[F24-PP] Reading Between The Lines

[Freya 0]

Still holding Gaius hand, more tightly than before now. Watching Morrighan walk closer, she sees that familiar face, and not one that she had not seen in a very long time. Her younger sister Anna, that structure and hair color matched one of Eruda and her. A deep breath as she swallows her emotions. She knew exactly what that meant, as it was the same for Tuatha. They had laid to rest within Nisa. Freyja feels a arm wrap around her shoulders, a glance to her left. "Okay then, Montjoy." She had a feeling that she knew what that had meant too. To see this figure, a shift to that shadow that would be Freyd. She was really hoping that they would still stay that best friend status, she shakes her head. Of course they would, he was just Freyd's conscience, one in the same, but different. She would wonder what exactly that would mean later and a conversation would definitely be had later. Also to note that he just gave in like that, all that time Freyd spent trying to convince her that it was all wrong, proof and all that other stuff and then just nothing. 

Freya already had that proof. She lived first hand of what Fate could do with Tuatha. Freyja was given another chance at life because fate intervened, if not for Tuatha, Nisa, Morrighan, she would be very much dead. She was given a chance to reconnect with her father and make amens with her twin sister, she was given an opportunity to see Anna again even if it was just a small glance. For Freyja it was enough, and her mind was made up for some time now. 

Montjoy's arm releases when Freyja's body shifts. Standing in front of Gaius, gazing into those very confused eyes. "Gaius, hey, right here." Only one eye opens, but still he was looking at her. A smile peer across her face and she speaks softly, "You are not dreaming, you are not dead either. This is real Gaius." The other eye opens with a squint. "I have told you about Tuatha, but Morrighan never came up. Nisa, the white haired female, you had a dream that was probably not normal in the slightest. It was real, that was not a dream either." Freyja lets that sink in for a moment, a glance to Morrighan. Eyes meeting Gaius's again, "You have told me more times than one that if I believe it, go for it. Do what I feel is right, that is what I am doing right now." Taking a deep breath, "You also told me that you would follow me anywhere, Gaius." Looking around for a moment, the beautiful tree, petals raining down on them as her hair is guided by what seemed like wind. A hand on Gaius's cheek, "Morrighan saved my life in that cave, it allowed me the chance to be with you. I trust her with every bone in my body." Leaning his head down and placing her head against his. Closing her eyes as emotion flowed throughout every inch of her body, "I know that it is a lot to ask without knowing hardly anything. I will tell you everything the moment we get out of here." A tear falls down Freyja face as she holds his head lightly against hers. "Take this leap of faith with me and I promise that you will not regret it. I can not do this without you..." 

She could feel that fire inside of her, she could feel that connect with Gaius and the others that were in this room, including Anna. She finally realized what a true family felt like and Gaius was included... No one left behind...     

Edited February 14, 2022 by Freya

[Gaius 0]

Eyes shut tight, and the smell of flowers lingers on his nose. Words and conversation work to convince him this was real and yet, as he opens them, he can barely recognize his clothes. Looking about with reluctance to Freya and Freyd to which he was the most familiar. "Are we fucking dead?" Gaius admits abruptly, trying to rationalize whatever they'd just dived in. They didn't even get a chance to fight back. The guy couldn't even hardly recognize them either.

"Apparently I am pretty out of the loop. Who is Montjoy?" Looking to Freyd, the spook, he'd never heard referred to in such a way. Freya buys his attention, and he squeezes on tight to her hand. "I..ok." The dragoon struggling to come to terms with all these strange happenings. Morrighan, Nisa, Tuatha. Just a whole shitload of names, threatening to make his head spin. Pressing his forehead against hers, he swallows hard. "What are we even doing, what is the point of this?" Freya's eyes shut and the lingering remnant of a tear slides down her face. "Fuck it." the guy murmurs with a drag of a free hand against her cheek. Looking over her shoulder, and breathing in deeply. The crunch of grass as he shuffles past her, dragging his open hands across her shoulders.

A sharp exhale, as he stared daggers into this woman? projection? WTF even was she? This was far too much to process far too quickly. "So you're that chick from my dreams, Dunno how Freya even knows about that." Gesturing his hands out to both sides, fluffing out his chest waiting for this bitch to stab him or something. "She wants me to take a leap of faith, wants me to believe whatever bullshit you've been saying. " He didn't know what to expect, he didn't know how this worked. Eyes catching a demoralized Sam and Freyd? Montjoy? Whoever he was. 

