NPC Inbox.

[imaginarymods]

NPC INBOX

The office is currently CLOSED.

NPC threads that don't have a particular place in mod logs will happen here! Please note that this post is not for unplanned or drop-in threads unless otherwise noted. Rather, we'll be working on threads here with PCs as determined by RNG or other game mechanics.


NAVIGATION ⯈



code bases by tricklet

Comments

[snyaiper]

[Ogata frowns a little, because damn if that isn't a good question. He's sure he'd have an easy answer if he could remember things... He could ask for his memory back, but honestly... he's starting to suspect that maybe he doesn't want it back. Maybe the memories that are behind some of his knee-jerk reactions he can't fully explain... are bad? It seems like they're probably going to come back on their own, eventually, whether he wants them or not. Might as well enjoy being ignorant while he cant.

So then... what does he want right now? He thinks for a long moment. Well. Whatever this place is, this situation, it's either truly just a weird dream, completely fabricated or... magical bullshit. So he's probably not restricted by any sort of rules of what's possible.]

... I just want to know what it feels like to be truly happy.

[imaginarymods]

[ A man who knows what he wants.

Both hands fold together as a collective considers for an eternity, for an instant, and it comes with the honesty of a man deciding words as he goes. ]

I'm sorry, Ogata, but as long as you're in... there? Wherever you are. I can't give you happiness. [ Which, ha, of course, no one can- ] But if you get out, I can.

[ This is with less Certainty and more with the plain reality of someone remarking on the weather. He wants to know true happiness? Yeah, that's doable. Relatively easy even. But this is an exchange - a business transaction - which means it has to start with Ogata. ]

Is that a good negotiation starter? Or should I give a formal offer first, and we work from there?

[snyaiper]

[Ogata frowns slightly, not at the response itself, but at the explanation. Get out? Out of where? He's not sure what that means. This feels just about as real as the island does, which is to say, he's not sure if any of it is. Does that mean the island really is fake? But then what's the real world, this? It's not like anything Ogata recognizes as familiar either. What if this meeting is just some elaborate dream or hallucination? Some strange man saying he can actually give Ogata what he wants...

Well, that much is familiar, actually. He remembers, suddenly a strange and terrible man, with the face of the devil and words like honey. He'd listened to him once, hung on every word. But now it feels sour in his mouth. And that makes this offer feel all the more unreliable and hollow. He's been told this before. But how can anyone give him what he wants when no one really understands what that is? What he is? Even he doesn't understand, now.]

I'd like you to tell me plainly what it is you want me to do... and what you know of our current situation.
[He's already here. He might as well see the conversation through, and then he can decide at the end what to do with what he's been told.]

[imaginarymods]

[Oh. And as much as they can like anyone, they like Ogata for this. The smile that tugs at the corner of what is almost certainly a human face is, despite all inherent contradictions, genuine. Plainly. Plainly.]

Candidly, Ogata, I know very little of your current situation. That's what's so frustrating, you know? I've been looking into it, but something's blocking me — as well as, I must assume, keeping you trapped. Nothing in and nothing out. Unless you have found a way out?

[Which leads neatly into — the faint gesture of a hand, palm flat and pointed to the ceiling-sky.]

That's what I want. I want you to break the barrier, so that we can all come and go freely. Is that something you'd be amenable to?

[snyaiper]

[Hmm! Weird! As far as he can make sense of things;]

... You mean the barrier making it impossible to sail away from the island?
[Like, damn, he figures they were trying to do that anyway? That said;]

I'm certainly amenable, but it's not like I have any idea how to go about it. I don't know anything about magic, you know.

[imaginarymods]

[The figure nods, in a way that seems strangely choppy and awkward, as though it's forgotten how. There's an audible noise of surprise at Ogata's claim of ignorance, however.]

You don't? Interesting.

[In a yeah right sort of tone.]

You know a great deal about other things, though. Are you telling me you don't believe those skills might be useful in this situation?

[snyaiper]

[A part of him suspects he's just being buttered up, really, but it's appealing right now to ignore that and focus on the fact that he's being praised and told that he's useful. That's right. He may not be likeable or a good person but he's crafty and determined. He can work with what he has.]

... I suppose I can figure something out. As long as you're not expecting me to solve the problem immediately.

[imaginarymods]

[Well. Maybe a little. But that doesn't make it any less true. His host knows how to spot the parts of someone they're most proud of, but he couldn't do that without those parts existing, now could he?]

[The soft laugh that comes in response is somehow not particularly friendly. Very . . . bureaucratic.]

I'm expecting you to solve the problem at the pace and in the fashion that is most effective. I'm putting my trust in you, Ogata.

[snyaiper]

[Ogata stands up, twisting his hand into a salute, half reflexive, half sarcastic. This feels good, feels familiar. Feels like the sort of situation he's used to being in.]

I won't let you down, sir.
[Whether it's true or not, it doesn't really matter. If he fails, what exactly does he have to lose?]

[imaginarymods]

I know you won't.

[In one way or another, really. Ogata won't let him down.]

[Ah, and here's the second half of the conundrum. Head tipping sideways, an Eye opens behind and to the left of his great dark chair.]

Now. I have to let you go back to your pleasant dreams, don't I? How do I — hm.

[Lifting his hand over the table, he turns it palm up. Makes a fist. Squeezes. Ogata will feel, or believe himself to feel, a clench tight around his ribcage. Then the hand flips and the fist opens, palm opening to face the tabletop.]

[Ogata wakes up wherever he fell asleep. Nothing seems very different, and it might be easy to discount what he's experienced.]

[If not for the bullet wedged deep in his pocket, black steel, its base emblazoned with an eye whose lines are drawn in colors that shift every time the light hits.]

[He is, officially, employed.]