deercountry | (open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

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(open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

Who: Ange, Ruby, Break, and anyone who knows any of them.
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.

Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.

Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.

The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)

If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.

Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..

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Of course I am fine. Nothing can hurt me here.

[ A statement that.. almost sounds a little ominous when Ange says it in the way she's saying it right now - with that same tone, still.

She doesn't seem to linger on it though. Instead she's still looking at Shiro, curiously tilting her head faintly to the side. ]

So what reason would you have to be worried about me? [ Not that she doesn't know why he'd worry about her in general. She knows who Shiro is. She knows who he is to her. But-- ] Didn't you know I'd be fine in here?

What about Ruby? Is she all right?

[Because she doesn't seem all right, Ange!! She really doesn't seem all right. And neither does Ange, with that tone. But... calling attention to that right away might not be the best idea.]

[He meets her eyes - as much as that gold is unnerving.]

No, I didn't. Ruby said you'd made some kind of other world. And she wasn't acting like herself. I was worried about both of you.

That Trench might have hurt you both.

[ Ange could easily say that it's the opposite. That she's doing this to keep Trench from hurting them.

And maybe she will - but in a moment. It's not anything in particular that keeps Ange from saying this much, after all. She truly believes it to be true, and she will gladly proclaim it to everyone passing by, just to make them see.

But there's something else that draws her attention first, is the thing. ]

What do you mean, Ruby wasn't acting like herself?

[ Ange frowns as she says it, though it doesn't seem hostile as much as it seems faintly concerned. ]

I haven't seen anything odd from her.

She was calling herself "furniture", Ange.

[Not to Shiro, directly, but that hadn't exactly been a private comment. He's sure he's not the only one who saw it. Or heard it. There's no way Ange wouldn't know.]

[... But does this distant version of her care? He knows Ange herself does. He doesn't doubt that for a second. This golden, feathered Ange, though? That's where he's unsure.]

You can't tell me that's not odd.

That is since she is my familiar.

[ Ange says it so simply. Like she's just stating a fact - which, from her point of view, she is. At least there's a part of her still Ange enough to realise that people might find the furniture term strange since they haven't heard it being used before in these sorts of contexts.

So clearly just changing it out for a term more people ought to have heard of makes it totally normal, right?

Obviously. ]

She is rather proud of it, so I'm not surprised to hear that she was refering to herself that way to everyone.

[Finally, Shiro seems to bristle. He pauses, taking a deep breath to steady himself. Calm - focus. And still, when he speaks, it's with a steel undertone, firm and sharp.]

She's your wife. Your partner, Ange.

[He's probably the very last person to be calling her on this. Given his own history, his own troubled relationship. On the other hand, maybe he should. Maybe he's in a position to realize how bad that sounds. And how not normal that is.]

That's not how you treat people you care about.

[ If it wasn't for the fact that she's been so terribly unblinking all this time, she'd blink right now.

But she doesn't. It's as if she can't, not in this form. Instead she just stares at Shiro - in a way that almost has the same effect as blinking at him, her expression so blank that it's like she doesn't even know what he's talking about.

(At least she's not getting angry? Instead she just seems.. confused, more than anything else.) ]

What do you mean? Of course she is.

[ At least she doesn't seem to deny that part. ]

She is my wife. We are tied together. I'm not sure in which way I'm treating her that you deem wrong. We're the same as ever. [ Her way of speaking slows down a little, like she's explaining something to a toddler, rather than a grown man. Like she's explaining something as simple as the weather. ]

You always treat her like "furniture"?

[At least she's not getting angry. He's not actively trying to make Ange mad. Just get through to her. Get something of Ange out.]

[Focusing on someone she loves seems like the quickest way to do it.]

If I ever called my partner furniture, I'd be divorced. [To say the least. The man he loves is a petty human being.] She's acting like your door-woman.

It is just a title.

[ A title that, apparently, seems completely natural to Ange. Despite it not being the most flattering thing ever..

Hence why she seems to dismiss with a vague hand gesture. ]

Ruby and I are working together to make this world the best place it could be. But since I am too tired to use all of my powers right now to expand this place, she is taking care of things in the meantime. That is how we divide the work that has to be done here.

What world is this? Where are we?

[That title really doesn't make sense. It's not the title of a partner. But that can come later. It's clearly not getting him anywhere.]

[Maybe asking about this place will help.]

[ A question that has an entirely simple answer.

So simple that Ange casually sips her tea before answering it. ]

My world, of course.

[ Not the world she comes from. Thank god it's not the world she comes from, since Ange certainly never wants to return there. Thankfully she does clarify that, adding: ]

I made this place. It's a different layer of reality than the one Trench is on. [ Sorry, Shiro, she just keeps saying these things so calmly and easily.. like reality bending is just a totally normal thing. Making pocket dimensions? Clearly an everyday occurence. ]

'To keep yourself safe'? That's what Ruby said.

[And it's not even remotely reassuring. Not reassuring whatsoever. Especially with her casual attitude. Especially with how Ruby was acting. And... well.]

[Gold-Bird-Ange here.]

What happened? Did someone get hurt again?

To keep everyone safe.

[ It's a small correction, but Ange apparently feels like the difference is important enough to say it all the same. After all, it's not like all of this is just for her sake.

It's for everyone's sake. Everyone she cares about, anyway. ]

And.. of course. Has there been even a single month over the last half year where people haven't gotten hurt? [ And Ange has been there to watch it.

Every single time.

It's too much, even if she doesn't quite express it in her current form, just a little too inhuman, like she's above her usual emotions right now. ]

Ruby was dying. So I saved her.

Ange...

