XianaEvermor

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

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[Castle on the Clouds]

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"Sure~!" Dawn leaned casually on the table, with her chin in one hand slurping her concoction, noisily crunching ice, and picking at the inside of her nose with her pinky in a distinctly un-ladylike manner. She raised an eyebrow with interest at him as he twisted his limbs to and fro to reach at his back and do... something. The flexibility of those emitters certainly was a thing.

"If ya don't hurry up I'm gonna need a refill," she quipped into the pause between his ramblings, rattling the ice in her cup for emphasis and then taking a moment to top it off with the rest of her flask. Her eyes shimmered with iridescence as she regarded him for a moment and seemed to think about his follow up question. "All light, I suppose. Disguise? Shoore. But... why make a disguise when we can just stand in the part of light people can't see?"

"If we do your... zippity-zoop thingy, you're gonna land all pukey and useless right? Unless you change a bunch of stuff or go running back to your lab? Listen, I'm not a rocket-doctor or anything, but I know a few things about *urp-* light... might be helpful."

"You know about wave-particle duality right?" she asked, with a bored tone, reaching out from under the umbrella for a moment an grasping nothing with two fingers. The ray of morning sunlight bent unnaturally and illuminated the whole table underneath their umbrella. She spread her fingers and the ray split into the visible spectrum as though it had been refracted through a prism. She turned her hand and it split again through the non-visible spectrum. She slurped at her drink. "You know, that thing that makes it be both a particle and a wave at the same time? Doesn't take into account the secret third state of light. It's everything you can see, a lot of things you can't, and a portion of what you can feel. Moreso in your case I think," she explained cryptically.

"Can I make a guess?" She grinned. The table went dark as the bent ray snapped back to its natural position, leaving a glowing mote in her fingers which she pressed to the middle of the table. It rose and floated lazily like it had its own gravity. To him, the table was painted in non-visible information, geometric shapes, arrays of concentric circles and text in Greek, all pulsing with energy like electricity as it held the miniature sun in place. "So *slurp* to do your zippity-zoop thing right... you do a bunch of maths, calculate a bunch of varibibbles, feed it into your techno-fangled computer-majig and then," she ran her fingers across the table, fluttering a whistle. The array expanded, spilling onto the ground and encompassing them.

"That sure does sound like lots of work when you could just... hitch a ride to where it's already going," she grunted, leaning back in her chair and fishing around in her purse for her Slatephone. She was absorbed in it for a minute or two as she quickly searched up some information on a map application. She waved it lazily over the payment terminal at the side of the table and it chirped as she got up. Dawn twirled with a lazy flourish, careful to keep her drink level as she interlaced her fingers with his and hoisted him out of his seat with a smirk.

"I haven't done this in a while," Dawn whispered into his ear playfully as she pulled him into her personal space. "So relax and don't think too hard, you'll mess me up," Dawn instructed, and then fell backwards towards the transparisteel with him in tow.

The globe of light on their table rose up and flared, spitting a ray like a pulsar ejection, that swept them up right as they were about to hit the glass. For a moment they were falling forever, swaddled in golden light, pushed gently by some impossible force. Inertia, friction, solidity ceased to apply as they were shot through the glass. The urban crush of the plate surface rushed up to meet them, and they were gently alighted on a rooftop near the edge of Justice Square in a ray of radiance.

Physics resumed.

A blast of wind nearly bowled her over and she squeaked and laughed, using him to hold herself up until she found her feet, and then lowered herself on to the edge of an air conditioning unit. She sputtered hair out of her mouth and dug in her purse clumsily for sunglasses.

"I missed a little. Refracted out of that cloud, but at least we didn't land in that news chopper! Small victories," she swirled her cup noisily. "You schtill want that tattoo? I bet I can make it permantent."

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

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[Depths of Ink]

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Dark. How long had she been holding her breath? A minute? An hour? In the black as the cold pressure mounted and the discordant whispers grew louder. Too much. Had she gone too far? Her limbs refused to listen to her commands to move, or do anything. ID was locked in a deadly battle of the [Mind] that she wasn't winning. She wasn't experienced enough with the [Mind] aspect to fight back on even ground. Clearly she was on this thing's territory but... it wasn't there...

A mental assault powerful enough to subdue her... through an [Astral Proxy] via remote viewing?

That was some next level shit she wasn't sure she could compete with... she needed something she could [See]. If she could re-contextualize the battle, though... flip it. If she could just [See] where it was... [See] it... It can [See] her, influence, [Touch] her... would this even be a fight if it were in the room?

It's okay to stop. You've been fighting for so long. It's time to rest now... just go to sleep.

Honestly, probably not. Her nickname within the organization was "Miss Ashlands." Mother had spared no expense importing tutors and instructors, particularly when it came to martial casting and combat. Her defense arrays were nearly impenetrable, she was an expert in counter-casting and had near absolute-control over the mana inside her Domain.

It's time to put the sword down and rest...

She was over complicating the problem... or rather, the problem was over-complicated for the answer she wanted.

Smaller questions.

What's actually happening right now? Used, betrayed, left to die.

Under psychic attack. She might not actually be sinking into an endless depth of ink, on the verge of drowning, but if she tried to breathe it may as well have the same result: it'd allow the caster's influence deeper into her body and her assailant could arrest her vital functions and effectively drown her. The only thing preventing that right now was the Domain barrier she had wrapped closely to her skin.

What exactly was she dealing with? [...]

Muriel was a Paracausal research facility. ID understood that to mean that they delved into Astral and soul science... spirit stuff. Spirits... Spirits, even incredibly powerful ones that manifest physically into our world were fundamentally Astral beings, to be combated with Astral weapons and means.

