Demian

unfortunately, he wasn’t.

"enough," demian replied, still. he was liken to play the scenario by ear, and had thought of his compadre the same. there was time to regurgitate the details on the way there, he decided, if need be. "though my lot is about two players in particular. if there were more — well. i'm not entirely responsible to be accountable for them."

his eyes flicked over to ikeno.

"we should still be helping them, however." 

demian hadn’t missed a beat.

he kept close to the player, two faune unremarkable that joined the tide of others easing into the gardens. there was a line. two guards — one fae, one faune — had scanned their invitations for access to the ball. demian might’ve held a breath, anticipating a hiccup from the player-forged note to be detected by cardinal. he was surprised when they were permitted entrance without a hitch.

if ikeno had trailed behind, demian waited for him at reception a few steps away from the chokepoint; now he was one of the frivolous attendees idling in wait for their cliques. they were gathered in the front yard of a manor that loomed ahead, hollowed out of a large tree. there were partygoers whom trickled past him, ambling, however animated or stoically, down a rock path towards a set of open doors. there were greeters within, attendants in suits carrying refreshments for the masses. their hosts seemed to consist of a mix of the two races found in flora. nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

demian skipped back to ikeno’s side once they were past security.

"last someone i knew checked, their names weren't on the monument,” he recalled. he wasn’t sure how much he should be trusting information passed over multiple people. a potential game of telephone; demian rather they get the details straight by seeing the truth for themselves. “so i'd reason that they're more likely stuck here than not. best get them out before they get themselves killed, however. how cardinal decided to rehaul the third into a floor brimming with malice, i could hardly imagine."

the man quietened just in time as they passed a set of fae, chins raised, striding to greet another pair of their kin. he watched the exchange: a brief moment for traded words, and then a hug between two of the men. against the backdrop of faune in distinctively scarce clothing, the attire of the ex-court members of gilded silks stood out. demian glanced to ikeno — had he noticed the difference, too? — before scanning the crowd to gauge the intensity of the divide between the two races.

in the back of his mind, he contrasted it against the gap towards ikeno, standing next to him.

thread closing.

NIGHT

+ 6764 xp | (470 * 16 * 0.7) + 1500
+ 2514 col | (xp * 0.15) + 1500

DEMIAN

+ 2487 xp | (470 * 3 * 0.7) + 1500
+ 1900 col | 1500 + 400

“why does it rhyme?” night queried aloud. demian but rolled the answer in place, jiggling at the padlock and hoping it would give. it wouldn’t. given the lack of their final number, all he had to do was run through the digits from 1 to 9 until it would give way.

the entire time, night had murmured the riddle under her breath. twice, and he had made it to ‘4’. no luck. on ‘5’ —

“i’ve got it.”

demian moved aside, handing her the lock as she drew in close. he hadn’t seen her answer, but he must’ve been close, he figured, if night had taken only seconds to get the hatch open. the woman stored the lock in her pocket, and gave the handle a tug. nothing. too heavy? she was supposed to be stronger than most.

“move over,” he ordered, as he realized she was just unfamiliar with how to pry it open. one forceful pull in the right direction was all demian needed. they peered into the hole together.

there was a faint glow radiating from within.

“so about earlier…”

he had stopped. then, he kept climbing.

“what about earlier?”

“the man — er, creature, we fought. what do you think that was?”

bile filled his mouth. the grip around his neck tightened.

“does it matter? … it’s just an enemy.”

“cardinal has done many things in creating its enemies,” night said, and demian could feel her glare upon his figure, “but none, so far, like that.”

“what’s so different about it then?”

“it swapped me,” she continued. “my consciousness, to where it was.”

demian stopped again.

“no enemy’s ever done that before.”

“cardinal’s got new tricks,” he thought to try.

“you don’t always have that look in your eyes,” the player returned instead. “that killing intent. in every other scenario, you’ve always been calm. so this—”

“—how would you know?”

silence fell between them.

demian whirled around.

