⇨ A SONG IN THE SILENCE

[ringleaders]

Who: The Harbingers
When: Just after midnight, Day 13
Where: ????
What: The new Harbingers have an out of body experience.
Warnings: Ego death. Some generally upsetting content, most likely.

ONE WAY OUT↴ You don't fall unconscious so much as you find yourself completely slipping out of this reality, the meaning of everything you left behind becoming increasingly abstract and hard to hold on to. You're lost in a void, surrounded by whispers that fall just out of range of hearing, in the presence of something so vast that you feel crushed by its presence. On, in this case, lack of presence. Like they say: the abyss stares back. It isn't someone, it is an emptiness, and everything about you feels like it bleeds away in the face of it. A hole that has no bottom. Every attempt to pull yourself together makes this vertigo feel worse, until existence itself feels terrifying or reprehensible. How precisely this existential crisis manifests will depends on the individual, tailored to your own unfulfilled desires, disappointments, frustrations. You find yourself faced with all of the things about reality that fill you with despair and disgust, and while you can attempt to fight it with thoughts of the things you hold dear, it feels unrelenting. Eventually you will break under the weight of it. It's only then, when you find yourself desperate for any kind of escape, that you are finally given the opportunity. The void speaks to you without words, but instead with a simple understanding. It can give you what you need to take control of this despair, of this heartbreaking necessity. Of every lost soul in this world, you are the one that has been given the chance to be the one to end it, to take control in the universe's final days. You will be creation's judge and executioner - and having witnessed this evidence, you know what you must do. This can't go on. This can't be fixed. The only hope left is for the end, but it will be an end at your hand. For once, the power is yours. Only when you are willing to accept this gift will you awaken. You find yourself in your body again, your senses painfully acute, as if you've been reborn. Is this the first time you've truly lived? Every pain, every worry you had prior to this moment seems so small in comparison. The path ahead is clear and unburdened by complication. You are in a dark space, surrounding by the specters of creatures you can't quite make out, like things just barely forgotten. You find that you aren't alone, as others have awoken in the same space. In front of you, floating above your chest, you will find a black light, like a small inverted sun. You know it's a part of you, but that it wasn't like this before. Though fear and a distant sense of disquiet may linger, you can't bring yourself to distrust your new location, or the change in your Spark. You have reassurance, now. It will all be over soon.

Comments

[starseedling]

Unlike the others, Steven actually smiles at her when she appears. It makes sense now! It was her song. That's why he felt so weird when he heard it in the arena... he even got to bring Connie with him!

He stands up and comes over to her, looking eager to hear whatever she has to say. He has his own Spark with him, in the form of a seedling growing between his fingers.

"This is what you wanted to show us, right?" he asks, as if what he's talking about should be obvious.

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu looks over CY-Ren with an equal coolness, taking a closer consideration of her new-found ally. She doesn't intend to stand at the sidelines any longer, and as such she needs to be much more alert of those around her.

"It's just clarity of perspective. There's hardly anything 'new' about this."

[npcarnival]

CY-Ren casually nods at Tanyuu, as if indicating something of particular relevance.

"She's not wrong. All of you knew these things before I intervened... it was only a matter of allowing you to understand more fully. If you really have awoken, then I'm sure you already know what the plan amounts to."

She flips back the hair from her face.

"Everything else is just details."

[tacosgay]

"Here's a fun question: you're acting like we're all already planning to work together here. Wwwwhy?"

He draws the consonant out, something he uses for comedy usually; here, it's almost mocking. He tilts his head, an ear twitching up at the side of his head, and he levels an even, cool gaze at her.

"Some of us here don't really need a hand fixing this shit."

[npcarnival]

"That's easy," she says, without missing a beat. She steps forwards him, unflinching. "It's because I'm stronger than you."

She summons her own Spark from her chest, taking the form of a violin bow made of liquid blue light.

"I don't even know where you came from, and I can tell that already."

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu's eyes flicker between Taako and CY-Ren sharply, her hand drifting up to her chest. She could say something...but the information she could gain from the wizard's blunt challenge is much more valuable.

[fortuneglass]

Carly was about to say something...but Ok, Stronger works. Stronger works. "Ahahahaha....well, that's one reason, I guess..." Ahem.

She beams, her own spark still sitting quite pretty in her heart. If pretty was 'small, flaming, and dark' anyway. "It doesn't make any sense to not work together anyway..!" she scolds, shaking her head. "We're all after the same, and extremely important thing..! And it'll go much better if keep that in mind~"

Worlds ending is the Better. Of course. Anyway, excuse her as she blushes and grins and nods. "Ah-for what time we have though, it's good to meet you~! I'm looking forward to getting things wrapped up!~"

[atouts]

And with everyone else already covering the basics of what this is, why they're here, and what CY-Ren wanted to show them, Childermass will mostly just stand back and watch. He looks about as bored as he does normally, so no real big change there, though there is a little interest in whether or not a fight is about to break out.

