poly_chromatic

That's what I keep telling people.

[But who listens to them.]

It would help if they were just a little less repressed. More fun for the rest of us as well.

They never change.

[She might legit sound kind of disappointed...]

Some do but not enough.

[Ne's been doing this since forever and humans are always the same.]

At least the ones who do are temporarily fun.

Temporarily. [Sigh.] I'm not paying attention to the temporary ones.

None are permanently so since One has lived far too long for that.

Not the others like you?

They hold no interest at all. [Don't make nem ill Carla.]

[Just a little amused,]

I was just asking.

Okay, so what is knotting? I mean, besides a thing you do with string and ropes and things.

[Oh Penny you precious, precious thing.]

It's an animal breeding technique where the male's penis swells to keep it from leaving the female for several minutes to insure fertilization.

[Want to learn more?]

[She looks torn between curiosity and being too embarrassed to inquire farther.]

But why would anyone be looking that up?

[Curiosity it is!]

Curiosity since it is one of those topics most consider taboo since sex with other species is for some reason looked down upon.

Some demons and devils are capable of it. One would suppose it is a potential with those who are werewolves among the citizens of the City as well.

Why would anyone--oh. That... okay. No judging. It's probably better to... um, be informed. Y'know, about things when they're part of a person's lifestyle.

Why should One judge? It is only natural to want to fulfill those desires, the unnatural thing comes when they are denied.

Oh, no, I'm sure you wouldn't judge! There's just--it's just that people do when they hear about something that seems unnatural to them. Not that there's really anything like unnatural--natural is totally relative--and I'll stop talking now because you answered my question pretty thoroughly.

Thanks.

The eye of the beholder and all? [Ne's being nice and not laughing at you Penny since July likes you, but it's very hard.]

You are most welcome.

By "kinks," you're not talking about the knots in the rope.

[It's a question. Obviously "kinks" refers to sex, but she doesn't understand what a rope with knots has to do with that.]

[Oh, well won't this be interesting? Ne only promised to protect the girl's body after all if needed nothing more.]

Yes and no. It is quite possible for both the knots and rope to be symbolic in this case.

What are they symbolic of?

You've missed the posts the network has been sharing haven't you.

[Not really a question but a strong guess all the same.]

Sexual kinks. Both may fall under the heading as well as suggesting a few others at the same time.

I don't usually pay attention to the network. [It's pointless. She doesn't care about humans or their problems, except for Hei. Unless she's supremely bored (which happens more often than she would like), she doesn't see any point in looking at their mindless drivel.]

So it's symbolic of tying people up? [There has to be more than that, though. Pai feels like there's something she's missing.]

[Smart girl.]

It can be. Tying others up, being tied up, artistically or just in to hold them down.

And then the knots are relative to certain animal breeds, it is a mating step to keep male and female together until fertilization may occur. Some find it interesting as an idea, a fantasy, or in some cases as something to try. As there are werewolves in the Underground One is assuming that the curiosity may come from practical need.

[Pai nods. This makes sense to her.]

Thank you for explaining. [Thank yous are something Amber taught her (Hei had tried, but Amber was the one who made the lesson stick).]

I never understood shame.

Of course not. You missed that part of the sermon...be thankful.

[ Oh, Hatter. You hopeless proponent of All Things Absurd. ]

Some are so used to the restrictions that it isn't a question of being afraid. It's the only way they know to navigate their lives.

[Ne is a devil. What else is ne supposed to do?]

Pathetic lives to live then.

[ Point. ]

The freedom of choice isn't something everyone has.

[ You have to wrestle that freedom away for yourself, even at the risk of being sliced open on the sharp edges of repercussion. ]

Really now? Do tell.

[Seriously? Ne was one of the first to join in the war over free will. Preaching to the choir here silly boy.]

I'm sure you have that area covered.

[ Hei may be a proponent of free will. But he's hardly one to shove it down other peoples' throats. Self-awareness is a private thing, and the easiest in the world to distort. ]

One was just curious to your thoughts on the subject.

[All ne wants is for people to appreciate and act on it instead of being blind sheep following along without cause. Is that too much to ask?]

[ For those who identify themselves as blind sheep -- who prefer the blissful oblivion of living in a cage -- it is. ]

All curiosity -- and succumbing to it -- comes at a price.

[ re: he has no intention of discussing the Kafkaesque rules and restraints placed on him by the Syndicate. Suggesting a familiarity with a coercive structure is no better than offering a window into your own background, and the abuse and cruelty he endured within. ]

[Slaughter should be granted to them sooner than later then.]

But usually well worth any cost in the end.

[ Five years ago, Hei would've agreed. He'd have been first in line, armed to the teeth, to carry out the slaughter. But the anger that once blazed in him, corrosive and bright-blue and blinding, has cooled. These days, he knows it's not his prerogative to judge or condemn. ]

[ (Not unless he's compensated for the effort.) ]

Not always.

Sometimes the cost is so high, your life is reduced to paying and paying.

[ Like Carmine. Like Mai. Like Amber. Like all those who've fallen back home, not knowing what they'd have to lose as collateral for the decisions they made. ]

[Who's judging? If you wish to be led around following without question there is only one end for you.]

Life is lived to pay one debt or another any way, it's which ones you get the most out of first that matter.

[ True. But blind followers have their uses. As tools. As assets. As buffers. If they refuse to snatch the reins of control in their lives, better to wring them for what little they're worth -- until they're emptied. Even useless creatures can come in handy, if only for a minute or an hour. ]

Being indebted to anyone or anything is dangerous. [ It's why Hei functions in such sharp divides of dues, fixed costs and profits -- with human lives as the specie. ] It's a fact that can always be used against you.

Is that so?

[Ne wonders how he views the life he placed in nir hands then. A very tricking thing to offer such a piece to a devil, even one with attachments of nir own.]

[ Hatter may be unrecognisable in a certain Austrian's attempts to set the infinite strangeness of desire down in medical language. But she is predictable, in reverse. An interesting mental stretch. You have to watch what her mouth and hands don't do. (Of course, most idiots would say what her mouth and hands do do is interesting enough.) Either way, while degenerate, she isn't stupid. She must realize Hei picked her for the job because she's the best-suited. Because she has a fondness for children -- particularly broken ones. But also because if she screws up, this game of cat and mouse between her and Hei would end in certain, satisfying death. ]

[ Call it a recipe for closure. ]

Tried and tested.

[Death was not the end all that many though it was. And then again, what was death in a city like the City? It would leave nir with just another reason to make his life a worse hell than it was.]

All tests fail eventually, perhaps we shall see in the end.

[ The 'death' in that sense is metaphorical. In the City, where there's no final flutter, no long-awaited coda, Hei knows better than to overplay his hand. Killing isn't always the solution. Especially when the prospect of a slow torture, a piecemeal elimination, is so much more satisfying. Not everyone deserves a quick end. Especially not if their offenses are personal. ]

New discoveries are made that alter the tests, but the law is always the same. Only the understanding of it changes.

[ It's a science as much as anything else is. Even something as unquantifiable as a Satan functions by nir own absolutes. It's just a matter of learning what those are. ]

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