“how would you know what i’m like in battle? … you’ve never seen me try.”

just once, they’d quested together. an accident, their incident. night carried that ferocity in her eyes more than he did, one that spoke of life and light; he was just an agent asleep at the wheel. she was the one to pick the fight first.

night’s visage when he turned around was one of perplexity, confusion, surprise. night was easy to read. but it was just as their mutual would have said —

“would day know?”

— she was one to surprise them.

“no,” he said, turning around slowly to continue their ascent. “no, she doesn’t.”

but he couldn’t help but feel as though she was trying to make a very important point.

he gave her no reply after that. perhaps the one he was working on – which seemed like a prose – would prove to be of more help. he checked off the letters as he guessed at the probability of each word that could appear within the fields. and at the end —

“ah…!”

he turned his head to the side. towards night, what he saw was a puzzle completed, the empty gaps scratched in with a makeshift number, and the result was…

“demian,” she started, the expression on her face deadpanned, “i don’t think this is a picture.”

“so it isn’t,” he conceded. and yet he jotted down her results on the collective page of answers for prosperity’s sake. in the interim, night had been checking the sketchbook for additional puzzles incomplete for further assistance — there were none.

“don’t tell me that’s how you concluded that there was a combination lock.”

demian offered her a look at his own conclusions. he was partway done. “are you up to helping me work through this one?”

“a nonogram,” he stated, pulling himself away from his instructional guesses. he had in mind to have a duplicate of the puzzle, undone, stored in his memory just in case his theory for tackling it would fail, but beyond that, he looked over to night’s puzzle. the expression on her face told him she had no idea completely what they were trying to achieve. “the numbers on both the rows and columns indicate filled spaces that exist in the corresponding tiles. it’s usually a picture of some sort.”

he hadn’t checked the other pages of the sketchbook, but it made sense that other examples appeared once night flipped through them, noting the different iconography that existed out of the other puzzles that went solved. she hummed in understanding. “like sudoku.”

“like sudoku,” demian nodded.

“i was never any good at those,” night admitted, and yet she still put her pencil to work.

he stayed not in the bedroom. the moment he had regathered himself, he took towards the living room; they had passed through here moments prior, not giving it a second look. perhaps, if night had taken to the other halls, then he should put himself to work here as well.

he took the notepad with him, alongside its pencil. couched the latter upon his ear as he circled the room. the time was fixed at an odd hour; he had figured it meant the evening, but the passage of time lacking in the lighthouse was something worth investigating. demian jotted it down on the open page; if he had time, he’d better move ahead to dismantle it later.

there were the other ornaments in the room he busied himself with, hoping something would catch his eye. demian snarled, shutting the lid of the music box after prying it open, finding it a taunting creation of their jailor. then his gaze drifted over to the nonogram.

bingo.

she had, at least, waited until he was done with his own cipher, before asking a question. “so what did you find out?”

he looked over his own clues — the first word had been rainbow. the next few, a similar nature, and he compared his list with the one he drafted from night’s recipe book. he noticed the pattern.

“is there a combination lock anywhere?”

“huh?” night faltered outside of his vision. “a combination lock. like one that uses numbers?”

“and bring me any other puzzles you find,” he added, cutting off night’s train of thought. demian felt her burning stare leave his back as he heard the player shuffle around to leave. he glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was gone, before pulling up his inbox, his forehead pressed against his fingers. he had day’s messages pulled up. reticent; they both were.

“what else has cardinal been keeping from us, do you figure…?”

he didn’t really need a fire.

still, the bedroom was a decent guess as to where a hearth might be located. he trundled into the room after knocking upon the door twice, hearing silence, and then turning the knob, tentative. every so often, he guessed that there would be some horror, akin to what had happened to the blossoming man, awaiting him behind one of these turns, his vision momentarily obscured.

there was nothing in the bedroom, only all manners of children’s toys, and he thumbed over the petal of the dried flower as he took his time, scanning the room for clues. ‘not here’ was all he was familiar with; the puzzle amongst the mess was a surprise.

he hadn’t the opportunity to decipher the jumble of letters at the side; his eyes were drawn instead to the shades of grey, highlighting letters in an odd repetitive trio. he counted them, inscribing words onto the paper with the use of the available pencil, and was only interrupted rudely by—

any discomfort, he pushed out of his mind.

the objective had them looking for the keeper of the lighthouse. one person amidst the entire tower. there was nowhere else to go, so he thought, though he couldn’t keep the feeling of something amiss out of his thoughts. the only way they could go around the building was up.

so he shrug off his coat and left it up to dry. took night’s offer of a towel refreshed from cardinal’s hold – (“it’s dry now.” / “thanks.”) — and brushed at his hair, eyeing the corners of the entrance hall, before he meant to drag them around the home.

