Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 22, 2021 13:34:19 GMT -8
Debts had to be paid and after receiving Archies gift, and the events of Beltane. Riley had decided it was time they paid their debt to Wayland.
The Moth had reached out a few days before. An exchange of texts set up for the two to meet at the Smiths hollow. A good place as any.
Riley was leaning against the wall. Wayland had been curious and made the darkling feel at home. With the pleasantries aside, Riley spoke up.
"So. I still owe you for my Gauntlet. I was curious if you had enough time to tell me what it was you wanted in exchange?"
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Post by Wayland on Jun 23, 2021 13:24:29 GMT -8
Yeah, she thought this visit might have something to do with that. She'd meant it when she said there was no rush back in May, but a lot had happened since then. Wayland leans her hips back against the edge of an unoccupied work bench, a glass bottle of Coke beaded with condensation in one silver hand. Giving the Darkling space. Trying not to be a source of... pressure. "I'm going to make a contract," she says as she raises the bottle, "And I want your help." The mouth of the bottle closes the last distance to her lips and she takes a long drink. She lowers the beverage with a contented sigh, "During the revenant crisis, there were times when I felt like I was... too out in the open. The revenants wouldn't stop fighting until I literally hacked them apart," she makes one silver hand into a blade shape and gives the air a lazy chop. "So I was carrying an axe, and wearing my mail and a shield to protect myself. But I was in areas populated by mundies a lot of the time." She shakes her head, "I don't want to create more work for the Sunbanishers if I don't have to. I want to be able to go unnoticed. But not just unnoticed. Unrecorded."
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 23, 2021 14:57:54 GMT -8
The Darkling listened to the story regarding the revenant crisis. Everyone had one. No one came out of those days untouched sometimes, just sometimes, Riley wonders if they could have done more, if things could of been different.
Returning to the present Riley nods a in thought. Lightshy with their own darkling twist. The moth was a paranoid creature, for a moment their mind screams about the revealing secrets, that their tricks will be used to foil them. It takes Riley a moment to calm the anxiety. Wayland had proven an Ally, they helped at Beltane, they made Archies gift, the gauntlet they crafted was a treasure to them.
“I know how to avoid the light, and to be sure one goes unseen or recorded. It’s not a simple contract mind you, but I reckon you knew that” They push off from their leaning spot and take a moment to observe Wayland, seeming to measure them, trying to find something.
“You don't have my light, so it's gunna work a bit different I think. Can you recall a time in your life when you felt invisible?”
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Post by Wayland on Jun 23, 2021 20:18:18 GMT -8
The Ogre folds her muscular arms over each other, face immediately betraying her dark, serious thoughts. She remains in that pose for a moment, before turning her head to the side, blinking slowly and taking a bracing breath. “Yeah. Before I left home. When I was still in the closet.” It sounds like a confession, even to her. That was a painful time of her life.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 25, 2021 10:20:40 GMT -8
Riley nods at the answer observing Waylands body launguage at the question. The answer was start but they needed to dig deeper.
"Ah'rite, good start. Do you recall how that felt? Can you feel that again?"
The moth paused at the question before giving context.
"I am not sure if it will work. But I Reckon, that contract, you can use that feelin. Use it as a cloak, to become unseen. Who looks for those who are invisible? "
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Post by Wayland on Jun 29, 2021 14:25:51 GMT -8
Wayland is still for a long moment. This is… not how she was expecting this conversation to go. But journeys into Faerie, even metaphorical ones, tend to hurt no matter what. “Yeah, I can remember how it felt,” she says after that uncomfortable beat. “I spend a lot of time trying not to,” she unfolds her arms and sets her bottle aside.
“But it doesn’t feel like a cloak to me. It feels like…” Her brows come together as she glares at the floor of her workshop, searching for the words, “… suffocating. Like… a deer. Holding still. Holding my breath. Hoping the wolf didn’t see me.
“I don’t know how to use that.”
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 8, 2021 14:09:56 GMT -8
Riley chewed on their lower lip in thought. Was this the path Wayland needed? THe Moth was uncertain.
“Sometimes these things don't feel good,” Riley offered slowly.