"Give me your best shot!"

Fuck it right? He made a promise.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Gaius

[Nisahime 0]

A glance back over her shoulder toward the truth staring back at her, finding the pair of rich blue eyes of Takeshi tried. "Then we can begin, only by releasing such hopes of a burden of proof can you truly experience freedom. A simple peer through a mirror was all it took for him to seek me out. I heard a murmur in the dark, something begging for a way to become realized. A heart wishing to become birthed again. Yet it is still divided, curious indeed." The very notion of broken destiny that took two separate paths. What would uniting them bring, and would the heart and mind survive such a melding. To most, a contract would liberate the chains around one's heart. But for an unorthodox few, it would sew the pieces back together.

The soft clipping of grass, as that white dress continued to rake against it. Folding it flat under the slow weaving, and as she gazed down, that long black hair would permeate into Sam's view. "The boy is here because he needs to be heard. Unfortunately, his loss had damaged the stings of fate, causing a twist and sway in a grand design. In that pinnacle moment, he gave up his most valuable gift to alter that web. A long life, that was his. And a short one that was yours. He gave his to you, and destroyed another in the process." He'd tempted fate, and was now beside it. No more fitting a punishment, or reward depending on outlook. "But you lost sight of the gift he bestowed upon you. Raven of Sin, whose sin do you carry? Is it yours, or his? If it is yours, then perhaps you mistake his wishes. If it is his, then he has already paid for them." Leaning down and placing a hand upon the girl's head, her eyes becoming silver like stars.

To others, Sam would look as if there was nobody home. To the girl, she'd have an audience with her savior. The one that had condemned her to a life of a recluse.

In that brief exchange, that only lasts for but an instant. Those legs begin to move again, and she looks up at this boastful male. The smell of nervousness, watching as he'd wince, expecting some rebuttal. "I've watched you grow. Change as quickly as the winds change directions. That storm causing you to be deaf, and trying to hear them? Worried it would carry you away, or push you back. Yet they heard you, truth is I did indeed save your beloved. But only through circumstance, the first of a million stars. You wish to protect her as I have, even under the pretense that I would do them harm. Afraid of what I might do, and yet you choose to die to protect them." A coy smile, as she reaches out and touches his chest.

His eyes flash in green, and he begins to buckle under the weight of something. "As fate would have it, you have accepted me long ago. Son of Garuda, and it would appear that you had freed the chains around your heart on your own." As she'd slide her hand, one could see some object being drawn out of his sternum. "Who knew you were the host of the sword of light, Brionac. One willing to fight for all they believe in, despite any regrets or concerns." Ripping it off to the side, a whole spear takes shape in her clutches. A black and gold thing, as a gentle breeze graces this tiny field. "That explains how you've changed Freya, and how that light shines so bright."

[Eruda 0]

Watching Sam's arms go limp to her side. Not sure what Nisa did, but she knew it was for the best. Getting to her feet, she realized that she had no shoes. She couldn't help but smile. In most of her dreams that she had in the other world, it was about what could have been, anything she wanted it to be. She remembers walking on a beach, barefoot. Feeling the sand between her toes, feeling that warm breeze against her skin. This is what this place reminds her of. So simple yet so beautiful. The full package, of all your wants and needs in the world with no time wasted. Time.. That word... Eruda's eyes narrow just a bit as her mind starts to race with possibility. Could it be that the answer has been right in front of her...

Biting her bottom lip as she watches Gaius and Nisa, another one in the loop. It would be on Freya now to get him up to date on everything. It was very unexpected and she had never actually seen that part of Freya before. It amazed her that Gaius would be so open to taking that leap without knowing not a whole lot. That right there was true love. Morrighan would look in Eruda's direction curiously. Eruda would take a small step forward, "I heard you that morning, and I am trying. He is not making it easy." Another step forward as she sees Freya walk to Gaius's side. "I have seen some of what you can do, is it at all possible to share a dream with another." It was a huge long shot and she knew that it might be a little stupid but she had to. That chance that it would help Raidou, speak and do as he wished freely. If there wasn't then she would have to find another way. "Also, how does one gain access to this portal that Freyd, I mean Montjoy?" She says in a question as she looks to the man before continuing. "How will we find you, this place when we have another. Even Freyd deemed it difficult at first."

