⛧ Aʟʟᴇɴ "ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴇsᴛ" Wᴀʟᴋᴇʀ ★ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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deernet2022-05-21 05:40 am
likethelight) wrote in deernet2022-05-21 05:40 am
video; un: an.exorcist
[ Deep breath, come on, you've got this. ]
...just because someone becomes a beast, it doesn't mean they stop being human.
[ The video comes on and it's an older, slender teenager with stark white hair; pale grey eyes and a strangely delicate bright red mark slashed across the left side of his face. He seems to be in a courtyard of sorts, one of Amaterasu's guardian saplings is behind him in full bloom. He's only visible from the chest up, but the chair he's sitting in has handles behind it-- looks like a wheelchair. Whatever is taking the video also appears to be a flying sort of thing that bobs slightly. It's trying to hold this video still, but really... ]
Most of you probably already know this. [ His head cants to the side with a lightly apologetic smile. ] Some of you might even be able to still hear or reach them despite that form.
But not everyone does, and it's still too easy to say "oh, it's safer and quicker to just kill them. You don't save monsters." [ The official creed of the Hunters... but he's diplomatic enough to not say that aloud. ] Or "oh, a Sleeper can just come back." Except it isn't just us. Someone else who isn't... most of them who were human... they aren't like us. [ He smiles softly, but in a way that doesn't reach his eyes. They hood, bittersweet. ]
They're just dead then. The soul suffers until the end. Maybe beyond.
It doesn't have to be like that though. [ He seems a soft-spoken sort with a lilted voice, but his tone shifts then and becomes more certain. ] They aren't just a monster, and they don't have to stay one. Even with what they've become -- the soul is still human. Some part of them still wants to be saved; to be themselves once again. And they can. [ Mostly. At least so far in his experience. ]
Some of us have abilities that can let us purify or reverse what corrupted them and bring them back. Some of us-- [ he pauses, looking for a moment just a touch overwhelmed as his eyes drift to the side, the smallest curl of a touched sort of smile at the corner of his mouth ] ... a number of us, we're trying to do something to change things. At one of the old monasteries in Crenshaw.
[ But he closes his eyes. Deep breath, you can do this.
He lifts his eyes back up to the "camera", his expression schooled now with a quiet sort of determination. Chin up, eyes forward. ]
My name is Allen Walker. I'm an Exorcist. [ Clearer, more certain: steady. Rung like a quiet bell. ]
Who's been able to save someone who became a beast?
[ More importantly: ] Who wants to?
[ It's more determined and clearer still. ]
...just because someone becomes a beast, it doesn't mean they stop being human.
[ The video comes on and it's an older, slender teenager with stark white hair; pale grey eyes and a strangely delicate bright red mark slashed across the left side of his face. He seems to be in a courtyard of sorts, one of Amaterasu's guardian saplings is behind him in full bloom. He's only visible from the chest up, but the chair he's sitting in has handles behind it-- looks like a wheelchair. Whatever is taking the video also appears to be a flying sort of thing that bobs slightly. It's trying to hold this video still, but really... ]
Most of you probably already know this. [ His head cants to the side with a lightly apologetic smile. ] Some of you might even be able to still hear or reach them despite that form.
But not everyone does, and it's still too easy to say "oh, it's safer and quicker to just kill them. You don't save monsters." [ The official creed of the Hunters... but he's diplomatic enough to not say that aloud. ] Or "oh, a Sleeper can just come back." Except it isn't just us. Someone else who isn't... most of them who were human... they aren't like us. [ He smiles softly, but in a way that doesn't reach his eyes. They hood, bittersweet. ]
They're just dead then. The soul suffers until the end. Maybe beyond.
It doesn't have to be like that though. [ He seems a soft-spoken sort with a lilted voice, but his tone shifts then and becomes more certain. ] They aren't just a monster, and they don't have to stay one. Even with what they've become -- the soul is still human. Some part of them still wants to be saved; to be themselves once again. And they can. [ Mostly. At least so far in his experience. ]
Some of us have abilities that can let us purify or reverse what corrupted them and bring them back. Some of us-- [ he pauses, looking for a moment just a touch overwhelmed as his eyes drift to the side, the smallest curl of a touched sort of smile at the corner of his mouth ] ... a number of us, we're trying to do something to change things. At one of the old monasteries in Crenshaw.
[ But he closes his eyes. Deep breath, you can do this.
He lifts his eyes back up to the "camera", his expression schooled now with a quiet sort of determination. Chin up, eyes forward. ]
My name is Allen Walker. I'm an Exorcist. [ Clearer, more certain: steady. Rung like a quiet bell. ]
Who's been able to save someone who became a beast?
[ More importantly: ] Who wants to?
[ It's more determined and clearer still. ]
[ ooc: for those who want to poke around in person, there is also an open mingle log for Sanctuary!
CW: mentions of prior character death throughout ]
CW: mentions of prior character death throughout ]
no subject
So absolutely nothing like this, then.
