⏳ THE SCORCHING ISLE: Oracle Event One ⏳

[beleos]

ARRIVAL

All Bearers have heard whispers of them - the Oracles. Mysterious and unknown entities of an abstract nature, they serve as the heart of each faction’s cause - both as a means to an end and a very real stepping stone in achieving their objectives. To claim an Oracle means growing ever closer to victory: to see your homes restored as they were, or to herald in a new one of your making.

So you go.

A Cornerstone has been set up for each faction; one for the Zenith and one for the Meridian in Yima’s manor and Heliopolis, respectively. They warn you that upon transportation, your safety cannot be guaranteed and there is no telling what waits for you beyond - to be prepared. To make sure you have whatever you deem necessary with you before you go, as there is no telling when - or how - you will be coming back. CONTINUED HERE...

NOTES

Upon your arrival, you woke up with an HOURGLASS NECKLACE. Please refer to the Time Mechanics on the OOC Summary and bottom of this post for details on its usage.

The COURTYARD is frozen in time. Player Characters and the Great Tree are the only signs of moving, free life in the courtyard. During the intro, time magic does not work.

Characters are free to investigate but cannot move beyond the courtyard if you choose a prompt during the intro. You may mingle among your fellow Bearers or speak with [MR. TIBBS] if you so choose. (Also? LOOK AT HIM HELP)

Iconoclasts and Stargazers will notice Aspect benefits/detriments now.

All characters will be weak for the 24 hours - think like mild flu - and unable to leave until Mr. Tibbs has dispersed them. This is the time in which any threads with the NPC will be carried out.

The INTRO concludes with said dispersal of PC’s once interactions concluded. They will be sent to a location around the castle of your choosing; they are free to move about freely from here. Your prompts can start with you waking alone or in the presence of others - whatever you’d like!

Your character will innately understand how to use time magic from this point forward. It will come naturally to them, like a skill they were born with.

CASTLE: OVERVIEW (p a s t)

The Scorching Isles is home to the Atirat, a people of sea-dwellers who have the ability to walk on land. (Think mermaids with the ability to shift back and forth between human and mermaid forms.) As such, much of the Scorching Isles is covered in large bodies of blue water and glistening pieces of ice to accommodate their lifestyle.

THE CASTLE, however, is what dominates the landscape and it's where the Shard-Bearers will be spending their time. The white castle with colorful glass windows is obscured by a thick layer of clouds and fog. Nearly every location on the island has a thin layer of fog that rolls through it, which gives the entire Island an inescapable chill. The castle has artfully built rooms with a CAVALCADE OF DECORATIVE ICE, lavish mirrors, and white plants accented with blue decorations. Several portions of the castle are submerged due to the aquatic nature of the native residents.

And everywhere you go, you find them - STATUESQUE BODIES FROZEN mid-movement. They are haunting reminders of the power in your Hourglass - the very real power to decide their fates.

The castle has many winding paths to explore, as castles often do. There are sleeping quarters, HALLWAYS, a wine cellar, and a few large rooms presumably for diplomatic affairs. Players can use these rooms at their own leisure for whatever purposes they see fit. (Exploration, combat, or supply gathering.)

However, many of these rooms will require some strategy to access their full potential! Atirat were much more comfortable being underwater than many Kenosians may be. Therefore, rooms of higher importance may be COMPLETELY SUBMERGED or require swimming through an underwater pathway to reach them. Very minimal supplies will be kept out in the open for all to reach. More desirable supplies - such as warm clothing, small weapons, treasure, and the like - will be located past or within one of these flooded areas.

Players may gather supplies within and preserve their Sand or use their Sand to make other rooms accessible and gather whatever lies within! The larger the asset you attempt to unfreeze, the more Sand it costs - and the more drained/vulnerable you will be as a consequence, so choose your path ahead wisely.

Currently, a pervasive fog is preventing you from wandering beyond the Castle's limits. Should you try to venture past it, your Sand will rapidly be stolen and you will find yourself suffering the same fate as the islanders if you don't move back to safety quickly... However, if you ask Mr. Tibbs what lays beyond the mist - he will tell you about the thriving farmland, the once-bustling village surrounding the castle, and the beautiful coral reefs beneath it. Sadly, they're beyond your reach - but maybe if the Bearers decide to unfreeze them when the week is up...

