Re: The Grand Battle II! [Final Round: Dimensional Speakeasy]
06-03-2011, 12:21 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
She found him, draped gracelessly elegant over a chair, in yet another smoky-ceilinged cavern. Originally lured in by the cataclysmic tones of a harp strung with the threads of some reality, Vyrm’n just lingered by the door when she caught whisper-sight of him. Watching. Listening. Recognition finally conquering incredulity.
His brooding didn’t waver from the strumming seraph atop the stage, until the Faceless snuck behind him. Without missing a beat, he extended a hand freshly liberated from its glove toward the shadow.
"I’m terribly sorry. Have we met?"
Yes, said Vyrm’n, and the Researcher’s eyes lit up.
"You don’t seem that surprised to see me."
The Faceless mentally shrugged. His research had always been proving the existence of – and consequently blasting a path to – the multiverse. Studying its true natives had been secondary, really.
The Researcher rubbed his collarbone, in the same habitual way one might rub their chin if they lacked a helmet to obstruct it. "Twenty-seven years. That’s how much of my life sentence I served before I could finally chase you out here. Twenty-seven years, after you vanished, after they found me guilty of your massacre. Not that I was counting, or anything."
I’m sorry
"No, you’re not. Vyrm is." He sighed, breaking contact for a moment, unfolding from his seat with such languor as to make it almost elegant. Wordlessly, he spun; his gaze lingered for the briefest moment where one might expect a face on the shadow, before it took the rest in. He sighed again, hand extended again to the Faceless in invitation. She took it. "I mean it, Vyrm’n. I’ll admit, that was twenty-seven years of wondering what I’d done to betray you. Being the pathetic, bitter narcissist I was, with revenge my only motivation to live. You wouldn’t understand."
"But then!" He spun around, fervour in his eyes as he waved wildly round the room, still clamped hand in pseudopod with Vyrm’n - "I found all this. And even if I didn't have you to thank for leading me out here, it's given me - oh, it's put those years behind bars right in perspective, let me tell you!"
but
"Vyrm'n. I resent nothing. Nothing in that universe was or ever will be of consequence. It doesn't matter. The point is, I'm home. You're home. You don't need to win your Grand Battle to be sent home, you're already here!"
The Faceless remained unconvinced, despite her companion's grin. It faltered, just a little. "How about… if we just pretend none of it ever happened? Would that help?"
I don't-
"I-" he started, forcibly extricating his hand and using it to pull something from his pocket "-am Lucian. A scholar, here to discover what I may about the Entropics." Lucian pressed, gentle but insistent, a speaker into Vyrm'n's side as he strolled past her on his way to the door.
"I've heard a lot about you, Vyrm'n, and can't express my pleasure enough to meet you - and help you - today. Now please, come with me."
The speaker - smooth and round and nestled in her black, vague approximation of a hand, seemed to thrum with the sound of his words, resounding clearer into the Faceless. It lacked the muddied layers of thought and intention she'd find in contact, but in her tired disoriented mess of a world it struck brightly, unquestionably true.
And so, at least vaguely aware it was for all the wrong reasons, Vyrm'n followed her old master, back into the maze of corridors.
She found him, draped gracelessly elegant over a chair, in yet another smoky-ceilinged cavern. Originally lured in by the cataclysmic tones of a harp strung with the threads of some reality, Vyrm’n just lingered by the door when she caught whisper-sight of him. Watching. Listening. Recognition finally conquering incredulity.
His brooding didn’t waver from the strumming seraph atop the stage, until the Faceless snuck behind him. Without missing a beat, he extended a hand freshly liberated from its glove toward the shadow.
"I’m terribly sorry. Have we met?"
Yes, said Vyrm’n, and the Researcher’s eyes lit up.
"You don’t seem that surprised to see me."
The Faceless mentally shrugged. His research had always been proving the existence of – and consequently blasting a path to – the multiverse. Studying its true natives had been secondary, really.
The Researcher rubbed his collarbone, in the same habitual way one might rub their chin if they lacked a helmet to obstruct it. "Twenty-seven years. That’s how much of my life sentence I served before I could finally chase you out here. Twenty-seven years, after you vanished, after they found me guilty of your massacre. Not that I was counting, or anything."
I’m sorry
"No, you’re not. Vyrm is." He sighed, breaking contact for a moment, unfolding from his seat with such languor as to make it almost elegant. Wordlessly, he spun; his gaze lingered for the briefest moment where one might expect a face on the shadow, before it took the rest in. He sighed again, hand extended again to the Faceless in invitation. She took it. "I mean it, Vyrm’n. I’ll admit, that was twenty-seven years of wondering what I’d done to betray you. Being the pathetic, bitter narcissist I was, with revenge my only motivation to live. You wouldn’t understand."
"But then!" He spun around, fervour in his eyes as he waved wildly round the room, still clamped hand in pseudopod with Vyrm’n - "I found all this. And even if I didn't have you to thank for leading me out here, it's given me - oh, it's put those years behind bars right in perspective, let me tell you!"
but
"Vyrm'n. I resent nothing. Nothing in that universe was or ever will be of consequence. It doesn't matter. The point is, I'm home. You're home. You don't need to win your Grand Battle to be sent home, you're already here!"
The Faceless remained unconvinced, despite her companion's grin. It faltered, just a little. "How about… if we just pretend none of it ever happened? Would that help?"
I don't-
"I-" he started, forcibly extricating his hand and using it to pull something from his pocket "-am Lucian. A scholar, here to discover what I may about the Entropics." Lucian pressed, gentle but insistent, a speaker into Vyrm'n's side as he strolled past her on his way to the door.
"I've heard a lot about you, Vyrm'n, and can't express my pleasure enough to meet you - and help you - today. Now please, come with me."
The speaker - smooth and round and nestled in her black, vague approximation of a hand, seemed to thrum with the sound of his words, resounding clearer into the Faceless. It lacked the muddied layers of thought and intention she'd find in contact, but in her tired disoriented mess of a world it struck brightly, unquestionably true.
And so, at least vaguely aware it was for all the wrong reasons, Vyrm'n followed her old master, back into the maze of corridors.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow