Participants:
| Scene Title | Castles in the Clouds |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Silas catches up with an old acquaintance in an effort to get the lay of the land, and finds more than he bargained for. |
| Date | July 8, 2021 |
Rising Sun, WI
It's an unseasonably chilly summer evening, and Silas is making the most of the remaining daylight; if Richard wants him to attempt to lead, there's a boatload of information he needs to acquire quickly. He's already had a chat with Elliot, and that conversation has pointed the way to the next… a meeting with an old acquaintance.
"Hey, Saffron," Silas calls. "Got a minute? I was hoping to chat a bit."
Finding Saffron alone these days has been almost impossible. Though they had recovered from the gunshot wound and head injury they had taken, they still stayed close to the vehicles and usually kept within range of at least some of the group. But occasionally they wander off on their own to look out at the sky.
Even then, Saffron herself could rarely be considered alone. That’s why when they look over at Silas it’s with two minds instead of one. Visible mostly in the eyes. They’re not as blue as Saffron’s had always been. A hint of hazel green drifting in and out. “Just us and the clouds for the moment, old man.”
"Not that old," Silas retorts rotely, with a hint of distant amusement… albeit one which fades quickly. "Though I guess I'm getting there. Faster these days," he grumbles, not bothering to hide the way his mouth twists into a frown at that.
He looks back to Castle, his expression grim. "Before Richard took off, he left a message saying he wanted me to take over, apparently. So I'm tryin' to get caught up, figure out what's going on… and I figure there's no better way to do that than talkin' with you," he says earnestly. "I'm hoping you can help me figure out the lay of the land," he says seriously… then, after a moment's hesitation, he breaks into a faintly rueful grin. "And maybe, if you're so inclined, fill me in on what happened after the Ark. It's been awhile since the kitchens."
“A decision that I can agree with him on,” Castle says quietly, without a hint of reservation as they glance around to check the surroundings. There’s a fallen tree, broken and aged. They start toward it, gesturing for the older man to follow.
“It’s a failure of age that we always consider those older than us to be old. And to me, I’ll always be the same age I was when we first met. So every year you seem to get older, but I feel like I haven’t aged a day.”
That’s not Saffron talking.
That’s Basil.
Once they reach the log, they sit down, “Little frost on the pumpkin, as mum would say, but everything’ll be back how it was once we’re done talking.”
As they say, the air seems to shimmer slightly. A soft silence settling over the area around them
And there’s the illusion, the vague sensation, of walls. A geometric shape made of air, with shifting reflections building along the edges. The castle is small. Just large enough for them to move around comfortably, holding time and space in a box that both exists and doesn’t at the same time.
“We can talk freely here,” Saffron says as the edges of the castle shift in the cloud light. Outside the box, the wasteland lies clouded in a dark mist.
Silas follows along gamely, settling down on the log a few feet from Saffron; frost on the pumpkin does sound a lot like something Mad Eve would say. He notes the subtle stilling of the air; their words confirm that their ability is active, and Silas inclines his head with gratitude. "Appreciated. Saves me the trouble," he says with a grin. The grin quickly fades to something more serious, though; it seems Saffron — Castle — wants to skip straight to serious talk. Fair enough. There's a lot of ground to cover.
"First of all — let me say I appreciate your confidence," he says, with sincerity. "And with that said… let's talk turkey. Richard didn't exactly give me a rundown before he left, so I've got a lot of blanks I'm trying to fill in. And that's what brings me to you," he says, offering a faintly rueful grin. "I'm trying to touch base with people as I can catch 'em, trying to fill in those blanks so I can figure out what questions I need to be asking."
“Just a plan to save the world, no big deal,” Castle says, waving a hand at the air around them. The edge of the dimensional border shimmers, and for a moment, there’s almost a reflection of them in it, but it’s not them. It’s Silas and Saffron, but someone else sitting down next to Saffron as well.
A young man, with dark curly hair, a little unshaven, looking tired, but restless all at the same time. While Castle’s body is still, quiet, almost calm, this young man’s body has a nervous energy, a fidgety nature, and the reflection shimmers in and out of sight in that green haze. Almost like a ghost. Or something outside of time.
