auntie-browning

[auntie-browning]

"My hair is blonde so that can be pretty close to white, right? A-Am I doing this right?"

[auntie-browning]

The news didn’t assure confidence on Browning’s part in this. She wasn’t in the loop but with how Miss. G put it, the losses were heavy even if they were small in number. It really did make her re-evaluate just what kind of effort these Agents of Full could even exhort.  Was it worth even placing her faith on them alone? She made it sound like she could work well to fight Phi and take him down but now it just seemed like numbers alone wouldn’t be enough either.

Of course, everything she wanted to express out were hold back deep into the recesses of her neural cloud. She didn’t want to openly squander the sacrifices of those brave enough to face such evil. But she really started to wonder if it was out of confidence or arrogance?

“I…see…Is there anything I could do then, Miss. G? I suppose I could try to find where those ten were placed under. Maybe communicate with them and see how they are. I’ll try to see if I could have them not get fed on so often…” She tried giving some suggestions, pensive and reserved while she gave them. That is to say those ten aren’t spiraling down towards madness as she speaks. Heaven knows Phi enjoys giving new blood some ‘extra attention’ before they eventually bore him.

"Rise and shine, soldier." Miss G sounds notably weaker and more haggard than during her last visit. "I won't stay long. I just wanted to... give you an update."

“By the way you look, I’d wager you should probably leave sooner than later. You look worse than I do, and I’m the one being tortured by unreasonable creations of evil here…”

Browning responded back, looking over to the familiar voice she had heard so very long ago. She was beginning to worry that Miss G had finally forgotten about her here. Perhaps it was a little harsh to say but being trapped in a place where time moves in strange waves instead of a constant tick does that to you.

Nothing ever seems quite right.

[auntie-browning]

Martz kid!

If they had a kid meme

Name: Rhizome (Rhi for short)

Gender: Biological Female

General Appearance: Sharing strikingly similar looks with Martz, Rhi comes off shorter than both her parents with deceptively straight pink hair and drab eyes all while having an average build. All topped with comically large bunny ears that droop backwards. No FC’s come to mind at the moment.

Personality: Well-behaved and book smart. She is more concerned with academics than the usual chaos her mother Martz enjoys to indulge in. However, she does still retain the desire for mischief that Martz enjoys to create, leading her to appear bi-polar in personality.

Special Talents: She retains the magical prowess that Martz possesses but furthers herself into mechanical based mysticism, becoming adept towards creating magical mechanisms that work to actively defy normal established principles. Because of this, it is believed the logical rational persona she carries acts more like a ruse towards her real abilities.

Who they like better: Both (Browning leaning)

Who they take after more: Martz

Personal Headcanon: Like Enoch, Rhi was another gamble that Browning did to try and subvert the child from their partner's influences. Taking lessons learned from Enoch, Browning tried to guide Rhi from Martz’s erratic personality to one that’s more controlled. This time, she did not try to directly negate her natural evil but instead see if it was able to directly change the personality from what the parent would be. In the end, the results were a minor success, leading to Rhi being marginally distinct from Martz despite still tapping into her naturally chaotic energy.

[auntie-browning]

Ajaccio kid!

If they had a kid meme

Name: Foucault

Gender: Biological Male

General Appearance: Foucault is of a slimmer build for a male, skewing closer to a more androgynous partly because of this. He shares the same hair and eye color of his mother Ajaccio before him but shares many of the facial features with Browning instead.

Personality: Rambunctious and indulgent similar to Ajaccio. He’s always trying to find the next thrill where ever it may come from. Because of this, he has a reputation of being a danger seeker that dives head first into things without properly thinking them out, using his street-smart intuition to weasel out of some more unsavory situations.

Special Talents: Foucault leans hard into firearm knowledge due to his lack of magical ability.

Who they like better: Ajaccio

Who they take after more: Ajaccio

Personal Headcanon:  Foucault’s signature handgun is an engraved polished nickel Mateba Model 6 Unica Dynamic Sportiva with 6-inch barrel in .41 Magnum. For long arm, Foucault uses a Modèle 1892 Berthier artillery musketoon chambered in 8mm Lebel.

[auntie-browning]

Browning seemed to leer over at Czerka when she extended her hand over towards her equipment. Suddenly, it had all disintegrated into the wind before replaced with some substantial ‘upgrades’ in its place. Personally, she didn’t seem keen on the entire idea. Despite not being much, it was still the equipment she had survived with for the better part of decades. Now it was all nothing more than unimportant cinders.

