[OPEN] fastforwarded to december 1. open house!!

[overstrain]

[ On December 1st, Hirajiro's residential district goes through a minor change, which is having Terry's two-story house appear right next to the Black Cat house. With Orien's help, Terry bought the land that the house sits on. Anyway, the house has two floors. The entire first floor has a living room, kitchen, and a bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower. When you climb up the stairs, you'll reach the second floor, which has four bedrooms with a bathroom connecting two bedrooms together. The bathrooms can be locked from the inside only. There is no master bedroom nor bathroom in this house. One of the rooms are soundproof, but Terry is not telling anyone which one it is. You'll have to find that out for yourself. AC and heater are fully functional.

Terry sent out a message to all the Guests. For those who don't have phones, Orien personally delivered the message to those people himself. The message is as follows:

We solved the housing situation. Terry will not ask anyone to pay rent, but the house isn't furnished at all except for a refrigerator and a fireplace. You'll have to buy supplies and furniture on your own. There are several conditions you need to accept if you choose to live here:

1) Please do not destroy the house or cause property damage. If you do, you're paying for the damages.
2) Clean up after yourselves. A clean house means no bugs and good standard of living.
3) Do not steal/take anything from the Black Cat house. (this needs to be mentioned because he had several door stealing incidents)

The address/general directions to the location has been mentioned, which is basically next door to the Black Cat house.

Feel free to make your own top levels and stuff. ]

Comments

[cicadashell]

[Jiro doesn't recognize him as any of the kids in that classroom, but he hadn't really taken a good look.]

Did he die too, then?

[He's starting to wonder if everyone died; and that's the commonality between them all coming here.]

[reveilation]

[ She wouldn't have been able to answer before, but she knows now who survived and who didn't. ]

He made it out alive. Out of the nine of us, six died, and three made it out. That's honestly more than what I'd thought it would be.

[cicadashell]

[Theory debunked. He wants to say something like "I'm glad you get to see him again", but there are other people in the house.]

I'll keep an eye on him.

[Which means nothing, since he's only proven himself to be relatively useless so far.]

[reveilation]

[ He can still say it, and people keeping an eye on Seto is something Kido still appreciates, no matter how good they are at that sort of thing. ]

He's reasonable and level headed, so he shouldn't be too much trouble. Just, uh... don't think too much about it if you see his eyes turning red or he's out there talking to animals. He likes them.

[cicadashell]

Like yours?

[Did Kido and Seto get some kind of eye powers from the same thing?]

Can he actually communicate with the animals?

[Because that's another thing that's started working for Jiro again, and it would be interesting.]

[reveilation]

Yeah, the same way mine turns red. Seto can understand animals, but it's doesn't work the other way around. He can talk back all he wants, but if the animal doesn't understand human speech, then it's not much of a conversation.

[ She shrugs, because he seems to get along with them well enough anyways. There's a little more to his ability, but she'll let Seto tell Jiro that, since it's like Terry's pinpointing thing where people are automatically defensive about having their mind read. ]

[cicadashell]

They understand me. Animals.

[He's talking more about himself than he has since he's been here, but it's still impersonal for the most part. Facts. People might as well know since he'd told at least Rei and 45 when they were... children. Ugh. That day.]

I hadn't been able to do it here, but it's working again now.

[Seto showing up around the same time with similar abilities is probably a coincidence, but maybe not.]

We should interrogate the crows.

[reveilation]

[ Kid day was fake. She didn't beat Jiro up and then started crying so hard that he ditched her. That didn't happen. ]

Oh, so you're like Seto, but better.

[ Sorry, Seto. ]

I think it'd be worth giving it a try, and hopefully they aren't sort of... off... in the way some of the people around town are. You know how they sort of brush things off and avoid certain topics. What should we ask the crows?

[cicadashell]

So it's not just me. You can't fucking talk to anyone in town. It's like they don't even listen to you half the time.

[His conversations with crows usually involved bribing them with food.]

I dunno about the crows yet. If they're working for the Kotengu, bringing things from the shrine wishes or whatever, they might relay anything we ask if it isn't already watching everything.

[They need more of a plan than Jiro's usual "just ask the question directly".]

[reveilation]

[ Yeah, people are frustrating. Kido only really gets along with two elementary school kids, and it seems like in general, the kids are more receptive to talking than the adults. ]

We can hope the crows are chatty and tell us stuff without asking too much... Would it be that bad if the Kotengu knows we're asking about him? He's got to know we'd ask as soon as you have that power back, and he's the one who was holding it.

[cicadashell]

[He didn't think about. The Kotengu controls everything; it can probably read their minds. The direct route might be best after all.]

We can use the crows as messengers and talk to the Kotengu. You're right, there has to be a reason he gave it back...

[Unless he just wants to prevent the next bear attack with diplomacy.]

[reveilation]

[ It can probably read their minds. It can absolutely take away memories, with several known cases already. All of this is really unnerving to realize. ]

Right. We heard the Daitengu's side of things, but not the Kotengu's. We're already fighting on his side, sort of... We could try negotiating again...?

[ It didn't go so well last time, but maybe it's different now. ]

We can use the ofudas as leverage, since he'll need it to open the door.

[ And not all of them wants to go home. It's a very selfish hostage. ]

[cicadashell]

[Jiro's now on the fence about going home himself. Rago's here, and that was his only reason for being so adamant about going back; to save someone who doesn't need saving anymore.]

Might as well. We can't just trust the Daitengu's take on things, you're right.

[reveilation]

[ Kido keeps flip flopping for one reason or another, depending on how she died and who's left, and Seto being here and telling her she's not gone despite being dead back home makes a mess of everything. She won't decide until it's time to leave, one way or another. ]

What do you think is the best way to communicate to the Kotengu? Either we write a note and have a crow deliver it, hoping the Kotengu can... read and write back, or tell the crow his answer, and we be pen pals with him. Or talk to the crows directly, and use them as messengers, hoping nothing gets lost in translation?

[cicadashell]

[All of those suggestions sound like there will be complications, and Jiro's irritated just thinking about it.]

Do you think the Kotengu would talk to us directly? Ask a crow where he is and how to get an audience.

[The Kotengu may not have a physical form at this point if he's spread out between the dungeons or however that answer went.]

[reveilation]

[ There's always complications for everything no matter what, and it's best to be aware of them upfront. ]

Honestly... I don't think so. On one hand, he's weakened right now and he might not trust us to see him, where we can kill him right then and there. We need the ofudas to open the door, not him. On the other hand, as long as the Daitengus are alive, they probably wouldn't let us see him either, because they think we're idiots who might set him loose somehow.

[ There's also the possibility of the Kotengu not having a physical form, yeah. ]

[cicadashell]

[There's too many variables.]

So we're back to waiting until the next Daitengu shows up, killing it, and going form there - and maybe getting some information from the crows.

[A big maybe.]

[reveilation]

Yeah.

[ Maybe. ]

We should try talking with the crows before then anyways, since there's no point waiting around. We can start off with things like... the fourth Daitengu's weaknesses or something. The Kotengu probably knows and will help with that, and we can start off on his good side.

[cicadashell]

You can get a list of questions from everybody and I'll ask them.

[He'd rather talk to the crows than everyone else.]

[reveilation]

[ Why her... But she looks at Jiro and she gets why it's her and not him. ]

Alright. I guess we might as well call a meeting while everybody's here.