LIBRARY (s a f e z o n e)

The ROYAL LIBRARY - A treasure trove of knowledge, history, and glimpses of a fractured past scattered throughout. The lower floor of the Library is void of much reading material and contains several intricate-looking art pieces on decorative pedestals.

A spiral staircase dominates the center of the room, with its once delicate structure overtaken by sheets of formidable ice; it leads you toward the upper levels where a sea of books awaits. There are isles and isles of books, most perched on intricately carved shelves. Many books lay in piles or are discarded onto the floor, and scattered papers are common throughout.

Curious Kenosians may pick out books from the shelves and read on various topics, but players may also pass through this room on their way elsewhere. This area will function as a safe haven where violence and the taking of others' Sand is not allowed; do not disturb the books or Mr. Tibbs won’t be happy!

NOTES

Characters who wish to receive a book with lore specific to the island may comment [HERE]. You will be RNGed a book from a pre-written list of topics. The books may give you a deeper look into the island, its inhabitants, and its history! (Only 1 book per player! Please assume all other books they read are about commonly-available topics.)

THE EATING PARLOR (p a s t)

There are no basic amenities on the island. No hot water, no warm beds, and no salacious magazines (that you know of. heh heh). That would make the Eating Parlour a wise stop for anyone. After all, this could be the perfect chance to procure some provisions!

The EATING PARLOUR has all the equipment one would need for meal preparation. Dried plants hang from the ceiling, and the walls are lined with mason jars filled with every strange manner of presumably edible thing (Is that a head over there? Hmm… maybe you should check).

The parlour also comes with a garden under a massive windowed dome so that the inhabitants could have fresh produce at hand. Many plants have withered, but there are some salvageable plants if you know how to look for them. But beware… Some of the plants have a strange blue glow. These plants can spell potential disaster.

If someone should make contact with these glowing plants, they will crumble into glass shards - glass that will quickly burrow its way under the skin and curse that person with Blight. Blight will make all resources within that person's vicinity slowly age and eventually crumble to dust. (Which I relate to on a personal level tbh.) Iconoclasts will be immune to its effects.

NOTES

Please see the "Blight" section below for more information on its effects.

TREASURE ROOM (f u t u r e)

Faint singing can be heard coming from this room. Once you hear the song, it dulls your senses and leaves you in a haze. There is no stopping your feet from guiding you to it through the doors and into the Treasure room. The door slams shut at your back, sealed with a wall of ice and magic.

Players will find themselves lured to an icy chamber bordered by a ring of cold blue fire. There is a deep pond that surrounds the platform you’ve found yourself standing on. Beyond its glassy surface and crystal clear water, one can glimpse all manner of treasures - from crowns, jewels, ornate statues in various statues of repair, scepters, spears, and books that seem impervious to the water's cold chill.

As you come to your senses, you will find yourself frozen in place and at the mercy of a large statuesque being before you. This beautiful and horrifying figure in a perpetual song is the SIREN, the only Atirat you’ve seen in person. She measures nearly 20 feet (6 meters) from her head to the tip of her long-finned tail. She cradles an icy shard in her arms, singing to it as if it were a child.

She sits serenely in front of a large hourglass filled with white sand, which is bordered by a spear and a lance. Emblazoned in faint text at the base of where she sits reads: “The future lies in our hands.”

NOTES

Welcome to the Siren’s Chamber! Players must use their wit, charisma, or some good ol' fashioned elbow grease to escape the room or break the Siren’s magic. The Shard that the Siren holds contains dormant time magic that players may activate by using the Sand within their necklace. Players can access the future in 5-second intervals and use whatever they find in that time period to escape their predicament.

For example, if they activate the shard by using their time magic, that shard will begin to glow blue. The room around them will shift, and it could change to a point in the future where there is a sword nearby. If you can grab it, now you have a weapon! When the 5 seconds are up and time returns to the present, you will still have that weapon on your person. You may also try verbal communication if you’d like. If your character is someone who would try and talk their way out of a situation diplomatically, they may give it a try!

It is up to player discretion/creativity to think of a scenario you’d like. Each “future" does not have to be the same across player encounters! What one group experiences may be tailored to the player wants (because branching timelines exist). Let your imagination run free!

HALL OF MIRRORS (p r e s e n t)

Should you reach the rightmost wing of the massive castle Library, you will find a door hidden in the very back of one aisle against a wall; it looks as though the door used to be concealed by magicks that have since dissolved.

