Participants:
| Scene Title | Don't Burn The Witch |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Nathalie gets advice from who some would call an old fool. |
| Date | June 3, 2019 |
After the meeting, Nathalie heads up through the library by herself, sliding on her leather jacket as she steps outside. A lot of the information wasn't new to her, but there was enough to trouble her. While she didn't show it in front of the others, her expression is stormy as she starts the walk toward The Bastion.
As she walks there's the sound of wheels on pavement behind her. "Yooohoo!" Comes the rasp of the former seer that had called Nathalie and her siblings together. "Precious!" Waving her arms, Eve comes barreling out of the door and skates ahead on those sparkly silver roller skates she loves so much. Her trench coat billowing around her as she crouches and sails in front of the younger woman and spins. Rising with a small grin, "Hai there. I have to thank you." First and foremost.
"Those blue eyes my, you're the most pleasant face I've seen with them. Mmmmm?"" A tilt of her head and Eve places her hands in front of her as she slowly skates backwards, not stopping Nathalie's trajectory if she so chooses to continue moving forward and away from the library. She's use to hovering nearby, some would say like a buzzard and boy does she buzz with crimson lightning that dances around her neck and up one side of her face.
Eve's condition leaves her in constant pain, the tearing apart of her molecules one by one and destabilizing. Every movement a little wince, every smile just a tad forced. "You saw to my Chicken. She's my niece through Gilly AKA Gillian and Petey." As if Gilly is her Proper band. "You might know her as Jolene!" Leaning forward, "Can you guess why she's called Chicken? Oh I won't make you work too hard after my speel downstairs. She's the next generation but she's totally from an alternate future where we're like crumbly old. So we're the eggs! Anyway!" There are tears in Eve's eyes already and she closes them, "You gave her back her life. My Gilly too. I am indebted to you Precious. Any favor you need. Anything at all."
The call gets Nathalie to turn and follow Eve's path around her. It's a brief pause, because Eve doesn't stop moving, so neither does Nat. She observes Eve while she talks, taking in those flashes of crimson and those small winces that give away what's going on under her smiles.
Nat understands that.
"No one owes me anything for Lene," she's quick to say, "I wish I had seen to her sooner." That's where she decides to start out of Eve's words. "I don't think I want to start healing to get favors out of people." It's something she's still trying to work out, what her personal code is to using or not using the Conduits. She glances back toward the library, her expression dimming before she looks back to Eve. "I tried to tell them downstairs, but I couldn't do it," she says with a hand running through her hair. "I don't want them to be scared of me."
He hands reach out to take Eve's arms, apparently not worried about the lightning coursing through her skin. She brings them both to a halt there on the sidewalk. "What happened to you? This hurts you."
"No no don't go opening a Pharmacy." Eve waves her hand and Nathalie's dismissal of being given an Eve favor, "Take the favor, slide it in your backpocket. It's just because, not for any godlike healing." Winkwink. There's a soft frown and sad expression on her face and she nods, "Oh my… that is horrible to feel such a way. You are loved Nathalie. Your family will stand by you, even when distance you can lean on them. One step at a time, your true name is a large step. No worries on taking your time with the next," Eve empathizes with Nathalie, she was no stranger to keeping secrets and she knew how they could eat you up inside, Nathalie it seems had been holding this secret for far longer than she should have had to. "A name has power, stand in yours."
Then the young woman is grabbing Eve's arms and her eyes widen, "Careful sweet one." She whispers looking down at their entangled limbs. It wasn't healthy to have prolonged contact for either of them but the pale, tall woman feels that Nathalie knows what she's doing.
Eve considers for a moment before she lets Nathalie have it, "There is an ancient entity known only as The Dragon and I believe it is the First of us, the most powerful. A mosaic but more." She leans in a fraction her face one of dread but there's abundant curiosity in her eyes. "I use to dream the future, later saw it all around me. I encountered it first in dreams, then I time traveled and met it in Ancient Japan," There's a clue for Nathalie on where the older woman is heading, "Earlier this year, after being banished for some decades by the Founders of the Company. The sneaky lot removed their memories so that nobody could remember! Not even how to stop it. It was released in a Crossing of Travelers. Two friends from this world…" A slow twist of Eve's head as her gaze looks over the neighborhood at the faces milling by. "And a host of Travelers from other worlds. The Dragon came with. It took my body, took me over. I felt… I'm not sure. But I blacked out. Woke up later as… this." Gesturing with her chin down at herself. Something strikes her though and her eyes squint as she redirects her attention towards the life force manipulator.
