tearmeanewone | quatre + voice

Entry tags:

quatre + voice

[Backdated to Event End...]

[Voice]

I think that was, maybe, the most haphazard experiment I've been here during. I can't even make a speculation at what the purpose of it was aside from confuse us all.

But I suppose I did meet quite a few people, so perhaps inadvertently its purpose was to remind me of that time when I thought life was much simpler. [That time when she thought no one would ever hurt her, and everything in life was new and beautiful.] And I suppose it gave me my hair back. It's as long as it was before I cut it, now. It's nice, I suppose, but does anyone here give haircuts...?

[Private to Gai - Columbia-Sponsored Unhackable]

How are you feeling? I only grazed you with the lamp, didn't I...? [UNSURE TONE IS UNSURE...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nothing good, I'll say that. Realities should stay separate from one another. The second you start trying to fix any one particular one, or step into a world where you're already dead, it's a mess.

[There's a long, contemplative pause.

At first, his mind brushes aside the cautionary aspect to her message, focusing on what passing through and into alternate realities could mean. Imagining the exploration of paths trodden and untrodden, of taking control of his fate and steering himself in a different direction in the way men have always dreamed. A godly power neither Satan nor Dracula possessed. He had entered another dimension before - the Infinite Corridor - and could manipulate reality to a small degree. But not like this.

How tempting it would be, he imagines, to examine the near infinite possibilities unfurling before him and seek a different, more favourable ending to his story – and he can only wonder the way in which any variety of outcomes to pivotal moments in his life would send ripples through the past and the future and shape him in ways great and infinitesimal.

Would that he had been born normal in appearance; would that Sophia had lived; would that Hector had loved him and never fled and Dracula had valued him and he himself had never been--

His eyes press shut against the memory, his jaw tensing. What a different man he could have been. Perhaps even worth the love of others. But these are just foolish dreams fueled by foolish sentiments that should have died long ago, with the rest of him. A laugh bubbles up and escapes him, low and raw in his throat. Nothing good comes of it, she said. It must be easy to become tangled in the threads of one’s alternate lives running parallel, to lose sight of where one belongs and cease to exist in one world. The more he considers it, the more he thinks he can understand where problems would arise.]

Fascinating, truly. [He answers all too lightly as if they had only spoken of the weather, but his eyes glint with some indecipherable emotion.] I take it that the Malnosso have stripped you of this… ‘burden’?

Edited 2013-09-28 18:05 (UTC)

[She thinks she heard some quotes in there, but Elizabeth doesn't want to get into why she wished she could give away her ability and be rid of it. He doesn't understand what she went through because of it.]

For the most part... I can change a cup of coffee into a cup of tea, but that's it in terms of what's reliable...

That... can be accomplished in other ways. Simply not as quickly, I would imagine.

[He chuckles gently, again, but the amusement doesn't reach his eyes.

It's a pity for a sorceress supposedly possessing power of this scale to be reduced to a performer of cheap tricks, but such is the fate of all who are trapped here. It still burns him every day that he is unable to explore his full potential as a forgemaster.]

Pitiful as your powers seem to have become, 'twould seem there is use for them yet. Might you be so kind as to consider a favour?

Exactly. [Elizabeth laughs softly too, though she doesn't sound entirely amused either.] It was much easier to do something useful during the invasion. I suspect whatever siphon they had in place, it was weakened then. I was able to provide people with weaponry at least.

[It was a strange choice of words, in Elizabeth's opinion, because she really hadn't considered reality-altering to be 'pitiful' no matter what scale she used them on. But really, she was more cautious about this favor.]

Depends on what it is...

[Talk of weapons piques his interest and he wishes he had seen it.]

Had you the means of escaping this prison of ours, you would have taken leave of it long ago, I presume. [He pauses, expecting her to correct him if such isn't the case.] Therefore, let us begin with something simple, shall we?

...alright...

