>Ross and Mareya: Have a #talk about Skye and James

(5:36:01 PM) ***mislaidLullaby has connected to sidememo!
(5:40:36 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter has connected to sidememo!
(5:40:40 PM) ventricularPipefitter: So.
(5:40:51 PM) mislaidLullaby: <| So |>
(5:41:04 PM) mislaidLullaby: <| You wanted to talk 'bout Mama? |>
(5:42:00 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Mmm. Saw her last night. Morning? Whichever, I'm lousy at telling time in the Magicant.
(5:42:26 PM) mislaidLullaby: <| Tone doesn't sound too cheery. What happened? |>
(5:45:02 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Well, she...wasn't in a good way. We weren't in the little suite Mornei somehow got set up in that only-sometimes-accessible back rooms, she was...rummaging around, knocking around funiture, looking for a computer or something. Nonverbal.
(5:45:33 PM) mislaidLullaby: And then I take it you ran into her
(5:48:32 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I didn't /trip/ over her or anything. But it was...tense. 'Specially after Charta or someone pinged me and she zeroed in on the sound in that 'blood in the water' way. But it...things calmed down. Got out the sandwiches, shared 'em. Talked. Well, talked to her, for the sake of the thing, you know.
(5:49:20 PM) mislaidLullaby: This does not explain the boding tone. What next?
(5:50:44 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Short or long?
(5:50:52 PM) mislaidLullaby: Short
(5:51:02 PM) mislaidLullaby: Long can follow if more details needed
(5:53:15 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I sat down next to Skye. James put her hand around my neck.
(5:53:28 PM) mislaidLullaby: Sonnvabitch
(5:54:40 PM) cyaFan|Online is now known as Mnem
(5:55:57 PM) antigoneVenerated is now known as justicarLacrima
(5:55:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: That doesn'--didn't happen before.
(5:56:28 PM) mislaidLullaby: Papa and the Wonderrails will've been trying to weaken his grip on her
(5:56:56 PM) mislaidLullaby: I wonder if this is him trying to scare her into obedience
(5:57:43 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Mmn. Not just that. It's not quite one big happy family back there for them, but it's as close as you'd get with her like that. She wouldn't, and she didn't, attack family.
(5:58:30 PM) mislaidLullaby: He's got a history of hijacking her at will though
(5:58:32 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Shrike's damn completely fearless--though you wouldn't like to see the way she'd flinch and hiss if you moved toward em the wrong way.
(5:59:04 PM) mislaidLullaby: Of course Shrike is fearless. That's their mama. She carried them through the Ring
(5:59:05 PM) ventricularPipefitter: She kept him /out/ before, is what I'm saying. When we were around.
(6:01:06 PM) ventricularPipefitter: It's...mm. And they're never apart, those two. E speaks /fester/ I know I told you that. But. She was alone.
(6:02:13 PM) ventricularPipefitter: It was a trap.
(6:02:40 PM) mislaidLullaby: hm
(6:02:42 PM) mislaidLullaby: So now what?
(6:07:12 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Well, I hope you'll forgive me for cracking your mama's ribs, but it was that or 'together in death.' Swept him off her feel and shouted for Skye. The fight stopped. She curled in on herself and /wailed/, fit to tear your hear open. Fled when I stepped too close.
(6:07:18 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I've been thinking about the second part.
(6:08:17 PM) ventricularPipefitter: First question you always want to answer is, 'What does The Bastard want out of this? What does he think/expect/hope is going to happen?'
(6:08:29 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Such that, well, you can make sure to go and Not Do That Thing.
(6:09:19 PM) mislaidLullaby: If you did nothing he would've choked you. You shook him off and instead hurt her
(6:09:35 PM) mislaidLullaby: Either way, we now have a thing going on that didn't happen before
(6:10:17 PM) ventricularPipefitter: He would've /killed/ me, Mareya. And Skye'll, well. She'll forgive me for self-defense.
(6:10:19 PM) mislaidLullaby: Where he can hurt her family
(6:11:02 PM) mislaidLullaby: So. Imagine at any minute somebody could take control of your body and try and kill your loved ones. What do you do?
(6:11:06 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Fear. Distrust. Shaming her with a reminder of 'Who's in control.'