“Do you want the full run down, or do you want to tell me what you know so far so I can fill in any holes in your current knowledge?”
Silas tilts his head slightly at that ghostly reflection, eyes narrowing slightly as he considers. He's never met the ghost in that reflection on the Castle wall before, and yet… he's seen something that reminds him of them, once. Aboard the Forthright, before he'd set off to cross the Pacific.
Castle's question brings him back to the present. "The full run down, if you would. I want to make sure I understand what's going on to the absolute best of my ability," he says, with an unusual solemnity.
“Fair enough.” Castle says, closing their eyes for a moment as if trying to decide where to begin exactly. “We are Eve’s kids, as you know. We knew the world was ending before we learned how to walk. It does something to you, living with that your whole life.”
There’s a long pause. “After I died, I had a lot of time. Just Existing. In the place that we made together, built from our memories. Our own little castle in the clouds. Part of us was always there, while the rest was out here, surviving the Flood.”
The castle’s edges seem to ripple again and this time Basil is standing, moving around a little and looking off into the sky, shifting from the balls of his feet to his toes.
“It gave us a lot of time to go over what we had seen and heard. What mom had seen and heard. So we made plans. We went to the Ark. And we waited til the day when the sub came back, when the snake ate its tail. When the mirror broke. And we tried to get everyone where they needed to be. There were quite a few unaccounted for variables, but we went through the hole into another world.”
Her eyes open and she looks down at their hands. “Only our body was his body there. And I was in the clouds.” She gestures at the air, as if that will explain it all. “We had more dreams to chase. More plans to build. And just as they started looking for who caused the spatio-temporal disturbances where we landed, we had started looking for them. To become the Agent Castle we had spent half our lives building.”
Silas tilts his head, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he tries to parse what they're saying. He thinks he gets it… although when the snake ate its tail is a turn of phrase that draws a shiver from him, one that has nothing to do with the cold.
On the whole, though, there's something sad about their story. Silas had taken the crossing of the worlds as a sort of death, and in that death found freedom, even if he had ended up circling back. ~~Even if the snake ate its own tail.~~ But for Castle… not even death had set them free. He doesn't let himself dwell on it, though; maybe there is a sadness to it, but it's also hard not to respect their dedication. "I know you mentioned unaccounted variables, but… how much foreknowledge did you have, anyway? Or do you have?" he asks curiously, maybe even with a hint of hopefulness.
“Pieces.” Castle says, voice dreamy as they look off into space. They were never great at sustained eye contact. “And the pieces keep changing, but it’s like— there’s only so many variables. And even when certain things change it’s like something else fills in the place left behind.”
There’s a pause, as if they aren’t sure that’s understandable. “For a long time we thought there was nothing we could do to change it. One after the other, the worlds came crashing down. By Flood, by disease, by the machinations of hate and prejudice. Until all worlds are threatened with an end.”
Then they leave one finger up. “But after joining up with the group that collected information on the other worlds, in fact had direct contact with one— I realized mom saw the futures of other realities. Not just this one. As long as what she sees happens somewhere, you can use what happened to change what happens. And since the Castle is a portable reset switch… I may have tried to make a few changes already.”
Silas frowns, considering. Even when certain things change it's like something else fills in the place left behind. That's a worrisome thought; unbidden, his mind turns to Rianna Cardinal — dead, and then suddenly alive. Juliette Luis.
Castle's talk of all worlds being threatened evokes a different memory, though. Witness, an echo of a voice whispers in the back of Silas's mind, and he pushes it away, instead opting to focus on Castle's talk of attempting to change things.
"Did it work?" he asks.
“We saved people who would have died without us being there,” is the best answer that Castle can think of, with a small shrug. One of those people happened to be Chess. “And we forced ourselves on this mission in hopes that we could do something. Chess we recommended, but Richard and Robyn and Elliot were all their choices, and Eve— it almost felt like they were trying to get rid of her, honestly.”
They had kept their doubts quiet for the most part. “But they didn’t know why we wanted to come. I joined up when I found out Nova was going to meet us on this side.” Now their blue eyes meet Silas, as if wondering how much they need to explain on this part.
