improvking | IC Inbox (ryslig)

It was a small town.

[ So That's Fun. ]

hey spirit.

i just wanted you to know

atem's back in ryslig. i don't know if you have time to access the network but

he's gone. from here i mean.

yeah I saw his post. thanks for making sure I knew though.

[ Mmmm... should he ask "how you holding up" or... no. Ryou's already upset and that question? The Ring-Spirit suspects it risks Bakura-brand hysterics, he's just. got a feeling.

Atem had reassured him Ryou wouldn't be left alone - that he can ask after. ]

you got friends to stick with?

Edited (tense fuckup) 2022-10-19 06:04 (UTC)

It wouldn't be right if i didn't make sure.

and i do have friends here, but the sooner we're out of this hellhole the better.

[Clearly the fact that Ryou used the term "hellhole" should have been an indication of how great he's doing.]

what about you? are you doing okay? i haven't been in the caves for a while, so i don't know what's going on there...

[ Oh. The Ring-Spirit looks surprised. ]

Huh. More than I expected - I'd thought we were talking some abandoned homestead, not a whole town. How small of a "small town"? "One road" small or "mainly suburbs" small?

working on it, but good to know you've got someone in the meantime.

yeah, I'm fine. I haven't been in the caves much lately either to be honest. like I said, working.

[ He resists the urge to add a winky face. Probably tone inappropriate. ]

when I have been there... well it's still split between people trying to party and people trying to actually do shit. can't give details, but more shit's getting done lately.

after we're out of here, if you wanna tell me why you couldn't come back, I'll listen. won't push it if you don't wanna talk though.

good. keep working.

[He doesn't care if E+L can see this. The cameras weren't in here, but the reimplanted chip could still be used to look in. Fine, look in. Fuck you, E+L. Friends don't execute their friends' boyfriends.]

...oh.

i

atem didn't tell you? that was kind of him.

sorry, i couldn't be in the same place as some of the fog aligned. too close. too dangerous.

[ Ryou's explanation immediately brings to mind a certain someone not to be named, and his more terrifying husband. The Ring-Spirit does his best to suppress an instinctive shudder. ]

I will, and... the rest. I understand.

it sucks you can't feel safe here. can't BE safe.

I'm practicing hitting the heart in one stab. gotten better, and I'll keep at it.

[ The next time he needs to kill a tier-3 or higher foggie, he won't make a complete fool of himself. He refuses. ]

Edited (I keep fucking up tense,,) 2022-10-19 10:13 (UTC)

it's not much safer here. not when you can't even let off steam without being punished for it.

But the chip has to stay in here. or else...

[Ryou hates it.]

i just want to go back, where no one can hurt me. not e+l, not

[AM.

But he doesn't say that. Instead, there's an obvious pause between messages, as he tries to tamp down his own anxiety long enough to keep the conversation going.]

anyone. not anymore.

I'll get us back to Ryslig. and then I'll get us home. it will happen.

[ The Ring-Spirit absolutely wants out of Felfri; he can only dread the idea of "going home" though. He's got more in Ryslig than he'd ever had at "home". He has people he cares about. He's even got a few ideas to test regarding Kul Elna.

But Ryou wants to go home, and the Ring-Spirit had assured him he'd make that happen. ]

[ Belatedly, the Ring-Spirit wonders if Ryou's long pause might indicate something. Did someone hurt him again in the caves here?? Fucking -! ]

In the middle.

[ She almost climbs the wall to start weaving a map where said wall meets the ceiling, but that seems....impractical. So instead, she describes for him, in concise yet exacting terms, the layout and condition of the ruins the monsters of Ryslig discovered in the wilderness.

Saint-Germain is (unknowingly) useless in most social situations, but making reports? She's been doing that for centuries. ]

thanks, spirit.

i'll settle for ryslig, at least, so i can defend myself. being human isn't good enough, when there are worse creatures.

[Ryou's still pretty morose over text. If the Ring-Spirit wants to know, he has a chance to call Ryou out on all this negativity.

But whether he will...that's another thing entirely.]

[ The Ring-Spirit considers asking Ryou to clarify whether his worry about the caves is due to pre-existing issues or whether something more happened here in Felfri. He suspects he knows the answer to that already though, and he had just promised not to push Ryou on this point.

Mn... ]

I'm not quite the Great Evil God here, but I'm no human either.

[ Ryou has a "worse creature" of his own, in a way... Can that be of any use? ]

Edited (html nooooo; then I rethought the comment blah) 2022-10-24 07:39 (UTC)

you shouldn't look for trouble.

if you see entrances that tell you to stay out, promise me you'll stay out?

it's not the fourth. it's not worth inspecting, or guarding, or entering. i promise you that.

[Ryou can tell the Ring-Spirit's trying to comfort him, to posture in a way that would help alleviate Ryou's fears. But he's going to make himself very, very clear on that matter.

...For how little he realizes that AM is now no longer just a motionless supercomputer, but an ambulatory abomination.]

[ It sounds like Ryou's afraid of a building now? The Ring-Spirit thought it was someone in the caves?? Is it a trap some foggie set up? ...But if it's a trap, why label things "stay out"- unless they're trying to catch spies from outside Felfri itself... aka, other foggies... This doesn't make any sense. ]

I need to focus on getting us back to Ryslig. can't do much if I get myself stuck somewhere, right? so I'll stay out of whatever you found.

but don't hesitate to sic me on shit if something pisses you off.

