cuarya aspece

cuaryaaspece:

o- seems kind of aggressive? ->

<8> Sorry, can’t hear you over that fucking keyboard vomit in the tags.

#brhinetegere #yeah but this sucks?

o- probably should get those fins checked in that case. ->

o- this is hemophobic. ->

#o- it's meant to be a SPADE. FUCK ->

cuaryaaspece:

o- nothing, why? ->

<8> Hm.

<8> I’m going to fucking kill you.

o- seems kind of aggressive? ->

#brhinetegere #o- <3< ->

<8> Fucking hell, what do you want?

o- nothing, why? ->

#brhinetegere #o- usually you're much higher-brow than that. ->

brhinetegere:

<8> I’m serious. <8> Normally your dumb fucking blackflirting is at least endearing in the worst way but today I kind of just want to slap that stupid fucking smirk I know you’re wearing right off your dumb fucking face.

o- okay, cool, so we’re just being assholes now, fascinating development. -> o- interesting decision! it’s a new one from you. ->

@brhinetegere

o- i am putting up my hands like how they do in earth cop shows. -> o- they must’ve really beefed it, huh, this whoever nightmare person. ->

o- brhine is verbally beating the shit out of some guy on the internet. -> o- i can tell because i hear her in the next block over just frantically typing and occasionally muttering loud enough for me to hear through the walls. ->

#o- glad it's not me. ->

brhinetegere:

<8> I was already on it.

<8> Why do I always feel this sense of dread whenever you have an idea?

o- because you wish they were your ideas and you’re mad jealous of me. -> o- anyway uhhhh. hey can i borrow athema’s journal for like. a hot minute. -> o- i’ll give it back. ->

brhinetegere:

<8> I’m going to fucking scream. <8> I cannot fucking believe my ancestor came back and everyone got to talk to her except for me.

o- you should ask ash if she’ll hop you back for a quick q and a sesh. -> o- also oh shit wait. -> o- brhine i’m having an idea. ->

#brhinetegere #o- when she isn't completely shellshocked she's kind of funny tbh. ->#o- weird vibes on that one. ->

brhinetegere:

<8> Cuarya.

<8> Are you. <8> Are you on a hatch name basis with my ancestor?????

o- well i found it super weird to call her The Guardian all the time given that she was still in your body and i had to suppress the urge to blackflirt whenever she would say some dumb shit. -> o- so i guess? ->

<8> WHAT.

<8> CUARYA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

#brhinetegere #o- athema says to say she says hi by the way. ->

o- well from what i figured that you and athema would have swapped places, right? -> o- and given that athema’s body would have been in a different universe that was kind of utterly destroyed when we entered the game, it stood to reason that when the swap happened you went... nowhere. -> o- meaning that in essence you kind of didn’t exist? -> o- and my working theory was like. -> o- hey. -> o- if she’s nowhere. if she doesn’t exist. -> o- shouldn’t i be able to use my god tier powers to steal your lack of existence? -> o- pop you back into being extant? -> o- and whaddaya know it worked. -> o- patting myself on the back for that one. ->

brhinetegere:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> Do you have any questions? You watch Deimos leave, listen to their footsteps retreating down the hall. Oh, you have so many questions. You pick one off the list at random. “You never clarified what happened to the old Hall. Why did we need a new one?”

> Vex (okay, someone is going to have to give you the last three letters of her first name already) looks like she wishes you’d asked anything else. She looks down at the journal she’s still holding, flips directly to a page she’s bookmarked with a bit of jade ribbon. She says something. You must have misheard her, you say. It sounded like she said Avreis bombed it from orbit.

> Her silence is damning.

> It was a retributive strike, Vexxen explains, or at least that is what the Empress claimed. Punishment for speaking and acting against the crown, and thus deserving a traitor’s death. Vexxen looks up, briefly, and you can see the age in her eyes - her ancestor must have written extensively on this, you think, that the weight of that loss is something even you can feel, removed by so many centuries. It was end of the guild as my ancestor knew it, she says, and there is sorrow in her voice.

> “It wasn’t the end of all the Shadowsigns,” you’re quick to say. “The Assassin went into hiding afterwards, started a revenge campaign against the Empress. Went around the empire killing highbloods loyal to her, made her life hell.” You neglect to mention that he died failing to do the same to her. You think it might soil the sentiment.

brhinetegere:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> You make a frustrated noise in the back of your throat as you wipe the tears away. “I apologise,” you meet Deimos’s eyes. “It’s not just that you are a carbon godsdamned copy of Zharad - though that is strange given the rest of you look like distinct people with strong resemblances to your ancestors - but. We thought Zharad was infertile. We didn’t even know they could have a descendant.”

> You breathe, slowly, collecting yourself. You can’t control your first reactions, but you can sure as hells anticipate them.

> Huh. You look at Deimos, who shifts awkwardly under the weight of both your gazes. Well... surprise? they say, trying to lighten the situation. You put your face in your hands. Deimos... you say.

