IC || NOT POSTED TO THE NETWORK || ACTION
Awareness ebbs and flows, slipping in and out of his reaching grasp, leaving only the faintest imprints of images in its wake. Drawn to these monochrome visuals, he makes a short-lived attempt at rousing his consciousness, asleep beneath the cobwebs of time and magic, but the effort proves too taxing. Soon he submits to the comfort of darkness yet again. Thousands of slow heartbeats drum against his ribcage before he stirs once more, now at the insistence of another - a consuming presence burning in his blood, clawing at his synapses, rewiring itself to him. The parasite will not remain idle any longer it would seem. Driven by this restless persona, he ascends to the surface of cognition and oh, he suddenly knows his name.
With a rough start, Tohru Adachi opens his eyes. A thick mist is curling languidly about his sprawled body, making it impossible to discern much if anything from his immediate surroundings except that he is slumped against a flat rock. Disoriented and drowsy, he runs a clumsy hand through his damp, tangled hair. How long has he been asleep? The same hand drops to his stiff neck and massages it gingerly as Adachi leans forward so that he can examine what he’s propped up against. He freezes. It isn’t a rock. It’s a tombstone.
Cold sweat slides down his spine. Suddenly he has an inkling of where he is, but this suspicion is not confirmed until he hears the droning hum of the Slaugh in the near distance. With a shudder, he hurriedly pushes away from the grave and forces himself up onto shaky legs. A thin layer of snow clings stubbornly to his suit and, distracted, he brushes himself off while glancing around uncertainly. How the hell did he get here? The last thing he can remember is sitting in his croft…and though it had been swiftly approaching, it hadn’t yet been winter. He looks down and pauses, reading the engraved names of the two graves on either side of the one he had been resting against: Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi. Swallowing, he stumbles away in panic, anticipation crawling under his skin as he waits for the ethereal queen to make an appearance. She doesn’t.
Belatedly, he realizes he’s clutching a communicator in his left hand. Powering it on, he glances absently at the tombstones and notices that Mayumi’s name has now vanished…but Konishi’s hasn’t. Unwilling to examine this further, he turns and books it out of the graveyard. Panting, he jogs until he comes to the outskirts of the village, so unfamiliar to him when it’s blanketed in snow like this. Dammit, what’s going on here!? Confused and frustrated, he looks to his communicator for the answers. The date is February 17th, according to the digital device. That’s impossible.
“Four goddamn months just don’t go by without you noticing,” he hisses. Magatsu Izanagi croons lowly, pleased with his helpless anger. Mentally swatting his persona away, Adachi is struck by an idea and knowingly navigates to Thanatos’ list of residents. TOHRU ADACHI: [VANISHED] it informs him. “Like last time, huh?” Except unlike last time, he doesn’t actually remember returning to Inaba this round - or even the TV World for that matter. Staring blankly out at the village, Adachi weakly reasons with himself that time passes at different intervals in Demeleier…therefore, it’s entirely possible he was sent home for such a tiny fraction of a second before being whisked back that he can’t recall it.
Curiously, he reads the rest of the list and scoffs. So, Seta and his precious friends are still here, huh? That’s fine. Makes for an interesting game, after all. Unfortunately for them, Adachi knows just how to make this even more entertaining. He considers backtracking to the Temple, but doesn’t want to risk someone finding his footprints in the snow leading from the graveyard. That would look too suspicious. He takes a deep breath and prepares himself for his next great act, and then ambles into the village.
With a rough start, Tohru Adachi opens his eyes. A thick mist is curling languidly about his sprawled body, making it impossible to discern much if anything from his immediate surroundings except that he is slumped against a flat rock. Disoriented and drowsy, he runs a clumsy hand through his damp, tangled hair. How long has he been asleep? The same hand drops to his stiff neck and massages it gingerly as Adachi leans forward so that he can examine what he’s propped up against. He freezes. It isn’t a rock. It’s a tombstone.
Cold sweat slides down his spine. Suddenly he has an inkling of where he is, but this suspicion is not confirmed until he hears the droning hum of the Slaugh in the near distance. With a shudder, he hurriedly pushes away from the grave and forces himself up onto shaky legs. A thin layer of snow clings stubbornly to his suit and, distracted, he brushes himself off while glancing around uncertainly. How the hell did he get here? The last thing he can remember is sitting in his croft…and though it had been swiftly approaching, it hadn’t yet been winter. He looks down and pauses, reading the engraved names of the two graves on either side of the one he had been resting against: Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi. Swallowing, he stumbles away in panic, anticipation crawling under his skin as he waits for the ethereal queen to make an appearance. She doesn’t.
Belatedly, he realizes he’s clutching a communicator in his left hand. Powering it on, he glances absently at the tombstones and notices that Mayumi’s name has now vanished…but Konishi’s hasn’t. Unwilling to examine this further, he turns and books it out of the graveyard. Panting, he jogs until he comes to the outskirts of the village, so unfamiliar to him when it’s blanketed in snow like this. Dammit, what’s going on here!? Confused and frustrated, he looks to his communicator for the answers. The date is February 17th, according to the digital device. That’s impossible.
“Four goddamn months just don’t go by without you noticing,” he hisses. Magatsu Izanagi croons lowly, pleased with his helpless anger. Mentally swatting his persona away, Adachi is struck by an idea and knowingly navigates to Thanatos’ list of residents. TOHRU ADACHI: [VANISHED] it informs him. “Like last time, huh?” Except unlike last time, he doesn’t actually remember returning to Inaba this round - or even the TV World for that matter. Staring blankly out at the village, Adachi weakly reasons with himself that time passes at different intervals in Demeleier…therefore, it’s entirely possible he was sent home for such a tiny fraction of a second before being whisked back that he can’t recall it.
Curiously, he reads the rest of the list and scoffs. So, Seta and his precious friends are still here, huh? That’s fine. Makes for an interesting game, after all. Unfortunately for them, Adachi knows just how to make this even more entertaining. He considers backtracking to the Temple, but doesn’t want to risk someone finding his footprints in the snow leading from the graveyard. That would look too suspicious. He takes a deep breath and prepares himself for his next great act, and then ambles into the village.