Harken follows Lexi's nuggets to her holy grail

==START!==
[11:14]  * abrasiveCaliginist has begun espering strikingBelladonna
[11:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> I cannot sleep. Bad dreams. Will you hold palaver with me a while?
[11:15] <strikingBelladonna> Oh, dearest one, doth nightmares keep you awake?
[11:15] <strikingBelladonna> Fear not, for I shall by thine refuge from these most scary of figments.
[11:15] <strikingBelladonna> ((shit be*))
[11:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> ((W/e edit in paste))
[11:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> I'll take that as a yes.
[11:16] <strikingBelladonna> It was a yes, what else might one take it as?
[11:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> Grating sarcasm, discouraging further discourse.
[11:17] <strikingBelladonna> From me?!
[11:17] <strikingBelladonna> Why, sir, I find this remark quite disparaging of my character!
[11:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> Of course, because you've never been sarcastic with me in the past.
[11:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> See? I can do it too.
[11:18] <strikingBelladonna> Do what? I assure you, I've never been less than completely truthful with you.
[11:18] <strikingBelladonna> I'd never mislead someone whom I hold so dear as you.
[11:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hmph. So you say. Perhaps you'll recall our first encounter, embarrassing as it was.
[11:20] <strikingBelladonna> Ah, and what a fine recollection that is.
[11:21] <strikingBelladonna> I shan't ever forget the glorious mating dance you performed for me with your tentacles.
[11:21] <abrasiveCaliginist> Argh! Even now, you mock me!
[11:21] <strikingBelladonna> I'd never even dream of such a thing! I hold you in nothing but the highest respect, oh burner of orphanages.
[11:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> Okay, honestly, no orphans died in that fire.
[11:22] <strikingBelladonna> No, of course, it'd be beneath you to kill an orphan.
[11:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> And I was pursued by a troll with a chainsaw. What else was I to do?
[11:22] <strikingBelladonna> Deprive them of shelter and stability, yes, but KILL?!
[11:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> Chainsaws freak me out.
[11:23] <strikingBelladonna> Ah, yes, the fearsome chainsaw.
[11:23] <abrasiveCaliginist> As if you wouldn't panic when confronted with a chainsaw-wielding maniac.
[11:23] <strikingBelladonna> Truly, there are many tales upon Earth of grown men quaking within their boots at the mere sound of such horrifying contraptions.
[11:24] <abrasiveCaliginist> Yuk it up, cully.
[11:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> Why do I share so many things with you if you're just going to make fun of me for them?
[11:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> I mean, I don't want to be someone I'm not around you, but good grief.
[11:26] <strikingBelladonna> Because you find me "... fetching"
[11:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> ARGH
[11:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> Enough!
[11:27] <strikingBelladonna> Oh?
[11:28] <abrasiveCaliginist> What is it? Why are you saying "oh"?
[11:29] <strikingBelladonna> Well, I was expecting a bit more than just shouting, "Enough".
[11:30] <abrasiveCaliginist> But that alone is "enough", don't you see?
[11:30] <strikingBelladonna> I don't know, I was expecting a big bad grubslinger dropout like yourself to have a little more oomph.
[11:31] <strikingBelladonna> Something like, "Now listen here, girly. If'n ya don't cut that nonsense out, I'll be forced ta make ye taste the backside a' ma hand, see?"
[11:31] <abrasiveCaliginist> What, beyond "tentacles" and the use of said "tentacles" to violate an "frightened young maiden" such as yourself?
[11:32] <abrasiveCaliginist> Such mewling is unbefitting of you.
[11:32] <strikingBelladonna> You wouldn't!
[11:32] <strikingBelladonna> Then elevate me, oh great one.
[11:32] <abrasiveCaliginist> Elevation is a two-way street.
[11:33] <strikingBelladonna> Take me to your higher stratosphere of societal communications, and I shall follow behind you, like a peasant behind her lord.
[11:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> No one is just going to sit there and elevate you.
[11:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> I'm trying to be more than an angry highblood with a chip on his shoulder, and you make it difficult.
[11:34] <strikingBelladonna> Tis not my intention, m'lord, it is simply that, when I hear you, I become ever so flustered, I know not what to do with myself.
