[ lo and behold! here's gu yun, a few moments after the knock. he's since changed clothes, wet hair tied back into a ponytail, and he offers harrow an easy smile as he opens the door. come on in! ]
I'm still about the same as I was earlier. You can speak. Just stay nearby.
Understand that the specific text was to meet her in the garden because she had something to say for confession week. I became very alarmed, even though I was aware she had a boyfriend.
And yet, it was actually much worse than expected. She made us flower crowns and told me all of her murder plans.
No, I don't think so. She told me she was given a power from Gluttony, and would use it to kill someone, but in what must have come as a shock to her, I didn't react well to this. So she didn't wind up telling me who she meant to target or what the power was.
[. . .]
But as you know, Oliver Twist let me borrow another power. I used Unholy Hunger and gave her an obsession Thursday during curfew - don't let anyone die, including yourself.
She woke to go kill Grace, her intended target, but the obsession prevented her from carrying it out. Someone else killed Eleanor, but she was still deemed guilty of murder because her intent had been to commit it.
Aha, I see! Clever - push that same story off on Misa. Well. That's something to remember in the future, I suppose.
[ that does make a bit more sense, yeah. ]
That's what Greed told me about, that last part. I gave them my theory as to where the injury came from, and I wasn't that far off - that she was punished by the indulgence center itself for not following through. We were meant to find it, Greed said.
That seems. . . incredibly cruel. It isn't as though she made the decision herself.
[She's pissed about this.]
Her distress at trial was real, in a sense. When she kept talking about how panicked she was when she woke up with the burn, how she couldn't involve anyone because she didn't want them to become suspected and die, but didn't want herself to die either -
She felt that way at the time because she was still under my curse.
Mm. It is cruel. They said that this place doesn't like it when people back out - and that it wasn't the first time something like this had happened, either. Where this place had punished people.
Beauregard was my first thought. [ ...
anyway. he doesn't have more to add about that, but. in regards to misa - ] That does make sense. It's why I thought it completely impossible that she could have killed Eleanor.
Agreed. [ fucking. terrible. every part of it. it's best not to think of it, for now. ] I still hate that iron puppet so very much.
[ whoever graffiti'd his pod thing was valid and right. ]
But, I think the idea of the center punishing people is something to follow through with. It speaks to the larger deigns of this place as a whole.
...I broached the topic that rather than thinking of it as "indulgence", we could think of it as "corruption". They didn't give me much in the way of that, though.
I bring my own biases into this, but I can only see indulgence as a trite name for some type of energy they're cultivating. The specific nuances of what that energy is eludes me, but. . .
[Okay, she'll just nerd out a little here.]
I'm used to working in the medium of thalergetic and thanergetic energy - life energy and death energy. Most objects in the universe produce thalergy - anything with life, even basic microbial life forms, emits it. It's everywhere, but can't be harnessed in its most basic form. However, anything that produces thalergy also produces thanergy through the process of decay. At all time, every living thing is also in the process of dying at a cellular level, and the thanergetic energy of that decay theoretically can be harnessed.
It is only that the low levels emitted by living creatures is not in a usable form to the standard necromancer. Even an extremely good necromancer needs more to begin the process. The best way to harvest thanergy is death - the initial bloom of death being the most robust source of power, but it is possible to gather enough from other sources; living creatures with injury or sickness radiate it, as do corpses in the process of decay. Bone is ideal because it continues to produce thanergy long after the initial bloom, making it a portable alternative to the more straightforward method of simply making new fresh corpses to harness the energy of their death. But all different methods have something in common - they are a means to take a power source that is everywhere but diffuse and convert it into something more focused and therefore malleable.
None of this is to suggest that thanergy is the power source at issue here. This is my own area of expertise, but my understanding is the actual reason murder is effective is that it reduces the pool of us who are relying on whatever energy that is being produced by our efforts, so it really has nothing to do with death per se.
I only mean in the more general sense - that I see it useful to view this entire place as a means to generate and harness a type of energy that is useful for a purpose in the same way that death energy can be harnessed and used by a necromancer. The tests we've faced in those strange little excursions suggest that what is actually generating the energy is the process of experiencing and giving in to urges, whether for good or for ill, so I would personally not be inclined to think in moralistic terms such as corruption. My curiosity lies more in what that purpose is that our energy is being harnessed for.
admittedly he glazes over a little bit at this i'm sorry ]
... You're just like the old maid....
