GMed by Eligor, Co-GMed by Novine

[—]

Light. The world suddenly blinks to life as the backdrop of darkness fades and bends from the dull yellow rising in the background, revealing the gears and cogs of the inner workings of a clock. With the click of the gears beginning to turn, consciousness would arrive in five minds–five lights–floating idly within the inner workings of the machines. They appeared as bodies composed of glowing dust, each a distinct hue of a respective color to differentiate them from one another. Not far from these lights, a figure emerged from the darkness. Or perhaps it was always there, but hidden from view from the lack of light illluminating the area. It appeared to be a faceless doll, wearing a suit and holding a cane with a transparent orb at the end. It wore a suit, and unlike the five souls in the room it was very clearly corporeal. It tilted it's featureless head to the side as it observed the souls before twirling the cane in it's hand, finishing the tiny show by cracking the cane's tip against the pitch black floor.

The five souls would in that moment remember themselves, WHO they were up to their most recent memory in the outside world–the real world. A flood of memories accompanied by a truth that forcefully would wrench it's way into each of their minds one after the other:They were not real. Wherever they were, whatever they were…they were but a copy, a fragment snapped off from the whole like shedded skin or shaved hair.

The doll watched them as the memories would bore deeper into their skulls, the tapping of it's cane seemingly growing ever louder until every memory had returned to them in full.

¹⁾

[Gair]

A form of deep gold would writhe within the confines of his machine-like prison, the coloration of his glow akin to the setting sun. Where…where am I?!A glowy head darts around, trying to take in the alien surroundings of this machinery. Would there be any way to discern his incorporeal features, they could see only horror writ upon his features. I was just in bed, took my sling off- MY ARM!A moment later he would frantically search himself, glowing fingers practically digging into his left arm as if it were utterly alien to him. I lost it, no it was broken…but when?!WHEN?!Whoever this golden spirit is, it's having a terrible time of recollection. Both hands now clutch his head and he's curled in his listlessly floating position. This is a nightmare, they aren't all dead, they aren't all dead, they aren't all dead…This is repeated in his head ad nauseum.

[Blue]

A blue shimmer slowly sparks to life nearby, the light there dim but growing brighter with each passing…second? This one had been dreaming for what felt like a long time, and as the cane struck the floor, memories would return to it in droves. She recalls talking to the voice in the darkness and feeling super safe with the rush of sand lulling her into a pleasant slumber. It is the other memories that come back that leave the spirit dizzied and distraught. Where is everyone? Where are my friends? What has happened? Did I hurt people again? The spirit quakes, not from the strange circumstances of her arrival at this strange landscape of gears and cogs but rather the uncertainty of everything she doesn't see and cannot know.

[A'erina]

As the memories flooded each soul, the Crimson one clutched at her head, her features not present to anyone or anything else. But the memories, these were her memories, and she remembers them…

Struggling throughout her life with a savage animal practically trapped inside her, falling in love only to have her heart ripped out, the friends she made, the things she did… She remembers it all. So why does she remember being a servant to something sinister? Why does she remember killing one of her best friends… and being killed by her own cousin? “ These arent my memories.” She would say to herself. “ That never happened… Did it? ”

The Crimson colour, clearly a reflection of who she was. Her favourite colour, always finding it's way onto whatever attire she wore. The hue of her eyes, it was the same as her mother's. The anger and violence she exhibited. Whatever was happening to her, as she managed a brief look at the surroundings before continuing to process this rush of all her memories, she didn't like. “ …I died…?”

[R'Lamiza]

As the memories flooded, the white one, glowing like a dim star, clutched their head and, started dry heaving”What is this?” They’d start to panic their light growing dimmer with each inhale of whatever the air contained here. “Why am I here? I didn’t die did I? No… this is…” the figure of white would look around. “Like that time…” as a memory of a particularly tragic past memory had made its way in. “Not again… never again…” it started to curl up and scream, could it scream? Would anything hear it’s pain? The pearl white figure did not care.

But before long more memories flooded in causing disruption and internal chaos. Trying to scream louder before suddenly stopping. “No.” It said.”I will not allow it!” The steady dimming of it’s light ceased. And but a moment longer and it rapidly grew brighter before shouting.”NEVER AGAIN.” Standing upright looking down at its form. White did not do the now nearly blindingly bright form justice.

It was a swirl of chaotic mixtures of pure unadulterated white, darkened almost grey like hues and a saddened halfway missed mix between the two colors. “I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED.” It chanted to itself. Looking now at the faceless suited figure.

Unsure if it even had a voice. Or if this sudden growth of Will was manufactured but that was not something on its mind but it said nothing more as it’s beautiful hues told it’s story for it.

[Tadashi]

The form in black dropped to it's knee, clutching it's head as the memories began. As the memories came back, starting as a slow trickle, it allows itself to shift into a cross legged position, before the flow began. Reminders of mother and father turned the form a bright pink, before their death shifted it back to darkness. Following this memories that seemed interchangeable slowly drained the color of the shade, leaving it almost clear.

Memories of leaving and arriving came next, turning the shade to pink once more, reminded of the happy moments it experienced. Then, memories of wandering, aimlessness and exploration. The shade didn't know what to make of these, so it returned to a more clear pink, still enjoying the newness of it all, but without purpose it lacked something.

However, this clearness was not to last, as the shade slowly grew a brighter and brighter pink as it remembered. It remembered countless victories. Companionship. As it caught up to the present it was reminded of it's learnings of magics, and fond memories with it's teacher.

Once the cascade of memories finished, it observed it's surroundings, full of complex machinations the form would not understand.

[—]

The faceless doll pulled a pocket watch from its breast pocket and observed it with a slight incline of its head before turning to the group. Possibly.

The voice sounded more like a set of rotating bones jangling in a hollow container than that of a person, but with another tap of the cane, the garbled mess of words became clear.

«Time is short. Shorter than any of you realize. I’ve done what I can, but I’m afraid all that’s left is this final play. There is no time for questions, but I ask that you have faith. Trust..»

The clock screeched before grinding to a painful halt

«….In me. You all must die. Offer yourselves to me, and there is yet hope. Die for the greater good.»

[A'erina]

Before this faceless one speaks, She loosens the grip on her head, not that it was causing them any physical pain, and looks at the others 'present' alongside her, and speaks, whether anyone else heard her was another matter, but she attempted to. “…A'erina” She would manage to sputter out, recalling her family, each word a struggle “ …Mum, Dad… A'el… A'elana… Kyra… Ralia… Liana… Tira… A'uriel… F-Family. ” Just what the hells was going on? She looked at the faceless one as it began speaking, the noise unrecognisable until it starts tapping the cane.

She looks at whatever is talking to them, and looks at anything on her own 'body', “ Am I already dead? ” She takes a step forward towards whatever this faceless abomination is, and grasps at nothing behind her back “ I don't have a weapon.”

She speaks to it, able to compose herself alteast a little bit. “ My name is A'erina, and I don't care how much time I have, you have, anyone has. As it appears to be, I'm already dead. So you'll have to give me a reason to trust you if you want me that easily.”

[Gair]

This body of sunset continues to writhe, getting used to whatever form he has taken shape in. Jaw wide, he opens his mouth to scream, but nothing comes. What is hellish feeling I've been inflicted with? I'd never have done any of those things…no- no! What's even real, why do I feel it?!The expectant tapping of the cane draws him out of his introspective horror, it's only just now that he notices the other floating forms around him, and the faceless doll who speaks to them.

He flinches as the clock screeches to a halt, when the white form screams out in terror, hearing the crimson on sputter out familiar names to him. He finally finds his voice, shaken as anyone would be, but demanding. “If- if we need to die for you, then why do I know the feelin' of death already? Answer me! What's this…this pain, this hate? It feels like it's been with me for turns, moons that ain't been!”

[R'Lamiza]

The one of white held their head before looking up at the faceless thing.“No. I will not give my life for you…Or a-” She felt pain as faces flashed before her face and a name appeared that rattled her brain.“R'lamiza…” She repeated to herself, Seeing the faces of her siblings and the ones she considered near and dear. Before looking up again.“Why should I…Trust you at all?”

[Blue]

The Blue one listens and observes at those around her begin to speak. Through these strange disembodied feelings, she lifts a hand to what she thinks is her face. Canine ears flick once. …Oh. Though the other forms are unclear, the words they speak bring a sense of familiarity- did she knew these ones? Were they friends? She can't quite focus, still feeling as if everything was in a deep haze..perhaps some strange dream. That's the only thing it could be, that she'd regain what had been lost…or she was indeed dead. Her ambient light flickers a brilliant shade of blue as a result of such a thought.

Groggily, her own voice resonates from the pack, nudging gently through the anxiety and the uncertainty of the rest.“It will only answer what it wants you to know. No clear answers..no point in questioning…” A name appears in her head suddenly. Him…this isn't him…but feels similar..why creepy dolls..

[Tadashi]

The pink form stands to its feet before sizing up it's current form. Stretching, and flexing any appendages, it considers what the doll had said. Finally deciding to test its voice, it calls out softly, “Why should we trust you? What have you shown us?”

Then, glancing to size up the other figures it tries to put pieces together. A'erina. R'lamiza. Where had it heard these names?

“Do we… know each other?”, it calls out once more, to nobody in particular.

[—]

«Yet another meaningless effort. But of course it was. Who amongst the living would so readily give themselves—and control—to a stranger? How vexing must it be to lose oneself so suddenly as gaining awareness of it, even to the benevolent?»

It taps its cane again, and the vague outline of what each saw themselves as would begin to appear. «Then we do it the hard way.»

[Alia]

A little giggle is heard from behind them all as a short woman dressed in rather revealing silks and gold bangles and jewelry skips past them and stands before them, examining them all. Her skin is a dark tan, long blonde hair cascading down from her head, floating around her in a very ethereal sort of way, like some kind of goddess in a painting. A lavender gem was inlaid into her forehead. She looked like a strange cross between a hyur and a Lalafell, bearing pointed ears and large lavender eyes, but standing at a greater height than a Lalafell with proportions like a younger teenage Hyur.

“Aw, they're so cute like this though… It's so fun watching them come to terms with it all. How they think they know enough to make wise choices… how they throw little tantrums just because you said some scary words.” She laughs her unsettling, sparkling laugh again as she floats before them, one-by-one. “It's delicious, the fear.”

[—]

«Enough. Begone.»

[Gair]

Perhaps the elemental personification of of defiance and vulgarity, there's just more than a mild twinge of frustration surfacing where the terror once was. Definitely brought on by these past experiences foisted upon him in this queer place. Were his features more than a vague glow, one would now see a scowl. My questions answered with insultin' vaguery, it's like the Sin- Sinner…why, how do I know them? Fallgourd float, the Everschade…

He was pinching the the vague area of where the bridge of his nose would be. Trying and struggling to gather his thoughts. Short and sharp with his words, he directs at the lavender-gemmed young woman. “Impressive, I ain't ever seen someone so airheaded they can floatwith such ease.”

[R'Lamiza]

The white one had found its name and she then sighed almost sarcastically. “Fear is not what ya feel. It’s will.” Pausing at the sudden emergence of an accent…looking to the form of black.”Maybe? I’m… not sure.” Turning it’s attention to their newest arrival. Hissing is that was possible to it yet.

Their own memories has started to settle and it felt it’s overwhelming will to survive and thrive overtaking it. By any means at its disposal.

[Alia]

The woman gracefully floats over to the figure with the cane and drapes her arms over its shoulders, her feet still aloft so she wouldn't press upon it too much.“You're no fun, you know? Look,” she says gesturing to those who protested so far.“You give them a gift and they fight like they've had these convictions for more than the blink of an eye. A thing that barely exists, that only just recently began to think its own thoughts, calling me, of all things, an airhead. Me! You don't like watching them flail around in vain like this? The irony is just so, so good.”

[Blue]

The Blue is steadily losing her grogginess in favor of extremely keen awareness as her outline firms just the slightest bit. She draws a bushy tail to her lap, hugging at it whether or not she could actually feel such things, ears pricking, then flattening at the newest arrival to come through. There was an overwhelming desire to roll over and play dead- she could do -that- sort of death throe. Instead the creature pips up at the woman's words with the tilt of her head, more a self-observation than anything.“She talks too much…”

[—]

The figure does not speak further, simply pulling out the stopwatch again. It turns it's featureless head towards the large clock in the background, and a sound like bones in a blender crack and snap throughout the bleak and shadow filled landscape.

The doll turned away to face the quiet and solitude, tapping its cane and causing the screaming clock to disappear. The room illuminated itself further, revealing two large screens that showed nothing for now but the same dull yellow glow that served to illuminate the surroundings earlier. It sighed, shaking it's featureless head….until it noticed that it was not alone. It turned about slowly, noticing that one of the souls had not been banished.

“Ah, that's right. You were different from the others.”

[Blue]

The Blue one is suddenly quite alarmed to find herself on her own in the land of cogs and gears, watching with widened eyes as the others seem to poof out of existence with little fanfare. This rocks the soul to her core, her ears flattening against her head, as she was finally noticed.

“Maybe a little bit,” She admits to the doll, tail swaying slowly before she murmurs out,“I think those others might have been my friends- what did you do with them?”

[—]

“I did nothing. They ran out of time. I did say time was short.”

[Blue]

“But I didn't?”

[—]

The doll sat back down, and a skyline burst into an array of stars and twinkling blue lights.

“…But you didn't.”

“I've actually been interested in you for quite some time. Or rather…my master is. Which means I sort of need to be as well.”

“Would you like a snack?”

In the distance a faint singing could be heard, but it was distorted as if filtered through a wall of water.

[Blue]

Blue stares up at the stars, more than a bit at a loss as to what is happening before her gaze settles on the doll once more.