"The Conduits and The Dragon are connected, you haven't felt a thing? …not a ripple in the air? Maybe… a disturbance in the force?"
"I don't know, Eve. We were never as close as they are to each other. I don't know how to fix that now. Or if they want it fixed." Nathalie's been keeping her distance, for their safety but also because she feels they're more comfortable without her. Her hands lift, to wave away the rush emotion that comes with voicing those particular thoughts. Normally, she's better at staying closed off, but just now she's having a harder time of it.
When she brings up the Dragon, Nathalie is glad to latch onto something else. "Awonawilona. The creator. I know about her. And what I have is the Ahayu’da, the warrior twins. We're connected but I don't know how. Adam knows, though." Which is upsetting, because he isn't exactly the safest person to ask for information. "Eve, I feel a disturbance all the time. It just figuring out where they come from."
"Speaking to Richard mmm, he knows a lot." Eve nods her head with an appreciation in her eyes for Nathalie's knowledge, her bearings on things. "I believe it gifted Adam with immortality. I believe it must have been around for the creation of the Conduits. There's a memory. Somewhere." A jolt of lightning bounces off her leg and strikes the ground with a crack leaving a tiny wisp of smoke wafting up between the pair. Eve steps back with a polite smile, "You don't want sunburns. Heh." Snortsnort. But back to important matters. "I've been trying to ask Adam about it but he's hellbent on having his war." A roll of her eyes, boys and their wars. "Never ending cycles." There's a huff but if there's one thing Eve knows about it's searching the world of the metaphysical for the answers in the tangible.
"Oh my dear, well. It sounds harder than it is but to trace those threads, follow those ley lines to the source, well you must look deeper." Pointing a finger at Nathalie's chest to indicate the answers are literally inside of her. "It must be terrifying. All of those souls, pressed inside." Another frown and Eve wants to envelope the young woman in her arms, "I heard the voices too, just different versions of my own crazy tune of a tone. They overload, they make you act like someone else. You regret ever indulging in them." These things Eve has firsthand knowledge of, "If there is one thing I am grateful for it's the elimination of any future outbursts containing my visions. But the damage is done." It's as much a urging for action as it is a cautionary tale.
"Don't lean your ear in the river, no that was my mistake Precious. Let it hover just above the surface. Close your eyes and concentrate. Feel the connection to yourself, to the past of others and the power that holds. Pick out the voice, the disturbance that feels different but is currently cloaked under shadows of memories and past lives," Eve closes her eyes to demonstrate, breath rattling in her chest. A hand goes to lift the vape pen to her lips but her damned lightning pops along the surface and the light flickers on and then off, shaking the thing with eyes scrunched together there's only a tiny bit of smoke that's emitted from her lips. "Oh bugga boos." Shoving the tiny thing in her bra, "Do you meditate?" Eyes snapping open to look into Nathalie's pale blues.
"I don't know how to do that. The door is either closed or it's open. And if it's open, any of them could come." Nathalie shakes her head, because the whole thing is a little too worrying for her. "And then maybe I don't come back. I know the answers are there, but I'm not sure they're worth the risk. So… no, I don't meditate." In her experience, she has to keep a firm grip on herself, not let her consciousness float back through the centuries. "Instead… I'm thinking of asking Adam myself. He knows more about what I am than I do and I'd prefer it to be the other way around. If I can convince him to let me close again, I might be able to find out about me, about the Dragon, about his plans… who knows."
Truth be told, this option is a risk, too, to losing herself to something more wild, more violent. But she feels like she could handle that now. Or, at least, she has some idea on how to handle it.
"I have to keep my feet on the ground, Eve," she says, although she sounds almost like she regrets it, "it's the only way I know to protect myself."
"I thought I couldn't control the door once myself but that's a lie, a sham dressed as a fresh chocolate chip cookie." Eve says sharply while looking closely at Nathalie, her whole body trembles. "Belief can be so strong… it accomplishes impossible feats. Things that women and men say can't be done. Even in our own community. Just look at you now, shattering the rules in your very existence. They say those two cant be around each other without going KaBOOMyet here you stand. You, why shouldn't you be able to wander where the past holders could not go?"
