ioduanlogs | Blood is Running Deep

Entry tags:

Blood is Running Deep

Characters: Valdis and closed with some open
Date: October
Location: Throughout Aifaran
Situation: Various
Warnings/Rating: In headers

After a somewhat traumatizing nightmare inflicted by the some aspect of the Dreaming, Valdis spent plenty of time looking over her shoulder. Much as she hated to admit it, her paranoia had increased and she still didn’t know how to deal with what she had seen or what she had almost done. She was lucky Miles had been nearby or she’d have made a mess of the sand. The rest of the month had been slow, though teasing Rutile from the shadows had been beyond entertaining, if unkind. Her meeting with Pepper had given her some direction, but she still had a long way to go.

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"Hm. That's not great," Miles said, half to himself. Being dead back home...well, when he'd thought that was his fate, he hadn't particularly enjoyed it. At least he wasn't, but Anton wasn't so lucky, it seemed. "So you think he might be one of the spirits that's popping in to say hi?"

It's logical enough for this place, and he shook his head a little in disbelief. Sure. 'Logical'.

"Not at his time, but someone he knew came from a time when he was dead," she clarified, "I wasn't thrilled to have discovered it."

Even harder when one realized that another friend had been the cause of Anton's death. Konryu had a tendency to do strange things.

"Is there any other explanation?"

Valdis didn't think he meant any harm, he never had, not to her.

"It's not happening to you, is it?"

Miles shook his head. "Knowing this place, not incredibly likely. You know how it likes to fuck with us; this could just be another kick in the gut."

Miles hadn't ever meant any harm to anyone. Except Trager. And Billy. And Blaire. And those guys who shot him...okay, he didn't mean harm to anyone who didn't deserve it.

"No," he said, "it's not, but that doesn't mean it won't. And I'm glad it hasn't. I wouldn't be too pleased to see certain people." Again: fear-pee.

A kick in the gut for sure, Anton's departure had been the third of a painful streak, and none of them had hurt in exactly the same way. Valdis sighed.

"It's less painful now," she commented, "But I wish the past would simply stay there."

She wished she could say the same for the future, but the Dreaming had already drug Amos into this, now it was drudging up the past too.

"And that we could just focus on the present and not...everything else."

"Yeah. You and me both," he muttered. His past staying where it belonged - in the past - would really improve his life. A lot.

"Unfortunately, this place really does like to meddle with time. Always has. But I mean, look at what happened to the crew of the Narrakra. If that isn't some temporal fuckery, I don't know what is."

"This place likes to meddle with everything," she countered, "Not just time."

What it had done to Devin, to Klaus, to Leo, to the Fool, none of it was fair or right. Yet there was nothing to be done on that.

"I have a plan for the Narrakra," she stepped past him, grabbing his jacket and pulling him with her, letting the door close. "But it requires delicacy and timing."

"No kidding." Keeliai, Aifaran, Konryu - all of it was the same plane, and all of it was a real bastard at the worst possible times.

"Whoop!" Miles yelped with surprise as she dragged him by the jacket. He considered making a joke about liking strong women but needing a safeword first, but for once, he realized it would be a bad idea and kept his mouth shut.

Instead: "Delicacy? That's not exactly my strong suit, you know that, right?"

Edited 2018-10-16 23:58 (UTC)

Valdis rolled her eyes, both amused and annoyed by his antics. Even if he hadn't said it out loud, the spike in his emotions gave the fact he had a joke in mind away. Luckily he was wise enough to keep it to himself.

"I'm not asking you to be delicate," she quipped, "What I need from you is discretion. I have a plan to...potentially draw out the dark side of the religious groups."

For once, Miles didn't crit-fail his WIS roll. Good for him! He's learning.

"Discretion. Okay. I can do that." And he actually can. He's curious to the point of killing the metaphorical cat - which had literally happened to him - but he guarded his own secrets just as fiercely as he sought out others'. See: the Walrider.

"Why am I not encouraged by those words?"

Valdis smiled a teasing and knowing smile as she settled on his couch, crossing one leg over the other.

"Probably because it involves me masquerading as a Harbinger of Death<" she replied, "Very few of us know I can shift my form. It could fail terribly of course, but if it doesn't, well, we could learn a few things."