The stairwell leads down and into darkness. Once you reach the bottom, shimmering light cast from an unknown source beneath sheets of glistening ice will illuminate your new surroundings; you are in a maze of mirror-like ice. This labyrinth is silent save for the quiet creaking of shifting ice that may disquiet you and leave you uneasy regarding the stability of this area… but it holds beneath your feet.

Mr. Tibbs had told you that the “Kaleidoscope” - where your Sand is counted - rests through here, so eventually, you must brave the journey. Is it a trick of the light? Maybe the product of an especially active imagination…?

Did you just see one of your reflections move without you?

NOTES

Please refer to the OOC Summary for details on the Hall of Mirrors!

THE BLIGHT and TIME MECHANICS

BLIGHT

Blight is an infliction that will age supplies and infect people with a creeping disease that steals their Sand. For objects, this includes weapons, food, and items like cloth. It will take a few days to deteriorate things beyond use - so watching your supplies and acting accordingly is in your best interest. Generally, it will make it more difficult for PC's to get by given that their already scarce resources will dwindle and deteriorate - especially since it's 'contagious' through touch.

The Blight will not act quickly enough to severely hamper infected persons, but repeated exposure will cause effects to a person's body - notedly protruding VEINS in the face and extremities, a lower body temperature, and increased agitation. These effects start out mild and grow more severe with each 'dose.'

Characters must touch an object/person that is Blighted to become inflicted with Blight themselves. When that happens, it will become easily identifiable as Blighted from the faint blue, shimmering outline around the infected subject, as well as the WITHERED, FROSTBITTEN or ashy appearance it takes as it progresses.

However, there is one single perk with Blight. (Or is it a perk?) Players will feel reduced impact by the cold surroundings, making the climate around them somewhat more hospitable. Beware of falling victim to a chill you can't feel...

TIME

To use your Sand, each character is granted access to and innate knowledge of a spell they channel from their Shard that automatically manipulates their Hourglass. This allows the remote control of Sand (aka gathering and dispersing), as well as the ability to pull Fragments of time from Shards.

Fragments are literal pieces of you taken from your Shard. They manifest as memories or images displayed on little shards of broken glass (think of the memory being played out in real-time on the mirror's surface), and can be crushed to convert into Sand automatically, either voluntarily or by force. The only stipulation is that the parties must be close to one another, and the Fragment must be exchanged while both Bearers are still. This means someone has to give it to you, or you need to immobilize them before you take it - one way or another.

Once the Fragment is crushed, the memory and associated time of that person's life is lost and your character will suffer amnesia until the Oracle is claimed. How deep this goes is up to you; they could lose a large chunk of time - even all their memories surrounding a person or place for a big payload of Sand, or they could lose very little for a meager net gain.

Sand is automatically gathered or distributed by your Hourglass and added/subtracted to your running total. No need to micromanage. Convenient!

Please note that using Sand to unfreeze anything (resources, a door which can be then opened, etc) is an unpleasant experience. Each time you use Sand in this way, your character will be left feeling weakened and flu-like for an hour or two, which will leave them vulnerable. This effect stacks and scales up to outright KO-ing them for a few hours if they go crazy, so unfreezing too large of an area is off the table!

NOTES

• An OOC POST will be coming shortly explaining how Sand is going to be tallied and the Oracle claimed.
• Should your character attempt to unfreeze any NPC's, please respond [HERE]. NOTE: unfreezing NPC's may result in physical violence with CW's for severe mental instability/illness and a potential reference to self-harm.
• HAVE FUN!!!

CODING

Comments

threefold reflection

[baltimores]

[ It's the burst of flame more than anything else.

It's easy enough to enter the hall, to take a cursory look at his own reflection staring back at him — again and again, reflections of reflections from all of the mirrors in here. It's easy enough to make his way down, map this place out, determine if it's time to go through to the end.

It's very easy to do so, right until he comes across the scene — Akua, the woman he had met by the reflecting pool maybe a month or so ago and has curiously not seen much of since (had she been busy?), dispatching of some weird beasts that had come out of nowhere. At least she's got this covered—

And then there's the fire, and without thinking, Amos charges ahead. A shield's only as good for as long as it'll hold, and doesn't exactly give her much room to work around. She still needs to attack — or someone else does. He's still some distance away, so he uses a touch of gravity magic to make the doppelganger heavier, less able to freely move about, before aiming to.

