[OPEN] Did you just what? Is what you yes?

[spaghettification]

Who: Siebren de Kuiper and you
When: December
Where: Downtown Hollow, the Library
Warning(s): Discussion of unreality and demon metamorphosis

1. You say, stuff is way [Shopping]
Siebren's noticed something odd over the past few weeks: his clothing, regardless of what color it started at the beginning of the day, leaches color and turns pale by evening. Which means he has to make a choice now: does he shop for dark clothes that'll take longer to go pastel? Or start light so it won't change as much?

Find him in the shops in Downtown Hollow, considering both options.


2. Way to go, go away [Sinterklaas]
Anyone who leaves their shoes on the doorstep or porch in the month of December might come back to find small treats like peppermint sticks or chocolates from Ambrose's candy shop waiting inside said shoes. This just happens.

Perhaps you're in Ambrose's yourself, and catch Siebren buying in bulk, instead of catching in tampering with someone's shoes. Either way, welcome to Dutch Christmas traditions 101.


3. Who had you was? [Aimed at Siebren's demon-favored]
Crossing paths with certain people in town, Siebren catches himself staring. Like they're drawing him in, or highlighted somehow. He doesn't quite understand it yet, but if someone notices his intense attention, he might frown and look away.

"My apologies."


4. I yes, you would [Wildcard]
You know where to find me.

Comments

(Allusion to drug use) Throw 1 and 3 in a bowl and spread it on a wildcard

[misbegottendreamer]

There’s something she’s been noticing since the Casino that she hasn’t been able to shake: there’s a cloyingly sweet smell clinging to Siebren like adulterated Skooma on a Bravilian sugartooth’s breath. She knows that that can’t be what it actually is, but the associations of the smell disturb her, and what’s stranger still is how the smell seems to be with him at all hours. She’ll wake up beside him with the smell wafting all around her, and drift off into dreams with it accompanying her into that hazy other realm.

It’s not even a bad smell. Not necessarily a good one, either, but it doesn’t offend her. It does, however, put her on edge.

She decides to bring it up one morning, after breakfast.

“Siebren, kena… have you perhaps begun taking a new medicine?”

[spaghettification]

"Medicine? No, though Artemy wants me to visit him for better treatment of my arthritis."

He's at the sink, taking care of the dishes now. And if perhaps some of the plates are floating as the towel dries them of its own accord, that's only a minor misuse of his talents.

[misbegottendreamer]

“I see. Then I wonder… this is perhaps a strange thing to observe, but I’ve begun to notice a difference in how you smell. You don’t smell bad, or anything like that. Just… it’s a noticeable change, and I want to be certain it isn’t a symptom of something worrisome.”

[spaghettification]

"A sweet scent, perhaps." Right, it's now time to have that talk, isn't it? Siebren pauses in his dishwashing, and returns to the kitchen table, sitting across from Drelasa.

[misbegottendreamer]

"That's the best way I can describe it, yes. Not any particular kind of sweet, either, just... sweet, which is odd."

who had you was

[goodweather]

Phil blinks a little slowly; he hasn’t been sleeping well for months, and last night was particularly restless, so the gears are turning without oil today.

“… Oh, no, it’s okay.” He raises a clawed hand. “I know I look weird.”

Look, just because he’s floating doesn’t mean Phil can assume he’s used to seeing half animals.

[spaghettification]

"I'm involved with Drelasa; your looks aren't a particular issue for me." Siebren looks closer, mostly at Phil's head. "It's something else. Brain fog making my own view cloudy. You're, ah...perhaps having a rough time, right now?"

[spaghettification]

"I've been dealing with it as a flavor stuck on my tongue since Dahlia's birthday gala. Since I ate the demon there, Blanche. A false sweetness. Cheap, artificial. It's not very pleasant, Lasa."

[misbegottendreamer]

"I... I did hear about what happened with Blanche, yes. But why would that cause such a smell to manifest increasingly with time? I would expect such a thing to fade with time, kena, not grow more potent."

[spaghettification]

He takes a deep breath.

"Because Blanche's power in me is not going away. My nature is no longer quite human. Aster told me I am heir to her title, the Baron of Blank."

[misbegottendreamer]

She seems to freeze.

"You... are you saying you are becoming a demon? That sort of thing is possible?"

[spaghettification]

"A demon noble, no less." He sees her reaction, and it hurts, but this is the time not to hold back. "With abilities similar to Blanche's own."

[misbegottendreamer]

"Similar to Blanche's... so, you can modify memories?"

Even with all they've been through, this might be the first time Siebren has seen her so clearly frightened. Even aboard the Stag Beetle, Drelasa had faced the prospect of her own death without nearly this much fear.

Of course, this time, she's afraid of losing something far more precious to her than her own life.

[spaghettification]

"Yes, I can. And yes, I have used this ability. Not with you, never with you. And I don't plan to, ever."

But he never had planned to with John Rambo, either.

[misbegottendreamer]

"And I must trust that you are telling me the truth, when you say that."

She has breathed the false world as burning ash in her lungs. She knows how easily one can slip from reality to unreality, without a fight, as softly and easily as drifting off to sleep, and none the wiser.

Every moment we've had together could have easily been a lie.

This is a womer whose entire life is built on the preservation of memory, and yet here she is, living in a singular moment now, where everything before might have been fabricated. This man, this man that she loves more than life itself, could be an absolute stranger, and every precious memory of theirs could be nothing more than manufactured leverage.

Never before has she felt such a chill run through her, accompanied by an instinct she's quashed for some time now, that being that this man is profoundly dangerous.

Drelasa trembles like a leaf in the late autumn wind.

[spaghettification]

"Lasa..." He doesn't have any defense against that, when he knows he's already fucked with his own past and memories, in ways he hasn't sought details for.

[misbegottendreamer]

"Do you know if... if there's a way to undo this?"

Sinterklaas

[theydrewfirstblood]

It's a rare day that John isn't rising before the sun, but he'd gone for a late run in wolf form and was kinda tired.

So he's up at seven instead of five--and up means about to walk out and grab his boots when he catches a familiar scent just as his hand touches the doorknob. By now, that candy-sweet smell is a comfort, and he's grinning as he opens the door to find a big Dutchman leaning over the household shoes with...

John blinks, then chuckles as he sinks into a crouch of his own.

"Are...you putting candy in our shoes?"

3.

[abhorrently]

"I don't usually mind people staring, but I generally like to know the reason."

The words are gentle, teasing in a sense, but she still raises a brow.

"Everything all right?"

Well, no. It's not. Something's been off with him for a while now. But that's what people ask, right?

[goodweather]

Phil laughs, not a little bitterly.

“That bad, huh? Yeah. More than. But, uh… why do you ask?”

Through whatever composes Siebren’s second sight, there’s a sense of excess. Not abundance; overgrowth and overwhelm, beating along with the same insistence as a metronome or the taking of a clock, or a machine, set to on, and never switched off. No rest.

[spaghettification]

"I don't know." He sighs like he's deflating. "I don't believe so, at this point."

[spaghettification]

"Your bucket is overfull. No, not bucket. Balloon, more like. Or...tank? Water tank. Incredible internal pressure."

He frowns.

"What is going on inside your head?"

[spaghettification]

"Who, me? No, not I. Sinterklaas must have. I was just...checking to see what you received." There's a look of mischief in Siebren's eyes as he offers John one of the sticks of hard candy as a bribe. "Don't tell your family."

[spaghettification]

"It tastes red when I look at you."

That sentence has meaning, really it does!

[abhorrently]

"...fruit, syrup, or iron?"

Which red matters. It matters very much.