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Backdated to Dec 11 2016.
Papers rustled as Orah folded them up and tucked them beneath her arm, her slim hands reaching to tug up the collar to her winter coat. It was cold in DC in December, but the breeze on her face was bracing and refreshing, unconfined by crystal walls. Snow crunched under her boots as she left the admin building for the university, a cream stocking cap on her head and a winter green peacoat giving her some color.
She’d failed the classes she’d been in when she’d been taken, and they would need to be taken all over again if she wanted to actually graduate. There had been some issue with her student loans as well, since being out of school for so long had triggered the payback period. It was going to take some doing to get everything situated again, but giving up on it all just wasn’t an option. Giving up would be to give in to Alkaid and that was not something Orah was willing to do. The Ascended was not going to win this time. She was not going to let her keep any hold over her life.
The beat up Pontiac she drove was waiting by the curb, cold and dusted with snow from her time inside. There was a long stretch of snow between her and it where no feet had disturbed the cover. Everything was quiet in the break for the holidays, but in that silence she could still pick up the faint sound of traffic that seemed ever present in the city. The sound was a comfort, reminding her she was not alone as she paused and tilted her head back, breathing deep.
She wasn’t alone, and she didn’t have to be any more.
Visiting the university for medical needs left a raw taste in Isaiah's mouth. The high prevalence of young adults meant a higher chance of senshi or Negaverse activity in these parts, and any large gathering of people meant a bigger draining target for Negaverse payout. Or, as he'd seen the Dark Mirrors monopolize, the institution meant an easy way to drain energy fast.
Apart from its downsides, the students at DCU offered affordable alternatives to professional settings for his dental work. They finished his heat-cured dentures that day, and bade him to pick them up at the dental division within the university. Given its size, Isaiah was uncertain where, precisely, this dental division stood. Many students passed, either on their way out of the university to return home for winter break, or in the midst of other plans to meet their friends. Some studied for the last days of their finals, where pressure rose to a head for passing classes with the best grades possible. He remembered those days distinctly, and the reminiscence sat ill with him; each time, he thought of how Alkaid burned his diploma into a cinder at his old condo.
He allowed himself little time to dwell, however, and searched actively for students free enough to give him directions. He spotted one that stood out from any of the study groups beneath the trees and approached her from behind. He muttered a quick "excuse me" to seize her attention.
When he rounded her, however, he noted a vaguely familiar face. Ice blinked a moment, his countenance schooled in studious remembrance, then chanced the name that came to mind. "Orah, right?" And by Orah, he meant Ida. Damn, it feels like years have passed. "I didn't expect to find you here. What happened with, ah…" He looked skyward in a hinting fashion.
For all her rejoicing in not being figuratively alone, Orah was startled to find herself literally not alone as a voice called out to her. Her gaze jerked down from the sky and she turned to watch a man come into view, tall and lanky with a familiar face and fashion sense. It had been a long time since she’d seen this man, but it had been a long time since she’d seen a lot of people. There was a difference to him from last time, not the least of which was the sleeve that hung empty half way down one side. Concern tugged her, wondering how that had come about, but worried to ask.
“Ah, yes! That’s me. Isaiah? Its good to see you.” The response was rote, but not entirely false. He was a knight, he fought for Order. It was enough for her. HIs question took her aback and she fidgeted, reaching up to tuck a lock of short hair beneath her cap.
“With Ida?” She said, glancing around to be sure there was no one immediately close enough to overhear. She lowered her voice anyway, taking the papers from under her arm to hold between her hands. “My planet is okay now. Whatever those monsters were, we seemed to have gotten all of them, and the damaged parts are recovering. The dead zone you saw when I took you there last, is shrinking as plants begin to grow again. I think they were draining the energy out of them and that’s why they were dying.”
She spread her fingers as she lifted her hand, palm up.
“I didn’t even know they were there until I woke up in the Energy Center, and by then, you were all there fighting them. You were one of the ones pulled there, right?”
Thankfully she understood him perfectly. A slight concern had remained at the back of his mind that she wasn't Orah when he first approached her. Isaiah supposed he had his retail service to thank for recognizing faces and retaining names decently. When she found their surroundings sufficiently empty of listeners and embarked on an explanation of her planet, Isaiah backed up to one of the short retaining walls and seated himself. His cane found purchase on one of the stony outcroppings.
