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text | un: goodvibes
Hey, Drift here.
Brevity is the soul of wit and getting us the hell out of here, so I'll try to keep this to the point.
I've managed to speak to Remi, and now that I'm awake, I've been putting together what we already know. This deal with the orb, this 'phyllie' went awry, and now Remi has been feeding it immense arcane energy to keep up his end of the bargain. We all got a pretty good idea by now of how that's going.
I offered a possible solution, and it involves getting past that Sphynx and finding his body. The idea of offering something on our end to counteract the curse has been thrown around, and while Remi wasn't convinced it would work, he has expressed a willingness to try.
If you've seen me around, you've likely seen the greatsword strapped to my back. It's an artifact from Cybertron that siphons energy from my spark- the very essence of my life. Arguably you could call it my soul, but I doubt we want to waste time on a philosophical debate. My point is that energy can be channeled and redirected.
We juice Phyillie with pure, living energy and cross our fingers.
If that doesn't work, now would be an excellent time to develop plans B and C.
And
Remi gave me a parting gift that will help.
( ooc: please feel free to thread hop! )
Brevity is the soul of wit and getting us the hell out of here, so I'll try to keep this to the point.
I've managed to speak to Remi, and now that I'm awake, I've been putting together what we already know. This deal with the orb, this 'phyllie' went awry, and now Remi has been feeding it immense arcane energy to keep up his end of the bargain. We all got a pretty good idea by now of how that's going.
I offered a possible solution, and it involves getting past that Sphynx and finding his body. The idea of offering something on our end to counteract the curse has been thrown around, and while Remi wasn't convinced it would work, he has expressed a willingness to try.
If you've seen me around, you've likely seen the greatsword strapped to my back. It's an artifact from Cybertron that siphons energy from my spark- the very essence of my life. Arguably you could call it my soul, but I doubt we want to waste time on a philosophical debate. My point is that energy can be channeled and redirected.
We juice Phyillie with pure, living energy and cross our fingers.
If that doesn't work, now would be an excellent time to develop plans B and C.
And
Remi gave me a parting gift that will help.
( ooc: please feel free to thread hop! )
no subject
Stating that there might be another way, and having an actual plan for it, are different things. You never offered any alternative, you didn't even give me the courtesy of asking before-
no subject
nice attempt. was it hard, trying something for the first time?
because you've always given me so much time to consider one.
you don't have any plan, either. looks like we're much the same, after all.
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I don't know, Alina. Was it? Hard. That first time.I'm not going to dignify that with an answer.
I would have given you time, but unfortunately you were nowhere to be found. Listening to rumors. Tell me, did you even hesitate?
no subject
hang on the shock of it is going to make me faint
i'd tell you to just ask one of your little birds for the answer but they're not here
that must be disappointing
i hear they loved to sing gossip about me in your ear
no subject
I was keeping you safe, and I almost failed in that. But you are willing to hold that against me, even after knowing what happened to Marie.
no subject
you never claimed it but you certainly behave like an annoying know-it-all
and you needed my diary and letters for that, apparently
speaking of —
don't bother denying that, marie told me all about that
[ never mind that it's a lie. alina recklessly spins it, anyway, in some vain hope to entrap him in it. and — subconsciously — her own refusal to expose what genya had told her, unlike what the tailor had done to her. ]
it should have been me instead of marie anyway
no subject
I needed information. We've had unfortunate incidence with family members and friends before, or did you think that the walls around the Little Palace was to keep the Grisha in.
[His anger doesn't translate to the written word, but inside the Darkling is seething.]
It would have doomed us all. If General Zlatan could claim victory over you, he would have sold the rest of us to Kerch and the Tsar would have helped him. Gladly. Marie knew the danger that she took upon herself, and her sacrifice should not be tainted by your careless disregard for it.
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in what world would i assume you know everything? sounds like wishful thinking on your part.
there is no universe in which i would think you have all the answers.
you stole my drawings. that isn't "information."
but at least you admit you're a snoop. it's good to know you never trusted me from the start.
i'll say it again
it should have been me
in fact i wish it was. how's that?
no subject
You cannot possibly mean that.
oops cw for suicidal ideation
want to know a secret? you did exactly what she warned me you would do.
it looks like i was right to listen to her. she was the only honest person in that entire palace.
i mean every word of it. you just don't want to hear it.
i wish i was dead. i wish i was dead every single day.
at least it would be peaceful.
Switching to voice
[There's a moment of pause before the Darkling switches to voice. The tremor of it coming across the network too clearly.]
Alina, step away from the network.
no subject
what she said you would do is lodged in my neck. your nice little necklace.
[ voice is a courtesy she doesn't repay, if only for the barrier it provides — and the way it barricades aureliah and rhys from having to hear any part of this. ]
no.
i'm so sick of you trying to tell me what to do.
locked private -Voice
I'm not telling you what to do, I am pleading with you to step away from the network. This is not the place for this.
private 🡆
you did that yourself
the only thing she's guilty of is being a hag
where's the place for it, then?
Forever private
You clearly don't know my mother as well as you'd like to think.
Somewhere that isn't monitored. Or overheard.
no subject
you want me to believe she had some great plan to get rid of me, but she had no reason to. she was only trying to protect me from you.
i don't care who hears it.
i'm allowed to say whatever i want on the network, especially when it involves my own life.
