Scene #6450: Resolutions: Reversed Manor 2

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Biteblade doesn't actually entirely understand these cognitive abstractions that Yuuki is presenting the events through. In the same sense that Biteblade doesn't understand a lot of things! She grapples with them loosely, with a soft grip and a placid demeanor. "Floran think Floran get it, a little." She says, nodding several times. "Maybe Director friend doesn't want this part of her being hurt by the changing drive inssside the vampirism. But, Floran thinksss that doing that won't ever let the wound heal. Freezing a part of your mind in time ssso that you alwaysss feel like it never got hurt. Cognitive cryotherapy! But endlesss. Coupled with trauma, probably, and damage around the idea of vampiresss and not just her own vampirisssm." She glances to Zero, tilting her head. "Hi hi, you protect Director friend, yeah? What do you think about trying to find out what all isss lacking here for emotional processsing and sssupport, and find ways in the other mansssion to meet them? Might be a delicate mental reconnection? Or should the isssolation stay? Floran thinksss, probably not. Mental image of you cut a path, and that meansss she thinksss it's good, yeahyeah." She bobs her entire head up and down several times self-assuredly, in an exaggerated show of comprehending. She also speaks to Yuuki. "Hey, isss gonna be fine! Floran thinksss, maybe Floran can find help for you to make it easssier to handle all the ressponsibility and pain. Maybe even find better waysss to navigate out and about from woodsss, to better place! Who knows." She may not have any fucking idea what she's talking about, but boy she sure is supportive about it!
Zero Kiryu	Zero glances towards Sayori. The fact that she's here isn't really a surprise. It couldn't have been. But she's a lot more... grounded, than he really expected her to be. He supposes that's because Sayori has always been a more grounded figure than all of the other important figures in Yuuki's life. For better or worse, /his/ role was certainly always on the dramatic side. His gaze slides back towards the kitchen. He wonders how quickly it is that the other him can move around this place. If every path can lead back to the cottage -- verified to him a moment later by the thought of it bringing it inexplicably to his attention in a strange, dreamy sort of way -- he supposes that it must be fairly easy for him to come and go. "Ah..." He looks at Biteblade, hesitating. There are a lot of things that are nobody's business, but if Yuuki didn't want people intruding on her history or thoughts, they wouldn't be here. Zero shakes his head, "Maybe so. It's complicated, but Yuuki was born a vampire. Those properties of her were sealed for a time, and then unbound later. Otherwise, being bitten would have turned her into something more like me." "This," he looks at the bleeding Yuuki next to him, "is just how vampires are. The instincts are naturally conflicting with an intelligent mind. It's why some of them look for a cure, even though they've never been anything but a vampire." "I'm not hungry." Zero asides to Yuuki, untruthfully. It is always untruthful for a vampire to say so. He's not an exception. He regards Biteblade's questions again. Zero folds his arms over his chest-- he only has his own experiences to go off of when it comes to this. "Neglecting either part of yourself isn't good for you, so I would support that idea. In Yuuki's case..." He issues a half-irritated sigh, "I have a suspicion that I hope doesn't play out. We'll see."
Priscilla	Sayori's explanation seems to be enough for Priscilla. It brings a faint air of pleasantry about her to 'meet' one of Yuuki's actual friends, outside of Zero. It's good to think about her having a shoujo social life outside of the tough jobs Priscilla keeps putting her through. Biteblade, however, she genuinely doesn't seem to get. After several moments of pressed lips and contemplative tea-staring, she seems to give up on trying to figure it out indirectly, and just asks "What is the matter with preserving happier thoughts, such that it is separate from all else that hast happened since?" The brief silence between audible thoughts is deeper the second time. "What, even, is this matter regarding 'growing up' either? I am told that thou art 'the older one' already, Lady Kuran." Zero eventually outright explaining that there's a big time gap in Yuuki's memory where she wasn't a vampire neatly puts her suspicions in chronological order. "If thou art correct, then, wouldst not 'growing up' simply be another manor as the first, with 'an older one' its mistress?"