[Freyd 0]

"Montjoy, Freyd, Takeshi," he replied to Gaius, appreciating the man's confusion.  "They’re all just different masks worn behind the same face.  But, since the game labels things as Freyd everywhere, it’s probably best to just stick with that moniker.  We are, after all, still just 'me.'"

Taking Nisa's meaning, Freyd reached down, touching his hand to the grassy ground swaying at their feet and pulling.  Such was the nature of this world that it abided a native's request.  Instead of torn green blades, Freyd pulled his shadow from the ground and bade it stand at his side, silently agitated as it spoke protests that only he could hear.

"I know, and understand," came his response, his other hand raising to stave off the assumption of further protest.  "Yet here we are, all of us."  The shadow scanned the others with missing eyes and absence in lieu of features, before looking back upon the shadow-that-should-have-been.  Another question asked.  "We must unite, at long last, as Morrighan counseled.  Too long have we pounded against opposite sides of the same wall.  It's long past time that it should come down."  The shadow shook its head in denial, turning as if to break and walk away.

"Is this what she would want?"  A stab plunged straight into a missing heart gave pause.  Montjoy's gaze shifted to Eruda as he spoke, though the words were meant for two audiences.  "Are you prepared to consign her back to the flood, and a fate full of terror in solitude?"  The shadow shouldn't, couldn't care.  It was a creature of will that had manifest itself, refusing to ever yield to the bonds of Fate, yet paradoxically born from them.  Beyond reach, yet he held it still, because he was its only tether to truth.  

"Sometimes, Freyd, existence is not enough.  Sometimes, the ends are meaningless without the journey."  Montjoy's blue eyes beamed into Eruda's matching pair.  "Sometimes, the impossible must yield to the necessary." Montjoy finally looked back upon his Freyd, "...like you did at the raid."

The two stood idle while entire universes were born and died within them, trying to puzzle out the finite end of infinite potential outcomes.

"Just do it, dumbass.  Free Fate doesn't have all day."  Somehow that made sense.  Freyd turned and walked into Montjoy, and in a flash of blinding light Montjoy became Freyd once more.  His appearance returned to what it was before they entered, but the intensity behind his eyes, to which they'd all become accustomed, seemed to have been tempered by something.  Wisdom, perhaps.

He spun around a few times, looking about without orientation.  The sky might as well have been the ground, things were so topsy-turvy.  Reaching out for balance, he tumbled back and landed roughly on his backside.  Inner peace was discombobulating, to those who were unaccustomed.

"What the.... How the fuck did we end up here?!"

Vanity Tag: @Elora

[Freya 0]

A turn of her head as Gaius walks past. Wiping that tear as she watches everything transpire with Gaius and Nisa. A great deal of relief was pulled off her chest.

Her entire life, Freyja felt like she was on the outside looking in. Never understood why she did what she did, especially when it came to her sister. Freyja though that she was doing it for the right reasons, but was it really. Letting her sister sit there alone in the dark while she fucked around. She did what she could to protect Eruda, but it never seemed to be enough. Feeling like she was traveling further and further from what truly was to be. A destiny that no one could have for told. When Freyja came into this game, she was making those same dumb ass decisions and she could see herself as if it wasn't even her anymore. That was when she nearly fell to this game's unpredictable demise. Freyja couldn't even fathom the thought of returning and she started to think that this was how it was supposed to end for her. It was better for everyone if she just disappeared. Maybe that was why it took her so long to wake up... Because she didn't want to...

When she got out of that cave, she felt empty, lost. No matter how much Freyja tried, Tuatha wouldn't let her die. Morrighan took a chance on Freya as did Tuatha. They changed her fate and in doing so Freyja was able to start a new path, a refresh reboot. She would be forever grateful for this. Her path continued rocky, but then she met Gaius, Freyd, her father. People that she loved more that anyone, aside from her sister of course. Gaius, though, that spark from the beginning. There was just something there that she couldn't wrap her head around. This moment right here speaks loud and clear to what before she could never understand. It was very clear now, he would do literally anything for her, he came into this place without a second thought because Freyja asked him to. He took that Leap of Faith without knowing anything at all, because Freyja asked him too. How the hell did she get so lucky. Was it always destined that they would fine each other, or was it a happy mistake. Either way, she would be by his side forever and always. 

