Rifts - The Thirteenth Mystery - Main IC

[Epiphany]

Main thread for IC. Opening post will be forthcoming when the game gets underway.

 

[Epiphany]

9:01am, June 13th...109 PA​

You're not dead yet. Somehow. Instead, you've just finished putting down a Coalition incursion up Broadway Avenue.

It wasn't easy and they didn't make it easy. Once, you might have ambushed them or unleashed supernatural power they'd never imagined before but there's pitifully few surprises left this far into the war. No, the Coalition Platoon was smart. A forward fireteam performing reconnaissance for the five fireteams trailing behind to attack and clear buildings. They had a Psi-Stalker and a pair of Dog Boys for early warning. Their rifle teams included three riflemen using CP-40 Pulse Laser Rifles centered around a fourth packing a CP-50 "Dragonfire" Assault Pulse Laser and Grenade Launcher. A heavy weapons element included a full-conversion cyborg packing a CTT-P40 Particle Beam Cannon, a pair of C-29 "Hellfire" Heavy Plasma Cannon operators and a last with a CTT-M20 Missile Rifle with anti-armor/anti-aircraft capabilities.

No, it wasn't easy and they did not go down easy at all. Flames lick the battered, broken frames of the apartment complexes on either side of Irving Avenue, casualties of particle beams, plasma and incendiary ammunition. If there was a divine force for good in the universe, hopefully there weren't any more civilians still huddled up in those buildings. There was no operable fire and rescue service in Tolkeen anymore. Ambulance crews continued to operate where they could but they'd begun treating people in the field, as every remaining hospital and clinic was at capacity and beyond.

Most of you have been wounded too. There's a hospital half a mile away, North Memorial over on Oakdale Avenue but there's a dozen fights or more between your group and the Coalition to get there.

The walls of Tolkeen fell yesterday. First the north, owing to a surprise attack from who you now know was General Jericho Holmes. That's what took out the Triangle Defense System and disrupted the ley lines, rendering them impossible to use for teleportation or transit. It's been chaos ever since. A city this big, it'll take days to conquer and it already feels like it's been days since you last slept at all.

Ahead, the telltale whine of Coalition engines tell you a CS Mark VII "Slayer" Armored Personnel Carrier is en route. You know all their vehicles by sound, now. Probably carrying 50-60 more infantry for more building assault and clear. Your team's the only one standing between the people who couldn't evacuate and death now. Victory only delays death a little longer but it's all that's left now.

A sudden roar from above rolls across the street, a sonic compression wave you can physically feel. There's just enough time to realize those are Medium Range Missiles, coming in at a good 1200 miles per hour, before they strike home...on North Memorial Hospital, unquestionably their target. Another horror in a long string of horrors, just one more utter and absolute war crime committed by people who'd long ago signed away their humanity.

The faint blue of the Ley Line running through Tolkeen, barely perceptible in the morning light, suddenly roils and seizes. You've seen that before too, proof that there must have been hundreds if not thousands of people in that hospital when it blew. A PPE-driven shockwave reverberates outward along the Ley Line, coming your way. It'll mean space and time distortions, monsters appearing suddenly or God knows what.

It won't save you or anyone from the certain death of Tolkeen. Nothing can save Tolkeen now. Nothing can save you, either.

Spoiler: And then the shockwave hit

9:01am, June 13th...101 PA​

"...the Campaign for Unity. Imagine the gall of Emperor Prosek, to claim that bringing armies to siege good, innocent people in their very homes could ever unite anyone! No, it's in Tolkeen true unity exists! Tolkeen and Lazlo and New Lazlo, in every kingdom of this great land of ours where people take the hands of others unlike themselves and join in common purpose!"

Your hearing arrives first. Or perhaps all your senses register where you're at but it's the words of the speech that most immediately catch attention. There's a familiar cadence to them. Although it's been years, these are words you've heard before. Delivered by a voice you've heard a thousand times, unmistakably the voice of King Robert Creed.

And there he stands, still speaking. But at that moment, the immediacy of the moment presses in on you.

You're standing in the Silmarillion Stadium, the single largest gathering place for human-sized people in the whole of Tolkeen. Twelve hours ago, a dozen CTX-50 "Line Backer" Coalition Heavy Assault Tanks had unloaded their C-T60 High-Powered Laser Cannons and C-20R Rail Guns into this very stadium, leveling it in about thirteen minutes. But it stands before you, restored...and full of people.

Thousands of Tolkeen's populace surround you. Most seated in tiers ascending towards the arching high walls. The smell of gunpowder, napalm, burning wood and the sweet, sickly flesh of blasted bodies is gone now. Replaced by...popcorn. Cloth, wood, leather. Beyond, the breezes coming off of the Mississippi River which is less than a third of a mile away. Banners of Tolkeen sway in the morning breeze as the sun shines down on a fine assembly, the way people used to gather in years past to hear the pronouncements of the Circle of Twelve and their chosen leader, King Robert Creed.

"Which brings me to the issue at hand. Thirteen years ago, our whole city wept when we lost our beloved king, our champion and protector, Gravander Henchu. Within a month of his passing, the Coalition began deploying garrisons along our borders. I know, I know that many of you hoped to continue King Henchu's policy of peaceful coexistence. I share your wish! But Emperor Prosek does not! The Circle of Twelve chose me to lead our great city because they knew what you all know...beyond our borders lies an enemy who cannot be reasoned with, who will not negotiate, who desires nothing more than our destruction!"

"In the past decade, Tolkeen has welcomed many visitors, from other lands, from other dimensions. A great number have chosen to stay, to live among us, and to help protect our city. The cities of Lazlo and New Lazo also stand with us. And we've long enjoyed an alliance with the noble Cyber-Knights who do so much to keep our country and its peoples safe from evil. I suspect many of you hope these alliances and new citizens will defend us, even fight our battles for us."

"But they won't be enough. To that end, the Circle of Twelve have undertaken the following!"

You know this part. You were here, eight years ago, when the King made these announcements. He's about to unveil the new-in-this-day Iron Juggernauts which have been a mainstay of the last four years of war but no one had ever heard of prior to 101 PA. It seems impossible to see him making them again. But the spellbound audience, caught up in the King's charismatic rhetoric, look as struck by the impending news as ever they were. A swift glance around reveals nearly everyone waiting with bated breath for what comes next.

Everyone, except for a certain few of you. From a distance of eight years, it's hard to remember who you attended this speech with but you certainly remember who you fought beside at the end. They're here too. Are they looking your way, the way you're looking theirs?

 

[Epiphany]

Purr

It's a gorgeous sunny day. June weather is rather nice in Tolkeen, more so than the peak of its summers or the depths of its winters. Of course, for a girl who spends much of her time indoors in libraries, pawn shops and antique stores, it's rare to have a good excuse to spend a morning out in it. Thankfully, King Creed's announcement a week ago that he would be speaking to the broader Tolkeen public at Silmarillion Stadium might be a welcome excuse to be outside after all.

There's thousands here, many of whom arrived at dawn in hopes of getting a good seat. The center of the stadium had a great stage set up where the entertainment usually was when the venue was booked by other businesses. At the front podium stood King Creed. Behind him, the Circle of Twelve sat in high-backed chairs, spread out in a crescent shape facing the King. As for Robert Creed himself, he steps up and begins his speech with his customary charisma, enthusiasm and seeming idealism that he's always been famous for.

