eastbound | A PSA from your local 'silhouette among silk spreads'

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A PSA from your local 'silhouette among silk spreads'

Okay. We need to have a talk, guys. Seriously.

Can we maybe not bring people home to torture any more? Please? I get that we need to learn shit but can we maybe try to do so in a way that doesn't break the god damned Geneva convention? Fucking thanks in advance.

Two: whoever is cleaning up my notes please stop. I had almost an entire paragraph written out on the kitchen floor the other day and I was so close to figuring something out, and then when I came back it was gone. I know they are chalk and I know they look like scribbles but they aren't. I'll clean them up when I copy them down!

[ ooc: around the farm house you will find chalk drawings randomly on assorted and varied surfaces. sometimes walls. he's also used an icicle to carve some thoughts into the dirt just outside the main door. All of them are written in code save one set in one of the rooms that has a little picture of a woman with a violin and then the word 'Vanya' underneath. Otherwise they are intelligible, even with translation. Feel free to say that he even used your characters rooms/doors/sheets/anything else that may be a writing surface in any given moment. ]

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I'm sorry! I thought it was just old dust and things leftover by previous tenants, and it was already hafl rubbed out, so I figured I'd finish clearning....

[ A VERY HEAVY sigh but apologies work very well on Canadians, so instead of berating him further he just says: ]

It's fine, I should have warned you. And I appreciate the cleaning help. Just - yeah. If you find any of my notes again, you can always come ask me what to do with them? Sometimes I forget that I put them there...

[ Fox is probably getting used to hearing this bone-dry, deep drawl by now: ]

You do know this place isn't so medieval that they don't even have old-timey flimsi, yes? 'Paper' or whatever it's called. You can come borrow a sheet and flop it at the sellers demonstratively out in the market if you'd like. It's absolutely unsanitary to expect everyone else here to just not clean things.

[ forget the torturing bit he's pretty horrified you've been taking notes on the walls okay. ]

[He's just been told this bracelet thing is a comlink, on top of being a translator. But--it's just shiny rocks on a string! That makes no damn sense, they've got to be messing with hi--]

Wait, wh--?

[It's talking? It's talking. Somebody's on this channel and he is too what the f--

He stares helplessly at the bracelet for a minute.]

Didn't copy that, what? Missing context here on the torture. [what's a jeneeva is that good or bad]

Did you just call paper flimsy?? And I have been using paper - what do you think i copy down my chalk drawings in? But paper is at a premium and doesn't offer a lot of space. [ Don't ask him where he got the paper because he sure as hell didn't buy it. ]

But sure, my notes are the unsanitary parts of this house, not the blood. Sure, sure.

How can you miss context for--

[ Wait. A deep frown. ]

Wait, who are you? I don't recognize your voice.

...you know... flimsiplast? [ god only knows what the quartz translator is making of these names, but Arche sounds a little confused that it needs explaining. Surely they at least have flimsiplast on planet Canada. ]

And blood is exactly the reason you shouldn't be scribbling your.... whatever you're scribbling... just anywhere. You can't guarantee all the walls and floors and surfaces are going to stay clean without actually cleaning them, for crying out loud. Don't be ridiculous. Though I know for a fact they got all that blood up perfectly nicely, I checked myself--

[ there's a pause before he gives a little sniff ] Torture, though. I don't know what you think you're talking about anyway. No one's done anything of the sort around here as far as I've heard, and [ dryly ] I do try to keep on top of these things.

I just got here, I don't--wait, where's this even--

...Please tell me I'm not hearing voices in my head, that's a bad sign after taking a hit.

[ (Look. He's going to try to be a person here. Don't expect too much.)

He was wondering who was taking up valuable real estate, but it's not like he couldn't have guessed it in two. That habit might just be the most relatable thing he has to Fox. It's a pain in the ass having to flip through pages when it's so much easier to see the full picture when he's got his equations up on a wall. The only reason he resorts to notebooks is because he knows he'll be working on something long after they move.