(6:11:12 PM) ventricularPipefitter: *reminder
(6:11:53 PM) mislaidLullaby: Because I dunno 'bout you, but if somebody could take me over at random and make me hurt people?
(6:12:01 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Isolation.
(6:12:03 PM) mislaidLullaby: I'd try and put a bigass distance between me and those people
(6:13:08 PM) mislaidLullaby: Which is really not what you want to tackle corruption
(6:14:35 PM) ventricularPipefitter: She'd be in the Ring again, winging her way towards Heries and 'Cho and the rest of them.
(6:14:40 PM) girlyGamer is now known as chefcurls
(6:17:10 PM) mislaidLullaby: And her former diamond who is now pale for Heries and /that/ is a whole barrel of rabid fish
(6:17:40 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Who's what.
(6:18:07 PM) mislaidLullaby: Oh gods tell me somebody told you
(6:18:48 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I have the impression that someone /did/ and I had forgotten, on account of having Too Much Shit To Deal With.
(6:19:04 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Which...
(6:19:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: oh.
(6:19:16 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Nagdra?
(6:19:24 PM) mislaidLullaby: The bell, you hath rung it
(6:19:27 PM) mislaidLullaby: That's the bastard
(6:19:56 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Don't they have her in chains or irons or something?
(6:20:25 PM) mislaidLullaby: Haven't heard that one
(6:20:40 PM) Muss is now known as clarifiedDiplomat
(6:21:02 PM) mislaidLullaby: Wait, no, they did. Then she died, and now Naggie is looking after her sans-chains
(6:21:11 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ...
(6:21:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Were you around when he'd hit on Cyma and Noah, when they were kids?
(6:22:18 PM) mislaidLullaby: Yes
(6:22:29 PM) mislaidLullaby: I've been here....Yikes
(6:22:53 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Heh. Adds up, doesn't it?
(6:23:04 PM) mislaidLullaby: Well the Ring trip certainly didn't bloody help
(6:23:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: They run on fast 'stamps, though. And that, also.
(6:23:23 PM) mislaidLullaby: Very end of my first, I found this place
(6:23:25 PM) ventricularPipefitter: And Croton is blinded and scarred and the whole universe wants to kill her. Huh.
(6:23:35 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Mmm. Zeimah found it in her first, too.
(6:23:42 PM) mislaidLullaby: Don't know if she's still blinded after she died and came back
(6:23:43 PM) mislaidLullaby: Somehow
(6:23:49 PM) ventricularPipefitter: (Nagdra Sunder, there's something not right about you.)
(6:23:50 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...Didn't her dreamself get /killed/?
(6:23:57 PM) mislaidLullaby: How the fuck did she come back from that?
(6:24:05 PM) ventricularPipefitter: There was something about the clocks. I don't remember.
(6:25:08 PM) mislaidLullaby: Clocks don't explain her /dreamself/ /not/ /being/ /dead/ so to allow her to tier in the first place
(6:25:13 PM) mislaidLullaby: Unless she had two and nobody knew
(6:25:35 PM) ventricularPipefitter: This is my 'I have no idea' face.
(6:25:46 PM) mislaidLullaby: Pisses me off either way
(6:26:01 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ...I'm worried for them. You never hear from anybody in that session but her.
(6:26:18 PM) mislaidLullaby: Mhmm
(6:26:21 PM) ventricularPipefitter: 'Cho's locked up in a spire trying to bring Ockzel back.
(6:26:36 PM) mislaidLullaby: uh
(6:26:39 PM) ventricularPipefitter: And I...I can't imagine Githra and Anname and Ederic and the rest are doing well.
(6:26:54 PM) mislaidLullaby: didn't he say he was /happy/ out there?
(6:28:07 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Doesn't mean she's happy living without him. And sometimes, we say things like that to make it easier on the people we can't be with any longer.
(6:28:30 PM) mislaidLullaby: And sometimes we actually mean it
(6:29:32 PM) mislaidLullaby: And I wasn't happy living without the 'rails or Sindra but I didn't fucking try and drag 'em back from death!
(6:29:39 PM) mislaidLullaby: Ross, that's creepy as /hell/
(6:32:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: The afterlife is a place we visit on a regular basis, Mareya. Skye and Lilura dragged a dozen-and-change people out of it less than a perigee ago.