[Someone still sounds so unsure about this process and what he could possibly want. It's true she tried to leave the second she arrived at Luceti and found herself unable to, so if he's asking if she'll try to get him out by simply trying really hard, he's going to be disappointed.]

If you can make coffee into tea, then perhaps you could make a man of woman.

[It's a change on a different level entirely, in complexity if nothing else, but he sees not harm in suggesting it. It's an amusing little joke if nothing else.]

Oh, no I couldn't do that. [Elizabeth sounds very disparaging of this idea.]

If I could keep a tear open, I could probably bring a woman's male counterpart through, but it isn't a replacement situation with things. The coffee still exists once the tear closes, but the tea is present in the current reality.

However tea doesn't experience the repercussions that come with moving from one reality to another. Anything with a brain experiences sometimes extreme amounts of hemorrhaging and memory loss during something like that.

[...so it isn't so much the prospect of gender swap as it is Elizabeth being concerned about mechanics. ~~Typical.~~]

A pity. [He heaves a light sigh.] ...And here I had hoped for more charming company. But no matter; as a man I once knew said to me, 'one must learn to live with disappointment'.

[Such is Zevran's legacy, it seems.]

[...]

Wait, did you want me to turn all of the women in Luceti into men?

[A chuckle escapes him. And then comes the fit of low, ghoulish laughter.] ...Now I do not recall using the word 'all', but were you so inclined, who would I be to keep you from fulfilling your will?

[He rests his chin in his palm after his laughter has come and gone, idly tapping his tattooed cheek with a nail while considering the screen.] Well. 'twould certainly have been interesting. [Not important, but interesting.]

N-no, you didn't say 'all', but 'company' does imply more than one person! And some men don't like women, so I thought that maybe--!

[Oh forget it, she's completely messed this one up.]

Well you must have asked for some reason. [She sounds all ruffled now.] What woman would you want me to turn into a man?

[He spreads his hands.] It matters not so long as you remain opposed to the idea. [Which he assumes is the case.]

But, pray tell... [Pausing, he fixes the screen a sidelong look, wearing a sharp sliver of a smile that suggests that few if any answers will be well received. But his lilting voice remains mild enough.]

For what reasons do you believe I have asked?

[Elizabeth raises her eyebrows at her journal. Yes, she's starting to see some of the difficult nature she had encountered with the boy in the forest. Though he's much, much less blunt about things now. She isn't certain if that's a good thing or not.]

It isn't that I'm opposed to the idea, it's that I can't actually do it. It would be like asking me to turn a shoe into a carriage, it can't be done.

[She considers the question for a moment, starting to feel a little uneasy about the entire conversation.] Someone I know opened a tear to bring a version of herself through--she called him her 'brother', even though they were the same person. I don't know why she did it, exactly. For companionship? Who could understand you better than yourself, after all.

But what specific reason anyone would want to turn a woman into a man... I don't know. Perhaps if a man was in love with a woman, however he generally preferred men, that could be one answer. But if he was already in love I don't see why the shape of the person would matter.

[Who could understand you better than yourself, after all. His smile pulls to one side, crooked.] Who said anything of love...?

[He laughs it away, though it's soft and calm with a sort of resignation. Not sharp with disdain.]

Some shapes, perhaps, are more pleasing than others.

...I did. [Elizabeth gives her journal another somewhat annoyed look. Is he the only allowed to name what topics might come up? Not according to her. The subject has been on her mind recently, what with Gai's near-disappearance and then swinging a lamp at him.]

I suppose that's true. I didn't know before I came here that there are people who are attracted to members of their own sex, or sometimes both. And then I suppose some people have 'types' or like blonde hair best, and so on. It seems very complicated.

…Complicated? [At first he seems mildly surprised by the thought - and then comes a soft snort, eyes grim.]

One is simply drawn to that which one is helpless but to yearn for to one’s very blood and bones. Where complication lies is when man endeavours to control these... desires by way of imposing laws that dictate what is natural and unnatural. All at once, a man who favours the flesh of his own kind may be regarded a lesser creature, and if caught, endure rather imaginative tortures at the hands of those who know best. Or be bound to the stake and set aflame until his wretched, sinful bones burn to ashes.