Are you so disillusioned that you can no longer recognize the truth? That you were tricked? Bamboozled? You are surrounded by narcissists and charlatans.

Non-ritual magic, for the most part, had to be practiced on a target that could be [Seen]. How did it [See] her?

Remote viewing.

OK, duh. More specific.

Specifically? [Astral Proxy]. It's a specific type of Projection that uses an Astralform like a router extension or a signal repeater to send data back and forth to the caster.

ID flinched, forcing her racing mind to go silent lest the creature hear one of her stray thoughts. It was there... after a fashion. It was a small finger hold in this avalanche. Might be enough to flip this fight on its head... if she could just break through.

Restraint... always restraint. Take care to watch your emotions, might hurt someone you care about. Limit your output. Don't be a danger to yourself, or others. This world is fragile. You are a an open flame in a world made of polystyrene. Right now, she was focused on staying alive, and that hesitation to exceed certain thresholds was going to get her killed.

Apologize later.

ID dug deep, pushing past barriers on limiters on restrictions and reaching for that burning globe of [Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven] she constantly felt distantly muted through the miles of rock and steel. She felt the INK claw at her flesh, trying to pull her under farther, deeper into the crushing depths. Her fingers grazed the [Sun]. For a moment it seemed frustratingly out of reach... It leaned into her hand, and she closed her fist around it.

And cue the Boss music.

ID's eyes snapped open, and she wriggled against the talons of ink that immediately clawed at them. She was clutching something in her hand, struggling to muster the power to move as she pulled currents of mana from around the room and layered [Fortification] in a lattice throughout her flesh. She ripped free, pulling Ildsjel from its enchanted scabbard. Less a sword, more a braided leather hilt with just enough space for a firm one handed grip, a sun relief on the pommel, and a snarling dragon's head clutching a large, lucent crystal in its jaws.

A [Flare] of heat violently lacerated the chamber, burning away the ink and turning every surface incandescent as form and cohesion rapidly began to lose meaning. She whipped the weapon across the room like a dagger. The transpari-steel barrier peeled away, rapidly melting like snow in a glass furnace as the weapon embedded into the creature's ghastly four-pointed eye. Gouts of flame and smoke erupted from her mask as her breath returned in fits and she staggered to maintain her balance, weaving a quick [Shadowsnap] to pin the creature's proxy in place. For just a moment she breathed, drinking in the rays of incandescence from Ildsjel's [Sun] crystal.

Rivers of molten rock and metal began to poor from the ceiling and walls as ID pressed the attack, violently seizing the thread of mana tracing back to A-9's real self. A place opened up in her vision. It clutched the crater wall, pressing itself up part-way into the plate super-structure through a gap left by neglected maintenance somewhere. Finally... a target. She might only have one shot. Make it count.

A-9's salted marble surface cracked and splintered as it thrashed against her [Shadowsnap], and the crushing pressure of her Domain reflected its screams back in on itself. ID's Astral self coiled around her arm as she rushed forward, skipping across pools of vigorously boiling steel to slam her palm into Ildsjel's hilt.

For a moment, the facility was engulfed in a flash. A massive *CRACK* reverberated through the cliffside as super-heated plasma struck the glaciers of ice MG had left behind to shield herself. Metal and rock groaned, and insane heat blasted out of the facility's main entrance, striking the Absolute Zero of the elevator landing and condensing into voluminous stormy clouds that filled the Abyss. The enormous winged serpent of ID's Astralform raced along the road back to A-9's true body, devouring the distance in the blink of an eye. Incalculable heat erupted from its maw, both Astral and Material, as they collided. For a long minute, molten rock and steel rained from the plate ceiling.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

ID doubled down, staring boldly past the grizzly accident into the massive eye she couldn't see but knew was there. She felt the bones of Drake's hand and wrist crunch sickeningly in her palm, and his screams were discordant against the whispers of ink clinging coldly to her legs. She'd warned MG, now she just needed to buy a few moments for her to get out of the instant-death zone, or protect herself with her cryogenics.

Moments... how long had it been? Time was getting slippery. It was moving both too quickly and agonizingly slow, and Drake's flesh sizzled in her hand at the effort of standing her ground. Lines and lines of script in some terrible parody of 'language' streamed from the ghastly black sclera of the moon. Droplets of prismatic oil splashed into the rising ink as the sky bled black.

What we didn't see... we didn't see it, we didn't-

A spark, a flame. Electrical fires were bad. A noise, a thought, a scream of [Terror-Dread-Axiety-I'm stuck-Let me out-LETMEOUTLETMEOUT] shuddering through the Manasphere. Fingers sinking into newly born Astral flesh, clawing, tearing-

[I'M GONNA DIE-CAN'T SEE-OPEN MY EYES]

Black uniforms converge on the car, a ripple through the Manasphere, a voice, a call, a question, a [PROMISE], a [PACT]. They're prepared for an awakening, but not like this. When she was there she'd seen it as a fountain of [Silver] light. Her [Sight] had been too narrow, she didn't have the right perspective the right... The night sky erupted in [Silver] fire. No. ID's eyes flicked up involuntarily, and she made eye contact with it. Familiar and alien, she was petrified under the weight of its amber eyes burning through the Manasphere like pale moons that were far too close.

A beast that encompassed the sky, the [Moon], the chill pressure crushed every muscle and bone in her body, and she couldn't breathe against the weight... what others felt making eye contact with her, only magnitudes greater. It spread its dread wings, wreathed in [Silver] light that made everything it touched [Sing]. A trickle of blood seeped out of the corners of ID's eyes as it folded and compressed and condensed until the vehicle's driver was wreathed in blinding [Silver], thrashing in berserk fear.

