deernet | Video then Text - UN: Onelthes (CW mentions of Death/Mind Alteration)

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Video then Text - UN: Onelthes (CW mentions of Death/Mind Alteration)

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(OOC: So, first of all, I know it's a little confusing, but this post is Vira-Lorr, not Neopolitan. They're body-swapped for 24 hours on recovering from death, thanks to John Gaius' plot.)

[The feed came on. Vira-Lorr's fortune teller booth was in the background, but Vira-Lorr herself was nowhere to be found. Instead, Neopolitan was seated there at the table, looking like absolute trash. She wasn't dressed in her usual pinks and browns, but rather a plain ao dai that didn't fit well at all. There were several scars visible on her skin and her hair was a frightful mess. Anyone who knew Neopolitan well would know that to see her like this bordered on the impossible. She never let people see her scars or battle damage. She was always perfect, wrapped in illusions that disguised her current state.

The girl sighed, looking over a small placard of chalk and holding it up for the camera.]

This is Vira-Lorr.
To the girl in my body.
Please contact me.

TEXT
[The feed shut off and switched to text shortly afterwards.]

First of all, I apologize for addressing people in my current state but I did not really want to wait until the situation remedied itself. Again, this is Vira-Lorr. I believe the girl whose body I currently inhabit is called Neopolitan? She is probably in my body at present. We will have to make do for the moment unfortunately, as I don't know how long it will take for this to rectify itself.

I owe several of you an apology. My warning earlier this month appears to have been very apt, and something came over me earlier this month. I don't know how to describe it as anything other than a madness that centered on wanting to protect two people very close to me, no matter the costs or risks. That protective side of me was perverted and twisted to the point where I am aware that I participated in causing a great deal of harm recently. It was not my natural intent, but I am deeply sorry regardless.

If there is a way I can make some form of penance, speak with me.

I also want to be clear. Whoever fired the shot that took me down? I hold no ill will for it. I wasn't in my right mind, and given the events that were going on? I can't fault you for shooting to kill. We can't always be saved, and deep down we do all know that after our bodies reconstitute we are usually sane again. Sometimes, it is a mercy in this place.

I will be keeping a bit of distance until my body is in its correct state, but if anyone needs me? Contact me. If you feel a need to shout at me? Well, I can't say I don't understand. It wasn't always easy to speak with my own friends when one of them went crazy at times in my past.

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[The voice which replies doesn't quite sound like his usual throaty baritone.]

There's a bit of that going around.

[The video feed comes up, showing a slightly huskier, less pretty though still handsome fellow.]

I'm still me in here, but thanks to some Sleeper annoying Mariana, some of us have stories to tell of staggering onto the shore, wearing the wrong flesh vessel. Yours is one of the more dramatic swaps I've seen.

Oh that's positively lovely. Well, it is at least informative to be aware that Mariana is the one who actually presides over death on some level. That complication will clear up who not to toy with if we don't want a repeat of this debacle.

Hopefully this will not be something we deal with for very long. Still, it is not that bad, which really says something about how much I've been through already that I can mean that.

I think I've glimpsed the girl who normally occupies your present vessel, but I haven't had the honor of meeting her.

as to the Sleeper who's responsible for causing this mess: His name is John Gaius, and the shortest description I can give for him is a gothic zombie with a god-complex. [Hey, that sounds familiar... no wonder he can't stand John, besides the obvious reasons: they're too much alike in different ways.]

We've been through worse things; this would be darkly comical if it hadn't entailed the angering of the sea herself. It wouldn't be the first time some of us have been stripped of our abilities. But as for trading vessels? I can care less what I look like: I've seen versions of myself who looked very different from me but who shared some common elements. But it's highly annoying being broken back to a baseline human. Once I'm restored to myself - mutations and all - I am beating John Gaius within an inch of his meta-life and no further. [His voice might sound different, but the cold fury in that declaration is all his own.]

Do be careful with that well deserved "Beat down." I will pass on it myself, so long as he is not trying to do more going forward. I believe that I saw his message on the network on this subject. I did not imagine the impacts were this significant.

