voice; un: shiro

[shiro2hero]

[Shiro it's like 7am, why are you awake, and why are you running around town.]

Has anyone - has anyone else seen that little girl?

[Oh, that's why.]

She's - dark hair. Not very tall. I - [Please hold, he's turning a corner, still jogging.]

Listen, people who've died can wash up here. We know that. It - it could be her.

[And Shiro is desperate to find out. One way or another. He has to know. What if it is? What if there's a chance. Just in case anyone is confused about what her he's talking about, he goes full silent hill dad calls out to something off-camera.]

Julia!

Comments

Voice; un: darkness

[survivalthroughhate]

She's--she's here?

[Maul replies in voice because he can't trust the emotions he'll express if he's on video. Julia is still an enormous sore spot for him, his guilt in feeling he failed the young girl instead of saving her as he wanted to. There's a bit of hope, fear, and sorrow all rolled into one as he speaks.]

[shiro2hero]

I don't know! I thought - It could have been!

Why else would there suddenly be a disappearing little girl here! With Cynthia - like that!

[Hanging out in the sky. Like she's waiting for something.]

[survivalthroughhate]

She was--is-- half-Pthumerian. What we don't know about her or how she might have survived in some way could fill a book.

[This, the town being on fire, or someone he loves being in danger are literally the only things that could get him up at this ungodly hour, but here Maul is, pulling on some clothes.]

Where did you see her last?

video | un: sds

[fogsong]

[ hold on. hold on. Sharon is digging around and pulling out paper and she shoves it in front of her omni. It's a sketch of the little girl, as best as Sharon can remember her. ]

This girl, right? Is this her? Is this Julia?

[shiro2hero]

[Shiro has to actually stop to look at what Sharon's holding up - but he does. And he looks.]

[He remembers... a figure with shadow-dark features. With hair ghastly pale as her dress - as moonlight. Not a girl, not a god. Somewhere in between. Do you think I'm a monster? I know you do. And his own voice pleading - no, no he had never thought that. Not once. Not ever.]

It - it could be. When I saw her, she was - she was something else. I never got to see her face.

But that - [He swings the camera up. Up to the Moon Presence hovering.] That's Cynthia Sodder. Her mother. She's not usually there.

[A little girl running through the streets like a ghost. The Moon Presence waiting above.]

I have to try and see if it is.

[fogsong]

[ There's more to process in what he's said than she has time for ("never got to see her face" and "that's Cynthia Sodder") but she lets it pass over her. She's been focused the last few hours, focused entirely on finding a little girl she saw for only a few moments. ]

I've been looking for her for a while now and scoured Crenshaw and Koz's. I've been asking around, checking if anyone else has noticed her, and... No one has seen her. It's like I'm looking for a ghost. [ it hits too close to home for her to let go. ]

I'm going to keep looking. If she's here, we'll find her.

Video | Clickclickbloom

[onekindsoul]

Is... Is that possible?

[Ruby- Well she had a lot of feelings about how things ended with Julia Sodder. Most of them started with re and ended with gret.

So when she hears Shiro calling that name she can only stare at the camera in disbelief.]

Where are you?

I'll help you look.

[shiro2hero]

I don't know.

Ruby, the only time I saw her, she was... [She was dying. Heading off to the fate the majority had ruled for her. She'd been made of moonlight and shadow.]

But it - if it is - then ... [Then he has to know.]

Market district. Outside the mushroom jerky place.

[onekindsoul]

No- That's fair.

Look I just wanted to be sure. But I get it.

[That's the only real time she had seen her too. And she feels guilty about the choice she had made over it.]

Just hold on. I'm on my way.

[And true to her word if he stick around she'll be there within relatively quickly.]

text; un: radioshow

[doghouses]

I'd be careful of chasing after what you see. Either way, I don't know if you'll find a happy answer.

But I'll keep an eye open, Shiro.

text; un: shiro

[shiro2hero]

[Thank you, Harry, for making this man stop for a minute to type.]

Thank you.

I


I don't know if it's really her. If it even can be her. But I have to try.

[doghouses]

I know. Trust me, I really know that.

But you also have to be careful. All right? And I will help you, of course.

un: GoldenFlowers, voice

[the_obedient_servant]

... I saw her. It was her, wasn't it...?

[They thought it was an illusion. Another trick - but... isn't it just another thing they understand? What it's like to be the ghost haunting the story that serves as your eulogy.]

Remember that the zealots are around. If you need backup, I can offer. [It's a funny look, the child offering protection to the adult. But they're sincere. Despite not having ever met Julia, they are still audibly shaken, a rarity for Chara.]

[shiro2hero]

I don't know. Not for sure. I only ever saw her once - in the end.

[And she'd been made of shadow and moonlight, then. Shadows, moonlight... sadness.]