Despite her desires for protest of the change, she held her tongue. The doll wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. She was a prisoner after all. What better than to have some kind of equipment to more easily bare the burdens of her sedentary style now? Despite it only filling her with more grief.

“I highly doubt I’d be important enough to be given audience to the old King, let alone the Empty themselves. I’m a prisoner after all. Waste of their time trying to explain history to basically a slab of meat to them.”

Her cynical side took a bit hold, finishing up with the wood chopping for the moment. It wasn’t going to be much but it was better to have something done before she was interrupted by some new nascence. Returning the hatchet over to her guest, Browning looked over the new amenities given to her with a bit of perplexity. She wasn’t entirely used to receiving this kind of generosity without some hitch to it.

After all, Phi did leave her here with the things she came in with. He could have easily given her all of the same kinds of things but chose not to. For what reason? She couldn’t tell. Something in her mind felt a little uneasy about all this undeserved care for her. Like she was going to ask her for something in return…

"Haaah...now we're getting into long, complicated answers, and I doubt you're interested in a culture and history lesson." Czerka surveys Browning's tent and sleeping arrangements, clicks her tongue, and holds a hand out palm-forward. "Not to mention there comes a point where I can't accurately sum things up." The tent and sleeping bag slowly dissolve into empty air, being replaced bit by bit by a bigger, sturdier tent with an actual bed and a writing desk. "You'd have to ask the old King for the full story of us Nobodies...or the Empty itself that made Him."

[auntie-browning]

"There's something beautiful about humans that I can't quite put my finger on...They just seem to always have the capability of blowing me away with some of the things they can make. Gorgeous works of art, breath-taking feats of literature, ground breaking marvels of science..."

"I guess what's always amazed me has always been the fact I've seen them all so young, so...innocnet. There's reverance within those soft sleepy eyes. A universe in every pupal like...if god were staring back at you."

"An unbound universe of potential laid abrest on my arms..."

[auntie-browning]

“You’re all part of an army, aren’t you? Where I’m from, that usually means rank and file to some varying degree. Large number or not, armies live on organization and effective structured command lines to better manage the mass you have. That’s unless you’re gonna tell me you operation on ‘Legion’ mob style of organization…”

Which in all likelihood, they very well could be. From what little she knows of the Empty, they could very well be seen as entropy in her logical standpoint with the Full being seen as negentropy. Negentropy usually more highly organized than the less dynamic entropic surrounding around them. It wouldn’t surprise her if she was right on the money with that. But it also wouldn’t surprise her if she were wrong either. She’s making assumptions on things that she has little to no really grasp on what they mean.

Despite being interested on knowing more of the grand picture, she could concede that it really wasn’t important to her to warrant some kind of history lesson. Czerka probably didn’t want to spend her precious moments free just wrangling Browning to try get what everything really was. Besides, the doll didn’t know if her new companion was probably instructed by Phi to deceive her however she could. To what end? Perhaps his own amusement.

He did relish in giving the doll some interesting burdens.

“…Everything I have, I had because it was expected of me as a singular foot soldier to carry. Its not really impressive since I wasn’t expecting to be in the predicaments I currently am. That goes along with the food situation. I’ve relied on hunting what I can and hoping that it can sustain me. I try to save what I could use but for the most part, that doesn’t last me much…”

Browning blatantly placed the situation as it was, neither sugar coating or down playing how unprepared she was really. It seems to come onto its own with how some of the items she has doesn’t even appear to be general issue items, like the aforementioned Buck 120. Really, it speaks to her will on survival for how long she’s been capable of keeping such an equipment load even remotely viable for her situation. Perhaps a bit of luck played into it but when hasn’t luck played into anything?

"Lesser class...Nobodies like me don't really have a class system, as it were. A bit hard to sort nine trillion of any race into castes, y'know?" Czerka rolled her shoulders. "...Your campsite could use a li'l upgrade. Lemme give you a couple more things that'll help." Czerka stepped forward. "You need a better tent, for one...probably better sleeping arrangements, too. What's your food situation?"

