WEEK 6.

[trustwellness]

WEEK 6 With the deaths of Viktor Nikiforov, Varric Tethras, and Killia, you're down to half of your original number. There's only fifteen of you left. How much longer before your number drops again? Saturday is given to regrouping and rest; on Sunday morning the clock chimes as it always has, but at least there are no bodies to find today. It seems you're safe for now. The night before wasn't necessarily a peaceful one, however; you'll probably feel a bit groggy when you wake up, and it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... Of course, that doesn't mean that you've gained nothing else among the many, many losses you've faced; it seems that another floor has been made available to you for surviving another week. Congratulations and well done, even if you might not necessarily appreciate the reward. APPRENTICES REMAINING: 15

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[OOC: Welcome to week six of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Wordsmith, you can do so through letters or the switchboard!]

Comments

[oyashiromama]

...Did you really not- the letter you wrote to me! Your vague annoyance at me talking about the others- a- au, Elda, you can't say you don't see how this looks!

[matchbreaker]

No, I see no real oddity in how it looks but that our friendship is so strong!

[ ... She said.

Her hands sort of air groping as she remembers Hanyuu's tits.

#thisisaraltag ]

[introspects]

Yeah! So...that's what Kimihiro-kun and I are planning, to save everyone after we get out.

I experiment all the time! Have you never tried my cooking, Phi-san?

[introspects]

Because you two are best friends, right? So...it makes sense!

[ SHE'S SPARKLING...KIRA KIRA ]

[introspects]

Okay...I wanted to talk to you about that.

Have they gotten any of our letters to them, yet?

[introspects]

Ooh! Why don't you use that, then? You can fix them to your liking--here.

[ orihime steps aside to let guzma do what he wants! as long as he doesn't scratch up everyone else, it should be fine!! ]

[introspects]

...You...you really mean that?

[ he might be, sure. but a lot of it is her insecurity talking, too; her fear of being helpless. useless. especially while they're here. ]

1/2

[matchbreaker]

[ Best...

Friends....

She....

Oh... ]

[matchbreaker]

... If you see it like that, I suppose we are!

[ #wishfulthinking ]

[introspects]

...Silver-kun, I want you to be honest. Are one of those people you were willing to kill here now?

[ she's not quite getting that silver realized that he really can't bring himself to kill anyone. she's more worried about the safety of everyone else here. ]

I think Kimihiro-kun's watching over you enough. I just have to be sure you're not planning anything.

[oyashiromama]

[...]

Well, there's no place for me in it. At least- there wasn't, all those years ago...and it doesn't help...when you keep saying the part of me I hate is what you love. When you...in front of everyone...remind me that I'm different. That you love...that I'm different.

[Hanyuu looks down. She's ashamed at this, really. But it's how she is, she doesn't want to be anything but a normal girl, a normal woman.

Answering everyone truthfully here, telling them no, she's not human, she's not anything like that- she had to. People tend to be more angry...when they find out you've deceived them.]

Do you understand?

[oyashiromama]

...

[GESTURING!!! WILDLY!!!! AT ELDA'S HUNGRY HUNGRY HARASSMENT HANDS!!!!!]

[matchbreaker]

[ She almost says "that's not true" the moment Hanyuu speaks up with that first part. But Elda... remains silent. She allows the other woman to speak. And when she finishes, Elda bites back any of the first things she intends to rage out. No, instead...

Instead she closes her eyes. She takes a step closer to Hanyuu, hoping the woman will allow her to more enter her personal space. And then she locks eyes with the other woman as she opens them. ]

Hanyuu.

Will you allow me to speak, without interruption?

[matchbreaker]

[ Looks down at her hands.

Looks up at Hanyuu.

Looks down at hands again. ]

... That's merely my surprise.

[trustwellness]

YES.

[oyashiromama]

...

[She nods, still looking away. All she wants is for people to understand. Especially someone who keeps making such statements.]

[oyashiromama]

It looks very much not like that.

[matchbreaker]

You tell me that you hate this part of you. You hate your heritage, you kind, you deny yourself. And yet, you also told me that you hold pride in your godhood, that in me denying that I've offended you and all that's sustained you for many centuries. Those two truths, to my ears, are so contradictory that it burns them - that your difference, the difference you accept exists for the benefit of the humans.

To me, nothing could be more sad.

