STR: 14) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Ambrose, Atlas, Neoma Jakey huffs, annoyed. He glares back at Ambrose. **“Worth a try,”** he mumbles, shaking out his now-sore hoof. He ruminates on the constellations’ words. They seem to imply that they’ll surpass the Godling in power, once their souls are whole. **“Did you two also go through all of this?”** Jakey asks the constellations, motioning vaguely at the puzzle. He then gazes at Neoma, buzzing around. **“And… can all bees speak like you? I mean, I thought that insects weren’t…”** Jakey pauses, unsure of how to phrase it. **“Sapient?”** # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Striga, Neoma He snorts softly towards Striga, then hums at the poem they recite. **“A weather forecast?”** Jakey offers, though he’s unsure what that has to do with bottles of… something. It’s not even his colorblindness this time, they all look identical. Atlas and Neoma’s voices turn his attention away from the puzzle. And Neoma speaks about how the gods can choose the dying. A shadow falls over Jakey’s face as guilt and grief stab him, square in the chest, right where Hans’s stone rested. They should be the one standing here, not him. It must be a mistake. But he’d already insisted that to Atlas, and the bear had already told him that he’s chosen, not Hans, whether he likes it or not. He swallows the lump in his throat. He looks to Neoma, repeats their words. **“The… cycles? This isn’t the first time?”** Jakey’s ears droop slightly, tail flicking in agitation as he considers the implications of what the little constellation had said. His voice is strained, desperate. **“Why the hell are we making a new world if it’s just gonna *die* again?”** (The crow nesting in his bag grumbles softly.) -# action: question Neoma # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Neoma, Atlas Jakey sighs. He’s not sure if he believes the constellations, but again, he wasn’t sure if he believed the Godling when she’d first promised to make a new world. He’s far too deep in it now to bail. Besides, it’s not like he has any other plans. **“…Okay.”** He dips his head and accepts Neoma’s little touch, their pinky promise. His gaze remains critical, though. **“I’ll believe that you’re *trying*, sure, but how will this time be any different?”** His attention is momentarily pulled away when Horizon says something about a storm coming soon and Alula mentions the weather. Jakey’s unsure if it’s just confirmation bias or him kicking the door earlier, but now that he thinks about it, his joints are aching a bit, like they tend to do when a storm’s approaching. Or maybe he’s just tired. Jakey sighs again. *All good things die eventually*, he thinks. It’s a thought that often comes to him. *But if this new world has no end, what the fuck are we actually making?* -# Action: Further question and discern if the constellations are hiding something (WIS: 13) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Neoma, Atlas He’d expected a more clear answer from the badger-bee. Now, he was pissed. It doesn’t matter how sincere they were, what the fuck did they *do*? The worst is over now, is it? The hardest part? Jakey’s heart drops into his stomach. Or perhaps it was his star, threatening to leap out his esophagus again. It’s that same feeling of sickness, of dread, when he first laid eyes on Pontia’s decaying form. She was angry, in grief, in pain, he remembers. *What have you done? How could you?* **“So you…”** he starts, but the accusation struggles to form on his snarled lips. Were his teeth always this sharp, his jaw this wide? The stone on his chest feels like it’s burning. **“You killed everyone for this new world.”** -# Action: Intimidate the constellations into coughing up more info (CHA: 15) / Quirk activation - Looming Gloom: Attempts to INTIMIDATE are rolled with lower difficulty # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Horizon, Godling Neoma’s answer is frustratingly vague, still. What others? Why even agree to help if you don’t know the full extent of the plan? But to be fair to them, that’s exactly what he had done as well. There was nothing else to do. Nowhere else to run. The Godling had a plan while nobody else did. Jakey shakes his head, looks toward Horizon as the tabby cat pleads to the constellations. His expression is full of pity and worry at their apparent fear and confusion at Neoma’s response. Perhaps they’d also been duped into this whole new world plan being without costs. Jakey closes his eyes and sighs. He thinks of the Godling, wondering what the hell she’s actually up to. Wonders why she’s not being transparent about what this plan is to make a new world. There was no talk about higher beings who perpetuate the oppressive world cycle. No talk about some unknown others being involved. Just flowery language about making paradise. *Friends should tell each other about their plans,* he thinks, pointedly. -# Action: Reaching out to the Godling (WIS: 20) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: horizon He’s been silent all this time, the voices of his loved ones echoing in his mind. He frowns slightly when the Godling tells him