Yuuki Kuran	Biteblade opens with, ironically, 'delicate mental reconnection' to solve the problems presented. Sayori opens her mouth, expecting something outrageous from the 'monstrous sentient plant' - in dreams, things can become exaggerated and unexpected, but the direct and gentle way that the floran approached the matter caught more soundly than spiked hooks in soft flesh. "You're right. I can't really argue with it, can I? Endless. Bleeding and bleeding and bleeding, forever." She sinks in her chair a bit, eyes dimming. "Forever." Yuuki repeats. "I can't even imagine it." The offer cheers her up, though. "Oh, will you? I appreciate that a lot." Zero, however, drops the bombshell. Well, it doesn't make that much of an explosion. School Yuuki and Sayori don't even react beyond a simultaneous children-of-the-corn synchronized blink. Sayori is the one that speaks up, though: "Vampires are... monsters. Pretty ones, but they're awful. Take, and manipulate, and eat. It's what they want to do. Not just to people they think will be 'tasty' to them. To their friends. Their families. Things they care about. They have every power to do it, too. Impossible strength. Twisting the minds of people they're around. Prying into them in every way. And hunger - they're always hungry. Even Zero agrees with me." "Vampires are awful." She finishes, looking to Zero for confirmation, of course. Who is not the Zero of Yuuki's dreams. School Yuuki herself pipes up. "I just want to be normal." And, as if lightly punching him on the arm verbally, adds. "And you're a terrible liar, Zero." As for 'Growing up', School Yuuki engages in distant recollection for a moment. "It was something like a dream. I remember Zero saying that I did something, and he approved of it. I don't remember him ever doing so before, but he said that I had grown up. It seemed important. Even if it's hard, shouldn't you eventually do that? Grow up? Change?" Growing up seems more like a magic spell to the bleeding Yuuki, one that she can intone and fix her problems with.
Zero Kiryu	Zero shuts his eyes and thinks. There's a part of him that agrees -- that will always agree -- with the notions that were presented to him. But he is in Yuuki's mind right now, and even if he wasn't, things have... changed. More than a little bit, in fact. The truth of course was that Hunters weren't that far from being vampires in their own right. The instincts that a vampire has to hunt were where they rooted much of their strength, and even with diminished instincts of their own they still had to watch themselves in order to avoid hurting somebody who didn't deserve it. And even they, who hate vampires the most, acknowledge that there are more who don't deserve it than do. What would happen if he reinforced this idea that's managed to take root? Distant memories of sitting in bed with Bloody Rose pressed to his own temple drifted through his mind like clouds drifting by. Zero opens his eyes, shaking his head. "No." "It is awful to be a vampire, and it is easier for a vampire to be a monster than it is for a human to be the same. Urge and the power to act upon the urge converge together to form a powerful impulse to do-as-you-please. But it is not the case that a vampire must be a monster." "It was easy to think so when the only thing close to me I had to hate to fuel that fire was myself." His attention swings from the reflection of Sayori to School Yuuki. Zero makes an affirmative vocalization and replies, "You did something impressive that saw everyone around you benefit. But..." "You're a worse liar than I am." He lifts a finger to Yuuki's chin, lightly urging her to tilt her head so that the wound on her neck is a little more exposed. "I haven't forgotten what you were daydreaming about back then." Zero withdraws his hand.
Starbound Flotilla	Biteblade persists in their utter lack of understanding. They have failed to consciously grasp the nature of the situation. But they can tell that what's going on here is something that isn't too terribly far from the pain of enlightened Floran, those whose intelligent minds reject the savagery. It's a little of why they chose to be the one who visited, and now, a lot of why they choose this approach. She smiles a wide smile, the kind with a long row of excessive teeth, and says in her friendliest tones, "Floran will promisse that you will have something there to help you! Help you deal with your problemsss and get you what you need. Floran can't help you be normal, but Floran can do next bessst thingsss. Becaussse nobody who growsss up can be normal! Jussst the way that works." She stands, pacing around a bit. "Floran thinksss, if you want to grow up, we need to find the younger one and get her help too. Floran doesn't know for sssure how all this would be working, but Floran hasss to work with what Floran knows. And Floran is firssst Floran to develop Cognitive Theory of Floran Behavioral Psssychology! Have to ussse that." She turns to Zero. "Floran think bessst courssse will be finding the younger one and understanding what makesss them live on the other ssside of the Wood. If we do that, we find out about the divisssion between, and then maybe how to make it all work together." Back to Yuuki! "Hey, Director friend, you ever visssit younger one in Manor acrosss from the Woodsss, down path handsssome friend made? Why doesss she live all the way over there away from here?" Biteblade queries. "Real essstate principle sssay that two manor should be clossse, for property value. Why dissstant?"
