#ic lore

[rubyscout]

Sighs.

"That ten year time dilation I was stuck in with Hakuro... I can't stop thinking about it... Sure, I honed my mercenary skills. Hunting as well. But..."

He groans as he drags his hands down his face.

"I developed a smoking habit... Yeah, sure it's been...what? Four years since I quit? But...whenever I get stressed I...I get cravings."

[crimson-warrior]

After visiting Hakuro, take care to go back from where you came from and not go deep into the woods he lives in.  You may step through a fairy portal or encounter something unpleasant.

[sandersgrey]

The Tale of the Woman

There is a tale whispered from reincarnate to reincarnate, intended to soothe the pain of remembering.

It is said that there once was a man with a silver tongue, so clever and persuasive that he could convince the stones themselves to wake up and dance with him. He was beautiful, with hair as dark as the night and smile as bright as the stars, and though he had many friends,  and more admirers, there was only one person who was closest to his heart.

It was a woman, a warrior of strong body and stronger heart, who carried a sword that had not magic, but could cut through stone for its sharpness. She was brave, and cunning, and, above all, she believed in herself and in him.

Their hearts were joined. Not in marriage, for the woman did not love the man in that way, but in a ceremony that would become the precursor of the partnership only reincarnates have. Although she did not love him in the way of romantic stories, she did love him, and promised to spend the rest of her life by his side. The man, who loved her as well, promised the same.

And so they spent many years in harmony, until, as is told in a different tale, the man fell in battle.

The woman did not weep, for not all grieve in the same way. She laughed instead, a sound bitterer and more painful than any tears, and kept her silence for many days.

In the thirtieth day, she spoke.

"Do we know of any human who might have saved a loved one from the land of the dead?", the woman asked, although not so clearly and not all at once, for the days spent in silence had damaged her voice.

One of her friends, too glad that she was speaking to be wary of the subject, answered.

"We know of Orpheus, although he failed."

"Even so,'' the woman said, "it seems arrogant to assume that there weren't any."

"Even if there weren't", spoke a different friend of hers, known more for their philosophy  than for their tact, "it does not mean that there will never be one."

"That's true", the woman said, and silenced herself once again.

That night, the woman left her room and her friends behind. The path she took is not known, nor how she found it, except that there had been many crows there on that day and the next. What is known is that she found a way into the land of the dead and that, without telling any of her friends, she took it.

It was foolish, for her friends would have followed her and their skills and loyalty would have been helpful, but it is impossible to be always wise.

She walked for what felt like many hours, although she did not grow more tired. The sky grew greyer, and the very Earth seemed to lose color the more she advanced in the path. The woman could feel eyes staring at her back. She did not turn around, for she was not that much of a fool.

After a while, there was a black river and its Ferryman. 

"You do not belong to the land of the dead", it said.

The woman thought of lying, for her partner had been the one with the silver tongue, but she had lived long enough by his side to have learned some of his tricks.

"Am I not mortal?", she said. "Are my bones not destined to decay?"

"But not yet", the Ferryman answered.

"No, not yet for me. But there is someone I love and was taken, and I want him back, if he wants to return."

"All will return in their specific time", the Ferryman said.

"But it will not be the man I knew, as the house I live in now is not the house I grew up in."

"And what will you offer me for the price of the passage?"

"Why must there be a price?", the woman said. 

The Ferryman said nothing, but allowed her to get on the boat. The woman did not look at the shadows under the water, for she knew she did not want to see what was there, and they did not demand her attention.

On the other shore, she thanked the Ferryman. It bowed its head to her, and kept rowing. 

The woman kept walking. All was grey, now, although she knew that it looked so to her because her heart was still beating. The spirits she could feel around the path were not all unhappy. It was not a terrible place to live in.

 After a while, there was a crow. It spoke in human language.

"What is a living human doing in the land of the dead?", it asked.

"Taking back what was given to me."

"Aren't you scared?"

"Yes. Aren't you?", and the woman kept walking.

The crow did not follow her, for it was afraid.

The deeper the woman walked into the land of the dead, the darker everything grew, until she had to make use of a gift her late partner had given her: a single crystal in a chain, which had absorbed the sunlight while it was available, and now gave it back.

Guided by the sunlight she had taken into the land where no sun was ever seen, she walked on.

After some time, there was a ball of light.

"Who are you to decide who is to live and who is to die?", it asked her.

"Who is a doctor to decide? Who is a woman?`` she told it. "We have been deciding since the beginning of humanity. Do not pretend otherwise."

The woman kept walking.

The light did not follow her, for it was ashamed.

Finally, she arrived at the castle where Hades lives. The skeletons at the door did not stop her.