they’re all counting on him—any other day, it would piss him off—but oddly, he just feels… rather numb. He can’t stop thinking about the missing voices. He tries to justify it, tells himself that both Hans and Sheppy were usually short with their words, preferred signing, maybe they’re stored elsewhere, because surely, *surely* Paradise would include them too, right? Perhaps it’s asking too much. Perhaps he should just be happy. Fucking hell, Jakey *should* be happy, his family is still alive. He should be skipping around and celebrating. Instead, he huffs, kicks a few pebbles as he drags his heavy hooves further into the chamber. Maybe it was an illusion. That little god is wholly capable of it. To convince him that this is all actually his choice, not something that’s been thrust upon him. Horizon’s little voice pulls him out of his thoughts. Jakey nods along. **“I think you’re right. Twice is a coincidence, thrice is a pattern, or however the saying goes.”** His frown deepens, realizing that means he’ll have his own room. He briefly wonders if it’ll be full of metaphors for his failures. It’s not the time to worry about it, though, so he begins scanning over the scattered papers. -# Action: Read papers (INT: 10) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: ambrose, diane, atlas, neoma He quickly stops reading the papers plastered upon the walls. He’s seen enough, knows enough already. Sickness and death. Begging for sedation. But to him, those large doses still felt wrong. It wasn’t a cure. Just a forced sleep. And sleep is the cousin of death, as the saying goes. Jakey squints at Ambrose as he makes the snide comment, feels a slight flutter at his sides as his crow companion wrestles with the junk within his saddle bags. A room with a hostile. He does remember Atlas or Neoma saying something like that. He sighs. The crow grumbles softly. Perhaps she senses the danger ahead. **“Well, if we each have our own room, and we’ve seen three already, the threat might be *yours*, Ambrose. Or—”** he glances at Diane, still unsure of the dog’s name. Has she even introduced herself? He nods to her. **“Um, or it could be *your* room. With the enemy, I mean.”** -# “Might even be mine,” he says, under his breath. But he’s never been good at whispering. Jakey’s lips twist in thought. With what tidbits the horoscopes have given them, it makes sense that they also set the rooms up for them. He looks towards Neoma and Atlas, eyes tired. **“You made these little games, right? What’s the point of testing us?”** He huffs. **“Weren’t we already *chosen* by her?”** The words taste bitter as they leave his tongue and slip through his new fangs. -# Action: yapping to ambrose, diane, and horoscopes # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: alula Jakey tilts his head at the little ashen prophet’s words, curious. She had a second awakening in that Ys room, then? Maybe that’s the point to these games. To induce a growth spurt. He wonders if Alula’s soul now has that same complex yet clear character that the constellations’ souls have. **“Well, if you can, it’d be nice to know,”** Jakey murmurs, but his grumbly voice makes it come off as condescending. He quickly adds a **“please?”** to his statement, hoping it’ll make himself sound more polite. And less like Ambrose. Jakey keeps his gaze keeps steady on the prophet and her shadow. -# Action: Soul read Alula as she divines the next rooms (LUCK: 15) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: team hades, horoscopes *Altar*. The word echoes loudly in his mind as he comes back to his own body. His eyes are wide with surprise as he addresses Alula. **“Your soul is an altar. No, it’s *the* altar.”** He blinks, looks back at Diane as he puts the pieces together. What Neoma had said confused him briefly—it does irritate him that they tend to answer his questions so vaguely—but after seeing the shade of Alula’s soul, he understands. **“Our souls, they have titles, they’re…”** Jakey trails off into a thoughtful hum before continuing with a proud nod. **“Diane’s right, the answer to this room is a word. The name of a soul’s shade.”** … Horizon’s recital of the runes give him pause. What an odd little riddle. The blade shaped stone resting on his forehead feels a little cold. Could the name of the soul be *blade* or *sword* or *knife* or… The implications of divinity bother him, though. He swears he remembers a villager from long ago explaining to him a story of a hateful man, meeting a god on a road to… somewhere, that represented a sudden paradigm shift. That must be it. It was a place known for its metalwork, too. He just can’t quite remember what that place was called or what that man’s name was or if the whole story was historical or myth. He’s about to thank Horizon for reading the runes, but Ambrose’s words successfully distract him. Jakey snorts loudly at the cat’s audacity. **“The rooms are supposed to be *challenges*, pal, not shrines to your ego.”** With a huff, he dismisses the leopard, and turns to address the rest of the team. **“There’s a story. A hateful man met a god while traveling to a blacksmithing city, then changed his ways… I think that’s the answer.”