[VIDEO | un: inkmetal]

[inkedspell]

[It's disgustingly hot and humid and even with most of her hair pulled up and twisted back away from her face, she's got curly tendrils hanging down and a light sheen on her forehead. Ugh. But at least she's back to finding things to keep herself busy.]

My chair is open at Ursula's again, if anyone is looking for regular tattoos or some runework. Want anything more intricate let's talk and we'll see what I need and what deal works for you.

[Best way to act like nothing is wrong is to go right back to what she was doing before, right? Right.]

Catching up on the insane shit y'all love to get up to, but what little changes, a lot stays the same, doesn't it? Like how I still don't know who most of you asses are. Keeping track of the coming and goings ain't easy. Anyone keeping a list?

Comments

[snakesdonthavelegs]

Ohh. I um, wasn't familiar with anything like that before I came here. Spells and magic and stuff.

[ She hadn't even known it was real. Maybe it wasn't. ]

Yup! She's my cousin. [ Their relationship is in a bit a snag right now, though. ]

[inkedspell]

Yeah, not every world has magic, which is crazy to think about, for me. But it's normal for you.

[She raises her eyebrow just a bit.]

So what's it been like for you to be in a world filled with magic like this one?

[snakesdonthavelegs]

...Maybe there was after all. But I'm not sure.

Weird? Things just happen for reasons I don't really understand. But I guess in a way that wasn't too different before. Now it's just... more?

[inkedspell]

More stuff, or harder to understand?

[She's curious about that.]

[snakesdonthavelegs]

A lot of crazy stuff happening really suddenly.

Like, my family was super rich, right? And they had connections to politics, and they were really strict with me, too. So I get that stuff can happen, because of decisions other people make, and you don't even know why. But here it's just "oh, suddenly a portal to another world showed up! Here's a magic pill that makes you explore a puzzle house!"

That kind of thing.

[inkedspell]

Oh that kind of "more." [Well, she certainly gets the Crazy Stuff Happens part.]

Why are rich families the craziest? They either are super strict, manipulative, secretive, or all of the above. Adding magic just makes it worse.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

...Yours too, huh?

Anyway, yeah, it's taken some getting used to. Maybe it's easier for you, since magic is normal to you?

[inkedspell]

Magic was part of the problem with that hot mess of a genetic petri dish.

[She lets out a little huff.]

But I guess it would have been the same if they were obsessed with everyone being a doctor instead of a runist.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

Oh, um, I don't mean your family, I mean the world! Is it anything like what you know?

[inkedspell]

Oh. [Good job cutting her off from a potential under the breath rant.]

This world isn't anything like mine, but back home magic is so commonplace I wouldn't know what it would be like without it. Even the people who don't know about magic would notice if it was gone.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

Not everybody knows? Then hey, maybe it is real in my world after all. Who knows? I never really believed in all that stuff before.

[inkedspell]

It's really easy to ignore things right in your face if you have excuses to why a duck isn't a duck. So yeah, maybe you just never noticed.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

...Yeah. I think I never did.

[ That talk of ducks puts her in a bit of a wistful mood, reminding her of somebody who once delivered an awkward, bird-based metaphor that she hadn't understood. Should have understood.

There's a lot of magic she should have seen. ]

[inkedspell]

Eh, not much you can do about that now. [Dismissive. Like it's such a minor thing.] You know now. And you can't go back to not knowing once you do. It changes how you see things.

[Like how she had never realized the extent of her mother's hatred for her. She had always thought it indifference. Annoyance. But the hatred had never been expected no matter how often it has been right in her face.]

It's always better to know, no matter when it happens.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

...Yeah. Maybe it is.

[ But there are some things that she knows now that would have made life back home very, very difficult. Like that her mother was a murderer. But things could have turned out better if she'd known other things, like how her closest friend was in terrible pain all along. ]

I miss them, no matter how messed up they were.

[inkedspell]

[Saeri cannot say she misses her bio family at all. Hasn't in years. Maybe it's because she won't let herself, or maybe it's because there's nothing to miss. Not even Daliah.]

You care about them. Missing them is natural.

[snakesdonthavelegs]

[ All of their flaws and mistakes and cruelties had given rise to tragedy, but even with those... she finds that she can't condemn the ones she loves. ]

...Knowing this place, maybe I'll even get to see some of them again.

[inkedspell]

[She shrugs.] Good point. They could show up at any time.

[Or never at all, but she won't bring up that point.]