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Post by Cinderella on Dec 12, 2021 10:54:26 GMT -8
Cinderella bit her lip, "I'm not...super close to him either. I know he's a workaholic and really quiet at most of the Freehold gatherings, but also got, like, this violence streak?"
Her shining fingers flicked the surface of the burned glass, "I'm usually able to get a snapshot of someone when I enter their Bastion. But- it's like everything is routed and scrambled when I try to focus. I've never...read or seen anything like it?" The confident tone wavered momentarily, following the Beast as he worked out the trail in the Dream's pattern; seeing the anger and clawing desperation twist the sheen like an electrical scar.
"You can sometimes get too engrossed with this world, where getting hurt here feels more real than anything, and because we're people of belief it shows up in the waking world."
The world around her flexed and bent, with her eyes on fire as she read the world and her hand gesturing like she was turning a page as wind and current wrote a language across the ether.
A glittering ornate staff was pulled from the shaft of light, the Fairest spinning it around her in a showy display as a sharp crystal floated at the tip in the facsimile of a spearhead.
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Post by Fawkes on Dec 12, 2021 11:06:32 GMT -8
They found themselves on the shore in the shadow of one of the crystalline cliffs, Cinder pointing out what appeared to be the beginnings of a map scratching in dried blood against one of the alcoves. From the sketch, a maze appeared to be emerging with X's marking dead ends showing at least several attempts.
The Elemental wasn't hiding, nor noticed the trio yet. 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 of harrowed experience, the redhead seemed only be in his early twenties. Damp and eyeing up the horizon of the mirrored ocean, he seemed to be working himself up to make a go at the dangers beyond; though what the group had witnessed from watching the Hobgoblin, it seemed like a longshot for anything to come of it. The mauling in the waking world was reflected on his flesh, which had drained his pallor to be almost as pale as his proper mien, and the shredded shirt had long since been abandoned. He didn't radiate raw power like Cinderella or Lucas, but the muscle in his build was surprisingly intimidating for someone that was supposed to be lithe.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Dec 13, 2021 2:13:14 GMT -8
Yuan was far from being a nurse. Most of his medical knowledge he picked up while caring for his ailing mother and the other immigrants at the detention facility. Still, he'd seen more than enough cuts and bruises on Summer Courtiers to know how to quickly assess the severity of a wound.
Hopefully, if the wounds on the dream avatar were dressed, the ones on the physical body would get better too.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 13, 2021 11:07:47 GMT -8
The looked more raw than in the real world, with torn flesh rather than jagged edges of porcelain. Not deep enough to kill him by the looks of things, but it couldn't have been comfortable; and even with stitching it will definitely leave some scarring. He was too far to determine whether he did need sutures, but nothing was gushing or bleeding freely as the Elemental moved. Whether the wound had been dealt by eidolons or magical means would require him to focus further, but right now the Beast was doing a threat assessment from the grace period his cover allowed. The faded quality to his image told him that the Sunbanisher was out of glamour.
Not aware of an audience, Fawkes wasn't fronting his usual stoicism. He held himself in a way that told Yuan that he was on his last legs when it came to exhaustion. Judging by the map and level of aggression buried beneath the glass, he had been beating against the cage for a while. There was a cold resignation as he launched himself into a sprint, not sinking into the water like the hobgoblin had. It seemed at this point he knew he was fucked, but was continuing out of sheer spite or stubbornness. Cinderella hissed in frustration as the Torrent bolted, stepping from cover as she shouted that it was dangerous.
The ocean was more aggressive than with Lucas' summon, immediately throwing up a wave that only cleaved at a single point—one that Fawkes had apparently memorized. A forest of crystalline shards exploded as the wave settled that the Sunbanisher bent and pivoted at painful angles, forced to navigate an impossible gauntlet as each tier collapsed and reformed something new whenever he crossed an unseen threshold. From the shore, the trio could see the faint shimmer of a maze that must have dropped, towering high enough to be lost among the clouds. The further Fawkes moved from sight, the more frenzied the refracted light, threatening to skewer him if he slowed down or made the wrong call as the seconds were shaved off to react.
