[Because Myr doesn't know where Lahabrea lives, he leaves a voice message to let the Ascian know his Modranicht gifts are in possession of a courier company staffed by Pucas, who have instructions to hand a parcel over to a masked-and-cloaked fellow named Lahabrea.
It contains a bag of homemade honey candy and a small basket of tiny, fresh(!) strawberries.]
[Eventually, it finds its way to where it's supposed to go.
Nobody dies in the process. Somehow. And eventually, a message gets sent back, albeit over the device instead of via puca. Audible, but clearly a recording - it's sent at some tiny fragile hour of the morning, long before sun up.]
I wonder how in the heavens you've managed strawberries in the dead of winter. ... Thank you for the gift.
[Given Myr's inconstant hours it should maybe not be a surprise when he answers within minutes,] You're very welcome, messere--and I'd not be fit to call myself a Faun if I couldn't manage strawberries in winter, I think, given we could force 'em back home without magic at all.
[He sounds just a little pleased with himself.] How's the flavor?
[Myr would never object to sharing the joy of winter strawberries.
He gives a pleased huff at the question.]
Well--to be fully fair with you, messere, these didn't grow in the snow; the Witch I live with has a spell over our garden to keep it warm and livable the year round, though I let some of it go fallow as the plants would given the shorter sunlight. But it is our gift to grow green things, [myr ur boner for alliteration is a problem,] whatever the weather. Strawberries in snow is the least of it, though I'd need to spend most of my time and mana on them.
[Calling whatever-it-is he draws on that's not really magic "mana" is probably a bad habit, but whatever.]
Speaking of--are you settling into your own particular gifts? [A very delicate way of asking what Lahabrea's been up to--or changing into, as it were. He may need to be more direct.]
A spell to mimic the full light of day should be as simple a task as a temperature adjustment, though if I recall the lectures of my youth, plants do oft like a time of dormancy.
[That was ... quite some time ago, so he's not actually entirely certain, but if a plant is adapted to this sort of a climate then it might well take the winter bitterness and darkness to be a time of rest.]
Unfortunate that I did not encounter you a little sooner upon my arrival, as I had in my possession a certain rare fruit that could be exceedingly expensive in this sort of environs, and as all cultures this one seems to rotate entirely around money.
[Not that he approves, frankly. People should do things because it's the right thing to do, not out of financial obligation. And then they should give all those financial obligations to him. By way of gold and jewels and silver. He'll keep it safe--
.... Mm. I have survived so far, which is enough. Naught strikes me as being particularly worthy of being called a 'gift', save mayhap the insulation down and feathers offer.
Exactly so--to both points, messere. There are greenhouses and gardens in the city where they keep up the spells for light--mostly to keep people fed, though I did work in that specialized in fresh flowers for all the holidays.
[Which, he'd come to reflect, was a bit of frivolity that dovetails neatly with Lahabrea's own musings on the persuasive power of money...]
Truly? [Aw!] I'm sorry I missed the opportunity--though more for a chance at variety in all our diets. I've enough cunes to get by.
[Money is for supporting charitable enterprises, buying nice things for his friends, and finding new things to eat for lunch. Anything else was gravy.
Still, exotic new fruit...] Whatever happened to it? Did it come with you through the mirror?
[Dryly, then,] Well, feathers do sound like a very great gift to me at this time of year. My fur's not much against the cold even grown out. You're a Harpy, d'you think?
[He doesn't miss the otherwise-grim way Lahabrea's phrased it, but he's a moment chewing on how to approach that...particular reveal. Even if he hasn't known the Ascian for long he can appreciate that the man's got a certain pride (refusing to look at the thing that followed him and wept in the voices of the slain) that one would do poorly to cross.
...Maybe it is best to be direct.]
Surviving, though, seems a rather grim bar. Is there anything you need that would make the changes easier on you?
I traded it for an item of some value, as I have little interest in attempting to wrangle it into usefulness and the one who desired it may, if he is capable of putting aside his own ideas of what MUST be accurate, be by now making some headway with it.
[Which he hasn't actually kept any tabs on. Where the pineapple is and what has happened to it is forever a mystery, at least until Mettaton comes up with the fruit in a can or something, covered in pink glitter.
It would fairly definitively answer the question.]
Though if he's not done anything with it yet, and it hasn't rotted away, you might seek out Mettaton and put in a gentle question or two, I've a pretty good sense that he is utterly incapable of managing anything that isn't showing off with any form of skill.
