lucetilogs | New Species Event - Mass Interaction Log (take two)

Entry tags:

New Species Event - Mass Interaction Log (take two)

Who: Anyone!
What: All in here
When: Today, Tomorrow, Until April 2nd
Where: Anywhere in Luceti!
Summary: More people turning into weird stuff. Mod Note: If you want to opt for a second transformation for the rest of the event, feel free to do so.
Rating: FUN

No need for LJ Cut! Mass action style stuff all around town. You can use this if you don't want to make a post. Or you can make a post anyway. Have at!

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[Of all the living things with souls Giles will have seen around the village, this one will be an odd one. The outline of her soul is very faint and the only really visible part is a small, faintly glowing sphere near what would be her chest. To a regular illusionist, she would look barely alive. To Giles? She probably just looks weirder than usual.]

[Thankfully, she can tell right away that he must be a changed resident: all illusionists in her world are female. Still, that doesn't mean he doesn't have the same potential as an illusionist from her world, so hopefully he forgives her for walking right up to him and skipping the formalities.]

[She'd rather not have to see an Illusionist wipe out an entire village.]

You are a villager who has been changed for this experiment, yes?

[Everyone in the village looks weird today. So Giles blinks and stares as he sees this small glowing sphere and its gray outline approach. Even opens his eyes properly for a second to try and get a better "look" at her, not understanding that there isn't anything more to "see". But he doesn't comment on how she knows. He must look very strange today.]

Yes, I am.

I didn't think I was that obvious - at least I'm back to being the right shape.

[Cheyenne couldn't explain it, but something about Giles was making her feel increasingly uneasy. Was this how it felt to stand beside her? No... this was how it felt for an eleman to stand by an illusionist. For prey to stand near it's predator. If she wasn't so sure that she was incapable of such an emotion, she might call it fear.]

[When he opens his eyes, her own eyes are hidden. She hadn't closed them, but she knew better than to look an illusionist in the face.] It is not obvious to others, perhaps, because they are not aware of the sort of creature you have become.

You do not, perchance, happen to know what an illusionist is?

...someone who creates illusions? [Extrapolating from the word itself, rather than any real knowledge of what he is. All he knows is that he can't see, and that is bothering him.]

This is correct, although there is far more to it than simply that.

An illusionist is what I am. Usually. It is type of monster that consumes human souls to survive.

And on that note, I must request that you close your eyes if they are open. [She would close her own, but without her ability to see souls, seeing nothing made her feel far too vulnerable.]

Consumes human...

[Oh god, oh god, oh god...

But Giles does register Cheyenne's request. He'd just opened his eyes in utter shock, but quickly closes them again. There's little change in the world around him.]

...they're closed.

Good.

I am uncertain just how much of you has been changed by this experiment. If you are truly a full illusionist, you would be lacking the ability to understand or process emotions. Furthermore, looking at a creature bearing a soul would cause a sensation skin to hunger...

[Neither of which Giles should feel, given he should still has his whole soul, but Cheyenne needs to be sure here.]

Neither of which are the case right now, I assure you.

[Said more than a little defensively. Hungering for human souls would actually make him something worse than a vampire.]

...hm. I suppose that is to be expected. A creature bearing a full soul would have no reason to hunger for the souls of others.

[If she understood what jealousy was, she might be feeling a little of that right now. An illusionist who didn't hunger for souls, who had a full soul of their own...]

However, there is still the possibility your powers could be dangerous, even if you cannot actually consume souls. I can show you a way to test them, if you would like.

If you can? I would greatly appreciate it.

But my first question, I'm afraid, is "what powers"?

Ah, right.

Illusionists create illusions using their eyes. When one looks into the eyes of an illusionist, they'll see their greatest fear reflected back at them. An experienced illusionist can control these illusions and make them peaceful and harmless, but... that skill would take far longer than a few days to harness.

[Longer than a few decades, probably.]

The fear created by these illusions is what an illusionst feeds on. It makes the soul vulnerable and able to be drawn out.

You didn't seem terribly affected by my eyes.

Is that why I can't see anything? Or...why I'm just seeing colors, then? The eyes of an Illusionist are designed for other things?

Having spent a considerable amount of time as an illusionist, I know better than to look one in the eyes.

Your eyes are no longer designed for sight at all. What you are seeing is something you are not technically seeing, but sensing. Illusionists sense the souls of the creatures around them, none two appearing alike. That is what the colors you see are.

That...makes sense. Unfortunately. So you're normally one of these, these creatures, yes?

And if I'm only seeing souls, is that why everything else looks so blank?

The answer to both of those questions is yes. Normally I wear a blindfold around my eyes to limit the risk of an incident. Creating illusions and feeding on souls is a mutual power. Therefore, were someone to accidentally see an illusionist's eyes, they would also accidentally lose a part of their soul.

However, that is the case for illusionists who lack a complete soul of their own and feel a desire to feed. I am not certain what would happen if you attempted such a thing...

I probably won't attempt it. Because I don't feel the least bit hungry.

That is reassuring to hear. Had you become the sort of illusionist who felt a desire to feed, it might have been necessary to imprison you until the experiment ended.

[She says "imprison" only because she knows well enough that it's not exactly socially acceptable to tell someone you just met that you might have had to kill them.]

The hunger is typically not something so easily maintained, particularly to a creature who would not be accustomed to it.

And I'd much prefer not to go through that again.

...has a situation such as that occurred before?

Oh, yes.

But then it was blood, not souls.

Blood? I cannot say I have ever heard of a creature who possessed such a hunger. Are they, perhaps, from your world?

You've never heard of vampires?

Consider yourself very fortunate, then.

Oh?

Am I correct in assuming they are not a friendly species?

They are an exceptionally unfriendly species.

Most consider humans to be future meals and nothing more. The ones in my world are actually incapable of compassion.

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New Species Event - Mass Interaction Log (take two)

April 1st

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