Let's just hope that we're not dealing with yet another Bill Cypher moment with him. That's all that I truly hope for in that.

[A dangerous smirk, a bit odd on this squarer-jawed face.]

Rest assured: I won't try that until I'm fully restored to my full strength and my proper form. This vessel, though it belongs to another version of me - a version who seems to have had an almost-normal life in an alternate version of my world of orign - is far too fragile, if capable in its own right.

[A small wince might pass through his face.]

I would hope not. It seems the wretch has learned his lesson, as he's offered to remedy the situation as best he can. I'm not certain that I trust him, at least for now.

If he has, then good. There is that at least.

The very fact that he put his interests as he understood them from his own perspective and reality so far against how this world works? It does mean that he is someone who likely thinks of himself on some level as superior to the powers of this world.

Generally, best to keep an eye on those.

We seem to be having a few upstarts cropping up lately. Do you recall some girl waving a flag on the network before planting it in a town square, trying to drum up support for a revolt against the very natural forces of this world? I might have had words with her on the void that would leave behind.

I might also have punted her little flag onto a roof. Once.

She seems to have gone back to the sea. Perhaps it's fortunate: if those two troublesome guests had joined forces, I shudder to think what horrors they might have enacted. And I say this as a recovering world-reshaping upstart myself.

Ah, poor dear, sweet Korra. She's returned home. So, there's no further concerns there. She struggled a lot with the relationship of the Pthumerians and the people, and had trouble understanding that there was a self rule of the city in place as a commune. I think she misunderstood the nature of the situation here compared with Deerington.

But new arrivals are prone to having similar problems for some reason. Self ruled regions seem to result in confusion because they don't comprehend how it oculd be possible.

Oh gods, but they never would have. She was too righteous to ever work with either, even at her most stubborn. Still, wise to be aware of later possibilities. Others are very different from Korra and less strict in their perspective.

Ahh, so she was one of the elder Sleepers, as I've termed us? It sounds as though she had trouble adapting to our new hosts. Her loss, though my first impression from her has me thinking it wasn't a loss for us.

My main concern with her little crusade was if she had succeeded: would the magic have left with our hosts, leaving us in a hard-scrabble world? [Translation: would he have ended up broken back to baseline. Oh wait... that's his current state.] Would she have ended up as the villain in our story and hated by the Sleepers and the natives?

[A chuckle and a small, dangerous grin.] In that case, she might have gone the other way and stood up to our sea-bothering boy. One wonders if they could have cancelled each other out.

elder, but not as elder as some of us. I believe she always had a certain amount of trouble understanding and adapting to the Pthumerians and their intentions. She's a good woman, but has complicated views at times.

We don't know. And as much as I dislike the Pthumerians at times, I do not think it's wise to test the possibilities. Besides, they aren't actually rulers here.

She probably would have, yes. His methods were definitely not hers, from the small amount I've heard.

Those who cannot or will not adapt are more likely to fail to survive. May she find her way beyond the sea.

They're no more rulers than the wind and the waves in any world, though one could almost call them aspects of nature and existence itself given flesh. And such things affect change by their very existing. They have no need to rule. The problem is, some people project aspects of themselves onto them to a degree that they cannot discern the difference between something being of a higher order and that being as a ruler.

Added to this is the fact that there is an active will with personality behind those forces, and to that will intention is ascribed. This leads to the idea that it can be reasoned with, which ironically is not the case. these beings are sufficiently beyond us that, even if they have wills, they cannot be reasoned with.

But you understand that futility far better than she did.

They're truly god-like, relative to us, though they make no claims to godhood. [He says this with an odd respect.] I've wondered what they make of the placations that rise from some of us, if it amuses them or angers them. [Translation: Some part of him that stubbornly holds onto a god complex wonders how it would be to have mortals approaching him with similar placations...]

Only the Queen ever sought to be treated as divine. And we saw the folly of that. If they accept any form of placation, it is more out of course, out of what the people wish to give them.

I suspect thaat you can get a better idea what they think from the most 'human' of them, those who are half-breeds and who still retain a closer tie to this world.