“To feel that. It’s real to you, then it's real to the Wyrd. I reckon if the Wyrd feels like your invisible, than everyone else will too”
RIley foot scuffs the ground for a moment. They weren't an occultist, or a teacher. But a promise was a promise.
“Does that make sense?”
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Post by Wayland on Jul 9, 2021 21:26:02 GMT -8
’Sometimes these things don’t feel good.’
Truer words were never spoken. In fact, they don’t feel good fairly often. It’s just that this is a kind of not good that Wayland hasn’t had to use before. Something she’d rather avoid. Aggression, vengeance, pain, she knew how to use. Even a bit of betrayal.
This is more like fear. And she’s worked with fear before. But it’s always been directed outward. Not at herself.
She draws in a deep breath. Blows it out through her nose in a gust. “Alright,” she tries to keep her voice relaxed, but that word still has a bit of bite to it. She breathes. “Alright,” she says again, softer this time.
The thing about Arcadian Contracts is that they’re like laws of physics. They’re present in the world, woven into the fabric of reality, affecting anything and everything within their purview. You might not be able to perceive them, but you can perceive the effects they have on the world. Like gravity, an invisible force that is nonetheless present for everything and everyone, that has always and will always be there.
And like laws of physics, if you know enough to know they’re there, you can… engage with them. Put yourself under their purview, make a sacrifice and gain an advantage. An airplane is an agreement with physics, it’s sacrifice is acceleration and the shape of its body and the limits on its mass, and in return the laws of fluid dynamics buoy it on an ocean of air, strong enough to win the fight against gravity for a time.
You just have to reach out and make the agreement… and hope you know enough to have made the agreement favor you.
She knows there’s something out there in the world that will let her be unnoticed. A contract, an agreement. She doesn’t need to worry about making sure the terms favor her, the Fae did that long ago when they wove their bargains into the world. She just needs to understand what that bargain is, what’s on the other side, and how to make herself party to that agreement.
Eyes closed and head bowed, Wayland casts her mind back to memories that she usually only revisits in her nightmares. There’s a tight feeling in her chest almost immediately, and she can feel her shoulders drawing together. That’s good. Riley says it has to be real to her. So that it can be real to the Wyrd. So she can find the contract she’s looking for.
When she was around thirteen years old, after she’d gotten over her denial, admitted to herself that she liked girls the way she was supposed to like boys, the world felt far more dangerous. Her classmates felt dangerous. Her friends felt dangerous. Her teachers felt dangerous. Her own house felt dangerous. Everyone would turn on her if they found out she was gay. Da moved the family around, but they never stayed long unless he thought the community had ‘good values.’ Conservative values. Hateful values.
Staying in the closet was a matter of survival. She’d seen what these communities did to people they deemed deviants. She’d been party to that, when she was younger, when she didn’t know any better. And the guilt of those memories is mixed up with the fear of discovery. Because maybe she deserved to be found out. Maybe she deserved to be punished. Isn’t that what they always say at church? That sinners will be found out and punished?
She kept her sin a secret. She locked herself in the closet. She hid, barely breathing, from her guilt and her fear and the reality of her world. And she did her best to be invisible.
It worked… for a while.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 13, 2021 12:21:26 GMT -8
Riley watched as the Ogre processed the emotions and the memories that came with them. They were by nature, curious, to what Wayland was drawing upon. But the Smith would share if she deemed it needed. So for now, The Darkling was patient. Guiding when asked and pressing when needed.
It seemed for a while that they were heading in the right directing. The Smith calling upon the contract in brief moments, becoming hard to see, sometimes even invisible for a moment or two. This would take time and work.
As promised, Riley returned over the next few days to the Smithy hollow to help draw upon the ancient contract. But it seemed something was a miss. The more they pushed, the less it appeared this angle was working. There was something here that was working, Riley noted, but it wasn't enough.
"Ah'rite," Riley said, rubbing the bridge of their nose before cracking open a PBR.
"Maybe I am impatient, but I feel like somethang is a miss here"
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Post by Wayland on Jul 14, 2021 21:10:44 GMT -8
'So it's not just me?' The Ogre lets out a tired, irritated breath in one gusty rush. She's been worried that she's been doing something wrong. But every time she reached out with that feeling, it was also like pulling away. Sometimes these things don't feel good, as Riley had said. So she kept chasing.
