2020-09-16: Temperance: Difference between revisions

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*'''Log: 2020-09-16 Temperance'''
*'''Log: 2020-09-16 Temperance'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Gwen Whitlock]], [[Character :: Lan Lilac]], [[Character: Isiris Shango'Ra]]
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Gwen Whitlock]], [[Character :: Isiris Shango'Ra]], [[Character :: Lan Lilac]]
*'''Where:''' Damzena Desert
*'''Where:''' Damzena Desert
*'''Date:''' September 16, 2020
*'''Date:''' September 16, 2020
*'''Summary''': ''Their paths were always meant to collide.''
*'''Summary''': ''Two girls meet in a desert and have a life-changing moment.''


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Revision as of 06:53, 19 September 2020

  • Log: 2020-09-16 Temperance
  • Cast: Gwen Whitlock, Isiris Shango'Ra, Lan Lilac
  • Where: Damzena Desert
  • Date: September 16, 2020
  • Summary: Two girls meet in a desert and have a life-changing moment.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    When the floating Valeria Chateau made its stop for supplies, settling in the desert sands of Damzena Desert, it left with at least one person less. Nothing concerning about it, really; a number of people have unboarded the chateau after their wounds have healed from the siege of the Warwing Varukias. A few less people means a few less supplies needed, and the chateau's owner did not mean for his guests to be prisoners after sending the chateau to their aid.
    
    Perhaps in the following hours people will notice a lack of a Gwen. Those who have had their foodstuffs pilfered by an unwary Gwen in search of delicious good to eat. She needed to recharge, and that was one way of doing it. Others may have noticed the lack of a friendly freckled face, and her decreasing loopiness as her energy reserves recharged to a normal level. It's nothing concerning. Gwen didn't stop being a courier just because she fell from the sky. Even after all the trouble that brewed during the summit, life for everyone else goes on, and this means packages, for many in the merchant business.

    The courier that stalks through the desert at night is following a different directive, however. To say she was 'possessed' or 'being controlled' would attribute the wrong sorts of power to the blue-eyed assassin's abilities. He never demanded, only asked. He never took what wasn't already given. He just had a nack for diligent and waiting, and ever so slightly t i l t i n g the axis of the world to make the necessary decisions that much easier to make.

    But it has to be Gwen's decision. Then, the rest would follow in its wake.

    Like a compulsion, a restless itch, to get off the Valeria Chateau and to go into the desert, for something. She's questioned why she was here a few times, but would find herself falling back into the groove set, a path of least resistance.

    After a while, Gwen falled to question it at all, finding the cold desert sands as welcoming as any against the restless beat of her heart.

    She just has to walk.

    She has the energy to do it.

    And she'll find what she is looking for, as sure as finding the moon rising in the sky.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 $E$TSomewhere. It's here. He-she-it-they. The desert sand is cold between her toes, but Lan doesn't attribute any weight to the fact, any more than she does the number of stars in the sky. After all, all stars are her star.

    Every light in the sky is salvation, if she's still able to call it down.

    She doesn't remember how long she's walked. Run. Walked. It can't be that long. After all, even the wide deserts of Ignas had boundaries. Even the Badlands come to an end.

    The blood has long dried on her face, the taste and scent of copper just a memory. A reminder. Something stalks the sand out here, and Lan is the only thing that can kill it. Nothing makes sense about it; but she doesn't have to think too hard. She just has to do what feels right. It's in her nature to suffer for others. It's in her nature to save them.

Hers mere couple of hours after abandoning the base at Assyria, Lan can practically taste the song of the Weaver. Ahead of Gwen, a figure approaches across the sands, its speed deliberate and its unwavering trajectory anything but innocent.

    This is an enemy, familiar shape or not.

DC: Gwen Whitlock switches forms to Chrysopoeia!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen was the one left behind. They all are. Her pain is the mother's mercy, and if the mother is brought to the world, then there will be no need to fight those like Solaris, Odessa, or individual threats, like Ganondorf.

    Or existential threats, like Zophar.

    In her more cognisant state, Gwen would question the idea of having this as being a sole drive, or pursuing this as only a last defense when all other options have been exhausted. An ace up the sleeve, like having her ARM be ready for a difficult trip through bandit territory. There have been many times she's never needed her ARM, and times when she's even been able to talk her way out.

    It was not meant to be something to go to first.

    But the curse within her asks differently, treats her softly, thrums in the back of her head when a necessary step must be taken. Because such steps cannot be taken later, when everything has been exhausted. A mother must come, and embrace them all in her mercy.

