a goose

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"You were the one still conscious, why don't you tell me? I wasn't really in a position to keep count."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"The deal was that I told him about the meeting. I told him where it would be, and when. He thought I was turning on you, but I wasn't - I just couldn't let your plan go ahead."

Learu sighed. Monologue time.

"Either your plan would work... or it wouldn't. And despite all his talk of pacifism, we both know my father would have killed you and everyone who stood with you if you failed, and any opportunity to actually depose him would be gone forever. On the other hand, if you won, you'd do so bloodlessly, and leave him and everyone with him alive - so not only could he take back his hold on everyone, but... but we'd have changed nothing, Xar. Ignotus, my father, Laz, it didn't matter who led us, because the outcome would always be the same: violence and suffering inflicted on everyone who wasn't one of our own, and some of ours in the splash zone. It had to end. And... it did. It's over now."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"Then at least tell me where you want me to start."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Inevitable.

She shrank, her shoulders falling, head falling, her heart and lungs and guts and guilt dropping, past her body, sinking into the ice, everything inside sank and everything else stood limp and she knew this was coming, it was inevitable, she had rehearsed this moment, practised it, turned it over in her head again and again and again and again and again and again and again, every way that he could react, every way that he could be angry or confused or sad or scared or all or none or picked and chosen at random she KNEW how it would go.

But she never thought about how she would feel.

Inevitable.

"Say what you need to say. Ask what you need to ask. I won't lie to you." She heard the practised words from afar; she didn't even feel herself speak them. This conversation, this inevitable confrontation, it was happening to someone else, someone who could brace themselves against this storm.

But it wasn't. It was happening to her. It was always going to happen to her. It was...

23 hours ago, Wotz said:

IC: Xaruthan (Dragon Nest)

That was more biting than I had really intended - the result of my hunger-induced frustration. I glared at the Mahi leg, sizzling idiotically, only half of it able to fit on the 'pan'. I was half-tempted to simply melt it into atoms, clip my wings and throw myself off the mountain. Needless to say, that would have been foolish.

Half-heartedly, I rolled the leg around in the butter a little, frowning.

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Discomfort - guilt, even - nipped at the back of Aru's neck, the feeling of having pushed a little too far. It began to sink in that she had had maybe three or four conversations with Xar that weren't about planning to take down her father, and they were among the few conversations she'd had in general. "I... hrm."

I what? I'm sorry? "S-so I think I went a little too hard on you there. Didn't mean to. First day up is hard enough."

Her teeth were clenched so tight it hurt, but she'd at least said something. There. Grand. Perfect.

9 hours ago, Geardirector said:

IC: Trava (Pala-Koro)

"Just warming up!" Trava shouted back as she waded onto shore, shaking her grapnel-equipped arm. As good a time as any to find out how well the contraption handled exposure. She'd need it to if it was going to be at all useful to her.

"I'm probably going to be around and in water for the rest of today anyway. I've got my job to do," she remarked casually as she headed into the village proper, "I've taken over one of the buildings here as a little personal space to stash things. It's not like anyone else is using 'em"

OOC: @Goose

IC: Kaelynn (Pala-Koro)

Kae smiled absently, her eyes flicking back to the shoreline. Something was tugging at her peripheral vision, drawing it back.

She looked at Trava, while keeping the strange spot just within her line of sight. She was a little hesitant to follow the Lesterin. "I wasn't here when... well, I wasn't really equipped to help. Late bloomer, you could say. I haven't been inside since before the battle."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"I remembered how to cook, if that's what you mean." Learu's smirk didn't waver, but her tone did. Xar's words had struck a little too close to home.

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Aru was slightly behind Xar, having gone first to the 'kitchen', but placed a block of butter against his free hand as he turned around before quickly removing it.

"Gets too cold to cut," she said casually, using a knife in her other hand to cut the slightly-softened butter and drop a sliver onto the pan. "Did my father give you brain damage, or have you always ruined your food?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Learu looked at Aclaraung as she got up to join Xar, abandoning her line of questioning for now. "Was he always this chipper?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"You ever heard of a 'joke', Aclaraung?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"You got distracted? What happened, you see something shiny?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Learu didn't even turn to look at Xar as he spoke. "I don't see what how I feel about Xar being awake has to do with you being so out of it that you just launched brain matter across the room."

IC: Kira (Ga-Koro, outside Nixie's hut)

Okay. No big deal. You just, y'know, you just take a step forward- take a step forward- you just take a step forward, and you knock.

The petite Onu-Matoran did not move.

Oh come on, Kira. You can do this! It's perfectly simple. Knuckle meet door.

She trepidatiously took the teensiest step forward, then sighed with relief, before raising her fist to the door. And this is where you knock.

...This, is where you knock.

Kira. This is the part where you-

Knock.

Okay maybe again so it doesn't sound like an accident.

Knock knock.

She shifted anxiously from foot to foot, waiting for an answer.

