trespassers [IC] ALTEREDNU

[DragonRage]

"Might I suggest selling hot products in a cold place, or cold products in a hot place?" Rachel suggests to the vendor, "I would have happily paid double price for a piping hot groxburger during that tour on that Emperor-forsaken iceball Tetris Seven, or for ice cream when we campaigned on that desert tomb world, and got stuck with a rhino APC with a busted cabin climate control."

[Hal Henderics]

The child picks up Dolly, and the ghost describes it.

 

 

The child begins walking towards the others.

 

 

-Snowdin Road

 

The Nice Cream Salesman seems to hear Rachel, nodding to himself as he scoots away.

 

The child and Arminius arrive.

 

The rest of the gang notice that there appears to be a small game of golf set up in the area, with a giant snowball as the ball.

 

Sans is standing over by the exit to the next area.

[kj1225]

Arminius waves at the group, eyeing the golf course as he approaches. "Well this is... interesting. Were you guys in the middle of a round or something?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor

 

Though not nearly as paranoid as the human beside him, Proditor's years of military experience taught him to be ready at all times. So when he read the note's rather simple message, the alien's response was nearly immediate, his mind's eye once again expanding to take in the entirety of the room around them, and a bony arm shooting out, purple mist swirling in preparation for a Psionic Lance depending on what was behind them.

[Chevaleresse]

The homunculus glanced between the two monsters as they walked in different directions. She hesitated in place for a moment before taking a few hurried steps to catch up to Asgore once more. She opens her mouth to speak, then closes it after a moment, realizing she hadn't actually thought of what to say. What did she say? Was she just supposed to. . . ask whether he was going to eat her friends? It didn't seem likely, but this entire place was strange. In many ways, stranger than either of the previous worlds she'd been to. "So, um, when you asked her to escort them, did you mean. . . ?" The end of the sentence was obvious. Was he actually going to just talk to them, or was it so that he could take a soul for himself?

[Hal Henderics]

-Hotland

 

Asgore guides Lucine to an elevator leading to New Home.

 

[DragonRage]

"Golf?  Ah, for kinder, brighter times," Rachel sighs, lost in long-ago memories.  Of a time before the battlefields, before the Guard.  When neophyte Hospitaller Sister Rachel served a small farming community on a peaceful agri-world, treating cuts, bruises, and the occasional broken bone.  She looks down at her gauntleted hands, the ceramite still stained by the blood of thousands of guardsmen and xenos to fall under her blades and scalpels to heal or harm, and the soot of more heretics and abominations than she'd care to count.  "It has been... so long...  since I have seen such frivolities.  I..."  The rejuvinat treatments seem to fall away, and for a moment Sister Rachel feels all of her eighty-seven years.

[Hal Henderics]

-Snowdin Road

 

The child pushes Rachel over to the snowball, encouragingly, insofar as a small child can push a heavily armored, ceramite plated sister of battle anywhere.

 

 

They point out, as if ice cream could have dulled the memories.

 

Though, the child seems to be speaking from experience.

[DragonRage]

"I...  I don't know if..."  Rachel trails off, staring down at the ball, having allowed the child to push her over to it.  Then slowly, almost as if she's practically forgotten how, she unlatches her gauntlets and medicae, and sets them aside, along with each of her weapons, one by one, and her jump pack.  Carrying only her inferno pistols holstered at her waist, she picks up one of the golf clubs, and working from long ago memories, takes a somewhat uncertain stance.  She raises the club, and gives the ball a careful tap towards the first hole.

[Hal Henderics]

Playing slowly, and carefully, the snowball gradually makes its way to the hole with Rachel's help.

 

A purple flag pops up, with a note attached.

 

 

Rachel obtained 30 gold pieces, in a small satchel tied to the flagpole.

The snowball re-materializes at the beginning of the course.

 

Toriel and the Child, both go next.

 

Toriel takes the time to examine the course and the ball before smacking it into the hole in several smooth strokes.

 

 

She rolls her eyes a bit at the white flag's words.

 

The child grips their club fluidly, and in under six seconds, has the ball in the hole, practically running after it with each blow.

 

The ball lands in the hole, and a bright red flag pops out.

 

 

The child prompts Dolly to try, but they just scoff.

 

Despite getting the highest payout, 50 gold pieces, the child seems uninterested in their win.  Bored, even.

[kj1225]

Arminius watches from the sidelines for a bit before walking up. "Mind if I give it a try?"

[DragonRage]

Rachel sits heavily next to her pile of weapons, staring down at her very pale hands.  She runs a finger across the scar bisecting the web between her right thumb and the rest of the hand, eyes distant.

[Hal Henderics]

The child hands Arminius the golf club with a smile, walking off to the side.

 

 

Dolly says.

 

 

[kj1225]

Arminius turns and smirks at the doll for a few moments in what one would most likely take in a taunting way, before seeming to decide they aren't worth the energy and instead taking his go at the game. He spends more time than he probably should trying to do trick shots before he finally gets it in the hole.

[DragonRage]

Rachel heaves a sigh.  "Arminius?  The bizarre daemon you claimed to have contained has possessed a doll.  You're certain it's not going to escape and wreak havoc?  Because I am enjoying the first moment of peace I've had in...  call it fifty years?  Somewhere around that.  And if I have to interrupt it to purge a possessed psyker I once considered a valued ally, I will be cross."