    And Gwen will, in order to make that happen--

    What Lan sees first is a figure dressed in clothing that doesn't fit her form; the shirt is made for a man much wider than her, and the pants only stay on her hips through the belt looped through them. No gloves obscure her hands, one pink and pale, the other metallic, and her freckled cheeks and neck bare the beginnings of a sunburn, even on the whorled skin that peeks on the right side of her neck. She wears shoes, unlike Lan, but these were not meant to trek through the desert, and have shown their share of wear from being forced through endless sand.

    By the time Gwen spots Lan, she makes her way up the sand dune, the glow from her ARM in plain view, brilliantly following up the nerves of her arm with trails of gilded gold in the dim light. The assassin's gift has laid a choice for her: defeat this person, or not. It's a legitimate choice, but one Gwen has no will to back away from. The walk through the desert ensured that. The glow reaches into her eyes, and through her hair, and all sense of speech and time flies away, there only being instinct and action left.

    The hand points towards Lan and fires a shot, a gold beam of light that the Baskar woman would have to react to quickly, if she means to evade it.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lan Lilac with Citrinitas Bolt!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Gwen Whitlock's Citrinitas Bolt for 75 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Gwen will see a blackened Solarian tunic, the strangely refined material of a civilization that makes its home beyond the clouds. Long dark legs, long pale hair. None of Lan Lilac's usual cheer or mercy. Because what's approaching her at a dead run isn't Lan, not really.

    Not after the Stranger got into her blood and meat and bones.

    Gwen fires her ARM but Lan is already moving - leaping, drawing her body into a heads-over-heels somersault with her limbs drawn in tight. It's not enough, not completely, and the bolt of golden light singes through the side of Lan's tunic as she instinctively corrects her trajectory. Skin reddens as fabric boils away, but Lan barely winces.

    She can't be stopped so quickly.

    She lands lightly on a single foot, toes digging into the sand to propel her body forward. Like Gwen, Lan has long-range attacks; like Gwen, Lan doesn't usually depend on them to be her opening gambit. "hhaAH!"

    She drives herself forward, body tilting and spinning as she passes the courier, grabbing for Gwen's hair and a shoulder in order to pick her up off of her feet and slam her into the sand in a giant arc.

GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Move Like Water!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a glancing hit from Lan Lilac's Move Like Water for 51 hit points!
GS: Riposte! applied to Lan Lilac!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen's hair is a hard thing to grab ahold of, curly and short, but her shirt collar is close by, and far easier to snag. Lan's fingers will find purchase on this instead, giving her enough of a grip and throw Gwen.

    If Gwen was in a better state, this would have been her biggest clue something was off. The strange metal of the Mockingbird is lighter than most builds an ordinary blacksmith could product with the usual ores at hand, but it's still heavy enough to make swimming difficult, and feats that require balance more difficult than they should be. Then there's the compact muscle of the courier's build, hidden underneath layers of clothing usually made to work with the dry climates of the Badlands than the humidity of a place like Spira, or some parts of Aquvy.

    Lan just chucked all that unto the desert sand.

    For better or worse, Gwen isn't able to properly appreciate Lan's abilities right now.

    Popping up from the sand like a half-beached sandworm, Gwen's next attack is equally visceral, cutting a line up the sand towards Lan like a glowing battering ram, all that muscle and metal put to good use.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lan Lilac with Meteor Ram!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Meteor Ram for 159 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    For all that the technique itself is fluid, there is one weak link - and that is Lan herself. She has to become the fulcrum of the motion, and a fulcrum must stay in place.

    So while Gwen becomes an unstoppable force, Lan still isn't what anybody could consider an immovable object. Light and force plow directly into her, sending the Baskar ass over teakettle into a rolling tumble. She comes to a stop several yards back, long strands of hair falling around her as she pushes up onto the balls of her feet and a single hand. Something pale and sick burns inside of her lavender eyes.

    Sand crunches between her fingers as her body coils, and then Lan is in motion again - silent and malicious, the force of her passing enough to blow a person off of their feet with landing a single blow. She pase Gwen once, twice, thrice, redirecting her momentum in unnatural ways, as if she were a beam of light reflecting off of a mirror, before finally leading with a foot intended to send Gwen flying backwards. A returned favor, if you will.