She ripped through the side of the car, and the sheer blind force bent her arm at unnatural angles. She was out. All terrifying speed and blind [horror-panic-SURVIVAL]. The soldier with the tranquilizer rifle unloads. She SCREAMED.

[Dragon Roars]

The sheer [Force] clawed and ripped painfully at the half of ID that existed in the Manasphere until she thought she might black out. The only thing holding her upright was the cloying ink burbling against her abdomen. Four members of the fire team rag doll to the ground. Hard to say if they're still alive. One keeps pumping her sister full of tranq rounds while in a fighting retreat. For a short eternity she's a bundle of unstoppable fury and [FORCE] until one of them ignites a [Null] talisman and the whole street goes dark. The [Silver] light petered out and she staggered a few steps before collapsing.

ID pulled a ragged breath, and closed her eyes and mouth as the ink pulled her under. Was this the [Truth]? She'd been there. Lived it. She had perfect recall, and had re-lived that memory many times wondering if she could have done something... anything, if she had just stood her ground. Drake had ripped her away from the surface before she had a chance to act.

If she had just stood her ground.

Never hesitate again. Never run again. Never back down again.

ID felt the ink claw at her eyelids, trying to worm its way into her nostrils and ears, and pry her mouth apart to coax her to drown. All the while she sank further into the black, drifting amongst the discordant choir of whispers all around her. The cold intellect of an alien mind pressed in all around her, forcing thoughts of doubt... betrayal. The [Mind] aspect was a tricky thing... but the best defense was knowing what was real.

... This wasn't real...

Just give up and breathe...

Not a chance, monster. I can hold my breath for hours. You better hide in the dark. Everything the [Sun] touches is mine.
.
.

.

.

.

Strong. It was strong.

This might have been a mistake.

Mother was keeping something this powerful?

No... not anymore.

It was free.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

[Castle on the Clouds]

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"Well...," Ion trailed off, his normal bravado faltering for just a second. "Maybe one day when she lets go of the reigns a bit, yeah? And give yourself some credit. In my eyes, you are the most eligible bachelor and I'll make sure my fans know who's King around here," he winked and grinned, shooting Felix the finger guns unironically.

"Gotta scoot, Nightlight! Stay out of trouble," Ion ordered, as he lifted off the puke-smeared glass. Electricity crackled through his uniform as he shot off, buffeting their table's umbrella.

"Can I get a mimosa, a double shot of Jameson and a cup of ice to go please and thank you!" Dawn called out, flagging a waiter down.

Dawn stared at Felix with her arms folded and carried that resting bitch expression of a sibling who recognized that face of "oh yeah sis, I'm totally listening and comprehending, and am totally NOT about to go and do the opposite of what you just said just to be petty and annoying." You know... that expression that Artemis was usually leveling at HER whenever she was about to go off and do some dumb shit.

What the hell is my life and how did it come to this?!

"What's your plan, Nightlight? Put a decoy under the sheets and sneak out the window?" She asked, emptying the mimosa, whiskey, her leftover coffee, and the potent smelling contents of a flask from her purse into the cup of ice. Dawn covered the concoction and shook it vigorously while maintaining eye contact with Felix.

"Don't suppose we could just have a nice breakfast and spend the rest of the day playing hooky pretending our responsibilities don't exist and not, you know, go running towards all the death and chaos? No? Right. Of course not," Dawn sighed, stabbing the lid with a straw. She slurped down a large gulp and crunched loudly on an ice cube.

"Alright, fine. Let's go get into trouble!"

---

[Ares Estate - Justice Square]

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Pandemonium. Noun. A wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos.

It was pandemonium.

Ares Special Task Force, Docwagon Platinum Response... gaping tears in reality rimmed with purple energy out of which ambulances and emergency response vehicles screamed, police fire and Templar, all armed and brandishing, all screaming for everyone else to stand down. In the middle of it all, a wildly out of place woman in a black designer dress trying to calm down a confused and terrified foreign dignitary that looked like he was suddenly ripped away from a gala or fancy charity event and holding open far too many portals from which a myriad of personnel streamed back and forth.

Curtains of electricity sprang up, crackling menacingly between the groups and pushing the corporate response teams away from the Templar. Ion descended to the plate surface dramatically, the four "eyes" of his stylized visor sparking brilliant blue.

"You're late!" the Director yelled over the cacophony of shouts and sirens.

"Sorry, Lady-Boss, had to stop and check on my King. I don't move as quick as your other first responders, yeah?"

"Yes, sorry, oop~!" she conceded with a sigh as she stumbled on her designer heels to get out of the way of a paramedic rushing past with a gurney. Ion leapt over four people to catch her.

"You simply must be more careful, my Queen!" he said, holding her hand gingerly and brushing a lock of disturbed platinum out of one of her mismatched eyes. He couldn't hide the smirk in his voice. She gave him the look that deserved. With a gut-wrenching falling sensation like he was being pushed through an infinitely small space, and the crack of displaced air, he was standing on the other side of his electric curtain with more Ares rifles than he was comfortable with pointed at him.

"I'm okay, get back to work Ion," the director's voice whispered in his helmet's comm speaker with a note of amusement. Ion smirked beneath his mask, though he couldn't help the spike of unease he'd felt at seeing the uncharacteristic dark circles under the director's eyes that were only just barely covered by a hasty application of makeup.

Everyone was working overtime.