Well.

Body slam her, apparently, leading with his shoulder in an attempt to fully send her to the ground.

It's instinctual. Despite her absence Akua had still been pleasant to talk to, a likely sort of ally. If he can help her, then he should. It's just what you're supposed to do. ]

[wolof]

[ Thankfully, for both herself and Amos, Akua is on of the finest Trismegisan sorceresses on Calernia. Had she been given her full length of years in Creation, she would have likely changed the world -- perhaps not quite as much as Masego would, given that he became a god -- but certainly enough that her skill is high enough -- practiced enough that the two Walin-Falme did not even twitch, her workings tied off neatly as they fell to the ground with an audible oof.

She knew the man's face -- Amos, fought once and spoke with once -- She remembered sneaking around him even if he didn't, but in the moment, she had someone else to worry about.

The gravity only slowed her, the doppelganger. The click click of heels on the ground as she approached, in a fine dress, a small gem around her neck -- a link to the place she'd stored her soul all those years ago, when she'd been but 13 -- and the gravity is dispersed with an opposing working -- the high arcana, slippery letters and entirely immemorable to those who didn't know it -- fluttered to life.

Akua, from underneath Amos, didn't take long. A wide pool of darkness opened up beneath her younger self -- her doppelganger -- and her steps slowed, like she was walking through three to four times the distance -- the hallway, the mirrors, seemed to stretch further, longer, into perpetuity. ]

That will only hold me off for a moment. [ Not her. Me. ]

Let me disperse these Devils, before more come, and we're swarmed. Can you hold me off for a moment? Don't let me -- her cast anything.

[baltimores]

[ He can feel gravity working against his will, and that's a new one. For someone else to be able to manipulate it — no, to target his own manipulations and dispel them, just like that — is a new feeling. Kinda unpleasant. Disquieting.

An immediate sign that what he's tried there isn't going to be how he helps her win this thing, so okay, that's noted. It's a newer addition to his repertoire anyway; he's always been better with his fists. His hands. So he'll just have to use those.

Amos comes to a stop beside Akua as his initial attack goes to shit; nods in response to her request, not taking his eyes off her doppelganger — not taking his eyes off of the active threat. To him, there's no difference between her and me; he gets it. Or at least he thinks he does; he's not here to question someone else's identity crisis.

It's when she's done talking that he charges forward, aiming to grab both of the doppelganger's arms. Pin them to her sides. Force her to the ground, if he can — whatever it'll take to keep her impotent.

If he manages to break something in the process of doing that, then all the better for them, right? But in the meantime he's Akua's reliable attack dog — here to offer the best support he possibly can. ]

[wolof]

[ Akua Sahelian -- The Diabolist -- in her younger form is violent, and cruel above all things. There is not that wide of a difference between Akua then and the woman she would become, and yet the difference is the weight of hundreds of thousands of souls. Of the weight of committing a grave act, and being punished for it. When the knot had become a noose, she could not quite tell, the space between then and now was blurry, and muddied by too many moments, too many small actions, that she doesn't know if she could have ever told when the Diabolist ceased to be, and Calamity would be born. At which point she would have been able to burst from the wreckage of her sins.

But without that sin, she does not know if she could have ever become the woman she was now.

With Amos on her younger self, Akua is safe enough to turn toward the devils. She has no Claim to take them, and no Bind to steal them. She must simply destroy the Walin-Falme, who are immune to fire, and shockingly hearty for being so small and numerous.

She let the ice creep from the mirrors to one, the one she bound to the ground, and watched as the crystals crept and finally encased the thing. It could not move within, and she then crushed it, with the creature inside, letting it fall to tiny pieces, shattered.

The other, she simply reached out with a weaving, and ripped, the prices fell to the ground.

And Akua, she turned to face the Diabolist, her head tipped, as the girl had already fell to the ground, but if Amos thought that she would not have a trick up her sleeve, he would be mistaken. Akua, after all, could not use her power to teleport, but Akua, the Diabolist, could. Here in this odd, odd place, Amos would find the ground opened up beneath them, and they fell through, only to find themselves careening from the ceiling of the very room, and Akua smiled at him, innocently.

She, after all, couldn't be killed, without taking the heart of her, could she? ]

[baltimores]

[ As Amos grapples with the doppelganger, he catches glimpses of what Akua is doing. The way she kills those creatures, and, that's good. She has that part under control. He's helping her play her part, and they're both the stronger for it. That's how this is supposed to work. It's how these sorts of things always work.