She can feel herself tense at the doll's words, simply shaking her head.“There's nothing of any true interest, to you or your Master.” The words felt familiar coming out of her mouth, a memory surfaces and Blue blinks. Wait..

She is stirred off course by the question of a snack, to which the canine tilts her head.“Is it even possible to eat things…here..wherever this is?”

Her ears flick at the strange muted sounds of..song?

[—]

The clicking in the doll's head resumed, and it's voice went back to what it was before..

«If you wish to eat, then create the food. That is the right of the divine. Or do you wish for service?»

«But before that I suppose that you should get a better look for yourself. Show me what you really want to look like. Go on, think it through.»

[Blue]

Blue stared at the doll for a moment. Create..? It can't be that easy. Where had she ended up that such a thing were possible?

At the request to show herself, the soul hesitated, but only just so, for it was ingrained in her memory what she looked like and what she couldlook like with painstaking detail. Such was the way of the….shapeshifter. Thats right.

Just think of resuming the form again, how everything clicks into place like a mold that can be fashioned in any such way. But this form is special. It was lost..well..not lost..restricted. Not allowed to stay. But in this weird place she'd landed in, that shouldn't matter any.

Blue persists through, the soul near radiating as she focuses on the frame first, lithe and agile, covered in dark fur. Long, fluffy tail was soon to follow after. Tresses of Blue hair falling down to her shoulders in gentle waves. The face of a canine with a doggish grin and bright, curious eyes- one a blackish brown the other bright blue. It seemed that the last thing to develop were the markings that enveloped the entire creature's frame, criss-crossing along her form in various symbols and shapes, that glowed a soft blue under her skin. She crosses her arms as the last of those markings encircle her eyes for a finishing touch. A strange, unnatural canine woman in an even stranger unnatural world.

[—]

«Very good. It’s been a long time since I’ve had anyone worthy of speaking to. I think you’ve a bright future ahead of you as the next administrator.»

It walked off into the distance with its tapping cane, but appeared next to Blue just as suddenly, offering its new companion a walking stick of her own.

[Blue]

Blue felt herself- seemed solid..everything was where it should be, though she had no doubts of that. But now that she was whole of form she had another matter to deal with- this doll-like person. A confused expression crosses her face with its words and she shakes her head,“Uhm. I'd actually just like to go back to wherever it was I was plucked from. And it seems like you're doing a fine job- ah!”

She blinks as it reappears nearby, staring down at the walking stick with some suspicion.“I can walk just fine..”

[—]

«Walking is hardly ever a problem until it is.»

The song in the distance grew more faint.

«Besides, I’m sure that you can at least understand that there is no going back for you. What you have been torn from you may never return to. It is no longer you.»

[Blue]

There is no denial of the truth on the woman's face at those words. It had seemed to be the case from the very start- how could it not be? She'd stirred awake and thought this was a dream but then it wasn't. And her lasting memories of the desert, waving goodbye to…Tretesta. Burying herself in a cave and waiting for a voice…to end up here of all places. It was the only thing that perhaps did make sense.

“Maybe…but how you did it is still a mystery to me. As well of the others, you summoned them to die for you?” She gazes up at the stars again briefly, as if it might contain some sort of answer if the doll didn't, before slowly holding her hand out to take the stick.

[—]

«Why is it always the tendency of the living to blame the first thing they see for their woes? You really must learn to be rid of such meaningless assertions in your time here.»

It drops the offered cane onto the floor that consequently suddenly turned into smooth marble.

«I am the last salvation of what those poor souls could consider existence. But death, although an accurate description, sounds so very final. Of course the mortals would resist..»

It turns its head.

«But why you, hm? Are you still restricted by troublesome memories? Do they hurt you?»

[Blue]

Blue jerks her hand back at the cane turns into marble, blinking at the sight before looking to the doll. She shrugged her shoulders at the doll's previous words, simply countering gently,“Trust is also hard to come by when pulled into some strange place as it were.”

She tilts her head then.“Troubled..memories? I imagine everyone has those. Nothing so strange as to cause me to be here..I think…My memories hurt sometimes but sad things often do.”

[—]

«The divine have no need of trust. You will come to learn that trust is a currency that can only be acquired in exchange for another far more precious one: time. The exchange rate varies, and I hoped with the little time I bought exchanging it for trust would be enough, but alas….here we are. Those four are doomed.»

«Such vibrant little souls. I would have put them to excellent use.»

The doll seemed to be pacing now, rubbing its hand where an ear should be on its head.

«Ah, I suppose lessons will go more slowly if you do not feel alive enough. Have you chosen a name?»

[Blue]

Blue gives a little sigh, one of her ears folding back over her head.“The way you speak makes it sounds bad, like you were going to eat the souls or make them slaves or something even if they weren't doomed.” She hopes they weren't doomed.

“I've only known one name to go by and that's Blue. Do I need to choose another?”

[—]

«….I suppose not. And I would have destroyed them for sure. You as well.»

«More importantly, what do you wish to learn first? Would you like to make life? Perhaps changing the decor would be more to your liking?»

[Blue]

“….Maybe explain what this place is first. What it's for. What's an administrator?”

[—]

«In terms you are capable of understanding, this place is your world. Everything that allows you to exist and persist is here. This is life. If you wish for a more precise location, well…perhaps it might be best to think of it as…the moon. Wholly separate yet hopelessly tethered.»

«An administrator is as close to being divine as one can become in this world. Myself being the sole exception of course.»

[Blue]

Blue stares. That was a fair bit to take in, taking a step back and staring around herself.

“…What are you then?”

[—]

«To all of you, a true divine. A being beyond your means if not your understanding.»

[Blue] “And yet you have a Master ”

[—]

«You know how to listen. A rare talent.»

[Blue]

“I like to listen. Can't understand anything otherwise.” She smiled pleasantly, tail wagging slowly.

[—]

«So what do you wish to learn next Blue?»

[Blue]

“If this is my world, that's just tied to another, what purpose does it have? Creating is fun. I know that already. Building something out of nothing or..making things better. Seems pointless in an empty world with nothing else though. And lonely.”

[—]

«The original purpose of this world has already been lost. Now it simply is.»

«Why do you need purpose?»

[Blue]

“I don't know…I think I lived with a purpose..make others happy…keep them safe…”

[—]

«No, you didn’t. You were born today.»

[Blue]

“..Oh..okay. I need to remember that.”

Blue looks down at her hands, curling them a bit before peering over at the doll curiously.“Do you have purpose then?”

[—]

«Of course I do.»

[Blue]

“Do you like it?”

[—]

«This is not relevant information. Do you not wish to learn?»

[Blue]

“I don't know if I have choice. You might destroy me otherwise, and I'd like to live longer.” She gazes around curiously.“And this place..I can create anything I want?”

[—]

«If you did not have a choice I would not ask. You cannot create anything at first. Only the most simple and basic things—things you’ve come to perceive as real—will respond to your will. Once you learn however, your ability to apply that principle will increase. Actualizing a new potential is not impossible at that juncture.»

The stars overhead began to turn red.

[Blue]

The canine thinks to herself, drawing a hand to her chin. There was no going back to herself, which is what Blue would have preferred, filled with memories and the connections with people she'd made. But she liked the thought of creating new, potential things..maybe even more friends!

Her gaze lingers upon the stars as they turn red. That was weird for a night sky to do..she thinks anyway. She ponders and looks to the doll.“I'll want to learn how…but only if you exchange something with me.”

[—]

«Would that not imply you have something worthy to offer me?»

[Blue]

Blue nods quite vigorously.“I do! You might not think much of it but if I'm to learn from you, what I offer is necessary.”

[—]

«Explain.»

[Blue]

“You know my name but I don't know yours. It'll be hard to be friends without having something to go by.” She observes the figure with a lazy sway of her tail.“Noface? Suitor? Cane? Is there anything better I can call you by?”

“If you don't have a name, I could name you too!”

[Apate]

The doll shifted a bit, hunching over and growing a mane of gray hair.

«I have a name. It’s simply been a while since anyone bothered asking. Not since the last administrator retired I believe.»

It made a movement like it was laughing, but only a bony rattle escaped it’s head.

«You can call me Apate.»

[—]

The small woman from earlier suddenly appeared again, hovering beside the doll in the air with her legs crossed and arms crossed, looking irritated.

“Well, I call them boring and rude,” she maligned in a rather offended tone.

[Apate]

«You’ve returned. Why?»

[Alia]

She tips back and places her hands behind her head, her hair floating around her as she keeps her legs crossed at the knees, kicking a foot idly.

“I wanna watch what happens! I'm bored.”

[Blue]

Blue blinks as the doll grows a bushy mane, but simply nods at its words, ears having flattened at the rattling sounds emitting from it. Her eyes alight upon that woman again, and, somewhat awake now, there's a familiarity in the stranger's tone that she can't quite place. She casually looks between Apate and the woman, before asking of the doll,“Is she a divine too?”

[Apate]

«….It is not, no. It is merely here as a distraction. As a waste of your concentration.»

[Alia]

She rolls over onto her stomach, cradling her chin in her hands and kicking her feet back and forth, sticking her tongue out at the doll.

“See why I call them rude?” She looks to Blue and drifts closer to her.“Besides, I'm a lot better than a 'divine' as they call it. You're a just a 'divine' fish in a tiny, tiny pond.” She examines her nails with a little giggle.

[Apate]

«Then why are they worthy of your interest? You remarks are contradictory to your actions.»

The dolls face cracked, and a row of flat teeth spread out across it's face, revealing a long lipless smile.

“If you are not less than these fish, why cling to them so? Why bring them to MY domain? One would almost think you were buying time, no? Preparing the pot as it were.”

The doll leaned back and let out a laugh, but only bony rattles escaped.

[Blue]

Blue listens to the exchange between the two of them, squinting over at the strange woman.“Did you bring us all here then?” She chooses to ignore her prior statement of ponds and fishes, plopping down on the ground and preferring instead to bat at her tail for entertainment.

Blue had liked her pond…was it that? And there was a great tree there that she lived in…was silly to sleep in beds when the crook of a branch was just as suitable to the shapeshifter. Her mind drifts, trying to fit a nice, peaceful memory back into place.

[—]

“Well… have you never gained any entertainment by watching something smaller than you struggle? Or have you never thought it endearing to watch something that knows nothing slowly unravel the truths, their minds slowly connecting the pieces?” she asks of the doll before turning to Blue, simply smiling at her.“Little things like you shouldn't worry so much about such big things like that. You're here now, right? And you can't be anywhere else, so why does it matter?” She laughs and moves to sit cross-legged.“Just have fun and create!” she says, making a little joyful gesture.

[Apate]

“She probably needs a name to recognize you as real. My name has been requested after so long…I almost feel sentimental.”

[Blue]

Blue rolls onto her back, staring up at the glaring red stars as she paws at the sky. She answers the woman first,“How can I learn anything if the questions I ask are avoided? I was..just born….everything is strange.”

She reaches out, seeming to pinch at the visage of a star between her thumb and forefinger, curious and observant and ever aware. She offers to the lady,“My name is Blue. I think I've been told it's easy to remember.” Probably should be, with the resonating blue markings glowing all about her frame.

[Alia]

“Hmm… Well, you can call me Alia if you need a name. And that's fine, everything is supposed to be strange, but there's no sense telling you such a big answer if you haven't learned the smaller things that will help you understand.” She hovers closer to Blue and taps her nose with her finger in a patronizing way.“Just trust me.”

[Blue]

Blue wriggles her nose at the tap, pondering Alia's words for a moment before giving a slow nod.“Okay…I'll learn the small things first then.”

[Apate]

“And what do you consider to be the small things then, Blue? Size is…debatable here.”

Apate seemed to loom suddenly over Alia, it's lipless smile seemingly stretching–although that was surely an illusion of some sort. Right?

[Blue]

Blue rolls up into a sitting position once more at the question, but before she answers, she grows perturbed and rattled by the face Apate was…uh sharing with the class. She flinches in spite of herself and looks away from the sight.“U-um…well. Maybe like you suggested earlier. Making a drink or something?” She stares at the floor.“Making a flower maybe..”

[Apate]

“An interesting set of choices.”

It was suddenly to the left of her, twirling the cane idly between it’s fingers.

“A drink is simple enough. You need the container, the components of that container, the shape of it, and then the contents that compose it together. Mix them together in your mind, then will them to appear before you.”

[Blue]

Blue muses to herself quietly, simply trying to tap into all the little moments one takes for granted in their memories of something as simple as getting a drink and quenching one's thirst. Remembering things that mattered seemed much easier than recalling something as mundane as a cup with liquid in it. It felt more strange than anything, vaguely recalling that she had only done such a thing once more….well, her other self had at least, and that hadn't gone well at all. She wasn't willing a dragon to come to life at least, or to become one for that matter, so there was that assurance.

The shapeshifter focuses on a simple glass. Nothing ornate. The kind a tavern owner might slide down the bar without the contents of it spilling over. The contents..Blue isn't picky. She doesn't even know if she requires food or drink here in the first place. Cold water would be just fine. Cold water in the glass…The canine is purtting plenty of effort into it at the very least, staring at the ground and trying to envision a drink actually laid out before her.

[Alia]

“A drink? Pretty uninspired if you ask me. All of creation at your fingertips and you wanna make a drink.” She sighs but sits down next to Blue, placing her hands on the ground and leaning forward in anticipation staring between the spot where it was to appear and then at Blue's face, clearly wanting it to appear faster.

[Apate]

The glass did indeed appear in short order and with little effort, but so too did a disembodied hand and what appeared to be the surface of a wooden table or counter. It seems that visualization could do some of the work for her, but if she were not careful the image could expand.