"Alright, everyone calm your tits and get out of each others way," he shouted, his voice magnified through his suit's external vox. "We're all on the same fucking side here, so how about you take those cock-holsters off the trigger and start cooperating, we all have jobs to do!" He ordered with his fists on his hips, and much more bravado than he felt.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

"Oh. Hey," Yue muttered, glancing up at Raudd for a moment before giving the ground a guilty expression. "Sorry for running off I just...," felt caged. Overwhelmed. Trapped. Angry. "Needed to clear my head."

She wiggled all her fingers and toes and checked her arms. "Everything still moves... gonna have a few neat looking bruises though," she commented.

God. Did everyone see her fall?

"This?" She chimed, rolling the medallion over her knuckles like she'd seen Dean do with the jade piece. "The shape and... texture of it kinda seems to respond to my thoughts," she mused, and a ripple flickered through the barrier like a muscle twitch. For a moment a braided pattern rippled over her arms like scales. "I need something to secure it though, too easy to drop without some kind of chain or strap," she mused.

"Why... does it not do that for Zolya?" She asked, distracted by some pinprick of light off in the distance like the ignition of a star but... underground. She almost missed the mention of the second Templar, which seemed to snap her back into the present. Yue raised an eyebrow.

"Second Templar?" She asked, with a note of surprise. How did anyone even figure out she was down there? "Guess I better sit still for a bit," she muttered grumpily, suddenly feeling like a lost kid at the mall.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

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[The Abyss - Paracausal Research Facility: Muriel - Interior]

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Clearing the facility room by room was a slow, arduous task. Particularly when one half of the task force was sensory numb, blind, and deaf. They’d fallen back on gestures and sign language, and ID occasionally spelled out what she was trying to communicate in MG’s thermographics when her meaning simply did not translate.

Many of the rooms were filled with drifts of the glass-like crystalline powder they’d encountered at the entrance in small flurries. ID had taken a sample to be kept isolated in an enchanted and sealed container, but after encountering some Awakened moss in the hydroponics lab that was slowly crystallizing and disintegrating into the stuff, they’d agreed that “Sterilization” was the order of the day.

ID reinforced her Domain, spurred by the knowledge of the potential fate that awaited her should she have a lapse in concentration. She pushed it to the edges of the hallway and enveloped MG to help insulate her from any mental feedback, even though the floor complained about the large disparity in temperature. Most of the heat was directed in front of ID as she made slow progress down each corridor, lining the walls and every crack and crevice with searing blue flames without care to survivors or equipment.

The delicate balancing act of being hot enough to break down the magically charged silicate so her domain could forcibly re-aspect the crystallized haze, and also not melt the steel reinforced walls and bulkheads took all of her concentration. Such that when four figures ran into the intersection she was approaching, there wasn’t time to redirect the heat. They had substance for only a second or so before they were erased. She guessed they were most likely multi-sensory illusions, since it’d take an hour or more to fully cremate a real human body, even at the foundry level temperatures she was holding ahead of them.

"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself, right?" She grinned beneath her mask. "Right?" ID repeated, glancing back at MG, who just gave a thumbs up in response. "Right. Right… Deaf partner," she sighed. What a waste of good Shakespearian humor.

Clearing all the spurs of the circular facility had taken quite some time, but they finally reached the threshold of the final chamber: the heart of the facility and storage area for some project numbered A-90T430S15. ID took a breath while MG keyed in the override behind her. She readied herself as the massive steel blast door shuddered and groaned: the heat had warped it just a little, and it probably wouldn't close properly after this.

ID braced, expecting a deluge of crystallized haze like they had nearly been buried under a few rooms back. However, besides the roar of heat blasting through the portal as it opened and disturbed a light dusting of the stuff, the room seemed relatively clean. ID eased off the temperature and consolidated her Domain to keep from fully erasing any magical traces that could be left behind. She signed for MG to hold the door just in case.

An enormous cylinder of white salt marble consumed the center of the facility. The top and bottom of the object looked as though it were beginning to splinter and branch into hundreds of roots before it disappeared into whatever Menagerie-made contraption was holding it in place. ID's luminous amber eyes raked the chamber; she tagged it as the heart of the [Warp] that had, until now, consumed the facility. As far as she could tell, the thing was inert, perhaps neutralized by the stress of the emanation it had caused... and if she'd taken that at face value, she'd be a fool.

She slowly circled the chamber's perimeter, running the flint skin of her fingertips along the transpari-steel barrier that once held myriad glyphs, wards, and charms. Enchantments that were crafted to keep this thing and its emissions segregated from the facility, since blasted by the psychic scream and eroded by the mind-aspected Mana Warp it had left in its wake.

"And what secrets do you think you can hide from me?" She whispered into the room as she peeled away the layers and layers of filters that blocked out most of the disruptive magical noise of the city's Ley Line from her [Dreamsight]. The pillar hummed with energy that pressed against her skin through the barrier; disconcerting, given that she felt it through the protection of her Domain. Swirls and eddies of disturbed mana thrashed around the chamber with storm-like intensity as she picked through them, isolating each yarn connected to the construct until she found the one that stretched out of the facility. ID sampled the haze of a cleverly masked spacial disruption as she stopped and turned her gaze directly onto the pillar for a long moment.

"Found you," she announced coldly, reaching up to pluck the thread.

A massive eye opened up on the pillar's marble surface. ID met the spaceless void of its four-pointed pupil unwavering. The room shuddered. In the [Immaterial], the gravity of ID's domain drew in the [Mind] aspected Storm and forced it to convert. The head of a massive winged serpent wreathed in incandescent fire bent low to meet the creature's gaze, and ID's eyes seared through the Astral like a pair of brilliant stars. There was a lurch of force. The transpari-steel barrier cracked between them.

