[network] @LELRIC; audio; night 242 [open]

[armoured]

Uh, hey everyone.

[Someone sounds sort of sheepish, mostly to hide the distress that comes from being on the receiving end of being revived.]

I wish I could say that I'd died doing something really worthwhile to help out, but I didn't, it was an anomaly. But I'm-- I'm okay now, I can't even figure out what I've lost. I've tried thinking through all my life but none of my memories seem to be gone, and I've still got all my senses, and I still look like me. I'm kind of scared that there isn't a cost, that would mean they're getting more powerful. Maybe they even have a bigger stone? Maybe they've sacrificed more people?!

[There's a brief pause, and then a more subdued voice continues.]

Okay, so-- maybe I figured it out after all, please forget what I said then. I didn't mean to talk about it so publicly where anyone could hear, especially not when the Admin really might be using philosopher's stones to resurrect people!

[Damn it! Again!]

I mean... I don't think I can lie, and it's like I'm just speaking without getting to think about it first, which is really awkward! What if I end up having a conversation with someone and I don't want to say something to them, and it comes out anyway? What if I tell Steph that I think she's really pretty? OH! Oh no...

Comments

[armoured]

No, nothing like Harry Potter, I'm not even sure what that is.

[He has a vague idea, he thinks Tim mentioned it to him once a long time ago.]

[fifty]

It's this book series about wizards. They made it into a movie series, too, it was really good! [Talking about the important things.]

[armoured]

I hate the idea of wizards, it's so unnatural to have magic, it's like creating something from nothing.

[Sorry to any listening magic users.]

[fifty]

Well, Harry Potter's just fiction, so it's not like anyone's really out there flying around on broomsticks where I'm from.

That'd be really cool, though.

[armoured]

Why would they fly on broomsticks? How would they even balance?

[That seems ridiculously impractical. Good job on changing the subject, though, America.]

[fifty]

It's like this old superstition back when people believed witches were real, they said they flew on broomsticks! They balance with magic, probably.

[It's taking his mind off becoming a horrible monster again, so this is a good conversation.]

[armoured]

Do you know why they chose something like broomsticks? I've never really heard of them used for anything except cleaning, and that doesn't seem a whole lot like magic to me.

[fifty]

I dunno, maybe 'cause like everyone has one? So if you were a secret witch you could just put your secret flying broomstick in your closet and it'd look like a normal broom!

[armoured]

I guess that makes sense, it would help them to hide in plain sight. But none of that's true, right? It's just stories and folklore.

[fifty]

Yeah, it's not real. I mean, people really got killed over it, but that was dumb.

[armoured]

That's awful, why did people get killed over it? What happened?

[fifty]

'Cause people thought witches were evil. Like, when people were getting sick and crops were failing they were all "let's find the witch and kill them and things will get better"! It was stupid, but I mean--I guess it's not like they knew it was stupid.

[armoured]

That's really stupid. Why didn't anyone try to stop them from killing innocent people? I guess-- maybe it's like Liore, everyone just wanted to have faith that this might stop the bad things?

[fifty]

People might accuse you of being a witch too if enough people thought you were defending a witch.

[armoured]

[He exhales, a sad little sound.]

I hate that everywhere I hear of has stuff like this, there's no world that's just-- good.

[fifty]

Yeah, but there's still people who do good things everywhere, too!

[armoured]

Mm.

[He takes a moment, but he sounds much more positive when he does reply.]

You're right, I know you're right. Thanks for that.