Priscilla	"Do not try to envision forever." Priscilla says. "No matter how long thou live, it shalt never quite sink in. What does instead, is looking back upon the entire time thou hast, and regretting which of it that was used poorly; regretting that thou didst not do certain things sooner, or at all." She kind of trails off after that, because Biteblade is the actual psychologist, and also the one from the relevant sort of cultural background, mired in predatory violence and savagery, glorifying hunting and killing and eating. Even when Zero gives voice to it, Priscilla still can't quite imagine it. Struggling with urges that demand one acts out like that. A monstrous second set of desires fighting for primacy. Having to be associated with the kind of people who embrace them, use them, or give in to them. She'll have questions about this whole Night Class thing, and about Cross, later, no doubt, but now isn't the time and place. "Likewise, 'monster' is a word ill-worth considering. It means whatever one wishes it to, but mostly it signifies only loathing. It acceptable, no doubt even natural, to loathe such a condition. To loathe the hardships associated, and its effect upon men. It is fair enough to loathe the men who let it do as it shalt with them as well, whether those desperate creatures in the woods, or those who were fortunate enough to gain power to sate those desires more subtly, systematically." "It is never worth loathing a person, however, for anything other than what it is they hath done. Such conditions, faculties, pressures, provideth context, but people are nothing but their actions." "I cannot agree that vampires art awful people. Perhaps vampirism itself is, but I knoweth two afflicted with it who deserveth better than such judgement."
Yuuki Kuran	Zero's statement doesn't get School Yuuki like she's struck - instead, the inner-ear discomfort causing twist of 'reality' within the dream world shudders, the firmament shuddering tectonically as he finishes speaking, ending with his finger on School Yuuki's chin as her eyes play on tired gobsmacked surprise. 'Her' Zero would never say that. But the Zero here isn't 'hers', not the one from years before, starving himself at Cross Academy and lashing out at those around him. Nights corralling the awful Night Class. His look of bitter betrayal. The words she said to him, hurtful with all of the best intentions of an idiotic and self-flagellating impulse. Priscialla reinforces this, though the 'ground'-quakes begin to subside. Their strange long-term friendship touching like bookends on her beginning in the wider world of the Multiverse and her journey from 'Normal Girl in the Union' to the various ends of little projects, and even catalyzing her 'growing up'. "It's not fair. Everything they do is selfish. I shouldn't exist." School Yuuki murmurs, as the rumbling dies away to background shifts and then stillness. "Not because I don't deserve to, but because of vampires. What was the point of showing me the sun?" Biteblade paces about, coming to conclusions - ones that are based in the DEEP LORE of Floran Behavioral Psychology. Is that a thing? Biteblade asks why the manors are far apart, and it's that specific line of questioning that actually breaks the strange mood School Yuuki had tumbled into. "It's because... We're seperate. For six years, she was me. Then for twice again as many I was me. Then-" Yuuki's hand goes to her neck, and a little dribble of blood runs down her cheek from the corner of her mouth. A steadying cough clears the effect. "Then neither of us were me. Both of us. But I guess if you all agree, then I'll tell you." "When I left the Kuran mansion, I lost my way in the woods. I didn't have my memories. I couldn't find my way out. And then, at Cross Academy, I was taken back to the Mansion, through the woods. I can't go through those woods myself. That's why, with..." Yuuki looks at Zero, as if for the first time realizing that he's 'really there'. "And everyone, I wanted help. It's shameful, but even if 'me' wants something, fixing yourself by yourself is hard." "It's not about meeting them. It's about convincing them. Why forever is so terrifying. Why vampires can't..." Priscilla and the real Zero disabused her of that phrase and those thoughts, so she repaths. "Why I can't be at war with myself. Like in the Shadow Tower. Where 'I' disappear, and there's only her left." "Past the woods that I always get lost in."