Eruda forgave her before she could forgive herself. Freyja always wondered why that was but she now saw that it was the truth of one's heart. When you love someone it is easy to forgive even if it's not forgotten, but that was okay. It would take time to heal, anything that is worth loving is worth the time. Eruda never faltered or fell. That path of true meaning was always there for her sister, she would think nothing less. In doing so she let her father into her life. After finding that truth, it was clear where they stood. It was by no mean his fault, how could she hold that against him. That was just it, she couldn't. Freyja would continue to let that love for him grow stronger as it should have always been.

A glance to Sam as she went blank, she would recognize that look as she has been there before. It was time that Sam let go and forgive herself. Knowing first hand if she could not, that darkened feeling would soon consume her. It really was no way to live. Glancing to Freyd as the shadow and Montjoy merging together. Everything was coming together as it should be. This was the first step into greatness, and anyone who could blindly take that leap would see that same world as they did. Glancing to Eruda, she was going to have issues with Raidou. He is in so far, so deep, he will need more than just a single helping hand to pull him back into this light that they saw before them. Maybe that love would be enough, but only time would tell. 

Walking to Gaius's side now, her attention on Morrighan now. "I am finally ready to take that leap, I am sorry that it took me so long..."

Edited February 15, 2022 by Freya

[Sam 0]

Sam feels a touch on her forehead before she was gone from The World That Never Was. In a split instant, a flash of headlights, a crash, a honk. It was that day that Tuatha died. Something was different though, it was raining, thunder crashing in the sky, lightning lit the darkness. There were people, lots of people. She could see two major groups, one hovering over a little girl with black hair, the other standing in front of a blond kid with a car swerved to the side. Sam looks at her hands, then at her body, this time she was herself, not as the child. The people present were silent. They were not moving, it was like they were frozen in time. Sam looks around and there was nothing moving beside her. Glancing to the man on the ground, she took this time to just stare for a moment before slowly walking to this body. Walking around the crowd of none moving people as the only thing that was being heard was the thunder and the rain hitting the pavement. Standing over this body now, it was a mess. She cringed for a second before looking at the face. His eyes were closed, but the one thing that caught her attention above all else, his smile. He was smiling when he died.

As the girl would turn, an array of painful snapping to the ears. She’d sense movement on her flank. But before she could turn, Sam would hear the voice. “Still stuck in that funk, Haven’t we been through this.” A single hand slides down her right shoulder, and it was cold. A sense of dread as the dead started to move.

That body began to snap into place, taking a hard deep breath. It was painful to hear as it rose behind her. Sam would find herself not breathing now, maybe out of fear that a dead body just got up, or unsure if those feet of hers should run the other way. Regardless, Sam was frozen in place. That coldness washes down the spine as a hand brushes her shoulder. After a moment, regaining the ability to breathe again, her face was as pale as a ghost, it was so ironic at this point. “It’s all just overwhelming,” words would choke out in a crackling voice. Sam was doing her best to come to terms with everything, but then new information came to light. “I was trying to move forward, and I actually was getting somewhere, until you being Simmone’s brother came up.” It was out, the real reason why she couldn’t move forward. Sam felt a bit stupid that she didn’t think about it sooner. Sam slowly turns to look at Tuatha, she tucks that wet hair behind her ear. Placing that hand on the opposite arm, goosebumps lay upon her skin. All kinds of emotions start to settle in, and those soaking wet toes wouldn’t move an inch.

“Get over it!” A sharp hiss to his tongue, and through it a smile. “Move forward, I did what I did for a reason. Not so you can wallow in your own self-pity like a damn nuisance. So I died, what does it matter? You didn’t know me, and now you never will.” A sinister cackle plays from his thinned lips before he continues. “So what if Simmone is my sister, what does it matter?” There was a bit of a catch in his throat, as his face struggled to maintain that wide grin like a jester. “Take the life I gave you and use it for fuck sake, Instead of squandering it and pissing all over it. I ain't no damn hero that needs to be mourned, not you and not Nightingale. You motherfuckers are still alive. I made my decision, so fuck off and let me own up to it. It wasn’t yours to make. Give me something to be proud of, instead of just feeling sorry for you.”

