In the jungle at the foot of the Eggshell, on the Bakersfield side
2 Zorromes, 334
Fate
Alright! Y'all have some time to prep. If you like you can do that either IC or OOC.
Aaren
Aaren is still sitting inside the cart, listening as the songs escelate from uneasy to fight-mode in seconds.
"Daina, please stay with us for the moment. We need to do this together." She sings it, in Nora's language to make sure everyone can at least sort of follow. "Only you and Slavina have seen these creatures. Do you know anything about them that might help us survive?"
Aaren continues to sing the group calm song, excepting Nora.
Fate
'I can scout,' Kelly offers, his voice flat, as he kicks dirt over the cookfire.
Slavina
"Yes." Calm words (in Nora's language) flow from Slavina as she describes what she saw of the creatures, and how their spirits seem to be prisoners in their own bodies. "But I saw them very briefly, so my knowledge is vague. If I look at them again in the land of dreams I might discover how to sever the bonds."
Daina
Daina grumbles softly and shifts back to a less away posture "I'm going to go distract them, so you get a chance to plan... " she offers before frowning slightly, and looking with distinct worry between her crew and the direction the beasts are coming from. Another idea coming to her as she questions. "should I have the trees bend to ... sort of block the way... hate to do that to them but..."
Aaren
Aaren frowns, but sings, "Very well. And that's your decision." She'd rather Daina stay close, but it's clear that Daina is burning with rage—and also actual fire.
Fate
Nora listens, hard, her expression so intent that her gaze becomes positively piercing. 'Land of dreams?' She considers a moment. 'You got a way of getting there quickly?' Then she pauses, looking to Daina. 'Wait, you can do that?' She looks back, regarding the group as a whole. 'Will that work?' Without waiting for an answer she flicks a hand. 'Pff! If it doesn't, then we'll know a little better what we're dealing with, eh?'
Daina
Daina grumbles softly at the frown."Well gimme somethin better to do then" she grumbles. She does bend and stick her hand in the earth and urge the trees to bend in such a way as to make a wall between them and the oncoming Wolves. Do I need ta roll for it?
Fate
To determine if it goes fast enough, yeah. Diff 10.
Slavina
Slavina glances at Kelly. "Would you stay with me? I'd like to have an anchor for a situation like this."
Then there's a barrage of questions from Nora. Slavina listens, takes a calm second to decide what answers to give, and replies: "Yes, I do. Several ways. I'll answer your questions if we live, but for now please don't distract me or interrupt me in any way."
Daina
15!
Fate
Kelly glances back, then nods. He finishes snuffing the fire and wastes no time moving over to Slavina, grabbing his spear along the way.
Nora lets out a soft but exasperated exhale. 'Right, well.' But after that she says nothing more, instead pushing herself to the edge of the cart, ready to either jump off or roll back. Presumably. Assuming, of course, her narrow, feebly, trembling limbs will work properly.
Daina's message cascades up the trunks of the nearby trees, along the shifting, whispering leaves. It passes along quickly on wind and scent and treesong.
Aaren
"Go, go!" Aaren shoos Daina with her hands and her song. If only a frown carried so much power the rest of the time!
Daina
Megan, how big of a swan can I be?
Fate
The size of a normal adult swan. As in, the ones which Daina learned from. Which were from where? Truong's place?
Aaren
Yeah. And maybe Hometown?
Slavina
Normal adult swans are bigger than earth-swans though, right?
Fate
Correct.
Daina
As the trees do as desired Daina rises to stand “thank you” she murmurs quietly. Her hands tightening again. Her fists relax and clench as fire spreads from her hands and towards her middle, growing out almost like a cape, forming wings of flame at her sides as she looks to the others and gives a nod “I’ll keep them busy as long as I can but I hope you guys have some ideas for the long game!” Then “Hey Frankie, if they don’t have anything for you to do how about some shadow attacks on these wolves... If you can do it safely!”
She gets the words out before her frame shifts and changes in the heart of the fire and she takes to the air in the form of a swan that is wrapped in flame, burning with ire yes and the desire to protect her comrades. She grumbles and wishes she could be something... Bigger... that might have a better chance of stalling them for longer, but here we are! She takes to the air with a rush of heat that spreads out from her burning wings. Flying over the tree tops towards the threat, readying herself to attack.
Megan can I ask for stunt to regain legend?
Fate
No—stunts are only for when you roll.
Daina
kk
Slavina
Slavina folds her legs underneath her, pressing Kelly down to the ground as she does so they end up sitting knee-to-knee on the ground. She places her hands on his shoulders. "I'll only be half-gone. If you need my attention say my name."
Once he acknowledges the procedure, Slavina bends down. her forehead rests on Kelly's chest, just above his heart (da-dum. da-dum. wayfinders often use drums...), her face hidden behind curtians of hair and flowers. She closes her eyes.
Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-
(Heartbeat. Drumbeat. Hoof-beats. Da-dum. Da-dum.)
Slavina follows the drum of footfalls Between. Just far enough, just to the border between dreaming and waking. She lurks there, quiet, still. Tasting the waters for ripples cast by the slavering hounds.
I'd like to roll Wayfinding+Mystery to learn more about the doom doggies please!
Fate
Can do!
There's no Diff for that—higher rolls will net you more information. And if you have specific questions you may ask those too.
Slavina
Okay. Do I need to make a roll if I want to conceal my presence from them while she does this?
Fate
Absolutely.
I'm thinking [Mystery + Stealth]? Although if you have another idea...
Slavina
I was thinking illusion+wayfinding?
Fate
Sure!
Slavina
Okay! Can I use my mirror knack, since she's trying to mimic the natural betweenscape?
Fate
Sure!
Aaren
Events and information sweep around Aaren—whirlpool of happenings.
A snow storm, perhaps.
The air is full, and swirling, each particle dancing on its own. But all together, too.
Aaren closes her eyes and lifts her face. Her nostrils flare as she listens, for a moment only singing Slavina's not-quite-stiffling Calm Song. Then Aaren begins to sing again, twining her voices around Slavina's song to make her more, to give her power and focus and the deft touch of the preformer.