Zero Kiryu	"There are rich humans where we come from," Zero interjects towards Biteblade, "and they observe economic principles like that one. But Yuuki has chiefly been adjacent to vampires and vampire-adjacent individuals, who are prone to constructing their properties with some distance from the nearest neighbor. The more altruistic of them are attempting to avoid incidents, and the less altruistic of them need a private place to avoid getting on a termination list. The reality of things doesn't have much to do with how they appear here, but lone houses in the mountains or woods are just how things are for most of her peers." "Personally... I hate them." His attention turns then to Priscilla, to whom he replies, "You're not exactly wrong, but the thing you have to live with as a vampire could certainly be called a monster. It's more accurate to call it a well-hidden predator, but some of our kind -- we call them Level E -- lose their ability to control that part of themselves and become trapped in the passenger seat o ftheir own minds." "But you're right. Even those souls aren't really responsible for what they're doing. There are others who just decide that because they can, they should." Finally, he looks back at School Yuuki. Zero smiles. It's a rare thing, bereft of bitterness. "Because," he says, "you were the sun to them, and they thought you deserved better than your own reflected light." He lifts his head slightly, looking back towards the doors. "Are you ready?" He asks.
Starbound Flotilla	Biteblade seems a little unsteady as the inner-ear-twisting intensifies briefly, but it only lasts a short while. Thankfully it's all solved in due time. "Well," She says. "Floran thinksss, if Floran and friendsss can find a good way to get you two to meet each other, can make thisss work!" She plants both hands on her hips and nods eagerly. "Floran will sssolve! Very good at navigate Woodsss. And we can get help from Woodsssman! We will get connection made, ssso Director friend won't feel pain about keep going, and maybe other Director friend won't have problemsss too." Biteblade nods several times, running the idea over in her brain. "Floran tribe hasss problem. Weird brain thingsss. Isss not like predator-mind thing inssside human brain. Floran tribe can't recognize meat being alive. Can't recognize electronicsss being tool. Like big lensss on perspective of the world. Can definitely make people that get called 'monster'. But Floran thinksss, more value there than jussst limit. People sssay, 'take the good with the bad'. People are ssstupid. You take good and cut the bad out. Floran hasss idea for Director friend, but needsss to be delicate and work a lot on helping. Floran will navigate, then figure out difference, then find way to link, then find way to form new boundariesss for bad and good, then make divisssion." Something about what Biteblade is saying provokes a slight 'hitch'. Her cheery, fae-child happy tone briefly flutters in a weird way, a subtle sign of emotion and something about what she said being off. She stands in a sure, ready posture. "Can head out now? Floran can go find Woodsssman, and get going to other Manor with Director friend?" She looks like she wants to get this show on the road! But she gets the feeling that the Woods are likely to react quite terribly negatively to Yuuki herself; while the Woodsman was able to fend off threats before, Biteblade seems to predict that taking Yuuki along for the ride would make this a bigger target. It's why she's strapping on engineered-wood armor, slipping some heavy daggers into sheathes, and readying up her assorted bone trophies.
Priscilla	Feeling the shift in the very foundation of the fuzzy white dreamscape all around, technically imperceptible as it is, lets Priscilla know that she's said probably the first useful thing she has all day. Any outward expression of relief, at having done more help than harm with her essentially ignorant line, is cut off by just how uniquely and exquisitely disorienting it is to have a fake sort of perceived upside-down-ness shift itself around even further. It's a wonder she can affect an 'ill' sort of pale, given her usual. "Requiring help is not wrong. Very little wouldst be done were it so. Often, we art ashamed to ask for the circumstances of the problem, whether it is to admit it exists, or to alloweth others to see it. Something in this way, born with, inextricable, and then govered solely by fate and the whims of others, bears no reflection upon thee, Yuuki. It is much too difficult to find one's way back through a woods one was dragged blindly through by another from the beginning. I wholly believeth that much." "Thou cannot feel inadequate for the adversities forced upon thee, whence thou were given neither the chance nor the tools to face them. Thou shouldst very much take them being offered now. Even if thou wish to face it personally, it is necessary to knoweth where thou art going first."