"Is that so? There was a worrisome amount of those bastards. Nasty things managed to make even me look bad. Do you have any idea why they were there? I ask because your planet wasn't the first place I've ever been to that had a bit of a monster problem. Scholomance had a similar issue, and the damnable thing's still lurking around. If this is some kind of widespread occurrence…" He trailed off, cocked his head as if to say 'you know the rest'.
"Since I have you here, I also wanted to apologize for my… Unbecoming attitude when we first met. I wasn't terribly keen on the idea of magic until magic bit me in the a** and didn't let go." Absently he rubbed his hip. "Bit of a trial, that."
A grimace pulled Orah’s soft features into an expression of embarrassment, her pink cheeks as much from that as the cold air.
“I don't know know.” She admitted. It felt terrible to say, when she was one of the transcended and should know more than anyone about her own planet. “I've seen other monsters on other planets too. They're always different, but there have been a lot. Sailor Maia had corruption in her trees, Sailor Hugbell had a giant plush monster… the only guess I could hazard is that over a thousand years without their protectors, things have taken advantage to move in on the vulnerable places of power…”
She watched as he took his seat, wandering forward a few steps to keep a comfortable conversation distance. She wondered about the cane, like she had wondered about the arm. Had it been a mundane accident, or something related to the war? There were always injuries in that, but his were some of the worst she had seen, if so. It made her ache for him, watching him run his hip. Orah wondered if the cold bothered the joint.
His apology made her shift on her feet, but she quashed the embarrassment, choosing instead to feed the feeling of forgiveness that flooded her.
“It's okay.” She said, her voice, and her face, softening. “I accept the apology, but it really isn't needed. Being thrown into a magical war when we’re taught our whole lives that magic isn't real is hard to deal with. It's a wonder there aren't more of us rebelling against the idea… and it was likely at least partly my fault for not being patient enough.”
“I've not been entirely myself for a long while now.” Orah said as she tucked her cold hands into her sleeves. The slender digits had little to insulate them, much as the rest of her as she struggled to recover a proper weight. “It made it harder to… communicate properly and with patience. This war hasn't been kind to any of us. I don't blame you for baulking, and I regret you were forced to accept it the hard way.”
Isaiah cocked a brow at the admission of other planets with other monsters. If these creatures were youma, they would know, but these entities never felt quite like youma. They never felt quite like anything he experienced before, and Ida's monsters felt distinctly different from Scholomance's monster. He imagined then, from Orah's descriptions, that the remaining events felt different from one another as well. Should they start warning new knights and senshi about the possibility of opportunistic creatures on their planets? Would bringing that information to the Negaverse benefit them? His own wonder called up agents alongside senshi and knights in its blind panic for assistance; would further instances of this behavior urge the Negaverse to monopolize on the opportunity? A thousand further questions came to mind.
"I wonder how many planets are terribly close to corruption, then." He hadn't yet heard anything of senshi or knights spontaneously dropping out of existence or corrupting due to these forces, but he wondered if they may see instances of it. Perhaps it was nothing; perhaps he worried himself about an issue they wouldn't be seeing within his lifetime.
He remained silent for a time when Orah confessed to not being herself. She looked uncomfortable in expressing it - he supposed anyone would, in that moment of vulnerability - and he considered his response to it before committing to a reply. "There was a book I read some time ago that I find relates to us as participants. It covered the Vietnam war, of course, but our circumstances aren't too much different in the end. One of the quotes stuck out to me, and what you just said brings it to mind. It was…" He paused, looking skyward for the memory. "'They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.' And we all know what that means, what that's like. We've bent and changed under our circumstances." For you, it looks for the better. For me, well… Hope is a long ways off.
"You accept responsibility for a lot, Orah." At a very young age. There was an explanation for that somewhere… Was it about codependence? I can't remember.
"Do you know of somewhere else we could talk? This cold is an a*****e and a half." He blew hot breath into his hand, and watched the steam dissipate into the chilly air.
It had never really occurred to her to think that having corrupted monsters on your planet might be a sign of growing corruption IN it and it took her aback, the expression blanking her mobile features. Ida always felt sacrosanct… it was unnerving to consider it slowly corrupting.