“hold on,” he murmured, just as night was beginning to rise from her spot on the ground. he paced towards the coatrack. his jacket was paired with another. demian took it down for inspection, quiet, even after night’s hum prompting an explanation; he decided to wear it, the dark dusty overcoat hugging him tight.

as he did so, he wondered if he had imagined the harsh coil of fingers around his throat.

Demian | L30. | HP: 600/600 | EN: 93/93 | DMG: 19 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | MIT: 81 | BH: 30 | LD: 1 | AA Spoiler equipped sword. ACC III, ABS. ACC armor. MIT III (36) phantom. EVA III br-inventory Teleport Crystal (1) Ordsea Crystal-B | FREE ACTION: +5 HATE/THREAD Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY skills Spoiler mods: 2/5 STRAIGHT SWORD R5 aoe-shift. stamina, precision, ferocity COMBAT MASTERY DMG R3 QUICK CHANGE ENERGIST BATTLE HEALING R5 emergency recovery HOWL focused howl SEARCHING R1 extra skills: PARRY justified riposte data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== buffs Spoiler Divinity's Wait (1) | TIER 3 | MIT III data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== sword arts Spoiler ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x15 -> x18 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-F | x8 | AOE STUN  data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==

rough waves carried them over the sea towards the lighthouse; the trip was nothing short of a bumpy ride. despite demian’s expertise, summoned forth from a well of secrets within, their brush against the shore was amidst great effort, for one wrong breach upon the coast at the wrong velocity could send them crashing into the lighthouse itself. he’d suffered from a sea sickness thereafter. wasn’t even aware he could experience such cruelty of the system. whatever he could not expel from within him was only left with him as he gasped on salty chilled air, a hand clenched over his chest, body bent over their bow.

night was the one to stir first from the brine-ridden floorboards, a temple clenched in her hand, the other upon the rails for support. she trudged past the man, a miracle she hadn’t collapsed on her way down the stairs, tracksuit but soaked through from the storm. it was a danger, however precedented, that demian hadn’t accounted for nor considered in earnest, yet he watched the player wander in through the door, giddy and ill, and waited for his figure to cease its protesting. ‘five more minutes’, he supposed, eying the flashes of lighting in the distance.

his blade came down heavy, slicing the creature down the pupil, splitting it in two. gently, its petals unfurled, and the form of the thing slunk down onto the boards. where he could see its health bar, demian registered it as empty.

behind him, night had collapsed.

almost immediately, he sunk the tip of his blade into the floor and wheeled around. he’d kept his word, hadn’t he? and she could keep up with day. he was sure she wouldn’t have had a matter with this, beyond the consequential existential terror, but what about her player?

it was impossible for night to have understood their issues, wasn’t it? where was that ‘strong will’? that ‘tenacity against all odds’ that day decided to follow? when demian rushed over to her side, picking the player up, he didn’t see any of it. he kept her form raised, head resting on his lap as he got on a knee. thought to take one of bistro’s antidotes out — maybe, despite all the lack of uses they had been prior, they would find a purpose now.

but night woke up on her own, slowly. when her eyes had locked with his, she’d pushed him away, harder than he’d expected.

demian fell on his back, and night clambered to her feet, all nerves.

“demian,” she whispered, her voice a strained hiss laced with fear. there was a pause in her words, long enough for him to get back on his own two feet, too. her gaze was settled upon where the abomination had died — he turned to look, too.

no fragments.

there had been an unexpected residue.

“what the fuck was that?”

demian had only begun to take his first few steps out of his recovery before there was a different scream that stole away from his inward focus.