But if it is her - I can't not try to find her. [If it's an illusion, nothing more - at least he can say he tried.] I won't say no. Not to any help.

It ... could just be an illusion.

[Maybe he's hoping against hope. But a little girl, disappearing like that? With the Moon Presence hanging high and waiting in the sky?]

[the_obedient_servant]

It probably is. But just because something isn't real, that doesn't mean it's not there.

[It could be a dream, even. They wonder how she would feel - watching the world move on without her, remembering her title but forgetting who she was. They try to remember how they felt.]

I think even just trying to find her - to see her, it would help. Remembering her - not as Sodder, but as Julia - that would help.

I hope she hears you.

[Video][UN:A_Wesker013]

[subject_013]

[The feed opens on Wesker at a work bench in what looks like a basement, busy running a brush down the barrel a handgun. He looks into the device with a coldly neutral look on his face (though we admit, his expressions can prove tricky to read).]

...I had a sense she might turn up in this place.

[Turning his face away slightly, he adds, almost as if thinking out loud, albeit in a somewhat condescendingly paternal tone.]

Julia, please go back to your room, unless you have something to contribute.

[shiro2hero]

[Shiro actually pauses for a second, squinting down at his omni in abject confusion.]

What... what are you trying to do, exactly?

[That doesn't help? Not that he can see?]

If it's her, we should be finding her. Not trying to send her away.

[subject_013]

[He glances down at the handgun.] I take it you're from a world where gunpowder-driven handguns aren't common? I'm cleaning the spent powder from the barrel.

[A slow, audible inbreath, as if he's clearing his head.]

Considering what happened when she found some of us... I would as soon keep some distance from her. I'd finally made my peace with her after her passing: it's likely better for us if that peace endured.

You'll have to excuse me: I suppose I should be grateful to her in some ways, but to put it gently, I was never fond of her.

voice; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

[ Ange definitely hasn't seen a thing. It makes her a little worried about whether this is just Shiro hallucinating, but as she looks through the replies, it does seem like some people might have seen something similar..

.. sure, it could mean that all of them are hallucinating, but it's at least a little bit of a relief that it's not just Shiro, considering Ange's investment in his wellbeing. ]

Shiro, I.. don't think it'd be her, after all this time.

[ Sure, it's not totally impossible, but Ange isn't the sort of person to easily believe things that are unlikely.

And the last thing she wants is for him to get himself into trouble because of it. ]

[shiro2hero]

What if it is?

[That's really the only answer he has. He knows she could be right. That it could absolutely just be an illusion, a dream, a hallucination. It could just be this place screwing around with them.]

[But what if it is her?]

Maybe it's not. But if it is... I'm not losing her again. I'm not going to let her go again.

I have to try.

[entreats]

And what if it's a trap..?

[ Ange's voice isn't as harsh as it can sometimes be. This isn't even just her sounding kind of flat and emotionless like she usually does. There's something obvious more to her tone. Something soft - and concerned, without bothering to hide it.

Because Shiro is so stubborn about stuff like this that she has to actually show it for him to realise she's worried about him. ]

You know it's how this place usually works. It tries to use the things we're weak for against us.

un: eudaimonikos | audio

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael's voice is far more tense than usual.]

Are you sure? Because that's - that's not funny.

[shiro2hero]

I would never joke about Julia.

[Uncertainty, sure. A joke, never.]

I - I don't know if it is her. Not for sure. But - if it is?

I've got to at least try.

video; un: lady; private

[dohaeris]

[sansa's omen continues to have too much fun with cinematography. she peers up at him and so does lady, matching expressions of concern.]

I have seen her, Shiro. But––Lady hasn't. Not at the same time as me, at least, or with the same senses. I don't think the little girl we've been seeing is a Sleeper.

[she pauses, frowning, clutching the needle end of her necklace in one hand.]

I have wondered if perhaps her soul became a part of Trench when she died. It seemed very strange to me that this world be born out of her death and have nothing left of her in it. She was half human, but she was very powerful, and it seems to me more likely that she be here in a different form already than that she be one of us. And if she is...perhaps she is trying to reach out, and warn us the best she can.

[sansa's split senses keep the weight of the cult statement at bay...which also prevents her from truly accepting it. it's all right, she's used to looking through and around things.]

[shiro2hero]

She never was one of us. She... was the reason we were all brought to Deerington. Maybe she's - maybe she's still partially Pthumerian.

[He doesn't know. He's grasping at straws and just plain desperate to try and find some trace of Julia still. Something to assuage the guilt.]

The way it happened... I don't know - I don't know if there was anything left of her. We saw Mother Superior be turned into something else.

Julia, I - she disappeared. Because too many Sleepers thought she was a monster.

[Why would she want to come back...]