inbox.

[girlybruiser]

❝ You have reached Haru Okumura. I apologize if I was unable to answer your call.
Please leave a message with your name and number after the beep and I will respond at the earliest convenience. Thank you very much! ❞

Comments

[girlybruiser]

Nothing much has happened...

[ Well, she wants to tell Cass about Akira porting in a little while ago, but she wonders if Cass is deflecting. It's hard to say if it's intentional or not, but she remains concerned about it regardless. ]

Cassandra, you can tell me about what happened. I want to know, but... but only if you are ready to talk.

[queenofseers]

[ The coffee finishes, and Cassandra immediately pours herself a cup. Even after dying and losing her godhood, she still needs plenty. She nods towards another mug, a silent way of asking if Haru wants one. ]

You don't know how many people have asked me that. [ She shakes her head. ]

But- I can tell it again, I guess. What do you know about my world already? The whole godhood bullshit.

[girlybruiser]

[ She nods toward the cup indicating a yes, then looks back at Cass, her eyes slimming as she thinks back to the information the other Pantheon gods had told her over the duration of her stay here. ]

I think mostly about the godhood contract. [ Haru, legally, cannot say fuck bullshit. ] You are all reincarnated time and time again, but your contract lasts two years before you...

[ But as she looks at Cass, she's puzzled. Cass isn't dead, but she doesn't look so much like a god anymore. Was it the affects of this world? ]

There was also that machine I saw in your dream. Woden's machine? But I don't know what it does.

[queenofseers]

Oh, fuck, the machine. Guess what? That did jack shit.

[ There's almost a sense of scorn to her voice, not at Haru, but at...well, the world. Cassandra jerkily sloshes more coffee into a mug for Haru, not really paying attention and nearly spilling it, before handing it to Haru. ]

Oh, and the contract could be jack shit too, if we'd known it could be. [ She sits down with a huff. ] Do you remember me telling you about Ananke? The old lady who gave us powers? She was tricking us. And Minerva, the youngest god, she was too- because they're...they're basically the same person. It's complicated. You're going to want to sit down.

[ She's being a bit intense about this. She's in a mood now. ]

[girlybruiser]

[ There's a lot of information at the tip of Cass's tongue, so Haru proceeds to find a seat and ready herself. ]

I'm sorry, Ananke, the old woman... she was two people?

[queenofseers]

Remember that this happened every ninety years? Whenever the recurrence started, Minerva would show up, and at the end of the cycle Ananke would die and she'd take over with all Ananke's memories. And they were siphoning off us- do you remember anything about severed heads? Did you ever know about this? Turns out we could still live as severed fucking heads. And...that's what they'd get power from.

[ ...Those are words she just said. ]

Look, my- my point is she was using us to live forever. And she didn't care who fucking died when she did it. We never had to die.

[girlybruiser]

[ Haru doesn't know a thing about severed heads, as evidenced by the colour draining a little from her face at the idea and staring at Cass in complete and utter shock. ]

That's...

[ She's not sure she can drink her coffee just yet, putting a hand up to her mouth. ]

... that's horrifying.

[queenofseers]

Mmm.

[ It's hard for her not to seem a little cold, responding to something like that. She, in many ways, appreciates Haru's attempt to understand, even if she's not expressing it- it's the kind of effort she'd make herself. ]

It turns out...the entire reason she told people that that's what they were, that they were gods if they had powers, was so she could keep up the ruse. If we'd known, we could have just realized we weren't. [ She pauses, awkwardly running a hand through her hair. The point is getting across. ] So we did.

[girlybruiser]

[ Her hand slowly descends away from her mouth, but her eyes remain wide, her shoulders taut. ]

Then... you aren't a god at all?

[ But the way she gestures to herself... ]

You stopped being a god? I don't think I fully understand...

[queenofseers]

[ Cassandra stops for a moment, to articulate her position. She's sure this explanation is especially weird coming from her, someone who never embraced divinity in the same way as others. ]

I never thought I was a literal deity, but...I still believed I could prove shit to people with my powers. That somehow that made me more worth listening to. That was enough to believe in those powers. Once I knew better? That I may as well be like everyone else with some extra cigarette-lighting powers?

[ Speaking of which- she snaps her fingers. The tip of her thumb goes alight for a second, and then goes out. ]

Then it was gone. And none of us knew we could get out of it because everything Ananke had done made us think we couldn't.

[girlybruiser]

A figure in power who manipulated all of you... such callousness and cruelty.

[ That sounds far too similar to ordeals she and the others have dealt with back home, so she greatly sympathizes with Cass. ]

Oh! [ She isn't expecting Cass's thumb to light up, but it's gone as quickly as it had come. ] Do you no longer have your powers?

[queenofseers]

Apparently I...do? Sort of. There were literally about two minutes between me giving them up and getting thrown back into this shitshow.