May I roll Singing Singing to give Slavina some bonus dice on her rolls between while Aaren keeps singing?
Aaren's voices rise, one, two, three... all the way to seven, twining and curling. Swirling like the snow in a storm and then—
Like a new cloud passing overhead, like a sudden up-gust, or a cold front.
An eighth voice, formed from the ringing silences left behind, or perhaps from the harmonies of the other seven together.
Aaren doesn't even open her eyes.
13 to Buff Slavinka.
Fate
That's +4 bonus dice right there.
Slavina
wooot!
12 to hide
Fate
Okay. You may make your gather intel roll.
And then there will be an opposed roll to detect you.
Slavina
Okay. May I channel Duty on my intel roll, since she's doing something that terrifies her because it's her job?
Fate
I'm dubious, because I would think it was more about survival than about duty.
Like... what's the alternative? Run? Hide? Get caught?
Slavina
Okay. I'll do without then.
Fate
Sorry! :T
Slavina
15 on my intel roll
Fate
(To Slavina)
It's there again.
The howls. The baying. It's there, and it's loud. The hounds—the hound with many heads?—have found their prey.
Purpose like steam encloses Slavina. It's thick, and drives the pulse forward, insistent.
They are twisted. Woven. Welded.
Seamless. Absolutely seamless.
Five limbs. One "head". There's something different about it. Something distinctly not hound-like. Directing with brief, considered pulses of something which could almost be whistle-like, click-like, command-like.
And from that, a connection which could be a leash, leading to parts—to a hand—unknown.
Slavina
(To Fate)
What is the leash made of? Or what is the nature of the leash?
Also are these whistle/clicks whatever communicated in the physical landscape? (i.e. can Aaren interfere with them?)
Is there (as in a body) a point of weakness between the head and the limbs... the spiritual version of a spinal cord?
What type of action, force, or etc would be best suited to severing or tangling the leash?
Bonus question: can she sense anything about the hand that holds the leash?
Fate
(To Slavina)
It's unclear what the leash is made of. It's carefully crafted, but impossibly strong, as if iron could be woven like fibers. It also weaves through the shape, as if it were sewn together with it—even though there aren't any seams in the shape itself.
No, the communication flashes through to the limbs like movement flashes through Slavina's own body.
There are none on the surface... although the stitchmarks could possibly be severed. Maybe.
Cutting, as if with a knife.
Not from here. She'd have to get "closer", to follow the leash to its source.
Slavina
(To Fate)
We got a knife from the tsarbog, right?
Fate
(To Slavina)
Correct.
Slavina
"Renina." Slavina pulls the words up slowly, as if she must reach a great distance to find them. "Where is your knife?"
Aaren
"Which one?" Aaren sings. She pulls out the Tsarbog's knife from her deep pocket, and her belt knife from her belt, and puts both before her. "We also have kitchen knives."
Slavina
"From Bozena."
Aaren
Aaren picks up the knife from the Tsarbog. "Right here. I'm holding it."
Slavina
Slavina moves one hand off Kelly's shoulder towards Aaren, palm up.
Aaren
Aaren hesitates. "Don't let them know we have it." She finally sings, as she hands it over.
Slavina
Slavina's head wobbles (a nod?) and she grips the knife without pulling it between. She feels for the shape, the resonance of its presence (not the shadow it casts but the object that casts them). Feels its edge. Compares to the fibers she feels between.
Slavina
(To Fate)
Will this knife be able to touch/cut the leash?
Fate
(To Slavina)
There is a resonance. A faint one. It comes from somewhere deep within the shape, rings along the strands of itself which have not yet been totally combined with the rest.
It is reminiscent of a time when these strange iron fibers did not exist.
That, perhaps, is the only thing which can cut this leash.
Slavina
Slavina pulls back away from between. Her head jerks up and she takes a deep breath (much like one who suddenly wakes, or a diver breaching the water). "They're controlled—driven—by a leash. I would say unbreakable, but there is enough connection between this knife and their spirits that it might be able to cut the fibers."
Aaren
Aaren, her voices slipping out of the Slavina-between song to explore the world around them again, sings, "That's Gudelj's knife—the Tsarbog's friend. What could it have to do with..." Aaren shakes her head, her tune shifiting. "How do we use it to cut the fibers? I assume you don't know if it will damage the knife?"
Slavina
Slavina shakes her head. "I don't know. But both of them are old, very old. The knife remembers a time before these spirits were chained. So do they. Between is heavily influenced by memory."
She steeples her fingers in front of her chin as she considers more deeply. "If we can make the memory powerful enough, it may unmake the leash. I think."
Aaren
Aaren doesn't express her frustration. "What would you like me to do, Slavina?" She sings, calmly.
"We wrote a song for Gudelj. I could also sing the Tsarbog for you?"
Slavina
Slavina brightens. "Yes. Yes, sing the Tsarbog and Gudelj. Are there parts that harmonize?" She asks. "Those would be best." Slavina turns her attention to Nora. "Have you ever been to the dream world?"
Aaren
Aaren smiles at the question, because of course there were parts that harmonize—they'd written Gudelj's song from the Tsarbog's memory of him. She listens for a moment longer, her voices ranging over the world (and paricullarly Nora, who still needs healing).
Then she turns them inward, and begins remaking Gudelj's song for eight voices.
(The Tsarbog's, of course, expands naturally to fit the more complicated space—Aaren has always struggled to sing as well as she can hear.)
Fate
Nora glances to the left and right. 'Who hasn't?' It's partly an honest question, though mostly rhetorical.
Kelly, meanwhile, simply waits, listening, his heartbeat calm and strong, following to the rhythm of one of Aaren's songs.
Aaren
Aaren, noticing he is still, quickly incorporates him into singing with her—she always wants more voices!
Slavina
Slavina shrugs, but clarifies: "Have you ever visited the dreamworld intentionally and taken deliberate actions there?"