** *Cher would probably know it*, he thinks, then sighs softly. He turns to Striga, tilting his head and turning his ears forward. It’s his soul, isn’t it? It should at least sound familiar. … He frowns at Atlas as he implies something about soul partners, and how *someone* has already glanced at their bond. Jakey feels his jaw tighten. He’s talking about him looking at the Alula’s soul, isn’t he? And that compulsion to put his hoof at her *altar*. He supposes it’s fitting, having always been a follower. He wonders about the souls in storage and feels a small ache. Jakey shakes his head, decides to press the constellations about something else. **“The Godling. Does her soul also have another half?”** *Does she even have a soul?* He recalls the steady, mirror-like blankness he saw within her. *Or was I just looking in the wrong place?* -# Action: Yapping away. # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Ambrose, Alula, Striga, Horizon Another dead end answer from the horoscopes. The little god is a mystery to them as well, it seems. He promptly turns back towards his teammates. Alula’s divination of the coming enemy makes him bark out a laugh. A big cat made of stone, wearing a veil. How beautiful, how challenging..! He grins at Ambrose, toothy and smug, but feels merciful enough not to rub it in. Then, he dips his head to Alula, his voice a gentle rumble as he speaks. **“Thank you. We’ll figure it out when we get there. I dunno if I could sneak, so if it attacks, I’ll protect… you…”** Jakey trails off, feeling a little stupid for saying it. If the tiny ashen prophet really is half of his soul, it’s only right. Or maybe it’s selfish? He doesn’t want to find out what happens if his soul partner dies. He imagines it’s something deeper than grief, but he feels he’s already lost part of his soul when the world ended. What would be another? But as he recalls himself at her altar again, he feels his soul balk at his heart’s grieving apathy. He cares, goddammit, he still *cares*. She’s right there, she’s still alive, she’s… reminding him. **“I’ll protect you,”** he repeats, firmer this time. Then, a little sheepishly, he adds **“and, uh, everyone else too.”** *Smack.* He startles at Striga’s sudden collapse onto the stone, their bloody cough and subsequent laugh. Jakey instinctively averts his eyes as their mask falls. He pins his ears flat as Horizon lets out a scream and panicked words. *Fucking hell, way to protect everyone, Jakob,* he thinks. When the lemur insists on trying the same thing again—whatever that was—Jakey takes another step back. Surely, he’s gone mad. Or got rage sick. Or both. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Despite Jakey’s horror, his shadow darts out towards Striga, just like it did when reaching out to catch Horizon. The shadow appears gentle, like the spot of shade that wanders around a lonely paddock tree. The dark mass sighs around Striga, trying to absorb any traces of physical death. **“Um. I think he’ll be fine,”** Jakey says to Horizon, flustered. *Please don’t scream again.* … Hopefully it works. -# action: attempt to heal Striga (18) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: Horizon, team Hades Jakey tilts his head at the little tabby, surprised. He’s not a doctor, but has spent the last decade adjacent to them and their patients. He shrugs. **“No, but I know what it actually looks like when people die. They’re not dying.”** And before it could register to Jakey that he should’ve worded his response better, Striga mutters something and collapses again. *Damascus.* Yes, that was it. Horizon screams again, much to Jakey’s dismay. He flicks his ears, trying to shake out the ringing. When the melody begins, a memory resurfaces. Jakey’s shadow darts out again, though this time, it’s a shadow of *her*. A filly with a star on her forehead—just like Jakey’s—prances about to the song, apparently clueless to the situation. Her mouth moves along with Horizon’s words, but no sound comes out. *We all fall down!* She laughs and rolls onto the ground next to Horizon and Striga, glancing all around before her gaze settles on Jakey. *Jakey!* she scolds him, her eyes bright and mischievous. *You’re supposed to fall down with me!* Anyone watching closely could feel Jakey’s heartache, his regret, the sinking feeling that he didn’t deserve to share her joy. *I wasn’t there. How can you forgive me so easily?* Jakey blinks and the memory dissipates from the physical world, the strands of shadow melting back into the floor. The feelings still linger as a lump in his throat, but at least he knows what to do now. He kneels, then carefully untucks his limbs from beneath himself. Quite a bit slower than the song usually demands, but he figures it’s better than nothing. He sighs again, looking to his other teammates. **“…You’re supposed to flop down on the ground at the end of the song.”