deernet | text; un: shiro

Can you tell me anything more about Disciples? No one's really gotten into any of the other occupations here. How would they make hunters unnecessary? Incense I'm familiar with it.

[Illarion makes a low huffing noise, an almost-laugh.] No, they do not. Perhaps they do not think so much how Hunters cannot be separated from the rest of Trench--that if a Hunter is appearing in the city to put a Beast down, it is because the others have failed to keep it out.

But it is always easy, to blame the ones who must do the killing. Perhaps sometimes even necessary.

[Digression made, he gets back to--] Disciples, we are the ones who wish to understand the unknown and the hidden as they choose to reveal themselves to us. We learn the blood and the Old Ones; we worship and offer sacrifice to keep the Waking World in its course. We learn Beasts, and what they may be in their secret hearts, and how to avoid or avert them without violence.

In a perfect world, where we understood the full intent of the Divine in making Beasthood and the minds of Beasts, we might live beside them without fear; Hunters would not be needed. But this is not and will not be that world.

I... don't like to think about it, but - it seems to be. Necessary, I mean. I'm not sure if you were there for Deerington, but we'd get monsters fairly regularly there. Sometimes there wasn't a way to deal with them other than killing them. The Old Ones - do you mean the Patrons? The Pthumerians? You don't think there's a way to make some kind of potion, or antidote to beasts, for those who were human, would be feasible?

I was not, but I have been making a study of what you went through there. It was the same on Nephele--my home--too; there are monsters there that could not be negotiated with or avoided.

Yes. As they have many aspects, we use many names for them. Great Ones, you may hear, too.

[He gives a thoughtful little hum.] It may be possible, for it is certainly possible to bring a Beast back to itself without killing it. But feasible--I do not know. And certainly it is not a thing to trouble Hunters with until it is.

Are you seeking to become one? A Hunter, that is--if so, I might make a suggestion.

I still have a lot of the notes we came up with there. Things we'd looked into ourselves, wrote down to keep them from being erased, or lost. I could pull them out, if that would help. It is? How do you bring one back? No one's been able to answer that yet. I'm just gathering notes right now. But I'll listen to anything anyone has to say.

I would appreciate that, greatly. The dream's influence lies so heavily on the Waking World that it is necessary to understand, for all we who are new here.

The one method I know of a surety is a lake within Trenchwood that has great powers of restoration. A Beast who enters those waters during the full moon will shed its form and return to what it once was; all other times, the lake is poison.

I have not witnessed this myself, yet, but I take the source as truthful.

With much less certainty, I have rumors that some Night Walkers have calmed and cured Beasts, though I do not know their methods for doing so. Some have said the Beast must first be someone the Night Walker knows, and calling her back is a very personal thing, individual to the Beast.

[Which at least accorded with some of Illarion's personal experience in dealing with his own people's congenital madness. A close emotional bond made miracles possible, but also heightened the danger.]

Speak with the Night Walkers in Cellar Door. Other Sleepers, or the natives. They are the ones who seek solutions without violence first.

Sure, one second.

[He still has it on hand - old habit dies hard, after all. Keep it around for so many years, disposing of it feels wrong. He'll send it over - PSPSPS.txt]

[Okay so that's NOT the real name of the document, but that's what he'd always called it. Just to mess with his friend.]

Does the water change properties if you bottle it during the full moon? I mean, would it still be poison, even if you gathered some up while the moon was out? Night Walkers - I'm not familiar with them yet. Got any in mind?

Thank you. This is--a moment.

[He politely shuts off the line for two, three minutes while he works out how to get his Omni to read him the contents of the file.

The first minute or so is enough to convince him he's not listening to it all at once, right now. He's back on in short order.]

My apologies; I had wanted to hear what was in it. This will be very useful.

As to the water--I do not know; I have not tried. I will, next I visit the lake. [He's buried his stuff near there. That's not weird or anything.] Perhaps I may even catch a Beast visiting, this time.

I do not yet know any Sleepers who are Night Walkers, by their names--though there must be some associated with this, what is it, the Raccoon Room? You might speak to them, for what they have learned.

But of the natives, I have spoken most to a...I do not have the word for it, in Common; if they were an orc, they would be a root, neither man nor woman. They go by Hartshorn. [~~just inventing NPCs nbd~~]

Take your time. It's a lot.

[He'll wait. Patiently. It's three years worth of information, people aren't going to be able to just take it all in within five minutes. And that's fine.]

[That's why they made it, after all, to give people a chance to go back to it when they needed.]

It's okay. Don't worry about it. If you do collect some, I know a few chemical researchers who could take a look at it. See if there's any way to stabilize it, or something like that. Be careful. Oh - Yeah, I know that place. Wu's my friend, the owner. I've known him and Mako since Deerington. [Time to talk to Wu, apparently.]

I'll keep an eye out for them. Do you have a description at all?

It is that. [A lot.] But, as this is my new home, [is that a note of uncertainty in his voice? Perhaps,] it is important I am knowing the history as well as I can.

I will collect enough for their experiments, in this case. Is one of these Varian? Because if so, I will bring them to him direct, by your recommendation.

And I will be careful. [At least insofar as "careful" means "not risking Trench or anyone else in it". If it's just him at risk? Pff.]

