The way he'd turned to look toward Caelus as he beelined his lil booty over, already attentive, but instead gets WHOPPED BY A MEMORY FOR HIS EFFORTS!!
It's disorienting as it ever is, living a piece of someone else's life. The foreign emotions and thoughts, the experiences that he connects with in the moment and then reels to understand and make sense of once it ends. It's much the same here, where the memory ends and he's left trying to puzzle out what the wholeass hell he just saw.
But first and foremost:] —Are you... Were you able to get out of that...?
Calling a bluff is one thing, too - he's a little relieved to hear that Caelus believes in that theory just the same, because it's hard to reconcile the Aventurine he'd briefly spoken to with this stranger on a big screen. But the emotions still linger, and he looks faintly discomforted.]
What was the intention behind that...? What did he mean, about the detonation?
[WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE HERE HAVE EXPLOSIVES IN THEM.]
He follows the gesture with a concerned look, and even though he anticipated "it's not even active here" given everyone else's state of nerf, it's still a worrisome thing.]
[At least bodies being made in a lab (or lab-adjacent facility) is no strange concept to him, given Relivers. But. It is buckwild, the notion of a person's body just being formed specifically to contain an extremely dangerous thing. Why give such a vessel emotions and thoughts and a personality, in that case? It just seems cruel.]
...Under normal circumstances- [Not counting Aventurines Aventurining.] -are you at risk because of this?
[ why indeed? a destiny, too. so many things, handed over to a non-person who doesn't even have his memories of the first however many years of his life. they were deemed unnecessary and stripped.
but let's not worry about that, too. ]
I'm not at risk when I'm with the crew of the Astral Express. If I were... taken out while we're here, I don't know if the cult or anything could contain it. I hope they can.
[ what a bitter thing to wish for ]
Edited (i'm done i promise sry) 2024-06-26 00:23 (UTC)
[A bitter thing to wish for, and yet, not the first time he's heard nearly the exact same wish here. He purses his lips, quiet for a few moments.]
...I should hope for the same, though it feels unpleasant to even say so. But you don't seem the type to enjoy your body being used as a weapon.
[He doesn't want to see anyone else die, and he doesn't want people carrying the burden of taking lives, either. Even if both are ultimately unavoidable.]
My body is a weapon but in the cool way. Like, check out these guns.
[ lifts an arm, flexes, but the mood remains dour. he shifts to rub the raised hand against the nape of his neck. ]
I want to live and I want to protect the people here. My body was made to house a Stellaron, but I will decide the course of the life I have now. Thank you for understanding, Master Lucas.
[ he clasps his hands down near his stomach, fingers interlaced. his gaze is fixed to the ground right between where they stand. ]
[It's such a kind and gallant declaration that he can't help but feel a little moved. Even knowing they're all in the same awful situation, it's still good to be reminded that people are - at least, as far as he can see and believe it - fundamentally helpful and good.
He doesn't know if he understands, exactly, but... At the very least, he gets wanting to carve out a better path for oneself while improving the lives of others. He opens his mouth to voice some of these thoughts...]
I--well. You see. You know how some people have been--because of monster affinities--having sudden... these sudden feelings.
[ squeezing his fingers so, so tight together, gaze lifts, but it's to look at anywhere but lucas ]
So far they've always been reciprocated somehow. But this time it's just me. With these feelings. Which I know you don't share! So, I think, if I could have your underwear for one night, that would help me give up on you while I'm afflicted.
[THE WAY HE BLUSHES FROM HIS CHEEKS TO HIS EARS. SIR. Unfortunately trying to get underwear from a nun is a futile endeavor, no matter how persuasive a man may be...]
Is that so...? A strange turn of events, indeed. I haven't heard of only one party being afflicted, nor of said party knowing that they're the only one experiencing it. It sounds like a dreadful thing... But I'm afraid I'll be keeping that to myself. I could offer a handkerchief, if you'd like...?
[HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO NOT BLUSH HE DOESN'T EVEN SHOW HIS WRISTS AND SOME BOZO'S OUT HERE ASKING TO SWAP UNDERWEAR. They can all die of embarrassment off schedule together.]