I've had some experience with half-Pthumerians: I've been attending a Trench woman who'd given birth to a pair of half-Pthumerian twins back in Doorway's month. One can pass as human as long as they're fully clothed, the other would be head-tiltingly weird to behold, if we weren't accustomed to weirder looking beings. They're growing at three times the rate of a human child, thus the more human-looking of the pair can pass as a shy toddler, while the other is trying to feed itself. However, I wish they didn't think my Blood was on the menu.

Interesting to see that the practice still seems to play out. Not entirely surprising, but interesting. perhaps a little disturbing, considering what you mention about blood consumption. Have they displayed any particularly advanced levels of power? Also, are they male or are either of them male? I believe that half-breeds may be capable of holding both genders, where Pthumerians themselves are all female.

I believe some of the Half Pthumerians born in the dream may have glimmers of Sodder's own power on their own, though clearly not as much as her.

Wil, the more human-looking twin presents as male, but the more Pthumerian-looking twin presents as female, as far as we can tell. They're still young and settling into themselves. Wil has an eidetic memory, even this young, and seems prime for an Arcane Scholar. The other twin might be a bit of a form shifter, but time will tell.

It wouldn't surprise me: she formed this world, it would stand to reason that others like her would absorb some of her essence as well as her abilities. Perhaps they will succeed where she failed, through her frailty.

Displays of powers that would match Pale or Vile blood, respectively, but mutable that it's not tied to the blood completely. Time will tell, I suppose.

That, and the implications of Doug's dreams did hint that they might have been partially responsible for events, though we never got those particulars. With time, they might manage collectively something closer to what she was actually trying to achieve.

I think some forget that she'd made that bet with the Moss King.

It will certainly be interesting to observe, in the long term. It's hard to place their Blood type, since the Trench blood is so co-mingled with the Pthumerian Blood.

It stands to reason, that the Pthumerians who now shape this world took an interest in what transpired in Deerington. I can't say that they came to dear Julia's defense and assistance, since I suspect they don't operate in that manner.

I'm likely one of those from whose mind that detail slips, to my folly.

It was easy to forget. He does not throw his name out there very much. His game is strange, and I do not know that there is an end game to it.

I think what damns their behavior at times in my mind is that none offered her training. Some may not have been able, but at the very least he could have, rather than just offer the wager. I don't entirely trust them as a result.

I suspect his game is an end in and of itself, and I say this as someone who's enjoyed a good mind game as part of a greater design.

No contest: It's too little too late, but the least some of them could have done is recognize her talents and train them, rather than let them spiral out as they did.

You're probably right when it comes to him. He may not think very far beyond these games that he plays. That, in and of itself, is part of why I don't entirely like him.

Agreed. I will say that, those who were themselves children like her? I can't entirely fault them. They were likely learning alongside her. But there were others who I hold more responsible. Remina, for example. If she truly was the boat keeper, she was not trapped there, as the oracle in the boats on the mountain was trapped. She could have stepped in, somehow. Somewhere. She chose to focus on the memory of her lost queen instead. She chose to leave the girl in the hands of a soon to be dead mother and the mad ravings of a grieving, insane grandmother and the desperate attempts at survival by her best friend.

Hindsight, however, is 20/20 I am told.

Unfortunately, the rest of us must live with the resulting fallout and with the effects of the process. I don't hold it against the young or young at heart who sense a form of kinship with her.

I suppose it's my innate and single-minded sense of self-preservation at play, but I've never understood those who just as single-mindedly throw down the gauntlet for dear Julia. I brushed it off as a manifestation of the adult sense of protecting a child, and some cases it might be. But others have me wondering at their mental state, if they're not affected by some form of trauma bonding with their captors. My biases might simply be showing in that thought process.

Edited 2022-12-02 05:45 (UTC)

In fairness, part of my own defensiveness for her is because I was very much an elder trying to protect a child. It's part of how I spent much of my last century of life, so it came naturally, and I kept having flashbacks to a child I once helped raise that ended up well, but who I felt I failed at times. It's also why I've had trouble with another case.