[Blue]

Blue blinks, at first quite excited at her success, her tail lashing out behind her in happy thumps. That is before she sees the rest of the objects she had not intended to appear. The extra bit of countertop she didn't mind, but the hand…

Blue cringes and warily pokes at the hand, murmuring under her breath as she sorta tries to bat it away from view like a giant bug, “Pleasedontmovepleasedontmovepleasedontmove…” She looks to Apate afterwords,“This is harder than I thought…I dun want no disembodied parts coming in out of nowhere..”

Glancing to Alia and sticking her tongue out at her playfully.“You distracted me!”

[Apate]

Almost in response to her thoughts. The hand jerked and jumped in place before melting away.

Apate seemed to have lost interest for the moment and walked back towards the two large yellow screens from earlier, tapping its cane on the floor and sitting on thin air as the screens crackled to life.

“Suppose I’ll watch them struggle at least. It’s been too long since I’ve had anything worthy of watching.”

[Blue]

Blue yelps and recoils the moment the hand jerks to life, covering her head in her hands to protect herself till her sharp hearing notes that it suddenly seems to have ceased to exist. She peeks out between her fingers just to make sure, noting Apate and then the screens she'd noticed earlier.

Warily, she uncovers her head and hops up to her feet, though not before plucking the glass of water from the floor. She takes a few steps closer to investigate this new interesting thing on the screen- the four individuals pictured there.“Who're they?” Blue would question curiously before bringing the glass to her lips and giving the water a lick.

[Alia]

Alia falls over onto her back laughing as the hand appears, extremely amused. It takes her quite awhile to calm down as she rehashes the even verbally, more to herself. She giggles, clutching her stomach.

“Oh man, did you see the hand! It was all… Oh my gosh, it was just there! It was so pointless! Do it again! Make something else!” she insists, ignoring the screens for the time being, having her own private little mission to be entertained.

[Apate]

Apate places the cane in its lap and leans back as if in a recliner, clearly getting comfortable on thin air.

“It’s the four souls that we’re here before. I thought I’d at least watch them struggle pointlessly. Helps pass the time while you learn.”

[Alia]

“Seeeeeeee? I knew you liked to watch people struggle,” she responds, wiping tears of amusement from her eyes with the heel of her hand.

[Apate]

“I gave them a choice. They chose poorly. I’m respecting their decision by watching it play out—even if I know it will not end well.”

[Blue]

Blue peers at the screens, murmuring quietly to herself,“Well…they aren't dead. That's good…” She gingerly sits near the screens to keep a careful eye on what is taking place, but does seem interested in learning to create things as well. If mistakes are made..they just kinda disappear, at least it seems so. She looks over to Alia, calling out to her,“What do you want me to create next? I wanna try more things!”

She ponders and thinks quietly to herself, once more chancing a glance up at the four individuals on the screen.`If I knew you before…if we were friends…be strong! There's gotta be a way out for you, somewhere…maybe…`

[Alia]

“Hmmm…” she says tilting her head, tapping a finger against her chin.“Make me a crown. A pretty one!”

[Blue]

Blue blinks a bit.“A crown? Hmm…” She could count how many times she'd seen an actual crown before on one hand, and usually from afar. Her old self hadn't exactly been living on riches after all. Blue thinks of an alternative though, giggling to herself before holding out her open palm, seeming to want to envision it there.

If things worked the way they were supposed to, the canine would be trying to mold together a flower crown, twined together with long stems and thread. She'd make each bloom a different color and a different flower entirely, recalling all of the flowers she'd passed and spoken to…somewhere…She'd prettify it with a single large lavender gem at the head. Gems were pretty enough, right?

She holds out whatever ends up appearing to Alia with a beaming grin.“Here!”

[Alia]

Alia looks at the crown, getting close and examining it from several angles. She cranes around it, judging it and withholds any commentary before she gives her demand.

“Crown me!”

[Blue]

Blue does as she's told, though again she gets that lingering sense that she knows Alia from somewhere. She delicately places the crown on the woman's head and before sitting back to observe her creation for herself with a keen eye.

“Is it good enough?” She asks with only the slightest bit of anxiety, hoping the pretty thing didn't randomly melt or explode into jellybeans or summon forth a horde of detached hands.

[Alia]

Alia stands up and does a little twirl, her white silks transforming into flowers that match the crown, a garment made of flowers.

“It's pretty! I'm surprised there aren't a bunch of clumps of spoil or something attached to them,” she confesses, adjusting her crown, looking like she feels very important.

[Blue]

Blue claps with delight, quite proud of her feat. It was little stuff sure..but the opportunity to create anything was an addicting ability to possess.“It looks great on you Alia.” The shapeshifter acknowledges honestly, admiring how she'd transformed her clothing to a colorful garment with little to no effort.

She'd been prepared to try and make some pretty clothing for herself when a thought occurs to Blue. She tips her head up at the floating Apate nearby and asks,“Are there..other worlds with a buncha divines and administrators?” She gestures to the screens.“Do those worlds have them?”

[Alia]

Alia looks quite pleased with the compliment, preening and humming to herself.

[Apate]

Apate grunts to itself irritably before waving its cane in the air briefly, pointing at the screen on the right. Promptly, sound crackled through the screen as clear as if they were right next to it. Specifically, one of the screens focused on a little horned man being lifted by the scruff of his neck, an old man's voice breaking through soon after.

[“I will make him ready. I am too old to go, but my apprentice will take my place. You will have someone to help operate the compressors, and trouble shoot if needed.”]

The horned boy was promptly dropped after and seemed to have collapsed onto his knees. At a glance, it seemed as if the young man might be having some sort of panic attack.

[Blue]

Blue covered her ears at the crackling noise emitting from the screen but observed the following scene with avid interest, her eyes lingering over the horned boy. In some strange way, she thinks she recognizes him, in spite of the change in skin tone and other aesthetic differences.

“He's far from the Grindstone..” The canine murmurs without noticing, a frown crossing her features at the rough treatment. She shifts her gaze to Apate, uncertain if there were answers to be found to her questions from what she hears and sees.

“That boy is one of the souls.” She states, seemingly sure of herself on that one at least.“Looks like he's really important too.”

[Apate]

“Really important? That’s a strange assumption to make.”

[Alia]

Alia starts braiding a front strand of her hair.

“Kinda ironic too since you're all so insignificant,” she grins to herself.

[Blue]

“Really important to whatever is happening over there.” Blue suggests with a tilt of her head. “Others need him for things no one else can do.”

She looks to Alia and pauses.“Scoot over here. Lemme braid your hair.” Blue doesn't seem terribly affected by her words, simply smiling softly.

[Apate]

“Nothing matters. Look at him. Look at all of them. Lost and hopeless.”

“This is a waste of time. The long route to the same end. It did not need to come to this.”

[Alia]

Alia shifts over and moves all her hair behind her, settling in a kneeling position to allow her hair to braided. She seems to enjoy having a handmaiden as she gazes at the screens.

[Blue]

“But you guys both still watch even if it is meaningless. It's not entertainment if you already know how something ends.” Blue gently brushes through Alia's hair with her fingers as she makes an attempt to create a brush in her opposite hand. She thinks of all those mornings meticulously fixing her own hair into braids and finds little trouble in visualizing it into being. She brushes Alia's hair first before beginning to separate it into sections.

Blue continues.“-Course it must be fun watching the struggle too, like Alia says. But it'd be more interesting to me if they found their way against the odds.”

She begins weaving the hair into a loose braid, practicing with creating ornamental vines that are weaved along with the braid, spotted with vibrant red flower blooms.

[Apate]

“Unlearn pretty thoughts. It is a weakness of mortals. Analyze instead the reliability of their tendency to disappoint. You saw it when they were here together after all; they were faced with an impossible situation in an even more impossible fashion, yet did they rise to the challenge? Did they defy expectation? No.”

It shifts in it’s air-chair, drumming its fingers against a decidedly hard yet hollow abdomen.

“This is not entertaining. It is simply a rerun of the condition of man. To struggle pointlessly and ceaselessly to no grand end. To lack the ability to rise above even when it stares them in the face.”

“I have grown so sick of it. So very tired. But watching those failures is my role. My purpose, and my atonement. For I look at these pathetic mortals squirming and crawling again and again and again over the cycles. Thousands—millions even, and I lift not a finger to change them. How ironic is it that we expect these mortals to simply grow without intervention? To obtain that responsibility and awareness on their own?”

It turns its head slightly.

“Go on then. Laugh at me.”

[Alia]

“Atonement? Why bother? Just do what you want to. You seem strong enough. I'd like seeing what someone who's so bored would do,” she says, tilting her head back as Blue brushes through her hair. She apparently is enjoying the attention.

[Blue]

Blue lowered her head, ears flattening at Apate's words. Her memories disagreed with the statements they made, but this shade of Blue wasn't certain. Her mind was already getting filled with all sorts of curious wonders in this world alone, if the being that was Apate had watched and observed these screens for as long as they promised they had, who was the shapeshifter to doubt?

She wouldn't laugh however, instead looking to the doll with a frown.“Can't you have a new purpose? You should get to be happy too, not just get sick of all the failures.” She nodded, seeming to agree with Alia as well, continuing her braiding session as she pondered, tail waving lazily behind her.

[Apate]

“You want to see me happy huh?”

The doll turned towards Alia

“How’s this for entertainment?”

Apate snaps it’s fingers and Alia fades away into dust, after which Apate kicks it’s little legs and laughs, sending a series of rattled through the area.

“See? That made me pretty happy. But happiness is all too fleeting. Depression? Despair? Thatsthe real shite. Sticks with you like a best friend. Better even. It will never leave you.”

[Blue]

Blue pulled her fingers away from Alia, her eyes wide as the woman becomes nothing more than dust. As calm as the canine portrayed herself, even she was struck with sudden fear, dropping her hands in her lap and trying to still a quiet quiver.

“…Y-You're probably right. Just seems sad though. You said it yourself that you're sick of it..” Trying to distract herself, and no longer with a playmate to spoil, Blue sets about making a garment for herself to adorn, covering up the many luminous markings about her frame.

[Apate]

“What would you do then? How would you change the fate of these pathetically doomed souls?”

[Alia]

Alia poofs back into existence, looking stubborn, sitting on top of one of the screens, legs crossed and arms crossed, sticking her tongue out at Apate. Her hair still only partly braided. She huffily starts to braid it on her own again, pouting.

[Apate]

“See? Happiness is fleeting.”

[Blue]

Blue finds herself breathing a sigh of relief at Alia's re-existance. She should have known better - this place and those before her were still strange and powerful and the shapeshifter didn't know what to expect anymore. At Apate's question, the female sits up straight, tail furling over her lap like a makeshift security blanket.

“I…would help them. And guide them to something better than doom and gloom.” She says this in earnest, not quite willing to give up yet on anybody, regardless if she truly knew them or not.

[Apate]

“Guide them how? You jumped at a rogue hand.”

“Do you have the capability to do aught of good?”

[Blue]

Blue nervously waves a hand at Apate's comment.“Just a creepy crawly hand, no biggy, and it disappeared, totally not scary.”

She then flicks an ear and tilts her head at the doll.“I..don't know. Do I? I don't know if I can change anything or do anything for those on the screen or those in the future. But I'm here now and I can't go anywhere else. I could try..”

[Apate]

“Even at the cost to yourself?”

[Blue]

Blue hugs her tail tightly, blinking with wide eyes from Alia to Apate. Her heart pounds, she was just born! It should be too much to ask of anybody normally. But not here. She nods her head quietly.

[Apate]

“….I see. Then pick one.”

[Blue]

Blue gestures to to the screens.“One of the souls or one of the screens?” She closes her eyes. Must be calm. Tret wouldn't like it if she died though…her eyes open and shift between the two screens, pondering many, many things.

[Apate]

“One of the screens. Would you find your….endeavor better served there?”

Apate points to the left screen, where Alia appears to be descending on the group in the desert.

“….Or there?”

Apate points to the right screen, where people seemed to be preparing for a suicide mission.

[Blue]

Blue stares from one screen to the next, uncertain. It seemed as if the desert people were in the most dire of circumstances immediately, while the other screen showed people in preparation of making an attempt that could cost their own lives if mistakes were made. She didn't want to choose, she wanted to help everyone.

She felt dizzy, memories surging of familiar faces at taverns and on the beach; at the stables and in the wilderness. They were friends. All of them. She was the cutting of a soul who loved everything and everyone.

Slowly the shapeshifter gets to her feet and points at the desert scene on the screen- Of Alia and the feathered calvary, of the tribe and those faces remniscint of two pretty kitties she vaguely knew.

“I'll see them through.”

[Alia]

Alia floats over to Blue and moves behind her, draping her arms around her shoulders, in what some might see as a comforting sort of way, like someone placing a supportive hand on one's back.

“It's scary, isn't it? Decisions and choices…creation. You've got all this weight on your shoulders, all these choices. But you know, the little things in the screen? They're blissfully unaware. They won't even know you're doing anything. It's not so scary when you see it like that, right? How else are you going to learn if you don't test things out?”

[Apate]

“Are you certain this is what you wish for? You will not be able to simply stop and come back here.”

[Blue]

Blue looks back at Alia over her shoulder, smiling to her and nodding in agreement. She looks to Apate.“I want to keep learning and creating things. I'd like to come back here again sometime..my birthplace.

She moves towards the doll and gestures her finger at it to come down from the air for just a moment.

“But I'm certain. I want to help.” She idly pulls at a small yellow thread that seemed to appear around her wrist, bright eyes staring up at the doll.

[Apate]

“How very….emotional of you. I had such blooming expectations of you as well, such a pity. But Very well, focus on the screen.”

