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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 9, 2021 22:50:33 GMT -8
I can feel you falling away No longer the lost No longer the same And I can see you starting to break I'll keep you alive If you show me the way.
In one night, everything in the Freehold went to shit. When the rumors started to spread, Lucas was surprised by his own actions. In the past, he would have buckled or he would be rushing out to check on his friends and allies to provide them emotional support.
Tonight, he was taking a different course of actions. There wasn't time to panic if he wanted to try and save his court. They were barely connected as it was. Losing their two Sunbanishers would be devastating for Winter's ability to stay afloat. The two Sunbanishers were workhorses who had given so much of themselves to keep the Freehold safe. Thanks to yet another butchered Fall experiment, they may have given the last they had to their duties; their lives.
Death wasn't stopping with the Lost either. Without the Knight of Mourning, ephemeral energy was spreading all over the Freehold, drowning the purest of souls to the most lost of souls in it's wake. They needed Roger back or at least they needed to learn of his Fate so they could figure out their next steps. Maybe Fawkes had an idea of what may have happened to Roger, if the two of them kept in contact while they were out on the field. Even if they didn't and Fawkes had no information to offer on Roger, he didn't want the troubled Elemental to be left alone in his nightmares.
It was time for an Onyx to give back to the Sunbanishers.
When Lucas arrived in Fawkes' hospital room, he was met by Sweeney. The two of them talked for awhile, Sweeney warning Lucas about various issues around his friend. Fortunately, Lucas' plan to get into Fawkes' dream would transport him directly into the Ivory Gates and outside of Fawkes' Bastion. While they were talking, Lucas made what he knew would be a strange request. He asked Sweeney if he had any sway over the hospital or with the autopsy team who worked with the police. He had the ability to summon a hobkin to assist him with finding Roger. Thanks to Necropolis leaving an impression of death on him, when the hobs saw Lucas, they picked up on his death essence or at least that was his working theory. If he could gather up some gruesome body parts to offer up as an incentive for the hob, he could work on convincing the hob that they were assisting an agent of death find a lost soul. That seemed to be right up a hobs alley.
Either way, his main objective at the moment was finding Fawkes in his dreams.
The Fairest moved over to Fawkes bed, trying to not get choked up when he took in all of Fawkes' injuries. He drew in his breath to steel his mind while reaching out to touch Fawkes on the shoulder. He watched the Elemental closely, exhaling so that he could synchronize their breaths together.
When Lucas first attempted to step into Fawkes' dreams, the other Lost's Bastion rebuked him. He growled, feeling the magical force back against him.
Come on, Fawkes. Let me in, let me help you this time.
The Onyx courtier called upon every ounce of mental oomph he had inside of him to push back against the Bastion.
The mental rally is enough to break past the dream barrier's surrounding the other Lost's mind. With one last breath, Lucas steps out of the hospital room and into Fawkes' dreams.
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Post by Sweeney on Jul 11, 2021 18:05:41 GMT -8
The Blightbent was friendly enough when Lucas appeared out of the blue, tangentially aware that he was already building rapport with his motley mates and helping with Summer investigations. He even offered some of the cookies he had scored from the coffee shop downstairs. When the Winter courtier floated that he wanted to go into Fawkes' dream to glean whether he knew anything about Roger's situation, the Torrent paused.
Fawkes wasn't getting up any time soon—his public mortal persona mitigated collateral when dealing with the mundane, which meant he was absolutely on a watch list and police were keeping an eye on things. The only reason it was a private room was because the staff had been informed and they didn't want the rest of the public dealing with the potential dangerous visitors. Sweeney had already removed the wire, and indicated the phone was tapped, but Lucas had to be careful about disappearing. He also gave the Fairest a heads up that his motley mate wasn't going to be friendly about his mind getting cracked into, but didn't seem interested in stopping him. He also didn't give a yay or nay whether he can get Lucas body part, rather chuckled at the morbid request before brushing off that he can ask Stephen Callahan for that sort of Halloween Shit.
When Sweeney offered to just get the information himself, it was clear this was more personal. He didn't go anywhere, playing solitaire on a one of the pop-up trays as he continued to chuckle quietly and shake his head, muttering something in Creole.
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 11, 2021 19:15:25 GMT -8
Lucas felt like he was being crushed—the weight and pressure plunging him underwater and threatening to drown as Sorrow gripped his heart and willed him to freeze. Breaking out took all of his focus, and he wasn't sure when he transitioned to the sky. Reality was shaky, the unconscious mind having full awareness couldn't bypass the internal thinking that made the world feel a little further and uncertain. Neurons fired to fill in the gaps with imagined Rules. Down was the ground—realizing the mirror ocean he probably came from. He breathed now in the searing bright, he had a body. The stillness occasionally exploded into chaos, distorted sound ripping from beneath in the breach of a frozen wave that shredded the landscape to crystal. Realizing the potential danger, he didn't dawdle long contemplating what he was glimpsing an experiencing to try and find a semblance of stable foundation—made literal as he hit a beach. The silica burned his skin, either making micro cuts or from absorbing the punishing sun. |
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 11, 2021 20:37:22 GMT -8
Lucas stumbled forward as he worked on picking himself up from the sand. His mind was spinning as he tried to reorient himself and make sense of his surroundings. This was by and far one of the more chaotic dreams he had visited. While the atmosphere was anything but comforting, he was almost relieved to be here. He had partially expected to find himself enter a nightmare where Fawkes was fighting the legions of ghost who had inflicted a deep, horrific wound in the Freehold.