[Harsh. But if someone knows mettaton, possibly not untrue either..]
I don't know enough of this star's fauna to be certain, though I must say I have never seen liberally feathered mammals or reptiles so I am inclined to say yes.
[What would make anything easier. What could, honestly?
There's a quiet that falls then, which might be a refusal to continue or not, it's hard to tell at first, though he does, after a while, continue. It's not easily either. Admitting anything like a weakness, hadn't that gotten him derided by his own kind? There was no comfort to be found. Anywhere.
How to phrase it where it's not so greatly a glaring thing to be exploited and mocked though?]
If you know it, a better way to stave off the beast than relying on cages and locks would be ... helpful. And pray don't suggest a bond to some witch. To take such an intimate and sacred step with a mortal and a stranger would be ... more shameful yet than what has been done to me, and I value not this vessel's survival so desperately that I will consider such a thing.
Was it a pineapple? [Myr asks abruptly, and then makes a muffled noise that might be a politely swallowed laugh at the description of Mettaton. Yes, he'd met the Puca. Yes, he'd flirted with the Puca. Yes, that...harsh description was certainly warranted though Myr had reason to know it wasn't entirely true.]
I may just ask him about it, in that case, though Maker knows what he's done with it by this point. He'd said he wanted one for his wedding...
[Well, and how the mirrors had provided, though since Myr hadn't heard any wedding announcement yet, perhaps the pineapple was still with them in some form.
He sobers as Lahabrea goes on, respecting the silence that falls over the line and wondering if...there will be anything following it. When a request does follow, he likewise honors its seriousness; his own tone is gentle without being pitying when he responds:]
The Coven has methods to provide magic to unBonded Monsters--enough, generally, to keep you from giving over entirely to your beast for the first few months, though it will be harder as time goes on. I am sorry to say that there isn't a permanent solution outside a Bond, but trust me that I respect your reluctance to go so far with anyone you've met here.
It is a powerfully serious thing, a Bond, and the people here treat it as a thing of naught, or a business transaction, as it pleases them. I've been fortunate in my choice of Bondmates, but I think even they don't view what we have quite as I do.
[Even if Lahabrea is some kind of--terrifying god, some potential peer to the Maker, back home, they can at least be agreed on this much.]
You will also hear people outside the Coven offering potions or other comestibles that will help with the lack of a Bond. I don't recommend those; often as not they've got Witchblood in them, and even if you don't have reasons to disdain blood magic, [disdain is a weak word for the thing that stains Myr's tone on "blood magic,"] it's addictive and can turn you into a maneater over time.
.. It was, in fact. Dare I ask if this is important? He had been exceptionally keen on it. I admit I don't know that it will serve its purpose as he intends, for it is a wild variety and native to a temperate clime.
[He can guess where the wedding was supposed to go and frankly he didn't approve at all, but it wasn't any of his business. What had been, at the time, was the pineapple.
It is at least a little mollifying that someone else takes the idea of bonds as incredibly seriously as Lahabrea does. One does not simply blend their soul with someone else for shits and giggles on a weekend because there's nothing else to do! That there aren't really many options is ... not particularly heartening.]
Have there been examples of unbonded actually succumbing as they say? It would likely not be to my benefit to take a jest as far as actually devouring some other speaking creature, even by proxy of blood alone.
[A faunish snort in reply.] It was important to him, [Myr says; were he of another world entirely, there'd be a bless his heart tagged on the end.
The sentiment is definitely there. Mettaton's ideas of luxury and spectacle and owning things for their own sake sat ill with Myr's notions of the world, but it didn't mean he needed to dislike the Puca.]
A...jest, messere? I'm not sure I follow--but while I have not heard of anyone among the Mirrorbound who's developed an addiction to Witchblood, there are some of us who have gone feral and attacked others for want of a Bond. Or resisting our impulses.
[He pauses a moment, and then--because it had been a cold and razor-edged comfort to him to hear,] There is a Mirrorbound Witch, the Lady Maria, who takes it as her duty to put down any Monster who becomes a threat to others in his madness. Were I to lose all my Bonds and find myself at risk for it, I'd be sure she'd know where to find me.
Mm. Important enough to offer me some items of considerable value for it. Twould be a shame if it rotted away from mismanagement.
[Though it really wasn't his problem anymore if so. He wondered what the thing tasted like. It would be unfortunate, but also very amusing, if the fruit had been one of those bitter tasting sorts and not at all worth building an empire out of.]