[ As in genuinely tragic, not pathetic. ]

.... I hate humanity. You know this to be true. But I've also lived alongside these people for many weeks now, and I've been forced to accept them, their species and my hatreds and all. And I have begun to wonder, as I've considered what you demanded of me last Sunday, as I've pondered Killidia's words and the retorts of Orihime, myself, and others: perhaps, when it comes to the souls of individuals, perhaps the difference of species and kind is immaterial. And perhaps, in the world where humanity is not so wretchedly blind, a more ideal world where I could imagine the likes of the bean sprout and Silver and Orihime to be the norm rather than the exceptions, in a just world… you would never have to hide your horns.

Certainly, as I said, you have every right to that world, just I have every right to mine. It doesn’t matter is the ratio is millions to hundreds, as it is mine, or even millions to one. We are all, as you might put it, Children of Earth.

[ . . . ]

Yes, I love that you are different. I embrace that part of you that you apparently hate. Your horns are intriguing to me. Your people and that language they have fascinate me. The claws I saw you dig into the podium captivate me. All of these things are true. That difference excites me, to know that there is another besides me who is so different here, and to have experienced that difference in body and mind firsthand. I want you to celebrate those differences with me.

[ Something which seems increasingly unlikely, and she knows it. ]

... You ask me if I understand. I am trying, and if you hold what you are to be so shameful, I will do what I can to no longer highlight it. You are a woman, a friend before all else.

However I have begun to wonder, though I cannot yet believe it myself, if humans, devils, and demons… if all those and vampires share the same soul. And if that can be true, then perhaps no one species is better or worse than any other. That’s… what James believed, in any case.

[ She sighs, finally. And the spellbinding seriousness she held as she laid her thinking before Hanyuu passes. ]

... But all of that is my own mind’s wanderings. You asked me before to understand, and this is thus far what I have tried to comprehend. Perhaps there is no truth to be found in any of it.

[ She seriousness doesn’t quite return, but she does straighten her shoulders as she finishes with: ]

Know this, though: What I love about Hanyuu Furude, or High Rune Isaeo Muuru Jeda or whatever name you could choose to bare is nothing less than that very soul.

[ and she hopes that both counts as understanding, and is enough for Hanyuu to understand her ]

greenhouse

[byday]

Keeping yourself busy, I hope?

[Bruce has been taking to the greenhouse quite nicely. He mentally notes the plants as he goes along, but he stops to greet Hanyuu when he spots her.]

[matchbreaker]

[ ...!! ]

Well, I am quite certain it is.

[ And okay, righting her hands ]

Perhaps the truth of the matter can be settled with sport.

[feistytrader]

I'm not planning anything. You can keep an eye on me if you don't trust me.

[But he's not answering her question. Instead, he's decided that he's done with this part of the conversation, and he'd much rather go climb up one of the trees in here.]

dining room

[byday]

I appreciated your note this morning.

[does bruce have anything better to do, honestly? the guy just seems to appear from nowhere sometimes. it's kind of annoying.]

The vial is new.

1/2

[oyashiromama]

[Somewhere through all of that, around the point of talking about Watanuki and Orihime and Silver, and a different world, a better world, Hanyuu looks up.

It's slow, and her hands are still cupped around her horns, especially her chipped one, the injury she received from her own daughter so many centuries ago, but over time they fall. The hair on her arms, sticking up, slowly begins to fall.

And it's like... It's like looking in a mirror.

A mirror back to a lonely god, a lonely spirit, a lonely person, finding the good in humanity once more...because she so desperately craved for it to love her back.]

2/2

[oyashiromama]

E- Elda...

[Those hands have fallen to right in front of her chest, where they are clasped. ...And she reaches one of them down, to very gently take Elda's hand. It's more like she's grabbing a few fingers, in her own shaking one, unsure- but.

Her words are murmured:]

I-I'm... I've asked...so much of you, and now... [Her vision blurs with tears.] What it took me...centuries to learn, I-I've asked...and yet...

[There's an unspeakable amount of pride for Elda, and shame for herself, and exhaustion and pain in those words.]

Th- thank you. Thank you, so very much.

[matchbreaker]

[ It really is. ... But she'll be civil for now. ]

I got it from the vending machine the other day. It's actually one I used back home.

[ She'll just nod in acknowledgement of his thanks. ]