** -# Action: unintentionally activate Shadow Theater to show Akari singing along then falling. He lays down, feeling it might be part of the puzzle. # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: room It takes Jakey a moment to realize that he’s floating, and he’s quickly back on his hooves without any aching joints. The door is open. Onto the next one. When he enters the next room, he feels a sense of peace wash over him. Acceptance, maybe. This must be *his* room. The antique clock is interesting—*fitting*, he thinks, *since I’m an old fuck*. But the mural on the opposite wall pulls his attention. It’s clearly three horses. If this was his room, was this supposed to be a depiction of his family? Hans, Akari, Dougie… There’s something written there, too. He breaks away from his teammates, closer towards the mural. He blinks back the tears, shakes his head. He doesn’t want the others to see him like this. *Lighten up, dickhead,* Sheppy’s voice echoes in his mind. And despite himself, he still smiles at the memory. -# Action: Inspect mural and runes - int: 21 # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: horoscopes, team hades His smile quickly falls back into his default frown. It’s a picture of a memory he’s never had, but perhaps whoever set up the rooms just assumed that since he was a father, that he was there. Akari was raised by everyone except himself. Even after he’d reunited with Hans, Jakey still felt he didn’t deserve to be in her life. She was exceptional even at a year old, a summer child, wise beyond her years. What more could he give her, besides some shitty jokes? Everyone else was more suited to parent her, especially Dougie. Others just assumed that Dougie was her father and he kindly played along, for Hans’s sake. He sighs, wondering what he would even do if time could turn back to the day she was born. Wonders if Hans would’ve asked him to help name her—he remembers that list of names that Sid had made, and Hans, endlessly annoyed that she wouldn’t let them name her just ‘Red’, simply circled the one at the top of the alphabetical list. Akari, meaning vermillion village. He would’ve just suggested using his mother’s name. But she was raised by a village, not him, after all. Akari is a perfect name. **“We need a month and day for the clock. My daughter’s birthday, I think,”** Jakey announces to his teammates, stupidly confident that he’ll be right. As he heads back to the clock, he glances over to the constellations, unimpressed. How could they make Akari’s birthday be a puzzle solution, yet depict that day so wrong? They must be taunting him. He furrows his brows as he carefully manipulates the hands of the clock with his nose. Seven minutes past six, for the seventh day of June. -# Action: glare at the constellations, then change the hands to 6:07 # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 black soul > -# iw: n/a The door rumbles open, but he doesn’t care. The false mural peels back and a true memory emerges. *The village.* Jakey lays himself near it. He could stay here for a little bit. It’s nice. The stone floor is cold as he rests his head down, but he finds that he doesn’t mind it so much. And he doesn’t mind if the others see him cry, now. Yes, carry them onward. They’ll never die if the memory stays alive. That’s all that matters now. There’s a small, bittersweet smile on his lips as he thinks of Pontia. *The grave is not the end. Love is eternal.* -# Action: Soul search - 11 # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 carbon keeper > -# iw: alula If Alula had approached him only a minute earlier, he surely would have snapped at her. He offers a weak smile back, taking a moment to gather himself. The moment is longer than he expects. He glances around at the frozen scene around him, as if it were just a memory. *Ah. Is that it? Time…* He lets everything resume around him, but he still hesitates when she asks if he wants to talk about it. Jakey barely knows her, but he still feels compelled to tell her everything that’s on his mind. Probably something about that round face. **“I don’t wanna talk,”** Jakey finally says. He motions towards the mural with a slight nod. **“But I can show you.”** Shadows creep towards the center of the room to recreate the scene. It was a celebration of Akari finishing her classic year and entering adulthood. Her debut, at four years old. Two horses, looking remarkably alike each other, dance in a silent waltz, big grins on their faces. As the younger one dressed in a rose garland prances about, different figures—horses and dogs—are pulled from the shadows, partners ebbing and flowing as she takes a moment to dance with everyone. Finally, she reaches Jakey’s shadow, who looks hesitant to join, but he is ultimately shoved into the circle with her. It’s a clumsy and improvised dance—he’s never been to a debut before, it wasn’t a thing in the north—but Akari loves it. She was happy. And it would be selfish of him if he wasn’t happy, too. The scene fades away, but Jakey’s conflicted heartache and regret still lingers in the air. He looks back to the little ashen prophet, sighing. **“Alula, my herd had every right to hate me after I’d abandoned them.”** Jakey murmurs. **“But they just… welcomed me back.”** He snorts at himself. God, what a ridiculous complaint. *Oh, my family loves me too much, my lobster is too buttery, my steak is too juicy.