Yuuki Kuran	The tectonic shifts caused by the prodding, the reasoning, and the bearing-out of the party to Yuuki's 'humanity' (how ironic that it breaks down to 'Humanity' and some hollow hunger, for Priscilla) does indeed seem to have led to more positive than negative things, and overtures of 'not having to go it alone'. Biteblade's moments about taking the bad with the good being stupid gets a lively laugh from the otherwise worn-out Normal Girl. "That's... very insightful, Biteblade. It's something I really should not be forgiven from following already. But it's more than a delicate way to put it - and I appreciate that." "But I'm not... us. My place is here. I can't go all the way across. I need to stay..." School Yuuki trails off, considering. "No. I suppose I can come at least halfway. To wait, for your success." Zero's line about mansions, though, causes another fit of laughter. "You've never been comfortable isolated up in the mountains, have you? Kuran Mansion, Cross Academy... You slept near the stables, where the equestrian club had their horses. Between classes! And you made best friends with that total..." She snickers, despite herself. "... terror of a horse. Just off in your own little secret horse hideaway, because even though you were a vampire you forced yourself to trudge around in classes during the day. And get better grades then me! Gosh, how did you ever get away being so painfully perfect at everything I wasn't? Even now, you're in here, helping me through this while I'm a total wreck." She reaches out and is helped up out of her chair by Sayori and, almost certainly, Zero. One of those 'temple tapper' lines slips through a giggle. "But this time, I'm the one sleeping through it." The power of Sappy Shoujo Lines fills School Yuuki with d e t e r m i n a t i o n enough to fix her collar around her neck and step around the group to the door to the foyer - which appears to be the double-doors right back outside - while nobody was looking space conveniently shifting about in the dream to facilitate rapid movements between scenes as is custom in the theatre of the mind. "I'm sorry you, of all people, had to see me like this, Priscilla. Even if there shouldn't be shame in it - I've tried to be strong so you wouldn't have to be, all the time, and I don't want to just go and prove that you can never take a break." "That's an adversity I chose for myself, but I've done a poor job of it. We made something wonderful together, something excellent, something that we made with words and promises and good sense and built so many bonds. It never required me to use her--" Clearly 'the other Yuuki's' "-- powers. It was so normal for me to be strong, with you, I stopped being so careful. In all that effort to be strong, so you'd be able to relax, I relaxed myself. It was normal, and then..." Her smile is abashed, like a dog caught tearing up a pillow - knowing it 'messed up' and waiting for the reaction. "I hope, after this is done, even if this-me goes away, you'll still want to relax around me." The door 'out' opens, a trick of dreamspace bringing the party back to the edge of the woods, the chopped and cleared path the Woodsman took with the party just across the short grounds of the 'Cross House', surrounded by the Cross Academy fence. The entire town-scape down the hill stretched out like spilled water going the other direction - not as if the group had come through the psychohazard-infested town to get there. Dream logic. This time, the forest quickly darkens like nighttime, a deep black unlit by the sun-shining moon in the sky. Instead, all that is lit is the white snow in the path's center, creating a perilous and shadowed path back to the (Now visibly half complete) Cottage far off in the distance, at the center of the Woods. A fire crackles at the end of the path to set the Woodsman's work in relif - the target to bring their charge to. Through the now awful spooky woods no doubt infested by the same greasy ass vampire memory-apparation copypasted like three dozen times.
Zero Kiryu	Zero does indeed help Yuuki up, remaining at the side opposite Sayori the entire time. He can't help but be a little unsettled about the way that Yuuki looks back at all of that. Even though he kept it together about as best as he could, the truth was that he was pretty horrible. To her, to most everybody around him. It wasn't as if he could help it all that much, but to call him perfect in any way was... "Well..." "It was just... the only way I could think to run my clock out."