expiationnet | [Charm

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[Charm - Voice]

[The audio starts off with static that dissipates into the sound of something slithering through grass. Dara lets out hiss-like exhale before speaking:]

There is no spiritual realm here, so my hand is forced. My shrine is missing. [...] Or, more accurately, the part of me that was sealed in that shrine did not come with me. This can be both very fortunate for all of you or a catastrophe waiting to happen.

[A tree branch snaps after a lengthy pause.]

If you come across a box bound in a white cloth with spells written on it, leave it be. Opening it will do me the favor of finding it, but that will involve collecting your corpse. [There's a wry smile in her voice:] Since this is not my territory, I'm technically not duty bound to prevent the curse from spreading.

[...Not that she wants to admit that she'd go out of her way to stop it. It's her cursed hand, after all.]

In any case, do what you will. You're all humans, aren't you?

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[Bruh, you don't even know the half of it. She lost her spirit realm house, her cursed shrine, and her mountain! Everything sucks.]

No, I didn't...I can typically sense its presence through the spirit realm, but that's not possible as far as I've checked. I want to believe that it's not here and still properly sealed, but I can't guarantee that. If my binding was undone to summon me here, then I can't assume that that part of me wasn't also summoned as well.

Alright, then it probably ain't here. I mean, none of my shit got brought in if I didn't have it on.

And I dunno anything about binding or whatever, but this place doesn't seem to play by any of the same rules back home. If it ain't here, it's probably right back where you left it.

Any other way you can track it down?

[She really hopes he's right. For Dara, who's mastered handling the spiritual world for years, it's incredibly vexing feeling so out of control. It's nice getting an outside opinion.]

Not that I can think of right now... [The slithering speeds up as Dara's charm picks up the noise of a stream.] Are you used to dealing with the supernatural?

[Man there's a lot of rustling noises on this thing. Wtf u doin', lady, crawling in the woods.]

Alright. Still, it's probably not here. You'd expect it to show up with you if you were brought at the same time, right?

[He has to consider that question for a second... but fuck it, what's the point in secrecy.]

...Yeah, but in a different way. Nothing like spiritual or sealing or whatever. Just fighting monsters. The ones back home eat people's minds.

[Trying to find a good enough pool of water to scry in, that's what.]

Yes, but "with me" could be summoning within the same realm or an indeterminatable vicinity rather than directly with me.

[Hence her predicament. And it's that difficult spot in the entire conversation: what's in the box? Her hand. But she's keeping her lips sealed about that!]

Fighting monsters, huh? You better not try to attack me if you see me.

White box, covered in spells, has a curse. I'll let you know if I hear anything about that. Maybe you can find someone who can track it down.

[--ok, her warning earns a short amused noise.]

I like to think I ain't dumb enough to swing at something before I know what it is. Besides, we'd only go out after them when our worlds leaked together. They ain't out all the time.

So lemme guess- you don't even look human?

Right... [Unlikely, but--] ...Thank you.

[That split-second mildly bashful tone disappears in a second as Dara perks up at the question. A quick "fufufu" plus fumbling with the charm-- right, she can figure this out. Shouldn't be harder than the Nentindo Swatch.

The hologram that pops up on Shinjiro's end reveals the monster behind the voice...monster sized tits, that is. Truly terrifying. It only gets worse as Dara moves the charm away from her with one set of hands, revealing the other two sets as the rest of her naga figure appears. Giant snake tail and all. The too-wide grin stretched across her face is both mischievous and menacing.]

An intimidating figure to best fit my nature. I am a mountain god of curses, after all!

[wow this was almost a kind of cute moment before he got jumpscared with boobs. Like wow. Right there. Attached to some wild looking shoulders and her face is split like a murder victim's and then there's the huge Naga tail but mostly just massive tits and...

To be honest, he thinks he's seen their leader summon a Persona kind of like this? This isn't as bad as the dick chariot. Still, his brows go all the way up, and he's glad that he's 100% sticking to voice. Because wow.

There are attempts to be polite and not stare but-- there's kind of the loop happening of "Snake? Tits? Too many arms snake tits??"]

So.... definitely not human looking.

[snakes shouldn't even have-- you know what whatever.]

Huh.

[god he really doesn't have anything smarter to say about that for like a full couple seconds, what a fucking embarassment.]

Guess the snake part could be intimidating, yeah.

[Every second that ticks by after that initial response builds up as a red frustrated tint to her face, as she were balloon ready to pop with a screech! Yet, her expression deflates in an instant when he mentions the "snake part".]

Oh, so you're just not afraid of snakes. [She shrugs. Let her ego have this one.] Well, I guess there are people like that. It's not as if I'm going to curse you either.

[Shinjiro can thank her hair for being an excellent censor bar even when she decides to comb her fingers through it, like a cat grooming after being pet the wrong way.]

It's been awhile since I've talked to anyone other than the caretaker's kids.

Huh? [--Oh! His less-than-scared reaction. He nods, though since he's on voice it's completely useless.]

