deercountry | faceless man counting crumpled bills // OPEN

She felt so strange, but she didn't feel like lashing out now. Now that she was away from that circle of onlookers calling for Hunters, for Blood Ministers. Somewhere in there, she knew those two titles were ones she needed to avoid. If any of the two came along and identified themselves, she'd immediately go back on the defensive.

The breathing was hard to maintain. Something inside her wanted to breathe more quickly, to respond to a trauma the beast felt, but the human had been pushing aside.

She didn't raise her head but she looked up enough to meet Luz's eyes and purposefully mimic the way the girl was breathing.

She didn't know what would and wouldn't work, but it might help?

Luz figured this must have been what happened when she was corrupted, but she only had some experience with Varian and Vira's corruption. She unfortunately didn't know who this was yet, and she was lucky enough that whoever it was, they weren't trying to still attack her. That had been the unfortunate thing with Vira.

She was going to have to try and see if she could possible do it through the mind. It would be tricky, for many reasons but most especially because Luz was not an expert at it and had only really done it with a few people.

Still, she had to give it a try.

Hello. Can you hear me? Can you understand me?

Unfortunately, this poor creature hadn't even the chance to be corrupted, then find someone to be rid of it. She'd been pounced on by something with red curls and then became something she wasn't but she herself was afraid of. That was when the thought processes were working somewhat normally, most of the time it was a mess of instincts and fear.

If someone had tried to touch her, she would have cringed away before biting or attacking. On some level, she knew she was a nightmare, not a person. Just a borderline mindless beast.

The words which weren't her own slipped into her mind and she wasn't sure how to respond. Finally, after a long time, a whimpering little thought came through, like one from a dog which had been beaten too many times. Yes.

Luz could see that there was a mess of emotions there, and why not? She'd never delved into the mind of someone corrupted like this before. It was like getting a barrage of information, some relevant, some like yelling into the wind. Some things were easier to make out than others.

But she knew enough to try and not overwhelm the person corrupted right now. She could at least understand that they were frustrated at being in this state of uncertainty and flux.

It's all right. You're going to be OK. You are not a monster. Just breathe with me and try to stay calm. I'll do my best to help you, I promise.

She couldn't help her fear, trembling with the weight of it. This person seemed to mean well, though...but so few people had meant well. It was difficult to take in after feeling so pressured, afraid, and angry for so long. It was like she'd escaped one cage, had a brief reprieve (but how?), and was now back in another one.

She began to let out a low, but steady whine, her pale eyes filled with a mingling of pain and fear, but not aggression.

Trust.

[Luz could see the pain and fear in her eyes, and couldn't help but reach over and gave the corrupted animal a hug.

It wasn't smart. It was super dangerous. It could cut up her back and possibly bite her while she was making herself so exposed, but Luz didn't care. She didn't want a corrupted person suffering alone while she was pretending things were fine. They weren't and she knew it.

I just want to help. I'll do everything I can to get you back to normal.

A hug was the last thing she was expecting. The last thing...but not unpleasant. She was trying to shake herself of the fear of hunters and blood ministers. She knew that each would be catastrophic for her to encounter at this point. They'd assume the worst, they'd attack her, they'd turn her inside out in an attempt to understand her.

But...this young girl didn't feel like either of the two. She was showing kindness where kindness wasn't to be expected. She was so used to expecting condemnation or dismissal of her thoughts and feelings that to not have them taken lightly was a pleasant shock.

Help. Please. Normal.

Luz knew that she was taking risks here, but she also figured that this had happened when she herself had been corrupted, and had she not been shown kindness she might have been hurt and scared. So she took her time in assuring this corrupted person, though a clue to who they might be was starting to crop in the back of her mind.

That couldn't be though. Could it?

In a way, it didn't matter: Luz was going to make sure this person was ok.

You'll get there, slowly. If you really don't want a blood minister, it'll take longer, but I don't mind looking after you. What do you need?