Fate
She waves a hand in dismissal. 'Oh, aye.'
Slavina
"Good. I think I'll need some help with this. If you come with me, will you follow my lead and follow my instructions without question? The alternative is near-certain death..."
Fate
Nora puffs out a breath and then nods.
Slavina
Okay, I think the next thing I post is gonna be decidedly doing-things-ish
Fate
Alrighty. In that case, let's move to Daina.
Daina
Okie :smiley: fly fly fly search search search
Fate
The world slides below Daina, lined in orange firelight. Heat shimmers the air around her, brushes over trees, leaving a wake of warmth.
From the shadow sliding in time with her: What do you wish me to do to the hounds?
Daina
Daina looking for the wolves "well let's see what they're doing when we get there but... if you can bite out important chunks of them so they can't kill us that'd be nice" She says in swan. Then catching her breath she adds. "as long as you're allowed and it won't hurt you" Doing a barrel roll and then righting herself to continue looking. "I hope they figure out somethin' good I don't know how long we can keep these things busy"
Fate
Frankie remains silent at this, presumably clinging faithfully to Daina.
Soon enough, she comes upon them.
They're not hard to see. Sap and wood splinters slide off of them.
But they are strange—not at all a match for the impression they left in Between. Five wolf-sized hounds—or, at least, that's the closest equivalent for these strange... things. Aside from a light hiss, the faint, subtle smell of oil and metal, they are silent and indistinct. Where there would be legs there are instead wheels, covered and connected three-by-three by a strange, textured belt, which can only be seen barely poking out from the bottom of a sturdy covering. There is no neck—instead the head seems placed squarely on the "shoulders" of the things, eyes covered in matte darkness.
And then, one of them stops and shifts. In the space of a blink, the wheels slide and move and disappear somewhere in the body, and four articulated hound-legs emerge, clawed, hand-like appendages at their ends. Then it coils and springs, lunging straight for Daina.
The others keep moving.
Okay! Mel, you can choose what you want to roll to defend with.
Daina
dex dancing?
Fate
Got an 11
Sure, that's doable!
WHOO! 11 from Daina! That was close!
Daina
Daina was going to give them a chance... like hey maybe they're not dicks that need burning. Clearly she's wrong. She trumpets closes her wings in tight in a dive right through the paws of the creature and then up and over it's head. Flying to circle round, ready to retaliate.
Fate
Daina may act!
Daina
She comes round gracefully turns to face the creature, the flames around the white swan making it glow that vibrant orange and yellow. Her wings beating at the air and with another trumpeting sound she sweeps her wings forward hard and a waft of flame is focused between them, aimed for where the oil smell is coming from. Her body rolling as she lowers and pushes her self back and then flaps her wings again attempting to channel the fire into a fast and hard hit. Fire and Dancing ok?
Fate
Yep!
Diff is 28!
Daina
31 on Fire Spire
Fate
Focused with the spark of rage, the hunger for reprisal and vindication, the fire flows forward, white and impossibly hot.
It slams hard into the hound-creature as its arc carries it to the ground, envelops it, tries to feast. (Some flames catch on the trees and alight, utterly ravenous still with vengeance.)
Once it lands, it's a twisted, blackened hunk of metal, warped beyond recognition.
And then it begins shifting, moving. Jerking, at first, like a creature in its death throes, but parts of it begin to push back out into place and its movements begin to get steadily smoother.
7 rounds until it finishes its self-repair protocol.
Then two of the others break away from the pack, rolling Daina's way and folding their wheels and unfolding their legs.
Daina
[do I get to act before the others reach me?
Fate
Yes.
Daina
does Frankie get a turn though?
Fate
Yes. Thank you.
Daina
oh good! get it bud!
Fate
A shadow swells up around one of the unfolding hounds.
And a painfully white light flashes from the eyes of the other hound, seeming to envelop the world.
Daina, roll Wits + Ath to not be blinded. Diff 5.
Daina
4
Fate
And then, all that's left is what Daina can hear and smell.
It sounds as if the two hounds are still up and moving, and still after Daina. Though it's hard to tell...
Daina may act now.
Daina
Daina makes disgruntled swan sounds and summons the plants around them to wrap around the hounds and try to pull them apart. Vines and trees acting together and reaching out towards the foreign material in their midst. Vines grasping, older trees bending to try and pin the wolves, younger trees at the end of the vines ready to spring back with force as soon as the vines signal they're ready. She trumpets loudly as she shoots straight upwards and wills her own momentum and force to the plants below. Fert+gardening and the second green thumb knack I have?
Fate
Sure! Diff 15.
Daina
[ 16!
Fate
Nice!
She can smell it. The familiar, comforting scent of green, of aliveness. And then the groan of vines and trees.
This is followed by a strained chugging and whirring sound which begins to emit, steadily growing louder until it's clearly audible. And the sounds aren't traveling, so far anyway.
However the last two hounds are getting farther away, still headed off in the direction of the cart.
Daina will be blinded for two more rounds. The hounds will be held for six rounds. Six rounds left for the other hound's self-repair protocol.
Daina may act again.
Daina
Daina calls out to Frankie "Go warn them what happened that they're still coming two and then the rest... tell them about the ... the healing..." She huffs and stays way high up but flies over head of the damn hounds, the intent to stay out of reach. Trumpeting her own warning and trying to reach out to any animals around that may -want- to help. Animal + Charisma + animal magnetism?
Fate
Okay!
Daina
diff?
Fate
Minimum Diff is 5. The higher you roll, the more animals you'll attract.
Hold up, you can't roll Animal and Charisma
You can roll Animal and Relate
Animal Magnetism still applies
Daina
8
Fate
A subtle rush of wind from above, followed by the harsh cry of an osprey, answered by her mate. We answer. A soft crunching of foliage comes up from below, as if also in response to Daina, and then goes quiet.
Soon, wind of the ospreys' glide brush against Daina's feathers. What troubles you? asks the osprey's mate.