Five does at least have the sense enough not to write on the floor though. Kitchen tables, sure, but -- ]

Maybe it's time to start carving into the wood.

[ What do they care about leaving this place how they found it? The ones who do are going to be pissed regardless. Honestly, the blood would have been fine to leave too. It's a great warning for trespassers, but nobody asks him. ]

.... How do I tell what is notes and what is just dirt, though?

... Because dirt is dirt and writing in chalk is writing in chalk?

Like--

There's no way dirt is randomly going to take those patterns, man.

Flimsiwhatsit? [ you can actually hear him squinting in confusion ] ... Flimsy plastic, you mean? I mean, that's -- yeah, they definitely don't have plastic. Of course they don't.

My notes. The notes I need to study how the hell magic here works, what the fuck the mirror even is, and how the hell I can learn to thrall crystals for myself. Those are the 'whatever' I'm scribbling. And I can clean them myself after I get a chance to copy the notes down! [ narrator: he never finds time to copy the notes down ]

Oh, okay. Sure. Mister Lord Death Brigade who flings people about on a ship with a wave of his hand and has to be talked out of murder definitely is the torture watchdog I would trust to keep track of these things. One hundred percent.

Edited 2021-06-07 20:43 (UTC)

Ooooooohhhh, you're super new. Even newer than me. Uh - Welcome? Is that what I'm supposed to say? Hi.

You're not hearing voices, I'm communicating to you through the thralled network on the crystals. I wish I could tell you more about the nature of the spell than that, but I'm still working on it.

Are you okay? Do you need medical help? Where are you?

That is the opposite of efficient.

[ Apparently he has no concept of sarcasm, he takes the suggestion at pure face value. ]

I use chalk because it's fast, and I can get my notes out at a speed relatively okay to how fast I'm thinking. If I had to carve - well, either I'd be wasting components to enchant a knife to carve for me----

Actually shit that's a good idea I'm putting that on my list of possible enchantments to sell down in town. Not knives, obviously, that's a recipe for disaster, but quills, maybe? It'd be like fucking Castles and Chimeras or some shit. Damn. Shit, where's my chalk--

Hi, whoever this is. Didn't copy any of that, really. [Sure, he heard words, but they didn't exactly string together into anything that made sense. This was going to be one of those planets, wasn't it?]

Farmhouse, east wing--if the sun rises in the east on this planet, I've got no idea. Unless you've got proper bacta, I don't think it can be helped.

When have you had to talk me out of killing anyone? [ there's another confused frown in his voice now. This whole conversation has been a little baffling, though plainly he's less upset about it all than Fox is. ]

Anyhow-- [ the bone-dry note in his voice only grows deeper ] Obviously I keep track of these things because if someone's been tortured then usually I was either involved or should've been. [ he sounds darkly amused now ] Surely you're not actually surprised about that, hm?

But if you're talking about the two men we lost recently, it was very much not such a case. I suspect you are speaking without all the facts.

Edited 2021-06-07 20:59 (UTC)

Oh sorry! Fox. I'm Fox.

How about I make introductions in person? I don't have - uh - proper bacta, whatever that is, but my aunt was a great healer so at the very least I should be able to do something about it. Just give me - [ A crashing sound can be heard not only over the crystal, but also from a little ways down the hall of the farmhouse. ]

Woops- ow - sorry sorry! -- Just give me one minute --

[ 37 seconds later Fox appeared, his dark curled hair a little wild at the top, the sides starting to grow in as he hadn't been able to shave it in a while. His face, though, was at least still clean-shaven. It drove him crazy otherwise. He was wearing distinctly not local clothing, his hoodie and baggy cargo pants both sporting magic symbols etched on them that glowed faintly as he jogged over before muting down to something closer to the colour of the fabric. His sneakers had seen better days since they were currently filling in for snow boots, but he wore them proudly all the same. ]

Hi! Hi, I'm Fox! Ah - Sit down? Let me see your head --

Dude, literally three days ago you were like, ready to throw down with some guy in the middle of the street for being a dick and the only reason you didn't murder him in broad daylight was because I was glaring at you the whole goddamned time. Okay, fine, so maybe there was no talking involved but let's be real, you really had a field day with zombies and I have no doubt in my mind that kind of experience isn't limited to the undead. Or did you just murder a lot of training dummies back home?