Silas nods, but Castle's mention of Nova makes him pause, lips curving into a puzzled frown. "Nova?" he asks. "Weren't you already in touch with her through… whatever means your department uses?" Something about that makes his frown deepen, but whatever it is isn't quite ready to come into focus just yet.
“In a way, yeah,” there’s a pause now, because this is one of those moments where they’re trying to remember how much has been shared about the girls ability with the rest of the group. Or at least this one. As Castle talks, their mannerisms become more like the reflection. More like the man than the woman. “The mission we’re on was to find a shield to protect the home office, right? Not this place. Not any of the others.”
Maybe two. Maybe three. Maybe an infinite amount that they’ll never see.
“They had plans for one— maybe two.” They had hoped to send the data to the away office after all. “But with Nova— She’s connected to her other selves in a way that most people aren’t. I felt like, maybe, with the right combination of abilities, that with someone that has a foot in many worlds it would be possible to save— more.
“Maybe all of them.”
Silas is silent for a moment. "She's got a foot in every world. Except the, uh, home office, from what I recall. So… that could… maybe work," he admits, before looking back to Castle. "If you had the right abilities. And enough power to stand up to an actual solar apocalypse."
He frowns thoughtfully. "What exactly did you have in mind?"
“For now. The group that got sundered aren’t ones to be messed with. My money is still on them solving the problem on their own,” Castle says simply, not saying which of them is actually betting on them, or if it’s actually something they both agree on. “But that’s why getting the shield is still a backup, if it even exists. That plan is still something I’ll help with every step of the way.”
Cause saving one or two worlds is better than none. Even if their goal is to save more than that.
“The Castle. This.” They wave their hand around. “Back when I first was able to raise it, it could only reach a square kilometer— maybe a square mile— one of those.” Metric vs Imperial always confused them. “But that’s cause my heart stops beating while it’s expanding. It takes time. So I can really only expand it for a few seconds before I pass out and the Castle falls. So I had to time my limits. A lot.” And they do mean a lot. The first two months of their time with the Agency had been learning just how many seconds they could hold on to make it as big as possible.
They stop. Look at Silas. They want to see if he’s following. If he gets where they might be headed with this.
Silas blinks when Castle mentions sundered — it's not a term he's familiar with — but he doesn't press on it. He's got enough on his plate at the moment.
"Huh," he answers, frowning. "So you're… trying to get around that?" His frown sharpens. "So… your ability. It… what, rewinds things?" He thought that was how it worked, but he doesn't quite grasp how that would fit. "How does it work, anyway?"
“Remind me to explain that part later, when you have more bandwidth,” Castle says, shaking their head a little. Cause they really do have a lot on their plate as it is. “Basically it works two ways. Once I bring it up, it ‘saves’ the state that we’re in. The temporal spatial state. We stop. If you look through the invisible world it’s stopped. Time outside isn’t moving for us. Not yet.”
They stand up and motion Silas over to the edge, making motions at the clouds. The clouds that haven’t moved an inch since the castle went up. Everything is frozen.
“When I collapse the castle, I make a choice. The Time inside rapidly catches up to the time outside and it’s as if it was up for however long the people inside or out remember it being up.” They kneel down, grabbing a stick and drawing a circle. On the inside they draw two stick-figures. On the outside they draw one. “So for both of these it’ll be like the castle was up the same amount of time and whatever happened in the castle was real and true. No reset. This is what happens if I get knocked out too, by the way.”
That’s a big weakness they’re trusting him with. It’s Basil’s reflection that’s bent down doing the drawing, while Saffron looks on with her arms crossed.
“Then there is the reset. When we do that we restore the interior to previous states. So the temporal profile that it had been at, meaning your— essence? Will be restored. People who died are back, injuries are healed for the most part. But the people remember what happened to them. I can be a little selective about it and some things can be— fudged— but mostly it still has time pass the same on both sides. Cause of the memories.”
As if that explains why time still catches up. In both those ways.
“But what’s inside skips whatever happened— outside.”
Silas is silent for a long moment, considering. "So the limit to expansion is how long you can stay conscious."