[kj1225]

Arminius pauses his shot to sigh and respond to Rachel. "I have this under control now. I could do that with anyone or anything I reckon... But that does give me a good point to get into this. I think we could uh... help him. Make him whole." Arminius takes his shot, banking it off two walls before the ball comes to a stop right in front of him again.

[DragonRage]

"Make him whole?  How could we heal a daemon?  The things just recover from whatever wounds they take in the warp and then come back twice as murderous as before.  And why would we want-"  Rachel shakes her head, "Right.  Different world, different rules.  What would this healing entail?  And what effects do you think it would have?  It doesn't seem that the state of his physical form seems to... bother this vile creature overmuch."

[Hal Henderics]

 

Arminius receives 20 Gold after his dicking around.

 

 

For quite possibly the first time, the child shows an emotion other than steadfast firmness or boredom, though the exact emotion is unclear.

 

 

Flowey sneers at this, wriggling in the child's grip to get a better vantage point.

 

 

Even their words ring hollow, as if they might very well be lying.

 

In fact, they're almost certainly lying, considering what Arminius saw in the Essence he had of theirs.

 

Toriel, who has only just noticed the doll, looks quietly horrified at the idea of a fractured SOUL.

[kj1225]

Arminius leans on his club to start his explanation but the kid starts before him. Instead he just waits until the child and doll have spoken. He stares at the doll for a bit before speaking. "This is just my opinion, but that sounds like a pretty empty existence to me."

[DragonRage]

"His soul is-  And he's still alive?  That would explain his odd state of existence," Rachel sighs, looking back to her hands, "Psyker.  You can take essences from one to another, correct?  I know not how much love, hope, or compassion might still linger in my heart, but...  If you can repair one soul, then...  Might it be possible that..."  She gazes up at Arminius with an inscrutable, unsettled expression, "No, such things are...  But..."  Something tugs at the edges of her mouth.  "Heh.  I suppose even after so many years of war and darkness, there is still a bit of hope in me yet."

[StormLord]

Ignia mostly stands back, enjoying watching the game but not being terribly interested herself.  She listens to Arminius and Rachel's conversation as it unfolds, intrigued by the doll having an incomplete Heart, as well as Arminius' seeming ability to manipulate Hearts so readily.
"I'm not sure, but I've read a little about fractured Hearts before.  They certainly are ways for it to be restored but....Well most of the ones I know of are edge cases or a little out of our time frame."

[kj1225]

Arminius raises his eyebrows at that. "Huh, didn't expect you to volunteer first. But... well, I'll warn you, I probably can just take from you so this will likely be more involved than you'd hope. Well, unless you want to risk me tearing parts out of your soul that it's not prepared to regenerate... And then there's the matter of putting it all together. I uh... I'm not exactly sure I can just slap a bandage on it and call it good, to use more physical terminology... Maybe..." Arminius turns to Toriel.

"Your people down here know how to merge souls right? Or at least the king does if he plans to merge his soul with a human one? Do you think someone down here can teach me to do that?"

[DragonRage]

"For such an achievement as the ability to restore a damaged soul, I would martyr myself without regret," Sister Rachel states, "But if there is a path that doesn't involve my demise, it would be exceptionally foolish to sacrifice myself needlessly.  To waste a human life is heresy, and to be avoided.  And I would like to think I have not yet exhausted the good I might do for humanity."

[Hal Henderics]

Toriel frowns, but almost wants to laugh at the irony.

 

"I'm afraid you may not... understand certain things."

 

"It may be best if I were to explain why we are here.  The child appears to have already read through the books in my home, judging from their knowledge, so forgive me if I tell you what you already know."

 

"Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS."

"One day, war broke out between the two races."

"After a long battle, the humans were victorious."

"They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell."

 

She pauses.

 

"This is what the history books say."

 

"Truthfully, I do not know whether you all see monsters as something to be feared, or to be pitied.  Nor is it any of my concern."

 

"But the truth of the matter is this, I do not know.  Only one monster, in all recorded history, has absorbed a human SOUL.  All else is legend."

 

Her breath hitches, but she continues clinically.

 

"Yes, it is true that the strength of a human SOUL allows it to persist after death."

 

"And yes, it is true that any Monster who defeats a human could absorb its SOUL."

 

"But I know nothing else.  A monster absorbing the SOUL of even a single human is unthinkable, even ignoring the cruelty of such an act, only in recent years has it been more than a legend.  You humans are blessed with physical bodies, and unimaginable strength."

 

"Countless monsters died in the war, and yet, not a single human.  Not a single SOUL was successfully taken."

 

She glances aside.  "I've... Wondered.  From time to time.  A monster with a human SOUL is a being of terrible power.  Why does Asgore not simply absorb a single SOUL, leave through the barrier, and collect the SOULs he needs from the surface, then return to release monsterkind?  We know only one human and one monster's SOUL is required to pass through it."

 

"Why wait meekly in this dank hole, hoping another human would never fall down here?"

 

She shakes her head.  "But I digress.  None could teach you to absorb a SOUL, Arminius.  And even if you could, a human cannot absorb the SOUL of another human, and an ordinary monster's SOUL is too weak to survive death."

[kj1225]

Arminius frowns. He goes silent for a few moments before nodding. "I see..." The way he says it one could take it as a simple response to that knowledge, or they could take it as a response to something unspoken. Arminius stretches, looking toward the skeleton that was waiting for them more than likely. 

"I'm going to go talk to our friend there. Take your time, maybe play a few more rounds. I'm sure I won't get too far ahead of you all." It didn't take a genius to tell Arminius' mood had darkened somewhat, but it probably wasn't anything to worry about right?