trusthell | WEEK 6.

WEEK 6.

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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It does... Hanyuu doesn't quite know what to do with this, but she'll ask:]

Do you remember what that important something is...or not?

No! ... No, I don't.

[ . . . And that's the core of the issue. ]

. . . Last week, last week recalled capturing a half-breed that entered our territory [ She's too stressed to think to censor herself for Hanyuu's benefit there oops ] and I was going to teach that brat a lesson. [ "kill her" ] But then my granddaughter got in the way, and the memory faded with hr tearfully admitting that she's not a normal vampire either, seeing herself as the same as that thing.

[This all... Hanyuu tenses up, reminding herself- Elda has a different history. Half-breeds are a dead-end. Half-breeds...are just a mistake. Elda remembered something troubling her, and Hanyuu can't--]

...So you think...that something important had to do with her?

[Her words are tight, and she's only looking at Elda through the corner of her eyes. The way she's talking about it... Alani. Ouka.]

I don't know, I don't know! But it has to, right?! It has to! There's no way that she could be a half though, not unless my Henry cheated- she looks so much like me... but I saw Calera pregnant with her! I know I did, back when Ren was four!

[ Elda's dignity is starting to fade. She runs her hands through her hair, a little bit manic but a lot frustrated. ]

[...]

Besides it being a dead-end genetically... What would be so bad...about her being a half-breed?

[ . . . ] Hanyuu! Hanyuu, how much of our happiness as women, as mothers and grandmothers is tied up in our children?! To deny her that-

[ Elda's manic episode continues, but she now flashes her eyes at Hanyuu, alarmed she could suggest that ]

I mean- I understand being upset for her, but--

[Hanyuu pushes ahead, firm, her own eyes narrow.]

What is wrong with being a half-breed? I- I didn't press before, but- why do you hate them?

[ . . . Ah.

She- ]

... I don't hate so blindly, Hanyuu. Their place in the world's pitiable, to have been put in that sort of position where they aren't part of either world. Half-breeds are human the majority of their lives, but need to feed on blood every month or so. They're infertile. Everything about their bodies stacks the deck against them. I'm not ignorant to how difficult that plight is.

[ . . . ]

But why I hate them? [ She could never hate her own granddaughter. If Karin- no, it's impossible. ]

Two hundred years ago, the humans and their God killed the majority of my people [ Hanyuu already knows this ] And it was the half-breeds that sold us out to them.

Edited 2017-03-01 07:58 (UTC)

[...And now everything makes a bit more sense. A mistake, they are. A problem. If Elda could've gone back and erased someone, then-

Wait.]

That was horrible of them. Of...whoever did that. ...How many... Was it all of them?

[She keeps her voice even, almost neutral. ...Just a little pained. Selling out your own people- yes, she knows...it's horrible.

God, does she know.]

How should I know?! No, if you ask me if every single one in Europe betrayed us, I doubt it! But it was fhose tortured children that caused some great old houses to be ash now. [ . . . ] My parents, my family are all dead because they felt they were better off seeking salvation than dealing with their lot.

[ . . . ]

I don't hate fish girl for it. I don't hate your daughter and I could never hate my granddaughter. But if you ask me if I hate them, just as I hate humankind? Yes, I do.

[ She can't forgive that. She can't. ]

Edited 2017-03-01 09:50 (UTC)

What did that half-breed your granddaughter defended do to deserve your ire?

[Teach it a lesson. Just the phrase, it runs through her mind and boils her blood-]

I won't tell you not to hate them, it took decades of me to resolve my rage, and I'm not unsympathetic to you- but- the ones who did that to you are long dead, and they've no descendants to even carry on!

She-!

[ What did Yuriya Tachibana do? To Elda's memory so far, there is no answer. It's true that vampires only rarely go into each other's territories and she was (to Elda's knowledge) unannounced, so there is a certain unspoken crime to that action, or at very least a suspicion. If she was a pawn of the Brownlicks (who she now retroactively knows are her enemies) she could have been spying on them, could have been the cause of how she went into battle with them.

But that's not the reason, she knows that's not the reason.

The reason, of course, is far, far more simple.

Yuriya Tachibana was born. ]

[ And with the new context of her life here, after befriending Hanyuu, hearing about her husband, hearing about her daughter... after befriending Lusamine and accepting Kimihiro; after forgiving Silver and kissing Gold; after cooking her first meal and sleeping in the same bed as someone else other than James Marker-

After tearfully admitting that she would love James Marker even if he was a human, and all that entailed-

How can she still hold on to that?

Elda's gaze falls, She looks down at her hands. He hands are smudged with paint and sharpie, but in his mind's eye it really might as well be blood. She's not sure how much of that is the blood she would have spilled if not for those far more considerate than her in her life, if not for James Marker and Karin Maaka and far more recently Sportacus and Hanyuu and the others.

