countermeasures | chroma | catchall for vin

Ah...

[well. she's tempted to try and look at her back, but even just turning her head a little hurts, so she thinks better of it.]

...I had wings, for some reason... but they were torn off.

[she can't imagine how incredibly painful that must have been, but - she winces just thinking about it.]

Has the pod helped, yet?

I haven't used it... Vanille used some sort of magic on me, which dealt with the worst of it, and Sir Chang saw to the remaining injuries.

I'd rather leave the pods open for people who need to be stabilized. I'll use one myself once we're all in less imminent danger.

[she looks a little worried at that, but she does nod. after a moment:]

Might I ask what happened...?

...it's sort of a long story... but the simplest answer is that we were tasked with performing a ritual.

[...]

I'm sorry. I'm not really sure where to begin.

[she shakes her head]

Take as long as you need. You needn't explain it all if you don't wish to, either.

...when we first arrived there, we found ourselves in a house. Some of our... belongings, or at least they felt like they were our belongings, were near the door. When we picked them up, it...

[her brow furrows]

...it was as if we became more immersed in that world. We felt as though we had been there all our lives. Like we had certain... roles to play.

[she chuckles weakly]

I was a soldier.

I... can't imagine how strange that must have been. Both having it happen, and coming back from it.

...it didn't seem so strange to me while we were there.

I think... there was one point where I managed to break out of it, briefly. But for the most part... I believed I belonged there.

[my rolls against her being convinced those memories were real were so consistently bad]

[...]

Does it worry you, now that you remember the truth?

[she nods]

I don't like how easily that place was able to make me forget who I really am.

[she nods, concerned.]

It's... frightening. It must have been more frightening to live it.

In the moment, it wasn't so bad. I didn't know any different.

[but snapping out of it, realizing that she'd been caught in its thrall the whole time... she sighs.]

...anyway. While we were there, we believed it was our duty to complete a ritual. It was in three parts... the first was very easy, and we were asked to come back again after sixty years.

The second... was more difficult. I don't remember all of it, I don't remember who I faced, but the other three... they were fighting people I recognized. [she looks up to meet her gaze briefly.] ...one of them was you.

Sixty years...

[she can't imagine how disorienting it must be to be under the impression you had lived that long in a specific place, only to come back and find out it was an illusion. for the next part, though... she doesn't look terribly surprised, especially after jiuqing mentions forgetting someone. after a beat:]

...I was fighting with Clarte, I'm guessing? [more importantly, though:] Is that how you became injured?

Yes, you were.

[she can imagine clarte's missing memories - on top of their usual amnesia - must have been fairly obvious.]

...some of our injuries were from that. But once we completed that part of the ritual, we were told to come back another sixty years after that...

[120 years..........]

Our fresher wounds were from... our conflict during that third attempt. What happened to the others is for them to tell, but I... changed... into some kind of a monster. And I tried very hard to kill them.

[...]

I'm only glad I didn't succeed.

[wow! a literal nightmare! she looks pretty horrified upon hearing that - for someone like jiuqing especially, whose tendency is to heal rather than hurt unless she's been wronged, it seems like it would be horrible to go through. after a moment:]

...I cannot imagine what that might have been like for you.

It was bad for us all. None of us wanted to hurt each other.

[but...

they did anyway. isn't that just the way things are, here? hasn't it been that way for the last month?]

[with a tiny frown, worried rather than displeased:]

It may have been bad for all of you, but... You are the one I am speaking to, now.

...

[honestly. that's fair.]

I'll be honest... I hated it.

You seem like the kind of person who would hate it.

[that's definitely a compliment.]

So I am... sorry you had to go through it.

Thank you.

...at least it's over now.

...I would be very glad if it only happened to each of us once.

I would hope that would be the case.

[...

but with their numbers dwindling... if they end up with several groups each week...]

I suppose that this is another case where we will have to wait and see.

[incredibly! frustrating!]

...this may sound strange, but -

[...]

If it does happen again, I hope it happens to us both at the same time. I trust you, Vin.

[and she would much rather face that kind of danger alongside someone she trusts.]

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