Audience: Harrowhark Nonagesimus

[probe]

Comments

[probe]

i'm ok anywhere! but let's go somewhere quiet so we can talk. the conference room maybe? those chairs are pretty comfy

[bonetiddies]

I'll meet you there.

[And she will in fact go to the conference room!]

[probe]

[lust is already waiting for her, sitting in one of the big chairs behind the avatars' table before waving as harrow enters the room.]

Hey! Have a seat wherever. How are you?

[bonetiddies]

I'm all right.

[She. . . feels a little like she's attending a lecture? Not that she's ever actually gone to school. She's far too bone Christian. But she'll take a seat near the Avatar table.]

Are you?

[probe]

[lust leans their elbows on the table to look at harrow, trying to make this more like two friends talking instead of avatar to participant.]

...I feel bad about what happened. I know we thought it was a possibility, but it felt like it was really, really soon for people to do something like this.

[bonetiddies]

I suppose. . . if you come here agreeing you'll do anything to make your desires a reality, it's the rational thing to do.

[probe]

Yeah but rational and right aren't always the same thing, you know? That's what's so annoying about it.

[bonetiddies]

Right? [She sounds a little amused.] I've never thought of it that way. If it must be done, then it must be done.

[probe]

And I guess some people really think it's just easier to act first and ask for forgiveness later. [a pause.] If they're even sorry at all.

But what do you think, Harrow? Is this the kind of thing that has to be done?

[bonetiddies]

I don't know. Some of you seem to think it has to be, and some of you don't. I know that I swore I would do whatever it took to achieve my goal. Even though I don't know what it was, when I made that oath I knew what the stakes might be. I cannot have failed to consider this.

[But. . . that's not really an answer to the question. She grows silent for a moment.]

For me, it isn't a question of right and wrong. When my parents gassed two infants and children, let them die gasping for breath and writhing in pain, let our House become an open grave and let their bones rot beneath the stones of our castle while their ghosts became the fuel for their heir, I imagine they felt they were doing what they must. I'm told my mother had smiled easily, once. I'm told my father was warm. I never knew that version of them. The weight of what they had done ruined them, and when all of their hopes in me came to naught, even the shadows of themselves they had become could no longer live with their choices.

[She exhales hard, a sort of cold fury and grief welling up again.]

It terrifies me, to become that. It always has. Whatever sort of abomination I may be, at least I have never tied the noose around my neck.

[probe]

[...well. that shuts lust up for a good couple of minutes as they seem to freeze in surprise.]

...hey, so do you remember what we talked about last time? About purging bad vibes? [yikes, harrow. but they don't seem to mind much and instead there's a nod.]

I'm not going to lie to you and say that I understand exactly where you're coming from. Your life is yours and yours alone. But...I can sympathize. I get it. You want to be better because of where you came from, so coming to this place where there's an option for cruelty in order to get what you want must be kind of scary.

We can't stop you guys when it comes to indulging. It's kind of like we can't stop you guys from taking things into your own hands, whether that's finding who's responsible for stuff or doing it yourself.

But...it's admirable, too. To be this determined and still understand that.

[bonetiddies]

[I don't know why I keep going hardest with Lust on this dramatic nonsense when they deserve it the least.]

If I purge all of my "bad vibes," I'm not sure what will be left of me.

[That's. . . a joke? Maybe? Geez.]

You say you can't stop us, but your counsel doesn't stop me from doing what I will. Or is the point for us to make our choices without guidance?

[probe]

Spite is a great motivator sometimes, but don't let your vibes get too full. [even if harrow is intense, lust doesn't seem to mind at all.]

But pretty sure that's it, yeah. Indulgence can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so it's up to you how you play along.

[bonetiddies]

I dislike being tested without knowing what I'm being tested on.

[Why did she get an A minus on her indulgence project!!]

[probe]

Isn't this just kind of like a test of your will? Pushing you to see how far you're gonna go.

[bonetiddies]

. . . If the test is of will, then pushing further would be the right answer, wouldn't it? Even if it meant taking another's life.

[probe]

I don't want to say it's the right answer because I feel like the real right answer is different for everybody. But that's definitely a way to interpret it...

[bonetiddies]

Hmm. Troubling.

[probe]

Yeah... [...with that, lust hops up to sit on the table and get a better look at harrow.]

I wish I had some advice for you, but I think I'm still thinking about it myself.

[bonetiddies]

It's all right. If you can't tell me, you can't tell me.

[. . .]

Would you be able to provide me with something, then?

[probe]

I can try. What is it?

[bonetiddies]

. . . I would like it if I could decorate my living quarters in a manner befitting a daughter of the Ninth. But my supply of bones is limited, and I'm loathe to part with any of my jewelry.

[She wants. . . more bones.]

[probe]

[...well. you do you, harrow.]

Um...do they need to be real bones, or...?

[bonetiddies]

. . . Traditionally, yes. Though I suppose animal bones may do.

[probe]

Hmmm...[thinking, thinking.]

Gluttony might be able to help you better than I can. [cooking and animal bones seem to go hand in hand.] Tell them I sent you if they have a problem with it.