Sam winces back a bit from the tone that he spoke. "Okay," was all she said. He was right. Why should any of that matter? He saved her life so that Sam could have a life. Sam was not going to argue anymore, not with him, not with herself. Sam wouldn't mourn over this anymore. There was no point to it, no reason for it. Samantha was done letting that fear take over her life. It was time to live that life that she wasn't. It would start with her fiance. Katoka has been waiting so patiently. It was time to start enjoying that gift that she was given... Sam would hear a sinister chuckle ringing in her ears before her vision returns to her.

Back in the World That Never Was... Sam was soaking wet, sitting in a puddle. A smile with a small chuckle comes from her mouth. Glancing around now, a brow raised now at Freya and Gaius... What the heck did she miss... Finding Morrighan and locking her eyes to the woman. It was fate that allowed her to live this second life and it was about time that she would start to do it right. "I am sorry for all the fuss, but if you will allow me too, I am finally ready." Still unsure what she was agreeing to, she would trust in that fate to lead her down the right path.
 

[Nisahime 0]

The slightly audible crunch of grass underfoot, that occasionally gives view to a pair of pristine feet. Although it felt as though time carried on, not a single change in the environment. As if everything was halted, and in one's stomach a warmth mixed with almost the feeling of being weightless and unhindered. "My My Eruda, for whatever purpose would you need to invade anothers dreams?" There was a coy twist to her tone, as if silently judging the girl. "It is not something done lightly, after all free will is one of the strongest contenders despite how solid ones destiny is. Where a path leads can be altered, shifted, but that has severe ramifications. You'll find that no matter how hard you try, there is no way to change the heart of man through changing their fate. To change the heart of Milletian, one must allow them to change. Nothing more and nothing less." Finally, setting her sights on Sam, an intensity in a gaze that made one feel small. Insignificant and yet not.

"Are you ready, Raven of Sin?" Peering over her shoulder, that long black strands cascading off in clumps. "For you see Eruda, I could not change her heart. It was only she who could, choosing to have faith, choosing this. Free will and a choice." A silverish star grows in her eyes, as she fixates on that girl. Lanky, slender and still dripping. "I do believe you are ready." A sudden blurring in the girl's eyes as a voice far too loud threatening to pierce her eardrums. "It seems as though the chains that constrained you have loosened, becoming unhinged from clamping around your wrists. The sin you've carried for so long has been finally laid to rest. With its burial, you can finally witness the truth. The True Self."

Sam would look to be in agony, as tears met with the moisture still stuck to her skin. Morrighan reaches for the girl's neck, and presses her forehead against Sam's. That pounding voice in the black haired girl's head "You can finally see, and now you can see through my eyes. A deal can be made, and I can show you what you've missed. I am thou, thou art I. Allow no falsehoods to cover thine eye, open them and see all. There will be nothing that can hide from us, revealing everything as The Oracle." Sam's eyes become wide, and burn in a vibrant purple hue without control. They looked as though they were threatening to roll back into her skull.

Releasing the girl, Morrighan looks pleased. The smallest smile at the corner of her lips. Eyes glow in purple in the same color as if borrowed. Fate lifts her hand, and rips clean a bow from the ether. "I can't wait to see when you figure out how this works." The very obvious pun.

[Sam 0]

Seeing nothing but white behind her eyes. The skin burning upon its surface as Sam collapsed to her knees the moment the woman let her go. Holding her head as she lets out a scream of what seemed like pain, but it was all in her head... A flash of Tuatha standing next to his body that lay upon the ground. With a flash of white light that body on the concrete was gone and it was just Tuatha there with an edgy looking smile. Samantha would smile back as her mind races to her parents, Sam was sitting in that chair as her parents stood above her, hovering watching her. That picture shatters, into what looks like a mirror image breaking into shards coming straight for her, but evaporates into a white light that spray against her face. A sharp exhale like she had been holding her breath. Sam was holding her chest trying to catch that breath now. 

Glancing around, nothing but white with at first just black shadows. Those forms begin to take color once more revealing the group she had come in with. Getting to her feet now breathing heavy, "I will not," a pause with a small inhale, "falter anymore..." another breath. "I know what I need to do now," a sharp cough. With a shake of her head, walking just to the side, raising a hand and slouching forward, placing a hand against her knee for support. "I need a minute..." Sam manages to choke out as she tries to catch her breath.

