#oraiculum

── *₊˚🍹⸝⸝    𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥    ( accepting. )

[ NEW MUN ]:     for the mun to talk about a recent new mutual they’ve begun to follow, why they followed them, what drew them to their blog, etc.

[ NAMI ⸝⸝ @vitrumbra ]    DON'T TALK ABOUT THE CRYSTALS, BRO.   one of the most fun people to talk to, it's concepts are fascinating, it's mind is incredible as it speaks about connections and concepts i never even began to think of. it's laugh is infectious and it's kindness knows know bounds. even if it doesn't know what you're talking about half the time, it's there to listen and ask the ill-fated question; what is that?

[ RAY / ERIN ⸝⸝ @kameoko ]    WHERE WE'RE GOING, WE DON'T NEED A MULTIMUSE.    there are few people i see with as many muses as erin, who have an incredible ability to make each muse so different and unique in all their own ways. erin is incredible, with this beautiful way to make people laugh and smile, to write intricate stories and emotions that can be difficult to convey, to showcase what she can do. i'm so happy i met you.

[ NOVA ⸝⸝ @beiowzero ]    YOU GIVE ME A STRANGE DESIRE FOR SOUP.    nova is so incredibly skilled at both her writing and her works of art that she really manages to bring a character to life. she makes me smile always, i'm so excited to plan big things with her and create more incredible developments between our muses, one show at a time. also… touys.

[ STABI ⸝⸝ @murmursdraconic ]     OKAY BUT HAVE YOU HEARD OF JEFF THE LAND SHARK?    i don't even know how to tell everyone that stabi has this insane ability to sit down and listen to anyone she comes across, absorbing information like a sponge. she reminds me of a protective mom, almost, making sure everyone is as healthy and happy as they can be. i love spending time with her and together we will get our shovel and dig holes to put bad people in the hole for any of our friends.

[ RABID ⸝⸝ @spikemuthtoothfairy ]    DO YOU EVEN COUNT AS NEW???    so we've actually been following each other for like 5+ years but we only just started even fucking talking to each other this year??? what's wrong with us, first off. secondly, rabid i swear to god you are the biggest fucking simp and supporter of every character in existence on our dashboards and i love you for it. you are such a gentle and kind soul and a delight on my dash and in my heart.

[ NORA ⸝⸝ @frostfear ]    HEY… HEY… IS MY PODCAST ON?    the gentle little italian with a lot of love in her heart, nora has this wonderful way of bringing people together in such a fun way that brings me pure delight. her interactions with nox are a sight to behold, listening to italian flying this way and that as the rest of us question what they could be talking about this time. i love noelle, i love your writing, and i love you.

[ NIKKI ⸝⸝ @unovamuses ]    REMEMBER WHEN THAT SHIP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SLOW BURN?    nikki and i clicked so quickly it was like whiplash. i quickly loved talking to her and before i knew it we were shipping marlon and six. something we originally said we were gonna do as a slow burn, but instantly our muses decided otherwise. i love nikki so much and she brings me so much joy all the time, always checking in on me and sending me love and kisses, i feel so seen and loved, and i hope that she knows that even if i'm slow to respond, i love her and i read everything no matter what it is. 

[ RYE ⸝⸝ @orreanintrepidness ]     I THINK YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY ENJOY CANDLE MORE THAN I DO.    rye deserves more love, just as the region of orre deserves more love as well. i have never had someone latch onto a side character i have for this blog more than you, and it makes me feel so validated and loved. i adore our talks when you just ramble into my ears for hours, even when discord tries to fucking stop us. i can't wait to write more with you.

[ IBIS ⸝⸝ @mezaster ]     YOU TOLD ME I COULD DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT.    and i took that personally. one of my favorite things about ibis is that he never backs down. he always does what he wants because it makes him happy. he doesn't worry about all these things like what people might think or like, because what matters most when it comes to writing here is if you like it. ibis has begun to teach me that it's okay to let go and have a wonderful time, no matter what's happening. ibis once described my relationship with six and rareita as seeing myself go on my own pokemon journey. i'll never forget that. you live rent free in my head, ibis. 