.... Ah, yes. There has been an ongoing ribbon of thought that I must be a cannibal. Which is of course nonsense, there's only one other of my species here which to cannibalize, and I will do no such thing. But it is entertaining to play with the notion.
[Only because it bothers others. Specifically because it bothers others.]
And has this woman actually done so? I can think of plenty who make noise and threats but take no action. I have not heard of anyone directly addressing the two dragons who burned a fair portion of the street not long ago, along with the residents and each other.
T'would indeed. [Whether or not Myr will actually contact Mettaton in time to rescue the pineapple... remains to be seen. it'll probably get the cwyld at this rate, given Present Events]
...Oh. [Myr is silent a little while, thinking about that.] You know, I s'pose I never thought about the strict definition of cannibalism and always assumed I'd be one for trying to eat anything elf-shaped.
[But was that REALLY cannibalism? If he'd eaten a shem back home they'd definitely call it cannibalism. Why is he thinking about this.
...He's only really bothered about it because now he's thinking about the moral dimensions of a human as a food source if it's not cannibalism. Still almost surely wrong, but...
He snaps out of it.]
--You know, messere, I don't know. [He'd heard about the epic dragon battle--that did seem like something she should've...intervened on.] I've never heard of her actually killing a Monster, though as you said, she'd threatened so. [It had been his first month in Aefenglom and made an impression on him he'd...never really bothered to check on, since of course there'd be something like a Templar around and presumably she'd do her job without boasting about it if it were required of her.]
S'pose you could ask the woman yourself; it may have been a lack of opportunity or presence in the city that's kept her from carrying out her threats. [Though even that betokened poorly for her future ability to put down a Monster concerned about his own ferality.]
Most seem to take it to mean any sapient creature at all, but I am unsure if I were to make a diet explicitly of the denizens of this city that I would suffer the ordinary consequences of consuming one's own kind. And yet I am disinclined to actually find out.
[Even though it would still be eating lesser lifeforms, he's less certain of his ability to simply leave when the natives got restless. Fish were better, besides.
And strawberries.]
I am unsure asking would be to any benefit. If she's taken action, would others not know about it? I have heard no rumors of a witch handling any feral threats, but plenty of feral threats circulating. I ... do not think I could rely on such a person.
[The sound of it brought to mind plenty of creatures that were mostly bluff and noise in the hopes that their threat displays were enough.]
My senses may be sharp enough to avoid anything with blood in them, at least. I will... have little choice I suppose, than to seek out these potions and such. As arrogant as it sounds, I would sooner chain myself to a rock and throw myself in the sea before taking ... well, nearly anyone into my soul. It may be that my God will look kindly upon my situation and send unto me one of my brethren. There are a few who are certainly tolerable enough.
[By the edges of what sounds like fondness that creep into his voice, he doesn't really mean tolerable. Some of them are actually liked, these mystery people.]
[Myr has to ask, since that sounds like there's something more behind it. Who else is he going to have a frank conversation about cannibalism with, anyway?
(L. L would absolutely have a frank conversation about cannibalism with him. But other than that...)]
I understand that fully, messere. Now that you've made me reflect on it, I'm--rather glad I found a Bond with a Witch, rather than relying on my own assumption she'd simply take care of my irresponsibility as a Templar would.
[It's an uncomfortable admission to make, but he's making it, because he's been a year and a half away from the Circle and that's distance enough to begin seeing how it marked him. (Mutilated him. Would Vandelin be proud of all the conclusions he's made, all on his own?)
He essays a small and thoughtful hum at Lahabrea's words; Myr is, at least and as he said, a sympathetic audience to the idea of treating a Bond as touching the sacred. Even if his own Faunish nature had made him parlous casual about the temporary sort, for those in need.
Something probably to read in that, given his schizophrenic attitude toward casual sex when forbidden even in the Circle. That's also not anything he's going to be thinking about right now~!]
I'll add my prayers to yours, for that. I don't like to think of you having to rely purely on the potions to maintain yourself; it's a dismal sort of future. [A breath.] While I'm not one to rail nor suspect the Coven of deceiving us about something as fundamental as our need for magic, or a Witch's need to rid herself of it, I do wonder if there's not something they're missing in their insistence on Bonds. Given they're a new thing in the world and the native Monsters previously were not all at a risk of inevitably running mad...
