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 Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 11:14 am
At the sound of Ethe's threat, Faustite turned around to regard the creature. "You can do that?" There wasn't always any indication of what a youma was capable of; he understood that from firsthand experience. Nothing about Ethe was obviously on fire, but that didn't preclude them having fiery capabilities. If that was so, then he finally met a youma that was a little more like him than the others.
It was a delightful concept, doubly so for how he could feel a margin less isolated, but he reminded himself not to get too excited over it. It could've been a figure of speech, after all. At least one of the heads proved capable of that.
Yet the question about the creatures beyond the walls was a long one to answer, and one that Faustite needed to take a moment to decide how he wanted to answer it. He started to walk toward the room's exit as he began to speak. "They were the first youma, far as I know." There was no validating it, but Faustite had no reason to doubt the information that he inherited from an officer with much longer tenure than him. "So they watch the space between the Citadel and the Rift — the Hall of Shadows.
"Was told that, around a thousand years ago, a sorceress in service to Metallia had amassed an army in opposition to the Throne, for the Throne intended to marry into the Moon Kingdom. Guessing it had to do with political opposition to what that marriage represented to Earth's freedom — some form of subjugation. That army marched on the Capitol, whereupon the Moon Queen intervened with a spell so terrible that those soldiers became what we now know as youma.
"Think that spell had longitudinal effects, though. That it's why, when an officer ******** up, they can make a youma of someone. That if we're exposed to too much of Metallia's power, we start to go that same way."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 1:38 pm
“Ethe can. See?” Said the left head and then the right breathed fire from its mouth. Almost like dragon, the fire shot from its jaws into the air. It was hot and burned a bright red-orange. The right head continued the conversation, still with embers on the corners of its lips. “The first?” Ethe had not considered a world without youma. They were one. They had been created as one. But they just assumed that there always were youma in the world. “The Throne seeked to join with the Moon Kingdom. But it would give up its freedom to do so. No one should so give up themselves if they already have a master.”To Ethe’s mind, that did not make sense. Why would they wish to give up themselves to someone who they did not belong? But it was clear their understanding of the situation was limited and they didn’t have the capacity to imagine whole kingdoms and thrones and politics. “Youma are made when someone is exposed to Metallia’s power. She is the creator of youma, then? We were exposed to too much of Her?”✧
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 9:01 am
Feeling delighted and impressed all the same, Faustite was happy to watch the gout of fire leaving the youma. He turned toward Ethe, regarding them again. It was easier, being around youma. Having that absolute sense of command.
Knowing that their sense of social mores was oft so shattered that Faustite seldom needed to mind himself
"Far as I understood it," Faustite confirmed. Which wasn't to say that it was easy to understand, given that he was missing the context of that time and only heard the story thirdhand, if it could be called that. But that was what he knew; what reason was there to doubt?
"Mm. Politics are messy." He turned, started for the grand staircase that would deliver them up the many floors of the Citadel. "They didn't want to do it, but the Powers That Be decided they didn't have a choice."
Nor would Ethe, in some instances. Seldom would they be able to refuse the order of a decorated General, nor could they find any acceptance in the City itself. People would fear them, senshi and knights would hate them by virtue of their existence. There were officers and Negaverse senshi, he suspected, that likewise detested youma or thought them less useful than an officer. Much like the long-gone Earth citizens at the start of the war, Ethe would struggle for agency in any of these affairs.
"Sort of." The admission was decidedly vague as he crested another floor. "Think the Moon Queen's spell cursed Metallia. That curse is what spawns youma — or youmafied officers." Turning, Faustite motioned for Ethe to follow him down one of the well-kept halls.
He paused in front of a door that was then unlocked. "Self-evident that no one's figured out how to break it."