(6:32:25 PM) mislaidLullaby: Pipes
(6:32:40 PM) mislaidLullaby: She is keeping his body in a house
(6:32:44 PM) mislaidLullaby: Trying to drag him back from death
(6:32:56 PM) mislaidLullaby: It's not accidental like that was. It is entirely intentional
(6:33:08 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ...it's fucked up. I know.
(6:34:27 PM) mislaidLullaby: thank you for fucking admitting it
(6:34:43 PM) mislaidLullaby: Argue it how you want, the fact she's trying it is in itself creepy
(6:35:07 PM) mislaidLullaby: Even if she's sad to lose him
(6:35:13 PM) mislaidLullaby: That doesn't make dragging him back against his will okay
(6:37:45 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I don't think anyone's asked him and then told us the answer about whether or not he'd rather be alive.
(6:39:03 PM) mislaidLullaby: Until recently it was never thought to be possible
(6:40:26 PM) mislaidLullaby: And I don't dream out there so I can't ask myself
(6:40:28 PM) ventricularPipefitter: There's a pretty well-documented case involving a Seer of Rain pulling back their session's Thief of Time to life by doing /something/ in the Clock Room.
(6:40:51 PM) mislaidLullaby: <| Yes. Let's keep fucking with clocks. This can only turn out well |>
(6:41:06 PM) ventricularPipefitter: We used to think Exiles would always stop you from killing yourself. The...the rules aren't as ironclad as we think.
(6:42:44 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...
(6:42:47 PM) mislaidLullaby:  /dude/
(6:42:56 PM) mislaidLullaby: did you have to remind me
(6:43:14 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Sorry.
(6:43:20 PM) itsAlana is now known as fabulousFreelooter
(6:43:58 PM) mislaidLullaby: No you're not you're just saying that because you forgot and I'm annoyed and you want me to stop being annoyed
(6:44:01 PM) tenaciousTheseus [[email protected]] entered the room.
(6:44:33 PM) mislaidLullaby: speak of the fuckin' devil about half an hour before he arrives
(6:44:38 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ...I'm pretty sure we were thinking of the same event actually. So.
(6:44:42 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Oh. Huh. He's online.
(6:50:16 PM) mislaidLullaby: I still don't know /what/ he sees in her
(6:50:53 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Damaged goods?
(6:50:56 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Messiah complex?
(6:51:39 PM) mislaidLullaby: And what does he get in return?
(6:51:40 PM) Mnem [[email protected]] entered the room.
(6:53:49 PM) mislaidLullaby: You can't spend an entire relationship giving with no return
(6:58:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: No, no. It's....
(7:00:09 PM) mislaidLullaby: It's...?
(7:01:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Some people get off on thinking they're the big important savior who fixed the hopeless cause with their love.
(7:02:09 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...
(7:02:10 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Makes you special, makes you /heroic/, in your head.
(7:02:20 PM) mislaidLullaby: Being heroic can kill you
(7:03:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Trying to 'help' somebody that doesn't want to change can pull you over the edge after them.
(7:03:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Heroism's the only thing powerful enough to kill a god. Or damn fool enough.
(7:04:18 PM) ventricularPipefitter: [ Something clicks. ]
(7:04:34 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Huh. So that's his game.
(7:04:45 PM) mislaidLullaby: ?
(7:06:38 PM) ventricularPipefitter: James.
(7:07:11 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...
(7:07:31 PM) mislaidLullaby: oh
(7:07:48 PM) clarifiedDiplomat is now known as vanishingMalkin
(7:08:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Here, spell it out for me. I want to make sure you get it too.
(7:08:41 PM) mislaidLullaby: i'm assuming at some point she tiered
(7:08:51 PM) mislaidLullaby: and so is now a god
(7:09:29 PM) mislaidLullaby: gods die heroic. the corrupted die just
(7:09:39 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Oh, that was a while ago. Before he got her.
(7:09:48 PM) mislaidLullaby: memory is patchy
(7:10:10 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Mm. But that wasn't what I was getting about.
(7:10:27 PM) mislaidLullaby: spell it out for me
(7:10:29 PM) mislaidLullaby: and save us time
(7:13:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: You and I and everyone else, it's....it's not /easy/ to help a Speaker without the luxury of tier-and-clear, much less someone as experienced and chronically so as my sister.