...Are there any other Mirrorbound from your world already present?
Health, specifically. You might note that stories of habitual cannibals inevitably have those sad beings as rather mad, far beyond the reach of this one mere star and into other stars such as your world of origin. There's a reason for that, in the blood and in the meat. Sickness has a very easy time crossing like to like, even amongst beasts. The more consumed the higher the risk of such an illness striking. There is no living thing thusly that prospers, which also consumes its own kind as a regular and large portion of its diet.
[Explaining the details of it as he understood them might well be beyond him, without being certain of Myr's actual base knowledge. But everyone understood sickness and contagion.
These Templar must be some form of guard or police force. That at least was familiar, even the Ancients had ways to deal with rogue elements of their society, or escaped concepts getting loose and causing trouble. Bringing down one of their own, gone mad from some source, was obligatory.]
I have long wondered what the monsters did in this world for the millions of years before the onset of witch bonds a mere few centuries ago. Was the murder of witches rampant, so they may be devoured? There's no tales of such, and surely there would be as a warning for why bonds are vital, lest civilization as it is return to those dark and bloody days. Mayhap truly there is no risk for madness, and it results only because it is expected.
[He wasn't entirely sure of it. There could be a point where the beast and the thinking mind simply ... merged, seamless and whole. Certainly his harpy neighbors didn't seem to need any such bonds with a witch to keep going, they were living quite fine as they were.]
Yes. Two. A deadly enemy, and one whom was once an ally.
[It's an explanation that Myr's never heard before, but it makes absolute intuitive sense laid out that way. Certainly cannibal societies were not a talked-about thing in the Circles of Magi, but there did seem to be an odd trend toward madness in the accounts Myr had read of them in passing--in Genitivi or one of the man's peers. Sicknesses being more apt to spread like-to-like even accords with the sympathetic principles every mage knew were writ in the Fade; if demons could be drawn to haunt a man's mind for the familiar content of his thoughts, then why wouldn't an illness be the same way?]
I hadn't known that. S'pose that does go some way to explaining our disgust for it, doesn't it...
[The Maker's moral rules underlay nature's workings, after all.
The mention of "millions of years" gives the Faun momentary pause. Actually, hadn't they seen something of the world's deep past?]
I think, [he says, slowly,] --based on a dream we had some months ago, that the earliest Monsters were not much more than very smart beasts, and there were no Witches for them to draw from. They must've gotten their magic from the leylines, then--or from their connection to the world as it was.
I suspect for a time after that the kinds lived separate and what we call "feral" now might have simply been how Monsters were, among each other--and the more dangerous irruptions of our nature are in part a result of how society's demands suppress and distort them. And--perhaps--
[There's a sound as he gets up and begins pacing, hooves click-clicking on whatever floor he's walking on.] --If humans here didn't have magic to start, but gained it over time, they might've pulled it from whatever natural reservoir Monsters once drew on. We, [hm, wait,] they wouldn't have needed to turn to Witches until much of the magic was in Witches, and then with the advent of the Cwyld pushing them out of their homes...
[It's not a wholly connected train of thought, not yet. He mumbles to himself a little more on the subject, before sighing.] Wish I could make better use of the Coven's library--or the Underground's; there's got to be more on this somewhere.
[Then a jingling interruption as he shakes his head to clear the cobwebs.] --Though I suppose we could test the hypothesis that we go mad because of our own expectations, if we surveyed all the Mirrorbound and whether or not they believed what the Coven told them.
[Pause.] I'm--sorry, messere.
[He's put himself temporarily into a like situation. He doesn't have many enemies, but if the only people who'd ever come through the Mirror from Thedas had been--oh--Corypheus and Vandelin's apprentice Rohesia...] That's surely worse than being alone here.
[He sounds a touch incredulous, but he's still not really experienced how those work here - the one time he had such a dream-nightmare, it hadn't overlapped at all into the waking world. He'll allow it for the time being, because prophecy was a possibility, why not looking back? But he'd want evidence in time, and an explanation for how they became intelligent if they really were just animals once.
It didn't bode well for his eventual fate, though.]
When you say 'earliest', how early do you speak? Millions of years? Most species rise to sapience in the span of only a few million, but the implication is that these ... humans had already been thus and intelligence only came far after them, and the local mortals are not particularly further along than the earliest of advances thus cannot be an ancient species.
[There must be information somewhere indeed, but how much could a blind faun really do by way of research?]