Yeah. I don't have a problem with snakes. And you kind of get used to supernatural stuff after a while. Shadows come in all kinds of forms.

[Sorry, Dara...! Let your pride be assuaged. You are probably very spooky to people who arsn't used to seeing eldritch horrors on a nightly basis.]

You mentioned being sealed, right? So does that mean you only got to see the people who'd come to you?

Must suck, being cooped up like that.

[Huh, sounds her human-half's experience. The wandering lifestyle allowed for her to take on many different types of exorcism before settling down in her ~~shack~~ home.]

No, that's just my shrine. The mountain it resides on is my territory, and I spent a large portion of time in the spirit realm. My shrine doesn't have much meaning to me aside from the box that's sealed inside. It's not a place to be approached by those aside from the caretaker's family.

[Dara looks to the sky, lost in thought for a moment before directing her attention to the charm again.]

The monsters you fight, Shadows-- they're not from the spirit realm?

I guess if you're a curse god, most people would be too scared to come visit.

[He has to consider her question for a moment. He wouldn't have called it a spirit realm, but Shadows sure didn't typically exist out and about with humans-- only in the weird distortion of time and space that Persona Users could be aware of and experience.]

...I guess you could call it that, but we don't. They just show up during an extra hour of the day. It's hard to explain, but... I guess time is warped, then, and our world and the one the Shadows come from kinda cross. So that's when they feed on people.

[And leave them mindless, living husks. Empty and apathetic. Just as likely to mindlessly wander into traffic as they are to die of thirst sprawled out where they fell.]

It's just a few of us that can be awake and aware when it's all happening, though. Most people've got no idea.

What's your spirit realm like?

There are not many people who still possess a spiritual sense, at least compared to the past. But the Shadows sound more complex than the haunting hour for a yūrei...

[An odd sort of spirit realm or completely different beings? It's hard to parse out with limited information, but it's not her place to do so either. If anything, it sounds like this young man is straddled with the similar responsibilities of a priest, albeit set in a certain amount of time.]

...It's a dark place, full of lost things and lost souls. A place with ghosts, rogue spirits, and yokai. Divine beings dwell in the deepest layer. It's not a place for humans to wander if for long, or else they may lose their connection to the physical realm.

[Sounds lovely, right?]

Same back home. Out of the whole damn city, we've only found eight or nine of us that can or will fight.

[She's describing something completely different, but the threads definitely feel like they're echoing back to the Dark Hour. A twisted, stagnant realm, with people trapped inside coffins and Shadows roaming about, waiting to feast on their minds. A twisted, impossible tower that only exists in that time, full of stronger and stronger creatures, and any hope of answers locked deep within.

His end is silent for a few moments as he thinks about it. Definitely not the same. But not that different, either.]

Sounds kinda similar to back home. Just way more, uh... [What's a nicer way to put it than 'super old fashioned'.] Traditional. I guess.

[Another pause, and finally:]

I'm Shinjiro, by the way. Shinjiro Aragaki.

[It's so nice to talk to someone who doesn't blurt out whatever they're immediately thinking. Kids these days. Shinjiro's been a small blessing to her already.]

Have to start with the basics somewhere, right? Just like how most people back in the day knew not to give their names to the spirits. [A blip of a teasing smile fizzles out pretty quickly.] But don't worry, I'm not about to curse you. I obviously have more pressing matters at hand.

[Which is why part of her tail moves to dunk itself in the stream just outside of the hologram's reach. She should be getting to scrying immediately, yet there's a part of her that doesn't want to cut off the conversation.]

The ones you fought together with...are they family?

[Her faint chastisement earns a short, amused noise.]

Gonna be hard to curse me any worse. But hey, maybe my imagination's just lacking.

[Oh, But that question.... he's silent for a long moment. The feed is continuing, there's some fabric noises like someone shuffling position. But he has to think on it.]

None of them by blood. But-- yeah. One.

[And thinking about Akihiko and how Shinjiro just abandoned him to his future is-- hard. After shoving off him and collapsing to bleed out on the pavement, telling him that this was the way things should be.... he doesn't want to think of him. That's when the guilt starts roiling up.

Stupid. Aki cares too damn much. The fucking idiot.]

Most of the group was friendly to each other.

Hm, sounds like you're lucky then. You may not have been able to cover a whole city simultaneously, but it takes more than one to defeat the impossible.

[She's usually not one for uplifting messages, but there's something about that initial pause that keeps Dara from prying. Maybe he'll tell her one day if they were to chat again. It reminds the god that she still owes Kaoru a storyboard about the true story of her past-- well, that's on pause because he'd have responded by now if he were around.]

...You have me curious, though. What sort of curse are you dealing with?

[She's a god of curses; of course she wants to know about one that's supposedly so dire that she can't one-up it.]

Yeah. We did what we could. I'm not the best to ask for how it all works, but we were pretty close to finding a way to close the gap between things. For good hopefully.

[Sure, he could ask Ken. Apparently it's been two years since Shinjiro's last memory. But that feels... too real. When she asks about his 'curse' though:]

The personal sort.

