InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "you look a wee bit lost"

🌸 Miracle Country Mods 🌸 (miraclemods) wrote in miraclecountry,
@ 2018-06-03 20:33:00

Current mood:	productive
Entry tags:	! event, ; memory loss event, chise hatori, chloe decker, chloe price, ciel phantomhive, cisco ramon, eliot waugh, harrison 'harry' wells, kady orloff-diaz, lucifer morningstar, quentin coldwater, sakura kinomoto, sebastian michaelis, tulio, william 'penny' adiyodi

all week 🌸 open
[It's been some time since the world's magic has played in this way. But some of the eldest residents will probably notice some of the signs.

It all feels normal at first, as normal as life in Miracle Country can get. But people will start to feel off in some ways. Like something's missing... or more precisely, like they're losing something. Important memories, and the feelings attached to them, they're slipping away, shed in the form of magical feathers that people will lose here and there throughout the day. The way to recover these? Someone else has to pick them up for you.

When they do, they'll be sucked into a dreamlike state, along with the owner of the memory. You'll dive into a dark, empty place, only to watch at a distance whichever memory was lost. Only when it's been shared, will this memory return to where it belongs - and of course, while happy memories can be shared, some of them can be painful to experience again as they're recovered.

Then again, it'd be painful to lose them forever, right? Even the hurtful things in your past make you who you are now. So you might even end up seeking for someone to take a feather for you, to give those important memories back. And if you leave them alone, if you ignore them, maybe someone you don't want taking them will do it instead... the feathers might find their way into the wrong hands - any hands, as long as they can get back to you. They don't want to be separated, afterall.]

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	belovedchild 2018-06-17 06:10 am UTC (link)
	Ah-- [sees his reaction and that he's seen the feathers, and nods a little.] Yes... I'm uncertain what to do about this. It's a lot, isn't it? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

servingdinner
2018-06-23 06:45 pm UTC (link)

Quite, [he agrees with a thoughtful nod.]

Certainly it will not do to simply let them lie around like this right outside the entrance.

[And don't they look familiar? It only takes him a couple of moments to place the familiarity of the last memory event... but might as well make certain, no? So he reaches out to touch (this "caution" thing comes slowly and not very naturally for Sebastian) one of the falling feathers--]

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belovedchild
2018-06-26 05:06 pm UTC (link)

Oh-- [she starts to say something, maybe warn him against touching it, but it's already too late before they're thrown into the dark dreamscape of the memory.]

[The memory starts to play shortly after-- relatively short and rapid fire of different scenes leading up to Chise getting the dragon arm; saving the baby dragon, fighting to protect it, and ending up absorbing its hatred and pain into herself. There are many people around in this memory, but likely Elias is the most noteworthy considering the whole. bone-ness of his everything; it's clear right away that he's not even remotely human.]

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servingdinner
2018-07-08 03:58 pm UTC (link)

[Sebastian was half-expecting to be hit with the full emotional impact of whatever memory they were about to experience, so to instead be made an impartial spectator is... unexpected, but certainly preferable.

It isn't that he hasn't sensed anything "off" or supernatural about Chise - it's that nearly every human Sebastian has met here has felt "off" somehow or other, and he has long since stopped really reflecting on whether or not it means something other than "human from a different world than himself". But to think there would be something so dark about her...

He tilts his head thoughtfully as he witnesses all this, witnesses Elias... and by the end of it he's looking thoughtfully at Chise herself rather than at the very end of the memory.]

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	belovedchild 2018-07-08 10:43 pm UTC (link)
	[She, for her part, looks just on the edge of shell-shocked to suddenly have all those memories return to her-- to see Elias again, to remember Elias properly... and the arm itself.] [Instead of looking at Sebastian, indeed she just seems dazed... lifting her sealed arm to look at it with a new understanding, looking speechless for a long moment.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-13 04:12 pm UTC (link)
	[He, too, cranes his head to get a better look at the arm.] How interesting. May I look closer? [...The overwhelming sympathy.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	belovedchild 2018-07-14 09:36 pm UTC (link)
	[Looks at him silently for a moment but then does hold it out to him so he can inspect it.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-15 07:54 pm UTC (link)
	[He takes her arm - with due gentleness - because apparently "look" incorporates "touch" in Sebastian-land. Eyes widening slightly as the two of them make contact.] My, my... [What a peculiar sensation, now that he's actually touching the arm with the knowledge of what that vague vibe he's feeling is.] Might this be likened to a curse? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

belovedchild
2018-07-15 10:33 pm UTC (link)

Yes, it's-- it's exactly that. A dragon's curse.

[As he's holding it, he'll be able to tell that it's pretty expertly sealed-- if it were unsealed, the arm itself would be larger than Chise entirely, and while it's oversized like this even now, it's sealed and bandaged, but looks like it might burst at any moment.]

Back home... there was a young dragon that needed to be saved. We went to rescue it but-- all she wanted to do was go home and she was full of bitterness, hatred, and madness. Each dragon has pure power within it and champions of old used to drink their blood to get that power-- for me, I drew the fear, pain, and anger into myself and it became like this.

