Yeah, don't I know it...

[ his entire life being fiction makes it really hard to properly gauge this stuff, actually. ]

Mostly...? When they summoned us there, each of us had our soul partially fused or something with a monster's in the process. And normally they were pretty much dormant, but if they got activated — which I think happened because of some ritual shit the cult was doing — then they'd make you kill people and force you to keep quiet about it.

...At least until they felt too ganged-up on and snapped and went way deeper into monster mode.

[ well that description is really making her just. pause. ]

... So—definitely another kind of possession to look out for.

Yeah. There was also this thing that happened sometimes where they'd summon a chimera of two different monsters, and then the people with both of those monsters would get possessed and work together.

That was... the more unique part of it, it sounds like. So I feel like if they're going to use our situation for a premise at some point, they'll probably use the worst variation of it and go for that.

That part is definitely unique. But the basics of it... are familiar.

[ another pause, realizing how many ways there are to misinterpret that into something more helpful than it actually is. ]

Not from a game. Just from—before. Ghosts soaking into hosts to hurt people.

The basics of the possession thing in general, you mean, or like you had cases where two ghosts were in one person at the same time?

Kind of both, but... More than two. It was 97 ghosts at a time. It had been so long. Their individual identities were kind of... faded.

Holy shit.

They'd make it easier to lean in to negative emotions. Anger and resentment would take over and the possessed would lash out.

Though—they usually hurt the person they were possessing, if anyone.

Jeez... That does sound sort of similar though, yeah.

[ at least he thinks it does?? he's kind of just making inferences and assumptions since it never happened to him personally. ]

I don't know if it's a hard rule of possession. Maybe just a frequent commonality.

Yeah, I figure there are some cases where it's just like, a straight-up one-to-one thing where whoever or whatever is doing the possessing completely replaces the personality of the host.

[ like when maya channels people, though he has no idea that's actually a thing! anyway i feel like this must have happened at some point in his old 60s/80s anime in a stupid way ]

But it does seem like just influencing rather than overwriting is more common as far as these things go.

I've seen moments of one-to-one. But I'm a lot more familiar with it being more of a nudge.

I don't know if that's any better, though.

Probably worse that way, since you can't be sure how much of it was really you.

Yeah. That's true.

It's nicer to have something to blame besides yourself. And given that we know people in these situations just go somewhere else to deal with the aftermath alone...

Yeah... better to have less to feel guilty about.

Guilt never does anyone any favors.