video | un: wisdom

[mashiara]

Right. Meet Kharil-asuk, ( she gestures to the side, where... it's incredibly difficult to tell there is a massive, unreasonably large snake god in the dappled shadows of the foliage. ) who assures he'll donate his venom if any of our number confess to him the darkest crime you've performed. He promises no retribution, only a start to redemption.

Which does not include devouring. Regardless. Please help. I can walk away and leave my pendant with him, or I can stay. As Wisdom, I've heard the best and worst of people many times before.

( She waits, expectant. Any who does confess a crime, betrayal, or sin can (on player choice) feel more at peace with it or relieved, for up to 24 hours. What brief kindness! )

Comments

[mashiara]

( gestures weakly to all fox demons and just nods, bet someone went for the monkey king too okay )

His ignoring everything I asked in turn.

[wifedup]

How kind.

( In a tone that suggests he finds it anything but. )

Are there any lingering effects from the drug he has made you consume?

[mashiara]

Slow to leave the system, still some infringing on ease of normal movement and the illusion or truth of having senses sharpened into beyond one's normal form. Hallucinations heard and seen have ceased.

[wifedup]

It acts as a paralytic?

( Why are all of these people just drugging themselves? )

You should drink water, try and flush the remnants out of your system.

[mashiara]

No, more intoxicant, without the other effects from alcohol, or some of the smoked kinds I'm more familiar with. Aside from the water I hauled out with me, more will have to come when I'm hauling myself and Jon back into town. City. Whatever we're calling it out here.

[wifedup]

( ... )

Is Jon the snake?

[mashiara]

( a pause, and she laughs in a sharp exhalation, partly a scoff that's aimed up at the snake, given how she turns her head. )

No, Jon's one of our own. The man bound to the one named Irenia, I believe. In some manner or another. The snake is called Kharil-asuk.

[wifedup]

( He knew that. He did. It's been a long couple of days. )

A shame, I was ready to judge it for the name alone.

( Is he above getting petty with a weird snake god? Absolutely not. )

What do you think it will do with these confessions once he has them?

[mashiara]

Feel superior. As he's already inclined to do.

[wifedup]

Ah, surely the great snake god must be above all mortal ideals. Unless he isn't, which is far more interesting.

Is there a quota on confession? A sliding scale?

[mashiara]

He's a snake, the scales are endless.

( Dry. So very dry. )

He hasn't stated a limit to his appetites.

[wifedup]

Ha.

I once put a rat in my mother's bed, does that count? Or do the crimes of a child interest the snake not?

[mashiara]

( arching... a brow so pointedly. )

Dead or living?

( Two very different pranks, in that case. She doesn't approve either way: children, however, were children. They had endless capacity to learn otherwise. )

If that's your darkest held crime in your heart, he'll swallow it. Supposedly.

[wifedup]

Dead.

Though I didn't kill it, I had a dog.

( Some days it is harder to remember a time when killing would have made him balk, but he's sure there must have been innocence at some point. )

Ah, so it must be the darkest? Mm, my crimes are hardly worth talking about, but even so I would be cautious. A kindness unsought usually comes with traps beneath.

[mashiara]

Not the kindest or wisest thing to do, but far from the worst sort of pranks children pull on parents.

( Such as it is, and she doesn't sound approving, only acknowledging. )

Or is the mark of one wishing to help, with or without the skill to offer any. In this case, I'm more inclined to believe the trap is any feelings that follow being temporary, if you yearned for relief. Because things like that can't come from outside. Not if they're going to last.

( Self-forgiveness, which is the hardest, and not something she herself is skilled in; and the question again of "crime." )

[wifedup]

Mm. She did beat me three streets over, so I learnt my lesson.

( She also died, but Wen Kexing isn't going to think about that. )

So you don't believe Kharil-asuk would use these confessions for ill?

[mashiara]

That's... one form of education.

( Not the best, not the worst. Simply one form of many, and what else will she say? Nothing on that right now, because she sees in the same instance the half remembered face of her mother, her father, passing through the woods, laughing. Crying? Whispering familiar words, and gone again.

Illusions, born like the rest from the depths of her heart and mind. )

I don't believe he has that intention, or that desire. Not that he's deigned to answer in asking, which may be answer enough. Why would he deign to repeat what we've said?

[wifedup]

( He got off easy, he thinks, though the memory is painful for different reasons. )

Why would he deign to want to help at all? All things have motivations, to think they're of a charitable nature without recompense is usually a fool's game.

( Says Philanthropist Wen. But that's entirely why he's suspicious in the first place. )

A cat cuddles up to you so you'll feed it, a dog offers you company so you'll house it, a snake offers to soothe your soul, there's bound to be a need in return.

[mashiara]

In my opinion, you've already answered that question. Whatever he gains from the confession is a form of sacrifice. One of the others answering here states that's something like an offering. Which, to a god, may well be the compensation from the start.

Anything we get is deigned and unnecessary.

[wifedup]

Well, I'm certainly glad I've never put much stock in the heavens.

( Achingly polite in a way that implies he's not being polite at all. )

I thank you for your time, however. I'm afraid I just don't have anything more to offer Kharil-asuk. But I wish you luck.

[mashiara]

As long as myself and John aren't lost in this overgrown jungle, that's luck enough.

( and a sudden cessation of the communication, because she's... still partly hallucinating and Busy, and he's made his end of the conversation clear enough for her. )