* He could imagine Zhenya chomping his ankles over it and telling him to shut up. **“Y’know, the Godling tried to show me that they’re all safe, the ones that disappeared, but… not everyone was there. My partner, my sister…”** He trails off, then shakes his head. **“I don’t know what to think of all of this. It feels like hell, sometimes. Punishment catching up to me.” -# Action: use Shadow Theater to show Alula (and anyone else watching) his memory of the mural, which is Akari’s big fourth birthday celebration # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: alula He looks at Alula with a slight fascination, her careful words reminding him of how Ser presented herself. Jakey knows he should thank her for the platitudes, but her emotional distance bothers him after laying himself so bare. **“You speak like a politician,”** Jakey murmurs, brows furrowing. He supposes that the role of a prophet is a bit similar. The trained and careful speech, the impersonal yet inspirational words. *God, she must be miserable*, he concludes. Jakey sighs softly. **“Thanks, though.”** # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: team, horoscopes He rolls his eyes at Ambrose’s comment, huffing as he walks forward into the room. His ears twist backwards when the constellations insist that the team won’t die, they’ll just get hurt. Jakey nods along to Diane’s instruction and is about to go and inspect one of the statues, but then he glances back at two terrified little cats, Alula and Horizon. He sighs. **“Alula, Horizon, you two can hop on my back if you’d like. You’ll have the high ground from there.”** Jakey murmurs, then kneels so that the two could climb on his saddle. He glances at the horoscopes, frowning. **“This is probably the worst way you can introduce self-defense, you know? Telling the kids that they’re gonna get hurt.”** He glances back at the young cats, drops his voice to a whisper. *“I won’t let them hurt you, okay?”* -# Action: offering a ride to Alula and Horizon, then scolding the horoscopes # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: @avalonwyte @corvidaecroupier **“You’re a big boy, Ambrose, you can protect yourself.”** Jakey says, deadpan. His voice softens, a bit too much emotion sneaking through his words. **“I’d just rather not see our smaller companions get hurt, y’know.”** He glances at Diane, ears flicking as she stomps her paw. It seems… rather puppy-like. Though she’s older, isn’t she? It strikes him as odd. **“You alright?”** # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: ambrose, false amaris, team as a whole (vaguely) @hades @pallastronomy Jakey startles slightly as he catches a glance of the leopard’s solid red eyes. He looks back at the cats on his back—he had promised to protect them, he shouldn’t charge into the fight. Even though he could probably crush the statue with ease. He rolls his eyes as it tosses pebbles around the room. That won’t work on him. He bares his teeth, annoyed at Ambrose’s monologue, then clicks his tongue. **”Don’t think we can talk this one out.”** Jakey huffs loudly, scraping a hoof across the stone floor, kicking up bits of his shadow and his grief from underneath him. **“Shut up and fight,”** he growls with a kick, and the dark specks shoot towards the statue like a swarm. -# Action: Magic attack (ACC: 20, DMG: 32) | Reaction: Block (DC: 17) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: false amaris The caterwauls and crashes pierce his ears, but Jakey doesn’t flinch. He’s gotten used to it by now. A shadow crawls its way onto his face, blocking his peripheral vision. Heart’s beating fast. Feels like he’s drowning, but he keeps his vision locked on the enemy. *Help him,* Diane wails. Jakey figures the best way to help Ambrose right now is to fight. He won’t *die*, after all, the constellations promised that much. Jakey huffs, drags his hoof against the stone again, locking eyes with the statue’s solid red. What a sad existence. A being made to be fought and killed. No fucking wonder it’s angry. This time, the shadow he kicks up materializes into two skewers, one for each eye. They frantically revolve around his hoof like a spinning top. With a stomp, he releases the shadows with a loud *CRACK*. -# Action: Magic attack, aiming for the eyes (ACC: 29, DMG: 24) | Reaction: Block (DC: 17) -# SHADOW BLINDERS Surge active due to FEAR, +4 DEX on action. # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: striga, false amaris Jakey looks around, trying to figure out who the now-crumpled statue is trying to address. *Just let me go*, it had cried, like a prisoner. There’s a sinking feeling as he realizes that perhaps this wasn’t a new life made to be a punching bag, but a repurposed one. He walks alongside Striga to inspect the downed being, his brows furrowing. Jakey turns to the masked lemur. **“…What’s the prognosis, doc?”** Then, he looks back to the statue—is it even a statue?—and briefly wonders if its stone skin and anger is a novel form of rage sickness. **“Fuck, who *were* you?”** Jakey murmurs, leaning down. He sighs. **“I’m sorry.”** -# Action: Believing the statue to be dead, Jakey activates REQUIEM - divine a dead or Afflicted character’s last conscious words # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: horizon, godling *She sent you to kill me, didn’t she?