יְהוּדִית ● "Ravine" (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whip_poor_will) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hadriel2018-07-07 01:42 pm
whip_poor_will) wrote in hadriel2018-07-07 01:42 pm
Entry tags:
∞4 | video. Death Takes A Holiday;
[From the angle shown, Ravine is holding the phone away from her face, elbow propped with her chin in the palm of her gloved hand -- and even now, hints of black smoke continue wafting from her hair and coat.
[ Although apparently uncomfortable, she flashes her smile just as she always has.]
"Well, for those who believe themselves capable, I would advise against any attempts at reaching that ninth god beneath the Colosseum the easy way. It leads to some rather ill results."
[She would know.
[Soon her gold eyes shift back to the soft brown most are used to seeing when she is not wearing her sunglasses. Once she is feeling a little better and not radiating black vapors anymore, her stern expression transforms into a smile, her face scrunched in amusement.]
"For anyone not interested in that, however, I have a question!
"Imagine, if you will, that you have been a dead person for thousands of years. It has also been that long since you've ever felt or tasted anything.
"Then imagine if you have been given an opportunity here to be a living, breathing person -- but only for a few days! Would you mind sharing what you would do with that short time in the mortal plane?
"I admit, I am perhaps looking at this from a dead woman's perspective, but it does not appear that there is much to do for the corporeal here when there is not a festival being thrown by our gracious locals. It would be a shame to put such a generous gift to waste."
['But Ravine, why not just ask the gods to make you permanently living?!' one might say.
[Yeah, no, that is the one thing she is not addressing right now, thank you very much.]
[ Although apparently uncomfortable, she flashes her smile just as she always has.]
"Well, for those who believe themselves capable, I would advise against any attempts at reaching that ninth god beneath the Colosseum the easy way. It leads to some rather ill results."
[She would know.
[Soon her gold eyes shift back to the soft brown most are used to seeing when she is not wearing her sunglasses. Once she is feeling a little better and not radiating black vapors anymore, her stern expression transforms into a smile, her face scrunched in amusement.]
"For anyone not interested in that, however, I have a question!
"Imagine, if you will, that you have been a dead person for thousands of years. It has also been that long since you've ever felt or tasted anything.
"Then imagine if you have been given an opportunity here to be a living, breathing person -- but only for a few days! Would you mind sharing what you would do with that short time in the mortal plane?
"I admit, I am perhaps looking at this from a dead woman's perspective, but it does not appear that there is much to do for the corporeal here when there is not a festival being thrown by our gracious locals. It would be a shame to put such a generous gift to waste."
['But Ravine, why not just ask the gods to make you permanently living?!' one might say.
[Yeah, no, that is the one thing she is not addressing right now, thank you very much.]
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Does it, now? I suppose it is rather difficult to see myself enjoy rutting around for what little precious time I would have.
[While Ravine does get its appeal to the masses, it's just never drawn her. She has a hard time seeing anyone in a lustful way.]
There is a reason why they call the attraction people have to one another "chemistry" -- it is all very chemical. Some just have more of it than others.
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They do now? ... I guess I don't know much about any of that.
「He gives little awkward shrug. But it does leave him thinking.」
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Bio-science was rather lacking in those times, but there are physical responses that explain the attraction individuals feel for one another. Oxytocin plays an important role in a variety of bonding experiences, including more intimate ones.
[It helps that Ravine has been around for the last few thousands of years to watch science develop so she can know these things. Even if it doesn't apply to her in any practical sense, it's still fascinating to her.]
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Well, that sounds fascinating indeed.
Also kinda boring.」
Hmm... I guess that goes far beyond to what people were suggesting as an experience for you.
「Again, it leaves him thinking, but it's not like he's gonna be doing that here anyway, or, well, who knows. It's not something he's ever pursued either, it was even Yugi who was a little more into that... He was just a little bit curious why she wouldn't want to.」
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[The closest Ravine ever felt to such a thing towards anyone was Elizabeth, but she certainly did not lament being unable to sate any sensual urges.]
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「But that does resonate with him a little more, deviating from his experiences while being alive and, focusing more on the lasts ones.」
How was it?
「He's sure... so very sure he knows how it was.」
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[It's the most wishy-washy thing Ravine has ever allowed herself to be, but it is something she had once felt so strongly that she clung onto it, made it her own and no one else's.]
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He could probably tell her about it, how he felt the same, or something close to it when he shared a heart with Yugi, even though it was different for them both, under different and unavoidable circumstances. He remains in silence, probably reminiscing more than anything, but that's all he ever does, doesn't he? He could spend his life away just thinking about it—and that's why he probably shouldn't even mention it, not that it would be a problem for Ravine to know what he's thinking about, or who. He cannot afford himself to get lost in there — Stop. Making. Things. About. Yourself. — so, instead, he merely smiles.」
I'm glad you found that connection with someone, even after everything.