"Leave your weapon behind", spoke out Hades from his throne, "for it will do you no good in my palace."

The woman hesitated, for her sword had saved her life many times, but finally she left her weapon at the door.

"Hades", she said. "Your Majesty." And then turned to his wife; for it was winter on the surface, and she was with her husband. "My Lady."

"It has been a long time since a human last tried to save a loved one from us", Hades said.

"Not from you, Your Majesty,'' she answered, "but from death."

"That is true", said the Lady.

They stood in silence.

"Do you not know that it is considered wrong for one who was dead to be brought back to the land of the living?"

"Then, Your Majesty,'' the woman answered Hades, "you should keep me here in your halls forever, for my heart has once stopped beating as well."

"Only for a minute."

"What is the limit, then?"

"We are not your gods", the Lady said. 

"You are not. I have no gods, except the one my people raised me with."

"Does she not disapprove of what you're trying to do?"

"I see no reason why anything I ever do would be of her interest."

Finally, Hades sighed, for he knew mere words would not convince the woman. "What do you have to offer to us for your beloved?", he asked.

"I had my friends", the woman said, " but I left them behind with the living. I had my fearlessness, but I left it behind in the path. I had my uncertainty, which I left behind with the Ferryman, and my unwillingness to admit fear, which I left with the crow, and my indecision, which I left behind with the light. My sword, I have left behind as well."

"What do you still have?"

"I have myself,'' the woman said, "and everything I have learned. I have no silver tongue, but I have strong arms."

"Go", Hades said.

"Where?"

"Away from this palace. You have nothing I want."

"That does not bother me."

"You are lying."

"I am,'' the woman said. "Are you not?"

"Why should he come not and not any other?"

"His name will be said until the end of the time,'' the woman said. "And while the name is alive, is not the person as well?"

And Hades paused, for his wife had rested a hand on his arm.

"Do you love the one you have come to save?", the Lady asked.

"Yes."

"What if he does not desire your rescue?"

"Then I will leave him here, and go back to the land of living until such time in which we will see each other again."

The Lady bowed her head in understanding. "Then leave here your sword forever more,'' she said, "for I understand that it is a part of you. And for that price, we will send you back with you beloved."

"I am grateful, my lady,'' the woman said, "but that certainly cannot be all of the price?"

"It is not, for you have done your part, and part of the price must be paid by him. If he is willing to go back, it will be with the full memory of what happened to him, and that is a price high enough."

"I understand." She did not, but one day she would.

They say that was the first reincarnate; as the Lady waved her hand and the man was alive again in front of the woman. They embraced each other, for neither of them could believe what had been done.

"Do not look back", the Lady warned the woman as she started her way back to the surface. 

"I will not."

And although the woman was suffering of doubt many times in her way back, she remembered well the tale of Orpheus which had been told to her, and in no moment did she turn around. The ball of light followed her, and she did not turn. The crow followed her, and she did not turn. And when she got onto the boat of the Ferryman, she left them behind on the other shore.

Who she did not leave behind was the man, who wrapped his arms around her as soon as they were back in the land of the living. And they lived in harmony for the rest of their lives, until such time in which they saw the land of the dead once more.

That is why the Lady is considered the patroness of all reincarnates; for she created the first of them out of someone's love.

[crimson-warrior]

Hakuro’s natural scent would be best described as earthly.  Just a hint though.  It is only detectable by those with sensitive noses. Like vampires, werewolves, and the like.

[ambers-stitch-n-bitch]

IC Lore: Take the long way home

Izabelė had a mantra she kept repeating to herself whenever she felt lonely or overwhelmed while living abroad: This is only temporary. I'll go back home soon enough.

As much as it helped when things felt tough, it also flashed up whenever she considered getting into a serious relationship, making any other kind of long-term commitment, or buying something that wouldn't fit into either of her two suitcases, or the largest UPS box she could afford.

She watched others in her circles celebrate important milestones: adopting pets, moving in with significant others, marriage, home ownership, kids. Meanwhile, she still lived like a student, almost a decade after graduating, in shared accommodation and spending as little as possible on herself.

It was all OK though, she was just there to study, then to gain some relevant job experience, and finally to make sure her baby siblings would have the same opportunities she'd had. There really was no point making plans for a future that hinged on her staying where she was.

Even if every time she went back to what was supposed to be home for a holiday or birthday, she felt more like a stranger, as if she was trying to fit back into clothes she'd long outgrown.

[ambers-stitch-n-bitch]

IC Lore: Friendly Ties

Moving abroad to study and work in what was euphemistically called a "fast-paced environment" taught Izabelė that few relationships forged in these circles survived even the slight inconvenience of one party moving to a different course or department, no matter how deep that friendship seemed to be. Iza learned to appreciate the time she had with people until they drifted apart and not take it personal if they never heard from each other again.

