video; un: eriks

[underbluesky]

[The man who appears on the screen almost looks reluctant to be doing so, allowing the shaggy blond hair and glasses to obscure much of his face.]

...Something strange happened at the place I'm told is called the "Sleeper Farm", recently. A...friend and I had been cornered by one of our captors, and I'd tried without much luck at first to reason with them. But the moment they tried to grab me again, something changed.

Suddenly, they became calmer and stopped attacking, telling us to hurry and run, because they wouldn't have long until their corruption returned.

[It's here that his expression wavers, slightly; he is still uncertain about this, about allowing himself to return among people. And yet -- there's a subtle press under his skin, a restlessness. He has to do this.]

I'm still not sure I entirely understand what that means, or what exactly I did, but I've heard people talk about it. It...happens to us, doesn't it? Over time here. If easing that is something I can do, even for a little while...I want to offer it to anyone who needs it.

[There is a slightly awkward silence that hangs after he's finished speaking, and then, after a few moments, the feed simply shuts off.]

Comments

video; UN: seeingtheworld

[schoolingfish]

Wait, you were able to cure the zealots corruption?

...and they're just people who were corrupted?

[Luca had thought of them as terrifying monsters, not anything that used to be people. The fact that all of that was just caused by corruption...]

un: DELTARUNE

[the_obedient_servant]

I had wondered what would happen if their corruption became purrified. We should try to capture one and keep them contained, see if there is a more longterm cure.

They have a lot of knowledge useful enough to justify not slaughtering them all - and I think a lot of Sleepers are willfully ignorant about the nature of them. It would bbe good if we could learn ways to prevent this from happening to us.

Video; UN Lothrat

[ezra_of_lothal]

Corruption is real, and it can affect any of us here. Can change us physically. Warp our thoughts, and our feelings.

There are a number ways to try to prevent corruption, and ease it.

Do you...know what your bloodtype is? Vileblood, maybe? Some Vilebloods can physically ease corruption.

text | un: bones

[necrosaint]

*Utterly* fascinating.

[ it is a good thing this is text because harrow might have sounded a little like mercy otherwise ]

I realize this was already asked but you only spoke to them? Do you have some form of logomancy?

un: bones

[necrosaint]

I have tried to move past my prior public image of "someone who would capture a person in order to test things on them," but in this instance I agree. Please notify me if you require assistance with nigh-impenetrable structures, I can help.

This sort of capture would be good for the individual as well as the whole.

[the_obedient_servant]

Even if it wasn't, they love to kidnap us and torture us. Turnabout is fair play.

I have an associate amongst them that owes me a debt. I might be able to get her help in capturing one - though having your necromantic expertise would certainly help. You can manipulate souls, correct?

[necrosaint]

Yes, though Augustine is more skilled at it than I. Were if anyone other than a Lyctor I would be loathe to admit

Consider me available as needed, be it with bone cages or strings to tie to souls.

Text | un: mister_hatter | private

[payingfordeliverance]

[An intriguing notion, to be sure -- anything that can lessen corruption is, as far as Break is concerned. But when he pipes up, it's over text, and locked down to a private conversation. He doesn't want to bother with any of the shiny hero types who may show up to scold him for being old and practical, if the conversation turns that way.]

Corruption is something terribly wicked, and aptly named. It blinds us to our own morals, twists our priorities, turns us into dangers to our loved ones. It does build over time, but I have noticed in the year that I have been here that it is easier to fall to it during some seasons than others, and I have known intense emotional upset to cause it to take hold almost instantly.

If you have a power that allows you to ease it, you are very much needed. However, I would counsel you to learn to use it very carefully, a little at a time, before you deliberately attempt something so grand as purifying a zealot again; and, to take just who you use this power for into careful consideration. I have little doubt that this power will have limits which you will need to discover the hard way, and using it on a violent cultist who will simply corrupt again in short order won't save as many lives as drawing someone who will stay healed back before they begin slaughtering people in the streets, you know?

video | un: illiana

[spiritwalks]

You make a noble offer, friend.

But if you're offering to purify other people's corruption...for your own sake, I hope you're being honest with yourself about why.

[underbluesky]

It seems like it. And don't know if I cured them...but at least the corruption was eased, for a while anyway. I'm not sure how long, because it happened by accident.

[Most of the time, you never really know the truth behind a person's actions. Even without knowing much about corruption, Vash has always believed this; it's part of the reason he was unwilling to kill them, despite their cruelty.]

audio | un: inkmetal

[inkedspell]

You should be careful with that. Making it easier on others sometimes means taking it on yourself.

