HEARTGAME DRESS REHEARSAL

[finalbows]

thank u rah u hero

tracking sheet
 

[ ..somewhere in the pasture, Angel Devil falls down.
His clothes have twisted away into bone-white rags, leaving a body covered over with only thick swathes of red fur, and downy feathers. His long tail is curled into a tense arc, banded fur standing on end.

The air wavers like he’s a heat mirage, not a man. He’s boiling away with absolutely stupid amounts of arcane power… and, most frighteningly, he does not seem in control of the fact that it is there and being brought to bear. It’s impossible to get any closer to him.


When he speaks, it’s quite timid. ]

Ah,
I thought… I had a little more time.

[ (and in a blinding flash of light, there is the sound of something breaking.) ]

~KRRSHHK~

[any observers will see, strangely see-through and superimposed on the scene, some kind of vast tree, illusionary roots twisting over and around to frame a door.  the door itself is wrought of opaque stained glass in blacks and whites and greys; a stylized rendition of Angie in that strangely ragged, feathered form, curled in on himself, eyes closed.  Angie himself is nowhere to be seen. ]

instead, a shadow . . . steps into view from behind the door.  for a moment it looks like nothing so much as a second genome – then it turns, gaining features and definition with the movement.  The monkey tail separates into three plumes; a ponytail unfurls into wings that lift up from the sides of the head.  

Teleute(?) is here, dressed in her customary black, but there is colour in her skin, and her hair and eyes are blue.  she’s frowning.]

. . . well.  This is the least I can do before I go, in exchange for the safe harbor.

[she lifts her head, nodding to any observers, and gestures at the door.]

You’ll want to head in there now if you don’t wish to lose your flockmate, I think.  Even the false-death of this place won’t be much help to him, if his soul is left to finish pulling itself apart.

My sisters and I can maintain the way into and out of it for you, but we were not made to knit such wounds by ourselves.  Have a care.

Comments

[finalbows]

[ the wrecked nesting grounds remain, but the sky changes to an unearthly, swirling pink. the horizon dissolves. there is only this close space, the hunt for something still living, and...

"Révérence," red as blood and fury and death hanging in the air, chest rise-falling to the point of hyperventilating. ]

"You... You're.. Terra's child... just like me... Ha ha ha ha ha...

The last of your children are vanishing behind me, dragon! They're fighting valiantly to protect the last roar of Terra, before the teeth close for the final time to their throats...

Are you going to leave them to do it alone?"

[ he vanishes, like sand. his face was visible. a memory, not something to save. ]

[wants_the_phd]

That was when he tried to destroy everything?

He makes it sound like he wanted you to stop him...

Did you?

[finalbows]

[ the dragon stands in regal power, prepared for a battle.

four shades appear on the ground, armed and ready. they rush at the dragon to fight--

and phase through it, to nothing.

it wasn't angel devil it fought, that day.
one of those shades was a young genome, for certain.]

[wants_the_phd]

[She recognizes that genome, doesn't she]

...Why them? Were they trying to destroy Terra, too?

But why would they need to, if Garland was already dead by then...

[finalbows]

[ im so sorry az but this big ol dragon does not at all understand the why of the situation it was commanded into.


only that all of the eggs, forever, seem to be broken. it worked so hard. how could this happen? continues digging. ]

1/2

[wants_the_phd]

[....]

[wants_the_phd]

[In the comfort of a land of dreams and metaphor, she slips comfortably into her dragon shape without the drama of bursting out of her clothes about it. She joins the grieving parent in carefully nosing through the dirt in search of survivors. ...or Angie. Has he buried himself here in a fit of regret?]

[finalbows]

[ he would, wouldn't he. ]

[ ... ]

[ the two of them working together, in tandem... turn up something.
one, single, precious, cracked egg,
and a certain red pearl.

but--
...
well, the situation in that egg doesn't smell, seem good. but... that tiny, fragile hope of a thing...
it also doesn't smell dead yet. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[Well, that's what we have Life for, isn't it?]

[We are attempting to cast Life, at least.]

[finalbows]

[ as the spell sinks into the egg, it, and the pearl both glow--

...

for the egg, the glow goes down to a guttering, low dim.
the light in Function Ball stays brighter, steady.
the Nova dragon is already carefully making a crescent of itself, around the two. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She casts a Cure on the egg for good measure, and then another.]

[She's eyeing that pearl, though. It's good that it's glowing, but she wants to find the body it belongs to.]

[finalbows]

[ that fragile glow grows, grows,

finally, it holds.

the glow built up in that pearl, too.
but while she was focused on the egg... it's changed into something else.

Gained MASK OF HOPE. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She dips her head to the dragon, polite.]

May I have the function ball, please? I'd like to reunite it with its owner, so it can be made whole again, too.

[finalbows]

[ it makes a long, low, rumbly noise,

and folds its wing protectively by the egg, then carefully sweeps it out to push the mask away. ]

1/2

[wants_the_phd]

[She dips her head and delicately takes the mask in her teeth. She then pads away to a polite distance before dropping it on the dirt. Bleh.]

[wants_the_phd]

[Her form melts back into a fully-clothed, human-shaped version of herself. SHE WISHES IT WERE THIS CONVENIENT IN REAL LIFE but she'll take what she can get.]

[She picks up the mask and looks it over. This was Angie's heart a moment ago.]


[...

She tries resonating with the mask, the way she would a crystal. Hello? Angie? Are you there? Can I use this mask as a dowsing rod to find your sad corpse? I just want to talk.]

[finalbows]

[ you have to find the right spot, to hear it.

do you remember those red circles, on the hand-drawn diagram of your body?

when you try it near one of those spots, you hear it.

and it guides you from the arid coast, to an open hole in a rotting tree.


...follow the roots, down, down, and down.
you know the place you're looking for. ]

1/2

[wants_the_phd]

[Wh,

Angie. Why. Why does it only work near her mystery guts. Do you think she might be hiding a function ball in there? Do you think she should?]


[???????????]

[wants_the_phd]

[GOD, she only ever has more QUESTIONS with this guy.]

[She follows the path the way the mask leads her, until things start looking familiar. Seems like this is an appropriate place for his grief to wallow, all things considered. But WHY is she being made to be athletic AGAIN!!! at least she's just going down and not up.]

[what's with all the petrified warriors tho]

Rėvėrence?

[finalbows]

[ wet cough noises

he's in the same spot and position as he originally died. gg ]

1/2

[wants_the_phd]

[good god, he's been dying down here for YEARS]

There you are.

[Picks her way over to his prone, floppy ass and crouches down beside him.]

[wants_the_phd]

I'm gonna cast Life on you but don't you dare vanish before we've had words.

[Casts Life on him.]

[finalbows]

"If Zidane... had ever bothered to learn magic...

My life would have been so different."

[ the mask of eternity he had when she got here turns into a black mask of the end. ]

[wants_the_phd]

How did you wind up here, in the end? What is this place?

[finalbows]

[ tunes btw 🎵🎵🎵 ]

"This is... the iifa tree. Master Garland used it to trap the dead of Gaia, so their memories couldn't feed their crystal... I used it... to help make my path to the root of life.

The purpose of this body is to be a Vessel... So I used that to my advantage. Flooded it with the lingering dead, used their rage and love and grief where my own was hardly enough...

In the end, I failed in my quest for destruction, the path to the crystal of Origin closed, and we were all spat back to the tree... and it, too, began to rage and die. Guess I wounded it, tapping it for power. The roots struck out at us, and... that's it. The end."