"Not to be Debbie Downer, but what happens if it fails horribly? 'Cause I've had too much experience with horrible failure in my time." To put it mildly.

"So. You want to turn into a big black wolf and go around scaring people." That's the bare bones, he guesses. "Probably something a little more elaborate, but am I in the ballpark?"

Valdis shrugged, not particularly concerned, "Someone figures out I'm the giant wolf running around and the religious groups declare my actions as blasphemy. But it's not like I haven't been declared that before."

She smiled, "My very existence is blasphemous on my world, but I don't care about religion there either."

Valdis hummed a moment, clearly amused by the whole thing.

"And what better night to debut than when the dead are walking the streets?"

Miles snorts. "I'm the Jesus figure for an entire weird-ass religion, which I guess is sort of blasphemous, because I hate the whole thing and I'd really rather not be."

When she says the last thing, though, he pauses, and suddenly looks deep in thought. "What if I go with you? I can get a little...well. You saw." Terrifying, Miles. The word is 'terrifying'.

Valdis arched a brow, not thrilled with the idea of Miles coming along.

"The difference between me running around as a giant Hound and you walking the streets, is that my Hound form is still under my complete control. You...don't possess the same restraint."

She also couldn't find a way off the top of her head to add him into the narrative. Given more time, she might figure out something, but making it too complex heightened the risk of failure.

He frowned. Yeah, she had a point, but two 'demons' were better than one. Especially because he knew he looked scary when he was all Walrider-ed out.

"I'm okay when I haven't been drugged up to the gills with crazy juice and not out of my mind with fear," he said dryly. "I've even been getting all Zen on the daily to get better control. I've had this thing for a couple years now. I've had time to work on it."

"I don't have any rumors to spread aside from hounds of death and none of them involve someone like you, and you are much better suited to helping spread the rumors than stalking the streets during the Night Parade."

Which is why she had decided to tell him about her tentative plan. One appearance might be enough, but it was still risky. She'd been careful about her shifting, but the incident in the park sever months ago could easily come back to bite again.

"I just need someone who can tell stories well."

"I don't tell stories, I tell the truth," Miles pointed out. "But I guess I can tell people about the big black scary helldog. Let them draw their own conclusions." After all, that's what journalism is, in the end. Reporting facts and people deciding what to do from there. Even if this skirted a little close to 'lying' for his tastes. Lying by omission was still lying. Even though it was for the greater good, of a sort.

He frowned. "What if I film you just a little? That might help. It'd definitely make rumors spread faster. People see what they want to see."

"Not every story is false, Miles," Valdis pointed out, though she considered his suggestion. "If you do film, it need to be unclear, shaky, easy to almost dismiss. It needs to be clear enough to sew suspicion and rumor, but not enough to easily pick me out should someone glimpse me by accident."

The more she considered her plan, the riskier it seemed. She didn't know how many might connect the incident in the park to any video footage.

"Okay. I can do that. I'll put on my night vision and move quickly, Paul Greengrass style." He liked the guy's cinematography, but shakycam seemed like a good idea for this. "I can also stay far back, so when I zoom in it'll still be fuzzy."

He knew how to film properly, which meant that he knew how to film poorly.

Miles seemed oddly enthusiastic about this, but he had said he disliked cultists, and considering what little she knew, it made sense. Valdis wasn't fond of them either, though for less 'homeworld' reasons and more Konryu reasons.

"Sounds good to me," she replied, "You up for walking the streets with the ghosts?"

The Night Parade was the perfect setting for this ruse.

Miles had been screwed by cultists back at home and in Konryu, so he was extra angry about them. If it drew out the source of the horrifying ritual on board the Narrakra, they'd done their jobs.

"I've palled around with worse," he said, "and the living are worse than ghosts any day of the week."

"Only if the ghosts cannot affect the physical world," Valdis smirked, "Yet we have a plan, let us enact it in secret, and swiftly."

How they would distribute the information would have to come later. But hopefully it would work.

"I shall see then at the very least."

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Blood is Running Deep

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sadly he does not have sci-tech 2 otherwise i would have been all over this

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