You mean the two men that we brought here, interrogated while they were suffering and let them suffer until deciding only after we got the information we needed that we would 'put them out of their misery' and kill them instead?? Am I missing something??

I probably am missing something because I'm sure we could do a hell of a lot worse. [ Little does he know. ]

Wait, back up to the other thing, when in the world did I--... I don't go around slaughtering civilians in the street, all right, that's far too conspicuous. [ probably not helping your case here Arche ] Anyway, I suppose such a thing could've slipped my mind, but it's not like I would do anything worse than a little strangling or something-- [ still not helping your case ]

Ugh, nevermind, it's not important. You shouldn't be spouting off if you don't know what actually happened. They tried to help those men, they wanted to. You're the one always out here insisting we have to know how everything ticks, aren't you? The people who brought them in treated them the best that they could, and were asking questions to figure out how to try to help them, for stars' sake.

And when they figured out there was nothing to be done to stop the undead transformation, those men requested a quick, clean death.

Wouldn't you?

Anything worse than a little strangl-- Can you actually hear yourself, Archie? Can you?

[ He lets out a hard sigh. ]

Knowing how every thing works is not at all the same as holding someone captive, trying to help them or not! And no, I wouldn't ask for a quick, clean death, because that's it, that's the end, there's no fixing or helping anyone aft--

[ He abruptly halts, forcibly being reminded of Mingyu's timeline. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. ]

Whatever. Whatever, I just fucking hate it. I hate this whole fucking place and the whole fucking zombie thing and we should just leave.

Don't call me that.

Some of us live in a world where we don't have the luxury of sitting around calling ourselves pacifists and tut-tutting everyone's ethics. None of us asked to be here, all of us who give two shits are doing the best that we can. What alternative do you propose? Would you have rather left those men to suffer just so you didn't have to know that they were out there, being eaten away by their transformation? There is nothing we can do for them. I wasn't the one to make the kill this time, but I will not stop giving those beings the only mercy we have to offer them.

I suppose I'm glad for your sake that you've never been in a situation where death would've been a nice alternative.

[ at least. so far, anyway. He thinks about the story he heard from Mingyu and -- well. There's nothing Arche can do about some of Fox's illusions inevitably getting shattered in this hellhole, but... hopefully the guy will at least come through less battered than he could be. ]

And it's not as if any of us want to be stuck in this place. We're all getting out of here the moment we have the means. But there is no guarantee the road ahead will be any easier than this.

[ He doesn't need to talk to him of all people about the benefits of chalk. Five spent decades writing on walls in the apocalypse, he knows about chalk. But it doesn't surprise him that he gets distracted a minute later. ]

You're still doing that, huh?

[ Selling enchantments, he means. Please take note of the effort put forth for this small talk. ]

I'm Slick. If you're--[He glances up, trying to locate the source of the sound. Doesn't take long.

The glowing clothes didn't phase him too much--glow panels and fiber optics weren't common in civvie clothes, but not out of the question either.

Everything else was A Lot right now, though.]

Woah, easy there, kid. [Fox was definitely older than he was, possibly in more ways than one. Still wasn't going to stop him.] Tell me what you're gonna do first.

... Yes, but when people walk through them, it doesn't really look like anything anymore?

And I have sen weird things, you know.

[ At least he didn't immediately launch into every nickname for Archeval he could think of. ]

I would have taken them back to their families and tried to figure out how the fuck to help them from there, and if I couldn't, let them spend their last days with people who actually loved them.

These weren't nobodies. They didn't spring out of nothing for us to use and then toss. We had no right to dictate what their final moments are. And for the record, pacifism doesn't mean I don't believe in the right to medically assisted death for terminally ill patients - which is essentially what they are. But we kidnapped them and then let them beg for death and you think that is ethical on any level?

