[Return] [Voice]

[aetherweaver]

[There's a vaguely British-sounding voice emitting from the journals, and those who recognize Nara'a will note it's not his usual calm tone.]

Would anyone, anyone like to explain what in the hells just happened? 'Oh, the town or the spaceship or the book closing sound?' All of it.

[He takes a breath, lets it out.]

Right. Everyone back here? All appendages accounted for?

Comments

[angel_of_baal]

Your opinion is apparently in the minority. [He says, dryly. Because he has distinct memories of being nearly skinned, shot with arrows and threatened, by people he was trying to help.]

My voice was...?

[aetherweaver]

Well, that's not a new thing.

Ah, I thought... your voice was familiar. Maybe that alien simply sounded like you.

[angel_of_baal]

W-what alien? [Oh no, was the jig, as they said on ancient Terra, up? Not that he knew what that meant, literally. ] I am no xenos.

[aetherweaver]

[He pauses, and then -]

Aren't we all aliens to each other, technically?

[angel_of_baal]

[Normally, Sanguinius would try to ignore such sophistry. That was more Lorgar's realm. But that experience had unsettled him more than he cared to think about.]

Here, I suppose. But in that world--I thought it was some nightmare, but it was real, or at least some shared hallucination.

[aetherweaver]

It's real enough to be influenced, so it's real on some level.

... Something unsettled you though, didn't it? Do you... ah... want to talk about it?

[angel_of_baal]

[Sanguinius doesn't want to concede the point, but, well, he's right. It felt real and he was still feeling the effects of it. It must be real, or real enough.]

No. I don't. [But he probably should.] I've never tried to help and been...rejected.

[aetherweaver]

... It does happen sometimes.

[He's seen it happen, and it's always frustrating. If you have the best of intentions but can't manage to get someone to accept help... it can be gut-wrenching to watch people walk away.]

I'm... sorry that happened to you. It tends to feel pretty horrible...

[angel_of_baal]

I don't care for it. [A ghost of a smile, because he's aware, hearing it out loud, how absurd it sounds. ]

I also was...vulnerable. [REALLY didn't like that.]

[aetherweaver]

I don't either.

[But such is life, unfortunately.]

I was vulnerable as well. I didn't have my claws or proper ears or my tail... I felt deaf and off-balance for a while. And I didn't have my job stones with me, though they were where they should be when I returned.

[angel_of_baal]

[He nods. Same. Well, different features.]

I did not remember them at the time, which was also unsettling. In retrospect. It was like I had always been this other...person. [XENOS! He was an alien and it was so distressing he can't even bring himself to say it.]

[aetherweaver]

... Right.

[Probably him. A good chance, at least.]

You weren't the only one. There were a few other people who had the same... affliction? Condition? Whatever you might call it.

[angel_of_baal]

Experience. [That's the neutral term he's going with because it was absolutely nightmarish even before meeting Curze, but he's a Primarch and they don't show that things...get to them. Minus the red tear tattoo, that is. ]

Was yours...good?

[aetherweaver]

Experience.

[That's fair. That's a good term.]

I mean... it was... awkward? Some of the conversations that I had were... uncomfortable.

[angel_of_baal]

[Laugh that's just a tiny bit nervous. N-not that he does 'nervous, of course.]

Me, as well. I met my brother. [It did not go well!] Only, of course, we did not know each other.

[aetherweaver]

Of course. Because why would things here be convenient or helpful?

[angel_of_baal]

That is probably the better question than my own. [Someone's a little stuck in his own head and his own problems. ] My brother seemed almost exactly as he is, but I was changed. Have others seen this?

[aetherweaver]

I saw others who had been changed, yes. I wasn't, and a few other people I encountered weren't. So I'm not quite sure what the criteria for 'changed' versus 'unchanged' would be, because we don't seem to have enough data.

[angel_of_baal]

We need to get this data. Somehow.

Could you, unchanged, recognize others? Because I could not. I was wholly, to my mind...the...xenos. [zero out of ten would NOT recommend.]

[aetherweaver]

Only by voice or appearance. The things that most would be able to.

If I were unchanged, not being forced into a hyur form... I might be able to tell by scent, depending on who they were.

[angel_of_baal]

Curious. [Because Curze should have recognized him. But Curze hadn't recognized when Sanguinius had thrown direct lines from their conversation at him. ] What changes did you endure?

[aetherweaver]

Ears on the side of my head rather than the top, no claws, no tail... deadened senses overall. It was quite... irritating.

But I did what I could with the resources available I suppose.

[angel_of_baal]

But only that. You knew who you were, what you were? That was unchanged?

[aetherweaver]

That was unchanged, yes. There were several of us, but I don't know what we might have in common. ... To be honest, I don't know everyone quite well enough to begin to even guess.

[angel_of_baal]

Maybe it was simply a matter of resources--they lacked energy to mindwipe everyone.

Or maybe some were there as witnesses. Did anyone debrief you?