Aly / The Flame (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wolfishflame) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
khuioduan2019-04-07 08:21 pm
wolfishflame) wrote in khuioduan2019-04-07 08:21 pm
video;
[It's dark. Whoever's broadcasting is outside in the middle of the night, and the camera slowly adjusts to the little amount of light filtering in from the stars and the barrier overhead.
When the broadcaster speaks, her voice is almost too hoarse to be recognizable, but it's Aly. She speaks quietly, but firmly.]
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
With what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire-- [And at that word, an angry gout of crimson flame flares up from her hands for a moment before disappearing.]
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate-- [The fire flares up again.]
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And will suffice.
[As she reaches to turn off the feed, something that looks a lot like blood can be seen smeared around her mouth.]
When the broadcaster speaks, her voice is almost too hoarse to be recognizable, but it's Aly. She speaks quietly, but firmly.]
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
With what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire-- [And at that word, an angry gout of crimson flame flares up from her hands for a moment before disappearing.]
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate-- [The fire flares up again.]
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And will suffice.
[As she reaches to turn off the feed, something that looks a lot like blood can be seen smeared around her mouth.]
[Action] /snatches and guzzles Starbucks
Like a rain-softened sky.]
Room for one more?
this is just gonna be a monthly thing for me huh
That your kind of magic?
there are worse monthly things, we all know this, Alex.
She will also shuffle along so that Aly is included in the shield, though once she gets there she'll stare more off into the distance than at the other teen.]
It's wizardry, yeah.
Not like what's on your world, then?
[Given where Aly's just been, maybe that's a good thing.]
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[She wiggles her fingers, as though to shake something off of them.] Mine's a lot more violent.
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[Nita aims a wry look at Aly.]
... It can get pretty violent back home, too.
[Say, blowing Fomori up at the atomic level.]
Be nice to get away from that, though, y'know?
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Saving the world's pretty exhausting.
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[Nita looks away again, sighing softly.]
Pity we just keep finding the worlds that need our help, though.
[Kind of hard to take a break, in those circumstances.]
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/stabs self in the feels like a pro
[She's not quite there yet, though, in age or inclination.
Not that she couldn't get one in the Crossings if she really wanted, but she doesn't want to think about familiar places like that, not right now-]Settling enough of the universe right, getting entropy to stay down - it's worth fighting for, but no one can fight forever.
[Funnily enough, the Lone Power can't do that, either. Not anymore.]
But we never do it alone. Not really.
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[Then she goes quiet.]
What if you are alone? Because you made it that way?
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Ever heard the phrase 'Entropy has us outnumbered'?
[Hopefully Aly hasn't.
The other question, though, leaves Nita more somber. And there's some personal experiences she can ascribe to that situation, too - as well as those of a few people she knows.
And she knows enough to say:]
It'll come back to bite you, that's what. And the people you care about.
[If they're still in the equation.]
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Then:]
What if it already has?
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She does have something to offer, though. A sympathetic ear, a glance of something that isn't pity, and words:]
Even then, it doesn't mean you deserve to be alone, or suffering, or guilt-tripping over it for the rest of your life.
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Yes, it does, [she says in a small voice.] What I did can't be undone, and I-- [You have to say it.
I can't say it. That makes it real.] --hurt someone close to me.
/continues making self cry like a boss
For both of them.]
Even then. Even then, Aly, no matter how hard it is to believe. We lose people.
[She thinks of Pralaya, that two-ended betrayal that had lost her an advisor, someone who had helped her when she needed it most.]
We hurt them, or they die because of something we did. There's no rewind button we can press, and we may not even get forgiveness, or to forgive.
But that's not the end of the story, the period at the end of the sentence.
[She puts a hand - slowly, ever so slowly - down onto Aly's arm.]
It's just not.
grabs tissues, HONKS LOUDLY INTO THEM
[Oh, how she so wished he was here to berate as she'd berated him before, as he'd berated her, anger born out of love and out of a connection that was now severed, a bond forever lost. She twists her wrist idly, reaching for spectral cords that are no longer there.]
Re: grabs tissues, HONKS LOUDLY INTO THEM
And we can talk about what-ifs forever, but that won't change anything.
[Nita's voice breaks on the word 'change.'
Is Aly getting a hug? Well, if she wants.
Nita will let Aly vent as much as she needs.]
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I can change it. No, I need...I need to be able to change it. I can, if I get back there. I'm sure of it. I just need to get him back home.
[Her voice breaks on the last word, and the tears come. He wouldn't want her to throw away the opportunity he'd given his life for, but damn this, damn it all, he's more important.]
CW: mention of events in Wizards Dilemma (aka death, cancer)
[The tone of the question is neutral, but Nita knows what she was like when her mom was diagnosed, what Dairine was like. They'd been willing to try anything to fix her, eliminate the cancerous cells. Half-wrought plans, focuses that were no easy space for beginners - even nearly giving up her wizardry to the Lone One Itself.]
That's what we do for friends, isn't it?
[Saying if you love something, to let it go is easy, when you aren't in the middle of it.]
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I have to bring him home. I just have to...the spirit. She'll know what to do. She can fix it. She's done it before. For him, and for me. If I take him back, they can't follow us there. She'll fix it. She has to.
[She rubs at the thin scar on her neck - the one that goes all the way around it. It's not a scar from a wound someone should have survived. Maybe she hadn't.]
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[Maybe talking, learning more about Aly's world, might help. Even if Nita can't exactly help build a plan.
She lightens up on the hug, catches sight of that motion for the scar, but doesn't let go.]
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[If Sensei had a name, he wasn't sharing it. No. Has a name. She refuses to accept that it's the end.]
Names are powerful things, see. You know someone's name, you can get them. I didn't use my real name here 'til I was sure things were...safe.
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Not exactly a surprise.
[She's met people, places, where it was unwise to share her name before, even shortened as it was.]
... Hell, back home, sometimes you don't even need a name, to control someone. Just detritus.
[Nita grimaces.]
Not a long story there, just unpleasant.
And holding out on sharing, with the whole name thing... that's just smart.
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And yeah. Unpleasant name-detritus stories...those I get, too.
['Keahi' is gone. That piece of her belongs to someone else now.]
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But, still, there were some thoughts that rose to the surface, in times like this:]
What's the one thing from here you'd want to share with him?
[However that could be arranged.]
Or with anyone you know back home, for that matter?
(no subject)
Hmm - thread wrap on this one too?
Think so!