(7:13:58 PM) ventricularPipefitter: It's time-consuming, stressful, and emotionally exhausting. Means you need to be at the top of your fucking rungs for it. Which means.. James will do whatever he to yank us around, pull us off balance, keep us from being the best versions of ourselves.
(7:14:57 PM) mislaidLullaby: I see
(7:15:13 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Which is why, naturally, everything /else/ happens at once. If the mere fact of her Speaking for him doesn't do the job, he...escalates.
(7:15:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Grabbed Harris. Grabbed /Cassie/, of all people.
(7:18:16 PM) mislaidLullaby: Grabbed your throat
(7:19:10 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...who next?
(7:19:11 PM) ventricularPipefitter: And started squeezing.
(7:19:38 PM) ventricularPipefitter: It doesn't matter who. Whoever's convenient. Whoever's /vulnerable/.
(7:19:53 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Who can be used to hurt us?
(7:19:57 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Or what?
(7:20:21 PM) mislaidLullaby: ...
(7:20:25 PM) mislaidLullaby: That
(7:20:29 PM) mislaidLullaby: Is a really large selection of people
(7:21:31 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ...about the size of those who might be unwillingingly drawn into a blood feud?
(7:21:53 PM) mislaidLullaby: Yup
(7:22:09 PM) mislaidLullaby: I can at least stop /one/ of those potential feuds
(7:22:57 PM) ventricularPipefitter: One?
(7:23:45 PM) mislaidLullaby: The one Cyma was considering throwing
(7:23:53 PM) ventricularPipefitter: She was considering what.
(7:24:22 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Excuse me, but who is she to call that?
(7:24:42 PM) mislaidLullaby: I stopped it
(7:25:01 PM) ventricularPipefitter: /Good/. And she calls Skye 'Mama.'
(7:25:07 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Ff.
(7:25:32 PM) mislaidLullaby: Who in this family /is/ in position to throw one, exactly?
(7:27:13 PM) mislaidLullaby: It's not like a normal human family where you can easily pick out a potential matriarch or patriarch
(7:29:52 PM) mislaidLullaby: She's got strong ties, too, I'm not surprised she considered it
(7:32:10 PM) ventricularPipefitter: She's hotblooded.
(7:32:25 PM) ventricularPipefitter: But what I meant, was:
(7:32:55 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Do you think 'Mama' wants this to be the kind of family or clade that throws feud?
(7:33:40 PM) mislaidLullaby: Does the human pope shit in the woods?
(7:34:06 PM) ventricularPipefitter: No. No he does not.
(7:35:08 PM) ventricularPipefitter: So.
(7:35:09 PM) ventricularPipefitter: That's that.
(7:35:25 PM) mislaidLullaby: Mhmm
(7:35:52 PM) ventricularPipefitter: I'm going to go check on Ceci and whichever of the limes are awake at this hour.
(7:36:28 PM) mislaidLullaby: Have fun with that
(7:36:37 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Entire session full of empaths. It's...interesting.
(7:37:21 PM) ventricularPipefitter: You can have an argument over dinner without saying a word.
(7:37:46 PM) mislaidLullaby: That sounds like hell
(7:38:24 PM) mislaidLullaby: Arguments over dinner are meant to be impeded by food
(7:38:57 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Charta's a riot.
(7:39:39 PM) mislaidLullaby: Yes she is but the arguing in your head thing still isn't fun
(7:39:54 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter shrugs? Doesn't bother me.
(7:40:30 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Eh what would I know about 'normal' at this point anyways.
(7:40:30 PM) mislaidLullaby: Eh, whatever works for you
(7:40:30 PM) mislaidLullaby: Send my love for me?
(7:40:45 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Absolutely. Anything else I should pass on to A&C?
(7:40:46 PM) mislaidLullaby: More than me
(7:41:05 PM) mislaidLullaby: Nothing I want sent via my uncle
(7:42:03 PM) ventricularPipefitter: [ ...that could get awkward later on. ]
(7:42:08 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Right then.
(7:43:03 PM) mislaidLullaby: Take care
(7:43:04 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Take care, Mareya. Don't fall off any glaciers.
(7:43:26 PM) mislaidLullaby: That only happened once you arse
(7:43:46 PM) ventricularPipefitter: So be sure not to do it again!
(7:43:52 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter has left the memo
(7:44:12 PM) ***mislaidLullaby has disconnected from memo!