-`. OCS AS TYPES OF SUFFERING.
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-`. DESPAIR.
The tunnel never had a light. You wish for nothing because you know you'll receive nothing, and your hopes died out long ago. The only thing that keeps you going is the thrill of emptiness you feel when things don't turn out your way. It's bitter. It's proof. Proof that you don't feel this way for nothing.
-`. THE BLACKHOLE.
There's a hole where your heart used to be and nothing is filling that hollow void. You could drown in a world curated for you, and still nothing seems to fit. It eats you alive knowing you're unsure how to satiate the hunger of your soul. It's barely hunger, it's more like a blackhole.
-`. THE TAKER.
Your expectations are ones you can barely meet. You compare yourself to others, but with a hypocritical light. You'll never find what you're looking for if you're laying down half of what you receive. It stings to be given less than expectations you've set, but if they were more reasonable, do you think even then you'd be happy?
-`. YEARNING.
The pain in your chest bubbles knowing that what you want may never be yours. You're lost in a fantasy world, or consumed by what you wish you were or had as opposed to what you do. It's hard to appreciate what's around you when you're appreciating the hope of what could be instead.
-`. THE GIVER.
Your energy depletes as you hand it out to anyone passing by your basket. People walk by and take, but no one ever leaves. You're constantly running on low when people keep asking you to give. You'd give your soul away for free, and then what left do you have of yourself if you can't say no?
-`. LONELINESS.
Your heart feels full of the connection you feel you lack. No matter how many people are around you, strangers or not….someone is missing. You don't know who, what, or if you'll ever find them. You're unsure if there's a person out there who'll really satisfy your life, so really what's the point of continuing to look?
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WSBH chara q’s: (you don’t have to answer all the numbers, just whatever you want to 𖢘)
16/35/51 for Scotch
1/6/55 for Atlas
I LOVE YOU
16. What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?
okay i truly think scotch argues with seraph in his head all the time. ALL the time. scotch largely ignores them, and vice versa, because he dislikes them and they know it. seraph is very conflict avoidant lol, and as long as hes not a "threat" they dont care to talk to him about their problems. he probably argues with atlas and jacob (his older brother) too, atlas about more stupid small stuff, and jacob about childhood and life stuff :p
im trying to think of more general groups he would argue with but i cant come up with anything BAHAH. hes not exactly conflict avoidant in the annoying libra way that seraph is, he more just ignores conflict for his friends’ (mostly atlas’) sake. idk if that makes sense LOL
35. What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they’ve made?
hmmm.. smallest? i mean scotch strings eloise along for most of the time pre timeskip. its not a main focus but its definitely important in order to understand scotch as a whole. she and scotch go out for a while, and mid way through that he realizes hes GAY gay. lol. and obviously lying to her about that is pretty questionable after a while. especially since he and atlas have been 👉👌 like the whole time. but she kind of knows. well
something a little bigger would be him encouraging or otherwise turning a blind eye to all the weird stuff atlas is up to. he doesn't know what it's like to be a werewolf, he can't say anything, right? lol.... murder is okay if its a talking dog doing it. scotch enabler supreme. actually when seraph is introduced, he and atlas have a 'joke' (kind of starts being real) about luring seraph somewhere to kill them. obviously doesnt happen and gets abandoned. but i think its important to know about their dynamic LOL
51. What’s a phrase they say a lot?
this guy is kind of goofy. i cant think of phrases rn but he has a specific way of speaking.. you could watch pretty much any old pop punk band interview and kind of get the idea. HAHAH
1. What’s the lie your character says most often?
atlas is a big fan of saying 'its fine' for all situations ever. family in mortal danger? its fine. completely splitting? its fine. arthritis excruciating? its fine. hes one of those people that dont like to deal with the fawning of others unless hes feeling real special. Ends up putting people in more danger a lot of the time. i think eloise is the only fan of communication in this friend group to be honest. i should have made her the main character
he tends to make promises he cant keep as well, but thats more general..