[auntie-browning]

Browning was flabbergasted, speechless even. The words she wanted to articulate couldn’t immerge. The shock, the horror, the encroaching sensation of doom, and the miasma of conflicting signals emanating from the Red within left her reeling. The doll wanted nothing more than to push that creature away and scream into the night. Perhaps she could run far enough to put some distance between the two and seek some other end to her existence. Anything to be rid of this foolish devil’s burden she finds herself with.

But she knew all too well that Ziatrix would not only find her but catch up faster than she could hope to escape. She wasn’t just a killer satiated with the hunt; she was malevolent creature created only to consume. Everything she learned only works to make the ends meet. How could a standard issue doll like her even hope to compare towards a creature magically engineered to mutilate the body and expunge the soul? Every cell of her being desires constant satiation. She knows this well for she hears them in her own being with how they gnaw upon the recesses of her subconscious for satiation.

Only now they quell for they have eaten well. But soon, she shall want. With that, Browning must always ask: Will she be the next to go then? What day, what hour, and for what reason? Even postulating on these questions makes the doll sick. But nothing shall ever replace the unparallel nausea she experienced seeing Zia’s first two victims with her very eyes. Nothing could even come to a fraction. Not even the radioactive husks of beings from her home reality.

“G-Give me a moment…Christ…j-just give me…”

She bargained aloud while she gets her bearings in place. One could say it was with the beast of Babylon before her but it could very well be with this unjust reality she’s experiencing. Her neural cloud was doing it best processing the different responses happening within that mental matrix, interpreting what she could even do while trying to compose herself.

The pair already understood that they needed to leave, sooner rather than later. She was wondering if she should even grab the cans they already had or just high tail it out of there right that instant. Zia did make her feeding into a spectacle, indulging in the pseudo-justified slaughter of some unsavory people who really didn’t deserve it. Blood curdling screams and all.

After picking herself off the ground, the doll surveyed their immediate surroundings with hazed breaths. Electing to retreat back to their ‘rally’ point, she began her attempt to guide them without having another slip up to give the other some kind of justification again. Truthfully, she wasn’t hurting from the attacks done upon her anymore. Instead, she was simply trying to compose herself to little real success. That also isn’t going into the implications her ‘healing’ would mean to what has changed to her body. Even if she tried to tackle that now, she’d probably end up like a shriveled nervous reck.

Right now, she had to focus. She has the blood of two innocent people on her hands from the actions of this monster she tried to control. If she didn’t move soon, she’d very well have the blood of many more by morning’s dawn.

“W-We’re getting the things we got, grabbing it all, and sprinting back to where we came from! No stopping! If I start slowing down, drag me if you need to!”

Browning nervously commanded, hoping she could still boss her to her will for the time being as they duck back into alley ways in order to get themselves back to their gathering before getting out of dodge.

Just as blood splashes, as those spikes faded away and the liquid formed into puddles, washing bites and pieces down the drain. Whatever was missed, whatever was spilled as Ziatrix consumed these poor souls.

Their screams both physical, and the ghostly images that were seen as their souls were torn and rend asunder. Whatever parts of 'them' were turned into nothing more than little pieces of 'her'.

Even that flesh she fuses to Browning's synthetic skin, it's mimicry at it's finished. A doll like her, her systems, her everything would only recognize it as the same flesh she had before.

It's so perfect in it's copy, it speaks in code when it needs to, it responds to other cells as it must. It's perfect, so scarily so. It makes one wonder, if they'd perhaps already been replaced at some point in the night, if why it bound so easily to her, was because she was alike it already.

"So now you've seen it..." Ziatrix straddles the other, resting her hand on the sound, her body against theirs. A hand remains on Browning's chin to force her to look forward. As usual the creature likes to be close, and those unblinking eyes enjoy being locked on the other's.

"It is, indeed the fate that awaits you. Once I fully understand the process, the soul of what is a neural cloud... how to consume it, perhaps I cannot rend your flesh like a delightful meal but."

She rested her forehead against Browning's, eyes still staring.

"I will eat that mind of yours...after a long journey, when it's matured perfectly. But until then, you cannot die.. I will raise the city, the planet if I must. To ensure they do not take you from me."

"But today.. we must keep moving. Less I break my promise to you anymore, stand...you know what happens if you do not."

She slides off Browning and offers a hand once the healing process was complete.

