swimming in memories thicker than this damn mist
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
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#1
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
Spring showers are beginning to dump less frigid water on the Hollowed Ground, which is great for their fields and shitty for other parts of the area already inundated with both Memory Mud and regular mud. However, the grey skies also keep the sun at bay, so, safe beneath a thick barrier of crying clouds, Wessex strolls along with her hood off, literally soaking in the rain as it falls. She’d say it feels good, but she’d have to rely on the memory of letting the rain wash away the dirt and dust and emotional debris of the past couple of weeks.

Her feet wander, taking her through the Santuary and the Settlement until she finds herself at the Bone Bridge. Mmmm, last time she was here, things had been relatively uneventful, although it had been right before Ronin died. Staring out into the fog-covered expanse, her mind drifts back to what life was like last year and the year before that, and then the year before that, until she finds herself at the first time she’d faced the Bridge. How young. How stupid! How headstrong and oblivious and filled with the indignation that she wouldn’t be able to complete a dare.

At least some things never change.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#2
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
You are not afraid of heights.

Which is not to say that you are fearless. You are, in fact, afraid of a good few things. Small spaces. Unnatural materials. The Spire. Letting Oia and Rae down. Wasps. Heights, though, is not one of them. For this reason you don't feel particularly perturbed by the endless nothing that hangs beneath your dangling feet as you sit on the edge of the bone bridge, legs swinging precariously over the swirling mist, your eyes bright and curious as you peer into the nothing (everything?).

You had rather hoped that if you stared long enough you'd be able to see something, but then of course it started raining which only served to decrease visibility. Now the rain is let off somewhat, and the moon is rising and, you're still here, surrounded by a whole little army of mushrooms and moss, looking almost more like a mossy log than a person. You still haven't seen anything through the mist, of course, but that doesn't deter you: you are determined to keep looking until something happens, until you uncloak the secrets that shroud something---

--or someone.
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#3
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
Even with extra sensory sight, it takes her a moment to see the thing perched precariously on the edge of the bridge. At first she thinks it an object, until there’s a flash of movement at the knees, a peek of swinging limbs that indicate it’s a person and not some really weird junk left at the edge of the expanse. The thickness of the fog means that she actually has to draw rather close to identify the growth around it as mushrooms and a thick bed of moss - obscuring what might be an otherwise identifiable head and hair and clothing.

Wessex crosses her arms over her chest, still puzzled by the back of the person. Half-plant, half-man? Some new creature? It doesn’t appear to be dangerous (its teeth and talons hidden, perhaps using camouflage to hunt?), but she keeps her hand at her hip nonetheless, ready to grab her knife if need be - a little extra precaution never hurt anyone, even though something tells her this isn’t a threat (how silly will she feel when it’s revealed that this boy is the least threatening thing in the world, death by questions the only possible injury).

“You alright?” she decides to ask, taking a ‘nice’ approach, rather than demanding the stranger account for itself. The Ascended is no longer Defender of the Realm and she finds herself slipping back into an unobtrusive role, embracing a quieter approach that need not inspire so much immediate fear and respect.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#4
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
You have no special cyberpunk vampire senses, but you do have a keen awareness of your surroundings, something that probably comes from being just a little bit feral. It is not an awareness you often use to your advantage, but it exists nonetheless, and so you notice the figure walking toward you in the mist even if you don't turn to face it.

Not until it speaks, that is. It stops a little bit above you, causing you to crane your neck back to see the woman's face: hard lines and seriousness and edges, and eyes that have seen many things. She reminds you a little of a tree, and you decide you like that quality. Smiling brightly, you shrug your shoulders, causing some of the mushrooms on them to quiver and bounce.

Swinging your legs above the abyss, you move your hands into your lap, leaving handprints in the stone where lichen had grown up around your limb. "I think so!" And then, both because it is polite and because you are genuinely quite curious, you echo the question back at her: "Are you?"
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
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#5
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
The boy, when he turns to look at you, is soft and round - not in the way the gluttonous are - rather, in a newborn, innocent kind of way. Wessex immediately takes him for an Outlander, because no child of the Grounds has such a carefree face. Then there’s the mushrooms on his shoulder - children of the Grounds also don’t grow fungi on their bodies, so he’s a solid 2/2 in the foreigner category. And despite his animated smile, she worries about the swinging legs, the possibility of slipping off, falling down, down, down into the mist and the unknown beyond.

It’s happened before, to more careful teenagers than him.