[ ADAM ⸝⸝ @oraiculum ]     YOU'RE MANAGING TO CRACK A SHELL I DIDN'T KNOW I HAD.    i always felt like nox was able to draw in wonderful people, and you're no exception. you are such an inspiration to me with the way you tell stories and write. i can't wait for more from and with you, and i will forever want to hear your voice tell me stories and take me on grand adventures. you make me feel comfortable and seen, and you remind me that it's okay to let go and be myself. i don't need to be afraid. you unlocked something within me that i didn't expect, and you've begun to hold my hand and lead me back into the light. i can't thank you enough, and i can't wait for more.

"That's - I'm not a starfish."

Silas does not like this line of questioning. Nor does he like trying to actually reason out the answer. Molded died, or at least became inert, when you destroyed their craniums, as many bioweapons did, because the brain was the cluster of nerves directing the body's movement, but the mold by itself, unlike the cells in a human body, would still technically by alive.

The stronger Molded, like the Bakers, or Ethan Winters, or himself, would live regardless of brain or heart functioning because their cells were no longer part of their own body, but rather a larger mold collective controlled using quorum sensing.

In those cases, each cell was a living mold structure both individually and collectively capable of spreading and regenerating injuries through growing new mass...they'd still die with enough damage dealt, of course, since no biological entity could keep going without enough receptors and chemicals left to regenerate itself. But that threshold was pretty high.

Fortuantely, it still feels pain. Pleasure, too, but pain seems to be a focal point for these things. Button presses make the monitor flicker and spark with light, as he depresses a key for almost ten seconds straight. The screen turns bright white. He purses his lips. He looks at the array of fairy lights hung above the computer. Ostensibly, if this "space" is prominent enough to affect the real world, it should have an effect on local currents. Maybe?

" Fucker. I know you can hear me. This is basically the same thing, isn't it. Pick up the fucking phone already. "

Machines are soulless things. No matter how humanlike they may appear, they have no presence in the Empyrean anymore than the rumbling siege engines of men or far-squeakers of the ratkin do.

Two is of no interest to the things beyond the veil. The thing behind the veil, standing at the center of all sensation. But...sensation is sensation, however simulated. And Pain is one of the Prince's favorites.

Of course, the Prince doesn't come himself, but things do. Hungry things, on Slaanesh's behalf, to investigate this new, strange phenomenon. At first, they don't notice two.

that's insane man can i interest you in a reverse mortgage

He casts his gaze Up. To the Sky. A distant and murky shadow stretches across the lands around, cast by that great monolith - an effigy of war reaching to the sky. The snowcapped summit of LANAKILA feels almost sacrilegious now. There's still craters pockmarking the westernmost slopes from shearing strikes of Necrozma's photonic artillery and the explosion of conventional weaponry. Their intensity heightens at the bottom, thinning towards the top, where fragments of metal and war machines are still barely visible in the fallen snow.

They call that slope Kau-Maha's Climb. It's where the most casualties resulted during the Battle of Lanakila, and the scramble to reach the summit from allied militia was decimated by Ultra Space resistance--and the devastating Light fired from UB-08's wings. It's still too radioactive to go up, so they rerouted Victory Road away from it.

Four years ago, today, the world triumphed over evil. Four years ago, the old order died and a new one was born. Four years ago today, Two finally fulfilled his purpose in the snow of Kau-Maha's Climb. When artillery sheared him in half only after he'd helped clearthe way enough for the trainers to take it from there. For Strelitzia to reach the peak. For the WORM to arrive.

He wrenches his eyes away from Kau-Maha. Eyes the idyllic suburb around him instead. There's a garden out front. Signs of trampled grass from excited footsteps and playing children, probably. He suddenly looks down at himself. She'll be older, his mind supplies. She'll be older, different, having changed from what she was. She can change - and that alone is the thing that makes her so remarkable, wasn't it?

