milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

amascut,
lucas

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She had paddled down the River Lum several times, and she certainly does not remember this stretch of river. Familiar landmarks and bends in the channel gave way to unfamiliar terrain a while ago. But you know what they say about curiosity and ~~cats~~.

A redheaded teenager paddles her canoe down one of the deeper streams that runs through the forest and spills out into the lake, and it is while floating in the lake that she realizes where she is. "Well well well, that is a novel way of getting here." It has been a while since she's been here, and last time she was here, she was an adult. Last time she showed up as a teenager was... back when that de-aging spell got loose... right? She introduced herself as Sarah and not Keli. But then, her hair was blonder. That might lead to odd looks, but Adult Sarah would have had to explain it anyway, eventually.

While she is remembering the details of her cover, she paddles over to shore and makes her way to the tavern. The buildings are pretty much the same as she remembers when Adult!Sarah last visited: forge, stables, greenhouse, foundation for a building... huh, her teenaged self wouldn't remember that. Now might be a good time to ask.

Catch her outside or at the bar.

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[ooc: The church isn't completed and decorated yet, it's really just foundations...]

[OOC: Ah! That is what I get for not reading the threads close enough. Thanks!]

Edited 2014-05-17 01:55 (UTC)

There's a more teenage teenager out by the lake as well. He's in perhaps his rarest of moods: angry.

It's not directed at anyone here, and he's painfully aware of it. He's resistant to let himself completely feel it. The Dark Dragon urges him to feel it fully, to experience these parts of humanity that have long been suppressed in him. Anger is a natural part of grieving, a part of accepting what happened.

But on the outside, Lucas is looking out at the lake and struggling between keeping or throwing away something in his hand.

He gets distracted by the red hair, enough to step closer just to see. It's never who he wishes it is, but that won't keep him from checking.

A disturbance. Just as her brother is able to feel her presence and influence in the minds of others, she can also feel when two wills are sharing a body. If she had not had relearned restraint all those centuries ago, then Lucas and The Dark Dragon would have found a suitable outlet for anger.

Maybe they still will.

Still, she is not that restrained. She is supposed to be young and possibly brash in this guise, anyhow, right. She turns around quickly to confront and defend herself from whoever is spying on her.

It could be someone possessed by a vicious, foul, murderous kitten after all.

It does well to startle Lucas into something more subdued. He's never exactly been one spoiling for a fight, and even now part of his ire is that the object of it isn't present.

And hasn't been for years, which he's still trying to admit to himself.

The Dark Dragon, meanwhile, has the restraint that comes with ages of sleep.

"Ah!" tumbles out of Lucas's mouth before he falls back on old defenses and old ways. "I'm sorry."

Part of her is disappointed that the other party immediately fell into apologetics. Still, she eases up a bit after scanning the area. Only a bit, though. There may be no physical confrontation, but there might be a mental one.

It has been a while since she has hunted down a psychic! How exciting! But, would she get away with it here? No, not likely, not for long.

"Hello?" It is a greeting, a question, and a suggestion all bundled into one. "This is Milliways, right?"

Edited 2014-05-17 05:33 (UTC)

"Yeah, yeah, it's Milliways," Lucas answers. "Hi. And sorry again."

He means what he says, but he doesn't know if his apology is completely for her.

"Are y'new? Or have we just not met yet?"

The Dark Dragon, though tempted to speak, refrains for now on the rules he and Lucas have set to make the boy's life easier while the end of the universe is his only home.

"I have been here before, but it has been half a year. I wasn't expecting to come here by boat either," she answers. "I don't know how much time has passed here, but these foundation stones are new to me."

She doesn't know what card to play yet to lure the second mind out into a vulnerable position. Does she let it know that there is a hungry predator read to pounce? Pretend to be a wounded animal? Or continue playing dumb?

"Hi, I am Sarah," she says, relaxing into a more friendly posture.

"Yeah, I dunno what's going on with that," Lucas says, shrugging. "Guess I'll find out when whoever it is is done with it."

He was going to do something with his hand in greeting but sees the badge is still sitting there. He closes his fingers around it again and lets the hand drop to his side.

"I'm Lucas."

There's usually a pleased to meet you after this, but the Dark Dragon reminds Lucas that he needn't feign a chipper mood.

"So, Lucas, what were you doing here before I interrupted you?" This is nowhere near the truth, but it might cause an interesting reaction.

He notices that it's worded a little funny, but doesn't think too much on it.

"I was...." he starts before sighing hard and squeezing the badge again. "I was trying to throw this stupid badge away."

So, thats what in his hand. "What is stopping you?" she asks.

Lucas holds it up to look closer. What is stopping him?

"There's too much."

Though not too much to keep him from tossing it to the ground for the moment.

Well, baby steps, Lucas, baby steps.

With a smirk she holds out a hand, palm upward, and a bright hot flame appears.

"If it burns, I can set it on fire."

That way you won't have to throw it away. Say yes. DO IT.

A nudge from someone or something that very obviously isn't the Dark Dragon. Something that feels hungry.

It is his choice, the Dark Dragon finally answers back. Burning it would probably be right, but I can't go against our mutual will.

Lucas, for his part, doesn't seem to be bothered by the fire. Not as much as he might be in any other mood. If anything, her attitude and what nudges remind him a bit of Kumatora.

Though now he wonders, "Can it burn? It reflects lightnin'. If lightnin' ain't enough...."

And he ends up trailing off at all the other things that ain't enough. That badge was a poor stand-in, a phantom of what was wanted and needed.

"I didn't want it like this," he says.

Amascut's voice quickly retreats, but not before taking a nip at the Dark Dragon.

Sarah, on the other hand, continues to play dumb. "What was that?" she demands, while taking up a defensive posture again. This time both hands hold bright fireballs.

Her eyes move between the badge and Lucas repeatedly to make sure neither makes any sudden moves. What reflects lightning? Something that might be useful, thats what maybe she won't insist on burning it.

Whatever that other presence in Lucas' mind is, it is very possible that it is yummy.

Cheeky, the Dark Dragon replies.

"I didn't want a stupid badge instead of my dad," Lucas answers, rile built to boiling and facing the badge instead of Sarah. "I didn't want a stupid badge he couldn't even give me in person after leavin' me alone for three years! I didn't want that badge to kill Claus! And I didn't want it to come with me after the world got ripped apart!"

He turns back to her, trembling slightly.

"Destroy it. Please."

She hesitates, because part of her want to keep the badge for herself to investigate it further.

But she did offer to destroy it, and he did accept her aid. She can't say no to something like that.

The light from the fireballs shift as she adjust the spell incase the badge does reflect them and throws them at the badge.

Mmwwrrrrrr.... complains the voice from Sarah's head.

The badge could likely withstand normal fireballs, even if it doesn't reflect them. However, since this is destruction with intent, the metal badge bends to the heat.

Lucas falls to his knees and puts his arms around himself, but he doesn't cry out or look away.

Sarah drops to her knees too, for the empathy points but also to keep a close eye on the badge as it turns into slag.

"Is that -- better?" she asks.

For a moment he forgot she was there at all. When he can collect his thoughts again, he goes, "I dunno. I guess it is better."

Because relief with guilt is still relief.

Sometimes things need to be destroyed, the Dark Dragon goes to assure Lucas.

Does she agree? The people here tend to have an unhealthy obsession with life; it might be unwise.

"It's not good to hold onto things forever," she hedges.

Did this boy just imply he survived the end of a world? Hmm.

And even worse to hold on to things that bring ill thoughts, the Dark Dragon adds.

Lucas loosens a little, his hands resting in front of him and breathing a bit easier.

"Maybe I'm holdin' on too much," he tells them.

"Did you say that your world got ripped apart?" she asks. "If you are holding on to an entire world, that would be too much."

"Sorry if that sounds callous."

We are the ones who destroyed it. The world was already in its death throes, but it's a heavy weight for a human heart. Fortunately, Lucas has agreed to share his heart with me.

But Lucas does nod at Sarah's words. "It- if anything, I sure can't hold on to all of it at once. But I'm the only one left. If I don't, no one will."

Maybe it's better that way, the Dark Dragon suggests.

Every time the Dark Dragon speaks, she is tempted to spring on both Lucas and the Dragon and gobble them both up. Or at least try. But then she wouldn't learn, "How did you do it?"

Not why, how.

Burned it piece by piece, turned the fire of the world inside out on itself. That is what happened when I woke up, I the Destroyer and the Creator.

The Dark Dragon punctuates this with a snort.

"I woke him up," Lucas adds. "Claus an' me. We pulled the Needles that were keepin' him asleep."

She tilts her head at the Dark Dragon's answer.