It's still so weird how he hasn't seen much of her around since her arrival...

But the thought is one in the back of his mind, his focus all on restraining this doppelganger. He'll have time to talk to Akua about that other shit later, when this part of her isn't trying to kill them.

Or... throw him off, in some way, considering the way they fall through the ground, to the ceiling, their path back towards the ground. Instinctively he tightens his grip on the doppelganger at first, fingers digging into its skin, before the ground starts to rush up on them again — and he uses the grip he has to try to further throw the doppelganger towards the ground, get it there that much faster, that much harder.

Amos himself, meanwhile, uses his gravity magic just in time to keep himself from a harsh impact; the deceleration is more than he'd like, winding him a bit mid-air, but it's better than the alternative.

From mid-air he glances down at Akua, a tilt to his head; the fuck is she doing? ]

[wolof]

[ Akua -- the real one -- is encased in a wreath wiggling letters and magic, the seeping, creeping flow of magic closed first the hole her other self had crafted in the air, so they wouldn't continuously gain velocity over and over. Beneath Amos, he'll see a slight shimmer, like something was there to catch him, and slow his fall, while her other self slammed against a surface. The doppelganger's lips were moving, a flash of letters -- squiggly, undiscernible -- spread before her, and Akua, who knew High Arcana felt her breath leave her in a rush.

She wouldn't? Would she?

It was difficult to summon what she was trying, but she was the Diabolist, and summoning Demons was a dangerous art that she knew all too well. ]

Fine her source.

[ She bit out, as a binding of magic was flung at her younger self before it was swallowed. ]

She's going to summon a demon, and I will not be able to wrest it from her!

[ Her voice picked up over the howling sounds of wind, of an electric fire splitting in the fabric of a reality beyond a mirror, like she was summoning it from the mirror itself. She hissed, and threw another blocker, another few spells in the way, the magic whipped into a torrent as Akua tried to drain the magic itself from her younger self, but it only served to increase Keter's Due, and Akua's doppelganger forced more power into it.

The shadow that started to pool from the mirror was vile, as if the very ground it touched hissed and bubbled, like it was corrupting from its very atoms. ]

[baltimores]

[ A demon?

Like Sebastian? the thought crosses his mind before he nixes it; different worlds, and all that. Whatever kind of demon this Akua would summon almost certainly isn't a good one, considering everything, and that — combined with the way the environment around them is starting to get pretty fucked up — spurs him back into action.

So Amos unceremoniously drops to the ground, landing heavy next to the doppelganger. Her source, her source...

He has no idea what that means as he hurriedly looks over its body, but it's saying something, its lips moving, so with one hand Amos makes a grab at the doppelganger's wrists to hold behind its back, and with the other he grabs at.

Her face.

Specifically her mouth, using considerable strength to pinch on her cheeks — like when trying to force a dog's mouth to open so it drops something it shouldn't have — if not crush them entirely.

However successful his attempts are, he'll still look up at the real Akua, an almost frenetic sort of confusion on his face, if this is even helping delay things. ]

What's her source look like?

[ He's so new to all of this. Akua is proving herself to be formidable — useful — if this is what she's capable of, one way or another; all Amos really has at his disposal against someone like this is brute strength, and who knows how effective that even is. ]

[wolof]

[ That was the question, wasn't it?

The figure in Amos's hands let him crush her, and she seemed to unceremoniously dissolve into splinters of glass and ice in his hands as he crushed her. She even smiled at him, her look innocent as she did so. The figures of her in the mirrors didn't stop, and the warped mirror seemed to shape, and shift. The mirrors themselves seemed to bend away, some going black, as if there was no reflection as the demon of corruption made its first step into the world.

Akua hissed, and threw up a working to try to contain it. This was a trick the Hierophant had done, but even he had experienced a droplet of that corruption in himself, a dangerous game. ]

That one didn't have a necklace! The real one will have a necklace in it -- we need to find her -- fast. If this demon is loose, we'll have worse than simply the blight to worry about.

[ The creature fought against her binding, but she formed her hands into a ball, to try to contain it. Droplets of corruption slipped through, and started to spread, and Akua took a step back, to keep it from touching you. ]

[baltimores]

[ How many are there?

