deercountry | fall for me from reality [open]

Who: Anna Amarande and you
What: November catch-all!
When: Throughout November
Where: The Entertainment Feed; Anna's usual club; other locations TBD

Content Warnings: Manipulation, blood + oil, lacerations, restraints

a. hold shut the wounds of the past [for murderbot]

An android walks into the Entertainment Feed. Stop me if you've heard this one before. She's wrapped in a heavier coat than usual, black fur around the collar, and she's wearing a new-looking pair of black jeans with no holes in it except for the ones that the guy who made them put in there for her feet and torso. Her boots are the ones she used to sail with, and her jeans are tucked into them. And, because she's committed to her own brand, she's got a white t-shirt with a faded picture of yet another robot on it.

"Anna Amarande," she says to one of the drones, identifying herself like she'd been asked. "Fantasy Twitter user rin should be expecting me? We have some things to discuss."

b. to the rhythm of eternity [open]

Anna usually limits her performances at the bar she's taken to calling her home in Cellar Door to three nights a week, but lately, she's felt a little more inspired than usual. She's chalking that one up to the Tower's influence, and she'd feel a little ungrateful if she didn't bump it up to five nights a week for at least a little while. She's playing most of the songs in her repertoire over a given week, her voice and her bass on full display with any other instruments covered by backing tracks from the glowing projected screen of her Omni.

Of course, maybe you didn't walk into this bar to listen to Anna play music. Maybe you're here for a conversation—maybe something important, maybe just catching up with old friends. If that's the case, she's glad to wave you over to the booth that she's stolen for herself in the back, dimly lit but private. She's got a bottle of beer in her hand as she does it, and she tilts it towards the bartender as if to say "one more for my friend".

"Hey, glad you could make it. C'mon, let's take a load off for a bit. What's been up with you?"

c. there are burning cathedrals [for makima]

This is going to be interesting, she thinks. She'd met Makima online in a curious conversation about godliness, and she wonders very much whether it's going to play out the same way in person. Right now, she's dressed as normal; it's a little bit colder this morning, so she has her thick, fur-collared coat over those new black jeans and Hatsune Miku tee, and she's looking around the coffee shop for anyone who looks even remotely like a Makima.

"Hey," says the woman with more souls than eyes once she's pretty sure she's got the right person. "Sorry, usually the places I hang are a little... grungier than this. Hope I didn't keep you waiting long. You're Makima?"

d. turning the skies into glass [friend of mine]

"All right," Anna says, in the heavier coat she's been wearing this whole time. She shrugs her shoulders up to wrap the collar around her neck properly, and she adjusts the strap over her chest that secures her katana to her back. "We're here to find something to help the Tower. Thanks for coming along." She turns her head towards her companion and smiles appreciatively. "I'm not in the business of walking into danger alone anymore. So—"

She reaches into her pocket and slips the crescent necklace she'd gotten from the Reckoning over her head, around her neck. "This can make sure that at least someone already knows where we are, in case there's an emergency, but how are you with tracking? I don't think a lot of us have been out this deep in the woods before." She looks back out ahead of them; the trees might be starting to die off, but that doesn't make the thicket of branches before them any less intimidating. She rolls her neck until it cracks, then starts walking forward, because there's nothing else for it. "Let's save a god's life."

e. i cannot pretend that i never think of you [for ange]

She's lost track of time. The zealots didn't seem to enjoy what they found when they'd cut into her side very much, and she can still feel the blood and oil oozing out of her very slowly. If nothing else, she thinks, they know how to keep people alive enough to actually treat them like a farm. She would find it funny if there were anything to laugh about, that this is the second time this year she'd ended up strung up and in restraints waiting for something mysterious to return and do whatever it is that they want to do.

Right now, Anna feels woozy. Half-awake, really, with her head lolling and her white hair streaked with red. The zealots, from what she can remember, had left her alone for the moment to try to figure out what exactly it is she has inside her. She remembers frenzied talk about how the Tower can't accept any of this because it's not flesh, it's not real, and she can only assume that they're waiting to commune with whoever, whatever to get a real answer. Her thoughts are going in circles right now. She misses her friends, her loved ones, her family. She wishes that she weren't here. Hell, she doesn't even have her katana with her, so even if she found some way to get out of these chains holding her upright, the ones on her wrists spreading her arms wide and the ones on her legs binding them together, she wouldn't be able to do anything but tap into the teachings of Sensei Lawrence.

She laughs dry into the darkened, empty room. Someone's going to save her. Right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Luz noted the stance and braced herself.

"What does you liking a girl have to do with God in the first place? They're your parents! Shouldn't they at least be happy you can be honest with who it is that makes you happy?"

Luz might not have agreed with everything that happened with her mom, but she was sure her mother loved her and would have done anything to try and understand her daughter more.

"Well here, no. Back in Deerington though, you lose your memory, and sometimes more than that. My friend Vira died so many times her head was detachable! Now that she'd in Trench, she'd pretty happy its firmly in place again."

Not that this feature had ever bothered Luz, who'd gotten used to that though Eda anyway.

"Okay, kid, I could talk about the hypocrisy of religion and the garbage that my parents started believing for weeks at this point," and she admits that with only a little weariness in her words, "But I think you're gonna have to be the one to back things up for me now."

