01 - Week 4 (November)

[hongtian]

[ The Murmur flares to life with the sensation of flint and steel, sparks catching on dry tinder that leaps rather than eases its way into existence. Ruhong does not hesitate: there is a point to this, and she does not much like riding the waves of a connection that she does not control. ]

I have news of One, and an important warning to go along with it.

What has happened this month cannot be allowed to repeat itself—not in any form. Not just for our own lives or for the world here, but for the very places we call our homes.

Our gracious host may choose to listen, or She may not, but I will be waiting to speak of it near the fountain terrace in the park should you wish to know more. The crucial thing is this: She cannot be allowed to have him. And we must find the other numbers before it is too late.

[ She will respond to questions, but she will also be waiting as promised at the location she mentioned in Central Park. Her presence reduces to the low embers of a dying fire, but it does not fade. ]

Comments

[sorte]

[ ... wait their homes?

Their tether bristles between them like the hair on a spooked cat at this even as he speaks directly through the murmur rather than only through their connection. ]

Oh, lovely. Just what I always wanted to do with my life: get dragged against my will into a garbage dump, or what's left of one, and then also need be required to baby-leash a grown ass man to keep him safe from himself as much as the predatory woman he's being pursued by.

Again? She sure likes playing with her food if she doesn't already have him. But all right, I'll be there.

[hongtian]

I am certain we've all dreamed of this moment our whole lives.

[ There is a dryness to her humor that makes it almost humorless, but the humor is there. Barely. ]

Few dark entities ever set their sights on conquering just one world alone. It was a near miss this time, I think. But what Espera shared may make both his actions and Hers somewhat clearer.

[sorte]

Does she at least have a somewhat reliable record of worlds successfully conquered to back
her up or is she just that ambitious that she took a look around this one and decided she absolutely nailed the execution of this one?

[ many of them do have deities that, at least Aventurine assumes and still believes very firmly, are far superior to Sleep's capabilities that would not allow he's to get very far, so he's quite curious on that one.

he's coming to meet her, too, but he's going to bitch about Sleep and One some more on the way because he can. ]

Oh? Do you mean clearer beyond that he's a lonely, desperate and gullible man that suddenly thought he had a plan that might help him fix things on his own because he doesn't want anyone else to get dragged into his mess?

[dethangel]

[Toki has, of course, been committed to protecting One basically since he helped him out with getting a guitar early on in his time here. He considers him to be one of his friends, after all. That's important. So of course he's going to show up.]

I'm coming, [he says, determination in his voice.

He's there about as soon as he can, which is faster than he used to get places now that he's mostly got the hang of his wings. He moves close, looking around nervously.]

Hello?

[hongtian]

[ Ruhong is waiting precisely where she promised she'd be, half-sitting against the fountain at Bethesda Terrace where she stares into the middle distance. Ruhong is not the most patient of people, for all she's practiced sitting still her whole life; she nearly vibrates with energy, the air around her shimmering with heat.

Though they haven't spoken in some time, she recognizes Toki's voice and the body that comes with it. Ruhong blinks, refocusing her eyes on the present, and stands up straight to greet him. He looks nervous; she instantly begins checking to see if there is something behind him. ]

You're here. Has something frightened you?

[markingnight]

[ Truth be told, when it came to team meetings, Ironeye much preferred aura farming in a shadowy corner. But when someone was offering up such dire warnings practically on his front doorstep, would he not be remiss in failing to appear? ]

Miss Ruhong[ , he said, giving her a quick dip of his head in greeting. ] Your tidings sounded dire.

[hongtian]

Sir Ironeye. [ She returns the greeting with the addition of a simple salute, fist to palm. ] Perhaps more illuminating than dire, I hope, though dire would not be wholly inappropriate.

I'll get right to it. Last we spoke, we spoke of Espera and her nature. I have now spoken with her of the same thing.

It seems understanding her comes with understanding quite a lot.

[opheliac]

Woah, scary stuff. This sounds like a job for a hero.

[hongtian]

And it's heroics you wish to achieve, then?

[hallowedly]

( A gentleman and a bad idea walk into a terrace-side fountain, under the long spears of shadow shot by winter's anemic foliage. He has the decency to wear the long streak of last month's paling cuts and bruises, like something a cat on psychedelic drug's beaten against the walls, while dragging in.

In short, a costly presidential wave. These shoulder bones aren't grateful. )

I suppose it's ungentlemanly to say I'll show you mine, if you show me yours. But start anyway.

[hongtian]

[ She has forgotten neither their meeting in the cathedral nor her uncontrollable and unseemly emotions of the time, but Ruhong is rather good at pretending, usually, that there is nothing of note to remember of her own actions. Instead, she focuses on the now: on his fading injuries, the labored wave. An urge to rehabilitate both his body and her own self-image.

She frowns at him as her greeting. ]

Are you in need of healing, before I do?

[sculptedash]

[Oh. Doesn't this sound familiar]

Hey hey hey.

Tell them to knock it off.

I already doomed the multiverse before I got here.

It doesn't need to get more doomed.

[hongtian]

[ Somehow, despite herself, Ruhong cannot resist the urge to joke. Even if it's a morbid one. ]

It is too late, I'm afraid. If you've doomed it while I am also here, then I have doomed it twice over.

[potentialman]

[ Oh.

...shit. ]

I'm on my way over.