... If you have not already, it might be advisable to seek a spell which will translate the written word into speech for you. I fear I will not be a great example of whether or not one might go mad simply through belief, for I have already fallen victim to it. Expectation leads the result, one would have to isolate a new monster with no information leading from the Coven, and then keep them that way for some months.
[A difficult prospect!
But easier to consider than other things.]
Ah, there is no pity needed. We are used to spending decades, sometimes centuries alone. This is merely an inconvenient problem which could have been made easier by a willing ally.
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timeasmymeasure
Modranicht gift!!
Date: 2021-01-02 03:20 am (UTC)It contains a bag of homemade honey candy and a small basket of tiny, fresh(!) strawberries.]
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Date: 2021-01-10 09:33 pm (UTC)Nobody dies in the process. Somehow. And eventually, a message gets sent back, albeit over the device instead of via puca. Audible, but clearly a recording - it's sent at some tiny fragile hour of the morning, long before sun up.]
I wonder how in the heavens you've managed strawberries in the dead of winter. ... Thank you for the gift.
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Date: 2021-01-15 04:59 am (UTC)[He sounds just a little pleased with himself.] How's the flavor?
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Date: 2021-01-16 10:58 pm (UTC)[And he's going to give a couple away given the opportunity, because strawberries! In1 winter!]
Is that a talent of fauns, then? Produce in the snow?
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Date: 2021-01-17 05:13 am (UTC)[Myr would never object to sharing the joy of winter strawberries.
He gives a pleased huff at the question.]
Well--to be fully fair with you, messere, these didn't grow in the snow; the Witch I live with has a spell over our garden to keep it warm and livable the year round, though I let some of it go fallow as the plants would given the shorter sunlight. But it is our gift to grow green things, [myr ur boner for alliteration is a problem,] whatever the weather. Strawberries in snow is the least of it, though I'd need to spend most of my time and mana on them.
[Calling whatever-it-is he draws on that's not really magic "mana" is probably a bad habit, but whatever.]
Speaking of--are you settling into your own particular gifts? [A very delicate way of asking what Lahabrea's been up to--or changing into, as it were. He may need to be more direct.]
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Date: 2021-01-18 12:25 am (UTC)[That was ... quite some time ago, so he's not actually entirely certain, but if a plant is adapted to this sort of a climate then it might well take the winter bitterness and darkness to be a time of rest.]
Unfortunate that I did not encounter you a little sooner upon my arrival, as I had in my possession a certain rare fruit that could be exceedingly expensive in this sort of environs, and as all cultures this one seems to rotate entirely around money.
[Not that he approves, frankly. People should do things because it's the right thing to do, not out of financial obligation. And then they should give all those financial obligations to him. By way of gold and jewels and silver. He'll keep it safe--
.... Mm. I have survived so far, which is enough. Naught strikes me as being particularly worthy of being called a 'gift', save mayhap the insulation down and feathers offer.
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Date: 2021-01-21 05:58 am (UTC)[Which, he'd come to reflect, was a bit of frivolity that dovetails neatly with Lahabrea's own musings on the persuasive power of money...]
Truly? [Aw!] I'm sorry I missed the opportunity--though more for a chance at variety in all our diets. I've enough cunes to get by.
[Money is for supporting charitable enterprises, buying nice things for his friends, and finding new things to eat for lunch. Anything else was gravy.
Still, exotic new fruit...] Whatever happened to it? Did it come with you through the mirror?
[Dryly, then,] Well, feathers do sound like a very great gift to me at this time of year. My fur's not much against the cold even grown out. You're a Harpy, d'you think?
[He doesn't miss the otherwise-grim way Lahabrea's phrased it, but he's a moment chewing on how to approach that...particular reveal. Even if he hasn't known the Ascian for long he can appreciate that the man's got a certain pride (refusing to look at the thing that followed him and wept in the voices of the slain) that one would do poorly to cross.
...Maybe it is best to be direct.]
Surviving, though, seems a rather grim bar. Is there anything you need that would make the changes easier on you?
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Date: 2021-01-21 11:42 am (UTC)[Which he hasn't actually kept any tabs on. Where the pineapple is and what has happened to it is forever a mystery, at least until Mettaton comes up with the fruit in a can or something, covered in pink glitter.
It would fairly definitively answer the question.]
Though if he's not done anything with it yet, and it hasn't rotted away, you might seek out Mettaton and put in a gentle question or two, I've a pretty good sense that he is utterly incapable of managing anything that isn't showing off with any form of skill.
