@anonymous

[unalign]

Has anyone ever lost one of their tethers?

Not find them broken or destroyed, just lose them.

The information on our devices says losing one would plunge me into a Harrowing, but that didn't happen. At least, not that I know of. But it's just gone. Completely gone.

Comments

[nagano]

[ Ayo? ]

Rules are like bamboo.

[unalign]

[ STOP SINNING ]

If it flexes too much, however, it can snap in half. Just so you know.

[nagano]

[ wdym I'm not a sinner????? ]

Some might say those stalks need to be snapped.

For me, it's a balancing act.

[unalign]

[ points at eyes, points at u ]

Between playing nice and not nice?

[nagano]

[ POINTS AT U TWICE ]

No, I'm always nice. You've already met me at least once. 🙂

Following guidelines and stepping around them. You can't always wait for due process to make important decisions.

I suppose this is a bit of a departure from guessing whether you're one person or another.

[unalign]

I could be distracting you so you won't find out.

[nagano]

Terrible.

What's the point of anonymity if not to immediately give yourself away to your friends?

[unalign]

For secrets, of course. Why else would I stay anonymous?

[nagano]

Damn. Flawless logic.

Okay, I'll just guess.

Is that you, Felix?

[ He knows for a fact that it is not Felix. ]

[unalign]

Do I sound like Felix?

[nagano]

I don't know.

We're texting.

[unalign]

He still sounds rather crabby over texting, so.

[nagano]

Man, he sure does...

He's alright. A little quirky, but not bad.

[unalign]

I wouldn't say he's bad, just. A lot of pent-up emotions, I'd say.

[nagano]

Having a lot of pent-up emotions feels like a pre-requisite for being stuck here in the first place, don't you think?

[unalign]

Are you saying we're stuck here because we have emotions we could not express in a healthy way?

[nagano]

It's entirely possible. Look at our Tethers.

Going off the presumption that we're "dead," our Tethers anchor us to the "living realm," representing regrets or unfulfilled desires or unfinished business.

Even our Doors have a hand in that. Many of them are constructed to represent areas that hold significance to us.

If those don't culminate in some kind of emotional clusterfuck, I'll eat my scarf.

[unalign]

I'm not sure if my Tethers represent regrets or unfinished business.

Save for one, maybe. But that's the one that's gone missing, so.

[ she'll take a ss of this so she can watch you eat your scarf eventually, kaito ]

[nagano]

Those aren't the only possibilities. They could be anything that keeps you from properly "moving on" from "life." Good, bad, or seemingly completely innocuous.

[ She can watch him eat something else in a few days.









Breakfast. ]

[unalign]

[ she won't see it, she'll be gone even before. ]

And the Shadows? What would their purpose be, then?

[nagano]

[ not if he mcfuckin feeds her ]

To fuck with us, clearly. Surely they have some sort of motivation. They can't simply exist to push us towards impulsive decisions or try to gaslight us or whatever emotional manipulation they do. Spectres are just people like us who have given in to the wiles of their Shadows.

[unalign]

[ no!! ]

Which are effective deterrents from a person moving on, if you think about it. I mean, why move on when you can fulfill fantasies you've never really given in to before.

[nagano]

[ :) ]

...Why indeed.

A Shadow's tactics will vary from person to person, but at the root of it all, they're born from our psyches. They express our desires and impulses.

It's only natural that some would succumb to those temptations.

[unalign]

Have you tried it?

[ I MEAN HE WILL SOON, BUT ]

[nagano]

[ SHHHHHHHHHHHH ]

Absolutely not.

[ Not voluntarily, at least. A few close calls spring to mind where he's almost murdered a Badaliscus or Harpy, but... ]

Those urges are suppressed for a reason.