WEEK THREE MINGLE

[potatomance]

ᯓ⭐ WEEK THREE MINGLE

Happy third week, lovebirds! Here's to hoping you're riding high on the wave of success of one whole pair being correct! Surely you must have an idea by now how to win this thing!

Probably?

The good news is that you're not going to have to find yourselves in any weird clothes this time around, except maybe that just leads to a strange sense of foreboding for a future scenario...? Who knows. You can't quite brace yourself for it this time.

But don't worry, it's not like there's nothing happening. On the contrary!

For the entirety of this week, you'll find yourself feeling... clingy. It's going to start feeling very strange if you're not leaning on someone, holding their hand, cuddling with them, sitting in their lap, stealing a kiss, or engaging in some other form of affectionate physical contact. And if it's someone you're already feeling fond of OR someone you actually can't stand, guess what?

That feeling is doubled!

You may realize this is an unusual feeling, but so what? Trying to ignore it is only going to make it feel stronger and do you really want to make yourselves feel miserable?

Shut up, masochists.

FAQ ⭐ Truth Booth Voting ⭐ Mysterious Thing ⭐ Sex Dungeon ⭐ Perfect Match Voting

Comments

[hnl]

[Ah, well. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything.]

I doubt Dr. Maruki meant to harm anyone in the process. But the grander the design, the greater the risks. Not everything can be accounted for.

You saw it yourself. With Henry.

[With their shared memory, if she'll recall. His pain wasn't exactly desirable at that moment. ...Technically.]

HAHAHA ABOUT THAT, XIANYUN…

[mechanideptus]

That’s different. Henry’s suffering was a side effect of having to learn to control his terrible capability. It was not put upon him by an outside force attempting to abuse powers beyond comprehension for their own ends.

[ And even then, it was awful to watch. Again, the impotent anger she felt on his behalf flares. ]

Unless one misinterpreted your memory?

[psychs]

[ Don't mind him just barking a sharp laugh and sipping from his bottle like tipsy Kermit. ]

[mechanideptus]

What?

[ GLARE ]

[psychs]

Oh, nothing. I just find it ironic.

[mechanideptus]

[ There's a lot she could say, but she decides it's not worth fighting with him about it. Mostly because she's about to lose her shit in a different thread of his.

Instead, she scoffs, rolls her eyes, and takes a drink of her own glass of liquor. ]

IT’S PROBABLY FINE

[hnl]

[SHUT UP MARUKI YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHICH MEMORY SHE SAW!!!!

And case in point-]

Henry was there of his own accord. Well. His parents’ accord. He could have returned home anytime he liked — and in fact, he did once. He wasn’t stopped.

[And this is TRUE because this was before he was taken in. Forcibly………………]

All I’m saying is that mistakes and misjudgment happen. I simply think the doctor is being overly hard on himself.

[aureated]

[she's not interfering with any of this unless it turns to violence but she does quirk an eyebrow to herself at that


ok marty]

[hnl]

[what Aurelia surely you’re not surprised]

[aureated]

[not at all but it certainly helps confirm some things]

[mechanideptus]

One disagrees. He purposefully overwrote the consciousness of a young girl, all but erasing her within her own self. You don't find that unconscionable?

[ There's an Edge to her tone, and that's before she hears some of the other things that are being said here. ]

[hnl]

That's the first I've heard of this.

[Their discussions didn't get quite that detailed. Brenner's brows cinch; however, that's about the extent of his reaction, his reply controlled. As always.]

Xianyun, I get the distinct feeling that you're fishing for a specific answer. What do you want me to say? I'd never do that to my own children, if that's what you're getting at.

[Their minds are far too precious for that. Consciousness is quite important.]

[mechanideptus]

One is not fishing for anything. One is merely surprised that you would condone such a thing--especially while not having all of the facts about what his behavior has wrought.

[hnl]

I'm doing little more than encouraging the doctor to follow his ambitions of making the world a better place. This is a general sentiment, not one that's telling him to retread the same, failed attempts again and again.