Her body shimmers and crackles with crimson energy, fine red mist dusting off the ends of her fingers, one whole finger nothing but a swirling mass of blood red light. This happens when she's riled up and a young woman who doesn't yet fully trust herself and her abilities calls Eve to action.
"Chicken would say I wasn't being very chalk right now, forgive lovely. Aunt Eve is extra but I'm inspired by the next generation. By you." Eve smiles then, drawing away and waving her hand. "I believe in you, in the strength you have. The more I see and hear you, the more I see it." And that's only two times of recent memory. "Those are matters for later though," settling back from her fever state of delivering what she calls a rousing speech of encouragement. "To ask The Plague is a good idea. It might come shaded in his bias but drawing his ear… his trust.. is a large task." The older woman taps her arms as she buzzes but stays in the form of the human woman she's so use to being. "Not a task too large for you though, She Who Shoulders Boulders. Your back is quite broad and strong Precious. Adam won't burden you too much."
…
"And how would she do it? Turn his suspicion into devotion?"
"Will you be satisfied with the fact that your door and my door are different?" Nathalie says, when Eve gets visibly upset. "If there's a way to do the same investigation with less risk, that's what I'm trying first. I'm holding onto these powers for now, these people, but I'm not sure if they're mine or if I'm theirs."
And it's a question she isn't eager to get the answer to. Because she has a suspicion she's not the one in charge.
Which might mean that Eve has a point about her not trusting herself.
"I do have a plan," she says, to the later question. "He already knows that I'm a bit erratic. And he knows that I'm with Wolfhound. So lying isn't in the cards. But. If he thinks I'm easy to influence, then I think the possibility of having the Conduits with him and his own ego will lower his guard eventually. If I can play along well enough." And she thinks she can. What she doesn't mention, of course, is that this plan comes with its own dangers. Because she has not proven to be immune to his influence so far. "The best lie is one that's close to the truth."
A beat passes.
"I just have to convince my dad." And it is, she thinks, her dad she has to work on, rather than her boss. This isn't exactly a normal assignment. "And Francois, too." Other Dad.
"Doors… doors… doors, windows… gates. May be shaped differently but they're just entrances for us to leap through." Being upset is washed away with as fast as Eve's moods fluctuate and she smiles that too wide, dazzling impish smile that is known to unnerve some. "I think you need to go to family court with the others… for joint custody of your body." A compromise. "All gifts can be controlled, melded to fit your needs." Eve has faith. The older woman looks to the sky. The deep red of the sunset reminiscent of the energy that crackles off of her.
The idea of a lie, a trick, duping another.
Well that positively delights Eve, "Oh I like you so much Precious." Nodding her approval but her eyes flick over to the younger woman with a much older spirit. "Tell Franchy I say helllllllo nurse." Winkwink.
Backing away slowly as the crimson light within her begins to swell, making her already bright eyes even shinier. "Mmm I need to fart." It's said in a nonchalant manner and Eve shrugs her shoulders. Can't be helped. "Do be careful Precious, there's so much we don't know. So much we can't know yet." There's a low hiss of pain as her body begins to dissipate. "Let's talk soon. Trust yourself, more than you have before. Tiptoe around the ring, you'll find you can balance. Don't use any books!"
There's a blink as she remembers and leans forward for a second, "I almost forgot. Sibyl. There's something inside of her. Ancient, as old as the Conduits you hold. The Dragon, yes yes. If you see her be careful. Old, Croney, grumpy. Like a great, great, great grandma who got a face lift." Repeating what she said earlier but looking rather hard into Nat's blue eyes. "That body known as Sibyl Black is a Well, an endless hole spiraling down. Enough that it can hold a presence. Hold eternity. The Dragon spreads from speaking but some tales must be spun, for the better of the group for the better of all of our family. Beware the ones with the Golden Eyes my dear, bewar- ahhh," Gripping her stomach and doubling over with a hoot of laughter and grimace of pain. "Out of time!"
There's a wild cackle and Eve explodes into a cloud of fine, red mist. Lightning crackles within and around her and she doesn't wait for the young woman's reaction before she's buzzing off. Off to do whatever it is witches do when the night comes.