ioduanlogs | [EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

Characters: ALL
Date: January 15
Location: At the Dreaming Bridge and all over Aifaran!
Situation: A large influx of Dreamfolk arrive in time for one of the Lunar Festivals, and they're all invited!
Warnings/Rating: N/A

A surprising amount of Dreamfolk have arrived within a short time frame - a peculiarity remarked upon by a number of Aifaran's residents. It is unusual in that it coincides with a lunar festival, one which only happens every fifty or so years.

Newcomers will find the streets packed with all sorts of people, stalls of fried and sugared foods, carnivalesque games and rides, and all other manner of things to do. Merchants are very keen to get their wares out there, and the stipend given may just burn a hole in your pocket when you see what's for sale.

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"Perhaps."

Yet that wasn't even close to the point.

"I once said I preferred not to lie to you," she continued, not yet meeting his gaze, "I'm not going to change that now."

Valdis took a breath, then another. Steadying herself, steeling her mind and pushing away anything else she felt. Then she looked up, completely calm, her eyes not quite cold, and when she spoke, her tone was soft, unwavering.

"The next time I desire destruction," she began. "be assured it will be cold, calculated, and I won't give you another option."

Anton had saved her once, but she hadn't truly wanted to die. Her pain had simply been so immense she couldn't see how she could survive. She knew without a doubt that she was capable of the exact same atrocities that woman in Devin's world was. The difference being that she hoped it would never come to that.

Well, at least she was blunt about it. Devin studied her silently, assessing the contrast between her eyes and her tone. He lacked the benefit of empathy, but he was observant. She meant what she was saying, and it had a different flavor than the pact they had struck before. It had the flavor of a warning. That did not sit well.

If you won't give me another option, I'll just have to take it.

"Then I will do what I have to," Devin replied, truthful. He could still kill her if it came to that, even in this state. However, that did not preclude taking action before it reached that point, to drag her back from the brink kicking and screaming if need be. "Although I can say with some certainty that I will not be the only one who would not want you driven to that."

How heartless, came the soft hiss, Not even a moment of hesitation...Unfortunately for you, little angel, we won't allow such a thing. You cannot die until we are complete.

Valdis shuddered. It felt as if coils were tightening around her consciousness, tightly enough that drawing breath was difficult. How long had it taken for the Void to awake when she had first arrived in Keeliai? It seemed that the creature would never return to sleep. That hope had died when she woke up here.

She laughed, the sound breathless, "You say that as if you think I care."

Except she did, perhaps too much, and she was certain he knew that. She had been here a day, and everything was already going to hell.

Devin tilted his head slightly, silent again for a little while. Thrown back into turmoil, she'd said. Whether that meant having gone home or something else entirely didn't matter. It had already been obvious that they were both off-kilter.

For a fleeting moment, the concern was evident on his face. He could be angry and still care. He could want to embrace her in reassurance, and yet recoiled at how exposed that made him feel by the thought alone. A human instinct grappling with the atrophy and scars of a lifetime of distance.

"I don't have to think it; I know it," he returned. "But even if I did not, you were the one who told me that we do not have a choice in how others feel about us. People will care, no matter how cold and calculating you may be. They will remember. I will remember. Foreigners or Dreamfolk, whatever you call them, have a tendency to be annoying stubborn about these things."

His expression hardened into determination. "The next time you desire destruction, be assured that you will not have to contend only with me." The ferocity with which her friends would try to save her was, perhaps, a greater weapon than any sword Devin could bring to bear. "Do not do those people a disservice by pretending they won't."

How dare he throw her own logic back at her? True as it was, Valdis still didn't want to hear it. His concern, still mixed with anger and that ever present restraint, couldn't have been more evident if he voiced it aloud. It was on his face, for however short a moment, in his essence, in how he spoke. It was dangerous. He was dangerous.

The Void didn't loosen its grip, and a low, consistent hiss filled her head.

"There is no pretense." She knew they cared, she knew they would try. "But we don't even know how many of them are here, or if any of them are here."

Which was what the Void had been hoping for. A new start. A new opportunity. A place where those friends couldn't interfere. That realization was both a relief and a new fear.

The Void coiled more tightly, the hissing drowning out anything else she might have thought or felt.

***

The low hiss, soft at first, gained in intensity as the Void reached out. It was time to address this particular threat directly.

"I saw others from Keeliai at the Dreaming Bridge," he countered. "And like I said, annoyingly stubborn. More than a few of the people we know don't consider being in different realities an insurmountable barrier. Lack of pretense isn't much of one, either."

He'd be quite surprised if somehow he was the only one here who had befriended Valdis, and had more than a little certainty that there would be others. And in all likelihood, she would make new friends here whether she liked it or not. The Dreaming, after all, had a type.

***

Devin had tried to shake off the noise, but his mental defenses were not designed with this in mind.

I don't recall inviting you to speak with me, he snarled.

Others? Valdis again didn't know if that was a relief or not, but she couldn't exactly find the energy to decide. But if Pepper were here, or Jackie...she hadn't actually looked, hadn't bothered to check the room assignments. But if they were here, then she couldn't self destruct. It would hurt them and she couldn't bear that.

A reply escaped her, so she stood silent. They had been through Keeliai together, the Void wasn't stronger than all of them. Perhaps that was what it was afraid of.