Time. Wake them. She stifles a smile that was forming as she realized something - no, remembered something about her own world. And many others beside it.

She puts on a more serious face. This time, she can't avoid why. "Is there some reason why this Creator and Destroyer needed to be woken up?"

And some reason why you are being protective of the boy? the voice from Sarah's head blurts out. Sarah covers her mouth in surprise.

Few know that Amascut's troubles started with an encounter with such a creator and destroyer of world. Even less know that it happened because her brother had convinced her to come with him to seek aid in the war against one of that elder god's toys. She should be one of the young gods who best knows her place when speaking to an elder. Less than a toy, more than a lowly ant. Unfortunately for her world, the experience left her unhinged. The fact that her brother abandoned her and (unknowingly) brought even more of the Elder God's toys into the world didn't help either.

Amascut made a poor substitute for the toys that ran away.

Lucas looks back to what remains of the badge. "We didn't know it was needed, but Claus was bein' controlled to pull Needles. We were the only two who could. So I was asked to pull them so whoever was controllin' Claus wouldn't get th'...."

He's been sort of aware that two conversations have been going on, having heard the Dark Dragon's end of them when not being directly spoken to mentally. But now he's fully cottoned on to it.

"The Dark Dragon's power," he finishes.

The Dark Dragon takes up the conversation. Lucas and I are the same being physically. Pulling my Needles has passed his heart to me, and I will fulfill the desire of that heart in the new world we will build.

"So, you, Lucas, are holding onto your memories of the the old world because you want to recreate the old world as it was, and you," she pauses. "What do I call you? You saw flaws in the old world, ones you aren't willing to recreate? You want to create something new." There is something accusatory in her tone.

She disagrees with both options.

But.

"Well, I can see why it would be so hard to let go of things."

She might be trying to drive a wedge between them. Certainly it doesn't seem Lucas' other is willing to act until they come to an agreement.

She is troubled, though. If, eventually, she achieves her goals, she might have to face the same dilemma. If she survives through it - she doesn't plan to.

Edited 2014-05-18 04:24 (UTC)

"Not exactly as it was," Lucas answers. "I already knew from comin' to Milliways that there were problems with the old world. People understand things here that people there didn't."

Most called me the Dark Dragon, but some here simply say Dragon; both are acceptable, the Dark Dragon says. And new is inevitable, no matter how much it might resemble the old. We, however, are making the physical world. The free will of humans will crop up as it always does. It might bring the same corruption that moved me to part from them and sleep under the earth. It might even cause another apocalypse like the one that happened before Lucas and Claus were born. Regardless, whatever Lucas may desire for himself after we create the new world, it will be realized.

"It isn't their fault! It isn't free will! The corruption is always there, and you will just keep re-"

Sarah closes her eyes and grimaces as if she is trying to keep the words in. She covers her face with her for arms, hands balled up into fists.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Maybe she can convince them that her outbursts are due to the factfalsehood that she, too, possesses two wills.

You don't have to hold back your thoughts, the Dark Dragon says.

"Is he scarin' you?" Lucas asks. "He won't hurt you, and neither will I."

Another outburst escapes, "Scared?! I am not scared of you!"

She opens her eyes. "I - sometimes people get scared by what I say. I started getting real good at magic even though I never really studied it, just from books me and my sister were able to steal. And then I started doing things that even scared my sister. And now my hair is turning red! I used to be a blonde!"

If Lucas and the Dark Dragon hadn't noticed it before, she is allowing them to notice it now; her irises are red too.

It certainly makes Lucas conscious of his own blond hair. And what she says is so familiar in some respects.

Is she doing that on purpose? No, why would she?

But now he has to do something before succumbing to the threat of madness himself. He's still present enough to remember what he learned from Sasha.

So he says, "Red is the color of strength."

For a while she is silent.

Finally, she says, "I did split an unbreakable shield in half. At least it was supposed to be unbreakable." She split the Phoenix gang in two the same night as well.

"Shoot, can't get much stronger'n that."

He finally stands up again and brushes off his knees.

"Man, I'm worn out."

Exercising something that hardly gets used is often exhausting.

She looks up at him and lets out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, that is true. I guess I am getting stronger. That is good, at least."

She gets up and dusts off too. "Do you want to go inside and get something to eat?"

[ooc: time to fade?]

"Yeah," he answers with a nod. "I think I could use some food."

But he doesn't forget to say, "Thank you."

[ooc: Sounds good to me.]

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