GS: That attack doesn't exist. []
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Double Weave!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Double Weave for 135 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    As a vessel for whatever vital force is needed, Gwen's body is at its best- young, healthy, and infused with ancient and modern technology via the Mockingbird. Her right arm is metal, her heart beats metal, the Mockingbird can absorb and infuse energy, converting it into Gwen, and back out.

    But it's ultimately a bottleneck. Gwen can only absorb so much power at a time, and the ARM can only hold so much. Lightning is as deadly to her as to any human being, despite her affinity with it. And if she were metal, truly metal, her ability to comply with Isiris in the first place would be more limited. Her heart would be harder to sway.

    Lan comes running back in, and Gwen meets her head on, following Lan's lead as Gwen tries to land another punch of her own. The foot comes out of nowhere, and Gwen flies back through the air again, blue-grey eyes still open as she flies back, spiraling through the air.

    There is no answer after this for a few moments, a lull of quiet allowed to settle over the sands for a few precious seconds.

    Then a beam of light shoots towards Lan, its source Gwen herself, half submerged in the sand like a desert snake.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lan Lilac with Coil Cannon AZOTH!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon AZOTH for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    It isn't over. Lan knows that when she doesn't know anything else, because she can still hear the thrum of mother's song in her bones. She won't be able to ret until she's silenced it, or become part of it. Neither idea has ever brought her unquestioned comfort. Neither answer is right. Maybe as long as Lan lives, she'll never know rest again.

    How cruel.

    She breathes deep and steady. There. Her enemy is there, half-buried-- The hum becomes a shrill whine. Lan moves by intinct alone, and that's all the keeps her from being completely enveloped in the beam of energy that scorches the sand where she'd stood only a half-second before. She tumbles through the air, tunic smoking, and rolls on landing. Her hair falls free and loose around the backs of her knees, the ribbon that had been making a token effort to hold it back now snaking between Lan's fingers.

    She takes a step forward, and the ribbon seem to float around her like a living guardian, with one end clutched delicately between the index and middle fingers of her right hand. A twitch of her hand sends it darting for Gwen's face, the motion snakelike. Strands of starry-sky black bleed off of her skin and run the length of the silk, seeking to bite in wherever it might come into contact with the courier as Lan attempts to whip her into defeat.

GS: Lan Lilac spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Ribbon Dance!
GS: Lan Lilac has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Paper Moon!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: You have finished a Link/Follow chain. Remember to +round!
GS: Riposte expired!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a glancing hit from Lan Lilac's Ribbon Dance for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle and Slow! applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Paper Moon for 135 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison! applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    The ribbon comes undone, and comes alive like a snake of Lan's own, striking for Gwen's flushed cheeks. The courier attempts to dodge to the side but do not account for the tendrils of cold starry sky branching across that small divide. Strands the color of black space spread against Gwen's skin and threaten to bloom into poison with each painfil snap, less a sign of corruption than a manifestation of Lan's own power.

    They fight under the same flock of crows, driving each other to new heights of their ability.

    Breaking away with a leap backwards, Gwen nearly falls backward as her worn cloth shoes nearly break against the sand's surface. They weren't meant to fight in, much less hold together against a desert's worth of walking.

    Bending forward, her fingers touching the sands, Gwen takes a moment to gather herself, taking a delicious breath of cold night air. The glow of veins against the surface of her skin brighten intensely until they burn red, almost seeming to char the celestial strands leftover from Lan's ribbon into oblivion. It would be painful to the eyes to charge immediately, but the moment of repose is over soon enough, leaving Lan with the opportunity to attack again.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Fool's Luster!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 20 damage from Poison!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Restore! Entangle, Poison, and Slow removed!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Snap, slash, snip. It only takes a few seconds for Gwen to gather herself, leaping out of Lan's extended reach for a moment to compose herself. The burning glow of red-gold reflects faintly in Lan's irises, splashes a dimmer shade of rose across her dark skin and darker clothes. If she were really herself, she'd call it beautiful. Strong. Just like Gwen.

    The ribbon curls loosely at Lan's bare feet as she lets it go and raises her hands, fingertips completing a circle held at arms' length. Lan sights through it, feet planted solidly in the sand, and channels starlight into a gatling series of shimmering cannonballs that shatter on impact, no matter what they may hit. Their impacts melt the sand they hit into splatters of black glass.

GS: Lan Lilac spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Meteorain!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Meteorain for 145 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    In this state, under the glow of the moon, Gwen could be called beautiful. Quiet, not a word aside from a huff of breath or the sliding of her feet across the sands.