[auntie-browning]

||: A splendid little thing I've learned while diving deep into the depths of book/film history is the rather common practice of revisionism that artists do even when their book was published.

||: Its actually quite an interesting thing to view because this wasn't just reworking drafts or just touching up clarity but actual full on rewrites that change a lot of things or even overhaul the writing style entirely.

||: I bring it up because I feel like now, with the digital age and its consequences, we hold ourselves to more of a preasure to keep things consistant or minimize retconing since it might seem not well handled. More so if we publish it for all to see. But I think we put ourselves to an unrealistic standard that artists, even those who we view highly, do not put themselves in.

||: Suppose the moral of this is that we shouldn't hold ourselves hostage by our pride. Despite our best wishes, art is and never will be perfect. We shouldn't dwell on that fact as much as we should just try to cast the stone to however close we can get to what we want and work from there.

[auntie-browning]

"♫ Love, save us once We'll fall from where we crawled Love, save us once Beware what you want ♫"

"♫ Trust us now It's time to let me go Give up on us Follow what you want Trust us now It's time to let me go Give up Give our soul away ♫"

"♫ Now you will go Save us once You'll never let go Where we crawled Your memories are wrong Save us once You'll never wake up What you thought you want ♫"

[auntie-browning]

"Christ, it's days like these where you wonder what you should worry more for: Past, Present, or Future. All three so fragile in their own respects..."

[auntie-browning]

“It’s alright. You tend to have a lot to say and think about when you’re aimlessly walking around. How many of the greatest intellectual thinkers begin to tackle the biggest problems of their time…Of course, I’m no thinker and this isn’t entirely done out of the passion for thinking…”

The doll gave her refined companion a belated sigh, curling her unwieldy pack closer onto her back so it wouldn’t sway so much. It’s clear to see she’s well-traveled. Perhaps too traveled in some respects. Not enough to tidy up the loose packets of khaki colored dust on her pretty little blazer.

“…Browning, uh…Just Browning, I’m afraid. Glad to meet you, Ms. Yakumo.  I’ll get out of your hair soon enough but I just want to know where the nearest town or village is. I’m not entirely sure where I am so I’d like to get my bearings.”

"...My. I'm impressed, truly,"

"You might call yourself just a robot, but your perspective on it is interesting all the same. I never expected another to put so much thought into an idle musing of mine, or to read that much into it. Do you always speak so much?" she teased with a giggle, and a rueful shake of her head.

"You don't need to answer that. Just know that I'd be pleased to chat with you every now and then. My name is Yukari Yakumo!"

[auntie-browning]

An audible chuckle surfaces as she hears her say it’s not worth it. Usually anything in their line of work is never worth it. It’s all terrible in different ways. Just better to have it terrible in the ways you prefer.

“Speaking from experience? Don’t see you as a former POW or parolee. It’s not cut out to be until you’ve been on the other side. After that, any kind of power over others is almost intoxicating~”

Browning played back some of her own experience right onto her. Sure, she probably has more years in her belt than her but with the way how she is ‘Awake’ it sounds like she wasn’t entirely aware of her on self-conscious during that time. Time could give you veterancy but veterancy without wisdom is as good as a car without gas.

“I’m pretty blind with anything around that sphere. I’m aware of Empty and Chosen but not so much Awake or…well, whatever lesser class there is for the dark army your part of.”

She admitted her obliviousness to such matter while taking the hatchet to hand before going into cutting down the wood. For whatever faction she’s part of, its clear to see they have good tools on them. Nothing odd with the weight or shape of this little swinging tool. Hell, she’d probably say whoever made it has a real hand on crafting tools. Something she can always tip a hat towards.

"Eh, it's not all it's cracked up to be." Seeing Browning attempting to make some kind of axe, Czerka casually walked over and buried her own hatchet in a nearby log. "Here. Anyway, I'd rather be taking the fight to them directly instead of punishing traitors to the state, but I feel obligated. I became Awake in the first place because of the Kaiser giving me a purpose, so I'll serve him until one of us bites it."

"...Ah, you don't know what Awake means in this context. It's... complicated, but essentially it's the act of becoming sentient and forging an individual identity for my kind."

[auntie-browning]

And it was something she wouldn’t be cautious around. For as much as she knew, these beings were still pure evil. They had motivations, desires for conquest…for subjugation. Just because they don’t show their hand doesn’t mean they can’t be keeping a knife behind their back. It all grew a little clearer when she heard about her occupation.