“That's a terrible thought… I hope it's more a case of the planets and wonders holding it off so it's not worse. But who really knows?” She said as she tried to shake off the nagging feeling. Maybe it was a product of her transcendence, being so utterly confident in the purity of her planet. There was a lot she probably overlooked in regards to it, like a doting parent. Her mouth twisted at the corners then, rueful and self-deprecating.
“I did take on a lot, more than I should have. I can see that now. I let it overwhelm me and I lost a lot of perspective. A lot of myself, under the weight of it. I know the things that happened… they weren't my fault. Not completely and sometimes despite everything I did to prevent it.” She lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “I'm learning to let go. Or I guess to accept when I can't do anything more.”
Orah’s head lifted at his request and she stepped back, waving a hand back at the school.
“They have a little coffee shop inside and some alcoves for study. Why don't I buy you a drink? You said your wonder had a monster too? I wasn't there for that… what happened?”
"I'm not sure that thought is very useful," he confessed with a cryptic smile. "You could say worst-case scenarios are a talent of mine. If a planet was close to corruption, we would sense it, right? When the piece of the Code was corrupted, that much was evident to every knight in its vicinity - we have always been able to feel corruption. And, if there is something taking place at the root of our planets, that's actually corrupting them… Well, I expect we'd feel that in any given knight or senshi, too."
Isaiah loosed a breath as he stood. The cold left him feeling ancient. With cane in hand, he followed Orah to one of the nearer buildings and wondered if he even held a place in the war now. Without the ability to fight well, without autonomy, his continued existence only aided the Negaverse, did it not?
"Acceptance is a good start." I could learn a few things about acceptance myself. "Besides, you've survived this long. You're doing something right."
Passing into the building granted them much-needed shelter from the cold, and the blast of heat from the surrounding radiators warmed Isaiah well. He harbored no qualms about free coffee, and was content to keep silent with Orah as they proceeded through the somewhat busy lines. Ordering was simple - most places had a flat white on the menu to some degree - though Orah would have to carry the drink. He could not speak of his own wonder's afflictions just yet, however, as they needed the quietude of one of the study alcoves to guard their conversation from the remaining students.
When they reached that point, Isaiah seated himself in one of the study room chairs and rested the head of his cane on the back. "My wonder didn't sustain anything as widespread as your planet. It was… strange, though. This creature, like a ghost, manifested in one of the towers of Scholomance. It was the only one, so far as I know. It convinced Blaine - my ancestor - to assist it. The idiot got on board with the idea and together they crafted a strange device that they thought would revive them. Scholomance summoned anyone it could to its aid, which included negaverse officers. Perhaps it's blind to corruption, or confused, or the monster influenced it to somehow call officers?
"In any case, those who were there managed to run the creature off. It didn't perish, so I suspect I'll have to deal with it again soon." With my luck, that will come the next time I reach my Wonder. Maybe Blaine would have some insights on how to magically regrow parts of oneself…
Doing something right… Orah could only hope so. It certainly didn't feel like it sometimes. But that was all part of learning to change her perspective. Rather than look at what she hadn't done… look at what she had accomplished. It wasn't an insignificant amount.
The wash of warmth they received as they passed into the building was a welcome one and the blonde barista was a woman Orah knew fairly well from other visits like this. She was thankful that the first awkward ‘Where have you been?’ was already out of the way… she didn't have to go through the song and dance a second time and soon enough she was joining Isaiah in the alcove, a steaming cup in each hand and some creamer stuffed in her pockets.
She listened as she set his cup down before him and a crease formed between her brows. Tension pulled the corners of her mouth down slightly before she spoke.
“I've heard of singular monsters. Hugbell’s was one. I don't think it was as intelligent though. Most of the monsters we face aren't… I can only really think of one in my experience that was intelligent enough to craft a plan… and that was a humanoid Youma here on Earth.” Her fingertip tapped against the side of her cup as she considered it, wondering. “The only conclusion I can draw from all this disparate information is just that… every instance has been unique. I think it's a good guess you’ll have to deal with yours again, unfortunately, but at least you don't have to do it alone.”
Some of the tension in her mouth eased, her lips twitching up in a small smile.