6. What’s their favorite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?
i have NO idea. i feel like atlas would be a music snob, so maybe his favorite 'super underground' bands. otherwise he'd probably never recommend raw human meat to another human (no matter how much scotch asks -__-).. (he would chicken out anyway)
55. What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?
um. so atlas hates working out. he especially hates running, you know, the thing that wolves are known for doing a lot of? unfortunately the lycanthropy came with a side effect of pretty bad arthritis, so that doesnt exactly encourage him. he DOES exercise, a lot since hes pretty much required for his ermm "side job", but he hates it 😸 besides the arthritis it’s mostly because I think it’s silly that he hates it. yay
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Only one bed for imodna
it had never been a problem before. two years they've travelled together and they've slept in stables, wrapped up in the same blanket; they've slept in tiny, crooked huts on tiny pallets, being a pillow for one another; they've slept in gutters and fields and inns, wrapped up in each other, safe and warm.
ashton gets three rooms for them and it's thoughtless, the way they all divide themselves. orym and fearne go into the third room; fearne examines each of them, wanders through and touches everything. she switches the blankets in the first and third room without saying a word, just smiling. fcg and ashton take the first door. chet wavers for a moment before ashton sticks his head out the doorway and winks him into their room, a teasing 'c'mon, you can keep me warm if fearne won't have you' drifting out into the hall before the door clicks shut. and imogen and laudna take the second.
the mind-on-mind-on-mind-on-mind-on-mind-on-mine never really ends, never stops, so when she sees the bed - bed, singular - imogen thinks first about fearne, picking her room, and the way her mind had gone quiet and light like someone laughing in the distance when she'd flounced away, and then imogen thinks about the man outside, three streets away, who can't choose between this curry dish or that bread dip, and then she thinks she might have been in her-their thoughts for too long because laudna is worrying at one of her nails, nearly pulled it from its bed as she stares at the singular bed.
'you take it.'
laudna doesn't seem to hear. she worries at her nail and she worries at the discordant strings inside her own head, pulling and plucking.
'laudna.'
'hm?'
'you take the bed.'
laudna tilts her head to the side, like imogen is speaking in a language she doesn't understand. 'i'm not tired quite yet-'
'i mean tonight. i'm going to sleep with fearne and orym. somethin' tells me they've got a bigger bed.' she lifts her bag onto her shoulder and steps out into the hall.
the door closes behind her - she is the one who pulls it closed, can't blame laudna for that one - and she has to stand still on trembling legs, back braced against the wall as laudna's mind remains empty for an awfully long time, a breath drawn in and in and in, maybe imogen is breathing in, a held breath, waiting for laudna's thoughts to return. in the noise - he decided on curry, finally, and down the way she dreamily watches the mechanics, grease-stained and muscle-bound, and on the next roof they pick seeds from inside the pulp of their fruit, handfeed them to their pin-prick taloned familiar, and more and more and more - and she waits for laudna's thoughts, her music.
laudna cannot keep them to herself, imogen cannot ignore them; laudna cannot hide, imogen cannot be alone. it is not something she gets to be but if she can bury herself beneath the weight, the pressure of something she chooses to submerge herself in, it can block out the rest a little. she wants to hear her, not the words; she wants to be soothed by the ease of it, that familiar mind against, around, on her own.
laudna is quieter than she usually is.
will she take this away too? imogen wonders. it is unkind. it is deserved. it is too much blame, misplaced, mishandled.
laudna's mind is heavier, denser than she usually is. that is not something imogen wants either. she flinches away from it; she returns just as quickly, because what if her mind is the only piece, the last piece, keeping laudna's together?
laudna's mind is a haunted house. the wood is rotted, eaten through with woodlice. she is fragile and always-mended; she fills her home with lovely furniture and friends; there is a woman in the attic who can look and sound just like laudna and if there is a lock on that attic door it is from the inside and the woman holds the key, and the candle, and a knife, and a rope that winds and winds and winds and winds and every beam in the house dangles a noose and laudna hangs herbs from them, and rats, and the decorations are not enough, and -
imogen opens the door.
'i thought you were bunking with fearne and orym?' laudna says. she has made herself comfortable on the bed, black ligaments strung between her fingers. pate sits on her knee. the pages from the conservatory - imogen's notes - sit out on her other knee.
'what are you doing with those?'
'reading them. again. i haven't discovered anything new.'
'maybe there isn't anything to find.'
'nonsense,' laudna scolds in that never-scolding tone, ever so sweet, ever so wise, like the ever-twenty girl knows everything about the turning of the world. 'there's an answer for every question. maybe not in these,' she allows, and shuffles the pages back into the dream journal she is keeping for imogen, 'but somewhere.'