Again, he falls silent, his eyes on Castle; the sheer scale of what they seem to be suggesting has him re-examining what's been said, trying to see if he's misinterpreted… but as mind-boggling as it is, everything seems to add up. "You're talking about… potentially putting a barrier up over the entire planet? Maybe… refracting your ability somehow through Nova to cover multiple planets?" he asks. The scope of what they seem to be suggesting is almost dizzying.
“Yes. Exactly,” Castle says, smiling in a way that really doesn’t fit the face that they’re wearing, but somehow does at the same time. It’s Basil’s smile, but it looks good on his sister.
“Ya know, I think I have to go back to the Sundered after all. See, most of the idea, weirdly enough, came to my attention only because of one thing. A plane crash. Half of the abilities that would have worked with my idea? Belong to a group of people who were suddenly kidnapped in the night, apparently stripped of their ability and— well let’s just leave it there.”
They start drawing more figures inside the circle, this time they label them. “There was a technopath, who could control a machine I might be hooked up to to keep me alive during it. There was a telepath, who could possibly link everyone who needed to be linked. There was someone who could make people’s abilities stronger. Someone who could sense biological systems at an intricate level. Someone who could supply literal electric energy. Someone who could manipulate toxins…”
They don’t add all of them, but that’s quite a group. “And Nova. My pouring over their files day after day and then getting the news of what was to come. It made me think perhaps it was all— fate.”
Silas considers Castle's words carefully; the whole Sundered thing seems like a whole can of worms, but he thinks the Cliff's Notes version is probably fine for the context of this conversation. "If Richard were here," he begins slowly, "he'd probably say something about not believing in coincidences. Me, I'm a little more forgiving on that front — in a universe where free will exists and choices matter, sooner or later something's got to be an accident. But I'll allow that it definitely looks pretty suspicious that multiple people you had your eyes on got rounded up and swept off the board at once, though." He pauses. "Also alarming, if it actually was deliberate, because I'm assuming you probably kept this one pretty close to the vest."
"What about the other half of these… sundered? Any connection there?"
“Ha.” Castle gives a soft laugh that’s more a statement than a laugh. “We’re torn on this in a way. Fate or not, it may not have been that they were swept off the board because of what they could do— but because they were swept off the board— because we were assigned to look into them— that’s when I got the idea.”
Only after looking at their abilities. After learning about what this world ending threat might actually be. “Let’s see— um. There was a pyro— and a former healer who could now turn into fire. Different ladies. A speedster. A guy who could shut down senses, I think. Echolocation. A complete unknown. Hiro Nakamura’s sister.” They looked off for a moment, sure they were forgetting some.
“I’m not sure all the powers matter, or that they even got everyone they intended. Two of them were like us— came through on the crossing. Had fake ids and everything. So it’s not that I think that the people who took them did it to stop them from saving the world with me— I just think that— mom used to say ‘some pieces have to fall into place so that we can see the rest of the picture’.”
Silas grunts in acknowledgement, though he does spare a look at Castle on that one. I wonder if she was thinking about Basil when she said that. Then he remembers how Mad Eve had died. I wonder if she was thinking about herself when she said that, he thinks, before banishing that line of thought. He shakes his head. "That does sound like something she'd say," he admits ruefully.
"Of course… you're not exactly doing bad here, I don't think," he points out, glancing at Castle's reflection — both of their reflections. "Doc Gray's healing power couldn't bring back the dead, but holding someone alive might be a different thing; maybe Chess could help with that, since she's… well, I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, but something." He shrugs.
"For linking minds, you've got Elliot's… power," he says, not quite able to keep the flicker of a grimace off of his face. "And beyond that, you've got Nova. A Nova who is connected, and who potentially has a vested interest in saving this world." Silas tries not to hope. He fails; he's always been bad at that.
If Castle took that as a compliment or an encouragement, it’s hard to tell, cause they wave a hand as if to dismiss the idea that they’re doing good. “There’s also Asi— Asami. I had tried to get some help from the one on the other side, but on this side might still be able to do a thing or two. There’s machines that can keep people awake, that can help people use their abilities for extended periods of time.”
