animus_network

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[After the last event, Chloe finally opted to speak to the network openly. Admittedly, she had already seen the requisite reactions to the event, and part of her detested reacting to something like this. It was merely another creature looming over with her, toying with her mind. Whatever lessons she could glean about an eternity spent in this tower meant very little to her.

However, eventually, introductions were bound to be in order.]

This cage is not so gilded as the last one I was drawn to, but I do not know that it is such a bad thing. Our hosts are certainly as prone to entertaining themselves at our expense as those I knew before. The accommodations lack a certain amount of privacy, but I think that I can manage. Still, to my fellow 'guests,' I bid you a welcome if that is the sort of thing you enjoy. If you are to eat the mushrooms, do be careful which side you eat from.

Would anyone happen to have any suggestions on which route to the morgue is preferred?

[And then, her hand wavering near the button to cut the feed off, she turned and allowed herself a nasty, cunning little smile. She felt an old itch that she wanted to scratch today, so why not give into the temptation?]

Oh, and ... Rolo was it? Do not mistake the imaginings of our host's mind alterations for reality. She has always been mine. She always will be. You aren't the first to try to take her away from me, and I do like to think that I learn from my mistakes.

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Kirika belongs to no one. Is that clear?

[Protective big brother is protective.]

[Foggy memories. They hadn't met during the event, but there was a hazy memory that one or two of these might have existed. Chloe's lips curled upwards into a nasty little sneer and she looked at the overprotective big brother, eyes alight with something unpleasant.]

And who are you to tell me what place I have in her life?

A friend. [A brother, one who is getting very serious. His family...even if the future was fake, no one was ever going to take them away from him again.]

Not Rolo, though. I remember his voice... vaguely, but I remember. So she has managed two this time, perhaps more?

My, my, my... how little Kirika has become a regular socialite. It's actually a little cute. Are you as deadly as she? Do you actually know who I am already, or are introductions in order for us?

[Totally ignoring the implied warning for the moment. She wasn't about to go after Rolo right now, not with her vague recollections of how dangerous he was. Still, she felt a need to say something.]

My combat abilities are not something you wish to see, I promise you that.

[Memories were vague, but this woman...she was familiar alright.]

Do you recall the name Hei?

Distantly. What happened the last week is a fog, not something I truly recall, nor do I wish to dwell on, despite what you might think. It gave hints, but the belief that ten years have passed is not the same thing as ten years passing.

I have not lost her yet.

My memories remain fuzzy as well, though I imagine you passed away like the others through the 20 years the tower made me experience.

Possible. It is not outside of my lifespan. It is also possible that you and she may simply have spoken of me in the past...

Either way, this doesn't change my mindset. If I see you harm her or be a menace to this tower, you will be put away. Do we understand one another?

...

You actually think I mean to harm her? [Did she? She still hadn't really decided on that. She leaned towards not, though part of her wanted to show Kirika all she had suffered since...]

You really do not know what is going on, do you? Speak to her before we speak again. Until you know who and what I am, there is little use in you baying at the moon like a rabid wolf.

[And basically just ignores as he's still trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him...]

[Just one more addition to the club of emotionally broken murderers lurking in the tower's shadows. Pay it no mind.]

I am curious, what sort of place did you reside before here?

I was brought to life on a lovely little island where the hostess liked to give us collars as well. I admit that I found the collar there to be more attractive to look at.

Of course, it was a strange, twisted little place where many people wished to find their way home as well, so you could say only the decor has really changed.

[Well, that and the sex. Crazed sex goddesses and what not.]

Was it a place like this? A place where you were removed from your original world?

[She pauses a moment thinking of the statement "brought to life".]

Or were you a creation of that place?

Yes. It was a place like this. I am dead within my own reality and was drawn from that oblivion to the isle. This place... is very similar in some ways to it, though far more overt in others.

So the other place was also some sort of experiment, simply hidden from the public?

You might as well think of it as such, but I do not think so. It was a world ruled by a rather ... depraved goddess. We were her toys, stolen from our homeworlds. I believe I am growing somewhat used to being stolen away from the jaws of death and turned into a powerful being's toy.

