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[boundinblood]

This is the best name you could choose for me, player? It makes me sound like a blood mage.

...What would I call myself? I don't know. I've never done this..."journal RP" thing before.

Comments

[springlocking]

At least your username isn't alluding to major spoilers.

[Gonna just idly scratch that scar on her cheek, yep.]

[boundinblood]

That would be unfortunate. I don't think she's far enough along to know very many, though.

So I take it you triggered some sort of trap, and it changed everything?

[springlocking]

Yeah. ... Is being a blood mage bad? (Sorry - my world doesn't really have magic.)

[She pauses before shaking her head and grinning sheepishly.] Spoilers, my mun says. But there was a kind of trap, yes.

[boundinblood]

That's what I think of when I hear springs and locks, at least.

["Spoilers", though, that means stay away from the topic. No persuasion in the world will win out in such a public venue.]

Blood magic, though... What makes it so terrible, I think, is the ability it grants to control the minds of others.

[She looks down at her own hands, remembering her own Entropy magic. She has to allow for that, because she knows it is not the same.]

Not...not like a Horror or Sleeping spell, that plants an emotion. Complete control. And even without such things, when the caster's blood is not enough for a spell...the blood of others will have to be spilled.

[springlocking]

Now I'm kind of glad we don't have magic...

[There's exactly one person she knows who would happily use and misuse that power. Very happily.]

I mean, I'm sure you guys have good magic, but - someone I ran into was bad enough without it. Don't want to think about what would've happened if he'd had that on his side.

[That is spoilers. (And also something I need to bring up with my canonbuddy mun whenever he gets back! 8D)]

[boundinblood]

It's a good thing magic can't be taught to just anyone, then. Nobody asks to be a mage.

[On the character of this "someone", she doesn't comment just yet. Unsavory people have many different motivations (including none at all) for being so, and every situation is different. She should learn more. She should always learn more.]

[springlocking]

Oh, that...that makes sense. But random chance is still pretty dangerous.

[Because what if-]

... I mean, what if it's a - a dirtbag, completely crazy child killer who has that gift? [She shakes her head.] And my mun, awful person that she is, thinks it'd be a great thread idea now. Run while you can.

[umbralshadows]

Fairly certain most are like that when we first start out. At least, I haven't seen any to think otherwise.

['Just tell her to suck it up and deal with it. At least it could be interpreted as both restraint and power.']

[Esteem, no.]

...At least it is simply misleading and not something rather embarrassing, yes?

[boundinblood]

[Yes, definitely always best to wait for information to be volunteered. Well, then.]

A child killer in a world without magic, granted magic and turned blood mage? I'd rather face him than flee.

[springlocking]

Oh, I meant run away from your mun while you can. Sorry about that.

[Charlie's priorities: face danger head-on, don't cooperate with mun.]

[boundinblood]

Dissatisfied with our names? I suppose it could be worse. She could have used this as another opportunity to babble about my relationships.

[She folds her arms over her chest, tilts her head up inquisitively.]

Is yours embarrassing to you?

[boundinblood]

Um... I don't think I ever could run away from her. Even if I refuse anything here, my canon isn't some static thing like a book, where events are already preordained without my player's input.

[That said, a child-killer is one of those things one doesn't just hear about and say "I'm sorry for your troubles".]

...This child-killer, do you need help stopping him?

[springlocking]

Okay, that's fair enough.

... My mun's saying "spoilers" and grinning that "I know something you don't know" grin again.

[boundinblood]

Lovely... I suppose it isn't for me to help, then. I'm sorry.

[Stupid "spoilers". These things aren't a problem just in the scope of her own canon...]

[umbralshadows]

As if they needed more reasons to...

[Personal experience? Mayhaps. Though that curiosity gets a bit of a muted snarl before she shoves the lid back down on her emotions.]

Nay, only a silent reminder of a fall orchestrated by men in power.

[boundinblood]

Men in power who scheme to their own ends at the cost of others... [she gives a disgusted scoff.] There are too many.

Hopefully not all gathered in one place. I assume you aren't from Ferelden, or even from Thedas?

[umbralshadows]

Far too many. [She nods faintly.] As luck would have it, I have yet to see him in this place.

And no, I am not. Originally I hail from the Othardian steppes, a place likely as foreign to you as Ferelden or Thedas is to I.

[boundinblood]

I don't know anything about it, you're right. What is it like?

[Don't mind her, this is her way of carrying interesting conversation without giving too much of herself. It's one of the only vestiges of this deliberate behavior that remains at this point, fueled by her natural curiosity about the world around her.

Or in this case, worlds far away from her.]

[springlocking]

Thanks. It's okay though, really.

[boundinblood]

You have a way to do so, then?

[...Oh. Is that the purpose of the "trap" she guessed at from her username? She comes to this theory but doesn't voice it, waiting instead for an answer. Questions must be asked, but one at a time. Asking them all at once leaves room for one or more to go unanswered.]

[umbralshadows]

Unfortunately I cannot recall much of my homeland.. I was a little girl when my tribe first left the steppes we'd known for eras. The landscape seemed endless, and one could go several moon cycles without coming close to another tribe or a settlement. It broke our leader's heart to make the choice to leave.

[Thinking on it, this is the first time she's spoken about her homeland to anyone--even her closest companions only guessed.]

You have the look of a woman who had not seen much of the world until recently, am I mistaken?

[boundinblood]

[She had her response all ready, about to say, "That sort of isolation sounds nice, in a way," but then the other woman returns a question of her own.

She pauses thoughtfully, constructing her answer.]

I was...somewhat sheltered, yes. Was it so obvious?

[umbralshadows]

My sister in arms was as well. Your eyes lit up in a similar way, hearing the tale.

[Despite herself, she smiles warmly. Far more genuinely than any spirit of Desire would.]

[boundinblood]

[She had been wondering - her head was adorned similarly, but most demons weren't any natural color at all... (Then again, her eyes aren't exactly natural-looking, either...)]

It was my own fault. There were options, now and then, but I preferred to sequester myself inside and study. It was a war that eventually forced me out - and from "sister in arms", I assume you're fighting one, too?

[umbralshadows]

[She won't lie, the tattoos were most intriguing to her. But who was she to judge when her "ears" were actually horns? The assumption gave her pause, a bit of something ancient and primordial flickering behind her gaze as she glanced downward.]

... "For those we have lost, for those we can yet save." [sigh] Aye, I suppose that would be the best way to put it. Had any asked that a few summers prior, I would have wondered if they were sun-touched. Althyk works in mysterious ways.