It still stung badly when her longest-running circle of friends suddenly imploded due to drama that did not even involve her and she wasn't invited into any of the resulting offshoot groups. All it did was remind her that when she did allow herself to get invested in people, they would always be more important to her than she was to them.

Iza was still reeling from that particular experience when a former colleague emailed her about a job opportunity in the States. He'd moved there two years prior and quickly climbed the ranks - a testament to his determination - and was now heading a team of data analytics consultants he reckoned she'd make a perfect addition for.

She almost declined, mostly because she already only got to go home twice a year and moving not just across the Atlantic, but to the edge of the Pacific would make those visits even more seldom. However, she couldn't shake that feeling of inertia, watching everyone around her evolve and progress while she remained static. Maybe it was time for another change, a clean slate.

[ambers-stitch-n-bitch]

IC Lore: Final Draft V2 (1)

Version 2 of the server was a glorious frankenbuild combining hardware from several rings and the realm of the living. The upgrade meant they could improve security and introduce data redundancy and automated backups. Procuring the Wikipedia archive files was the interesting part, as even with the high compression, they were rather big at over 100 GB for the full English version and almost 40 GB each for Spanish and Russian.

Luckily, Laz had their ways of getting people to do them small favours while they visited Earth, and soon returned with the precious cargo stashed on a portable hard drive. The moment of truth came when Version 2 first booted with all parts of the system and both sets of data in place. Minor adjustments to some of the configurations aside, everything worked as expected, right up until the first time Amber sat down in front of her laptop with some notes she'd collected to amend several articles.

The same articles were already updated - by her user name - with a new section containing what looked like a stream-of-consicousness version of her notes. Further editing was still needed to bring them into proper form and add any media files gathered, but the details were all there.

The behaviour was reproducible over the next few days. Amber started to keep track of the exact time she took her notes and compare it with the timestamp of the page edits. It turned out that articles were created and updated before that, likely just as the information in question became available to her.

She also realised that she could recall articles she'd either created or previously made major edits to. It would appear they had stumbled across one of Amber's abilities - an oddly specific one at that, but seemingly in line with the common observation that a sinner's base abilities tended to be related to their interests or professional occupation.

[ambers-stitch-n-bitch]

IC Lore: Housewarming Gift

Izabelė heard about Fernanda looking for a housemate through a friend of a colleague when she just so happened to be looking for a new place herself due to rent increases. Over coffee with her, Iza learned that the poor girl was recovering from an ugly split with her former fiancé, and her arrangement with a friend of hers to share the new apartment had fallen through at the last second. She currently worked at a science museum while looking for a job in her field, astrophysics. They got along really well, so Iza decided to take the room.

Two weeks after she moved in, there was a knock on the door in the evening. They’d ordered pizza for their movie night, so Iza didn’t think to check the spyhole before opening the door and found herself face to face with a man she recognised from photos Fernanda had shown her. He loudly demanded to see her roommate and attempted to push his way past her, despite her best attempts to diffuse the situation, eventually grabbing her by the throat when she wouldn't budge.

You could take the girl out of the dojo but you couldn’t take the self-defense training out of the grown woman even years later. Like hell was some random dude going to manhandle his way through her to get to somebody else! Iza jabbed her thumbs into his eyes, prompting him to loosen his grip. The elbow of her right arm came down hard on his forearm, breaking his hold on her entirely. As he doubled over in pain, she slammed the same elbow into his temple. He crumpled to the floor at last.

"You are going to leave and lose this address," she stated flatly while standing over him, with a look that calmly invited him to find out what would happen if he didn't. He took this as his cue to scramble onto all fours and out the door, cursing her as he went. Iza closed and locked the door immediately before glancing over the shoulder at her roommate to make sure she was OK. "Sorry about that!"

Fernanda had watched all this go down from her position on the couch, absolutely terrified and phone in hand ready to call 911. But now a huge smile started to spread across her face. "¡No mames! You've got to teach me some of those moves!"

Iza awkwardly rubbed the side of her neck. Surely it hadn't been that impressive a display. "Don't think I'd make a great teacher, I'm horribly out of practice."

This was when she was first confronted with Fernanda's own special move, her giant puppy-dog eyes. "Come on, it's not like I can rely on you being my knight in shining armour at all times."

That was sound enough logic, it was definitely not the flawless Puss-in-Boots impersonation that swayed her. "... fine, I'll try. It's gonna be really boring in the beginning though. You gotta learn how to stand correctly before you get to punch people."

"Great, so when do we start?"