Nightfell Inbox [UN: d]

[damnpire]

voice ✦ text ✦ action

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[damnpire]

Perhaps, but I don’t believe that applies here.

I’ve heard the screaming iron near the Forges.

[craters]

（ she doesn't want to talk about it.

she doesn't.

but after a moment: ）

I was there.

During the festival, after we met. I sort of stumbled in on the Forges. It's more than just screaming iron.

[damnpire]

[Hm. Sakura.]

It’s where they harvest souls.

[craters]

Yeah.

[damnpire]

Are you planning on forging something, or are you looking for an alternative method?

[craters]

I have a friend who would never forgive me if I did.

（ not exactly an answer. ）

But I do want to find out why it happened, how it started.

[damnpire]

[He understands.]

The library or academy seems reasonable; however, you may find better answers from those who have been here the longest.

[craters]

I could ask Amun, I suppose. I'd intended to use my opportunity to speak to him for something else, but I don't know that even matters.

Do you think that's what was intended for everyone taken prisoner?

[damnpire]

Try someone older. Ask the question you want to ask.

I don’t know. Even if it was not the intention, it was a likely outcome in time.

[craters]

Do we have any way of knowing how old he is...? I actually have no idea how aging works in Stygia...

（ they certainly aren't immortal by any means, but if souls can be harvested for steel there's no telling how else they can be used.

horrifying, but it isn't as if insane men wanting immortality for themselves hasn't been a recurrent theme in her life to this point. ）

I agree. And it didn't seem like they were too interested in jurisprudence, either.

[damnpire]

Amun made it sound like he didn't have much of a say in what happened either time. He said he was investigating.

He was also injured.

[craters]

Given his position within the Hierarchy, or what he's implied of his position, 'investigating' suggests an element he was unprepared to deal with.

I do suspect that the injury could have been fake to play to our sympathies, however. I think someone who appears to be that stoic and uncontrolled would have simply recorded a message via voice if he was truly hurt. Showing it off seems... calculated, in a sense.

[damnpire]

Perhaps he has a lot of pride and respect in giving us something besides an informal declaration. He seems to take his job very seriously.

When many people who are already afraid are relying on you, you sometimes think you must be stoic and controlled, or you'll lose them to fear and chaos. You think if you act afraid and uncertain, they will too. Any weakness might be an opportunity against you.

[craters]

（ speaking from experience, d? she doesn't reply immediately, turning those words over in her head. it isn't the impression she's gotten from the man, but she can see d's rationale about why it might be. ）

I think you might be giving him too much credit.

（ it's a pattern she's starting to put together. d is capable of grace and kindness to just about everyone except himself.

please never meet orochimaru, tbqh. she's not ready for that redemption arc. ）

Anyway. Enough about the Hierarchy.

I figured out the plasma piece — and I've rented a laboratory unit in Hale for the short term. When are you free?

[damnpire]

I could be.

[Can't wait for Amun to be evil actually, so D can frown. Frowns also at Orochimaru.]

I'm free now.

[She didn't have to do all that, but he will NOT say this because she always wants to beat him up when he does.]

[craters]

Meet me at the entrance to Hale, in about forty minutes?

（ enough time for her to put everything into scrolls and be on her way. ）

text → action

[damnpire]

Alright.

[Being a man of a lot of patience, he gives her forty minutes, and he doesn't even try to beat her there even though he could. He lets her arrive first since she had been the one to acquire everything herself.

But he does come. Perhaps he walked as calmly and slowly as he approaches which is how it took those forty minutes.]

[craters]

（ she arrives early — as much a shinobi reflex as her own preference towards punctuality, and when she sees him she gives him a wave. she has one box tucked under her arm, and a second at her feet. she dumps the former on him, and the latter gets picked up handily. ）

Hi. How've you been?

（ their last conversation had been... a lot. so this is as much her gauging the waters as genuinely asking. ）

[damnpire]

[Their last conversation had been a slippery slope, but D’s uncertain answer to the question isn’t because he holds any ill will toward Sakura.

He inclines his head in greeting, and then he takes the box she gives him without hesitation or complaint.]

A lot has happened.

[He will at least be that honest. This month… was so much and for what.]

[craters]

（ why does she feel 'a lot' is something of an understatement from him... ）

Oh?

（ she falls into step beside him, fingers gripping a little uncertainly at the edges of the box she's carrying. had he gotten tangled up in the jailbreak as well...? she should have asked sooner. ）

[damnpire]

[With the box, he walks on beside her, still not rushing. It's a wonder he ever rushes anything at all.]

Mm. [Sometimes, even when you mind your own business, you get caught up in every other mess.] I was arrested.

[He had been caught up in the prison abduct and, unfortunately, he was on the receiving end of it.]

And, as far as I'm aware, I was also cursed.

[craters]

（ a spasm of guilt hooks in just behind her ribcage. the rational part of her knows that he's capable enough on his own, that she doesn't need to worry. it isn't like he would have been relying on her to protect him, after all. but he's — a friend, now. it's careless of her not to have known. those awful, lonely cells... he could have been killed, and she never would have known about it.

her fingers tighten on the edges of the box, making the wood creak in protest. ）

Let me know if you'd like help removing the brand. （ she has to thank kaito for that one, turning her onto the badiliscus skins to help. ） And then cursed, huh?

（ like jonas. but d, at least, doesn't smell like blood. she can't imagine how torturous that would be. ）

You aren't the first person I've heard of with such an issue. What seems to be the difficulty?

[damnpire]

[Well, she can't feel too bad--at least, she doesn't have to feel too bad. He wasn't much different. Even despite being thrown into prison, he did not reach out to make sure she was alright.

The noise of the wood gets him to glance briefly over at her.] I'd like to remove it, yes. [Very strange for his skin to retain a mark, though, and he'd be lying if he wasn't clinically interested in the phenomenon. But he'd rather not have it there.]

Passing through doors, or archways, or thresholds makes me unable to breathe. But it only occurred at certain times.

[craters]

（ she will feel as badly as she wants!! honestly she'd probably be shocked if anyone came to check up on her anyway, given... well.

everything.

she gives him a sidelong glance, and then: ）

What sort of 'certain times'?

[damnpire]

[STOP, please check on her!! I hate all these men.]

Whenever the moons were full.

[At least, that's his best assumption. The only thing which seemed to stay the same whenever it happened.] The first time it happened, it had been for only a day. The second time, it was for several. [So this may explain why...

...he sort of hesitates very briefly going into Hale, like he expects for some reason to be barred entry. He'd just have to sit on the outside of hopefully a window and watch in frustration while Sakura worked inside.]