[ Getting out of Felfri does take priority. If Ryou really thinks the Ring-Spirit can't handle whatever Ryou faced... first of all RUDE, but fine he'll leave it be.

He'll have to see later if Atem got a better explanation. These days, he doesn't mind the notion of waiting until he knows what he's picking a fight with before he starts swinging... so he'll stick a pin in this.

But it's getting revisited one way or another. ]

[ He listens intently, committing as much as he can to memory. He might try to sketch up a map himself later... After she finishes going over the town's layout with him, he nods slowly in thought. ]

Find anything besides those books worth keeping? Or was there anything of particular interest that you couldn't bring back? ...Tch, wish I could've just gone myself... instead of going into a damn coma for the whole time...

[ He'll have to have a look at those books she donated too; either the Historical Society will work with him on that or he'll just come back and break in after hours. ]

i wish you were here with me.

[There. He said it. He knows that the Ring-Spirit won't do it...and he shouldn't be made to. Ryou didn't want to forsake the Fog, however fragmented she was here. But...he would feel more secure if the Ring-Spirit was here, both for the spirit's safety and, selfishly, for Ryou's comfort.]

i can't send you out on this kind of task but i think...i think maybe Atem is going to do something about it.

i won't stop anyone once we're home. i've done enough damage telling you all to not make a move.

[Ryou sounds as if he's genuinely trying to respond to the Ring-Spirit, but that he's kind of skimming past his words just a bit, in order to make himself understood somehow.

It likely isn't working.

The burden of the Bakuras, indeed.]

[ The Ring-Spirit feels a painful twinge on reading that first sentence. He knows he's going to stay with the Fog, he just. E+L is practically the embodiment of Ma'at in this place. It's enough to give him hives. ]

I wish I could be with you too.

[ He wishes Ryou felt safe in the caves. He's not sure how much safer his former landlord actually is with E+L either. But he has people looking after him there, apparently... which he hadn't had with the Fog, had he. He and the Ring-Spirit had both been trying to contribute... ]

I miss you so much.

[ And due to far more than the god war business. The sheer, true emptiness of the "vessel" he has here... the Ring-Spirit has never missed being something inside Ryou's head so keenly. ]

[ Well. Nothing to do about that.

He focuses on the rest of the message for a few minutes, contemplating how to best understand what Ryou's saying. He needs to do some reading between the lines here, and historically he's had iffy enough luck with simply reading the lines themselves... He thinks he gets what Ryou means though. ]

I'll speak with Atem when this mess is dealt with, then. and I'll try to keep an eye out for myself... and on Atem too if he needs it.

[ Consider him sicced, but he'll try to keep the safety of certain Dark Spirits in mind while he's at it. ]

please.

i don't

Atem needs his friends. he was murdered for being a covert fog follower. they shattered him. i tried to make them pay. i tried so hard, but in the end, all i managed to do was get shocked until i couldn't fight back.

this place...it's always watching. i'm probably being watched right now, but e+l doesn't punish verbal or text betrayal. funny...isn't it?

[ He was in a---But Saint-Germain knows how to stay on topic. ]

Triffany Lottablog identified two amulets I found as symbols of the Day and Night Gods. If they'd possessed any power, it'd long since been drained.

[ But he's looking for something in particular, isn't he. ]

What would you have examined?

despite how weird it still is to me, for better or worse he's one of my people now. I'll be there.

fuck, I wish you were safer where you are. it might be better than the caves, but... well we'll just get back to Ryslig.

...

they killed Atem for daring to do something beyond mere complaining or commiserating. they shocked you for the same reasons. this is exactly why I get so pissed when people've tried to claim the Fog is meant to be a force of ~Law~.

*this* is "law". *this* is "Ma'at". the "proper way of things" is "you sit in the little box selected for you, maybe you can complain, but god won't help you if you try to leave that damn box". I hate this place. I hate how *orderly* and *regimented* it is.

just. fuck. I know this isn't the time, but I hate what's happening to you, what happened to Atem. I want to make them pay too, and I'm not doing enough. I'll never be doing enough. no one could ever do *enough*.

[ The Ring-Spirit hums. Amulets... He can't help but wonder if they'd ever had functions similar to the differing keys the Fog and Fourth give their followers now... But he's been asked a question in turn. ]

For anything that might be related to that squiggle-god. You remember the one I spoke of? And for any references to the Sea of Stars... nobody has much to say about it now, but they might have known more in the past, or simply spoken more freely about it.

[ Something occurs to him then, and he adds it in, speaking half to himself. ]

...For that matter, I wonder if the Fog's always made her monsters from outsiders, or if she ever used to turn local humans...

[ He does have a small cult who would be very interested in that last point after all. ]

I'm simply trying to get a feel for what sort of evidence was there to find, really.

Edited 2022-10-26 00:56 (UTC)

I looked into those topics, as well. Unfortunately, I found nothing....but that's just one settlement. There might be more.

[ saint-germain

saint-germain. ]

IC Inbox (ryslig)

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<WhiteWizard>

<GODKING>

<WhiteWizard>

feel free to ignore if this is too old orz

<GODKING>

<WhiteWizard>

<GODKING>

<WhiteWizard> how many circles can they talk in lmao

<GODKING> round and round they go, where they stop no one knows 🎵 1/2

<GODKING> 2/2

you're good

<WhiteWizard>

<GODKING>

<WhiteWizard>

<GODKING>

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<WhiteWizard>

<GODKING> 1/2

<GODKING> 2/2

<WhiteWizard>

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<GODKING>

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