Video: UN - Runeseeker (Player Plot, CW for drinking magic squid Ink?)

[onerthes]

Good evening.

[Vira-Lorr looked reasonably relaxed, if a little more serious than she liked to be. She was currently inside of her home office, which meant that it looked like something out of a Gypsy's playbook. A crystal ball was in the corner. Various superstitious baubles were everywhere. A deck of tarot cards was on the table, pushed to the side. Incense wafted in the room.]

With some assistance over the last year, I've been doing research on sleeper squid ink. Years ago, we had something similar that had a curative property. I have been trying to recreate it. I am sure that the Doorway would not love that I am offering this in her month, but for some of us? Connection can be painful. It is the best way to stave off corruption, but it comes with a price. Not everyone is willing to pay it. So, I wanted to try and offer an ... alternative.

[She held up a vial of black liquid. It glowed very faintly.]

I cannot guarantee these work. We're at the point where there's only one way to be sure. Live, sleeper testing. Their purpose is simple. To alleviate the symptoms of corruption. It likely will never cure a person, but it could ease the symptoms long enough to get them to help, such as the Night Walkers or the Luminarium. That's the goal.

...

But this is Trench. I think we all know that the odds are that until it's perfected? It could do the exact opposite. So, there's a bit of risk in participating. However, if any of you are willing? I am testing the mixture of blood to reagent mixture in these. Once it's fine tuned, I will make the recipe available so it's possible for people to make more. You may speak to me at any time to ask.

Oh, and before anyone asks? I've managed to get a few donations of ink that I acquired through various sources. So they're not from any one particular sleeper. I didn't want that to complicate findings, especially if the goal is for others to make their own with the recipe.

(OOC: This is a minor Player Plot! Live Human testing of an "Antidote" similar to the one in Deerington, which was created with squid ink too! The short version is simple: Feel free to have your character take a sample and use it when they experience corruption. They may feel temporary alleviation, or it could make the symptoms worse. That's entirely up to you. Sometime in the next month or two, Vira-Lorr will post her findings, and her success or failure will be up to the mods.)

Comments

[onerthes]

That seems a good way to approach this. A few careful arrangements in case of something going wrong with the treatment may be wise, but knowing this place, there's always an increased risk around this time of year.

[What, with Superior's tiffs about bonding.]

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah...well, it's good to have on hand. But I'll try not to completely rely on it in a pinch.

[Though like she said, it's hard to really predict or control for these things...]

[onerthes]

Exactly. That's the goal, one more method just in case we need it. It can be so important to have at least one or two alternate methods. Too easy to become overdependent yes?

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, yeah, that's true. I'm still trying to get the hang of "sleeping regularly" as a preventative.

[onerthes]

Oh that's got to be so strange for you. [She tapped at her lips.] For us mortals, we're so used to sleep that it's natural, but that's something so foreign to you isn't it?

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah. I forget to do it a lot - I mean, I still don't have a physical need. I'm just trying to do it more, since it helps with corruption. But I get busy, there's stuff going on! I'm not used to setting aside hours every day for this!

[onerthes]

Think of it as a form of relaxation. Recharging yourself by allowing your body and mind to rest. Though I get the feeling you've always been very much not the sort who rests for any length of time.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, I'd rather get stuff done. Doesn't have to be work all the time, but...something, you know?

[onerthes]

Idle hands are the devil's playthings? I think I heard that once.

...

You know, I don't think I've ever met this devil. What are they like? [She might have had drinks with Lucifer Morningstar, but shhhh. She doesn't know.]

[eudaimonikos]

Fake, mostly. Even if we could go to Earth to tempt humans, what's the point of that?

[Other demons would disagree, but even in his worst days Michael had never been particularly concerned with how many humans ended up in the Bad Place. There were more than enough, that was what mattered.]

[onerthes]

You know, I've honestly always had trouble understanding the point of tempting. Humans do it pretty well themselves, after all. Do they really need a push?

[eudaimonikos]

Can't imagine. I mean, there is that, but our whole system was massively weighted against them anyway. When I took over in the Good Place, it'd been five hundred and thirty-six years since they last let anyone in.

[onerthes]

Well, yes. The entire concept is weighted towards some notion of perfection that nobody can hope to achieve. Somehow? I could imagine that they never let a single soul into the place they called heaven for such a long time.

Of course, the afterlife in our world was a broken mess as well, but that was a different problem. Mad gods...

[eudaimonikos]

Ah, yeah, that sucks. I wouldn't say anyone involved was mad - they ranged from malicious to sort of dumb and incompetent.

[onerthes]

So many different ways that it can all go wrong. It sounds like apathy to the system made things much worse for you.

For us? At some point, half of the gods became convinced the experiment of life needed to end and be restarted entirely. The other half gave their lives to seal them away. We were stuck dealing with what was left of millenia-old, trapped, insane gods still bent on trying again.

[eudaimonikos]

Still? What do they even care that much for? I mean, the Judge tried to do that once, but we talked her out of it.

[onerthes]

Each of them had their reasons. They were very certain that the living species they'd brought into the world were a mistake, and they felt that there was a solution in ending us and starting over.

They had to be destroyed to dissuade them. Only one was remorseful in the end.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, that's quitter's talk.

[But he gets the concept, the Judge's motives were pretty much the exact same.]

Anyway, you can't just take stuff like that back. Just gotta deal.

[onerthes]

Mmmm, and as one of those who was slated for eradication, I certainly preferred our method to the alternative. But that's to be expected. In the end, they were too weakened by long imprisonment and we took advantage of the opening.