[It makes sense. It makes a terrible, horrible sense. She'd been in Deerington, in Trench, for so long. Nearly as long as he has - in the first, always as long in the second. And he understands.]

[How many people has he lost? How many people of his have been hurt?]

[Ruby was dying - he swallows. A flash of a black sea, of a retreating back. Of a ghost screaming over a yawning black pit. The horrible, consuming loss that swirled around him every time. The monster that emerged afterward. He has to take a breath.]

Ange, I understand. I do - but... this. Is this what Ruby would want you to do?

Edited 2023-04-02 05:03 (UTC)

[ Ange exhales.

There's not much emotion in it, but on the other hand - she isn't instantly answering either, without thought. Instead there's that tiny pause before she speaks up to Shiro again. Maybe it's due to the way he's talking to her, without accusation in this moment. ]

I asked her.

[ She speaks slowly, with little pauses between each statement. Not with a lot of emotion, but not exactly entirely unfeeling either, like she's thinking as she speaks, mostly about how to convey this to Shiro. ]

She said she wanted me to help her. She said she wanted to protect me.

Do you really think... this kind of help is what she meant? That this is how she wanted to protect you?

[Shiro does his best to keep his voice even, steady. He's angry. He can't be - when he understands too much. He'd have done anything, too, to keep his own safe. To keep the people he loves safe.]

[The person he married, safe.]

[But he also knows how Adam would have reacted, if he'd pulled out a whole world in order to do it. Expended so much energy like this.]

I get what you're trying to do, Ange, I do... I would - I'd do a lot of things to keep people safe, to protect them.

This just doesn't feel right.

Why not?

[ Despite Ange's odd attitude right now, there's something almost innocent resting in those words. Like she genuinely doesn't know why Shiro would think or say any of this. Like she can't figure it out, no matter how much she thinks about it.

This plan is absolutely perfect from Ange's twisted point of view, after all. ]

What's so wrong about it? [ There's a pause, and then something finally dips in her voice, a faint hint of emotion, as she adds: ] I thought you would understand me, Shiro.

I understand wanting this.

[He says it with all the sincerity he can possibly muster. Because he really, truly does. If he could make a world for his loved ones, keep them there and secure with no fear of anything... he could. But he knows them, too.]

[They would hate it, deep down.]

If Ruby wanted to leave - I'm not saying she does - would she be able to do that?

[ There's at least some hope inside of Ange when Shiro says that. That he understands it. Because Ange wants Shiro to understand. She'd like him to stay here, where she can help keep him safe. Protect him from the hurt he's already had to go through enough times.

.. except then he continues.

With a nonsense question. Ange's gaze snaps up at him. Not quite angry, but there is something vaguely emotional about it again, just like a moment ago. Less disappointed than then, and now more confused. ]

Why would she ever want to leave?

She's like me, Ange.

[He's had that conversation with Ruby before. How the two of them have a lot in common - and how their partners do too. They're both outgoing, they're both energetic, prone to adventures.]

We both need to explore. We need to be around to help people. That's just who we are.

And that's not wrong.

[Provided, you know, you have sincere conversations with your partner about the reasons why. Open conversations. And don't close yourself off. Speaking from experience there, huh, Shiro?]

But she can do that here.

[ There's something defensive in her tone, sure, but it doesn't necessarily sound like an angry kind of defensive. Maybe there's a bit of offense in it, but there's something much larger that almost sounds like it's pleading with Shiro to see this.

That everything is fine here. That this is a good thing. Why would someone important to her question this so much? ]

She's happy here. I asked her. I'm giving her everything she wants.

[ Because why would Ange ever make a safe place if it wasn't first and foremost a good place for her wife? ]

There is no one I care more about than her.

Can she leave? Temporarily?

[Maybe he's projecting too much here. Or maybe it just hits too close to home, in a lot of ways. He keeps his tone as mild, as gentle as he can. He doesn't want to accuse Ange. That won't help anything here. Just... maybe he can make her see.]

[Because he gets it.]

[He gets it, and he's been there. He's been there so many times. Almost on a monthly basis in Deerington and Trench. And before it. But... he's been on the other side. He's been the one someone was trying to protect, because they cared, because they loved him. Look how that turned out.]

[Don't expect me to be here when you come back.]

Is this a home to come back to, or something that keeps her held back?

[ Despite the fact that Shiro is trying so hard to approach this in a gentle way, it's still like something about Ange shifts. It's nothing too major, and she certainly doesn't look like she's about to attack him or anything of the sort - it's just that her body grows a little more alert, a little more rigid, her shoulders locking into place. ]

I don't understand. Why would Ruby want to leave?

[ There's something a little agitated around the edge of her tone - as if she really doesn't like the idea of it. Ruby leaving. Ruby being out there. Not safe. Not even alive without Ange's magic. ]

This is our home now. Not just mine. It's hers too.

[He holds his hands up, in wordless placation. Maybe that will help. Maybe he needs to tread more carefully, but - he's not sure how. He thought using his own experience would help something here.]

Not forever, Ange. I don't think she'd ever want to leave you forever... [It wasn't what I wanted. Even if it seemed that way.]

Sometimes when people leave, take a trip, go on a mission, it makes them appreciate their home that much more.

Appreciate the people they love. That those people are there, waiting for them to come back.

You're making it sound like I am running a prison here.

[ Okay, maybe not entirely. But there's some implication in those words, and the corruption in Ange's brain is more than happy to run away with it. It's so easy for that little voice to escalate what Shiro is saying into this. ]

There's no part of this place that's like that. It's just-- an alternative place. A safe place. Why are you trying so hard to make it sound like a bad thing?

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