Honestly, it feels as though you're putting words in my mouth.

[mechanideptus]

[ She crosses her arms and takes a deep breath before responding. Angry as she is, she recognizes that she's on the back foot here logic-wise. And she's struggling to find the words to describe that her issue is not what he said, exactly. Her back is up because of how easily he was able to dismiss Maruki's sins.

It's like she's noticing something about him for the first time, and she doesn't like the feeling of being broadsided. ]

One will refrain from speaking for you any further.

[ MATTER QUITE CLOSED. For now. ]

[hnl]

[Sins are easily dismissed in the name of science and progress. Of knowing more of an unknowable universe. So few people understand this; it seems like Xianyun is no exception to this unfortunate rule.

Well.

Matter quite closed. For now, apparently.]

[ringsmaster]

[ A gentle tug on the edge of her nightgown. ]

Hey. Got a sec?

[mechanideptus]

Hmm?

[ Hi there, Lucifer! ]

By all means.

[ringsmaster]

[ They can find their own little corner of the tent to chat in before things go totally off the rails. ]

Can you tell me some more about what you saw in Maruki's memory? And why it makes you so upset?

[mechanideptus]

[ A calm (?) conversation before the storm!

She glances over at Maruki before answering. ]

One saw him counseling an adolescent girl. Her sister had recently died--saving her, if one remembers correctly--and she was beside herself. After she confessed that she had wished that she had died in place of her sister, Maruki did... something... and suddenly the girl believed she was her late sister. It was as if no part of her remained.

[ Even describing it has her incensed, but she forces herself to keep cool long enough to answer the second question. For Lucifer's sake--he seems to be asking from a genuine place. ]

She went to him in a vulnerable state, and he took advantage of that. One supposes watching that unfold struck a nerve. The girl could have easily been one of the many girls I've taken in and mentored over the centuries. Girls I've loved dearly, all with their own struggles and insecurities.

[ringsmaster]

I understand.

[ He's quiet for a moment, and shifts to take both of her hands in his. ]

Whatever might have happened, I don't believe Maruki is a bad person. He's simply... a person. One who saw the suffering in the world, in the people that he loved, and all he wanted was to make that pain go away by whatever means he could.

I'm not going to stand here and tell you that what he did was right. It wasn't. He knows that now. That's the thing about humanity. They're all flawed, aren't they? That's what makes them beautiful.

[mechanideptus]

. . .

[ Damn you and your sympathetic logic, Lucifer.

He's right. And she hates that he's right. After a long pause, she sighs. ]

One cannot promise to let one's personal feelings go so easily. But on a grander scale... one acknowledges that you're correct and will adjust one's behavior accordingly.

[ That is to say: she'll drop it. ]

Despite the devastation he caused, he did have good intentions. [ The road to the abyss is often paved with those, she's heard. ] And he is contrite.

[ringsmaster]

That's all I'm asking for.

[ He gives her hands a squeeze, looking over at wherever Maruki is getting ready to ruin Marty McBrenner's whole career. (No.) ]

I saw the first time he used that power, on the woman he loved. He took the pain of her parents' murder away from her, but he took himself away from her, too. She forgot all about him. He bore that heartbreak alone, thinking he was going to make the world a better place.

Maybe I'm a little sympathetic because my own good intentions put pain and evil into the world in the first place. I can't say I wouldn't have done what he did, if given the chance.

[mechanideptus]

[ That first time must have been what Maruki was referring to when she confronted him about the memory she saw. The one he has referred to as an accident.

It must have been devastating for him. And she didn't even really give him the chance to say anything about that. ]

One was not aware.

[ Her voice is softer, although her thought process is not entirely gentle. It's karmic, in a way; he's been suffering the punishment for his sins long before he actually committed any. His world functions as it should.

The only difference is that she doesn't really feel any satisfaction in that realization anymore. Just a sense that things will work out as they need to. ]

One does not know much of your history, one must admit. But one trusts that your sympathy is warranted.