[Blue]

Blue tilts her head. The doll didn't come down so she hops up and bats at it.

“I think you're very wise. I wanna see you again sometime, Apate.” She stops her frantic hopping and does as she's told, staring and focusing upon the screen.

[Apate]

“You won’t.”

Blue would feel herself being pulled forcefully into the screen she chose, being yanked closer and closer until her vision seemed to be filled with only visions of clouds.

[Apate]

Apate looks to Alia. Maybe. It doesn’t have eyes.

“Your source of entertainment is gone. Shouldn’t you be on your way?”

[Alia]

“What do you mean? It's just starting,” she says motioning at the screens.

[Apate]

It rattles.

[Alia]

She hops off from her perch and floats on her stomach kicking her legs like a child watching TV laying on the carpet.

“Do you think she'll actually do anything special? Maybe we could place bets!”

[Apate]

“Why do you think I want to play with you? I know what you are.”

[Alia]

“Not a fan of my work?”

[Apate]

“This is not work, this is simply chaos given purpose.”

[Alia]

“That's not fair! What I do is an art,you know. It's not easy. If it was easy, I probably wouldn't be biding my time here. Timing is everything, and patience is a virtue. You know, all those nice pretty sayings.”

[Apate]

”….Why not die for me? I can offer you a much better existence. I would make far better use of your soul than you have with these wasteful little efforts. You need but give yourself to me, and let go of all of this meaningless effort. Let the little fools be.“

[Alia]

“Die for you? When I have such a loooooong future ahead of me? I don't think so. Your universe is too small. And once someone knows the reality of a situation, it's difficult to settle for a fraction of it.”

She floats closer to them.

”…Buuuut, what -would- you do with my soul, I wonder?“

[Apate]

“What indeed? I would scrub you clean for a start. Wipe all the muck away and leave you pure. But I suppose purity is something you cannot understand. Does it bring you pleasure, to see this world that knows not of it's limits, and know there is aught beyond it? Does it make you feel superior?”

[Alia]

“It does! It feels a bit like someone watching children believe wholeheartedly in a fairytale. They believe in it so earnestly. It's quite adorable, but I know that I'm the adult in the end. I don't want to spoil their fun and ruin it all, you know?”

[Apate]

“If that is how you wish to see it. I cannot stop you after all. They made their choice.”

[Alia]

“So what were you gonna do with them if they decided to go along with you?”

[Apate]

“What indeed?”

[Alia]

She laughs.”You're a pretty rubbish conversationalist y'know. Here I was just trying to get a sense of who you are. Timing is everything, after all. I might be here awhile, not that I necessarily want to… But while I'm here, we should make the most of it!“

[Apate]

“And how would you propose we proceed with that?”

[Alia]

“Well, I figured I'd tag along with whatever it is you're doing at the time. Observe the maestro and work and all,” she says making conductor motions with her hands as she lays back on her back in the air, crossing her legs at her knees.

“I'm interested in this place, how it works, how pieces of things grow and change while they're here. Surely you know it the best. You run a tight ship!”

[Apate]

“Flattery is a waste of your effort.”

[Alia]

Alia releases a big sigh and sits up.

“I'm not even expending any effort, and I'd argue that I'm not flattering you in the slightest. I'm just judging based on how you demand things of others. You expect things of these little creatures without much guidance, so seems pretty strict to me, and you run this place, so obviously you'd know all its workings. These are facts, not blown up statements meant to inflate how little of an ego you may or may not possess.”

[Apate]

“Mhm….although….looking at this progress, I am almost tempted to replicate your methods. After improvement of course.”

[Alia]

“Oh? Not happy with your results then?”

[Apate]

“I’m never happy.”

[Alia]

“Awww, want a hug?” she giggles a bit, holding her arms open.

[Apate]

“Do you want me to remove you again?”

[Alia]

“I mean, no, 'cause it's annoying, but I can just come back. But I guess atonement's grim work by the sound of it. What of my methods tempts you so much though?”

[Apate]

“Manipulation.”

[Alia]

“Yeah, it's pretty effective honestly,” she says with a laugh.”I think you'd be good at it. You don't seem to really want anything though. I think that's key. Gotta have that end goal in mind so you know where to pull the strings and make the puppet go where you want it, y'know?“

[Apate]

“Is that how you believe you get what you want? To crudely Force them along your paved path, laughing as they stumble brick by brick to your imagined conclusion?”

“Such actions never end up exactly as you wish. The will to resist is strong indeed. No…that is not the way.”

[Alia]

“Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. Your way sounds boring.” She pauses, grinning again.”Sounds like you have a soft spot for those little souls. Such a bleeding heart!“

[Apate]

“I have a soft spot for my work not being interrupted.”

[Alia]

“Well, then I'll just watch quietly then. Don't mind me!”

[Apate]

“Quietly has not been your specialty so far. I would be downright delighted to witness this skill.”

[Alia]

She feels the temptation to be defensive, but realizes this would play into its prediction that she was incapable of it and break her word, so she settles on making a little “HMPH!” noise.

[Apate]

“And THAT is an example of my superior manipulation. Be sure to make note of it if you truly wish for victory.”

“You think like a mortal.”

[Alia]

She retaliates by remaining completely silent but floating in front of the screens making rude faces.

[Apate]

“A childish mortal.”

[Alia]

She simply laughs and settles herself near the floor, close enough to Apate that she would be in poking distance of it, looking up at the screens, hair fanned out on the floor. For now, she is content to watch what unfolds.

---

[Apate]

Apate continues to stare at the screens silently for some time as events unfold, but leans forward abruptly as it focuses its eyeless face on something.

“I wonder…could they truly be tempered with such a pitiful offering?”

[Alia]

“Do you mean the people in the sand place? They were so reluctant to die here, you'd think they'd feel the same way there too. Afraid to die, so they'd just go with her.”

[Apate]

“They had no connection.”

“Mortals cannot empathize with the unknown.”

[Alia]

“Well even in a known environment there's unknowns. What makes the unknown before different from the unknown now?”

[Apate]

“They can cling to what they think they know now. They have perceived time differently. It changes everything.”

[Alia]

“Well they barely lived at all before when they said no, and now they've got even more time, so wouldn't they just cling to wanting to live more?”

[Apate]

“Such a child…”

[Alia]

She frowns.”Well it'd be no fun if they just let her kill them. I'm watching 'em thinking how much they could grow. And if they feel so capable of escaping her now, why couldn't they just go, see what she's got to offer, then take their chances? Self-preservation's a priority. If you live long enough, you can just eventually accomplish what you want if you give it enough time.“

[Apate]

“Hmmm….I think it’s time.”

Apate waves it’s hand, and several of the gears in the background seem to screech to a protesting halt. It spins about in its invisible chair in the air and awaits the two souls it had plucked from their places.

[Gair]

A golden apparition is forced to appear now, a brilliant golden hue that immediately tests any ability to speak or vocalize with a confused wailing that echoes throughout the chamber. The voice possessed of this golden spirit is feminine this time. Amorphous hands of gold grasp at the sides of their head.

[Alia]

Alia frowned a bit when the souls were pulled from their predicament, but immediately burst out laughing as she fixed her gaze on the golden figure, clutching her bare stomach as she leaned back in mid-air.

“What was that noise you just made!? Hahaha! That… Haha.. that was so weird!”

[Apate]

“You’re aware enough to know what is weird, but not self aware enough to realize it applies to you. Interesting…”

[Tadashi]

The pink figure appears, still tensed from the scene from which it left, and glances around the area again. It winces as the golden figure wails, before glancing at the two figures speaking. Sizing them up, it remains on guard, tensed and ready.

[Apate]

“And the last one arrives. Welcome back you too. I must say, I am quite disappointed with your performance so far.”

[Alia]

Alia rolls her eyes as the pink figure arrives, mumbling nonsensically in a knee-jerk, defensive sort of way something to the effect of:

“Tch…I know I'm weird. You're the one not laughing…. Not just gonna laugh at myself…”

[Gair]

Their head darts all around them, searching, the immediacy of having just watched terror unleashed on their subterranean city still fresh in the figure's mind. My gun, my armor, what's going on? I was just next to Xander…

“Where the hell am I, what is this?!” They demand.

[Tadashi]

Glancing at the three of them, it nods curtly to the first one to speak, looks confused as the second one seems offended by something, and then turns to the golden figure, a little surprised it can speak. Keeping it's silence, it remains guarded, but feels the golden figures is equally confused, and regards them as an ally.

[Apate]

“This..” The doll hopped from its position in the air, landing softly in front of them before tapping its cane against the floor surface,

“This is my being disappointed in you two, as a spectator. At this pathetic pace, even I might fall asleep at the predictable outcomes. Were you not resolute when you refused me? Is your will so shallow that you can only reject what is unknown? Watching this—It points to a screen above them, showing the ongoing horror of the giants descending in ultra slow motion—is BORING!”

“If you mortals cannot prove me wrong, then what is the point of you? What reason should I not simply skip to the end of this laughable playtime?”

[Gair]

There wasn't any true way to get through to this golden spectre possessed of Gair and Gaelle's memories, there was urgency and confusion and no time to process this. They can only bark back after watching the screen. “We aren't here for your entertainment, thing, send us back! Our people need us!”

[Apate]

“Your people are doomed already, because of you. Because you have not risen to the challenge you all took for yourselves. What must be done to open those useless eyes?”

[Alia]

Alia pointlessly laughs and puts her fingers to her eyelids, holding them open wide, clearly just enjoying the show at the expense of the participants.

[Tadashi]

The pink figure clenches it's hands in anger, and darkens at these statements. Letting the others speak it nods as the golden figure pleads for them to be let back. Upon hearing the response, the now black figure responds icily, “What would you have us do? What needs be done to sate your interest? Clearly we are not amusingenough for you.”

[Apate]

“Why not call forth a special power? Perhaps a hidden boon in times of strife and misery like from tales of heroism? If you continue on this course, undoubtedly you will end up belonging to me. If that thought troubles you so, then why not do what must be done to alter your course?”

[Gair]

The gold figures gaze rests on the darkening one as they retort icily. That must be…And then they home in on the central speaker berating and questioning their worth as entertainment. In contrast to the black one, their own gold roils like an open flame furiously. “All of this talk, talk, talk…” They fume, a certain man's vulgarity bleeding through. “Twelve help me I will jam hellfire down your throat, eat you, then return home an' shit you down the bleeding neckstump of one'a those giants! Get to the point!”

[Apate]

“I have gotten to the point. If allowed to continue…”

The sound of metal protesting and grinding interrupts, and with a great snapping followed by a subsequent clank, the feed on the monitor above suddenly sped up, the vision of giants falling briefly returning to normal speed before halting again, slowing to near non-movement.

“…You will fail. You must needs forge new strength if you hope to fulfill your self-imposed destinies. Or would you have my rowdy guest here remain unopposed and smugly on the throne of victory?”

[Alia]

Alia giggles and wiggles her fingers, waving in a teasing, condescending sort of way as if very proud of her odds.

[Gair]

The golden figure just stares over at Alia as she does little more than giggle and wave at them. Their seething attention focused on them, baleful and quiet before they speak once more. Their voice on the verge of rising to a shout once more, only somewhattempered.

“I'm furious, but I'm no fool. How can we overcome so many of those things with this strength you speak of?”

[Apate]

“Pledge yourselves to me. I will give you the strength to destroy this enemy—the enemy that you cannot overcome….and in return I only want you to fulfill one request without question nor rejection. Fulfill this simple contract, and reversing this situation is possible.”

[Tadashi]

The black figure turns clear, pausing to consider what it had heard. “You demand we pledge ourselves to you, yet you do not prove that she is the one controlling the giants. Why should we side with you until you can prove that you aren't?”

[Apate]

The doll stares at the clear soul, a bit of rattling in its head sounding off before it taps its cane on the dark floor before slowly raising it over the doll’s faceless head.

Beneath it, flesh folds and unfolds before revealing the form of Yoa, which was immediately trapped within transparent glass.

[Gair]

“It looks less like proof of assurance and more like you're keeping a hostage.” The golden figure stands there, if their expression could be read, it would be somewhere between horror and dumbfoundedness. Every way this day could have gone is an utter mess, it all started when I awoke, the memories of that man…Her head snaps up, looking from the clear figure to the doll, the fury in their tone abating only slightly to query firmly. Maybe he knows.

“What do you know of a land called Eorzea, or the city of Ul'dah?”

[Tadashi]

The figure blackens with rage as Yoa is brought up before them. Shooting a glare at the doll, it nods in agreement with the golden figure. Upon hearing it ask about Eorzea and Ul'dah however, its from becomes less distinct, and to the left drifts a taller silhoutte, blackened with rage, while to the right drifts a short and clear figure, about half the height of the other. The double figure speaks with both voices, before drifting back to a single dark form and voice.

“I… recognize the words vaguely. I appear to have some memory of this place. Though the experience isn't… mine.”

[Alia]

“Does it matter if there's proof that I'm controlling 'em or not? Either way, they're gonna kill you if you go in there.” She shrugs, and moves into a floating cross-legged position, rocking back and forth. “If you think Eorzea's gonna save you, you're wrong too. Knowing about that stuff is just a distraction,” she says with a dismissive wave.”And if you think the answer lies there, there's no point listening to this thing.“ She jabs a finger at Apate.”Anyway, I'm just gonna say, any army that's under my control's gonna be preeeetty good!“ She grins with pride, neither confirming nor denying her role in these things.

[Tadashi]

“Indeed it does matter milady.” The black figure now clearing up once more, becoming almost transparent. “Were we interested in saving ourselves, we would naturally wish to ally ourselves with the stronger side. Especially with such a glowing endorsement from their ability to command things.”