[11:34] <abrasiveCaliginist> We're equals, in my eyes.
[11:35] <abrasiveCaliginist> Your sword and my gun, and our skill with our respective weapons.
[11:35] <abrasiveCaliginist> We're both warriors.
[11:35] <strikingBelladonna> What a momentous admission on your part, I'll be certain to remember this moment forever.
[11:36] <strikingBelladonna> Give me a second to screenshot those words, so that I may never forget this feeling.
[11:36] <abrasiveCaliginist> You do that. Your insincerity doesn't invalidate my own earnestness.
[11:37] <strikingBelladonna> You're a very strange alien, Monsieur Harken.
[11:38] <abrasiveCaliginist> You're one to talk, Sai Lexi.
[11:39] <strikingBelladonna> Well then, now that we are both assured of our mutual strangeness to the other, and have no doubt strengthened our bond immeasurably from this understanding, shall we move on to other topics?
[11:40] <abrasiveCaliginist> Perhaps. Did you have anything on your mind?
[11:40] <abrasiveCaliginist> Something bothering you?
[11:40] <abrasiveCaliginist> Or do you just want to shoot the breeze?
[11:41] <strikingBelladonna> Well, as it so happens, I'm stuck in a windmill in the middle of rural France, and you're an alien on the run from a group of ineffective teachers inside of a strange city, I was hoping you'd have more interesting tales to share.
[11:42] <abrasiveCaliginist> You'll forgive me if a dire need of some sopor slime doesn't necessarily make me the finest of conversational partners.
[11:43] <abrasiveCaliginist> I've regaled you with enough egregious garbage for now. Why don't you share something, and I'll reply in kind, as was our previous agreement?
[11:44] <strikingBelladonna> How incredibly demanding of you.
[11:44] <strikingBelladonna> Truly, I cannot imagine where you get off with these ridiculous requests of a maiden like me.
[11:44] <abrasiveCaliginist> As if you're some fragile waif. You won't fool me.
[11:45] <strikingBelladonna> Ach, you've seen through my facade and cut straight to the quick of my soul!
[11:46] <abrasiveCaliginist> Is that so?
[11:47] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, I haven't the faintest idea how I ever conceived I could hide anything from the universe's most clever dropout.
[11:48] <abrasiveCaliginist> Alright, I get it, you think I'm a terrible sack of garbage. Still, I reiterate: you haven't blocked me, so there must be some reason you continue indulging me.
[11:49] <strikingBelladonna> Would that be what you'd like me to share with regards to the agreement?
[11:49] <abrasiveCaliginist> If you wish.
[11:50] <strikingBelladonna> Well then, if you are ready for it, I shall present you the indisputable truth of the matter.
[11:51] <abrasiveCaliginist> "This'll be good." ((Spoken aloud))
[11:51] <strikingBelladonna> But only if you are absolutely certain you're prepared for it.
[11:52] <abrasiveCaliginist> I am.
[11:52] <strikingBelladonna> Very well then, but just remember, after this stunning revelation is revealed, you asked for it.
[11:53] <abrasiveCaliginist> I asked for all of this, frankly.
[11:53] <strikingBelladonna> Well then, without further ado, I present to you, my reason:
[11:53] <strikingBelladonna> I don't have one.
[11:54] <abrasiveCaliginist> Oh good and here I feared we would actually make progress but thank goodness my fears have been allayed
[11:55] <strikingBelladonna> Mock me as you wish, but I speak the truth.
[11:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> Mock you?
[11:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> Mock you?!
[11:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> Why, I would never!
[11:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> Who could mock the amazing Lexi! The most sincere of her race!
[11:55] <strikingBelladonna> You'd never mock me?!
[11:56] <abrasiveCaliginist> Of course not!
[11:56] <strikingBelladonna> To think, you hold me in such high esteem!
[11:56] <abrasiveCaliginist> But of course!
[11:56] <abrasiveCaliginist> For you hold me in equally high regard!
[11:56] <strikingBelladonna> Obviously, my dearest friend!
[11:57] <strikingBelladonna> Ours is a bond which spans the universe and binds tighter than the tightest of knots!