[ okay, alina, you liar. she half cares. ]
no subject
Is that so? If I was such a great threat to you, why did she wait and watch for months before talking to you. How could she have found you at the time that she did, when I was away, if she had not been watching you. Watching us.
[The thought makes his blood run cold, but Baghra had never shied away from ruining his life before, trying to steer him in the direction she's chosen.]
You are asking everyone on the station to see your pain and then let you go, to sacrifice yourself for us. I will not be the only one concerned.
no subject
because there's — something here. an opportunity. an opening. aleksander had wanted her to be a weapon, after all; so we make you a weapon, she remembers rhys declaring. and what's a better weapon, than pretending as though she might reluctantly believe him? it's a risk, but —
one she impulsively takes. one she feels she needs to take, trapped here with him, to gain an upperhand. to wrest back some control. ]
but she's your mother
i don't understand. why would she lie about something like that? it doesn't make any sense.
[ maybe that's believable, from an orphan. it helps that it's rooted in the truth of her own confusion, and a curiosity she can't ever quite stamp out. ]
you're overestimating my importance to most people
they're all here for their own selfish reasons too. they'd gladly let me go.
no subject
Doesn't it. It makes perfect sense to me. She spent so many years, decades, trying to mold me in to what she wanted me to be. She never did like to lose control.
[As far as traps go, this is near-perfect. His own cavernous, yearning need for her paving the way for her deceit. The ground under his feet slippery with want and weakness, the balance already upset.
The suspicion that always lives in the empty dead space of his mind, screams.]
Some, yes. But you touch people, Alina. Inspire them. You are the light, just as much as your Small Science summons it.
no subject
[ she pauses, between one thought and the next, suddenly rabbit-hearted. there's only one chance for this gamble to work, after all. if this were kerch, she would need to know how and when to play her cards. ]
i thought i could trust her, after everything she did for me. she's the only one who helped me master my summoning.
you can't blame me for running after she told me you wanted to enslave me.
especially when she told me all about your creation of the fold.
you had time to tell me your secrets, aleksander. you could have just told me the truth.
if you had been honest, she wouldn't have ever had the chance to pit us against one another.
then i'm safe from them trying to send me off.
you'll find the quickest way to be offered as a sacrifice is to be extremely annoying.
though i have a lot of experience in that, too.
no subject
After everything, why did you believe her. After the fete, I thought- [The sounds cuts off, as he clears his throat. The network hissing static as the Darkling breathes before continuing.] She didn't tell you why I made it.
[Hope. Dreams shattering in the golden glow of his war room]
I have never told anyone. I would have told you eventually.
[Alina is perfect, the offer of truths for truths a safer option over the network. When he doesn't have to watch her face turn away or see the tremble in her lower lip from disappointment.]
No, all you have to do, is succeed. No saint burned faster than the ones who succeeded in their chosen mission. Success breeds fear, and fear breeds contempt.
no subject
i didn't have much of a choice. she grabbed me as soon as she found me in your room.
no matter what i said, she just keep pulling me along.
[ which is true enough, without giving away the immediate response of the fold took my parents from me. it isn't a vulnerability she wants to press into his hands, knowing it will never be safely protected, the moment he needs to wield it against her.
but desperate times call for desperate measures, and so she tucks away that nugget of truth in the backpocket of her mind, just in case. ]
no, she didn't tell me why. she only told me you created it. and when i tried to say it was a long time ago, that things had changed, she told me that the volcra were people, once. that she knew what you had done because she was your mother.
can you really blame me for believing her? everything she said proved that you were keeping things from me. i started to wonder why you would, and what else you were hiding from me. you claim you would have told me eventually, but is that really the truth? you just got finished saying you never trusted me at all.
no subject
You did not have to run, the Palace was teeming with guards, any one of them would have kept you safe.
[After the demonstration, everyone knew her face. The mistakes made to the row of saints and the picture of the Sun Summoner as looking more Fjerdan than Shu. The blonde hair replaced with the dark locks that fell so delicately around Alina's face.
A night he doesn't allow himself to dwell on, pushing it back down with his lost hope and the rage that flooded through him at the confirmation that Alina had lied. Had looked in to his eyes, lips on his and lied.
The sweetest one of all, the one he had longed to hear. Telling him what he wanted to hear, more perfectly than any assassin before her.]
She knew because she was there. She knew why I was desperate enough, hurt enough, to even think about using merzost to-
[He stops, breathing hard.
Too many truths. The secrets he holds closer to his chest than his name, the regret he came here for. The terrors he inflicted on the world in the name of lost love and hopeless ambition.]
You told me the story of the Black Heretic. By the fountain, when I revealed a part of my past. How could I have told you what name I used to hold, the moniker that was thrust upon me by a worthless king and his terrified men.
no subject
from you? no one would have been able to keep me safe. certainly not something as small as palace guards.
she made you sound like you were the greatest threat to me. i told you that.
but you'll just keep blaming me for an old woman's lies anyway.
i don't know how, but you could have at least tried. instead, you let me believe a story you made up.
it's fine. i should have known i wasn't worth the effort. i just expected more from you than you were willing to give.
no subject
I did not make that story. History is written by the victors, Alina. Did the story sound as if I won? I lost more than you could imagine, I have buried too many friends. Too many soldiers. Too many lovers. Telling you too soon was a risk, not simply to me but to everything I've tried to build for our people.
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