OOC: @Haman Karn: A Magical Girl

On 9/18/2021 at 2:38 PM, Wotz said:

IC: Kuhrin (North bank of Lake Pala)

Nervously, I deactivate my mask and flicker back into visibility, relaxing a muscle that I always keep tensed. Immediately the whole of my body is soaked through in this familiar sinking feeling, this liberating, disgusting feeling, like being suspended over the edge of a cliff, and I hate, hate it, and even so savour its lustful allure. To be seen was to be real, to be accused and judged by the Light and all who value it. I am not one of them. The Light shuns me, that's why it gave me the Huna - it doesn't want to touch me.

...I don't know if it's just me, or if it's real, but my skin burns in the light now. It burns.

I reactivate the mask, and disappear into safety once again.

On 10/2/2021 at 4:50 PM, Geardirector said:

IC: Trava (Great Jungle, Pala-Koro Approach)

As Kaelynn, well ahead, presumably reached the end of the road for their impromptu jungle dash, Trava instead swung to the side, and ran along a branch that reached out over the lake the village was nestled by. She closed her eyes as she leapt off and into the lake, finishing with a graceful dive into second place. She'd been meaning to take a swim anyway.

IC: Kaelynn (Pala-Koro Approach)

Kae skidded deftly to a halt, just about concealing how much more comfortable she was in the air than on land. She looked over to the lake as she heard the splash - That's one way to forfeit - and thought for a moment that she saw... something? A shadow, maybe?

She shook her head, and dismissed it.

"Hey!" She shouted to Trava. "There a reason we came out here, or are you just taking a dip?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"Yeah, and we're all very disappointed, but you already seemed tense when you came in."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Aru looked curiously at Aclaraung. "You know, it's hard to tell because of your whole... deal, but you seem a little pissier than usual. Something happen while you were out?"

IC: Ronan

Ronan felt the chill up her spine, the eyes on the back of her neck. Death was here. Her awareness spiked - a trained reflex, now instinctive, that made her even more cautious of her surroundings in moments such as these. The withered foliage caught her notice immediately.

Nothing could grow down here, she knew. Nothing could live. There was only Death.

“We’ve got roots overhead, L.T. They aren’t looking too healthy, but something put them there.”

OOC: @Leaf and darkwalk crew

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

Learu didn't even need to roll her eyes, so evident was her feeling. "I see the years on ice haven't changed your charm. Pity."

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"Like an amateur Tryna-wearer propped up a freeze-dried corpse then dropped it off a cliff." Aru's smile was genuine, her chest a little lighter from having shared her burden and not having been asked to explain her actions on that night so many years ago. "So, no worse than usual. How about me?"

IC: Learu (Dragon Nest)

"Years. And then some." Aru sighed, heavily. It had been a long few weeks. "We were both half-dead by the time Aclaraung got us here. I... thought I already was dead, before I woke up and found out you two dragged me back here. And that you were still alive. Last I'd seen you... well, I'm only surprised you weren't out longer."

IC: Learu (possessive or possessive plural? because surely it should be the Dragons' Nest, right?)

Learu sat down, and didn't speak for a moment, weighing the words on her tongue. "I've... been awake a few weeks now. You were still out cold, but there's a couple dragons around the place, so... yeah. It was get acquainted, or go insane."

IC: Aru (well technically it's a dragoncave)

Aru walked in silence, until the two Mystix reached a rough-hewn formation of ice that just about resembled two Chiropteran-Mystix scale stools and a table. "I had one of Aclaraung's make that up. Figured it should be two seats, since, y'know, you were bound to wake up at some point."

IC: Learu (the… sigh. batcave)

Her face went solemn. “Xar, you… might want to head in so we can sit down.”

Aru’s tone had a sensitivity utterly uncharacteristic to her. Her expression, too, was almost... concerned.

IC: Learu (the… sigh. batcave)

Aru’s smile actually reached her eyes, for just a fraction of a second. “You want to try his cooking, be my guest. What’s dying a third time, after all?”

IC: Aerus (Echelon's Lair)

The look that spread across Aerus’ face was one of genuine horror. He knew Echelon - he knew what he was. But still, what had survived of his conscience through these years of service still could not help but be appalled at kidnapping a child.

“So he… he abducted you to teach you? Or to experiment on you?” Quite frankly, the premise of Echelon abducting someone as part of some twisted scheme made a fair bit more sense than the idea of him accepting someone who willingly came to him seeking tuition, which at least joined some of the dots in Aerus’ mind. Why, however, he would so willingly elect to become a teacher… that remained a mystery.

IC: Learu (...the batcave. goddamnit, wotz)

Aru rolled her neck and then finally turned to look at Xar, eyes now open. The cave opening was small - pretty much a window, in fact, which was exactly how she had been using it, leaning on the ledge and looking out upon the snow. She was smiling, faintly, but her eyes were as cold and empty as the drifts behind her.

“Like the dead. I’m sure you can relate.”

OOC: @Ghosthands @Wotz