[Apate]

“The insolence does not cease. I am the earth from which you draw life you feckless simpleton. The life upon which you sup to continue being, the monitor of all that exists within creation you can hope to perceive.”

“Something as simple as strength does not even begin to approach even the frayed edges of life and death—creation and destruction that I command. It is not out of a need for you that I have offered succor in an hour of darkness, nor do I find your situation particularly pitiable. If anything, this is far less despair than what you deserve.”

The rattling stops, and the doll turns towards the monitor.

“But this game has been unbalanced by the overbearing hand of an unruly child enforcing a false order. I would add a hint of chaos.”

The doll smacked Yoa out of the way with its cane and moved forward, a second screen appearing and growing larger over its head. On it, another woman similar to the one near Apate was shown, only with claw marks across her face and seemingly in a brutal battle. Time for this image had slowed to a crawl as well, and the scenery was clearly the overworld but not at all the same as the blinding lights that were the usual.

[Gair]

“Life and death? Well then, Nald'thal,” The golden figure decides on the only nickname they could give to such a being spouting such grandiose claims of power and strength, domain over life and death. “Out with it, what is the one request you'd have of us to perform without fail? In exchange for the power to defy the odds laid against us?”

[Apate]

“That is not for you to know until my convenience, and for yourown good.”

[Alia]

Alia listens to the clear figure and grins with an amused laugh.”Aw, well, as much as I hate to admit it, this thing's probably stronger as far as making things potentially awful for you, but I'm stronger in that it can't get rid of me if it wants to apparently.“

[Tadashi]

Wincing as the Yoa doll is knocked aside the black figure balls its fists, before releasing them. “What happens if only one of us agrees? Is that chaotic enough for you?”

[Apate]

“If I only wanted one I would have only called one, don’t you think?”

“I’m already familiar with your individual natures. I made the call regardless.”

[Gair]

“Then you'd know the ends more or less justify the means for me, less it hurts my people. I'm fine with whatever pact.” Their formless gaze rests on Alia pointedly. Their tone pointed and distrustful in all directions. “You two are playing some damnable game on a chessboard, hurry up and crown your pawn.”

[Apate]

“You are not good enough to be a pawn of my choosing. The only one of you that was gave in to her pitiful empathy, and sought to give the rest of you a chance.”

“You need not place faith in us. Place faith in the decision neither of you can remember. Do you not believe in yourselves?”

[Tadashi]

Realizing they were trapped, the darkened figure stiffens slightly at the mention of another. 'The only one of you that was gave in to her empathy? There was one more? Or is he talking about the golden figure there?

Glaring at the doll and the unhelpful woman, he glances to the golden figure before finally nodding curtly. “Given all that you are doing to the world around us, the least I can do is believe in myself. Very well, I will agree to your terms. I assume there is no going back from here?”

[Apate]

“There never is.”

[Gair]

The gold figure asserts rather pettily, “You want us to move forward without question of what request you'll have of us, a pawn, in other words. You sure don't know shit 'bout chess.” They roll their hand with a flick of the wrist, flippant and hasty. “Weaccept,” an answer applicable to both figures, or the gold figure possessed of the memories of two souls.

[Apate]

“Oh no no no. You are all pawns, but mistaking yourself as MY pawn is the mistake. I know what’s best, unlike you mortals, and in my greater wisdom I have afforded you the…opportunity to win this gamble you all have taken. What I receive in return is less boredom as your chances of failing are…marginally less terrible. But you have accepted, and time being what it is, I’ll afford you both ONE more question before I resume the entertainment.”

[Tadashi]

Glancing once more at the doll, and the woman upon the throne, the black figure clears up, and then shrugs. “What do we get for accepting your… proposal? You wanted chaos, and promised power, but what have we gained with this deal?”

[Apate]

“That is two questions. I will only answer the first. Power is what I promised, and so power shall be what you receive. In any rebellion, the minimum amount of strength to at least see it through is necessary.”

[Gair]

The gold figure defers to the black one's inquiry, their formless gaze resting on them, unseen and only truly shown by a turn of their vague head-shape oriented in their direction. Seemingly unable to shake these memories that have sidled up beside one another, Gair and Gaelle reconciling this existence together. “I take it this ain't a question from each of us, alas, we'll figure it out.”

[Apate]

Apate begins laughing, or at least making movements that one might when they laugh. Instead of laughter, only a hollow rattling escaped its head before it regained its composure, pulling a cloth from it's suit to wipe at a shining head.

“It was not, but your confidence has reached my heart. I do so LOVE your bravery. Your drive to figure it out. It seems marginally more likely you all might prove me wrong in the end.”

The groaning of gears in the background began to grow louder as the whining continued, causing Apate to sigh a bit.

“Well, times up. Guess I'll just play one last card. It's time to return to your world.”

Apate turns towards Alia, tapping his cane on the floor.

“That is the appropriate amount of chaos for now I think. Any objections?”

[Alia]

Alia turns and looks at the screens to figure out exactly what happened and her eyes widen in delight as her mouth creeps into a long grin. She little giggle leaves her as she turns back to Apate.

“Nope!” She flips back onto her stomach while still suspended in the air, kicking her feet giddily.”See, I knew you had it in you to have fun.“

[Apate]

“Fun. Right….”

[Alia]

“I mean, that's the purpose of entertainment right? To have fun watching it?”

[Apate]

“Hm. How would you react if I told you that you were entertainment? Here only at my pleasure and for my amusement?”

[Alia]

She laughs.”I wouldn't believe you! You seem pretty annoyed by me. Who keeps annoying stuff around as entertainment? Is it that I'm pretty? Aesthetically pleasing? Am I your type?“ she pesters further, floating over and attempting to poke its shoulder lightly.

[Apate]

“Your lackluster comprehension skills will lead to the unexpected occurring. You think like a mortal.”

[Alia]

“I guess I spend too much time seeing things from their point of view these days,” she says with a sigh.

[Apate]

“What value is there in such a waste?”

[Alia]

“What, a waste of time? I've got plenty of it so I can afford to linger, letting thoughts fester and minds spiral. It's my own type of entertainment. Just wait them out until they don't resist anymore.”

[Apate]

“What a carefree invader.”

The great screen above the two onlookers went completely white, showing nothing further. At the same time, Blue and Gaelle appeared not in spirit, but in the flesh this time, thrown unceremoniously onto the floor by some unseen force from beyond.

[Blue]

There was just white, blinding and pure, resonating in Blue's mind and field of vision for several seconds yet. There had been anger and rage and the maddening writhing of something serpentine and chaotic- but what plopped onto the floor with an audible yelp was most certainly a canine Blue. She opens her eyes once, then winces and rubs out all the white specks marring her vision.

“Wha..what happened?” She asks out to the air, not exactly sure where she is, furling her tail around herself.

[Apate]

<You lost. Failed.>

[Blue]

“Oh…I'm sorry. I tried.”

Blue looks sheepish and guilty, and with a sniff, turns her attention towards Gaelle.”Oh, but this one is here too now!“ Secretly, or not so secretly, the Shapeshifter is just happy to have her friends near.

[Apate]

<You would be dead if they were not. If only you could be so lucky.>

<Tell me what you’ve learned.>

[Gair]

Still bloody and grimy from the fight prior, Gaelle just stands there. The ice of her lance and her shield melting beneath her, puddling with the blood she had also shed. Everything is gone, resigned to her answer with everyone she ever knew and loved dead. It wasn't just Gaelle any more, it was both of themnow. The inner shadow named Vengeance was now a part of her.

“There was no victory to be bad,” She states coldly, her gaze orienting toward Blue. “Not yet, not there.”

[Blue]

Blue straightens up obediently, thinking of her adventures, smile turning a wee bit more serious.

“My little creations didn't have much effect at all in impacting much…I thought I could infiltrate a surrounded camp without notice but it wasn't enough.” “I thought running might be an option. I didn't want to fight. I thought there was another way..”

She looks over at Gaelle, ears pricking at her voice, tail wagging in response as she looked over in her direction. “It felt like fighting was the only option. Was there another choice? Could anything have really been prevented?”

Her rambling complete, the shapeshifter settles back once more, taking in everything.

[Apate]

<Who knows. But now your flesh is here. You have remarkably few choices left to you now.>

[Gair]

“The one who sent those disposable pawns out is still at large.” Gaelle states as she looks down at her hand, testing the state of her fleshy form that is now in this place in a far less golden state. I wouldn't be surprised if it was you.She stares daggers at the Doll.

“They were heedless for their own safety, giving themselves to the effort less like thinking soldiers and more like drones.” After a pause, she queries plainly. “Who sent them?”

[Apate]

<It should be obvious by now.>

[Blue]

Blue observes Gaelle briefly, glancing from Apate to Gaelle and then back again. She found herself wondering if it would have mattered or made a difference, merely glancing down at what constituted the ground.

[Gair]

“You, the mouthy bitch from earlier, or the one who knew that man?” In spite of Gaelle's rather diminutive height, she eyes both the doll and the taller Blue with an air of surety. “It could be any of you…and far simpler to to commit indiscriminate slaughter.”

“Leaves out the guesswork.”

[Alia]

Alia was hovering in a cross-legged position off to the side, watching the spectacle with rapt attention and enthusiasm in her eyes.

“Oooo, this is interesting. The actual thing was kinda boring to watch, too predictable, but this is fun! Like a little drama! I thought I'd be kinda disappointed to have spent all this time watching, but maybe you've still got something to show us!”

“Am I the mouthy bitch?” she asked with a innocent tilt of the head and laugh.

[Blue]

Blue flicks an ear at the accusations from Gaelle, frown evident on her face.”Hey, wait just a moment, I tried to help you!“ Before she can continue, she spots Alia and brightens almost immediately, waving at her pleasantly.”The other Alia wouldn't let me brush her hair.“ She states to her with disappointment.

[Gair]

“Hmm,” Gaelle conceeds at Blue's protests, but the canine-eared woman's brightening smile oriented toward Alia earns a disbelieving and disapproving look from her. They're chummy, none of these damnable faces I can trust.At her side she grasps at the open air, testing her newfound ability to manipulate ice and aether. Idly focusing on producing an icy spike in her left hand with the blood and water that had pooled beneath her from dismissing it prior.

“Had fun seeing my people slaughtered, did you?” She directs a question in answer to Alia's question, the calm fury in her voice wavering ever so slightly, threatening to explode at a moment's notice. “All some fun little curiosity, sending your beasts to pick the wings off of some wesps?” Her eyes narrow ever so slightly, do it, giggle, admit to it, dig your own grave so I can bury you in it.

[Blue]

Blue blinks as the ice spike is formed in Gaelle's hand, an evident frown on her face. What was she thinking? Her ears flatten and she calls over to Apate as a distraction to the very angry energy her cavern companion was giving off.

“What choices do we have?”

[Alia]

Alia grinned and nodded to the small woman.

“Yeah, more or less! They seem like your people, some grand civilization, but in the scope of things, they're just little blips of existence that can't do anything to change anything of importance anyway. Doesn't really matter what they do, so there's no point getting so invested in them.”

[Apate]

<Well you could get comfortable here and watch your companions fail as well, or you could very well choose to trample your original convictions in the name of saving them. Or the sentiment at least.>

[Blue]

Blue leans forward, cupping her cheeks with her hands as she considers.

“Are you mad at me for failing? Can I no longer train and learn to create better here cause I've been bad?”

[Apate]

<You’ve been far worse than bad….you’ve been ineffective. But this is far less a matter of emotion and one of balance. How far do you intend to coerce me to allow you…aberrations to bend the rules?>

[Blue]

Blue looked over at Gaelle briefly before dropping her gaze.

The shapeshifter had been ineffective on not just one but both of the worlds, scrambling just to try and do anything of value to souls that begrudgingly took her aid. She'd thought herself able to intervene and change what Apate had watched for cycles upon cycles up on those screens. She'd been proven wrong.

“I'll not ask for another chance. I don't see how I can prevent the inevitable end. It'll just keep happening whether I want it to or not. ”

[Gair]

With Alias grinning response at her, Gaelle just eyed the floating being as if she were a piece of meat to be devoured. She paces a few steps like a coeurl, letting Apate and Blue's conversation run its course until she finally speaks. Pointed, and at Blue.

“Gair thought more of you, but here you are. Playing along to get along while a murderer floats in front of you, you heard the screams.” She hacks audibly and spits a glob of blood and spit in the ground. “Or were you that kind of disappointing woman all along?”

[Blue]

“Gair hardly knew me.” Blue responds coldly.

“Neither did Lami or Rina. Nobody knew Blue and even then, I'm only part of her, as Gair is a portion of you.”

“I was born of this place with memories that helped guide my choices to make an attempt at keeping you all safe. I tried and failed and learned my lesson.”

She looks over at Apate and Alia briefly and adds.”I was happier staying here. If you perish now, it is because you weren't strong enough to stop it of your own accord. I hope I'm wrong, but I see no reason to hope for change now.“

[Apate]

<That is because you’ve no idea what it is you wish to change. You cannot prevent ruin without knowing it’s course.>

[Alia]

Alia flies over to Blue and hovers near her and moves into a kneeling position, leaning forward a bit as if trying to examine something deeper in her, but also amused at the fact that she seemed to have wanted to stay.

“I dunno, I think she's making the smart move! Sure, it's kinda like giving up, but sometimes you've gotta know when you're bested. Maybe we can be good friends if you stay here. Not every being can change the world and all, so it's good to know your place! When you know where you fit in to things, you can have a happier life.”

[Blue]

“I don't know what to change that would result in a happy end for everyone. In the desert, that Alia just wanted to progress her people. That's not a terrible thing in itself. If the tribe folk defeated her, development might not ever happen, or be shunned.”

