text; (open to action)

[writtendestiny]

[Poison spends a long while fidgeting with her phone, walking the borders of Carlisle's garden (but not going inside, not while he isn't there). Eventually, she sits down near one of the corners, cross-legged on a low, flat rock, and taps out a simple yet heavily weighted message.]

Do you believe in Fate?

Comments

[writtendestiny]

I can't answer that for you. My abilities don't work here. If they did, maybe I could.

[toiletseat_girl]

Your abilities?
What kinds of abilities are we talking about?

[writtendestiny]

I write stories. People's stories. The important parts of their life when something they did had an impact.

[toiletseat_girl]

Really?
How can you tell that it had an impact?
By how the person reacts?
Or by how people around them do?

[writtendestiny]

I just know. It's my place to know.

[Oh, but she can't leave it at that.]

It isn't always about the person, or even the people around them. Sometimes something can happen that seems small at the time, nearly unnoticed, but that ripples outwards.

[toiletseat_girl]

[there's a pause in replies]

Really?
Can I get an example?

[writtendestiny]

[She has to think about it. It's been so long since she last had a pen in her hand.]

Once, I wrote about a knight. He was getting old, but he'd been disgraced a long time ago and he'd spent the years since then trying to find a way to redeem his name. He found it, when he entered a town where they were hunting down a phaerie.

They had it trapped, but they were afraid, and they offered him a lot of money to kill it. It would have brought him fame and honour to rid the realm of one of those creatures, but he let it go. He never had another chance to make his life better in the way he wanted, but he found happiness in letting go of his past and finding a kind woman to marry.

His story ended there, uneventfully, but years later, the same phaerie came across one of his descendants in grave danger, nearly dying. They repaid the favour and saved the girl's life. That girl went on to marry a king, and brought great prosperity and joy to the kingdom as their queen.

So, you see. Ripples. What the knight did might not have seemed like much at the time, but it had an effect on hundreds of lives many years later.

[toiletseat_girl]

[it takes her a moment to collect herself because damn is that a story]

Okay, that's one hell of a story.
I take it from that, you do believe in fate?
At least of some kind?

[writtendestiny]

I do. At least, I believe in how it works where I came from. Maybe it's different here.

[toiletseat_girl]

Sounds like you can make one hell of a case for it in your world, yeah.
Here's another thing.
It would be nice to believe that we're all here for a purpose.
I can't figure out what it would be, though.

[writtendestiny]

People don't always get to know it. Or some do, but they don't see it even when it's right in front of them. Would it make things better, if you knew there was a meaning behind it?

[toiletseat_girl]

Yes, actually.
Who wants to die for nothing?

[writtendestiny]

Good point. I suppose no one wants to die for nothing.

[toiletseat_girl]

Exactly.
I sure didn't.

[writtendestiny]

I've died three times. It doesn't get easier after the first time. I'm sorry.

[toiletseat_girl]

Three times?
Holy shit.
I'm sorry.

[writtendestiny]

It's alright.
The place I was before, it was like this one. They brought us back.

[toiletseat_girl]

Really?
Whoever ran that place must've been even shittier than the gods.
I've never heard of anyone dying three times here.

[writtendestiny]

It was different there. They needed us to die.

[toiletseat_girl]

[there is a brief pause in replies]
Holy fucking shit.
That's crazy.
Not to mention fucking sadistic.

[writtendestiny]

They said they were trying to stop the end of their world. It wasn't too much of a comfort to us. We weren't just killed, we were tortured. I think that's worse.

I have to try and believe there was a meaning behind it all. Even if I can't see it now.

[toiletseat_girl]

[and another pause in replies]
And there was literally no other way they could do that other than killing and torturing people?
Either they were fucking crazy or they had shit for imaginations.
Of course you'd wanna find a reason for it.
[and shit, shit, George is shit at comforting people and she knows it. how to put this?]
How long ago did it happen?
Maybe it'll make sense in time.

[writtendestiny]

It's difficult to explain. There was something under the earth. A monster. It needed us to die in certain ways... like sacrifices. I don't know how they lived with themselves. Some of them couldn't.

I've been here a few months. This was before then. I was there for more than two years.

(cw: suicide mention)

[toiletseat_girl]

Jesus.
As much as I don't like the stupid gods, at least they don't go that far.
Did the ones who couldn't live with themselves do something about it?
[and another pause]
Two whole years of that?
That's bullshit.

[writtendestiny]

They joined us.

Yes, two years. This place is a haven in comparison.