[open] i can see the flickers

[notched]

Who ⬤ Anna (Tamamo) & Open
What ⬤ May Substories, Etc
Content Warnings ⬤ Probable cause for violence, madness, Bloodborne stuff.

Prompts in comments, wildcard me with anything else you want. You can catch me in the discord or DM me at itsabee#1072. CR meme comment Mingle top level Feel free to double up prompts, I will tag you however many times you want. bloodborne 🎶 ❗ Anna is extremely xenophobic against alien/angel/eldritch creatures and violent against them. If you're not sure you count, DM me. She is *dealing* with the yokai, but especially monstrous ones still set her on edge.

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[notched]

[ She watches him with lazy awareness. Like any Hunter, she is hyper-vigilant. She is never truly at rest and has positioned herself in the store where she can see things. Hard to focus on the stupid clothes when she's doing that. ]

Black it is, then.

[ She doesn't have any interest in something that is going to take a lot of care or maintenance. ]

And none of this.

[ She flicks her hand dismissively at a flowery summer dress. ]

[psionicmolotov]

[ Kimmuriel can't fault that. He's the same, ever-cautious, though his awareness suffers from not having its usual precision. The whispers of surface thoughts ripple his mind like rain on a lake, his own thoughts casually pushing them aside to be heard. ]

Not one for dressing up? I cannot say I disagree with that. It is hardly of any use. [ He knows it has SOME uses but also, like hell is he gonna do that. That's not his job. That's someone else's job. ]

[notched]

Impractical.

[ She agrees, reaching out to feel the texture of one of the shirts with curiosity. ]

Everything is very... soft.

[ Someone is definitely not from the modern world, but maybe Kimmuriel will find being a bit of a ye olde fantasy person relatable. ]

[psionicmolotov]

[ Oh, he really does. The confusion is close to his own, enough that he's a little less of a hardass about the interaction. ]

They seem obsessed with softness. It is a struggle to find working clothes. [ He frowns, just a little. Normally he wouldn't pay this much attention, but he's near-defenseless like this. Without his usual powers, he has to think practically. ]

Most are in a style I am unfamiliar with, and there is little defense to be found with them, but I cannot wear the same thing forever. [ As much as he disregards his own physical form sometimes, he does want to stay clean. ] I assume you are in a similar situation?

[notched]

[ She nods, her eyes tracing someone on the far side of the store. ]

Aye. They decried my armor too filthy for their whorehouse.

[ She doesn't actually have anything against whorehouses, only the irony that when a warrior comes into their midst suddenly they have stones to throw.

It turns out to be a good thing that she was eye-stalking that other customer... Her eyes catch on a wall of leather jackets. That gets her to move from where she's standing to go touch them. ]

Even the leather is soft...

[psionicmolotov]

[ That gets a minor eyebrow raise. Well, that goes some way to determining who's picked her, he thinks, but he'll keep his assumption to himself. ]

Given everything else that goes on in those, I suppose they must be strict about hygiene. [ It makes sense, but he supposes he understands the sentiment of her complaint, at least somewhat. ]

If you are looking for true body armor, you could try Shuten territory. [ Look at him, being helpful. He's gonna just keep sorting through the clothing racks in the meantime. His need to wear something a bit more protective is warring with his preference of never needing to wear armor in his life. ] Though if they expect you to be decorative, I am unsure of whether they will qualify.

[notched]

[ She pulls down one of the jackets, touching all of its details. The sturdiness of the zippers, the pointlessness of the studs in the leather. While distracted with her inspection, she answers Kimmuriel a little more thoughtlessly, ]

Not used to being a woman... Always been Hunter first.

[ A small crease settles between her brows. ]

Woman is what breaks.

[ She probably sounds batty, drifting off into rumination on an eldritch rite that Kimmuriel doesn't know anything about. Meanwhile, it's all that Anna knows. The voices of old gods have been burned into her mind; things she can never unsee or forget. It has changed her, she is not all there. ]

[psionicmolotov]

[ He has to admit, he feels some kinship with the kind of person prone to drifting off into weird tangents mentally. Sometimes he's not much better with that himself, at least in the privacy of his thoughts. ]

...Being reminded of how frail physical shells are can be unpleasant. That much is true. [ He's become very aware of how weak he is, which means for once he speaks his thoughts without caging them all up first.

Is 'hunter' a title? A job? A name, even? He does wonder. ] Is the Hunter unbreakable, then?

[notched]

Aye, if you live it true.

[ She pulls the jacket on and hugs it in around herself. It's better than nothing. She might pick one. ]

But if you doubt... The madness will start to take you.

[ Hunter. It is a mantra, it is a voice calling from the abyss. They cull those who are unworthy along the path to ascension. Very few who bear this eldritch whisper upon their minds truly understands what they are protecting. All they know is that the voice is calling. ]

...I've had my doubts.

[psionicmolotov]

[ He finds some small reflection of himself in that. Doubt could be injurious, even fatal, to any psionicist. He had been well-trained to keep such doubts out of his mind when exerting his powers...but there are cracks in even well-trained armor.

He doesn't pick a jacket; he just sort of noncommittally hovers around the racks, as if he's forgotten why he came in here in the first place or changed his mind about it. ]

...It is a trial not to doubt. Especially in difficult situations, where you would need that shield the most.

[ He wonders what her mind looks like. Probably nothing terribly good at this point. ] What is it that you hunt?

[notched]

[ It's a deceptively difficult question to answer, but there is also the simple version. ]

Beasts. City's full of beasts.

[ Which must make Jigoku-cho challenging, where everyone where yokai stare at her. The thing that stops her blade is the intellect in their eyes. There had been a few, so infrequent, of beasts in Yharnam that still held on to their minds. Strong enough to be people rather than animals. If there had been more like that, perhaps things would have been different in Yharnam too. Djura had tried to tell her. She hadn't understood at hte time. ]

[psionicmolotov]

[ What a simple answer. Layered with complexity, no doubt.

He checks a price tag and frowns a little. ]

If they are anything like the demons I am familiar with, this city must be a trial for you. [ He's feeling a surprising amount of sympathy for Anna by his standards, which is to say: a little bit.

So, he offers a small tidbit of it. ] I find myself in, perhaps, a similar situation.

[notched]

[ She looks down, a little embarrassed to be called out like that. It breaks the mask of calm that she was wearing and she confesses to it, ]

They startle me. But there is still intellect in their eyes.

[ So she holds fast, when she can. ]

Sometimes, their auras....

[ And she has trouble containing her fear and violence. It's not all the yokai... it's just a certain vibe that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. A too-familiar haunting. She shakes her head to clear that thought. ]