[Harsh. But if someone knows mettaton, possibly not untrue either..]
I don't know enough of this star's fauna to be certain, though I must say I have never seen liberally feathered mammals or reptiles so I am inclined to say yes.
[What would make anything easier. What could, honestly?
There's a quiet that falls then, which might be a refusal to continue or not, it's hard to tell at first, though he does, after a while, continue. It's not easily either. Admitting anything like a weakness, hadn't that gotten him derided by his own kind? There was no comfort to be found. Anywhere.
How to phrase it where it's not so greatly a glaring thing to be exploited and mocked though?]
If you know it, a better way to stave off the beast than relying on cages and locks would be ... helpful. And pray don't suggest a bond to some witch. To take such an intimate and sacred step with a mortal and a stranger would be ... more shameful yet than what has been done to me, and I value not this vessel's survival so desperately that I will consider such a thing.
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Date: 2021-01-25 01:36 am (UTC)Was it a pineapple? [Myr asks abruptly, and then makes a muffled noise that might be a politely swallowed laugh at the description of Mettaton. Yes, he'd met the Puca. Yes, he'd flirted with the Puca. Yes, that...harsh description was certainly warranted though Myr had reason to know it wasn't entirely true.]
I may just ask him about it, in that case, though Maker knows what he's done with it by this point. He'd said he wanted one for his wedding...
[Well, and how the mirrors had provided, though since Myr hadn't heard any wedding announcement yet, perhaps the pineapple was still with them in some form.
He sobers as Lahabrea goes on, respecting the silence that falls over the line and wondering if...there will be anything following it. When a request does follow, he likewise honors its seriousness; his own tone is gentle without being pitying when he responds:]
The Coven has methods to provide magic to unBonded Monsters--enough, generally, to keep you from giving over entirely to your beast for the first few months, though it will be harder as time goes on. I am sorry to say that there isn't a permanent solution outside a Bond, but trust me that I respect your reluctance to go so far with anyone you've met here.
It is a powerfully serious thing, a Bond, and the people here treat it as a thing of naught, or a business transaction, as it pleases them. I've been fortunate in my choice of Bondmates, but I think even they don't view what we have quite as I do.
[Even if Lahabrea is some kind of--terrifying god, some potential peer to the Maker, back home, they can at least be agreed on this much.]
You will also hear people outside the Coven offering potions or other comestibles that will help with the lack of a Bond. I don't recommend those; often as not they've got Witchblood in them, and even if you don't have reasons to disdain blood magic, [disdain is a weak word for the thing that stains Myr's tone on "blood magic,"] it's addictive and can turn you into a maneater over time.
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Date: 2021-01-25 10:21 pm (UTC)[He can guess where the wedding was supposed to go and frankly he didn't approve at all, but it wasn't any of his business. What had been, at the time, was the pineapple.
It is at least a little mollifying that someone else takes the idea of bonds as incredibly seriously as Lahabrea does. One does not simply blend their soul with someone else for shits and giggles on a weekend because there's nothing else to do! That there aren't really many options is ... not particularly heartening.]
Have there been examples of unbonded actually succumbing as they say? It would likely not be to my benefit to take a jest as far as actually devouring some other speaking creature, even by proxy of blood alone.
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Date: 2021-01-27 06:31 am (UTC)The sentiment is definitely there. Mettaton's ideas of luxury and spectacle and owning things for their own sake sat ill with Myr's notions of the world, but it didn't mean he needed to dislike the Puca.]
A...jest, messere? I'm not sure I follow--but while I have not heard of anyone among the Mirrorbound who's developed an addiction to Witchblood, there are some of us who have gone feral and attacked others for want of a Bond. Or resisting our impulses.
[He pauses a moment, and then--because it had been a cold and razor-edged comfort to him to hear,] There is a Mirrorbound Witch, the Lady Maria, who takes it as her duty to put down any Monster who becomes a threat to others in his madness. Were I to lose all my Bonds and find myself at risk for it, I'd be sure she'd know where to find me.
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Date: 2021-02-01 05:15 pm (UTC)[Though it really wasn't his problem anymore if so. He wondered what the thing tasted like. It would be unfortunate, but also very amusing, if the fruit had been one of those bitter tasting sorts and not at all worth building an empire out of.]