Don't fucking talk down to me as if I don't know how shitty the world can be when you don't know where I've been or what I've done. [ His voice is hard. ] Or what I will do. Just because I spend every last fucking ounce of effort on trying to find the best possible solution to something doesn't mean I'm ignorant of the fact that sometimes the best fucking solution is awful. But we didn't even try for that.

Of course there's no guarantee it will be better. It will almost definitely be worse. What's your point? That if we wait around and interrogate a few more innocent people that have been subjected to fucking necromancy possibly because of us [ thanks no thanks lee chang ] that it will somehow get easier? Or better?

Uh - the enchantments? Or the chalk? Because I'm never stopping the chalk, the chalk is mine, we're bosom buddies forever.

[ Speaking of bosom buddies: better be careful there, Five, or he might start believing that you're friends. ]

As for the enchantments - yeah. The merchant is taking a hell of a cut but the last thing I want to do is get my face known around town for anything. Especially magic. I like having street cred, just not to undead necromancers please and thanks.

Slick? Nice. That makes us a Slick Fox. [ He chuckled at his definitely hilarious joke before raising his hands as if in surrender when given the indication to back off. ]

I'm going to look at your head? [ He said, confusedly. ]

I need to know what you did to it, if you broke skin or cracked your skull or something. Can't help when I don't know what I'm helping, yeah?

Edited 2021-06-11 01:27 (UTC)

Well, just -- chalk dust looks and feels different than normal dust, so just - try to distinguish I guess.

What weird things?

Can't fault the enthusiasm, but I don't know you. [He gives the kid a once-over, trying to... he doesn't know. Gauge what this one's deal is.]

I just got here from a bad place, alright? Getting examined doesn't always mean good things.

[He sighs. He'd do a lot better with the attention of a medic, but he's not sure how much can get fixed on this planet. But if this Fox has something that can help...]

Probably took a punch here, [He taps just below a cut on his scalp, surrounded by a gently curved bruise. A clone's gauntlet plate would leave that kind of mark, though he didn't remember what had happened.] then hit the back of my head on the way down. [He tapped another bruise back there.

If it had just been those injuries, he would've been fine. Maybe a little anti-bac in the cut, but you walked those sorts of things off.

Or at least, that was what had to happen for clones.] Definitely concussed, I don't remember the hits. Headache, unsteadiness, that whole bit. [Unfortunately, he'd felt it all before, more than once, seen it a lot too. So he knew what it was and how much it was.]

It's been a few days since it happened. It's not the worst, but it's slowing me down.

[ Five doesn't make friends, don't make this harder for him. He's purely keeping an eye on him and what he's doing. ]

I wasn't aware you had an arrangement with him. [ He's surprised he's getting so involved, but maybe he shouldn't be. Fox might not be alone in his deals with him. Worth noting.

After a moment, he adds: ]

What are you working on now?

Edited 2021-06-11 17:37 (UTC)

... Well, I've been around for a very long time, so it would probably take too much time to tell. Let's just say that what looks like old incantations is not something that would make me stop.

[ Arche would probably deserve the nicknames, but perhaps just as well that Fox didn't. ]

My point is that if you're going to judge from on high you shouldn't be surprised at a little pushback.

You weren't there. You don't know what we tried for, what the plan was, or how anyone felt about how it turned out. 'Kidnapping them and letting them beg for death', are you even serious-- [ his teeth are gritted a little -- this wasn't exactly his own ideal or planned outcome to the whole affair either, but having the efforts of someone as compassionate as Eleven dismissed in this way is simply intolerable ]

Think what you please about me, I'm not looking to be liked. But people much better than me were involved in this and they did the best that they damn well could to give those beings every help that we could manage, that they asked for. I will not stand around and listen to you talk out your ass calling them torturers and murderers.

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A PSA from your local 'silhouette among silk spreads'

un: deft hand of little deaths [Voice]

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[handmaiden of unsheathed swords] voice posted:

un: what a load of pollocks [Voice]

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I CAN READ forgive me

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