[Nisahime 0]

A flick of her wrist and that Yomi disappears, added to a pile of freshly plucked apples in subspace. "I could tell you that I am exhausted, or that this wasn't delightful. That would be lie." It was clear she was pleased, after all this was a regular feast and her strength was growing nigh exponentially in tune with the newly formed contracts. Trailing away with that same almost unfeeling walk, as Sam collapses under the weight of being shoved a new power she'd never imagined. One that she held and yet never had seen. Slinking behind Freya, a pair of arms sliding around her neck and down her chest. Whispering in the girl's ear, appearing as though she'd bite her earlobe. "Are you finally ready to wake up? This was quite the dream wasn't it, I've watched you for so long. You were the first, but you failed. Takeshi brought you back to me, and imagine my surprise. The one that got away. Whose fate was free for so long. What a mess you found yourself in, eh?"

The other players would see Morrighan's eyes twist into a yellow hue. The very same sickly color that the girl sported time and time again. "I can smell it, you are finally ready." Tightening her grip, it almost looked as though that the maiden in black was looking to choke her out. The sudden buzzing in her ear that grows louder, a vile concoction of Nisa's and Tuatha's voice. "Ripping down the opposition without concern, a dark rend of life to conserve one's own. Drowned in sorrow so miserably, that it was easy to sniff you out. But the heart starts to fancy change. Accepting that sorrow and using it as a weapon." Freya falls forward as her head pounds like someone rattling on a drum. Still in Morrighan's hands was this shape, like smoke, and held Freya's shape. As if she cut the two in twain. "Embrace the darkness, that is cast by the flames of regret. That shadow is created from light, and this one is yours. We are the Angel of Sorrow, the Wings of Regret. I am thou, thou art I. Take flight, and Heads will roll from our grand entrance."

Appearing to rip her arms tighter, that smoke shatters like glass. Morrighan lifts her arms and as if she sucked the pieces up, they form into a grim looking scythe. That still steaming blackness, sputtering with emerald green flames. 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Nisahime

[Freya 0]

Freyja's hand was placed on Gaius's shoulder, who was still not all the way there. A sudden grip that catching the girl off guard. A sharp inhale as her breath leaves her. Those eyes flicker, switching from green to yellow then back to green. The words echo in the back of her head as Freyja closed her eyes now, -I am ready- Freyja would think to herself, as a flicker of darkness the back to light. Another flash image of those players... Then just as quickly back to normal. It was almost like flipping through a bunch of stadic channels, that buzzing in the back of her ears...-Embrace the darkness- Freyja repeats in the back of her mind, being thrown forward. Her head felt like a ticking time bomb ready to detonate at any second, on the ground now, hands dig into the grass as she felt something lifted from her being, but it was not gone... Breathing harshly as her eyes flash open.

Freya was back in the cave. Drip, drip, drip, echoes within the confines of this damp environment. Freyja found herself leaning against that wall, foot fall head straight for her... Something was different, last time Freyja couldn't respond to any of this., but now full control. Freyja dashes forward, striking everything that lay in her wake and she was okay with this.

Panting as Freyja shakes her head quickly in one swift motion. 

The last stricken down, a flash of light and Freyja is in that school now, it seemed like ages ago. Eruda sitting in that hall, knees crunched to her chest, her twin was crying... Freyja remembered that day, instead of going to her sister to comfort her, Freyja kicked the shit out the guy at fault. Nothing was spoken about it after that. Eruda needed her, Freyja was not there. Taking a few steps forward as that hall starts to move Freyja away. "NO," Freyja screams out. (This call out could be heard by the other parties) Running as fast as she could as the tunneled hallway that just kept getting longer and longer, Eruda was getting further and further. Time around her started to slow down as she glows, Freyja's only focus was to get to her sister. Running as fast as she possibly could as her chest began to glow where her heart would be. In the blink of an eye Freyja crashed into her sister, as Freyja just holds her. Another blink, another flash and she was elsewhere.

A sinister smile would appear on Freyja face, more of a large grin that met its end...