***

We are rarely invited anywhere. The Void replied, though it didn't sound amused, Besides, you will want to hear what we have to say.

Well, at least he had given her something to think about.

There were slightly more pressing concerns at the moment. If she wasn't aware already, she ought to know: "Your hanger-on wants to have a chat with me for some reason."

***

I somehow doubt that, but you're going to tell me regardless of what I want, Devin shot back.

Already making mistakes, aren't you? The serpent hissed, not bothering to hide its displeasure.

***

Her eyes widened at Devin's words. The last thing she needed was the parasite to present itself so willingly. She wished she had thought to bring Revelations. The light of the sword seemed to help keep the Void at bay, or at least less willing to interfere. It has been stupid to leave it behind.

"It's..." Afraid, but she couldn't get the words out before the world went dark.

Devin cursed under his breath and closed the distance between them to catch Valdis before she hit the ground. He considered if he would need to carry her, and for now decided to settle her against the building since the ground was fairly clean.

She had a pulse, at least.

***

I think that would be you, but now that you've thrown a tantrum at the expense of your host, speak and then leave, Devin thought nastily.

Don't worry, all will be well if you listen.

The serpent hummed, suddenly amused with itself.

We know how to break you, it purred. You will break as anyone who foolishly cares for others will break. We might not be able to hurt you directly, but your presence will cause suffering. So stay away.

The Void withdrew more suddenly than it had come, retreating back into the depths.

***

Valdis took a sharp breath that turned into a string of swear words, but she didn't open her eyes yet, or move away from the wall.

"I am so done with that thing."

The Void didn't give Devin time to make a retort, but even if it had, he knew the creature wouldn't listen to him. The warning in fact served the opposite purpose: rather than drive him away, it told Devin that he was a threat of some kind. If nothing else, the Void had made a petulant move.

It had to say something that Devin was far less afraid of what the Void could do than what had already started to happen to him at home.

"I don't doubt that," he said, thankful that the snake had released Valdis quickly. He sat back on his heels. "Are you alright?"

She sighed, "If we are discounting the Void's ability to mess with my head, then I'm fine."

In fact, she felt better than she had before. The serpent had fallen oddly silent. Whatever it had done, it couldn't do such a thing often. There had to be some sort of risk for it to speak with Devin and effect her in such a way, or it would act out far more often. Whatever it felt about the vampire, it had obviously considered him enough of a problem to attempt to intervene.

"What did it say?"

Devin's mouth thinned. "That it knows how to break me, that my presence near you will only cause more suffering, so I should stay away from you," he recounted. Being broken wasn't much of a threat, Devin considered, seeing as he'd had that done to him already, not once but twice. The joke was on the Void if it thought that breaking Devin was a novelty.

A breath, and the corners of his mouth curled upwards. "But I don't take orders from anyone, least of all that parasite." He straightened and offered her a hand up.

Even if the Void didn't know how to break him, and the chances were slim that it didn't, she did. He had told her more than once that he didn't like people getting close to him, that it put them in danger. The Void could break him by hurting the people he cared about, or at least attempt to compel him to obey through that same method. But it wanted him to stay away from her. Valdis looked up at him as he stood, glancing at the outstretched hand for a second before taking it. She supposed it was a good thing that the Void couldn't break her through pain, it had tried that before, and it had failed. If it decided to make good on its threat, she hoped that Devin would have the same stubbornness.

"I guess we're both a mess right now," she said, using him for balance as she stood up, "I am sorry, for what I said."

Even if Devin and Valdis were somehow to end up on permanently bad terms, he wasn't of the mind to let the Void use her as a tool. Her life was still precious, and the Void was still an enemy.

"I know you are," he sighed, shoving his hands back into his pockets and looking away once she was upright. "But I'm going to need a little time to get over it. It's not about you so much as... everything."

Messes indeed.

They both seemed to have gone backwards in certain ways, but Valdis believed that they would probably have far more time here than they desired. At least that meant he might find it in him to forgive her. She sighed.

"Everything," she repeated, "That's quite a few things to get over...So I guess I'll leave you to it."

Besides, she had a splitting headache, so it might do her some good to sleep.

He would forgive her, eventually. He knew he could, even if some part of him said that he shouldn't, or that it should remain as ammunition to use against her. Hesitation held his tongue then, gaze flicking to her and away again. Beneath the maelstrom of anger and other shades of upset was a tiny sliver of fear. He was not ready to tell her why it was there, or what 'everything' meant.

"I don't know how to explain it to you yet," he said, the last word given haltingly. Would he ever be able to adequately explain? They would have to wade into perilous territory. "But someday I may be able to try."

"You don't have to explain it," Valdis replied, sensing each and every emotion, but even then she didn't miss the word 'yet'. It held a little more significance coming from him than it might someone else. "But if you ever feel you need to, I am willing to listen."

And she'd at least try to not play devil's advocate.

Maybe he didn't owe her an explanation. It still seemed pertinent, somehow. An enormous amount had changed in five months.

Devin nodded. Her readiness not to pry was unexpected, but he'd take it. "Alright." He sighed. "I suppose I'll see you later, regardless."

Unless the Dreaming decided to be fickle.

"I suppose you will," she said, choosing to back away a few steps before turning and heading back to the festivities. She'd make a beeline back to her room and hope her annoying roommates were gone so she could get some sleep.

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[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

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