Daina
Daina trumpets a greeting These unnatural creatures below threaten me and my family, do you think there's anything you can do? Without ... you know dieing?
Fate
We will try, offers the other.
Daina
Thank you, please be careful they can leap great heights! she warns. Her eyes still closed with the pain of the flash that had blinded her for a while the sky's brightness no comfort.
Fate
Okay! I'm switching back to the ground team, Mel.
Daina
k! good luck guys!!
Fate
Y'all have 3 rounds.
Which means each person can take three turns.
Slavina
Okay. Summarizing our plan: Aaren will "sharpen" the knife with singing to lower our eventual diff. Slavina and Nora will fuse between and drive the knife into the leash to sever it
Fate
(( Knife Diff: 30
Aaren's Diff to "sharpen" the knife: 14, to lower the Knife Diff by 1, and every two successes over lowers it an additional 1 ))
Slavina
Slavina rearranges herself to make room for Nora. In quick, terse, extremely brief terms she describes what will happen and what to do: essentially, don't resist the trance and allow Slavina to guide her. She directs the smaller woman (as she's done before with Daina, as she's done herself with Momochka) to sit in front of her pressed back-to-chest, their arms twined around each other and still pressed to Kelly's shoulders. The worn, smooth handle of the knife wedged between the three of them.
Slavina presses her cheek to Nora's temple and hums. The same song as Aaren, but with the pulses of the rhythm brought up and made large, vibrating through the ribs and heart. They sway to the beat. Her eyes close as she slides back between.
Fate
To her credit, Nora obeys without asking questions...
(But her heart pounds and her pulse quickens as she's enfolded into Slavina's lap. Despite herself, her small, frighteningly light frame is strung taut.)
... and she waits.
Aaren
Aaren knows this song.
She's know it for years.
She heard Aya write it, one note at a time, on her lone guitar. The music for bells, for cymbols, for guzlas and pipes and metal drums, for the chior of sixteen voices.
One note at a time, on a lone guitar.
Aaren knows this song.
She's know it for years.
She watched Diana coriagraph it, one step at time. In the sauna, in the forest, in the Swan Maiden's House. Every spare moment, in every space. In costume and out, for children of all ages, ten people making enough motion and noise to be an army.
One step at a time, in any space at all.
Aaren knows this song.
She's known it for years.
She has heard the world sing it.
This is the song of the Tsarbog. Resounding through their palace, through their country, through the very ground upon which they walk. Resounding with the sound of horses hooves, with the sound of falling rain and creaking wood.
This is the song of the Tsarbog, resounding through the very ground.
This is the peice at the center. The last-but-one, tragic and triumphant chorus of the second act. This is the death of the loyal companion, the heroic sacrifice.
The abyss.
Ban Zoric stands at the keel of the strange ship-of-stars, woven by Star Bringer herself, and steered by Ken Maker-of-Worlds. Stands with the shards of his people— between the exiles who will never return and the remenaint who will never be saved.
And he decides: He will stay. He cannot abandon the dying. Just as Bozhena could not leave the feild of her dying comrades, even to return to her sons, so Ban Zoric will not leave the breaking, shattering world, even to rebuild his nation.
And then Gudelj comes out from the crowd, and his theme (the steady beat of a metal drum, the high laughter of a flute) developed over the course of the act, comes to a head.
The friends argue.
The actors dance back and forth across the stage, as the music does. Intertwined and breaking off, coming together before Ban Zoric's resounding "No! I stay!"
And the music stops—
One beat of silence and stillness.
Two.
And then the metal drum begins to pound again.
And the flute rises.
And Gudelj uncrosses his arms, walks up behind his unsuspecting friend, and by mainstrength does what words could not:
He puts Ban Zoric on the ship.
This is the song Aaren sings. Sings to her dead friend, to her missing family, to her sisters in their grief.
Tears stream down her face, because she has never been able to sing this song, these words that her sister wrote for her, without crying.
Singing singing to Remind the Knife of its history.
Channelling Expression
Slavina
They flow together, two ladles poured into one vessel (though not all of them—she holds some apart in a pool of its own where Nora will not flow). Slavina's presence is cool, calm, reassuring against Nora's tight-strung currents. They will flow together and they will flow apart, as Slavina has done a hundred hundred times before (and through her, Nora witnesses a hundred hundred memories of the joining and doing and parting).
A thought ripples through their depths. The memory of steely cables, the feeling of driving a knife into something unyeilding, the feeling of it sliding just so between the bones of a joint. The plan. The question. Where?
If Nora doesn't fight it, I'd like to add her dice from Magic and Notice to Slavina's roll next round. Do we have to do any rolls or anything to teamwork it?
Fate
Not this time. In the future I may ask for something like that, though.
Slavina
Cool thanks
Aaren
35 from Aaren's singing singing roll. May I have 2 legend back from the stunt please?
Fate
Done
Aaren
Thanks!
Fate
Always he gets lost in it, whenever he sings as part of the harmony. Always he closes his eyes and he can almost see it. Almost.
But now he has grown. The high range is no longer his place. It almost hurts.
With ease, he slips into a lower harmony, the urgency of the clockwork swarm closing in steadily, providing a beat to punctuate the fear and haste traded between Ban Zoric and Gudelj. His voice resonates much more now, but is still swallowed by the entirety of Aaren's splendor, her passion and emotion carried on eight powerful voices that weave in and out of the symphony of the world.
He closes his eyes.
And then it's there, before him. Finally.
When the song is over, he returns, a little dazed, pulse pounding and cheeks wet. The final image of the ground growing farther and farther away lingers for a moment or two even as his eyes are opened.
—-
The uncertainty of the unknown.
Always there are questions. Always there are answers. Answers like a spear to pierce the hide of fear; answers like a shield to press back against the anxiety of ignorance.
But this is not about questions.
It's a simple matter, insists the guide on her breath, on her pulse, on her heart. I've done this before. And indeed, one can feel the hundred hundred gentle touches, entwining, complete embraces.
