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Post by Linyü on May 24, 2020 20:18:09 GMT -6
The telepathy wielded by the green dragon--- the selfsame dragon now rebuffing the child on the dais at the head of the hall--- had been a novelty and a surprise, an uncomfortable one. But even that had seemed clearer, more grounded, than whatever was going on now. The voice came through, unintelligibly again, save for snippets of recognizable sound that filtered through now and again.
"- ---e? You d--- ---ing?- "
San sighed. There was no getting any answers out of this thing then, at least not for now. He turned his attention back to the scene playing out, but there was a sharp noise, and then the whole thing distorted for a moment. It came back to itself only to distort again, and when it reformed this time, it was himself San was looking at, helpless in front of the man who had killed his parents in cold blood, so many years ago.
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Post by Linyü on May 24, 2020 20:22:48 GMT -6
Pale hair, light eyes, skin stripped of all color by the pallid light of the moon. But the face--- The face was...
At first it was too distorted to see, somehow blurry despite the clarity of everything else around them, even the figure itself, which made no sense; San knew who Robin was, knew what he looked like. But when it settled, the face that looked back from the pale man's stark figure was unmistakably his own.
"No," said a small, high voice. San looked down. The kneeling child wasn't himself anymore, but his sister. "No, no! Give them back! Give them back to me!" She lunged for him, and the phantom of San sidestepped her charge, staring at her with impassive eyes. The little girl screamed, ran at him again---
There was a soft, muffled sound. San knew it from long experience to be the sound of a knife parting flesh.
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Post by Linyü on May 24, 2020 20:27:08 GMT -6
He closed his eyes involuntarily. Even if it was an illusion, he didn't want to see this. It wasn't real, he reminded himself, but his hands were cold and clammy, and his breathing had become harsh without his realizing. His hands--- His hands that were---
He started, opening his eyes and staring down. The knife was in his hands, and the child's body was slumped against him. Long, dark hair--- but the height was all wrong--- and she was looking up, his sister, her face empty of all feeling.
"-You were the one who should have died,-" she said.
A burst of light--- of flame--- everything was burning, his throat too dry to even scream, pain so incandescent that San knew nothing else for a moment. And then it was gone, replaced with a lingering ache.
"-Be a good boy,-" said an old man's voice. "-Sign the contract. There's no need to throw your life away.-"
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Post by Linyü on May 24, 2020 20:33:23 GMT -6
The scenes flicked through in rapid succession: the night he climbed the tower; an exercise from the training room; the entrance of a mansion that he had infiltrated for a barely remembered job. His mother's smile, which became his sister's, which became Juu's. The sensation of a kite string in his hands. The tautness of a wire as he pulled it against a man's throat. The markets. The warrens. A dinner in the canteen.
"-Where is it?-" said Robin's voice, but the accent was all wrong. San turned, and there he was, smiling. The look in his pale eyes was strange, and San frowned. "Where? Why?" he said, in Common this time. And then something else, words in a language he didn't know, fluid sounds flowing into one another in an almost musical tone.
San's eyes narrowed. He reached for his blade, drew it--- only to have it vanish between his fingers.
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Post by Linyü on May 24, 2020 20:45:34 GMT -6
The man said something else in the strange language, then paused, as if to assess San's reaction. When he spoke next, it was in Common again. "You don't know that one?" he said. "This one, then. There's no need to be so hasty. Well, not that you can do anything here, I suppose."
He took a step closer, and San took a step back. He was painfully aware now that he had no weapons. The figment of Robin frowned. "You know this one, yes? You understand me? Why? Why are they different? You, and you." He approached, and although San tried to maintain the space between them, he found he couldn't. It was only when Rei flew up, fast enough to startle them both, that the pale man paused.
"Oh," he said. "Little one. If this one will not answer, then will you?" He smiled at Rei, a disarming expression that looked out of place on the face he wore.
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Post by Jack on May 27, 2020 16:34:47 GMT -6
Dreams were an odd thing, as were visions. The Mansion contorted around the man and his Harachiu for a moment, before everything blanked and the room was different again.
[Nothing happens]
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Post by Linyü on May 28, 2020 21:26:58 GMT -6
There was too much that ought to have been addressed--- the fact that this thing wore Robin’s face; the questions it was asking of Rei; and that Rei had jumped between San and a strange entity to defend San--- and no time for him to do any of that. Rei looked between San and the figment of Robin, while San shook his head, warningly, against the prospect of engaging with the thing that had been speaking to them. But before she could come to any kind of choice, the scene around them warped again as the figment gave a strangled cry.
There was the briefest glimpse of deep, encompassing darkness--- and then open sky, red rock walls; the inside of a small cottage; a hall even grander than the one that Ichaival had walked into before. But as quickly as it had appeared, all of these things were gone again.