This was her first experience with any of it. Corruption, beasthood. She'd thought that it wasn't possible to become a beast without first being corrupted, but that--that thing had attacked before she could even react and the next thing she knew was the ripping, tearing sensations of her body contorting and changing into something else entirely, her mind suddenly lost in the process. But she was getting it back.

And as a result, the whine increased in volume, wanting nothing more than for all of this to be over, one way or another.

Hungry. No blood ministers.

There was still a lot Luz didn't understand, not helped by the fact that she hadn't encountered anyone who had instantly transformed. All she knew right now was that she wanted to help, and if she could do that by attending to the corrupted person without a minister, she would do what she could.

She really hoped it would work though.

All right. Keep breathing. I wish I knew more, so I could help you better.

She'd never heard it was possible. She'd seen the deer around on the network and assumed it was from a planetful of deer. Or even a deer from this place, it certainly seemed to know and love its deer. It reminded her uncomfortably of people who'd hunt deer, have their heads mounted to their personal study's wall.

But maybe deer weren't for the hunting, despite the antler sets she'd seen above doors. But giant wolfhounds were for hunting. Or being hunted. She didn't want to do the former and was terrified of the latter.

So did she.

Mirror. Looked like me. Sudden.

Oh boy. Luz would definitely have a field day talking about deer, since that seemed to be one of the prevalent things in Trench that had carried over from the last town. Deer were good. Most other things were decidedly not.

Luz lit another incense stick though. She kept it the same scent, since she didn't want to have another smell competing with the first one she lit. This was a long shot, after all.

Mirror? Oh. Jeez, that sounds like a new development. I'm not even sure what I'd do about that.

Did she have to hunt down the other image?

Do you remember who you are?

She's entirely too used to the notion of deer being prize bucks, ranked by their apparent age and strength. As evidenced by the size of their antlers. But Rose had never taken joy in the hunting of deer, neither did her family or damn him to the deepest pits of Hell, Cal Hockley. Deer were pretty. Deer were the subjects of paintings. But deer weren't often the trophy shown off by Philadelphia society. More often it was the animals of the savannah, elephant tusks and the like.

The incense doesn't smell good. But it didn't smell poorly, either.

Mirror. Gone. Me. Not me.

[she's doing her best to express that the mirror took her over, but she's not sure how accurate she can be like this]

Yes. Flowers. Roses?

Edited 2022-04-29 01:32 (UTC)

Luz would have gladly told how Deer had always played a part in Deerington, that their presence was a source of good things, of changes, a beacon of courage when you were at your weakest. But in their corrupted state, Luz knew she couldn't say much, and to what end?

Luz took careful consideration in what was being said. Mirror Gone. Me, not me. She understood that easily enough. She knew that being corrupted was very much not being you.

Roses. Roses. Uh oh. Now she realized that this corrupted was very much someone she knew.

But which Rose?

Can you tell me one other thing you remember?

She could barely form coherent thoughts, much less understand the symbolism of deer. other than there were people who hunted deer and others who revered them.

Okay, that and venison was tasty, but she doubted she'd get any here because of the reverence. But now all she wants is a venison steak, cooked rare, with a side of a baked potato and what they were calling a Ceasar salad. Food. Food was of greater and greater import. And she couldn't help that.

Food. Mushrooms. Ick!

Hungry!

It would be hard. Luz was prepared for that.

The specificity of food going through her mind was definitely starting to form a picture in Luz's mind though. The turn of phrasing was starting to seem familiar to her.

And then there was that thing on mushrooms, and that cinched it for Luz.

Rose? Is that you?

She was afraid she'd be trapped, but everything she'd heard about blood ministers was terrifying.

Did dog-beasts eat mushrooms? She supposed that most of them would eat whatever was available, not caring if the one being eaten didn't want to be. But she had enough of herself hidden away to only growl and snarl and look intimidating while surrounded by others. But keeping up that level of rage was exhausting.

Yes?

Luz had actually been helped by blood ministers that she was brought to by Vira, but she understood if the cor-well, Rose, didn't want to deal with them.