But, even as I wanted the best for her? It was not an excuse for when a tantrum might result in fatalities. And I think in some ways your very pointedly pragmatic perspective was useful in helping to know what could actually be done for her. You and Reaper alike were more aware than most of the likely end.

You have more experience with young people than I. The most I had was looking after my work partner's daughter from time to time. Perhaps I'd have a different perspective on dear Julia if I'd spent more time with Sherry.

There's times I wonder if Reaper and I are the only ones remaining of the elder Sleepers with a more pragmatic approach. I've wondered if the junior folk are knee-jerk reacting out of sentimentality or out of that instinct to protect the young. I suppose there's no right or wrong response, however, it gets tiresome having your perspective ignored or denied consideration by those who haven't been there.

Edited 2022-12-30 04:54 (UTC)

Julia's case was well beyond anything that I ever dealt with. I have an easier time dealing with particularly stubborn and foolish brats. She was in a pain that was hard for me, though I try.

You probably are the two most pragmatic, along with Qrow. I distantly recall that that man was a fairly sensible sort, though probably not so much as the two of you. Many more like me are more emotional about things, no matter how I try to pretend otherwise.

That said? Emotional responses are also much more common. I know it's frustrating, but I imagine that it always is a little.

[ Does Ange bother to ask how Vira-Lorr ended up in that specific girl's body?

No. She's much too tired for that after everything. Even with things having ended up relatively okay, without her fully beasting out and with Ruby back with her, Ange still feels so very tired after everything that went down. ]

I don't need anything made up to me.

[ Not by Vira-Lorr, anyway. It was clear the other hadn't been in her right mind, and that's why Ange had been careful to avoid the other while desperately looking around for Ruby in the house until the entire thing had burned down. The last thing she wanted to do was get into a fight with someone she cared about. ]

But it was very annoying. [ The understatement of the year.

But Ange wouldn't be Ange if she didn't deliver tired and deadpan understatements. Honestly, she's kind of glad the full extent of her exhaustion doesn't carry over text. It'd make her feel too vulnerable otherwise. ]

[Yeah, today was very much a "Tired of everything" day for both of them it seemed.]

Ever the master of understatement, Ange. I helped Chara try to kill all of you, so "Annoying" is probably more than a little bit of a kind way of putting it. Insane or not.

Still, I am deeply sorry about all of this. Are you alright? I've seen the wreckage, so I don't know where you two are staying right now.

I'm alive.

[ .. yes, Ange. Obviously, or you wouldn't be typing right now.. But maybe that's more her way of saying that she isn't exactly 'fine', so 'alive' is the only standard she can reach right about now. ]

Ruby is too. I thought she died back there. It turns out the girl whose body you're in right now kidnapped her in the middle of it all.

We're back together now though.

[ It is a little curt? Maybe, though it's mostly just because Ange is still so tired over the entire dumb situation. She's not even really mad at Vira-Lorr, she's mad at this dumb place, and that entire dumb situation, and at Chara for starting something that dumb. It's still all fresh enough to be upsetting. ]

Oh, that's just lovely isn't it? Sorry to add onto the thoughts that this breeds, but things should be back to normal. But, she seriously kidnapped Ruby? Why would anyone kidnap Ruby?!?

At least you're both safe

[Yeah, weird, but the Reckoning was definitely a dark as hell month. Mariana had her work cut out for her.]

It seems she wanted to keep Ruby safe. She was under the influence of.. something.

[ Ruby told her about it, but considering how much Ange has had to deal with, both physically and mentally.. well, she's not exactly in the best spot to process a whole lot of detailed information. It's been easier to just file that information away in such general terms for the time being.

Especially since everything ended up alright with Ruby. ]

And I mean..

I guess it worked. Ruby didn't get hurt in that chaos.

But the specific method used didn't exactly help when it only made me more desperate back there that I couldn't find Ruby anywhere in the middle of the fire.

Ah, then it would be something similar to what afflicted me. Though, the variation that struck me took on a considerably darker and more sinister edge. So, I am glad that it did not seem to be the case this time. As you said. Ruby did not get hurt.

Though unfortunately YOU were hurt. Are you alright?

[ It's a good question.