[11:57] <abrasiveCaliginist> Naturally! It is only common courtesy to respect those who respect you, and show sincerity to those who show sincerity to you.
[11:57] <strikingBelladonna> Of course, why I would never dream of doing something else!
[11:58] <abrasiveCaliginist> Indeed, for surely you would not have continued these conversations otherwise!
[11:58] <strikingBelladonna> The mere idea that I could be anything less than absolutely honest with you baffles the mind!
[11:58] <abrasiveCaliginist> I do not claim that you had any obligation to do so, of course.
[11:58] <strikingBelladonna> Of course, I do this for my own joy, and not out of any duress.
[11:59] <strikingBelladonna> It is simply so wonderful to speak with you, I cannot bear the thought of not doing so.
[11:59] <abrasiveCaliginist> Well, all mockery aside, I can at least believe that much, assuming it IS, in fact, the truth.
[11:59] <abrasiveCaliginist> Not the previous message. The one before it.
[11:59] <abrasiveCaliginist> I can't force you to do this.
[12:00] <abrasiveCaliginist> And yet you do it anyway. Sure, it's probably more for the novelty of speaking with a "strange, tentacular dropout", but all the same...
[12:00] <abrasiveCaliginist> I suppose I'm glad you at least give me that much.
[12:00] <strikingBelladonna> Believe whatever you may, I have in fact already revealed my motivations for speaking with you.
[12:01] <abrasiveCaliginist> I suppose you expect a story now. It's only fair, I suppose.
[12:01] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, after my deep and revealing moment, now I expect fair recompense.
[12:02] <abrasiveCaliginist> Well, I may as well take a moment to clarify on the orphanage incident. Now's as good an opportunity as any.
[12:02] <strikingBelladonna> Oh would you? I am ever so curious to learn more about this terrifying chainsaw wielding maniac.
[12:03] <abrasiveCaliginist> Okay, now I'm confused.
[12:03] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because there was no real reason to be sarcastic there.
[12:03] <strikingBelladonna> Perhaps I wasn't being sarcastic.
[12:04] <strikingBelladonna> Maybe, sprinkled within all of my sarcasm, are small nuggets of genuine truth.
[12:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> And you just do a piss-poor job of indicating where those are... Hm.
[12:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> Interesting.
[12:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> But I digress: I owe you a story.
[12:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> So a story you shall receive.
[12:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> This was a couple of perigees back. I had wandered into a cruddy town, maybe about 10,000 people living there.
[12:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> I stumbled into a store, and bought a bottle of some nasty swill. It was only 99¢, so I lived with it.
[12:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> Anyway, while I gulped down this garbage, practically dying of thirst, I was cornered by a gang of lowbloods.
[12:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> They made to turn me in, had a wanted poster with my face on it and everything.
[12:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> I objected. Violently.
[12:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> So that started a manhunt.
[12:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> And I fled into this empty-ish orphanage.
[12:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> I say empty-ish, because policies changed on orphans a while back. Orphans are now culled, rather than looked after by the state.
[12:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> It's cheaper, and more in keeping with societal norms.
[12:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> Anyway!
[12:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> They've got this place surrounded, and I hear shouting, and a chainsaw being revved up.
[12:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> They burst through the door, I killed six, and the squatters fled.
[12:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> But the gentleman with the chainsaw kept coming.
[12:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> So what else am I going to do? Stand there and carefully replenish six spent shells? I think not!
[12:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> I turned and fled, knocking over a kerosene lamp as I did so.
[12:10] <abrasiveCaliginist> And that's the story of how I killed nine trolls and burned down an orphanage.
[12:10] <abrasiveCaliginist> Additionally, it's the last you'll hear of any of my violent acts in the name of survival.
[12:10] <strikingBelladonna> There are a significant number of qualifiers within that beyond simply burning down an orphanage.
[12:11] <strikingBelladonna> I'm almost disappointed to here that you didn't set fire to a fully functional one, but why would this be the last I hear of those?
[12:12] <strikingBelladonna> Have you realized your wrongs and turned over a new leaf?
[12:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because it's... I don't adequately know how to phrase this?
[12:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't think it's who I want to be anymore.
