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[evocation]

@kyna.medina | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[lifetothefullest]

Hopefully you can find them and they're okay, but I'm glad most of you are alright.

[Physically, anyway, and he's presuming on that. Obviously she's okay enough to talk and she'd probably mention if any of the Displaced were seriously hurt, so hopefully it's an okay assumption.]

I don't exactly know, but I know that the scale's logarithmic and a 6 is considered pretty big.

[And, guessing based on her question--]

Did a building come down?

[evocation]

not
down exactly
but there's a lot of damage and if i could phase through stuff i think me and the guy i was working with would have been stuck in there

[lifetothefullest]

[Sounds like it was a close call and he really wishes he could be helping somehow.]

Sounds like your power is not just useful, but really useful.

[And although he doubts it, he should still ask--]

Is there anything I can do?

[evocation]

i don't think so
but thanks

[She's definitely shaken up, but that's easier to hide over text. It's also, she realizes, very likely to hit her harder later. So that's something to look forward to.]

are you okay?

[lifetothefullest]

[He almost answers with the intention of returning the subject to her--of course he's fine, she's the one who was at the center of things--but then rethinks it. She may just want a distraction, so he'll let her shift the topics however she wants.]

I'm fine; as far as I know there isn't really any damage here. The power's partially out though, I think? Some things are off but it doesn't seem to be a total blackout or anything.

[evocation]

jesus
all the way over there? is that normal?

[lifetothefullest]

I don't think so, people on the news seem pretty surprised.

[evocation]

that's probably not good
this better not be some new bullshit to deal with

[lifetothefullest]

What's the timing in this place like for new bullshit? Should we be expecting it yet?

[evocation]

uh
i don't know
was there timing at hadriel?

[lifetothefullest]

Yeah, we could usually predict when the gods were going to do something, though sometimes other things happened off schedule.

[evocation]

what the fuck
they had a schedule? why?

[lifetothefullest]

The things they did were all about generating emotional energy from us to use as power for themselves, so the schedule was arranged around who needed power when, as far as I know.

[evocation]

uh
gross
how did they do that?

[lifetothefullest]

How did they do what, get energy from us?

[evocation]

yeah
what did they do?

[lifetothefullest]

There were eight of them: Hope, Fear, Rage, Delight, Tranquility, Confusion, Love, and Sorrow, and they each ran on the emotions they were named after. What they did depended on which one of the gods needed power, so Fear would do things to cause fear, Confusion would cause confusion, Hope caused hope, you get the idea.

They could warp reality to some extent and affect us mentally or emotionally, and so they used that however worked best for what they needed.

[evocation]

holy shit
i hate that
how did you even deal with that?

[lifetothefullest]

Yeah, I wasn't a fan either.

Probably the same way you've all dealt with the things that happen here; you just get through it.

[Sometimes in better ways than others, sometimes with more support than others, but they didn't have any real choice other than to just handle whatever was thrown at them as it happened.]

[evocation]

is that what you're supposed to say as a psychologist? just get through it?

[lifetothefullest]

Hey, you have to let me know in advance if you want actual psychologist advice. Otherwise you just get my terrible, unprofessional responses.

[evocation]

so you don't follow your own advice?

[lifetothefullest]

I think that's under doctor-patient confidentiality, so I can't answer.

[evocation]

you are such a liar

[lifetothefullest]

Wow, that's quite the accusation.

[But okay, more seriously--]

'Getting through it' is a little more simplistic than what I should say, but it's the basic version. More in depth, you can't always change or control what happens--things like what the gods did, or the earthquake--and so what you can do is figure out how to move forward from it. Normally, I'd suggest doing that by confronting and working through the traumatic events, but that wasn't always possible in Hadriel.