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Post by Linyü on May 28, 2020 21:27:11 GMT -6
“Forgive me,” said the figment. It no longer wore Robin’s face, and in the place of that pale figure was the stern faced man who had stood beside the child Seveth in the memory, or perhaps the dream. Here the lines blurred; San knew some of what he had seen himself was not how it had happened--- at least, not as he remembered it. But memory could be a strange thing, and lately he had been losing too much of it to trust it anymore. The necessity of keeping journals frustrated him due to the risk they posed in exposing himself and his companions to discovery, but unfortunately he had no better solution to hand. And it was a necessary evil too in communicating with Seveth, deprived as they were of any other means but a go between. And some things were not fit to be said to Rei or Ichaival or Roku, to be repeated when the other one awoke in the body.
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Post by Linyü on May 28, 2020 21:27:40 GMT -6
San wished dearly that he had a knife to hand, and that he could have sunk it into the body of the man-thing that stood before him. He knew, from his last attempt, that he would be afforded no such luxury. His instincts screamed for it, every nerve alive to the presence of danger and yet unable to do what he wished. He could only stand there, watching, as the figure fragmented and resolidified.
The area around them was a white, hazy space. The figment caught San’s gaze wandering, and smiled at him, as though the two of them were sharing some sort of secret. San returned his gaze coldly; this small thing he could afford to do, and he wanted nothing of any implication that the two of them were sharing anything, not when… Not in a place like this, with himself so nearly incapacitated by the nature of where they were.
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Post by Linyü on May 28, 2020 21:29:37 GMT -6
“Not very interesting to look at, is it? Let me try something better,” said the figment. It waved its hand, and their surroundings resolved themselves into a cave with no entrances and no openings, except a massive skylight through which they could see the night sky. The view was familiar; San recognized it as the same one as he had seen in the ceilingless room, not long ago. “There, that’s better, isn’t it?”
Neither San nor Rei answered. The figment frowned. "No? Would you prefer something a little more familiar?" No sooner had the words left its mouth than did the scenery warp around them again, resolving itself into the sitting room of San's childhood home. "The architecture is quite lovely. I've never seen the like," the figment said, taking in the sights as though it was a visitor invited. In a sense, San supposed it was a visitor of a sort.
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Post by Linyü on May 28, 2020 21:33:19 GMT -6
After all, San remembered no such... entity... having ever visited this place while he had still lived there; and though he did not know for sure, he suspected that it had changed a great deal since the death of his parents and the subsequent disappearance of himself and his sister. There was no way it would have looked quite this way anymore, past that point.
But as for the matter of invitation, none had been issued; nor would it have been, had San been given the choice. The figment was still droning merrily on: "Excuse me, please. My control... This place, only once a year does it afford us... It necessitates turns, and there is no chance to practice," it said, all in a hurry, its words and thoughts disorganized. It gestured animatedly as it spoke, though with jerky movements, as though it wasn't entirely fluent in piloting the limbs it had now.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 28, 2020 21:46:33 GMT -6
The mansion flurries through its appearances, warping and twisting in such a way that you can't find the way out of this room.
[The next 5 posts yield no reward.]
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Post by Linyü on May 29, 2020 16:23:23 GMT -6
If it hoped to find patience for its antics, however, there wasn’t any to be had. San said only, in Common, “What are you?”
The figure startled, then smiled again. “Ah! I forgot to introduce myself. Introductions, that’s always the way of it, yes?” Its speech patterns were, at least, settling somewhat, as though it was slowly remembering the way to speak properly now that it had been forced to for a little time. The figment of the stern man tapped its chin, its expression once again totally at odds with the facade it had chosen for itself. “I am… Hmm. Have you been to the Canyons at all? People don’t come often anymore, but some do, and it would make things a lot easier on me if you have.”
At this, San could do little more than frown. The figment took that to be his answer, and its expression wilted somewhat, as though disheartened by the news.
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Post by Linyü on May 29, 2020 16:32:54 GMT -6
“Ah,” it said. “I suppose not, then, hmm? Well, there is a river in your city, yes? Or a little outside it? I confess I forget the exact location of it.”
San’s face gave away nothing; whatever the others had had to say about his acting skills when creating a persona for infiltrations, San’s poker face had been second to none. Even the figment, possessed as it must have been of other powers, could not seem to come to a conclusion by studying his features. Thus rebuffed, it turned its attention again to Rei. “Little one,” it said, “you’re from here, aren’t you? He is a foreigner, but you are not.” It smiled invitingly, even as San felt a stab of alarm at the revelation that the figment was aware of their circumstances to that extent.
… But no, he supposed he was a fool to think otherwise.
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Post by Linyü on May 29, 2020 16:33:43 GMT -6
It had come through their memories, and marveled at the architecture of San’s childhood home. He was only unsettled to hear it spoken aloud, so plainly; but there was no information lost that had not already been given away against his will. Or taken from him, as it was.
Rei nodded. San didn’t stop her. The layout of the city was known to anyone, and he had already warned her against engaging with it. If she chose to do so now, it was knowing he didn’t trust this thing, and thus she was acting in spite of that. And hadn’t she said it was safe? Though the two of them might have had different understandings of the word ‘safe’, even after all these years. After today, San was beginning to think that must be the case.
“Good! Good. You, I like, little one. He seems terribly taciturn.”
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