He was past the point of the Hobgoblin, with Cinder giving up on screaming for him to drop below the surface and unwilling to waste glamour on the wind. It was hard to see what was going on now, but eventually a kaleidoscope of geometric patterns flared up the horizon as a distinct wall, which erupted into ribbons of sliding reality as the glass cracked; mist and sea swinging in arcs from displaced air.
"...Did he get out?" the Brightone asked after a long stretch of stunned silence. The Bastion didn't react.
After a few minutes, a new wave emerged and forced Lucas, Yuan and Cinder to scramble back towards the cliff and cling to the rock to escape the threat of the undertow. Fawkes wheezed as he vomited sea water, forcing himself into a bruised stand as he brushed the stinging salt from his eyes. A quiet, sardonic chuckle escaped his lips as he spared a glance skyward, flipping off whatever entity was playing with his sanity. Cobalt eyes locked onto the other Changelings as he finally noticed them, and his expression stilled.
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Dec 14, 2021 4:16:59 GMT -8
The Gravewight felt troubled from the moment he entered the dream. The Something is Not Right feeling lay in the pit of his stomach, fueling the sense of dread he carried with him on a daily basis. There were only so many entities that were powerful enough to block his Arcadian magic and seal away Fawkes' soul.
The first time he encountered a entity powerful enough to break his magic was before he entered the Maelstrom. The titanic entity ripped away his ice clad protection and tore him asunder.
This time...they were in a place where they were warned that Fae were about. The fear inside of him held his tongue at bay because he was terrified that in a place like this, if he spoke it out loud, he would conjure it into reality. Fortunately, spotting the other Winter helped him reestablish his connection to the world around him and draw in strength from the magical bond he now shared with the other Lost.
"I'm worried that...a Fae is already here." His words were a hushed whisper so that only the two others with him would be able to hear him. Fawkes still vomiting up seawater.
"Cinder...were you able to get a glimpse of his soul at all? If we were both blocked...then that tells me there's another force at work. A force that's powerful enough to mess with our contracts."
In his dream form he looked even more ethereal than he did with a dim mask. His pale skin glowed brightly like a freshly polished pearl that captured the ocean's luminous glow on it's surface. His hair flowed weightlessly in the sky whenever he moved around. The most troubling part of his dream avatar was that his right hand looked like a black void that no light could go near. Not that the others would know, but this was the same hand that had touched what Lucas could best describe as a oblivion, and it acted as a sharp reminder to keep his wits about him.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Dec 15, 2021 14:32:04 GMT -8
Yuan’s irritation bubbled slightly to the surface as Cinder’s Mantle caught in his own. There would be time to figure out the whys and the hows after they had rescued the Elemental. Sunlight mirrored on wing scales as the Courser pushed it down; now wasn’t the time to lose one’s cool. He silently pleaded Cinderella to back him up as he relaxed his shoulders.
Cinder was in Golden’s motley, and a close friend of Eurydice. She reminded Fawkes of such, even as she attested for Yuan’s character. The Courser slightly stretched out his hands palm up, a sign of peace and pleading.
“Hi, Fawkes. I’m Yuan, a friend of Mitch’s. We met at Samhain. We’re here to help you, if you let us. Could you let me see your wounds?”
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Post by Fawkes on Dec 15, 2021 16:21:23 GMT -8
Cinderella shook her head to Lucas' question, accepting he had been up in his own head when she had answered Yuan. It was a tense situation. "It felt like being dragged through a web where everything was getting turned around," she put her two fists together, "...Or, I guess, something spreading and clashing with the other."
She dropped the thread as Fawkes focused on them, stepping with Yuan and keeping her hands free of her weapon as she expressed genuine concern, feeding details like how Eurydice had taught her and Golden Boy how to use a spear to try and prove they weren't eidolons or in disguise.
