Karteria Inbox

[bloodypath]

SYNTROFOS PROFILE [INBOX] username: hvv name: Marquis Hubert von Vestra age: 26 hometown: Enbarr, Adrestia, Fódlan State your purpose. art credit code credit

Comments

text. @medarda

[opposed]

When you've a moment, can you give me a ring?

I can't help myself

[bloodypath]

I beg your pardon? A ring? What for?

LMAO amazing

[opposed]

[ WAIT, NO, WRONG WORD. Quick, backpedal. ]

Oh, not a literal ring. My apologies. I mean for you to call me on the device. It'll make a ringing sound like a phone.

[ ...He probably doesn't know what a phone is. Why did she do this to herself. ]

text; un: bugs

[honorism]

[She sends a picture at first, a large moth with a vaguely human skull-shaped pattern of markings on it.]

Isn't he lovely? They're called a 'death's-head hawkmoth'. I thought you might like this one best. They can move about in hives without being disturbed because they mimic the scent of the bees and are not recognized as intruders so they can feed on nectar and honey.

[bloodypath]

How clever of them. They're even colored like bees. And I can see how they've earned their name. You're right; I do like them. They're natural infiltrators.

[honorism]

There's a lot of superstitions around them and death, like seeing one means you or someone you know will die soon, but it's never been found to be true. They're really quite gentle, though they can make a peculiar squeaking noise as a deterrent.

Do you know what kind of soul you have? I think this moth would suit you.

text; (backdated: post-legs, pre-smackdown)

[opposed]

[ Guess who hates being stuck unable to walk. Guess. So when one has time to ruminate... ]

Hubert, I realized I hadn't given you proper warning about this, but it seems that there are rather dire consequences to being out alone in the forest. Someone I've met was out there on their own for days and they started accumulating growths on both their Shifted and human forms.

Re: text; (backdated: post-legs, pre-smackdown)

[bloodypath]

The way you're utilizing "growth" here seems to imply this is different from what you and I have experienced so far. Am I interpreting that correctly?

[opposed]

You read between the lines well enough that I should be more direct, shouldn't I?

Yes. These were extra appendages, wholly unnatural to this person's transformation. They were physically trying to inhibit his movement, nearly going so far as to attack him. In addition, it seemed like the arcane radiation was addling his mind.

Science Cabin mass PSA, October 2nd

[bloodypath]

I've come to the decision that I should detail what I believe are side-effects from my shifts in studying katalyth. We're familiar with the "song," but I've been experiencing irregularities in my form that are inconsistent with the way the Augmenter has been changing me.

For those that have not met me, my Augmenter soul takes after a scorpion. In the last few weeks, pieces of the carapace that has been growing for months has begun to abruptly loosen, and in some places, fall off. While I have molted several times before, this is nothing like that: this is more akin to pieces of shell tearing off a crab.

My shifted form has been altered, as well. It bears growths and mutations that weren't there previously, and the missing carapace in my regular form are also absent while shifted.

I've temporarily taken a step back from the study, but these changes do not seem to be reversing with less exposure. Monitor your own health carefully.

[Any replies abruptly stop on October 8th.]

not here

[opposed]

[ DISTRESSED BIRD NOISES THAT SHE CAN'T EXPRESS BECAUSE THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTINGGGGGGG ]

[techmaturgy]

What sort of mutations? Do they bear any resemblance to traits of other natural souls?

[bloodypath]

I omitted precise details as to not cause undue distress. But if I had to choose the closest souls:

The dead ones. The growths resemble parts of a human corpse.

[wondrously]

When was the last time you worked a shift?

[historicallyloaded]

I'm so sorry to hear Hubert. That sounds deeply uncomfortable. Something similar happened to— [ Pal and Pom ] ...it's happened before. It worsens without the mitigating effects of another Augmented for company.

Is there any pattern at all to your changes, or does it seem random?

october 8th (1/2)

[opposed]

[ On the morning of October 8th when the announcement goes out and once she knows Viktor and Jayce are still in the home, awake, alive and safe, she goes for her Syntrofos. She calls Hubert before she even thinks not to, before she even considers anything from the month prior. It's instinct, automatic. ]

[ @ medarda is calling ... ]

[ @ medarda is calling ... ]

[ @ medarda is calling ... ]


Please pick up.
It doesn't matter if you're angry with me, please pick up.


[ @ medarda is calling ... ]

[opposed]

[ @ medarda has left you a voicemail. ]
Hubert. Hubert, if you're home, please pick up.

[ Does that mean she's at his home? How'd she get there so fast? She's out of breath, emotion at the edge of her voice like a knife. ]

Call me—

[ She stops. He isn't here, is he. No matter how angry, no matter how much he might hate her, during something like this he wouldn't... (Does she know he wouldn't? Does she know with certainty that he wouldn't ignore her, let her sit in the mess she's made and reap her own consequences?

No, she knows he wouldn't. She does know.)

She goes silent. The call is still going. Her voice goes flinty. ]

I'm coming to find you. Whatever is happening... Please, hold on.

october 21st, let's say. idk.

[reprisings]

It's nearly a week after their return when she gets a call from the shop about her order and whether she's going to pick it up anytime soon. That...prompts quite a bit of confusion until she remembers she'd gone to the seamstress for an order of custom clothes (and to pick out a few things for herself and Edie). She heads into the heart of the city with hasty apologies and explanations, and the woman is nice enough to give her a little discount out of sympathy for her plight.

A text is sent to Hubert on her way back to the house with the package in hand to let him know it's all finished and asking him to make some time so they can ensure everything fits, in case anything needs alterations. And once home, she hangs everything up in the back room, checking for wrinkles. She hadn't...actually considered that they might need to purchase something for those. Not that Hubert would likely care.