* When Jakey returns to himself, there is no doubt left in his mind. This used to be someone. He whips his head back to bark at the constellations about it, but to his surprise, Alula’s already on the case. *We didn’t know*, the little bee wails in horror. He snorts loudly and is about to stomp his hoof when he remembers the other little cat he’d vowed to protect. Jakey glances down at Horizon, barely visible behind his hoof’s shadow, but the shine of the little stone and fishing lure clues him in. His rage slips away for a moment, and Jake nods to them. **“Hey, you did good, kid.”** He wants to be angry, but he sees the crumpled being again, feels the wave of death slowly swallowing it. Jakey watches as Ambrose approaches and bows to it. It’s oddly familiar—he’d done the same when Pontia fell. Jakey nods, understanding. Just like how his soul had awoken twice, this poor being was killed twice. Sighing, he closes his eyes, trying to focus the little energy he had left to reach for the Godling. *Little god, this isn’t normal. Who was this poor soul?* -# Action: Attempt to call and ask the Godling who is this (WIS: nat 1…) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: atlas, neoma The silence is unnerving. Did the Godling hear him or is she refusing to answer? Is she also ignorant of the truth, like the horoscopes? Jakey feels it’s more likely that the little god is withholding certain things—she did tell everyone that Pontia was “just a whale”, after all. He walks towards the constellations, huddled together in the corner. **“Well, *we* didn’t die, like you promised, but…”** He trails off, glancing back at the rubble. **“That person’s already been killed before, I heard it. Assassinated, maybe, before they got transferred into that statue for us to fight. But I don’t think it wanted to, it sounded like…”** Jakey pauses, closing his eyes as he thinks. How should he word this? **“Like a… contractual obligation.”** He looks back towards Neoma, tilting his head slightly as his eyes adjust to focus on their small form. **“Does that sound like anyone you know?”** His tone is rather pointed. -# Action: pressing the constellations # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: neoma, atlas, alula Jakey sighs deeply. So the constellations were also lied to, or at least shielded from the entire truth. He wonders how the Godling benefits from that. Leverage? He looks to Neoma, peeking out from Atlas’s thick fur. He doesn’t say *it’s okay*, because it’s clearly not. And he doesn’t chastise them, because he took part in this without knowing the whole truth, too. The Godling hides her true form, some sort of lizard beast, so what’s stopping her from hiding everything else? **“Don’t apologize to me, I just want answers.”** Jakey murmurs as he walks with the group to the next room. The words come out a little sharp. He shakes his head and sighs again. **“I mean, your own trials. You had to kill to awaken your shadow and death powers? Like… equivalent exchange, since Ys’s domain is both life and death...”** He hums, wonders if he could get a hold of Ys somehow, like he could call the Godling. Well, Alula can, right? Being a prophet of Ys and all? **“Alula, do you think that—”** He glances at Alula, flicks his ears as her shadow scrapes along the stone, clearly seething. Jakey coughs. Probably not a good time. **“Uh, nevermind.”** …He shuffles toward the pedestal with the shadow of the rabbit and makes himself busy with inspecting it. -# Action: question constellations further and then inspect rabbit pedestal - INT: 19 # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: ambrose, diane So the Godling lied. Well, duh. He wonders again about her true form she had mentioned to him, a reptile of some sort. *I want so badly to be like you*, she had said. His mouth feels sour. Is she emulating the worst parts of him? His stubbornness, his sensitivity, his selfishness. Ambrose sneezes, pulling him out of his thoughts. Jakey snorts. **“Bless you, little prince,”** he says. He turns back to the shadowy rabbit as its little heartbeat echoes in his head. Jakey flicks his ears as he listens carefully to Diane’s words. He’s a bit curious at how nervous she now seems, especially as she was so fierce during the fight, but he shrugs it off—it’s her room, after all, it’s understandable to be nervous about the spotlight. **“I mean, I see an outline of a dog? And a palette of flowers over here. I suppose we’re to paint your portrait with the flowers.”** Jakey says, rather plainly. Everyone’s got organs and separate parts inside of them, so it doesn’t particularly strike him as odd. **“Do you see something I don’t? I mean, I am a bit colorblind.”** **“Tell me where I should put this.”** Jakey nods to Diane. He picks up a stem of the bleeding-hearts in his mouth, ready to place them wherever she instructs. -# Action: asking diane where to put the bleeding hearts # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: diane **“Hmm.”