    Gwen has tried to speak in this form before. They were halting, distracted words, attempting to phrase rapid thoughts through lips that felt too slow to impart meaning.

    There's nothing to say here. Her purpose is one with her body, same as Lan's.

    The starlit cannon fodder pierces parts of Gwen's body, shattering against that red-gold lace nervework. The impacts derive a grunt from the pale red-haired courier, driving her back on one foot.

    In the next moment, Gwen crashes her fists against the ground, a loud rush of noise and sound whipping up sand into the air, rushing down towards Lan's face in an attempt to silence her hold on the stars.

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lan Lilac with Ignis Fatuus!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Gwen Whitlock's Ignis Fatuus for 57 hit points!
GS: Jam and Mute! applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    In this desert, under this moon, nobody has anything to say.

    Lan is still firing when Gwen counterattacks, the sudden impact and rush of sand shattering her projectiles like a series of bad dreams. The blonde stumbles back for a half-step before regaining her footing; with a quiet huff of breath Lan runs forward. Through the sand that pelts aginst her burned skin, leaping up high to silhouette against the watchful single eye of the moon high above them.

    Lan draws an arm back, focusing that same power into a point the size of one of those stars in the sky, and drives herself forward and down, breaking through the cloud of grit to thrust two fingertips against Gwen's forehead. A blinding flash, a concussive force that isn't felt on the physical plane, and Lan unleashes the force of a starfall in the space of two square inches.

GS: Lan Lilac has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Star Kissed!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Lan Lilac's Star Kissed for 91 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters Critical health and gains 25 FP!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    It's probably a blessing that this took place in barren sands, hidden out of sight from civilization. There's no way to be subtle, between Lan's silver starfall and blonde hair, bleached pale under the moon, and Gwen's glowing gold, Setanta's force inlaid like rubies in gold filigree. There's no need to subtle, nor is there a want to.

    Just fighting, and the debris that comes with it in black glass and stirred, disturbed sand.

    In that narrow space of time, there is a blast of a forcefield from the Mockingbird that attempts to absorb some of the blast, somehow reaching into that nexus space as Lan fires.

    It's not enough to absorb all of it, but it will do.

    Now, it's Gwen's time to embody her will, the core of energy stored within her. The gold nerves pulse and shine brilliantly while Gwen's head dips, her earrings swinging with the slow dip of motion.

    Then, the sand around her is pushed back with a muted crack, like the crater left behind from a small meteor, finally willed into existence.

    Another crack, and Gwen leaps up, creating a whirling beam of light from her left hand. Aiming downwards, she throws it down at Lan, casting her own miniature sun down before the starry Baskar's feet.

GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with The All is One!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has launched an attack Link!
GS: Gwen Whitlock's  stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's The All is One for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify! applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Lan Lilac with The One is All!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's The One is All for 208 hit points!
GS: Lan Lilac has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    She has to be close. Lan - though what she's doing can't really be referred to as 'thinking, but more 'remembering' - has never fought like this before. Not in her time as a pawn of Solaris, not even when she faced death and the Stranger. There's a purity to herself like this; not that sad shivering thing that wanted to cry and hide and crawl into her mother's arms because she was used. Because she was lied to.

    Here, there is nothing but the truth of action.

    Nothing in their way, not even their 'selves'.

    A faint frown tugs at her mouth even as her magic finds its mark. It's not a clean hit. Something absorbed part of it - Lan can feel it, this close to the other girl. That's right; Gwen's arm is different. She'd never asked - that Lan that lives under the same sun as others hadn't cared, and would've thought it rude anyway. She's got to back off, to prepare anew.

    She has the medium, and the starsong of her patron Guardian still resonates faintly inside of her veins --

    Lan throws herself backward as Gwen gathers her strength and leaps, the brightness and warmth of a sun illuminating the sand and scattered glass around them for the briefest of heartbeats. It's not enough.

    The impact is jarring, hot, blinding. Something rattles loose inside of her--

    Lan realizes she's on her knees in the sand, sparks sizzling out on the remains of her clothing.

    "...g...wen...?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "...!" All it takes is the voice of a friend to bring her back. Gwen's eyes widen slightly, a light shining into focus.

    It's not that Gwen had somehow ducked out from Isiris's cover, nothing as complicated as that.

    It's just that a stone, once cast, must eventually come to a rest.

    With an pained cry, Gwen runs over and drops to her knees by blonde girl, reaching out with gold still inlaid in the veins of her arms.