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servingdinner
2018-07-16 04:33 pm UTC (link)

Yes. I saw it,

[he gently confirms, perhaps needlessly. It's good to have an explanation of what it was he witnessed, in any case - Sebastian himself has never dealt with dragons. On that note, it's interesting that an animal like that would be capable of such strong feelings of hatred and despair.

Still holding her hand, he moves his free hand down her arm, taking in the sensation. It isn't the hatred and pain of a human, but channeled through one like this, it's almost enticing.]

A noble action, miss Chise, [he says - regardless of whether her taking on those emotions was voluntary or not - with something that almost sounds like faint amusement.]

Such actions are their own reward, of course. ["I can't imagine it's pleasant having this inside you."]

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	belovedchild 2018-07-16 05:21 pm UTC (link)
	[Shakes her head...] I did it because I could. And because I wanted to. It's proof... Proof that I was able to think of someone other than myself. [...] But then, perhaps it's still a selfish action, if that's what I wanted to prove. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-16 05:57 pm UTC (link)
	[He smiles slightly in answer. It's not the purest example of selfishness, perhaps, but...] Self-delusion, I have found, is one of the most human characteristics there are - more common even than selfishness. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	belovedchild 2018-07-16 06:45 pm UTC (link)
	Is that so? [Hm...] Do you think that's true of me? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-16 07:12 pm UTC (link)
	You said it yourself, no? If that is what you wanted to prove, "perhaps it is still a selfish action"? [It's less self-delusional than many humans he's known. Yes, he does think her selfish, and wanting to think more highly of herself than is strictly realistic.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	belovedchild 2018-07-16 07:27 pm UTC (link)
	[She nods a little, not looking offended or anything. Just grateful for the lack of sugar-coating or trying to appease her. It's nice to have that confirmation, in any case.] My whole life I've been selfish. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

servingdinner
2018-07-16 07:35 pm UTC (link)

[He nods, once-- either in agreement because that's how humans are, or simply to show he's listening.]

Your life has been difficult, has it not? [Chise has talked very little of her background, but Sebastian thinks he's gathered that much, at least.]

Selfishness is a useful, often necessary, trait in such situations. [Again, it's not meant as reassurance, exactly. It's true, after all.]

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	belovedchild 2018-07-17 02:02 am UTC (link)
	[It's likely the fact that she hasn't talked a lot about her background that can reveal that it hasn't been an easy life, yes. She doesn't deny it, in any case, merely nodding her head at the question.] It's true. I wouldn't be alive if not for my selfishness. Sometimes, I hated that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

servingdinner
2018-07-17 05:21 pm UTC (link)

[Hmm...]

It comes down to priorities, does it not? If you value your own life above everything else - as most creatures do, when it comes down to it - you are willing to sacrifice any other principle to save yourself. But if there is something you value higher than even your life... well, then there is the risk that you will die for it. Actions rather than words or ideals show one's true nature, no?

[He shrugs lightly.]

To my mind, neither standpoint is superior. If your life is your highest priority, you will live. If you value unselfishness, you might give your life, but there will be satisfaction in that.

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	belovedchild 2018-07-17 08:58 pm UTC (link)
	I guess it's more accurate to say that, for me... it wasn't a matter of living or dying. More, it was a matter of being useful to someone before I did die. That is... I wanted to matter. To someone. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-18 03:56 pm UTC (link)
	Ah. To have lived not solely through the force of your selfishness, but of someone else's wish for you to live? A very human ["and therefore selfish"] desire. Have you been of use through your apprenticeship, then? [Presumably... not, if she feels the need to go around taking on dragon curses.] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	belovedchild 2018-07-19 05:40 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. [She knows how selfish she is... it doesn't necessarily bother her to think it, at least not in this context perhaps.] I know that... I've been important to him. I become more selfish in that I want more and more... I finally started thinking that I didn't want to die, and now this curse will kill me. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	servingdinner 2018-07-19 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	[And rather than look distressed or compassionate, Sebastian merely smiles.] Exquisite, is it not, that bittersweet pain? Would you wish as ardently to live, knew you not the finity of your existence and what you will be robbed of? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

belovedchild
2018-07-20 06:05 pm UTC (link)

[Probably one of the few people in this place who isn't immediately angry at his response, or even really that disturbed by it. If anything, it feels familiar, like she's speaking to people from back home, or one of the neighbors.]

I'm not sure. I think I felt as much before all this, but now... [Sighs out, shaking her head.] I guess that's the way life will be for me.

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servingdinner
2018-07-20 07:06 pm UTC (link)

[Considering what he knows of Chise so far, their previous conversations, the way this particular conversation's been going... Sebastian felt fairly certain such a reply wouldn't bother her. It's somewhat pleasant, being able to speak more freely and honestly for once. Even so... what a strange child Chise is.]

He allowed it to happen, then, or could not stop it? [He hesitates for a moment about what to call Elias, but...] Your master?

[It feels strange to use that word for someone who looks so much like something from Sebastian's home world. Whatever the bone monstrosity is, however, it can't possibly be a demon - no demon of any competence or self-respect would allow its prey to be so tainted.]

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	belovedchild 2018-07-20 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	[Clearly you and Elias would get along so well, Sebastian...] He couldn't stop it. If he'd been able to... Elias never would have let me do this. [But theirs isn't a strictly master-servant relationship, as Chise gets pretty head-strong about such things.] He tried to reverse it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)