If this works out, though, then she can offer to get measurements from Ferdinand too. He likely needs some extra clothes too.

And that's where Hubert will find her when he comes home: in the back room (per usual these days, when she isn't in the living room with the others or working), clothes hung up on one of the wires she's been threading for those heat lamps, with Dorothea working on putting up a few of them over by her newly constructed garden area. And yes, that means she's on a ladder she had to go purchase.

At least she has help. Two of her vines, flattened slips of plant flesh that look more like ribbons than anything else, balance some of the lights while she works to fasten them. The others are tucked, only visible from the cutaway at her back; they're wrapped like a second skin or a makeshift bodice and little else, her attempts to make them as unobtrusive as possible for her own peace of mind.

[bloodypath]

In all honesty, he'd forgotten about this. Somehow. Despite the trial it's been to have the clothes made. It's a couple hours before Hubert arrives in the back; he takes time to clean off after his gravedigging shift finishes.

Hubert steps into the back quietly, a raw force of habit rather than an intent to surprise. His gaze sweeps along the garments, softly humming a note of approval, even if he pauses with a furrowed brow by the article that's supposed to resemble the pants.

He spends a minute reading the rather lengthy note of instruction attached to them. Between the multiple ties and layers, plus the additional ties at the knees helping it to keep it closed, the gap included for his metasoma would allow the garment to remain flexible.

"This is... a rather ingenious solution."

If unlike anything he's ever seen before.

backdated to...10/28 or 10/29

[reprisings]

It's been weeks since the incident with Elan and while Dorothea's been able to go back to work, it's only now that she's discovered the patient in the back room is Elan himself, kept there under observation. So many weeks later and while he's recovering well enough (thankfully), it just goes to speak to the issue at hand: what got into his body nearly killed him, the repair has been slow going, and he could still not wake up.

So it's understandable that she seems a little wilted when she comes back to the house, worried. Elan hadn't exactly been the pinnacle of altruism on the network but no one should have had to go through that. It's later, when Hubert comes out of the garage to start working on dinner that she speaks up about it from where she sits on the couch.

"Hubie, do you know anything about the devices that Patho-Gen gave us? Did they explain anything to you when they provided them?"

Yep, that's a great opener.

[bloodypath]

Hubert glances at Dorothea from where he's sharpening a knife; the motion is less precise than he'd like it to be as he still grows accustomed to the weight of the horns on his head. Her statement that would catch his attention on any day after the time when the Song emitted from the Syntrofos, but in conjunction with her anxiety that he's been trying not to ask about since Dorothea came home...

"Regrettably little." He sets down the knife, fishing his own out of his coat pocket. "One of the other Augmented told me they operated on a combination of technology and magic. Even without being entirely technological, I'm afraid they're still too advanced for me to entirely comprehend. Why?"

As soon as he finishes talking, he briefly returns to the garage to set the device down before returning, shutting the door behind him.

idk sometime post 11/21

[reprisings]

Sleeping still hasn't come as easily as she'd like despite it being weeks since their ordeal under Patho-Gen's care, though tonight at least offers her a brief reprieve of strange nightmare-memories that feel too tangled up to differentiate. Dorothea dreams of warm sunshine in Garreg Mach and tea in the gardens with Manuela, talking over the most banal subjects: operas, how warm Enbarr will be in the summer, Manuela's search for a man who won't be trouble for her. The words pass over her in the dream like they hardly exist like all dreams do, surreal enough that 'time' passes while feeling like nothing's happened at all. There's a strange sensation of being watched, ever so faint, but it doesn't trouble her; there are always eyes at Garreg Mach, always people wandering, and Dorothea only sees fit to question why she's here if the war is over, and not back in Enbarr...

She wakes up later feeling warm in her chest, if a little melancholy that the dream wasn't real. Only pieces of it remain, like the sound of Manuela's laughter and the caress of sunlight, and at least that gets her out of bed the sandpit to start her day. Though it's little surprise to her that Hubert's already up; she can smell coffee even from the back room. Dorothea's taken to wearing a cocoon drape of warmer material these days, especially in the cold early mornings, and she wears it while she helps with dishes after breakfast's been eaten. It's the least she can do (since she isn't a good cook, after all).

"Are you still going to be digging when the ground gets too hard?" she asks him while she dries off a dish. "Now that people don't seem as frightened of Arthropoda types, you could probably find a better job in the city." It's just idle chatter and little else.

[bloodypath]

It was a weird night, even by Karteria's standards.

Hubert slept fine, even if he didn't. Except that he was asleep yet... not. He ate less than usual, though he'd begun to expect that from what he'd read about scorpions (...and experienced, perhaps, in October?) that cold or starvation could trigger slowdowns in their body. Dorothea, at least, seemed fine in the morning. There was a wistfulness about her this morning which left a strangely nagging feeling the corner of Hubert's mind.

"Unlikely. If it were merely the matter of the ground, I could persevere, but the expected freezing means this will have to be left to the golems. Management of the dead doesn't cease being important in the winter." Why the Karterians were opposed to pyres was beyond him. "We'll see if any of the employers I spoke to at the fair hire me on."

He glances at her, briefly, before returning his gaze to his own bookkeeping for the household. "You seem well rested today. Peaceful slumber, this time?"

late december.

[opposed]

[ Hubert gets a fun text at one point, completely out of the blue. ]

Let me know when you're next home. I need to drop something off.

[ And she's not leaving the damn thing outside for anyone to take. Not that they'd be able to, but it's the principle of the thing. ]

[bloodypath]

That will be sometime tomorrow, I'm afraid. The teleporters are down once more.