> Vexxen clears her throat again. You say yeah, yeah. Deimos, can you round up the others, you ask, and meet us in the meetingblock? Should let everyone know as soon as possible, get introductions out of the way. They say yeah sure, and abscond. “I guess... anything you want to know that we can answer?” You ask the Guardian, shaking off the weird feeling you get addressing Brhine’s body so... formally.

brhinetegere:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> Temporary. You figured as much. You have an indeterminate amount of borrowed time, and then you die a bit later than you thought you would. You can live - or, die - with that.

> Danger, she says. Danger. You turn. A troll is half-crept around the doorway, attempting to eavesdrop. It takes the briefest moment for the face to spark recognition. The color drains from your face. There’s no way. It’s not possible that it’s them, it can’t be them, you held them as they died, but knowing that doesn’t stop the tears coming to your eyes. “Zharad,” you whisper, despite yourself.

> You turn to see Deimos looking confused. Hey, Cuarya, they ask. You say yeah. Why did Brhine start crying when she looked at me. You say we all want to cry when we look at you, Zharad. They say hey fuck you. You laugh. They flip you the bird. Vexxen clears her throat and you say yeah, okay. “Athema,” you say, “this is Deimos Zharad. Deimos, this is Brhine’s ancestor - there’s some, like, weird magic ghost shit happening. Say hi.” Deimos waves and says hi.

> You wonder if every introduction is going to be like this. You suddenly want nothing more than to go grab Ashura and dip and go look for new recruits like you’ve been trying to for the past few nights. “Athema’s gonna be, uh. Staying with us for a few days.”

brhinetegere:

cuaryaaspece:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> “I threw my duel and I’m not dead yet. Both statements can be true.” Some trolls don’t die for hours after losing duels. Anyway, you probably had a couple more seconds when this happened. It’s fine.

> Right. Rest of the Guild. You wonder how many of them there are. In your version’s heynight, you were working with easily two or three dozen trolls. But this version, hundreds of sweeps after you, with the power to destroy Alternia, killing the empress, and relocating to another planet without losing their fold? You’re not sure what to expect. Hundreds, maybe. A merger with the Dark Brotherhood, even.

> You snicker at the familiarity of the look on Vex’s face.

> “You’re not dead yet again, maybe. You were definitely dead before. Unless you think it’s super viable for you to have survived in stasis for the past few hundred sweeps in a crack in the bottom of the ocean.” Not that you’ve ever been, but you’ve seen pictures. Brhine had a whole thing about it in her hive back on Alternia.

> Vexxen shifts her weight, cutting you off. “Guardian,” she says. “You are in the body of our Protected. Your descendant. How, I do not know. But you are here. Perhaps for reason. Perhaps not. This is... temporary?”

> These things generally are, you say. You don’t know that for a fact, but, in general, yeah. “Good,” Vexxen says. “Until our Protected returns, the Guild is open to you, Guardian. Safe and Escape will introduce you to rest of Guild.” She glances at something behind the both of you, and you pride yourself on not glancing over your shoulder. “Danger,” she says, warningly.

brhinetegere:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> “I am piloting a body that is functionally identical to my own as though it was functionally identical to my own,” you correct. “And I don’t think I can be a ghost if I wasn’t quite dead yet.”

> You concur with Cuarya. The moments of her life where she was completely genuine were few and far between, you add. She was a manipulative and horrible person.

> Vex still looks like she’s taking everything in.

> “You did just say you threw your duel,” you remind her. “Sounds like dead to me.” You wonder where Brhine is, for all of this. If she’s... you have a sudden horrific mental image of Brhine dead at the bottom of the ocean and decide to stop that train of thought before it leaves the station. She’ll be back, and that’s all there is to say on the matter. “Maybe I could go find Ash, ask if this is some time bullshit. Time bullshit is her purview, really.”

> Vex says yeah, maybe you should. Time bullshit is something she doesn’t really want to deal with the headache of, she says. You say yeah no kidding. What are we gonna do about her, you ask, and jerk a thumb over to Athema. Obviously she needs to meet the rest of the Guild.

> Vex steeples her fingers and looks like she’s about to make a judgement. It’s a fantastic expression when not directed at you.

brhinetegere:

Cuarya: Intervene.

> “I’m not a ghost,” you scoff. “And I don’t have unfinished business. You don’t go off to die in a duel without getting your affairs in order.” You rub the bottom lobe of your fin, thinking.

> Sveyas is gaping at you. What, you ask. You threw the duel, he says. Of course I threw the duel, you say, I was an extremely accomplished duelist before I went into medicine and you thought Avreis took me down in one shot? It occurs to you that was probably exactly what she told everyone a second before Sveyas confirms it.

> “Well, you’re piloting around Brhine’s body like you own it. That sounds like ghosts to me,” you say. This could also be bullshit anon magic, but that’s going to be a whole other conversation, and you just had that one with the rest of the Guild, you don’t feel like repeating it much.

> Sveyas looks like he’s on the verge of a mental breakdown. Are you really that surprised she lied about yet more shit, you ask. That was kind of her whole thing. Lying about things to save her own ass and her own reputation.