** Jakey flicks his ears, places the flowers back down on the floor again. **“Yeah, there’s a shadowy rabbit on top there. I can see it and I felt the heartbeat, if that means anything.”** He looks to Diane, frowning slightly at her odd words and frequent pauses. Was she injured? Concussed, maybe? He didn’t see if she was hurt by the previous room’s fight, and Striga, who was *actually* a doctor, didn’t seem too worried about her. Jakey didn’t know much about the large dog—she hardly shared anything about herself, which, y’know, fair enough—but knowing the previous rooms, perhaps she just feels anxious about suddenly being an open book. A book… Maybe it’d be easier for the dog to write down things if the room’s making her unable to speak. That’s what Cher does, right? Journaling and drawing and such, to let the thoughts out. He reaches back into one of his saddle bags, fishing for a few scraps of paper and a charcoal pencil. Somehow maneuvering the pencil in his mouth, he draws a precise diagram of what he currently sees in the room: three small pedestals with different flowers, one rabbit shadow, and a large pedestal with a fractured dog outline on the opposite side of the room. **“Here. This is what I’m seeing,”** Jakey gently pushes the paper and pencil towards the dog. **“Can you fill in the blanks here? If you see more than this, I mean.”** -# Action: Give Diane a diagram and a pencil # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: rabbit? Jakey tilts his head slightly as he processes Horizon’s words. It makes sense, sure, but Diane’s heavy stare back at the cat makes Jakey blink in surprise. Was Horizon not supposed to say that? He inspects Diane’s additions to the diagram, confirming what the little tabby had said. There were three shadows in total: a big cat, a badger, and the rabbit, each with labels. There was also a little note scribbled on the margin. But he couldn’t read it. It was an unfamiliar script, not in the usual common runes. But… it’s embarrassing to not know how to read, and maybe it’s just sloppy cursive, so he takes his best guess. **“Rabbit goes to the chest.”** Jakey says, very confidently. He did hear the heartbeat, after all, it’d make sense. The other shadows… well, he couldn’t see them, so that’s not on him. He trots back to the shadow rabbit then noses gently at it, his own swirling shadows trying to persuade it. **“Um, go over there, please, to the heart.”** -# Action: Try and convince the rabbit to go in the chest section of the outline (DEX: 11) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Godling? Jakey has to duck the entire way through the low tunnel, cursing Gaius mildly about the sharp crystals scraping against his hide. At least at the end of this, he’ll get to talk with the Godling again and pry the whole truth out of her. He cranes his neck over the basin and he wishes he was more shocked at the creature before him. *Like a reptile*, the little god had told him when he’d asked what she truly looked like, fear in her voice. **“Shit, it’s her.”** Jakey mutters. He carefully steps to the edge of the ooze shoreline and calls out to her. **“Hey, little god, can you hear me? You alright?”** *Tell me who did this*, he thinks, bowing his head to try and reach her mind. Though he doesn’t exactly trust her, she also doesn’t deserve to die alone. -# Action: Reaching out to the Godling (WIS: 9) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Gaius? *What the hell?* Jakey looks around for the source of the strange voice, but only sees Cher and Pam beside him. They both seem… different, somehow, from the last time he’s seen them (probably the same different as he is, now), but it didn’t feel too appropriate to comment on that. He clenches his jaw, unsure. Was this another test? Jakey closes his eyes again, focusing. If this beast isn’t the Godling, then is this some other dying god, like Pontia? Was this the real goal of Mirrormoon, to destroy the old pantheon and make way for them? Jakey feels sick, hearing those words in his mind again. *She sent you to kill me, didn’t she?* He feels the hairs on his neck bristle, his anger building again at these developments. Jakey bows his head. If he hears those words again, he’ll know for sure. He steps beside Alula, head bowed in (annoyed) prayer. -# Action: Activate REQUIEM - divine a dead or Afflicted character’s last conscious words # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Alula Jakey nods at the little prophet’s assessment. So this is Gaius, slowly dying, and someone (the Godling?) wanted him dead. Someone wanted him *extra* dead, considering that they’d put parts of him in the training dummy for them to destroy. **“The statue, it had the same last words as Gaius.”** Jakey murmurs, brows furrowing. *The Godling made us kill Gaius*, he wants to say, but he’s not exactly sure that’s what all of this means. It seems too crazy, but again, he *did* put Pontia to rest. Is killing a god such a stretch? **“And with Pontia dead and Gaius dying…”** He trails off. Jakey looks towards the dying god’s empty ribcage, then back at Alula. He can’t quite bring himself to tell her that her god’s probably up next on the chopping block, if Ys isn’t dead already. He clears his throat, thinking of something more civil to say to the prophet. **“…Have you heard from Ys recently?”** # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Alula, Horizon, mysterious voice? Jakey doesn’t respond to Alula right away. She now sounded like a proselytizing preacher, like the ones crying about the end of days in the city markets. He supposes that they were right, though. **“We’re… replacing them as gods. If Ys is reborn, they’ll probably be born as one of your followers in the new world.”** Jakey says, quietly. He looks down at his hoof as he feels Horizon’s fur brush against it, offers them a weak smile in acknowledgment. **“Or yours.”** *Probably not mine,* he thinks, *I’ve cursed all the gods too much for them to still like me.* Jakey closes his eyes in deep thought. If the Godling hadn’t found him, time would’ve taken him. And now, he can control that time, along with shadow and death. So, what, he’ll be the God of Regret and Remorse? He wishes he could talk to the Godling again. Or that other voice else that picked up the phone when he called for her. Do they have answers? -# Action: Reaching out to that strange new voice (WIS: 19) # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Ambrose, Striga, Alula > -# m: Cher, Pam **“Ah, I’m not fit to have followers or worshippers, Ambrose, I’m not as pretty as you are.”** Jakey responds, rather deadpan as he flicks his mane from his eyes. It’s probably not the time to explain how he thinks he doesn’t deserve the status of a god. At best, people might see him as a god to fear or protect themselves from. He hums at Alula’s response. Sure, maybe not exactly *replacing*, but it seemed like a reasonable leap in logic, considering all the talk about the end of this cycle and becoming new gods and making a new world. **“I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that Gaius was *murdered*. Just look at that wound. Not naming names, but someone ripped his heart out.”** And, now confident that Ambrose would agree, he continues. **“His heart was put into the statue, they made us kill it, and those shards had the same last memories as the body when I looked within. I got… powers of death and time, after all.”** Jakey watches Striga’s little projectile as it flies towards the dying god, does nothing to stop it. He sighs at their words. **“We don’t even *know* the Godling’s… Polaris’s plan. Even Atlas and Neoma don’t know it. Maybe it’s already turned to shit.”** He laughs, rather darkly. More profanity slips through as his thoughts fall off his tongue. **“We don’t even know her actual name, for fuck’s sake. I called her Kari, you call her Polaris, Cher calls her Claire. Who the fuck is she, really?”** He shakes his head, then casts an apologetic glance at Horizon for swearing so much in front of them. He was doing so well until then. His crow companion, still nameless, flutters out of his saddlebag and hops on his head. *She’s probably looking for her creator*, Jakey thinks, flicking his ears as he glances around for the little mouse. # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: Alula > -# m: Ambrose, Cher, Horizon Jakey doesn’t respond to the cryptic voice, but it seems to confirm what he’d long suspected—there are even higher beings, the Godling is a demiurge, and perhaps she’s not truly capable of ending the violent cycle of the world. Maybe this is all just for some sick entertainment. Rather than feeling smug about piecing together the puzzle, Jakey feels even more frustrated at himself as Ambrose adds on to his argument. Why the hell did he swallow that star? Why did he answer the Godling’s call? *Why the fuck won’t she answer?* When Cher whispers a mild agreement, he turns to her, eyes growing wider as she speaks of Gaius abandoning his mate, of the Godling clutching his heart between her teeth. It takes all his strength to not fall to his knees as a wave of guilt crashes into him. Is what he did as bad? He hurt Hans, left in a panic, and then they had Akari in his absence. Does Akari hold that same anger, the same grief? Does Hans? They both had every right to hate him, to want to rip his heart out after he showed up again and begged for forgiveness. He doesn’t deserve to be a god. *Why the fuck did she choose me, then?* Jakey’s chest aches and he feels like he’s about to stumble when a shrill shriek snaps him to attention. Out of habit, he starts, **“Horizon—”** But he’s shocked to see the little prophet instead. She’s glaring right at him and accusing him of being heartless, just like the dying beast in front of them. **“Alula.”** He says, voice wavering. **“Can’t you see *this* is exactly how she’s fixing the world?”** *We’re in hell.* # 🎠 JAKEY > -# he/him // 14 yrs // horse (large) // 60/60 hp > -# lvl 3 :class_black: carbon keeper > -# iw: the mysterious voice? He takes a deep breath. Well, if Cher could see that scene of the Godling ripping out Gaius’s heart using that shard, could he… turn the clock back even further? Jakey kneels down and rests on the cold stone floor. This whole circus is to end the cycle, so it only makes sense to get a grasp on the whole thing. *Alright, who the hell started it?* -# Action: Look back in time (NAT 20 - Use Rigged Die)