So, I got a question for you people. Say there's this big threat that's going to happen to your world. Like end of the world type bad.

Would you try to stick around to solve it or pack up who you love and jump ship to another world?

[Ah, look who else has a fashionable red string tied around a finger today. It isn't very easy to tell how Scratch feels about this, given his lack of a face and all...]

[I am as displeased as the rest of you are.] [And he isn't home. Instead, his surroundings appear to be some sort of... university building.] [Let's get this over with, shall we? This virus is actively delaying my eventual double-death.]


((OOC: just as a warning, there's a chance threads in this post might allude to suicidal ideation if people choose to pursue the topic of double-death!))

Well well, Carnival is upon us once again. A time for masks and illusion the freedom it brings.

In the midst of all this chaos, it makes one question what humanity would become if our constraints were truly cut away. Would we become monsters or saints, Madmen or Madonnas? My own experience seems to indicate the former, but I would love to hear your arguments for the latter.

-------------

Also, I usually host a small party to commemorate this occasion. But perhaps we should spice it up this year in light of recent events?

I challenge any of you who dare to find my newest monster and I within the Festival of the Masked Future. Transportation will be provided, and if you succeed in recognizing us you may have all of our powers at your disposal for the rest of Carnival.

Though I doubt even the best of you could differentiate between the madness my pet creates and the normal festivities, or between my illusions and the masks others wear, its an interesting challenge, yes?

The wizard Howl's castle was seen moving over the hills near Market Chipping again today. Fanny was fretting with a customer about how he must be coming to steal another young girl's heart.

You see, there are stories of the terrible wizard Howl, and how he steals the hearts of young women to become more powerful. And yet...I have never heard of someone who knew of this first hand. It seems that someone always hears the story from a friend or acquaintance, who heard it from another friend or acquaintance and so on...

I was wondering, community, do you know stories and rumors like that? Where the source of them seems unknown? Do you put much stock in such stories?

Sometimes, I think the girls of Market Chipping just like to frighten themselves.

[ooc: all replies will be handwritten.]

[Doc Scratch has never been so confused in his entire life.

This is mostly because he has rarely ever been confused in his entire life, and especially not for any prolonged period of time.]

( cut for white text/dej� v� )

[... Wait.

Wait, what?]

((Please note that the video contains rapidly flashing colours and also blood! If you choose to watch it anyway, please pause at 2:11. If you don't, then do have some accompanying music. :u))

( The events of the video! )

( Unexpected guests! )

[Oh. Scratch is human again, is he? But oddly enough, this time around, he doesn't seem anywhere near as upset about it.

Also he is in some kind of doctor's office (albeit still painted a tacky shade of green and with a loudly ticking clock hanging on the wall behind him), so there is definitely some sort of funny business going on here.]

This is a tediously slow day, community. Of course, that is only because I happened to attend to all of my patients with remarkable swiftness and finished my work ahead of schedule - yesterday, in fact - but still, it gets boring when idleness is allowed to drag out for too long.

So, tell me your woes. I may not be a therapist, but aside from being an excellent MD, I am also an excellent listener, and from my casual lurking, I see this latest sweep of viruses seems to have most of you in quite an uproar.

Or, if you would prefer, tell me of your physical troubles instead. In fact, I would be quite pleased to rid you of those.


((IMPORTANT WARNING: if you wish to have further interactions with this virused Scratch - and especially if you meet him face-to-face, and... are also female... - there is a high chance that you will encounter potentially triggery content, such as explicit violence (both generally gory, and abuse towards women), reference to literal and figurative drug use and implications of, uh, well, organ harvesting. It is unlikely that casual conversation threads within this post will lead to that, so I opted not to lock it to members; I will do that on any possible sideposts that this yields. Also, should a thread in this post end up delving into such material, I will mark it accordingly in the subject line!

... I was going for a "HEY LET'S DO JEKYLL AND HYDE BUT ONLY LOOSELY BECAUSE THEN I'D HAVE TO READ THE BOOK BEFORE I COULD FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING IT FOR REAL" kind of thing with this AU but then it got a little out of hand.))

 

( Kefka vs Scratch, round 3: tw for decapitation )