un: kantera, text

[happydreamed]

If this adventure with chain mail has taught me anything, 'tis that many of us here are having our first exposure to the internet, with all its amusements and pitfalls included. Thus, I thought it might be nice to introduce another 'getting to know each other' game that some of us might not know yet. This one won't involve pictures or ratings of attractiveness, not to worry.

This game is called 'two truths and a lie'. The premise is simple. You list three statements about yourself, two true and one false. Ideally they should all be similar levels of unbelievable. Then, other people respond to you to guess which one is the lie. We all learn a little about each other and have a bit of fun.

Comments

[essenceborn]

Do you need to eat a lot of blood? Or can you eat other stuff like bread and peanut butter too?

[sangreine]

I love human food! It's all so delicious.

How much blood I need depends on how much energy I use and where I am in my life cycle. But usually a few good swallows every couple of days. If I don't get enough I start getting tired and weak.

[essenceborn]

[ Ohhh new topic of interest: acquired. Hope Saya doesn't mind 500 questions coming her way ]

Is your life cycle that unique compared to humans? What is it?

[sangreine]

[ She doesn't mind! This version of her came a long way toward self-acceptance (b ut it gets dicey sometimes even so). ]

Very different. I'm awake for a matter of months, maybe a year if I'm lucky, during which I get more and more tired and require more and more sleep. Then one day I don't wake up. I hibernate for somewhere between twenty-five and fifty years, and when I wake up I have no memories, no personality. It's starting all over. [ And it super sucks. ]

[essenceborn]

Wait, really?
You only stay awake for a few months and then you just forget everything the next time you wake up? You don't remember anything at all?

[sangreine]

That's right, nothing. I don't even know I need blood to live until I just pass out.

The place I was before this let us buy memories back because everyone had their memories removed as part of the whole schtick, or else I have no idea whether I'd know as much as I do. And what I know isn't very much. I'm at least two hundred years old, maybe as many as 5,000 years old, and I have about a dozen memories before waking up a handful of months ago.

[essenceborn]

You're even older than me... I've never met anyone older than me.

[ Because everyone older than Nen is dead in their world, yup yup :D melted into black goo. ]

What's going to happen to you here? Are you tired?

[sangreine]

[ Aw, Nen is so sweet. ]

I don't know exactly what's going to happen to me. I'm going to look for a way to delay or stop my hibernation with the magic in this place, but if I can't find one then I'll fall asleep, same as I always do.

I'm not tired yet, thankfully. Because of my memories being missing I don't really know how long until it starts.

[essenceborn]

I'm sorry. I don't think anything I know could help you.
That isn't fair.

[sangreine]

It's not, but I try not to get too upset about it. While I look to see if there's a way out of my hibernation I just want to enjoy the time I have, you know?

And I'm lucky to have people looking after me who can find me when I wake up. [ She hopes. ]

[essenceborn]

Have you tried going to the research centre? They're the ones that helped me get more blood thinners. They made a potion.
Maybe they can make you something to help too.

[sangreine]

[ For the first time in this entire exchange, there's a pause. ]

Maybe.

In the past I've been used as a weapon of war. I'm a little wary of being a test subject again.

[essenceborn]

[ Oh hold up now-- ]

You're a Test Subject?

[sangreine]

Something like that. It wasn't an official facility, but then back then those didn't really exist.

Just one rich human and his team of scientists who wanted to see what my twin and I could do if he toyed with us. [ Saya got the much better end of the stick, which is why she always sympathized with her sister in spite of Diva being mad by even a generous definition. If she'd been starved for fifty years she'd be angry too. ] Then his ancestors turned me into a weapon and messed with my head until I danced to their tune.

[essenceborn]

[ Reading that produces a very...complicated feeling in Nen's chest. If they had to describe it, it would be unpleasant. Uncomfortable. Tight, but not suffocating. Nen doesn't want to think about what it is that emotion is and shuts it down, pushing it as far away from themself as they can.

It takes a few minutes before they can reply. ]

That's what they wanted to do with you? Toy with you?

[sangreine]

No. They wanted me to kill things. People.

Toying with me was how they went about getting it.

[essenceborn]

Why would they do that? Why would they want anyone to kill someone?
Why would they do that to you

[sangreine]

I don't know. Like I said, I don't remember everything.
Just little bits and pieces.

But I do know that even if they had good intentions, there's no excuse for imprisoning and using us like that.

[essenceborn]

I'm sorry

[ Nen doesn't know what else to say at this point. If they think too much, that feeling will come back. If they say too much, it'll sound like what they went through. ]

[sangreine]

It's fine. It's in the past. All I can do now is move on. [ And not let it happen again, hence why the research center frightens her. Letting people know her strengths and weaknesses, it's opening a box she can't close. Maybe if she knew how they managed to get her to massacre that town, but she doesn't. ]

[essenceborn]

Aren't you upset?

[sangreine]

Of course I'm upset, but if I let what happened influence everything about my life now then I might as well still be under their control.

[essenceborn]

What?

[sangreine]

...Did that not make sense?

[essenceborn]

No sorry
I mean I understood the words
I just don't know how you do it.