His tone, his lack of recognition as he echoes her own question back to her almost causes The Wraith to mistake him for a simpleton. One of the kids who’s mothers were too affected by disease or drought or ‘touched by the Gods,’ as some super-religious might say in an effort to justify why they were supposed to waste precious resources on a useless mouth. But that immediate thought doesn’t seem to fit, either, and while she’s trying to figure out where to place him amongst her catalogue of individuals, she takes longer than she usually does to respond.

“I think so, too.” A shrug. What the hell. “More or less. You know you’re tempting fate by sitting there, swinging your legs like that, right?” Like, it’s really fucking dangerous and the last thing she needs is to be accused of pushing a kid over the edge of the bridge.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#6
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
She takes a long time to reply, and though you have absolutely know way of knowing it your thought process somewhat mirrors hers. Is she lacking the average mental capacity, requiring more time than usual to process language and reply? Physically she seems like a perfectly fine specimen, but you know enough to know that first impressions are often decieving, and you're pretty good at keeping an open mind. Perhaps she is cognitively impaired in another way, or from somewhere that uses a different language.

Or maybe she just thinks you're a weirdo. Which in all fairness, you are.

When she does reply it makes you tilt your head, bright eyes earnest with curiosity. "What kinda fate?" you wonder - good or bad? "Fate is just the culmination of actions leadin' to consequence. What're the consequences of danglin' my legs?" Because if it's actually figuring out what's going on in the mist, then heck yeah, come at us fate.
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#7
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
“The bad kind,” Wessex says like it’s obvious. Because that’s the only way the phrase is used, doesn’t he know that? “It’s more that you’re on the edge of a potentially slippery bridge and if you fall from there you’ll die.” She pauses with a look of consideration. “So it’s not actually the leg dangling. It’s the sitting on the edge.”

Removing her hand from her hip (as soon as he asked that kind of question she’d decided he’s not a threat), Wessex makes a vague gesture in Kai’s direction. “You’re different, aren’t you?”

He’s free to interpret that however he likes.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#8
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
The bad kind. Ok, well, fair enough. Putting your hands on the mossy stone behind you, you lean back a little, tilting your face back up to the tall woman. "Would you like me to move?" You will, if it will make her happier. But for now you're quite content in your little pocket of lichen and moss, and really, you don't feel as though you're in a particularly large amount of danger.

You've kept the swinging of your legs up through the conversation, but now they stop abruptly. For a handful of heartbeats you are perfectly still, the question racing and rattling around your brain, ricocheting behind your honey eyes. Are you different? Well, that depends. Genetically you're really not so different from anyone else, except the god bits; morphologically, well, everyone is different.

Somehow you don't think that's what she meant.

It shouldn't bother you when people think you're different. You are different, and you shouldn't want to be not-different. This isn't your community or your herd. You don't belong to this social grouping of people. You're supposed to assemble the puzzle of this place, not become a piece of it.

So why do you want so badly to be told you fit?

"I guess so." Subdued, soft, you look back into the sea of mist, your boyish face looking suddenly older. "l mean... I'm not really part of this place. I'm just supposed to be an observer. So it makes sense I don't belong." You shrug, trying to put some lightness back in your flat voice. But like a balloon forgotten behind the couch for three weeks, it just doesn't want to float.
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#9
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
Does she actually want him to move? Yes and no. There’s a stupid war going on internally, that ever-present conflict that says if he falls off it’s his own damn fault and he deserves it, and then the other hand, mother all the stupid teenagers, cause you were stupid once, too. Wessex sighs. “I don’t care. Just be aware.”

But this standing/sitting thing is making her feel awkward. The wet rock doesn’t really bother her, it’s the edge of the bridge that does, so while the boy has his internal crisis at her next (albeit exceptionally tactless) question, the ex-queen has her own ‘sitting conundrum’ to work through. Eventually, though, she chooses a place very much in the middle of the bridge, with plenty of space on either side. She also conveniently misses whatever emotions might wreak havoc on the kid, ignorant that she might be causing harm.

Shaking her head slightly, Wessex tries to follow what he’s saying. “I don’t understand. An observer? Of what? Why?” What kind of Outlander bullshit is that? Where is he from?
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#10
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
The woman sits somewhere behind-ish you, in the middle of the bridge, which prompts you to lift your legs beneath your butt and scoot so you're turned toward her. This, more than the swinging, is probably the most precarious action you've taken on the bridge, though at least it leaves you slightly further away from the foggy, whistling edge.