But a shadow's come over him, a blight on this otherwise gloriously radiant day. It's a shadow that Chan-Chan's seen before, the last half dozen times or so she's been close enough to the King to lay eyes on him. Even more concerning, it's something the handful of other Grey Seers in Tolkeen have noticed too. Something dark is beginning to fall over Tolkeen. Corruption, evil, death, destruction. Still distant, so distant it's like catching the faint whump of a tree falling over when one is sitting indoors. Such things have been known to happen, of course. To cities, towns, communities, families, even individuals. Shadows come and go, for the future is ever fluid, always changing. 'What might be' can change.

Yet, as Chan-Chan gazes upon the King, she becomes aware that the future is beginning to set in a way it rarely does. Not permanence but the beginning of it. There's still time to change things, perhaps, if the right people do the right thing. But from her studies among the Grey Seers, she knows an observation like this often leads to the Grey Seers removing themselves as What Might Be becomes What Will Be. If she had to guess, the Grey Seers of Tolkeen would likely leave the city behind within the next year. Perhaps within the next few months. Except of course for Kueda the Grey, an old wise Grey Seer who has advised the King all along and is likely to remain, trying to change Tolkeen's fate to the very end.

Looking at the King with her own eyes, though, it doesn't seem optimistic. There's a hardness there now, an implacability, a willingness to place the ends above the means. And where the King goes, Tolkeen will follow. Even to its own destruction. Perhaps it is time to start thinking of packing up, moving on, finding somewhere else to explore in the vast world still largely unseen.

As her eyes drift away from the stage and over the crowd, though, something twists.

A shattered city wall. Men with skulls and flaming rifles pouring through the streets by the thousands. Thousands more dead, Tolkeen's people dead. Fire and destruction and ruin. An explosion. The feeling of a thousand or more perishing in a single instant. An echoing response in the Ley Lines and...

And Silmarillion Stadium is at it ever was. Sunny and bright, compared to that burnt, grey-glimpsed future. Except there's something...strange going on. Chan-Chan's been in Tolkeen long enough to have met many people, made many friends and acquaintances. Several that she sees look...what, shocked? Distraught? Not listening to the speech at all? No, it's more than that. The burnt grey of that future lingers somehow. As if all of this is being watched on a pre-Rifts color television and there's half a dozen people who've always been in color too but now they're inexplicably black and white.

Something happened. Something significant happened. And for a moment, that rising, growing shadow of an inevitable Future That Will Be seems to pause. To stop. To no longer feel quite so inevitable.

What?

 

[Sherwood]

Freya stands there, speechless for a long time, starring down at her hands and wondering why they weren't covered in blood, sweat and dirt the way they were a moment ago. The aches and pains were all gone, as if she had never spent the past several years in nearly constant fighting. There is only one thought that keeps echoing through her head:

What the hell is gong on?

This is not right. There are thousands of people here, most of which are supposed to be dead. Freya remembers the time spent fighting clearly, remembers the pain of every blow, the agony of seeing every fallen comrade. How is this real? Where is Reyna? She was with me when.... everything changed.

She starts to look around for her sister. "Reyna? REYNA! Where are you?!?"

 

[Psychie]

Reyna's attention snaps to the here and now with a sudden snap, a feeling that is almost painful in its intensity. She looks around at the now pristine stadium and the throngs of people around her in shocked disbelief. This had already happened. Am I delusional? Is this a memory? Or is this real? She looks down at her clothes, not seeing the battered and scorched armor, but the stylish dress she wore at the celebration of the king's speech. It looked real. It felt real. The dull ache that she felt from the years of combat and the many wounds that she's suffered is gone, replaced with a pristine body free of all the new scars that she had gained from all the time spent fighting the Coalition. What the hell is going on? I remember everything. Did I see a vision of the future, or am I going crazy?

Then Reyna hears the startled yell from Freya. She turns to look for her sister, and sees her face, eyes wide in shock. Racing over to her, Reyna pulls her younger sister into a tight hug, feeling the tears run down her face. "Freya! Are you ok? Thank the gods you are here. The fighting . . . Did I imagine it, or do you remember it, too?"

 

[Sherwood]

Freya nods even as she holds her sister tight. "You remember it, too? I don't know off I should be thankful that I'm not alone, or horrified at what I remember happening over the years. How is this possible? Was it a vision of what will be, or are these actual memories of what we've already done? Reyna, what does this mean?"

She sniffs and wiped away tears that are flowing down her face, not giving a damn at the strange looks they are getting from the people around them.

In a more hesitant voice, Freya asks, "Do you think that there are others like us, that remember what is about to happen? And most important, what do we do now?"

 

[Purr]

It's a gorgeous sunny day.

Spoiler: Adesso e Fortuna by Arai Akino.

"Record of Lodoss War Adesso E Fortuna Japanese Version HD"

The Sun! There was nothing like it! What other celestial body was more proven to provide life and warmth and light nearly every living thing on Earth - pre or post Cataclysm? Just being in sunrays was enough to cheer the young Chiang-Ku into a wide, happy smile filled with appreciation. There in the foray of the library, Chan-Chan makes ready to see the king's speech! She adjusts her things and wraps her cloak about her - those same solar rays were also the revealer of secrets everywhere. Chan-Chan the Chinese dragon hatchling had learned a decade ago that her beauty, even in human form, was enough to make other people stop in the streets. Her beauty inspired some and drew jealousy from others, but most of all, beauty distracted. Ordinary people, especially humans, did not have this problem.

Flaunting beauty felt wrong. Chan-Chan did not feel any need for it. She keeps her hood low, her slim arms inside her cloak near her satchel, and melds into the crowd. Plus, meeting anyone familiar along her way might make her late and today, she was in the mood to be alone. She makes her way to the great and grand Silmarillion Stadium and watches. Just like an ordinary person, she muses. What was it like to be like them?

But a shadow's come over him, a blight on this otherwise gloriously radiant day. It's a shadow that Chan-Chan's seen before,

Inside the stadium, she feels lucky to find a back corner where she can stand atop her satchel for a better view while not drawing attention to herself. So far, it has worked! She can see King Creed clearly, but with a sad sigh, she quickly discovers King Creed is still not the man he used to be. Wanting to remember it clearly for the sake of accuracy, she tries to remember what she is experiencing for the sake of calling it all up later with her psychic ability, Total Recall.

"It remains," she thinks as she watches. "Oh, Your Royal Majesty, why do you not discard this foul cloud that chokes and stings your troubled soul so? Will you ever return to the shining man you once were? Where has he gone?" With one hand absently stroking her black hair in worry, she listens on.

Yet, as Chan-Chan gazes upon the King, she becomes aware that the future is beginning to set in a way it rarely does.

Eyes wide, she slowly recoils in astonishment, petrified by the setting of time as she hardly ever sees it. Only her cloak moves in the cool refreshing wind that she longer notices. This memory will be powerful enough, she feels, that she will be able to recover it completely with Total Recall. She is experiencing what she liked to refer to as a "crossroads prophecy," a scene in time - sometimes a pivotal moment in history - that could rocket away in most any direction, but whichever way it went, it often carried the fates of people along with it. Such prophecies were enjoyable to chat about with her fellow Grey Seers, but to experience one here and now during the king's speech?