But also a hard one. Ange is tempted to say she's fine, since technically she is fine. She didn't die, and it's not like she fully beasted out before Break could stop her from doing exactly that, but.. it's not like it's the full truth either. It's not like Ange isn't shaken up as well. But she's always had a hard time admitting to that. ]

I'm not hurt anymore.

[ That feels like the safest shield to hide behind in this moment. Since it is true that she isn't physically hurt anymore, so it's not like she's lying in any way. She's just hiding most of the truth.

Though honestly, that part is pretty obvious with just how short that answer is in the face of such a difficult situation. ]

I'm just glad that you're intact again, and that you're not hurting. I know that I don't need to make this up for you, but if there's anything that I can do in the midst of this? I want to help.

Maybe, though.

Maybe after it's my face instead of hers.

I'm not sure how much there is to be done.

The house is already gone, so it's not like that can be repaired. There's nothing about my body that could be healed anymore. It seems the latter goes for everyone who survived.

[ As far as she knows, anyway. ]

Now all we can do is just somehow live with the memories.

[ 'All' as in Vira-Lorr included, yes. Because it can't be great for the other either, knowing she did all of that outside of her own control. Though there's definitely at least one person Ange isn't willing to forgive so easily here. ]

Except for that dumb toddler. I hope they screw off into the ocean and never come back.

I won't defend them, or their actions. I don't even entirely know how corrupted they were at the time that they did what they did. With them, it can be impossible to say sometimes, and I understand why there will be many who never want to see them. That is something that they will have to live with.

Actions have consequences. But that's them, and I'd rather not talk about them right now.

[Which was not to say that she didn't forgive them. She'd forgiven Chara several times in the past. She'd probably forgive them if their knife was buried in her chest, but she had no illusions or expectations of others, especially not lately.]

I have lived with a great many memories. I can live with these. I am sorry that you have to live with them too, but thank you for still being willing to be there for me.

I might not be able to help right now, but if there's ever something I can do, you need only ask.

[ Ange bites her lip as she reads this. A part of her almost feels mean for writing this, but.. on the other hand, if there's anything she realised after beasting out, it was that she neglects to think of her own feelings and desires in the face of pretty much anything. She tries to think of other people so much that she suppresses her own hurt.

And doing that is bad for her. It's so bad. The resentment she felt as a beast had been off the charts. So.. ]

I know you wrote you don't want to talk about them.

But I just want you to know that seeing you defend them after all this really hurts.

[ Even in the face of the nice things Vira-Lorr says after.

It's not enough to be inexcusable, or worth cutting off contact for, or anything like that, but.. it does hurt, and Ange wants to make sure she has actually said it this time, rather than swallowing it down and allowing everyone to always take other people's feelings into account over Ange's own. It's happened just a few too many times for it to not sting like hell at this point. ]

[It wasn't really a gut punch, but deep down she should have known better. Vira-Lorr was struggling because part of her wanted to help Chara. She didn't want to give up on them. But that required that Chara was willing or even wanted to be helped. Right now, with their behavior? She wasn't sure that was the case, and she dared not contact them until after the Reckoning was gone and fully out of their system.

But she also looked at this and sighed. This was also a reflection on the fact that she just... she couldn't talk about Chara with others. Reaper, probably, but Reaper was willing to talk about anything, and she didn't want it to be like that with him. No. It was just too painful, and Chara was continuing to rub salt in these wounds. They weren't a topic to ever bring up again.]

I am sorry for the pain I've caused you, Ange. Please know that. For now, though, I'm concerned that my continuing to talk won't be helpful.

We should probably speak later. Just know that I am always here for you.

Okay.

[ At least Ange seems willing to back off at that. She did say her piece, after all, and Vira-Lorr did apologize, so..

It's not like there's anything else to say about that, right. ]

I hope that you'll get back into your own body soon enough. Good luck until then.

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Video then Text - UN: Onelthes (CW mentions of Death/Mind Alteration)

[Audio>Video][UN: A_Wesker013]

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[CW: Misanthropy, trauma bonding mentioned]

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text; un: ushiromiya

Re: text; un: ushiromiya

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