I'm... afraid it's still a no, dear, I just - why is it, exactly, that something else won't suffice?
As a mere receptacle for a Stellaron, I've never gotten a beautiful person's underwear. Trailblazing means you don't stay in one place for too long. I thought, if it was you, and I didn't ask for anything more, you would let me have them.
[ a breath ]
Temporarily. But if that's impossible, that's impossible.
He opens his mouth to answer The Bozo's™ tragic pleas for a beautiful person's underwear for just one single night, but instead, Caelus gets memory whopped.]
[ SO HE'S A MONSTER, IS HE? ASKING THIS TRAGIC AND LOVELY MAN FOR HIS PANTIES? AFTER ALL HE'S BEEN THROUGH?
caelus submits to his punishment like he deserves. he stands in the hall of lucas' memory, learning more about the man without either of their permission. he feels the other's grief like an injection into his own skin. watching nadia's weakened state, it's impossible to forget another girl caelus saw die tragically young.
they return to outside the swamp. ]
...
[ please let him die. please let him die today, monday, right now. strike him down, bible god, he begs you. ]
Lucas, to his credit, doesn't seem to observe Caelus or his panty fetch quest any worse after this memory transfer than before it. HE'S BAFFLED AND EMBARRASSED but not upset or angry. Which is why he just kind of reaches out to very gently rest a hand against his arm. There, there... It'll be okay, sir underwear collector...]
...My apologies. I know that it's neither the fault of you nor I, but...
[No one ever likes intruding on someone else except for the weird sadist voyeurs among them, probably. If any so exist.]
Ah... No, that's fine. There isn't much of a point in pretending, I think.
[Especially given others have seen, others also know, so he might as well just have everything out there. His own encroaching death isn't a particularly sore topic for him, anyway. Now he just has to worry about surviving a cult sacrifice to get back to Nadia...]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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The way he'd turned to look toward Caelus as he beelined his lil booty over, already attentive, but instead gets WHOPPED BY A MEMORY FOR HIS EFFORTS!!
It's disorienting as it ever is, living a piece of someone else's life. The foreign emotions and thoughts, the experiences that he connects with in the moment and then reels to understand and make sense of once it ends. It's much the same here, where the memory ends and he's left trying to puzzle out what the wholeass hell he just saw.
But first and foremost:] —Are you... Were you able to get out of that...?
[CAELUS DID YOU BLOW UP.]
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[ the discomfort is immediate and just as quickly explained: ]
I don't think Aventurine was ever really going to do what he said.
[ acheron called aventurine's bluff in the memory and caelus has a right to believe in her implicitly.
but there was anxiety in that vision. mounting fear within caelus that he would be the cause of everyone's death, as the gambler proclaimed. ]
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Calling a bluff is one thing, too - he's a little relieved to hear that Caelus believes in that theory just the same, because it's hard to reconcile the Aventurine he'd briefly spoken to with this stranger on a big screen. But the emotions still linger, and he looks faintly discomforted.]
What was the intention behind that...? What did he mean, about the detonation?
[WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE HERE HAVE EXPLOSIVES IN THEM.]
no subject
[ a hand over his chest, as if to say right here. ]
When they aren't sealed, they corrupt the people and world around them. If it were to be set off, it could take out...
[ a lot of people. the trailing off speaks for itself in that regard. ]
It would be bad. But it's safe, it's not even active here. I haven't been able to feel it since we arrived.
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He follows the gesture with a concerned look, and even though he anticipated "it's not even active here" given everyone else's state of nerf, it's still a worrisome thing.]
...Are they normally sealed inside of people?
[This feels like an ethics violation.]
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As far as I know, I'm the only one.
[ how special! how unique! how horrific should the worst happen! ]
Stellarons can't be destroyed, so they do need to be contained somehow. According to Kafka, a Stellaron Hunter, my body was made for this purpose.
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[At least bodies being made in a lab (or lab-adjacent facility) is no strange concept to him, given Relivers. But. It is buckwild, the notion of a person's body just being formed specifically to contain an extremely dangerous thing. Why give such a vessel emotions and thoughts and a personality, in that case? It just seems cruel.]