Looking at the King with her own eyes, though, it doesn't seem optimistic. There's a hardness there now, an implacability,

Perhaps this was why. Chan-Chan watches as evidence strong enough for her to lay her very life down on makes itself known - The Mighty King of Tolkeen was, as far as she was concerned, no more. The shadows upon his soul had won. His nimbus of light had been replaced by bloodied barbed wire, the silvery sheen of his goodness had corroded away into something so dark as to perhaps defy the very sun itself. She had wanted to help before, somehow. But if Kueda the Grey could not reach him, what chance had she?

Under her cloak, Chan-Chan's hands give herself a needed hug. Perhaps it was time to depart Tolkeen after all, she quietly ponders. The thought makes her heart ache. She knew well that all things were temporary, but to take all that she had hoarded and move on, leaving all of this life behind? Sadly, her flawless face falls. It would not be the first time the Grey Seers had left a realm. So much to have to sit down with and ponder. She finds herself longing for a cup of tea. Time itself seems like it is against who calls Tolkeen home. "First, a crossroads prophecy... and now this?"

Little did the bright-hearted dragoness know... there was still more to come.

Spoiler: Dreams of Future War

"The Terminator - Reese Dreams Of Future War (Alternative Cover Remake Re-Sound)"

As her eyes drift away from the stage and over the crowd, though, something twists.

A shattered city wall. Men with skulls and flaming rifles pouring through the streets by the thousands. Thousands more dead, Tolkeen's people dead. Fire and destruction and ruin. An explosion. The feeling of a thousand or more perishing in a single instant. An echoing response in the Ley Lines and...

The young dragoness becomes more and more afraid at what she might see - what she might be shown - yet she cannot bring herself to tear herself away. "Ancients preserve us!" What was this?! A nightmare! A nightmare of the most unholiest of proportions strikes her here at Silmarillion Standium in broad daylight! Why wasn't anyone else running? Why couldn't she run? By the name of the holiest of dragonkind, what was happening?!

Violence! Violence upon the likes she has never before seen! Choking smoke. Cries. Holes. Holes in hope. Holes in Tolkeen's walls. Tolkeen is falling! Men - the word literally was defined as adult male human beings - using technology in the form of rifles that spat Mega-damage flame. Men with skulls. Skulls! Who else but the Coalition States?

Tolkeen's wondrous people were dying by the thousands like a scene straight out of demon-infested China except here, these demons are not formed by birth but by design. Horrible design and the decisions of their masters. Thousands perish in agony before her unblinking eyes. Chan-Chan shakes her lovely head in disbelief. She wants to protect, to run but she is rooted to the spot. A dreadful croaking sound escapes her as she feels as if her very heart being crushed by what she sees and hears. Crushed between hands belonging to fear and despair.

Fire! Bright fire turns age-old beauty into ruin, promised safety into failure, and where once lived life, love, and living beings, destruction now walks freely like some unstoppable God of Death through the streets she has called home for years. People she knows. Dead. People she likes and dislikes. Burning. Friends and mentors, strangers and allies, old and young alike - all fall before evil's awful inferno. Chan-Chan knows there is nothing she can do about it.

Dragons do not need to breathe. But what does breathing matter for clutching at her chest, Chan-Chan finds she cannot move. Since she cannot move, she cannot scream. Here, she is as helpless as the dead. Her vision blurs. Wetness. Wetness from deep inside clouds her eyes. She cannot see. She can only weep. Weep for the dead and those soon to join them and for evil's victory. She feels gutted. Under her cloak, Chan-Chan's dragon-strong limbs begin to convulse. Her every nerve filled with mind-slaying fear, she drops hard to her knees. Alone and spiraling out of control.

"No... Please... NO!!"

Just when things seem to not be able to get any worse, a gargantuan explosion followed immediately by the doubling of potential psychic energy as shrieking souls leave behind charring bodies dying by the hundreds. Yet in that very moment, nature responds. Even here. Even now. Nature is always present. Ley Lines, or Dragon Trails as they are called in her homeland, rise, and come to life in ways they normally do not - and as they rise, they respond. They respond like some unstoppable blast of interstellar force.

And Silmarillion Stadium is at it ever was. Sunny and bright, compared to that burnt, grey-glimpsed future.

Something happened. Something significant happened. And for a moment, that rising, growing shadow of an inevitable Future That Will Be seems to pause. To stop. To no longer feel quite so inevitable.

What?

Then suddenly... all is well again. The sun! It peeks out from behind white clouds. The cheering and applause sounding from all around the Silmarillion Stadium - the whole and untouched Silmarillion stadium. Every person unharmed. Every person seemingly but herself. Reaching into her cloak and robe, she touches her chest, and finds her heart is racing like a fox in flight. Well, she knew how to eventually counteract that. Fear was shadow not substance - except now in the case of King Creed and all of Tolkeen, that is.

Chan-Chan focuses on back control of her young and vulnerable, highly emotional and ever-precious mind. Freeing one's mind of fear is easier said than done. Some even possessed the psychic power to negate it for a time - a power Chan-Chan now wishes she had. But, she reminds herself, she is no longer some lost waif in the woods, but a Grey Seer.

Silver waterfalls. She places the pristine image of silver waterfalls in place of the nightmare. With every part of her powerful being, she pulls forth a chant - a Taoist chant - from the recesses of her shaken mind. "Om." Om is the resonant sound at the core of the universe. "Om Mani Padme Hum." She takes a sitting position. She repeats this until she feels it resonating inside of her body. Like a bell tolling. She is the bell. The calming bell. In what feels like moments, Chan-Chan opens her stunning lightning-emerald eyes and as she does, her fear is leaving like a passing thunderstorm. Replacing it is her confidence and purpose of being. She slowly and gratefully rises to feet now steady, at least for the time being. That hellish vision which can be changed. The crossroads prophecy! What can it all mean? These visions... these portents of things to come... were more than strong enough for her to recall using Total Recall. For that, she is glad. She might have to retell this all someday.

Then she remembers the others. The "black and white" who were just like the others are now quite unlike the color-filled rest. Thinking of them, Chan-Chan honestly forgets about drying her own tears. Who are they? She calls upon her psychic abilities, falters, and then tries again. She fails again, those hellish scenes still too stark and fresh, but she does not let her failures win. She tries yet again. She feels she has to know who she is dealing with. This time, she has the power. Calling upon her mind's abilities, (see O.O.C.) she attempts to increase her already keen draconic senses of hearing to far beyond their normal level. She also uses that same power to filter every other sound that does not seem to fit - out.

Chan-Chan listens in to the crying pair of clearly distraught Atlanteans whom she feels she might or might not know. What are they saying? What happened to them? Have been touched by fate and perhaps again by time in ways they might fail to understand? Her listening will put aside her own suppositions and replace them with cold hard facts. But hold! There is another "black and white" nearby who turns towards the female warriors. It is a bushy-haired beautiful human appearing as cool as ice at least from the outside. Did she look familiar?

Chan-Chan muses once more. These Atlanteans, the lone human in the crowd - perhaps they could benefit from a helping hand offered by a Grey Seer?

 

[Esbilon]

Even in a city that is doomed, but not yet dead, there is too much time to think in Jeanne-Marie's opinion. While actually fighting, she can push back the regrets and the fears that tear at her mind in moments like these, but not now. The streets are burning and the buildings collapsing. Children, innocents, and the wounded are dying or cursed to survive with no hope for a brighter future. For herself, she cannot shake the repeated, intrusive thought that she could just as well have been on the other side of this slaughter. She could have thrown in her lot with the supremacists and murderers launching the missiles rather than be on the receiving end.

