#Top Ten Friendship Dynamics That Make Your Brain Bleed Just Talking About Them

[cream-and-tea]

hello hello hello may i hear about Pallas' weird fucked up brand of immortality???? i love all forms of that and would love to know more

*me, realizing i’m going to have to talk about pallas at length in any way shape or form* oh god here we go.

so! the “pallas can’t die” thing! it’s a pretty Big plot point in Lay Me Down, so Big that exactly how they did it and the reasons behind that features heavily in the final-act-holy-shit-what-the-actual-fuck-pallas-reveal/plot twist(tm) that i’m legally bound not to talk about and thus cannot share here. the main thing you need to know about it before i get into specifics is that it is very much something they did TO themselves after [REDACTED] in possibly one of the stupidest decision’s ever in Ghost Story Canon (think getting a really awful impulse tattoo except instead of a tattoo it’s making yourself Immune To Death) (also this got pretty long so i put the rest under a cut) (enjoy)

But with that dealt with, the rules of how their specific brand of immortality works are actually pretty simple: they just. can’t die (except for under very VERY specific circumstances but thats more spoilers). it doesn’t matter how badly they get injured or how oppressive a situation is, they are simply incapable of having it kill them. the caveat there is that even though they can’t die they can be HURT, and very very badly at that. because surprise! this specific brand of girl-help-i-can’t-die comes completely without ANY sort of healing factor!! so pallas can technically live through practically anything under the sun, but they will NOT come out of it unscathed or even in one piece (yes this is exactly as horrifying as it sounds). this is obviously not a good combination when it comes to the kind of person pallas is, and more specifically the kind of self-destruction they engage in where they view any pain or harm caused to themself as meaningless as long as they Are Useful and Have A Purpose (thanks a lot magic library indoctrination).

annnnnnd before i get depressed about this character again have some Funky Fresh Pallas Immortality Based Facts that i have accumulated over the course of my planning/drafting!!!:

for spoiler reasons not dying also comes with Body Horror upgrades which include: spitting up teeth that are not yours! Extra Organs! pale-ass vampire skin! the occasional blood-vomiting fit!

a less gross thing is that they get Cool Spooky Eyes that have no pupils and are constantly shifting between straight-up-shrimp-colours that agnes’s eyes interpret as different shades of gray

the not-being-able-to-die thing is established in possibly one of my favourite scenes i’ve ever written wherein pallas barges into agnes’s room bleeding from at least 17 different life-threatening injuries, heals said injuries incredibly slowly and painfully in front of her, passes out dead on the floor getting blood all over her carpet, and THEN responds to her panicking over how they could have died and how she was terrified with essentially “oh i don’t do that ❤️“ and straight-up REFUSES to explain any further. bastard behaviour at its finest.

seriously though thank you SO much for this question, i could ramble about these characters and plot for days so it’s nice to get the chance to share some stuff about them!! literally buzzing with happiness rn lol