HEARTFORGE - sensitIV (Session 4)

[idolpro]

You are in the heart of a massive forge. In front of you are tools, and your objective is clear - to use them to channel the strength of your heart and create.

What are you creating? Who can say. Only you - and only you'll know if - and when, it's good enough. The stories before you are not yours right now, but you'll make them yours soon enough.

And you will survive.

Comments

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[proceedwithcautus]

[ listen she's going to read that story and then like

glance at lucifel. like, also at everyone, but also at lucifel. ]

...hm.

At least we're practiced.

Re: DISCUSSION

[sancrimony]

[ smiles ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[outofoffice]

If not for being inside the dorms, I would worry we gave them ideas.

Re: DISCUSSION

[shatteredhourglass]

[Looks over at Lucifel.

Looks back at Eirene.]

At least there's that. ...I wonder if they'll let us "share" things for free again.

Re: DISCUSSION

[outofoffice]

[ Just starts laughing so hard that it devolves into a wheezing fit

The empathy bond reflects this quite well ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[bondsofsuffering]

At least someone's enjoying themselves!

[He's annoyed at the premise of the game.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[shatteredhourglass]

They're not really creative, lately...

[Nyx is Mad at the game itself, but it's hard for one's teammate being floored by a fit of the giggles to not take the edge off of such emotions.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

Ah, of course they...escalate, like this, from the last...

Re: DISCUSSION

[bondsofsuffering]

The first emotion probably shouldn't be "traumatized," but...

[Emotionally, he's just annoyed.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[sancrimony]

[ wow!




it's so great! that we're emotion-shared right now! so that everyone can viscerally feel lucifel's reaction as he reads through this story! spoilers the feelings are not great. ]

Ah.

I see.

Re: DISCUSSION

[bondsofsuffering]

[He was just annoyed but wow Lucifel. Those are feelings.]

It's a pretty shitty story, huh?

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

[settling next to him to try to offer any amount of soothing that he can.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[outofoffice]

Oh dear. Okay, sit down! I'm braiding your hair while we do this.

Re: DISCUSSION

[shatteredhourglass]

[Fun times! At least there's somebody in the room more Displeased than he is.]

I don't see. This isn't very well written.

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

...ah. [trying to be soothing through the empathy bond, though he is also resigned..] This, ah, again...

Re: DISCUSSION

[shatteredhourglass]

[Nyx is always Mad when he reads about what the producers are going to be forcing their prisoners through next, so anybody nearby can enjoy those feels as he reads through ... all this. It's entirely anger directed at their captors, though, and he isn't particularly put off by the sharing aspect of this game.]

...at least we practiced...

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgottenmercy]

At least we, ah, did...

SELECTING EMOTIONS/MEMORIES

[bondsofsuffering]

So what are we thinking for filling in those blanks?

Re: SELECTING EMOTIONS/MEMORIES

[sancrimony]

[ after MUCH mental and physical shooshpapping and much venti hairbraiding the bond on lucifel's side has tamed a bit. it's still painfully bitter and angry, emotions stewing, but more a simmer than a boil. determination has added to the mix, a sort of mental self-soothe ]

. . . The last one—it should be—will, or hope.

Let not this be the last time this person stands.

Re: SELECTING EMOTIONS/MEMORIES

[outofoffice]

I see . . .

A determined child -- but trapped, born into a cage and forced only to dream of freedom. Watching his dreams of sky and starlight fade, day after day.

Re: SELECTING EMOTIONS/MEMORIES

[proceedwithcautus]

I think, the second emotion... the second emotion should be one of struggle, to show how the child was inspired by those around them, maybe?

Re: SELECTING EMOTIONS/MEMORIES

[forgottenmercy]

As for the, ah, memories...

I, ah, might have one that might do for one...

Memory Sharing

[forgottenmercy]

Memories go here.

cw: possessive and abusive relationships, age difference, brief mention of NSFW-adjacent

[forgottenmercy]

[anyway Persephone shares this memory.

Sometimes, your current lover takes you shopping with him. It's not about generosity or about buying you anything that you actually like, at least not really. It's about his status, more than anything, a display of his wealth and power, that he has and can hold onto a jewel like you, a possession that any man, even a king, even a petty princeling like this man, would kill to have, to possess, to own. You're very aware of just how much the things he lavishes on you cost and the means by which he ill-gains his wealth (and you will not keep the jewelry he drapes you in, heavy and unwanted on your wrists, your ankles, your hands, your neck): he's not changing, despite the chances you have given him.

(What can change the nature of a man? He has to want to change, and this man, like so many others, doesn't want to).

You don't want jewels and while you enjoy nice clothing and nice things, you have more than enough of already. Instead, your gaze falls on the single copy of a book, hidden under a few other books, and every bit as expensive as you expect: like your home, this domain doesn't invest in what would make books cheaper and more available. Most of the (few) books in this shop of luxuries, in this market of luxuries, are woodblock printed, likely from one of the temples or large shrines dedicated to this domain's major gods, but the single copy catching your eye is straight from the author's pen. Crimson Horizon's newest, the shopkeep tells you, in a hushed whisper, which explains why the book is hidden: rumor has it that she's an Anathema.

You like her books from what you've seen, though this is the first time you've actually seen a first-edition copy, straight from her pen, rather than a printing done by woodblock in a domain that actually invested in making books more widespread and only recently gotten around to banning her books and marking them for burning for subversive content. Crimson Horizon writes erotic romances for a wide variety of tastes and you have an occasional liking for reading ravishment fantasies featuring beautiful, sweet youths and handsome, terrible men, which is how you'd found some of her work in the first place. More importantly, her novels have a revolutionary character to it that you also enjoy, advocating for the overthrow of hierarchy and especially nobility.

Something is different about this book, however, subtly tugging at you, as you carefully glance through it - the whisper of Essence, you realize, after a moment. With a whisper of your own Essence, the magic in the book is laid bare to your gaze: Essence infuses the writing, presumably bent and shaped to Crimson Horizon's will, and while you aren't a writer anywhere near as skilled as her, what skill you possess and another whisper of Essence allows you to lay the patterns bare, to resist the pull (though you already share the same sentiments, so there is little the magic can do to affect you). The book is an inspiration to revolution - all her books are, but this one is like your songs, reaching for the heart, though hers is a brighter path than your Essence is capable of. And you know what to do.

"My jewel," your lover says, frowning, with a possessive, heavy hand on your shoulder. "What are you looking at?"

Nothing but a silly novel, you reassure him, gently lead him in circles around your desire for the book. Demure, graceful, never asking directly, but in the end, he buys it for you anyway - wouldn't you rather have more jewelry, he asks, but thinks better of it. Flowers suit you best, he says, stroking your hair - delicate, beautiful. And expensive, now that it's winter, he doesn't have to say, but you know, anyway. A waste of money, that could be better spent elsewhere, but the wealthy are like that.

You enjoy reading the book, take it slowly, even as winter wears on and your lover grows all the worse: already arrogant, already paranoid, already possessive, he slides more and more towards violence with each passing day. All his attention is on you, rather than the rest of his small harem, which is fine - you can bear it, better you than them, and you know the inevitable. But who will come after him to take his place, after the inevitable ending? Another petty princeling, someone else entitled and no better for the people?

"What are you reading?" Azure Star, one of the other members of the harem who is a few years older than you, asks you, one day, bored.

"It's a romance novel," you tell her. "Would you like to borrow it? You can lend it around after you're done, if you would like."

Azure's smile could almost light the room, for a moment, as she takes the book. "I'll give it back when we're all done," she says. "Promise."


Notes:
White-haired Persephone and he's wearing a really pretty, really fanservice-y kimono, worn in the fashion of the dead and it's in a pretty shade of blue. His lover is pretty obviously middle-aged.

I couldn't actually think of a setting-appropriate term for the equivalent of a bodice-ripper romance novel but that's what Crimson Horizon writes. You know, just also advocating revolution.