So, not wholly unlike Tanyuu, he'd rather avoid it, but he also isn't about to step in.

[motivenotfound]

Well, this is more interesting than talking. Mari crosses her arms, leaning back a little to see what happens--if anything. She's getting the vibe it's either 'nothing' or 'Taako gets smoked.'

[tacosgay]

Taako tilts his head, looking at CY-Ren quietly; he's cocky, but he's not stupid, and he backs down with a shrug.

"If you say so. Hey, less work for Taako this way, anyway. So, what's the plan?"

[starseedling]

Steven looks like he was about to try to intervene, but when Taako backpedals he lets his hands drop, looking relieved. He thought this was supposed to be fun, you guys.

[worldlyafflictions]

"I also have a question! How could ya tell?"

[motivenotfound]

Pffffft. Wow. Over already?

Taako gets a side-eye from Mari, her wide smile thin and knowing.

[bananaspeedrider]

"Yeah what do you know?"

The answer to that additional question going along with Shima's could go in a few different directions.

[npcarnival]

"Good to establish that there's no money where your mouth is," CY-Ren says, more than a little snide. She clearly doesn't have much respect for idle threats or empty promises of rebellion. She's a little disappointed, even, that he didn't give her a reason to flex her powers in front of everyone.

She hasn't had an audience like this before.

"And, the answer for you," she looks at Shima, "is 'easily'. Your Sparks are clearly exposed to me, and every Spark is different, in both potential and in nature. Most of you show sufficient potential, but..."

She gives Shima a look over, curling her lip in a way that is a bit dismissive.

"Some could be considered a bit lacking."

[tacosgay]

Taako follows her gaze, and he half-laughs when his gaze lands on Shima; he doesn't know the guy at all, but being called out for being weak as hell in front of your entire team has got to suck.

"Weeeellllll, if we're going to be working together on this, then hi," he says, and he sweeps into a bow, his curtain of blond curls falling over his shoulders as he sinks down before the others. "I'm Taako, and, uh, this is my first time causing an apocalypse, so that's pretty cool."

He pauses as he straightens back up, clearly thinking.

"... well. Uh, on purpose, anyway."

[fortuneglass]

"Doing it on purpose just means you know what you're doing this time~ And you have ideas for how to do it, I think..~"

Why is Carly speaking from experience??? That's for her to know and. You guys to ask. If you care. "Something tells me that you've already got a really big idea in store though, if you've got us here!" she adds, nodding toward CY-Ren.

[motivenotfound]

"Oooooh. Ouch." Mari lets out a low whistle, commemorating the death of Shima's ego as Taako's is lowered into its grave.

No, she doesn't feel it necessary to contribute anything more substantial.

But it is interesting that CY-Ren can see their sparks and they can't. Interesting, interesting, interesting...

[worldlyafflictions]

Meanwhile, sulking to himself in the background, inspecting his Spark again, "Aw don't listen ta her, I think you'll be great..."

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu's eyes narrow--being able to see their Sparks...it could be a way of evaluating the manifestation that they aren't yet aware of, or some other magical sense she knows through longer experience. Allies or not, Tanyuu doubts that CY-Ren will be eager to share many of her secrets; she's made it clear already that she favors control through power rather than any incentive.

[starseedling]

"We're... we're supposed to do this together though, right?" Steven says, sounding a bit like he's grasping for a foothold. "You, or, uh... the Void chose us for a reason, didn't it?"

As eager as he is to take this chance to control his life, even now, he can't help but crave companionship. The immediate conflict is stressing him out a bit. Why can't they just do this together?

[bananaspeedrider]

"Wiping out existence is probably gonna take more than blasting everything into bits anyway."

Because breaking a single world into multiple dimensions is hard enough and not a feat under Zarc's accomplishments.

[npcarnival]

"I do have a plan, and it's one you'll be brief on soon," CY-Ren says. "However, before any of that, I have a more information question: where did you come from? I can tell all of you aren't native to this place. You've got something else in you."

She quirks a brow.

"And a lot of things going on outside of you, too." Y'all are a bunch of mutants.

[scientificist]

"Elsewhere," says Herbert. He's still standing off to the side, shoulders angled slightly away from the group, both hands at his chest now. "Wh-hy does it matter, if we're destroying everything anyway--surely individual places don't hold that much. Weight."

[tacosgay]

"Where I'm from technically doesn't exist anymore, so, uh... oops."

Though the words are spoken fairly lightly, there's a sharp undertone to them, a darkness that has been greatly enhanced and drawn out since his recent awakening there in the dark.