deernet | Video - UN: Runeseeker (CW for Body Horror/Headlessness)

If you want to get ahead in life, I recommend keeping a good one on your shoulders. The alternative is troublesome.

[Badum Tish.

That dryly delivered and awful joke was said by Vira-Lorr's head, which was resting on a metal plate in front of her. She was seated in her fortune teller's booth, relaxed back and reclined in her chair, wearing a particularly high necked Ao Dai that completely concealed the clean cut from sight. Trails of smoke extended from within the collar, floating upwards. Her head, meanwhile, was resting in the spot that the crystal ball usually would, looking about as acrid and "Over every last minute of this" as she possibly could. There was no way in which she was pleased by this.]

Ahem. It appears that some of the masks are a bit too effective at making us seem like monsters. This was an experience I was not planning to have again. But, rather than search high and low for blood in this situation? I will tolerate it as long as I must until it returns to normal. The discomfort is ... minimal. It's just very disorienting.

However, until this remedies itself, I will be sticking to the shop closely. I don't have a collar to keep from losing my head after all, you understand. And... [she switched which leg was crossed on top of each other and, in the process her leg accidentally bumped her head, causing it to topple over with a yelp of distress.]

This! This is exactly why I am not going out right now! Damnit! I'll have whoever's head for this!

[The answer came when a small litwick hopped up on top of the table and waved at the camera angle beatifically, touching a button and blessedly ending the feed.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh... okay. So like how there are wolves... and then there's Kosmo.

[He got this. But that last little detail was...]

That's pretty gross.

They're... disturbing. That's for certain. I believe that they're intended as harbingers of a pending death, and so they're meant to reflect its horror.

The fact that the first time this happened was because of my death is an irony that isn't lost on me.

[Keith considered that for a moment, a slight frown on his face.]

Do I want to know how that happened?

I lost my head. Naturally.

[Badum tish.]

There was a strange month where a demented robot bear ran kangaroo courts and executed people in novel ways. You can fill in the blanks I think. Thankfully the footage is lost to the ages now.

[Keith's tone was a bit flat when he answered, like... okay, he got it. That was the obvious response.] Naturally.

A demented ro... [His voice trailed off. Really, he should definitely know better by now. He shook his head and sighed.] Right. Because of course there was.

As strange as this may sound? The bear was not some child's nightmare. It was a monstrous creation from one of the sleeper's world's. They apparently actually dealt with this in their world. [She grunted.] Mother Superior summoned them to torment us for a month.

It was my sixth death. Something... broke in my body and I was trapped in the state of death until the dream was nearly done.

Your sixth... [Keith had only died once this time around. While he was getting the impression that he'd probably died during his previous "visits", he didn't remember those, so he preferred not to think about it too much. But he couldn't avoid the one he actually did remember, and he couldn't imagine having to go through that again, let alone six times.]

Did it... break... because of how many times?

I believe so, but that had more to do with the seventh. And yes, I realize what that sounds like. I believe the next death trapped me in that state. [She made a face] I was already going through with it and it shattered me, quite literally, in that situation.

And when it happened, the gates of death opened. Ramona started to more directly intervene among us with the last of her power, so it might very well have been her intervention too.

She never was competent at raising the dead.

So, Ramona was the one bringing everyone back? But she didn't create Deerington.

[Keith frowned a bit.]

Did Ramona care for Julia?

It's slightly complicated. She trapped the soul of Julia's mother Cynthia, who is the Moon Presence, and forced her to perform the resurrections, trapped in a state of eternal death.

[She scowled and then sighed.]

When she first arrived? Yes. She bonded with her as a friend. I think she legitimately cared. But she came to believe she wasn't real, and that she only existed as long as Julia imagined her into being. So she sought ways to keep the girl from draining all of her power...

and when she was near death, she did anything, absolutely anything to keep Julia alive. Just a little longer.

She loved her, but she feared death and oblivion more than she loved. A drowning woman grasping for flotsam to survive.

Hm. [Keith nodded a little as he listened.] I guess... when is anything in this place not complicated. [He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.]

Thanks, though. I can't imagine that it's easy to talk about this stuff.

[He'd only died once so far... that he remembered... and that was hard enough to think about. Did it get harder or easier with more deaths? He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.]

Perhaps I should have said "Complicated by Trench standards." Which would have been accurate really. It was a lot to take in with that woman.

[She sighed and her lips twitched with restrained emotion, clearly on the edge of anger that she rarely expressed.]

What that woman did to all of us, how she betrayed the girl? I understand the fear of death all too well, but her actions were awful. I ... have less trouble dealing with my own deaths than I do avoiding wanting to just scream every time I talk about her.

Mother Superior was most peoples' villain. She was mine.

I've heard about Mother Superior... [Keith's tone was pretty dark. Granted, he was found-brothers with Shiro, so it would be natural that he knew of her and had a bad opinion of her. Shiro didn't outright hate a lot of people. Mother Superior was one of the ones on that short list, though.] But, yeah... I get it. I know what it's like to feel that way about someone.

It isn't a pleasant experience. I'm sorry that you would ever have that feeling about anyone, because the causes are themselves awful. We've yet to encounter something so terrible here.

Which probably sounds odd right now.

Not really. I've learned the hard way not to say that things can't ever get worse. [He sighed a little.]

Thanks, though... for the information. It's helpful. I uh... hope your head gets... better...? [That was definitely the weird part.] Just don't leave it behind somewhere.

Yes. That's a good way to invite disaster around here. [She laughed darkly.]

And I've learned how not to lose my head literally. It should right itself soon. Hopefully. But thank you for the concern.

Seems like it would be. [Keith nodded then.]

See ya.

Video - UN: Runeseeker (CW for Body Horror/Headlessness)

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Sorry this took so long. :( Feel free to drop if it's too old.

heh no prob. i don't mind continuing this one a bi tmore. It's informative for them.

<3

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