“—night!”

the man near collapsed a stack of sandbags as he pushed forward to find the player. it had been her voice, hadn’t it, that distress call? to know, upon his re-entry to their exchange that the tides had shifted so much, had concerned him greatly — because despite the large gap between their positions, night was seen clutching her head, too. demian thought that for once, these strange effects, nuisances, hadn’t been targeted solely towards himself. but what was of greater trepidation was the way the thing was still present, having fallen onto its hind in the teeter of his scurry.

he’d already known since prior it was the source of his headaches in the village.

demian, in realizing the danger laid more in the flight of their opponent causing more headaches for any other player that would show, but pulled his own blade from the ether. he followed the trail of blue blood, crossed the monster’s boundary, and stopped before this thing that was of them, of humans, that should’ve been of them but wasn’t.

this was why day had sent him, he thought. seeing it writhe before him, demian was reminded of his own gemini, the entity that begged for mercy. distraught, pity welled up in his heart like the bloom upon their sacrifice’s head.

cardinal had made it, to repulse and to die.

understanding the creature before him of unintention — no, ill-intention, he too had a duty to put the abomination out of its own misery.

so he raised his sword high and felled it.

the creature had shuddered upon stumbling forward, registering its miss. and night wasn’t saying anything. rather, she quickly drew a sword the moment the — the thing — came rushing forward, and night swung her sword, and she hit it hard.

just not enough to take it down.

demian only registered this by the sounds occurring above his vision. there was this overwhelming feeling — unease, terror, a choking feeling that had him set a hand to the floor to hold himself up. all at once, it was as though his instincts were telling him to LEAVE. IMMEDIATELY.

the eye he’d hid underneath his eyepatch had felt like it was searing.

his panic was only rivalled by that of the other, their opponent, who’d started to move erratically; demian had noted it deviate from the defensive after it had been threatened. and yet, even in his calmness, derived from all he could read from their situation, their surroundings, he still shook. practiced, heavy gasps were all he could afford and still, still they weren’t helping.

no. no, he’d been alive for too long to know the human condition wasn’t made like this.

demian steeled himself, and counted the seconds. this feeling, being out of his skin, would pass. he clung on to that certainty for his dear life.

he held his breath on the fifth.

the presence was definitely tangible, now. that damned buzzing wouldn’t stop, and it was as though he could hear his heart beat loud in his ears. artificial. demian’s gaze first settled on the layout of the room before he saw the entity they’d been chasing — and the moment he’d saw it, it squeaked, backing up. it threw the makeshift barricades of the room into a mess.

he held his head in a shot of pain; this time, it was more manageable than the last.

night pointed past him. “it slipped through to the back!”

so demian cleared the way gingerly, pushing aside what clutter had been blocking a path. when he was certain he could make it to their mark, he charged forth, hurried steps set through certainty towards their target.

he knew the entity would start to shift away as soon as he got close. behind the obstacles, it stuck out a boot, and the trail of silken pants white. demian moved faster, hands reaching out to grab them — his fingers, fortunate, gripped around the collar of the human. he pulled them back.

there was a shriek, and the man braced himself for the echoed shocks that were to pulse through him. he could take them in stride — but what sent him reeling backwards wasn’t the pain.

it was the abomination he’d caught and revealed.

when he arrived at the clocktower’s doorstep, there was a bright blue puddle on the road by the front, the only saturated color against the dark and dull around them. a dry liquid in the same hue coated the wood of the door. that wasn’t for him to notice — his tell was the sounds of adjunct chaos coming up from above, the scampering sound accompanied by clicks and squeaks.

nonetheless, he barged through, the door giving way to his shoulder. demian collapsed as that shriek came through again; this time, it was louder.

they were on the right track then.

he had a hand set to his temple, beating out the sharp ringing that accompanied the shriek’s tail end just as night arrived in time, seeing him clamber to his feet. ahead of them was a narrow corridor, at the end of which was a set of stairs. the trail from the puddle outside seemed to lead them within.

a one way warning. whatever was within hadn’t backed out.

with the way demian’s frame had blocked off the tower’s entrance, he could only take the lead. night followed after, reluctantly, barking her complaints towards him. “if you mean it’s not a good idea to split up in the first place, then don’t run off like that!”

demian spared night not a glance. “you can keep up with day, can’t you?” he pointed towards the stairs with his thumb and index extended.

