text; un: padlocks

[enblightened]

those capable of magic i need you

i need to better bind myself

enchant or curse or whatever you do hold me back just hold it back all of me

i need more bonds more locks more

oh i am not enough


[cw: mention of cannibalism in comments]

Comments

voice; private; un: brazier

[holyjudgmental]

Bigby. Do you hear me?

[Calm, soothing; the voice of the vestal, not the woman, the way she sounds when she bends herself over a wound.]

[enblightened]

I hear you, oh I hear you especially now.

[holyjudgmental]

Be still, then, and tell me where I may seek you out.

Text - UN: CentaursTesticle

[alternia_strength]

[For once, this idiot was actually arguably useful. It was a January miracle.]

My ability to draw things into existence was not impeded by a recent shedding incident that will not be discussed. Exactly how strong are you when you are in the vicious bark-beast form I witnessed the other day? Or is this stronger?

I need a rough estimate before fashioning the bars and bonds. Others can perform enhancements if necessary. Actual "Magic" is not my forte. I craft materials.

[enblightened]

No! No, you cannot, for how deeply I have failed us all! I am what you have always known me to be. Abomination! Monster!

[enblightened]

is this a mockery

you think me not a threat oh I remember

yet now there is no taking it back for all of the flesh I have devoured!!!

[alternia_strength]

In fairness, you are almost certainly a threat to me at my present condition. I am not as strong as I normally am. It is less a 'mockery' and more a confidence in my normal abilities.

But, at present I am capable of producing the necessary bindings for others to use. I simply need to know how strong to make them.

[He seemed not to even care about 'how much flesh' had been devoured. then again, given Troll diets...]

I can work with high-tensile steel if you do not know. Plate or thick bars.

[holyjudgmental]

Do not speak so. You trouble yourself further. I will come to bind you down, and this will pass, as it has always before.

[enblightened]

As always before! Always, and have I always partaken flesh of my comrades before? Drank their blood like a wine, feasted on their meat?!

Do not join them, Sister.

[enblightened]

if you speak truth then make it the strongest you are able

for even then, perhaps it shall not be enough without proper magic

[alternia_strength]

I will work with the fashioning of a full cage in that case. The best materials I am able. We will need to find someone else skilled in "Enchantment" either by the standards of this world with its sanguine obsessions in performative work, or someone with magic from their world. That kind of enhancement together may be sufficient depending on raw potence.

Give me a short while. Where should I have the cage delivered?

[enblightened]

NO

NO CAGES

[alternia_strength]

Very well. What precise form of bindings are we looking for? A metal cell, or shackles to keep you bound? I'll want dimensions to get this right.

[He was entirely in the 'I'm creating' mode, which was that rare state of mind where Equius was actually... constructive. It helped that he was focusing on specifics for construction. He couldn't be as awkward and stupid.]

[holyjudgmental]

...I do not fear your teeth, or your hungers, whatever it has done.

un: trienemybest; text

[droptheious]

[Buddy :(]

Bigby, what happened? Why do you think you're not enough?

voice; un: bad.apple | private forever

[laniidae]

[Oh. He'd told her about this — something like this — before, hadn't he? When they'd first met on the beach, and she'd called herself a monster. When she'd asked who put his chains on him. It's eerie to read the disjointed sentences and perceive the terror raging behind them, the horror of the sad, gentle man who she's always taken to be less of a monster than her.]

Bigby. Listen to the sound of my voice. All right? You focus on me. It doesn't know me, but you do, don't you? Of course you do. So, with me. Are you with me?

[enblightened]

Why now, so suddenly, a change of heart?

[enblightened]

it came to be my fears

i am what i have said

i am a danger

[enblightened]

[When he speaks, his voice is strained as he tries not to weep. It torments him, the things that were done. Things he's certain he had control over but--]

I-I am. Renfri.

Oh, Renfri, I cannot get it out of my head.

[enblightened]

chains or shackles or both

do not cage me do not cage me

[laniidae]

I know. But you're not in your head now. You stay with the sound of my voice.

[Sooner or later, she's going to need to try to figure out what it is, but this isn't the time to make him recount it, and thereby relive it.]

I want you to look yourself over, now, and tell me if you're injured. Just that. All right?

[enblightened]

[There's a bitter laugh.]

I am uninjured. Despite it all, I am whole and terrible. Alas.

[laniidae]

And you're someplace quiet? Away from people, where you can be calm?

[It's not hard to guess how that might be one of his worries, right now, so.]

[enblightened]

...I stay in the woods, for such a reason. Yes, I am alone.

[laniidae]

All right. Now tell me what happened, and we'll take care of it. If that means chains and locks, or something else, then so be it. But we'll sort that out. Understand?

[Let's not just rush hastily into things, says Renfri, a hypocrite.]