think of a sword pun

[hasapoint]

[Need starts in the Mindspeech whisper she's used over the network before - a voice seeming to come from right between the ears of any listener.]

So! We've learned that some of us are analagous to various horrible entities in others' home planes while, this's important, not actually being the same thing. I'm willing to bet there's more than one case of this. And what I am might fall into that category and is also inevitably going to come up, so let's just get it out now.

[The visual comes up - a small sword laid on a table. Now Need comes out of the whisper. Sometimes her voice sounds human enough, like that of an old woman who's breathed a lot of smoke. Sometimes she sounds like metal scraping on stone or ringing off more metal.]

To make a long story very short, I was an old mage-smith and I bound my soul to this sword so I could empower and guide my apprentice at a difficult time. I don't have eyes or ears, so I borrow other peoples' and sometimes their hands as well, and I speak mind-to-mind. If my binding seems blasphemous, fear not, I was sanctioned by the Twain. If you have something against gods, don't worry about it, the Twain died a long time ago. If it's spirits, you've got me there, but I'm not interested in taking what's not freely given and I can't make anyone do something against their will.

Now. I've taught a lot of youngsters over the years. If you want to learn the sling, the bow, or the sword, you can ask for my help and I can get you to proficiency faster than a normal teacher. If you've got an injury or a chronic condition, I'm also a healer. I may not be as good as usual, but I'm discreet and nothing will be lost by coming to me. If you need a blacksmith... well, that takes more of an arrangement. I can also show people old memories while they're asleep, which displaces nightmares so they can wake up all nice and rested.

Call me Need. If you have questions, I have time.

Comments

[millenyal_pink]

It was just a thought I had, but that makes sense. I imagine there's some discomfort in being 'asleep' and having a living being to work through is probably the most convenient option, anyway.

[hasapoint]

The mirrors can be a supplement reasonably enough. And it's not that falling asleep is uncomfortable, exactly, but I stop being able to think very much when I'm asleep. I have a purpose and a cause that have shaped me, ever since I put myself in this thing. When I'm asleep I can't regulate it much and it's more of the whole of my being, so I try to compel people to the aid of desperate women. And some others, but it's mostly women.

Which isn't a cause I regret, but if I'm asleep it's harder to gauge things such as 'is someone else going to get her out of it before we even get there' or 'is this problem much too large for you to address at all', let alone give advice on what's happening and how to stop it.

[Also her sleeping influence ramps up into causing intense pain and rage if the peril is enough, but who's asking?]

[millenyal_pink]

[Elle understands the importance of control all too well, as someone who has the small issue of going into raging frenzies if she is pushed too far.]

It sounds like a noble cause. I know someone who did something similar, but in the service of protecting children. She wasn't a spirit, but she has lived many lifetimes to fulfill her duties.

[She doesn't mention her experience of living all of those lifetimes beside her. That seems a bit personal and intense for a first meeting like this.]

[hasapoint]

Good for her. That kind of thing never seems to have an end. The world, in scraps or entire, can change for the better, and then the worse, and then the better again as many times as it likes. There are always the disregarded and the shunned, and there always people with power who think they'll face no reprisals for preying on them. But it's worth fighting against all the same.

[Need is cynical about it - she always has been, ever since she was alive - but not to the point of stopping.]

[millenyal_pink]

[Need's outlook almost reminds Elle of Roberta's, especially when they first 'met'. She was exhausted and beaten down by playing out tragedy after tragedy.]

Sometimes the only thing you can do is keep going, no matter the odds.

[Which isn't to say that Elle disagrees with or blames people who choose survival over principals. Conviction is a luxury that she knows not everyone can afford.]

[hasapoint]

You always have to keep going regardless. Things will come around again, given enough time, and small victories aren't meaningless when you pay attention to them.

[She sounds firm, inasmuch as you can read that kind of tone in the scrape of her voice at the moment.]

And I'm better at gauging that when I'm awake. Otherwise it's very stimulus-response in here, and that can be counterproductive.