    Lan is drawn against her, the courier resting her head against her upper chest, murmuring comforting words into Lan's hair, as well as tears.

    She never thought, never in a million years, that she'd hurt someone close to her with these powers. Not so directly. Not intentionally. But even then, Lan came at her, but, why--

    "Shhh. Shhh."

    There's just that, and the gentle, but unorthodox beat of Gwen's heart, beating like the pulse of stars under Lan's head.

    And the dry, but earnest words that follow softly after.

    "... It'll be okay..."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "...!" All it takes is the voice of a friend to bring her back. Gwen's eyes widen slightly, a light shining into focus.

    It's not that Gwen had somehow ducked out from Isiris's cover, nothing as complicated as that.

    It's just that a stone, once cast, must eventually come to a rest.

    With an pained cry, Gwen runs over and drops to her knees by blonde girl, reaching out with gold still inlaid in the veins of her arms.

    Lan is drawn against her, the courier resting Lan's head against her upper chest, murmuring comforting words into Lan's hair, as well as tears.

    She never thought, never in a million years, that she'd hurt someone close to her with these powers. Not so directly. Not intentionally. But even then, Lan came at her, but, why--

    "Shhh. Shhh."

    There's just that, and the gentle, but unorthodox beat of Gwen's heart, beating like the pulse of stars under Lan's head.

    And the dry, but earnest words that follow softly after.

    "... It'll be okay..."

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    A soft cry, the shuff of feet across sand. Lan doesn't hurt. Not in a way that really matters. But Gwen drops to her knees in front of her, gathers Lan up into her arms, and the sudden skin-to-skin contact brings out a quiet gasp as they collide. "Oof--"

    She's sore all over. She'd tried to--

    Gwen, she'd tried to kill Gwen--

    Her fingers twitch in the sand at their sides. She left- she ran, and she left, and all her stuff is still at the base, and Loren was upset, and she tried to kill Gwen.

    Lan doesn't weep. She's too tired. It's over. She can't go back. Everything she tried to do, everything that might have made what Solaris did to her worth something, it's all ruined now. It was all for nothing.

    The Stranger found her, and Leah Sadalbari can't be fond enough of Lan to let her live now.

    Everything, it's all--

    She sniffles, held safely against the warmth and unfamiliar scent of Gwen's clothes and body. "I can't--" Save anybody, she doesn't finish, lapsing into silence... and soon enough, unconciousness.

<Pose Tracker> Isiris Shango'Ra has posed.

    
The unspeakable azure eye opens.

  The churning black splits the country in twain, black feathers spearing miles into the sky for as far as a soldier can shout, for as far as a giant can see. The incomprehensible black is nonsensical, breaking fast with the laws and itinerant attention of the physical impure world. The black is transparent at once -- that you can see to the other side -- but it is opaque at the same, in that you cannot see anything on that other side. You would mistake it a reflection, that it shows you the world that you stand in, but for it so clearly reflecting the world that you left behind.

  The world that left you behind.

  You feel him, now.

  Pieces of the nightmare walker stream into existence, like the colored light from a stained glass window in a dusty cathedral, coalescing from unreality one color at a time. He strides out of the dark, across the black glass. The moon opens her gate as he walks, pouring moonlight into the cool desert night, though as he passes he leaves no reflection in the fused black beneath his boot.

  The world is twisted up, like a knot. You've been around him long enough to know that anything underneath his attention churns like that -- a sharp, painful cicada buzz that cannot be resolved to be true 'sound' is symptom of the fact that his interest outpaces the world's ability to be observed. It is a side effect of having those terrible eyes.

  "We will all suffer in time," he assures you, his hands on your shoulders. "She will understand, in time. Should she realize 'that ability,' she will become the strongest of us. And you may be godmother unto the filth-streaked rope that drags her from the waters of this violate, irruptive world."

  Though it makes no reasoned sense, he stands on the other side of the country-cutting mirror, approaching and laying hands from angles that do not seem physically apropos. His grip on you tightens.
  "You have done the thing that no one else would."

  By the time you look, you only see yourself.
  You blink, and the country is sewn together once more.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen sees him, in her mind's eye, against the moonlight dull against her eyelids as she closes them. "...!"

    Suddenly, she is alone. No weight of Lan against her chest, just her, the moon, and him.

    The man with no name, the man with blue eyes.
    
    He congratulates her, on this thing she's done, this thing she's done to Lan. He is holding her shoulders.

    ".... god... mother...?"
    
    This violate, irruptive world.