She gets out of that contemplative little power stance she'd taken and leans forward again, like she's way more interested in listening than talking right now. "When people died in Recollé, they either stayed dead forever," and she doesn't want to think about Lillian right now, "Or they came back and it took a while for their memories to come back to them." Not like she wants to think about Clover much either, but.

"So when you say Deerington took more than just memories, what kind of stuff are you talking about?" She'll get to the headless part in a second. Probably.

"I'll bet you could," Luz said, and here was where they were going to get into some of the less "happier" parts of talking about Deerington. Luz had done her best not to die there, and luckily, she was at the tail end of its existence anyway, but it didn't change her seeing a lot of friends who had weathered the results of some of what Deerington had to offer.

"That was a little like how it was in Deerington. You didn't stay dead, but you did lose more of your memory when you died more than once, and even when you came back, you had to go through a really bad sick spell."

And then came the other stuff.

"Some memories don't come back, or take too long, so some people would exchange things to get them back. Sometimes it was an eye, or a limb. Things could get pretty bad. I'm not even getting into the sheer funkery that was October."

Yes, she said funkery. Luz still, after all this time, could not bear to curse.

Anna nods, and she shakes the hair from her face to show her eyepatch more clearly as Luz continues the history lesson.

"Yeah. I know a little about giving things up in the name of what's important to you," she says, her tone a little more solemn, a little quieter. A voice that didn't belong to someone she loved echoes in her head: I could do anything if it meant keeping the people I want. What about you? And she tries to ignore it, the same way she tried to ignore it back then.

Instead, there's recognition making its way to her words: "I've heard a little about Octobers, too. Blood and death and a lot of really hardcore horror stuff." (Her October had been July, and she really hopes that isn't the new October, but none of it would ever work out like that, would it?) "But I've been here a full year and some change now, so I at least know the vibes of the place month to month. I think we're getting out of the worst of it. Just gotta make it to the new year."

Luz looked at the eyepatch, moving to do something and then stopping herself.

Of course she couldn't do anything about this. She knew that. There was no way to just fix all of the stuff that had changed Alice, anymore that she could have changed and saved Dipper or Clementine or any of the friends she had who were forever changed because of the sacrifices that they had to make in a place like Deerington or Trench.

"They were pretty bad. I somehow wound up missing the worst of that. Didn't mean I didn't have to deal with some of my own trauma though. Maybe not a whole mess of blood in the streets, but other things could still happen."

She sighed. "And hope the new year is nicer? I can get behind that."

"Yeah. Yeah, the new year should be nicer." She's speaking with a quiet sort of reverence about the idea. "It's almost January, yeah? And Madam G throws that big-ass party, or I guess she did last year and I got the idea it was an annual thing." She does gnaw at her lower lip, though, an uneasy feeling in her stomach about it. Whatever's affecting the Pthumerians now, she just hopes it doesn't start spreading.

"That's where I figured I could make a living doing music around here, too. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time, and when the world's falling apart, it always feels good to give people something they can relate to." She pushes herself up, slowly getting to her feet on the stage. "It's all Madam G's doing. And if she lets me, I'd love to play her party. So maybe if I play loud enough, she'll hear me."

"I sure hope so." Luz didn't have high hopes there though. With the stuff that was affecting the Pthumerians, she imagined that they hadn't heard the last of it and were going to have to hunker down and get ready for some more bad happenings going down. Madame Generosity was usually pretty nice though, so she was at least counting on a relatively nice January.

Luz did smile at this explanation though. "In that case, maybe I can do something too, to help get more people to check out your wonderful singing! I can draw a poster for you, or maybe put out a light display when you're performing? That way, it'd be even more likely that Madam Generosity would hear you!"

Oh god, she almost forgot what it's like dealing with actual kids who have all that enthusiasm still within them. It's cute, almost. Doesn't make her want one of her own or anything, but she still gives a warm smile at just how eager all these suggestions are.

"If you want," she says, her tone gently encouraging. "I don't know if I'm much for light shows, but why the hell not actually do some advertising, you know? Come on down and see... Anna," which comes out with far less wonder and prestige than it might seem. "I don't really have a name for the musical project yet. But the Trenchies know who I am, at least. Other Sleepers... don't think I spend a lot of time talking about it. Maybe it could work."

Luz had been in plenty situations where she felt like she lost some of her enthusiasm: it was actually good that she was starting to get some of her old spunk back.

"Exactly! Trust me, some advertising can do wonders! We can workshop a name later. But we can start with a poster, and then I can formulate a kind of light show advertising outside of the bar! You'd be surprised what the right combinations of glyphs will do!"

Anna laughs, and it's bright enough to match the stage lights. "Then let me wrap up my set and we'll see what we can do later, Luz. Right now I got some other big stuff brewin' with the band, but we'll see what happens with that, and then... well. You'll be the first one I come to for advertising."

"Ooh, really? I can't wait to see what else you'll come up with!"

Luz was all smiles. If there was one thing she loved, it was making someone's artistic aspirations come true!

fall for me from reality [open]

Luz's mom is so much more amazing than people gave her credit for

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