[12:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> Everyone's just been so tolerant of it, and it makes me sick.
[12:13] <strikingBelladonna> Really?
[12:13] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't understand why they don't despise me for my crimes.
[12:13] <abrasiveCaliginist> Their understanding... I don't feel that it's been justly earned, maybe?
[12:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> Then again, it's been a long time since I felt I've justly earned anything.
[12:15] <strikingBelladonna> Who's being understanding of you? It sounds to me as though nearly everyone you've met has been quite preoccupied with killing you.
[12:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> Just a few people, I think. There was one, a few nights ago. Still need to attend to her. I want a redo.
[12:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> Then there was one who had the gall to think it was "cool".
[12:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> None of this is "cool!" It's reprehensible!
[12:17] <strikingBelladonna> ((brb))
[12:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> My handle is "abrasiveCaliginist", for pete's sake! Why do any of these people think I want to be liked!
[12:17] == dualisticArcanist_ [[email protected]] has joined #RPGStuck_Orwell
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[12:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> But, I suppose the worst part is I don't know if I mind it or not.
[12:20] <strikingBelladonna> My dear, sweet, rough and tumble, Harken, are you making friends?
[12:21] <abrasiveCaliginist> Maybe?
[12:22] <strikingBelladonna> Well then, I suppose I will be asking you why you bother with me soon.
[12:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> What do you mean?
[12:23] <strikingBelladonna> Well, until recently, I've been your only option, but now, that seems to no longer be the case.
[12:23] <abrasiveCaliginist> Yes, but,
[12:23] <abrasiveCaliginist> I saw you first.
[12:24] <strikingBelladonna> Ah, the way you objectify me so, it makes me want to weep tears of joy and arousal.
[12:24] <abrasiveCaliginist> That was weird, and I shouldn't have said it.
[12:25] <strikingBelladonna> No, I understand, you only want me for my looks.
[12:25] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's not it at all!
[12:25] <strikingBelladonna> My personality is nothing more than the thorns on the rosebush of my hot body.
[12:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's closer to the truth, I think. We have that in common, this tendency to push people away.
[12:26] <strikingBelladonna> You need not deny it, I understand that a man has certain urges he must satisfy, no matter who he harms on his way to do so.
[12:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> And, I can't tell for sure, but I think we've bonded over it.
[12:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> (It's tough to tell with you, see?)
[12:27] <strikingBelladonna> (Search for the nuggets, my dear, like a trail of coy breadcrumbs slowly educating you as to who I am.)
[12:28] <abrasiveCaliginist> (If you're lucky, I'll get the hang of it in a perigee.)
[12:29] <strikingBelladonna> (I wish you luck in your quest for my holy grail.)
[12:29] <abrasiveCaliginist> ((somehow, I feel like that's something Ratosk would say))
[12:30] <strikingBelladonna> ((I wisH yoU lucK iN youR quesT foR mY holY graiL, darlinG. ;)))
[12:30] <abrasiveCaliginist> ((I don't think he'd go so far as to make it any kind of difficult, though))
[12:31] <abrasiveCaliginist> Alright, listen, I might not be back tomorrow. What I aim to do is terribly dangerous.
[12:31] <strikingBelladonna> Oh my, whatever should a maiden do when her paramour leaves her to go off and do something dangerous?!
[12:32] <abrasiveCaliginist> If you remember nothing else of me, remember... Wait, what am I saying? I'll be back tomorrow. I can claim that for certain.
[12:32] <strikingBelladonna> Oh thank goodness, I was almost worried.
[12:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> But if I can offer you one piece of advice... Someday, you might have blood on your hands. Try... Try not to push people away when that happens. If there's anything I'm learning now, it's that you might need those people.
[12:33] <strikingBelladonna> Whatever are you doing which causes you to leave me such advice?
[12:34] <abrasiveCaliginist> Settling one last score.
[12:34] <abrasiveCaliginist> I wish you all the best. I'll speak to you again presently.
[12:35] <strikingBelladonna> Good bye, Harken, and do try not to die, a maiden would be awfully sad if her paramour didn't return.
[12:35]  * abrasiveCaliginist has ceased espering strikingBelladonna
==END==