Basically she's been making herself feel miserable for days. And nothing's come of it.
Her silver hands flex. She has the impulse to just start working, take her mind off everything. Heat up some metal and bash at it on her anvil. Twist it into this shape or that. From such directed anger and frustration, some of her more... sculptural pieces have emerged. One could charitably call them statues. Modern art, maybe.
But it wouldn't be very kind to her visitor, all that heat and noise. "Yeah," she reluctantly agrees with Riley. "I don't think I'm getting anywhere." She didn't want to admit it, even to herself. Didn't want to give up, just because it didn't feel good. But if Riley's ready to admit they're stuck...
"What's it like for you?" She asks after a minute, eyes going up from the floor of the workshop to Riley's face, head tilted slightly in curiosity.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 15, 2021 9:54:34 GMT -8
"For me?"
Riley repeated the question observing the work of the Maker. In its twisted, rented forms, an epitaph to the Ogre's frustrations and perhaps deeper feelings.
"It's my light. It feels...more real than this " the Moth pushes their hand through a ray of light caught in the dust of the hollow.
"So when I call upon it, it feels as if my light bends and twists that around it. Till none touches me. Maybe that's pride or hubris to think that's true, but it's how it feels."
The Moth wondered about it for a moment.
"It's a reminder, I guess, of what this light once was. I don't remember, but I think a part of it does. Maybe in a way its fighting back"
They brush their hand through their white hair.
"I am pretty rotten teacher...sorry about this"
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Post by Wayland on Jul 19, 2021 12:40:43 GMT -8
'More real than this,' she watches as they make a move as if to touch the ray of light in the workshop. There's truth in that. Riley's light is very 'real,' in a sense. It has subtstance. Or else she couldn't have twisted it into the gems for their gauntlet. Even then, they didn't talk about it much. It always seemed so intensely personal.
"Stop it," she says dismissively as they try to apologize, "I'm not ready to give up yet." She brings her hand up to her face, fingers stroking along her jaw line. "Pride and hubris, huh?" She remembers Alecto in the warehouse, the utter joy she had of her command of her movement. Fast, powerful, untouchable.
"Maybe there's something to that," she muses.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 20, 2021 8:16:46 GMT -8
Riley had not expected Wayland to lock on to an idea of pride and hubris.
The Bright one blinks, trying to parse together where the Ogre was going.
"I am not entirely sure what you mean. Wait"
They push off the wall as they begin to realize they may be catching on.
"You mean work with that? those feelings instead?"
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Post by Wayland on Jul 20, 2021 11:17:40 GMT -8
The Ogre crosses the space over towards Riley, finding a clear spot on a work bench next to them and hopping up to sit on it for a minute, silver hands gripping it’s edges. “That thing you said, about light bending and twisting around it. It reminded me of something.”
Her face turns from Riley, facing forward and gazing into the distance with thought and memory. Should she mention that Linden was there? No. Not unless asked. Linden might have told Riley already, but if they didn’t… the wound is so fresh. Wayland doesn’t want to bring it up again for the moth.
“Some friends and I were blowing off steam. It was my first time meeting one of them. We’d had a few drinks, and broken some shit, and she invited us to take a swing at her.” Her lips twist in a fond, reminiscing smile. “And we could not lay a hand on her. We tried. But every time we swung, we hit nothing with air. She danced out of the way as if it cost her no effort at all. And she was laughing…”
Finally, her gaze returns to the Darkling as her face turns towards them again, “Am I making sense? She was proud. She…” Wayland squints slightly as she pauses, searching for the words, “… She didn’t allow us to touch her.”
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 20, 2021 11:47:17 GMT -8
Riley nods a smile growing on their face.
“Ah’rite yeah we can work with that I reckon. Dont allow people to see you...yeah I think thats something”
The moth seems to flutter side to side as the digest the thought.
“So draw on that pride, what does that feel like to you? To decide who can and cannot perceive you. What was a moment of control, where you dictated the world?”
The Brightone asks, trying to fish out the needed emotion, the glamour that would direct the wyrd to the Ogres' will.
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