Audience: Harrowhark Nonagesimus

[probe]

Comments

[bonetiddies]

Really? [This. Baffles her.] As in, he was offended? Are you sure?

[probe]

Not... offended, but maybe uncomfortable. I try to talk about his feelings and he gets squirmy about it. Which I'm not unused to, that's, uh. That's pretty fucking familiar, but I just didn't anticipate it with him.

[bonetiddies]

Oh. That makes more sense. I say almost exclusively terrible things to him and he's never minded, but that I don't think he cares for.

[Hmm. Which is a problem, if she needs to know.]

. . . You are rather forward sometimes, you know. The second time we spoke, you were telling me that you "liked me." I didn't come see you right after, either, because I was afraid of what you'd say. That you would be nice, and I would be unequipped for it. As you've seen, I don't - always know what to do with that.

I don't think he's entirely dissimilar.

[probe]

[she makes a FART SOUND with her mouth.] You antiheroes and your constipation. [like she isn't just as bad about being honest about hers but this isn't about her!!] Or I guess not antihero. It's not tsundere either... maybe Lust knows a better term. Anyway. I know I'm forward. And I'm probably going to not stop that, because I think you guys need a safety net if you want one. I just think, uh, I'm maybe not so great at predicting when to toss it, I guess.

[bonetiddies]

I suspect I'm the last person who should be giving advice on how to talk to people, but. . . maybe you should just ask?

[Hmm. And a little less rudely -]

. . . I agree. It's good that someone like you is here.

[probe]

[well. that makes her smile a little.] You know, I've heard the, uh - the leave something better than you found it thing from Molly a few times. [...] I really like that. If I give off even a little bit of that energy, I'm happy.

[bonetiddies]

[Sappy. . .

No, it's sweet. But she's embarrassed now, that she said something that made her smile and say something sappy.

Abrupt topic change!]

. . . Might I ask about something I'm curious about?

[probe]

[what a tsun] Sure. Hit me.

[bonetiddies]

At the trial, Aoi and Shi Qingxuan were cursed, but I can't see exactly how it came to be that they were.

[probe]

It wasn't me. [she lifts her hands.] I didn't do it.

[bonetiddies]

I didn't think you did. It doesn't fit any of the task prizes we're aware of, but there might be a task prize we're not aware of.

But let me ask you this - how likely do you think it is the source was something other than a task prize?

[probe]

Pretty likely? Don't quote me on that, though. I am making so many guesses.

[bonetiddies]

I see. Is it the kind of ability the Avatars would give someone if they asked?

[probe]

Theoretically none of us really like it when people just walk up to us and ask us for superpowers.

[bonetiddies]

I have made so many requests for such little gain. [Her bones] It would be very irritating to me if others were getting them. But apparently it is possible to swap powers?

[probe]

What, do you mean like with each other or with us? With us you can probably swap them out, I guess.

[bonetiddies]

With you. If I wanted to swap mine - which I unfortunately don't, because I did something extremely ill advised with mine - could I just choose any of them from the menu?

[probe]

Ehhh, maybe, but I think it's more likely that one of us would just be like hey, you want this? Get rid of one of your other ones.

[bonetiddies]

Other than Avatars and completing tasks, is there any other source to obtain powers?

[probe]

[she thinks about that.] ... I think so. I don't want to definitively tell you yes or no because there's always a chance that I'll be surprised and you'll just get something out of nowhere. Half the time I don't know what's going on here either.

[bonetiddies]

With an exception for things that haven't happened yet but that might happen out of nowhere, are you aware of another source.

What I'm trying to get at very slowly - and feel free to help me get here faster if this conversation is getting annoying - is whether we're correct to assume that someone at the trial had to make an intentional decision to cause Shi Qingxuan and Aoi to react that way.

[probe]

[she gives harrow an amused look.] Someone made a decision to cause them to act that way, yeah. You could've just asked that.

[bonetiddies]

I usually talk about these things with Greed. . .

[You have to ask so many questions.]

[probe]

[HFFFFT.] They - wait, you've seen his face, right? He's hard to talk to, but he's pretty smart once you get in there. [she's very fond of greed.]

[bonetiddies]

[How to put this.]

Yes, I've seen his face . . . I find that we are similar in certain ways, which is both a help and a hindrance to conversation.

[It kind of just wigs her out when the Avatars outright tell her things! It makes her wonder whether it was a good enough question. Greed's style is a little easier for those kinds of questions, but then they wind up talking around so many things.]