(mostly open) oh this love would kill me

[entreats]

Who: Ange, Ruby, and you!
What: Ruby and Ange's wedding, and all their CR is invited!
When: Late October
Where: The rebuilt Clockhouse

Content Warnings: Semi-irresponsible weapon usage.




Sometime around the beginning of October invitations would have started to be sent out to the various people in Trench Ange and Ruby know - announcing the two girls' wedding at the end of the month.

When the day itself comes, people will find the location - the newly rebuilt Clockhouse, which some of the invitees may have helped rebuild in the first place - tastefully decorated. Some of the house's stranger features have been covered up by decorations in red and gold, mostly taking on the shapes of roses and butterflies all over the place.

Comments

cw: allusions to harming/killing others

[individualized]

[Echo is more of an expert at closeup combat herself, so hurling an axe isn't quite in her interests either. But she's pretty sure she's learning something by observing it.]

True. I have known people to enjoy some very odd things, frightening or not.

[She's silent for a moment, thinking through a variety of the examples she was referring to. Sadists, occultists, manipulators, people who have orchestrated massacres. All weird stuff!

Then she turns her head back in his direction.]

You seemed more well-versed in feelings while using the devices to communicate.

[possessum]

( Humans really can be... odd. For a being that's meant to work closely with them, Paimon is really finding that understanding humans is a difficult task in itself. But he shares the bout of silence easily, standing still and quiet as he just stares out at the people (still holding his little plate of cake very carefully.....) before looking back to the girl again.

It takes him a moment to understand — the devices to communicate, what he calls as "magical rocks"... Ah, she means Peter's interaction with her. The demon king pauses, considering how to respond. He knows to be careful with certain elements of their situation, but there are other things that he really doesn't hide at all. And so, he just comes right out and says it— )

You were speaking with my vessel. He is... human, and he has... many feelings.

( Mostly sad ones.... )

He was feeling... worried about you.

[individualized]

[That gets Echo's eyes to widen. Despite it being a familiar concept to her, it was not something she expected to hear anyone else say. She's not quite sure what it means in this case, either. Duldee should not be a factor here or anywhere else, but there were other ways a personality could influence another body.

Also this is probably not the time to ask why he was worried but she doesn't quite get that.]

... I see. I do not understand his thinking, but I am familiar with experiencing the feelings of another through their body. It can be very complicated. For example, this one did not belong to me, yet it is what I given when I took form here.

[possessum]

( He takes note of the shift to her expression, something noticeably different from the calm, quiet intensity. Surprise? Alarm? Those may be usual reactions to what he's just said; he does understand that it can be strange to hear. However, what comes manages to surprise him, and it's his turn to widen his eyes a bit, slowly turning to face the girl fully.

Familiar with.... experiencing the feelings of another through their body?

Paimon's actually never heard anyone else describe something like that, in that particular way. He's staring as she goes on to further say that her body didn't belong to her, but was Given. That word reaches through and grasps something so familiar within the demon king. )

Your body... was another's? ( A pause, his energy stretched taut with awareness. There are so many questions. ) Are they... here? The one it belongs to.

[individualized]

[She shakes her head.]

My "self" became separate at the end.

[It's way more complicated than it sounds, but they were definitely two distinct souls in one body when they died.]

She is still in the ocean, yet I still took on her body once I ceased being a cephalopod. I suppose I have no other body to inhabit, however.

[possessum]

( The answer makes yet more questions blossom within him. She became separate from the other, yet still took on her form. She's still... tethered to it? To that body, that shape of it? Even if it belongs to another?

He knows to be cautious, but he does come right out and ask this much— )

Are you a demon?

( Even then, he knows that word can have many different meanings, however. And even for himself, it's a strange word. But it's the closest one he can associate with himself, and so... at least, he'll start from there in trying to understand more about what this entity is. )

[individualized]

No.

[It's a pretty quick answer for her. Her world has legends of angels and monsters, but due to her very unique standing she knows how much of that isn't true.]

I am a Chain. Or rather, I am part of one. They are often considered to be creatures of evil origins by those unfamiliar with them, however.

[The ones who lead people to commit mass murder to try to meet the ruler of their realm don't help the public opinion, at least.]

This body belonged to our Contractor.

[Long complicated story, so she'll stick to the basics even though they make very little sense out of context right now.]

Does your question mean that you are a demon who requires his "vessel"?

[possessum]

( That much is certainly familiar — being considered a creature of evil origin by those unfamiliar. Paimon has been met with many different reactions to divulging what he is: there are those here who have feared, even abhorred him. Perhaps some "demons" are of evil, but what he is.... was not meant to be.

He's listening and absorbing every term, strange as they may be. Chain. Contractor. She was.... part of a whole, it seems. )

The Contractor... was she aware of you?

( As more information is exchanged, even if everything is Complicated, here.... )

Yes. I am a king of demons, and this vessel was... given to me. But we are.... incorrect. His spirit was not meant to still be within.

[individualized]

[Echo's normally not this chatty unless someone has asked her something directly or she's otherwise being compelled to speak. But she hasn't talked about herself much, and these details are almost always omitted.]

Yes. She did not want me there, but it was my duty.

[Her expression doesn't change at all listening to his explanation. It technically sounds logical which is usually good enough for her, but the lack of details makes the circumstances murky.]

I see. Was that what was always meant to happen? Or is he fighting because he did not want you there?

[Absolutely no judgment on Peter as another uninvited body-mate; she was very surprised to realize she was sad that her existence was coming to its inevitable end. If that's what's implied was supposed to happen, she doesn't blame him.]

[possessum]

Your duty.... your.... Purpose?

( He isn't certain if the two are one in the same, but it's a concept that he's always interested in, and in hearing about from others. He's still... confused by his own. The lines between what happened with him and Peter, what was done incorrectly, what was supposed to happen, how much is a mistake and how much is where he's meant to be now.... so much is still strange and lost to them both. )

I do not know, ( He admits, quietly. Staring down to the little plate in his hands. ...He doesn't like to eat, not really. What he is, isn't supposed to eat at all. The feeling of taste, any pleasant associations with sweets... they come from someone else. Memories he's absorbed. )

The people who put me within him... I believe it was their will that his spirit would be removed. They only wanted me. But when we came to the Dream, before this place..... we were together. He was not fighting me. He was.... worn down. Broken. But his spirit remained.

Perhaps this body was never meant to be fully mine, in that case.

[individualized]

Yes. Slowing the process of her heart shattering because she could not control her power, and retaining the pieces she had lost which my predecessors had collected. That is all I was meant to do. I have no other "purpose".

[Which is one of the reasons why she often just observes other people. Echo's only just started having her own life since arriving here, and she really doesn't know what to do with it.]

Perhaps. I am not familiar with a soul passing on without its body also ceasing its life. Maybe your being is not a spirit. Regardless, it does not sound like a dissimilar situation even though many of the details do not match.