[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[Jensoman]

Jenso glanced at Shaidra as she circled her, with no signs of hostility in his stance. As he looked at her, he tried to spot her tattoo. He didn't make it seem obvious, though. It was possible that it was hidden beneath the dark cloth, after all. "Um, this is your dimension, right? Can I ask you why you made this?" Jenso asked her with a kind tone. "I grew up and lived in this town, so it's very dear to me..." He added. Shaidra's behaviour seemed odd, but it didn't really bother Jenso.

[tex]

"Bring me here," She said quietly, stopping in place, "A candle is starting to burn. I'll kill it for him." She looked around, and the back at Jenso. "Little flames... Stomp" Shaidra patted the side of her fist into the palm of the opposite hand and made a small swooshing noise with her mouth. "It's so very fun to play with a person's understanding of reality! You should try it, Shaidra!" Shaidra paused and looked at the ground for a moment, before dropping back down onto all fours, and sitting in place.

[Jensoman]

Jenso blinked as Shaidra spoke. He tried to make sense of it. It seemed clear that she was repeating things that she'd heard. 'The first line seems to be Yzeira, the second...Zelriane? The third seems to be Rajaka, and the fourth...Ada?' He thought, unsure if he'd connected the dots correctly. Shaidra wanted to play, according to Nexus, so Jenso decided to act on that. "Shaidra...what do you want to do?" He asked.

[tex]

Shaidra looked around the dimension, rocking in place quietly. A few moments later, she answered Jenso's question.

"Stay in... Tower."

[Jensoman]

Jenso nodded in response to Shaidra, with a smile on his face. "So you feel happy in the Tower, huh? That's good...But doesn't that get boring sometimes? Do you get to play with people?" He asked. "I'm willing to do something with you, if you want!" He stated in a kind tone.

[tex]

Shaidra began to frown profusely through the fabric of her mask. "Stop smiling," She said sternly, "The multiverse is a dark, unforgiving, shell of a reality. Stop smiling. I won't allow you to pretend that any of this is real for you. Stop smiling. I won't have you end up like the rest of those failures. Stop smiling. Know that you are no better or worse than the life we stomp out. Stop smiling." Shaidra dug into the ground with her hands and began to walk around Jenso, not looking at him directly. "That idiot thinks this is a game, he thinks us to be his own version of reasonable. His mind is weak, and his resolve is weaker. Indulge him, indulge his stupidity, Shaidra. Let him think that this is all a game. Let him weep and moan over the stories that Nexus may tell, let him try to befriend you all he wants. When his universe is gone, then he'll realize..." Shaidra stopped and froze in place.

[Jensoman]

Jenso frowned and sighed. "I guess this really is to waste my time, huh?" Jenso muttered. He clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he intended to lash out at Shaidra. But he realised it, soon enough. He did not feel this rage due to Shaidra, but to the words she'd heard and repeated. Yzeira's words, most likely. Or Zelriane's. Not like it mattered now. Even if he attacked Shaidra, there was no guarantee that she'd let him out. "Listen, Shaidra...You don't need to follow anyone's orders. You can smile...you can do whatever you want." He stated, as he began to calm down. "But I need to get out of here, and you're the only one who can let me out. Please, I don't have any more time to waste." He stated.

[tex]

Shaidra's eyes drooped. She seemed lucid for the briefest of moments, looking at Jenso with disdain. And then, she faded into smoke, leaving Jenso alone to explore his new home. The only difference now, is that we was utterly alone.

---

~ End Of Chapter 186 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 187 ~

_{Nostalgia, Part Two: Lost In Knowledge And Memories}

Bruce would quickly come to realise that he was trapped. As soon as he entered the dimension, the portal behind him closed. He was now inside of an empty cathedral, or a church. The pews were empty, and lined up one after the other in lines on either side of the room. At the podium, where a priest might stand, Shaidra was glaring at something that lay in front of her.

[Brucenorris007]

If Bruce was at all surprised by the turn of events, he gave no sign of it. He glanced about the church once, taking in the finer details, of which there seemed to be quite a few for how empty the place was.