Where I'm from, monsters come in all different shapes and sizes. Some of them are just blindly violent with no mind of their own. Some of them are closer to what people wind up turning into when they're further along in terms of Corruption. Their worst nature drawn to the surface and nothing but the impulse to act on it that they'll do again and again and find it fuckin' orgasmic. All of them can probably be rehabilitated. One of my best friends is a vampire, for one, and he's apparently not the only decent vampire out there. Other vampires tear down towns, seduce people with the "I'm so tortured and tragic" routine only to systematically ruin their lives and kill everyone they love before turning their victim into one of them, who will then go on to inflict the same torment on dozens more people. Those ones can be saved too. They never want to, though, and if you bring them back to themselves they'll fuckin' hate you for it.
Beasts here aren't as complicated, for the most part, but there's no one way for them to act. Don't think you were around for the Leviathan, but that was a beast too, and it would've wiped out half of Trench if we hadn't killed it.
Like I said, what you're doing is a good idea, I'm not discounting that. If you find a way to purify every single beast in Trench, make it organized enough so that you'll reach beasts in time before they start killing people, then yeah, you've solved it, no more death. [And she'd be without purpose, so it's a good thing it would never happen. She doesn't share that thought, small and scared and greedy.] But until you have your miracle cure, you can't make wide sweeping sanctimonious accusations about the people who fight and die to keep this place from being overrun.
Our work and your work aren't mutually exclusive. I already bring people live beasts by request for their own experiments in corruption and reversing it. [That's what she tells herself God does anyway!] I can do that for your people and other hunters will probably agree too if you don't, you know, try to guilt trip them.
no subject
Both can have their corruption purified entirely by the right ability, and the actions of the body are separate from that of the soul. The person they were before is just as much a victim as well. I know, because I can see and hear them. [ Souls? Yeah. ]
The only difference is that in my world, an Akuma is already dead so only the soul can be saved. Here, the person they were before is still technically alive. Can still technically be saved. No matter what happens, it should be about trying to save as many people as possible. Even when the choices are hard.
[ "Sanctimonious accusations" has him pausing though, a little thin-lipped. As does her overall tone. But... ]
...I don't think our work is mutually exclusive, either. I was a hunter at first too-- [ she has to be, after all, speaking like this ] back when I first woke up in November. Even if we go about wanting to protect people in different ways.
If what I said came across as accusatory or a "guilt trip", I'm sorry. [ Legit not his intent. Sometimes he puts his foot in his mouth when he speaks from the heart; the curse of youth and passion. ] All I want is to find other people that might think similarly, or who don't know and want to understand. So that we might be able to come together to do exactly that and find a better way so fewer have to die.
But I'd like that, I think. If you'd let me work with you.
no subject
She's still convinced she's right, more or less, that his plan isn't a viable replacement for regular hunting, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have merit. That there's no worth to be found in saving people who have already fallen. She, herself, was pulled back from the edge some time ago, and she owes Angel that much.
Still, her pride demands she doesn't apologize.]
...Alright. I can do that. [She frowns.] Just let me know if there's a certain kind of beast you want me to get. I think they can sometimes require different ways to restore them.
no subject
Mm. Any that you can safely transport. And if you can't, someone here could help with that? A number of us have abilities that let us control or contain them as well, to help reduce any risk.
[ A pause, a hint of deeper smile quirking at his lips. ] If you need to call on anyone else to come fight, too. Most of us can.
But there are people volunteering as healers or offering corruption relief, and there's a sacred tree that was planted by Lady Amaterasu. It can help with corruption and settling one's thoughts, even if you just want to sit by it for a while.
[ He does smile outright then, a little more warmly as he tilts his head. ]
You're welcome to make use of those at any time.
no subject
[She tries not to be offended by him asking if she needs his own hunters to fight with her. It's not like he knows who she is anyway, or like her title carries much weight here. But in her own world, the idea that the Slayer has friends to fight with was something that Buffy had and she never did. A Slayer is supposed to be alone. To fight alone and to die alone. It's different here, but... a selfish part of her wants that power still.
And it's not like she doesn't have people in her own circle to patrol with her anyway.
The meditation... well, her psychiatrist did tell her to do that more.]
Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. I don't really need any help at the moment, save it for the people that need it. [So naturally the answer is no.]
no subject
Ask him: he died a few weeks ago because of that. And he wasn't the one who suffered for it.
But, he also knows better than to ever push someone without having extremely good reason to -- and he can respect that sentiment, honestly. If under different motivations. ]
Mm. [ He gives a nod, smiling lightly despite the vague not-quite-bristle. ]
Alright then, miss...? [ didn't catch her name ]
no subject
[It feels weird. That was always Buffy's cute little introduction and not hers, but...
Fuck it. It's what she is.]
no subject
Still, he gives a nod. Still with that quiet sort of smile. ]
Faith, then. [ She doesn't seem like she'd like being called "miss Faith", after all. ]
no subject