The clues to her name and aversion to mushrooms had been the big clue in figuring out who she was, though she also thought it was lucky that she happened to know Rose to begin with.

Now how to get her back to herself?

Maybe if I play you some music? Do you think that would help?

She'd heard terrifying tales of blood ministers who were supposed to use their abilities to heal, to torture instead. She was deeply frightened of them since the last thing she wanted was pain on top of this indignity.

If one ever asked her about this, she'd deny, deny, deny as many times as it took the other person to leave her be. She feared that the Trench gossip machine functioned much in the way that the Society gossip machine did: when there were only so many people in a group, everyone was fascinated with everyone else's doing. And had few qualms about digging in.

She had no idea of how to do that. Unless she could be separated from the other self which did this to her in the first place.

Ragtime. Not hymns.

Never hymns.

Luz would have at least tried to quell some of that fear, but the scars on her back were likely going to have their own tale to tell. She could understand why Rose felt that way about the blood ministers, but they were different from the zealots. The blood Ministers were supposed to help. Granted, she'd met some pretty arrogant ones too, so she couldn't safely say she felt they were all good.

Which was why, of course, Luz was going to honor Rose's request to keep them away. She knew the corrupted could be brought back with the right kind of circumstances. It wasn't easy, and darned impossible if you didn't know that person too well.

Luz was, in this case, glad it was Rose. She could attempt to do what she could.

Uh. Don't have ragtime, per say. Would you settle for some Electronic Swing?

If Rose ever saw those scars, if she ever found out who caused them, well. Who said that dreamwalking couldn't be used against others, especially those who deserved it? And there was the fact that in theory, she could cause hallucinations. She'd make them hallucinate what it was which caused those scars. Vengeful? Certainly.

Satisfactory? Yes.

Rose assumed that she'd eventually become herself again, but was glad for Luz's company as always.

What's that?

Luz honestly hoped that Rose would never try to get those guys: the zealots had been surprisingly strong, and worst still, had had Pale bloods in their employ too. It was honestly pretty scary, and the experience still haunted her nightmares.

But she would have appreciated someone caring enough to want to defend her, always.

Well. It's kind of up beat old timey with some electronic bass. Let me see. Oh! Something like this.

Luz rummaged into her backpack and pulled out what looked to be a pretty ragged music player, and put them in corrupted Rose's ears.

Now she could sample some dorky but, in Luz's eyes, hip music.

But those guys would be a persistent threat? If so, she'd gladly match them, Paleblood for Paleblood. And she's capable of being a lot meaner than she generally lets on.

Ask Cal Hockley. Because at first, all he'd done wrong was be a vastly wealthy older man who was attracted to her. Her mother told her to play along since she assumed the Hockley Steel fortune was the answer to their prayers, but it didn't take long for Rose to realize that all they'd do was make each other miserable in the long run. But by then, Rose had already said yes to his proposal and was wearing an enormous oval-cut diamond flanked on each side by more diamonds on her ring finger, so there was seemingly no escape.

Am I old timey?

She didn't start as Luz did so, she trusted her too much for that, even in this wretched form.

...what is this? I love it.

It was that the zealots tended to come in groups, and not just versed in one style of magic. Luz had fought a few herself and they'd been way harder than she expected. It had made her want to make sure they were better prepared the next time that those zealots came after them, that her magic would be a more formidable match. Honestly, the more people cracking down on them, the better.

Compared to me? Yes. But that's not a bad thing! I kind of think it's pretty cool?

Luz knew most people would hesitate to call anything she did "cool."

An obscure combination of rap, electronica and pop. He calls it "chap hop." Maybe not the best example, but I really enjoy it!

She'd never heard a thing about zealots before. If she had known, that would have made her train all the more harder with sensei Lawrence. So she could at least try to keep those she cared for safe while using her Paleblood abilities on the offense rather than sticking to defense. They had Palebloods, fine. She was one, too, and if they wanted a hallucination, she'd give it to them.

Cool?

Rose still wasn't sure what the modern meaning of the word was.

I like it.

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