#instituteled

[necrcmance]

Elias / @instituteled : “ that is what I am to you, then? merely cheap entertainment??”

Malcolm: “ entertainment yes, but never cheap ; you’re a luxury brand . . . and somewhat of an acquired taste! ”

[bornbreathless-temp]

@instituteled​

"Out of curiosity, of course — but I wonder what your end plan truly is. Not here: I'm sure there are various lovely and very visceral images you thought about. But you won't ever die, and people will eventually question it. Not injuries, not sickness, not age. You might get away with it for a couple decades, but then the children of your friends die and in this day and age, nobody can escape notice. Have you ever even thought as far?" we are being a bully as per usual

What did she do to deserve this? Was she a terrible person in some past life? She’s not exactly a saint in this one, but she’s pretty sure that kind of karma doesn’t kick in until after reincarnation, so it stands to reason that she must have done some shitty things in a previous existence to be saddled with this kind of torture. Bad enough that she’s basically bound in service to some all-knowing fear monster, but to have to listen to Elias pontificating on her existence on top of that? Hell. Pure hell.

Char lets out a heavy sigh and leans back in her chair, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I know your whole thing is, like, making people have some kind of existential crisis, but don’t you ever take a day off? Being this much of an asshole all the time has to be tiring.”

Yes she’s thought about it, what’s going to happen once it gets too obvious. It’s going to happen sooner rather than later. The others will be old while she remains the same, unchanged; even within the next decade or so it’s going to become easy to see that there’s something not right and she’s going to have to come up with some kind of solution. She’s trying not to think about it too much.

[archaeval]

RUBY & JONAH || @instituteled

Send me 🗣️ for incorrect quotes of our muses ;;  

[hivebody-a]

Hey. Hey Jane. Hey. Fuck you ♥

[necrcmance]

@instituteled​ noted:    ❝ if  I had a heart, it might be breaking right now. . ❞

the words tear an almost unwilling laugh out of him, suspended somewhere between disbelief and lazy mockery. of all things— with a sigh, he uncurls the arm cushioning his head, and pushes himself up from his sprawled position on the settee, before reaching once again for the decanter ( pouring himself a glass, then, almost as an afterthought, offering to play host and pour him one as well. it wasn’t a task quite beneath him, to play host. he’s certainly played porter and guard at his and Hypatia’s little soirées. If the Victorian era had any merits, most of them were certainly in these little saloons, popping all over. theirs was merely a little more. . .. peculiar. Malcolm wasn’t quite sure if it was enough to make up for the soot and grime of the city.  )

            “ but you do have a heart, Jonah. otherwise, you would be a medical impossibility. ” he observes, jovial and pleased to contradict him, “ but in your case, I suspect it is merely the pump it’s been said to be. nothing more. pity. ”

[hivebody-a]

"Maybe Timothy is right and some things do need to be set on fire. Entirely unrelated, but would you mind stepping a little closer?" Me shitposting in your inbox?

     SHE WOULD very much mind, but she’d love to see him try. A blessing like the one of a Fear Entity doesn’t grant complete invulnerability or immortality (especially not in this case, when the very purpose behind Corruption is rotting and decaying and being consumed till all that’s left is the empty sack of a humanoid body), however it does offer the opportunity to play some rougher games. Even if surviving a fire might be out of question for her, she longs for him to try and light her up. Just wait until he’s within her reach and then bite.

     “You know, I’ve never known what an eye tastes like.” She seems to have completely ignored his question. In fact, the rotting pools that are her eyes make clear that she savored, swallowed it and will spit it right back his way. “Maybe you should let me try one when I’m a little closer.”

[hivebody-a]

So, how much in sync is she with her worms? We know she's the first Hive of that specific stem, and we know she controls them and orders them, but is it more in the way of moving an arm or telling a pet what to do? Does she catch their "thoughts" or simply the song? Do they sometimes break into smaller parts to go explore on their own and report back to her?

first of all, their symbiosis is very peculiar in one regard: neither Jane nor the worms retain full control over the other. i think it'd be easy to dismiss all she does as actions the worms tell her to do, but in fact that's far from being the case. they're in a much more mutual relationship in which Jane provides a home for the Hive (her own body) and in return the Hive follows whatever orders she might give. it's not a "mindless zombie controlled by a parasite" situation - she still retains her personality, however changed, and intelligence, and the Hive itself is smart in its very own way.

the worms are independent, to a certain degree. unless Jane tells them to do something specific, they'll be happy to crawl on and around her, even if never straying too far from her unless she is in a place she feels extremely safe and comfortable in, in which case they can also be found chilling a few meters away from her. when it comes to controlling them, to her it feels like controlling a part of her body - which is right! - although even in this case the worms are still sort of independent. they have a goal and will get there however they prefer, unless she wants them to behave a specific way. most of all, they are driven by hunger. unless told otherwise, if they approach a victim they always do so with the intent of feeding. she never loses her control on them, however: their hunger is also hers, even if their sources of nourishment are wildly different (organic matter and fear) and she knows better than acting like a feral animal. it's... a bit weird to explain how they follow her orders but are still very much sentient, independent creatures? that's the general gist of it. they never take initiative when it comes to anything that isn't lying in the dirt or her guts.

Jane can't exactly feel the worms' "thoughts", she's much more connected to their feelings and sensations. for example, if she sends them inside a room she can't get in she'll have a vague idea of who's inside and maybe even of what's in the room, but they don't "transmit" more detailed sights or sounds to her.

the song is something entirely different. it's her connection to Corruption, something that goes far beyond mere "physical technicalities" like the worms. it constantly plays inside her mind (and maybe it always has since her birth, but she wasn't quite ready to hear or comprehend it yet), whether she's actively listening to it or keeping it as background noise. she can't control it in any way.

[hivebody-a]

Do you think human witch Jane actively sabotaged her tarot deck to pull bad cards towards people she didn't like

she didn’t... but she also did. she didn’t try to pull bad cards because she respected her craft, however she might have interpreted their message much more... creatively when she was reading them to someone she hated or when she wanted to slightly manipulate a certain situation. in this latter case she never saw what she did as bad or manipulative, but then again this ties in to her ‘toxicity’ and what eventually led her friends to burn bridges with her.