text | anonymous user

[unsheathedfromreality]

Three questions for other Sleepers:

Has corruption made you do anything you weren't capable of before?

Feel anything you shouldn't feel?

Given you senses you don't have?

Please reply anonymously.

Comments

[wannasmash]

Yes, but only when I knew I'd be well enough to defend myself. But that wasn't the first time either.

[ He's not quite sure why this person is asking him if he went back. But he stops wondering about that when Illarion reveals that he too is suffering from corruption. Given last month's corruption being directly linked to how badly Midoriya was feeling, he is extra cautious about managing it. That goes double for people other than himself. ]

I'm sorry. This world's magic can be pretty scary. Maybe I can help. I'm going to find my notes on managing corruption and send them to you. If none of those methods work, then it's something else. If they do, it's healing you needed anyway. It can't hurt. Have you talked to a Blood Minister?

[unsheathedfromreality]

It wasn't?

[Repeated returns speak to the character of his conversation partner. He has no intention--no desire, even--to part the veil of anonymity between them, but that can't keep him from seeking context for the advice he's offered.

This other person is young, self-sacrificing, maybe even self-denying. It's a thumbnail sketch and like all sketches inaccurate, but it's a place to start.]

I've spoken to a blood minister. My case is unusual to quote her. Symptoms come and go but are strongest in situations where further corruption is hard to avoid.

[And maybe, given the nature of the "symptoms," he might have cause to avoid full healing in the future.]

Unclear if they're absent without corruption or because the circumstances are wrong.

More knowledge can't hurt but your notes might reveal you as a caution.

[wannasmash]

[ He can tell this person is asking for more than a simple yes or no answer. ]

Yeah. There were still a lot of people who needed to be saved.

It's fine as long as it helps you out. [ If it's anyone he knows, he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. ] It's just a list of standard methods. Like incense or tea or certain mushrooms. I got most of them from people living here before I arrived.

[ Hunters, who often deal with corruption, but also just friendly neighbors. ]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[That's confirmation, at least.]

Yes. There were.

Thank you for saving them.

[For spending so much time and blood on so thankless a task. So hopeless a task, if one were being dismal about it.

(Illarion might be, a little.)]

Then I may know most of them. So I am also less likely to identify you but I will appreciate learning if there's something I haven't heard of.

[wannasmash]

Of course.

[ It just looks like a normal thank you, but the words on his screen write themselves on his heart. He doesn't know what to say. Seeing this reminds him it was worth it. If even one life was spared, it was worth it. A hero's job is to give hope in a hopeless world.

No, even before he had any chance of becoming a hero at all, he had jumped in to save someone. It hadn't been any sort of grand decision. He had just moved before he could think. That's the kind of person he is. ]

OK. I'll get that list together and send it to you later. I've got some new notes on mushrooms I'd like to add.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Illarion may never know who he's spoken to on this post, and they may never know him. He'd invoked the veil of anonymity in part to protect other's own buried feelings about their experiences with corruption.

But that did not make them any less people to him, nor any less deserving of gratitude for their actions.]

More information on the mushrooms is very welcome. They seem like one of the fastest cures.

[More the fool him for not joining in on foraging them, but then, he'd been very preoccupied.]

[wannasmash]

[ He desperately wants to know who told him "thank you," but not enough to invade someone's privacy. ]

Let me know if you have a hard time getting them. I might know a few people with some.

[ He hadn't considered dabbling in mushroom collection until they started encroaching on the safehouses he was supposed to help Mako and Ruby with. When Mako asked him to help get rid of them, how could he refuse? Still, most days it was a job best left to an actual professional. ]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[At least they were very likely to meet in person at some point, and Illarion would be no less gracious then.

There'd be a chance.]

I will in that case and not leave your people disappointed with the trade.

[Important to give fair value in these things.

Which see:]

Is there any information you want in return for your notes?

[wannasmash]

I'd like to know if they helped you or not.

[ That's a no. He doesn't expect anything in return. It's only because he's conscious of abiding by barter custom that he can afford rent and food at all. He's terrible at bartering and often finds himself doing hero work for free. ]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[It would not surprise Illarion in the least, even from so brief an interaction, to hear his interlocutor was the kind to give so freely as that.]

Easily done. If you think of something beyond that ask.

I repay my debts.

[Whether or not someone felt they owned a debt from him, he repays them.]