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 Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:32 am
It's escaped-
It's here-
Fear thrilled through Riven's mind and body as the Fa'e practically flew towards the Fa'e HQ building, traveling in a straight line between the Glade and his destination, phasing through everything in his way, heedless of others. The forest, first, then several houses, a car or two, a large building... but they didn't matter, the brief shrieks of fear he heard didn't matter.
All that mattered was the sharp, wrenching beat of wrongness he could feel, like an unbearable knot in an overused muscle, a sharp stone set into an already-bleeding wound.
No...
The spirit Fa'e only stopped his headlong rush when his destination came into view. Then he stopped, slowed, summoned his spear Aeintor and brought it up in front of him, eyes narrowing and then widening again with horror.
It's here...
How is it here?!
Riven stared at the twisted mass of wrongness that the HQ - their home had become. How could this... he'd had no warning... it was...
Wrong-
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:05 am
Apparently, on Gaia it wasn't weird for a fourteen-year-old kid to be out and wandering around by themselves in the middle of the night. Propelled by his overwhelming sense of wrong, Astor wandered the streets of Durem and then broke into a run. He didn't know where he was going, but he was good at running. He never got to do it back on the ship, there was nowhere to run, but now that he was out in the open air-
He very narrowly avoided being hit by a car, and after that forced himself to focus. He wasn't sure where exactly he was going, he was just running.
If he knew anything about Gaian geography, which he didn't, he might have realized he was almost all the way to Barton by now. (Gaian cities were weird like that. The cities themselves seemed huge but then the space between them didn't take very long to traverse at all...)
He came to a stop, panting, unable to go further. The wrongness was here. He didn't know what it was, didn't know where he was. It looked like a building, but there was something off about it. It looked like he imagined a black hole to look.
This place was creepy. What was with all the pumpkins with faces on them? (He was supposed to know something about gourds with faces, something important, something from a dream-- he couldn't remember.) And the birds - they were sort of scary.
He'd caught his breath by now. Astor began to look around a bit more. Were there other people here? He wasn't sure. He felt like there must be - what was this place?
"Hello?" he called uneasily. Between how much noise he was making and the fireflies, he was an easy target.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:14 am
Riven's mind was spinning as he tried to calm down, tried to take in the meaning of what had happened - okay, that's Absence, that's Absence protruding into the 'real world', and those... ugh, disgusting birds are... Tainted and... I hope everyone got out and-
"Hello?"
Focused as he was, Riven hadn't noticed he had company until said company actually spoke. The spirit Fa'e jumped, adrenaline surging through him, then whirled with Aeintor at the ready-
-only to lower the blade abruptly and stare at the strangely familiar figure before him.
"Astor?" he managed, disbelieving. But Zaoll, the pale marble-girl, she was the one who'd dreamed...
Maybe this was all another dream. No, a nightmare. Oh, please...
... Then again, he wasn't sure how much he liked the idea of Chaos' influence intruding into his innermost thoughts, either. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Riven tried to split his attention between the Absence-construct and the young Fa'e. "You're... you're really Astor? Do you, uh, remember me?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:37 am
Astor jumped back a bit - you couldn't blame him, really. First there was a sword pointed at him and now he was being interrogated. He was way beyond the point of trying to act brave, but he was also equally beyond the point of anything even remotely normal really surprising him. This? This was weird, but it had already passed the event horizon of weird. Anything else was normal by comparison. Including-
Astor swallowed. "Hi, Riven," he said sheepishly. He did not find it even remotely funny that every time he ran into the purple Fa'e, the older man had the tendency to make him feel absolutely helpless.
Okay. Maybe it was a little bit funny. Just a little bit. No. Not really.
"It's a bit of a long story," said Astor, who, based on his experience with Zaoll, understood that the immediate effect he had on people seemed to be What the hell are you doing here?
He forced himself to look back at the strange sort-of-terrifying building. "What's going on?" he asked, and a quiver snuck into his voice.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:48 am
"So it was real..." Riven shook his head and offered Astor a weak smile. "I wish we'd met again at a better time. " He turned as well, eyes narrowing once more as he looked at the twisted building.
"That... is the Absence. Or some of it. It's what fills the spaces between worlds. And it should not be here." His tone was flat, final. "It does not move on its own, either - only when it's told. And there's only one being capable of telling it to move. Chaos..."
Riven's voice trailed off. This was exactly the sort of thing he was supposed to prevent, and yet... he'd had no warning, even now there was no urgent call from his own Realm in his mind, and everything had been fine when he'd been there only a few days ago!
"Don't get too close to it. It could taint you... or eat you..."
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:28 pm
"Eat me?" asked Astor nervously. He'd never been eaten before and wasn't sure he wanted to start now. It sounded painful. He took a few steps back, then glanced behind him and took a few steps towards Riven. He didn't like the look of those birds.
"Chaos?" asked Astor. If there was one thing he could remember about Riven, it was that he occasionally said things that didn't totally make sense. He knew what chaos meant, of course. It was a noun. But the way Riven said it made it sound like a name. "What's Chaos? What's this place?"
He had a lot to learn about this whole Fa'e thing.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:58 pm
"This place is... was... the Fa'e headquarters. Our gathering place. A beautiful building where Airi-"
Riven's voice trailed off suddenly, and he actually swore under his breath. "Airi! She's... it looks like a cage... trying to catch her?" He didn't seem to be actually addressing Astor directly.