.... Ah, yes. There has been an ongoing ribbon of thought that I must be a cannibal. Which is of course nonsense, there's only one other of my species here which to cannibalize, and I will do no such thing. But it is entertaining to play with the notion.
[Only because it bothers others. Specifically because it bothers others.]
And has this woman actually done so? I can think of plenty who make noise and threats but take no action. I have not heard of anyone directly addressing the two dragons who burned a fair portion of the street not long ago, along with the residents and each other.
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Date: 2021-02-07 03:50 am (UTC)it'll probably get the cwyld at this rate, given Present Events]...Oh. [Myr is silent a little while, thinking about that.] You know, I s'pose I never thought about the strict definition of cannibalism and always assumed I'd be one for trying to eat anything elf-shaped.
[But was that REALLY cannibalism? If he'd eaten a shem back home they'd definitely call it cannibalism.
Why is he thinking about this....He's only really bothered about it because now he's thinking about the moral dimensions of a human as a food source if it's not cannibalism. Still almost surely wrong, but...
He snaps out of it.]
--You know, messere, I don't know. [He'd heard about the epic dragon battle--that did seem like something she should've...intervened on.] I've never heard of her actually killing a Monster, though as you said, she'd threatened so. [It had been his first month in Aefenglom and made an impression on him he'd...never really bothered to check on, since of course there'd be something like a Templar around and presumably she'd do her job without boasting about it if it were required of her.]
S'pose you could ask the woman yourself; it may have been a lack of opportunity or presence in the city that's kept her from carrying out her threats. [Though even that betokened poorly for her future ability to put down a Monster concerned about his own ferality.]
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Date: 2021-02-07 09:54 pm (UTC)[Even though it would still be eating lesser lifeforms, he's less certain of his ability to simply leave when the natives got restless. Fish were better, besides.
And strawberries.]
I am unsure asking would be to any benefit. If she's taken action, would others not know about it? I have heard no rumors of a witch handling any feral threats, but plenty of feral threats circulating. I ... do not think I could rely on such a person.
[The sound of it brought to mind plenty of creatures that were mostly bluff and noise in the hopes that their threat displays were enough.]
My senses may be sharp enough to avoid anything with blood in them, at least. I will... have little choice I suppose, than to seek out these potions and such. As arrogant as it sounds, I would sooner chain myself to a rock and throw myself in the sea before taking ... well, nearly anyone into my soul. It may be that my God will look kindly upon my situation and send unto me one of my brethren. There are a few who are certainly tolerable enough.
[By the edges of what sounds like fondness that creep into his voice, he doesn't really mean tolerable. Some of them are actually liked, these mystery people.]
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Date: 2021-02-21 07:51 am (UTC)[Myr has to ask, since that sounds like there's something more behind it. Who else is he going to have a frank conversation about cannibalism with, anyway?
(L. L would absolutely have a frank conversation about cannibalism with him. But other than that...)]
I understand that fully, messere. Now that you've made me reflect on it, I'm--rather glad I found a Bond with a Witch, rather than relying on my own assumption she'd simply take care of my irresponsibility as a Templar would.
[It's an uncomfortable admission to make, but he's making it, because he's been a year and a half away from the Circle and that's distance enough to begin seeing how it marked him. (Mutilated him. Would Vandelin be proud of all the conclusions he's made, all on his own?)
He essays a small and thoughtful hum at Lahabrea's words; Myr is, at least and as he said, a sympathetic audience to the idea of treating a Bond as touching the sacred. Even if his own Faunish nature had made him parlous casual about the temporary sort, for those in need.
Something probably to read in that, given his schizophrenic attitude toward casual sex when forbidden even in the Circle. That's also not anything he's going to be thinking about right now~!]
I'll add my prayers to yours, for that. I don't like to think of you having to rely purely on the potions to maintain yourself; it's a dismal sort of future. [A breath.] While I'm not one to rail nor suspect the Coven of deceiving us about something as fundamental as our need for magic, or a Witch's need to rid herself of it, I do wonder if there's not something they're missing in their insistence on Bonds. Given they're a new thing in the world and the native Monsters previously were not all at a risk of inevitably running mad...
...Are there any other Mirrorbound from your world already present?
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Date: 2021-02-21 03:51 pm (UTC)[Explaining the details of it as he understood them might well be beyond him, without being certain of Myr's actual base knowledge. But everyone understood sickness and contagion.