He walked forward at an almost leisurely pace past the lines of pews, his footsteps echoing back at him with the full volume of reverent silence.
'She's no fun,' Sakki pouted. 'Nap time.'

Even that brief line of thought struck him as too loud and blunt for this place. Still, for all that he could appreciate the atmosphere, the universe was sort of on crunch time. Shaidra clearly knew he was there, the sound in the room made stealth nearly impossible.

"Something troubling you, Shaidra?" Bruce asked, speaking slowly and with earnest interest. He reserved what little wit he thought he had for those he found more distasteful. "Or do you have something to show me?"

[tex]

Shaidra looked up briefly, and then back down at the podium that she could barely reach with her meager stature. She held up a small square of paper, a photograph from the looks of it, with ribbed edges and a blood stain that soaked through from one side to the other. Her eyes scanned every inch, curiously, like she'd been questioning its origins.

"You won't return to your full splendour, if you keep acting like a child," She said, dignified and stern, "Don't look so sour, darling! You didn't mean to tear off his arm!" Shaidra dropped the photo, letting it flutter down to the aisle the Bruce traversed. It was a photo of him, and a woman, someone very dear to him from the looks of it. The black clothed creature grabbed her head and rustled it back and fourth a couple times, swaying her long ponytail from side to side before picking up another photograph. "That's pretty gnarly... Unsightly... Good one, shrimp... Nhhg.."

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce paused his advances to let the photograph settle at his feet. He knelt briefly to pick it up by one corner, careful with the image, afraid the blood might damage the integrity of the photo.

Were the image not so tame, Bruce might have entertained the idea that this was not actually one of Shaidra's dimensions but one of his nightmares. As it was, he stepped forward again, slower than before, distracted by the picture.

"My origin story," he said, speaking less with measured planning now and nearer stream-of-consciousness. "How long have you been trying to piece yours together?"

[tex]

Shaidra eyed the next photo and then looked at Bruce. "There's so very much in this universe we don't understand," she whispered, "Just imagine it all... I wonder what kind of knowledge lies beyond it? I wonder..." She dropped the second photograph, and just as the first, it fluttered towards Bruce. This one was clean. The boy he'd let die, smiling within his sister's loving embrace. Shaidra began to shamble down the line of steps the led up to the podium, from one edge of the church to the other, stopping before she reached the right line of pews. "I've done it. I want it all. You could both be there with me." Her eyes fixed themselves on Bruce. A flicker of light tried to escape the darkness, but then there was nothing, once again.

"Your search for meaning is futile... Just take all that power and do what you want with it... Have a little fun, sweetheart!.. I don't know what you are..." She paused and looked down at her hands. "You are mine, until you are your own. Do not follow those wretched ideas. Stop smiling."

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce didn't wait for the second photograph, instead catching it on it's way to the floor. Just seeing the boy's face again, without the contortions of pain, tugged the corners of Bruce's mouth upwards.

Bruce forced his eyes closed. It was too easy to tune out what Shaidra said with their likenesses in hand.

He realized that, random or not, nothing that came out of her mouth was an original thought. The line about what she wanted, the knowledge of every dimension, reminded him too much of Yzeira. Her voice changed just a little, gaining the slightest bit of life, before she returned to being a soundboard.

He looked at her, finally, after she'd moved to the pews and regarded her hands.

"Even if it is pointless, there's nothing inherently wrong with futility," Bruce said. "Even if your search is futile, to do so is to make your own meaning. Whether or not you find it shouldn't stop you. I've never really liked the meaning of giving up. And Shaidra-"

Bruce didn't fight the upturn of his lips when he looked at the photograph again, tracing the edge of it with his thumb.

"The best time to smile is when someone tells you to stop."