'is there an answer for us?'
'yes.'
'what is it?' she needs to know. she needs the certainty, the comfort, the solid-ground that her mind can't give her. minds against her own, weighty then weightless, never the same sounds, never a pattern she can adjust to. 'what is it?'
she offers imogen no answer. she offers imogen a smile. it is an impossible smile. the joy in it, the love, is a mockery of life. there is no heart alive that can love so unrestrained. it is as though death lifted those limits on her; in recompense for what was stolen, laudna is permitted to love in excess.
'i'm so upset with you. angry.'
'i know. and i am so sorry.'
'scared.'
'i know.'
'promise me. no more lies. you're all mine.'
laudna does not promise. imogen presses with her mind, and laudna's will wavers, but still she does not promise. her eyes are wide and wet and she wants to, that much is obvious. she does not promise. she turns away. turns down the sheets. gets a glass of water from the pitcher in the corner and sets it onto the nightstand. she moves pate to her bag, tucks him in. she makes no promise. it is safer, it is kinder, it is harder, it is cruel. imogen has no stable ground, she is walking on a rope and cannot find her balance. laudna walks with her and it makes it harder but it would be worse to do it alone.
imogen climbs into bed. laudna climbs into bed. it is narrow and uncomfortable. laudna's elbow is so sharp when it digs into her side by accident. she doesn't apologise out loud but her mind presses against imogen's and it doesn't hurt. they have slept on much worse.
the moon glints out their window and something tells her that she won't dream tonight, but she will fall asleep terrified that she will. she is tired thinking of waking up tomorrow morning. how much will she forgive laudna for, just because it doesn't hurt to be close to her? how much is that worth? how much more will she forgive laudna for, because of that smile, all hers? how much more will she ask of laudna, because her mind was the first, her mind is the best, her mind is so freely shared, her mind is comfort in a way that nothing not even the stone felt like?
'sometimes, i think that if you were the one who could read minds, we wouldn't be here.'
laudna lays an inch away from her. she is cold. imogen rolls over and takes her hands, rubs warmth back into them. she does it most nights. tonight is so different; tonight is not so different.
'whyever would you think that?'
'even before,' she says, and laudna knows the befores - before power, before the incident, before laudna - so she does not say which one, 'i never was good with people. never liked them much.'
'there's not a thing in your mind i have not loved yet.'
'not even the other night?'
spindly fingers curl around her hand - spindly fingers curl around the crystal - they're both thinking it, she knows, but imogen doesn't pull away. she might, if it was another crystal, but it's her hand and that's safe with laudna. her heart too. any part of her.
'you think i don't know fear? loss? heartache? anger? you think such things are not sublime in you?' a lock of hair, twisting about laudna's finger. brushed back behind her ear. the weight of her mind, the weight of her regard, like the press of a cold hand. 'do you think i would not bow my neck to you for retribution if you asked it of me?'
imogen's hand finds her neck. she rubs little circles into it, massages out the tension, before leaving her hand there. warm.
'i'm not kind like you.'
'you've been kind to me.'
'i'm going crazy, i think.'
'i'm quite past that point myself.'
imogen smiles. brushes her thumb against laudna's temple. haunted house of a mind. tries so hard to turn every fear into something useful, a work of art. 'you said there's an answer for everything. what if - what if the answer is that i'm evil?'
laudna's breath catches. 'imogen -'
'or if not now, soon? what happens if i use my powers too much and i start attacking people? everyone? controlling them? you saw what i did with the lightning -'
'and i the same, a matter of seconds later.' laudna covers her hand with her own. cool, not cold. 'whatever your purpose is, it is mine. whatever your questions are, they are mine. and whatever my mind is, broken or helpful, it is for you. whatever my powers are, whatever their root, they are yours. it does not do to dwell on the may-be's and what-ifs, darling. they are only so kind in your head because they are not real.'
'real hurts,' imogen grumbles. wriggles forward until she is in laudna's arms and laudna is in hers.
'not always.'
imogen takes in the slow heartbeat beneath her ear, and the blanket drawn up over her shoulders, and the weight of the mind leaning against her own. nothing is settled; everything is as it should be, for tonight.
'not always,' she agrees.
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