⛧ 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 ]
video;
It's very kind of you, I think.
[ It's gentle and matter-of-fact. He finds it so very reassuring too, not for the first time being so humbled and awe-touched by the sentiments of people in this world. ]
And I also think I'd very much like the chance to try and save them with you, too, miss...? [ ah, didn't catch her name. ]
video;
[ yes, she's enjoyed introducing herself in such a way—even if not a lot of people know the context. it's better than being introduced by the news reports from lagos or westview. ]
Maximoff. Since… you said your name. [ it's added a little awkwardly; she's trying to be fair. meet tit for tat. give as much as she is given.
she furrows her brows as she tilts her head to the side. ] How does being an exorcist even work?
video;
Miss Wanda, then... that's a type of fish? [ What a strange place she comes from. Anyway. ]
Ah, but being an Exorcist... it's probably not what you think. [ He scratches at his cheek for a moment, a touch sheepish. ] It isn't usually to most people. We aren't priests or anything like that. [ That title makes him so uncomfortable. ]
Exorcists are chosen by a certain kind of weapon that lets them fight creatures that are made from corruption... Akuma. Something that's made of a machine, a soul, and despair. It's a little like how Beasts are here, except that there's no living person still to save; only a human soul that grieves and suffers because of what it's become.
Our weapons let us destroy the body but purify the soul so it can be at peace again. My sword-- it lets me cut the corruption but not the living person still inside though. It just passes harmlessly through.
It works on Beasts in that sort of fashion, letting me cleanse the corruption from the soul and the body. Even if sometimes it seems like the corruption has been too strong, or they've been gone too long... sometimes there just isn't a body left.
[ Basically, he's a fighter. A sort of holy child soldier -- just a kind and gentle-hearted one, who wants to save instead of destroy. ]
video;
[ if wanda sounds as though she's a touch bewildered, that's because she is. although steve had been the type to play fairly with others, she knows the other leader of the avengers hadn't. wanda hadn't known much of stark, but she knew he wasn't much of a team player. (she liked to categorise him as such.) if allen has such a powerful blade… well, the stark way of dealing with things would be to take it up all by himself. ]
video;
Even though I have this ability, it doesn't mean I can save everyone. I can't even come close.
[ He's more sober at that, spreading his gloved hands for a moment and looking down at them. Left and right. ]
There are more Beasts of this world that one person could ever handle, ones that are usually killed by Hunters before I could ever get to them anyway because of course they can't be allowed to endanger the living still too. Even if all I did was fight... eventually, this power also breaks my body down.
[ Breaks the body down physically and begins to consume his soul and life force, basically. Who knows how long a natural life he'd live, but it's already been shaved down a lot. ]
And... I died while fighting a Beast a few weeks ago. A very powerful one. And while I don't regret it... because I died, I also hurt several people deeply. I endangered them too, because of the nature of despair here.
[ But he looks back up and Wanda and smiles then. Not a happy smile, but a quiet and steady sort of one. Bittersweet. ]
Besides, it isn't about me. Or anybody helping me. The point of this, what I wanted... it's to find other people who might think similarly. Who might want to or even be able to already help Beasts, but don't know yet that that's a possibility. Some didn't realize that Natives to Trench could become Beasts, others that most Beasts were once "human", and still others that they could be saved at all... it's more important then, I think, to bring everyone together so that maybe we could actually do some good and realize what we can all do. When before we might not have even realized these aspects about ourselves or what we could do.
[ He looks down at his hands again, flexing them for a moment, before looking back up at her. Still with that gentle and certain sort of smile, but one that's reflected better in his eyes. ]
It isn't any one person's story. It's all of ours.
video;
[ that's the first thing anyone should say, really. thankfully, death hasn't followed wanda here. it's why she's partial to the trench.
but what he says is interesting—and isn't anything that she's come across in her time at hydra or with the avengers. it turns out that there is always something new to experience and learn about. ]
I don't think anyone would want your body to break down doing this on your own. While it might be worth it, I think no monster-turned-human would want to get a speech from me. [ she smiles as she teases, ] I am a very poor explainer.
sorry!! my new job hit like a brick...
It's alright... it isn't anything I regret. [ Regretting that it hurt people close to him? Yes. Regret his actions? No.
Her self-deprecating quip gets a small laugh from him though. ]
And I don't know about that. Saying something was "magic" does seem to cover just about everything, you know?
idk how i could ever forgive you (i hope the brick has softened!)
[ magic this, magic that. magic is what makes the world go round. magic is the reason that we're all here. magic saves people just as much as it hurts them. it's a word that wanda's slowly accepting as a part of her vocabulary and as a part of herself.
life's tough for a witch sometimes. ]
I can do magic, but I can't do a card trick. [ she wrinkles her nose. ] That's magic, isn't it?