Standing in the event where she met her father, all that pain as she stares into her father's eyes. That sorrow and regret begins to bleed out, in a smoke beneath her feet. It smelt of ashes as Freyja smiles and takes a few feet forward. Pulling that large figure into her arms, "I will never doubt you again daddy," closing her eyes as a tear drips down her cheek. Opening her eyes as Freyja finds her mother walking toward them with an outstretched arm. As regret and sadness builds within her frame, regret that she didn't realize it before, sadness that she put that blame on her father instead of the truth... "It didn't need to be like this..." saying as her father vanishes from view, the world around her takes a different shape, nothing but darkness. That is all her mother was to her now, a fraction of evil that had once consumed her. Freyja lifts her arm up and that Scythe appears in her hand with untamed greenish flame sparking beneath every step. Bending forward slightly as she charges her mother, in an instant that body lays there as Freyja turns and sees herself in a shadowed form.

Right then, a huge exhale of breath. Holding her chest with one hand still on the ground. It was like an unsaid weight was lifted from her. "Holy Hell," Freyja says in-between breaths. Slowly getting to her feet, as she stumbles forward and almost falls, Gaius grabs her arm to help keep her standing. Giving him a smile as she turns to this shadowed figure that took her form. Freyja just holds up a hand toward it, it does the same as they touch them together. Freyja felt so different than when they entered. A warmth, room for growth was finally within her grasp as it wasn't before. "No holding back, only forward from this point on," Freyja says, turning toward Gaius now who looked as shitty as she felt, but in the best way possible. A glance to Eruda who had a pleasing smile on her face, Freyja softly chuckles. That shadow forms beneath her feet. Freyja would know that her shadow would no longer be normal... 

Freyja felt like she could finally breath again. Before she felt constricted but now she felt free. Like her decisions were hers to make, without something lingering in the back round. Freyja's fate was hers to control. Pulling Gaius into a hug now, closing her eyes, it was all she wanted to do right now...

Edited March 3, 2022 by Freya

[Nisahime 0]

Taking her exit as Freya would struggle to find the strength to stand, simply releasing the scythe sees it turn to a vapor. The maiden takes stock of her surroudings and is met with a league of tired looking faces, and she locks eyes with Eruda. It was just as playful as before, was this what the girl was hoping for? A front row seat into the demons of her companions? "Now the twins have seen the truth." speaking to the story as if a participant or a member of the audience. 

Eventually, her sights set on the last within this field, the very same that had brought the others. “Fractured and in pieces, a man and an instrument or tool. A machine. Functional and yet unable to fill the design. Before your ‘heart’ wasn’t in it now isn’t that true.” A jest, both figurative and literal. “Knowledge, to seek the truth. I am interested in the machine, but it was worthless without a pilot. My dear prophet, are you finally ready?”

A sudden echo casts the world into the smallest and most finite point, as if it is sucked down a tube, or he was catapulted out into the darkness that surrounds it. “A ravenous pursuit of possibility, of potential. A mind ever in motion, but without primary purpose. Hungry but for nothing, you have always heard the whispers in the dark, heard them chant sweet nothing's in your ear. But now you have a reason to listen.”

As Eruda, Sam, Freya, and Gaius would look on, Freyd would continue to shift rapidly through multiple different people, as if his body was struggling to find an identity. Morrighan lifts her arm, and clutches something solid. A handle forms in the space, and she slowly draws Samiel’s Pride out of thin air, with a metallic sound as if pulled from a sheath from some pocket. Notably, however, the weapon was pure white but the shape undeniable. The pounding voice in the Whisper's head confirms it. Like a migraine gone horribly wrong. “Seeker of Truths, Guide and Observer, Masks of Many. We will take but a single shape, yet become all. Nothing shall be beyond our grasp, no stone unturned, no mystery unsolved. I am thou, thou art I. We are Individual, and yet We are Legion.” Morrighan turns the blade in her hand and shoves it through Takeshi’s chest, and turns it like a key. It was as if the shapes he was taking start to peel out of him, like people stepping out of a chamber. One by glorious one, they exit and turn to vapor. But they were not, instead a million facsimile were pouring out of the floodgates into Aincrad. A machine, made multiple. Within his own mind, where once but a single book would be read or written, they all found themselves open and in motion. “Those whispers, once heard, are now yours to pilot. Takeshi” A chuckle, with the knowledge that the contract flowed both ways.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

"You're a fool, Montjoy.  A damned, gullible fool, and you're dragging your friends along for the ride. She's using you, along with the rest, and you're leading them right into her hands!  This is nothing less than self-inflicted checkmate.  You've bound and made yourself a pet, just like that surrogate of yours."