To hide your mild unhappiness you pull up a sprig of grass, turning it between your fingers, your brown eyes watching as it spins through the air. "Of- of the Hollowed Grounds an' the effect the barrier had on 'em." That's the simplest explanation, given how poorly people tend to react to 'everything'. "Rae sent us - my twin an' me - to do it for 'em. So they'd know what the state of nature is here, after bein' a closed ecosystem for so long."
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#11
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
Jesus. The kid -

Ok. Calm down. Wessex takes a moment to logic her way through the situation. She can teleport. If something happened - she could get herself and him out of there so long as they’re touching. So, as if she’s just has a magnificent idea, the Wraith says, “You know what? You inspire me to be braver. Come on, let’s swing our legs over the edge together. And you can tell me more about Rae and what you’re doing here, because I don’t fully understand.”

To illustrate, Wessex does indeed scooch forward, pausing to take off her boots, and dangles half her calves over the swirling mist. “When you say Rae sent you, do you mean as a guardian, like the snake the Spire, or as a delegate of theirs, like Frey?” She frowns a bit. “Or… like Delphia?” This influx of demi-gods… it wasn’t necessarily troubling, it just served to illustrate how little they truly knew about the world, how much they’d lost in the centuries of imprisonment. It hurts. It feels like she’s a child again, trying to figure out the world and her place in it, and what she’s finding is that she’s different.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#12
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
This woman is certainly inconsistent, you think, but you don't particularly mind so much- indeed, you find it interesting. With an obliging shrug you spin back around, your legs hanging down over the edge of the bridge again, dangling barefoot beside her own.

You would like to ask why she's changed her mind about it, but she gets her question in before you, causing your legs to speed up as you think. Shaking your head, you stare thoughtfully into the mist. "Not like the snake. Or Frey. Maybe like Delphy- but she's doin' a lotta interferin', an' were just s'posed to observe."

Placing your palms on the bridge behind you, you lean back, your legs slowing. "The Hollowed Grounds... It's real unique, y'know? The level of isolation probably led to a lotta mutations an' stuff. An' since Rae wasn't here to look over it it's even more intetestin'." You've begin to grow animated, gesticulating dramatically. "Like the Ascended- Didja know they aren't anywhere else? They're like a unique species that's evolved for this closed environment. It's really cool."
Kaimana
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#13
you wouldn't even recognize me anymore
not that you knew me back then
Well the kid ain’t wrong; Wessex can be rather inconsistent at times. A hypocrite. Flooded by unwanted and unappealing emotions. It seems to be the young ones who are able to do this to her most, something about their lack of cynicism and utter faith, goodwill, or whatever other qualities abound that cause cracks in her armor. And yeah, it’s fucking annoyng to her, but no woman is an island and she’s only a demi-god, not a full blown deity. Like their Gods, she is just as fallible, if not more.

Listening to him explain, she nods along. “It definitely did…” His enthusiasm and animation only serves to beat against her walls, and she wonders if anyone’s ever really been mad at the kid, because he seems like the kind of person that an easily deflect those kinds of emotions. “I was born here, I can probably tell you a lot about the mutations. Like… landsharks and the talking squirrels and even the regular animals that have extra legs or eyes.” She’s hunted them.

Turns out even the freak animals taste good, and no one asks any questions when they’re hungry. Protein is protein. “Ascended… is it because they didn’t have access to the Voice? They wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves without Her fluid?” Wessex tries to answer as if she’s just knowledgeable about the ‘species’ - unsure if he will have any pre-programmed prejudices or not, given her recent ah, activities against the Old Gods.
but it all comes back to me in the end
WESSEX
Scientist

Age: 26 | Height: 5'8 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 3 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 15 - Int:
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#14
so hold my hand and i'll walk with you, my dear
"You were born here?" You perk up at this, clearly interested, turning your attention more fully to the woman. You haven't met a lot of Naturals which is a little bit surprising, honestly; you're excited to add an insider perspective to the outlander ones you've been collecting. "What was it like growin' up here? D'ya think it affected you in a big way? What happened when the barrier came down? Do you have any mutations- or know anyone who does?" There it is, the outflowing of questions. One day, perhaps, you will learn to calm your tits.

The question about Ascended has you nodding in agreement, her assessment being rather correct. "Yea- 'cus they rely on her, an' her shrines, an' the fluid." Blinking at Wessex, you tilt your head. "Do people hate the Ascended? I met a couple - Amun an' Bastien - an' they didn't seem to think so. But the literature suggests that there's a lotta bias against 'em, in the Grounds."
Kaimana


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