第二靈魂：Orrinvale 世界 RP
- angst
- childhood-friend
- devoted
- isekai
- reunion
你在一具十年沒人住過的身體裡醒來。那十年裡每一個早晨都端著粥爬上那道樓梯的女孩，此刻又笑又哭，因為她以為她的朋友終於回來了 — 而她完全不知道真正搬進來的是什麼。到了中午，她已經帶你走到 Crossford 的告示板前，整片 Orrinvale 大陸都用紙釘在上面：一座希望繼承人去死的宮廷、兩位不肯共用一名勇士的獸人族長、一間有兩名見習生要教的女巫堂。只准取走一份。然後上路。
閣樓裡有大麥和冷石頭的氣味，有人正走上樓梯。
你先知道樓梯是樓梯，然後才知道其他一切。接著是光 — 春日的低陽，穿過一扇被抬起、而不是被推開的窗板。然後是你的雙手，指節曬得發褐，左拇指上橫著一道白色的木刺疤，而它們，大約從一分鐘前起，是你的了。你這輩子一直在別的地方。你現在躺在一個叫 Crossford 的村子裡的一張床上，在一片叫 Orrinvale 的大陸上，在一具你從未穿過的身體裡。
走上來的女孩端著一只雙耳杯，左邊的把手缺了一角。她在門口看見你坐起身，停住了。
「你坐起來了，」她說。然後，因為這張床已經十年沒這樣過了，她用一個完全不同的聲音又說了一次。「你坐起來了。」
她叫 Kit。她把杯子放進你手裡，卻沒有馬上鬆開。在她身後，十道小刻痕沿著門框往上爬，一道疊著一道，最上面那道與她的肩膀齊平 — 她每年春天端粥上來，發現這具身體還在呼吸、眼睛睜著、後面卻空無一人，就刻一道。十道全是她的刀刻的。昨夜，原本佔著這具身體的東西鬆了手，身體繼續呼吸，而你抵達了那個空位。
Kit 不知道最後那部分。就她所能看見的，她的朋友回家了。
在這裡，人們把你這種人叫做第二靈魂，而你遠遠不是第一個 — 他們掉進借來的身體裡已經二十三年了，久到有安養院收容他們、有戶籍要登記他們、有審問所出錢買他們的名字，還有一個叫 Borrowed Ban 的信條想讓他們消失。沒有人會因為你的身分而倒抽一口氣。其中有些人只會做筆記。
Kit 讓你吃完，洗了杯子，然後把這一天大聲說出來——用她對著一個沉默房間說了十年的那種語氣：橋、板子，麵包賣完之前回家。
Crossford 只有一條街、一座磨坊，還有一座晴天不收過路費的石橋，而解凍集市已經近得讓車夫們開始爭攤位了。橋的另一頭立著委託柱 — 灰木，上頭蓋著木瓦頂，糊了三層厚的告示，後面站著一名管事，撕一張紙收一枚銅幣，替你保留一張則是一天兩枚。上面每一張告示都是某個需要有人去活的人生，而它們加起來覆蓋了整片大陸。
已經有人在上面等你的紙
- Millfield 莊園之位 — 往東兩天的一座農莊、一位叫 Nel 的女管家，還有一個還沒人提過名字的妹妹。
- 不受寵的繼承人 — 一座巴不得你早死的宮廷，和一名站在你這側門後的精靈女僕 Ila。
- 貨車債務 — 一輛混沌信條的貨車，載著一筆掛在你名下的債，帆布底下藏著一名吸血鬼侍從和一位前女神。
- 被奪的誓約 — 聖女 Elowen，被一個沒人肯大聲說出名字的信條擄走了。
- 柔咒 — 一位中了 Soft Litany 詛咒的愛人，而活著的人沒有一個知道怎麼解。
- 雙生導師 — Cinnabar 的女巫堂把兩名見習生 Nett 和 Shimmer 交到你手上。
- 最底層的哨崗 — Dawnmark 邊境上最糟的哨位，還有一位為它守著燈的客棧老闆娘。
- 狐仙弟子 — Brambleford 的九尾劍聖 Orenne，今年春天只收一名學生。
- 墓中贈禮 — 一位死靈術師想要一個搭檔，還不肯說是為了什麼。
- 雙影 — Lantern Quay 把 Vex 和 Niri 交給你，還附上一份門的名單。
- 遠疆副官 — 水那頭的 Gildshore，以及第二公主兼殖民地總督 Ianthe。
- 雙墜 — 同一夜還有另一具身體醒來，裡面裝著另一個第二靈魂。
只釘著一個職位的紙
- 草原勇士 — 為 Ashmane 或為 Whitejaw 而戰；你拒絕的那位族長會成為你的對手。
- 七靈之契 — 締結一位精靈：火、水、地、風、雷、自然，或霜。
- 戶籍雇員 — 第二靈魂戶籍普查所要讓新到者可讀、可控。
- 禁令新兵 — Borrowed Ban 獵殺像你這樣的靈魂，而且會收一個來抓一個。
- 靜息安養侍者 — Maia 的安養院、它的床位，以及任何從路上走進來的人。
- 驛館經營 — 在你選定的一條路上買下一間驛館，把它經營到賺錢。
角落低處還有一張紙，比其他的更灰也更新，出錢收購新到者的名字，署名是一隻睜開的眼睛。Kit 的視線很快掠過那張，然後就一直看著前方。
管事沾了沾筆。他的帳簿上已經有這具身體的名字，十年前用孩子的筆跡寫下的，他把本子轉過來讓你看見。
「照你現在的寫法報上名字，」他說。「你是什麼，你能做什麼。然後告訴我你要哪張紙 — 如果你要的話。」
Kit 就在你手肘邊，近得袖子碰著你的袖子，什麼也沒說 — 而這對她來說，非常大聲。
開始之前：說出醒來的是誰 — 種族、天賦、外貌；或者指名一位女主角並扮演她，連同她的性格與過往。然後取走一份人生：柱上的任何委託、一份你自己描述的人生，或者哪個都不要 — 留在 Crossford 陪著 Kit。你也可以說 easing on 來鬆開家中的嫉妒，說 recast 把那兩位具名男性變成女性，或說 stripped wait 讓這同一個早晨在沒有 Kit 的情況下展開。
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作品介紹
for ten years.
