[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Svvasvb.png[/img][/center] [hider=muSarmy] Toun recalls the memory where he trips balls during phantasmagoria, comes up with a faceless dance waifu, and makes the world's first and greatest flash-mob with his slave hain. Nothing too important. [b]Might Summary:[/b] [i]Before:[/i] Toun - L4 - 6 MP - 2 FP - 3C/3D -0 MP to get high on Illunibar's music [i]After:[/i] Like, the name's Toun, man - Licks of chocolate spoon 4 - 6 Mousse Packets - 2 Fresh Pastries - 3 Crab cakes / 3 Danishes [/hider] The time it would take to bring Majus and Minus to confront Violence was something of a lull in Toun's schedule. He flexed his recently working fingers in front of him, trying to distract himself while idle. He hated being idle. It forced memories forward. As much as he preferred to block them out, they would burst up like gas from an underwater volcano and leave an unpleasant smell. One memory, in particular, was unpleasant, not because it held regret, but because Toun found it distracting. He would catch himself boiling through his memories to find it, for it was the one instance where the result was different. It was more recent than most memories, as well. Toun's fingers stopped moving as the memory came forth again. He remembered the music first. All that was attached to that melody sent a looseness down his shoulders. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYouJLSNPnU&t=5]At the beginning, it was ever so subtle.[/url] He was seated, seated on his wheel. Eye closed and deep in thought. The notes that wavered forth might have been the wind for all he noticed. The way that the zephyrs danced across the odd acoustics of his fortress tended to play tricks. It was not noticed either, the way that the winds seemed to repeat themselves, growing in volume as they approached. It was not a malign presence, merely stirring and weaving sensations here and there. It was music, he knew in retrospect, unlocking faculties that had been starved by silence. The sensations had no meaning to Toun at first, but his distracted state had brought unwitting thoughts and unvetted orders to his servants. The slave hain opened their eyes and found themselves compelled to walk to the expansive, empty courtyard. Their scraps of independence had been marvelling at the sight that Toun did not see as the music wended its way through the fortress grounds. The first change that had been apparent was the sky above Cornerstone. The heavens were painted in gradients of pink, blue, purple, and grey. The blank surfaces of Cornerstone's floor only reflected and amplified the colours in a pastel that caused the slave hain a strange sense of relaxation. Or perhaps it was Toun, still giving thoughts and orders. [i]Unconsciously, Toun's mind conceived an image to put to the sounds. It was a featureless dancer in a large, wispy white dress, leaping and floating in time with the wind. She was distant, but each leap and twirl of the music brought her a step closer. Toun did not open his eye, hypnotised by the movements.[/i] The slave hain found themselves driven into a formation, but their bliss was interrupted by its foreign nature. This was not the rank and file that Toun often demanded. Unusual. Their stunted consciousness recognised a spiralling pattern. The image of the dancer found its way into their minds as well, confusing as it was. [i]For all the strangeness, Toun felt no confusion himself. The music had layered upon itself with winding streams and tones that made him tingle. The dancer was close now. Toun reached out for her hand. She spun away. When Toun stepped to follow, the dancer continued to dodge around him in step with the music. [/i] The slave hain did not know what they were doing until the movement brought an excitement to their hearts. As one, they were moving with leaps and twirls. The spiralling formation had them jump through the gaps between each other's positions, nearly colliding, but never quite touching. It was so foreign. The movements were graceful but were doing nothing. Normally their orders were purely pragmatic. The only grace they experienced were kaolokinetic forms. The blatant waste of energy in this jumping around began to form an anticipation of punishment. [i]With his mind still lost in the movements of the dancer, Toun stepped after her, each time being out of reach and each time out of position. He did not understand. He was moving with the right trajectory to reach her. His steps could close any distance. Yet there she wasn't, every time. Toun tried adjusting his timing, trying to head her off before she could dodge away. She evaded him. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]What must I do?[/b][/color] Toun nearly cried out to the dancer.