Good! May they be able to help you. If not, Hartshorn prefers scents with ambergris and sandalwood and they are, mm, perhaps six feet tall. Slender hands with prominent bones. Their voice is lower than a human woman's but does not quite resonate as a man's; they are so quiet, they must draw close to whoever they speak to. They are more fond of the Earworm than the Red and, lamentably, cheat at dice but only for low stakes.

That's a good attitude to have. I know it's hard to accept, being here like we are, but - good for you, taking it in stride.

[If he weren't feeling so badly from October's effects, he'd have said that aloud, for maximum praise.]

Yeah, Varian is one of them. He worked on the antidotes we used in Deerington, too. Eddie might be another one to ask. He's studied to be a nurse, and he's got a good grasp on what's going to hurt or heal someone. Scents and voice, huh? That works, thanks. Might have to ask my lion for help on that one, but it's a good enough description to go off of. Far as I'm concerned, anyway.

[He can recognize a fellow father-figure when he hears one, and the praise--even rendered in the Omni's limited voice--makes him smile a melancholy little smile.]

In this thing I have no choice, so there is little reason to do other but accept it. [A pause.] And, I find, there are things I would worry about back on Nephele, back home, [like the impending end of the world, his missing daughter, why the stinking hell Esfir had him executed,] but it is to my mind as if another man must deal with them, not I. They will only matter if the, mm, subject of the worries comes here to Trench. Is this not so for all Sleepers?

[It's not something he'd exactly noticed until he had to articulate it like that, and even articulating it, he's...still not worried. Not even in the limited register he used to worry about things.

Huh. Put that one to the other Disciples later.]

Thank you for this. I believe I have heard Eddie before, making a defense of Soma; he has a large heart. [A moral system Illarion didn't entirely agree with, but a large heart. They could work together.]

Ah! [He laughs.] Yes. I do not know what they look like, of course, having not asked anyone with sight to tell me. But if I am directing more people to them, perhaps I should.

That's still a good position to take up. It's definitely not easy for new arrivals to accept it so easily - especially if they haven't been in a situation like this before. I I've been in another world for the last three years. And I still wonder what it'd be like back there.

[It takes him a beat or two to remember - right, that had been the topic of Eddie's post. Shiro had been monumentally more concerned over the teen's well being than the actual subject.]

Yeah. Yeah he does. But don't let him hear you say that. He'll deny it as long as he breathes. Oh! I'm sorry, I should have realized. It's okay, I can absolutely work with what you said already.

Mmm. [While thinking longer on the topic still hasn't triggered any worry about those he left back home--or what might have tampered with him, mind and spirit, to excise that worry--it has raised the notion that his stoic acceptance of his new lot was not, perhaps, something he chose. Or some new gift from the Waking World.

The dead never felt things as keenly as the living. Often it's a struggle to feel or care about anything; why would this be any different?] I think, this may not be a position I chose for myself, but one that comes from my nature. This is uncomfortable, to hear praise for it.

[The less said on the whys, the better, though he knows very well he's likely invited more questions than he's closed off.]

He is one of those, then? I will not trouble him too much by saying so. [But maybe a little bit.]

Do not apologize; I did not say before, and take no hurt from the assumption. It is no great difficulty for me to ask.

Or perhaps you can tell me, once you see them, to make it up to me. [It's half-teasing.]

In that case, I'll try and remember to ease up on the congratulations.

[Easier said than done, for Shiro... That's kind of a default for him anymore. Trying to help by building people up. Supporting them.]

If you tell him I sent you, he'll probably warm up a bit. For a short time, anyway. Or he'll get more contrary just because. Haha.

[Why yes, he did just type out laughing. Sorry, sir. He's a nerd like that, deep down.]

Sure, I can do that. Happy to, really.

Oh, if they are deserved, you may praise me lavishly; I expect as much. [What's better to get away from an uncomfortable situation than a ridiculous joke?]

Ahh, as I will come bearing gifts, I will hope for the former. [But expect the latter. It didn't seem kind to say so to someone who is so relentlessly positive.

And writes out his laughter.]

I thank you. Are there other questions I might answer for you?

Duly noted. I will do my best to remember it.

[There we go, that's more like it.]

Still, I'll keep my fingers crossed. That can't hurt either. Not that I can think of, thank you. I mean that.

See you do. [The smile's very obvious; it's not a command.]

You are welcome. I will tell you if I find a Beast at the lake this time and observe anything unusual. You can be contacted by asking to speak to Shiro, yes?

[He pronounces it the way the Omni does: Incorrectly.]

[Shiro... winces. Faintly. But it's fine. He's using text, so how could anyone know? Not the guy's fault.]

Yeah, that should work just fine. Unless someone else shows up with my same name.

[He is Doubtful.]

[Illarion will experience at least one (1) small qualm when he finds out he's saying it wrong.]

Such a thing may be entirely possible, with the Waking World. But that is plucking feathers before a molt. [...or they'll cross that bridge when they come to it, whatever.]

I wish you insight, from the rest of the answers you receive. Until we speak again.

Yeah, we'll have to see what happens, won't we? Thank you, and good luck with your lake research.

text; un: shiro

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player caveat ofc that some of what illarion's heard is Wrong if it's not in game info files LOL

no problem!

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