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

[wants_the_phd]

[Is another, more genuine mask trying to break through? Hmm.]

What's it like, reflecting on that fact?

[finalbows]

[ complaining, ]

It hurts. Obviously. Do I look relaxed, Miss Wild Rose? I'm... I'm not! I'm mad for how long I pretended to myself otherwise! I'm mad I never had a CHANCE, trying to please that man!

[ he's starting to literally have steam rise off of him. ]

I'm mad because of how much I really, really wanted to, and then, whoops, I see a pretty cloud overhead and suddenly I just knew, I couldn't! Ever! Live to serve him!



[ heavy breathing. pensive, ]
...Damn.

You turned around and won our game after all.

[ she, in fact, got it just right.]

[wants_the_phd]

Yeah? What do I win?

[finalbows]

"This, you smug bastard.".

[ he lunges on her, shadowy mien replaced by a pillar of flame--
it doesn't burn?

except for a spot where his hands find her neck, searing four tiny Terran letters into the skin, that if she reads them--

for some reason, her eyes shall simply refuse to read what they say.

"K̴̼̒͛͛̔̆́ù̵̮̰͎̝̣̼͑̒j̷̛̫̅̃̀͂͘͘͝a̶̡̡̦̱̲̓̃́́ͅ."]

_{"Certainty. And a challenge.
You may win, here and there. But I'll never let you rest on your laurels. We'll always know who, here, belongs to who, in the end."}

[ with that last hiss, he burns himself away, back where he should be. ]

1/3

[wants_the_phd]

[Congrats, that startles the SHIT out of her. Definitely wasn't expecting him to turn into literal fire and leap at her face. She flinches and yelps, trying to rip into his chest with the claws that have curled, unbidden, from her fingertips -- but they pass straight through, of course.]

[wants_the_phd]

[And then he's gone.]

[She rubs at the burn on her neck, still stinging, unaware yet of the mark it left.]

We'll see, you bastard... don't think I'm going to make things easy on you, either.

[wants_the_phd]

[Grumbling as she starts getting up to go.]

Don't even know why I'm trying to help you, you piece of shit. You better live a long life so you can spend all of it repaying me. Asshole.

[One last look around, and if nothing immediately obvious comes to her attention, she's going to head off toward the Sunset Coast.]

1/2

[finalbows]

[ nothing left but the many, still puddles reflecting the absolutely dazzling skies. and a strange feeling of ambient smugness. heehee. gotcha.

she can take a minute to appreciate that, but the Sunset Coast is waiting, inevitably, afterwards. ]

2/2

[finalbows]

[ Hot air, crumbling scrub-bushes, arid desiccation-- the pathway to the coast takes her through a gauntlet of prickly, sandy, outside. But she can already smell the sea. And, see the pointy bootprints, where they trace through loose dry soil, bend apart grabby foliage, and disturb the intricate lines of cracked, baked mud. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[Following the trail, observing how Different this scenery is becoming compared to what she's seen already.]

1/2

[finalbows]

[ it's like being on a whole different continent from the last location. because, well... it is. ]

[ that sitting shape up ahead, cast into shadow by the setting sun, looks an awful lot like a Révérence. But-- before she can go much further--]

2/2

[finalbows]

[ a great big winged shadow passes over her head,

then comes to an even bigger, rumbling landing nearby.

IT'S YA BOY ]

[wants_the_phd]

[✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️]

[WHO is THAT!!!!! it looks so vaguely familiar but she can't place it. Anyway LOOK AT YOU!!!!!!!

She's just standing here, admiring, sparkling loudly ]

[finalbows]

[ Révérence is in no mood to get up and come effuse with her; he got his time in petting on that dragon already while she was busy elsewheres. But his telepathic voice does fondly trickle into her mind, ]

"Beautiful, right? The Nova Dragon really is a wonder to behold... it lived millenia before I ever existed..."

[ uncaring of it's audience, it flexes its wings. some cool down stretchies.]

[wants_the_phd]

[She startles slightly at his voice -- not put of fear, but rather she TOTALLY FORGOT what she was doing here for a second. All non-dragon thoughts just fell straight out of her head.]

[She glances around for angie, but doesn't see him, so continues staring at Nova Dragon.]

Milennia... amazing...

How did you meet?

[finalbows]

"Recall that time I tried to kill off the whole of every world?

...I had to burrow back through memories, to even try to do it. Follow through and back on things that made powerful impressions, large waves in time...

Awful tragedies, disasters... not just that, but important, beautiful, irreplaceable things. That dragon was one of the first I met. I fed it my rage... misery... my grudges... and appointed it as a guardian, of the open tunnel I left behind me."

[wants_the_phd]

[ --hang on a second,]

"Kill off every world"? When was that?

[Did you know? He showed her a vision of the crystal of origins, but not what he was trying to do with it.]

[finalbows]

"Huh. I really didn't tell you? Guess I lost track. When I visited the crystal of Origin... I meant to smash it.

My one, most unforgivable sin... I think it's what made Teleute take notice of me, honestly. She saw it right away. Where I'd been. What I'd nearly done.

...Anyway. Maybe that dragon understood it had already been and gone, and reviled the word for it..."

[ that dragon is sniffing the air azdaja-ward contemplatively, for the record.]

"...or... I just strangled it too much with my own ill will. Anyway. That's over now. Neither of us are trying to destroy any worlds, today. I think, it's hunting something around here, but I don't know what."

[wants_the_phd]

[When it starts sniffing in her direction, her little metaphorical puppy dog tail starts wagging.]

When you say "dead and gone", are you saying it's undead?

[She's sniffing the air now, too. Does it smell like a dead thing? Even if it does, she'd still hit it.]

[finalbows]

"I didn't call up its shambling corpse to defend my flank. I called it up in the prime of its power. So... that seems to be what's here."

[ 1000% live soul-dragon. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She doesn't get it, but that probably doesn't really matter. She's more interested to know what it might be looking for.]

What is this place?

[finalbows]

"...Nowhere, really. A desolate, uninhabited continent. A nice view I used to come see, every year, just because I liked it. On the winter solstice, I'd fly out with Ginryu, and she'd drop me off and go entertain herself doing... who knows, while I would watch the sun die and give life to the stars."

[ he's in the middle of doing that right now, and can't be moved for hell or high water. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[Where IS angie? Can she follow his footprints]

[finalbows]

[ yup. Though there are times the path is stupidly steep and difficult, as it's a trail blazed by a guy with a much longer stride than hers and a big long fluffy tail helping him stay upright. ]

[ ...
it... really is a nice sunset.

It glitters wondrously out upon the ocean. A perfect hem of outcroppings of rock to either side, and the crash of waves drones so loud you could lose to it all of your thoughts.

And farther out in the water, the corals. The beautiful corals, piled like a mountain of bones.


He's just placidly sitting and watching it. Knees pulled up to his chest. A blue mask full of holes on his face. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She gives Ginryu a polite berth as she follows the trail.]

[At the top, she stands quietly nearby for a bit, simply enjoying the beauty of the moment. She's not in a hurry to disturb this serenity with misguided attempts to save his soul.]


...I can see why you came here for the last thirteen years.