Topside. Dark. It's raining. ID is holding someone's hand. Copper Drake is next to her. He's holding an umbrella for them but she still somehow managed to get wet.

He's trying his best.

They're waiting on a corner at a street light. Why? Right: her sister's graduation. They were there to pick her up. ID dare not move from the spot she was standing, and instead stared coldly ahead into the street at something Drake wasn't privy too.

"Aren't you excited? You're going to meet her in person," he asked, just like she remembered. Something in the tone of his voice felt forced. She stood stoic as headlights approached in the distance. You're wrong. It's coming down the wrong street.

Are we wrong? Or is our memory flawed?

The sky shuddered. She felt the moon open its eye above her, gold, grey, green and pink staring down at her. The sky bled ink, and it slowly spread over the sidewalk towards her feet as they approached in a shitty white cross-over that belonged to someone's mom. It's supposed to be a black limo.

Is it?

The whine of an E-Cell turbine being taxed. An armored truck rushed into the intersection. This is mirrored.

We're being used.

She felt Drake flinch as the truck collided violently with the civilian car. The truck's reinforced bumper tore the crossover's front end off and it flipped three times before slamming into a light pole. Men with rifles pour out. Black uniforms. One of them is checking his magazine as they stack against the cover of the van: tranquilizer rounds.

No.

The ink was pooling against her designer flats, clawing its way slowly up her toes. One in the rear readying an isolation pod, another pulled a [NULL] talisman out of a tactical pouch. That's not right. The air tore as the ink lapped at her bare ankles. Right. Copper Drake hesitated just a moment too long. She felt a tug on her arm as he moved to go, and she crushed his hand in her iron grip as she remained steadfast.

The image froze, and for just an instant the scene she remembered so vividly flickered into focus. Drake was on her right, not her left. The crash was mirrored. Black Limo. Armored Soldiers. Insignia: Stylized cross, red on white. She dared not look into whatever gaping void Drake was trying to pull her into. The street was flooding; ink crawled up her knees. ID's face furrowed into a scowl.

"Is that the best you can do?" The sheer brashness of her words cracked the reality she stood in, as she spelled out her intention in the air between her and whatever fucked creature of the void was watching with letters of searing heat. MG would know what to do.

R U N

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Cut.

Peel.

Cut...

Peel.

A potato skin flopped into the sink to the choir of sizzles and boiling water. It was nice to be back in his proper lab, where he had a proper kitchen. Sairyn inhaled the melody of aromas deeply and sighed as the stress melted out of his shoulders and potato peels fell into the sink, to be scooped by a mechanical arm through a miniature Conduit to the chamber where the compost was processed and kept at the perfect temperature, later to be used as fertilizer for the hydroponic beds.

Archer was right. He really needed to take some... HIM time... which was suggested in a moment of uncharacteristic fluster after fumbling one too many explosives. Everybody has an off day, right? No. Not everybody, not Archer. Archer never has an off day, he's annoyingly unflappable no matter how many times we test him!

Stop.

He's positively identifiable.

Cut and peel. We're gonna make some latkes... or maybe just some perfectly crisp hash browns. The kettle whistled urgently, and he cut off the heat with a tap to the Slate that floated at his side and pushed the button on the grinder once, twice... thrice... frice? No. Nonononono, nothing comes after thrice. Perfect coarse grind emptied into the french press, followed by boiling water at the perfect temperature. Perfect. Simple was the order of the day... just some simple crisp hash browns... simple Benedict and crisp bacon, with hollandaise simply made from scratch. Simple fresh sourdough, with a simple yogurt parfait made from berries, nuts, and grains freshly harvested from the hydroponics.

Simple.

Squirreled away in a pocket of ExoSpace where nobody could reach or bother him, Sairyn enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in solitude. What had him so wound up? The fact that his gambit against Ares with the stealth drone came up empty, and somehow he was to blame. This was exactly why he hated doing favors for SINS... or anyone, really. He huffed, sipping his coffee gingerly. It didn't help that he'd also lost the eerie cross-market staring contest he was having with the Ares CEO.

The man seemed to be able to suppress all his involuntary body movements. It was like staring at a mannequin.

Sairyn shivered. At least he was free to work on his own projects for the moment, which reminded him: Should he work on finding his missing agent? Or just trust that Maire had it handled? Then there was that blip with Felix disappearing off the Net and showing up at the stake out with the CEO's Executive Assistant?? What. The. Hell? So hard to find good help these days. He simmered, remembering he was supposed to be relaxing, and instead ate in oppressive silence while he read reports from the Slate floating at his fingertips.

"System regression complete," a pleasantly clinical voice slid from the earpiece Sovereign normally spoke to him from, causing him to bolt upright and nearly spill his coffee. He'd forgotten to take it off. "Systems compatible, resuming Framework formatting. Completed. Cooling silos online at 25%. Small power fluctuation detected within acceptable margin of error."

He raised an eyebrow. The blank framework he'd built finished regression and formatting earlier than he'd expected. A few contented swipes brought up the project schemata on his Slate, and he was greeted to the pleasant view of green check marks and progress bars filling. He hummed a pleased note and flicked through status screens and data telemetry while he finished his breakfast. If the rest of the boot went well, he'd be able to install a backup copy of Sovereign later in the afternoon... assuming he could find a way to rip one from the main server without pissing off Leonardo.

"AI systems online," she informed smoothly. Sairyn's spoon clinked against the glass holding his parfait as he froze.

"Excuse me?"

"The boot sequence has completed. Welcome, Guest User, my name is Monarch."

"Guest?!" He let his glass thump against the table as he scrambled for his Slate.

"You have a pending message on your device," she informed coolly. He swiped the notification bar on his Slate with a concerned expression. Nothing. "Your other device." Sairyn frowned and dug frantically into his coat for his Slatephone and clicked the screen on. Nothing. "Your other device."

The other device? The Red phone? The one that only rang to one contact? That device? The one that was supposed to be dark to everyone but him? He pulled the modified, red-covered Slatephone out of an ExoSpace pocket with a swipe of his hand, and it materialized in a flash of white light.

1 Message.

Oh hai! Don't freak out or anything~~ but a shipment GIFT was taken without my permission and there might be a... teeny, tiny, mostly insignificant, highly unlikely chance that some idiot hits the power lottery and causes a problem :c

Sairyn spluttered, there were so many questions to ask. First and foremost on his mind was-

AGAIN?! CAN'T YOU KEEP A LID ON THAT SHIT??

<(... ... ...)

"Oh God, here we go," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Hey hey! It has been YEARS since that happened, and THIS time was a severe fluke. Don't worry, love, I'll be handling the repossession personally! :3

"... Fuck."

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

---

[UnderCity - Outskirts]

---

Archer rode looking over his shoulder towards the manor as they departed, trusting the stag to find its way through the overgrowth. He heaved a bit of a sigh, spotting the null-zone most typically associated with heavy cybernetic modification, and... Rat(?) through the haze of elevated Mana.

"That has to be Cruaidín, probably looking for Yue if I had a guess," he muttered, ducking under a knotted branch with bark splintered from explosive growth and shifting his weight to accommodate the Stag as it hopped over a gnarled root. "Well... It might be inconvenient if she found me down here," he mused, sitting back and rubbing at the stubble accumulating on his face with an expression of distaste.

"You know, your lack of humor might be a large contributor towards your romantic situation," he teased, with a smirk as he followed Yue's journey back down to Terra-Firma as a blip on the edge of his senses. He tucked that little quip about Aegis away in the back of his mind: he knew Raudd was being snarky but... couldn't hurt to actually look, right?

"She's still moving," he announced, letting his stag slow down a little to a less stressful speed. "Back South, most likely towards ShieldTown again at a more 'relaxed' pace," he said, making finger quotes. A "relaxing jog" for Yue was still faster than most civilian vehicles could travel.

---

Archer drove the stags at a casual run towards the gates. It seemed like he was lost in thought, but was keenly aware enough of their surroundings to guide them around more than one creature threat. He wondered if maybe he was pushing Yue too hard, or laying it on too thick. Emotional resonance was something his sister and he were particularly sensitive to, and he couldn't help but wonder if Zolya had also felt that spike of anxiety, frustration, and anger resonate through the manasphere right before Yue took off. She had mentioned that she'd already had a lot of dilated time to process what was happening, but clearly still had some lingering feelings to get through.

To be fair, Archer hadn't expected her to be all hunky dory with everything overnight. The fact that she'd come this far emotionally in just a few hours was a feat of mental strength in and of itself. Getting the answers she so desperately wanted, though...

Archer reached back and whipped a card past Raudd. It arced up, whistling as it cut through the air and intercepting a stone that was flying with significant velocity towards the Norseman. The stone shattered on an umbrella of force as it collided with the card, directing the shards over and around them. He looked up with a raised eyebrow, scanning ShieldTown's walls for threats, and just hummed an amused tone when he didn't see anything. He slid off the stag as ShieldTown's gates loomed over and above them, smoothing out his jacket and pants with a huff.

"Hey, I'm gonna give Yue some space. I'm pretty sure she's with someone I trust right now, and who will call me if something goes awry but... second pair of eyes and all," he nodded at Raudd. "I have another errand to run and I want to avoid getting caught out of the office by Cruaidín. Zolya knows how to get in touch I'm sure," he chirped with a smile.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

That got a grin from Dean. "You don’t say?" He exchanged a nod with his spirit. "No worries, that's what we’re here for. Oh and, maybe be a little more careful when you touch a [Primal Spirit] alright?" Dean gave Golem another look just to be sure the little guy wasn’t showing off. Really wasn’t a good time to scare a new mage with the full appearance and might of a [Primal]. Golem swayed back and forth, looking as innocent as a sentient earth entity could. Dean shook his head and returned his attention to Yue.

"Great…"

He seemed to consider something before giving a shrug. "You, uh, you’re free to ask questions if you want. I promise I’ll be the least convoluted and cryptic of any mage you could possibly meet. I’m not the most technical given that I've willingly locked myself into being a [Hedge Mage] but-" A piece of jade was pulled out of his pocket and flicked around his fingers. "I won't just spout bullshit just to sound smart and mystical." Dean made a face that made it abundantly clear this was too common a thing. Yue’s eyes flicked up and scanned the rooftops like D might be watching this exchange, and then to Golem, then to Dean.

"Primal Spirit… Primal, that’s a Primal? Walking Aetherscape shredding natural disaster shaped and brought into being by human emotion and desire Primal? That kind of Primal?" She asked with a note of not insignificant alarm.

"Ah, right. Final Odyssey. Well, yes and no. There is a Primal for every element or aspect of nature and they can become problems and great disasters. That's why Stewards, like myself, keep eyes on some of them. Some Primals will bind themselves to people though and that can get messy. It all really depends on which Spirit holds the mantle of primal for its given element, the people involved, and a lot of other junk." Dean motioned down to Golem, who seemed to be content to waddle alongside the two. "Golem here, like a lot of earth spirits, is slow to act and fairly docile. That and golems are natural protectors in stories, so his disposition is very ideal. Not the case for other Primals though. Fire, Lightning, and Force are almost always universally intense and hard to truly keep a hold of."