[ ??? i guess it's a compliment because he's allowed to say it
he shakes his head, clearing the immediate thought and urge to stop this before it starts because it is actually a valid theory. i'm stupid so hopefully i'm parsing this all correctly. ]
...But I see what you're saying. If I'm familiar with anything, it's limited resources. [ considering ziliujin sure as hell isn't renewable - it makes sense. the fewer the drains of it, the better his home and nation can thrive. though... ]
The only thing with that is - the people who are being killed off, that's a resource loss too, isn't it? In this case, the gain from a large action such as killing someone would outweigh the loss, then... It would make sense why we keep running into dangers where we may have to kill each other, since seeing other participants on those excursions seemed to be a commonality. No wonder it punished Misa for not following through.
[ hmmmm.... ]
If I recall correctly, this place was referred to as something as a 'hub', as well, right? My immediate instinct is harnessing resources for protection of this place as a whole - likening it to ziliujin instead, a similar resource is used to power weapons and armor in order to defend the nation. It can be used for smaller things, but, ultimately, the goal is always keeping Great Liang safe and powerful, no matter who is in charge. The Avatars mentioned that they'd been here for some time, but, our group of participants was especially unique. Maybe they were producing enough indulgence for energy on their own, and now... for some reason, whatever that may be, they are not.
[No, he got it. You're not stupid it's just NECROMANCY NERD SHIT but basically she's just talking about energy generation. Anyway, she just side eyes him when he is rude about her nerding out, but. Moving on.]
. . . That is a good point. For the theory about murder to be accurate, it would have to mean no amount of indulgence Eleanor generated in the coming weeks would make up for the resource consumption of her existing here and getting her wish. Whereas if the act of murder itself generates a significant amount of power, that wouldn't be the case.
Then perhaps we are encouraged to come here by promising us a share in the rewards, but our existence in some way also lends power to the indulgence center itself. Whether that means it's a trap or something symbiotic I couldn't say.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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. . . Hmm. Somehow that doesn't sound right to me.
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No?
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[Anyway. He's at his room, so.]
. . . Do you need anything? If not, I'll talk to you later.
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[ so!! he better see u later! ]
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I'm still about the same as I was earlier. You can speak. Just stay nearby.
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The curse wore off about an hour ago. What would you like to speak of - the trial? Today?
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I don't need to speak about today, really. [ sometimes you execute someone. it's fine. ]
However. Working backwards - what was Vira talking about? Do you remember it? She mentioned Misa had a power from Gluttony.
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. . . Do you remember last week, when I texted you some rather harsh things? Well. It wasn't a love confession after all.
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And yet, it was actually much worse than expected. She made us flower crowns and told me all of her murder plans.
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Well. Glad you didn't reject her, then.
[ BAD.
he's kidding. probably. ] I can tell you with honesty, I don't know how I expected that story to end, but it wasn't that way. She killed Eleanor?
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[. . .]
But as you know, Oliver Twist let me borrow another power. I used Unholy Hunger and gave her an obsession Thursday during curfew - don't let anyone die, including yourself.
She woke to go kill Grace, her intended target, but the obsession prevented her from carrying it out. Someone else killed Eleanor, but she was still deemed guilty of murder because her intent had been to commit it.
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[ that does make a bit more sense, yeah. ]
That's what Greed told me about, that last part. I gave them my theory as to where the injury came from, and I wasn't that far off - that she was punished by the indulgence center itself for not following through. We were meant to find it, Greed said.
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[She's pissed about this.]
Her distress at trial was real, in a sense. When she kept talking about how panicked she was when she woke up with the burn, how she couldn't involve anyone because she didn't want them to become suspected and die, but didn't want herself to die either -
She felt that way at the time because she was still under my curse.
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Beauregard was my first thought. [ ...
anyway. he doesn't have more to add about that, but. in regards to misa - ] That does make sense. It's why I thought it completely impossible that she could have killed Eleanor.
