Audience: Harrowhark Nonagesimus

[probe]

Comments

[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.]

[probe]

I can see how you guys are similar for sure. I wouldn't put all my eggs in his basket though? Like, he puts on a big show about knowing everything but he doesn't know any more than I do. Don't tell him I said that, he'll never speak to me again.

[bonetiddies]

. . . It is easier to seem like you know quite a bit if you insist on withholding much of what you know.

[She'll just sort of admit that as a conspiratorial aside. She doesn't mind how Greed acts at all, and kind of respects that, but. . .]

I haven't put all of my eggs in anyone's basket. But all right, I'll bite. What are the motives people are killing over? Is it only as an indulgence and to winnow the population, or is there something more we don't know about?

[probe]

[snort.] I know you haven't, that was, uh, general - you've been good about talking to all of us, even the bratpack. [anyway.] Mostly, I feel like people are killing because... they want to. Because it's an indulgence for them, and because they think it'll get them somewhere.

[bonetiddies]

. . . The bratpack?

[Anyway.]

Mostly? Is that a qualification because some people are killing due to being mired in personality drama, or is it a qualification with more meaning?