In the world that never was shadows didn't need to whisper, and could be heard by all.  Montjoy debated Freyd openly, with Takeshi's soul held in the balance.  How odd and confusing it must be for his friends to see his inner selves so clearly, and yet neither of them truly him at all.  Who was he?  Who did he want to be?  What would they make of him?

"Maybe."  Unvarnished truth.  Montjoy wasn't one for lies.

"I really don't care about that possibility.  That's purely a you problem, concerned with everything beyond.  But I've always been stuck in here, waiting for the means to shine outwards through your darkness. That moment is here and I choose to take it, because maybe it might just turn out okay."

A glance at his friends, face shifting to match each of theirs in turn, but cast in white negative.  Such were the terms of Tir Na Nog, where things that could or should never be, endured.

"Plus, Freyd, since you seem so desperate for some framework of logic: if we lose in here, we're likely all dead out there anyway."

Kayaba's words turned like an ear worm, drowning out other fears with the grandest one. 

"Pure conjecture.  There is no actual way to determine whether anything that man said was true, but it was enough to ignite a flame and set the world burning.  Would you have just as easily believed him if he'd told you that every one of you would win the lottery by jumping off the side of the castle? His words meant nothing more than the what we ascribed to them.  Look at how many perished from the folly of blind faith, taking their own lives rather than choosing to challenge his blind assertions. Pathetic."

Freyd manifest a form as true and visible as they shifting guise of Montjoy, dividing from the whole when they key in Samael's Pride was thrust and turned.  Red eyes beneath his cowl, glaring at the blue.  Recollection of shades that fell in droves in the Forest of Memories by their common hand, spawned from a single source.  Clarity in a moment of epiphany.

"It's you?!  How many times do you need to die?"

"All the times," Freyd laughed, sounding harshly sinister and cruel.  "You haven't the count or the means to end me, Montjoy.  I am as immortal as you are, or not."  His eyes dwelled upon the symbolic blade thrust through his counterpart, just as it had been and drunk from the power of another.  "Amazing things can happens when you lap at the blood of a god, even if you have to use a bipedal hamburger as your straw." 

"So many years lived in a realm of pure thought.  So many hopes and dreams dashed against cliffs of despair that refused to erode.  Whether this is a trick or not.  Whether Nisa is friend or foe.  Whether any of it matters at all.  It's irrelevant if we cannot face it whole."  Montjoy's face donned an expression of sympathy, even as his hand lanced out and speared his counterpart through the chest.  The screeching hunger of the key was instead replaced with a choir song so utterly blissful and harmonious that it swelled the heart of any creature subjected to its grace.  Even Shiina might be proud.  It snared Freyd and drew him in, despite a furiously palpable resistance.

“Seeker of Truths, Guide and Observer, Masks of Many. We will take but a single shape, yet become all. Nothing shall be beyond our grasp, no stone unturned, no mystery unsolved. I am thou, thou art I. We are Individual, and yet We are Legion. Those whispers, once heard, are now yours to pilot. Takeshi”

"Well, that all sounds very fancy," Freyd replied through clenched teeth, "but what does any of it actually mean?  You're nothing but a bunch of deluded fantasies and wishful desires accepted without substantiation.  She threw a bunch of pretty words at you, Montjoy, knowing what you wanted to hear.  And you just ate them up because they made you feel better."

Freyd's form struggled yet slowly merged into Montjoy's, his cowl and head being the last of him to resist.

"TELL THEM THE PRICE, WITCH!  THEY SHOULD AT LEAST SEE THE FINE PRINT BEFORE THEY SUFFER THE SAME F..."

[Eruda 0]

Thread Complete:

14360/30=478*5=2390 Exp

Eruda:
2390*9=21510 Exp

Sam:
2390*8=19120 Exp

Freya:
2390*9=21510 Exp

Freyd:
2390*14=33460 Exp
33460*.15=5019 Col (Laurel Wreath)

Gaius:
2390*7=16730 Exp

Nisahime:
2390*5=11950 Exp

Simmone (Guild Treasure):
21510*.15=3226 Col (Eruda) (Laurel Wreath)
21510*.15=3226 Col (Freya) (Laurel Wreath)
19120*.15=2868 Col (Sam) (Laurel Wreath)
16730*.15=2509 Col (Gaius) (Laurel Wreath)
Total Col: 3226+3226+2868+2509=11829 Col