It might not be a smoking gun but its something she’s used to. She understood what the use for military police were for and why. And with the reputation of this nebulous force in evil, discipline doesn’t entirely come to mind.

“Warden, you say. Seems like a good kind of position to be in. Lots of power over those beneath you. Probably gratifying to boss some people around here and there…I say from experience. Might not be surprising but I think Miss. Martz and Mr. Phi act more than enough as wardens for this realm.”

“Tell me more about that actually. I’m pretty invested and well…nice to have someone talk while I chop wood.”

The doll replied with a relieved posture, seeming to begin relaxing around Czerka for the time being.  That’s also partly due to her efforts in trying to wrap the branches she carved out into a pseudo handle to leverage her bowie knife as an axe head.

"That's right. Strictly speaking, my purview is more in military policing, but I've seen my fair share of action. Right now, though, I'm the acting warden of a prison in another reality, and I also manage the guard assignments and patrol routes in the town."

How odd. Czerka really didn't seem like Phi or Martz...not insane, not openly cartoon-villain evil...and she acted and spoke respectfully to Browning. Though, really, the sheer...normalcy? Sanity? Was a bit unnerving.

[auntie-browning]

“I’ve been traveling longer than I’ve been stuck here so there’s a considerable bit of time where I haven’t been particularly active as a grunt.”

Browning corrects her while she stripped the bark off some branches laying around. She was still suspicious of what she meant by ‘muscle memory’ in particular but she knew that she would explain herself one way or another. How these demons seem to operate. Boast a bit about their supremacy before doing the thing they boasted about doing. Rinse and repeat.

“So, you’re a soldier, too? I’m assuming its with this entire fight between the light and dark, no? Full and Empty…or something like that? I’ve heard some things about it but Phi can be a bit of a stickler for keeping me in the dark. Think he likes making me feel helpless like that…Not that it does. Just gets annoying to learn things through osmosis.”

"I'm somewhat of a soldier myself, I'm sure you can tell...and I was curious when I heard that his latest catch was a soldier, too. Well, that was a while ago... he's grabbed a few more since then, but I digress." Czerka crosses her arms and leans back against the air as if it were a wall. "You've been in here for a damn long time...wonder if that soldier muscle memory is still there."

[auntie-browning]

One day Browning will wake up to the sight of...

"Oi, Rookie, wake up, time for your dick flattening~"

"MA'AM THIS IS A CHRISTIAN SFW BLOG! PLEASE PUT AWAY THE BOOBIES...!"

"And send them over to my NSFW blog @sinful-browning where all your smutty Browning post can be found. Nothing currently available at the moment but I'm looking to change that."

"As a taste, please enjoy some of this premium Browning Boobie right here:"

"Mmmm yes, premium Browning Boobie right there~"

[auntie-browning]

“Frankly, I don’t see what he sees in me either and I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna tell me either.”

The doll replied with more venom in her tone than she usually gives. It could very well be the lack of cohesion finally getting to her. Since her time trapped there, she could count on one hand the number of days she’s had without the twerp or her horny mink brother tried to harass her out of much needed rest. By this point, she was surviving on the grace of God with what little she had.

She even had to dig into the strange pockets of her ALICE pack to find some half-mottled ship biscuit from a particularly terrorizing expedition out to sea to dig into. Raw at that as well. No way to rehydrate it to make it even slightly palatable to the sense. Browning wouldn’t want to dream of what would happen to her if she lost consciousness due to insufficient power. Not with the evils that lovingly host her in such a prison.

“Czerka Rho you say…I’ll give you props, you’re already respecting me more than Martz or Phi have already so I’ll try to extend that to you…for now. Any particular reason you wanted to see me besides marveling at the bird in the cage?”

Crouching down, the doll opened her ruck sack to pull out some of her tools to process materials around her. Most notably a fixed blade Buck 120 to whittle down branches near by and maybe split some wood if she could leverage it. She did very well to pay attention to her guest, but having some kindling for her fire latter that day would be a good use of that time while they talked.

"That's right! You two play nice now, m'kay? I'm gonna go cause problems somewhere else~" And with a snap, the rabbit's gone.

"And there she goes. Little twerp. Anyway..."

"Name's Czerka Rho. Heard Phi'd nabbed himself a nice little prize, so I thought I'd come see since I had a free moment. Wasn't sure what he saw in you based on what I'd heard, but...I think I'm starting to understand."