「Who would be able to say that they had found something so special after their deaths?」
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It was only once, and her life was cut tragically short. She could not even move on to death in peace.
[It's rare that she ever speaks of this. She didn't when she saw Elizabeth's shadow in the fog and any other time the memory crossed her mind. But she feels as though she owes Atem a few more elaborated details.]
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「It was hard to speak about that shadow that only Ravine could see when trying to keep himself unseen from the monsters inside the fog, but so far Atem knows who she's talking about, as for little as she has spoken Elizabeth, Ravine would only talk about her with that tone.」
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[That's all she could say on the matter, and she knows that Atem wouldn't press. He's told her before that he wouldn't judge her for the things she's done, and there have been times where Ravine seriously questioned that. But that's not fair to make that decision for him.]
She was devoured by the Dumah. Her soul is no more. I have done nothing for them since. [Not that she should have in the first place. Sacrificing souls for the vitality of entities of such destructive forces should never have happened on the first place, but she did, for thousands of years.]
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There is but a noticeable flinch from Atem's part, he can even feel a chill run down his spine — he better than most knows what that entails. Her soul is no more.
He doesn't know what happened, and it's not like he doesn't want to know, but there really is no point on asking, it won't bring her back, but the way she says it... Was she directly responsible for it in some way?」
What are they...?
「He cannot say he's familiar with the word.」
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They are but one of many countless primordial entities, and the one that made me and others like myself into what we are. Ripped us from our time of death. Their acumen is that of souls, and so they determine who becomes reapers for them, and who... becomes nothing.
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There are so many questions about it. Why Elizabeth? How do they judge them, or,」
You went rogue?
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[She had simply wanted to make sure that no one would have to suffer the way Elizabeth did. Although in her efforts, the situation worsened regardless whether Ravine played a role in it or not. It was all the more reason for her to stay, than to find a Door and check out of her slowly decaying world and abandon the lives left behind.]
The Dumah have been weakened over the last several centuries. Elizabeth was, ultimately, the last sacrifice to them.
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「Yet another familiarity, not for every single one of his Gods, no.」
Denying souls from them is what weakened them?
「Or maybe something else?」
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Where I come from, some humans are born with unique traits that separate them from the rest of their species. Some with incredible and cursed gifts, and others who are... a conduit of powerful energy of sorts. The former are candidates for serving as emissaries of the Eminations, such as the Psychopomps. The latter are the lesser fortunate souls.
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「Can't say he's already being too curious, but it's interesting, even if all so tragic.」
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[Sound familiar, Atem?]
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Okay... why her, though?
「Since they are pulling at heartstrings already, why not put that out of the way?」
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[Yehudit had been quite the unfortunate one herself. Who chooses who will live only to be sacrificed?
[The worst part is how resigned Ravine feels to all of this. For someone who can see all threads of possibilities, how often was she free to interfere with any of it?]
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I'm sorry.
「He says after a moment, she should know by now that his are rarely empty apologies.」
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Well, it is often as that old song goes, "if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have luck at all". [A paraphrase, as if she gives a damn about misquoting lyrics Atem likely has never even heard before.]
She was... the first person in so long to ever treat me like a living person. Up until that point, I had almost forgotten...
[It was only natural for her to want to cling to that for as long as she could, wasn't it?]
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「Yeah, what she said.
But what she says next makes him think for a moment. It doesn't make as much sense to him as he wished it did, maybe only because he hadn't been treated differently, not by those who could see him. He has to realize that hasn't been around for that long to know if anyone would.
He needs to ask.」
How did others treat you?
「It's not until he utters the question that the answer comes along, — this is not about him, for the hundredth time — often he forgets who she is, maybe because she did not go around reaping souls after all, but they'd have to understand that so little cultures would venerate death in such way as his did; not that they wished to die, not that it didn't hurt, but they tried their best to receive it for what it was, just another step. The truth was, he was never afraid of her, in fact, there was a time he believed she'd take him away from here, now, it's him who wants to take her with him.
He still waits for the answer, he could still be wrong, of course.」
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[For now, she pauses at his question, mulling over the many ways people viewed her. How not everyone was as thrilled to see her as others.]
More often than not, our encounters with the dead were too fleeting to matter, but they rarely saw us as people, let alone ones who were once living just as they were. Some even grew obsessed, building sects of cults based around their knowledge of our kind and how to become one of us. As if that were even possible for most of them. [She speaks of this group with great bitterness, disgusted by their beliefs and practices throughout the centuries. It had done the reapers more harm than good.
[But then, she becomes more somber.] Elizabeth, however... She was very much the way I used to be -- she saw things that others could not. She saw me long before it was her time to die. Ill-advised as it was, I decided to visit her often. I watched her grow into a kind young woman who saw me not as a passing figure in her life, but rather I had become a part of it.
Those short years were, in a way, an eye-opening experience.
[Times like these, Ravine both laments and is grateful to the fact that she is not able to cry in her current state. She doesn't feel that she has the strength for those tears.]
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