[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]

[ Uhm! She lets him do it, taking this weird shit into her arms but the look on her face is comical in its shock. ]

What? I've no use for--

[ But one is tumbling off, she catches it on her toe like a hackey-sack and catches it without thinking about it. ]

I've no flat, just a bunk.

[retroductions]

[That is a very impressive reaction time, madam. Sholmes does not make an effort to pick up the ones that have already fallen to the ground, though he does stoop low enough to pluck the one off of her boot. It would be too silly if she stood there balancing on one foot. And we all know that Sholmes is the very picture of seriousness.]

Then you may decorate your bunk! Hide one under your pillow, or line them across the edge of your mattress so they may keep watch while you sleep.

[Very serious.]

Waste not, want not. I plan to hide mine in every corner, or put them in inconvenient places on the floor so intruders may step on them and regret, instantly, their trespass.

[notched]

[ Absolute and utter surprise shows on her face for a moment. Hide them... around? Just to fuck with people? What? The laughter that bubbles out of her sounds equally baffled. She can't even remember the last time something made her laugh in earnest, she doesn't know what to do with herself.

As she stuffs her laughter back down into the box it burst out of, she tries to answer soberly. ]

Oh... yes. Very cunning.

[retroductions]

Precisely.

[Whether or not he actually believes it to be cunning is not the point. If they are going to collect these strange, plastic figurines, why not have a bit of fun with them? Yes, why not fuck with people? His flat back at 221B is the apotheosis of his sometimes thoughtless, sometimes whimsical decorating habits; namely, chaos.]

And since you now see the logic in it, I expect you to take at least half of them back with you. You've pockets enough for it, surely.

[He pops open another capsule. It is a brightly colored figurine turtle with a delicately painted shell. A no-go.]

Come now, help me look.

[notched]

You didn't know what we were looking for.

[ She protests dryly, even as she takes her bundle of capsules to sit with. She definitely doesn't see the point of standing around for this project. She opens one that turns out to be a bulldog in a graphic sweater. She squints at it, turns it around in her hand. She cannot fathom why anyone other than a child would want this. ]

Is it a dog? An imp?

[ She hasn't seen the type before. It's ugly? ]

[retroductions]

[Sholmes joins her in a sit, pulling his long legs close and letting the capsules spill gently onto the ground in front of him. He leans forward a little to better look at the one Anna's already freed from its plastic.]

That, madam, is an English bulldog. [An… imp? Pffft.] Which just happens to wear a garment printed with text that says… "Bad to the Bone."

[It is just the right shade of ridiculous for Sholmes to appreciate.]

A very ferocious creature, indeed.

[notched]

[ She squints at this creature. Imagines it being torn apart by one of the feral dogs of Yharnam. ]

A bit runty for a hunting dog.

[ She's very confused about the English bulldog. ]

[retroductions]

[Sholmes cracks open another capsule. Out pops up bright pink octopus, holding a frying pan in one of its eight arms. He turns it over in his fingers curiously.]

Hm? No, they are not much for hunting.

[Which conflicts with his "fearsome" comment, but no doubt that reveals he had not been sincere about that remark.]

If I recall correctly... they were originally used for the rather unscrupulous activity of bull-baiting, as well as aiding in corralling livestock. But now they are little more than companion dogs, at least in my time.

[notched]

Wouldn't last a minute in Yharnam. Even our crows are bigger than that.

[ She puts the bulldog aside and moves on to another capsule. A fox bride. Anna frowns a little at the way she is reminded of Amelia. ]

Priestess, or bride?

[ She holds it up for his input. ]

Guess sometimes it's both...

[retroductions]

[Sholmes places the octopus aside, though he does not quite move on, distracted by both her words and the little figurine she's newly freed.]

In this case, I think it can be whichever you choose. Mm, perhaps a bride, though. I do wonder if its partner exists somewhere in these capsules, as well?

[There's a chance, which has him plucking up one more gacha capsule.]

Anyhow, tell me about this Yharnam and its excessively large crows.

[notched]

[ She's making a little line of figurines as she goes, with her favorites to the right. She likes the little fox bride, despite herself. Vicar Amelia had meant no ill, she was a fool just like the rest of them. ]

Bastard things... [ Anna mutters about the crows. ] They lie about in the dark waiting to scream and claw you.

The carrion in Yharnam, and there's a great deal, was infected. They grew big on it, eat most other things in the city now. Bigger than the dogs.

[retroductions]

[He has no reason not to follow suit, lining up his own directly across from hers with some amusement. His octopus faces the fox bride, brandishing its cookware boldly.

Rather whimsical, given the dark nature of their conversation. His brows pinch, though he continues looking down at the figurines as he inquires further.]

Does Yharnam itself suffer from a plague?

[One that allows crows to grow bigger than dogs, screaming and clawing?]

[notched]

Aye. Infected blood.

[ The next capsule she opens, there's a sweet little angel figurine. There's a little sparkle on her magic wand, Anna holds it up to the light with a bemused expression. ]

Does all manner of magic, but at a cost...

[retroductions]

[Magic again. A concept that his world has been spared from, it would seem, but Sholmes wonders at the excitement he has been robbed of, accordingly.]

Physical changes, I presume, among others?

[It would explain the overlarge crows. A place where poor little bulldogs would not last a second. It sounds like Sholmes himself would not, either.]

[notched]

The Church said it only happened to the impure, the undeserving.

[ But it was more than that. ]

Whole town's turned to beasts.

[retroductions]

The “impure and undeserving”. Utterly convenient labels to toss about when there is a lack of a better explanation to be given.

[He doesn’t know her circumstances fully, but it’s in his nature to be skeptical of such things.]

If the whole town’s diseased, then surely you wish to leave and find sanctuary elsewhere?

[Yharnam sounds... wretched?]

[notched]

Might've been right, but it wasn't them who were judging.

[ Something far more unknowable was puppeteer to them, moving them about in their little city, using and controlling and watching. ]

Leave? Leaving doesn't save me. Their voices are...

[ She makes an open-handed motion alongside her head. She hears it even now: Hunter, Hunter, Hunter. ]

Burnt in.

[ Her eyes flick up from the toy she's fiddling with. ]

Agreed to work if they remove the Great Ones, from me and from Yharnam.

[retroductions]

[He must admit... that he does not quite understand all that she is saying. That mention of voices should be a bit more concerning and warrant a far more serious conversation about the matter than the two of them chatting over opened gacha capsules. But Sholmes furrows his brow, fiddling with his own plastic little toy. He slips it idly in a pocket; he was not joking about taking them back to start a little collection.]

That does not sound like an easy task. [Not with a title like "Great Ones".] ...Tell me, do you truly believe our hosts have the power to keep the promises they've contracted to us?

[notched]

I don't know. But pacts are... powerful.

[ She looks off at nothing really, just sitting rolling an unopened sphere in her palms. ]

Who knows what some blood and suffering could buy...