They won’t go into too much detail, but they definitely think those are options. “Elliot too, obviously. Their ability is— helpful.” There’s so many variables. “Every world matters— every one we save is another chance.”
With that, they stand up, dropping the stick. As they stand, the reflection of Basil seems to flicker out for a moment as she focuses her eyes on the older man. “This world matters to me. It’s the only one we were born together in. And I can’t lose him again.”
Nova’s not the only one who wants to save this world.
"Don't let her hear you call her that," Silas warns absently, a reaction to hearing that name that is not just immediate but reflexive.
Beyond that… again, he is silent for a moment. He meets Saffron's eyes for a long moment, but then his gaze slides off somewhere into the middle distance.
"We journeyed to Japan. To Hawa'ii. I thought we were laying the foundation for a new future. A better future. One where… maybe the whole world could learn from the mistakes of our past. Where maybe we could rise from the ruins. Where we could do better. And then… all of this." Now his gaze comes back to Saffron again. "If this world can be saved, I want to save it too."
"But this plan relies on a whole lot of things falling into place, and not all of them have yet. The machines you're talking about, for example. For another… how long you can stay conscious might not be the only limit on your power. And I hate to say it, but… even if you can amp your power enough to pull this off… using your power that long and that hard might burn you out. Might even just…" he snaps his fingers, a worried expression on his face "…plain kill you." Which would admittedly still be a 'safe' fail state, since the reset requires a conscious decision from Castle.
"Are you okay with that?" he asks, his gaze meeting Saffron's, his face mostly impassive… but with a hint, just a hint, of worry there.
“I actually don’t have a death-wish anymore— dying was all fun and games til you do it enough times— but if it’s us versus a world, then I’ll choose a world,” Castle says without even hesitating long, and this time there’s even a second reflection for a moment. “You’re right though— there’s no guarantee that anything I’ve thought of will work.”
That isn’t really what might discourage them, even if they’re not showing that nervous energy as much anymore. “In the end, if we only save one, then in a way we saved them all. Cause it’s gonna splinter again. I have to believe that. What’s the point of these powers otherwise.”
This might be the more optimistic of the two speaking, but— “As long as one version exists, we all exist.”
Silas lets out a short chuckle at Castle's admission of not having a death-wish anymore, because damn if that's not a relatable sentiment. "Saving something is better than saving nothing. And I'd rather try to save something and fail than sit on my laurels and wait for the end to happen," he says gravely.
"I'll try to keep my eyes open, and if I catch something that might help, I'll let you know. And I'd ask that you do the same for me; keep me posted." He lets out a slow breath. "In the meantime — north to Alaska. Or… northwest to Alaska, as the case may be."
He hesitates for a moment. "I have a couple more questions, if I could. And then there's something I'd like to share with you that you might not know. First, the information you've been sent to collect, the information on the… shield or whatnot. Do you think it will actually be able to save the home office? And second… is there anything else you can think of that might be helpful for me to know? As I've said, I'm learning on the fly here," he says, offering a faintly rueful grin.
“Aren’t we all,” Castle says with a grin, knowing that they’re all playing by a book that they hope has play cards but they get tossed out every five seconds. “I think there must be truth to some of what we know. Too many cogs for any one group to manipulate all the information.”
They reach up a hand and hold it toward Silas’ face, but don’t touch them yet. “I can give you the memories I have of the meetings. It’s faster and you will get our deductions at the same time and still be able to make your own based on the information at hand. I might redact a few identities, but don’t hold that against me. I don’t want to break all my NDAs.”
It’s an info dump, but. “That’s Saffron’s ability. We couldn’t use it much at all outside of us over there.” They had been relieved that her ability seemed to not work as well there, “but it does work better inside a castle for some reason. I still need to touch you.”
Silas blinks. They have two abilities? He mulls that for a moment. It would make sense, since they're two different people, but…
He cuts off that line of thought, focusing on the present, and offers a nod. "Ready." As I'm gonna get, he thinks, not moving as Saffron's hands touch his face.