...Under normal circumstances- [Not counting Aventurines Aventurining.] -are you at risk because of this?
no subject
[ why indeed? a destiny, too. so many things, handed over to a non-person who doesn't even have his memories of the first however many years of his life. they were deemed unnecessary and stripped.
but let's not worry about that, too. ]
I'm not at risk when I'm with the crew of the Astral Express. If I were... taken out while we're here, I don't know if the cult or anything could contain it. I hope they can.
[ what a bitter thing to wish for ]
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...I should hope for the same, though it feels unpleasant to even say so. But you don't seem the type to enjoy your body being used as a weapon.
[He doesn't want to see anyone else die, and he doesn't want people carrying the burden of taking lives, either. Even if both are ultimately unavoidable.]
1/2
[ lifts an arm, flexes, but the mood remains dour. he shifts to rub the raised hand against the nape of his neck. ]
I want to live and I want to protect the people here. My body was made to house a Stellaron, but I will decide the course of the life I have now. Thank you for understanding, Master Lucas.
[ he clasps his hands down near his stomach, fingers interlaced. his gaze is fixed to the ground right between where they stand. ]
2/2
I need your underwear. If that's okay.
1/2
He doesn't know if he understands, exactly, but... At the very least, he gets wanting to carve out a better path for oneself while improving the lives of others. He opens his mouth to voice some of these thoughts...]
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—Pardon?
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I only need them for a night, then you can have them back.
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...I'm afraid I don't understand... the request...
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[ squeezing his fingers so, so tight together, gaze lifts, but it's to look at anywhere but lucas ]
So far they've always been reciprocated somehow. But this time it's just me. With these feelings. Which I know you don't share! So, I think, if I could have your underwear for one night, that would help me give up on you while I'm afflicted.
[ ... ]
If it's cool with you.
no subject
Is that so...? A strange turn of events, indeed. I haven't heard of only one party being afflicted, nor of said party knowing that they're the only one experiencing it. It sounds like a dreadful thing... But I'm afraid I'll be keeping that to myself. I could offer a handkerchief, if you'd like...?
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and yet? he does not shut up. ]
What if I gave you mine in exchange? Still a 'no?' I'd really owe you one.
[ why is lucas blushing! lucas isn't the one confessing! ]
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I'm... afraid it's still a no, dear, I just - why is it, exactly, that something else won't suffice?
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... Space... custom?
As a mere receptacle for a Stellaron, I've never gotten a beautiful person's underwear. Trailblazing means you don't stay in one place for too long. I thought, if it was you, and I didn't ask for anything more, you would let me have them.
[ a breath ]
Temporarily. But if that's impossible, that's impossible.
no subject
He opens his mouth to answer The Bozo's™ tragic pleas for a beautiful person's underwear for just one single night, but instead, Caelus gets memory whopped.]
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caelus submits to his punishment like he deserves. he stands in the hall of lucas' memory, learning more about the man without either of their permission. he feels the other's grief like an injection into his own skin. watching nadia's weakened state, it's impossible to forget another girl caelus saw die tragically young.
they return to outside the swamp. ]
...
[ please let him die. please let him die today, monday, right now. strike him down, bible god, he begs you. ]
... Forget what I said.
[ face in his hands ]
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Lucas, to his credit, doesn't seem to observe Caelus or his panty fetch quest any worse after this memory transfer than before it. HE'S BAFFLED AND EMBARRASSED but not upset or angry. Which is why he just kind of reaches out to very gently rest a hand against his arm. There, there... It'll be okay, sir underwear collector...]
...My apologies. I know that it's neither the fault of you nor I, but...
[No one ever likes intruding on someone else except for the weird sadist voyeurs among them, probably. If any so exist.]
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he lowers his hands but does not lift his head. ]
Please don't apologize.
[ it's so sad. ]
I can act like I didn't see anything if that's better for you.
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Ah... No, that's fine. There isn't much of a point in pretending, I think.
[Especially given others have seen, others also know, so he might as well just have everything out there. His own encroaching death isn't a particularly sore topic for him, anyway. Now he just has to worry about surviving a cult sacrifice to get back to Nadia...]
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