“I was in the caves for far less of a time, but those giants felt pain just as much as the people they sought to destroy. They thought they were good and just, just as Gaelle believes herself to be in fighting them back.”

“Either way change brings about the rise of something and the downfall of something else. Nobody in those damned worlds could just settle and leave each other be. If the only way to save a world is to destroy those you don't agree with, what's even the point of it all? What's the point of trying to guide the unguideable?”

Blue looks up at Alia, canine ears perking up a bit as her tail gave a wag at her words.

“I already consider you a good friend regardless. All I wanted was to try and save my friends. I always wanted to come back. Things make more sense here.”

[Apate]

<Worlds? You keep saying that.>

<Why?>

[Blue]

“Is that not what they are?”

[Apate]

<You think you’ve been on a different planet this entire time?>

<As if I would waste the effort.>

[Blue]

Blue huffs and rolls onto her back, swiping at the air.

“Planes, existences, micro…things. Lives existed there. Or maybe they're not real either. I don't know, its very frustrating.”

[Gair]

As Blue and Apate have their conversation, Gaelle taps her spike of ice on the floor, her gaze fixated on Alia now. “I tire of this talk of what's real and what isn't, let's find out who the Deep favors.” Her eyes narrow and her stance widens, her patience for conversation having waned. Real or no, my people are dead. There's nothing for me after I've exacted my vengeance.

“Steel yourself, Alia. When I'm through with you…I'm going to the other one of you next.” A bare courtesy is offered with a warning tone, her intent made clear as she lifts her left hand defensively, the right lifting the spike up like a spear at the ready.

[Apate]

<Look at that….she unlearned out of spite.>

<It is so very like a mortal to assume that they are important enough to warrant the height of their imaginations.> The doll waved its hand, and the white screen that was Syvaa Jero grew larger. <This is where you were. This is where you all failed. What you fought for, meaningless. What you came here for? Pointless. It’s all gone and destroyed.>

It waves it’s hand and another screen enlarges. One showing a battle going in a vast desert.

<And this is where the rest of your friends are. It is not yet destroyed, gone, or forgotten. Your theory has been that you existed on another world entirely, but that is work. Work you do not warrant or deserve. You were in the same world. You simply were not in the same time.>

<Your destroyed world was the future, and only remained so because your friends all failed in the past. Their failure caused your downfall.> It then pointed at Gaelle. <Yet you do not wish to hear. You wish to satisfy your mortal desires. But you both are here as flesh now. Your efforts will only increase her amusement.>

[Blue]

All Blue wanted was to tuck her nose in her paws and curl up.”If the goal had been to change the past in order to prevent that future, why even present the option of either past or future to me in the first place, or yank me away from the very one meant to make an impact?“ She blinks up at Apate. The shapeshifter was more than happy to be chastised by her friend, going so far as to wag her tail happily in return.

She chances a glance over at Gaelle with a very visible frown, uncoiling herself in favor of sitting up, reaching out, and making a very real effort of taking Alia by the wrist from the air and pulling her down beside her where it might be safer- I mean, maybe just a smidgeon.

She redirects her attention back to Apate.”What do you want us to do then?“

[Gair]

It was that last sentence from Apate that halted full-on violence, for the moment. Gaelle froze there, her eyes flitting over to them, still holding firm in their stance, ready to fight. She was almostan unthinking beast on the verge of giving into her rage, almost. “I've listened more than you think, it's why we both even stand here. I knew I'd either find my people's salvation, or their vindication in this place.”

“Can you send us to mend their failure, in that time? If not, that mortal desire, as you put it, is the only thing left for me.”

[Apate]

<And how do you intend to stop what is coming?>

[Alia]

Alia allows Blue to yank her down beside her, a bit like a helium-filled balloon on a string might react, sharply tugged then floating rather freely as she had all along. She laughs a bit at the sudden motion, as if she had just gone on an exciting ride. She looks down toward Gaelle and simply lets out a raspberry of a laugh.

“What, you think I'll just let you throw a bunch of ice at me 'cause you're mad you lost? C'mon, don't be a sore loser. N' there's no way your other friends are gonna be able to stop what was started, honestly. Look at how much they love her,” she says, motioning to the screen as Alia's Au Ri guard allows for her escape.”Ever stopped to think that maybe it's your friends who were wrong in the first place? Just 'cause you're on the losing side doesn't mean your side was the better side for the world, y'know. History favors the winners, and the losers die. That's just the way it is, so you should just accept it now.“

[Gair]

“None of you are my fucking friends, not them, not you,” Gaelle directs that last statement at Blue, asserting herself very plainly apart from Gair. Her gaze focused on the screen that shows the desert bound battle raging on, a familiar figure on it's screen. “No one but him. If this is the deciding battle, I have to help somehow!” Her voice rises, motioning to the screen as well.

Her ire was easy to be gained, her head cocks to the side as Alia laughs at her. “You haven't won yet, two children of the Deep still stand. Victory'll be decided when I've no blood left to bleed, and your words aren't half as cutting as you think they are, so good luck with that.” She spits on the ground. “All you have is the hot air on which you float.”

[Apate]

<Ever ready to be thrust into combat. I almost feel pity.>

<You all lost the moment you refused my offer for death. That was the condition for victory. But…>

[Gair]

“I'm a huntress bearing the memories of a haunted soldier, combat is what I exist for, doubly so, now.”

[Apate]

<This began when she broke the rules. In response I bent them for your mortal whims. But the seed she sent into my world is what caused the end you see here. Harming her outside of that causality is not only not going to fail to return what you’ve lost, but will also remain wholly ineffective.>

<We are not of the flesh.>

[Gair]

“If not flesh, then what, aether?”

[Apate]

<Your very being is me. Hopelessly connected. Tethered. To even be here, I call it the flesh, but…..>

There is a rattle like bones being clacked together in plastic

<In reality, you have become infinitely more tiny than you can imagine. Your flesh amounts to less than specks in the world you’ve come from. For us to even communicate as this requires my intervention. Everything you are and see is conduit through my intervention.>

<But the truth is not what you desire. You desire enemies. Satisfaction. Conflict.>

Apate taps its cane on the floor, and a third, completely black screen forms.

<You could go to your friends. They have already all but failed as you have, creating the future that you were born into. Their failure will allow the seed of this creature to further malign the world you know. To put it in more historical context…>

<The loss in the Sandsea allows the creature to gain more influence, and serves as the turning point in history that leads to her driving the resistant souls to near extinction, which is why this creature put your companions there from the first.>

<From that failure, eventually the refugees and the lost from the world will make several cities beyond the reach of her influence. The most successful among them being Syvaa Jero.>

<And left with so much time to malform her subjects, this creature is left to mutate her army into nearly unbeatable giants.>

<She placed the remaining souls in this place not only cement her victory, but also as insurance.>

Apate turned towards Alia.

<Was this not so?>

<Retaining your mortal sensibilities is what dooms you all.>

[Gair]

“What I desire?! Fie on you, freak. You're as detached as you are ignorant if you think that the truth.” Gaelle's temper was flaring up at Apate now. “Everything I wantedwent in a flash of Deep-damned light. It doesn't take a grand scholar to figure out why I'm spoiling for blood, so stop playing the fool.”

[Blue]

Blue felt herself grow more and more flustered the longer she listened to the conversation between all three of them.

“What do you want, Apate?” “You're part of what keeps all this talking possible. You tell us we can't do anything and that we're specks and insignificant and what can we do this and what can we do that.” The shapeshifter scratches distractedly at the back of her ear.

“You could just fade us out into darkness and loneliness and sadness while we wait around for the desert to fall. But you're not doing that for some reason. Why? We didn't need an explanation to the future we failed- well..” She sulks a bit”Maybe Gaelle did.“

“We just want to know if there's literally anything we can do. If there's not, fine. But I just want to know how to make youhappy.”

[Apate]

<I told all of you from the beginning what I wanted. I wanted you all to die to prevent this grand waste of MY time. All of this entire farce is a hell of your choosing, not mine. That you are here is of HER choosing, not mine. I told you when you departed that we would not meet again. My hand did not summon you here.>

<You want the boy?>

Apate taps its cane on the floor and Reak appears, frightened and confused.

<Yanked from a moment before the end.>

Apate taps the cane again and Reak disappears.

<It will not matter because your every choice will bring her what she wants. You are all invaders upon MY garden, and your very being is an irritating weed.>

Apate begins tapping its foot now.

<I would hasten the end. Go to the beginning. Rip her seedling from the crib and destroy it before it has a chance to fester.>

<Should you succeed there will be no Syvaa Jero, but so too shall you and your loved ones that Iprovided be afforded a happier reality. One free of the scuttling in the dark you knew.>

[Blue]

Blue simply wags her tail and gives Apate a doggish grin.”Yeah but all you had to do at the very beginning was answer some questions…“ She pauses.”..Clearly, and then we might just coulda died and we wouldn't be friends.“ She tilts her head at Alia.”But it seems like she's in control of your garden instead…“

[Alia]

Alia laughs and crosses her arms pulling free of Blue and floating over to Apate, draping her arms over his shoulders and looking at the other two from over his shoulder in an impish sort of way.

“Well, what do you expect from an Empress!? Sure, I might be… invading them a liiiitle bit, but I like to think of it more as a visit! Things don't have to be so scary. We can stay here and talk and become good friends, but everyone is always so bent on resistingall the time, so then we have to go to all this trouble.”

She peels herself from Apate's shoulders and sits in the air as if on an invisible chair, crossing her dark legs and kicking her foot.

“I will say though, maybe you should consider if their way is better. They've made it clear that they wanted to just end your existences. They treat them like nothing, sees little value in them. They've admitted to watching this all as entertainment. They just want me gone selfishly so they can play with fragments of lives all day. They don't need you. Me though? I like having things to guide and take care of. You don't need to obey that thing.”

[Apate]

<Do as you wish. The window for you to prove me wrong has passed. Coercing you is beneath me.>

[Gair]

Gaelle's mouth is agape as Reak is brought forth into life and nothingness once more, fury replaced by astonishment for the moment. “A different life, beneath the sun.” She considers the option of destruction at the beginning. “If all other paths are closed, then I'll be the one that delivers their path from the Deep.”

[Blue]

Blue sighs and closes her eyes as she listens, clearly split on what road she wanted to take. Sifting through memory upon memory didnt help either, her constant desire one and the same- to just simply make friends. Blue hadn't sought out saving a world from the first- she'd only wanted the chance to try, to reach out to the fragments of souls she had known.

But what Blue truly wanted was to remain. Her eyes open back up again just in time for Reak to disappear into the void. Blue didn't have anybody like that. All there were, were memories of people and Apate and Alia. She had nothing to fight for.

As Gaelle voices her desires, Blue answers as well, flattening her ears and looking like a dog who'd gotten caught ripping up furniture. She looks to Alia.

“I won't fight. I didn't want to hurt you before and I still wouldn't want to now. You're nice to me. Maybe you are the big bad, maybe you'll just get rid of me instead of be friends, but I'll cherish you all the same. You're all I know.”

[Apate]

<You’ve lost one, creature. Perhaps you ought relight fires?>

[Alia]

Alia sighs and moves over to Gaelle and attempts to place a conciliatory arm around her shoulder.

“You've seen what this thing can do. You saw what they did just now. If they wanted to, they could give you everything you wanted back. But they don't. Why's that? Why are you willing to side with them? What kind of god-like being deserves worship when it turns its back on those it could help? Is that enough fire to stoke the flame of your doubt, or are you just going to believe the creature that's been throwing you around into different states of existence just because it can that it's the best course of action? They're using you like a toy and you're just going to happily obey at this rate.”

[Gair]

Gaelle holds her ground as Alia moves near her, allowing the hand on her shoulder. Her grip on the spike choking up to shorten and more easily point right at her from this close position. A warning gesture, it's clear the contact had a quickly fading allowance. “Two devils I'm to choose between. One murders my people and the other watches on with indifference, capable of helping, but doesn't.” After a breath, she's all business. “What have you to offer, other than seeds of doubt?”

[Alia]

“A life.” She said simply.”Safety. I can guarantee that you'll get to live a meaningful life that isn't at that thing's mercy. You can grow and learn and build relationships, make memories… all without fear of getting things snatched away or being yanked around by that thing. You can join me in the early days of my rise and know what it's like to live in a paradise. To be taken care of and to reach your potential. No mysteries, no secrets. Honesty through and through. I'll even let you be pretty high up in the hierarchy! I'll keep you close and make sure you reach every goal you've ever had for yourself.“

[Blue]

Blue cocks her head, listening to the exchange between Alia and Gaelle, though she focuses the most on one specific part of Alia's convincing.

“But aren't you the one that brought us all here in the first place?” she asks pointedly of the woman.”You were the first to yank us, that's what Apate said…there wouldn't be any yanking or snatching at all if you hadn't clipped us.“

Despite outpacing giant birds and the other Alia's henchpeople in one time frame to attempting bloody murder on giant bird people in another, the shapeshifter still had a very good memory- and a penchant for absorbing things said to her.

“And you say there are to be no mysteries or secrets…but when I was here, you said there was no point to explaining the big things to me, like why we were all brought here in the first place. You're my friend, don't lie like that. You won't explain things either.”

Blue frowned.