“I’ll throw on all of the paintings of mom’s that we can remember. See if you come up with any details we didn’t,” they say as Castle touches the edges of the man’s temples with both hands. Who knows if the particular placement is important, but for a moment, there’s something reflected in their eyes, the rods shifting and the iris expanding, the pupil constricting into pin holes, so small it seems impossible.
Castle’s vision goes completely black. The green glow of the barrier locking them in the world starts to shift and shimmer. Perhaps this is why it works better inside the castle—
The world falls away. The castle is Silas. And memories roll by. When the memory was something recorded from within the castle, its so detailed that it seems he might have fully rendered maps of the room and transcripts of each of the dialogues on hand.
Other times it’s far more vague, subjective, depending more on their point of view. It’s almost too much, even the paintings seem as if a dreamscape where they’d been recreated in as much detail as possible.
The green glow of memories ripple over the canvas of their eyes.
It's a trance, a fugue, a fever-dream; he finds himself reliving a parade of memories he's never had, standing in places he's never seen, speaking words he hasn't spoken.
And then… then, eventually, it ends.
Time has passed.
Silas is fairly sure of that; his eyes are dry. He blinks, once, twice, and he is once more standing in the Castle, Saffron's hands on his temples… and then, falling away. Silas shakes his head like he's trying to shake loose cobwebs. "That… was a lot," he manages, closing his eyes as one hand comes up to rub at his brow. "Wow. Uh. Yeah, I'll… give it some thought," he says, nodding. His expression shifts into a distracted frown as he tries to catch his footing again. Part of him wants to go out and do something with his hands, give his mind a chance to sort through all this… but there's also a nagging certainty at the back of his mind that there was something else he wanted to say. It takes him a moment of digging before he finds it. "Right. Something I wanted to pass on before we wrapped up here. Something that might be… important. It was before… before the voyage to Japan. The journey to the east." Silas lets out a slow breath, his thoughts starting to settle.
"Before that… I visited Mad Eve. I went to speak with her about Kensei and the Dragon." He laughs. "That was the the whole reason I got the idea to go to Japan, you know? Because, right before she blasted me back here… I heard her talking to Adam. She called him kensei, right before she… unraveled him." The reminder of that awful scene elicits a grimace.
Silas realizes he's getting a bit off track; he shakes his head to focus. "Anyway. I asked her about… a lot of things. She showed me four pictures and gave me a foretelling, but… I don't think it was for that voyage. I think it was for this one."
"The pictures… maybe you've seen them, but I'll tell you about them anyway. The grouping might be important. The first… I think it was you. A blonde woman reaching out to a dark-haired man, both of them sinking into the ocean. The second… a triangular portal shining in the sky over a stormy sea. The third… an explosion amidst a broken city, on land, with a cloaked figure off to the side. The last…"
He pauses. "The last was me. A close up of my face, doused in blood."
"The prophecy she gave me was… a test of endurance, and one of character. Blood. Lightning amongst the red. Meeting a younger Eve, which…" That one's recognizable. Or is it? Because Glory had also mentioned an Eve, but different. But… would that one be younger?
He shakes his head again. "And… something about warding off a demon." Silas pauses, looking at Castle. Wondering what Mad Eve might have considered a demon.
Hands drop to their side as Castle steps back, head tilting to the side as they listen. Their eyes have returned to normal, and it seems that it was, indeed, a lot for them as well, a trickle of blood gathers at their nose, until they reach up and wipe it away with the back of their hand, not seeming too bothered by it, though their eyes are also bloodshot. Did a vessel burst in there too?
It was a lot, but they buffered most of it, even if it might have left a lingering headache to go with that pressure on the temples.
“That does sound like us, the hands.” There had been a dream painting very similar. It had been a metaphor of when Basil drowned, and Saffron reached across all the distances between them to claim what had been him. What would become them.
“Demon can mean a lot of things— “ and they can’t really gather a guess beyond the demon that seems to wish to wipe out all the worlds they don’t like. “But meeting an even younger Eve?” they raise an eyebrow and study the blood on the back of their hand. “I hope you’re not one of our dads. Not that I think you’d be a bad dad, but it might make this a little weird.” Mostly cause then they’d have to imagine their mom and him and—
Yeah no please not that. No kid wants to mentally think of that ever.
