second choice (video)

[wingsister]

[That talking white horse is on-'screen' again and this time the 'screen' isn't ripping. Instead, it looks like she's indoors, possibly a cafe or coffee shop judging by the background noise. Some canny numbered may even be able to recognize that she's in fact contacting the network while at Expresso Yourself, where she's become quite a regular over the course of the last month.

She takes a delicate bite from one of the sugar cookies piled on a plate in front of her before beginning to MindSpeak:]

:Hello. I'm contacting the Network to tell people that after many days and nights of careful thought, I've decided to start calling myself by my previous self's name. It's not that I don't appreciate what Shou named me all those years ago. Areonwen was a very nice name. It served me quite well when I was a horse.

But-- I'm not really a horse anymore. Or I'm in the process of becoming something else, anyway. Something that may be horse-shaped but isn't really a horse anymore than-- than--: [There's a pause here as she obviously searches for the right word.] :Than one of your angels is a human.

In the place my previous self came from, there was an institution known as the Heralds and the Herald-Mages. They were humans who wore white uniforms and had mind magic--and the ones called Herald-Mages has true magic as well. They were there to protect the kingdom and to solve any strange or difficult problems within that kingdom.

The Heralds were partnered with beings known as Companions, who were a kind of guardian spirit that took the form of horses because it allowed us to travel quickly and gave us some convenient natural weapons by way of our hooves. That's what I'm becoming again.

And when I was a Companion my name was 'Sayvil.' I'd like it if you called me that now.:

Comments

[ursoreckless]

If that's the name you wanna use, then that's the name you wanna use. No hard feelings over it at all; after all, not everyone's got nearly the same names as their past selves.

[wingsister]

[If anything, she looks guiltier.] :I suppose not.:

[After a long moment she adds,] :You're still important to me, even if you aren't my Chosen. You're my other human. And I doubt Kerowyn is going to show up with echopulses now if she hasn't already.:

[ursoreckless]

I know. Even if I may not spend that much time with you, you're still important to me too, Sayvil.

[wingsister]

[Shou might get a quick mental glimpse of an older, white-haired woman with a beaky nose looking both pleased and regretful.]

:You too, Shou.:

[There's a brief silence on her end, then she snorts and Says,] :Oh, to the hells with it. Since you just gave me an echopulse concerning it, I might as well tell you it: I turns out did have practically the same name from my first life to my second, it's just this one, here and now, is evidently my third--which I've known since I knew I was a Companion, mind you, but we weren't supposed to let on that most of us used to be Heralds like the ones we partnered. Though I really don't know how we weren't caught at it with the way we barely changed our names from life to life--there's hardly any difference between Savil Ashkevron and Sayvil, besides the first version having a second part to it.:

[She exhales suddenly, blowing air through her nostrils.] :I didn't quite expect to say all, but I think I feel better now that I have. And a handful of us were full spirits, like what I was talking about. I just wasn't one of them.:

[ursoreckless]

So basically you were once a person that became a glowy talking horse and now are my glowy talking horse?

That's pretty cool.

[wingsister]

:Yes. Basically. Even though I never Chose you like I Chose Kerowyn--my Herald then--you are mine and I'm yours. And I would have had a Companion of my own once, when I was a Herald. I don't remember mine, yet, but that's how it works.

Although we're not really horses. Or-- I won't be a horse in too very long. Just horse-shaped.: