sevenhorrors | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Severine Fairplay and willing students
When: September 30, morning
Where: The school grounds, eventually the woods
What: Raiju (and other ghost) adventures!
Warnings: TBD

[ at first light, fellow insomniacs may spy Severine Fairplay pacing the school grounds, barely visible through the early morning mist. back and forth... back and forth... casting dark and furrowed glances towards the woods. the looming thicket has begun to change colour with the advent of fall, but despite the vibrancy, its atmosphere remains—oppressive.

by mid-morning, she is still there—or should I say returned there, for she's now accompanied by a hand-painted sign which reads: ]

SEEKING EXPEDITIONERS INTO WOODS
HARVEST RAIJU FUR
SLAY JINMENKEN & DEMON CENTIPEDES
FOR PROFIT

[ everyone loves a "Slay 10 rats in the tavern basement-style" quest, right? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... no. You don't have to.

[ it was probably a stupid idea anyways. ... just. ]

I just thought that if I did share something with you. ... you would understand.

[ understand? ]

Understand what, lapochka?

[ ... great question. what's about to happen? why he is the way he is?

maybe he just wants some kind of validation. more reassurance that he's tried his best. that he's not entirely beyond saving. ]

I just think it would help us get to know each other. ... you don't have to give me a memory back.

[ she won't; she refuses to bare herself in that way. but that look on his face is so earnest—to her, at least. Severine sighs, holding up her little finger.

why not look? she is... curious. is he as that other man makes him out to be? ]

[ he does hesitate. there's every chance that she could get a memory that would cause her to reject him entirely. but... after a moment he hooks his pinky with hers.

the memory takes place on a cliff overlooking a terrifying crack in the earth. the abyss, a liminal space between the human and demon realm. "Kongxu" is in the memory, seemingly scorning Gehou for his demonic heritage and claiming that he no longer belongs in the human realm.

and, after stabbing him in the chest, he pushes Gehou into the abyss. ]

Edited 2025-10-03 09:07 (UTC)

[ what

what

WHAT

unhooks their fingers ]

[ oh she's not saying anything that's somehow worse than if she were to immediately start scolding him ]

... Shijie?

[ that hand flies to her chest, seeking the wound, but—it was not her own chest, it was his, and the roiling pain she feels now is a simple thing: it's misery. it's anger. she knew that man to be a callous one, but her entire body shivers now with disgust.

demon, no simple demon.

the shape of the memory slotting into her own mind, as though she had been there, as though it had been her, hearing herself called anything but human. punished for a heritage set down before her birth.

suddenly, Severine seizes the front of his clothes. once more: seeking the wound. ]

What did he do to you? After he flung you from cliff, that man?

-- Shijie!

[ he catches her hands as she pulls at his clothes, his own mind now racing. he hadn't expected a response like this. he hadn't expected to-- what? scare her? hurt her?

he squeezes her hands in his own, trying to ground her. ]

Shijie, it's alright. He didn't do anything to me after that. ..... I spent years in the abyss after. I trained and I got stronger... and when I finally returned to the human realm, shizun ... didn't do anything to me.

[ it's both a lie and not a lie. for now, he just needs her to calm down so he can gather his own thoughts. of all the memories for her to receive... well, he had been fishing for pity. and now he has that. but at what cost? ]

[ WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOUR SHIJIE, LBH?

she slows, she stops. realizes herself. he is standing here in front of her, after all—so something must have changed. he wasn't down there forever. and, indeed, as he speaks, he says nearly precisely that.

exhales suddenly and pulls her hands back. embarrassment comes to sweep across her. ]

Abyss? [ it cannot possibly be the Abyss as she knows it. ] Then you are tiefling like me.

[ now that she has calmed down somewhat, he allows her some space. ... internally he wonders if he should take her somewhere she can sit down. ]

I don't know what a tiefling is. [ he shakes his head. ]

My mother was human, and my father was... a "heavenly demon". [ he says this with some reluctance. mostly he just hates thinking about that man. ]

[ goes to knot her hands in front of her. then changes her mind, sets her thumb between her teeth, in that divot in the nail.

"heavenly" demon? ha! don't make her laugh. ]

Tiefling—it is when human bloodlines mixed with infernal, demonic. It is me, and it is you. He attacks you for this thing you cannot help?

... Shijie, should we go somewhere else?

[ this is a conversation he doesn't want to have around others. besides, he thinks she needs some time to think. and he definitely needs some time to sort out what he wants to tell her and what he doesn't. ]

We can walk along the edge of the woods.