It is a tempting thought, but invariably it leads to memories of the liberation raid they did on Camp Victory. She cut out those memories from half the people who were involved in the raid and at times she wishes she had done the same to herself, but in the end she is glad that she did not. If she had, she might have actually wanted to turn her coat once more and join the monsters in their black Death's Head shells of metal. No, though she would die here, it was better to die than to fight at the behest of genocidal mad men like Prosek and Drogue.

And she will die here in Tolkeen, but she will do so surrounded by people who matter to her and whom she believe to be forces for good. For the most part, they are not human beings, but in the end, humanity does not matter so very much. What matters is who you are, what you will fight for, and what you will die for. She lets her eyes glance over her companions once more and her mind reach out to each of them in turn assuring them that they are in this together. To the end.

----- -----​

The next thing she registers is the sheer amount of minds surrounding her, the cacophony of their thoughts, and the closeness of their bodies. The shock is enough to make her take a step backwards, but it is halted by the presse of bodies all around. The King's words finally cut through the mental noise and she turns her gaze properly towards the stage. Though it should be impossible, the small heads-up-display from her built-in clock calendar confirms that she is somehow back in 101. The eight years between the Speech and the Doom of Tolkeen are gone, but her memory of it is not.

The implications of this realisation - if indeed it is real, a suspicious corner of her mind interjects - are immediately cut short as she hears Freya calling for her sister and through the crowd she sees the Atlanteans embracing.

 

[EmperorNorton1]

(For Eonivar )

There was no way to escape anymore. the city of Tolkien is being razed, and there is nothing more that can be done. the Coalition soldiers will come, and they will keep coming. in the streets, the fight still rages, with the brave defenders of Tolkien, friends and colleagues, engaged in a suicidal fight, desperate to buy time for civilians, time that can only be spent saying goodbye.

With a hand that wavered just slightly, Ellis silently recorded the city in flames, the smokey glow painting a horrifyingly stunning picture across the darkened sky. explosions still burst, ones they could no longer hear, but they could feel the vibrations on their skin, feel the ground shake as building after buildings collapse. almost deaf from the constant noise, mute from grief, their lips clamped shut so the bile of failure doesn't overwhelm and escape, all that they can do is watch from the window of an all too full hospital. they failed. these civilians won't be evacuated, and they are certain to all perish here.

All that they can do is watch.

Priya, following Ellis, stepped into the remains of what had been her office (and before that her mother's) at the hospital before she was assigned liaison to the Unkillables. The administration never gave it to anyone else, it had been used for storage of supplies at one point. The whole floor had been long shelled several times, so the office pictures and items and things were strewn across the whole office and in through holes in the wall to the adjacent offices and examination rooms.

Priya resisted picking up any large pieces rubble or debris as to not garner any attention from any outside enemies. She reached down and picked up a picture of her and her mother, two dark haired women with skin of a light bronze color, the younger Priya was holding up her Doctorate certification. The girl was so proud of her achievement and hard work. It was one thing to just use magic to heal, but it was something else to understand how life worked and to learn to heal it naturally. She missed her mother, but was glad that her mother did not live to see this come to pass. She let the picture drop to the ground. That Priya was long gone. She may have looked exactly the same, Priya stopped aging at 24, but that younger more eager Priya had died when the Coalition came to destroy everything she knew.

Priya could not cry anymore, she had cried out all of her tears in Ellis' arms over the last few years. She was done crying. She let the picture fall to the ground and stepped up next to Ellis while they were recording, her hand unthinkingly reaching to stroke along the shorter Ellis' back.

The tall, dark haired, bronze skinned and golden freckled demi-goddess with long thin fingers and hands reaching out to the shorter Ellis. She wore a damaged variety of armor common to magic users, although it had taken so many hits it was nearly useless and unrecognizable with holes and revealing naked skin underneath in various places. At one point in the past, Ellis probably would have laughed and made some comment that Priya was trying to tease them with such clothing but the coming of the end took any humor out of the situation.

Priya took a deep breath as she surveyed the destruction of her city. She used to stand here looking through her office window and watch the city at work, various vehicles and beings driving and flying around the streets and skyline, the comforting glow of the ley lines and magical power around the city that was no longer there. The greenery and colors of the city that would shine in the day, all replaced by the browns and reds and shadows of destruction with the occasional flash of an energy weapon or explosion.

The Demi-goddess' strong and yet gentle voice spoke softly in a nice alto. "I am sorry El. I am sorry, we are all we have left now. The city is gone. All gone."

Priya stepped closer wrapping her long arm around the other, and pointed with her other hand.

Ellis half flinched when Priya touched them, sucking in the faintest of inhales in surprise. They would hear her coming normally, Priya never could surprise them no matter how hard their love tried. but with their hearing dulled and their eyes on the burning city, They didn’t. But there she was.

Priya. The woman who Ellis loved more dearly than anything in the world. The woman who had been at Ellis side, and who they had stood by through the war, whose seemingly endless pool of affection always held room to soothe and heal them both. Priya was there when the war started. Priya was there when they both enlisted in the Unkillables, Priya was there when they liberated the death Camp, and Priya was working frantically beside Ellis when the wall fell just a few days ago.

There was a long moment of just listening to the occasional explosion or gunfire or blast of an energy weapon, or the occasional whoosh of a vehicle before Priya spoke pointing to a ruined block of buildings below them.

"Remember the Green Goddess coffee shop where we met for the first time...over there on Mana Street, they had that elven woman who was the owner..I cannot remember her name...I used to flirt with her all the time before we met...she made the best coffee. I never knew how she did it and it was so good that you did not want to add anything to it, just drink it straight...hot or cold. The funny thing about it, was that it taste like shit before I met you there. After that...it was the best but only when you were there drinking it with me."


Priya giggled...she had not giggled or laughed in over a year. "What about that mexican place across the street? 'El Vampiro Hambriento' The owner swore he was a vampire. He had me examine him. He was definitely NOT a vampire, just a good cook who slept all day. He had a wonderful family. They refused to leave." The giggle faded with the harsh memory.

"Oh the dress shop...remember when you wanted to do an article on me for some sort of fashion week and you had me go to that dress shop....it was over there on Creed Boulevard...the owner was a technowizard who specialized in illusionary clothing...looking back on it now I know why you had me go to him and wear what looked like strips of toliet paper across my body...but the colors were cool...even though it was very see through and my mother did not approve of it."

As Priya narrated memories, they angled their camera wherever she narrated, tears nearly coming to their eyes as a small, rusty, but beautiful laugh left their lover’s lips. Ellis had missed the sound terribly, listening intently to ensure their weakened sense didn't miss a single syllable. The hypochondriac Mexican chef who was certain he was a vampire, the clothing piece they had done on Priya from back when they still wrote fluff news, choosing the most beautiful woman they knew to model, the coffee shop where they imbibed large amounts of the crappy caffeine as they worked on writing and editing. It tasted better with Priya beside them. They had nearly forgotten peacetime. they were never going to see it again. Tolkien was burning, and they both were going to die here.

