text, un: rosaceae

[roseblooms]

Well, well. It seems it's true, then, that the potential exists for every monthly moon cycle to elicit a different set of changes in an individual. It's not exactly what I'd call reassuring, I suppose, but it's some consolation nevertheless. There are worse things to contend with than bioluminescence — which is proving to be a nuisance, but a tolerable one.

Of slightly more concern to me is the matter of moonlacing. While I recall that it's possible to get by on brief and simplistic methods of contact, it's also my understanding that a minimalist approach leaves a person exposed to a certain level of risk, should an unexpected drain on their chroma abruptly leave them overdrawn, as it were.

With that in mind, I'd be interested in negotiating terms for a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Let me stress that this is not a solicitation. Bold-faced overtures seeking sex will be denied without response. Consider this more an...attempt to establish certain contingencies, to afford everyone involved a little more peace of mind.

I'm willing to talk terms. If something of this nature is of interest to you, feel free to inquire within.

Comments

[roseblooms]

You do realize that you can change your username, if you'd prefer not to have to give that clarification?

I see you've experienced the effects firsthand. Would you mind telling me more about it?

[miraclewhip]

its very important to me that people understand im a dick.

seems to vary between people. the visible effects are like expensive-looking frostbite on me. starts at the fingers and toes and ears. they get numb for a while, then the skin gets hard and starts going transparent. cracks if you put too much pressure on it. early on there’s blood welling up if you break it but after a while it’s crystal underneath too.

best thing I can compare it to doesn’t exist on most people’s worlds. closest universal thing I can think of is cold again. the part of freezing to death where it starts to seem like a good idea to just lie on the floor and sleep, even though you know you’re not going to wake up.

[roseblooms]

Then I appreciate your candor.

Lethargy, I think, is the word you're looking for. How far did the crystallization advance for you, before you were rescued?

Additionally, I'd like to hear what you would've compared the experience to, regardless of whether it's universal or not.

[miraclewhip]

i mean. i wasn’t being poetic when I said getting your soul ripped out.

dunno if they even have demons where you’re from, but. there’s a species of them called mara. they climb on your body and attach to your soul and they eat by getting heavier and heavier until you manage to get them to let go. then they fall off but they’re still stuck to your soul, and your soul gets ripped out. it’s like having a mara holding on to you.

except they’re closely related to incubi, who are similar except horny. so- like a reverse incubus. like having whatever is keeping you alive eaten by not fucking

[roseblooms]

I'm passingly familiar with the creatures, or with something like them, at least. They're a relatively low rank of demon — unintelligent, driven by passion and base hunger, with little capacity for advanced reasoning.

I knew a certain type of demon who liked to feed on the souls of children. Now weeds and scavengers feed on him; that's appropriate, I suppose.

How is it that you've come to have such a familiarity with demons?

[miraclewhip]

never understood why anything would hunt children. not that they don't, back home. just seems like the fastest way to get someone to do something about your bullshit.

dealing in this stuff was the family business. but you don't ask a question like that without expecting the same one in turn, do you?

[roseblooms]

It's not particularly complicated. That brand of demon isn't what you might call intellectually sophisticated, and children taste best.

A family business of engaging with demons, hmm.

Which did you do: hunt them, hire them, or sell them?

[miraclewhip]

learn to take turns asshole, you didnt answer my question

hunt, yes. hire, yes. also study. and mediate. it was a big family.

[roseblooms]

I didn't answer your question because it's understandable to want to gain a more nuanced understanding of your relationship to demons, before telling you that I am one.

If it were your goal to trap and sell me, I would have to be offended.

[miraclewhip]

to be honest id be offended too.

what kind of useless demon trafficker would i be if i went around targeting demons who'd just arranged very publicly to communicate with multiple people in future. thats just asking for someone to go looking. even worse than targeting children.

[roseblooms]

You might be arrogant enough to think you could get away with it. Or prejudiced enough to think that no one would care.

But no. You afford a certain legitimacy to demons, it seems. You recognize them as individuals, rather than chattel. That's interesting.

[miraclewhip]

i mean i could do the whole philosophical discussion of what makes things people thing. and the selling people bad thing. but i am, as established, a dick. its a pragmatism thing. hunters who try that shit turn into dead hunters pretty fast.

since you seem to have encountered them and you're still here, im guessing you know that.

[roseblooms]

I have been hunted before. Not trafficked, but pursued and badly wounded, at least. There were too many of them to kill, or I would have. Numbers prevailed that day.

Would you care to guess my crime, hunter? What had me slated for execution?

[miraclewhip]

im guessing this is a rhetorical thing but fuck it

somewhere between 'being a demon minding your own business' and 'eating people'. maybe 'being a demon minding your own business in the vicinity of some other demon eating people'.

maybe being a wordy fuck.

[roseblooms]

Oh, no. I have quite a long list of legitimate crimes. Thefts, mostly. I was never one to settle down and play castle.

But I was hunted because I was deemed dangerous. The world, it was judged, would have been better off without me. Sometimes I wonder about that.

[miraclewhip]

you might be. most demons are.

the dangerous part. not the better off dead part.

[roseblooms]

As are some humans. The dangerous part, that is.

Perhaps you are. You seem to have encountered them, and you're still alive, yourself.

[miraclewhip]

yeah, probably. the dangerous part.

thing is, anything's dangerous in the right circumstances. a crumb of cheese is dangerous if you start choking. humans are dangerous when they're armed, lucky, and cruel. a lot of things that aren't humans don't even need to be cruel, just not careful enough.

[roseblooms]

Even something as simple as not having physical contact with someone is dangerous in these circumstances. In some contexts, avoidance might mean safety. Here, it creates risk.

Moonlacing with me would render me stronger than I was before. Knowing that, are you still willing to do it? Or has your opinion changed?

[miraclewhip]

that'd be a much more meaningful question if you were anything close to the most dangerous thing here. you're probably not.

most people here can hold their own. better than people back home, anyway. this place seems to favour people who can defend themselves. even those who couldn't before, it gives magic. there's not a whole lot at stake if I make you stronger and you turn out to be a nasty piece of shit.

also you being a demon doesn't make cat food free.

so no. my opinion hasn't changed.

[roseblooms]

...You like cats? What have you named them?

[miraclewhip]

they're all called cat. it's short for nasty little bastard cat.

theyre not mine to name. and i don't like them. they just eat my food and scream at me if i don't feed them. if they ever stop being skittish feral little fucks long enough to live in a proper home there's this cafe that rehomes them. if not then at least they're well fed skittish feral little fucks.

[roseblooms]

You feel a kinship with them, don't you.

Something tells me you're also something of a skittish feral little fuck.

[miraclewhip]

[ First of all how dare you. ]

ill have you know im a skittish feral big fuck.

i signed up for chroma, not demon psychoanalysis

[roseblooms]

Expressing an educated assumption isn't psychoanalysis.

Now, if I'd said something like "you pretend not to like the cats because you think it would tarnish your outward image to be seen as someone who is kind to small creatures commonly perceived as 'cute', but in fact you still care for them because you subconsciously analogize their status as homeless strays to a position you yourself were in once in life, and therefore extend to them the kindness that you, conversely, were never shown by others", that would be psychoanalysis.

And before you ask — no, I haven't the slightest idea whether any of that is factually true. I'm merely providing a hypothetical.