She had put her hesitation on the first week up to a failure on her part, idolized the actions of Kyrie Ushiromiya. She had resented Varric Tethras's characterization of her on the second week, when everyone was so sympathetic to Alani.

A lot weighs on her heart now.

A lot she has no real resolution for.

But she ... she can certainly say one thing, and say this true. She knows it's not enough, certainly not enough for Hanyuu. ]

... She did nothing wrong.

[It isn't.

It's a selfish thing to know, that it isn't enough. But because of Ouka, because of her past, Hanyuu finds this a subject she can't be impartial on.

She's a god, but here...it's like she's almost human. As human as the rest of them. She's another person. So it's not enough, but it's a start, and she does recognize that this is, truly, difficult for Elda.

This is a big step for her.]

That's what I thought.

[She allows herself that one statement, before continuing on.]

If...your granddaughter is a different kind of vampire. Something...like a half-breed. I won't tell you not to mourn what she may have lost...but still, celebrate that she's alive. Instead of looking at her as a tragedy...look at her as a miracle.

[ That hurts. That hurts so much to hear out of Hanyuu. But then she can't possibly call that unfair, given how she is, how many snipes she has said just in the last five weeks alone.

... This wasn't the conversation she wanted. It was probably inevitable though.

At a loss for anything to say to Hanyuu, she just completes the circle: ]

"Elda Marker ... was complicit with allowing her granddaughter's memory of her family to be erased so that she could live the rest of her life as a human."

[That stops Hanyuu entirely.]

...What?

[She feels like she doesn't quite understand what she just heard.]

[ Already at her wits end at the point she came down here, and pushed further both by Hanyuu's confrontation of her and snipe at her at the end there (even if she did deserve it, of course she did and were she less upset she'd actually appreciate that they're close enough to have a snipe like that feel natural), Elda wails this next bit. She wails it, and unless stopped is going to slam her fists into the ground with each word ]

Elda Marker! Is complicit! To make her granddaught- To make Karin! Forget her own family! So she can live as a human! That was the secret Wordsmith gave me!

Edited 2017-03-02 07:39 (UTC)

Elda...!

[After the first few slams, Hanyuu reaches to try and stop her from continuing that. She's going to hurt herself, they aren't as strong here-]

Elda, don't!

[ It's true, and her knuckles are actually starting to bleed a little after the first few. She manages to stop, caught up in Hanyuu. But she also nakedly sobs now, crying. But it's not the desperate sort of sobbing she did at the memory of James's death, a hopeless pained this. This one is more frustrated - confused. Scared. Angry.

So very, very angry, like her hot tears flow out her rage ]

Wha-- why would we do that?! How could we do -- that?!

[ Who cares what happens to hr body. If Karin- ]

[So much... They haven't addressed this morning. They haven't addressed anything hanging over them from the afterparty.

But this, this is what's hanging over Elda right now. And in a way, this is addressing all that, isn't it?

She pulls Elda over, so she can cry into her chest.]

I don't know... I don't know, Elda. Maybe...to give her something...the life of a vampire couldn't.

[It's in a pained way that she says that. It's like she thought a long time ago, in a way. Kinder, different, but- if the child is going to suffer anyway, then, it might be better if-

Hanyuu can't be too upset. She hasn't shared some things with the other woman either.]

[ Cry she does. And really, it probably says far more than Elda could ever say out loud that Elda curls ino the other woman, that she wraps her arms around her, crying into Hanyuu's chest. She worms her face there, as if to wipe her tears.

Something the life of a vampire couldn't.

That's the same as giving up on her, isn't it? Silver had pointed out otherwise, but.

Karin was such a late bloomer, going to school at sixteen. ]

[The last few weeks, Elda had listened to her, in whatever way she could. Despite any disagreements they could have, Hanyuu- it isn't in her nature to sit by when another suffers.

Especially not a friend.

So she holds her, and pets her hair, and lets her wail. They can sort out everything else later. In whatever way, the loss of family...it transcends all fights.]

[ Elda Marker doesn't have near the wherewithal or the selflessness to comprehend their argument right now - let alone more tangential things like whatever apology she owes Vanille - beyond the emotional responses she has in this moment. In this moment, a sea of confusion, fear, and conflicted memories are all stirring, whirling in his mind.

And Elda Marker cries. Wails. Bleeds a little, on her knuckles.

But she also appreciates the warmth of her friend, the one who she had been putting through far too much on her behalf but who she had been trying so hard for as well. There's some irony in leaning on a god when you've so defamed a holy place.

The thought isn't entirely lost on her ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

WEEK 6.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

... cw: referenced abortion if you squint

no subject

no subject

no subject