As Priya embraced them, they shut off their camera with a click, setting it down, hugging back tight, before reaching into their pocket. They had meant for the moment to be happier, to do this on one knee, standing in the sunlight. But at the end of the world was better than never.

Ellis pulled out a golden ring, a small crystal embedded in the middle. They met Priya's gaze, staring up into those warm eyes, offering the ring to her, before signing in a simple finger spell “I love you.”

Priya smiled back at Ellis, taking the ring and placing it on her finger, ignoring everything else in the world. "I love you too" Priya leaned in for a kiss as a great light overtook them and the world faded to white.

 

[Eonivar]

Priya blinked and glanced around in confusion. "Ellis?"

She was sitting on the stage with the rest of the Council of Twelve and leaders of Tolkeen along with King Robert Creed's family and apprentices of which Priya was seated with, with the King standing on a podium in front of them.

Priya wore a beautiful long medium blue dress with a black shaw and veil of mourning, her long dark hair was up with several jeweled pins, her golden freckles seemed to shine and reflect in the sunlight despite the veil as she glanced around in confusion.

She whispered to herself.."What's going on...where? What has happened? Ellis...where are you?"

Priya's hands were shaking. This was not right, what is she doing here, was everything she experienced real or just a dream?

One of the other apprentices, a younger human girl named Miyam looked over at her, reaching over and touching Priya's hand. Priya nearly jumped, as Miyam's hand was very real. Miyam leaned over and whispered. "Priya...are you ok? Is something wrong?"

Priya turned and gazed deep into Miyam's deep brown eyes. She remembered gazing into Miyam's lifeless eyes when she found her body in the camp they raided in 108...and she was alive, and here now.

Tears fell down Priya's face in shock...Priya reached and grabbed Miyam's hands in hers. "Miyam...you're alive..."

The younger Miyam shook and looked at Priya like she was losing it. "Of course I am alive...?"

Priya's more logical mind finally began to take over after the initial shock as she looked around again and listened to the King's speech. She remembered this moment now.

She squeezed Miyam's hand and let go. "No Miyam...I am not ok...I need a moment."

Miyam looked at everyone around them and in the stadium in rapt attention to what the King was talking about. "You should be good to walk out, everyone is watching the King, I do not think it will matter if you leave, you heard the speech when he was practicing anyway. "

Priya leaned over and hugged Miyam, marveling to feel her young friend and fellow apprentice alive and breathing. "I will, thank you.."

Miyam seemed a bit surprised at Priya's friendliness but she was fine with it. "You go Pri...get some rest, its been a long day...particularly after the news about your dear mother."

Priya remembered now...this was the same day she was told her mother had been killed by an Xiticix raid on one of the outer villages that they tended to every year.

Priya nodded. "Right...yes, it has been a long day. Thank you."

Priya then got up during the speech and proceeded to go back into the bowls of the stadium.

 

[EmperorNorton1]

"....in every kingdom of this great land of ours where people take the hands of others unlike themselves and join in common purpose!"
Ellis's ears were ringing, their head pounding as their body trembled from the shockwave. they- weren't dead. they weren't dead but they were- god, where were they? they almost dropped their cam recorder as they glanced around frantically, trying to catch their bearings. how were they alive? This was... this was the Silmarillion stadium, one which they had last seen from above swarming with coalition soldiers engaging in firefights with desperate mages. but no- the stadium was intact, the sky was bright, and King Creed's booming voice carried through the stadium.

"Which brings me to the issue at hand. Thirteen years ago, our whole city wept when we lost our beloved king, our champion and protector, Gravander Henchu. Within a month of his passing, the Coalition began deploying garrisons along our borders."
so this was then? the beginning of the end! and they were holding a camera, while their colleague Fredrik was taking notes for the article he'd be writing. of course, their hands were shaking so bad, any video wouldnt be good quality- they tried to force down their distress, attemptibg to steady their hands and focus their lens on the stage, only to actualy drop the camera when they caught sight of her. Priya, draped in mourning cloth, looking panicked. Did she- did she remember? Or was it merely grief for her mother?

Fredrik looked at Ellis with concern, the rouge scholar grabbing and picking up their borrowed videocamera with a look of panic, shoving the device into his hands , before glancing back at the stage to see Priya walk off the stage.

“Ellis, what’s-“ Fredrik tried to question the nearly-always composed cameraman, only for Ellis to just panickedly shake their head, sighing shaking “too loud” before pushing and ducking their way through to the out of the Journalist section, trying to get to the below-the-stage section of the stage, and to Priya.

 

[Esbilon]

Jeanne-Marie makes her way through the crowd towards where Freya and Reyna. She doesn't want to interrupt their reunion and coming to grips with the situation - indeed her own mind is still spinning over what just happened - but she does want to be on hand once they start looking for others who aren't jus there for the Speech.

Just like Reyna, she looks little like she did when last they saw each other. Her battered Super SAMAS has been replaced with a royal blue coat of MDC cloth, her hair has grown back to its impressive length, spilling out from the top of her head in wild curls, and there is a thick, black choker around her neck.

Standing there during a lull in King Robert's stream of words, she is struck by the profound difference in how she seems the assembled multitudes of Tolkeen now and for an hour and eight years ago. Gone is the suspicion and hostility, but come is also the guilt and the fear. She has killed people for the crime of being a D-Bee in the way of a Coalition patrol or for being a Wizard fighting for his life against a regime that would kill him for following his nature and using his natural talents. It is a hollow comfort that most of the people whom she has ended were worse than that: Raiders, bandits and Federation mad men. Still somewhere in this crowd is a brother or sister or cousin or child of someone whose life she had a hand in ending. Even if helping wasn't the right thing to do, she would owe these people.

 

[Psychie]

Freya nods even as she holds her sister tight. "You remember it, too? I don't know off I should be thankful that I'm not alone, or horrified at what I remember happening over the years. How is this possible? Was it a vision of what will be, or are these actual memories of what we've already done? Reyna, what does this mean?"

She sniffs and wiped away tears that are flowing down her face, not giving a damn at the strange looks they are getting from the people around them.

In a more hesitant voice, Freya asks, "Do you think that there are others like us, that remember what is about to happen? And most important, what do we do now?"

Doing her best to pull herself together and compose herself, Reyna takes a deep, cleansing breath before speaking. "First thing we do is not panic. We don't have time for that, and we need our wits together to be able to keep from getting labeled as a pair of nut jobs calling that the sky is falling. We need . . . We need to find the rest of the Unkillables. If anyone is going to believe us and have any hope of changing what we've seen, it's them."

Jeanne-Marie makes her way through the crowd towards where Freya and Reyna. She doesn't want to interrupt their reunion and coming to grips with the situation - indeed her own mind is still spinning over what just happened - but she does want to be on hand once they start looking for others who aren't jus there for the Speech.

Just like Reyna, she looks little like she did when last they saw each other. Her battered Super SAMAS has been replaced with a royal blue coat of MDC cloth, her hair has grown back to its impressive length, spilling out from the top of her head in wild curls, and there is a thick, black choker around her neck.

Standing there during a lull in King Robert's stream of words, she is struck by the profound difference in how she seems the assembled multitudes of Tolkeen now and for an hour and nine years ago. Gone is the suspicion and hostility, but come is also the guilt and the fear. She has killed people for the crime of being a D-Bee in the way of a Coalition patron or for being a Wizard fighting for his life against a regime that would kill him for following his nature and using his natural talents. It is a hollow comfort that most of the people whom she has ended were worse than that: Raiders, bandits and Federation mad men. Still somewhere in this crowd is a brother or sister or cousin or child of someone whose life she had a hand in ending. Even if it wasn't the right thing, she owes these people.

Taking a moment to look around them, Reyna spots a familiar face, that of Jeanne-Marie (assuming she's not trying to hide). With a nudge to her sister, she says, "I spy with my little eye a potential ally, if she is who I remember her to be. Let's see if she remembers the past eight years like we do."

She heads through the crowds towards the other woman, keeping her eyes open for others of the Unkillables that might be there.

 

[Purr]

Epiphany EmperorNorton1 Eonivar Esbilon Psychie Sherwood

Focusing and filtering her Enhanced Perception psychic power, Chan-Chan sees and hears Reyna and Freya, two courageous Atlanteans with hearts bright like suns. She cringes at their pain and listens intently with thoughts to free them from it. But the longer she listens, the greater her surprise becomes. Soon, Chan-Chan cannot believe her eyes and ears! "What I remember happening over the years?" "Others like us?" "The rest of the Unkillables?" "Eight years?" By the Ancients, what was happening?

Here are Freya and Reyna, each sister as sweet as springtime yet deadly to all evils. Never has Chan-Chan seen them like this before! Their anguish and fear, their tears and confusion. And their questions! This situation had "timey wimey" temporal magic blasted all over it! Did they truly come from eight years in the future? Did they come from the massacre that was still razor-keen in the young Chiang-Ku's mind? Her Grey Seer gifts had shown them and a woman who might be the Unkillables's Jeanne-Marie in black and white - standing out from everyone else in the stadium. She had to get to them! She had to help them!

The dragoness moves but not for long. One moment she is racing down the stairs of the Silmarillion Stadium and the next, she is near-to-stumbling as the vision from The Nightmare rushes in her mind, returning in perfect detail! Chan-Chan closes her eyes and grits her teeth as she begins to relive that heart-crushing experience all over again - but not by her design! The dragon hatchling mentally cries out. "No, no! Bad psychic powers! BAD! Down, Total Recall, down! Cut this out!" She feels her heart begin to race all over again as every sight, every smell, every sound, assaults her mind of the Skull-men torching down Tolkeenites by the thousands. "Why is this happening now?! Go away! Fifteen years - half of my life - of daily training since birth and my powers still trouble me so!"

And yet, there is another side to this argument. What is 15 or even 30 years to those who could live beyond 10,000? In her mind's eye, Chan-Chan relives the moments, watching innocents and friends burn all over again... except this time, she does more than just watch. Her pretty lips turn into a savage snarl. She wants so badly to help Reyna and Freya, but now she realizes she needs help in a big way too. This nightmare hit her out of nowhere and now she was receiving psychic "echoes." What to do? She grips a supporting handrail nearby so hard it crushes like tinfoil in her draconic grip without realizing it. She focuses hard, channeling into her Total Recall power, allowing it to play on, but guiding it toward a different memory. It works! She hears and sees the memory of her strong, all-wise father as his authoritative voice fills her mind.

"Some things are simple. If you are not well and you have a problem, fix yourself and then fix the problem!"

Chan-Chan smiles inside. There was one sure thing to do to fix her own problem - one action she could bet on to take her emotions out from these pits of despair, rage, and sadness and back toward harmony, balance, and cheer. If her Total Recall power wanted to play something back? Sure! Chan-Chan struggled with effort as she changed the course of her power once more. For there was a number of places that brought her peace in her life, but this one would do best!

Spoiler: The Tolkeen Central Library!

Chan-Chan, a short while back in Tolkeen.

Long ago, the sign on this building read "Minneapolis Central Library." Pre-Cataclysm, it was one of the largest libraries in the United States with over 2.4 million items including books, data discs, music, works of art, and more! But only today did it have a young and insistent dragoness pushing rest of the staff out of its messy children's study.

"But if you do this by yourself, you'll be here for hours cleaning up! Maybe until morning! Sure, it has to be cleaned up for the next group of kids, but are you sure you want to tackle this whole mess all alone?"

"Yes!" Chan-Chan hurries them out with a big smile, her Cantonese accent carrying in her every word. "It's O.K.! I will have it all done before the morning shift clocks in! You can count on me! You go home now! Thank you for your hard work! Enjoy your evening off!" The humans and D-Bees meant well, but Chan-Chan was both pleasant and firm as she saw them all out. She locked the doors securely behind them. She listened at the door until she was sure they were gone.

Then she opened her arms wide and shouted, "Mine! Aaall miiine! Limitless pooower! All at my command!" She cackled like some crazed witch long off of her rocker. Then she raced up on to a chair then onto a table and then she lifted off high into the air metamorphosing back into her true form - a Chiang-Ku dragon!

Spoiler: Book of Days.

"No day, no night, no moment
Can hold me back from trying"

"Enya - Book Of Days (video)"

Chan-Chan's emerald scales sparkled in the light as her big form spiraled and looped beautifully into the air in a dance of freedom. Her human form was useful in so many ways, but nothing compared to her true form and it was so rare that she could slip back into it without being secluded away in her hidden lair! And the books! All of the books! Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are mingled with Seuss's The Lorax! Bond's A Bear Called Paddington sat comfortably by Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh! Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit shared a table corner with Mosel's Tikki Tikki Tembo! Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking hung out with Piper's The Little Engine That Could!

And here was Chan-Chan with the psychic powers of Speed Reading, Total Recall, and Telekinesis with no distractions anywhere and the whole night to herself! She lazily flew in circles with each precious little book telekinetically-held lest she damage it in the slightest way with one of her sharp golden claws. Chan-Chan swished through the air living dream after dream as she read and read and read. Each book, a universe. Each tale, a lesson. Each ending, bittersweet yet soul-filling.

This was one of the few places in the entire library where she could be all by herself and be herself! Heaven was not a destination - heaven was a choice. Heaven was a journey for each to take and live and learn from and enjoy for all of the time they had left. And tonight... Chan-Chan was in heaven!

It is this memory - this perfectly-preserved precious piece of mnemonically-kept heaven - that gives Chan-Chan a road back to harmony. Nightmare vision and heavenly memory mix until Chan-Chan is truly neither one nor the other, but definitely out of the crushing grip of Tolkeen-become-Hell. She finds she is able to move again, so quickly she moves through the crowds and noise and fuss until she makes it to Reyna and Freya (while thanking her ancestors that the Atlanteans stand out even in a Tolkeen crowd!) and Jeanne-Marie.

Appearing beautiful and breathless, Chan-Chan rushes up to the trio. Her hood has come down somewhere during her chase revealing her lightning-emerald eyes and black hair still held together by a quartet of silver chopsticks.

"Reyna! Jeanne-Marie! Freya! It's me, Chan-Chan. Hiii!"

Her expression is excited but also... frightened? Her clear and exotic Cantonese accent strays into her every word. "S-- sorry to bother you but..." she leans in close, lowers her voice, and cups her mouth while trying to keep a courteous smile on her face. "You... you, ahh, haven't recently experienced any kind of... err... extremely strange phenomena just now, have yooou?" She fidgets like she has ants inside her dress. "You know... something involving a... ahh... very, very hot Tolkeen? Maybe with, you know, lots and lots of... violence? And ahhh--"

Chan-Chan seems to do a quick head-count and when she finishes, her face fills with momentary dread before she is able to restore her act of pure pleasantries. "Where... is Ellisss? And Priyaaa?" Her eyes become deathly serious as she looks straight to the stage and notes one very empty chair that was not empty minutes ago. "They... are here with you... aren't they?"