    "But this world isn't that." She shakes her head. "The only thing I want is for the world to not be dominated by people who want to rule it, or destroy it for their own greed. The people who see nothing but a thing to conquer. This world is beautiful, in spite of its flaws. If life flourishes... I would love that, but not at the cost of it. Not at the cost of Lan, or someone else."

    She gives Isiris a small smile, dipping her head slightly. "Maybe, if I work with you, you'll understand that too. If there was nothing the world had to offer, no kindness, no mercy, I wouldn't be here. And you... would have to find someone else, for your plan. But if I convince you, that this world is not without merit, then maybe, I'll be convinced that I've done the thing no one else would."

    The courier raises her hands, reaching out, attempting to mirror the same gesture as Isiris, her hands on his shoulders--

    But he's gone.

    "...." Her breath hitches in her throat, and she begins to sob.

<Pose Tracker> Isiris Shango'Ra has posed.

  The unspeakable azure eye opens.

  The churning black splits the country in twain, black feathers spearing miles into the sky for as far as a soldier can shout, for as far as a giant can see. The incomprehensible black is nonsensical, breaking fast with the laws and itinerant attention of the physical impure world. The black is transparent at once -- that you can see to the other side -- but it is opaque at the same, in that you cannot see anything on that other side. You would mistake it a reflection, that it shows you the world that you stand in, but for it so clearly reflecting the world that you left behind.

  The world that left you behind.

  You feel him, now.

  She is no longer there, no longer whispering gently into you.

  The water spreads as far as the eye can see, the itinerant bubbling of the indistinct sky telling a tale of the flooded world. Vast and leviathan, the ruined cityscape of Etrenank stretches at unnatural angles around them, paths wound through paths and leading nowhere. Like great gutted giants, the buildings hang empty, only staffed by watchful blue-eyed crows.

  The only whisper in this twisted up world is his, and you can feel it wringing every last drop of sanity from you, until there is only a gaping wound of madness in your belly. 'A dearest companion,' he whispers, meaning fleeting, and the gyre folds you tighter, stretching every part of you into an impossible shape across the bench. 'The use that you have is beyond their comprehension.'

  The pain is unbearable. The weight of his blue-eyed stare is unconscionable, auguring you to the table.

  'Did you think that you weren't worth the truth?'

  Then his bare hand settles on your forehead, and the pain of his eyes recedes. There is only the cooling sluice of water. You can feel him pick you up, lift you into place. You can feel him at the needle and thread, at the combs. One hand reaches up, pulling down a thread of the moon, the silver light glittering as you feel the prick, one atop the other. The cool of the thread winds through you.

  'Did you believe her to be stronger than the power of our truth?'

  You feel him gently pulling you back together, an inch at a time, as he unwinds you from the gyre, reversing the course of madness. You feel the thread cinch tightly around you, like a warm blanket. A note of warm humor marks his face. It is the first time you've seen him smile warmly. 'Did you believe her to be stronger than me...'

  What he does to you is painful. But he is dutiful, and careful with you, putting your mind back together again.

  "Don't be sad," he finally, mercifully says. "We were always alone."
  "That is why I will care for you."

  He winds the thread through his fingers, and sews you together snugly once more.
  You will return to her arms.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Lan didn't know this place the first time she saw it - lifetimes ago by now, or so it seems. She didn't recognize Etrenank when she saw it either, the gleaming polish of white and chrome and plastics too far a cry from the nightmare world that the Stranger inhabits.

    By now, of course, it's a kind of home.

    Broken down, wound tight, twisted up, wrung out. Tears are already gathering in Lan's eyes when she's picked up and carefully laid into place, the warp and weave that makes up her 'self' stretched out and exposed to the cruel gaze of the nightmare spinner. A threadbare tapestry, a child's torn doll. His beloved work of art.

    The familiar needle stings. The moonlight that pulls through afterward is cool and soothing. Her heart had been hurt. Every part of her had been scattered. She had, for a while, forgotten her truth.

    Once, she had cried out and spoken and pleaded. Now, Lan is quiet as he works. Until he asks her a question. Until he smiles at her. "Gwen?" she whispers, voice cracking from disuse in this world.
    "...No."

    She can't help but be sad. Because she'd wanted something, and can't accomplish it the way she is. Because she was foolish. Tears finally spill down her cheeks, but the Stranger promises he'll take care of her. That they're the same. That she has nothing to fear.

    Lan nods silently and turns her hand over without being bidden, so he can repair the seam at her wrist.