Letting her digest that for a second, Dean was a tad nervous since most mages didn’t always react well to realizing the cute spirit they were seeing was in fact the living embodiment of the earth and its power . . . while also being underground.

"Huh," Yue grunted with interest, tilting her head at the creature. "It’s cute… in kind of an irrationally disarming way," she observed, scratching her chin. "I… honestly would have imagined, I don’t know… an enormous, monstrous, walking craggy mountain with broken canyons for facial features and cloven boulders for hands- what’s that?" Yue asked, pointing at the jade piece as her gaze tracked it.

Yue’s eyes flooded with luminous amber, and her pupils stretched with sharp interest as a ripple of silver traveled across her temples and down her spine. She shivered, and seemed to be lost in a moment before she jerked herself out of it with a flinch. The energy faded out of her gaze as she blinked and flicked her eyes up at Dean.

"Whoa…"

Okay, maybe it was a good thing Golem was playing up the cute. The little guy was shaking in a way that indicated laughter. Dean looked at his piece of jade then back to Yue. seeing the look on her face, she probably had taken a peek. "Oh, this?" He held up the piece with two fingers. It was much larger than the one he had given Ash. more akin to a silver dollar and much thicker. " Tell me what you see first. I’ll explain, but I'm curious what it looks like to the newly initiated."

Yue raised an eyebrow, and then paused in her stride to look closely at the object. Amber flickered through her gaze, but she squeezed the corner of her barrier medallion into her palm to help ground her in real-time. Focusing made her squint against, not just the brilliance of the object, but the other sparks of [Light] seemingly speckled beneath Dean’s clothes.

"Smells sweet, like caramel?" Yue mentioned, crinkling her nose a little at the sheer weight of the phantom scent. "Green glow. Bright. Patterns of lines, like a complex Venn Diagram, burning text in a language I can’t read. A nexus of Light at the center, moving like electricity through a circuit," she explained, pausing and searching for words for a moment as waves of Silver sheen pulsed across her temples.

"It’s vibrating. Heavy: I can feel it pressing against my skin from here. It’s… kind of uncomfortable, like being touched by a stranger. Your clothes are glowing too, like thermal hot spots," she explained, indicating a pocket, and pointing out a patch and a badge on his jacket. "Big one here, kinda drowns out the other lights," Yue pointed at his jacket, probably at an inside breast pocket. After a pause she reached out and gently brushed a fingertip against the jade piece. It rang low like a crystal bell and she tilted her head back and forth for a moment.

"Alto," she commented, without explaining.

Well, she definitely was aware of all his charms, trinkets and mana reservoirs. After getting a better [look] at it and hearing Yue’s description, Dean felt confident he knew what he was dealing with. Who knew all those lessons on the more rare and extreme cases of affinity would actually be relevant? A whistle escaped his lips. " Never imagined I’d see Swordsong myself, can only imagine what you would be capable of with one of these." He considered Yue’s words for a moment before pocketing the coin; what followed was him tapping a few of his pins and patches in a specific sequence. A few mana arrays began overlaying him and dulling each signature significantly. "That any better?"

"Yes, actually," Yue frowned for a second, blinking rapidly to clear the artifacts out of her sight. "You know what it is then? Starting to feel like I’m the only one who has no idea what’s happening," she muttered, kicking a stone aggressively and forgetting about the jade piece for a moment. It sparked as it caromed off a steel beam reinforcing one of the buildings they were walking past and sailing off into the distance somewhere over the settlement wall. She grunted with a small note of annoyance.

"Something… someone told me recently is bothering me," she mentioned, slipping her hand into her legging pocket and touching the blank business card. For a moment she thought to show it to Dean before she reconsidered and folded her arms.

"’Gods are narcissists, and Mages are liars. Both of them have intentions for me. If it seems like everyone around me is one or the other, it’s safe to assume there’s a reason for that, and that reason won’t care about me personally,’" she paraphrased D’s words. "I’ve… only just learned about the magic world and… that seems to ring more true than I would like."

He mulled over her words for maybe a minute. "Kind of a stupid statement. Everyone under the sun is a liar to some extent. If gods weren’t narcissists we wouldn’t have half the stories we do. Granted some gods are spirits that have been primal in the past so there's a reason for that. AND us mages basically live in a secret world, our entire society is built on lies and secrecy to not have mass witch trials again or accidentally have everyone and their mothers know magic and throw the world and its trigger happy governments into a super-magic-techno apocalypse." Dean raised an eyebrow and gave Yue a look. "You're a mage too now, so technically you were insulted to your face by the way."

Yue blinked. She hadn’t really considered that being dropped into this secret world made her a “Mage.”

He leaned his head back to gaze up at the plate high above. "As for me, I don’t know. I’m a Steward to the Primal Spirit of Earth living underground, enjoying my best life. Can’t really say I have any intentions for you other than making sure you're safe and that you and Alex don’t unintentionally ghost one another again. Though that was mostly on him." He began leading her back towards Alex and his place, though the route was more private then the one Alex had used previously.

"Yeah, that kinda happened at a bad time," she muttered in a somber tone.

"I [promise] to be plain with you. Know that that is binding for me in a very literal sense. Things are new, you're in the deep end and people haven’t been doing a good job keeping you from drowning it seems. Let’s just, make things simpler going forward yeah?"

"Please," she sighed with a note of exasperation. "If one more ‘guardian angel’ pops out of the woodwork to speak to me in riddles I might kick a building down," she grunted, rubbing her temples.

"Just say the word and I’ll bury them up to their neck for an hour or two. If it wasn’t before, it was very apparent that Dean shared similar feelings and sentiments. Golem “clapped” their hands together, eager at the mention of burying someone annoying.