Just the thought of those two lying among thousands of charred corpses is enough to make the young dragoness cringe. While she listens for your answers, she continues to visually search through the crowd while taking pains to make certain she is not drawing undue attention.

 

[Sherwood]

Freya grabs the young dragon by the shoulders and can feel a wave of stress flow off of her shoulders. "Chan-Chan! By all that's good and holy in this world it is good to see you! And you remember, too? The fall of the city with the seemingly endless might of the Coalition marching down the streets?" The tortured look on her face was enough to confirm this as true. "We remember. You remember. It's not just me and Reyna going mad."

She starts to laugh, but chokes it back, knowing if she started into hysterics it would be a bad thing. "We don't know where the others are yet, having just come across Jeanne-Marie. Hell, we haven't had a chance to talk to her yet about what happened, but here we are. Does anyone know where the others were during the King's speech? If they went through what we did, we can only guess that they are even here. How can we find them?"

 

[Esbilon]

A number of things pass through Jeanne-Marie's thoughts as burst through the crowds and interrupt Reyna and Freya approaching her. First that the woman's (dragon's? Some long-unused memory indicates that this woman is really a dragon) looks put even the Atlanteans to shame, but much more pressing is that she seems to know of the Tolkeen burning, though she wasn't there herself. And she couldn't have been. It's not only that she doesn't remember Chan-Chan from 102 forward, it's also how she speaks of it. No one who was there would talk of those millions dying in abstract whispers - those deaths were not real to her, and yet she knew of them. How? Magic probably, but what kind? And who else knows?

She steps up to where Freya is embracing Chan-Chan and says: "She wasn't there," clearly addressing Freya and Reyna, though her eyes are on Chan-Chan. "At least she wasn't in the way we were. How do you know what happened, Chan-Chan?" She asks. There is some of her native Quebecois accent in her voice, and as she notices it she suddenly begins to doubt if that was how she sounded 8 years ago. In Chi-Town, she made sure to suppress it and spent hours talking to herself to make sure she sounded properly American, but how did she present herself in Tolkeen? Something to figure out before she made contact with her handler again.

 

[Eonivar]

Priya got to the west tunnel that lead to the main concourse from the field and leaned against the wall removing her veil, taking a breath and looking around. She took a deep breath, and began to summon the magic which always came naturally and easy to her.

She unconsciously whispers the words of power focusing her mind, her eyes momentarily glow with an amber glow as she invokes the Calling. She magically projects a telepathic message to Ellis that would impart an impression of her location. She had used it for Ellis many times before, even during their friendship.

Ellis Mandel come to me

Spoiler: The Calling Spell (8)

Calling
Range: 16 miles
Duration: 40 minutes.
Saving Throw: Standard
P.P.E.: Eight
The Calling is like a limited form of telepathic communication in which the mage can mentally call a specific individual. To use "the call," the mystic must know the person's whole name (first and last),must have personally met the individual (even if only briefly) and must be within range. The call sends a telepathic message to that particular character, calling him or her by full name, and leaves an impression of where the caller can be found. A typical call message will be something like "Erick Wujcik, come to me." or "Richard Burke, I need you." Pranksters might use the spell for harassment purposes: "Joseph Prosek, you are a goose-stepping noodle head," or "Erin Tam, you are a D-Bee loving blowhard." Only the individual to whom the call is made can hear it, no one else. If a successful saving throw is made, the Call, and impression of location, is heard only once. If the saving throw is not successful the Call will repeat itself over and over again, three times per melee round, until the spell elapses or the person goes to the mage. Nothing except a Mind Block can block out the call. A failed roll means the call keeps coming and coming, compelling the individual to answer it.

Spoiler: Priya Current Stats

MDC: 248
PPE: 188
Current PPE: 180
ISP: 67
Current ISP: 67

EmperorNorton1

 

[EmperorNorton1]

Ellis Mandel come to me

ellis had just entered the tunnels, only to be bombarded with priya's voice whispering in their mind, projecting where they were. Ellis gasped, letting out a semi-loud curse before setting off into a sprint, then beginning to fly through the tunnels at around seventy miles per hour, searching for that location that their lover had sent them.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but what was closer to five minutes, Ellis turrned a corner, dropping to the ground as soon as they spotted Priya, and sprinting for her, almost throwing themselves into her arms. the shorter person clung to the taller woman tightly, burying their head in the other woman's neck as tears began to slip down their cheeks, starting to mumble "I love you" over and over. ellis normally wasn't such an uncontrolled crier, but it had been a really rough few..... years.

 

[Psychie]

Reyna feels relief that Chan-Chan at least remembers the strange time shift, but then wonders how she does when Jeanne-Marie makes her statement. She places her hands on her hips and says, "It is good to see you again, Jeanne-Marie. I take it that you experienced the time shift the way that Freya and I have? That both pleases me and fills me with dread. I do wonder, is there any way to keep what we have experienced from happening? We need to find the others." She then snaps her fingers with a sudden thought. "Our encrypted radio channel that we all used for our team communication." Her hands go to where her radio would normally be if she were in her battle gear, but it is not there with the Atlantean in a fine dress instead of her armor. "Who has a radio? We can use it to try and reach Priya and Ellis, assuming that they have their radios handy."

 

[Eonivar]

Priya hung on to Ellis for what seemed a long time. There were cheers and responses to the Kings speech. Priya kissed Ellis on the forehead and leaned back, still holding on to them. It was very clear to Priya that Ellis did remember what she herself remembered.

"So you remember too El? Remember the years and years of the war only to find ourselves back in our younger bodies now? It is odd that the two of us were..sent back?...to this moment in time. Curious even."

Once Priya found a puzzle she was not one to let it go, she released Ellis. The distraction and the logical challenge seemed to settle the bronze lady and demi-goddess.
"Let's get our squardron together and meet at the Merlin's Rest Restuarant. Everyone is here, we should be able to get the private room. That way if they were not effected by whatever has happened to us, we can at least tell them what we have experienced. I will send a magic owl to Reyna...I assume Freya will not be far from them and they have radios that can contact the rest."

Ellis watches Priya's eyes glow blue as she whispers an incantation to herself, as a familiar magical golden owl materialized on Priya's shoulder.

Priya looks at the owl and the owl goes flying off to Reyna, zipping through the tunnel of the stadium and over to the Atlantian Cyber Knight.

Reyna (and the rest of the Unkillables) would know well of Priya's Golden Messenger Owl. The Owl stops before Reyna and speaks in Priya's voice.

"Reyna, Ellis and I have had experienced something unprecedented, we need to meet immediately to discuss it. Gather the others and meet us at Merlin's Rest."