“If you need help, all you have to do is call me. I'll come. We can put that monster down for good. It's odd though, that your ancestor sided with it. That's the first time I've heard of one that didn't act like the mentor they're supposedly meant to be. But I also don't know a lot about them, I guess. Hver doesn't have one.”
Orah had a point. Her own conclusions reminded him that sometimes he could find no pattern among unique situations like the planets and their monsters simply because there wasn't a pattern. If no single threat carried much in common with the rest, then why try to tie them together? He experienced but two instances himself and learned of a third through Orah, and the sole similarity there was that both he and this Hugbell faced one entity. Perhaps they annihilated theirs on the first go. He assumed so, else Orah would have mentioned it.
Isaiah himself disliked the thought of a creature lurking about his wonder. Still, he never encountered it or felt it since, and he started to wonder if Scholomance simply fought it off somehow. He could not deny that his wonder regenerated over the year of his knighthood, and neither could Blaine; perhaps, for that reason alone, there wasn't need to encounter this creature twice.
"My ancestor is… a dumbass," he conceded at last. "He strikes me as timid, but opportunistic. I imagine that he saw something he wanted in the way the creature was going about its business, and decided to jump that bandwagon. For all I know, he could be working with it right now. Not that I could do much about it.
"You see, Orah, as much as I would love to take you up on your offer to get rid of the pest, I don't have my signet ring anymore." He showed her the back of his hand, fingers splayed, where his ring finger - and signet ring - once remained. "The signet ring is also the key to get into any of the Scholomance buildings. Without it, I won't be facing the creature, either. And, I'm uncertain if Blaine would let me in - he and I don't quite see eye-to-eye." Finally he tried a sip of his coffee, and found it cool enough to drink. As far as he was concerned, any free coffee tasted great.
And free help, with no strings attached, sounded every bit as great as free coffee.
Brown eyes widened, seeing the lack of a finger, and all over again, she was swamped with questions about his injuries. At least he offered her something of an opening this time.
“If I can ask… what happened? Your injuries seem to pain you and you didn’t have them the last time I saw you.” She said, trying to broach it gently. “If that’s how you lost your ring, it IS an unfortunate circumstance… but surely we could still get you into your wonder. I feel like it would be… unwise to hinge everything on a single, small item. There has to be some sort of… back door.”
Not that she really knew, of course. Her world had no locked doors that she had found yet, and even then, senshi didn’t use rings the way knights did. The presence of them had always intrigued her… why did knights have rings and senshi had phones? Why did the mauvians only involve themselves with senshi? All questions she had never found a way to answer.
“I could try talking to your ancestor… I don’t know if it would help, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to try, yeah? Its hard to believe he’s giving up on the duty he was tasked with a thousand years ago… maybe there is more to it than we’ve been able to find.”
She asked, and he faltered while he looked for an explanation in his coffee. The warm froth stared back silently; he was on his own. "It's… For a long time, I worked somewhat with the Negaverse. They had things I wanted, and I had things they wanted. We each kept to our word. Mostly.
"When Caedus opened the portal to Negaspace, I should have passed on that opportunity. Even if I didn't attack any of the agents or youma there, they saw my very presence as a violation of my deals. I imagine, too, that my intervention in Laurelite's attempted deathblow had something to do with it. But, the princess was drawing their fire, and her continued existence meant possible survival so…" Isaiah clicked his tongue against his dentures.
"Cinnabar and Schörl came after me a few months later. I was trying to arrange a deal with Cinnabar, but she had no intention of listening. So… they took what they thought identified me as a double dealer, and left me like this." Isaiah lacked the heart to reveal the dentures as part of the scope of injuries. An arm and a finger seemed like enough. "My guess is, left-handed dealing and no way to make promises." He gestured first to his missing arm and later pointed with his thumb to the missing finger.
"A long time before that, I got in an altercation with a General Labyrinthite. He took a scythe to my hip, and it's been difficult to walk right in the cold temperatures since. That's my list of battle wounds, I guess." The physical ones, he knew, were never the worst. What he dealt with now and forever proved to be his greatest challenges since sobriety, however, and he found very little reason against the occasional hit when the pain reached its worst. He wondered, though, how long defiance would last - how long the opposition to the Negaverse would hold out before ultimately collapsing like a house of cards.