There are no spears here. There are no shields here. There is only Nora, small, sickly Nora with her ceaseless chatter and her endless questions and her smart mouth and her mother's fool fancies—
Well it's either this or death, innit?
She slips from her skin, exposed...
curled in the basement for minutes or hours or days or weeks or months or years with nothing but the light shining through the cracks above
there's something crawling down here, except there's nothing crawling down here, because nothing lives here
and then Gran asks something but the words don't make sense, they don't fit together anymore, but the answer is 'Yes, Gran,' it's always 'Yes, Gran'
... and meets the guide's embrace.
Aaren
15 for Aaren's second roll.
Fate
New Diff is 18
Slavina
steam clouds from the surface, carries away the festering past. Later, they will come to that later, but for now it is clean
.....there are no basements here. No crawling things, no senseless words. Only a perfect harmony. Their eyes open. Their hand closes on bone.
Hard things.
Old things.
Things long forgotten.
Not anymore.
They swell up behind it and crest. There. Where the steel-wire cable meets the silk-fibered soul. They drive down, point first, drive through the cage, split it apart and twist. On the blade, a reflection:
Ban Zoric, arm outstretched, reaching for the hand he would never quite reach
Gudelj.....
I'm gonna roll Wayfinding+charisma, with dice from Nora's Magic and Notice if that's okay?
Fate
Yep!
Slavina
Okay cool! And..... uh...... can we use some of Nora's legend too?
Fate
Yes.
Slavina
23! Slavina spent 5 of nora's legend, I'm gonna log it
Fate
Okay!
Fate
And like silk, the cable comes apart beneath the blade. It unwinds, faster than a blink, unweaving the strange spirits-as-spirit in Between from the bodies it had been bound to.
(Far away, as the ospreys dive, as the hidden jaguar pounces, the strange, otherworldly hounds fall to the earth, still.)
(The "leash" quickly slides away, disappearing towards its source as if being raveled.)
The twisted, re-molded thing in Between remembers its previous shape.
It's previous shapes.
Like an amputated limb.
It reaches to Slavina and Nora, gentle, yearning, for the feeling of a familiar hilt worn just right beneath one's hand, for the song carried along the blade.
Slavina
She faces Nora.
Gradually (instantaneously?) under Slavina's firm direction they calm, settle, separate in a way. Like cream rising out of milk, like oil slicking the surface of a smooth water-bowl, she coats Nora's surface. Insulating her from the rawness of Between, muting it, but with enough transparency to see through if one chooses to look. At their interface their selves refract, reflect a clarity of intention and understanding: this is an embrace now, no longer a grapple. The way to retreat from it is obvious.
Or.
Or Nora can stay. Watch. Help. Learn. But..... Slavina lays her intentions bare and leaves Nora to make a choice.
She faces the uncaged thing.
She has many surfaces, and this one shimmers. It takes on the qualities of the song, the knife, an extension of its reflection. A change: ripples on the surface. Not yet, they say, but soon. One last duty to perform.
The duty is shown where the ripples break the surface. The hand extends—an invitation, a plea, a path. Speak: she will lend him her voice.
I wanna let this thing use Slavina as a conduit to speak directly with Aaren and co, but have Slavina remain in control enough to kick it out if necessary. Should I make a roll for that?
Fate
Absolutely you should. Diff is...
12. If you fail, the thing will have full control of Slavina's body.
Slavina
Okay. Would Charisma wayfinding be an appropriate roll?
Fate
Yep!
Slavina
Cool. And can I channel Duty? On accounts of now she's going above and beyond to do her job?
Fate
I still see it as connected to survival. If you guys don't get info, how can you possibly take action against whoever sent these strange otherworldly agents?
Slavina
Okay. Gotta ask :P
Fate
No worries. I'm glad you're asking.
Slavina
17
Fate
Well. There you go.
Fate
It eases into Slavina's outstretched hand, like an eager, pacified snout waiting for treats. The connection is made.
Even not entwined, as Slavina and Nora were, there is an overwhelming muddle of images, a mixing of senses—smell, especially, distinct, powerful, strange smells mingling and parting, overpowering each other and fading away—a strange, chaotic flurry of separate experiences made into one yet separate by necessity. Much of it is immediate, visceral, animal. But there is a small piece in there, a kernel of something which is able to put forth language (an ancient language, older than the world itself) and lay out elaborate patterns.
Meanwhile, Nora's spirit shivers as if struck by a fever or taken by a chill. Everything about her yearns to shrink away, to dive into the earth, to leave all this far distant... but she remains, an embalmed presence in the realm of dreams.
Slavina
Since Slavina is providing a technical interface, as it were, can she auto-translate for it? I'm thinking like... she gets what it wants to say but it comes out as intelligible words
Fate
Yeah, that's fine.
I mean, it's part of her job.
As a wayfinder, that is.
Slavina
cool beans
Slavina (but it isn't Slavina, not anymore) straightens. He takes on the rigid posture of a soldier at attention (or a hound at heel?). His eyes open. Snap to Aaren. He offers a stiff bow—an invitation.
Aaren
Aaren's voices have only just finished trailing off. Slavina's song cedes, and this new thing oozes into her body. But there is no force or violence there, it is there invited.
Aaren stands to offer a polite bow in return. Her hair and cloth flying around her.
"Good evening, sir." She sings. And she asks, "May I ask who you are?" Although their is something hauntingly familiar about the song already.
Fate
For a moment, there are grunts, confused and frustrated. The throat and tongue wrestle with sentiments expressable only in grunts, whines, and groans.
And then... "My lady. I am Gudelj Suljic. I am... was formerly the Master of Hounds for the Tsar." He lets out a whine. "Where is my liege? I can smell him. I miss him." A struggling pause, as he masters himself. "I... forgive my outburst."
Slavina
The bow dips lower into a near grovel before he pulls back in, head still lowered.
Fate
"How can I serve you?"
Aaren
Aaren bites her tounge (although her songs continue) as the tears push out against her eyes again. They are harmonizing, not quite conciously, with Slavina, with Nora, with Gudelj—with this amalgum of spirits that is washing through them.