She changes. She will adapt and evolve - but he will stay the same age forever.

This is stupid. So stupid that Two starts to take a half-step backwards and eyes the Type: Full he rode in on. Him. Both himself and the body he was born in. He thinks of excuse after excuse rapidly; she's different, and he isn't. She probably thinks you're dead, he tells himself. What would it be like to return to her doorstep and undo all the grief she felt?

What's to say when she looks at me, she doesn't see HIM? Two thinks as he begins to step off the front porch and towards his Full. What right do I have to come barging back into her life, reopening old wounds, fill them with salt? Why won't you just let this go? Lancers are selfish. Are you that selfish?

He tries to think about the last thing he said to her. It was in the snow, on Kau-Maha, he thinks. Around the bodies of his friends and family. "Don't bother. We're so close. Go. You can do this. We can do this." She'd listened. She wielded the Sword of Destiny. It's all a little nauseating. Two thuds as he steps back up and onto the porch, glancing down at the -- the gun. Yeah, he brought a gun. Tightness in his metallic skeleton.

You always bring guns. That's what you do. Someone in this friendship has to.

From inside, maybe in a hall or on the stairwell, Two hears a crash, angry shouting in a language he's cataloged from his journey across the regions. Hard to make out exactly what it is. Sounds like someone chastising a little girl. Or maybe a naughty pet. Two feels something in his chest do a flip. Suddenly realizes that it's the first time he's heard her voice in years.

Quickly, he decides that yeah. I think I am that selfish.

KNOCK KNOCK.

she had descended from the heavens, blade first, SLICING THE DAY IN TWAIN. the light so blinding it flooded the entire world as it spilled over and seeped into the sacred grounds of the mountain; the climb, even today, STAINED WITH ICHOR STILL DEEP WITHIN THE ROCK, still humid and fresh if you knew where to look.

years had passed, and the sword had been tucked away. it left her bed and now slept under, this specific brand of paranoia SLUMBERING BUT NEVER DEAD. it traveled through seas and continents with her, and now it resided here, with her: back home in sardonyx.

❝ lilith, i told you NOT to use the counter as a SHARPENER ! ❞ her bisharp jumps, like a kid caught red-handed, before doing a little run out of the kitchen as her weavile points, cackling. her incineroar sits at the table, READING, LIKE HE DOES EVERY MORNING, and her meowscarada lays down on a sunny spot.

the sound at the door makes multiple feline ears flick, but none of them actually turns to even look, too bothered by the morning heat to actually move. ❝ i'll get it. ❞

it's a face that she hadn't seen in years, and one that hasn't changed either. the changes in hers are minuscule; a twitch there, a slight raise of her eyebrows there, the slight relax in her natural brow.

| i'm so serious, i am gonna take that thing and throw it in the river. like i am about to lose it. i'm at my limit. | another WHOOSH fills the air as brooke's... capture... styler... arcs light through the air around a particularly empty-headed bidoof. two watches her, his head turning in a single motion like a security camera mixed with a great mechanical gargoyle.

| does it not have a MUTE button? | he asks, slinking off from his desk and padding over to said bidoof. he pudges it with his front claw. the bidoof flops onto its side like a rabbit that forgot how to think. he gives her a less-than-impressed look. | do you intend to recruit earthworms and magikarp next. |

UNPROMPTED. ↪ yes please.

it was strange; the pokémon around this thing, they acted weird. their reactions went from frozen in fear to frenzy, and at first brooke thought it was just due to their habitat being destabilized, by them, by that thing. but now as she pet the poor thing she just captured and felt its fur tremble under her touch, brooke was unsure.

❝ you're a scientist, right ? you should know that even a magikarp and an earthworm's important, too. ❞ and the bidoof, as 'mindless' as it was, was helping her connect some dots.