[Sorry, Dara. he's just being depressed and dramatic.]

Hopefully nothing that's too big of a deal here. [hahaha he is sadly counting his pills to know when to assume a tradgedy will occur. Maybe of he gets far enough from town, Castor will just kill him instead.]

What sort of curses do you put on people?

[So very edgy, to which Dara raises a thin eyebrow. Well, at least he's asking questions instead of running headfirst into trouble like the kids--]

Nowadays I prefer the small insignificant ones or variations-- similar to some you might see on shows. You know, the whole paranoia and insanity from hauntings sort. The ones that make you lose sleep. Anything bigger is annoying... [Dara stretches as if to emphasize her passivity.]

I'm the resonance type if we're talking about my main curse. Think of it as directly affecting a person's soul and its connection with the physical realm.

[...Huh. definitely more of a 'toy with the human playthings' vibes it feels like.]

Enough to keep people on their toes, but not enough to have them come hunt you down? Or is it more of an effort thing.

[being if the answer is 'effort' he totally gets it.

Her last comment grabs his attention quickly, though. Altering someone's... soul, or spirit, or whatever? In full or in part? What sort of effect would that have? Despite his curiosity, he still speaks with a carefully even tone.]

Oh yeah? What's that look like. You shut people in the spirit realm, or like block off half their soul or what?

[Wow, she thought the description was pretty menacing! Barely a reaction. Well, he is used to the supernatural, so maybe this is all pointless effort.]

It's whether I feel like it or not. [So yes, effort-based.]

Spiriting away people goes along more with the hauntings. Blocking off a soul-- that sounds more like a sealing ritual. Doable, but not part of the process. [A set of arms crosses over her chest, and Dara closes her eyes as she debates for a moment for how to explain.] Without getting too detailed, let's say that the soul begins to view the body as a foreign entity. A person's will to live is a large factor in determining the effects.

[To a Normal Person, it was probably pretty Spooky! But his life has been daily nightmares for two years with crawling horrors and real-life consequences. He's a hard one to scare. Especially with his complete lack of any sort of fear of death.

But she's explaining, and while he doesn't quite understand.... could things be more similar than he thinks? A soul and a body (a mind?) at odds. Some sort of sealing art. Are all these supernatural things really just variants on the same pieces in play? Personas and Shadows in his world, souls and spirits in hers?

....Huh.]

I don't... really understand. But it sounds interesting. [Never one to air all his bullshit in public, if at all:]

I should come ask you about it sometime. I'm guessing from the look of things that you're not in town? [he feels like there would be way more activity outside if a nude multi-limbed snake god/dess was hanging around.]

...You're the interesting one for wanting to know more.

[Which means maybe he'll actually remember this little lesson? Hinata & Kaoru barely seemed to, and they're the next generation of caretakers!]

These woods are the closest thing I have that resembles my territory. [Trying to cram herself into a building is too bothersome.] If you're really so inclined, ask someone where the closest stream is to the town. I'll be here for a few hours.

[Not that she knows what sort of stranger to expect, but Dara isn't about to go out of her way to hunt him down either. Shinjiro's gotta do the legwork for their meeting ~~because she has none~~]

[Okay, that earns a laugh.]

That or you just don't get out to talk to people enough. Fine-- I'll see if I can or if I'm too busy today.

[he is not busy this day or any other day.

And you know what!! It probably takes a good hour and a half because he does not know this place at all. That and the woods are fairly nondescript and the locals not-quite helpful. (After all, why would you want to go there? Shit's Spooky.) But eventually he finds some running water of some kind and just... decides to follow it. Upstream is as good a choice as ever. She mentioned being a mountain god, right? So-- upstream seems most likely.

And it does end up paying off. Eventually Dara is approached by... some punk, really. Tall-ish. Long, scruffy hair. Deadened grey eyes and extremely subtle expressions. All wrapped up in a long, red woolen coat that he's attempted to scrub the bloodstains out of, but still bears those singed, ruined holes.

His brows go up as he approaches, though he doesn't show any fear or hesitancy. He's mostly just noticing how much more being in person conveys the scale of-- everything.]

...Unless there's two of you, I'm guessing you're Dara?

[During his travels, Dara does as she says-- sticking to the water for scrying purposes. She can't sit idly without feeling anxious about her cursed box just lying around in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, her efforts are fruitless, and the god can't help but sigh to herself as the light from the enchanted water begins to fade. After returning the rest of her tail to land, Dara attention shifts to the not so distant sound of footsteps-- a human...Maybe even the one she's expecting.

Shinjiro finds her resting on the bank, coiled up on herself and lounged along the top layer. His greeting, oddly enough, makes her mouth open then close as if she had to walk back a thought. Even when she was alive, no one really mistook her for her elder twin unless it was from behind.]

Correct. [Dara sits up a bit so she can give Shinjiro a good look over. She really wants to sew up those holes, goddamn.]

Brave of you to approach me so soon. You really want to know more, huh?

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voice > video let's gooooo also I'm so sorry (cw: nudity)

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Voice -> Action!

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