"Fawkes?! It's me...Lucas!"
In the land of Dreams, Lucas looked like be belonged at the heart of the living rather than encompassing the seductive dead that Bram Stoker penned. An faint, welcoming ethereal glow radiated from his body, resembling the very last flame on a lit candle. His golden locks look like they were spun from thread kissed by the sun. Everything about him remained flawless like his mien, except for his eyes. All of the color had been erased from them, leaving ghastly voids that would occasionally glance in the direction of where he felt the strongest pull of sorrow. When he looked towards it, the darkness in his eyes grew in intensity as if they were trying to drink in all the sorrow they could hold.
"Fuck, it's hot." He raised a hand to try and shade his eyes from the sun, flinching as he felt the heat hit the scratches all along his hand.
He knelt down by the sand, gathering a handful of it. He closed his eyes, willing the sand to transform itself into a pair of sunglasses for him so that the sun wasn't so brutal on his eyes.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jul 11, 2021 21:16:39 GMT -8
The silica fell away as a clear pair of sunglasses were produced, the entire body dark glass. He half expected nothing to happen, with the Bastion alarmingly resistant to any influence or interference.
As Lucas shouted to the barren landscape, he trudged forward up one of the dunes. The thunder was loud despite the blue skies, jittering in discordant audio as light flashed in the distance to explode with contact to the sand. Latticed structures frozen in an explosion remained from massive amounts of force and energy. Calling out again, his voice drifted and split in different directions along invisible fissures rather than a clean echo.
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 11, 2021 22:14:14 GMT -8
Once he reached the top of the sand dune, he watched the lighting strike the stand. Fawkes' Bastion was nothing short of depressing which made sense given what the Elemental had gone through. In time, he would be able to track down Fawkes. However, it was akin to trying to find a injured predator that was ready to frenzy at the slightest provocation. If there was a way he could lure Fawkes out to him, that would be way better.
He studied the sand for awhile longer, making a soft humming sound as he did. Fawkes was aware of what was going on in his dream. Fawkes felt everything that was happening and it had to be exhausting. Maybe he could offer Fawkes a distraction; an anchor for his curiosity to latch onto.
Since there wasn't anything for Lucas to draw with, he opted to use his foot to draw a simple maze in the sand.
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 12, 2021 11:46:37 GMT -8
Lucas waited.
And waited.
The tide shrunk, and eventually the still ocean was gone when the Fairest turned his head. It was unnerving that there were no eidolons or scene to really interact with, making the Fairest jarring against the stark landscape. He wasn't an expert with onreiomancy, but with Sweeney's warning and the abnormal subconscious he was presented with, the environment has felt hostile from the start.
The explosion and flash happened without warning, the muscles locking as his body burned like a prison.
On his back, the air twisted into repeating fractal patterns, flexing into shards as the world thrummed. Fawkes hovered into view, edges white hot and painful to look at as the glass was bloody raw and melted. The image flickered to a proper avatar as the Elemental became lucid; he looked like his Mask, though the human image was missing pieces here and there from the latticework of lightning scars. Without the smooth features and cold expression, he actually seemed at least a few years Lucas' junior.
His expression oscillated from anger to confusion, "...Lucas? What the hell are you doing here?"
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 12, 2021 14:57:49 GMT -8
Oww.
Lucas lay in the sand, the force of the lightening having rocked him off his feet. The pain was as jarring as the landscape. When Fawkes finally appeared, his words didn't make sense to the Fairest right away.
After a long stretch of awkward silence passed, his brain finally caught up with what was being said.
"Fawkes, hey. "
With a small, pained groan, Lucas picked himself up from the sand. His hair was now standing up straight which he would find amusing if he could see his reflection.
"I'm here for a couple of reasons. One of which being I was worried about you. I've heard when we go into a comatose state it's real bad for us. I thought that might include medically induced comas too. "
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 12, 2021 15:22:21 GMT -8
Fawkes pops a squat to meet the Fairest, without him having to get up all the way. Lucas' avatar had burns that told him the damage was beyond just the flinching. The air shifts around Lucas in the same fractals he had seen before, sound stirring across his flesh in screeching strings and discordant harmony.
The Elemental frowned again, having no way of knowing if it was actually Lucas without having the nuanced ability to strip illusions. "They don't have a Spring healer available? Did some bullshit go down again that pulled everyone's resources?" There was doubt—his expression and voice free of his waking limits.