Amos watches with a mild surprise as he unceremoniously kills it, only for nothing meaningful to happen; looks back up at the real Akua as she elaborates. A necklace, a necklace... but where the fuck even... ]

Can't we just break the mirror?

[ They know where that demon is coming from, so surely it should be as simple as that... but the way that even Akua is stepping back, he doesn't want to just charge forward and be done with it. He turns to look around him, smashing the mirror closest to him for good measure... and the one beside it as well, since they're the only things in sight he knows to break for sure.

He doesn't know if that's going to do anything. Probably not. Amos makes himself weightless again, to give him a better vantage point... to keep himself out of harm's way too, maybe. ]

How many of you are there??

[ There's an edge to his voice, one feeding off of the urgency she herself exhibits. ]

[wolof]

[ Akua scoffed, her tone sharp, when she said: ] No. It's a gateway, not a...mirror now.

[ She is doing the best she can. She knows how the working works. Hierophant had done something similar with a Demon of Corruption once before, and she pulled at the pieces, and started to birth this technique to life again. Her weaves are complex, and accurate, and magical letters float before her, as she starts to compress the space before her and around the creature, to start to put it into a smaller, and smaller box.

Once, the Hierophant had trapped a Demon of Corruption so tightly, that it had been well and fully contained. Other than the small portion of corruption that had been trapped within his own mind -- something she did not wish to deal with. There were some parts of her magic that didn't seem to work, and she did not want it to apply to that. ]

I don't know -- [ She finally admitted; her focus fully on the Demon. ]

The Necklace -- look for the necklace. [ A sharp breath, and then: ] It has her soul. Rip her heart out.

[ Intimate. Something only Catherine had done to her, but there was no other way now, her focus had to be on compressing, and containing the demon. ]

[baltimores]

[ Her tone's more than good enough for him; got it, stay away from the gateway. Her urgency, combined with the looks of it, means he sure as hell doesn't need to be told twice.

So instead he floats up higher, looking around him. Looking, looking... and he thinks he spots a glint, a bit of movement, something from a different set of halls near the gateway. Around the corner. Down a ways.

Akua says to look for a necklace, to rip some other version of her's heart out, and okay. Yeah. He can do that much.

It's with a grace that only comes with decades spent in weightlessness that Amos sends himself back to the ground — and then he's taking off around that corner, charging up on what he's pretty sure is exactly what Akua told him to look for, ready to plow right into it, knock it to the ground, incapacitate it — anything to try to get a grip on what he's pretty sure is that necklace and rip it from it, crush it in his hand. ]

[wolof]

[ Akua's eyes followed him for as long as his motions moved within her range, but when he took off, she breathed out, and focused herself on the demon, to containing this corruption that ached to find itself in a new reality where it could corrupt the very ground that it walked on, the very air around it. Her fingers moved, and she tried to compress it again, the form of it started to warp, and compress, like it was being condensed into a smaller and smaller form.

It was gruesome, in a way.

Meanwhile, Amos's eyes were true, and there was a version of Akua with a necklace, her own spellcasting interrupted by Amos's attempt to barrel right into him.

Her hands outstretched, she tried to stop him, her own force against his manipulation of gravity, her lips peeled back in feral anger, her laugh high and shrill as she promised death upon his head and suffering of untold ages if he took it from her.

After all, the necklace that he was reaching for, that his fingers clasped around the metal chain to, contained Akua Sahelian's very soul. ]

[baltimores]

[ Amos matches the doppelganger's expression, feral anger and laugh countered by a low growl emanating from his throat. A restrained sort of violence turning tangible, its threats going over his head, because all there is is killing it and killing it now.

He was told to grab a necklace, so he grabs the necklace, putting everything he has in him to wrench it from it. Let the metal chain dig into its skin before it snaps, before he's holding it in his fist, pushing the doppelganger back and crushing its necklace in his hand with everything he has in him.

He thinks he feels something fracture and, not letting up, calls out to the real Akua elsewhere in the hall, ] We looking good?

[ This is it, right? This has gotta be it. ]

[wolof]

[ She can only imagine the pain her Doppelganger feels. So similar -- although Catherine had not crushed her necklace -- her soul -- she'd taken it, and pushed it into her cloak instead, but Akua remembered the pain of her heart being ripped from her body, Catherine's fist splitting flesh, to pull her heart from her. Had it still beat in those last moments? She cannot remember now, the darkness had taken her -- eternal, so long -- she breathed, as the containment she'd been working on had nothing to hold, and her trembling fingers stopped, the Corruption Demon dissipated from this world -- or the facsimile of one -- and she nodded.