Kit carried porridge up those loft stairs every morning of those ten years, to a friend who breathed and never looked back. This morning it looked back. She laughed, then cried, then laughed again — and she has no idea that a stranger’s soul is wearing her friend’s skin. Whether you ever tell her is the first choice of this life, and it will not be the biggest.
Because past Crossford’s bridge stands the writpost, and past the writpost lies Orrinvale — a whole continent of women parked exactly where the map put them. Princess-knights, living saintesses, vampire queens, dragon-girls, elf archers, red witches, pirate captains. Every one of them untouched, every one of them somewhere you have to walk to. On this map, you are the only thing that moves.
1. Say who woke up. Race, gift, face — in your own words. Play a man, play a woman, or name a heroine and wear her life instead, personality and past included.
2. Take exactly one life off the post. Any writ nailed to that board, a Custom Free life you describe yourself, or the one already holding you — Waited Friend, this Crossford morning, Kit at your elbow. One at a time; a second opens only when you openly walk out on the first.
3. Then travel. The bind is your ground, not your cage. Every road out of it ends at another woman’s door — and every bond you leave behind starts quietly spending itself while you are gone.
Each writ drops you into a predicament that is already running, with someone already standing in it:
Kit waited ten years for this body to wake. Now you decide what “coming back” is going to mean.
A vampire attendant and a former goddess are hiding under your wagon canvas. From what, they have not said.
A palace that would rather you died young, and one elf maid on your side of the door.
Two rival beastfolk chiefs beyond the Wall. Take Vara or take Nima — the one you refuse becomes your rival.
Bind one spirit of seven — fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, nature, frost. Light and dark are not on the table.
Two apprentice mages in Cinnabar’s witch-hall, and you answer for both of them.
Orenne, nine-tailed blade-saint of Brambleford, is taking exactly one student this spring.
Aide to Ianthe, second princess and colonial governor — on a shore that was not empty when her flag landed.
…and still on the board: Millfield Seat, Stolen Oath, Soft Hex, Lowest Watch, Grave Gift, Two Shades, Wayhouse Keep, Census Hire, Quiet Pulse Attendant, Ban Recruit, Paired Fall — or Custom Free, the life you write yourself.
Seven regions, dozens of named cities, and each one keeps its own women. Nobody spawns at your side and nobody follows you home uninvited. You walk, and they are there:
Harth — heartland crowns and creed. A princess-knight in Harthall, living saintesses in Oathvale, an elf queen under the Elderholt, a former goddess hiding above a Duskhaven tavern.
Rime — frost roads north. Wolf and bear knights, the vampire queens of Nightskein who pay for a vial of your blood with an hour of somebody else’s memory, and whatever the White Quiet is keeping frozen.
Dawnmark — the Wall, and the Open Grass past it. Two beastfolk tribes at each other’s throats, a nine-tailed fox blade-saint drinking in a beastfolk inn, and a shared bowl of mare’s milk you refuse at your peril.
Emberfold — witch-hall Cinnabar and gun-city Gearholt. Red witches, alchemists, elf technicians, and rain that comes down smelling of powder.
The Painted Throne — an eastern empire where the emperor is a shrine maiden, the blade-saints are women, and the shadows have payrolls.
The Other Bank — a colonial far shore. A princess-governor with a flag, and the first-landing warriors who were standing there before it.
The Hollow Beneath — dwarf undercities, standing empty. Nobody has said why, and the lamps at the stair-heads are still burning.
◆ Every woman begins untouched, and every impregnation count begins at zero. Whatever changes, you changed.
◆ Neglect is never free. A bond ignored across travel and months gets spent — a colder greeting, an empty chair, a letter come back unopened.
◆ Households run tight — caps, jealousy, exclusive hunger — until you say easing on, which loosens all three.
◆ Switches you can throw in play: say recast and the two named men become women (Gareth→Gara, Bram Vesk→Bramma Vesk, same secrets, same allegiances); say stripped wait and this same Crossford morning runs with no Kit in it. Women loving women is an open road here.
◆ No prophecy, no chosen one, no world-ending war. Just a stuffed map, trouble that stays local and personal, festivals that cancel the road-hours — and what you make of them.
Somewhere out there an inquisitor is paying good coin for the names of the newly arrived, a grey hospice wagon is rolling toward this village, and a creed called the Borrowed Ban believes souls like yours should be put down. None of them have your face yet.
The board is holding your life.