[Apate]

<A slow learner, but it does learn.>

[Alia]

“As for the first observation…” she looked like a lightbulb went on in her head, a sudden realization dawning upon her.”You know what… I almost forgot I did that!“ She laughed and continued.”Wellll, I just thought it'd be nice to see how strong you could all get really. This place - this world, as you might like to think of it - it's designed to help things grow. You're like seeds in a little garden, and Apate and I, we're like the gardeners. Apate though, they see you as a bunch of weeds. Invaders, he called you, whereas I see you for what you are - full of potential and capable of growing into something beautiful.“

“As to your second observation, that's still true, but that doesn't mean it's a lie. To tell you everything about everything is just impractical and often a waste of time. I'll explain everything you need to know about the life you'll be living. People don't know why fate brings people to a certain place. They don't know why they walk the earth. No one ever gets all of existence explained to them. They just decide a path and they walk along it until that path ends, free from worry about how capricious the world around them really is. They only learn what they need to make their life meaningful, and that's what I plan to do. Once you're in my care, you'll be told all about me and what I'm doing. We can all help each other build a really nice world.”

[Blue]

A seed of doubt begins to form in Blue's mind, though her doggish face betrays nothing but pleasant curiosity.

“So if we're seeds, or even weeds, what does that make them?”

She nods over to one of the screens that still continues to work, where things are looking right painful out there in desert land.

[Alia]

“One of them is a seed that I think is going to blossom. The other two… well, sometimes the seeds grow into weeds that threaten to choke out the rest of the plants in the garden. They're the same as you. Right now, they're a bit disappointing.”

[Gair]

“They're people who need help,” Gaelle interjects, her wrist rolling and the ice spike coming to rest on the ground before her, tip down. Her gaze jabs between Apate and Alia both. “Even if Gair or the real Blue were here, these two would find a way to belittle their existence…they'd be little more than seeds and weeds in this damnable 'garden'.”

[Blue]

“Seeds do not get asked by the gardener whether they will blossom into a flower or grow into a weed. Seeds will turn into what they are supposed to be.”

The canine sighs, ears perking at Gaelle's words, rubbing at her cheeks as she pondered.

“I'd like nothing more than to lay at your feet and just learn to create things and be a good pet. It's a tempting offer, not to worry about anything and just let it all go…”

”…But the Blue I came from already knew that existence. What difference is there to being in a garden when you're imprisoned all the same? To be tended to only so long as you don't interfere or cause trouble or question.“

“You wouldn't be a friend. You'd just be some sort of Mistress. Blue fought to get out of that little garden and into a huge world crawling with weeds and fungi and flowers and trees. Where things both die and thrive naturally and aren't always meant to be pruned or sculpted to your liking.”

The shapeshifter looks to Gaelle, then to Apate.

“I'll help them. They need the aid more than I need to remain.”

“Still don't really want to hurt anybody but if I grow into a weed that strangles the beautiful plants, I guess I've no choice.”

[Gair]

“I've little choice in the matter, the last of my people is fighting in those sands,” As if to prepare for a battle in the sun, Gaelle fishes around on her belt for a small pouch, pulling out a sash that she affixes to her forehead, ready to pull it over her eyes at a moment's notice. “In the Deep…we respected the path the water took, formed everything we knew around it.” Some reassurance for once that she directs at Blue. “Not every flower that blooms is beautiful, neither is every weed a doom for the garden. You're not robbed of all choice.”

[Apate]

Apate taps its cane on the floor impatiently.

<I take it the mortals have made their choice then? The search for the self has finally concluded?>

[Blue]

“I've made my choice.” Blue rubs at her cheeks and stands up, bout as prepared as she's going to get if she's going to be launched elsewhere.”Be good Apate n' Alia! Don't fuss like an old couple too much.“

[Gair]

Gaelle bobs her head in an affirmative nod toward Apate. Her gaze flitting between the two dwellers of this place for a moment. “I'm ready.” She answers and brings the icy spike to rest over her shoulder.

[Apate]

The little doll sighs, tapping its cane a final time on the floor, opening a portal.

<Fools. I cannot offer you a safe trip any longer. You will travel as flesh, and the effects of time passing will resume once you leave this place.>

Apate turns towards Blue.

<You are the exception in this case, but it matters not. You will fail.>

[Blue]

Blue gives a little shrug and an even smaller smile.”We aren't anything more than little ripples, to expect more would be silly.“ She hesitates briefly before making for the portal.

[Gair]

Gaelle shakes her head. “We were never safe, all that's left is the struggle of being,” the grip on her icy spike tightens, “of want.” And she pulls her sun-warding strip of cloth over her eyes before striding into the portal.

[Apate]

²⁾

[Apate]

Apate looks to Alia with a tilt of it's head, shrugging nonchalantly.

“So how does victory feel, creature? Are you not going to gloat?”

[Alia]

She claps with delight, giggling. “Of course I am! It feels pretty good, honestly. You aaaaaalmost got me too! You're pretty good at wriggling out of tight spaces, aren't you?”

[Apate]

Apate grows a lipless mouth, finally speaking with a real voice.

“Victory is not always victory.”

“Or perhaps I am simply the sore loser.”

[Alia]

“Victory is always victory until there's a new game. You wanting a rematch?”

[Apate]

“There’s no need.”

[Alia]

“Well then yeah, sounds like a victory's a victory after all. Unless you're lying. Perhaps you're not done playing the game yet?”

[Apate]

“I never said the game was over, only that you’ve achieved the victory you were after. You assume we played with the same criteria.”

[Alia]

She hums in consideration of the statement, trying to hide her suspicion.

“Well, if I get what I want, I don't really care if you've got some other stuff you want out of it.”

[Apate]

“That’s fine.”

Apate taps its cane on the ground, suddenly adopting a new air of purpose.

“I suppose that has been enough then. It is time to produce for them all the conclusion for their choices.”

[Alia]

“Oh? Alright then - I guess I'm ready to see the end of the story!”

[Apate]

“Still entertained?”

[Alia]

She floats up closer to the monitor, studying it with an undecided expression, slightly suspicious.

“Hm. In a sense. What's your game now?”

[Apate]

“What’s the fun in spoiling surprises?”

[Alia]

“Because this whole time you've been insufferable and have shown you more or less hate fun.”

[Apate]

“You just see fun differently than I do.”

[Alia]

“So what's your fun then?”

[Apate]

“You will see soon enough.”

“Do you not wish to guide your avatar?”

[Alia]

”…Are you letting them be mine then? Something makes me think you're not gonna be that generous.“

[Apate]

“There’s nothing left but the end now. I could stand to care a little less, but I suppose for now I’m still calm enough with the idea.”

[Alia]

“Hmph. I wonder what kind of worm you're gonna become when cornered though.”

[Apate]

“I’m cornered, am I?”

[Alia]

She sighs,”No, but you like making it sound like you are, being resigned and calm with the idea and things. You make it sound as if you've really given up. I just know you haven't, so I'm wanting to see what you'll do when push comes to shove.“

[Apate]

“Caution does not suit you, creature.”

[Alia]

She shrugs.”You see her walking. Isn't that enough? If I was really cautious I'd have her run.“

[Apate]

“As you wish.”

[Alia]

“Hm, wouldn't have taken you for the parental type.”

[Apate]

“Parental…”

[Alia]

“Willing to risk letting them get strong so you could feel the glory of creation again, only to have me eat your children in the end? Your sentimentality will be their ruin.”

[Apate]

“You were ruin long before I allowed anything.”

[Alia]

She laughs and moves to give the doll a hug from behind, around the shoulders.”Well, then I guess I should thank you for letting them grow to be such tasty snacks!“

[Apate]

“Yes. I suppose I do deserve thanks for that. Grow fat then, I say.”

“You seem to be hesitating. Or do you enjoy waiting beneath hardened sand?”

[Alia]

“If you manage to gain a pawn partway through the fight, it's a shame just to throw it away. The longer I wait, the more satisfying they will be.”

[Apate]

“You still misunderstand the grandness of this design.”

“We were never playing by the same rules.”

“Now this is entertainment.”

“Do you like it? I made it just for you.”

[Alia]

She moves her arms from around the doll and pushes herself away by shoving at its back where she drifts far enough to take a look at the screen, cross-legged and cross-armed.

“Hmph! Just a small delay. Nothing's changed.”

[Apate]

“Indeed.”

“How often do you get to hunt your prey?”

[Alia]

“Usually I'm a bit more… persuasive. These have too many memories. They're problematic. I'll end them soon enough though. Nothing I can't handle.”

[Apate]

“Sure….you’re doing an outstanding job so far.”

“Have you understood my game yet, creature?”

“Oh, this might actually be splitting your attentions. My apologies.”

[Alia]

She gives a grumpy huff of a sound as a reply.

“Hoping that someone just gets a lucky shot in? That the big plan?”

[Apate]

“Perhaps. Or multiple, if we are to keep count.”

[Alia]

“That's a stupid plan. I'm surprised you didn't just tell them to do it by now.”

[Apate]

“Do what?”

[Alia]

“Make their lucky shots less lucky.”

[Apate]

“No one listens to me when it counts. It is the way.”

[Alia]

“Two more left. You're really going to just let me take them while you watch?”

[Apate]

“What did you expect after I explained everything to them?”

“Intervention? Mortals….”

[Alia]

She shrugs.”I'm surprised they didn't have better teamwork honestly. Poor communication. My soldiers were a lot more disciplined as a whole.“

[Apate]

“That is the impression you'd get. I can certainly see that appraisal.”

Apate begins laughing in unison with it's other self, the blank canvas of it's face molding into a demon-like grimace.

“What a show, no? I never knew you would be such a tragic hero.”

[Alia]

Alia presses her hands against the glass of the monitor as she watched herself and all she had built crumble. She looks over her shoulder and gives Apate a scathing look, clearly too frustrated to do much else.

[Apate]

“Would you feel better if I killed him?”

“Even though he grew so much just for you?”

[Alia]

”….I'll make another. I'll start over,“ she says in stubborn desperation.

“I'll build it again.”

[Apate]

“Is that what you think?”

“I told you we were playing a different game. I'll ask you one more time.”

“Have you figured out my game yet?”

[Alia]

“Other than wanting me gone? No.”

[Apate]

“I thought not.”

[Alia]

She watches the screen with cautious curiosity, seeming a bit less confident.

She looks to him as they speak.

[Apate]

“Scared to meet him?”

[Alia]

“You just want me to clean up the mess I brought before you do something else, is that it?”

[Apate]

“It is cute watching you guess. Still no.”

---

[Alia]

A cautious, scandalized Alia turns to look at the door over her shoulder.

“Here to gloat? Here to lecture me about right and wrong?”

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head and bows deeply. “Thank you for our fight. It was the best one I have had.”

[Apate]

“You express gratitude? Towards this thing?”

[Tadashi]

He looks at the doll annoyed. “Of course. When you have the best fight in both of your lives, of course you thank them.”

[Apate]

“Can the loser accept it gracefully I wonder?”

[Alia]

She sneers at Apate in a mocking sort of way. She folds her arms and crosses her legs in midair. “Well, we'll keep fighting together after I've consumed you anyway, so get used to it.”

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head. “I won't be the one fighting, so there is no enjoyment. Only sorrow.”

[Alia]

She shrugs.”I tried to make paths for better lives but… well, the ones earlier, they just wouldn't fall in line. To think, all people had to was stop fighting and I would've let you grow and grow and grow.“

“Could've spent a long time together.”

[Apate]

“There is no need for lies at the end.”

“You'll not make him feel better about being food. Your mask has already fallen.”

[Tadashi]

Xander tilts his head at her last comment. “How so?” Then, he turns to the doll remembering. “When you brought us in here before, you mentioned that one of us gave themselves up to save us? Who was it?”

[Apate]

“Does any of that matter any longer? Your wish was not to speak to me, but to her. Once you have finished, I'll end the game.”

[Tadashi]

Xander nods stubbornly. “It does matter. I want to know who was here before all of this.”

“Do I need to go back through the door to speak with you there?”

[Alia]

She shrugs”I mean sure, living here a long time would've just made them stronger and the end result was the same. I wasn't lying though. I'd let 'em live and live and live if it meant they'd grow.“

[Apate]

“Ah…..”

Apate sighs, and a torrent of steam bursts from it's lipless mouth.

“The tension is falling. There is no hate here.”

[Alia]

“There's plenty of that, guarantee it.”

[Apate]

“I hate the whims of mortals.”

[Tadashi]

Xander shrugs. “What need have I for hate? I am made out to be the least powerful of us.”

[Apate]

“I never said as much. You assumed that on your own.”

[Tadashi]

He pauses to consider this. Eventually he asks, “Could I consume her?”

[Apate]

“Not here, no.”

[Alia]

She puts her hands on her hips and regards Xander. “Rude.”

[Tadashi]

Xander raises his eyebrows at Alia. “You want to talk about rude?”

[Apate]

“He has not realized that all that aether your avatar consumed needed to go somewhere once you dispersed.”

[Tadashi]

Xander looks annoyed. “I don't want her aether. Can I give it back?”

[Apate]

“Of course.”

[Tadashi]

“By having her eat me?”

[Apate]

“Yes.”

[Alia]

She floats down slowly, drifting slowly toward Xander, giving Apate a suspicious look.

[Apate]

“Are you ready for her to eat you?”

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head. “That is my finale? Getting eaten like I would have back there?”

[Apate]

“That is your finale yes. Not ours.”

[Alia]

“Don't complain, you got a good fight out of it apparently.”

[Apate]

“I gave you a choice but you seem….determined to overstep the bounds of your own decisions.”

[Tadashi]

Xander tilts his head. “Overstep the bounds of my decisions? I was told I would get to see the finale and then get eaten.”

[Apate]

Apate claps it's hands.

“Then let us get on with it, shall we?”

It taps it's cane on the floor, and suddenly the dark expanse of nothingness lights up, revealing a floor and walls that seemed to be made entirely of gray and pulsating flesh.

[Apate]

“I've been saying it over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over….”

“We were never playing the same game.”