“besides, i think there’s only one source of danger here.”

closer to the docks, there was no one there.

…

no. there was definitely someone there, demian had thought. on their walk through the settlement, the village had seemed completely still. and yet, he’d imagined there was a louder shrill that sought to pierce his earbuds through the dampeners, now. something present that was watching their every move. just as night was about to take a turn towards what he believed would lead them closer to their objective, he stopped her.

“do you hear that?” he had asked.

“hear what?”

so she didn’t. but he wasn’t certain he was wrong about that mysterious presence. there had been nothing expected, written in the fabric of reality. so demian lazily swept his gaze upon the alleyways between the buildings, hoping night would do the same.

“ah—!”

when she did, he shot a look in her direction. a trail of something blue, and a wrongness that accompanied it nearby. he could feel it where the heart was meant to be, he thought, and at its introduction there came that shriek again, almost headache inducing. he’d nearly fallen to his knees at the sound.

“—demian?”

while he wasn’t actively aware, night’s footsteps had started, and then slowed to a stop. demian groaned, quiet, and shook off the sudden dizziness with the snap of his head. his hand went to his head. “i’m fine,” he decided.

demian picked himself off the ground, starting to run after their target, head low. he noticed, darting fast, night resuming her paces after making sure he was up and moving again.

so much for upholding day’s wish, he thought.

he watched night listless, and then watched her fold herself back into her regular composure. at every turn, knowing it was an unspoken wish of their shared associate, he’d looked at night through her eyes. came to the same conclusions that she did, even if the results hadn’t changed his mind any.

in every other version of this scenario occurring, he would’ve said this:

“look,” he started again, shifting. “as difficult as it is to believe, we both have reasons why we don’t want this secret to be out in public. between the two of us, there is an information broker that we are both acquainted with. had either of us the inclination, she would have already known.” 

night squinted at him through the gales.

“and whether bistro knows she’s connected to two separate individuals sitting on one of the bigger secrets of cardinal at the moment is a topic of discussion about irony in of itself,” said demian, with a wave of his hand. “but i digress. on this basis, i will not budge. day simply wants me to take her place in this particular situation alone.”

the player’s gaze drifted to the floor. 

“and as for why…”

demian tucked his hands into his coat and turned to the sky, eyes closed. he took in the chill of the void. in that silence, it was almost as though he could read her mind. 

“... we shall find that out together.”

ID242518 | ld2+5 = 7 | astragalus anathema is running.
ID242517 | ld6+1 = 7 | demian caught him.

he hated playing with these cards. night wouldn’t look at him in the face.

“we’re going to have to operate with a level of trust here if we want to do this together,” he prefaced. “she didn’t tell me anything. just told me to be here for you in her stead.” his gaze swept the empty, the derelict, despondent afterlands, and he decided to feign insight. “she trusts me with her secret.” 

demian hesitated, wondering if he should’ve mentioned the player’s own.

“i just connected the dots.”

the icy glare shot his way all but confirmed night’s grief between her and himself. she dropped him immediately, walking off — anyone else might’ve fretted. demian hadn’t shifted, and he could see that she was pacing her anger off in circles. 

this was a new side to the subject oft of mention.

“she didn’t tell me,” was a half-gutted sentiment growled out of the would-be predator, untamed, unleashed.

demian cast his gaze aside, hands returning to his pockets. found some solace in the knowledge that he was used to this. “she hadn’t the chance. i’m just too good a guesser.”

night stopped and threatened him with a look.

“she trusts you.”

he but raised a shoulder, neutral. 

“only in so far as to protect you when she can’t.”