Then he shook his head sharply and refocused on the younger Fa'e. "Er. You remember Airi, right? She lives there... and so did a few others. As for Chaos, it's a very long story... but Chaos is a power of pure destruction that would like nothing less than to see us all beyond dead."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 5:03 pm
"I - yeah!" said Astor, not really brightening so much as feeling accomplished for having known at least something about all this. Brightening was not really the proper thing to do in this situation. "She talked to me before Mom and I got to Gaia," he said quietly, and left it at that, because now was not really the time or place to go over it.
Wait a second. Where Airi what?
Astor frowned, hoping that he had maybe, just maybe, put two and two together and gotten seventeen. "You mean Airi's in there?" he asked. If his guess was right, then this was firmly Beyond Bad, sort of how Chaos - whatever it was, he didn't really understand Riven's description - wanted them Beyond Dead.
"If she's in there," he said shakily, "then what'll happen to her? Do we need to help her?"
He didn't want Airi to be in danger. He'd liked her. She was nice.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 5:14 pm
"I... I don't know. I can't say for sure." Riven gave the Absence-construct a narrow-eyed glare. "But we can't just run in there - it wouldn't just break you apart, it would taint or decay your remains until there wasn't anything left. You don't want to mess with it..."
Well, now's as good a time as any. "Let me see... stay here," Riven said, quietly, then floated a few feet closer. The spirit Fa'e closed his eyes, his spear glowing in his hands, then straightened, whipping the spear upright and stabbing it straight up in a single sharp movement. Lines of light split out of the air as if there was an invisible wall over the Fa'e's head that had just been breached. The light swirled downward and coalesced into a strange figure... an odd, long-fingered almost piscine being.
"Go," Riven ordered, but his voice was shaking slightly; the spirit nodded, then flung itself at the building, its fingers outstretched to claw at the bars. It only managed to hold itself together for a few seconds before shrieking and vanishing into motes.
The spirit Fa'e bowed his head, his hands trembling a little on the spear's shaft. "See. It's no use. Not now, not just rushing in..." It couldn't be that easy. But I had to know.
Their 'lives', such as they were, were his to command, and his to spend. That knowledge didn't make it any easier.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:11 pm
"Oh," nodded Astor, staring at the place where the silvery creature had vanished - what was that? He longed to ask, but it seemed that it wasn't a good time for that. He rocked back and forth on his heels, feeling antsy, but wasn't sure what to do. He stared at the dark building, uneasiness building in the pit of his stomach.
Now that Airi was possibly out of the question for the moment, he allowed himself to think about the rest of what Riven had said. This was - so this was Fa'e headquarters? This was where Zaoll had said she was living--
Zaoll.
"Riven," said Astor, going pale. He took a few steps towards the older Fa'e. "What about the other people who were in there? Do you think they're okay? What about Zaoll? Zaoll told me she was staying here."
Zaoll had to be okay. They'd been through too much for her not to be okay.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:57 pm
"If they ran... if there was warning..." Riven sighed. "If they ran, they should be fine. I saw some of Airi's fairies, here and there... and they're, um. Kind of stupid." He dropped his voice to practically whisper that last to Astor before straightening up again. "If they got out, then surely the others would have had time... but Airi almost never leaves her glade."
He gave the Absence-construct a pensive look. "And I know Airi and Chaos are connected... what I don't know is how."
Finally, what Astor had said actually percolated through, and Riven blinked, then looked back at the younger Fa'e. "Wait. Zaoll is... here?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:20 pm
Astor nodded vigorously in response to the question, so much so that he had to steady his head with a hand before answering. "Yeah," he said. "I saw her yesterday. At a store. In Durem."
Or was it two days ago? He always got confused about that late at night after midnight. Now wasn't the time for questions about the nature of time, anyway.
"If the others got out," he said, "where would they be? Maybe we should go look for them."
That was using the old noggin, he thought proudly. And the crows were really giving him the creeps. He wanted to get away from those.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:29 pm
"That... would be wise, but I can't." Riven drooped visibly. "Chaos is my responsibility. I was created, originally, to keep him behind a Barrier. Which has... now failed, at least partially." And there were still no warning cries echoing from the Spirit Realm - and a sudden thought sent a shiver down Riven's spine. Had they all been annihilated in a sudden onslaught? Could they all be...
No. The one I summoned was unharmed and said nothing! It can't be... they're okay.
The spirit Fa'e sighed again, then glanced at Astor. "Do you, uh, know what I mean when I talk about 'originally'? What the Fa'e are? You were Lost, weren't you? Like Zaoll." It was really a petty concern, considering, but tending to Astor was keeping him from going near out of his mind with worry and panic.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:43 pm
Astor blinked at Riven owlishly before replying, "I guess that's what you'd call me. I grew up on a ship, didn't know anything about any of this until last month."
Had it really been that long? Well, the growing in the middle of that did seem to complicate it a bit. He sighed. "I don't really know much more than what you told me last time I saw you."
That helpless feeling was back with a vengeance. "So I don't think I know what you mean," he said. "Sorry."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:52 pm
"Ah... then you haven't seen Airi again." Riven resisted the urge to look pensively at the structure again; nothing had changed, and even the twisted crows weren't doing much other than glare balefully. He could feel their presence like a sharp knot, though even that was nearly eclipsed by the blistering ache of the Absence-construct itself.
Still, he could sense it... if it moved, did anything, he would feel it. He didn't need sight to know that.
"She would, I think, call both you and Zaoll 'lost children'. Most of the Fa'e grew up here, together... except for a few that were scattered. Like you and Zaoll and a couple others. But we're all... kind of related. We all have Airi's blood in us. And we're all reborn. Ancient powers, gods, demons, angels... constructs. Something like that. Even if you don't know exactly what you are yet, I can promise you that this is not your first life..." Riven gave Astor a comforting look.
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