[hongtian]

[ She is waiting in the place she described, having not moved from this spot for hours, patiently explaining herself face-to-face with each person who has approached. Ruhong is easy enough to spot: a white-haired and red-eyed woman with jewels in her hair and a sword that must have been sitting in a museum not long ago at her side, her multicolored clothing not quite caught up yet to the styles of the modern day.

He is mostly unfamiliar to her, but there is no mistaking the urgency with which he now approaches. ]

You came to hear of One?

[trashblaze]

[ "Not just for our own lives or for the world here, but for the very places we call our homes." … Hearing that immediately sends a wave of pain through the Murmur coming from Caelus.

Not… this again. How many planets has it been now? Caelus encountered the apocalypse not just once, not even twice. It's uncomfortably too many at this point, and he couldn't ignore the statement. ]

I'll… I'll be right over.

[ Since it seems she prefers to talk about this in person, Caelus doesn't ask anything else and disappears from the Murmur after responding.

Several minutes later, he shows up at the place she indicated. But unlike earlier, he's smiling nicely now. It seems he calmed himself down along the way here. ]

Hello, hello. It's nice to meet you, I'm Caelus, the Galactic Baseballer!

[hongtian]

[ Well, Ruhong has always had a flair for the dramatics—along with a deep-rooted belief in what she's saying and a religious conviction that has been with her for too long.

But she is there at her promised location just as he expects to find her, and though she is somewhat taken aback by the cheeriness of his greeting, she tucks that reaction away behind a polite greeting of her own. ]

I am Yun Ruhong. Forgive me: you are Caelus the—what? I am unfamiliar with either of those words.

[merged]

[ The instant she spots Ruhong in the Murmur, she turns to seek her out, bundled in layers, her thoughts already circling the woman's words. She's already decided for herself that she won't let anyone else offer themselves up to Sleep. One and Sunny were already two sacrifices too many.

She calls out softly as she draws closer, a gloved hand lifting in a loose, almost lazy greeting. Ruhong stands out against the seasonal gloom of Central Park, bright as fresh snow, and even knowing she carries news that could dim that light, it is still a comfort to see someone she looks up to. ]

Tell me you got some good news for us, too?

[hongtian]

[ It's not exactly embarrassment that touches Ruhong when she sees Sharon's approach, for she rarely feels such a thing. Still—there has to be a word for the way Ruhong feels the need to stand a little straighter, a little taller, a little sturdier when she sees the younger woman when Sharon has now seen her weeping and desperate and on her knees.

It is, of course, partly her pride. But she also just doesn't want to let Sharon down.

So it is that Ruhong welcomes Sharon's approach. She's been here for some time now, still on her feet with the fountain's wide base her only cold, hard support but as unbothered by this position as she was when she started. Ruhong has held far more uncomfortable vigils for longer. She is just glad now to see Sharon, and she focuses on that.

Ruhong twists her lips in a half-smile at the question. ]

I suppose it depends on your definition of good news.

[closetdweller]

['Homes' was a complicated concept here- which world was at stake? Did the Gates protect Ente Isla and by extension the scientific questions that had led to his circumstances in the first place?

Was it the world that he thought of as 'home'?]

... Guess my gut was right- doing what she likes and making her happy is not what we want to do.

[Then, a sigh:]

Guess I've gotta pay attention now. You have room on the roster for a guy whose been slacking?

I'll go find you.

[hongtian]

If we must give up our wills and our choices to make Her happy, then it has never been the path forward.

So—always. I have often been late on the uptake, myself, even here. I'll be waiting.

[saudades]

[Sorry, excuse him, what. The feeling that shivers across the Murmur is that of someone who's been startled out of a stupor themselves.]

So Her influence isn't limited to drawing us, or some aspect of us, into this world. It can seep back into our own, through our vessels?

[He has long resented Sleep for pulling him from his rest, but if there is one thing he cannot possibly allow, it's this. If that's the state of affairs, that changes things quite a bit. Sleep needs to be destroyed.]

[hongtian]

That is my theory. It is clear that She needs One, and She needs us. If She has not reached the limits of Her power just yet—if One can give her that—then why else would She need us?

Darkness eats, and eats, and eats.

[longwillows]

[Kalmiya does not preempt her arrival over the Murmur; the only evidence of her attention to the message is a distant tinkling of bells, muffled as if by dense foliage.

Otherwise, she shows up to the fountain square unannounced. Much like their new friend Three, she's found a perch high up. And from that perch in a nearby tree, she jumps, phasing back into physical space atop what remains of the statue in the fountain. Her body materializes from nothingness in a cloud of pink glitter and swirling pearlescent tendrils of energy.

Once whole, she sits with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, three fuchsia fox tails draped over the side of the statue.] What a surprise, that the entity who caused this situation is vital to ultimately correcting it!

[Her sarcasm is painted like amazement, but it's still clearly sarcasm. The self-restraint of this statement is that she didn't say it over the Murmur to everyone who previously thought it wise to kill One.]

[hongtian]

[ A small twitch and a blink is what betrays Ruhong's surprise to Kalmiya's sudden appearance. She has had her back turned the statue, silent and stock-still her her vigil as she waits for the trail of arrivals coming to hear her news to continue. Now, she turns: only halfway, uncrossing her arms to place one palm-down on the cool stone fountain rim, head turned to catch Kalmiya in her periphery until her eyes settle on her visitor directly. ]

If there is a point to your sarcasm, you may as well voice it directly.