"I do not know." She sings, "I—"
She stops her words as she speaks, and then she starts again, "Where have you been?" She asks. "You have been gone for a very, very long time."
Fate
Daina can make her re-entry whenever you want, Mel!
Daina
A fiery bird swoops in from the direction of the downed doom dogs and as she dives down down her flames become as a ball around her. The meteoric being doing no damage to the grounds as she rolls onto the ground tumbling in a familiar fashion to her feet. Her flames extinguishing as she looks to the troupe with a little less worry than she’d left with. At least till she takes in the scene and sniffs something smells... Strange but not wrong. She watches and listens carefully, thanking the Gods for the return of her vision after that encounter.
The young woman isn’t exactly pale or looking worse for wear but something does seem less about her at the moment. She rolls her shoulders and steps towards the group still trying to suss out what’s going on exactly.
Fate
Is it safe to assume that Daina would talk down the periphery fires caused by her massive fire strike earlier? Or is she just gonna let the forest burn?
Aaren
Aaren sings, with a voice that is lower and faster than the one occupied singing to Gudelj-Slavina-Nora, "Daina, Slavina has let Master Gudelj possess her for the moment, so we can ask him questions. He was once a friend of the Tsarbog. Of Ban Zoric." She corrects herself, using the Tsarbog's older name for Gudelj's sake.
Daina
Oh sorry yeah she'd like soak up those fires on her way back!
Fate
Okay! Just checking!
Daina
Daina nods some and steps forward with one foot and sweeps in a slight bow. "Good ta meetcha" she mumbles softly. "So is this the leash holder or the one on the tether?" she questions sort of out of the side of her mouth with a nervous glance.
Slavina
Another bow to Daina: arms outstretched stiffly ahead of him, head meeting the dirt. He straightens with a lifted chin, a bared throat, hands tucked neatly in by Slavina's belt.
Daina
Daina does the doggo head tilt and sniffs the air. can she learn anything from chemicals coming off of them? though I mean i guess the main one is submission?
Fate
He whines at the old name, but masters himself more quickly this time.
"It was... it was a land once known as the Thrice Ten Kingdoms." A pause. "Where am I now?"
Yeah, it's a very confused mix of all kinds of feelings. Submission not the least among them.
Aaren
"You are in.—" Aaren's songs shift to mimic the sounds of it, as best she can. She's only been out of it breifly, but there's a feel to it now, that she had never noticed before, "the New World. The old one was... well I think it got broken." She wants to comfort him, but she doesn't know how long Slavina will be able to keep him there, or what will happen next.
So, instead. "Why were you hunting us?"
Daina
Daina hums softly and provides some guidance she hopes with her wolf ears and tail appearing and putting off the signals for friends and calmness. Listening to the exchange.
Fate
Kelly waits, uncertain, humming his spear song quietly to himself but otherwise remaining seated in case his heart is still needed. His eyes flick to Nora, who is entirely unresponsive, left lying on the ground in favor of Gudelj's restless movement.
"Not broken." There is a searching silence. "Reforged." He seeks more words, but this time they fail him. Instead, he says, "I—we were hunting you." There's something grounding about the phrase, a repetition for the sake of focus. And then, more firmly, "The Tsar told us—told me to find you. To bring you back. Because you smell like the Ban."
Slavina
Every muscle is taught—near quivering. He leans forward into the words, staring ahead, intense. His head sways in slow arcs, still searching for that familiar scent.
Daina
Daina quells the soft growl before it's more than a few trembling sounds. Hunting them indeed she was the hunter not the other way around. She makes a sort of whuff that clears her nose and rubs her chin as she looks over to check on the others and grimaces a bit. Walking over to at least lay Nora out in a more dignified manner. She gives Kelly a small smile that silently enquires as to his level of 'ok' at the moment. A hand reaching out to squeeze his shoulder if he seems open to touch at the moment. She still listens and smells the conversation, sensing that eagerness about the spirit inhabiting Slavina.
To Aaren "can he be ...re leashed? We really don't need that..."
Aaren
"Who is the Tsar?" Aaren asks. "Where is the Tsar?"
She shifts one of her songs, singing to Kelly a different version of the calm song, to let him know that everything is fine (or at least that Aaren thinks he can be calm) without actually touching his emotions at all. She is greateful that he is alert, although she doesn't try to convey that just now.
Aaren acknolwedges Daina's question with a twitch of song. It's a vital one. She'll get to it in just a second...
Fate
A puzzled silence at the exchange, a moment's uncertainty about who to respond to. Then: "The Tsar is the Tsar." And then, there's a quiet settling into place, a small realization that nonetheless shifts everything. "Tsar Afon Chazov Rodionovich. The one Ban Zoric defended his people against... a long time or a short time ago." There's a quiet growl, which is quickly cut off in favor of another response. "He is... at a palace... he is..." There are no words. "It's in a different land." And then a memory snaps through, and bursts into a name, quickly, eagerly. "Domochlovek!"
Slavina
Excitement. A jerk forward. Yes! This is the right trail!
Aaren
Aaren breathes out. For a moment, she stands in shock, singing. "Thank you." She sings. She remembered the Mechanical Tsar, and his machine of Souls. It was fresh in the mind, with the Rock-Opera still on her tounge. "But, why are you serving him now? What happened?"
Fate
Kelly shares a look with Daina, steady, calm. He pats her hand, soothing.
"Why are you—" Another puzzled silence. "I suppose... It did not occur to me not to." Another searching pause, a slightly agonized sifting through fragmented memory. He whines again, and seems not to notice. "He conquered. I succumbed. And now I am here." Pause. "I think I was reforged, too."
Slavina
It's half cringe, half defensive raising of hackles. Head drops, shoulders raise, elbows pull back tense.
Daina
Daina smiles and nods her thanks to Kelly for the gesture and intent. Giving his shoulder a squeeze as she straightens. "can you avoid such a yoke again?" ears and tail showing intense interest.