Silas frowns at Castle's bloodshot eyes and bleeding nose; he considers asking if they're okay, but opts to wait until they've finished… and unfortunately they elect to do so with the conversational equivalent of a car bomb.
"Y— Wh— That— Not—" he garbles for a few moments as several panicked thoughts attempt to shove their way out his mouth simultaneously.
His jaw snaps shut, a hand rising up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he orders his thoughts.
"No, Luke, I am not your father," he deadpans. "Not unless Hiro Nakamura shows up and drags me back in time for a truly wild bender. I didn't meet your Mom until after…" he pauses. "Did she tell you that story? Why she was so much older here?"
The reaction earns a genuine laugh, and from the shadowed reflections, it’s from both of them. Castle shrugs a but, doing a very Mas thing of licking off the nose blood instead of wiping it off properly before they answer, “Not all the details, but mom always went wherever the wind took her. Sometimes literally.”
The details often got lost in the aftermath of whatever else actually ended up happening.
There’s an odd sensation as Silas can almost feel a hand touching his shoulder. Basil’s shadowed reflection seems to be touching his own less shadowed one. “If Nakamura-sensei does show up and toss you into Flood's past with my mum, just take her to a fertility clinic somewhere. They had those back then. No need to do things the old fashioned way just cause we’re amazing kids.”
It’s a joke.
But the hand that isn’t on his shoulder seems to squeeze for an instant before falling away. Perhaps there are more layers to this ability than even the ones using it knows.
Silas snorts in amusement. "I'll keep it in mind. And for what it's worth: if you were mine, I'd be proud of you. But barring said time travel shenanigans, I'm pretty sure it's a no; I only met Eve after she went back in time and raised you two. I'm pretty sure the young Eve that Mad Eve was talking about was the one who's traveling with us now."
"And now… you've given me a lot to think on, and believe me it's greatly appreciated. I'm probably gonna see about chopping some firewood for awhile, give me a chance to try and put some thoughts together, and you… might want to see Chess, maybe, make sure that you didn't rattle any fuses loose." He pauses, grimacing. "Wait, when you reset it should take care of that, shouldn't it."
At the mention of pride, the shadowed form of Basil starts to fidget way more than normal, stretching like he’s trying to do anything he can to distract from whatever he’s feeling at the moment, while Saffron just stands there and watches Silas for a long moment, a hint of a smile on her lips. That smile doesn’t last as they get back to business and find a more—
Difficult topic.
“All castles have a weak point. And this one’s me. I’m the keystone. Anything that happens to me stays as is. So yeah— I’ll talk to Chess. Make sure I didn’t burst anything important.” It’s the one weakness to the castle they didn’t often share.
The green edges give a shimmer, the shadowed reflection of Basil fades away and it shrinks down quickly, sweeping over them in a burst of newly chilled air. It had actually gotten almost comfortable inside the longer it was up.
But the drawings on the ground vanish. The footsteps they’d made are gone. And Silas’ position has even shifted. Back to where it was when the castle went up. Not the Agent who raised it tho. They stick their hands in their pockets deep and pull their coat closer.
Silas frowns at Castle's admission of the Castle's vulnerability, filing that away. Huh. He hadn't noticed that Castle's position hadn't been reset the last time the effect ended. It's most definitely possible that he just hadn't noticed; it had been ungodly early and his brain had been rattled by all the stuff that had been thrown at him — including Glory knowing Linderman — and there had been a lot of people present. It is also possible that Castle had just made sure it wasn't obvious.
The clouds are moving again; the suddenness of that is a bit jarring. He takes a moment to look up at them — just a moment — then returns his attention to Castle. "Good talk," he says, with a sincere smile. "This is probably gonna go a long way towards helping me get my feet on solid ground, so… much appreciated." He's also subtly scrutinizing Castle for any signs that they might need an escort back to camp, as an occasional fellow member of the the I ability'd too hard and now I've mildly cooked my brain club… but it's his professional judgement that they're probably good. "And now… I'm gonna get choppin'. If anything else comes up, you know where to find me," he says, offering a lazy wave before he takes his leave.
Silas has a great deal to think about.