[ just looks at him with a sort of confused dismay. they can walk. ]

[ he remains quiet as they walk, hands folded behind his back in contemplation, until they gain a large distance between themselves and anyone that might be listening. ]

.... "Kongxu" is my teacher. He raised me and taught me the sword and cultivation. He is a righteous, upstanding man, and the head of the second most prestigious peak of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. ... as such, it is his duty to eliminate demons and anything else that might threaten the human realm.

Before that memory... two years or so before, I learned from a dream demon about my heritage. I also studied demonic cultivation from this demon behind my teacher's back. I thought that if I could grow stronger, I could protect him and it wouldn't matter if I was a demon. He told me that it was my actions that mattered more than my blood. ... and yet...

[ he shakes his head. in all honesty, he can't explain Shen Qingqiu's actions. even if he were to be fully honest, even if he weren't trying to cherry-pick the things he tells Ms. Fairplay so that she won't reject him, he wouldn't be able to explain Shen Qingqiu. ]

There is something inherently wrong with me. [ he finally arrives at that conclusion. almost at a loss. ]

He believes that I am capable of terrible things. [ and maybe he is right, goes unsaid. ]

[ courteous? upstanding? she has seen so little of the man to indicate this, and what mere snippets she has been granted were only that. there-and-gone flashes of consideration, replaced quickly by tart comments and cool gazes.

she takes him by the forearm, a firm grip. it's presumptuous of her. ]

You speak like everyone else in Waterdeep. Why do you think that? Because you have been told it?

[ he starts for a moment. genuinely surprised by her reaching out to him like this. ]

..... I never wanted to believe it. I tried to prove that it wasn't true. But in trying to prove that I could be good, I only sunk deeper and deeper into my true nature.

[ which he does not want to explain further, ]

The people of Waterdeep... are they demons? Or "Tieflings", like you?

[ laughs, this sound of derision and despair ]

They are everything. Human, elf, dwarf, halfling—and to we tieflings, they say, "one is curiosity, two is conspiracy, three is curse." Do not go doubting your own nature on their behalf. They do not know what it is to be you.

[ he doubts his own nature because he tried to destroy the world once and also has done so many other really bad things. and who is he to believe if not his shizun?

... ]

Thank you, Shijie. I will try to remember this. ... there is wisdom in your words. Even if I cannot always believe them.

[ you keep calling her wise, buddy, and she'll start to believe it ]

Then I remind you. And remind you again. I am alive too many years to listen to this anymore. [ thunks her finger, en-pointe, into his chest, for emphasis. ] And so are you.

[ if only she knew the scar was still there. right underneath her fingertip.

he manages a smile. a seemingly genuine one. grateful, if a little thin. he reaches up to take her hand and bows his head to her. ... feeling greedy, he brings her hand up against his cheek again. ]

Thank you. Shijie. [ he repeats. words that fail to say everything he actually wants to say. how he regrets making her feel the way he felt that day, even if on accident. how he appreciates her words, her concern, her indignation.

he wants to be able to tell her that even if he could believe what she says, he knows that he will forget everything with one cold glance and biting word from shen qingqiu.

he wishes he could apologize for keeping even more of the truth from her.

but. he is greedy. ]

This disciple is grateful to have met you. I... [ his brow furrows. searching for the words. ] Coming to this place and meeting that man again... I've felt so lost, and alone.

[ treading dangerously close to "personal investment in another" grounds, here, but with her hand pressed to his cheek and his lovely face so pinched and pained, Severine has no easy out. no easy disentanglement from this.

for as long as they are here, he is part of Kin'un's homeroom, and so is she. there has to be some level of care. Mammon! she sounds so mawkish, even within her own head. ]

Why do you let him hold this sway over you? He is not good for you.

[ ..... he's quiet. his eyes shifting to the ground as he nuzzles into the hand she's not pulling away from him. touch touch touch... she's warm. ]

He's my shizun. [ is the best answer he can give. ... ]

He raised me....

[ ohhh, yes. this is dangerous. now she does pull her hand away, but only so far as to grasp at his own hand, and hold it. ]

My mother and my father raise me. Even so, they do not deserve me.

[ :< ]

... he wasn't always so cold. [ he thinks. maybe. ]

Something happened. He says he "isn't my shizun", but his qi and his scent are the same.

Edited 2025-10-06 01:04 (UTC)