These Templar must be some form of guard or police force. That at least was familiar, even the Ancients had ways to deal with rogue elements of their society, or escaped concepts getting loose and causing trouble. Bringing down one of their own, gone mad from some source, was obligatory.]
I have long wondered what the monsters did in this world for the millions of years before the onset of witch bonds a mere few centuries ago. Was the murder of witches rampant, so they may be devoured? There's no tales of such, and surely there would be as a warning for why bonds are vital, lest civilization as it is return to those dark and bloody days. Mayhap truly there is no risk for madness, and it results only because it is expected.
[He wasn't entirely sure of it. There could be a point where the beast and the thinking mind simply ... merged, seamless and whole. Certainly his harpy neighbors didn't seem to need any such bonds with a witch to keep going, they were living quite fine as they were.]
Yes. Two. A deadly enemy, and one whom was once an ally.
[It's ... said with some reluctance.]
Neither are options.
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Date: 2021-02-24 06:27 am (UTC)[It's an explanation that Myr's never heard before, but it makes absolute intuitive sense laid out that way. Certainly cannibal societies were not a talked-about thing in the Circles of Magi, but there did seem to be an odd trend toward madness in the accounts Myr had read of them in passing--in Genitivi or one of the man's peers. Sicknesses being more apt to spread like-to-like even accords with the sympathetic principles every mage knew were writ in the Fade; if demons could be drawn to haunt a man's mind for the familiar content of his thoughts, then why wouldn't an illness be the same way?]
I hadn't known that. S'pose that does go some way to explaining our disgust for it, doesn't it...
[The Maker's moral rules underlay nature's workings, after all.
The mention of "millions of years" gives the Faun momentary pause. Actually, hadn't they seen something of the world's deep past?]
I think, [he says, slowly,] --based on a dream we had some months ago, that the earliest Monsters were not much more than very smart beasts, and there were no Witches for them to draw from. They must've gotten their magic from the leylines, then--or from their connection to the world as it was.
I suspect for a time after that the kinds lived separate and what we call "feral" now might have simply been how Monsters were, among each other--and the more dangerous irruptions of our nature are in part a result of how society's demands suppress and distort them. And--perhaps--
[There's a sound as he gets up and begins pacing, hooves click-clicking on whatever floor he's walking on.] --If humans here didn't have magic to start, but gained it over time, they might've pulled it from whatever natural reservoir Monsters once drew on. We, [hm, wait,] they wouldn't have needed to turn to Witches until much of the magic was in Witches, and then with the advent of the Cwyld pushing them out of their homes...
[It's not a wholly connected train of thought, not yet. He mumbles to himself a little more on the subject, before sighing.] Wish I could make better use of the Coven's library--or the Underground's; there's got to be more on this somewhere.
[Then a jingling interruption as he shakes his head to clear the cobwebs.] --Though I suppose we could test the hypothesis that we go mad because of our own expectations, if we surveyed all the Mirrorbound and whether or not they believed what the Coven told them.
[Pause.] I'm--sorry, messere.
[He's put himself temporarily into a like situation. He doesn't have many enemies, but if the only people who'd ever come through the Mirror from Thedas had been--oh--Corypheus and Vandelin's apprentice Rohesia...] That's surely worse than being alone here.
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Date: 2021-02-25 01:07 am (UTC)[He sounds a touch incredulous, but he's still not really experienced how those work here - the one time he had such a dream-nightmare, it hadn't overlapped at all into the waking world. He'll allow it for the time being, because prophecy was a possibility, why not looking back? But he'd want evidence in time, and an explanation for how they became intelligent if they really were just animals once.
It didn't bode well for his eventual fate, though.]
When you say 'earliest', how early do you speak? Millions of years? Most species rise to sapience in the span of only a few million, but the implication is that these ... humans had already been thus and intelligence only came far after them, and the local mortals are not particularly further along than the earliest of advances thus cannot be an ancient species.
[There must be information somewhere indeed, but how much could a blind faun really do by way of research?]
... If you have not already, it might be advisable to seek a spell which will translate the written word into speech for you. I fear I will not be a great example of whether or not one might go mad simply through belief, for I have already fallen victim to it. Expectation leads the result, one would have to isolate a new monster with no information leading from the Coven, and then keep them that way for some months.
[A difficult prospect!
But easier to consider than other things.]
Ah, there is no pity needed. We are used to spending decades, sometimes centuries alone. This is merely an inconvenient problem which could have been made easier by a willing ally.