ID242515 | ld4+1 | -> n/a.

she turned to stare at him, his silhouette shadowed through the fog. for a moment, he pulled out something lodged in his ear — a flood of noise but poured forth and flooded his senses when he did. scrambling his capabilities for a response. he plugged it back in, knowing not what was the result of it, simply that he needed it.

when he was ready, demian shambled forth like a ghost, a zombie, shooting night that half-lidded stare she was used to fronting, too. but that didn’t stop the player from grabbing the collar of his coat, thickened to ward against the haunting front, and she teetered on her toes, trying to gain ground to pose a threatening figure up against his face.

“what did she say.”

was that a snarl?

“what did she tell you?”

the man pulled his hands from his pockets to try and wrestle himself free from her grasp. but he was gentle about it, and it seemed that his tugs wouldn’t force night to stop questioning him. demian but sighed at the result. day had given him orders and he had obliged willingly, sure. but could he really trust her player this much?

Demian | L30. | HP: 600/600 | EN: 93/93 | DMG: 19 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 3 | MIT: 81 | BH: 30 | LD: 1 | AA Spoiler equipped sword. ACC III, ABS. ACC armor. MIT III (36) phantom. EVA III br-inventory Teleport Crystal (1) Ordsea Crystal-B | FREE ACTION: +5 HATE/THREAD Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY Fruit Juice (5) | [23/10/20] +10% HP RECOVERY skills Spoiler mods: 2/5 STRAIGHT SWORD R5 aoe-shift. stamina, precision, ferocity COMBAT MASTERY DMG R3 QUICK CHANGE ENERGIST BATTLE HEALING R5 emergency recovery HOWL focused howl SEARCHING R1 extra skills: PARRY justified riposte data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== buffs Spoiler Divinity's Wait (1) | TIER 3 | MIT III data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== sword arts Spoiler ST | x12 -> x15 | x20 AOE | x15 -> x18 TECH-A | x12 | STUN | 13EN TECH-B | x12 | DELAY TECH-F | x8 | AOE STUN  data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==

they often talked, and then went on their separate ways.

the day callisto had been slain, it had been no different. it was only a matter of time to the constructs to realize when the new floor was open, and that would signal the 'retainer's' return home. in the meanwhile, they had been playing cards. 'cheat' was the multifaceted game they'd both agreed upon playing, for neither had a mechanical advantage over the other. that made every theoretically psychological move a coin flip at best: and the odds showed themselves in their scores.

they were both counting. their win counts evened out over time.

being calm was usually their defacto facade. but on one of his turns, demian had noticed a shift in his opponent's eyes as the notification registered for him at the same time it did for her. it was business as usual for the man, a simple note that they could easily shrug off.

day, however, had her gaze scattered about the drink by her side.

"nines," he'd said, taking advantage of her distractedness. it had been a test, at that point -- it was obvious he had put down four cards, two of which were not of the rank he'd said, for there was one in the pile and another in her hand. yet, as he shifted his set to discard, day hadn't responded.

demian wondered if he noticed an eye twitch. day wouldn't let him call her out on it, however, noticing that she was being studied after some time. the construct warmed him with a smile.

"right." and she went back to placing down cards. two were drawn from her hand, their faces striking the table quietly. "tens."

day had been honest on her turn.

demian was the one who found them first.

"day," he regarded. and her player stilled in anger ahead of him, but demian wasn't really into paying attention to her. he gestured to the road behind him after day had turned to face him.

"demian."

"the attendant you're seeking is that way."

a clenched fist, down on the table with a completed game of gyan chauper. it was a miracle the table hadn't shuddered as much as it should've, what with the apparent rage boiling behind night's eyes. what vitriol became apparent quickly in her words, however. "i'm right here, you know."

demian but closed his eyes.

"well," day had announced in the dark. he could hear movements, the shuffles of uncertainty. "i suppose i'll go have another look around the festival grounds first. let me know when you two are done, okay?"

night scoffed, and demian felt a tap on his shoulder. more like a shove. he opened his eyes.

day was gone.

"c'mon," night said, glaring at him from over her shoulder as she started down the path he'd highlighted earlier. "bistro's waiting for us, isn't she?"

-> CONTRIBUTING: 100 flower petals. | [link.] 

demian: i'll just grab them on everyone's behalf.

-> 100 flower petals from night.