Mask or Menace IC Contact Post

[thelasttsviet]

You have reached Shelke Rui. Leave a message and I'll reply when I can.

Comments

[thelasttsviet]

[There's a delay before Shelke answers.]

Indifferent?

[glitterateur]

that sounds pretty boring honestly

you never get excited??

[thelasttsviet]

Not really.

[glitterateur]

ok

that's kind of alarming!!

we gotta fix this because honestly getting excited about stuff is the best part of life!!

[thelasttsviet]

It has a lot of downsides too.

[glitterateur]

nope!! I've been excited a lot and so far it's been great

[thelasttsviet]

Disappointment. Fear. Abandonment. Disgust.

They can all come from excitement that fails.

[glitterateur]

those can come from other places too though!!

so you can't just blame being excited about something for the bad feelings that might happen

it's not excitement's fault!!

[thelasttsviet]

Yes, they can.

[Which is why Shelke generally just tried not to feel anything.]

I do not just blame excitement.

[glitterateur]

wait what else do you blame??

because if the answer is joy and stuff we've got a huge problem!!

[thelasttsviet]

I have not found it to be a problem.

It is necessary.

[glitterateur]

ok but it's obviously not necessary because plenty of people feel emotions all the time and they do pretty great!!

[thelasttsviet]

They have not lived the life I have.

[glitterateur]

I mean

a lot of people have lived really rough lives here?? like this guy I know died in an explosion

and he's still good at emotions!!

Shelke is a little overdramatic.

[thelasttsviet]

Death would have been preferable to the ten years of the hell I experienced.

[glitterateur]

what happened?!!?!?

[thelasttsviet]

[There's a long delay before Shelke answers. Finally she decides, this is a private call as far as she can tell, so...why not.]

When I was nine years old I was kidnapped because the Shinra thought that my abilities were interesting. I was tortured and experimented on, my body broken and changed to make me 'better' only to be left nearly ruined. And then I spent ten years trapped in their prison full of lunatics and monsters, forced to do their bidding or be killed.

I hoped for so long that someone might rescue me. Until I realized no one was ever going to come. If I had let myself feel, I would have gone as insane as they were.

[glitterateur]

[That is one heck of a lot of sad backstory. It takes Mabel a little bit to figure out how to respond.]

oh

I'm really sorry

[thelasttsviet]

I don't need your apology.

Just that you understand. The things you assume are wonderful, excitement and hope, they are not always the blessing you think they are.

[glitterateur]

I mean I just feel bad because that sounds like it sucked a whole lot

so I'm sorry you had to live through that

[thelasttsviet]

It did...suck.

But one way or another it is over now, at least.

[glitterateur]

yeah exactly!!!

new life new chances!!

[thelasttsviet]

[A delay before she answers.]

So are you going to steal that animal?

[glitterateur]

I think I'm just gonna go visit it first!!

really see if it's ok in the zoo first

[thelasttsviet]

That is unexpectedly sensible.

There weren't any zoos in Midgar but what I have read indicates the ones here seem acceptable.