[/i] The dancing never seemed to stop for the slave hain. Toun was giving them the energy to go on. As time passed, the vigour of their dance shook out their previous worries until their expected punishment faded away. They gave way to primal emotions brought by the endless dance. They were grinning and chuckling to one another. Though their minds were servile and simple, this dodging and weaving and stepping and twirling and leaping and dodging and bobbing and thrashing and weaving and moving...it was so much [i]fun![/i] [i]The sheer joy and excitement around Toun were completely unknown to him through the distracting puzzle in his mind's eye. He moved as much as he could in every different way to reach the dancer. She continued to evade. In a rush of realisation, Toun stood still. He found his mind, not sending, but receiving. No messages of gods, no prayers of monsters. Just leaping, dodging, thrashing, weaving, laughter, fun. He was transfixed, utterly confounded by the power of the thoughts. And yet, he felt connected to them at a deeper level. He was unsure how to react but he saw something in the thoughts that would solve his little puzzle. It was not intuitive, not direct, not efficient or logical.[/i] The slave hain converged as they continued to dance through the night. Their spiral formation was making its way to the centre, where Toun sat. They found their excitement increase as the formation contracted to make their near-misses closer with each pass. At this point, their simple minds were not insightful enough to ask why this was happening. They simply continued to dance in the daze of colour. [i]Toun's solution had begun to evade him just like the dancer. It was because he was thinking about it too much. That was why it was so counter-intuitive -- the less he thought, the closer he got. The dancer weaved by once more as if waiting for Toun to act. Toun quietened his calculations and his temper. Every other thought flowed out with an exhale from his non-existent mouth. And then, he reached and caught her hand. The first thing Toun felt was a rush as the dancer pulled him into a whizzing spiral. He nad no control over where he moved, but he didn't mind. He was with the dancer, spiralling through his empty mind with no perceived end. That was all that mattered. All the joy and the excitement that he felt in his mind resonated in a feedback loop, casting itself out to all listening at twice the volume.[/i] Out in the courtyard, Toun's servants were now hand-in-hand as they leapt and twirled and dodged and thrashed and weaved. Their minds were flooded with pure joy, now amplified with Toun's empathy. Toun sent it back and forth in rapturous waves with the music until they were all lost in it. They were all in touch with the happiness of one another in that moment, beyond the ken of any other mortals. [i]Toun's dance with this figment in his hands was beyond his own reasoning as well. Regardless, he revelled in this gap in his purpose for all the hours it lasted. They danced in Toun's mind as if they were never to separate. Never did they exchange words or expressions. But the music did fade. And with it, the joy did diminish.[/i] Toun began to stir. He opened his eye to greet the sun. It was yellow and harsh, nothing like the joy of his previous thoughts. He saw the slave hain gathered around him, holding the hands of one-another in an inefficient formation. Within the next moments, awareness of all that had happened caught up with Toun. The slave hain had slowed to a stop. They all looked at Toun in the centre of their formation with uncertainty. One fell to one knee, letting go of his neighbours. Another collapsed completely. Exhaustion overtook them one at a time, even as they tried to remain standing for their master's instructions. Toun looked slowly to his right as the hain fell to the floor with dull clinkings. Then, his head shakily panned to the left as he blinked and tried to gather his thoughts. More hain fell, some fainting, some simply trying to dull their aching limbs. Toun was speechless. Once all of the hain had fallen, Toun blinked again and stood up from his wheel. Rather than rage and shout at this lapse in his duties, he was surprisingly calm. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"We have become...distracted,"[/b][/color] he intoned with an unsure waver in his voice. He swept his right hand out and lifted the tiles around him to transport all the slave hain back to their shelters on the wall. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"Rest. We continue tomorrow."[/b][/color] As conflicted as he was about his experience, it had left odd residue in Toun's thoughts. As he mildly recognised the end of the memory, he began to flex his fingers again, waiting for Majus and Minus to finish their journey. He hated the coincidence of the calligraphy used to create them happening after phantasmagoria. Those powerful symbols were not recalled by chance, in all truth. He also hated that he kept going back to that memory, as if there was something beyond Fate and beyond improving the world in that little, inconsequential dance. It served no purpose. He truly hated being idle. Toun looked through the eyes of Majus to check their progress. Upon mental command, Majus' head turned from the rushing ocean below to Minus flying beside it. Minus looked back blankly with a certain sheet of billowing, wispy white fabric crackling furiously in the wind from her shoulders. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]Why did I give Minus that cape, anyway?[/i][/b][/color]