Aaren
Aaren complements Daina's question with a calming song. It's okay, it's alright. No one is blaming him for succumbing to the touch of a god-thing.
Fate
"I... don't know." A longer whine, now. "Even if I could... you cannot escape the will of a god."
Daina
Daina nods her head softly and clearly is turning over an idea in her mind.
Aaren
"Do you know what he wants from us?" Aaren asks, singing something like the song Daina makes when she talks, the good-dog song.
Slavina
He prostrates himself completely, face buried in the dirt beneath Slavina's sleeves. His whole body shakes.
Aaren
When he goes down, Aaren can't stand it anymore. She sits, and slides forward, hand out streached like it would be streached out to a sobbing sibling. "Here now." She sings, "You do not have to be afraid right now."
Slavina
(Between, Slavina's other face strokes him between the ears with a firm hand. They serve the same master—not the Tsar, the true master. They will help him find Bozena. She will be proud. He is almost done.)
Fate
A groan. A huff. "I am not sure." A sigh. "I suspect he wishes to reforge you, too." His voice is calmer now, but solemn. "He has a vision for his world, for his people. All will be brought to heel before it."
Daina
A disdainful whuff from Daina. She looks to Aaren to see if she's got more questions forthcoming.
Slavina
No more trembling, but still he doesn't rise from his place on the ground. He sags into a limp, hopeless sprawl.
Aaren
"Do you know if the Tsar knows anything about us, beyond that we smell like Ban Zoric?" Aaren moves up next to him, to touch his shoulder.
Fate
"All I know is what my orders were. I'm sorry I can't offer you more."
Slavina
He speaks, and is still.
Aaren
Aaren nods. "What can we do for you?" She asks, because if he can't think of anything else to offer, she certainly can't think of anything else to ask.
Fate
"Please. Return me to the Ban's side. I... I..." His voice falters for a moment. "He is the only one I know who can withstand the Tsar's might."
Slavina
The tremble returns and he daren't raise his eyes.
Aaren
Aaren sings agreement, and looks around at her family.
Her songs are already turning to the Tsarbog's song.
"You should know," Aaren sings, "Ban Zoric, he said he was dead. But we can send you to him, if you are okay with that. Right, Slavina?"
It's kind of, awkward. But she knows Slavina is in there, too.
Daina
Daina sits on her rear and waits for them to do what they can for the guy, hoping it would be enough that he wouldn't be tethered to a master he didn't want again.
Slavina
(Between, the hand remains. Hush, hush, we are here for you.)
It's slow, as Slavina becomes herself enough to be seen again. A nod. Slow, but decisive.
(Yes, she shows him, we will give you back to him)
Fate
Another sigh. A long one. A heavy one. "Yes. It's not right that I should live while my liege is dead. It should have been the opposite. That's what I intended, the last time I saw him."
Slavina
Slavina looks to Aaren with half-seeing eyes and raises her brows. Now? Her face asks.
Daina
Daina pauses "Do we know exactly what happened last they saw one another?" curious and wondering if this could be part of the puzzle if they don't already know.
Aaren
"Yes." Aaren sings, to both Daina and Slavina at once, two voices in perfect chorus.
Daina
Daina nods "Good rest to you" she intones softly.
Slavina
She faces Gudelj
A warning: she will reclaim her voice. Her surface slides beneath him, but the steadying hand on his head remains..... be calm, it says, be still. I am still here. I will send you to your leige.
She faces Nora
The ripples have moved through her depths to the surface beneath. Slavina once more twists, gleams, shines forth her intentions and expectations and questions. A path must be found (this she can do). A door must be opened (Nora has ways of opening doors Slavina does not). The spirit of an ancestor must be sent to the next world (Nora, she now knows, is much cannier with such things than she).
Will Nora help?
This time, there is no death hanging over them. Only Slavina's desire and weakness.
She faces the gods
"Daina..." Slavina's voice raises back to its normal pitch but comes, again, as if echoing from far away over a lake of syrup. "I... want warmth. Please." She sways slightly, regaining an upright posture while largely unaware of her surroundings.
Daina
Daina lifts her head wolfen ears perking. She rises and walks over to put a hand on Slavina's shoulder. Willing warmth into her, a little taken from all the life around them and funneled through Daina's will into the warmth of her friend. need ta roll or anything along those lines?
Fate
Nope!
In the realm of dreams, a gentle question ripples outward, washes over Nora.
Spirits offer secrets, knowledge. And this is an odd one indeed, a conglomerate of many wills, many spirits, shaped into one. There is much they could learn. There's much she's already learning. Could they not bind it to the knife? Was it not already drawn there, to the scent of its friend? Would it even notice the difference, as confused and twisted around as it was?
But managing unwilling souls was a right pain in the arse. Managing this thing might well be impossible.
But it'd be worth it, though, for all they could come to know.
("They". The separation has not totally sunk in yet.)
Slavina
No.
It has served their friend faithfully these eons. It deserves what they have promised, does it not? At their juncture, memories and feelings coat the surface: the pain and joy of love, the pain and joy of separation, the torture that is the hope of reunion and despair of that same hope.
Besides, they will learn some even in the process of sending it onward, will they not?
Fate
It's almost like a lash. Nora shrinks from it.
Fine. Whatever.
She yields to Slavina, as if passing along a rock that turned out to be too hot to handle.
Slavina
Megan, I'm not clear... is Nora agreeing to assist, or just agreeing not to actively resist Slavina's actions?
Fate
She's agreeing to assist.
Slavina
Okay, cool.
Slavina draws the feelings back from their interface, replaces them with something cool, neutral, something Nora will be more at ease with. She borrow's the knife's edge and carefully (like one cutting fine cloth) slides it along the fabric of the dream-world. Where the blade touches, a path slides open: a path with a oh-so-familiar scent and song.
Go. her hand pushes on his back, towards the path. Run fast, run hard, don't stop until you meet him.
I'd like to roll to send Gudelj's spirit to the underworld. Wayfinding+mystery for Slavina, with borrowed dice from nora's Death+Command Dead
Fate
You may! Diff is 10.