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Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 3:53 pm
“The Moon Queen cursed Metallia. The curse spawns youma. So, youma are created by the Moon Queen.”The left head started, but then the right head interrupted. “No. By Metallia.” Then the left. “No. By the curse.” Then right again. “No. By the curse and Metallia.”Both heads looked confused. “If the curse was broken, would we turn into a human again?”✧
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:55 pm
Faustite fell silent as he considered it. If the curse could be broken, would youma cease to be? Or would that simply stop more youma from coming into being? He didn't know which was more poignant, for one entailed having one's identity ripped away seemingly apropos of nothing, and the other involved a slow death of a group of individuals who learned to accept themselves for what they were.
He'd had to consider what it would be like to have that part of his identity revoked. Better that he didn't revisit it now, with someone so new to being youma.
"Maybe," he answered noncommittally. "Nothing's to say it could be reversed for the people touched by it. Don't know why you'd want to be human again, either. Think it's better to be youma."
That was the choice he'd have made for himself, had he been making it in a vacuum.
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Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2023 11:00 am
Ethe had not considered what it would truly mean to be human again. So much of what it meant had already been stripped from them. Memories, feelings, being… they had had all of these before when they were human. And almost all of it had been taken in an instant. All that remained was a distant dream of who they were before — a vision seen through different eyes in fragments only. Yet it would be good to be human again, would it not? They had been human before, had they not? And, yet, where a memory of being human should have been — there was a void. “We can not imagine being human again. It is as if we cannot comprehend it anymore. So, we cannot want it.” When the left head was silent, it was as if it was lending all its power of thought to the right. The clearest thoughts seemed to come that way — when the heads worked in unison. Perhaps it was also this that made it difficult also to imagine being human. At the very least, a human could not have a conversation with themself. “But what about you? You are both human and youma.”✧
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 6:43 pm
”When you put it that way…” Faustite envied Ethe for the simplicity of that statement. What cannot be remembered cannot be known, and what cannot be known cannot be valued. Perfectly understandable, and yet outright jealousy-inducing for how it so easily refuted the possibility of wanting something that could no longer be had. It was one of the elegant ways that youma sidestepped the human condition of suffering.
Faustite didn’t have that sort of luck. He remembered being human, being part of society. Worse yet, he remembered having to seriously consider how he might tolerate being a part of it again, had to emotionally engage with the possibility of being completely human again. The unpleasantness of it still hung over him like a pall that he had been unable to shake, but that was not Ethe’s concern nor their responsibility to confront his unresolved feelings for him.
He was quick to keep moving, however. Ever moving forward.
“”Prefer being what I am. Even if it means being examined like a curiosity by human and youma alike.
“Imagine it’d be mixed emotions all around if the curse was lifted. Think there’s pride owed to being youma, in full or part. But people like to laud their own humanity.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:30 pm
Ethe has been fully human once. Now, they were fully youma. But what was it like for Faustite being both? They seemed to remember something — fleeting and messy as it were in their memory — about being two parts but one whole. A conversation that they once had with themselves about not having to choose between two options. The memories of how they came to it were fuzzy, at best. But the realization was the same even if they were unsure of how they got there. “You should be proud of you. All of you, not just for the part others choose to see. Ethe is youma and there is pride in that. You are half-youma, half-human. But you are all you. There is pride in that, too, no?”✧
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:51 pm
Faustite snorted good-naturedly. Of all the times to get advice, about any damn thing, and it came from a fresh youma that he had just met. A creature who knew as little of him as he did of them.
"Suppose so," he conceded. "Been too stuck up my own a** to see that of late, though." Which was its own embarrassment. And frustration. But there would be time to dwell on that — on how he kept burning down each and every one of his relationships — after they settled their business.
"Let's get outside," he decided after a beat. "Get the blood flowing. Take some energy." Clear his head. "Can come back to the rest after."
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2023 12:38 pm
“Outside?” Ethe’s left head echoed like a puppy ready for its first walk. The right head looked like it was ready to continue the conversation, but it relented. The excitement of leaving Negaspace was too alluring even for the more level head. “Yes. Yes. Please. Take us there!” And the tail started to wag until the beast’s entire backend was shaking in anticipation. ✧
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2023 9:20 am
"Mm." Faustite grunted in assent.
"Give me a moment to grab something. Then we'll be off."meighei can we fin this here and use the halloween start as a continuation?
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