voice + text

[theferryman]

[You feel it before you hear it: an uncanny sensation like you aren't alone, like someone just out of sight has fixed their attention on you.

They're not hiding, though. The Ferryman is simply speaking, directly into all of your minds, as clear as if they were standing right beside you.]

It's starting.

Sorry. Was hoping you'd all have more time to rest before we got going. But when it's time, it's time.

We're going to Cross. Not now, but soon. You'll feel it when the moment gets here. And you need to be ready for what that means, when it does.

It's a dangerous journey. There's still a lot of yourself left to lose, even if it doesn't feel like it now. That's my role here. I can guide you through it. Keep you safe.

There's a cost. You'll have to give something up, a part of your life Before. A face. A feeling. A memory. That's your toll to Cross. You pay it to me, and you won't get it back.

You don't have to pay. But if you're not with me, I can't keep you safe. You'll have to make The Crossing on your own. And if you do, there's a chance you lose a whole lot more than what the toll is asking from you.

There's some time left still. You don't need to decide now. But you do need to decide. You'll find out soon what sort of toll The Crossing is asking for, this time around.

Come find me if you want to talk. I'll be where I always am.

[The connection is tenuous; message delivered, The Ferryman's voice fades from your mind. If you're quick, and you concentrate, you might be able to grab on long enough to ask a question or two more.

Otherwise, all that remains is the object that purports to connect you with the other souls, all tasked with making the same decision. Whether it's a page or a screen, there's a new message for you:]

A toll to be levied for safe passage
from the cavern to ǝɹǝɥʍǝsʅǝ

Hear a voice that causes you pain
words spoken with rage or grief or envy
fueled by hate or love or suffering

offer it to The Ferryman
and let go

---

[ ooc | And we're off! Remember: The Ferryman is (for now!) the only one who can communicate to everyone via voice; the rest of you are stuck with text! The only exception is if characters try to hijack the fading connection to talk with The Ferryman one-on-one; there's a header for those questions here.

Otherwise, consider this a mingle! Chat, threadhop, go nuts. ]

Comments

[witnessvelama]

Is it such a choice?

[blindluck]

Do you think it isn't?

[witnessvelama]

It will be the darkness in the end. To escape that is [There's a pause, as he figures out a word for it] to profane life.

[blindluck]

There isn't a problem with getting to choose how we travel to the darkness, is there? Unless you don't think that's where we're going! [Honestly, Nagito can't be sure.]

[witnessvelama]

I worry that some might fight to keep from being returned to oblivion.

[There's already... sentiments to that effect, littering the pages of his notebook. So it's a well-founded worry.]

[blindluck]

I'm sure there will be, but I think that's their choice to make as well, if they'd like. That kind of determination might even be admirable. [Maybe. It depends on a lot of things.]

[witnessvelama]

Perhaps so, but I am afraid the dead who cling too adamantly to life may come to plague the living. I am told it is not so everywhere, but in my home, ghouls are a constant worry, and a wretched thing to bring upon others.

[blindluck]

Are they anything like the spirits outside of the lantern light? I haven't experienced anything like that before outside of horror novels.

[witnessvelama]

Ghosts are. Ghouls [Another long pause, in his writing. When he returns to it, he takes a heavier hand, lending emphasis and clarity to them.]

devour the flesh of the dead, when they are risen, and clothe themselves in it. Then, when they have grown strength, they begin to hunt the living. Relentlessly.

[blindluck]

That really does sound like something out of a horror novel! It's good there wasn't anything like that in my world, things would have been even more chaotic a few years ago. [The last thing the Tragedy needed was angry, flesh-eating dead people.

(Junko would have loved it. Don't think about Junko.)]

We should make sure we don't have to worry about anything like that here.

[witnessvelama]

I'm aware that ghouls are less of a problem in the South.

[He doesn't know where to start with the 'world' question - he's taking that metaphorically. More important, by Celehar's reckoning, is to impress upon this stranger and to anyone continuing to read that the dangers are real.]

Denial will not avail us, nor will lingering.

[blindluck]

Oh, I'm from farther away than just the south, unless things have gotten very strange in the last year or two. [Where he'd been mostly confined to a boat and an island. But he's pretty sure he'd have heard about violent ghosts.]

[witnessvelama]

So I have gathered.

[He's seen so many strange round-eared people, since he got here. It's very disorienting.]

That does not mean the risk should not be considered, when choosing how to proceed.

[blindluck]

That sounds like a reasonable concern! [There are, at the very least, confirmed spirits here, not counting themselves.] All the more reason to talk through our plans.

[witnessvelama]

As you say.

[Is it agreement? Maybe, maybe not - but he's responded to Kel, at least, and in the affirmative.]