Not that Amos could see her. ]

Yes.

[ She said, her voice hoarse. ] That was it. Thank you, for dealing with her.

[ Her heart slowed, and Akua tried not to think of dying again, something that this felt all too close to. ]

[baltimores]

[ He relaxes at the sound of her voice, shoulders slumping on exhale. He still doesn't know what all of that was, but it had looked bad, and she'd been stressed out about it, so... ]

No problem.

[ It hadn't really been, in the end — though that's easy to say now, with the threat alleviated and all.

Amos takes a moment to regain his breath before striding back out towards the part of the hall where all of that had been going on, entering Akua's line of sight again, whereupon he tilts his head in question. ]

Haven't seen you in a while. [ Not since the festivities at the reflecting pool were coming to an end. ] This the kind of thing you've been up to?

[ Kind of a joke, but also, you know.

What gives. ]

[wolof]

Hm? [ She asked, and her head tipped in question. She, of course, had also not seen him, but that was not a question she would ask, given...

Well. She'd though he seemed rather comfortable in Highstorm, in a way that not many were. He spoke with the easy familiarity of someone who considered it to be where he belonged. She, however, had not belonged there, as much as she had... felt the draw of it.

It felt natural, to walk in darkness, after all. Right. She was a Villain, of the highest and tallest order, she dwarfed all beneath her other than Dread Empress Triumphant -- May she never return. ]

Well, my dear, I do believe that is because I do not stay in Highstorm, whereas you do, yes?

[baltimores]

Yeah. I do.

[ There's a casualness that belies what he's really thinking, though there's a chance that, based on how she's answered him, she's already thinking the same: he resides in Highstorm, which means he's a Zenite, which means he intends to use the sand here to benefit Zenith. She does not reside in Highstorm, and yet has powers, which means she is Meridian.

The kaleidoscope is just down the hall.

Amos starts walking back towards Akua, gait slow, easy. ]

So, I kill you, we save the world, you keep your sand. [ Which seems to basically be what happened. ] What's the plan now?

[ What are you planning on doing with it?

Do I have to stop you now, too? ]

[wolof]

Oh dear, you want to take my sand? [ She asked, with a soft laugh, and a finger toward her own hourglass, where it was kept.

She'd known he was a Zenite, of course, but the attitudes between them had been rather... less than hostile for the most part. Akua had not necessarily planned for Amos to attack her, but a Sahelian was always prepared for a betrayal -- being of the first betrayal, of course they were -- but still. She tipped her head, and smiled, something sharper than she'd offered him earlier.

The smile of a villain, partially a challenge. ]

Personally, I wished to use my sand toward Meridian's resources, given that we are both in need of such things.

If you want to do something different, dear, you will have to prove to me that you're capable of taking it.

I am not an easy target.

[ She wished, however, that she had worn armor. ]

[baltimores]

[ Oh yeah, no, he doesn't like that smile. There's a twitch of his lips in response, a revealing of his teeth, a snarl aborted before it could really mean anything — but that twitch was probably more than enough. ]

Interesting thing to say to someone who just killed a version of you.

[ He already has proven it.

Still, Amos keeps walking towards her, pace same and steady as before. He needs to get close. Charging at her probably isn't gonna do anything. Weighing her down might not, either.

Just let him get close enough, though, and his hands around her neck'll probably do the trick. ]

[wolof]

You killed a child version of me. That one had her heart ripped out of her chest by a half-trained girl with nothing more than the clumsy powers of winter behind her.

[ Akua said it, haughty. She did not step back, but with the power of the sand at her side, she pulled a small amount out, a challenge on her face. ]

Do you think that I had learned nothing since then? That version of me... was all hate and spite, and didn't know anything about an even greater power.

[ The power of Friendship, actually. She does not summon yet, with her sand, but the threat is there. What would happen, if she pulled her memories of the Warden free from her memories. She wondered if Amow would handle it?

Sometimes, she wished she could ask Catherine what she thought -- of all of this? ]

Don't be overconfident yet.

[baltimores]

Don't worry, I'm not.

[ Overconfident. Amos continues towards her as she pulls some of her sand out. A warning, he figures, to go with her words. That Akua has grown since then, that she's learned since then — even though her past self's methods seemed to have her at least somewhat stressed out.