Slavina
13!
Fate
Excellent!
The cut of a blade. The slice of a scythe.
Briefly, there is salty wetness—the rolling of tears, like the rolling of great waves, over an emptiness which everyone comes to know, one way or another.
Gudelj dives, never to surface again.
Aaren
Aaren hears him go. It's too much, as if this is the death of a man she knows. All the greif that hasn't hit yet, from all the changes she's only started to process from the letters, seems to bubble up.
Aaren sings, crying again, and crawls over to her brother to get a hug.
Slavina
Another pass of the knife seals over the split as if it never were. Then (a brief flicker of warning to Nora so she is not caught off guard) their awareness drains back into the vessels of the earth. Slavina shakes as if shedding Between like droplets of water.
Fate
Kelly wraps his arms around Aaren, reserved at first, while he waits for his cue. Then, as Slavina rises again and shakes off her strange slumber, he spills more and more of himself into the hug.
Nora's whole body tightens at once, jerking as if startled to wakefulness. She scrambles back, clumsy and feeble, and curls her knees to her chest, hugging herself tightly.
Daina
Daina hears the sadness from Aaren and looks to she and Kelly with a commiserating grief. One that she doesn't give free reign just yet. So much to be done. Her attention turns to Nora with some concern for her limp frame and silence through out all this. As the slender form of Nora scrabbles back from the group and still holds an air of fragility she extends a hand meaning to offer warmth from the world around them to the other traveler, as she'd done for Slavina.
Fate
Nora eyes Daina, suspicious, untrusting. But the words all tangle up in a jumble and fail to cross from her lips.
Slavina
Slavina stumbles a bit as she re-orients herself and pauses, torn: who to go to? Aaren or Nora? But Aaren has Kelly and Nora has no one, so she makes her way to Nora and crouches near (but not too near), folding her long narrow limbs into a surprisingly small space. "Hey. Did you find your way back?" She asks. She follows Nora's eyes to Daina and says, "She'll give you some..... energy?" Slavina frowns, knowing the word is lacking, but proceeds. "It won't last but you'll feel stronger for a bit."
Fate
'Fuck right off,' Nora says, unable to meet Slavina's gaze, hardly any heart to her words.
Aaren
Aaren sobs a little more, and then pulls herself back into doing things mode. They need to make sure everyone is okay and then sort out a plan, so that she can go to bed and do the whole crying thing properly.
Slavina
May I make an insight-empathy ping on Nora to see what she actually wants/needs? I'll take an average
Fate
Okay!
(To Slavina) She's confused and overwhelmed and raw and doesn't really know how to feel or what she wants but feels strongly like, whatever it is, it's Slavina's fault.
Daina
Daina smacks her lips a bit "right then... I ah... I'll be around if you change your mind." She goes to rekindle the fire they'd had to put out. Looking to the others for objections before catching the kindling. She had plans for a fairly large fire and sitting her arse right down innit.
Slavina
Slavina doesn't really shake her head, or shrug. After all, Nora's not looking at her. "Alright." It's bland—not contemptuously so, just... lacking venom. She gets up and bounces her way over to the cart, where she rummages around for snacks.
"Mm, Daina, when did you add a buttered-corn-fruit flavor? It's amazing!"
Daina
Daina smiles faintly as she shakes her head "I think the plant might have come up with that one on it's own?" she chuckles "or I was high when I did it" she notes with a shrug and smirk. She looks to the shadows and asks Frankie if he can bring her some dry timber and eat the smoke that is about to be made. She can add tobacco to the wood if that will make it tastier.
Slavina
Slavina emerges with a skirt-full of justafruits (plus one between her teeth) and tosses a couple to each person.
Daina
Daina catches one then the other and tosses one of hers to Nora before looking upwards and trying to judge how restorative the sun and flames might be, resuming her human all over form so as not to have to much input at the moment. Munching on the fruit.
Aaren
Aaren sings the swelling out of her eyes and wipes the tears off her face. "Good idea, Slavina. Everyone should eat and get something to drink. We've all been up for at least thirty six hours."
Slavina
Slavina sits down gracefully but abruptly, sending her skirts billowing up around her before they settle to the ground. She munches a few bites of one fruit, then a few bites of another, making a little hum of delight at the flavor. Then she hops back up to her feet and paces around as she eats.
"Really, that long?!" She asks, a bit breathy.
Daina
Daina rises from her crouch and moves to offer Aaren a hug and kiss on the cheek, if such seems welcome.
Fate
And then, there's a feeling like a sound, inaudible but deeply felt in the very bones, deep in the heart.
Though never felt before, it's absolutely unmistakable.
It's the sound, the feeling, of the world being rent open and folded aside.
(The song of the world is cut, muted suddenly... and coming through is another song, consisted of so many parts, too many parts, so loud and so complex as to drown out the rest of existence, subsume it. It hurts. It hurts.)
The jungle around them bends away into nothing. The ground drops away.
And then, the way darkens; the path steepens. Then it rolls, like some great earthquake.
Raw.
That's perhaps the most apt description of what is just now washing over them.
A powerful craving to mold, to knead, to crush something beneath the hands, over and over, hotter and hotter, to tug and to hammer and to shape and to etch. The emptiness aches for metal, bone, clay, wood, flesh between the hands, all individually, all at once. To put together perfectly-fitting pieces just right, and setting them to turn together in a perfect rhythm, in utter harmony, efficiently carrying out their sole purpose.
It's a feeling so raw, so powerful, that it's nearly the only thing there is.
And then
a sudden halt. The whole body at once—no impact, no collapse, as form tumbles over itself, just a sudden, complete stop. There is so much to see that nothing is seen; so much to hear that nothing is heard; so much to smell and touch and taste that everything eludes the senses all at once.
Except...
BEAUTIFUL. SPECTACULAR.
The gossamer mantle around them peels back, as if by gentle yet clinical fingers, two, a hundred, a hundred thousand, pinning the cloak open carefully.
I SEE YOU.