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So what if those pieces of evidence that clearly pointed to her were placed not by him, but by the center itself?
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It poisons my thinking too much.
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Agreed. [ fucking. terrible. every part of it. it's best not to think of it, for now. ] I still hate that iron puppet so very much.
[ whoever graffiti'd his pod thing was valid and right. ]
But, I think the idea of the center punishing people is something to follow through with. It speaks to the larger deigns of this place as a whole.
...I broached the topic that rather than thinking of it as "indulgence", we could think of it as "corruption". They didn't give me much in the way of that, though.
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[Okay, she'll just nerd out a little here.]
I'm used to working in the medium of thalergetic and thanergetic energy - life energy and death energy. Most objects in the universe produce thalergy - anything with life, even basic microbial life forms, emits it. It's everywhere, but can't be harnessed in its most basic form. However, anything that produces thalergy also produces thanergy through the process of decay. At all time, every living thing is also in the process of dying at a cellular level, and the thanergetic energy of that decay theoretically can be harnessed.
It is only that the low levels emitted by living creatures is not in a usable form to the standard necromancer. Even an extremely good necromancer needs more to begin the process. The best way to harvest thanergy is death - the initial bloom of death being the most robust source of power, but it is possible to gather enough from other sources; living creatures with injury or sickness radiate it, as do corpses in the process of decay. Bone is ideal because it continues to produce thanergy long after the initial bloom, making it a portable alternative to the more straightforward method of simply making new fresh corpses to harness the energy of their death. But all different methods have something in common - they are a means to take a power source that is everywhere but diffuse and convert it into something more focused and therefore malleable.
None of this is to suggest that thanergy is the power source at issue here. This is my own area of expertise, but my understanding is the actual reason murder is effective is that it reduces the pool of us who are relying on whatever energy that is being produced by our efforts, so it really has nothing to do with death per se.
I only mean in the more general sense - that I see it useful to view this entire place as a means to generate and harness a type of energy that is useful for a purpose in the same way that death energy can be harnessed and used by a necromancer. The tests we've faced in those strange little excursions suggest that what is actually generating the energy is the process of experiencing and giving in to urges, whether for good or for ill, so I would personally not be inclined to think in moralistic terms such as corruption. My curiosity lies more in what that purpose is that our energy is being harnessed for.
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admittedly he glazes over a little bit at this i'm sorry ]
... You're just like the old maid....
[ ??? i guess it's a compliment because he's allowed to say it
he shakes his head, clearing the immediate thought and urge to stop this before it starts because it is actually a valid theory. i'm stupid so hopefully i'm parsing this all correctly. ]
...But I see what you're saying. If I'm familiar with anything, it's limited resources. [ considering ziliujin sure as hell isn't renewable - it makes sense. the fewer the drains of it, the better his home and nation can thrive. though... ]
The only thing with that is - the people who are being killed off, that's a resource loss too, isn't it? In this case, the gain from a large action such as killing someone would outweigh the loss, then... It would make sense why we keep running into dangers where we may have to kill each other, since seeing other participants on those excursions seemed to be a commonality. No wonder it punished Misa for not following through.
[ hmmmm.... ]
If I recall correctly, this place was referred to as something as a 'hub', as well, right? My immediate instinct is harnessing resources for protection of this place as a whole - likening it to ziliujin instead, a similar resource is used to power weapons and armor in order to defend the nation. It can be used for smaller things, but, ultimately, the goal is always keeping Great Liang safe and powerful, no matter who is in charge. The Avatars mentioned that they'd been here for some time, but, our group of participants was especially unique. Maybe they were producing enough indulgence for energy on their own, and now... for some reason, whatever that may be, they are not.
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. . . That is a good point. For the theory about murder to be accurate, it would have to mean no amount of indulgence Eleanor generated in the coming weeks would make up for the resource consumption of her existing here and getting her wish. Whereas if the act of murder itself generates a significant amount of power, that wouldn't be the case.
Then perhaps we are encouraged to come here by promising us a share in the rewards, but our existence in some way also lends power to the indulgence center itself. Whether that means it's a trap or something symbiotic I couldn't say.
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