[underbluesky]

[Please hold while Vash needs to take a couple minutes to settle his breathing before he has an outright panic attack.]

Fair play or not, I'm not willing to hold someone against their will to experiment on them.

[underbluesky]

Vileblood is the one that's tinged green, isn't it? That's mine.

["Change us physically" is the most unsettling part for Vash, here. The last time his body was changed against his will, it left a hole in a moon.]

I'm not sure what I did, or how I did it, but if I can help prevent that kind of thing, I would be glad to. Could you tell me more about what causes it, and how it's usually handled?

[underbluesky]

Not as far as I know, but I was told that this place changes us, so it's possible. Just talking didn't seem to help much, though? It was only afterward, when they touched me again, that things changed.

[But honestly he has no idea what happened, really. Blood magic is a concept that's concerned him ever since he arrived, and up until now he's tried to actively avoid ending up in a position where he might bleed, just in case it was as destructive as the power that Knives had activated, before he arrived.]

[the_obedient_servant]

Ah yes, the type that cares more about principles than people.

The intention would be to save them when they aren't in their right mind enough to agree.

It's fortunate that I don't need your help.

[underbluesky]

[All of that sounds entirely horrifying to Vash, who fears more than anything truly becoming the monster that people fear when those who have heard his legend speak his name. There have certainly been no shortage of thugs and criminals who have sought to profit off the fear it invokes.]

If there's drawbacks or limitations, I'd rather learn them as soon as possible, so others don't suffer needlessly in the interim.

[He's already decided he's willing to accept any consequences to himself. At the same time, though...]

But I don't want to endanger others recklessly, either, if the risk goes beyond myself. But it doesn't seem there's any way to find out ahead of time what properties our blood holds.

[Short of consenting to becoming a science experiment, anyway, and for all his selflessness, that's still the one thing he's too afraid of to accept.]

If it's alright to ask, did you find yourself with new abilities here? How did you manage them?

[underbluesky]

[What's being honest with yourself, that sounds fake.]

I'm not sure what you mean.

[underbluesky]

That's alright. I don't mind.

[He's already accepted there could be consequences for doing this. As long as they are not like the ones for using his arm, he doesn't particularly care.]

voice; un: an.exorcist

[likethelight]

...it never lasts. Trying to cleanse the corruption from them, once it's taken hold of them so deeply. We've tried, some of us. To save them. [ The voice is gentle and soft-spoken; a young man speaking quietly but heavily. ]

I'm not sure how though. Nothing lasts.

[ But he pauses, thoughtful. ]

How do you think you were able to purify them?

[underbluesky]

It's not that simple. You don't know what it would take, if it can even be done. They might not even survive the experimentation.

If you've allies among them, isn't it better just to ask?

[underbluesky]

I'm not sure. I've heard people speak of blood magic, though, and that place was the first in which I bled.

[He'd been desperately afraid of what would happen the first time he bled, in this place. It's part of why he's kept to himself in that little inn, before the trouble came to his doorstep and dragged him over the threshold.]

It sounds as though their condition is extreme, compared to ours. Do you have any idea why?

1/2

[likethelight]

It isn't related to something you could do before? [ Surprise! That's actually close to a first for Allen. ]

That's amazing. I've only heard of one other person who was able to help corruption with their blood magic directly. Without the use of some sort of relic, at least.

[ Pulling it from them with dark blood manipulation, which it doesn't sound like is what this guy did. It sounds gentler. He sounds gentler. Kind of skittish, actually. ]

But, eh...

2/2

[likethelight]

...I don't know if anyone knows for sure. [ He hesitates, voice become softer. ] But it is clear they've been like that for a long time—and don't regret what they've become. Beasts too, when they've become that and stay in that sort of state, it's harder to purify them... The ones with human souls seem to weaken and forget who they used to be. Become something that can't return to its original form anymore and can only be put to rest.

[ It's gently said, soft and heavy. Someone who's long-used to talking about such bleak manner of things and is intimately familiar with them. ]

Over time, I think it's safe to assume that untreated corruption of any kind can have permanent effect.

[spiritwalks]

Do you know what causes corruption in this place?

[the_obedient_servant]

You really don't know who you're talking to, huh.

No. It wouldn't be. Because as you said, they might not survive, and I need my associate alive and intact for further endeavors. If the Zealot agrees, then yes, that would be a positive I suppose, but I don't care how they feel about it.

If you expect me to cry over killing someone to free them from an eternity of agony and inescapable madness that they then go on to inflict on others, you're wasting your time. Nor are you going to convince anyone else in this town.