I am unsure if that is a good thing or bad.

[Her expressions shifts slightly to one of disapproval.]

Neither is good, though I would fault the goddess more for breaking such laws than the people here. Though that isn't to say I find these people any better, but a goddess should know better.

Life and death is an important balance to keep, those who have died need to go through the proper process, be judged and then move on through the cycle.

Heh... Another thing I grow used to. People often say what a god or goddess "should" be doing. I am afraid that I am much more used to Grecian myth from my world. Tales of gods are not of kind or noble creatures, simply ones performing a function.

However, in principle I agree with you. I should be dead, and I cling to this existence like a person does to flotsam in the sea. However, I ease my concerns with the knowledge that, however hard I cling, eventually oblivion will catch up. It is inevitable, and I cannot exist forever.

For now, I am in no rush.

I never said gods were noble or kind, but there are basic laws that even gods can't break. A god such as that I would normally punish.

That is true, nothing can exist forever, though I am familiar with two individuals that have no choice in that matter in my world.

...

are you, by chance, a youkai or from Gensokyo? You... speak as they do.

[That gives her pause, she was quite sure this woman had never entered Gensokyo before, yet, was aware of it. Had there been people from her district in that other place?]

I am not a youkai, but you could say that I'm connected to Gensokyo.

Ah. Yes, I am accustomed, then, to the way that your people speak of these things in that case. The bridge princess helped to explain the perspective.

I do not know if this world, or the last I was in for that matter, obey your laws.

Parsee? Hmm, I would take what she said with a grain of salt. Also, it would be wrong to put me in the same category as them. They are my charges and Gensokyo is my jurisdiction, but I am not one of them.

My laws are the basic laws of nature, of life and death and the eternal cycle. It is the fundamental law, these places simply defy it, though are still accountable to it in the end.

[There was a certain, brief hardness in her eyes when the woman spoke of Parsee. She wasn't entirely surprised, given what she'd said in the past about her role, but she clamped her lips shut. Parsee was not here to defend, and part of her suspected might not even appreciate the defense.

She'd always been... prickly.]</small. Yes. You truly do sound like you're from that place in that case. there was always a certain... finality in the way that people from your realm referred to everything. You traffic in absolutes so easily.

I wonder who it is you have been speaking with to think in such a way. The majority of Gensokyo has only a very small understanding of how the world, including theirs, works. Most of them do not even know what the outside world is like. But there is also a difference between the human residents and the youkai residents, as well as the human and youkai of the outside world. I have responsibilities to both sides.

I won't deny I speak in absolutes, but that is simply the nature of a Yama.

A few of the residents, actually. The goddess had a taste for putting them in rather depraved situations from time to time. After a while, the consistency was ... noteworthy. But you say Yama...

Yes, I know a little of your role then. One of the shinigami was there for a little while.

Oh?

[She decided to take an educated guess, since she could only think of one that would be easily identifiable.]

Komachi was there then? And she managed to leave?

Komachi, yes. She was sent away. One does not escape that place. One is stolen away, or sent away, and the thought that one ever escapes of one's own volition is a pretty little lie that people tell themselves to help sleep at night.

Given that I have nowhere to return to, I do not care about that lie.

[Cynical to her core. Finding herself in a second of these worlds had already jaded her on the topic. A lot.]

I see, it does seem difficult to leave these places, I can't imagine anyone being able to do so without everyone else knowing of it.

I have yet to see anyone who could prove to me that someone actually could.

[Chloe, don't make her return a fork. As she spoke, her tone is quiet and yet stern. Much as she'll let Chloe get away with Kirika time to time, she doesn't like people getting involved. Probably protecting both.]

Please, don't.

[Her voice was cold, a clear edge to it at that sternness in the girl's voice.]

I have learned many things, Kirika. Do not assume that you know what I will do because these creatures have abused my mind, anymore than because of what I once did. But do not assume I will simply hand you over to him.

I'm not saying for his sake, but your sake as well. But I agree, it was only an experiment.

I am aware you are speaking to both of us.

...

I will be a little clearer. I do not plan to attack your Rolo, but you and I ... we have unfinished business together, Kirika. I do not wish him to interfere with that.

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