[tex]

Shaidra glared at him. "They'll cling to those emotions like lost little children until the very end," She barked, becoming more vicious in her speech, "They'll claw and scratch at an inevitable wave of death and turmoil without looking back, just like the rest. They'll beckon for your kindness and understanding, again and again and again. They'll tell you to smile. But you won't, not until you understand why." Her mouth curved upwards, into a subtle smile that was barely visible through her mask. "Until you understand, you will be filled with rage, confusion, hysteria, and turmoil with each happy thought. And you'll lash out at any who guide you towards the despicably poetic. People like those have made an art form of it, they've perfected the practice of ignorance and share it without pause." Shaidra's hands coated themselves in a black mist that took the shape of claws, three-pronged and shimmering, despite their smokey form. "Nhgga... Throats are like little hoses, shrimp... A deathly blow will end it fast..." The darkened woman back to step around the pews, towards Bruce, with her back arched. She fell onto all fours, and crawled around the edge of the bench, digging into the floor with her claws. The wood turned black like soot and rotted away frightfully fast as she crept towards Bruce. Whatever attempts he'd made to get through to her had backfired, and she was on the prowl.

[Brucenorris007]

Sakki twitched in sleep.

Bruce chuckled, never turning to face Shaidra despite the sensation of malicious intent approaching.

"I'm hardly lost, I'm a wanderer." Bruce said, still fondly cradling the photographs in his hand.

Sakki sniffed the air, lips coiling back into a snarl.

"Careful what you say about throats. I might get excited." Bruce let Sakki slip in a whisper-quiet rasp. "If you want honesty, all I want out of you is a way out of here and onward. I wouldn't manipulate you or try telling you how to live for that." He continued, his voice steady and normal again.

Bruce waved the photographs above his head for a moment before sliding them into his robe.

"Thank you for these. Sincerely. I had feared I'd forgotten what their faces looked like."

Sakki's eyes opened.

"It's true, whoever told you that. I might be the last person you want to seek guidance from," Bruce tapped his head with his forefinger. "I have my own struggles and crises that make me ill-suited for the position. And I'm too lazy to give you a reason to be happy."

Sakki seeped into Bruce's Ki, emanating in undulating, growing waves.

"Still," Bruce finally turned to face Shaidra, his smile widened, but not at all matching his eyes. His pupils contracted, brow furrowed and chin titled inward such that a slight shadow cast down his face. Even so, he had not drawn his weapon, though his skin had taken on the darkened tone of his Sage form.

"You want to talk about rage and turmoil in the middle of smiles the world doesn't want you to have?"

Sakki tittered.

"I can help you with that."

[tex]

Shaidra took another step forward. ""It's so very fun to play with a person...Person's...Very fun..." Her eyes flickered, and she tilted her head to one side, lost in thought for a moment.

"It hurts," She whispered, "It hurts... Hurts..." Her breath grew heavy, but her stance did not falter. She took another step forwards. "Just go to sleep. Everything will be fine in the morning." She mimicked Ada's tongue movements, licking the corner of her lip underneath her mask. "It's ok to fall asleep. Just go to sleep." Shaidra rose her arm upwards, and sliced through it with her opposite claw. She was unharmed, of course. But it was a curious movement. "Get that thing away from me ya little freak!" She called out, shifting her body to the right. "I'll take that," She said, swivelling her neck seductively. She paused and crawled forward a little further. "Boy... Dead... Ada... Happy..." She continue forward, until she was mere feet away from Bruce, and showed no sign of stopping, keeping her eyes fixated on his face.

[Brucenorris007]

Sakki simpered.

'Sleep? I just woke up!'

Bruce hopped backward onto one of the pews, curious to see how long Shaidra would follow. He walked backward along the bench, never taking his eyes off her.

"Does it hurt? I've stopped noticing." Bruce said, though he had a feeling he was referring to something different than what Shaidra meant.

"If Ada's happy, then does that mean she understands?"

At this point he was just talking out of curiosity, though Shaidra's little stunt with her new claws held Sakki's attention.

[tex]

Shaidra continued forwards, crawling up the bench that Bruce hopped atop, and trying to touch his feet with her claws a she moved, with little caution in her pace.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce kicked up off the bench onto the back of the pew, balancing for just long enough to hop several rows back. Whether as an act of cheekiness or a more morbid curiosity, he left behind a small dirt pile that formed the shape of his right foot, placed directly in Shaidra's path on the bench he'd just been on.