⇨ 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]

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.

[npcarnival]

Her eyes narrow at Herbert, unimpressed.

"Because it's a question I don't have an answer to. This planet was untampered with until tonight, and now suddenly there's a gang of what I can only assume are aliens... aliens who were helping my enemies, no less."

Her gaze is momentarily suspicious and searching.

"I know you weren't the only ones. For whatever reason, you opened to the Void before any of my fans. In fact, you were the only ones to react to my spell as intended."

[fourthscribe]

It is curious that only those from the carnival were ensnared--Tanyuu had entertained for a few moments that they had been targeted specifically, but if CY-Ren hadn't known they were even here...curious.

"We are all from different worlds, but the way we arrived here is the same. We were in service to a powerful Fae, and the Star Guardian you fought happened to appeal to her for assistance."

[motivenotfound]

"Oh, were you hoping for fans? Sorry!" Mari chirps, but doesn't actually wait for an answer.

"It's fae magic either way. There's a fae carnival we're all signed onto, and we just happened to be touring the area. Guess your timing sucks!"

She's fully aware she's one of the biggest weirdos here, and she kind of enjoys that. It's even literal; inevitably, she's taller than anyone else in the room.

[bananaspeedrider]

"Also a lot of us started off as just human, if you really need to know about that part so bad..."

Yugo pauses in thought about that bit about the spell.

"But heck if I have any idea why your magic got us and only us."

[worldlyafflictions]

Shima could make the observation that everybody here is probably more intense than most and more likely to make better world-ending material. But that seems like a useful thing to do, and only theory besides.

So instead, he goes, "Hey, I'm totally a fan after today!"

Seriously, is Shima even distinguishable from your average concert-goer yet?

[scientificist]

"'Enemies'," Herbert chuckles, "it's just one girl." He steps a little bit closer, though he keeps himself protectively angled away. "Don't blame your mistake on us. Shouldn't we be doing something more, constructive than answering everything you happen not to understand?"

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus hangs back quietly, wanting to get the gauge of who's who and what's the plan. The plan itself is obvious, but there's so much in the details to trip all over... At least, they might trip each other up if they're not as acrobatic and adaptable as he is.

But Steven brings up one question - why can't they just work together - and CY-Ren brings up another - where are they all from. Which seem connected, because he remembers - the carnival. The others from the carnival.

"Hey! Anyway! We all need to work together... or, else, the others who didn't come along, are going to be a problem? Everybody's really stubborn about living. So..."

He glances at Steven, Carly, and a few of the others who seem eager to work together, instead of showing off how cool and aloof they are. (Admittedly very cool, to the point of cold.)

"I think, some of us should work to distract them! Unless," he specifically addresses CY-Ren, "is there anyway to get the others to understand?"

[tacosgay]

Taako, who had previously gone quiet to listen and see what everyone else here has to offer, speaks up again-- though, this time, it's not with a challenge, but a request.

"Yeah, uh... is there any way we could get just a second back home before we seal the deal here? J-just to... tie up loose ends, as it were."

To say goodbye. To see his sister at least somewhat-alive one last time.

[dirthena]

Lavellan spent most of this time hanging onto the edges and listening — there are a thousand questions she wants to ask, but most everyone seems to have the right of it. And while her new purpose is something she’s going to cling to now that she has it, sometimes it’s better to sit and learn. She’ll have a moment, later — and spends most of it using the double ended glaive her Spark became as something to lean on. Something about the spell, however, has her curious.

They had a warning about possible fae, after all. And she doesn’t understand fae magic like she’d like, but there’s no point in wishing for more time.

“You said we were the only ones to respond as planned. The magic that brought us to this world — could something similar have interfered with your magic?” After all, it wouldn’t have been the first time something didn’t go as planned because of magic.

[npcarnival]

CY-Ren listens to the information given by the others, mostly just nodding and silently taking it in. At Herbert's words, however, she moves forward - and unless Herbert runs away, he's going to end up with that violin bow placed gently at his neck. This challenge means that the other requests are momentarily going unheard.

"Big words, with so little to back them up," she says smoothly. "Would you like to try that again?"