But if she doesn't want him to take her lightly, then he won't. Without breaking his own stride, he pulls a bit of his own sand out. Something small, he figures, as he closes the gap. Small, and quick, and something he won't really miss.

A pistol forms in his hand, and without missing a beat he pulls the trigger, aiming for her centre of mass. It's all accomplished in one quick movement, Amos counting on his spontaneity — not to mention the fact that he doubts Akua knows what a gun is — to get the job done for him, give him that leg up he needs.

At the very least, he's good with attacking first. Whatever her responses is, at least there'll be no more of this posturing bullshit. ]

[wolof]

[ What she summoned was not Catherine, always on her mind, but something more powerful, and yet easily missed. She had plenty of options, but what she chose was something that the sand created -- a crow, that dove and took the bullet -- or rather it should have. It seemed to not exist at all, really, or rather, it seemed to be an endless void, Darkness Incarnate, and it cawed, before it landed on her shoulder.

Akua laughed, and lifted her hand, and the thing -- whatever it was made of -- it would burn, and she started to light it on fire with a quick spell, and a few steps back. The crow cawed, and it rumbled, echoed, and she started to cast something.

It was not immediate, whatever she was doing, but it's obvious she's pulling from a well of... something. Not just magic, if the knowing look in the Crow's eyes says anything.

Amos had better rush in, and take her before she finishes! ]

[baltimores]

[ Yeah, he has no idea what this thing is — and figures it's for the best to not really pay too much attention to it. He just saw some reality-warping shit trying to emerge from a mirror before they managed to put a stop to it; this feels like more of the same. Which means as long as he gets to her first, then whatever it is she's doing? Won't actually matter.

So Amos picks up the pace, unloading his clip towards her (or the crow, or whatever) as he does, accuracy less important to him than the brute force of attackattackattack. He tosses the gun right at her head once he's out before focusing on the old trick of making Akua heavier than she actually is in an attempt to root her in place, aiming to tackle her — bring her to the ground, grip her upper arms to pin them and keep her from moving them or doing anything else with her hands if he can. ]

[wolof]

[ Akua's a wizard, and long range is what she's good at. Now that she's seen that thing shoot projectiles, there's a shield up to stop all of them, thankfully, because they move faster than even Indrani or the Hawk's arrows -- it was closer to some of the armaments that Pickler would have designed, but the moment he throws the gun, Akua can feel her time sifting out.

Is he going to kill her? No, she thinks not. She'd just had his help. Is it because she is Meridian? Possibly, but had he truly thought that she was just missing?

Her brain has no time to come up with answers. He threw the gun, and it bounced off her shield, and she's dropping it to finish the last of her spell as he gets in close. The crows wings flap in his face as she caws with something unearthly -- Komena was always violent -- but he moved faster, and Akua's spell has no place to go, although she looks at him with a furious stare.

He'll see, in her shard -- a vision of her so similar to just now. In a castle, a memory to take, something that is integral to her core. Even from here, outside of the memory, it feels... Sad. Shamed. ]

[baltimores]

[ It really isn't anything personal.

Fact of the matter is, he hadn't been thinking about her much since their chance meeting some month ago. He'd just... assumed, and it's not like he's in tune with most people's feelings, or most people in general. Acquaintances are often out of sight, out of mind for him, and this had been that.

It isn't a betrayal to him that she'd gone Meridian — it's just fucking odd. And relevant, here and now, where there actually are stakes where there weren't any before.

So he gets ahold of her. Throws her to the ground, pins her with one hand while using the other to try to swat the crow away, or at least out of his face. Any scratches or pecks he takes from it — fine, they're mild, he can bear the temporary brunt while he takes cares of this little problem first. Meets her furious stare with a dispassionate one, because she's a job to take care of and nothing more, and that's just how he operates. Blank and empty, a vessel for doing what needs to be done.

As he reaches for her sand, he sees that memory stand out above the rest — and shit, not like he's picky. Amos takes a firm grip on it, pulls the sand out of her and all it contains. It affords him glimpses — maybe the answer to why she went Meridian after all — and then it's gone, absorbed into his own pool.

He can look at it later, when he's got time. For now he keeps hold of her, waiting to see what she'll do now that he's taken something from her and has retained this position of power over her.

But it's not like he really even needs to kill her. Right? This was plenty on its own. ]