The Torrent's attention clicked to each of them, before locking onto Yuan's raised hand.
"Hey, Yuan. All of you are going to leave." There was a calm firmness to the order, rather than hostile; his voice flowing with range and the expression absent from his waking mien.
And it was an order.
"Can you give me a knife?"
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Dec 15, 2021 21:31:31 GMT -8
Lucas sighed inwardly at the Beast as the threat didn't seem to register with him the way he had hoped it would. The Onyx Fairest wanted to work the information into their engagement with the Elemental. Then again, it's not like the other two would be expected to have the same insight into the Elemental as he did. It was part of why he had been tagged for this adventure.
Shortly after Yuan and Fawkes exchange, Lucas joined the two of them. He managed a relieved smile as he looked Fawkes over.
"Fawkes, man, it's good to see you again. We were all worried about you. We are planning on getting the hell out of dodge in a few along with you. But first, we gotta wait on a couple of others to join us. "
His eyes swept the area before he looked back at Fawkes.
"I don't want to go into too much detail because I know we're not alone here so we don't have much privacy. I'll leave it at we are gonna try a thing and we need to do that thing first before we can all leave. I need you to trust us and work with us to help make this happen. I promise you if we can succeed this is going to be a BIG game changer. We gotta do it...together."
The Fairest emphasized the need for collaboration and teamwork in this project. The winter magic within him flared in his dream avatar, causing the warm glow radiation from him to flicker like a torchlight in the wind, blowing towards his fellow Winter courtier.
"I can summon a knife but I can't give it to anyone else. However, maybe we can use it as a prop and try to build off of it to create other weapons."
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Post by Fawkes on Dec 15, 2021 21:45:25 GMT -8
Fawkes' eyes pinched, "No, I appreciate it. I can't weave anything anymore, so, if you could," he gestured vaguely at the environment. "You're a Playmate? Save the glamour, this is more important. We don't have a lot of time."
Cinderella's jaw clenched, nervous but letting Lucas take point. If he felt it was safe for the Elemental to have a weapon, she wasn't under the impression he was hostile towards them. Yuan had worked his own charm.
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Post by Cinderella on Dec 15, 2021 21:56:20 GMT -8
The pages of ether turn once more as Cinder reads the fabric of Dream, like a mage of fantasy. A clear knife is spun from the glass, hovering in front of her as she beckoned the weave.
"What's trapped you here?" she asked plainly, watching Fawkes with a careful eye as he took the weapon. It wasn't anything special, but she knew he had a reputation.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 15, 2021 22:12:37 GMT -8
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Dec 15, 2021 22:35:38 GMT -8
Fawkes' hurry washed over the Courser as animal instincts took over. If not hostility, then was Fawkes trying to protect them, get them out of harm's way? But out of the way of what? His eyes were drawn to the water as the insects around his heads flew into a frenzy, senses on alert. That was where the spikes had come from.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 15, 2021 22:48:06 GMT -8
As Yuan's hackles raise, his attention darts across the mirrored ocean, catching the cloud burst as something breaches the heavens and skis lazily across the surface.
It was a far ways out.
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Dec 15, 2021 22:59:28 GMT -8
"One sec."
The Fairest couldn't help but wonder if the Darkling's ability to disappear from existence when using light-shy worked in a place like this. There was only one way to find out.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 15, 2021 23:08:41 GMT -8
As Yuan looked to the ocean and Fawkes palmed the knife, Lucas vanished from the mind's eye. From what he could tell, the surface had been smoothed and melted, with colour rippling across the surface, where the clouds overhead removed the searing desert sun and relentless heat. His skin no longer chaffed against the sharp silica, and overall the environment had been shaped to something that wasn't so hostile or desolate. What actually drew the Fairest's attention was the greenery struggling to breach the surface as Cinder wove the dream and Lucas' mists enveloped him, leaving behind dancing spores that sparkled in the light. As they landed, the landscape adapted hungrily, blooming crystalline flowers.
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