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 12, 2021 16:59:51 GMT -8
"Huh, are you younger than me?"
Lucas didn't appear to be fully reoriented after the huge blast of damage his dream form took on. The sunglasses he had created were barely hanging onto one of his ears, making his black eyes visible from the crooked angle they were in.
He took them off for the time being since the two of them were looking directly at each other.
"Spring took a hit. A lot of the lower mantle Spring courtiers left Spring to join Summer. The sudden evacuation weakened Spring's healing. From what I understand, you got badly messed up, they couldn't heal you without taking you to a hospital because of that, and you had to be put in a medically induced coma.
Sweeney is keeping watch over you. Because you are a person of interest to many mortal organizations, now that you're at a hospital, you gotta do your initial healing the old fashioned way.
We don't even know where Roger is. He's been missing in action since the two of you were sent out in the field. That's the other reason I'm here. Do you have any idea what happened to him?"
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 12, 2021 19:06:56 GMT -8
The sudden question from the smoking Gravewight threw him, "Um- I'm around...twenty five...or six?"
Shaking his head slightly, Fawkes eyed the Bastion, "He's not doing a great job if you broke in so easily," he growled to himself. "Summers joining Spring doesn't make sense to effect their Contracts. Something must have gotten screwed up in their rites... medical..." his head turned back to the Fairest, anxiety lighting up his features,
"How long have I been asleep?"
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 12, 2021 20:44:55 GMT -8
"A few days. I came over as soon as I could. I bet Sweeney and Eurydice have a plan in motion to get you up and running again too."
He offered Fawkes what was meant to be a reassuring smile but since he was still out of it himself, he came off looking like he was waking up from a pleasant dream that left him in a daze.
"There's other stuff going on too with the seasonal rites that I can't really get into at the moment. It's been working on at least. There's some other troubling things too."
Lucas gave Fawkes a quick rundown on the gag order Winter had in place and why it was there. While he shared the details, the glow around his body faded and his energy matched the sorrow of the landscape they were in.
"Without Roger and you, everyone's turning to Solomon. It worries me because we're doing such a radical flip. I had an idea, that would help me with making more sense out of what's going on and help keep you looped in, if you're up for hearing it."
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 13, 2021 21:07:40 GMT -8
Fawkes actually bit his lip, far less composed in the dreamscape as he was hammered with Unknowns and powerless to do much about it.
"They- I think they might actually- I think they might take this as an excuse to force me to take time off," he rattled out loud, gritting his teeth. He stood, dusting off his pants as he breathed and raked a hand through his hair. The Elemental moved a few steps away from Lucas as the Gravewight spoke, not showing his face.
"Great," he said, tone as flat as it was supposed to be.
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 13, 2021 22:08:02 GMT -8
Lucas could sense anything he tried to say at the moment would bounce off of the anxious wall Fawkes had up at the moment. Truth be told, it was strange seeing Fawkes openly showing emotion in his expressions and body language. If only he wasn't in so much pain himself, he would try and get a better ready on the Elemental's emotional state. However, he had his own anxiety at the moment. Not only were his hands and arms cut from from his free fall from earlier, but the pain from the lightening felt real even if he knew in reality his physical body was okay. The sorrow in the landscape was already suffocating enough as it is. He didn't want to accidentally drag the two of them into the dark undertow where they would drown from the weight of both of their inner sorrows.
"Fawkes, no one's thinking about that at the moment. The people who know you are genuinely worried about you. Not because they are looking at you like a walking time bomb, but because they care about you. Look at how many others didn't walk away from that fight. Sweeney's watching over you because he wants to make sure you're safe. I'm here because I didn't want you to be trapped in a lonely space. None of these concerns are because you're somehow fragile. It's what people do when they care. The past week or so has been hard on everyone.
And to me, well, that's a good thing in the sense it shows that the Gentry haven't stripped us of our sense of connectedness. We don't see other Freeholders like Linden, Agrippa, or you as collateral damage for our war against the gentry. We see you as our friends who we cherish and want to protect like all of you protected us during that mess."
He spoke in a gentle voice, using his magnetic personality to cause the lights around his dream avatar to glow a little brighter and create an inviting warmth from the ethereal light to help with soothing the other Onyx courtier's nerves.
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Post by Fawkes on Jul 13, 2021 22:46:45 GMT -8
As Lucas mentioned the dead, the dune of silica flickered to violent imagery of piled mutilated corpses and reaching hands before the Bastion settled back to the iron resilience that kept everything crushed and underfoot.
The Elemental crossed his arms, still staring out.
"Thanks. Lucas," he ran the heels of his palms across his face, sealing the cracks and missing pieces, before turning back. "That lightning really fucked you up. I don't know how safe this place is for you. The last got shredded. By reality cracking when they dug around."
The dune flickered again, painting the mannequin red, and Lucas noticed Kai for a moment. "You can spin something that blends in. Or..." he trailed off as his attention wandered upward, unbothered by the sun despite the lightness of his eyes.
"I don't know. There's nothing here to work with. Really."
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