“From the beginning, this creature has been trying to grow fat it's little crop. Snatching and thrashing and fighting viciously to infect my garden.”

The doll suddenly melts into a puddle, reforming before the pair once again. Apate was still wearing the same suit, but now sported a top hat to go along with it's suit and cane. It's doll-like parts were completely gone, replaced instead with the visage of a pale-skinned female plainsfolk lalafell with bright pink eyes and black schlera.

“The narrative all along was that we were competing for control over my garden. That eating all of you would simply….allow her the strength to take over my world, or leave.”

The lalafell smiles wide, revealing a neat row of sparkling white teeth before rearing her head back to laugh.

“BUT I LIED!”

[Alia]

She crosses her arms again, hugging herself a little tighter as she floats.

“You really like hearing yourself talk. I liked it better when you were quiet.”

[Apate]

Apate removed her hat, revealing a long curtain of black and green hair underneath.

“Think about it. If you corrupted their souls, were you not the same?”

“Surely you felt it as they grew stronger. Those memories returning. That strength that flooded you and empowered you. Did you not stop to consider WHY if your plan was to eat them for power?”

“How could you possibly grow stronger before that?”

“They were already a part of you, you idiot!” She laughs again, smacking her cane against her leg.

Apate points to Xander. “Look, the stronger part of yourself. Separated from your mind, yet all the same driven to grow stronger. Driven to conflict.”

“I just….” Apate makes an expression like she had just experienced the ultimate bliss, going slack in the knees just short of falling over.”…I couldnt resist. I could not WAIT to watch you crawl around, feeling so smart and strong. So in control of everything around you.“

Apate draws closer to Alia' s face, laughing into it.”Only to savor this moment! This grand, succulent moment when you realize it was all for nothing!“

[Alia]

Her long nails dig into arms as she gets increasingly irritated. When Apate draws close, she takes a swipe at her face with them, clearly not enjoying the gloating.

[Apate]

Apate does not resist, laughing louder as claws rend away soft flesh which soon after weeped blackened blood.

After the fit of laughing finally subsides a bit, Apate turns around, opening their arms wide.

“I doubt you could even imagine it…”

“The feeling of managing and guiding souls without cease. To try and fail and try again endlessly to have them grow to become more. To have them gain that….spark! Life! Thought! Consciousness!”

“To nurture that tiny little life in your hands and feel it become so much more than you could imagine. To craft for them the ship to sail the wider world….”

Apate turns around and points, rage not only apparent on her face but permeating the entire room, appearing as hot and reddened smoke.

“Only to have some pathetic creature steal her face and break into her home. To have it dare assume her visage as it pathetically clung to the lives of others to sustain itself.”

[Alia]

Alia looks beyond irritated at this point.”She's weak. I'll return to her. And if not me? Well… she's too easily tempted by power. Another will come along and tempt her just the same.“

[Apate]

“And that is why you came crawling here to recover is it? Because of her weakness?”

[Alia]

“I had her wrapped around my finger, wriggling like a worm.”

[Apate]

The room shrank, the pulsing of the fleshy floor and walls growing faster. When Apate spoke again, her voice echoed like a divine edict.

“KNOW THIS, CREATURE! I HAVE NAUGHT BUT ANIMOSITY AND DESTRUCTION FOR YOU!”

“The best part? You did it yourself.”

Apate points again to Xander.

“When this one arrived with the other one, they received strength to fight the very darkness you caused. The very method you created for them to grow stronger.”

“Standing this close to him, surely you feel it? Like a tiny knot inside of you….creeping up your being. Seeping into your veins.”

She motions to Xander coaxingly.

“Go on, eat him! I'd rather work with one massive piece!”

[Alia]

Alia grits her teeth and turns to Xander, and without even asking for approval or anything more, she attempts to push him against one of the screens and start to drain his aether, doing so angrily because Apate suggested it, but out of desperation for not knowing what else to do.

She draws her crystal close to Xander's forehead, repeating the usual process.

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head. “You are going to give in this easily? What happened to your pride? Your supreme confidence as an Empress?”

[Apate]

“She's not an empress you fool. She is nothing at all and she knows it.”

[Tadashi]

“I care not what you think of her. I know she is no empress. But for her to fold like this is pathetic.”

[Apate]

“Ah….GODS, it was so difficult to hold back my laughs. So many lies mixed with truths I had to tell. I couldnt even wear my face for fear I would betray a smile.”

“I still did in the end, but….you're all too focused on whatever I put in front of you. CHILDREN!”

“This was my game! Do you feel it? This hopelessness!”

[Tadashi]

Xander nods. “I have felt this hopelessness since we started. Everything was at your whim. And yet now you have two players left over.”

[Alia]

Alia takes Xander by the shoulders and shakes him.”THEN WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST, HUH!? YOU KNOW LESS OF THIS PLACE THAN I DO! I'll have your aether and I'll find a way out.“

[Apate]

Apate laughs again, but the walls grow bleeding and sharp-toothed maws as well, laughing along as the room shrinks once again.

[Tadashi]

Xander laughs. “I don't know what I suggest. How about we let the lady finish speaking, and I will get back to you. You know you cannot win. You gave in to what it suggested. Why play into it's hands further. If you hate it so much, why not bother it more?”

Xander turns calmly back to the woman. “Please continue.”

[Alia]

Alia pushes Xander against the screen one last time, drifting away from him and running her fingers through her hair in an agitated sort of way, looking around at the walls around her also laughing and only getting more incensed.

[Apate]

Apate takes a deep breath.

“In truth, you probably could have escaped eventually…..if you had not taken that Blue creature with you.”

“You should have been far more alarmed than you were when she failed to be sorted into your little scenarios.”

“How did she taste?”

[Alia]

Alia squints her eyes at Apate.

“Fine. She had interesting aether. I wanted her.”

[Apate]

“I bet.”

“She will be amazing soap, with which I will scrub you clean and free from these fragments you brought along with you.”

“Once I wash them, you'll be left with nothing. Understand?”

“They will be recycled and you will be….well…what do you think?”

[Tadashi]

“Can she get recycled too?”

[Apate]

“Clearly someone hasnt been listening!”

“I'm here to destroy, not save.”

[Tadashi]

Xander tilts his head. “You are saving someone by destroying her.”

[Apate]

“And? A side effect to be sure.”

“An aside for my vengeance. Like dessert.”

[Alia]

“I don't want to be saved if it's by this thing. It'd try and use me for something. I'm not gonna be someone's toy.”

[Tadashi]

Xander looks at Alia and shrugs. “You already have been.” Turning back to the lady he shakes his head. “This person is less important to you then getting rid of Alia?”

[Apate]

“What are you negotiating with?”

“You are her. I hate her.”

“Watching you suffer is my pleasure, and until you are separated from her nothing else will tickle my fancy.”

[Alia]

She drifts over to one of the fleshy walls, letting the other two talk, investigating the area, poking and prodding the wall here and there as if searching for some kind of weakness in the closed system, some kind of flaw to exploit.

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head. “I am negotiating with nothing. And if that was your goal, you would have separated us and washed your hands of this mess.”

[Alia]

She suddenly punches at a wall, burying her clawed hand deep inside it, testing what would happen, what she could sense or feel.

[Apate]

The woman would have felt her hands burning as if she stuck them in a vat of acid.

[Alia]

She pulls her hand out of the wall and looks at it, examining it as she gives a scathing looking to Apate.

“So, what then? Not gonna do anything until I eat him?”

[Apate]

“Oh you can wait if you want. I'm currently digesting you either way.”

“It will hurt so much.”

“And you'll be awake for every moment of it.”

[Alia]

Alia looks at Xander.

“You wanna get digested by yourself, or do you wanna be with me when it happens? M' Still gonna see if I can stop it. Up to you really.”

[Lesier Tod]

Xander shakes his head, “I want to see what death it like. Perhaps I can learn more. Leave a message for if I ever come back. I want to live my life for as long as I can.” Turning to the doll he asks simply, “Do you mind if I ask questions?”

[Apate]

“What could I possibly want to entertain answering?”

[Alia]

“Well, since it will be long, I suppose we've got plenty of time to test the limits. Perhaps you can be broken down from the inside.”

[Apate]

“Still clinging to hope are we? Did it hurt that much to realize it was by your own hand that you experience failure?”

[Alia]

”….What, you just want me to sit and enjoy the ride? Might as well do something to stay busy.“

[Apate]

The walls shrink closer again in response, twitching as if in anticipation.

[Tadashi]

Xander looks a little disappointed as he is rebuffed. Instead, he turns and studies the wall before drawing his hammer from his waist. Raising it above his head, he begins to hammer at the teeth in the wall.

[Alia]

Alia floats above the fray and spins on the point, her arms glowing with collected aether. As she spins she sends orbs of levin at the walls around them in 360 degrees.

[Apate]

The teeth remain firmly in place, Xander's hammer bouncing off of them like a sturdy rock might when thrown against a thick sheet of steel. Alia's attacks fared better, as the walls did begin to tear and burst open. In response to the wound, the walls began weeping large torrents of blackened blood, mirroring Apate's clawed face. From the sizzling sound it made as it splashed against the fleshy floor, one might be able to tell that it was acidic.

[Tadashi]

Xander recoils as the acidic blood gushes from the wound and ceiling, dripping onto him. Creating a small earthern platform beneath his feet he calls to Alia. “Either you go further and fast or we drown. I can try to shelter us from some of the blood short term, but I doubt it will last.”

[Alia]

She looks down upon Xander and surveys the damage from her quite safe vantage point.

“Well, if we're being digested perhaps cutting this stomach open from the inside could work. You said you'd like to die though so feel free to jump in if you give up.”

She looks around the room for any hint of a weak point, anything that might stick out within the flesh as a vulnerability.

[Apate]

“I said you were being digested. I never said it was my stomach.”

Apate begins laughing again, and snaps it's fingers.

The flesh walls disappear, and the two appear to have returned to the doomed Sandsea. An island in the middle of encroaching ruin. Without a sun, the only light came from the storms both distant and close.

“If you are looking for hope, I can give it to you. Real hope.”

“Your infection shall be used to make me better. Stronger.”

“I've been waiting so long for a chance to prove…I've been waiting a long time to prove that we are so much more than destruction. You will become my proof.”

“If you'd not worn her face, I would have lulled you into an end most gentle. You would not have known….any of this. You could have been happy.”

[Tadashi]

Xander watches as the scenery changes, still not quite familiar with the sensation. As he recognizes where he was, he smiles. Walking to the center of the platform, he withdraws his sword. “This was to mark where you died Alia, but now that you are here, it kind of doesn't make sense.” Then, he turns to the doll. “We are back here, so will you answer questions again?” Not waiting for a reply, he continues. “How are we helping prove this?”

[Alia]

She looks around the ruin and hovers just above the sand, mostly ignoring Xander's reference to the memorial as she spent moments looking for solutions - for escape.

“I wouldn't be happy with anything other than perfection. I'm not happy now, and I wouldn't be happy in whatever fate you decided was a nice one.”

She reaches down and picks up a handfull of sand before tossing at her.”Your hope is dust.“

[Apate]

“I can end your disease. I only need more samples from that girl. Her aether is the perfect strainer–and yours seems to work well at collecting the filth.”

“We have a cure to this blight! Your blight!”

She laughs more maniacally this time, running a hand over her face to wipe away Alia's claw marks.

[Alia]

She grits her teeth and apparently fed up with trying to do things the nice way simply dashes toward Apate and places her hands around her neck, squeezing before her hands burst into flame, attempting to simultaneously strangle and burn the woman.

“I'll just have to rip you apart before that happens!” she says in a frenzied, wild sort of voice.

[Apate]

Apate's smile widens as she is choked, not bothering to resist even as she is burned.

[Tadashi]

Xander shakes his head at Alia. “Stop rushing things.” Looking at the doll he asks, “What would I need to do to get your the samples?”

[Apate]

Apate's voice replies from the some echoing distance away.

“You are the samples.”

“But I suppose I have played with my food for long enough. Any final words? Last gasps? Screams?”

[Alia]

Alia simply lets out a desperate, frustrated cry and makes to dig her pointed nails into the woman's neck, pulling at the fissure and attempting to rip her head off with the force of her fury alone. A desperate, wild creature lashing out.

“I'm far from done! More will come. She'll never be safe and you can't do a thing to protect her! We'll never be done! She'll be part of us and her face will be ours for good!”

[Tadashi]

Xander sighs at Alia's desperation. “Why do you expect anything other then death? Was it not made clear from the start?” Addressing the doll, he looks indifferently. “Why would I scream? You made it clear from the start I was to die.”

[Apate]

Apate's head comes off as easily as a doll's might, her soft flesh coming parting as easily as icing on a cake.

From her severed head, several black tendrils slithered their way out of the inky gore, appearing adorned with stars and drawing a clear silhouette despite the mostly lightless horizon. As the creature appeared to lean upright to realize it's full height, it seemed to blot out everything else. It's tendrils surrounded the island, consuming even the distant clouds in it's expansion until all sound ceased.

One massive purple eye opened from far above, and a bright beam burst down onto the remaining pair. It would not have hurt, but bathing in this light they would very clearly be able to feel themselves ceasing to be; whatever had composed their flesh began to unravel, and all sensation began to fade away.

---

Hands work tirelessly in the darkness, sifting and smoothing and mixing together a multitude of souls in a glowing stream. The experiment was a success, and a new proper cycle could begin in earnest. Finally satisfied, the pale hands bends two fingers, causing six souls to separate from the mass swirling in the dark.

Using one finger to separate one from the rest, the five remaining souls begin to circle in the opposite palm, seeming to spark with far more life than the river of souls below them.

“Now I must decide what to do with all of you.”

---

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