deercountry | faceless man counting crumpled bills // OPEN

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.

Luz wouldn't have blamed Rose for wanting to train more and would even have encouraged it! Of course, the zealots were not the type of people who'd want to get around close enough to be grabbed. That had been the most annoying thing. Luz would have recommended she have someone train her in magical fighting too.

Cool! It means, um, interesting, something you want to be like. It's sorta hard to think of an equivalent toward from your time. Uh. 'The bee's knees?'

Cool. The opposite of Luz at times, honestly.

Me too! The cadence, the way the music swells, the braggadocio style of the singer! It's just really fun!

There were times when she felt so terribly weak, especially in comparison with everyone else. That was why she wanted to get better at her Paleblood abilities, that way at least she had a solid defense to fall back on if her physical training failed her. If one can read another person's mind, they know exactly where the attack is coming from in time to dodge or counterstrike.

Ah. That I understand.

Nonsense, Luz was very cool!

I like fun music. Felt bad for the band still playing on the deck. They were trying.

Luz didn't know any of this but would have assured Rose that magic takes practice and dedication, and had only gotten as good as she had by making sure she did both in her spare time. Even Pale Blood abilities were tricky to learn, as Luz was still struggling with getting it right.

Oh good. I know there's still a little gap in the periods when we were born.

Not that it mattered in the long run, since Luz was fond of Rose anyway.

The band on-oh, you mean...wow. Really? All the way until the end?

She wouldn't even be sure she could do magic the way Luz could because where she'd come from? The magicians were all charlatans, hiding cards up their sleeves, hats with secret compartments, and making wild guesses about their audience, assuming that the guess had to hit the mark with someone. Other than Houdini, he seemed to actually know what he was doing.

A small one, yes. With a hint of amusement.

And the feeling was mutual.

I think so?

Luz knew it would have to be more of gradual development of her powers if she were truly going to be able to use it correctly. It had happened over time with her too, but she was still in the dark when it came to her actual Pale Blood abilities.

Don't worry. I think we'll learn useful things from each other about when and where we lived.

At least Rose seemed to be gradually moving out of being corrupted.

Aw. Those poor people. The truest of musicians, to go down with the ship.

She'd managed mind-reading and dream-walking. Now she had to check hallucinations off of her list, but that was the one she least looked forward to using. It seemed like cruelty for the sake of it with very little room for the barest of possible benefits. But if she didn't use it, there was a strong chance it would use her without her permission.

I think so, too. Though, I do have to wonder what someone from my time has to offer anyone.

Slowly, but surely. The horns were slowly retracting and the coarse dog hair was slowly starting to give way]

Yes. So many did.

Ooh. Right. Luz was not in the know about hallucinations, but she would have likely told Rose to be careful there. How would you know what was real and what was fabricated?

Over the years, I'd say life gets pretty complicated. Not in the field of race, orientation and sex, mind you, those have gotten at least a little better. But people have found ways to alienate themselves with the advancement of technology. Wisdom from earlier times would probably help.

That was her way of thinking about it, anyway.

It sounds awful. Hope you never have to see something like that here.

Goodness knows in Deerington, October would have rivaled anything on the Titanic by a substantial amount].

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