Titan's Fall: The Abyssal Paradox

Wolf really had to learn now that she had terrible luck when betting against Dean. Not that he was complaining, being a few clat richer and all. It was good that the Templar hadn't woken up any of those damn bats up there. dog sized, mutant bats with minor telekinesis. Yeah, nobody deserved dealing with those things. As entertaining as it had been to have seen Silver Fang try and brute force her way up to one of the plates, the responsible thing to do was to probably go get her. Alex was busy with . . . A lot and Given that there wasn't already word of something speed blitzing around town, the woman was probably lost. Dean considered bumming it off to someone else, he really did. But Golem looked ready to smack his shin again for some reason. "What?" Golem began to pantomime . . . something. Despite best efforts Dean still had trouble communicating with the selectively mute spirit. Dean received a rocky flick to his leg for his supposed lack in understanding clear instructions.

"Okay okay, I'll get up!" He grumbled and made a show of getting up and out of his favorite chair. "Jeez what is with you today?" There was a sort of impatience with the earth spirit, which was becoming a more common thing in the past few days. Dean however didn't get time to really consider the ramifications of such things as Golem chased him into his room, threatening his poor shins the whole way. "Alright dude, I'll get dressed!"

---

[That One Alley in ShieldTown]

[A Fate001 / XianaEvermor Collaboration]

---

All dressed and decked out in his usual gear, The hedge mage marched outside to find Golem waiting. "Alright you wise ass molehill, What now?" He crossed his arms impatiently. Golem sank into the ground for a minute, then Dean was yanked down too with a rather un-masculine yelp at the lack of warning.

The two emerged somewhere else moments later. Dean however decided to spit profanities at the rather pleased looking [Earth Primal]. Golem ignored their steward and waved at a familiar face nearby.

"Uh…! Super-fan!" Yue stopped her slow spin to look at the new arrival, eyes flicking first to Golem… then to Dean. She waggled finger guns at him awkwardly. "Um. Did you…?" She pointed at the ground. "With…?" She pointed at Golem with a concerned expression, and then waved back at the spirit hesitantly.

This sure was turning into a day.

"Oh hey! Good to see-!" Dean blinked owlishly. Looking between Golem and Yue a few too many times before it clicked. " You can see him?" He motioned to the diminutive spirit with a look of surprise. Granted it probably shouldn’t have at this point given the state of her body double.

"...Yyyyeeeess~?" She offered, as though she weren’t sure if she should answer or not. Yue squinted at the spirit. All this protocol was so hard to remember… Was she supposed to check first? Or was it just obvious because he had a waving rock with a teddy bear face on his shoulder. "Can’t… everyone??" Asked Yue with a note of suspicion.

Dean let out a sigh and straightened up. "Well alright then. Could have said something if you were [Awakened] or not. I won't claim to be offended that you went to Zolya instead of me for . . . whatever was going on." He took a much more relaxed posture and put his hands in his pockets.

"Uuuuhhh," she snapped her fingers rhythmically before sucking in a breath. "Right, uh… they sorta came to me, and I didn’t really know to say anything before this morning. So… Blue moons... waking up and all that," she muttered uncomfortably.

There was a pause as Dean’s eyes went a tad bit wide. "Well . . . damn, you got thrown in the deep end huh?" Without missing a beat, he snorted out another remark before she could respond. "Nice try making it to the plate gap by the way. Didn’t think you could go that fast out of your armor though."

Golem simply beamed at Yue, seeming rather happy that she was slowly becoming less [polluted] then she once had been.

"Oh. You saw that," Yue winced. To be fair, it wasn’t subtle. She perked up after a moment, however, holding up the medallion with a note of excitement. "Oh! I can’t, normally: I’d get my skin flayed clean off. Zolya gave me this!" Yue flipped the medallion like a coin, unsure of how to reset its operation except to re-initialize contact. When it landed in her hand it gave a metallic chime and the thin film of force flickered over her skin.

"It’s weathered smooth as you get up there. My foot slipped and I just bled off too much speed but… there was a hot second when I’d dropped this and I didn’t have my arm shaved clean off so I think maybe there’s a… a… a thing I can do!" Yue waggled the medallion at him with excitement and was immediately lost in mutters about threads and braids for a moment.

"Right," she stopped, flicking her eyes back to Dean before she was completely absorbed in thought.. "Hey um… Does…," Yue trailed off, gesturing vaguely to indicate an extremely large person.

"Alex? Oh no, he’s mundane through and through." He took a second to run what he had just said through his head and enjoyed the irony. "He’s got a full plate anyway, that and I'm not sure his brain could handle it all." Don’t need to fry the himbo’s brain after all. Or gods forbid he learns magic to add to his bullshit.

"Riiight right. I’m not sure my brain can handle 'it all,'" she muttered grumpily and then started walking towards them. "Final Odyssey terminology only then. Hey-uh… I have a feeling I’m gonna get yelled at for running ahead. Let’s walk and talk," she offered, reaching up to scritch Golem’s chin.

The spirit’s polished stone surface thrummed against her fingers, and for a just moment she could feel every stone in the settlement down to the smallest grain of sand. A deep baritone resonated through the Earth on the edge of their hearing as a thread of [Silver] peeled out of her skin and stitched into Golem. She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t pursue further contact.

How about we keep it to one Aether Cascade today?

Yue let her arm drop and then shuffled down the alley a few steps before stopping. She took a deep breath and turned back around to face Dean, fists clenched anxiously.

"I’m lost," she blurted out suddenly, like she was going to forget to say it.