| 4 |
| CHA |
| 16 |
[Romance] You roll a 16 (required 10). Success!
CRASH!
You jump in your seat as lightning strikes nearby.
Moonflower: "Whoa‼"
You take a quick look around, feeling disoriented as though you had just dozed off. You are back at the table with your friends — or did you ever leave? The comfortable warmth of the cushion underneath you suggests that you have been sitting here awhile. Rain falls noisily outside.
Lexicon Anathema levitates her teapot with green magic, and refills the cup in front of you. You nod in thanks, and watch the steam rise thoughtfully. Was it naught but a daydream, you wonder, all the way to its unsatisfying end?
Honourshine: "... And if we do find this grizzled unicorn, do you believe we could regain our lost memories?"
Lexicon Anathema: "Nhn. A better question is: would you want to? Memories of mortal foals are nothing worth stealing — you risk remembering things you wish you hadn't."
Honourshine: "If it means remembering our parents, then I will take that risk."
While the conversation goes on as though nothing had happened, you can't help but think back to the one you just had in private. You distinctly recall the filly speaking to you in Ponish, yet Tsu-Ko was not there to translate. Could you truly have imagined it? And if so, what does that say about you?
You begin to suspect that the tea must be playing tricks on your mind. Or perhaps it is the house's dim lighting that is lulling you to sleep. Now that you think about it, you are starting to feel hungry. You blow gently on your tea, and take a careful sip.
Lexicon Anathema: "What a sad state of affairs. You don't expect to reunite with them, do you?"
Honourshine: "Perhaps not. I simply do not wish to forget them."
Moonflower: "She also wants to know if Blazer's her brother or not!"
Lexicon Anathema: "Ah?"
Moonflower: "'Cause she wants to smooch him."
Lexicon Anathema: "Ah."
Honourshine: "Moonflower...!"
Moonflower: "Heeheehee!"
Lexicon Anathema: "Well, it doesn't matter."
Honourshine: "I... would like to think that it does."
Lexicon Anathema: "Beliefs can only stifle the truth for so long; in reality, your biological imprint remains untouched. Foalhood memories will bear no effect on your feelings for him, siblings or not."
Honourshine: "... Hm. Is that so...?"
Tsu-Ko: "And why is this a conversation, if I may ask?"
Lexicon Anathema: "Because mortal biology discourages inbreeding by potentially reducing the reproductive success of each generation. Thus, most develop avoidance to kin early in life, but not all, so there is a bias against it in some cultures."
Tsu-Ko: "Is that all? Fear of water for the waves?"
Lexicon Anathema: "Show some sympathy, sprite. Emotions are more than mere playthings to them, you know."
You catch Honourshine stealing a few timid glances at you, and you offer her a reassuring smile in return. At least she seems comfortable enough to chat with Lexicon Anathema. You figure that she must relate somewhat to the hermit — the two share quite a few similarities, after all.
Enter a comment
- Lexicon clearly has a lot of power. If she wanted to hurt us, she would've already. And if the tea is spiked, we're already screwed. So I think that merits a modicum of trust, rather than demanding an immediate explanation.
- We don't understand the exact nature of Lexicon's "time stopping" spell, but unfamiliar magic is pretty common in this setting. "Magic is as magic does." This by itself isn't a reason for panic.
- It's going to be hard to question things while keeping our (shameful?) deeds a secret. And Lexicon cited shyness as a reason that she too wants to keep it a secret, so this would be against her wishes.
- I just generally think going with the flow is the best policy when in an unfamiliar, but not immediately dangerous situation. If we still haven't received an explanation (and the info about Elves) by the time it's time to leave, we still have the option of forcing the issue then.
- Trailblazer's internal monologue already seems a bit confused and anxious right now. No need to play into that.
Call me surprised. I thought incest would be an issue for Spirits/Kirin.
Also whoa moonflower just blurt out to lexicon about honourshine secret desire to kiss trailblazer because she really wants to know if they're related or not the bat pony and lexicon was able to see through honourshine socially reserved personality and get a good read on her thoughts the earth pony wants to be close to her old foalhood friend, but she hesitant and timid about it; until she finds out the truth about their lost past. But they're telling her that she shouldn't worry too much about it regardless if they're half siblings or not her feelings for trailblazer since childhood never faded or changed since their paths diverge they remained strong for him as ever just dormant and needs a little push from him to help her release and accept them once again.
What happened after we agreed isn't explicitly stated, but if I can interpret…There are a couple ways to think of this. Perhaps Trailblazer's memory right after agreeing was actually wiped for some reason. Maybe Lexicon didn't want us to feel bad and wiped our memory (but if she did, she did a sloppy job of it). Or we felt too ashamed and blocked it out (seems unlikely though). Or learning forbidden knowledge auto-wipes your memory (that would be a very hilarious piece of lore). Or this is an innuendo and "it" was unsatisfying. I would discount the interpretation that nothing happened because of the roll, although maybe that's out of character knowledge. But I am wondering how Lexicon will uphold her end of the deal. Do we have to bring up the topic of Elves again, or will Lexicon bring it up herself?
Lexicon brings up a good point. We don't know if we deliberately erased our own memories because there was something horrible we wanted to forget. This would contradict the theory that the grizzled unicorn deliberately didn't erase himself from Matron Kindleheart's memory so we have a breadcrumb trail to him, though, and the random advice we received from Munin in 2024-02-26.So I would bet that this isn't the case.