scawwy ✦ karlach cliffgate

[recession]

Comments

[recession]

You're lucky it turned out to be a net positive.

[ PLEASE. DON'T PUT YOUR HAND INTO THE SWAMP JUST BECAUSE IT TELLS YOU TO. But he lets go. ]

Glad that the fingers lasted long enough that this worked out then. Begs the usual question of why, especially when it comes with... I guess, restoring you a bit to how you were before?

[ablazement]

[huffs. she wriggles her fingers.]

... Yeah. I'm a little - it shouldn't be like this. With the fire. I've got upgrades that make it so I don't burn people. And it... hurts, like it's on fire, but it's spreading up my arm. Thinking it might just be my body trying to readjust, but I don't know.

At least I have them. I was trying to figure out how to fight with only three.

[recession]

At least you still had a hand at all.

[ She can just punch things. ]

Interesting though. An adjustment period because you've all been lacking in your natural abilities for two weeks...?

[ablazement]

Might be, yeah. I'm only one person though. You think it happens to everybody who puts their injuries in?

[a beat.]

-- Oh! Fuck, hey, wait, while I've got you here, I have something for you.

[recession]

I don't have any injuries to test it on, and I'm not going to actively recommend swamp therapy to everyone, but... these results are promising. Just wary of the side effects.

What is it?

[ablazement]

I'll keep you updated, but - here.

[and she presents him with a box of cigarettes!]

[recession]

Oh?

[ Small '!' vibe. ]

Really? Did you request the overseers for this?

[ablazement]

Yeah! I think War got it. But they're yours now.

[excited tail wag...]

[recession]

You don't have to give me your mail, you know.

[ Though that being said it does not seem like he has intentions to refuse. Though while he fishes one out pretty much right away, he does offer her one too questioningly since she said she smokes sometimes also.

Finally after 2.5 weeks all my icons of him smoking can be real. ]

[ablazement]

I got them for you specifically, man, of course I do.

[she shakes her head when he offers, but she's smiling.]

Thanks, but I'm already doing it. [waves her burny fingers like lol funny joke] Enjoy them.

[recession]

Very funny.

[ He says in the way that's like eyeroll but not quite that amount of sass because he actually is grateful.

That being said I did finish writing my mem so uh. With the same timing as when he lights a cigarette, we can get shadowed! Yippee sorry for making you read so many words etc memshare is just my power fanfiction hour. ]

[ablazement]

[i love all your words and you're going to have to read all mine in a bit so

important to note - she is not surprised by memshare. not the like, content of it, but just the act of sharing memories? that seems to be a weirdly familiar thing for her.

the first thing she does is go ????? and look at his arm like did i miss that you are missing an arm like asa]

[recession]

[ Reveals my armless icon





No he's had two this entire time. They're there clear to see since he's using one to hold the cigarette in place and the other to hold idk a little makeshift match to light it. He's stiff and silent, but at least he's intuitive enough to just make an assumption of what she's looking for. ]

When I woke up here. I had it back. Somehow.

[ablazement]

[she reaches out to touch it, expression scrunched up a little.]

... That place reminds me too much of the Hells. [she says, quietly.] With fucking decisions like that.

[recession]

[ He tenses minutely by instinct when she reaches out to him, but he doesn't pull away. ]

...

Just... for the sake of survival, you know.

Better to be one-armed and alive than not.

[ Hell, he's two-armed and alive now! I could've given him the Asa treatment here but I was like I will be kind to myself with our first aid people ratio. ]

[ablazement]

... Yeah. That's what I mean. Shouldn't have to even make that decision in the first place.

[she leaves her hand on his arm for just a second, and then pulls away.]

You gave up a part of yourself to bring someone back. That's - I mean, Daan, survival or no, that's brave. You're gonna get squirmy about me saying so, but it is.

[recession]

It's not like I'm going to deny that first part, but it is what it is. I could have lived my entire life without the horrors I saw in Prehevil either.

...

You do give me too much credit, Karlach. I wasn't going to win against... that... on my own. I just made a practical decision.

Wouldn't consider it brave. Especially if it only gave us probably a few more hours at best.

[ablazement]

Not many people would chop off their arm for that. Or risk the shit that you did - you already told me about the occult. I've seen people just run. Hide. Get eaten, because they couldn't act.

...

[her tail goes back and forth again, anxiously.]

You didn't... die, there, did you?

[recession]

You misunderstand me to some extent, I think. I didn't know if it would work for sure, because it didn't in a previous attempt. It's no different than any other desperate act to escape.

...

I don't know. I don't recall dying, I don't think I did -- but what do I know anymore? Everything's been very difficult to believe.

I made my way to the tower. I reached for it. Felt a terrible headache, and it was dark, and --

...

And I woke up here. Pretty much.

[ablazement]

[she wrinkles her nose, because she refuses to think anything but good things about him despite his best efforts to get her to be realistic.]

The tower? [...] I'm sure you're fine. You look like you're breathing to me.

[this is a little joke.]

[recession]

Prehevil's Moon Tower. The place Rher's servant told us to head towards.

[ Unfortunately he does not humour a joke this time around. ]

[ablazement]

[fair enough]

I don't... know what any of that means, but I assume it's important.

[recession]

...

[ Just looks off to the side then back at her. ]

I've told you a bit about Prehevil, right? But not that much.

[ Most of his mentions about Prehevil were in W0 when he was still very freshly reliving the horrors but like. He's been here 3 weeks in the same prolonged scenario with everyone else also being in the same boat so his horror has dulled significantly by now. ]

[ablazement]

You've told me a bit, yeah. Mostly about how fucking awful it is, but not... the hows or whys or any of that.

[she figures if it were her business he'd tell her, really.]

[recession]

[ The way my threads have convened this way is very funny because I JUST explained it in detail in another one like 10 minutes ago. Conveniently copies and edits. ]

I was in a city called Prehevil, capital of Bohemia. We, meaning myself and the other unfortunates who happened to be on the same train going into the city -- including Miss Marina -- were roped up into something Per'kele called the "Festival of Termina" under the watch of Rher, the Moon God. That's the freak who visited us in our dreams and explained the whole deal. I suppose our equivalent of an overseer there, but considerably less generous, given he typically only cared to remind us of our deadline and encourage us to... take part.

He expected us to kill each other, wherein there could only be one survivor and they would be crowned the champion of the affair at the end of three days.

...

The city and its moonlight had... effects, on the town's residents. All mad and violent. And eventually, even some of our own number turned into...

[ Genuinely cannot emphasise enough how horrified he was to recount this to anyone back in W0 compared to now where it's just like well we've all been talking about the Scawwy horrors for three-quarters of a month now so whatever. Still, even then, he hesitates a little bit there. ]

As you saw.

[ With the crazed glass man wearing a torture device. Just to emphasise the aura, she could've perceived in his memories what Tanaka used to look like, versus how he appeared as the Judgement. Mind semi-pixel horror art details for CW if that bothers you. ]