[ She wishes she had her port-in papers in front of her. She looks away, rubbing her chin in thought. ]

What I got said that I can still do the same shit, but not nearly as much. It’d make sense. Laura gave it up before everyone else, and she could still knock people out, set little fires- that sort of thing. It was the extent of what we did that was the lie, not having powers.

[girlybruiser]

It sounds as if this Ananke woman needs to be stopped. What she's doing is... it is beyond wrong.

[ She eyes Cass expectantly then, hoping to hear any semblance of good news on that front. Maybe it's already been taken care of? ]

[queenofseers]

I think we just might have? By giving up our powers. She had to keep up the cycle, and if she can’t...

[ Well. What will happen to Ananke, Minerva, whatever they’re calling her now? Can she even strike out? It’s not as if Cassandra just wants to kill her, but... ]

Well, who knows what her ideas are, but I don’t think she can do much of anything to us anymore. That’s not how it works. We...might have finished it for good.

[ She hadn’t thought of it that way before. Jesus. ] We’re the last Pantheon. We should be. Fuck.

[girlybruiser]

... are you happier this way?

[ It seems as it's come at a great cost, but now it sounds as if impending doom isn't looming over the Pantheon anymore. ]

[queenofseers]

[ Good question. She should be. In her own world, she thinks the answer would lean closer to yes, even with the hurt of what she'd been through, the sting of not realizing anything sooner.

But here...? ]

...I never wanted to die. That's fucking wonderful. But without being able to divine as much anymore? Right now, with what we're dealing with? Frankly, I've spent my time feeling useless.

[girlybruiser]

Nobody wants to.

[ Her shoulders pinch as the words echo in her mind: I never wanted to die. A horrible, dreadful sentence to carry above one's head all this time. Haru hadn't even stopped to consider it while she was fully convinced she was Pachamama, but maybe that was Woden's doing... ]

You are not useless, Cassandra. I'm sure you will find a way.

[ She's sharp, there's still that. ]

[queenofseers]

Yes, yes, so I’ve been told.

[ Perhaps she’s grown too cynical, but she’s hearing that from everyone. She knows they’re saying the right thing, but it’s started to feel tiring.

She looks around, trying to change the topic. ]

Do you...uh, want something to eat? I think I’ve gotten Rex to buy more than oatmeal at this point.

[girlybruiser]

[ There is now one thing that piques Haru's curiosity. ]

Something light and sweet, if you have.

[ She drums her fingers along the surface, her expression pensive, not meeting Cass's eyes yet. ]

... hey, Cassandra? Does this mean Woden is the same?

[queenofseers]

[ She gets up to get Haru something, maybe some of the fruit they have for the oatmeal, until the question catches her totally off-guard.

She stops halfway through reaching up to the cupboard for a bowl, blinking in surprise. ]

Shit- no. He never was. And Woden’s dead, Haru. From what I can tell? Very, very dead.

[ And under her breath: ] Fuck. You don’t even know about Jon.

[girlybruiser]

... what?

[ Jon is a familiar name now, only thanks to Woden mentioning him to her, but the former is a shock to her. ]

He's... he's dead in your world?

[ It's hard to swallow this information, if only because Woden seems inescapable. Like a cockroach that won't go away. ]

[queenofseers]

Yeah.

[ So much had been going on that Cassandra could practically take it in stride. But here, Woden has somehow affected even more people dear to her. ]

I wasn't there for it, but- I got the impression it was pretty fucking brutal. Minerva had him killed once he was told who she was, I think. We only knew because a....failsafe he had in place in case he died went off.

[ She pauses, then speaks softly to herself. ] Fuck. How are we going to deal with that?

[girlybruiser]

What was the failsafe?

[ She feels... bad for coming here, honestly. It seems as if Cassandra is only more stressed out having to think of these things. ]

[queenofseers]

It’s...

[ God. ]

I’m telling you this because I trust you, and it doesn’t fucking matter here. It’s security footage of a murder. Persephone- Laura, she killed Ananke’s...elderly body, before we knew she and Minerva were one person split up. We told the public it was self-defense, but it really wasn’t. Ananke murdered Laura’s entire family, along with who knows how many other people. Laura...don’t hold this against her too much. She’d lost everything.

[ She rubs her forehead. ]

None of us wanted to put Laura in jail, so we went with the self-defense story. Obviously the video proves it wrong. Woden was just being a bitter asshole.

[girlybruiser]

[ Without knowing much about Persephone, just what she's heard from word of mouth, Haru can't exactly pass judgment about her. Although her heart, as it often does, pangs with sympathy for someone who lost her entire family through senseless violence. Haru knows the terrible, aching loneliness that accompanied that loss. ]

Woden really does continue his cruel streak without sparing a second thought...

[ Ugh, that creep. ]

The public doesn't knows of Ananke's crimes?