"I'd like to take you up on your offer, though. About talking to Blaine. If we could find another way in, or if you could talk him into letting me in, that would solve a lot of problems at once." He motioned with a tilt of his head toward the restroom signs. They provided cover enough.
Orah’s eyes widened a fraction and her lips thinned at the news that he had been working with the Negaverse. There were implications there and it made her wonder… what had he been doing for them, and how much had he told them? How much did he know that was now compromised? Did she dare ask?
There was a part of her, a small part that had grown fractionally larger since her ordeal, that whispered he had gotten his just desserts for what he had done. Who knows how many people he had put in danger, playing both sides… but it was an uncharitable voice and she pushed it down. Because he had gotten punished for what he’d done… and that had to be proof enough, didn't it, that the Negaverse was evil and not to be trusted? Surely all of that was behind him now, he couldn't possibly think it was safe to keep doing it.
“The Negaverse is… cruel and uncaring, as long as it feeds their hunger.” She said, keeping herself neutral. “I'm sorry that happened.”
Cinnabar and Schörl… Those were names to remember, if they were prone to exacting this level of sadistic punishment on someone. They were no doubt capable of far worse on someone who wasn't working with them.
But for the grace of fate, it could have been one of them, rather than Alkaid…
“Anyone who spends any length of time fighting this war ends up with scars. Yours are the worst I've seen, but you aren't alone.” She wasn't sure what else she could say, let alone what she should. At least talk of his wonder was a decent Out. She followed the nod of his head and her expression relaxed into surprise for a moment, before even that faded.
Right now? Well, why not, then. She had time today, and they were here.
“I don't know if he’ll listen to an outsider, but it's worth a shot. At worst you're back to square one.” Pushing to stand, she tugged her dress straight and gathered their cups to pitch as they headed for the rest rooms.
It wasn't her preferred location for transforming, but it would do.
Isaiah offered no comment about the Negaverse and its status as cruel and uncaring. He knew enough of the world's various cultures to understand that what Orah, or he, qualified as uncaring may not be so on the other side. True, the Negaverse disliked those not of its kind, but that surprised him little considering conqueror societies like ancient Rome or the Huns. 'The other' simply proved less of a notable concern to the Negaverse - and he banked on them gleaning the folly of their ways. Soon they would grow too great to contain themselves without outside assistance.
"Thanks," he added after a time. He breathed a slow sigh and drummed his fingers on the counter. The rhythm incurred a slight delay where he hadn't yet compensated for the missing ring finger. "But I am alone." He stood then, and took another swig of his coffee. "The world of senshi and knights aren't lining themselves up to help me break out from beneath the Negaverse." Not that I could blame them, really, but it sure reflects poorly on them. Heaven forbid these people come across a purification. I'm certain they wouldn't let them live down their time in the Negaverse.
And if Mjolnir succeeds… Looks like she has it pretty bad.
Isaiah pushed his chair in shortly before he started for the restrooms. He passed the undifferentiated sign and ushered Orah toward the stalls. The place looked deserted; no one stood at the sinks or even freshened up at the back of the bathroom. "I hope he listens to you. He might if you've been there before; he seemed quite receptive to Hvergelmir, after all." Soon after he shut the stall door, he wore the bones of Scholomance. He groaned as his bone pauldrons scraped against the sides of the narrow enclosure.
Ducking down, he offered clandestine transportation via a hand under the stall wall.
Orah’s lips pursed, but she chose not to comment on his assertions. Sometimes people couldn't see that they weren't alone and there was little that could be done about it. She knew she had been one of them, and probably still was for all that her recent experiences had changed her.
Still, she would do this for him whether or not he saw her standing as an ally. Not acknowledging it would not make it untrue.
Cups discarded, she followed him to the bathrooms and slipped in behind him, tucking her bag closer to her side. A glance before the door closed confirmed there was no one watching them, and to her relief, no one in the rest room either.
She didn't lock the stall door when she stepped inside and rather than think about how close the walls were, she reached for the familiar feel of her pen. Light enveloped her form at her whispered command and when the petals fell away, she stood transformed. Ida breathed deeply and when the hand appeared, she took it confidently, her grip gentle.
“I’m ready.” She said. “Let's go open some doors.”
whimsical blue