Spoiler: Magic Pigeon Spell

Magic Pigeon (Reflavored to a Golden Owl with Priya's magic)
Range: Immediate area.
Duration: Two months per level of spell caster.
Saving Throw: None.
P.P.E. : Twenty
Through the means of a special incantation the spell caster is able to create a mystic facsimile of a pigeon. The Magic Pigeon (Owl for Priya) is able to deliver a spoken (30 words or less) or written message to anyone, anyplace in this world (in the same dimension). However, the spell caster must know at least the general location of the recipient of the message and a specific person (or two) to receive the message. Upon reaching its destination, the pigeon seeks out that person and immediately delivers the message. If the recipient of the message is not at the prescribed destination it will wait until he returns or until the spell duration elapses and the pigeon fades away. The Magic Pigeon looks exactly like a real pigeon (Priya's looks like a Golden Owl), but needs no food or rest; thus it can fly 720 miles (1152 km) every 24 hours at a speed of 30 mph (48 km). Normal weapons can not harm or capture the pigeon, but magic spells of entrapment can capture it (Magic Net, Carpet of Adhesion, etc.). Only a Dispel Magic spell can destroy it

Priya then takes Ellis' hand in hers and looks at them. "El my dear, let's go and get the private room so we can figure out what has happened to us."

Priya then starts to lead Ellis' out of the stadium towards the nearby restaurant, once they arrive they book the private room there so they may meet and then waits for the other's to arrive.

Epiphany Psychie Sherwood EmperorNorton1 Esbilon Purr

 

[Psychie]

Reyna (and the rest of the Unkillables) would know well of Priya's Golden Messenger Owl. The Owl stops before Reyna and speaks in Priya's voice.

"Reyna, Ellis and I have had experienced something unprecedented, we need to meet immediately to discuss it. Gather the others and meet us at Merlin's Rest."

The Atlantean is quite familiar with Priya's magic owl spell, and once more feels a wave of relief that there are more of their number that remembers the time shift. She says to the others, "Merlin's Rest is not far from here. We can be there in a few minutes. Let's go."

 

[Purr]

Epiphany EmperorNorton1 Eonivar Esbilon Psychie Sherwood

Freya grabs the young dragon by the shoulders and can feel a wave of stress flow off of her shoulders. "Chan-Chan! By all that's good and holy in this world it is good to see you! And you remember, too? The fall of the city with the seemingly endless might of the Coalition marching down the streets?" The tortured look on her face was enough to confirm this as true. "We remember. You remember. It's not just me and Reyna going mad."

Chan-Chan gives a startled and cute "yipe!" when Freya grabs her, but she grins too. Atlanteans could be so quick to emotion! But what could she say? The feeling was mutual in its own way! As Chan-Chan listens to Freya, she looks up into the Tattooed Slayer's eyes and shakes her head. She tries to interject but...

She steps up to where Freya is embracing Chan-Chan and says: "She wasn't there," clearly addressing Freya and Reyna, though her eyes are on Chan-Chan. "At least she wasn't in the way we were. How do you know what happened, Chan-Chan?" She asks. There is some of her native Quebecois accent in her voice, and as she notices it she suddenly begins to doubt if that was how she sounded 8 years ago.

...Jeanne-Marie does the job for her. Chan-Chan feels a flood of relief. These were indeed the Freya, Reyna, and Jeanne-Marie that she knew - the temporal magic had not somehow made strangers of them, which was sometimes the case! "She is right!" she tells the Atlanteans. But what were her ears hearing? She tries to respond to Jeanne-Marie's question but she finds it difficult as her ears tell her that this Jeanne-Marie speaks with a... was that a French accent?

"I know because... I experienced it!"

The Grey Seer's expression holds profound emotion back like a dam stopping a river, but the struggle is there. Chan-Chan's focus compounds when the combination of her Enhanced Perception psychic power and her Grey Seer powers collect. Chan-Chan, highly experienced in their use, lets the information come as it will. She never intrudes with her own thoughts or opinions - she instead accepts what is presented to her with a mind to finding the truth inside it all.

Here before her was a Jeanne-Marie who clearly knew Chan-Chan, but the woman who was secretly a Chiang-Ku dragoness, saw important changes to this Jeanne-Marie before her!

There are strange never-before-seen auras about all three of them, but her enhanced draconic senses are now so keen that their scents are unmistakable. This is indeed Jeanne-Marie, the human Unkillable, but... stars alive... how she has changed so! Chan-Chan becomes silent, her shining green eyes unblinking, as she beholds Jeanne-Marie - the same Jeanne-Marie whom, upon their very first meeting, her Grey Seer powers had told her was not as she appeared, but to leave her be. Things would work themselves out, they had said. Had this finally come to pass?

Chan-Chan's sense of death tells her Jeanne-Marie is bathed in blood far more than ever before. "Eight years worth?" she ponders as she remembers the Atlantean sisters' conversation. Eight years of time was a drop in the bucket for a dragoness and no great matter for an Atlantean, but a human? Oh yes. Chan-Chan sees it now - Jeanne-Marie seems older. Keener. But most of all, there is a goodness now shining inside that was not there before! The Grey Seer cannot resist a friendly, very happy smile as she gazes as if mesmerized upon the Mind Melter, for Chan-Chan's feelings from beyond had never been wrong and right now was no different! Chan-Chan is glad to have followed their advice! That part of Jeanne-Marie's life is over and like a breathtaking butterfly emerging from its old cocoon, Jeanne-Marie is now like a new person, one that Chan-Chan is looking forward to getting to know if it were in their futures!

With effort, Chan-Chan pulls herself away and turns to Freya and Reyna. They too seem older, more steely, more able. They too had the aura of death (which never lessened in numbers slain) upon their warrior souls. There was no way on Rifts Earth that these three were the same people Chan-Chan knew. Those people were gone, perhaps forever. It was as if they had gone off on some cosmic voyage and just now returned.

Who were they now? Did they realize what had happened to them? They did not seem to. One thing had not changed from a few moments before - they still needed help.

The Atlantean is quite familiar with Priya's magic owl spell, and once more feels a wave of relief that there are more of their number that remembers the time shift.

Her Enhanced Perception psychic ability still active, Chan-Chan watches Priya's avian made of magic and follows its course back in the direction it came. Such "birds" were not real, but creations of magic and as such, they acted in ways unknown to most mortal wild birds (no fear of humanoids was one clear tell). Priya was back in the direction the avian had come - that would be enough to point her in the right direction then use Psychic Seeking to find her. Where Priya was, Ellis was too! A good sign! They were kind of close - Chan-Chan caught herself switching tenses already - but how close are they now? Hopefully closer! They made for a wonderful, very loving couple!

Chan-Chan whispers as she tears her gaze from the three of them lest she stand and gaze at them all day. "On the outside, you look like you have seen something horrible. But to my eyes..." she winks, "...the three of you appear as if you have gone through the very gates of Hell. I have seen it. I have an idea of what happened to you. But Priya is right. Not here." She pulls her hood over her head.

"Privacy is called for. If we want peace and quiet too, then... I think the library is best. But if you want fresh food, cold spirits, and a peaceful change of scenery, the Los Gatos Verde is the better recommendation. 'No food and drinks allowed in the library,' you know!" Chan-Chan turns in the direction Priya's sorcerous avian flew from. One way or another, she feels this noisy crowded stadium is the last place any of them should be right now.

"I know how to find Priya to tell her where to meet us. You know where the library is, but if you would rather the Los Gatos Verde, I understand. Either way, I recommend you hop in a cab instead of further pushing yourselves." Chan-Chan points in the last direction she saw a taxi stand.

"But which is it going to be? You want booze or books for company?"