[It's a very different situation in Luceti, and that it is still takes him by surprise after over a year and a half of imprisonment.]

What?

[There is nothing quite so horrifying as that image drawn in her mind's eye. It isn't some nameless person either--it's Jack and Eugene. And perhaps having nearly lost Gai, Elizabeth is a little more raw and a little more susceptible to the images her imagination so readily supplies.]

[There are several moments of silence as Elizabeth tries to own this idea, but she ultimately can't. Her first impulse is to ask why, why such a thing was allowed to happen. But she had seen why with her own eyes--it was the same question she had asked of Booker when she'd seen three bathrooms marked Women, Men, and Colored/Irish. It was the same principle that had founded Finkton. It was the thought behind the displays in the Hall of Heroes.]

[Hate for the Other.]

[She'd hoped that things were different, believed that the fact that Jack and Eugene were married meant that things were different a hundred years later. But it was the same fight, only with different people.]

[After a stretch of a minute of silence, Elizabeth can't find anything to say.]

[It’s an answer that had come so easily to him, too easily to him, as if it things aren't clenching inside him behind a thin, mirthless smile. But the persecution of men who can’t help but love whom they do is an old story, and he's sure that the moment he stops smiling through hurt and placing that half-step of distance is the moment he spirals slowly into madness.

He expected skepticism. He expected mockery in some form. But what he gets is the abject horror he was striving for and it is bitterly satisfying. It is brutal and it is viciously unfair and it should shake someone -- what good it might do now.]

Luceti is a curious place. Here, not only are deviants allowed to exist... but every now and again, they even think to marry. [Even three men, together. Zevran lingers in his memory. His gaze shifts to one side, lids lowering.] ...how nice. [He muses to himself.]

They are not deviants! [There's the outrage she had been looking for.] I know two men who married one another, and they did it because they're in love like any other person in love! There's no 'thinking', it's a commitment they made to one another and it's... it's beautiful to see!

Luceti is not a 'curious place', this is how it should be.

[Blinking, his gaze refocuses on the screen.]

Should. [He snarls the word, cocking his head in a sharp, twisting motion.] But we are not all so fortunate to know what it is like, even here.

[Whether 'it' refers to complete acceptance or being loved or bound by marriage, he doesn't say. All he knows is that there is still one whom has attempted to use his sexual inclinations as ammunition against him, and he will not rest until the day they shake with fear and rue any and every insult they had ever slung his way. Their feud runs deeper than that, though.]

Edited 2013-10-02 12:33 (UTC)

Who is treating you like a deviant here? Who is it? [Elizabeth makes a jump in logic. 'Some of us' and that very emotional response suggests to her that he's talking about something more than just a general phenomenon. But she can't even believe that something so repulsive is happening amongst the imprisoned. They had enough in the way of problems to deal with, was it really necessary to attack other people over something that wasn't anyone else's business?]

[Pale eyes hold hers for a long moment, inscrutably. He’s given pause, not knowing why she demands to know, or rather, what she intends to do with a name if he gave it. He considers telling her for a moment that help is neither solicited nor welcome, but manages to bite it back and for reasons he doesn’t understand, still undecided as to whether he’s surprised by her concern or simply amused or thinks her foolish when his lips finally part to speak.]

Had you a name, what is it you would do?

[It's not the cruel and calculating conspirator in Isaac who evenly poses the question. Not this time.]

Set them straight. Some people just have their heads screwed on backwards and it takes something stronger to fix that.

[~~Like a wrench to the face.~~ She's had experience with people who needed a bit of a world-view adjustment, and frankly, Elizabeth wasn't afraid of doling it out.]

voice

crap, pretend it's still video on Isaac's end

CAN DO. 8Db

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oops, my tag should have read 'of a woman'

OH WELL, I got the gist of stuff. 8Db

FINE GEEZuh

FINE, YES, ALL FINE. 8[

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